In our draft plan of the first leg of our journey, we had pencilled in Glacier National Park, weather depending. However, having had freezing temps and some snow in Yellowstone we figured things would be closing in Glacier and sure enough a bit of research showed that it was too late for this season. So, we put our other plan into action and decided to head for Seattle as quickly as we could muster. Monday October 10th we headed for Missoula Montana, a 275 mile or so trek. It was a beautiful drive past Earthquake Lake, across big sky country and over mountains.
We only planned to stay here for the work week as a stop over on the way to Seattle, but in the few nights we had to explore we really came to like Missoula. We’ve added it to the short list of cities we like but didn’t get enough time to explore fully.
We stayed at Jim and Mary’s RV Park on the west side of town and struggled all week with sub-freezing temps. Every night we’d have to disconnect our water hose to keep it from freezing and then reconnect it in the morning after it warmed up sufficiently. We really can’t wait to get to warmer weather.
Our first full night in town we found the Missoula Brewing Company and they had a great facility along a creek with indoor and outdoor seating, but the best part was the play kitchen and kids area and all the other kids there. Crayton loved the place and we saw that they had live music that Friday so we vowed to come back before hitting the road on Saturday.
Crayton running off some energy at the brewery
Sure enough we made it back on Friday and enjoyed more great pizza, beer and bluegrass music by Lochwood! It felt great to finally see some live music!
While we were here we added a map of the US to our hallway wall so we could place pins where we've been and help show a little geography to Crayton. It turned out pretty nice!
Our new map!
Saturday came and we had to leave. It felt premature, we had more we wanted to see here, but it was getting cold and we needed to make our way west. A long travel day got us to the Wenatchee County RV Park in Monitor, WA outside Wenatchee, which billed itself as the Apple Capital of the world. We were past prime apple season, but the fruit flies were still out in force! I’ve never seen them swarming outdoors like gnats and it was all we could do to keep them from getting too cozy in our mobile house.
Sunday we did some chores but also took time to go to a local farm and pick some pumpkins.
Pumpkin Pickin' Time
Monday we went off for a drive, exploring Leavenworth, WA a neat town completely done up like a Bavarian Mountain village. Kind of touristy, but also really cool! We had veggie bratwurst with sauerkraut mustard at a outdoor beer garden and hit up some of the shops. After lunch we took off into the mountains finding a 4wd route over gorgeous forest service roads in a vain search for snow or Crayton to play in.
VeggieWurst!
The beautiful nearly phosphorescent moss on the trees
Back down the mountain
While in Wenatchee, we had a full on emergency. Our beloved coffee maker died. I’ve had a Cuisinart Grind-and-Brew for nearly 10 years that has worked flawlessly … until it didn’t. It was a full coffee emergency. The temptation was to just buy the same coffee maker again, but I decided to put out the word on Facebook and see if my fellow coffee fiends had any suggestions. Friends recommended the Breville Grind-and-brew, but some research online showed it went for $300, well out of our price range, so we put it out of mind. Knowing that Bed Bath and Beyond sells a ton of different models, we decided to give it a shot before ordering online. Pam had one of their 20% off coupons, too. They had a few we were looking at, but the also had the Breville marked at ½ off! But there were none on the shelves, just the display. I asked and a sales person said she’d look and she found just one more hidden away. Score! To top it off, they honored the 20% off coupon even though it was already on clearance. $300 coffee maker for $120! And it’s awesome. For features, quality of brew and ease of cleaning it’s easily twice as good as our old Cuisinart, which I loved.
The RV Park was on the banks of the Wenatchee river and for a county run park was really nice. They had a nice playground, a free DVD lending library and the staff were really nice. After a week of work, though, it was time to go and on Saturday Oct 22nd, we were off to Seattle!
Enjoying the river at the RV Park
