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Saturday, 06/14/03; Spokane, Washington
Into the turn…
That’s right, we are now into the final turn! Starting tomorrow morning we head southward into the home stretch! Barring any misfortune, we should be home by the end of the coming week – just when will depend on our progress during the next few days.
Spokane was not on our itinerary until we had a dinner powwow last night. Keith looked over the route options on the computer and we decided to stick to the Interstates as much as practical in the interest of relieving strain on the engine in the Olson’s car. Our route to Lewiston via Orofino, Idaho was actually longer than taking the Interstate to Spokane! Therefore, our route will take us via Portland and then down the I-5 to Sacramento where we plan to remain over night (RON). Then we will take SR-99 to Bakersfield (RON) and then home via Tehachapi.
I-90 was very scenic through Montana and Idaho today. The mountains, rivers, lakes and forests were truly awesome. The day started out with high thin clouds, which later became a lower thick cover in the mountains and the temperature hovered around 55 degrees. It was too cool at noon for our normal picnic lunch, so we stopped in Osburn, Idaho for a snack at a little café. We had a brief sprinkle, but nothing developed from it, thank goodness! We gained an hour today as we passed from Mountain Time into Pacific Time (another “last” – our final time zone change). We thought that we might stop in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but we were doing so well, we continued on to Spokane. The lake at Coeur d’Alene was very beautiful and was in full view as we came down out of the mountains. Sailboats dotted the water and powerboats cut tracks across the blue. Unfortunately, we didn’t get many still pictures today. We’ll have to wait until we get home to discover what we have captured on tape.
The road was smooth out of Butte, but at and after Missoula, it was almost unbearable with its constant bumping. We were looking for some relief when we reached the Idaho border. There was considerable construction in both states, which caused single file traffic. The Idaho road surface was a definite improvement, but it, too, in places gave us a pain – in the neck! We all were glad to call it a day in our motel in Spokane.
The weatherman tells us that we should have warm dry weather for the rest of our trip and we are looking forward to that, although we don’t want to have to rely on our air conditioners for comfort! We look at The Weather Channel every evening and morning for the latest in current weather and the forecast. We are appalled at the continued rain in the eastern areas that we have covered. It seems that they have had rain ever since we left North Carolina! The rain made the area green and lush, but greatly diminished our pleasure as we had the strain of driving in the rain and it interfered with sightseeing.
It’s getting close to dinnertime, so we’ll end this news report from…
The Homestretch Four
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