Points for those of you who noticed in last week’s blog that we stated Chicago to Seattle was XX miles, obviously missed by the editor and proof reading department, obviously it should have read 2,063 miles!
Sunday 29 June, we had our first American diner breakfast experience, the portion sizes were huge, one of us managed to add vanilla flavour cream to coffee without noticing, and very nearly spat it out all over the table.
We drove to Spokane Valley to met friends of friends, who had, despite never having met us, very kindly agreed to put us up for a couple of nights. They were so hospitable, and for us a lovely experience to be made to feel so at home.
Monday, we had a short wander around Spokane, it was blisteringly hot again, so didn’t get too far. Had lunch overlooking the water falls in Spokane.
In the evening we went out for dinner at a casino, obviously we all had a little flutter with results ranging from surprisingly profitable to down right terrible.
There had been a shooting incident, over the weekend, where two firefighters were killed in Coeur d’Alene, not very far from Spokane Valley.
Tuesday, we left our hosts and headed to a place called ‘Big Arm’ on the banks of Flathead Lake, in the Flathead Reservation. As soon as we joined the interstate highway we noticed lots of people including, firefighters on every flyover and on the side of the road, they were all waiting for the motorcade returning the bodies of the fallen firefighters back to Coeur d’Alene. It was a very emotional sight.
Our 1 night accommodation in Big Arm was great, with lots of handmade wooden details, and views over the lake.
Wednesday, On leaving Big Arm we visited the Miracle of America museum, which had an extensive range of America memorabilia, cars, military, motorbikes, medicine, boats, it even had an alien section!! A thing to be seen!
We drove the 3 hrs to Butte, still in Montana. We stayed in the Rocker Inn just outside Butte. Butte is a old mining town which once had 82 mines, and still had an impressive open caste mine right in the edge of town, where they appear to be dismantling a very large hill. We had two nights in Butte, so managed to visit ‘The Butte Beer & Pizza Company’ which was true to its name. So we enjoyed a selection of beer and pizza.
Thursday, we wandered around Butte, tried to book a trolley bus tour, but they were sold out, but that is when we found out that the largest firework display in Montana was scheduled for that night in Butte, which is slightly odd because it was the 3rd of July, not the 4th, but they always do fireworks on the 3rd! Fortunately, we could see the fireworks from our hotel. Before the fireworks we had a few drinks and dinner at ‘Sparky’s Garage’ a sports bar.
Friday 4th July, we drove to West Yellowstone, a town just outside the Yellowstone National Park, on the way we were delayed by a road closure in Ennis for their 4th of July parade, I think we nearly managed to join the end of the parade, because everyone was still sitting by the side of the route.
In West Yellowstone we found ‘Big Gun Fun’ so, when in Rome and all that, we decided to go and shoot a hand gun each. Our friends shot a handgun each and semi automatic rifles. I think we all did OK and didn’t embarrass ourselves.
Later that afternoon there was the 4th of July parade, which consisted of various floats…. from a group of kids on their bikes, to the local airport fire engine soaking everyone! Lots of flag waving! A truly American experience.
Saturday 5 July, we drove into Yellowstone National Park for 3 nights, we are not going to try to describe Yellowstone here, we would quickly run of superlatives. So as they say a picture speaks a thousand words, so here are some photos.
Yellowstone is also our excuse for not posting our weekly blog, there was no mobile phone signal and our accommodation had what it called WiFi in the lobby, but it appeared as elusive as the bears! We did manage to see Bison, Elk, Deer, Chipmunks and Eagles.
Tuesday 8 July, we left Yellowstone via the North entrance and headed to Bozeman, which we’d heard of, from a passing reference in the ‘Big Bang Theory’ TV programme, so it was a good enough reason to stop, it also made sense in terms of direction and length of drive.
We did a little clothes shopping courtesy of Walmart, found a couple of breweries.
Wednesday, we had another long drive up to Shelby, Montana, which we had passed through on the train 11 days earlier. There is not a lot in Shelby, but we did find a Chinese restaurant, as we were craving a vegetable or two, and you can rely on a Chinese restaurant to do some good vegetables.
Thursday, we drove into Canada to Calgary, a 4 hour drive, the border was fine, we have to say we didn’t see any American presence, we expected them to check us out, but we now assume they are more concerned with checking us in. The Canadian official was very pleasant, however they obviously don’t get very many non US visitors as he had to go and find the stamp for our passports.
The Motorhome (RV) from Florida in front of us in the queue very nearly drove through the border without stopping!! Luckily for them they did stop, but had to reverse back up the the window, and take a considerable amount of time to find their passports, obviously they were not expecting to find a different country!!
Travurple 