New blog

I have decided to begin another blog with this portion of our trip. Please check it out at www.FishersTravels2.blogspot.com

June 21 First day of summer

Today we are getting ready to leave in the morning for a trip across the Cascades Loop over to Puget Sound, Whidbey Island by ferry and then back to Coulee Dam and then on to Spokane. I am including a map of our planned trip. It is the dark route near the top of the map. I hope you all can see it.
We will post whenever we get wi-fi and try to catch up on any days we have missed. We enjoy reading your comments and knowing that there are some folks out there reading it. Thanks a lot.

June 19 evening

This evening we went to the Swinging Doors Sportsbar for the Tuesday night special of steak and baked potato. Met Cal and Marian there. They are friends of Ed & Marilyn's. Good food, good drink,(tea ((gotta add the sugar))and lemonade) and good company. Enjoyed visiting with them.
On the way home we stopped at Wandermere where there is a golf course and some pretty falls.

June 19

Sometimes we have dinner outside between the motorhome and trailer. We had chicken cassarole and corn on the cob one night.

June 15

Today I went out to Spokane Valley to meet my best friend from High School, Jeanne. Hadn't seen her in a good many years. For a while I thought I was sitting across from her mother. She looks a lot like I remember her mother. We enjoyed a Chinese lunch and then went shopping at the mall. At one point we found one of those little picture kiosks so we gave it a whirl. Check it out. Kind of scary, huh? We got an 8x12 and a sampler page. We decided I could have custody of the big one until some time in the future and then I would either give it to her or send it. Alas, that copy got some beverage spilled on it by the gentlemen who are staying here. I haven't told her yet. I plan to make another copy on the printer. Ah, well, accidents happen.

Day whatever

June 13. These folks here don't let the grass grow under their feet and they WILL put you to work! Yep, that is Marion on the tractor mowing the field and brother Ed mowing the backyard where the doggies do their stuff.
Honey and Reba have not made friends. They usually ignore each other. I hope they will learn to be a little more friendly before we leave here.
Today is laundry day as well as mow the grass day. It is cloudy and 61 degrees here. I had to go out and buy a jacket yesterdy as well as another pair of jeans and some socks. I would rather be here though, than in the sunny south.
Clara

Day 12

Day 12 of this journey finds us crossing the Montana/Idaho border, another time zone, Idaho/Washington border and on into Spokane. We arrived at brother Ed's house and found him welcoming us into the driveway.
Honey has found a new friend, but she is not sure she wants to share Reba's territory...or is it the other way around? We hope they will become good friends. It will be a long summer if they don't.
We will be resting here for a week or two before traveling about the state. I will post again from time to time. It is nice and cool here. I think about the heat we are missing but not often.
Clara, Marion, and Honey

Day 11 The Rockies

We are climbing mountains on Day 11. What a beautiful site these Rockies are! We decided to spend the night "boondocking" behind the 10,000 Silver Dollar Casino and restaurant. For those who do not know "boondocking" is when you camp without electric or water hookups. We were fortunate enough to find a pole with a place to hook into so were not truly boondocking but did have to use from the fresh water tanks. When we pulled in there was one other camper but when we got up in the morning there were about a dozen.

Day 10 Three Forks Montana

Day 10 we travelled across the Eastern Montana prairie lands. Not much to see but rolling hills covered with green grass. We spent the night at another KOA at Three Forks. This is where the Jefferson, Gallatin and Madison rivers come together to form the Missouri. A nice, clean campground. We enjoyed visiting with the campground hosts as well as other campers. It is amazing to me how friendly camping people are. At one point we saw a couple of old cars with old folks driving, pull up at the gas station. On the windows was printed "Alaska or Bust". What fun they must be having!!!! I hope the make it.

Day 9 Baker Montana

June 8 we left Spearfish SD and travelled up highway 85 across the North Dakota border and then headed west to Baker, Montana. This is the area that my mother, Madeline Olinger, was born and raised. We visited the cemetary where my grandmother, Clara, and step-grandmother, Madeline, were buried. Then we found the O'Fallon county Museum. Visit their website to see Steer Montana, the world's largest steer. WWW.falloncounty.net
Some of the things we saw were from the era of the homesteaders and the times when my mother was growing up.
We travelled on to Miles City, MT where we are camping in Big Sky RV park. Notice the camper parked beside what appears to be a pile of dirt but it is really a hill so close to our camper. There are many such "hills" in this area. Lots of grass lands and wide open spaces.
We left Baker on a half tank of gas knowing that the next gas station was 80 miles away. We were praying that the Lord would stretch that gas for us and we found that we had 4 gal. to spare in the tank . Marion pumped $96 worth at $3.23 a gal. vowing to never let it get so low again.

Day 7 South Dakota

June 6 we headed west toward Rapid City. Saw many signs along the way advertising Wall Drug in Wall SD so we made a stop there for lunch. This is primarily a tourist attraction. Go to www.walldrug.com to learn about this interesting place. For lunch I had a buffalo burger and a 5 cent cup of coffee plus the advertised "free ice water". Marion enjoyed a BBQ sandwich which looked a lot like a sloppy Joe. And we found a couple of new friends there.
Headed on to Rapid City and Spearfish where we stopped for the night. Decided to bypass Mt. Rushmore and a good thing, too. Bad storms going through the area.
We are spending 2 nights in Spearfish at a KOA campground to wait out the weather before heading north on highway 85 through ND and on into Baker, MT.

Day 6 Kimball SD

Spent this day driving through Iowa on bumpy highways. I began to feel like a bobble-head. Stopped for gas at Beresford and found out after pumping the gas that premium is the lowest priced gas. We paid 3.22 for regular but premium was $3.11. We had lunch next door at Emily's Restaurant and when we left the price had been lowered to $3.04.
We stopped in Kimball SD at a rugged campground just off the Interstate.
I found an antique store next door that had a lot of rusted junk outside and not much better inside. During the night a storm went through and the winds picked up. We were apprehensive about driving in that but left anyway....no problems.

Day 5 Nebraska City NE

Day 5 found us crossing Missouri and bypassing Kansas City and heading north on I-29 and finally crossing over into Iowa. Saw a sign for Victorian Acres Campground and followed that back across the Missouri River to Nebraska. So we can say we spent the night in Nebraska.

Day 4

Sunday, June 3. Today we are resting at Jonesburg Gardens Campgrounds. This morning Honey & I took a walk around the pond and sat on a bench reading the Bible and communing with God. Honey did a little exploring of her own.
This afternoon Marion & I took a little side trip to a little German town about 20 miles away called Herrman. There are winerys there as well as other quaint shops, of which mostly were closed Sunday afternoon. Had lunch in a local diner. I had the best bratwurst and saurkraut I have ever tasted and Marion claimed his open faced roast beef sandwich was great, too. We stopped at the winery to check out the local flavor and then headed back across the Missouri River through the country to our camper. All three of us had a little nap this afternoon. The weather is cool and partly cloudy.
We have been getting gas for $2.93-$3.05 a gallon.

Day 3

Today, Saturday, we started out taking route 60 out of Paducah. This country route took us across 2 narrow bridges where the Ohio River meets up with the Mississippi. It was a little tense for a while because there was construction on the bridges and one lane was closed on each. But we just followed along behing the 18-wheelers and Marion was glad when we over them. At one point we were on the tip of Illinois at Cairo.
From there we traveled I-55 north to St. Louis but bypassed the city taking I-270 to I-70 where we ran into the first rain we have seen in quite a while. Stopped at a campground off the Interstate where we plan to stay until Monday morning. We have internet connection 24 hours. Whoopeee!!!! by the way, Honey is loving this trip....so many new smells to sniff.

Day 2

Day 2 found us heading up the road around Nashville and on to Paducah, KY, where Marion was so agreeable to taking Clara downtown to a certain quilt store that just opened up. For those that don't know, Paducah is Quilt City where every year quilters by the thousands come for the American Quilters Society frenzy in April. Clara went in Elinor Burns Store to do some shopping and Marion stayed in the parking lot and attracted several ladies by walking around his chick magnet, Honey! Sorry we didn't get a picture of that.
Found a campground to stay in nearby and we decided to stay there and rest in air conditioned comfort.