Today is only the second day which was only driving from one place to another with no museum or historical stop on the way.  Its Osen’s RV park in Livingston Montana to Northern Quest Resort & Casino just outside of Spokane Washington.  It was suppose to be a 7 hour drive and 432 miles.  Well we ran into a HUGE traffic backup.  At one point we only moved about 10 miles in an hour.   The drive itself was spectacular.  We went

The alarm goes off at 5 am.  We got to be at the train station by 5:45 am.  We get all ready and head outside.  There is a cab right there so we decide to take the cab instead of walking the 20 minutes to the station.  So we got to the station early.  The train ride was fine but our seats were not that good.  So Bunny spend the 2nd half of the ride in the lounge car.  There was a spectacular view from there.  We got in around 3:45 pm and Jonathon Block was right there to pick us up.  We were home by 4 pm and glad to be home.  It has been a long but terrific trip…..

The final day with the RV.  We go from the Capilano River RV Park to the YWCA in downtown Vancouver BC near the Amtrak Station (where we are staying for the night) and then off to the drop off site for the RV which is going to be over an hour drive today.  We need to drop off the RV between 9 am and 11 am.  We were up early and left the RV park by 8 am.  We stopped off at the YWCA to just drop off our luggage so we wouldnt have to drag all that luggage back to the YWCA from the RV drop off site.  We got to the YWCA and they checked to see if we could actually check into our room early and we could.  It was ready.  So we unloaded the RV with all our luggage and set off for the RV drop off site.  We arrived at the rv drop site a little after 9 am and everything went well.  Cruise Canada was WONDERFUL to work with.  We caught a bus then the train and we were back in downtown Vancouver before noon.  We ate at the food court when we got off the train.  Then we sat at a Starbucks and drank coffee and watched people and relaxed for awhile then back to the YWCA.  Later we went out for dinner……

Todays drive is from Fairfield Inn & Suites Burlington WA to Capilano River RV Park just north of Vancouver BC.  We drop off the RV tomorrow.  Tonight we have reserved a place at an RV park just north of downtown Vancouver BC.  The reason is so that we can empty the black and gray water, fill up the propane and clean out the RV.  The drive today is only 1 hour 32 minutes.  We made it short so we can get the RV all ready to drop off tomorrow.  Check out at the Fairfield is  Noon, so we took full advantage of the late check out.  They also servered real eggs (or what looked like real eggs) for breakfast.  We got some gas and hit the road.  Smooth sailing through the border crossing and then we hit the downtown Vancouver traffic.  We hit the on ramp to the bridge over to North Vancouver.  It was backed up for at least 10 blocks.  It was stop and go thru downtown traffic of Vancouver BC.  An RV is not the best vehicle to be in while in a downtown style traffic jam.  We got to the RV park about 4 pm and began to cleaning process.

We started the day at the Mill Bay Casino in Manson WA which is right on Lake Chelan.  We went inside first thing in the morn to wipe the smile off the machine I won $60 on the night before and to get coffee ( mostly to get coffee).  We gave back about $ 10 and we werre on our way to Leavenworth.  We got to the town and realized that it was the monday of the long memorial day weekend.  The town was a little crowded but had some activities going on.  We walked thru town and landed at the starbucks.  They had free wifi and we need to make hotel reservations for a place somewhere on I-5 before going across the US and Canada border.  We went on priceline and got the Fairfield Inn in Burlington (between Mt Vernon and Bellingham).  We then went looking for a place to eat and then we hit the road.  The drive was expected to be 3hours 30 mionutes and about 200 miles.  Well … it was the monday of Memorial Day weekend.  We drove about an hour and everything stopped.  We went 10 miles in an hour.  we got into the Fairfield Inn around 6pm.

After visiting the casino again in the morning it was time to gas up, empty the back n gray water and go see Chuck.  See Bunny’s blog about our visit with Chuck.  It was 6 pm and we had 3 hours of driving ahead of us.  Next stop Lake Chelan.  This drive was short but we got to see northeast Washington.  I thought it would be mostly mountainous.  It is all farmland.  Not sure what kind of crops but when you get closer to Lake Chelan it is aparant that there’s a lot of fruit being grown with the prominent fruit processing plants around Lake Chelan area.  We got onto some back roads that were very isolated with no others cars or towns around.  It was a little scary.  Then once in a while a little “town” would pop up.  One of the no more than 2 blocks long with about 6 houses and that’s all.  We finally got onto a road with a 12% downgrade for 2 miles.  Well that is a steep downhill.  We took it easy but it was kind of scary.  We then turned a corner to find 4 deer standing in the road.  We were just barely able
to stop in time.  We finally got into the casino about 10 pm and I went in to register the RV to be able to stay over night.  The gave me a players card and $10 to be used in the slot machines.  I took it to a machine and within an hour cashed out for $62.  It was great!!

On Sunday our little RV made its way to Spokane. Our mission: to visit one of Bunny’s oldest and dearest friends Chuck Teegarden and his wife Kathleen.

We spent the day catching up with them and being entertained by Chuck’s unique, larger-than-life storytelling style. If you know Chuck, you understand what I’m talking about. We laughed until we cried, ate lunch and then we were treated to a grand tour of Spokane, courtesy of Kathleen. All great fun!

Just a little history here: Bunny has known Chuck since he was about 10. He used to work for Judd at Sherlock’s Market! And we went to the Junior Prom together! He’s been an honorary member of the family for half a century.

We love you, Chuck!!!

This day began in an RV park just south of Livingston Montana.  This is BEAUTIFUL country.  There are snow capped mountains all around with the Yellowstone river running along the drive to Yellowstone park.  Just Gorgeous.  The day’s drive was only around Yellowstone park and back to the RV park in Livingston Montana. The goal being to view Old Faithful. It was a little challenging driving an RV onto the small curvy roads inside the park, but we were driving one of the smaller RV’s being driven in the park.
It was about an hour drive to the entrance to the park. From the entrance to the park it was still a 2 hour drive to Old Faithful. We mostly just drove straight to Old Faithful except for a couple of stops. One of those stops was when we were pulled over for a pee and drink break and Bunny looked up and saw a bear about 200 yards off the road. Several people driving by stopped too see what we were looking at. By the time we left there were four cars parked and looking at the bear.

So we got to Old Faithful around 1 pm spent a couple of hours there watching the geiser and learning about how it works. We had ice cream and hit the road back to the RV campground in Livingston.

We stopped at several sights on the way back. We got back around 8:30 and got ready for another big driving day tomorrow.
Yellowstone park is incredible and something everybody should see.

Today’s schedule is a big one.  Drive from Rapid City SD to Big Horn Wyoming to see the spot of Custer’s last stand and then cross Wyoming to Yellowstone park.  On the way Bunny learns that the road to Yellowstone across Wyoming is very curvy and has a lot of elevation gain.  So she determines that the best route is actually to drop in from the north out of Montana.  The roads are much less curvy and less elevation gain.  So we set our sights for Livingstone mt.  Then she realized that I had actually got the wrong location for Custer’s last stand.  I was going to Big Horn Wyoming, but actually the spot of Custer’s last stand is at Little Big Horn in Montana which just happens to be on the way to Livingston Mt.  Funny how things work out sometimes.  Well it was over 4 hours drive to little big horn and around 8 hours to Livingston mt.
We got to Custer Last stand and it was very good.  Bunny and I enjoyed it much more than we thought we would.  There was a lot of history leading up to the event and much more to the story than just where Custer was finally killed.  The whole thing stretched over 3 to 4 miles.  Really interesting.  But once again an exhibit is closing and we still have to find a place to stay in Livingston mt.  After a lot of reaseach we found an RV park for a reasonable price and a short drive to Yellowstone.  Its not HoJos but it will do … Tomorrow Yellowstone … Maybe we’ll find a picnic basket … Hey Bobo….

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got to Mt Rushmore.  We have all seen pictures but what does the area around them look like… what is the history of these stone faces.
We took a leasurly day.  Slept in had breakfast and coffee worked out in the fitness center and sat in the hot tub then headed out about noon.  It was only gonna be a 30 minute drive which was really good because I was exhausted from yesterdays driving.  I got in the car and started out and felt like all I wanted to do was go back to the room and sleep more … We got to Mt Rushmore and it energized me.  The thrill of seeing these carvings for real and also learning the history of the carvings and a lot of american history also.  For example George Washington wasn’t actually our first president til 1789.  I always thought he would have started in 1776 as soon as we became a country ….
Anyway … I walked the trail around the base of the carvings and met Bunny back at the car.  I had hoped to drive to 2 other tourist attractions but we were exhausted and headed for HoJos.  We were even too tired to head down again for complimentary wine and beer … actually we had our fill the night before.