Well, I woke up about 6:45am yesterday (Monday) to boys “quietly” putting on their shoes. I came out to the kitchen area to find Nathan & Nicholas getting ready to go fishing. They had discovered that the waters they were fishing in were about 15 ft deep, and if they moved the lures up then they would have the bait more towards the bottom where the fish are (a local told them about that). So I told them to fish for about ½ hour because we needed to get moving. They came back so excited because they both had caught 1 fish a piece! They were too small to keep, but they had caught some fish, nonetheless, and now they felt complete! Nathan took some pictures of the great catches they made, and here are the pics:
We then gathered breakfast and lunch and hopped in the car and drove to Mt. Rainier eating breakfast on the way. So yes, we did get up early and left early after all! It can be done. It was, again, an overcast day, so we never did get to see the mountain (wah!). But the drive in was beautiful, and we did stop at the visitor’s center to see a video on Rainier (which is an active volcano – betcha didn’t know that). I took a picture of our dashboard as we left the visitor’s center because it was only 39 degrees! Brrr! And I forgot my coat, but Tim was gracious enough to lend me his jacket We stopped at a waterfall on the way down and took a little hike to it – gorgeous! This guy and I struck up a conversation because he noticed my Bucs hat and he and his wife are from Clearwater. Turns out they live right next door to the parents of the girl who started truecouponing, and they are fellow believers – he used to be a Navy pilot and also a pilot for JARS, which is a missionary aviation organization. We had such a great time with them we used up or picnic time (no problem as it was still only 39 degrees!) so we ate lunch in the car on the way down. Not too far outside of the park we saw this cool looking 'hotel' made up of railroad cars called the Hobo Inn. Here are some pictures (including Hobo Inn) from our time with Mt. Rainier:
We were able to pack up pretty quickly and get out of our campground, but we were a few hours down the road when Tim felt the RV pulling and dragging pretty badly. We pulled off into a rest area that just happened to be right there (thankfully!), and sure enough, our left front tire was down about 30 pounds (and this was after Tim filled it right before we left that morning). Thank God for Good Sam because all it took was a phone call, and 30 minutes later a guy showed up to change our tire for us! Woohoo! The rest area had a huge grassy area, so the boys enjoyed a little football while waiting. We decided to make the best of the time and have dinner right there, so we didn’t get out of there until pretty late (can’t remember the exact time). Since we were planning on camping at Wally World (aka Walmart) in Spokane it didn’t really matter what time we got there, so we decided to press on. We arrived around 11pm last night, but had a very nice drive watching the sunset in the rearview mirror and then the kids got ready for bed and spent time in their beds reading while Tim and I talked. Very peaceful. Here's some pictures of the guy changing our tire - man were we thankful for him!!
This morning we restocked our supplies from Walmart, got some gas, and were on the road by the crack of ... noon. :-) We stopped by a NAPA to get some part that Tim was looking for, when Nicholas complained of something on his back. Upon further investigation, we saw this big tick smack dab in the middle of his back just sucking away! Gross!!! So Tim performed the operation to remove the tick with his able bodied assistant, Noah, providing the band-aid. So that was the fun and excitement for the day. Nathan started reading about all these diseases you can get from tick bites (thanks a lump) so all we can do is hope and pray nothing like that happens to him!
We just arrived at our campground here in Montana and saw some gorgeous country through Idaho and Montana along the way, saying good-bye to the Pacific timezone and hello to Moutain time as we crossed the border between Idaho and Montana. Coeur d’Alene lake was absolutely gorgeous! Tomorrow we are planning on going to Glacier National Park, Lord willing. Sorry for the long post here – I’ll try to keep it shorter next time. Here are some pictures from Coeur d'Alene lake in Idaho and then Flathead lake in Montana - beautiful!
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