Captain’s and First Officer’s Logs 20-15-06-29

We are docked, locked, and loaded at Planet Butte, Galaxy Montana

First Officer: Ying versus Yang. Good versus Evil. Interstate 90 in Washington versus Interstate 90 in Idaho. The constant struggle between Good and Just and Miserable Crap. Idaho wins hands down. I wouldn’t give you two cents for Interstate 90 in Washington, but when you cross into Idaho miracles happen. The road smoothes out, the lanes get wider and even the scenery improves. The panhandle of Idaho is really pretty country.

Captain: It’s HOT! It’s HUMID! Since we left Port Townsend, we’ve encountered high temps in Seattle, Spokane and Butte, Montana. I want to go back to Bothell and Port Townsend for boats, cool breezes and balmy summer days. It was actually 104 degrees and humid in metro-Seattle where we stayed at the KOA in Kent before attending our friend’s wedding.

First Officer: We have started to establish a daily routine. We get up whenever we want to, the Captain usually before me, have a cup of tea, couple slices of toast, check emails, undock and launch from wherever we are. We cruise until we come to the first intergalactic rest area, pull in, fire up the generator and the Captain walks the puppies while the FO prepares breakfast, coffee, bacon and eggs, French toast or pancakes, whatever strikes our fancy. This beats the heck out of our Ali-the-Gator trailer routine which was get up, hit the road and stop at the first McD’s we came across.

Captain: Today we got in touch with friends Pam and Rick in Ennis, Montana to arrange dinner out with them on Tuesday evening, and then we began trying to find an empty spot in an RV park there. We got the absolute last campsite in this small town situated on the beautiful Madison River, because of a last-minute cancellation. I’m sure we’re up against families traveling for the July 4th holiday, so we’ve got to get our planning act together, or we’re probably in for Wall Mart parking-lot camping July 1st through the 5^th.

First Officer: It’s an interesting syndrome, the breakfasts we’re having on the road. We had all the capabilities in Ali-the-Gator that we have in the new coach:  three burner stove, refrigerator, microwave, running water and built-in generator. However, we seldom if ever cooked on the road with Ali-the-Gator. I think the difference is, it’s just so nice to have a full kitchen and living area plus dinette that make cooking-while-taking-breaks-on-the-road enjoyable. Frankly, the food’s much better too. 

Captain: We’ve decided that after a campground gets built, the town comes along and puts in a railroad track next to it. For the last two nights Frank has slept soundly as he usually does while I lay awake. Last night a train came through just outside the campground fence and blasted its warning whistle four times at the crossing.  Saturday night I listened to what sounded like a hundred motorcycles revving because of an outdoor movie with giant, fiery explosions being shown directly behind our rig until 11 pm. 

First Officer: I don’t miss anything at all about the state of Washington.  I love our kids and grandkids, but think having them fly to visit us in Phoenix would be less stressful on me than driving through the state of 12 hour rush-hours and the I-5 parking lot anymore.  Last Sunday I attended mass at Our Lady of Eternal Road Construction and the Madonna in the naïve was wearing a yellow hard hat.  That tells you something!

Captain: I, on the other hand really miss the blessed quiet of the forest campground at Fort Worden, not to mention the expansive views of Puget Sound!  Okay, whining aside, we’ve seen mountains, rivers, bridges, creeks, and picturesque little towns along our path since we left Washington.  All the sights along our route play out like some “cinemascope” movie through our huge RV front window. 

For example, the camping spot tonight has a magnificent view of tree-covered mountains, one of which has an imposing statue of Jesus on top that we can see from our front window. There’s also a stretch of a much-longer nature trail running just next to our campground along a meandering creek. So far, I haven’t run across any mandatory railroad tracks here.

First Officer: On one of our first trips in Ali-the-Gator, I blacked out the whole state of Oklahoma in our atlas because of the rotten condition of I-40 running through it. I’m real close to blacking out the whole state of Washington for similar reasons.

Captain: Since we’re on a mad dash across the U.S., we’ve been making notes in our atlas (so far, Frank hasn’t blacked out any states) about places we want to revisit in the future. Today we made note of what looked to be an historic little town called Wallace in Montana. 

First Officer: Cheryl makes notes in the atlas about sweet little towns to revisit, but I write notes about wretched roads, terrible traffic, decreasing radius curves and huge, white, creepy statues of Jesus on mountain tops. 

End Combined Log