Friday: Home to Seattle

We are so sick of being in the car! In the morning we dinked around the Coeur d'Alene boardwalk looking at the big, big, blue, blue lake. There was a lot of this going on:

and this...

It was already hot at 9AM (80s) and getting hotter by the minute.

Spokane, Washington was on our route so we stopped at the Riverfront Park. We took the gondola ride over Spokane Falls and hung suspended in a mini sauna boasting two tiny windows. Saw the falls, though - or was that sweat pouring down over my eyes? Here's what we should have been doing:

From Spokane, it was just a hop to Moses Lake, where John's son lives. We met up for lunch at Bob's just off I-90, and then spent hundreds of hours in the car in 1,000-degree heat...OK, it was about 3 hours in the car in 98-degree heat. By then we were so hot and tired our conversations consisted of grunts and little whining sounds. We finally found a Starbucks in Issaquah, just a few miles from home. But that Java Chip Frappuccino gave us the strength to crawl those last hundred miles...OK, we drove and it was more like 20 miles, but oooh, that Frapp was good!

Maybe later I'll post more pictures and try to sum up our experience. But right now there are a zillion things to do to get ready for work on Monday...OK, maybe a hundred things...or perhaps five things. We enjoyed our trip and look forward to more travel time in faithful Blaze, especially now that it's outfitted with new red "luau" print seat covers. Not at all my usual classic style but they make me smile.

Thank you all for coming with us on our travels to Kansas. We've got a mini-break coming up in September, so stay tuned for details.

Thursday: Couer d'Alene, ID

We decided to visit the Cathedral of St. Helena before leaving town this morning.

Our timing was perfect; we heard organ music coming from the cathedral and followed the sound.

I'll have trouble describing the cathedral adequately. It is so beautiful in an ornate, old Europe way, with every detail like a little treasure. Turns out the design was inspired by a cathedral in Austria. All the stained glass except for the very front window is from Germany. The windows depict the life of Christ and Catholic church history.

We were the only ones in the sanctuary except the practicing organist, a man painting some wood protectant on one of the confessionals, and the cleaning lady, Kim, shown here reluctantly posing by one of the holy water receptacles.

Kim does all the cleaning for the cathedral, including the vast downstairs rooms where meetings are held. She's a 30-year resident of Helena and says it's not so cold. "Oh, there are a few days where it is 30 below but it really doesn't feel that cold." She wore longjohns the first few winters, but now she doesn't find it necessary to wear them.

Kim told us the cathedral is decorated throughout with 24-karat gold leaf. It seats 800 and is so popular for weddings you have to book it a year in advance. There are 250 families in the parish, and many of the priests come to St. Helena from nearby Butte, which according to Kim was settled by the Irish, giving St. Helena many priests of Irish descent. Besides St. Helena, the area contains 4 or 5 other Catholic churches, so obviously there's a large Catholic population.

Just then, the organist began playing Bach, so we settled in the pews as the sublime tones washed over and through us. Thrilling. I would have loved to have stayed for the noon concert - all Bach!

As we left, Kim pressed some brochures on us ("not for just anyone"). Outside the cathedral, I took lots of photos of the saints and figures and the crow's nest in one of the alcoves. Arrrgg- I was so overwhelmed by the Bach I'd forgotten to reset my camera for sunny outside photos. They all came out blurry. But it was a wonderful experience, the kind that can happen when you slow down and spend time in one place.

Moving on, we headed to Couer d'Alene, Idaho. At a rest stop enroute I saw my first prairie dog.

At tiny mining town Wallace, Idaho (in the Silver Valley - guess what they mine there?) we found a cool silver ring with elk ivory for John. It was mined, smelted, and crafted in Wallace.

In Couer d'Alene we stayed at a brand-new Holiday Inn Express which featured free BBQ and beer from 5-7PM. Here's John going out to the car for the THIRD time for something I forgot. What a guy!

We've had a great time, but I am sooooo ready to be done with driving all day. Tomorrow we head home to Seattle!

Wednesday: Helena, Montana

We left Buffalo, WY just before 7 AM - it had rained the night before and the morning was cool and cloudy. As the sun rose higher, we took zillions of photos of clouds - they were spectacular!

Following I-90 north, at the Montana border we entered the Crow Indian Reservation and headed toward Bozeman, where we picked up the magnifying mirror I'd left at the hotel last week. Yay, they had it! The application of makeup, even the minimal amount one slaps on during vacations, requires seeing all the gory details clearly.

Montana's terrain is so varied, mostly depending on how near the mountains you are. We were happy to see mountains again.

Just before reaching Bozeman, we stopped for lunch at Livingston (pop. 7,000). Livingston is sandwiched between the Crazy Mtns and the Absaroka Range. Jalisco, a large Mexican restaurant, served us huge taco salads for only $7.15 each. We walked through a little park after lunch and came across rows of trees all decorated with yellow ribbons. Attached to each ribbon is a photograph of a man or woman from the area who is currently serving in the armed forces. What a great idea.

We reached Helena about 2:30 PM, way earlier than we've been used to. In fact, we had time to visit the impressive State Capitol building. Here are a few of the photos we took:

Reading the guide book.

The building is made of local sandstone and granite, the dome is made of copper, and the figure atop it is "Montana" who holds a torch and shield to signify freedom and the state of Montana.

The inside of the Capitol is beautifully ornate. It's tough to capture it in photos. These photos show the colorful design (taken by John from a 3rd floor balcony), and one of the spectacular stained glass windows:

Looking up to the Capitol Dome:

We even had time to board the Last Chance Tour Train for an hour's trip around town:

Pedestrian shopping area

Mural honoring women and their contributions to Montana.

Window in Grandstreet Theatre building.

It looks like a prison, but it's a house built by a former madam. Behind it is an old fire lookout station, high atop a hill overlooking the town.

The Montana Governor's Mansion is just a house on the Capitol grounds. A nice big house, but still not overly fancy. Interesting.

Fast-food dinner enjoyed in our hotel suite (don't worry, mine was a salad- but dessert involved a hot apple pie), and we're ready for sleep. We watched a PBS special about Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Home Companion radio show. Amazing man. Tomorrow we will visit the Cathedral of St. Helena if we have time, and then it's onward to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Monday 6/30: Nebraska and Wyoming

We finally got smart and left North Platte at 7 AM instead of sleeping in till 8. The temperature stayed in the low 70s the whole morning- what bliss! We didn't have to use the air conditioner till we hit Cheyenne, Wyoming.

There was lovely morning light and lots of dramatic clouds when we left Nebraska.

You know me and flowers - got this photo of a black-eyed susan at a rest stop in Ogallala, NE:

We crossed into Wyoming at Pine Bluffs. The rest stop there boasted an archeological site and lovely vistas.

Wyoming seems to favor these hilltop sculptures - we saw many like this.

Cheyenne, Wyoming is a great town. We visited the State Museum of Wyoming (highly recommended) and the State Capitol Building, which sports a golden dome.

This building is beautiful. Photos don't do it justice. The lady at the information desk handed us a self-tour brochure and said the entire place was accessible to anyone - no restrictions, we could go anywhere and take any photos we wanted. Here is my favorite - a wonderful sculpture of Lincoln, outside the Attorney General's offfice. His face looks so sad and kind.

Room 302 sports a beautiful, ornate chandelier and mural of Wyoming history.

My telephoto lens was too long to get a good photo of the inside of the Capitol dome.

I really like Wyoming. I love the vast, open feeling. Yes, it's true there are mile and miles of "nothing." But it's a grand, noble, rugged place. The sky is so wide. You get the feeling you could start over, achieve anything. People are strong and hardy and friendly. Sanguine in the face of nature's challenges, they inspire you to reach for that level of grit in your own life. My photos don't capture the feeling at all. Here's one of many windmills we saw along the highway. They were almost always in singles, looking brave and lonely in the big brown landscape.

Another hill sculpture in Douglas, Wyoming -- home of the "jackalope" -- for those that don't know, a jackalope is a hybrid of jackrabbit and antelope, reputedly created first in Douglas by local taxidermists.

Listening to the news, hearing Wyoming farmers' concerns about the energy bills being proposed in Washington, D.C. I couldn't help but wonder if any of the D.C. crowd had ever visited the farmlands of America. I think maybe they should come and see this area for themselves and get a sense of what it's like to live out here and grow the foods that feed the whole nation. It's easy to sit in a far-away city and pontificate about laws that affect places you've never been. Oh well, off the soapbox...

And finally, landing at another fine Holiday Inn Express in Buffalo, Wyoming. It's the quaintest little town, situated very pleasantly near the Big Horn mountain range, just southeast of Yellowstone.

Tomorrow we head for Helena, Montana. Good night, everyone!

Monday: West to Nebraska

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary. We celebrated by driving up from Kansas to Nebraska and westward to the town of North Platte. The Platte River figures largely in James Michener's novel Centennial (if I remember correctly). We're worried about our air conditioner croaking, so we alternated 10 minutes of cool air with 30 minutes of 90-degree breezes through the open car windows. We also made several wrong turns which added about 90 minutes to the drive. Our GPS betrayed us and landed us on Turnpike 35 going south to Wichita. On the turnpike, exits are few; it was 35 miles before we could get off (by paying $1.60) and head north. This took us through many historic towns. The midwest is stuffed with history and interesting stories. We read about them in the guidebook as we zoomed past them. Some day we'll come back and explore them all. Here is the ornate courthouse and frontier-style main street of Cottonwood Falls, KS:

Kansas is full of beautiful farms, their peaceful look belying the hard labor that's required to run them. There are also vast cattle ranches and oil fields. Here's just one Kansas oil rig we passed at 75mph (love those midwest highways).

It clouded over for a brief, wonderfully shady moment when we crossed into Nebraska. Alas, the sun soon banished those sheltering clouds.

There were so many picturesque dilapidated buildings - we just didn't have time to stop (waaaa). Here is one standing like a sentinel in the middle of a knee-high corn field.

I love all the "alien heads" that proclaim the name of each town. You see them in most rural areas (in Washington, too). This one was unusual because of the colorful stripes and the fact that it looks more like a hot air balloon than an alien head.

About 50 miles from our night's destination, we tried to find the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles. It was supposed to contain 60+ military vehicles of all types, including a rare Downed Airman Retriever, two Bradley Fighting Vehicles and an M-60 Main Battle Tank. We couldn't find it. The GPS led us to a dirt crossroad with corn fields in every direction but no building. We called them and they tried to give us directions, but we could not find the place. Very frustrated and very hot and sweaty, we grabbed a soda and burger at McDonalds (air conditioned! clean!) and toughed out the last 50 miles to our lovely Holiday Inn Express room (air conditioned! clean!). A nice glass of wine at the manager's reception, a cool shower, and we're good as new.

Tomorrow we head for Buffalo, Wyoming via Cheyenne and Casper. But for tonight - happy anniversary to us!

Sunday: Emporia, KS

Ahhhhh. Last night's rain chased away the haze and lowered the temperature. We awoke to a cool breeze and 80 degrees. So of course, we spent this beautiful morning at the laundromat, washing our clothes for the trip home. Here's John enjoying our tailgate breakfast of lattes and a muffin. It was actually very nice, sitting in a cool spot with nowhere to be and nothing to do except talk to each other.

While the clothes were drying we visited the Emporia Veteran's Memorial. Emporia is the town where Veteran's Day originated. They're very proud of that. Among the exhibits was a Sherman tank from WW II and a "Huey" Army helicopter, the workhorse of the Vietnam War.

Right next to the memorial is a bridge over the Cottonwood River, where folks like to fish. The muddy water smelled like manure, but it didn't seem to bother the fishermen.

Neosha Rapids is a tiny town about 12 miles from Emporia. The Albin family gathered at the community center for an early dinner - this is the official "reunion" so there were more people than attended the preliminary events. There were piles of home-made salads, meatloaf, and meatballs. Everyone brought family photos. After food, we raised money to support the family newsletter with an auction of new and "white elephant" items. John's wine caddy with a Washington wine brought a whopping $26! I scored a new "rain" showerhead for our 2nd bathroom ($1) and a vintage sporting clays thrower ($1) among other things we wouldn't have bought were we not driving a truck across country! It was a fun auction with much hilarity, and raised about $200. John and I left with many invitations to come back and stay with family members. Dinner was over at 4, so we took the opportunity to visit the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge Center just a few miles away from Neosha Rapids. As we approached the marsh, all the white cranes flew away - they are definitely shy of humans.

The park is much larger than the marsh, so next time we visit we'll plan to go back. We had the whole place to ourselves.

After a decent steak dinner at Coaches (our first dinner out since we left Seattle), we are packing and planning our trip back home.

Tomorrow .... where?