Well, we hit the road about noon on Tues...scenic ride up to I-90 which would take us all the way in to Missoula, MT. We stopped at Walmart in Moses Lake, WA for the night. That is when the fun began....
When we got ready to head out on Wed morning, Stu found out that we had no trailer brakes. He always tests them before heading out (thank goodness). Further investigation showed a broken brake line.
Fortunately there was an auto parts store within walking distance. Parts located, Stu spent several hours getting the brake line fixed. Finally, we had brakes! We headed out with a destination of either Spokane, WA or Post Falls, ID for the night.
We made it to Post Falls and spend another Walmart night. We headed out for the Harley dealer in town....Stu needed to get his Idaho shirt. Found a nice design that was unique and headed on towards our final destination, Jim & Mary's campground in Missoula.
Not to be....a couple of miles from a rest area an alarm sounded in the truck. We were overheating. We limped into the rest area and discovered that the belt for the water pump had broken. Oh joy....
Stu unloaded the trike and after chatting with the folks working the coffee station, headed to the NAPA store in Superior, the town we had just passed through. They didn't have what we needed but could get it by morning.
We got permission to stay parked overnight, not a problem fortunately. There was a forest campground behind the rest area but it was easier to just stay put. At bedtime we discovered our next problem. Seems as though we had no 12 volt system unless we left the inverter for the solar panel enabled. Stu suspects that something got disconnected when we was working on the brakes (in & out of the storage bay where all the wiring is located).
Morning came and after waiting for the rain to stop, Stu headed out to get the belt. With a little help from Snoopy (from the coffee station), who was a retired trucker, the belt was back on and operational. Phew! The drive just got prettier and on the way into Missoula area.
We arrived at Jim & Mary's around 3pm and spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up. We'll be here until Tuesday morning...then we drive over to Butte (short hop) for a week.
I'm still working on the photos and blog for Alaska...but it will come eventually. LOL!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
Showing posts with label WA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WA. Show all posts
Rolling on.....
Monday, June 28, 2010
Getting ready to hit the road tomorrow...two Wally World nights (Moses Lake, WA and Coeur d'Alene, ID) and then we hit Missoula, MT for 4-5 mights before moving to Butte, MT for a week. We want to be parked over the holiday weekend and definitely hope to get in some good riding. We have friends in both Missoula & Polson so should have fun.
I'm also hoping to get a better aircard signal. So many photos to upload for Alaska. Right now I've spent over 24 hours trying to get one day uploaded and I still don't have Ketchikan all uploaded. Grrr.... LOL!
So please be patient about the Alaska journal...it will get done...eventually. LOL!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
I'm also hoping to get a better aircard signal. So many photos to upload for Alaska. Right now I've spent over 24 hours trying to get one day uploaded and I still don't have Ketchikan all uploaded. Grrr.... LOL!
So please be patient about the Alaska journal...it will get done...eventually. LOL!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
Mt St Helen's National Monument, WA
Sunday, June 27, 2010
We returned from our cruise on Monday and chores came first. While I did laundry, Stu took the Freightliner (Freddie) in for some service work. When he got back at noon, the gorgeous weather sent us out to take a short trip on the motorcycles. We took about a 40-50 mile ride, just to get our bike legs back under us and then stopped for a movie. We had wanted to see the A-Team and since it was still playing....we both really enjoyed it.
Thursday morning the sun was still shining....a rarity in this area. We mapped out a route to visit Mt St Helens
which we had wanted to see before we left the area. We had also heard it was a great motorcycle ride. Since it would be a 300+ mile day with lots of photo opps, my bike stayed home (sorry Twister).
The first part of the trip was the same as when we headed to Mt Rainier...and still beautiful. Gorgeous scenery...had to snap a few more shots. LOL!
We stopped for lunch in the interesting town of Elbe, Washington. We had passed this on our way to Mt Rainier...in fact, Elbe is the fork between the routes to Rainier and Mt St Helens. We knew we needed to be "Sidetracked". Whether you want food, drinks or lodging, at the Rail Road, you can do it train style. Family owned and operated, lots of quirk factor, good service and fresh food made to order. What more could you ask for?
We took our fork in the road and headed off towards Mt St Helens. A few more small towns and a lot more gorgeous scenery awaited us. At times we could view Mt Rainier in the rearview mirrors and Mt St Helens to the front. Wow!
I think everyone knows the history of Mt St Helens, but we couldn't believe that this was the 30 year anniversary of the eruption. Where did the time go? Much of the forest has been replanted but some is being allowed to return naturally.
We stopped at the Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitors Center for a drink and leg stretch. The view was amazing providing a panorama of the mountain and surrounding changes.
Inside we found a nice gift shop, restaurant with outside seating and some historical displays of the area. We opted for sitting outside to enjoy our iced teas. We also got to watch the helicopter tour arrivals and departures.
We continued on our way...making many photo stops and enjoying the beauty of the area while being a bit staggered by the enormity of the blast area. Rather than blather on more, I'll let some of our photos speak for themselves.
We hit the end of the road and it was closing time for the observatory so we headed back home. We did get to see some major steam rising from the top of the mountain!! Needless to say, the views were different coming from this direction. We saw more waterfalls and stopped at the beaver dam we had seen when riding up.
At mile marker 19 we stopped for some dessert (?? dinner) at the 19 Mile Restaurant & Gift Shop. We were greeted by the owners and their pups who were chatting with some folks on their way to their cars. They told us to go in and pick a seat. Talk about a beautiful setting....overlooking the river. Once again, great service and amazing homemade cobbler. We opted for the strawberry rhubarb (Stu also had the chili)...it was the best I've had in years! Topped with creamy vanilla ice cream...yum! You can read a review from Fox News here.
The only wildlife we saw all day, other than ants, was a ground squirrel near the top of the mountain. That changed on the way home as we rounded a corner and there stood a deer looking at us. Moving to the side of the road, they headed into the woods and then turned and watched us...glad they were solo!
To learn more about Mt St Helens, I recommend this website from the US Forest Service. To see the rest of our photos, check our SmugMug album. We got home around 9:30 pm...we had left the house about 10:30 am. Great day!!!
If you have to choose between Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens, we definitely recommend Mt St Helens due to the history involved. But we hope you don't have to choose and get to see both!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
Thursday morning the sun was still shining....a rarity in this area. We mapped out a route to visit Mt St Helens
which we had wanted to see before we left the area. We had also heard it was a great motorcycle ride. Since it would be a 300+ mile day with lots of photo opps, my bike stayed home (sorry Twister).The first part of the trip was the same as when we headed to Mt Rainier...and still beautiful. Gorgeous scenery...had to snap a few more shots. LOL!
We stopped for lunch in the interesting town of Elbe, Washington. We had passed this on our way to Mt Rainier...in fact, Elbe is the fork between the routes to Rainier and Mt St Helens. We knew we needed to be "Sidetracked". Whether you want food, drinks or lodging, at the Rail Road, you can do it train style. Family owned and operated, lots of quirk factor, good service and fresh food made to order. What more could you ask for?
We took our fork in the road and headed off towards Mt St Helens. A few more small towns and a lot more gorgeous scenery awaited us. At times we could view Mt Rainier in the rearview mirrors and Mt St Helens to the front. Wow!
I think everyone knows the history of Mt St Helens, but we couldn't believe that this was the 30 year anniversary of the eruption. Where did the time go? Much of the forest has been replanted but some is being allowed to return naturally.
We stopped at the Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitors Center for a drink and leg stretch. The view was amazing providing a panorama of the mountain and surrounding changes.
Inside we found a nice gift shop, restaurant with outside seating and some historical displays of the area. We opted for sitting outside to enjoy our iced teas. We also got to watch the helicopter tour arrivals and departures.
We continued on our way...making many photo stops and enjoying the beauty of the area while being a bit staggered by the enormity of the blast area. Rather than blather on more, I'll let some of our photos speak for themselves.
We hit the end of the road and it was closing time for the observatory so we headed back home. We did get to see some major steam rising from the top of the mountain!! Needless to say, the views were different coming from this direction. We saw more waterfalls and stopped at the beaver dam we had seen when riding up.
At mile marker 19 we stopped for some dessert (?? dinner) at the 19 Mile Restaurant & Gift Shop. We were greeted by the owners and their pups who were chatting with some folks on their way to their cars. They told us to go in and pick a seat. Talk about a beautiful setting....overlooking the river. Once again, great service and amazing homemade cobbler. We opted for the strawberry rhubarb (Stu also had the chili)...it was the best I've had in years! Topped with creamy vanilla ice cream...yum! You can read a review from Fox News here.
The only wildlife we saw all day, other than ants, was a ground squirrel near the top of the mountain. That changed on the way home as we rounded a corner and there stood a deer looking at us. Moving to the side of the road, they headed into the woods and then turned and watched us...glad they were solo!
To learn more about Mt St Helens, I recommend this website from the US Forest Service. To see the rest of our photos, check our SmugMug album. We got home around 9:30 pm...we had left the house about 10:30 am. Great day!!!
If you have to choose between Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens, we definitely recommend Mt St Helens due to the history involved. But we hope you don't have to choose and get to see both!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
What, no rain?
Sunday, June 6, 2010
We woke on Saturday to a sunny day...how did that happen? LOL! We had a few errands to run and decided to have breakfast at a local diner we had spied the day before.
Mad Dog Diner was not what we expected...kind of upscale...a diner on one side and a bar on the other. Food and service were great...we'll definitely go back before we leave the area.
We finished our errands and since the sun appeared to be staying for the day, we headed off to Mt Rainier National Park. The ride there was all two lane roads, scenic, through little towns, past lakes, through the woods and quite enjoyable...but would have been better on the bikes. LOL!
Mt Rainier is breathtaking...we came in from the west, went around to the east and then north up the east side of the park. I think we went through three different tunnels, too. The views were ever changing...more snow than we expected. It was in the 60's!
Everywhere we looked there were waterfalls, some year round ones and others strictly seasonal.
Managed to snap a few bird shots as well. (The ducks were in our campground...LOL!)
The first photo is the one shot I put on my computer desktop....you can see the over 200 we took in our SmugMug album: Mt Rainier National Park, WA
This will be the last blog for two weeks...well, the last "current" blog. I have preloaded a short daily blog detailing where we will be and what our planned excursions are. So, hope you enjoy following along and I know we'll come back with a TON of photos. See you after the 21st!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
Mad Dog Diner was not what we expected...kind of upscale...a diner on one side and a bar on the other. Food and service were great...we'll definitely go back before we leave the area.
We finished our errands and since the sun appeared to be staying for the day, we headed off to Mt Rainier National Park. The ride there was all two lane roads, scenic, through little towns, past lakes, through the woods and quite enjoyable...but would have been better on the bikes. LOL!
Mt Rainier is breathtaking...we came in from the west, went around to the east and then north up the east side of the park. I think we went through three different tunnels, too. The views were ever changing...more snow than we expected. It was in the 60's!
Everywhere we looked there were waterfalls, some year round ones and others strictly seasonal.
Managed to snap a few bird shots as well. (The ducks were in our campground...LOL!)
The first photo is the one shot I put on my computer desktop....you can see the over 200 we took in our SmugMug album: Mt Rainier National Park, WA
This will be the last blog for two weeks...well, the last "current" blog. I have preloaded a short daily blog detailing where we will be and what our planned excursions are. So, hope you enjoy following along and I know we'll come back with a TON of photos. See you after the 21st!
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu
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Stu and Donna