May 16, 2008 - Update From Ellensburg, WA

Hello from Mike, Bonnie, Molly and Toby. We’re back on the road this morning. We’ve been in Ellensburg, WA for the past few days while we got some repair work done on the wheels of the camper. WOW, is this trip getting expensive. Between fuel and repairs, we are spending a bundle. I guess we will have to start camping in the Wal-Mart parking lots and give up eating. All of us could stand to give up a few meals.

So, what have we been doing in Ellensburg? We have done some sightseeing around the area. It is a very beautiful area to be stranded in. On Wed. we decided to drive to Yakima. Yakima is a town about 30 miles from Ellensburg. If you are familiar with the wine country of WA state, you probably have heard of the Yakima Valley. This is one of the big wine producing areas of WA. There is a Yakima river, a town called Yakima and the Yakima Valley. Anyway, the trip to Yakima took us through some interesting scenery.

Ellensburg is a lush, green valley where they grow tons of hay. There are mountains with lots of pines and steep peaks to the Northwest of Ellensburg. On the other side of the valley, there are tall hills or small mountains that are treeless and covered with a type of grass that grows in areas out here that don’t get much moisture. The drive to Yakima is over these hills/mountains. It is surprising to me just how beautiful these bare hills are. This area between Ellensburg and Yakima is virtually uninhabited. We saw a few cattle along the way and the entrance to some sort of military area, but otherwise, it was open land.

Yakima is a town of about 30,000 people. The downtown is still very alive but they do have some newer areas out a ways from the downtown area. We drove around and looked at the business areas as well as some of the residential areas. It appears to be a pretty nice place to live. We saw a large number of crates at several different locations that we think are used for packing and shipping fruits and veggies that are grown in the valley. The Yakima River flows on the outskirts of the town. I’m sure that this river provides the water needed to grow the produce.

I don’t know if I told you or not, but the RV repair place which is also an RV sales center was kind enough to allow us to stay on their lot. The only issue was that we got locked in every evening at 7pm. They said they could get us a key to get in and out, but we said it was not necessary. They gave us a phone number in case we needed to get out for any reason. So, we spend our evenings this week inside the RV lot. Actually, it was nice. We had the whole place to ourselves. It was fenced in so I could let the dogs out in the evening without a leash and let them get some exercise. It was kind of weird though when cars would pass and look at us. I’m sure they were wondering what we were doing there after hours. The guy who is the manager told us that the Ellensburg police called him at home around 11:30 the other night to alert him that someone was on the lot. He was pleased that they were watching out for his business and I was pleased to know they were around.

Thursday, the parts came in for the camper. We had to get out and leave it for five or six hours. So, we took the dogs and headed out to explore Ellensburg more and to find a place to have dinner. We also wanted to take the dogs to the river area where they could get out and run. It turned hot here on Thur. It reached 89 degrees. We drove around and checked out the outlying areas around Ellensburg and went to the Yakima river and walked around. Then Mike took us along the road that runs alongside the Yakima river all the way from Ellensburg to Yakima. This is the same path we took over to Yakima, except this time we were driving along the bottom of the hills rather than on the interstate over the top of these hills. The difference in the scenery was incredible and beautiful. I took some pictures that I will post.

Today is Friday and we are again on the raod. We’ve decided that we are not going to go to Glacier National Park, but rather make our way on over to Yellowstone. We hope to get there in the next few days and we want to stay in Yellowstone for several days.



Update - afternoon of May 16, 2008 - Info on our trip from Ellensburg to Missoula


Today is another beautiful day. It is the 16th of May already. Wow, how time does fly! We left Ellensburg, WA this morning and headed for MT. Our trip on I-90 took us into the upper tip of Idaho. The highlight of our trip in Idaho was the lake at Coeur d’Alene. Mike knew about the lake and town because of golf. He said there is a golf course there on the lake that has one hole that looks like an island, but really is not. It is some sort of barge and they have the ability to move it. I saw the golf course as we came out of town and started our drive along the lake. The highway took us up along the mountain as we were climbing, I looked back and I actually saw the golf hole on the water. It was neat. It just looked like an island off the shore of the lake. Our drive took us along the lake for a few miles and it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Boy, the people who live there have a gorgeous view each and every day.
We continued on I-90 and went through what I think are the Cabinet Mountains. I had never heard of them, but that is what the atlas called them. All I know is that there are lots of them and they are BIG. We followed a river all the way through the mountains and I saw numerous small waterfalls coming off the mountains. There is still a lot of snow at the higher elevations and it is melting quickly in this warm weather. The streams are coming out of their banks. The river we followed through the mountains was really rolling along.
We crossed over into MT shortly before coming out of the mountains. We saw what we thought was a cloud up ahead, but as we got nearer, we realized that it was smoke. Then we saw one of those water-carrying helicopters that they use to fight forest fires. We never saw any flames, but the smoke was heavy. I wondered what effect breathing this smoke has on the people who live in the homes here. Hopefully, they have air filters to help out. However, the animals are not so lucky. I guess that unless it gets really bad, the air at the surfaced of the ground is not too bad. This was not the only fire. We saw smoke on another ridge and in another hollow as we drove towage Missoula. Mike said these might be “controlled burns” that they do out here to help rid the forest of so much material to burn in a real forest fire.
Our original plans were to get to Missoula and to on a day trip to the Glacier National Park. But, because of the side trip in Ellensburg, we had changed our plans and decided to pass on Glacier and go on to Yellowstone. Well, that has changed. Mike said he really wants to see Glacier, so we are going to stay near Missoula an extra day and drive up to Glacier tomorrow.