We spent the night at Memaloose State Park, not far past Hood River. Driving through the most scenic part of the Gorge at night precluded any sightseeing (or pictures) but did alleviate that damn Gorge headwind that seems to know which way Ludwig is traveling.
The next morning after breakfast this ground squirrel made a bold move for the pantry, but was thwarted by Tater Tot. We told her, "look at the squirrel trying to get inside Ludwig!" and, hands on hips, she took a couple steps toward it and shouted "NO!" at the top of her little voice. We don't generally encourage the harassment of fauna, but it was pretty cute. She was more than a little shaken by her new-found power over nature, and ran away from the scene nearly as quickly as the squirrel.
Melissa might think that we took US 97 North toward home just because Ludwig could climb a couple new passes on the way. Well, I guess that's partly true, but I also wanted to get out of the Gorge and its incessant headwind. I didn't expect this sign or this view though, which made the shortcut more than worth it. My pictures don't do it justice, but I could see all of them listed save Mt. Rainier (last eruption in 1854; look out, Tacoma). The one in the picture is Mt. Adams. The Type III exhaust strapped up behind the wagon is courtesy tristessa (thanks, Hal).
We saw this farm along I- 82. What the heck is it, hops? Imagine the time it would take to put those fences up.
We stopped at the city park in Ritzville Washington to give Tater Tot a nice long break from her carseat. Ritzville was a the second best place (outside of Montana) we stopped on the entire trip (second to Maupin of course). The park was nice, the public bathrooms were nice, the people were nice, everything was nice.
Luckily Tater Tot was good and tired, and slept through our completely disastrous attempt to find a campground along the lakeshore in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. We wandered all over the town in the dark for well over an hour, looking for a couple places that I'm now convinced aren't even there. Fortunately our trusty Rand McNally 2009 Road Atlas always gives the location of the nearest WalMart, the last chance campground of choice. A little backtrack on I-90 to Post Falls Idaho later, and we were nestled safely in Ludwig under the mildly annoying glow of parking lot lights.
(miles 221,116-221,523)
4 comments:
like it, guys ... we are dying to get out in Valentina but the South Florida weather is miserably hot and humid...
You sure saw some beautiful scenery. Improvising with WalMart was smart thinking - no park fees!
Yeah, sorry, our great state of Idaho isn't always fabulous at providing campgrounds in abundance...or keeping current records of campgrounds...or keeping Wal-Marts in business. For the record, I'm pretty sure they're closing the Post Falls Wal-Mart, so next time you should just come through southern Idaho and stay with us instead. :-)
exotic-Well, that's what you get for living in a swamp ;)
mamalynn-WalMart is great that way--when you just need to get off the road and go to sleep.
Minnie-I don't so much blame the Gem State as I do my naive reliance on the DeLorme Atlas & Gazeteer's ability to deliver up-to-date information on private campgrounds, which is what we were looking for in this case (the public ones were too far away, given the hour).
Alright,
whc03grady.
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