Today was the last day of the trip. It was a relatively short day; we covered most of the width of Washington State. There are two ways to do it; I-90 or US-2. We took the scenic route (US-2) because it allowed us to avoid doubling back on I-90 and so we could visit Leavenworth. Leavenworth? For reasons we don’t understand, there is a fake Bavarian town in the middle of a forest. Here’s a photo of the fake ‘musikhaus’. They are presenting “Thoroughly Modern Millie” which must surely be a traditional Bavarian play.

Let’s not even discuss the PT Cruiser in front!

From Leavenworth we drove over Stevens Pass, something we had not done before and dropped down into the Snoqualmie River valley and headed home.

It was a fun trip that flew by; we both said today that it did not feel like three full weeks. It’s great to have that much quality time together.

Filthy car at the end of the trip

Some statistics from the trip:

Total miles: 5,206 – 2,809 to Indy, 2,397 back

Total days: 21 – 14 driving, 7 staying put (2 Boise, 2 Chicago, 3 Indianapolis)

Longest day: Day 1, 536 miles from home to Boise

Shortest day: Day 12, 197 miles from Chicago to Indianapolis

Total fill-ups: 15

Gallons of gasoline: 256.46

Cost of gas: $993.25

Average cost per gallon: $3.878 (Highest: $4.099 in Easton, WA and Jamestown, ND; Lowest: $3.649 in Great Falls, MT)

Miles per gallon: 21.5 (includes 300 miles that were already on the first tank we bought on the trip)

Highest elevation: 9,200 feet (Bighorn National Forest)

Lowest elevation: 500 feet (Home)

Highest temperature: 103 in Des Moines on July 22

Lowest temperature: 62 in Havre, MT on August 3^rd

Most impressive man-made thing: Mt. Rushmore

Most impressive natural thing: The Grand Tetons in Wyoming

Best thing: Being together

A cell phone camera, as good as they are these days, cannot come close to capturing the beauty and enormity of Montana. Today we drove from Havre to Spokane, WA. Our original plan was to take a route through Glacier National Park. But the day broke cold and rainy and we decided to take a more direct route. Still, the trip was nearly five hundred miles and many, many hours on the road. But what a road! They have two-lane highways with 70 MPH speed limits that cut through some of the widest expanses you’ll ever see.

Coming down a hill between Big Sandy and Fort Benton we felt like we could see forever. And it’s not just the land; there is something about the sky that you don’t quite see anywhere else. We caught up with the Missouri River again in Great Falls. From there we took another state highway that climbed through the mountains and eventually dropped us in Missoula. We really enjoyed this drive.

From there we hit the Interstate again and eventually ended up in Spokane. This is our last night of the trip. We are in a nice hotel, but it will be nice to sleep in our own bed tomorrow.

And Americans too, even two Washingtonians is a filthy SUV. Canada is not far from Havre. Havre itself is about halfway across the state of Montana. We left Minot (North Dakota) mid-morning. The temperature was right around 70 degrees, the lowest (day or night) temperature we’ve seen since the day we left Washington.

The northwest part of North Dakota is oil country. Every few hundred yards you see another small oil well. Sometimes you see drilling derricks preparing a new well. And you see lots of oils services people and trucks all over the place. We rolled into Williston around lunch time and found bumper-to-bumper traffic. Sometimes we hit MacDonald’s for lunch. Then never seem to mind us buying coffees and eating our store-bought cold cuts and fresh fruit. Initially we could not find a parking spot at the local MacDonald’s!

From there we continued west on US-2. Heavy construction slowed us down; at one point the road was gone and we were driving on dirt and gravel. Many of the little towns along the way were boarded up or otherwise closed. We did find a few low-riders in Wolf Point.

We noticed a lot of European names in Montana including; Glasgow, Harlem, (Le) Havre and Malta.  Not sure how that happened…

Eventually we reached Havre and settled in. It was a long day, around 450 miles and most of the day light hours behind the wheel.

Tomorrow will be another long day, but again we will get an hour back when we cross time zones. We saw the geography change slowly over the course of today’s travel; from flat-as-could-be to rolling hills. The change tomorrow will be dramatic as we cross over the Rockies in Glacier National Park. Should be fun!

We wanted to see North Dakota and Montana on the way back home. We chose the more northerly route and that dropped us in Minot, North Dakota. We’re about forty miles or so from Canada. The road from Fargo was flaaaat for the first 90 or so miles. As we got more north and west we ran into rolling hills, some rain and a lot of solitude. We were the only car on the road for many miles. Minot is a small-ish city, maybe 50K people. And they have a great Barnes & Noble!

We have about 1,200 miles to go over the next three days. Tomorrow and Friday will be long days. Fortunately we get a time zone change on both days. We should come close to the Missouri River again in Williston. We’ve been off the interstate since Jamestown, ND. We won’t see another I-something until we hit Spokane.