From City to Park

We left the fine city of Missoula today. While we enjoyed our stay, we'd both rested enough and shopped too much and knew it was time to move on.

One of our challenges is keeping water on board without really having it on board.  Meaning we are carrying jugs of the stuff until we can safely carry many many litres once the threat of freezing eases up.  Soon we will be there, but in the meantime, in order to flush, to rinse, to wash, we need the jugs.  This morning, while doing dishes, or preparing to do dishes, I swung the heaviest jug up and over and  YOWZA! I must have pulled some kind of muscle that wraps around my lungs because it truly caught my breath.  For a few minutes there I wondered how the rest of the day was going to play out: me on my back, stoned on robaxacet while Christy drove or me waiting in some doctor's office to see what the damage was?  Fortunately, two advils and some stretches were all I needed but it was a good lesson in proper lifting techniques and terrible jugs.  When Christy's not looking, that particular jug is falling out the door at high speeds.

The rest of the day went really well.  The roads out of Missoula to the west were wet, but we stuck to the interstate and Frances (the moho) did her part to get us through Lookout Pass (4700 feet) and into Idaho. Let me say that I'm glad we weren't coming the other direction, because it took us an hour to climb that high but only twenty minutes to come all the way down!  Beautiful views met us at every turn and even the sun made an appearance or two.

  

Typical signage as we winded our way through the mountain passes

Today was a banner day because we rode through three states all in one day and in less than 4 hours! Montana, Idaho and now, Washington.  Where it's legal to smoke weed, we discovered. But not in the cool way (uh, the discovery, not the smoking).  In the roundabout way of the internet. Never mind...

Anyways...to tie into the title of the post...

We decided on park versus city for our final destination today.  Somehow, another trailer park in the middle of an industrial area with our neighbours right beside us didn't seem so exciting.  So we opted for Riverside State Park just north west of Spokane. And it's lovely!  There's a river right behind our campsite, and it rushes, and there are bald eagles and herons here too!  The girls enjoyed a long walk along the river and even Annie got out for some much needed ground time.  All in all, a great place to stop.

Me and Remy on our walk, Kinka looking away, as always!

Below is the link to the google map I've created. It shows all of our stops and how we got to where we are today. I'll keep updating it and sharing it so you can follow along. Thanks to brother Mark for the idea.

C & J's Adventure