Yellowstone Day 6 - final day :(

After a great breakfast at The Montana Club, we hit the road again.    First stop was our favorite little Montana town of Alberton.  We needed gas and were in no hurry, so we stopped to check out the old used book store.

The bookstore was really cool.  Books everywhere.  Crammed in from floor to ceiling.  I have never seen so many books in such a small place.  Each row had its own overhead light. As you walk into the row, you turn on the light you need.   

Alberton

Next stop was the Silver Dolalr cafe.  They claim to have 50,000 silver dollars in their collection.  I didn't count them.   The place was a serious tourist trap. We found the same Huckleberry soda we bought at the grocery store for 1 dollar a bottle, sold for 2 dollars a bottle!   I did find a funny beer cozy though, it is the head of a trout!  love it! 

Since we stopped at this dumb tourist attraction, we decided to check out the historic nursery  I figured it was from the days of people going west, they were helping to bring plants from the east to the west. No, I was wrong. I should have known.  Forest fires play a big part of life in Montana and Wyoming. This nursery raised Pine trees to replant burned areas.  They replanted 3 million a year back in its hayday.  There are still rows of mature pines back behind the buildings, but it was just too hot to hike.  The people were very nice. I wanted to buy somehting but there was nothing i wanted so I stuffed 4 bucks in the donation box and away we went.

Next stop was Wallace Idaho.  We had heard this was a fun little historic mining town to check out.  As our luck would have it, it was the Wallace Blues Fest this day.   Most of downtown was closed and there were food and drink vendors set up.  One block was fenced off, with a $30 entrance required, but we could hear the band perfectly from outside the fence.  

Kelsey spotted the mine tour.  We asked what the temp is in the mine?  55 degress they asid.  SOld!  we were off on the mine tour.  The tour took us in 500 feet or so, it didnt go down or anyting, just inside a big rock.   The tour guide gave us history, including the Sunrise mine fire that killed 90 some people in the 70's.  He explained how that changed US mining and showed us the new safety equipent.   He also showed us the drilling equipment, which is quite loud!

After the mine, we ate and left Wallace.  Kelsey fell asleep and I knew she wasnt too interested in Couer DeAlene, but I exited off the freeway anyways.  I threw on my suit and jumped in the lake!  Kelsey took some pictures.  We found the vacation rental we had a few years back for a family reunion.  They removed the hot tub in the back.  My kids plugged the pump with sand from the lake, I am sure we weren't the only ones to do that!

Finally we made it to Spokane.  We turned a short drive into a full day!   We pulled up to the Hotel. The Monvale.  It was in an old brick building.  Two thoughts entered my mind. One, does this place have  A/C?   two,  Is this place haunted?

The lady at the front desk was very nice but seemed to have some trouble with the reservations. The two men who were ahead of us, came back down and said they had reserved two queens, yet ended up in one King.  I was worried we would meet the same fate.  To my surprise, we had two queens and the room was very nice.  High ceilings, they must have been 12 feet!   nice beds, nice soaps.  Outside our room was a common area that went up to a sky light a few floors up .  It was a beautful hotel.

I went out for a walk, and counted all the shuttered businesses before I came to one still open.  Spokane is a little late on economic recovery it seems.

We went to dinner at the Spagetti Factory, only 2 blocks away.   I joked how it has to ne one of our birthdays as that is the only reason people go there.  Sure enough, every table was celebrating a birthday!    We ate a good meal.

On the walk back, I wanted to go to River Park, but Kelsey was tired..  I was too,.  We headed back to the hotel.  There was  a big group in the lobby when we got there.  The frond desk lady said to us  that we MUST join this tour..  It was the Ghost Tour!  I was right!
She told us of the stories she had heard while wokring there. Nothing too scary and she herself had never seen anyting odd.

As the tour set out, the tour guide informed us it as a two hour tour.  I handed our borrowed ghost finder tool to another group member and we walked to our room.    Besides, the M's are on!

We watched the Ms win again!


Day 7.

We hit the road around 8:30.  Stopped in Ritxville for fast food breakfast and I kept the pedal down.  We exited off at 18, and I drove over the Tacoma bridge.   The time is about the same as waiting for a ferry, and in fact, I was able to get on the 2:05 boat!   So driving around saved me a whole ferry.  That's totally worth it.

The trip is over. I sadly said my goodbyes and departed.  On the way home, we talked of returning next year.   There is so much more to see!    I hope we can do it again.  Until then, I can look back fondly on the greatest trip I have ever been on with the best travel partner! 

View from room in Spokane

faded downtown map on sidewalks all over town

Yellowstone Day 5

Leaving day.. :( It is hard to leave such a beautiful place, but we are ready to sleep in a real bed and watch some TV!  Mariners play Oakland tonight, Felix on the mound. We have to be there by first pitch!

I woke up early as usual.  I jumped out of bed and started the water for tea and started making breakfast of hashbrowns and eggs again.   As the stuff cooked, I started packing what I could.    Kelsey got up at 8, breakfast was ready.

We ate and didnt even wash the dishes.  Side note, the dishwashing station only has cold water anyways... so we wiped them down and put em in a bag so that I could properly wash and sanitize when I get home

The new cot.. it wouldnt fit quite right in the bag.. ugh.

the new tent.. oh man.. that sucker is so big.. It didn't fit right in the bag!

A Bison was heading our way this AM

We crammed the stuff in the car and left the campsite shortly after 9 am

We took the long way out, Over the mountain whisch was over 8000 feet!  wow!   We were told this was the best route to spot a bear.  I didn't think we would see one. But,  we hadn't been through that part of the park yet.

We drove over the mountain. There was still some snow at the top.  everywhere else was endless fields of flowers. We stopped by the summit to stretch and look at the flowers.   It smelled like being in a florist!
 
We stopped at Tower Falls for a break and to see the falls.   On the way out, a park truck was in front of us.  It stopped in teh middle of the lane.  I saw people watching our direction.. to my right, was a small black bear!   we were really close!  We both started snapping away while the ranger tried to scare it away. It was too close to people. WE SAW A  BEAR!!!!! I was so happy!  Kelsey really wanted to see a bear, so did I but didn't think we would.

  


After that we checked out the Petrified tree.  Over 50 million years old! Cool.  but hot.

We then reached Mammoth. I had no idea, this place is an old town I guess,   Lots of structures here. This is where Teddy Roosevelt came in 1903.   We heard a lot about his trip to Yellowstone in our travels. 



We didn't stop until outside the park,  We took picuters of the main entrance.


 

Then we went to the Park Visitor Center, which looked a lot like the crowded one at the West Entrance.   I came in wearning my Mariners shirt.  A rangeer came up and told me the M's had dropped three straight to the twins. Thats my Mariners!  I brought a radio to try to pick up some games, but was not able to. I could get the Rockies games and the Ble Jay games from a Canadian station I suspect.   I ended up listening to KSL  Salt Lake city, it was the only station that came in at all after dark. During the day, absolutely nothing!

We left the entrance town and made our way to Bozeman.  We stopped at a local chain called Taco Johns. I ordered a bean taco,  Potato Oles and a side of guacamole.  The burrito was fin, but the oles were so salty.. ugh...

We then high tailed it to Missoula were we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott. It wasn't quite as nice as the Hilton across the street. Both same price.  but this one was right next door to The Montana Club.  which turned out to be very advantageous. 

Yellowstone Day 4

We needed a shower.. It is hot here, hottern than usual, around 85 degrees.  There is no shower at this campsite.  One night when I couldn't sleep very well, Iwalked into the bathroom to some naked dude taking a bath in the sink... sigh..  He told me how great it is, but I told him we are going to find a real shower.. He  thought we were snobs or something!

Clean!

We had breakfast at the campsite and  got our stuff ready for a shower.  We drove the the Old Faithful lodge again. I stopped at the mini mart gas station at the entrance to Old Faithful and asked where the showers are.  She told us to to the main lodge.  When we got there, we still were not sure where to go, there is no information posted anywhere about these showers.   I asked the door man and he told us to go to the main registration counter. At the counter we asked about the showers and she said OF COURSE, do you need a towel? No, we had brought towels.   She charged us $7 and pointed us upstairs to the shower rooms.  They were big, three stalls, with a private changing area and big mirrors and couner space to shave.  What a bargain!    I was sure we were going to be standing in line, outside, to use a coin op shower!

After, we went out and walked along the Old Faithful area.  It is 1.4 miles to the end of the main trail.   We were a ways away when Old Faithful erupted, and then we saw a bunch of people sitting in the hot sun waiting for River Geyser for over an hour. It was overdue.   We waited a few, but it was too hot.  I said, "we just need some luck".  As we approached the last geyser on the way back, it erupted!    It was cool and we were so close to it!   It went on and on, we actually ended up leaving before it was even over!

When we got back, we had lunch. I had a black bean burger and Kelsey had something.. but I can't remember what now! doh.   We liked our lunch.

After lunch we had ice cream and wandered around some more.  We found the post office finally and mailed off our Postcards. I am not sure they have arrived yet!

For dinner we went into town. West Yellowstone.  What a tourist trap!  We had a decent dinner at the Three Bears Cafe.  I wonder if it is really named from the three stuffed black bears by the front door?

I had TROUT!  it was good.

We came home and went down to the river for a while.