The Trip Part IV: Montana and the Pacific Northwest

Here is where the excitement begins.  The campground in North Dakota was right off the highway so it was a bit of a noisy night.  Cliff and I didn't really sleep all that well and at about 5:30am we looked at each other and decided we were going to get up to stretch and take a bathroom break.  We didn't want to leave Rudy in the tent by himself so we put him in the back of the car in his normal traveling position.  When Cliff and I came back Rudy was in the same spot like a good dog.  A little while later when we started to pack up, Cliff took Rudy to go to the bathroom and noticed that something was out of the ordinary.  When Cliff called me over I realized that Rudy had gotten into some beans....my soybeans!  That's right.  When we went to the bathroom earlier in the morning the dog had military style crawled himself over the middle seat in the car, hijacked my soybeans, and ate all of them just in time to crawl back over and wait like a good dog for our return.  I was so upset.  Mainly because we were in the middle of North Dakota and I didn't know if eating a whole 12oz bag of soybeans was going to be disastrous for him.  Also, I really wanted to eat my honey roasted soybeans as they tasted kinda like peanuts to me (or at least what I think I remember peanuts to taste like).  As it turned out Rudy was fine.  We just had to stop every hour or so for him to go to the bathroom. The whole thing didn't bother him in the least.  Below is actually one of my favorite pictures from the trip as you can see how much Rudy was enjoying his great adventure in North Dakota. 

Victory!

Once we got back on the road we traveled to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  On the way we stopped at a pottery in Hebron, a town that has a state of the art brick making plant.  No wonder too because the dirt is brick red.  Very cool.  The pottery was in an old gas station that had been retooled. We later learned that this was very popular in this part of the country as we saw several other old gas stations turned into bars and diners.  Sadly, the artist wasn't in so we didn't get to see anything being made but her stuff was really delicate.  So delicate in fact that I was too nervous to buy anything as I didn't think it would survive the rest of the trip.  They use the clay as base layer for the dirt roads in the town so I took a chunk that was under our car (for our rock collection) and we hit the road.

Our next stop was the park.  The park looks to be the North Dakota version of the badlands.  It was really beautiful.  We stopped at the entrance to go to the bathroom and inquire about driving the short scenic loop around part of the park.  Sadly, the information center was closed due to budget cuts and Cliff and I never found the scenic loop (really bad signage).  Oh well!  Also, we were super excited to get to Montana.

Preparing for the trip I was the most excited about Montana as I hoped that we were going to get the real western experience.  I wanted to see ranches, cowboys, mountains, and people fly fishing in the western part.  Montana had a lot to live up to and it did!

Ok so we stopped in Wibaux, MT to stop at their tiny welcome center.  Wibaux was the only sizable town for quite a ways (keep in mind their pop. was just over 1,000)  and we were starved.  I asked the man at the information desk where was a good place to eat and he recommended the Shamrock Club which was down the hill and at the center of town.  Oh man.  I wish I had taken pictures but I guess I was either just so starved that I didn't care or so overwhelmed by the scenery.  It was on a very dusty street corner, no windows, a door that didn't have its name on it (we walked right by), and we were the only people in sight.  When we walked in it was totally a cowboy bar!  A big steer head over he bar, dark and smokey, slot machines in the back, mounted guns behind glass was plaques, steer brands tattooed all over the ceiling and floor, and a two page list behind the cash register of folks that were no longer allowed to pay by check.  It was amazing.  They had a ton of meat options on the menu (obviously) so we asked our waitress the difference between the burgers as they all had different names but no descriptions.  We opted for the Shamrock which was two huge patties, bacon, mushrooms, cheese, sauteed onions, lettuce, tomato, and pickles.  As I am typing the ingredients now I have no idea why the burger was so enormous.  Cliff couldn't fit his mouth around it.  I hate to eat it with a knife and fork.  We also got 'gems' which ended up being Hardee's taters.  It was so good and unexpected.  I just Googled them trying to find a photo as it kills me that I didn't document our authentic western bar experience.  I found a photo here but I don't remember it looking so clean on the outside. Later as we were driving I read in the Montana travel book that every visitor should stop at a small town bar as the bars serve as the official community centers in Montana.  We could check that off of our list!

Driving through Montana there were many extended periods of time when we were the only car in site.  This use to freak me out but this time I didn't really worry.  We always had over a half a tank of gas, the car was in great shape, and we still had plenty of snacks.  I took this photo at a rest stop (Rudy was still dealing with the soybeans) to show that we were the only folks around.  Cliff humored me by posting for the photo.

We drove to Billings as that is where we wanted to stay the night and because the next large town was hours away.  Using the Roadfood book that my graduate research advisor gave us, we located Sarah's Mexican Restaurant in the heart of town.  Cliff got his pork in green sauce like always and I got a beef tamale and a chicken enchilada like always.  Oh my goodness.  The best hot salsa and the best tamale either one of us has ever had.  Looking at the photo, the food doesn't look all that appetizing but take my word that it was a great find.   Driving to our camp site (the first KOA ever!) we passed their local concert venue and I saw that we had missed Brandi Carlile by four days.  Sigh.

Our camp site was really nice and this time there was one other crazy couple tent camping!  The ground wasn't as hard as a rock and they had hot showers.  One would think that we slept like babies but I still woke up feeling like I had been hit by a train (I woke up feeling like this every morning after we camped).

As many of you know, Cliff has been really into looking for and identifying mushrooms.  Well he lucked out as there was a huge one right on our campsite.  I put my flip flop next to it so that you could get a sense of its size (you're welcome).  From my non-expert eye, it looked a whole lot like the one Cliff and Stephen found at Mema and Grandaddy's house right before we left.  Cliff was pretty excited.

That morning we ate at Stella's Kitchen and Bakery.  This was another recommendation in the Roadfood book.  They boasted that no one could eat four of their monster pancakes.  Cliff was going to take the challenge (if you finished them you won one of their famous cinnamon rolls) but he opted not to when he saw the morning special.  Their pancakes were good but the real winner was their bacon.  Thick cut and cooked to perfection.  Nice job Stella.   Ok, so in their menu was a photo of babies eating their famous cinnamon rolls which are HUGE!  I couldn't help myself as the image was just too funny so I sneaked a photo.  It didn't turn out all that well but I was too embarrassed to try again.  Hilarious, right?  Needless to say Cliff and I got a mini roll (only a 1/2 lb.) for the road. I'm glad we stopped there for breakfast but it was kinda odd.  We had been on the road for several days in our grungy traveling cloths and here we were in Billings, Montana sitting next to Montana's business folks.  The entire restaurant was filled with people in suites talking over business deals.  It was a bit surreal as we had not seen business people since leaving Williamsburg.  I felt a bit under-dressed.  As we were leaving Billings, we saw a store on the side of the road called "Aluminum Critters and More" which sold 6ft-10ft tall aluminum animals (think bears, bucking broncos, and soaring eagles).  Can you really call a 8ft bear a critter?  It made me smile.

On the road again we stopped at the Mountain Arts Pottery in Bozeman, MT which had really amazing stuff.  This time I wanted to buy it all...but I didn't.  By the way, Bozeman looks really cool.  I think we should go back to visit someday.

After the pottery we went to the Louis and Clark Caverns.  I don't think I have ever been to Luray Caverns so I didn't totally know what to expect.  The park is really smart as they provide free kennels for dogs (outside in the shade with a ton of water) while folks go on the two hour tour.  We took them up on their offer and Rudy was not happy.  We had about a 20 minute upward hike from the center to the entrance of the caves and we could hear Rudy the entire way.  He literally barked the entire time.  The worst part is that his bark echoed all over the mountains and the valley.  We kept hearing about his barking from other tour-goers and it was kinda embarrassing, kinda funny, and it kinda made me sad for poor Rudy.  Oh well.  It builds character.

Like I mentioned before I didn't really know what to expect but it sounded cool.  Once inside the cave we were told that this was the last natural light that we would see for the next two hours.  At that statement my stomach started to get a little rumbley.  Then we got to hear about the bats that live in the first few rooms of the cave.  I hate bats!  Bats and raccoons make me really uncomfortable so that I didn't make me feel any better.  As we started to climb down into the caverns (they were really steep) we came to a room that was called the point of no return as that was the last chance to back out if you were feeling uncomfortable.  I put on a brave face and decided to continue despite the fact that my knees were knocking together and that I felt like I was going to faint.  I am so glad that I didn't back out as it was awesome!  Once we got going we had to slide down a shoot (as that was the only way to get into the lower rooms), bob, duck, and weave our ways through really amazing caves.  But it was so steep!  We just kept going down and down.  It was really hard to believe that people toured the caves with only candles and spelunking gear for decades before the CCC came in and installed stairs and lights.  So amazing.  Once we were far into the caves (and away from the bats) we were able to take photos.

The elevation around the caves is around 5,000-6,000 above sea level.  We know this because at one point during our trip we hit the one mile mark (it was painted on a step).

One of the best parts of the tour was when our guide told us the story about of the the CCC crewmen who wanted to go back to Ohio.  Sadly he needed money for his train ticket so he decided to go into the cave to get an artifact to sell.  One afternoon he went back into the heart of the cavern with his candle.   He accidentally dropped his candle and was left for two days in the pitch black.  The dark will do some really crazy things to a person's brain as apparently when they found him he thought that he was standing but was actually laying on his side.  To demonstrate just how dark the cave was for those two days the tour guide shut off all of the wired lights so that we could only see by candle light.  Then she blew out the candle.  You honestly could not even see your hand directly in front of your face.  There was no light as we were hundreds of feet inside of a mountain.  My mind was blow.  I would have gone crazy too.  Apparently he also came out blind as his eyes stopped working while he was stuck in the dark.  Nuts.  This whole exercise made one of the other tour-goers freak out a bit as she turned on her cell phone when she couldn't take anymore.  I'm so glad that we went and that I didn't chicken out as the caverns were one of the highlights of the entire trip.


After the caves we drove to Missoula, MT and stayed at a little mom and pop hotel next to the U of M football stadium.  This was the only time we didn't camp but it was supposed to get into the high 20's that night and we didn't want Rudy to freeze.  It was a good choice because one night not sleeping on the ground gave us the energy to get up and tackle a ten hour drive.

On our way to Oregon we stopped at the White's boot factory in Spokane, WA.  Cliff tells me that they make really high quality boots that will last a person their lifetime.  He found a pair of seconds but they were slightly to big but I found ibex woolies (top and bottom) for 70% off.  I definitely purchased them as I had done nothing but wear my two items of ibex for the whole trip.  Woolies are amazing (I'm actually sporting my new woolies top as I type this!).  In Spokane we ate at Frank's Diner (another Roadfood find).  The diner was in the train car of the former president of the Union Pacific Railway.  There was lots of stained glass. The diner was originally in Seattle until the early 90's but then they had to move to due to high property taxes (I think that is right).  We got seated at the conductor's table which meant that we had a super creepy mannequin smiling at us while we ate (you could see all of his teeth!).  Cliff got a meatloaf sandwich and I got the hot turkey sandwich.  Our server kept asking us if we wanted milk but we declined.  We were going to get a huckleberry shake for the road but I could not bring myself to pay $6 for a milkshake.  They apparently knew their tourist friendly item and priced it accordingly. Oh well.

After Spokane we hightailed it through the rest of Washington.  I can give you a quick overview of the scenery: high desert turns into rolling farm land.  We didn't really take any photos in Washington but Cliff tried to capture a bit of scenery as we drove.

We drove south through eastern Washington and cut into eastern Oregon just about an hour west of Pendleton.  We were so excited to cross over into Oregon.  I won't lie...I cried a little I was so happy.  We drove along the Columbia River Gorge (beautiful and amazing).   There are so many wind farms now along the gorge.  Those were not there five years ago.  It was pretty incredible.

We made such good time that we didn't end up camping in the gorge as we were able to make it all the way into Portland to visit Kathy

and Jill.  Our animals all got to hang out, we ate Thai food, and we watched Parks and Recreation and the Office.  It was a wonderful way to end the trip.

The next morning we got up and went to the Danner boot factory in Portland (as Cliff was now on the boot factory portion of the trip).  We lucked out as they had leftovers from their labor day sale.  Cliff got a $310 pair of hiking boots (we need those now that we live in Oregon) for only $50....and there is no sales tax in Oregon!  He has not taken them off of his feet since we got them.  I think they were a really good purchase.  After Danner we drove down I-5 to Eugene.  We ate pizza at our favorite place, Track Town Pizza, and looked for apartments.   We lucked out as we found a really nice little cottage.  More to come when we are all settled.

So that was our trip.  Looking back we ate our way across country with a few mini tours of potteries and boot factories.  Cliff and I kept saying how fortunate we are to have been able to see the country by car (and so many times).   I think I really do like road trips.  We will need to take more.    In closing I wanted to leave you all with a few pictures of our amazing traveling dog. Thanks for reading about our road trip.  Hopefully our stories from our Eugene lives will be equally entertaining.

The view from our rear view mirror

Getting ready to hit the road