Saturday 16 Sept - Bozeman, MT

Above is the Columbia River gorge crossing in Central Washington, just east of Ellensburg. It was taken from the same scenic overlook as the photos of the Wild Horse Monument (last blog). There are no photos from the last two days for reasons I will mention in a moment. While crossing the bridge, an F-16 flew down the river between the canyon walls. Margaret saw him coming, but I missed seeing anything but the shadow and the sound! So imagine, if you will, an F-16 in the photo just above the water!

I missed two days of blog because there was no Internet access, not even with my Verizon PC card. Some places (usually where no one lives!) just have no Internet service, no WiFi, no cell towers for data. So time passes.

As I mentioned in the last blog, we left Sequim on Wednesday, 13 Sept, and headed east, stopping in Ellensburg. Thursday, we made it through Spokane, WA and into Post Falls, ID (between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene) on I-90.

In Post Falls, I succumbed to an illness that I have been “nursing” for some time. At first, I thought I had “caught” Margaret’s pneumonia, but the doctor I located in Coeur d’Alene said pneumonia wasn’t contagious (not what Margaret’s doctor had told her). In any case, he said my lungs were clear, my oxygen exchange was good, and what I had was a bad sinus infection which blocking my breathing big time. So he gave me a week’s supply of antibiotic and nose spray and sent me on my way. The worst of my symptoms cleared up this morning at 12:33 a.m.! So I’m better today, but not completely cured.

After taking most of the morning trying to find the clinic in Coeur d’Alene, we continued east through the Idaho panhandle and spent the night next to the Clark Fork River in Alberton, MT. Pretty site complete with Casino, Restaurant, and Motel 3 ½. Not much there there so we left late this morning. (And No, we'd didn't gamble; you could cut the smoke in the casino with a dull knife!)

As we were passing thru Butte, MT we hit our first snow “storm”. Just a few flakes in the pass, at 6,393 feet elevation. But the mountains and hills were completely covered with snow. Just think, it probably won’t melt until next April. And people live here year round!

Our resting spot for the next two nights will be the Bozeman Hot Springs KOA. There is a hot springs spa next door which Margaret says she will try out tomorrow. A report on that experience later.

We expect it to freeze here tonight – maybe snow, too. We’re only 85 miles north of Yellowstone Nat’l Park and had planned to go there on our return leg, but we seem to be running a little late in our “schedule”, so we will probably press on Monday a.m.

Tomorrow is a rest day. A day filled with minor chores, relaxing, reading a book, doing the hot springs spa thing (Margaret, not me), and in general kicking back. Something we don’t seem to have done enough of the past four months. Hard to believe we moved out of the house on April 22 and left Pecan Park RV Park (near JAX) on May 2nd. It will be over 5 months on the road when we finally get back. Who’d thunk it?