Gardiner, MT

Saturday, October 12

Up early and on the road again. Andi and I had a less-than-stellar night of sleep at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Moses Lake, Washington last night, so we were ready to put that place behind us today. Wheels in motion by 7:00am. I should mention that camping in Wal-Mart parking lots isn’t always a bad experience. We’ve stayed in some quiet ones before … this place just wasn’t one of them!

One of our favorite fellow RV traveling families talks about a place called Dutch Bros Coffee they like, so Andi and I were excited to find one in Moses Lake. Perfect opportunity to caffeine-up for a full day of driving ahead.

Andi must’ve been half-asleep when he turned into the coffee shop parking lot because we heard a loud BOOM! and the RV shook like an earthquake. Turns out, he ran over a gigantic median in the center of the road. Two of our wheels were high-centered on the median and Andi had no choice but to continue forward over the rest of the curb. Bump, bump. No damage to the RV though, just Andi’s pride.

It’s safe to say we weren’t the first ones to be tripped up over the median. As we left, Andi noticed a huge sign on the road that read, “Thank you & watch for curb!”

With coffees in hand (& muffin tops for Tory and Aden), our crew headed toward Interstate 90 East. Destination: TBD. Andi and I weren’t sure how far we’d drive today or where we’d end up camping tonight. The only thing certain, we have quite a bit of ground to cover before we’re due in Wisconsin on Friday.

Our first top to stretch our legs after driving two hours was in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. We stayed a week in Coeur d’ Alene in late September and the weather was crummy, so we were excited for a “do over” in beautiful Coeur d’ Alene today. It was a crisp, sunny October day.

Andi returned to the oversize vehicle parking lot by Tubbs Hill Park because it was easy access to downtown.

I’d wanted to hike the infamous Tubbs Hill during our first visit to Coeur d’ Alene, but it was too blistery to be outdoors that weekend. Today, we bundled up and decided to give it a go.

Right away it was easy to see why this hike is so popular — the scenery was beautiful! The trail overlooked Lake Coeur d’ Alene and the boat marina below. Every twist and turn on the path yielded more stunning views.

We continued along the 2.4 mile trail, stopping at various viewpoints along the way. Tory and Aden did awesome hiking! Hardly any complaining from them. I think they were excited to burn off some energy.

Andi’s back had been bothering him all week, so he scheduled a massage appointment in Coeur d’ Alene for Noon while I took the kids to the popular McEuen Playground. This is Coeur d’ Alene’s biggest kids park with several climbing structures. It was packed with families on a sunny weekend afternoon. Tory and Aden had lots of fun making friends and playing on the equipment.

After the kids played outdoors for a while, we moved inside to the Coeur d’ Alene Library. It’s so great having so many activities within walking distance of each other in downtown CDL — hiking trail, parks, library, restaurants, shopping, etc. Tory and Aden have been begging to go to a library for weeks — it’s one of those regular, everyday things they miss when we’re traveling away from home — so we curled up to read books, play toys, and color a gigantic fall picture the library had set out on a table.

Andi met us at the library after his massage, and then the four of us walked back to the RV together. It was tough leaving on such a nice, sunny day! The temperature warmed into the mid-50’s by mid-afternoon. We needed to gain some miles though, so we hopped back on Interstate 90 East toward Montana. WE’d probably end up dry camping somewhere again tonight, so Andi stopped to fill up on water and dump our black & gray tanks at a RV dump station in Kellogg, ID. We also filled up with gas and bought an Idaho Spud candy bar for Andi’s mom. This candy bar is only sold in Idaho and Janie searched all over for one when she visited us last month. Andi found one and bought it for her.

We drove from 2:00pm - 6:00pm, deciding to stop south of Missoula at the Bass Creek Campground in Gardiner, Montana. This campground wasn’t anything special, just a place to park for the night. It was practically empty, except for a man clearly living at the campground full-time in his station wagon and a lady from Wisconsin traveling in her Class B van. Andi talked to the fellow Wisconsinite for quite a while about her travel adventures. She and her father had built the camper van herself & she was traveling alone all over the country. Pretty cool!

I made stir-fry for dinner and the four of us hung out in the RV for a quiet night. Much more peaceful than last night at Wal-Mart! Crazy to think we drove from Washington, though Idaho, to Montana today. Tomorrow, we plan to hike the Bass Creek trail which takes off a few steps from our campsite and then hit the road again toward home.