We aimed to leave Tuesday afternoon, but we didn't end up leaving until 7pm. We didn't get too far. There is a lot of national forest along highway 2, so we ended up finding a cute national forest campground near McGregor Lake and staying there the night. The lake was gorgeous. Super clear. It was pretty cold though, so we didn't go swimming.
We left in the morning and continued down highway2. We really wanted to find a boondocking spot since there was so much national forest. We found one road, parked on the side, then biked up it for 3 miles. Yes, biking in the mountains is not a ton of fun. At least not until the return trip. :D We didn't find anything up there, so we kept going. We found another small road nearby that ended at highway 2, so we headed down that. There was a smaller road that branched off from that. Instead of taking the bikes off, we took Curly out with us, and went for a short walk to see if there was a spot down there. Curly did really well, but we didn't find anything, so, back in the RV.
There was yet another road that branched off that one, so we headed down there and there was a nice clearing. The area wasn't perfect. You could hear the highway, but since it was early afternoon, the cats got to hang out outside for a number of hours. They were pretty happy.
It got hot though! No breeze. We had tons of extra solar though, so we pulled out the fan. We both ended up with headaches, probably from the heat.
We left right away in the morning and found a cute cafe in Bonners Ferry to have breakfast at. We are currently sitting in a parking lot in Sandpoint, ID working since the internet is decent.
So, we'll get some work done, and on the road again we go!
-Miranda
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Well, we did end up staying at a rest area that night. It was a very small one, but worked out well. We left in the morning and decided to head for the National Grassland.
There were oil derricks everywhere, but we finally found a road that didn't have one at the end. We found a spot and pulled over, then let the cats out. The day was gorgeous, so we worked for a little bit, then decided to go for a bike ride farther down the road to see how it looked. The road ended at a large field that overlooked the nearby river. We walked down the hill to the river, then worked our way back up the hill to the bikes and back to the RV. Unfortunately, during that time, I got quite a nice sunburn on my back. Apparently I'm not used to that part being exposed now that I have short hair... Ooops.
The cats were super happy that they got to hang out outside a lot, so we stayed there the night. We left the next morning and kept working our way down Highway 2. We got to Havre, MT and stopped for dinner. After leaving there, Joe noticed some little girls standing outside on the sidewalk and realized it was an ice cream shop, so we stopped there and got some ice cream. We then continued on our way and made it all the way to the continental divide between East and West Glacier on the southern border of Glacier National Park. We stayed at a rest area there. The hope was to check out some of the forest this morning, but it was pouring last night and still pouring today, so we just drove on through and made it to Kalispell around 11.
We don't know how long we'll be here, but we have some work we want to do on the RV, so at least until that is done.
-Miranda
The spot we stayed at in the national forest in Minnesota.
A double rainbow we saw while driving through the rain.
The kitties following us outside at the national grassland in North Dakota.
Happy Lucy.
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Yesterday we finished packing and left the house a bit before 12. We stopped in Duluth to pick up the surf boards, then worked our way out of town to Highway 2. Highway 2 actually goes right through Kalispell, so we decided to try that route (it's shorter in miles than the interstate) since we hadn't taken that way yet.
Our aim yesterday we for the Chippewa National Forest. There looked like there were probably lots of spots we could have stayed. We picked a road and went down it. At the end, it was close to the lake in the area and a nice clearing that even had a fire pit. Unfortunately, there was also some garbage there, but not terrible. It's probably a popular place on the weekends. The cats had fun playing outside and we even used our little triangle chairs we bought at REI last year, to eat dinner down by the lake.
This morning, we left by around 10ish. We stopped in Bemidji and had a wonderful lunch at a cafe in, what I assume was, downtown. The food was excellent. They even had a homemade veggie burger, which is not always easy to find.
We're on our way again now and hope to make it to a patch of National Forest in North Dakota, but don't know if we'll make it. My allergies have been acting up a lot, so my eyes are heavy and Joe can't drive too long anymore. Who knows, we may end up at a rest area tonight. We'll see.
-Miranda
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We were talking about heading home to visit people and deal with some things, but weren't quite sure when or how. We were leaning towards taking the train and staying for only a week or two. That would have required that we leave the cats with Pat and Nancy.
After much thought and debate, we decided to just take the RV home. We had to leave immediately though because the tabs expired March 1st. So, we left Friday evening, drove until 3am and stayed that night in a rest stop near Bozeman, MT. We left in the morning and got on the road again.
North Dakota was crazy! Not only was it super cold, but it was foggy and everything was covered in frost. A gas station was creepy with how much frost there was.
We ended up running out of gas about 3 miles from exit that had gas. We might have been able to get there, but it was about 1am, so we thought it best to just stop at the rest stop that we were just passing. It was 16 when we got up in the morning (9am) and that felt warm, so I don't think I want to know how cold it was while we were asleep.
Joe talked to a guy that worked there and he just happened to have some gas in his pickup. So, we made it to the exit with the gas easily. We basically drove straight home from there and got back around 7pm.
We'll probably stay for a couple months. Once it warms up we'll most likely be heading out again.
-Miranda
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Well, we spent Monday in San Francisco. We just drove around and ended up in downtown... We even drove through Chinatown on accident! The road was super narrow, very slow and up a steep hill. Very neat looking area, but not someplace I ever want to go in an RV again... We found a small Chinese place for dinner (not in Chinatown). We then went to Golden Gate Park and spent a few hours in the Science Academy. It was very neat. Their aquarium and rain forest exhibits were very interesting. We left there to head back towards downtown for a meeting Joe had with a guy that works for Adobe. He was going to see if he could help Joe with the game any. After they got some work done, Jenny contacted us (just in time). So, we went to pick her up, then found some dinner.
We left by heading over the Golden Gate bridge. Not only was it sort of necessary when you're in San Fran, but it turns out that was the best way to avoid having to pay any bridge tolls!
It was already pretty late, so we didn't get very far. We were super tired, so couldn't make it to a rest stop. We found the first exit that looked pretty dead and stayed on the on ramp. It was cold! We left right away in the morning, had breakfast out (just a quick Subway/Starbucks stop) and found a little place in Grants Pass for a late lunch. We made it to about 50 miles south of Portland. We could have gone farther but any east of Portland, the weather was saying super cold. We left right away in the morning, only to hit the beginning of Portland's rush hour traffic. For some dumb reason, we drove through town instead. We needed gas and breakfast anyway... we found gas, and ended up getting milk for breakfast there.
While stopped at one gas station (around Spokane) we noticed there was coolant dripping out from the truck. When Joe checked it, it was really frothy. Upon looking that up, he found out that there was a high chance the head gasket was going. Since there was nothing we could do about it, we just kept going. We made it without a problem. The roads were mostly good. It's snowing lightly today and it sounds like it's supposed to snow this weekend, so apparently we have good timing.
Since we're in Kalispell now, just working, we probably won't be updating the blog very often. Just for a heads up.
-Miranda
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