Last Sunday Nonna and I left Gallup and headed north, spending the first night of our trip in Ogden Utah at a Best Western motel, complete with a hot shower, clean bed, and a TV with 50 channels but nothing on. The next morning we got up, ate some breakfast, and started driving north following our usual path to Oregon and Washington until we came to fork in the road and this time we turned right, up into Idaho and Montana. We drove along Highway 93 in Montana through the Bitterroot Valley, which is much drier and more baren than I expected, but still beautiful. We saw bighorn sheep drinking from the river, and lots of beautiful fishing spots. After eating dinner at a brew pub we stopped at our first campsite, named Indian Trees, where we slept in our tent. The ground seemed harder than I remembered but otherwise we did fine, and in the morning we had hot coffee and doughnuts, then we drove off in search of a good breakfast.
We stopped in a nondescript place in Darby Montana called the Montana Café, where we were served by a somewhat reserved young man. The room was plain, nondescript, with formica tables and straight chairs. But when my breakfast came it was one of the best I've had for years. It was a simple breakfast - bacon and eggs, hash browns and whole wheat toast. Everything was fresh, cooked to perfection, and it tasted great, the perfect breakfast. The coffee was somewhat weak but it only cost fifty cents, so I didn't complain.
We then continued to drive north, up to Missoula Montana, which is said to be beautiful, but we couldn't see very much because of all the smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington. We drove north out of Missoula still on Highway 93 through Polson and Lakeside, which is alongside Flathead Lake, then we continued on up to Kalispell, where we ate dinner, and then drove west through some beautiful mountains. When we reached Highway 56 we turned south and drove until we came to a campground named Bad Medicine, which is located on the edge of a large lake. It was a very pleasant place to stay. In the morning we got up and again had instant coffee and donuts.
After we packed up we drove west on Highway 200, and stopped at the Clark Fork Idaho where we found an excellent small café which served a delicious breakfast. I really like these independent cafés run by local people. We then drove west to Washington where we got onto Highway 20 which we followed all the way across northern Washington. We planned to eat dinner in Twsip but when we got there we were told that the power was out in the whole town, so we bought some bread, salami, cheese, wine, and chocolate and drove to Early Winter campground where we had a cold dinner and then climbed into our tent.
The next morning we drove on to the North Cascades national Park which had some of the most spectacular scenery of the trip, especially the area around Washington Pass. It was noon before we found a place where we could eat, and they stop serving breakfast at 11, so we had a nice hot lunch. Before lunch we stopped at the National Park Visitor Center, which was great, as were some campgrounds we checked out. We will surely be returning to spend more time in the park, remembering that highway 20 is closed in the winter
After lunch we drove home, only 2 1/2 hours. We returned home tired, dirty, and happy to be home. A hot shower was a needed luxury and my bed never felt so soft. Overall was a great trip and I can't wait to do it again.
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