Little Bighorn, the Sioux are too smart for Custer's Luck

Today we visited the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. New Americans wanted to expand across the country (Manifest Destiny, courtesy of President polk), but old Americans were in their way. What to do? Push the old Americans out of the way.

One of the new American soldiers sent to do that wasn't as smart as he thought, and the old Americans taught him a lesson.






But ultimately there were too many new Americans, and the old Americans were pushed out of the way.

We drove through the land where this happened and saw some horses. Can you see the foal with its Mommy?




Here is a nice pinto (that means its coat is spotted brown/white/black)




When we came back, it was 1:30, which must be nap time for foals:





We got back to the campground and it was over 100 degrees. What's a Tigger to do? Head for the pool!





Notice how I'm still working on my Spanish in case Nana and Poppa invite me on their Peru trip in September? I think they'll fall for it.

Tomorrow we're off to see something called Mt. Rushmore.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Thursday: leaving Island Park for Hardin, Montana

We left Island Park this morning for Hardin, Montana. We decided to go up RT 191 because it looked scenic and we had already been on RT 287. Just 32 miles into the trip we saw Bruce the Bison's cousin, Barry, walking south along the road, probably looking for a Starbuck's. Honest - just walking along the road! Poppa wasn't quick enough with the camera.

Part of the trip was through Yellowstone, then we followed the Gallatin River through a beautiful valley. Nana and Poppa said they want to come back to Yellowstone next year, earlier, before schools are out. (I thought they liked kids!)

The Gallatin River Valley is sprinkled with summer homes and vacation cabins. We saw a sign saying "Bighorn Sheep Crossing", but the only wildlife we saw were small herds of fly fishermen and a school of white water rafters. We definitely have to come back here.

We drove through Bozeman, Montana, which looked very interesting - we should have scheduled an afternoon or a day there. Continuing east, we were out of the mountains and onto the plains. Poppa stopped in Livingston
for gas. It looked like a one-intersection town when he got off I-90 at the first exit. After getting gas, we drove through it and found that it is actually a rather vibrant town with open stores, a big railroad depot museum, etc. Definitely worth a look next time.

we continued to Hardin, which is near the scene of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. We'll tour that tomorrow and then head further east on Saturday.

We'll actually cross vacation paths with Nana's cousin in the next few days. Remember the little sports cars back in Moab? One of them was having a tumbleweed for breakfast? That's what Mary Ellen and Tom drive. I don't know if they have it with them now.


The temperature is in the 90s here! I think this is the first time we've had temperatures above 80 since April 25th. It's supposed to get to 100 tomorrow. And they have forest fires north and south, plus in Colorado. (Mommies - show little ones where Colorado is. On the map it is one of the green ones.)

More tomorrow.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Work and then a play

Todays was a work day: laundry, house cleaning, truck washing (including taking everything out of the back and washing it because of the dust from 8 miles on the gravel of Sawtelle Road yesterday).

Then a play. We went to a dinner theater at Mack's Inn and saw "The Three Amigos". One of the leads was our waiter at lunch yesterday. He's in the top row, middle, with the red bow. It was a pretty funny show.






Tomorrow we'll be up early to head for Hardin, Montana. We'll visit the Little Bighorn while we're there.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Tuesday cruising around Island Park, Idaho

On Saturday just before we arrived at the Red Rock campground, we entered the little town of Island Park, Idaho near the intersection of US Route 20 and Idaho Route 87. Population 286. We proceeded south on Rt. 20 a few miles and turned off onto a side road to the campground.

This morning we started out on our local trip by going back out to Route 20 and turning south. The GPS showed that we were headed toward Island Park. Wait a minute - we already went through there north of here! What the .... ? A town can't be north of us AND south of us.

Yes it can, according to Wikipedia:
" Island Park is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. The city's population was 215 at the 2000 census. The city was incorporated by owners of the many lodges and resorts along U.S. Route 20 in 1947, primarily to circumvent Idaho's liquor laws that prohibited the sale of liquor outside of city limits. It is only 500 feet (150 m) wide in most locations and, at 33 miles (53 km), claims to have the longest "Main Street" in the world."

So we headed for Sawtelle Peak, shown in this picture:




Do you see the little round dot at the top? That is a radar dome for airplanes. The peak is over 10,000 feet above sea level, which would be a new record for us on this trip. Poppa said "We're going for it!" And we did. Starting around 6,400 feet, gravel road, no guard rails, ALMOST two lanes wide. We got to 9,328 feet, at a beautiful sweeping left turn with nothing below us on the right but air, when Nana said "That's enough!", crawled into the back seat, and sat on the floor. Poppa turned around (pretty scary in itself), drove back down to 6,470 feet, stopped the truck, and pulled the cooler out of the back seat so Nana could crawl out.

Poppa said he was really disappointed we couldn't get to the top. He thought 10,000 feet would be a good opportunity to do some high-altitude training for our trip to Peru in September. Maybe run a couple miles, do a dozen 100-yard wind sprints. I think Poppa was really glad Nana wanted to turn around - he didn't look like he was having that much fun.

The rest of the day was much nicer. We went to Big Springs, where 120,000,000 gallons of water comes bubbling out of the ground EVERY DAY! It is the beginning of the Henry's Fork of the Snake river, and is the clearest water I've ever seen:









Right beside it is the Johnny Sack Cabin. It's really neat, so follow the link to read about it. Here are some pictures:













Then we went to the Upper Mesa Falls:





and the Lower Mesa Falls:



There was a beautiful old inn at the upper falls:





A very nice day, with no crowds.

I hope Nana and Poppa weren't too harsh in their opinion of Yellowstone yesterday. It is very nice, and I think the crowds and traffic jams got to them.

Tomorrow is a "camp day" - laundry, haircut, truck wash, house cleaning, etc. And then in the evening - dinner theater at Mack's Inn Playhouse (somewhere in Island Park), where we'll see "The Three Amigos". One of the lead actors was our waiter at lunch today at the Henry's Fork Landing Cafe. His brother-in-law runs the theater and his other brother-in-law is the chef. We'll post a full review.



Posted from Nana's iPad

Monday in Yellowstone

This morning we headed back into Yellowstone, planning to do the clockwise northern loop: Norris to Mammoth Hot Springs to Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Village to Norris. About 70 miles, plus the 60-or-so miles each way to Norris. We've done longer day-trips, but none that seemed this long.

The Madison River is beautiful, and Nana and Poppa once more talked about fly fishing - how peaceful and relaxing to be standing in the river, watching the water... I'm all in favor of it because I like trout almost as much as salmon! I heard that Autumn went fishing last weekend - maybe she can get Nana to take her.

We went to Gibbon Falls and Paint Pots - no parking, so we couldn't see them.

Poppa and I walked down to Porcelain Basin and got some interesting pictures:








Then we saw Bruce the Bison just walking down the road. He came toward Poppa's side of the truck, walked in front of the truck, and continued right past Nana's window. If she hadn't rolled the window up, I was ready to pounce!

We saw a mommy grizzly bear and her cub, but they were too far away for a picture.

We had lunch at the grill at Mammoth Hot Springs. It was like being at an amusement park instead of a national park. We didn't walk up to the Hot Springs because of the crowd. One good thing was that we drove past half a dozen mommy elk and their calves, lying on the lawn of the lodge in the shade. The mommies were just looking around and the babies were taking naps. Unfortunately, there were too many people to get a picture (and they were standing WAY too close to the elk.

Later, Poppa did get a nice picture of a bull elk grazing. His antlers are HUGE:




Another traffic jam was caused by two young black bears about 50 feet up a tree, right next to the road. They were on the side of the tree away from the road, so all I could see were their paws wrapped around the tree trunk.

Yellowstone is very interesting - the rivers are great, there are mountains and great wide meadows, the wildlife is the best we've seen since we left our back yard in Pittsburgh. We went over a pass at 8,859 feet, the highest so far on our trip. There are lots of waterfalls, but we couldn't get to see some of them because of no parking.

There are lots of trees, but they are almost all lodgepole pine. Lucy, our tour guide at the lodge yesterday said they're referred to locally as "pinous monotonous". They can't compare with the beauty and variety of the trees and forests we've seen in California, Oregon, Washington, and Glacier. (I know Glacier isn't a state, but Poppa keeps referring to it like one.)

Yellowstone is spectacular in its size and variety, and deserves its place as a jewel in the National Park system. But I don't see the sparkle in Poppa's eyes that I saw in Glacier. Nana doesn't like it at all. I think its biggest problem is TOO MANY PEOPLE. So tomorrow, there will be 3 fewer tourists. The nice lady at the Red Rock RV Park has given Poppa a map that will take us to waterfalls, fish, an interesting log cabin, and a drive to more than 10,000 feet, all of it close to the campground, and probably not known by too many people.

I had hoped to get back to Old Faithful and get a picture of Dan and Diane in their natural plumage - "black shirts that we wear to work with jeans and tennis shoes". Hey, thanks again to them for their hospitality yesterday! If you follow their blog, you'll get a much richer picture of Yellowstone and hopefully a better one than we can give in two days. If we had the time to see the park in smaller bites, we'd probably like it better.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Sunday in Yellowstone

Sunday morning we headed for Yellowstone to meet up with the mysterious Florida adventurers. On the way we saw a car wash and Poppa scrubbed the truck until he said "It's clean enough to wash now." At least now we're not embarrassed to be seen in it. Poppa stopped to get gas and a Prius backed into us at the gas pump. No damage - the guy looked very relieved.

Driving into Yellowstone we encountered our first traffic jam - people stopped to watch a small herd of elk. They were too far away to get a good picture - maybe we'll see some closer tomorrow. Our second traffic jam was because of some bison (some people say "buffalo"). Again, too far away for a good photo, but we've heard stories of them standing in the middle of the road.

We finally got to the Old Faithful visitors center and met Dan and Diane who are working here for the summer:




They were WAY nicer than that DD-BIV said. They took us on a walking tour to see some geysers and hot pools:
























Then we went on a tour of the Old Lodge, built in 1904. They are repairing the huge fireplace and chimney, and on old clock that hangs on the fireplace has been sent to Rochester to be repaired. (Hi, Rich and Bonnie)

Poppa's photos don't do the lodge justice, so you might look online for some. He did get some pictures of etched-glass windows that show how civilized some of my animal cousins can be:

















We thanked Dan and Diane and headed back to the campground. We'll drive through a different part of Yellowstone tomorrow.


Posted from Nana's iPad

Saturday: catching up about the trip from Glacier to Butte and south

O.K., I started to tell you about Glacier National Park but then got sidetracked by our trip from Glacier to Butte, Montana on Friday. I'll get back to our days at Glacier later. We left Glacier on Friday, headed to Butte, Montana.

Nana heard somewhere that the most likely states in which to get speeding tickets are Arizona (Hi, Kim and Joe) and Nevada. The least likely are Montana and Wyoming (Hi, Dan and Diane). We haven't been to Wyoming yet, but Poppa has a theory about Montana. The default speed limit in Montana is 70 mph, whether you can see 1 mile ahead or 100 feet ahead. Remember the white crosses in Montana that I told you about a few days ago? Poppa says that anyone who goes faster than the 70 mph speed limit is probably going to earn a white cross before he encounters a cop.

So, anyway, we're cruising down Montana Rt. 83 on Friday (at a safe speed), 99 miles with the towns of Swan Lake, Condon, and Seeley Lake evenly spaced. We saw a sign that said "Deer Crossing Next 53 Miles". Poppa said "Thanks for narrowing it down."

Halfway down, Nana said "Wait! I just saw a sign for Hollopeter Road!" Let me explain. Nana's maiden name (how quaint!) is "Hollopeter". It's not very common. O.K., we need to explore. The next place to turn around with the trailer was the Condon Work Center of the Flathead National Forest. Poppa insisted that Nana go into the office and ask about the name. The woman in the office said she used to live on the Hollopeter homestead. She said we could talk to Fern Kauffman at the library, who is secretary of a group documenting the history of Swan Valley.

First, we went back to the road and got this picture (you can click to make it bigger):


While we were there, a woman turned into the road in a 30-year-old pickup truck with a saddle in the back. Poppa asked her to stop and Nana went over to the passenger window to ask her about the road. Poppa stood next to Nana until he saw that the pistol laying on the front seat was pointing at him, and decided to move a bit to the left. Miss Pistol Packin' Parker was very nice, but didn't know much about the name.

Then we went to the library:


Nana talked to Fern the librarian and exchanged contact information. We bought a book titled "Montana: Voices of the Swan. Stories From The Upper Swan Valley Oral History Project". According to the book, Matthius Halle Peter immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1700s. Immigration officials mistakenly changed his name to Matthius Hollopeter. This is the same story that Nana has heard from her family in Indiana. She's busily reading the book, reading some obituaries, and comparing notes with her sister in Tucson. By the way, Autumn and Brenna, the book also mentions Dorothy, Tom, and Viola Ricketts.

We continued down through Montana to Butte. Poppa was interested in visiting Butte after reading about Hughette Clark, a reclusive mega-millionairess who died at 104 last year. She was the daughter of William Clark, one of the Copper Kings of Butte, and was worth $300 or $400 million dollars when she died, although she lived much of her life in seclusion, including a private floor in a hospital in New York. Her estate is still being sorted out, with law suits filed against her attorney and nurse. Google will tell you more, if you care.

Anyway, William Clark's mansion is now a Bed & Breakfast, and Nana and Poppa considered booking a night there. This morning we toured it and were a little disappointed. It needs a lot of work. The owners are doing a lot of work, and deserve a lot of credit. I hope they make it. I liked the house across the street better:




We also visited the Berkeley Pit, which was once one of the richest copper mines in the world. Lots of information about it at pitwatch.org.

Butte was/is totally dependent on the mines, to the point that whole local communities were leveled to expand the pit. There are 10,000 MILES of shafts and tunnels underground. There are lots of fascinating buildings and houses, but many are in disrepair and trying to find funding for restoration. I hope they find it - Butte could be very cool.

Poppa adds this: As in a number of other towns we have gone through, Butte has murals and signs that warn against methamphetamine use: "Not even once!" It's sad to think about the effects of this problem, which exists in many rural area from Appalachia in the east all the way across the country.

One of the sights we did not get to visit was Our Lady of the Rockies (ourladyoftherockies.net), a 90 foot statue of the Virgin Mary, atop an 8,510 foot mountain overlooking Butte, "Dedicated to all women, especially to mothers." We could see it from the campground, but to visit was a 2 1/2 hour trip. The brochure says "In the likeness of Mary, Mother of Jesus". You probably didn't know this, but sometimes Poppa can be a little bit irreverent. He asked if the likeness was from a high school yearbook or maybe a wedding album. Whatever that means.

We left Butte a day early and as of Saturday afternoon are at Red Rock Campground, outside of Yellowstone National Park. The adventurers from Florida have tomorrow off, and we're going to visit them. We'll be in three states tomorrow: Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Tomorrow I'll try to catch up on Glacier and give a preview of Yellowstone.

Time for linguine and clam sauce - YUM!

Posted from Nana's iPad

Friday - Butte, Montana

Teaser: Wednesday and Thursday in Glacier

WOW! UNBELIEVABLE! INCREDIBLE! FANTASTIC!

Did I say WOW?

Wednesday was very nice in Glacier, rainy and cloudy in the morning, some sun later in the day.

Thursday was sun, sun, sun! We saw the most amazing things, drove east on Going-to-the-Sun all the way, then west to Many Glacier and back, then returned home west all the way on Going-to-the Sun.

Of all the parks we've seen, Glacier National Park is now Poppa's official favorite. He'd like to come back and spend 6 weeks here next summer.

He hasn't been to Yellowstone yet, but says they'll have to roll out a brass band to beat this. I'm mentioning this now so those two adventurers from Florida will have time to get the band together. BTW, they said that they like Tiggers in Yellowstone, and will protect me from bears and bison. So there,
DD-BIV!!

Nana and Poppa have SO many pictures on the iPad and iPhone, it will take a day to sort them out. We're off to Butte, Montana in the morning and hope to be able to make a proper post tomorrow night with pictures from yesterday and today. (Yes, there's an 'e' on the end, so it's not pronounced 'butt'.)

Tigger



Posted from Nana's iPad

Location:Halfmoon Flats,,United States

Montana Monday and Glacier Tuesday

(It's Tuesday evening and I still haven't been able to post this because the WiFi here isn't even as good as in Spokane. I haven't complained about it because I didn't want to get in trouble again. The first half of this post is from Monday. The second half is from Tuesday.)

Poppa's happy - gas is under $4 a gallon! At least until we get into the backcountry.

We left Spokane in the rain this morning and crossed into Idaho. Poppa had decided to avoid the Interstate and try for a more scenic route, so we went north on US-95 to Bonner's Ferry. Then we followed US-2 east into Montana, then south, then east, then south, then east, then north to Kalispell where we started to see the Rocky Mountains, then east, then north, then east, then north to West Glacier, just outside of Glacier National Park. Thank goodness we stopped before I got dizzy.

There is a safety awareness program in Montana called Highway Fatality Markers. At the point of each highway traffic fatality, a small white cross marks the spot. Some markers have more than one cross. In the first 50 miles, we counted 50 crosses. In the next 100 miles, we counted 49 more. And we were only counting the crosses on our side of the road. It was pretty sad thinking about all the people. It also made Poppa nervous. A couple times he would say something like "I don't like this curve coming up - bet there's a cross" or "This merging point is too close to that intersection - bet there's a cross". And he was right.

It had rained on and off all day,and after Kalispell we followed the Flathead River for a while. The river was almost up to the road in a few places. The last few miles toward West Glacier were up a valley that leads to Glacier National Park. The rain stopped just before we got to the campground and started again just after we got the trailer set up. Good timing! We saw another rainbow, really wide, but it's mostly hidden by the trees:




At the campground they told us that the entire Going-to-the-Sun road opened today, but the park's website doesn't say so. We'll find out tomorrow.

Someone named "DDBIV" left a comment on my blog the other day. I've heard of "ROY-G-BIV" but never "DD-BIV". Anyway, he said that two adventurers from Florida are in Yellowstone hunting bison, moose, bear, coyote, and Tiggers! We're supposed to go to Yellowstone this weekend, so I was kind of worried.

Poppa said not to worry because DDB4th is a known troublemaker. Poppa said that one of the adventurers in Yellowstone is as friendly as a Teddy Bear, and if I behave myself, the other adventurer would probably give me a gold star. I feel better now.

===================================

O.K., HERE'S THE TUESDAY POST:

Tuesday morning we still weren't sure that the Going-to-the-Sun road was open, so we followed US-2 east around the southern end of the park and up the east side. After about 38 miles, we discovered a waterfall by the road that had no sign and no name. Henceforth it will be known as "Tigger Falls". Next year you should get new maps from AAA because it should be on the map by then:




Poppa found this whole sign interesting. Nana like the blue part on the right. You should read that much at least, so you understand the next picture and the lodge we stopped at after that:




This statue is John F. Stevens, who discovered the Marias Pass here. He also discovered the Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains that we drove through on Sunday. I guess he really liked snow:



We stopped at the Glacier Park Lodge for lunch. Nana finally showed me what these things are for. I called my broker, but had to leave voicemail. And it cost me a quarter. I still think the thing Nana is holding for me looks like a shower nozzle:



Nana and I relaxed while we waited for a table:




Nana had chicken salad and Poppa had BBQ chicken. I had my heart set on Rocky Mountain Goat, but this scaredy goat hid behind the glass:




After 2 months in the trailer, Nana was ready to move into this spacious cabin:




We stopped at Running Eagle Falls:




(Yes, Miss Nancy, I have video of these falls, just like all the others we've seen.)

Going back to the campground, we actually drove the entire Going-to-the-Sun Road, including the Logan Pass section that was just opened this afternoon! The bad news is that it was cloud covered and foggy, barely 2 lanes wide, with a sheer wall going up one side and a sheer cliff going down the other. We had to stop twice for one-lane sections at construction sites, but that gave Poppa a chance to take this picture out the truck window of the majestic Rocky Mountains across the valley from us:




Nana really enjoyed the ride. We'll try it again tomorrow for more great pictures.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Heading East!

I told you about my friend the troll yesterday. Here he is:



You can see me on his little finger. Do you notice that I'm the only one he allows to climb on him? That's a real VW Beetle under his hand.

We said goodbye to Quinn and Tessa yesterday. Today we headed east toward Autumn and Brenna (and Siggie!) It will take about a month for us to get home.

Remember when we traveled around the Olympic Peninsula and saw Hurricane Ridge and the Hoh Rain Forest? A lot of moisture comes off the Pacific Ocean, and when the air goes up the Olympic Mountains, it comes down as rain (for the rain forest) and snow (for the glaciers near Hurricane Ridge. More moisture heads for Seattle, which has lots of rain. Then the air gets to the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle, and most of the moisture is wrung out of the air, coming down as snow in the mountains.

We followed Highway 2 through the Cascade Mountains at Stevens Pass, following the Wenatchee River down to Leavenworth, the little Bavarian village we visited 2 weeks ago. Continuing east, the scenery changed entirely! We could have been back in the desert in Nevada or California:








Continuing east we encountered rolling hills and big fields of wheat. With the wind, the fields looked like green waves:



I took a video, but the campground here doesn't have very good WiFi, so I haven't been able to upload it yet.

When I complained about that, look what they did to me:




Fortunately, I had made a friend who rescued me:




Tomorrow's drive will be shorter, and the WiFi should be better. Maybe I can get caught up with videos.

Posted from Nana's iPad

SOLSTICE PARADE!

WOW! People in Seattle know how to have fun! We went to Fremont, "the off-center of the universe", and watched the Solstice Parade today. There were a lot of bicyclists who remembered to wear their helmets, but forgot to wear anything else. Except a lot of paint. I had my picture taken with a blue lady. Not sure if Poppa is going to post that one.

Poppa was looking for a bicycle rental shop, but fortunately they were all sold out.

After the bicyclists, there were a lot of fun floats and groups WITH clothes. It will take a few days to go through them (and get some from Gretchen's camera) but I'll get Poppa to post them.

AND, I got my picture taken with my friend the troll. It will take a little work to get it onto the iPad so I can post it, but probably Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Poppa asked me to tell Dave and Rich that there is a special treat video - something about folding lawn chairs - whatever that means.

We're finally heading east again tomorrow. The GPS lady says it is 2,313 miles from here to Autumn and Brenna's house. But we won't be traveling in a straight line and it will take us about another month to get there. We'll get to Spokane tomorrow afternoon. ("spo-CAN" - what happened to the rule about a long "A" when the word ends with an 'e' like "take", "lake", "make", "bake"? How's a Tigger ever supposed to learn the rules when you keep breaking them?)

G'night!

Posted from Nana's iPad

Friday in Seattle

Poppa and I spent the afternoon with Tessa while Nana and Gretchen had lunch and got "mani-pedi"s. Tiggers do their own "mani-pedi"s, usually on big trees or water buffalo, or sometimes in a cardboard scratching box.

Tomorrow, Poppa and I are going to the Fremont Solstice Parade and the
Fremont Fair. We're going to let our inner Tiggers ROAR! (Poppa is an honorary Tigger for tomorrow.)

Nana and Gretchen are going to watch from the safety of the sidelines.

Did I tell you about the Fremont Troll? He lives under a bridge. Some people think he's scary, but he's really nice when you get to know him. I'll try to get Poppa to take a picture of me with the troll tomorrow.

Good night!

Posted from Nana's iPad

Thursday: Back to Seattle

We left Port Angeles this morning and headed back to Seattle. Poppa decided to take the scenic route, driving down Highway 101 along the Hood Canal to Olympia, then taking I-5 through Tacoma and then up I-405 past Seattle, then WA-522 to Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell.

(At least that's what the GPS lady said we were doing.)

This is the same RV park we were in last week. It's really a little oasis, with a nice little lake and some juicy-looking ducks. The Canada geese look juicy too, but they're pretty big and not very friendly. Besides, they poop ALL OVER THE PLACE!

We got set up, did laundry, grocery shopped, and washed the trailer. Now it's time for dinner and early to bed.

I'm going to try to get Poppa to post some of the videos I've taken in the last 2 months, especially waterfalls for Miss Nancy.

I'm also going to try to type faster, because Nana complains that we don't have time to play Rummikub after I finish my blog in the evening.

More tomorrow.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Wednesday on the Olympic Peninsula

Instead of a beerscape last night, there was a winescape. And I finally figured out how Poppa picks beer (and wine). He's really not looking for the beer with a picture of a fish on it. He likes different HAIRSTYLES! Look at this picture and then look back at all the beerscapes. What do you see? Different hairstyles!




At the campground last night, our neighbor asked Poppa where in Pennsylvania we live. (He saw the license plates on the truck and trailer.) Poppa told him we're from Pittsburgh. He told us he's from Ambridge, which is only 30 miles from where we live! And his father, Allen Russen, works near our house and does the same kind of work Poppa used to do.

Our neighbor is now an assistant school district supervisor in Alaska. His school district is about the size of Oregon, but only has 2,000 students! He has to travel by bush plane between schools. He suggested that we look for a TV show called Flying Wild Alaska.

This is the 2nd time in 2 weeks we've met someone from Beaver County (next to home in Allegheny County), plus meeting Ray who grew up in Bradford, PA. Small world!

Today we went west on Highway 101 again, just not as far. Friends Bob and Maggie rode their tandem bicycle across the entire USA a few years ago. Poppa wonders if they ever encountered a sign like this (click to read it):




We thought we had seen a lot of beautiful white birch trees until we read the sign in the rain forest yesterday. There are no birch tree on the Olympic Peninsula! These are red alders. They only look like white birch because of a fungus that grows on them:







Lake Crescent is absolutely beautiful. When we rode past it yesterday, it was as smooth as a mirror, and looked gray because of all the clouds. Today, the wind was making lots of waves, but the blue sky made the lake blue:




We hiked to MaryMere Falls:




Then Nana mentioned lunch, so I checked out this little squirrel for a snack. He just wouldn't let me get close enough:



Poppa and Nana had lunch at the Lake Crescent Lodge, with this for a view:



After they had lunch, I went hunting for lunch myself. "Here, duckie, duckie!"




Poppa spotted a license that would be perfect for Nana on this trip:




We ended the afternoon at the Sol Duc Falls:





Tomorrow we head back to Seattle for a few days, then on to Glacier National Park. The most famous road in Glacier national park is "Going to the Sun". It's about 50 miles long. Our Alaskan neighbors were there a week ago, and only 1 mile of the road was open - the rest was still snow-covered. As of this evening, 15.5 miles are open from the western entrance (where we will go in) and 13.5 miles are open from the eastern entrance. We will get there on Tuesday next week. You can look at current snowplowing progress each day to see how much of it is still being plowed! I hope they get it done before we get there.

Posted from Nana's iPad