Kalispell, Montana

Mile 3856

We are having breakfast at the Montana Coffee Traders Cafe in Kalispell, Montana. Very nice little town. Actually, it's pretty big for being in the middle of nowhere. It's near the west entrance to Glacier National Park. We hope to go up there today, but there are a lot of forest fires in the region, so we may get detoured again. We'll see. So let's get you updated on what's gone on since we last posted.



Got up Sunday morning and decided to go back into Seattle and see the fish throwers at Pike Place Fish Co. They are very entertaining, joking around and having fun with the onlookers. They even have a fake stuffed fish that they throw at the crowd to freak people out. Everyone wanted to have there picture taken with the fish throwers holding up one of their gigantic salmons. The best quote: "Folks, we do sell fish here! This is not the aquarium!" There was also a monk fish (those big flat ugly fish with the big mouth) hanging over the edge of the display. You can see it in the foreground of the picture. When people would walk up to it, the fish guys pulled a rope in the back and it would flip up and scare people.

After that, we hit the road for the long trek across Washington via Interstate 90. We encountered our first rain of the trip on this drive. Not very heavy though. We have been lucky with the weather. It's been perfect! Around mile 3590 we got to Spokane and stopped to look around. We took a walk around the Spokane Falls. Another very nice little big town in the middle of nowhere. Actually, this is a really big town.

By mile 3627 we crossed the state line into Idaho. One of us slept through the entire state as we hit the Montana border at mile 3701. Montana is really a beautiful state. When we left I-90 to head north toward Glacier National Park, we took this mountain road with gorgeous scenery. Another road that followed a river, but somehow this one was even more special. It was a little dark by then, but you could still see everything.

At mile 3815 next to Flathead Lake, we hit the 1000-miles-from-home point according to the handheld GPS. Meaning we were 1000 miles "as the crow flies" from the house in Aliso. Right after that, we stopped for the night near the town of Somers at the northern tip of Flathead Lake. It was only seven miles to get to Kalispell where we are now. Wish us luck! Hopefully, we will be able to avoid the fires and get into Glacier National Park.