On the Road Again

19 September – 03 October 2024

We have our Toyota 4Runner lightly packed this time for a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. For those who follow our posts, don’t expect photos of an afternoon spritz accompanied by focaccia, olives, and other delightful appetizers. You won’t see hillsides encrusted with centuries-old fortresses either. Or tablets of Etruscan writing. Or our Italian cousins.

You will see expansive fields of wheat in the Palouse region, dense forests marching up mountainsides, some peaks capped with snow, wild rivers, and lots of American eats.

We are going all American on this trip!

No fishing for Robert. There was too much work to finish with house improvements just before we left. We hope to make up for this next year.

CHUCK: Be prepared. Lots of photos from the car.

First Stop—Redmond, Oregon

**The first of our Western-style grub stops**

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Making a “bee line” to Whitefish, Montana, to see our friends Sally and Jennifer, we had our first glimpse of the stunning gold hills of the palouse, recently harvested of spring wheat and freshly plowed and seeded for winter wheat. More about the palouse later.

**Redmond, Oregon to Cour D’Alene, Idaho**

**Gentle rolling hills of the palouse**. Wheat for miles.

We stopped at Eastern Washington University where Robert worked on a campus master plan with Mahlum Architects. Lovely wooded setting.

Continuing to Whitefish, Montana

We took the mountainous route. A little longer, but worth it for the varied landscape.

**Frequent sight—long lines of rail cars.**

Lunch in Heron, Montana. Way off the beaten path.

Whitefish, Montana

We made it to see our friends from San Francisco, Sally and Jennifer, who are temporarily living in this cute ski town near the Canadian border. They are making a documentary that probes Montana’s starkly contrasting liberal and conservative values, which are especially heightened during this election year. Although the town of Whitefish is sometimes referred to as “Wokefish” because of its progressive bent, this is deep in Montana where conservatives dominate in the state population of one million people.

Polebridge and Glacier National Park

Polebridge (route shown in yellow) is a quirky, small hamlet on the edge of the national park. It consists of a few buildings and a reported population of 14 in the winter. Stretches of gravel road to get there.

Glacier National Park lies just east of Whitefish—about a 25-minute drive to the west entrance. We took the Going-to-the Sun Road, the only road that traverses the park (shown in red). This was a full-day excursion with stops at several of the park’s lodges built by the railroad in the early 1900s. Most were in the process of closing for the winter.

Glacier National Park

**Pre-car, the front door faced the lake to greet visitors coming by boat**.

Moscow, Idaho

We stopped at the notorious Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC) on our way to Moscow. BRCC is overtly military style in contrast to Starbucks. Jen says that when she sets up video interviews with conservative Montana men, many want to be interviewed here.

**Future fishing prospects. Saw our first drift boats. Near St. Regis.**

**Downtown Moscow is small but charming.**

University of Idaho, Moscow

**Nephew Brian Loyd spent five years here for his degrees in forestry**

Moscow, Idaho, to Yakima, Washington

We did not know what to expect of Yakima. Turns out it is a bit like Anchorage, Alaska. A smattering of low buildings surrounded by large expanses of surface parking. A road system of one-way three-to-four lane couplets (very wide one-way streets) divide the city. A bit strange. We found only one good place to eat. We took advantage of our two-night stay to visit Mount Rainier National Park. Surprisingly, there were no fly fishing shops although Robert often sees ads promoting Yakima for fishing.

**Just a drive through the campus in Pullman**

We encountered a bit of rain and a brief dust storm that abruptly brought visibility to zero for several hundred feet.

Dining in Yakima at the one unexpectedly glamorous restaurant

Lots of fruit stands on the outskirts of Yakima

Mount Rainier National Park

About 2.5 hours to the Longmire visitor center in the national park.

A great example of National Park Service architectural style.

**Wood crates ready for apple harvest** **near Yakima**

Yakima to Camas, Washington

Off to Camas, near Portland, to see nephew Bobby Loyd and his family—Marlo Maroon and Boden.

**Our hotel in downtown Camas. The only hotel in downtown Camas.**

Bobby, Marlo, and Boden!

Our nephew Bobby, niece Marlo, their four-year-old son Boden, and their two dachshunds Pistol and Miss Kitty live in Camas, a booming suburban town with great schools and a population dominated by small kids. We planned our trip to be there for Bobby and Marlo’s second annual Oktoberfest party. We spent Friday night helping with party preparations—Marlo and Robert baked cookies while Bonnie battled Boden in a series of board games. Saturday morning we went to see Boden play soccer. He decided not to play, but we did see a lot of soccer played by kids ages four to teens.

Saturday afternoon was the Oktoberfest extravaganza at the Loyd-Maroon house, complete with lederhosen for Bobby and Boden, balloons, decorations, beer, root beer for kids, souvenir beer steins, pretzels, sausage, and lots more food. At least twenty kids, mostly 4 to 6 years old, poured in along with their parents for games, cookie decorating, making German hats from construction paper, and crowding onto the backyard trampoline and climbing structure. Marlo imagined that guests would come and go between two and six pm, but Bonnie saw most people planted for the entire time. It was too much fun to leave.