Hello Canada!

Monday morning we started out really early from our Dayton Washington overnight spot. 

8:30 am in fact.

We were anxious to get going because we knew that this - our last day in the USA - was going to be a long one. We had A LOT of miles to cover to get to the Canadian Border at Waneta.

This is another one of those get comfortable posts. Consider yourself lucky - I only have 30 pictures to share today out of the 152 I took during our Sunday & Monday drive. There was SO much to see and totally different landscapes along the way. Derek and I were totally impressed with our drive through the eastern side of Washington State on roads we had never travelled before.

So - sit back and enjoy the ride!

The drive out of Dayton was just like the one in - lots of farmland.

From Dayton we headed north on highway 12, but not for long. Approximately 14 miles up we turned left onto the 261. Now - I have to say here that I planned our route to include all red or orange roads on my map - meaning paved and primary. Grrrrrr. A few of those roads - like the 261 through Starbuck really really should be yellow. It was narrow and very winding. Boy if all the roads were going to be like this we were NEVER going to make it through Washington in one day. I was really starting to wish that we had taken on Spokane instead of 'backroad Washington'!

'Where is your adventurous spirit'? asks Derek.

hmmmmm oh I don't know - I think I left it back at Kingman Wash. Yup - that's were it is -- ENOUGH of roads out in the middle of NO WHERE!

A huge sigh of relief coming from the passenger seat about 30 miles later upon turning right onto highway 261/260 - straight and flat - as we rolled into - and out of - the village of Washtucna.

Along the 261 - a very high and long train bridge.

And a bridge for us!

Over the Snake River.

Just after the bridge we noticed a nice park on the right and so decided to stop - we all needed a bit of exercise. Well - Roofous was the only one to enjoy it - the 3 of us froze our butts off and got back in the truck pretty quick.

Just after the park we had to climb a VERY VERY steep hill and again thoughts of Kingman Wash came flooding back - so glad this road at least was paved. I was seriously doubting my route planning and navigation skills by this point however.

We FINALLY made it to the top and the road eventually became quite straight and sort of flat. Another 30 miles and we had hit Interstate 90. Boy, I don't think I have EVER been so happy to be on an Interstate. Alas, it didn't last long. A mere 24 miles later and a gas fill up in Sprague we were back to a winding back road - the number 23 to Harrington this time.

Yaaaa - more farmland. We have to say that we were totally surprised about the amount of open country and large farms in this area of Washington. It reminded us A LOT of Saskatchewan - just a little more hilly.

At Harrington we turned right onto the 28 and soon rolled into Davenport. We had decided to stop in this town for lunch and our very last meal in the USA. 

Where to eat, where to eat, where to eat? Always hard to know when you pull into a town you've never been in. Look for the most cars is our general approach. 

With so few restaurants that one didn't work for us today. We ended up with two choices, right across from each other. One was at the bowling alley painted a lovely green colour with a huge painting with the word EAT in yellow. Hmmmm real promising. The second was this cute little place beside a motel. Hmmmmm a little more promising.

The Cowboy Cafe at the Blackbear Motel.

We REALLY liked the idea of pie plates for plates and think we may adopt that for at home and in the RV.

Can you see how GREAT that meal was. It was lunch time but since we left so early without breakfast we had that instead. Mine - an open faced biscuit with egg, ham and cheese smothered with sausage gravy. Yup - I was PRETTY IMPRESSED - another thing I think I will adopt at home.

All we can say is that with the our dinner the night before in Dayton at Woody's Bar and Grill and today at the Cowboy Cafe in Davenport we were pretty happy with our last two restaurant visits. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND both these fine establishments if you ever find yourselves in these Washington towns.

Thankfully the cafe also had wifi so we could update everyone on fb of our whereabouts and also find out that the Waneta border crossing closed at 5:00pm. It was 12:30 - we figured we had lots of time but didn't want to linger too long so we quickly finished up and hit the road.

At Davenport we got on the 25 heading north and down to the Columbia River. The landscape dramatically changed at this point. Still some farmland but more ranches and a lot more trees.

The 25 crosses over where the Spokane River and the Columbia meet. Also the site of Fort Spokane and the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Probably a nice place to visit on a warm day - but not this day.

 A view of the Columbia. I was pretty disappointed with highway 25. On the map it looked like it travelled along side of the river but in actuality it only comes down along side it a few times. It is a very winding and up and down road. I don't suggest it unless you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind the meandering.

We would have been in a whole lot of trouble had it been snowing - I don't EVEN want to think about that.

Uh oh!

Yup - more snow! Just north of Kettle Falls - thankfully it didn't last.

We stopped at Kettle Falls for gas. It wasn't looking so good to the west. Actually for most of the drive we tried not to look to the west since the clouds were so dark. The station attendant told us that 4 - 6" of snow was expected to fall that night. Sheesh - it looked like it was going to fall any minute. We were a bit apprehensive about carrying on but what were we to do we were so close to home. 

The sky cleared a bit so we stopped for a few minutes at a recreation area.

Back on the road we soon pulled into Northpoint. We put the last of our american money $9 into our gas tank and headed to the Waneta Border Crossing - we had time to spare it was about 3:30pm.

Hello BC - it has been awhile - 5 months and 5 days! How've you been?

Another bridge - have you noticed? We passed over several bridges today.

Once through the border with no trouble at all we made our way through Trail. Sorry - no pics of Trail - it was snowing really hard by then and was dark. The camera flash kept going off. It wasn't until just north of Trail that the snow tapered and I was able to take the picture above.

A mere 18 kms north of Trail lies Castlegar - our destination.

We made it! And just in time - just in time for dinner and just in time before the snow started to really fly!

We just want to say a huge 

THANK YOU to the USA for our great trip this year. We had a great time, saw some great sites, ate some great food and met some great people! 

(By the way - I'll do a synopsis of our trip when we get home - the good, the bad and the ugly.)

Thanks for visiting - our trip through BC coming up next!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: I JUST found this link today through another site and haven't had a chance to look around myself - but I'll pass it on anyway. It is called The Alkaline Sisters and seems to be of course about alkaline. One of the things Derek and I picked up on our trip was a water pitcher and shower head to make our tap water alkaline. Actually we will also be selling these items through the Dreamtree Family - but more about that later. In the mean time maybe check out the site to find out how important it is for your body to be alkaline.

Be a Fan