NAMPA TO SPOKANE

Hellooooooooo!

Phew.

Ha! I just noticed that it has been exactly one month since our last post! Amazing - where has the time gone I wonder.....

Well, we all can't be too surprised that we disappeared although even I didn't think it would be this long. The logistics of moving to a new place and getting everything set up is never fun. In our case, we were working with the additional challenges of our new home being our new work place - needing to work with our new employers to sort things out. Without a landline here at Fintry we were stuck. With being 45 minutes drive to the nearest city over narrow, winding roads, we found that progress in the setting things up department was very very slow.

Around the middle of the month we finally broke down and purchased our first cell phone. If you can believe it was my first time texting - what fun that is now that I have it figured out. Not so much fun was that I ran through our monthly allotment of 500mb of data in three days! Ouch.

Anyway - more on all this down the road. We have so much to tell and show you!

We can't very well continue with the future until we deal with the past. For the sake of consistency - and for Cassia looking back twenty years from now on all of her travels, we must finish up our trip north.

Thursday February 26th, after 5 days at our friends place in Nampa, we continued our trip home.

By the way - our blog posts are all done by memory - much easier to do when it's been a few days. Let's see how I do after 27!

We didn't get the earliest start - with a few final errands to run it wasn't until about 11:00 am that we were heading west on Interstate 84 picking up the 95 at Fruitland, along the Idaho - Oregon border.

Nice and rural - those are cows up on the hill.

Here was our route for the day - in blue. Maybe it's better to see the map here then at the end. 

385 miles in 7 hours. It promised to be a long day of driving. 

No, it didn't pass me by that the alternate route was longer in distance but shorter in time. Hmmmmm.

Even with those numbers we stuck with the north route along the 95 since we have done the Nampa to the Tri city area many, many times.

The day started out well enough - in the end we traveled through it all in one day - sun, cloud, rain, sleet, slush and snow.

The Snake River just before Weiser.

Hmmmmm.

Driving through New Meadows at the intersection of the 95 and 55.

No surprise with all that dark cloud and rise in elevation. Snow!

Thankfully the flurries were in just one area and although it came and went we were finally through the worst of it.

Our only stop for the day, gas and lunch in Riggins.

After a whole day of a variety of landscape and terrain - we liked this area north of Riggins along the Salmon River the best. Lots of boondocking and camping areas along this route. It must be a really popular summer place.

Eventually the road parts ways with the river and we went up into the hills.

Just past the town of White Bird - the road goes up - REALLY up.

About 1/2 way there is a pull out for the Nez Perce. From this point to the cities of  Lewiston and Clarkson we are in Nez Perce territory. Derek was familiar with the history - he's done some reading on the subject. If we'd had more time and the weather was nice it would have been worthwhile for us to visit more of the historic sites.

Crazy - right?! Good thing we didn't have to take that road!

Here it is although a bit difficult to see. As we continued up the 95 we got a good look at the incline and curves - not a good camera angle however.

You can see the battlefield area which was between the two mounds - center right.

Continuing up.....

and over. Now down - to the plateau you can see in the distance.

And blue sky! Green fields like this in Idaho in February!?

A nice drive west of Grangeville and a chance to make some time. 

Through the Nez Perce Reservation.

The outskirts of Lewiston. Thankfully the 95 heads north before entering the large urban area of Lewiston and Clarkson.

Now on the 195 through Washington. We stopped for gas in Colfax and continued on. No more pictures of the road since it was getting dark.

To bad too. I ended up missing the documentation of the worst part of the day. Just south of Spokane in some weird area of the highway we ran into more snow. Actually we had just missed it - but realized that we were suddenly driving through about 5" of slush when we saw a car in the ditch. It was a real nail biter. I tend to forget to take pictures when things are tense. That was the last thing we needed as it was getting dark at the end of our day. 

But just as fast as it started it ended and we sailed through into a clear area realizing that it wasn't quite as dark as we thought it was. 

We made it to our destination just in time.

After settling on our stealth camping spot for the night on a side street we headed over to.... 

No - Li Brewhouse for dinner and some great craft beer! 

Our last craft brewery stop in the USA for this winter.

And boy did Derek and I enjoy that!

We were road weary.

Even after all the practice we had had. I have to say this was one of our toughest travel days of our whole trip. 

But it was beautiful. Well worth it if you are traveling that way.

So, with our arrival into Spokane we were within spitting distance of Canada. Our last night in the USA for this our 6th winter south.

Friday promised to be another interesting day and boy it didn't disappoint. If you saw our posts on 'A Life Made Simple' Facebook - you'll know that we were treated to an extended visit with the folks at the border.

That next post.

Teresa

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