ON THE ROAD……AGAIN!

The smart money was definitely on the Wood Clan travelling south again this year now wasn't it?

I know - I know - we have certainly gotten quite convincing - well, to ourselves at least, with our stories each spring about settling down and behaving like 'normal people' come fall.

But really - when push comes to shove can we really do that?

Maybe - but not this year!

Therefore, as we bid a final adieu to our summer gig we are once again pointing our noses south.

The Wood Clan is embarking on their 6th - 6th!!!!! winter south. Well, Cassia's 5th - and by the way our 5th in a row.

After all, we still have ice in our bones from last summer, last winter and this summer. Oh sure, we had some warm days along the way - but really, we need a long steady flow of hot to warm us up.

Which only means one thing - right?!

But really - should I even let you know about our so called plan - I mean - when do we ever seem to stick to THE plan. 

Let's just say that this year we are going south - VERY south.

The same day we left the park we crossed the border. A quick trip to Westbank to renew our auto insurance and purchase our Medical insurance and we were on our way.

If you have been following for a few years you will know that we rarely get through the border without our fair share of grilling. Something about being in our forties and mentioning that we are leaving for six months seems to set the sirens off among the border folks. Last year wasn't too bad - no major questions  - just an hour wait - it didn't provide me with much material for a really good border storey like the year before.

This year was down right unbelievable. To the point where Derek and I still can't believe what went on. We pull up - first into the wrong lane - but anyway - we adjusted and pulled up to the light. It went green after say a minute or so. We say hi - we hand over our passports. The friendly border fellow asked Derek where we live. (Always a tricky question for us of course) Anyway, Derek does his best - Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park, he says - we were the Operators there this summer. The fellow asks where that is - Derek describes the location. He then hands back our passports and says - Thank you.

As you can imagine we sat there for a minute. I mean - WHAT!? 

And then made our speedy - not too speedy - getaway - before they changed their minds…

Crazy!

With it being late in the day we carried on only as far as the Home Depot in Omak. Ahhhh - it was good to be home.

Wednesday morning we were up and on our way pretty early. After five months sleeping in the silence of the forest we can tell it is going to take awhile to get used to the traffic sounds of a city again.

Our first day and already a new road for us. We took the 155 from Omak over to the Grand Coulee and the Dam.

The bridge into the city of Grand Coulee over the Columbia River.

We pulled in to the Grand Coulee Dam visitor centre with a nice large parking lot overlooking the dam. Sadly the sun was in the wrong spot for a good shot of the dam but pretty impressive nonetheless.

The Visitor's Centre at the Grand Coulee Dam.

After breakfast the four of us took walk down along the main street back towards the bridge. There was a very nice park along the way.

Information placards line both sides of the bridge.

Then it was back on the road to Spokane. A lot of growing area between the two. We have been in central Washington a few times so this landscape is pretty familiar to us. We even drove through Davenport and recalled our yummy visit there back in the spring of 2012.

What's a first day in the USA without a trip to Trader Joe's! By my calculations we won't be visiting another one until Albuquerque. It was time to load up on our favourites. Amazingly I made it out with only one box of their english toffee but yes six tetra packs of coconut milk. I'm really starting to wonder how many of those I could actually store in the van to get us through the winter.

T-shirt - and shorts - weather even! 

Following a few hours in Spokane getting the really important stuff like TJ's food, e-cig stuff for Derek and some craft brew from Total Wine in the Spokane Valley, we continued east into Idaho.

Last fall we overnighted in Coeur d'Alene at the Home Depot - we headed there again just in time for dinner.

It was a good first day.

It feels good to be on the road - again. 

And - I can't wait to reconnect with all of our travel friends! So sorry for the lack of comments on your travel blogs over the summer. It was all I could do to get our posts up at the library although I did check in on you all as best as I could.

It should be a good winter. We have some new roads planned in the USA and then where….

Well, I may as well tell you know although it wasn't difficult to guess I'm sure…

Yup - the Wood Clan is returning to Mexico for the winter!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!

We're pretty darn excited!

So - sit back, get comfortable and come along with us won't you.

It promises to anything but boring. Let's see what kind of adventures we can find this year.

But please - no more mechanical issues - we had enough of that last winter!

We spent a great day in Wallace, Idaho today - that will be up next post.

We've already moved on into Montana - Missoula tonight.

Teresa

This is our second post of the night - scroll down to read about our last days at K-A.

Be a Fan