Our Travel Blog

We woke up at 7 AM, early for us! It was still raining.

After breakfast Lyn set about clearing up the inside of the trailer and I went outside to disconnect the hydro and water. Once that was done it was time to hit the road, we had 402 miles in front of us.

The rain continued for a couple of hours, then started to ease up a bit, for much of the time we were literally up in the clouds,

but as we progressed east from Idaho into Montana things improved, the roads dried and the sun made a few appearances.

Then we saw the dreaded “white stuff”!

As we continued east we climbed slowly to cross the Continental divide, we got as high as 6600 ft. before dropping back down for a while.

We stopped close to the top of the divide to go into the trailer and make some lunch, restaurants are a rarity on this route, as is pretty much any other form of civilisation.

About 100 miles from our destination we left the Interstate and picked up a State road, I wasn’t sure what to expect of this road when I planned out the trip, but it was fine. We maintained the same speed on it as we did on the Interstate. We crossed back int Idaho, and also lost an hour as we crossed from the Pacific time zone  into the Mountain time zone.

We arrived at the campsite about 4:15, having . The site is yet a gain in the middle of nowhere, but has great views AND WiFi. Unfortunately there is now no cell phone service! The internet is sufficient, but they do threaten to limit its bandwidth if you use it too aggressively. In reality I am surprised we have it at all out here!

The rain seemed to have continued overnight, as did the cooler temperatures. It was around 10°C with low overcast at wake-up time. Today is the last day here, despite the weather of the last couple of days the only thing we hadn’t done was a trip to the Wallace silver mine. Given it doesn’t (shouldn’t) rain underground, we headed out mid morning to Wallace about 20 miles east of here.

The tour started in downtown Wallace on an open trolley car that took us to the mine a couple of miles away, at about 8°C now, and continuing rain it was a chilly journey. It turns out that the local area is the largest producer of silver in the world! There are a number of mines in the area, employing around 2500 miners. The silver was discovered back in the 1850’s.

The mine we visited was first started around 1890, but after a number of years digging no silver was found, so it was closed down. It was opened up again around 1960 when a large company took over and dug down a few hundred feet deeper, still no silver. They gave up and the mine was closed again. A mine about 5 miles away dug down to about 5,000 ft. and ran a number of tunnels out. On of these tunnels stretched out under the Wallace mine, where they stuck large deposits of silver together with lead copper and zinc. They had the right location but the wrong depth!

The mine was reopened in the 1980’s and served a class room for high school students. The mining companies were having problems recruiting new miners so a ‘mining’ course was offered to grade 12 students. Successful graduates were guaranteed a job in the industry if they wanted one.

Given the lousy weather we were the only ones on the tour.

We entered the mine via a horizontal tunnel bored into the side of a hill.

One of the first things we saw was the various methods used to stop the roof of the tunnel either collapsing or fracturing. This was achieved by driving long steel rods into the rock, the rods could then be twisted so that their diameter increased (think 12 ft. long wall anchors). These rods were either used on their own or as anchor points for strapping. This strengthening is particularly important here as the mine lies close to four fault lines, and the blasting has been known to trigger small seismic events.

To me this tour was unique, as the tour guide was a miner, and there was working equipment in the mine that he demonstrated. All the equipment in the mine is air operated. Their 12” diameter air hoses operating at over 100PSI put my ½ hose on the air compressor at home to shame, as did the noise generated by these machines compared to the tools I use!

The picture of the miner operating the air drill is a little blurred, I blame it on the noise and vibration caused by the drilling, it was insane.

One of the key indicators to the presence of silver is veins of white quartz.

After the mine tour we had planned a tour of Wallace, as it had some interesting old buildings, unfortunately the weather was not going to cooperate, I got a couple of pictures on the trip back to downtown with a general view,

and a view of the old railway station.

After lunch, and a WiFi fix we headed back to the trailer. As we headed west the rain eased a little, so back at the trailer I prepared it for another early morning departure. The truck is hooked up, sewer disconnected etc., all that needs doing is disconnection of water and hydro.

Next stop is a visit with Yogi and Boo-Boo

The rain that started last night continued through the night. We woke up in the morning and it was still raining.

After lunch it was still raining.

I am sure it will still be raining after dinner. To break the monotony of the rain we drove into Kellogg for some more Wi-Fi infused coffee.

Despite the weather forecast we awoke to a dry and clear day. We had nothing specific in store for today other than a trip into Kellogg to get our internet fix.

After breakfast I set bout re-stringing one of the window blinds, one of the strings broke a couple of days ago and it had just been hanging there waiting for me to fix it. Luckily I had saved the instructions, from a previous fix, on the computer so I was able to get to work without the internet. I recall the first time I did this repair (on a different blind) it was absolute chaos and took a couple of hours. This one was fixed in about 20 minutes, isn’t experience wonderful?

Next it was off to get our internet fix, in reality there was not much we needed, just download e-mails, uploaded the blogs and got some navigation info for the next leg on Tuesday. I have the pictures ready for the blogs, but it is a bit time consuming uploading them and getting them into the blog, so I’ll try to do that next week when hopefully we will have internet in the trailer! I miss the internet more when it comes to looking up info on the spur of the moment, so many times we have said “I’ll just look that up” whoops!

After lunch we headed out for a walk along the cycle path, the weather was looking a little more threatening, but we could do with the exercise. We even managed to find a cache along the route. As we got to the point where we had decided to turn around, the rain started. Drizzle at first, then a more persistent rain after that. At least we got to walk 2¼ miles.

Back at the trailer we dried off and settled into to relaxation mode.

We woke up to a high overcast with the sun threatening to make an appearance. The weather forecast, which we last saw 3 days ago, suggested that today may be the last of the better weather for a while, so we decided to head out on what the tourist guide classes as a Scenic Byway.

Before we started the tour proper we headed off just down the road to the Cataldo Mission. This is a Jesuit Mission built in the 1850’s and as such is the oldest free standing building in the State of Iowa (I think my Grandparents house was older than that!).

It is built on some high ground with a commanding view of the surrounding area.

From here we headed west on the I-90 towards Coeur D’Alene for about 15 miles before turning off to the south onto the scenic byway. It probably sounds boring to you that we just drive around the area, and my writing will certainly not do justice to the scenery, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was a worthwhile trip. The route followed the shores of Coeur D’Alene Lake, which seems to be the week-end home of the wealthy set, although quite where they come from is not clear, the nearest city of any size is Spokane Washington about 60 miles west. Anyway, there were a number of very nice homes built on the shore, or the bluffs overlooking the lake. As we progressed we climbed higher, and got some spectacular views.

We had missed our morning coffee, it was approaching lunch time and the route was going to be a lot longer than anticipated. Unfortunately, not only were we in the land of no electrons, we were also in the land of no anything, then as we turned the corner on a hilly road we saw an old trading post.

We picked up 210 calories worth of a hunger reducing devices each (KitKat and Snickers), as well as a small coffee each. The small coffee was 575 ml (so was the medium and large), “don’t worry” says the assistant, we only sell one size and it only costs $1. It was good coffee as well!

Further around the route we found a small loop that was a wildlife tour, so we headed off along it. Not too long after that Lyn spotted some “swans” in a lake, but they didn’t quite look right. Through the binoculars (and my new camera zoom lens!) we could see that they were more like pelicans than swans, except the only pelicans we had seen before were brown. Back at the trailer we checked the bird book and sure enough they were American White Pelicans.

Further around the loop we saw a number of very large nests atop wooden hydro poles, nothing really unusual about that, except these nests were occupied. Again, reference to the bird book identified the occupants as Osprey

We continued the tour back to the trailer, in places the land changed from mountainous forests to ploughed fields, grazing for dairy cattle and some horse farms. There was no sign of any industry though.

Our luck with caches changed on this trip, and we managed 3 for 3.

After a late lunch back at the trailer, the 2-hour tour took 4 hours, we headed out for a walk along the bike trail into the local town just over half a mile away. The town consists of two restaurants (one for sale), a gas station and a post office.

Back at the trailer I decided I really had to start waxing an polishing the beast. After that the three-day old forecast proved to be right, and the rain started.

We are surviving without the internet so far, although I feel there may be trip to MacDonalds in the offing tomorrow, purely for the coffee you understand!

The good weather disappeared last night after a late night thunderstorm and heavy rains. We woke up to cloudy skies and the temperature had dropped to 10°C overnight. At least the visibility was good after the cold front had passed.

After breakfast Lyn made a picnic lunch and we headed off to cross a couple of passes. Initially we were on the I-90 for about 20 miles, then we headed off to the north-east to cross the Dobson Pass. This is a pass through the Cabinet Mountains that climbs to just over 4000ft at its summit.

The northern part of Idaho seems to have more trees per square whatever than any other place I can think of, if there is no road the surfaces are all tree covered.

We picked up the road for the Thompson Pass, which was higher at 4900ft, but was a much gentler climb. Again, trees, trees and more trees. I am guessing the air must be pretty pure and well oxygenated around here.

We did pass a few small meadows, and in one we saw a group of turkey’s strutting their stuff. Time to play with the new camera and its zoom!

We also tried to find some caches, but everyone seems to think a great hiding place is a small tube hanging from a pine tree branch. We are useless at finding those when there is only one pine tree involved. Here we didn’t stand a chance. We failed to find four in a row!

Along the side of the road Lyn spotted a couple of mule deer off in the distance, time to play with the camera again!

Across from where we had parked were some interesting (in my mind at least) rock formations

We had a couple of showers on the way, and went through some low cloud, but overall the weather wasn’t too bad. The temperature dropped to 5°C at the higher elevations, and there was still some snow along the edge of the road.

Back at the campsite it was time to debug the front of the trailer again.

Well, we managed to get up at 6 AM, there was not too much to pack away after breakfast as most had been done the night before. Of course it was a nice sunny day!

The whole trip except for about 1km was interstate which made for an easy, if not boring drive. Boring as in not much to do as far as driving the vehicle was concerned, but the scenery was pretty good. Plenty of large forests, then as we got into the centre of Washington state there was far more farmland than I expected.

We climbed up to around 3000 feet to cross one pass, and most of the trip was at around 2000 feet. This time I underestimated the time required and we arrived at our destination just west of Kellogg Idaho at 1 PM. We could have got up at our normal time!!

This campground is almost the complete opposite of the previous one, it is the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest with a river running along the edge. The only downside is that rural Idaho has no Internet, in fact at this place we barely get a cell phone signal!

I will try to write a blog daily, and if we happen to find a WiFi spot I’ll send them all out. There may not be any pictures until next week!!

NOTE:

Currently WiFi is down to 2G speed, that’s about as fast as the original dial up modem speed of 200 years ago! Assuming this text gets posted, I’ll inset some pictures at a later date

Another damp start to the day, remind me to stay clear of coastal regions close to mountains in the future! After breakfast we headed about 25 miles north to the city of Everett, Washington. This is the home of the Boeing aircraft factory. We found out sometime back that the company provides tours of the factory, and this is something we both wanted to do, it’s also the reason we are staying where we are. From a logistics viewpoint it was the best place to stay.

We arrived at the plant in good time for the 11:00 tour, the company runs these 90 minute tours every 30 minutes from 9AM to 5PM 7 days a week, and although it is not peak season there were plenty of takers. Unfortunately, Boeing are very strictly with respect to photography, in fact nothing can be carried on the tour, cameras, cell phones, wallets purses……. nothing. At least they provide free storage lockers at the start of the tour.

The factory makes the Boeing 747, 767, 777, 787 in an immense facility. The B747 takes 4 months to build, it is built from scratch at the plant. The newest, the B787 takes 3 days to assemble. Parts for it are manufactured around the world, and shipped to Everett to be put together, bit like a big Airfix kit!

The facility operates 24/7 Monday – Fridays, with the weekends used for catch up if the schedule slips; 44000 people are employed on three shifts.

The building is the largest in the world enclosing 13,385,378 m³ (472,370,319 cu ft) and covering 399,480 m² (98.3 acres).

It is like a small city, requiring its own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substations and water treatment plant. The building is so large that when the factory was first built, clouds actually formed near the ceiling. The weather cleared when an air-circulation system was installed. There is no heating nor air conditioning in the building, the heat of 1 million light bulbs, plus machinery and human heat warm the place up in the winter. In the summer they open up the huge hangar doors to let the wind blow through to cool it. It costs $65,000 per day in electricity to light those 1 million bulbs! Employees use 1,300 tricycles to get around the building more efficiently than walking! There are also 2.33 miles or 3.7 kilometers of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory. The tunnels are also used for operating the utilities and comes in handy during winter when getting around in the cold and snow can be a challenge. As a final bit of trivia, the mural on the six factory doors is the largest digital graphics in the world.

At the end of the tour we headed back to the tour centre to pick up our cameras so we could take some shots from the viewing deck on the roof.

One of the aircraft we were lucky to see (there are only 4 in the world) was the Dreamlifter, a specially modified Boeing 747 used for carrying fuselage parts, wings and other structures from around the world.

There was a whole “parking lot” full of aircraft waiting for test flights.

The three aircraft below had just been completed, and were being fueled up for the first time prior to an engine run.

The aircraft below is an interesting one for us, it is a Boeing 787 of Hainan (Chinese) Airlines, the same aircraft type and company that we will be flying to China with later this year, who knows, it could even be on that aircraft.

We also went around a small museum area where I got the chance to “fly” a Boeing 727

On our way back to the car we spotted an MGB-GT (1970’s British sports car) in the parking lot. It was registered in Victoria, NOT B.C. but Australia, and was being driven on a round the world tour!

After lunch we headed slowly back to the dump campground, stopping off at Hobby Lobby (a large crafts and hobby store) as well as finding the obligatory geo-cache.

Back at the trailer I did some prep work for an early (06:30) departure tomorrow. The truck is hooked up and ready to go with no sign of leaking brake fluid this time!

Well, I have cooled down a little from yesterdays rant, in fairness the camping area of the camp ground is still a dump, but there is a nice indoor pool, hot tub and sauna. There is also a list of 48 rules that each camper must abide by. Such gems as:

Any cracked windows in RV’s must be replaced intermediately, cardboard is NOT to be used as a repair method.

No rust on any vehicles

NO repairs to vehicles to be carried out on site

Any fluid leaks must be repaired immediately ( how does that fit in with the one above?)

And probably my favourite, if any of these rule are not enforced by management, this lack of enforcement is not to be construed as a waiver of any rule.

Still can’t wait to leave.

The rain continued on the wet coast (just like the UK I remember!!), so what to do …… shopping. For a change I wanted to go shopping, as well as Lyn, so I dropped her off at JoAnn fabrics and I headed out to Home Depot for a couple of items, and then across to Best Buy. I had decided it was time to buy a new camera. Although the current one takes good photos, it has one major and annoying flaw, the screen is not bright enough to see what is in view, in bright sunlight it is often a case of point, shoot and hope.

The new camera is no bigger than the old one, it will still easily fit in a pocket, but it has greater resolution (18.2MP), greater zoom (30x optical. 60x digital) WiFi connectivity to download pictures but best of all a digital viewfinder! In addition there are about 4000 other bells and whistles on it that I have yet to discover!

Well my shopping was a success, Lyn’s, not so much.

We headed of to WalMart for some other stuff (including an air freshener for the wash room (see yesterdays blog!), then back for lunch.

After lunch Lyn headed over to the laundry for the weekly wash, this place got another black mark; the cost of a load in the machine was shown as $1.50, however after putting in $1.50 the machine demanded another .25c before it would do anything, this place definitely nickel, dimes and quarters you.

While Lyn was enjoying herself I forced myself to go shopping once more. There is an electronics store in the States called Fry’s. I was a very regular customer of theirs when I used to travel to LA every couple of weeks. Not only does it sell computers and other gizmos, it sells lots of electronic components for hobbyists. After about 30 minutes I had to leave, there was so much to buy, but no justifiable reason to buy it!

The Sunday traffic around here was about as bad as the Saturday traffic, I dread to think what the weekday traffic will be like. Tomorrow we head about 30 miles north for our sole reason of stopping in the area. Stay tuned.