Once I had gassed up the truck outside of Phillpsburg, we made our way out to Missoula and traveled south to the small town of Lolo which has one of the few recorded camps of Lewis & Clark. Drew was so excited to see his childhood friend, Eli, that he could hardly contain himself. His entire trip was nearly centered around this visit! When we arrived, Patrick was busy cementing posts for the chicken coop before a rainstorm approached through the valley. Patrick, Charity, Micah (12), Eli (10) and Judah (5) live on the side of Blue Mountain overlooking part of the Bitterroot Valley with plenty of space and beautiful Montana sky. Along with numerous chickens and other various pets, they see plenty of wildlife regularly on their property. Drew and Eli have been friends since before they began kindergarten together back when I coached them both in soccer. Charity shared with me that Eli was very nervous on the first day of school and I helped ease his discomfort by welcoming him when I saw him come in. I'm sure I did it to help Drew's discomfort by pointing out a friend, but Charity was grateful.
The Parenzin's are wonderful hosts by filling our bellies with each meal and letting the kids run rampant throughout the property. What a great place to raise a family! After dinner the first night, we sat outside by the fire pit, cooked s'mores, and watched the stars come out while discussing pretty much every topic under the cool summer sky. Drew opted to sleep with the boys while Olivia took the guest house (apartment above the garage) and I slept in the Aliner.
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| Iphone survived a dip in the drink |
The next morning, the adults enjoyed drinking coffee and talking in the screened in back porch while the kids slowly meandered down from their places of slumber. After breakfast, Patrick, Eli, Drew, Judah, and I headed out to go fishing in the Bitterroot River while Charity, Micah and Olivia did some grocery shopping in Missoula. The hike down to the river included some steep terrain and numerous mosquito bites before we found a good spot to hunt for trout. Drew and I split up so that I could teach Drew some spin casting and not scare the fish for the others.
In the process of walking out on a fallen tree that spanned the river for a better casting spot, I managed to skip off and fully submerge under the water. Everything went under including my brand new iPhone that I had purchased a few weeks ago in Erie, PA after it had been run over by multiple vehicles leaving the beach. FORTUNATELY, the phone survived and continues to work to this day! Phew. I don't know how I was going to explain that to Wendy! The fish weren't really biting so the boys started wading into the water to hunt for crayfish and do a good job at scaring fish away from poor Patrick who continued to seek out the elusive trout. Pretty soon the sky turned a very dark color and I managed to persuade Patrick to high-tail it out of there, though he was caught up in 'fishing-mode'. We got back to the truck just in time as a huge monsoon of a storm swept through the valley with winds strong enough to push the truck around while driving back.
We ate a late lunch after drying off and closing open windows on the house and camper that had let in rain from the storm. Charity, Micah and Olivia eventually got back from shopping and a stop at the Humane Society to drool over cute little puppies. Delicious lasagna for a late dinner, card games, and more delightful conversation ended out the evening before everyone became exhausted and went to bed.
We packed up our stuff the next day after Patrick made a 16 egg dutch baby in a cast iron skillet that was big enough to cook a real baby if one was so inclined. Yum! Drew was pretty bummed about leaving, but we were in the home stretch with only one more night away from home. Next stop: Spokane.
The plan was to stop over at our good friends' Kris and Keith Becker's house for the night. We were running a little early since Kris and Keith had to work and it would put our ETA well in advance of them getting home. We crossed into the panhandle of Idaho and I saw this cute little town off to the west of the highway called Wallace. Wallace is an active mining town and used to be a train stop at the turn of the century which even had a visit from Teddy Roosevelt! I asked the woman at the train station museum why on earth Roosevelt would stop here and she basically said that it was to get campaign funds since it was a very rich town at the time. It is a typical old western mining town in the middle of the mountains with plenty of bars and shops lining the streets on both sides. We were just a little bit early for the Huckleberry Festival that takes place on the 3rd weekend in August each year. The kids enjoyed the train station museum along with a couple of milkshakes from one of the shops. I mentioned the stop to Keith and he said that Wallace was also well known for it's brothels back in the day.
By mid-afternoon, we pulled into Spokane and unhooked the Aliner at the Beckers before heading out to the grocery store to buy make dinner for everyone. Kris and Keith were in full work-week mode so were more than happy for us to make them dinner and enjoy some down time. It was a quick visit and we were out of the house by 8am the next morning.
The drive to Seattle from Spokane is about 4.5 hours from Seattle, but the pull to get home was strong in all of us considering this was the last stretch of our trip. All of us were so anxious to get home and it was killing us to see all of the familiar sites between the two cities that we know pretty well from making that journey. The traffic was terrible (as always) once we arrived in the Seattle area even at 1pm in the afternoon. It felt so good to finally arrive at the house and give the dog a heart attack. What an adventure. I know that this trip has changed my life and I can only hope that it's given the kids some different perspectives about life outside of our little world here in Seattle.
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| Columbia River gorge |
The next morning, the adults enjoyed drinking coffee and talking in the screened in back porch while the kids slowly meandered down from their places of slumber. After breakfast, Patrick, Eli, Drew, Judah, and I headed out to go fishing in the Bitterroot River while Charity, Micah and Olivia did some grocery shopping in Missoula. The hike down to the river included some steep terrain and numerous mosquito bites before we found a good spot to hunt for trout. Drew and I split up so that I could teach Drew some spin casting and not scare the fish for the others.
In the process of walking out on a fallen tree that spanned the river for a better casting spot, I managed to skip off and fully submerge under the water. Everything went under including my brand new iPhone that I had purchased a few weeks ago in Erie, PA after it had been run over by multiple vehicles leaving the beach. FORTUNATELY, the phone survived and continues to work to this day! Phew. I don't know how I was going to explain that to Wendy! The fish weren't really biting so the boys started wading into the water to hunt for crayfish and do a good job at scaring fish away from poor Patrick who continued to seek out the elusive trout. Pretty soon the sky turned a very dark color and I managed to persuade Patrick to high-tail it out of there, though he was caught up in 'fishing-mode'. We got back to the truck just in time as a huge monsoon of a storm swept through the valley with winds strong enough to push the truck around while driving back.
We ate a late lunch after drying off and closing open windows on the house and camper that had let in rain from the storm. Charity, Micah and Olivia eventually got back from shopping and a stop at the Humane Society to drool over cute little puppies. Delicious lasagna for a late dinner, card games, and more delightful conversation ended out the evening before everyone became exhausted and went to bed.
The plan was to stop over at our good friends' Kris and Keith Becker's house for the night. We were running a little early since Kris and Keith had to work and it would put our ETA well in advance of them getting home. We crossed into the panhandle of Idaho and I saw this cute little town off to the west of the highway called Wallace. Wallace is an active mining town and used to be a train stop at the turn of the century which even had a visit from Teddy Roosevelt! I asked the woman at the train station museum why on earth Roosevelt would stop here and she basically said that it was to get campaign funds since it was a very rich town at the time. It is a typical old western mining town in the middle of the mountains with plenty of bars and shops lining the streets on both sides. We were just a little bit early for the Huckleberry Festival that takes place on the 3rd weekend in August each year. The kids enjoyed the train station museum along with a couple of milkshakes from one of the shops. I mentioned the stop to Keith and he said that Wallace was also well known for it's brothels back in the day.
The drive to Seattle from Spokane is about 4.5 hours from Seattle, but the pull to get home was strong in all of us considering this was the last stretch of our trip. All of us were so anxious to get home and it was killing us to see all of the familiar sites between the two cities that we know pretty well from making that journey. The traffic was terrible (as always) once we arrived in the Seattle area even at 1pm in the afternoon. It felt so good to finally arrive at the house and give the dog a heart attack. What an adventure. I know that this trip has changed my life and I can only hope that it's given the kids some different perspectives about life outside of our little world here in Seattle.
Glad to hear you arrived home safe and sound after such an epic trip. Well done!
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure!!! Thank you for sharing it with the rest of us, both the many, many high points and even some of the low ones. Glad you made it home safely. Except for the dog's heart attack that is. : )
ReplyDeleteMom/Zeke
Awesome trip Brian!! You will talk about it for years. We still talk about our and it was... Clear throat...25ish years ago! How can that be possible???
ReplyDelete