Month: May 2018

This morning we were greeted by rain. I wasn’t feeling well today so we kept it simple. We had breakfast at the Montana Coffee Company in nearby Columbia Fallls. After breakfast we took Maverick to the dog park in Whitefish. We returned to the coach where I took it easy the rest of the day. Donna took time to visit the nearby the Huckleberry Cafe and to the West Glacier gift shop. While at the gift shop Donna saw the classic Glacier National Park buses fueling up. These are very similar to those found in Yellowstone.

Today we decided to cross the mountains to see the East side of Glacier National Park. In the summer you would normally take the “Going to the Sun” historic scenic road but couldn’t as we described in our early post. Our route took us US-2 over the mountains and then MT-49 to the village of East Glacier. The MT-49 route was very scenic. East Glacier was virtually silent with few (or none) restaurants or stores open. We ate our sack lunch at the St Mary’s Visitor Center on the way into the park. It was good that we packed our sack lunch because we didn’t see any likely place to eat anywhere on the East side of the mountains. We drove the East end of the “Going to the Sum” road from the very small town of St Mary, along the St Mary Lake, to the St Mary Falls. The views of the mountains were fantastic and the St Mary’s falls were great. At one of the roadside stops Donna and others spotted a Long Tailed Weasel run across the parking lot and into the woods. After St Mary, we continued North a little further to the Manny Glacier Road. Again the scenery was fantastic with the glacial lake framed by the glacial mountains that created all of this. On the way back Donna and I spotted Big Horn Sheep on the side of the mountain with our binoculars. Manny Glacier, like most of the glaciers in the park, is almost totally gone. The park predicts by 2020 Glacier National Park will no longer have any glaciers at all. It was getting late so we decided to take the fast, less scenic, MT-89 route back home. We stopped in the small town of Browning for a sandwich at Subway. Browning is in the Blackfoot Indian reservation and most people we saw appeared to be of Native Indian ancestry. The weather today was in the mid-50’s to low 60’s and mostly sunny. It was super nice for site-seeing.

This morning we headed back into the West Glacier entrance to the park. We continued North and back out of the park until we got to Polebridge. Polebridge has a few cabins and an old Mercantile Store dating back to the very early 1900’s. The closest town is Columbia Falls 40 miles away. The Mercantile has a popular bakery and Donna picked out some cookies and Huckleberry bear claws. We had packed a sack lunch and ate it while at Polebridge. There wasn’t much of a lunch selection at the Mercantile. Polebridge is just 2 miles from the Glacier National Park Polebridge Ranger Station and entrance. We headed back into the park heading East down a fairly rough gravel road. After 6 miles you come to Bowman Lake and campground. The lake is another beautiful glacial lake framed by the mountains and glaciers that created it. The campground was pretty empty so we let Maverick run off leash for a little bit. We were parked at the boat ramp and were treated to a large deer trotting by just 50 yards away. We really enjoyed the beauty of the lake nearly to ourselves and enjoyed the drive in and back out. After the lake we drove straight back to Columbia Falls and then continued to Whitefish. As we passed through Whitefish we stumbled upon a Farmers Market that was just opening. We did a quick pass through the farmers market but didn’t buy anything. Maverick was a hit as usual. We then continued through Whitefish to visit the Whitefish Ski Area. It was a fairly large and nice ski area but was totally silent. I guess its in between ski season and summer/mountain bike season. We came back to Whilefish and ate at the Montana Taphouse. The restaurant was clearly set up as an after ski beer drinking hangout. It was pretty dead while we were there but they served a really great burger.

This morning we took our time getting around before heading into the Park. We stopped outside the park at an official looking park store. It turns out it was a Glacier Conservation store. The store had lots of neat National Park items and was staffed by very nice and helpful young people. They explained where the road closures were and places we would likely enjoy visiting. We got another block down the road and Donna wanted to stop in the Canada Visitor Center. Kind of weird but it was nice and again filled with nice young folks eager to help. While odd that Canada has a visitor center here, keep in mind the North end of the park is Canada. We hit the road again and we zipped through the National Park gate with our annual pass and quickly found ourselves in the Apgar Village. This time we stopped at the official National Park visitor center. This is a new record, 3 visitor centers in less than an hour. We normally pop in the visitor center of a park on the way in to check out the roads and easy trails. Today was visitor center overload. Apgar Village also contains a campground and a picnic area on Lake McDonald. This lake provides one of the frequently photographed glacial lake and mountains. It is breathtaking. We stopped briefing to take pictures and let Maverick play in the water. The water is crystal clear.
Now that we had a thoroughly wet dog we took off down the “Going to the Sky” road. This famous drive is a National Civil Engineering Landmark, is on the register of National Historical Places, and is a National Historic Landmark. The road was completed in the 1930’s and is the only place with all three designations. The road is 50 miles long but today only 15 miles is open from this West entrance and 14 miles open from the East entrance due to snow. It is really disappointing for us but the full road won’t open for about another month. The drive follows the edge of the lake for the first 10 miles. Not far past the lake is McDonald Falls. They were roaring and fantastic. We had brought our lunch and chose to eat at the falls enjoying the roaring spectacle. The road ended at the Avalanche Trail and Trail of the Cedars. The Trail of the Cedars is an easy, ADA Accessible trail that is flat and much of it is on a raised wooden walkway. The trail is an 0.8 mile loop. At the halfway point there is a stunning waterfall that shoots through a narrow canyon. The trail itself winds through large old-growth Cedars and Hemlock along Hidden Creek. It was super nice. Like nearly all National Park trails Maverick was prohibited. At all of the popular stops we had difficulty finding parking. We got lucky but any more crowded and we would have been out of luck. The Park runs a shuttle to the popular spots from Apgar Village. On the drive back we stopped by the McDonald lodge. We didn’t go in but it looked like a neat old structure with great views the the lake and mountains. On return to Apgar Village we checked out the campsites to see if they would fit the big rig. They would but only a few would accommodate us and few had any hookups.

After the park we headed back to the coach. We were killing time until dinner. While there the clothes washer in the coach started smelling like burned rubber or electronics. Ugh. We shut it down and aired out the bedroom. I started researching possible failures and alternatives. After about an hour we headed out for dinner. We drove to nearby Columbia Falls and chose Three Forks. The restaurant was kind of a Contemporary Lodge/Ski Chalet. We shared a delicious Bison burger.

After dinner we drove another 8 miles to Whitefish. Whitefish is the most desirable town in this general area and has a nice ski town sort of feel. It appears to have a vibrant downtown and is big enough to have most amenities you would want. We also discovered it sits on a large beautiful glacial lake with really nice city parks. We got out and let Maverick stretch his legs. Many teens and young adults were enjoying beautiful weather. Maverick had dried off since the Park so of course he had to jump back in the water. Thats what you get when you live with a water loving hound.
After picking up a few groceries we ended back at the coach. I set about getting to the back side of the washer. Kudos to Donna for realizing (before me) that the closet next to the washer had a large removable access panel. I didn’t see any obvious damage inside the washer but did find the dryer vent was disconnected. We cleaned everything up as best we could. My research also indicated that the water pump could become jammed by debris and there is an “easy” clean out. I opened this and found a dime near the pump impeller. I hope the dime is the root cause but we won’t find out until tomorrow. We don’t want to stink up the bedroom tonight. The joys of maintaining our mobile house!
Wow, we seemed to do a lot today!

It turns out the casino last night was pretty quiet after 11pm when traffic started dying down. We got up at our normal time and headed for the West Glacier KOA Campground. In general we aren’t big fans of KOAs but it seemed like best option when searching the area. While the drive from Seattle to Spokane was 2/3’s desert and not very interesting, the drive from Spokane to Glacier was beautiful. I am pleased to report the coach did not stutter through mountains. I guess I bought the fuel filter just in time! The RV park is very attractive. It is filled with children today. The campground assigned us a spot backing up against unpopulated forest and away from most of the other campers. It suits us very well. We have a beautiful view of the mountains out of our front windshield. Once we got the coach set up it was dinner time. We are near the town of West Glacier and just outside the entrance to the National Park. We traveled to nearby West Glacier and stopped at one of the first restaurants we came to, Belton Chalet. It looked from the outside like it would be standard pub fare but turned out to be fine dining. We sat outside in beautiful weather with wonderful views of the mountains. The steak was excellent but pricey and not really what we had planned. Afterward we treated ourselves to an ice cream cone from the local West Glacier cafe.

Today we got up early to head out on our trip to Glacier National Park. We decided two days ago that we would rather go to Glacier than hang out a week waiting for Camping World to get our parts. We planned to break up the trip up by stopping in Spokane WA along the way. I did not choose to reserve a RV park for Spokane, planning instead to dry camp either at Walmart or one of the local casinos. Once we got to Spokane we first stopped at Walmart. It was a very busy store with some campers already there. It didn’t look too promising so we checked out the two nearby casinos. Northern Quest casino had good reviews on camping sites and was the best looking alternative. The casino has a large gravel parking lot out back and was filled with pretty decent looking campers. We claimed a choice spot away from most of the other campers. After settling in I replaced the coach fuel filter with one I picked up in Seattle. The coach was stuttering on high throttle hills and I am getting concerned. After my quick maintenance, we checked out the casino and then we went downtown Spokane to see the Spokane Falls. The falls were wonderful and easy to see. Spokane is a nice looking town located on Spokane River. The terrain becomes lightly forested again by the time you get to the town and the area is quite attractive. After enjoying the falls we had dinner at Anthony’s. Anthony’s overlooks the falls and was a pleasant dinner. After dinner we didn’t want to hang out at the casino so we decided to see a movie We saw the latest Star Wars movie Solo.

We didn’t really have any big attraction to see today. We scratched our heads about what to do and decided to check out the home campus of Microsoft.  Microsoft is located not too far away in Redmond.  Donna looked it up and determined there was a public visitor center so off we went.  We found the campus consisted of many office buildings spread over a very large area. There were young folks with backpacks running everywhere. We first found the company store and browsed. Lots of nice Microsoft branded clothes, notebooks, and office things but nothing we were interested in. The nice clerk did point us the right direction to the visitor center. The visitor center isn’t anything special. It is basically one large room outfitted with Microsoft Surface computers, X-Box gaming consoles, and a collection of novel software just to entertain the passing visitor. Kind of like visiting the Microsoft store in the mall. Of course we didn’t think to take any pictures of the campus or the visitor center so you only have my prose to imagine what it was like.
After Microsoft we had a quick burger at Fatburger.  Fatburger is a fast food chain prevalent on the West coast. We went back to the coach where I played on the computer and Donna left for retail therapy.

We had read about the Boeing Factory Tour that is part of the Boeing Future of Flight Museum. This morning we headed to Muilteo (near Everett) to check it out. We got there about 1115 and were able to join the 1130 factory tour. The tour was really great with great observation of the assembly line for 747’s, 767’s, and more. Really cool. After the tour we ran down the road to eat at the Mukilteo Raceway Cafe. The food was really good and soon we returned to see the museum. The first thing we checked out is their observation deck on top. The deck provides great views of the nearby runway and when the big airliners take off or land you have a really up close view. The seating is really comfortable on the deck and we really enjoyed hanging out a bit. After the deck we checked out the museum gallery. What a lame “museum”. The gallery did have a replicate International Space Station Discovery Module, a GE90 jet engine, but not much else. I would still recommend seeing the tour and experiencing the observation deck. They make it worth the money. Just don’t expect much from the actual museum.

Today we didn’t have any special plans. We decided to head to the outlet mall just North of Everett. The weather was great again today. After the mall and Cabela’s we drove to the waterfront of Everett. We ate Anthony’s, planning to repeat the fantastic food we enjoyed while in Anacortes just a few days ago. We had a wonderful lunch. They have the best fish and chips we have had. We sat outside on the patio with views of the marina, the Possession Sound, the Olympic Mountains. The weather was perfect. It was a fantastic dining experience for a fraction of the cost of yesterday’s Salty’s meal.

Today we had to move the RV to another spot within the RV park. This move took all morning. We were planning on a nice dinner tonight so we just snacked in the coach for lunch. Maverick and I enjoyed the nature trails and sat outside in the fantastic weather for a while. At about 5:30 we headed back downtown to go to Salty’s on Akai Beach. Traffic was crazy bad and we had to delay our reservation by 30 minutes to give us more time. This restaurant is located directly across the sound from downtown Seattle. It provides stunning views of downtown as the sun descends behind the Western hills. We enjoyed a corner window table to enjoy the views. While the views and service were great I was disappointed in the food. I remember really great food from when I was traveling here years ago. This time the prices were higher and the food was not nearly as good. I guess not everything stands the test of time.