On the Road Again

After a super, fantastic, and wonderful visit with the Moose family with a marvelous Independence Day picnic lunch, a hike to burn off a bit of lunch (and where the boys of all ages had a blast shooting the airsoft guns), and then being stuffed with curry chicken salad for dinner, our evening was topped off by another concert by the kids and then 4th of July fireworks. In Washington State, it seems, anything goes with respect to shooting off fireworks on the 4th, and our friends' neighbors had some really spectacular stuff! We also could see the Ft. Lewis fireworks just over the treetops from the 2nd floor bedroom.

So this morning we didn't get up until later than we probably should have, and didn't leave our friends until well after 10 (today was a 500+ mile day, too!). But we stopped with less than 15 minutes in to grab a bite of early lunch at a place called Ivar's. It's a fast food seafood place that I became addicted to when I was in Washington for my birthday visit last October (I ate there 3 times then, including the little snackie I got at the airport on my way out!). My very favorite is the fried scallops, though I did have the fried clams as well, on my last visit. It was the scallops that I had on today's visit; the Skipper got the fried calamari, Ginger had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, and the Professor was thrilled to try the smoked salmon chowder in a bread bowl. Our landlubber, Gilligan (that's pretty funny, when you think about it) contented himself with the chicken strips. Ordinarily, stopping that soon into a high-mileage day is scoffed upon a bit, but no one was scoffing today, at least after they started eating, anyway.

We had our first bit of rain this evening of the trip late this afternoon in Montana. Even with that, Montana impresses me as a beautiful, kind of wild place. We're staying in Missoula tonight, and the youngers were able to partake in the swimming pool, while the Professor and I sat in the hot tub before our little pre-camping shopping trip to Target.

I'm endeavoring to try out local beers in the areas we visit. Mr. Moose is kind of a beer snob, as well, and made sure that I was able to try a variety of Northwest brews as well as an Alaskan beer that he says is his "fallback beer." It was a very nice one!! He did try one beer that was undrinkable for both of us, called Dragon Bite (I think), but this evening at Target I found one by the same brewer that is very nice, called Bayern St. Wilbur Weizen. So Mr. Moose, don't give up on that brewer, just because we had to pour the Dragon doo down the drain!

Speaking of our next leg of the journey (in kind of a roundabout way, I know) our crew needs some prayers for the next couple days. We'll be camping at Yellowstone National Park, and according to the weather forecast, it's supposed to be dipping into the lower 30s both nights we'll be in a tent!! After our chilly night in Oregon, the Professor did splurge on a better sleeping bag, but those kinds of temperatures do concern me more than a little bit. I was about to bail, but there are no vacancies anywhere at or around Yellowstone right now! Please pray that maybe the temps will be just a bit warmer, and that we as a family stay warm together.

I am doubting that I'll have any sort of internet connection for the next couple days (though I could be wrong), so I assume that the next time I'll be able to write will be in Rapid City, before our trek to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. Until then, thanks for following us, and we appreciate your prayers!