Montana

We left Seattle on Thursday under the same overcast skies that we experienced the 3 days we were there.  Some of you may have seen that a bridge on I-5 in Washington State collapsed.  We traveled I-5 each of those 3 days, but not the stretch with that bridge.  That was north of us. 

When we got on I-90 heading EAST, my heart smiled.  I-90 is an interstate we recognize as we travel it back home when going to Chicago.  If I was excited seeing something familiar that is that small, imagine what I will do when we actually cross the Michigan border!

We had mountain driving for a while, then eastern Washington gave way to rolling farmland.  It was raining (hard to believe, huh?) and so Mike turned on the windshield wipers.  You may remember they didn’t work very well, and we spent an entire morning back in St. George, Utah looking for replacements with no luck.  In California, we found a large RV dealership that had some, so we bought them.  We made the mistake of not putting them on until we were hundreds of miles away in northern California and they didn’t fit!  (they will be listed on Craig’s List as soon as we get home!)  When we went to Sandy, Oregon to get the latch fixed, they had the correct ones and installed them for us.  Perfect!

Not quite.  When Mike turned them on the new ones did the exact same thing as the old ones – left an 8 inch path that didn’t wipe clear.  So it wasn’t that the old wipers were bad!  We would have put up with it if the area was on my side of the windshield, but it was on Mike’s.  We pulled over at the next rest stop and Mike tried to bed the arm to make better contact with the windshield.   You guessed it – the wiper broke.  I know I haven’t thanked God enough for his protection on this trip, and I realized it when we had to continue on and it stopped raining and we made it to Bozeman, Montana the next day without it EVER raining again! (and we found several times that we locked our car when sight-seeing, but when we got back to it, it wasn’t locked because my set of keys were in it.  A safety feature.  But you should see the stuff we have packed in that Jeep!)

We continued on and I got on the phone trying to find locations ahead of us that may be able to put on a new wiper.  I started with Spokane first, as we were about 175 miles from there.  3 hours later, after trying RV dealerships from Spokane to Bozeman, we called our dealership back in Michigan and made arrangements to have them ship the new wiper to a Cummins dealership in Billings, Montana and we will go there when we leave Yellowstone.  So you can keep praying for no rain on our travel days until next Friday!  This will be our second trip to a Cummins shop for repairs since we began.

The farmland ended when we crossed over into Idaho.  Back to mountainous driving.  We were only in Idaho for about 3 hours, so I don’t count it as a state we visited.   When we stopped in Missoula, Montana for the night, it makes Montana our 13^th state.  It was a LONG day and we stayed in a Wal-Mart parking lot (sorry, Josh), pulling in about 8:30.  This was our first stay not in a campground.  Mike strongly dislikes not being in a campground.  And when he saw 8 other RV’s all ready there and space limited, he said it is the last time we will do it.  We didn’t put any slides out (most people do) and were out of there at 7am. 

Friday’s drive continued east and took us through Butte, MT.  We started noticing snow on the vehicles passing us and snow in the back of pick-up trucks we saw.

IT IS THE END OF MAY!  I’m not talking about a light dusting or spitting snow.  This was snow, and lots of it on the side of the road.  We saw a family having a snowball fight at a rest area.

Another little hiccup – a passing truck threw up a stone and we now have a crack in our windshield.  That will wait until we get home to get fixed (along with the awning that we had removed back in the Arizona windstorm.  As our friend Emma said, “Ah, the joys of RVing!)  None of these things have stopped our progress, so we are thankful for the BIG things.. . .

We got to Bozeman around noon on Friday.  A nice, family run campground that gets our stamp of approval because a) we could fill up our propane tank,; b) the guy said, “Follow me to your site”.  And he helped Mike line up on the site.  Usually we unhook the Jeep when we check in , then I drive it ahead of Mike back to our site, try to find somewhere to park it out of the way so I can jump out and help Mike line up on the site; and c) they let us wash the motorhome.

We wash this thing more than most people wash their car!  When it came to washing the Jeep, Mike said not to use the RV wash because we are almost out.  Now if we can make sure we can’t find any more of the special wash liquid. . . .One can only hope. . .

Saturday we drove to Big Sky Resort, about 45 minutes south of Bozeman.  Mike had been here over 15 years ago and he really wanted me to see it.  We knew the skiing would be over, but hoped to be able to ride the gondola to the top (over 11,100 ft.) and just see the whole development.  Sometimes our timing is good and sometimes not.  Today was a not.  The resort closes from April 17 to June 5 during “mud season”.  We did walk around the area where the ski lifts are located.  An area filled with shops, restaurants, outdoor seating areas around fire pits, lodging, and equipment places.  It was deserted, but we got a close up view of a few of the ski runs and the peak. 

This wasn’t the town.  That was at the base of the mountain, along with a golf course.

Lunch was the same place Mike had dinner all those years ago – The Corral, just outside of town.  The pictures should give you a better idea of it than my words would.

The drive to and from Bozeman to Big Sky follows the Gallatin River.  There were lots of signs advertising fly-fishing trips and white water rafting.  We saw both.

On Sunday we head to Gardiner, MT, just outside the north entrance to Yellowstone.  We are staying there for two nights, hoping to get into a campground inside Yellowstone after the holiday weekend.  Our plan is to do day trips into Yellowstone until we can get a campsite inside, and will stay until Friday.

In case I don’t post again before Monday – Happy Memorial Day and Thank-you to all veterans and current service men and women who have made our country the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Pictures today are: entering Idaho;  a good reminder of the time zone change (my watch has always been on Michigan time, but all the clocks in the RV and the Jeep are on local time); the Montana state sign.  OK- obviously government workers have no idea the pleasure a  catchy, interesting  “Welcome to. . . “ state sign can give a road-weary traveler like me!; how we look going down the road, except we have the door closed!; Montana landscape – cattle grazing with a mountain backdrop;  the snow in Butte;  Big Sky sign;  ranch fencing (this is one of those silly things that I get a kick out of because it is what you envision it to be); a long-range view of the Big Sky peak;  a sign at the ski lift;  a close-range view of a few of the ski runs and peak; two views of the inside of The Corral,  Notice the bear skins on the ceiling; and white-water rafters.

More of Seattle

The hoped for window of clearing never appeared on Wednesday.  For once, I think our pictures may give an accurate portrayal – gray.

The overcast skies and intermittent rain ruled out some of our options for today:  Mt Rainier and Olympic National Park (which has a drive to a viewpoint that was recommended) got scratched off the to-do list.   It’s not like we hit a bad stretch of weather.  This is pretty much typical for here.  It was 48 degrees at noon today.

Microsoft headquarters are in Redmond, about 25 miles outside of Seattle.  Mike did some online research and found they have a visitor’s center so we headed there.  On a side note, all states have roads that are within their boundaries.  They are not interstate highways or even US highways.  For example in Michigan, Ionia is at the intersection of M-66 and M-21.  Here in Washington, they have state roads, too, and on the signs, a white silhouette of George Washington’s profile identifies them.  (This almost makes up for their lame sign at the state border.)   These are the kinds of things that make me smile.  Remember – useless information is my specialty.

Fortunately, Mike did that online research because there were no signs directing us to a visitor’s center once we got to the Microsoft campus.  And I mean campus.  As in a university campus.  There was a multitude of buildings with connecting walkways, bike paths, lots of green spaces, and basketball courts behind many of the buildings.  Everyone walking seemed to be 30 or younger, all in jeans or casual clothes.  We knew the visitor’s center was located in Building 92 and there were signs for all the buildings so we did find it.  Parking was another issue.  The lot for this building was full so we just drove to the next one and parked in their lot.

There still was no sign at Building 92 indicating a visitor’s center, but we walked inside and stopped at the first desk we saw.  Building 92 had more in it than the center.  We were indeed in the right place.  Proclaiming progress to be "increasing the speed and quality of communication", the first thing you see when you enter the center is a long display of “communication tools” where you see an early model and today’s model.   For example, they had a big clunky cell phone, and the latest version of a Windows cell phone.  Or they had a really old TV and then a laptop on which you can watch TV.   Or an original Atari game console and the latest Xbox 360 model.  You get the idea. 

The next display was a picture of the original Microsoft workers taken in the 70’s and a current picture of them with an explanation of where they are today.  If we remember correctly,  Bill Gates and one other guy are still with Microsoft.  All the others left and most of them started their own tech companies or invested in tech start-ups.  Several are full-time philanthropists.  (Microsoft millions will give you that luxury!)

After the “where are they now” information, the rest of the visitor’s center was, in Mike’s words, “Like an Apple retail store”.  It was all hands on with Microsoft products, from tablets to PCs to laptops to phones to Xbox.  It was more of a “see what technology (driven by Microsoft) can do”.

I saw others in the visitor’s center really enjoying the games and large touch screen devices, (Mike put a small puzzle together on one) but I was a little disappointed.  As if you couldn’t tell by now, I like history.  I like the backstory.  I like the “why”.  When we walked out, the girl at the desk asked if we had any questions.  I had a million of them, but politely said, “No.”  Five steps later I turned around and said, “Actually, yes.  I thought there would be more information like how many buildings are on this campus, or why did it start in Albuquerque and why is Microsoft now located in Redmond and how many employees does Microsoft have and all the people we see walking around seem fairly young so what is the average age of an employee. . . “   She held up her hand to stop me and said, “This should help answer most of your questions” and she reached in a drawer and gave me a Microsoft Fact Sheet. If they took a cue from a presidential library, they would have this info on a timeline in the visitor center!  She also said, “As to why did Microsoft begin in New Mexico and end up here, I don’t know. I do not know if it is true, but this is the story I heard.  Bill Gates grew up in this area and he decided to move the company here because people would work harder and not want to go outside all the time in this weather compared to the Albuquerque sunshine.”  Now that’s the kind of stuff I want to know!

When I asked the population of Redmond, she said she didn’t know.  I said, “That’s OK – I’ll Google it.  Oops, I mean I’ll Bing it.”  (Bing is the Microsoft version of Google.  I felt bad enough taking all my pictures in the center with my Apple iPhone).  She laughed and said, “I do that all the time.  People will call and if I don’t know the answer I’ll suggest they Goog. . . use Bing!”

For those that care, this is what I got from the fact sheet:  Microsoft was founded in 1975.  It moved from New Mexico to Bellevue, WA in 1979.  In 1981, IBM introduced a personal computer with a Microsoft MS-DOS operating system.  The corporate headquarters moved to Redmond in 1986.  Windows was launched in 1990.  (I think they are currently on Windows 8)  Xbox came out in 2001.  In 2008, Bill Gates transitioned out of the day–to-day operations of the company to spend more time working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on health and human welfare issues.

For the fiscal year ending in June 2012, Microsoft’s net income was $23.60 billion.

Microsoft employs 94,290 people worldwide; 55,455 in the United States and 40,854 in the Puget Sound area.

And those younger people we saw out walking?  Maybe only the younger people walk because the highest percentage (44.5%) of their workers is over 40.  The 30-39 age group was a close second at 40.5%.

We are use to visitor centers having a gift shop – Microsoft was no exception.  It was called a Company Store.

With the weather still yucky, we drove back to the ferry terminal and found a much shorter line than yesterday so we did what so many in this area do – took a ferry to one of the islands in Puget Sound.  The shortest trip was to Whidbey Island, so that’s the route we chose.  The 30-minute crossing was so smooth we wondered if we were moving.  We stayed on the island about two hours, just driving around.  We came across and made a stop at a Dairy Queen, and found a state park that had a lighthouse and an old fort – Fort Casey, one of three forts built in the 1890’s to protect the Puget Sound.  There is a Naval Outlying Field on Whidbey and a jet fighter was continually buzzing around above us, much to Mike’s delight. 

When we got off the ferry back on the mainland, the holding area was full and there were cars lined up to get in the holding area for a mile back down the road.  We decided we would not want to do that commute every single day.  Perhaps if we had one of the cottages on the shore it might be worth it, but most of the island was just like the mainland.  Our friend's brother does a commute from one of the other islands, but he doesn't take his car (a BIG plus because you never have to wait.  You just walk onto the ferry) and he gets off in downtown Seattle where he then has a 3 block walk to work.  That is much more reasonable.

Our waitress at dinner was from Ohio and moved out here because she fell in love with the area after vacationing here.  We said, “Even with the weather like today?”  She said, “Yes, there will be a whole week or more like today, but that one day when the sky is clear and the sun is shining, you can see Mt. Rainier in one direction, Mt. Baker in another, the Olympic mountains in another.  Combined with the beaches, it is wonderful. Plus, the average temperature in the winter is 40, with very little snow.” 

Too bad for us we never got that one sunny day.  We are ready to move on.

Thursday marks a turning point for us.  Literally.    After two months of heading west, we begin the eastward journey home. Our first major destination is Yellowstone National Park.  It will take us several days to get there, so unless something REALLY interesting happens on the road, I won’t be writing anything for a couple days.  Or I may decide to write a post with all the little odds and ends of things I think of after I have already posted.  We plan to get to Idaho by Thursday night.

Pictures today are: the Washington profile; entrance to Microsoft Visitor Center; Mike and I with the Microsoft brain trust; the old and current photos of employees; Mike and I Skyping with each other (we were only about 5 ft. apart!);  sign at entrance to Microsoft campus; Whidbey Island ferry; our Jeep on the ferry; Welcome to Whidbey sign as we got off the ferry; lighthouse on the island and the view from it.

Seattle

Before chronicling our last two days, I have to acknowledge the situation in Moore, Oklahoma.  We don’t watch much TV on the trip, but Mike gets FOX and CNN updates on his phone.  (when the bombing happened in Boston, my sister texted me to alert us).  Also, we stopped for fuel on Monday and while I was at the counter paying for it, they had a TV on with coverage.  So we knew to turn the TV on when we got set up. Having just gone through Moore last month (remember in my post I mentioned it was the home of Toby Keith?), and with our friends Richard and Kathy in Oklahoma City, it has touched us a little more.  We texted Richard on Monday and didn’t hear back from him until Tuesday and they are OK.  We are thankful for the BIG things. . .

As you can see, I took a picture of our under storage door held shut with duct tape.  It was an easy fix – only took an hour.  It was a very overcast, foggy morning on Monday or the service guy said we would have gotten a great view of Mt. Hood.

Heading north to Seattle, we crossed the Columbia River again, which, if you recall, is the dividing line between Oregon and Washington.  On the bridge, there was a small sign that said, “Entering Washington”.  I thought, “OK, there will be a better sign once we are on the Washington side.”  Wrong.   There was nothing, and we were on a major interstate.

C’mon people!  Where is your imagination?  How about: “Welcome to Washington – Birthplace of Overpriced Coffee!”  or “Welcome to Washington – The Land of Windows (the Microsoft kind)” or “Welcome to Washington – The Last United State on the West Coast before Canada”

The clouds cleared away, the sun came out and from I-5 we got a beautiful view of Mount St. Helens!  That is when I sent an email link to a real-time webcam aimed at the volcano.  I hope you all got to see it.

As we neared Seattle, we rounded a turn and got a perfect look at downtown.  Our campground is about 20 minutes north of the city.  Getting set up was tricky.  The lots are concrete, but sloped a little.  Our first clue that it may be hard to get the RV level was the boards provided at every campsite to put under the tires.  They had no other empty sites we could move to so we used the boards to prevent our back tire from being off the ground and made it work. (For the non-campers, when the jacks go down, the back one had to lift the rear of the RV so high to get it to level with the front, the tire came off the ground.)

There was an Irish pub- O’Finnigin’s less than a mile down the road so we went to get dinner.  It looked a little run down, so we decided in the parking lot that if it was a dive inside we would just get something to drink and leave.  We judged the book by its cover and we shouldn’t have.  The food was great and one of the owners was working behind the bar.  A really nice young man (probably early 30’s) who was so helpful with suggestions on what we should do and see in Seattle.  Getting recommendations from a local is always better than the brochures I pick up at the campground offices.  (Trip Advisor is my go-to app on this trip, also).

We knew the forecast for Tuesday was for rain, and it started in the middle of the night.  We waited until late morning to head downtown and by the time we got there, the rain had stopped.  After paying an outrageous amount to park the Jeep, we walked several blocks to the famous Pike Place Market.  The market spans several blocks, open on the street side.  Our first stop?  The most famous stall in the famous market – Pike Place Fish Market.  Home of the Flying Fish.  I thought they threw fish and people standing around caught them.  Not so.  They have several guys in front of the iced fish and when a crowd gathers (usually guaranteed if kids are in the crowd), a guy behind the fish counter yells, and throws a fish to one of the employees catches it.  But it looks like the fish is coming right at you and he catches it at the last second.  I hope that comes through in the picture.  Some of the fish comes from the area, but the majority was caught in Alaska the night before and flown overnight to the market. 

Walking down the market, the stalls are filled with food, fresh produce, crafts, T-shirts, souvenirs and flowers.  Across the street was the original Starbucks coffee shop.  I was ready for a foo-foo coffee (caramel macchiato to be exact) but the line was out the door.  I should have invoked the Disney World rule (you know there is going to be a line but you just have to get in it), but since Mike doesn’t like Starbucks, I didn’t want to wait in line just for myself.  So I didn’t get to see the inside of the store, or ask what the price of a caramel macchiato was back in 1979 when they opened.

So we didn’t buy fish or coffee, but we did buy donuts at a bakery stall.  We then walked about 5 blocks to catch a monorail that took us to an area called Seattle Center.  The Space Needle is there.  The monorail was built in 1962 to transport people from the grounds of the World’s Fair (now called Seattle Center) to downtown. What the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the Space Needle is to Seattle.  Both were built as enduring monuments to commerate a World’s Fair.   We paid $19 each (the guy at the Irish Pub warned us it was pricey) to ride an elevator 605 ft. up (in 41 seconds) to the top of the needle.  We should have been able to see Mt. Rainier, but, once again, the overcast skies blocked it out.  But we did get terrific views of downtown Seattle and the Puget Sound.

Dale Chihuly, a glass artist, has his museum next to the Space Needle.  We considered it, but we could see several of the works that were outside and hanging inside and they were all ones I had seen at his exhibit at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, so we decided not to. 

We ended the day driving to a ferry dock near our campground.  Since so many people in this area live on the islands in the Puget Sound and ferry rides are an everyday part of their lives, we thought we would take a ferry over to one of the closer islands, just for the experience.  We hit it at a very busy time and cars were lined up in 20 rows, at least 10 deep.  So we went into a waterfront eatery, had some seafood chowder and watched the ferry come and go through the windows!  We may try again tomorrow in the morning, as most people should be coming off the island, not going over to it. 

Rain is forecasted for all day tomorrow (welcome to the Pacific Northwest!).  It is raining hard as I type.  But we are hoping for a window of clearing to do more exploring.

Pictures today are:  duct tape door; as we were leaving Portland, I saw these floating houses.  The garage doors open for boats, not cars!;  the Space Needle from our drive into Seattle; a view of Pike Place Market; several pictures of the Fish Market.  I’m standing with one of the fish-catching guys; the original Starbucks store; ferry boats in Puget Sound; catching a fish; under the Space Needle; views from the top;  read the sign, another claim to be “the first”;  entrance to Space Needle; we drove by a Boeing plant, home to those 747’s; the cars lined up for the ferry and after the cars are loaded, people walking onto the ferry.