2800 miles from Michigan

We made it safely to Arlington, Washington despite innumerable mountain passes -- twisty,

twisty mountain passes with 75 mph speed limits on the interstate highways. But the trip

has been worth every mile we've put behind us

In my last blog I mentioned the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I still marvel at that

park which we were not aware of. I had heard of the Badlands but it never really sank in just how bad. We were talking about how difficult it must have been to the pioneers as they

went through the badlands.

The next night we stayed in Jamestown, Montana from which we headed(the next day) to Yellowstone National Park. Wonderful -- but it exposed us to our first real narrow winding roads and significant climbs. At one point we crossed the Continental Divide at 8300 feet

altitude. Lots of big trees and it was not as scary as I expected. The high point of the day was Yellowstone Falls - Got beautiful pictures (see above) Did not see Old Faithful because of crowded parking lots. But there were a lot of other things that made up for it.

The weather was wonderful - but very cold at Yellowstone. I was glad for a heavy sweater

But the rains came as we left the park heading for Ennis, MT where we stayed at a really nice "mom and pop" motel. A really nice town.

However, we goofed the next morning, Took State highway 287 when we should have taken US Highway 287. It was a spectacular ride and worth every second of the mistake, Picked up

Interstate 90 again a little east of Butte and after Missoula is when we got into the mountain passes and twisty Interstate highways. I don't think the ladies in the car appreciated the

twisty roads at high speed but it was a spectacular ride just the same. Spent our next night

at Moses Lake, Washington. The next day we finally made it to Arlington and got our first taste of Seattle traffic. I hate it and hope we don't have to contend with too much more. But our visit to Jeff's has been great.

One last note - I love the Dodge Caliber gas mileage. The lowest was 28 in the heavy driving

at Yellowstone. All the other days averaged 31 to a max of 34 mpg in some of the really flat lands on cruise control. Much better than I expected.

As I said, we're enjoying our visit to Jeff and Wayne's. gonna leave on Tuesday morning if we can find a slot in the traffic pattern.