Sep 28, 2018
Don’t fence me in….
We are truly enjoying the joys of heading down the open road. Of the 49 nights from when we left home until we arrive on the Isla we are only staying in a Walmart four times, the rest will all be in RV parks. Staying in a Walmart is handy especially when you are covering 300 plus miles per day and are just stopping to eat and to sleep for the most part. In twenty one years of RVing with some stops each trip at a Walmart I have to say that last night was the worst ever. It started with me waking up at 2:30AM to a clanking sound. Someone was loading metal pieces into the back of his pick up at the far end of the lot ever so slowly and very loudly. Once he stopped a good 20 minutes later, I fell asleep again, Colin slept through it all. Then at 5:30AM Miss Security with the deep bass voice and a huge attitude began flashing her vehicle lights into cars that the homeless were sleeping in and knocking on their window while yelling “vehicle owner, you must move on, you are not allowed to overnight in this Walmart lot”. To the car nearest us she added that she had told them last night to move and if they were not gone by her shift tonight she would hook a tow truck up to their vehicle with them in it. I was shocked when she next began banging on the side of our RV to tell us to move on. We had asked for permission from this Walmart store to spend the night and they had even directed us specifically to where they wanted us to park for the night 😳 I so wanted to get out of bed and confront her, but Colin told me to just let it go. The RV parked behind us moved but none of the cars did, nor did the other RV. Just as I was about to fall asleep again a fellow came by on a noisy cart cleaning out all the garbage bins. Once he left our vicinity another dude came by in a noisy mini Zamboni picking up trash strewn here and there. I noticed that he made a point of driving right around the vehicles that Miss Security had called out to. Colin slept through all of that and I eventually fell asleep until 7:30 AM. Once up I saw that the sprinklers were hitting our RV more than the tiny bit of lawn they were to be watering. Such a huge waste of water, the parking lot had mini rivers running through it.
Yup, definitely the worse night ever spent in a Walmart. On the other hand we have had many more bad nights paying to stay in an RV park. We were driving out just over an hour later and I was lucky enough to have scored a decaf drip coffee from Starbucks to go 😀
As we drove away we saw this couple moving their vehicle. They were the ones threatened to be towed later today. Did they run out of gas, did the truck even run, did they have any money? They were young and we saw them smoking and talking on cell phones and eating junk for breakfast. Still you wonder what their story was. A few moments later we saw them just down the lot parked at MacDonald’s where he had pushed the truck.
Not too much later we crossed into Idaho and needed to fuel up the beast. Turns out that at $3.619 per gallon ( that was with our Good Sam, Pilot/Flying J, 8 cent per gallon discount ) we should have made more of an effort to fuel up in Washington.
Such a beautiful area of Idaho. Timothy Lake.
Followed by the fabulous Lake Coeur d’Alene. As you can see the sun came out.
Exit O!
I caught this by accident. Again today we did more mountain passes and so many were going much faster than the speed limit.
Once we crossed into Montana we climbed even higher. It wasn’t until I opened this photo that I realized what all the white crosses I saw today had meant.
We also lost an hour today as we crossed from PST to MST. The fall colors are just beginning to show in Montana.
Previous to this sign we had seen another stating that there was a free RV park ahead. Turns out this free park is in Haugan just off I90. I later saw a sign that if you stayed at Ruby’s Inn, exit 101 off of I90, that you will get a free home cooked breakfast. Montana seems like a good place to visit if you are on a budget.
Ahh those beautiful blue Montana skies. By the way, the historical town of Wallace looked like a very interesting place to stop for a few hours.
At one point today we both exclaimed at the speed limit of 80mph for cars and 65mph for trucks 8-O. Colin recalled that when he was in his early twenties driving through Montana that there was no speed limit! We can’t even imagine driving at 80mph.
Tonight we are staying at Chez Walmart in Butte. Again tonight we are getting free WiFi, last night compliments of Starbucks and tonight Walmart. Lots of open space around us. All the other RVers are crammed together in a tiny area. Their choice.
We drove 326.4 miles today. It was a good day.
Which map do you prefer? The first was Bing Maps and this one id Goggle Maps. You really can’t see much detail with either unless it is full screen.
Thank you all for your comments. We are both enjoying them. I just wish I could be happier about the temperature, the forecast says that we are going down to 30F tonight. Brrr.
One question, do these offline maps like Navmii that Kathy and Eric use and Suzie and George’s Microsoft Streets & Trips ( which I tried to figure out but could not ) tell you where you actually are as well as the direction ahead? I really need someone to teach me this stuff. But the I would still have to figure out how to use a Garmin. Enough for tonight. Anyone ( who has not been told by me ) know where we are heading?
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Garmin are super easy. All you have to do is enter an address.
I second what Jannose said–you would be pleasantly surprised as to how easy to use a Garmin GPS; there are also map updates over time while you are using Garmin over the years.
COLIN IS RIGHT. MONTANA WAS ALWAYS UNLIMITED SPEED EXCEPT AT NIGHT. THIS LASTED UNTIL THE ENERGY CRUNCH WHEN ALL SPEEDS HAD TO BE LOWERED TO 65 THEN 55 THROUGH POPULATED AREAS OF OVER 65,000. NOT CERTAIN ABOUT THAT LAST POPULATION. THE SALT LAKE CITY AREA WAS A REAL PAIN. YOU COULD DO 65, THEN DOWN TO 55, UP TO 65, ETC. SPEEDS WERE PAINTED ON THE ROADS BUT IN BUMPER TO BUMPER TRAFFIC YOU COULDN’T SEE THEM.THE STATES COULD GET NO FEDERAL FUNDING IF THE SPEED LIMITS WERE NOT LOWERED. ONCE THE CRUNCH WAS OVER, MONTANA WENT TO 75 THEN 80 IN CERTAIN AREAS. NO MORE UNLIMITED DAY TIME SPEED LIMIT. UTAH OR IDAHO ALSO HAVE A COUPLE OF 80 MPH STRETCHES. WE DROVE THOSE DURING THE TESTING PERIODS. ONE WAS 14 MILES LONG AND I CAN’T REMEMBER THE OTHER.
COEUR D’ALENE IS SUCH BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES.
Believe you are heading to Yellowstone National Park. Hope in your research you noted the Buffalo Bill Museum in nearby Cody, Wyoming as it is a wonderful museum. Your travels are bringing back our many RV trips there over the years. Hope you have a more peaceful sleep tonight.
I second this recommendation if you do go through Cody. I spent two full days at that museum!
From looking at your map, you stopped @ a Spokane Walmart?..They have the same issue with the bums as Seattle & Portland..Not to mention San Francisco….
Be aware of the cities that are too lenient with people who have no desire to work…
I didn’t hear your horn when you passed me…(:+)…..
Safe travel..eh??
David
P.S…I’m thinking you haven’t followed free campsites or such blogs?..
One of the passes you went over has a ski area and many bloggers are able to stop there and spend the night..or more for free..and no bums….
Haugen also has free spots with electricity, you don’t even have to purchase anything, but I always do..
The sites were large enough for even for you folks, the last time I was there…
I hope your night in Butte was better than the night before. We have stayed at the Butte Walmart many times, in the same spot you are in, and have never had a problem. Although I know where you are going I think I would have guessed by the direction you are going and the time of year you left 🙂
That night at Walmart beats my worst ever at the Walmart in Whitehorse!
I’ve done most of this route before, so this brought back lovely memories. I actually stayed at Lincoln’s World Famous for a couple of nights. http://www.raecrothers.ca/blog/into-montana/
Thanks for the update!
We have used streets and trips for well over 12 years, but only on a PC. The thing that we like is Suzie has added all the membership parks, rest areas, flying J’s and a lot of walmarts, make it nice form planning our trips. My preference is to plan a trip on google maps , then open google maps on my I phone. and it tells me exactly where to go. That Way I can customized my route anyway I like.
What a wonderful trip! I know the Walmart stays can be quite the hit and miss, but
You and Colin sure know how to live! Enjoy every step of the way.
Be safe!
Hugs to you.
Paul, Jan and Jazz
I guess I must be the only stuck in the mud dude here…I love paper maps! I have way too many; I also have to have a newspaper in my hands, along with books…
There is no way I can see a Garmin in my future or one of those Kindle things, what happens when your batteries or shore power dies?
Having traveled almost all the roads in Wa…Ore…Id..Mt..Wy..Nv…Ca….Utah…N.Dakota..Just touching on Az..Just maybe a silly ride for some but it’s been fun to ride the backroads and visit as many hotsprings as possible…
Clean fun and keeps me off the couch sitting at home..
Sorry Contessa, I forgot my trips to Whistler many years ago up the sometimes scary highway…
Fantastic snow!
Ride on..
David