Days 6 thru 12: Seattle to Montana Via Canada

Dear Friends,
I hope that I might remember all that has happened in these six days since writing you last so that you may better follow our travels, but I am afraid that my memory may not be up to the task. I shall endeavor to relay as best I can the events leading up to our present condition in Whitefish, Montana. Our time in Seattle was used well, spending a significant amount of time with my family and seeing a few of Seattle's sights, including Harry Potter in 3-D (well, at least twelve minutes in 3-D, including credits), as well as a butterfly exhibit at the Seattle Science Center in which one may walk through a dome filled with plants and butterflies from various locales. We were fortunate enough to see one emerge from a cocoon, but not fortunate enough to have remembered to charge the camera batteries to preserve the event for you. We had considered attending the Seattle Lindy Exchange, however the dance on Saturday night was $25 per person, a prohibitive price in our case, but we managed to entertain ourselves Monday night by going to a regularly scheduled dance at Sonny Newman's. We left Seattle on Wednesday morning on Highway 2 which took us over Stevens Pass through Wenatchee and into Leavenworth, a "Bavarian Village". I hope the pictures will accurately portray the fanciful whimsy that the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce has so rigorously maintained despite the setback of being in the 21st century and in the United States. From there we traveled onward to Spokane and from there, Idaho. I should mention that between Leavenworth and Spokane we managed to drive through two monsoons and had the pleasure of learning the difficulties of driving a 1-ton hydroplane. None the worse for wear, we spent Wednesday night in Idaho at a location I cannot remember. We are slowly learning the intricacies of spending the night on privately owned land: finding a site out of the way enough so as not to be on a regular patrol route for the local law enforcement, but not so far off the beaten path that we might be shot for trespassing. Thursday we continued to Sandpoint, ID where we found a small coffee shop. It is here we made our first attempt to get jobs. Telling us she would call by Saturday if she was interested in some vagabonds, we left the owner to her brewing and made our way into Canada via Highway 95. Let me tell you my impressions of Canada: It costs $3.00 for an avocado. I know of no God-fearing man heartless enough to charge a starving fellow human being $3.00 for an avocado (organic of course). Until now...Canada. More of my observations about Canada include: It has clouds at all elevations, from a few hundred feet, into the stratosphere (granted I'm not entirely certain where the stratosphere begins) that form citadels of billowy, white cotton candy. Canada grows potatoes while Idaho does not (at least where South Eastern British Columbia and Northern Idaho are concerned). Canada has hot springs, but they have been dug out and used to heat chlorinated pools filled with more obnoxious tourists than anything resembling water from a natural source. But these facts are neither here nor there, and I shall move us back to the narrative, which I find much more edifying. After the aforementioned displeasure at the state of the local water resources, we obtained directions to an undeveloped hot springs, where we met a friendly Canadian Gent whose every sentence came out as a question. The springs were tiered with the highest being closest to the source and the lowest combining with a small river which was icy cold. We spent about an hour and a half chatting about this and that, later staying at a nearby campground. I can still smell the sulpher being exuded from my pores. Leaving the camp ground bright and early (around 4:30 a.m.) we eluded the Canadian Provincial Forest Rangers and found somewhere to spend the rest of the night that didn't cost $15. That brings us more or less to our present location in Montana. Whitefish is a nice town of medium size that hosts a large population of outdoor enthusiasts, a middle school that is about as big as my high school (my graduating class was over 400 strong), and at least 2 NFIB members. This weekend is a National Parks free day which we will take advantage of in Glacier National Park, and I hope you will enjoy it just as much in your part of the world. I trust that you are all well and staying out of more trouble than we are getting into.
Pickles

Current Mileage: 1836 mi.
Times locked out: 0