Day 4: Kellog, ID to Puyallup, WA

392 miles
6:50 AM- 2:15 PM

Thank you, Lord, list:
Reservations successfully made for Monday at an alternate hotel to the one that burned.
Detours to scenic overlooks
Sunlight on wildflowers
Family
Saturday night pizza tradition

Most of National Geographic's Scenic Byways routes in this part of the country seem to go N-S--not the direction we want to go. Although our goal for the day was to arrive at his sisters for some family time,  Steve agreed to take a short detour off I-90 at Idaho 97 to an overlook with views of Lake Coere d'Alene. Gorgeous!

He even let me scamper further up with my camera.

Eastern Washington was dry and boring, but Steve's sister (who has driven this route many times) told us we should stop at the scenic overlook just before the Columbia River at Vantage. Wow! If I had been wearing something besides flip-flops I could enjoyed more scrambling on the rocks.

Western Washington is anything but boring. The clouds slipped down over the mountain tops in Snoqualmie Pass making everything mysterious. But the clouds didn't make for good pictures and there were no overlooks so, sorry,  no pictures.

You don't want to see an update on my afghan. I ripped it all out. I had been frustrated that the pattern wasn't emerging in a recognizable way. Then I realized that the pattern I got off the Internet had to be wrong. (I know. Hard to believe that you can't trust everything you read on the Internet.) For every repetition of the pattern I was taking away 3 stitches and adding 6. That meant that every four rows I was adding 30 stitches. That doesn't work! So in the boring east Washington stretch, I ripped out and cast on again, counting 4 times before I was sure I had the right number of stitches. (Distracted. We were starting to climb. Not the best place to stare cross-eyed at loops of nobby thread.) So I will be starting fresh on the first day we head north.

Day 3: Glendive, MT to Kellog, ID

796 mi

Thank you, Lord, list:
Lovely picnic spot in the mountains
Railtrail behind hotel

We started out again on I-94, but left it for US 12 at Forsyth. I-94 swings south and Mapquest said that 12 would be just as fast. It's a two-lane road with no shoulder at all for most of the distance. Much more interesting than an interstate. Not so removed front he geology.

We saw a grand total of five vehicles in the first hundred miles. The countryside started out dry with bits of badlands like we saw in North Dakota, looking like every cowboy movie I ever saw as a kid.

I got all excited when I saw these snowy mountains--our first on this trip. I pulled out the atlas to find out what they are called. They're called Snowy Mountains. Glad I asked.

Gradually we climbed. The hills got greener.  Steve picked this great spot for lunch in a beautiful pass.

After Helena we were in a whole different world.

We originally thought to fly to Alaska, take a tour and rent a vehicle for a bit of our own exploring. The cost was going to be more than this three-week meander in our own car. Well, my mother-in-law's car, which is roomier and has more power for the mountains than our Prius. The "cost" is hours and hours in the car. So I decided I needed a project. Here are the first two days of an afghan for our family room.

Good thing Steve made our reservations back in February. He had an e-mail tonight saying one hotel has to cancel because of a fire and it took an hour and a half on the phone with Expedia to find an alternative--in another town.

Tomorrow we will reach Steve's sister in Puyallup, Washington, spend the weekend and pick up Mom.

Day 2: St. Paul, MN to Glendive,MT

691 miles

Thank you, Lord, list:
Unexpected beauty in North Dakota
Extra time to enjoy it.

I-94 all day long. And we thought North Dakota was going to be boring, but we found that the rolling grasslands reminded us of Mpumulunga, South Africa.

And then we came to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Fortunately, because of starting in St. Paul instead of our home in Wisconsin, we had a little extra time--enough for the 35 mile scenic loop through the Badlands of North Dakota. North Dakota? You thought the Badlands were in South Dakota? So did we. These were greener after spring rains and more intimate--right up close and personal with a very scenic loop road through the incredible formations. 

"Extra time" did not include time to hike. I'm not sure how I would have felt about hiking with these critters anyway.

Sometimes they were right on the road.

And there is a whole other section of the park to explore next time.

Day 1 of the Great Alaska Road Trip

Day 1: 115 miles

Fjord near Juneau on the previous cruise

Pretty wimpy beginning. After all the organizing and packing of the car, we drove a measly two hours to our daughter's house in St. Paul. Pretty anti-climactic. But my monthly writers' group met tonight. No point in going home afterwards. (Great group! And I'm not just saying that because they told me to.)

I was in high school when I first heard of the Alaskan Highway. In those days it was a dirt road. You had to be an auto mechanic to attempt it and carry extra gas cans. I am not a mechanic; nor did I marry one. Eventually I gave up the trip as unrealistic, but it remained a dream.

Fast forward fifty years. Driving to Alaska has also been my 89-year-old mother-in-law's dream. A few years ago we cruised the Alaskan coast with her. That simply whet our appetites to see more of the interior. Mom is moving more slowly these days. She wants something to hold onto to steady herself. But her mind is alert. She can sit in the car and look out the windows and be as wowed by the scenery as my husband and I. We have traveled together before, and can be pretty sure we won't be at each other's throats after three and a half weeks of being cooped up in the same vehicle.

So here we go. Mom flew to Seattle last week for a few days with her daughter's family. Tomorrow Steve and I will begin our journey in earnest.

Books in Unexpected Places

Books. The printed kind with bright coloured covers and dog-eared pages. They are becoming rarer and rarer in my life as the convenience of downloading e-books to my phone directly from Amazon or the library takes over. But there is still something about the real thing calling to me from the coffee table or the nightstand, filling my bookcases with memories of favourites.

My grandchildren’s shelves are overflowing. A few months ago the second grader came down the stairs well after bedtime to confess to her parents that she had been reading by flashlight under the covers after the lights were turned off. Her parents looked at one another. How could they punish their kid for reading too much? She is now permitted to read for ten minutes after the lights are out. She still likes it best under the covers with a flashlight, but at least she doesn’t have to worry about getting caught.

On a recent trip to Korea to visit my other daughter, we took a day’s holiday at Nami Island. It is a cultural centre that celebrates books among other things. Besides the books in every room of our rented hut, this little shelter stood outside with a view of the river.

The playground included this collection of children’s books.

There were even books in the public toilet stall!

I’ve seen little libraries in other places. A red English phone box filled with books stands next to a bakery in Hungary where we stopped for coffee.

On her walks a friend makes the rounds of several free libraries (built by Lions Club) including this one in her own front yard. She scans her shelves at home for things someone else might want to read. Take one/leave one is the rule.

So where have you found books in surprising places? Where would you like to see one of these little libraries set up?
(Google Little Free Libraries to see lots more examples.)

[Republished from International Christian Fiction Writers.]

Babysitting--a Grandparent's Delightful "Job"

I set this blog up because I wanted to be able to post for family and friends WHILE I am traveling, and not wait until I get home in case some thief is waiting to rob my house when I'm gone. But it came with a link to my Google Profile. So much for anonymity. Now I am home and finally have time to figure out how to disconnect my Google Profile. Yay! In the future I will try again. Here's my unposted blog on our weekend in Disney. (Brief because I didn't have my own computer either. Next time…) 

We're in Florida! Given the 

cold weather at home, it feels great.

We went to babysit. After all
 that's what grandparents are for!

Mom ran the Dopey at Disney (5k, 10k, half, and
full marathons on successive days).
Trainer Dad ran the marathon along side Mom
and kept her going when she flagged.
Simeon ran his first 100m kid run and loved it.

It was a fun weekend of good food, and hanging out with loved ones. One of the best parts was seeing Simeon so soon after Christmas so that we weren't strangers. He took immediately to Grandpa. (Of course!) It was hard to say goodby.

In the Footsteps of the Martyrs

[Reposted from my website]

One day on our recent visit to Split, Croatia, we took a city bus to the late Roman city of Salona.

Salona, a city of 70,000 people, was the birthplace of the future Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century. You can see the modern city of Silon in the background.

A city of 70,000 people requires a major sewer system.

Diocletian was the last pagan emperor, responsible for a major persecution of Christians. As I walked across the grassy floor of this area where several died, I though how great a cloud of witnesses are there to inspire my faith.

The city was sacked by the Avars and Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries. Survivors settled inside the ruins of Diocletian's palace in nearby Split, where we stayed on our holiday.

When we passed the fish market, I had to check out what they looked like before the cook got a hold of them--significantly less appetizing.

We ate some new and exciting foods during our month in Croatia. This cuttlefish seasoned with its own ink in a tiny cafe beneath the wall of Diocletian's Palace was my most spectacular.

Split is first and foremost the sort of resort where the locals spend their summer vacation, and the sea is what they go for. It was too chilly for us, although I have no doubt that my grandchildren would have been happy to join the swimmers who braved the waters of the Adriatic even in late October.

Our two and a half days in Split inspired us to want to return and explore more of this fabulous coast. Who knows if we ever will, but we certainly enjoyed the time we had.