European Sevens: Day 5, July 8, 2009

Day 5 was mostly a travel day. We had to get to Columbia Falls, Montana by evening, and had no stops scheduled. Jacob to the first shift, and we had a very difficult time finding our way to a store to buy batteries for the camera and breakfast. We finally did; however, and then had a very hard time finding our way onto the proper freeway. So it was a late start. Yakima isn't very visitor friendly as far as signs and roads go.

Just outside of Yakima we got a very disant but interesting view of Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, although they were both still partially shrouded in cloud despite the clear skies. The road to Montana was rather fast, so while we saw a lot of pretty country it is hard to remember and we took few pictures. We did see a lot of farming and ranching operations, and discovered that they irrigate EVERYTHING in eastern Washington. In one field they had circle irrigation set up, and where the irrigation fell we saw distinct green grass while immediately after the irrigation stopped the ground was dry, rocky, and covered with yucca.

Mount Adams in the distance (can you see it)

Mount Rainier in the distance

We did see a very neat valley after dropping off a tall mesa, and we saw a couple of crop dusters and a UH-1 Iroquoi military chopper. We stopped in Spokane for lunch and met more horrid traffic as Megan took over driving and fought construction back to the interstate.

We quickly made it to Idaho and started seeing a lot of pine trees and changing elevation. The Coeur d'Alene area was especially pretty as we drove along the lake, but it was very busy also. And it took us little time to get into Montana since the panhandle of Idaho is fairly narrow.

We left I-90 at St Regis, Montanta to try to cut off some of the distance. That part of the day became pretty long and we had to make an emergency stop at a little gas station in some small town that we don't remember. The people there didn't seem very friendly. But we made it on to Ravalli and headed north toward our destination.

The end of our day was amazing, though we were very tired. Flathead Lake was large and pretty, and we could see very abrupt mountain ranges off to the east. We pulled into Columbia Falls and met up with Mom, Dad, Nathan, and Kristin at the Super 8 (I think that was what it was). It was a very nice hotel with a rustic look. We then met Caleb, Amanda, Seth, Jared, and Ethan at the A&W next door and had a great time. Later we visited in Mom and Dad's room and made plans for our stay in Glacier which would start the next morning!