Carol & Warner's Trip Around The USA: Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Kennewick, WA to Missoula, MT

Yikes, what a change! From flat, flat, flat to mountains everywhere except where Missoula lies. You know how I am obsessed with contrast. Today was loaded with it!

We started out with the biggest sky you ever saw with isolated houses and small villages dotted over a very flat landscape. Emptiness was king! I confess to enjoying the emptiness.

Slowly the landscape changed. Gentle hills gradually grew into bigger hills and just after Sprague, which the town before Spokane, WA, evergreens began to appear and soon the landscape became completely populated with evergreen trees.

We passed through Spokane, crossed the border into Utah and drove to Coeur d’Alene, Utah on I-90 with a detour for lunch beside Coeur d’Alene Lake. Big lake!

Soon thereafter, we were in the mountains with snow-capped peaks looming over us. We encountered two mountains passes (one, Lookout Pass at 4630 feet). The remainder of the trip was a matter of slowly descending the mountains into the Valley where Missoula is located.

And here we are in an interesting Motel 6. This is not your mother’s Motel 6. Newly renovated with blue doors emblazoned with very large room numbers in white, the rooms have bluish white walls with one light blue wall. The covering on the beds matches the walls. You sense that someone thought about decorating the room. Very pleasant.

The desk clerk called us to ask if everything was to our satisfaction.