Friday July 18th

Departure: Penticton BC

Arrival: Thompson Fallls MONTANA

First things first thru the boarder into the US went rather smooth and quick. Only one hiccup which was Bryce not informing Rachel that he was going to tell the Guards we weren't carrying liquor. Well the guard took one look at Rachel's face and said."I don't know she seems hesitant". Oh dear! For anyone who knows Rachel you know she Cannot lie. I think the only face better than the guard laughing was Bryce's face looking at Rachel like don't blow this. Needless to say the guard did let the two of thru.

WE drove thru Washington stopping in the small town of Republic. As we passed over the Columbia River and Lake Roosevealt our plan was to have lunch in Kettle Falls but missed the turnoff so we found a nice little view point called Crystal Falls. WE had our first picnic lunch there looking over a little waterfall. Bryce scaled some logs across the river. Some of the pics show this spot. We had a great time climbing around and exploring..

We pushed thru across Idaho via Sandpoint not too adventurous other than some gravel roads which were pretty hard on the bikes on the back of the car. You pass those big semis on those roads and rocks are flying up. The car took a rock bullet to the wind shield.

Passing across the boarders of states is pretty much like passing from Vancouver to Burnaby not that eventful and most of the time it isn't even a fancy sign. It is really neat to see the change of scenery as you venture closer to one state. The beginning of Montana was much more beautiful than Washington and Idaho.

We decided to stay in Thompson Falls Montana as it was by a river and a good starting point to head to Yellowstone the next day. WE had a hard time finding a grocery store so we stopped to ask for directions. It has been decided that Rachel is the one to make friends and talk to strangers on this trip cause Bryce thinks she is good at it. Turns out she is. The one person out of the whole town she picks to ask for directions turns out to be the State Senator Representative and gives us the official welcome to Thompson Falls. Turns out he is from Penticton. Hilarious! WE feel pretty good about our first day as our campsite was great and our set up went well. Bryce made an excellent dinner on our new stove. The only odd thing was a screaming moose all night ..guess he was looking for some lovin. And well there was a train track on the other side of us. This seems to be a common thing in the Munro camping.