Thursday, 15 September 2011 Big White, BC - Walmart, Smelterville, Idaho

The morning plan was to get up and go...

This had a series of assumptions embedded that included the packing of car, tidying of the apartment and general joint preparedness. Unfortunately this did not occur so we were still getting ready to leave at 11am and finally departed at around 12:30! We had hoped to make it close to Yellowstone having decided that we would skip the Glacier NP on the way down and catch it on our return.

We drove toward our chosen border crossing and stopped for lunch and coffee along the way. We had done some pre-shopping to get us through the first few days.

At the border the questions related to what fruit did we have and of course we had a lot, all washed with the stickers removed. So after nearly losing the lot, the border guards decided that the tomatoes were the most offensive material and promptly confiscated them. This did not impress Shoeleh, but we were through and on our way.

Next we were onto the US side and heading toward Spokane, which we arrived at about 4:30pm so we hit the shops Safeway and Walmart in order to stock up Clancy and us for the journey.

Now we acquired a few purchases here in an attempt to ease our holiday travels. Firstly it was Coleman Fridge, Garmen Nuvi 1300 and a conection to allow us to listen to music. These were to be our next phase of preparedness for travel.

The fridge/cooler gave us storage without the need for ice and an AC adaptor to plug in if needed, the decision was based on the cost of ice every few days. So we transferred the goods to the cooler and then it was off to McDonalds for the free WiFi to set up the navigator.

Now the GPS unit was decided upon as our failure to acquire internet services was causing us some grief while travelling. Alaska and northern Canada only have a few roads so it is a little hard to get lost the lower 48, we felt that matrimonial harmony required a little more detailed mapping than what we had. Now we started the device, updated the maps, registered the product and selected the female English voice for directions.

Having borrowed enough free WiFi, bought a coffee and headed off as the sun was setting and it was with this in mind we headed for Bozeman, Montana.

So, the sun sets a little earlier than what we had been expecting and with the road, mountain passes and construction activity we soon found ourselves travelling at speed in the night. This was not quite how we expected the journey to begin.

As time passed and the ability to see to far ahead diminished there was an agreement to find somewhere to stop. This proved a little easier said than done, stopping was easy finding the place to stay not so. We asked our newly acquired device for assistance and she failed to find the identified RV park. So back on the highway we saw a Walmart.

Now after our earlier thoughts on Walmart staying this ended up being an agreed necessity and so we pulled into the carpark and set the car up for the night's sleep.

Animals Spotted: ravens, squirrels and domestic animals

Day Sixty-one