Road Trip 2015

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I leave in a week for one of our periodic family road trips. As in the past (2011,
2008, and 2005) I'll post a travelogue with daily messages. To get started I have highlighted my expected overnight destinations in red (Cardston AB not shown) including multiple nights in Birch Bay, WA (pink). Once I depart I'll change the map to show the route and stops. As with my other trips I'm open to meet ups with other posters as time permits.

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The Skagit destination was booked last year to coincide with the week when I have a meeting in Seattle. The MN layover is the only one associated with a personal friend. Layovers in ND, WA, and OR are at the request of my kids who haven't slept in those states before (OR for me as well). Otherwise destinations are spaced to keep the travel days at 350 to 600 mi (600 to 1000 km) depending on anticipated stops.

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angus, the good news for us is that the stop frequency is now reduced compared to years gone by. If you look at my 2005 log and apply a decade of math I will now be traveling with adult children at 20 and 22. The driving gets easier with the extra drivers, but lodging gets more complicated since I can't pile everyone into a bed (or two given the age and genders involved). However, points at hotel chains do have value in this type of planning.

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Day 1

The start of the trip isn't much to write about. We didn't start until early afternoon because of a couple of sporting activities. I wanted to see the final leg of the Tour de France. Even though the jerseys were all decided, I'd watched the first 20 legs and I wanted to see the final sprint. At the same time my wife was at a special class to train for her 3rd degree black belt that she hopes to get in Nov. We finally got going about 1:30 pm.

Other than the pick up at the martial arts studio, there were stops for gas, a snack, and dinner. The snack in Madison was combined with a stop at a quilt shop for my wife's hobby. We've driven the road between Chicago and the Twin Cities many times, so with the late start we just headed to our first stop in Roseville, MN with a college classmate of mine.

I'll keep my signature updated with the daily travels.

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Day 2

Day two started out with a couple of stops to pick up some supplies that were overlooked in the initial packing. There's always something forgotten on a trip it seems. One advantage to a road trip is that a stop to Target to pick up some stuff is easy to add. Here we stopped at the original Target location (but new building) in Roseville MN, a place I bicycled to from my home in the early 1970's. We added a couple more acquisitions before really getting underway just after 10 am.

The theme of this year's road trip is water, and our point of interest this day was Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River. We stopped at both the upper end of the lake and the popular north end of the lake. That's where a short rock crossing of about 25 feet spans the official start of the river. There were a couple dozen kids and their parents wading across the "Mighty Mississippi".

Before we go to Itasca we stopped in tiny Hackensack MN (pop 313) for lunch, but more importantly to pick up a pattern at the quilt shop there. There's annual summer event where quilt shops in all 50 states offer pattern on a theme, and this year's is H20 (there's the water theme again). The quilting hobby is big enough that the proprietor said that since mid June there had already been 200 people who visited the store in the middle of nowhere to not just pick up the pattern, but to buy a kit with the needed fabrics.

After a drive through the White Earth Indian Reservation and fields of sugar beets we arrived at our overnight destination in Grand Forks ND. We got in about 7:30 with plenty of time for a dinner out. A sign pointed to Sertoma park and advertised a Japanese Garden. It's small with a couple of traditional stone lanterns donated by the Japanese sister city of Grand Forks. For a city that size it's nice, though it could be improved with somewhat less pond scum.

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Day 3

When I was little I liked to collect state highway maps that gas stations gave for free. I'd pick them up during travels to visit relatives. In the car a frequent game was to identify as many different state license plates as we could. I noticed the ND called itself the Peace Garden State, and on the maps there was this place tucked on the international border called the International Peace Garden. It seemed interesting and remote and it's been on my bucket list to visit for 50 years now.

It was still a few hours drive to get to the Peace Garden from Grand Forks. On the way I got to see the monument in Rugby ND that marks the geographic center of North America (and my wife got to a nice quilt shop there as well). The entrance to the Peace Garden is on the international line and is accessed in between the two customs stations so that visitors from either country don't have to go through customs of the other country. On the grounds one can walk back and forth across the line through the gardens, and customs only applies as one drives away. One unfortunate feature is that the Peace Tower which was built in 1982 is falling apart and may have to come down within a year.



After the the visit to the Peace Garden the weather took a nasty turn and for the last two hours I found myself driving into a 39 mph (62 km/h) headwind with crosswind gusts as I drove through fracking country. We ended up in Williston, ND where it seems everyone drives a pick up to work in the oil fields. Shortly I'm heading to the Williston Airport to pick up my daughter who will join my son, wife and I for most of the rest of the trip.

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Falling about after 30 years? No plans to maintain it/update it or are you just speculating that they might take it down? That would be unfortunate (though I'm glad you managed to finally visit at least)

The tower had an 8 ft chain link fence around it with a sign saying that concrete chunks were falling off of it. The sign also said that engineers had determined that the structure could not be stabilized through repair. It mentioned that the structure was likely to come down and a new design would replace it.

Was the route through ND Muon2, to see more water features?  ND is the one state other than Alaska to which I have never been. It's not on the way to anywhere, and does not have a destination feature.

The Peace Garden is centered around a stream, pond and fountain that sit directly on the international boundary. It is a significant tourist destination despite being out of the way (AAA Gem attraction). You should seek it out if you need a trip away from the hustle and bustle.

I could also count the quilting stops as water themed since all the participating shops designed a water-themed pattern this year.

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Day 4

Now with four in the car we left for our longest leg so far. Fortunately the weather was beautiful with sunny skies and a high around 80 as we trekked across the Big Sky country of MT. The oil rigs of the Williston Basin fade out after a short distance into MT and the 500 miles we covered are rolling hills with ranges and wheat fields, occasionally interrupted by a small town. BTW Amtrak follows the same route we did along US 2 and we saw an eastbound Amtrak at one point in the afternoon.

The highlight of the day in the morning was a tour of Fort Peck Dam and Powerhouse. This federal Depression era project project (10K employed) is the largest earthen hydraulic dam in the US and the almost 4-mile long dam creates a lake with a shoreline longer than that of CA. The powerhouse uses the 200 foot drop in water to turn 5 turbines and produce about 180 MW of power. My daughter is a recently graduated engineer and my son is studying engineering, so the tour was an excellent fit with the interests of the passengers and ties to our water theme.

The rest of the drive was pleasant and my wife and daughter were able to pick up patterns at three MT quilt shops. Our final destination was the Cobblestone Manor Bed and Breakfast in Cardston AB. We have a nice loft space with deck that could easily sleep 6. Thanks to good weather and high speed limits in MT we arrived in time for dinner, where I enjoyed a very nice homemade roast beef dinner with some excellent mashed potatoes and gravy.

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Day 5

Fire defeats ice. The last time we were in Glacier National Park was 1997 and my children were too young to remember the scenery. They wanted to return to see some of the namesake glaciers, though the park is named more for the glaciated valleys than the few small glaciers that still remain in the park. A couple can be glimpsed along the road to Many Glacier, but the hike to see them well would have taken more time than we had available. We expected to get a good view along the iconic Going-to-the-Sun highway over Logan Pass, but a wildfire had the road closed. We did some short hiking and had to make do with the distant glimpse.

A little later we encountered another stop that refused to cooperate. Browning MT is about 40 miles from Many Glacier and it looked like a good stop for gas, lunch, and since it was the main town for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, there was a quilt shop that had a pattern that combined native themes and water. Gas was fine, but the local hamburger stand couldn't serve us since the other help hadn't shown up. Google maps gave conflicting reports about where the shop address was in the small town and we couldn't find it at Google's location. It was probably located near some major construction that jammed the main through traffic intersection of US 2 and 89. We gave up only to find that no bypass for the construction was marked and we had to ask a worker how to get out of town.

It looks frustrating to read events so far, but the rest of the day went great. We took our time in Kalispell for a late lunch and some shopping. Back on US 2 heading west around Glacier to avoid the fire we rely on the series of Roadside Geology books to provide insight to the scenery. As we headed towards ID the book mentioned a scenic view of the Kootenai Falls. Google maps only shows it as kootenai River Historical Marker about the river, but there is a path to to view the falls. With a 200 foot drop in two cascades its the largest undammed waterfall in the northern Rockies. Well worth the stop. Our hotel that evening in Coeur d'Alene was two blocks from a restaurant that distilled its own vodka and was nice nightcap on the rocks with a twist.

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Day 6

On Day 4 we saw one of the largest earthen dams and today it was time for one of the largest concrete dams. We got to Grand Coulee dam by 10 am in time for the first tour. Even though the dam is more impressive and puts out over 30 times the electric power of Fort Peck, the tour wasn't as good as the one at Fort Peck. We didn't see anywhere near as much of the generators at Grand Coulee, just a view from above. Contrast that with Fort Peck where we got to put our hand on the rotating shaft transferring power from the turbine to the generator. The interpretive center at Fort Peck beat the Grand Coulee one, too. The only plus for me was that Grand Coulee had an exhibit where you could play along with Woody Guthrie singing Roll On Columbia, Roll On - a song my music teacher had us learn in grade school. I still remembered this verse, so I guess visiting the dam was somewhat of a bucket list item, too.

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From Grand Coulee we took the scenic North Cascades highway. There is a turnout at Washington Pass with a short walk to an overlook of some beautiful glaciated valleys and peaks. Finally we arrived at our destination resort at Birch Bay, just south of Canada. Coming in to town and seeing the setting sun shine off snow-capped Mt Baker to the east and the waters of the bay to the west was a great way to welcome these travelers.

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Day 7

We put in over 2500 miles and 41 hours in the car during the first 6 days of driving. After years of trips, I've found it is vital to put a chill day in after the long haul. So on the seventh day we rested.

Here it's helpful to have a good base to rest in, so planning the destination is the most important part of a road trip. We have a large two bedroom unit with a living room, kitchen and loft space for the four of us. That let us go grocery shopping for meals and stay in the unit today. After 6 days on the road dirty clothes build up so one of the first investigations (after wifi) is the laundry. The resort has a laundry room with coin operated washers and dryers, so we were in business since we brought prepackaged detergent and dryer sheets.

The catch was that everything ran on quarters and there was no change machine. There happened to be a branch of my bank in nearby Bellingham as well as a Trader Joes to get some additional things for the kitchen. Bellingham happens to be the home of Fuzzybigfoot so I enjoyed a gelato with him before getting a selfie.



Back in the unit this evening I put together a light pasta dish with salad and a fine cab franc from a local winery. Mmm.

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Day 8

This was a highlight day as we took the whale watch out to the San Juan islands. It's really an orca watch, since orcas are not technically whales. In any case we were not disappointed as the 2 1/2 our cruise to western San Juan island treated us to three pods converging to the same area. Lot of tail slapping and a few good breaches. Even the captain seemed impressed, especially by the breaches of Granny, the 104 year-old matriarch of J pod.

Here's one orca I caught with my camera during a breach.


The tour included a two hour stop at Friday Harbor for some shopping. We got back to Bellingham to enjoy one of the many brew pubs that pepper the city. It seems to be a mecca for local brewing.

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Did you get to go to the whale museum in Friday Harbor?  

We decided to check out the shops, especially the art galleries, instead. There was a local big-band style jazz band playing at the harbor and that gave us more time outside in the fabulous weather.

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Day 9

We are staying so close to Canada it would be a shame if we didn't take advantage our location. We got up in time for the 9 am ferry from Vancouver (Tsawwassen) to Victoria (Swartz Bay). The ride was uneventful and we headed into Victoria. The first stop was to a bed and breakfast in central Victoria run by a relative of mine. Serendipity had his brother and family visiting as well, so it a family gathering over coffee and chocolates to start. We had lunch at a popular pub downtown, and we were there well after the normal lunch hour, but found the service to be quite slow (over a half hour from seating to meal service). It was a holiday and unusually warm, so the Inner Harbour was crowded with tourists.

That left us a bit over a hour to visit the spectacular Butchart Gardens which were designed over 100 years ago. There's an interesting fountain and pond in a sunken garden built from a limestone quarry and a great collection of roses leading to an extensive Japanese garden. We followed the recommendation to avoid the prime tourist times during midday, but even in the late afternoon it was pretty crowded. That's always a mark against any garden since it makes it hard to really appreciate the visuals. The out-of-the way nature of the Peace Garden in ND (day 3) made for a more tranquil viewing.

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Day 10 and 11

This was the business part of my trip. A conference is in Seattle this week and I particularly wanted to attend sessions on Tuesday. The subject was the 2020 Census and redistricting, is anyone surprised? During the day the rest of my family did some shopping and visited the Space Needle and Chihuly glass museum. We all joined some of my colleagues for dinner at Canlis with a spectacular view of Lake Union. Even my 20-year old son put on a jacket and tie for the occasion. The meal and drinks did not disappoint.

Wednesday included the standard tourist visit to Pike Place Market and watch the throwing of the fish. We planned to go to the Boeing factory tour that afternoon. We arrived to find that so many showed up that day the wait for a tour was three hours. Ouch. We bought tickets for early tomorrow instead.

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Anything of particular interest emerge at the conference on the census and redistricting? Any mention of the pending SCOTUS case on whether just citizens should count?

The Census is prepared to do what it takes to comply with whatever may happen with Evenwel (residents vs CVAP). They wouldn't go into further detail until the case is decided. They did say that they expect to provide cross reference files from 2010 to 2020 census objects so that ACS CVAP numbers in 2020 built on 2010 geography could mesh with 2020 Census data. In 2011 states had to wait until fall 2011 to get ACS data built on 2010 geography.

One issue that came up in multiple panels was the problem of vendors. No one really knows who is going to be around since there isn't any demand at this point in the decade. If states are going to move in the direction of supplying mapping tools to the public, then there is an open question of what platform will the mapping software will use. We on Atlas see this problem as well with the pending demise of DRA due to software incompatibility.

Once notes on some of the other upcoming cases are posted online I'll start threads.

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Day 12

The first half of the day was our make-up trip to the Boeing factory in Everett. The tour is one of the better factory tours I've been on, with a relatively short intro video so more time seeing real construction. The tours are very well synchronized so we never felt pressed by another group coming or going. The scale of the aircraft and the facility are the real stars - I liked the comparison that the assembly building could house 17 Taj Mahals.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and other chores to get ready for departure tomorrow morning. All told we put about 700 miles on the car during our week here.

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Day 13

Road trips work best when they stay somewhat flexible. Then when something new and unique presents itself the trip can adapt. Today is checkout day, and originally we were supposed to spend a day on the Olympic Peninsula stopping at a few places in the rain forest and on the coast. However, one of the themes of this trip was for my wife and daughter to visit quilt shops participating in the H20 theme this summer. One of the opportunities for a quilter is to be the first to complete a quilt using 8 patterns from different shops and present it to win a package of fabrics for future quilts. Yesterday in Bellingham they discovered that no one had claimed the prize at that store, so they pulled an all-nighter to put a complete quilt together using patterns picked up during the trip out west. It wasn't done until about 1 pm but they got the prize.



All this postponed our start by about 6 hours, and left me to do all the driving since no one else was likely to stay awake. Thus Olympic NP was cut from the itinerary and replaced by a visit to a lavender farm in Sequim and then a scenic drive down the Hood Canal on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. There were some very clear views of Mt Ranier across the canal. For the first time we arrived at our destination after dark - in Portland, OR.

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Too bad you missed the rain forest on the Pacific coast. When it is sunny, that place is just an amazing array of green, with ferns everywhere on the ground. It seems like a place the Elves in Middle Earth would live. I visited there in conjunction with the Seattle world's fair, and still remember it like I had been there yesterday.

Nice quilt!

It was one of those cases where we were torn between two choices. The unique chance for the quilters to meet a competition challenge won out. BTW the patterns on the quilts represent and were picked up at a number of stops: 2 from MN, 2 from MT, 1 from ID, and 3 from WA. We decided we would have to come back another time for the rain forest.

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Day 14

What better way to start from Portland than with a couple of Voodoo Doughnuts. Seriously, this place has as wild a selection of weird combinations on fried dough as I've ever seen. And yet the place smells just like a bakery should. Excellent.

From there it was a short drive to one of the longest vertical drop waterfalls in the US - Multnomah Falls. There were a lot of visitors even at 9 am on a Saturday, but I didn't feel crowded. The drive up the Columbia Gorge was worth the planning, too. It's hard to imagine that people who fly to the West Coast can appreciate how rapidly the terrain changes from the wooded space around Portland to desert a hour to the east all along the same river.

We made it to Walla Walla by mid afternoon and that left plenty of time to engage in a few tastings at the many wineries in the area. We took in three in two hours, and it was handy to have my son available as a designated driver. We found a nice restaurant in the city center and I enjoyed a thick pork chop with a peach, sweet onion and fennel topping - all from local sources.

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Day 15

Here's a chance to give some props to Atlas and its posters. This wasn't expected to be a very interesting day. We had to drive from Walla Walla to the Spokane Airport to drop off my daughter before noon then push on to Helena MT for the night. The return trip tends to be less interesting, in part because we all are ready to get back home.

Enter KingSweden.  Back on Aug 2 he offered to make some suggestions for our passage back through the Spokane area. I said we'd be looking for lunch today and he recommended Veraci Pizza. It sits right on the bank of the Spokane river with a patio that overlooks the gorge and the pedestrian path along the river. There's an osprey nest right nearby to add to the interesting viewing. We split a well-made thin crust with prosciutto and arugula on just a garlic and oil base fired in their brick oven. Perfect.

We were fortunate to be going east on I-90 today. There was a crash between a semi and a motor home trailer (no injuries according to reports) on the westbound side just over the pass where there was roadwork diverting the traffic to one lane. Cars and trucks were backed up 7 miles going uphill to the pass with many people out of their vehicles to avoid running the engine. With no radio or internet service in those parts of the mountains I can imagine the frustration.

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Day 16

The day opened in Helena with a short drive to the Canyon Ferry dam on the Missouri river. It's significant for us because my wife's great uncle was an engineer on the project from 1949 to 1954.



By late afternoon we reached the main point of this leg. That was to visit the Little Bighorn National Battlefield. The ranger gave one of the best 45 minute interpretive descriptions I've heard at any national park. It probably helps that he's an art history professor by trade and on his 26th year doing the ranger job as summer work.

As we were leaving the monument someone had left a note to point out that we had a flat tire. We were fortunate that it wasn't completely flat, but just very low pressure and that was enough to go the 2 miles to a service station with an air hose. The pressure seemed to hold, but a leak was going to impact the remaining 3 and a half hour drive remaining that day. We were doubly fortunate to find a tire place 12 miles back the way we came willing to stay open 15 minutes late to patch the tire. With that we could get to Spearfish, SD a little after 10 pm MDT Monday.

The good fortune was especially helpful in light of a phone conversation earlier that day. On Friday the possibility of a detour to Springfield IL was looking quite likely, and today it was confirmed. In particular I should be in Springfield by 11 am CDT Wednesday. From where I'm writing this, that's about 987 miles away. Interesting side trips will be on hold for tomorrow.

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Day 17 and 18

As I noted on Day 16, Day 17 was going to be a major driving day. The need to go to Springfield opened the potential of a direct 1000 mile drive in one day. I've done it, but I wanted to be alert the next day, so it wasn't my best choice. Also road construction can play havoc with plans so we decided to shoot for a late lunch in Sioux Falls, about 400 miles along the way.

Panera Bread is a frequent choice of ours on trips since one can choose salads, sandwiches or pastries, with some bread to go. They also have free wifi so I could set up my laptop to investigate a range of options. We settled on Keokuk IA, which would provide the opportunity for my wife to stop at a couple of shops and only leave two and a half hours to drive the next day to get to Springfield.

I arrived in plenty of time and it was nice to see a unanimous vote on part of the budget, even if it came after some political amendments and partisan bickering. My wife used the opportunity to tour the Capitol, much of which has been restored over the last decade.

In the end we made it home after over 6000 miles and 115 hours in the car. We were in 11 states, 37 CDs, and 146 counties.