Out of Oregon, Through Washington, and Into Idaho |

I opted for an early start today since I was looking at a drive of at least 5 hours to Worley, Idaho, where I plan to sleep for a couple of nights. I decided to get fuel before leaving since all Oregon gas stations have service. What luxury! 🙂

The drive along the Oregon side of the Columbia River was smooth and splendid. I slowly pushed north into eastern Washington where emerald hills gave way to olive scrub grass.

Kennewick was tricky. It’s downhill right through town with the speed limit going from 55 to 50 to 35 with no warning, in addition to plenty of turns and lights. I opted to start off slow and quickly shifted into a lower gear. I still had to jam the brakes at one of the very last lights that turned yellow just as I entered the ‘can’t stop now!’ zone.

Lunch was had at the Sprague Lake rest area, just in time to miss a mighty two minute hail storm! The view of the valley was wide open and I enjoyed watching a colourful train snake its way east.

Spokane was zippy, but not too harrowing. I then allowed the GPS to lead me onto secondary roads that wended their way through farmland… dotted with snow.

I crossed the state line into Idaho, with my ETA being ten more minutes, and I was ready to stop. But there’s a ton of construction around the casino and my GPS got confused. It told me to go straight and turn right onto I-95. There was a sign ahead of me saying ‘casino’ with an arrow pointing straight. I could only see construction below me, so I followed the GPS and went about ten kilometres south with it continuously ‘recalculating’ but certain that I was going the wrong way. I did a legal U-turn and came back up I-95, saw a sign saying ‘casino next exit’… and ended up right where I started from! The casino wound up being the mess of construction!

There was a sign for RV parking leading to a very unlevel gravel area. It was messy to get in and I had to pick my way around debris, but I finally got Miranda squared away on a couple of levelers. Driving the toad in and out of here isn’t going to be fun. I’m pretty sure the Demptster at its worst was better than the entrance into this place!

I went down to the casino to see if I had to register (no), look at the restaurants (nothing interesting), played $4 in the slots as payment for tonight’s parking, and ran out of there because I couldn’t breathe through all the smoke! I won’t be spending much time there!

Coeur d’Alene is a full 35 kilometres away from Worley. I debated whether or not to do an internet run tonight and decided on it just so I can plan my day tomorrow.