Missoula to Walla Walla

After three nights at a wonderful bnb it was time to hit the road again. We were going to Seattle to visit one of Marianne's friends but she had company coming so we are going to Portand Oregon instead. Walla Walla is about half way.

But first a couple of photos at the bnb. View from veranda by our bedroom.

Marianne relaxing at the outdoor man cave. Later in the evening Todd and I drank some Bombay gin with ice and I heard all about his travel experiences. He's been everywhere.

When planning our journey we were going to visit Glacier Nation Park and traverse it using the Going-to-the-sun road. Unfortunately it was still closed by snow so we left it for another trip.

As I say, you can't see everything and there is always a next time.

Instead we drove route 12 which follows the old Lewis and Clark trail. After the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson ordered these two men to command an expedition to discover a route across the country. Their team of me accomplished this from 1804 - 1806.

One of the camps where the expedition stopped.

Visitor center.

You can walk along a trail to site of the camp.

Markers match to a description of the trail.

The area of the camp.

This was the site of the latrine. This was determined by finding chemicals in the soil that were part of some pills that the explorers took. Because the expedition followed strict military procedures that specified an exact distance for a latrine to be dug from the camp, the archaeologists were able to determine the site of the camp.

Route 12 has a marvelous 99 miles of road with curves that follows the Lochsa River. It is famous for its white-water and there were quite a few rafts floating down. Some of the rapids looked a bit scary.

We had lunch here.

A slice of delicious huckleberry (blueberry) pie.

It's also a popular road for bicycles though it would be a very tough climb.

Marianne whipping round the curves in the Mini.

Eventually the dense trees thinned out and we saw bare mountains and hills. 

A little town.

It looked like a fire had burned the trees some time before. We saw other more recent examples of fires.

A train line on the other side of the river which was now the Clearwater River. It would eventually join into the Snake River.

The route 12 sign.

A train made an appearance.

It looks like a winery.

We did not see many animals and finally came across a few horses.

We passes though Lewiston. We stopped to view this rail bridge that could be raised and lowered.

Odd sculpture.

Crossing the Snake River into Washington State.

We enter Washington.

Bare hills beside the Snake River.

Eventually we moved further away from the river up onto a plateau.

Grain storage.

Despite Walla Walla's reputation as a wine growing area, we only saw a couple of vineyards.

After checking in to our bnb, we went downtown into Walla Walla to find some dinner.

Marianne's dinner was a beet salad.

Mine was a lamb bolognese that was delicious.

The ingredients for the salad.

There seemed to be lot more wine bars in WW than there were restaurants. WW is another university town and reminded us of Missoula. There were no empty stores and everything looked prosperous. The bnb owner said that many of her visitors were in WW checking it out as a place to live. If you like mountains you go to Missoula. If you like wine, you go to WW. If you like both you toss a coin.

I noticed that the days off in Missoula had definitely made me feel less tired, both physically and mentally. It was great to be on the road again.