La Strada

The trip to Washington was long and tough. We had a lot of gear we wanted on the new boat and could'nt really ship, so we bought a stationwagon, added a trailer hitch, bought a trailer and loaded it all up. The trip accross country from Florida is about 3400 miles and took us 9 days. The first few were uneventful, we drove up to North Louisiana and visited some family, then headed out across the great plains. The trip through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska was uneventful,  not much out there. We stopped in Lexington, Ne. for a night and the rain and cold set in.. The next day was a slog though Western Nebraska and Wyoming in cold rainy weather. We made it to Casper, Wy and spent the night. Next morning we awoke to a steady snowfall, no tetons/yellowstone for us. The forcast was for 1-2 feet of snow in the mountains. We brought camping gear so that when we got to cooler weather we could sleep on the ground and commune with nature. Not this trip. We left Casper in a steady snow with about an inch of it piled on top of the car. Shortly after we crossed into Montana, the car just stopped in the high plains. We managed to get in touch with a towing company, and get towed to a shop who alledgedly knew how to fix Subarus. We dropped the car off and went to a nearby dump of a motel for the night. Next day the car was repaired by about 10:30 with a new fuel pump and filter at a cost of $250. We felt very fortunate that we go away with this and continued on, only a couple of hours behind the loose schedule we had in mind. The rain finally stopped and we had a most beautiful  drive accross Montana. The high plains and then the mountains were really spectacular. We stayed in Billings in a great place called the C'mon Inn( nice rooms, comfy beds, 5 hot tubs and real hot breakfast). The road fairy smilled upon us. Next day to Coeur D'alene Id. for another pleasant night and then on to Bainbridge Island. We planned another day in ID, but it was raining again and we had about had it with the road. Found a motel in BI and settled in.