The border wait was not two hours as I had suspected; in fact it was only 2 minutes! We drove south to Seattle and then east on the I-90. Our first stop was Wanapum State Park. Before we got there I noticed all kinds of neat wind turbines dotting the countryside. A word of advice: if you notice your campground is in close proximity to a wind turbine, do not pitch your tent there.
Our next stop was a forestry site somewhere near the middle of nowhere, Montana. It was very beautiful and quiet. Kate started to get a bit clingy and did not seem to be fond of car rides anymore. I took this neat picture of a pine needle. :)We continued driving towards Yellowstone Park but had trouble soon after hitting the road. I drove over a piece of metal of some sort and slashed the front passenger side tire wide open. So, on the side of the highway, I unloaded our trunk of its meticulously-packed camping gear, removed the spare tire (which I had remembered to inflate before we left), and changed the tire. While it is about the right size of a spare (not a spacesaver), the rim is not quite right so there was a bit of a gap between the discs and the rim. Hmm. But it drove fine about 100 miles to Butte, where we located a WalMart Tire Centre.
Unfortunately WalMart didn't have our odd tire size, but we were directed to another place that did, and they changed it fairly quickly, and we went shopping for a few groceries at the Butte Safeway, and were on our way. We had a long drive to the park and we were behind a bit, but we made it to our campsite before nightfall. The campsites were crammed close together so our neighbours were quite close; otherwise it was a very nice campsite.
Kate was not doing so well, still clingy, whiny, etc. After a couple of very cold nights in the tent we took her to the medical clinic beside Old Faithful. She had blood in her ear so we suspected an ear infection, and the doctor confirmed this and gave us some antibiotics. Kate had a fever and was not going to sleep quietly through the night so we booked a shifty hotel in West Yellowstone for a couple of nights. And yes, we saw Old Faithful too! Our friend Rachel from Denver stayed with us as well on her way up to Glacier Park.
We headed north and saw Mammoth Springs on our way out of Yellowstone Park. We found a sweet motel in a podunk town and the next day we made it to Didsbury, Alberta, where Michelle's parents live. We enjoyed almost a week staying with them and also with my brother-in-law, Michael. Kate loved playing on the farm with the cats, and I helped build a floor for a shed.
Despite the challenges and setbacks that we encountered, I found that there was always Grace in every situation. We were never beyond despair. It was great to get into a new space for awhile and see God's beautiful handiwork. Thanks to God for his Grace!
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