KOA, Sioux Falls, SD:  We actually left at 6:30 this morning.  Wow!  A beautiful morning and another perfect driving day, weather-wise.  Even though today was a long drive, it was a fairly easy drive.  No more mountains—just this ribbon of highway over the great plains and grasslands of South Dakota.  We could see The Badlands off to the south for a while.  What unusual geography that area is.  We arrived in Sioux Falls and were set up by 3:00. Lost another hour today.  But we’re now on Central Time.  We LOVE Central Time.  Did the laundry one last time.  88 here.

SD landscape along I90.

Crossed the Missouri River in Chamberlain, SD.  It's actually pretty here and really wide.  A nice blue color instead of brown.

KOA, Rapid City, SD:  Shorter driving day today.  Left Sheridan at 8:15 and pulled into the KOA at Rapid City and were set up by 1:30. Didn’t even stop to eat. Tomorrow will be a long driving day.  Hopefully we’ll get going early.  Entirely up to Mike.  95 here and really windy.

Leaving Skagway and cruising down the inner passage.

KOA, Sheridan, WY:  Left Butte this morning at 8:15.  Went over and around several mountain ranges and in between were large, sweeping valleys with a pretty river or stream running through it. I can see why they call it Big Sky Country. Stopped as soon as we could after leaving Butte for fuel which took forever because there was a motor home in front of us at the pump.  He finally finished after about 30 minutes and we were able to get fuel.  Continued on.  Stopped just before Billings and had some lunch.  Mike took over driving.  Fueled up one more time and arrived at the KOA in Sheridan and were set up by 4:00.  Upper 90s here!

More images from Butchart Gardens...

Victoria, B.C.

KOA, Butte, MT:  Left Spokane at 7:40 this morning.  Fueled up and then got back on I90 heading east with mountains looming just ahead.  Over the line into Idaho very quickly and then into the pretty little town of Coeur d’Alene.  What a pretty name.  It kind of rolls off the tongue.  This little town is dominated by pristine Lake Coeur d’Alene and is surrounded by rugged, pine-covered mountains.  Went through rugged mountains in northern Idaho and western Montana.  A beautiful drive, although we had to keep the speed down because of all the twists and turns, long pulls up and equally long coasts down.  Further east into Montana it became more arid with less pines and more buffalo grass.  Mountains still all around though.  The rest of the drive to Butte was in the Clark Fork river valley.  Very pretty and followed this pristine river all the way.  Stopped in Missoula for food and fuel, arrived at the KOA in Butte by 4:00.  We lost an hour though and are now on Mountain Time.  Oh, and while in Missoula we saw signs for a Testical Festival.  What the hell?  Would have liked to check that out!  Mid-80s here in Butte.

Lake Coeur d'Alene

Two more critters left in our room aboard ship.

A little monkey.

A little mouse peeking out from the covers on our bed.

KOA, Spokane, WA:  Left Seattle this morning a little before 9:00.  Took Rt. 167 north and then 405 north.  I was a little nervous about driving on the 405 because of the crazy traffic, but it was really slow because of the congestion, so all went well.  Off the 405 we took I90 east and will be on 90 until Sioux Falls, Iowa.  Drove over the beautiful Cascades through Snoquamie Pass and eventually found ourselves in a high desert landscape of large rolling hills covered in sage brush and buffalo grass.  It eventually flattened out to an area of nothing but hay fields—as far as the eye could see.  Empty fields, because the hay had all been cut, and they store the bales under these huge tarps.  They’re as long as three semis, probably ten feet high.  There were hundreds of these storage areas.  I guess it’s exported overseas?  Stopped in Ellensburg at a Flying J for food and fuel. This was a really different Flying J and I had a hard time getting in there because it was all torn up due to construction.  Finally got in, fueled up and then parked so we could get something to eat.  I continued to drive for another hour or so.  I wanted to keep driving, but Mike said he would be okay driving.  Just set the cruise control and relax.  Stopped at another Flying J just outside Spokane (big mistake).  Another one that was hard to get into.  Finally made it to the pump and a guy came out and told us they had no diesel.  Well, isn’t that great!  Back on I90 and got off at the exit for the KOA.  We saw another truck stop.  Mike pulled in, but the thing was closed!  So continued on to the KOA.  We’re right on the Washington/Idaho line, so we’ll get fuel tomorrow morning.  We’ll be in Montana tomorrow night.  Got in here around 4:00.  Not unhooking.  82 here!  Yes!

More critters found in our room aboard ship...

Little puppy dog.

Elephant

KOA, Seattle:  Kicked back today.  Made pasta for dinner.  Tomorrow we start the long trek home.

One of the critters left in our room aboard the Norwegian Jewel.

Sat, Aug 24:

Alaska Cruise:  Norwegian Jewel:  Up at 5:00 this morning after very little sleep.  Mike started having severe pains in the groin yesterday and we ended up going down to the medical facility on board ship.  Actually, he started having the pains while we were at Butchart Gardens.  I ended up calling a cab to take us back to the ship.  He thought the pains would go away but they didn’t, so down to the medical facility we went.  I was very impressed with the medical staff.  We didn’t go down until around 9:00 at night.  The doctor/surgeon on duty knew exactly what it was.  He had a hernia pop out.  They sedated him and pushed it back in.  The thing is, part of his intestines or bowel is pushing out through this thing.  He needs to have surgery ASAP.  We have at least 7 days of driving ahead of us.  I’ll be doing most of that.  And all the heavy lifting.  I can handle that (I hope).  We didn’t get back to our room until around 11:00.  We still had to pack and put our bags outside our room for pick-up at midnight.  Got my stuff packed before we went down to medical.  I packed most of Mike’s stuff and put our priority luggage tags on everything and set it all outside.  We went down for breakfast at 6:00 and then met John, our Concierge, on deck 7.  We had priority status so John got us off the ship early with the other priority guests.  Got through customs and our luggage was all there waiting for us.  Got a porter to carry our bags to the curb and then a taxi sped us back to our park.  Unpacked everything and then went to do the laundry.  Had that done by around 9:30 and then went to the grocery store.  Got everything out of the way, fueled up the truck and then relaxed the rest of the day.  We were both pretty tired and Mike still not feeling great.

Victoria and Butchart Gardens:  The Butcharts came to Vancouver Island for the limestone deposits and started a limestone quarry for cement production. They built their home close to the quarry and Jenny Butchart was always upset at what this quarry was doing to the land.  So, after the quarry was abandoned, she started a garden.  This she would call her sunken garden.  The quarry walls were covered in all kinds of climbing plants and she had tons of soil brought in for the floor of the garden.  It is the centerpiece of the garden today.  They then added a rose garden, Italian garden, and Japanese garden.  It is truly beautiful.

And I really loved the city of Victoria.  Not too big—population around 80,000—it is called the city of gardens.  And it really lives up to that name.  From private homes to city parks, there are flowers everywhere.  I loved the architecture and the city seemed really clean.  Apparently, the climate is very moderate.  They get almost no snow, little rain compared to, say, Seattle, and no extreme temperatures.  I could picture living there.  Except, it is on an island.  Would have liked to experience more of Victoria for sure.

Sunken Garden--Butchart Garden

Butchart Garden

Sunken Garden--Butchart Garden

Butchart Garden

Seattle when we pulled in at about 6:00 a.m.