Cars didn't drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time. TRIP REPORT

[DLfan4]

Day 11 - Drive to Montana

We got up, got ready and then said good-bye to our friends. Our friends offered us coffee and breakfast but we said no thank you, as we wanted to leave right away as we had a very long drive ahead of us. So we were going to just pick up coffee to-go and some food at McDonalds. Our friend "L" is so sweet and packed up some snacks for us for the roadtrip. We left just after 8:00 am, did a quick stop at Mcdonalds, and were then on our way.

There are two different routes that take us east. Either the I90, which is south of us, or Hwy 2, which is north of us. We entered our destination into the GPS and it told us to take the I90. So we decided to go that route. As we are heading south towards the I90, I plug our destination into my google maps. And when i do that i notice that the I90 route has a red dot on it at the start of the route, through the Cascades. i click on it and it says "road closed"!! Good thing i checked on google maps. So then we turned around and headed north towards Hwy 2. Taking Hwy 2 will add an extra hour to our drive.

So we took Hwy 2 through the Cascades in the Okanogan - Wenatchee forest. It was a very pretty drive through the Cascades.







At the east side of the Okanogan-Wenatchee forest is a small german town called Leavenworth. Our friend "L" has asked us to take some pictures of the town for her. It is a cute town, we took lots of pictures for her. (They actually ended up going to Leavenworth the following weekend and had a great time).





Cute McDonald's



This is the cutest Starbucks ever!


After Leavenworth we headed south South-east towards the I90 via Hwy 28.
Stay tuned for more pictures.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 11 - Drive to Montana .........Continued


As we drive south-east on Hwy 28, we pass some pretty sights

Wenatchee :



Rock Island:


Then we headed East on the I90. The landscape was quite flat near Moses Lake. There were lots of farms.



The I90 started to go North-east, toward Spokane. We stopped in Spokane for gas and picked up some McDonlds.

The last time I was in Spokane was when back in 1980 on a rode trip with my parents and grandma. We were in Spokane when Mt St.Helens blew in 1980. We were told to stay in our hotel for the day. The next day we were traveling to British Columbia, and everything was covered in a gray ash. It looked like dirty snow. So we are now traveling the same route, except backwards, that I did back in 1980, from Spokane back to Manitoba.


Leaving Spokane, on our way towards Idaho.
:


Up next we enter Idaho. Stay tuned.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 11 - Drive to Montana ......Continued

After Spokane we entered Idaho around 2:27 pm. I was a short drive, through Idaho on our way to Montanta.

Idaho :





We missed the sign saying we were entering Montana. But I think we entered Montana around 3:15ish

Montana :



Montana through the mountains


Our destination to reach for the night was Great Falls Montanta. But before before that, we were heading to Missoula Montana for dinner. We were meeting my cousin "J" and her family for dinner. I have not seen my cousin "J" for over 30 years, and we have never met each others family. I was very excited the entire day, and could not wait. Cousin "J" lives about an hour or so from Missoula.


We met Cousin "J" and her DH and DD at a place called the Montana Club. It was a western themed restaurant. I ordered the Huckleberry salad, DD1 ordered a chicken Ceasar salad, DD2 ordered a cup of clam chowder soup and a Shrimp skewer on pasta, and DH ordered a Ruben with a Ceasar salad. I cant remember what my cousins family ordered as their main meals, but i remember they each had a cup of their southwest chicken soup.
The menu for the Montana Club visit: https://www.montanaclub.com/missoula-restaurants/#

We talked and ate for a long time. After we ate we took a few family pictures. It was hard to say good-bye, as the visit was too short. But we had to leave as we still had 3 hours drive to Great Falls. We stayed at the Days Inn in Great Falls. It was a great place, great price and included a free breakfast. We relaxed and then went to sleep.

Best part of Day 11 - Meeting Cousin "J" and her family.
Best meal of Day 11 - The Montana Club.
Day 11 hints and Tips
- Don't just rely on your GPS for your route, also check a real-time route app like Google maps or Waze. Google maps let us know that our original route had a road closure.
- Connect with family you have not seen in a long time. Family is important.


Up next is Day 12, our last day of our road trip.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 12 - Drive Home to Manitoba

We got up and had our free breakfast at the Days Inn, Great Falls. We got gas and then headed out on our way home.
We traveled north-east on hwy 87 up to Hwy 2. Then we continued east on Hwy 2.



We had 2 choices for routes, continue east into North Dakota and then north to Manitoba, or head north into Saskatchewan and the east to Manitoba.
We decided to go via the Saskatchewan route. So we headed north. It was getting foggy.


As we were getting closer to the boarder it was getting very foggy/snowy. We entered Saskatchewan/Entered Canada just before noon.


We continued east, and so did the fog/snow. We stopped in Assiniboa Saskatchewan for gas, and then went to a Co-op grocery store and picked up a fruit tray, veggie tray and some sushi for lunch. We continued east on hwy 13 into Manitoba. We stopped in Brandon Manitoba for gas and then grabbed some food at Tim Hortons. We arrived home about 7:15 pm.



Best part of Day 12 - Being home and seeing our pets.
Best food of Day 12 - The sushi we picked up.
Day 12 hints and tips - Make your drive home short, so that you arrive home at a decent time. So that you can unpack and relax.

 

[DLfan4]

Trip Summary:
We traveled for 12 days.
We traveled 8605 Kms. ( 5347 miles )
We traveled through 11 States (North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana) and 2 provinces in these 12 days. (Manitoba and Saskatchewan)

 

[Jason2015]

Enjoyed the report. I enjoy the Anderson School. Such a fun place Thanks for sharing.

 

[DLfan4]

Enjoyed the report. I enjoy the Anderson School. Such a fun place Thanks for sharing.

Glad you enjoyed the report. It was fun to write.

 

[DLfan4]

I really enjoyed writing the trip report. I noticed that some post info about other non-disney trips they have taken. I hope its ok, but i was going to attach a trip report of our camping trip to Banff Alberta Canada, as I thought some of you might be interested in some of the views at Banff National Park.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 1 Drive to Batoche Saskatchwan

We started our trip on Friday July 5th at 7:00 from our house near Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.
We got gas and a quick breakfast to go from a town along the way. We stopped stopped at for a fast-food lunch in a town along the way. We got to the Valley Regional campground around 3:30. We setup our camper, and had BBQ steak potatoe and veggies for dinner.


I forgot to mention, this camping trip will be me, DH, DD15 and DD15, as well as our 2 dogs and a rabbit. (We will be visiting a cousin and some friends during our trip. )

Our Rabbit "Nibbles" travels well.




After dinner we went for a walk around the campground with the dogs. This is a very nice campground. They had a super-long slide at the campground.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 2 Batoche National Historic site and drive to Drumheller
We ate some Ukrainian Perishke and fruit at the campground. Then we headed to Batoche Metis National Historic Site. For more information on Batoche, please visit:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/sk/batoche
We spent a few hours at Botoche. We got there right at opening and was able to hop onto the tram and tour the grounds. They had a festival going on this day, so we were able to get some free freshmade Metis Bannock.

We went back to the camper to pack up, ate ham sandwhiches and some veggies, then headed back on the road. As we entered Alberta, we had to stop to get our Kayaks checked at a checkpoint ( checking for invasive water species ). Near the checkpoint was a cool restaurant called The Barn. So we parked and i took the dogs for a walk while DH and DD15 and DD15 went to order burgers, chicken fingers and waffle fries for take-out. We sat a a picnic table and ate our burgers and gave the dogs their food.

Then we drove to the Hoodoo RV resort at Drumheller Alberta. We set up camp and then took the dogs for a walk around the camground. Pretty views from campground.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 3 July 6th - We ate Ukrainian Perishke and Grilled Cinnimon buns. Then headed into Drumheller. When we got to town the first thing you see is the Giant Trex statue, which is really an observation tower. ( you climb up many stairs to get to a viewing platform which is in the Trexs mouth. We decided we should go. I think it cost around $10 for a family pass.



Then we headed to the famous Royal Tyrell Museum. If you want more information on the museum please visit:
http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/
If you or your family like dinosaurs, Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell Museum are great. We arrived right at opening, which was good, as it gets busier as the day goes on. I tool a Zillion pics, But here are some cool ones:












After the museum we went back to the camper to pack up. We ate some tacos and then headed down the street to see the Hoodoos protected site.



Then we headed out on our way to Canmore Alberta. We get our first view of the Mountains. So gorgeous!



We headed to the Bow Valley Campground in Canmore. This is a gorgeous campground. We took the dogs for a walk around the campground, then made BBQd Chicken shish-ka-bobs for dinner, with sweet potatoe perogies and veggies. Then we just relaxed at the campground.

The campground is on the gorgeous Bow River. What a view. This pic includes our pup, Roxy.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 4 July 8th Banff Alberta Canada.
We got up and ate muffins, cereal and fruit. Then headed to Banff National Park.
We parked at walked around Banff. Gorgeous!


Then we decided to walk 1.2 kms along a walking trail ( you could also drive there) to the Cave and Basin National historic site.
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ab/caveandbasin

They have some great views from the observation deck above the Cave and Basin.


The town has alot of cute little shops. We did some shopping. DD15 and DD15 found some great clothing at a store called Rude Boys / Rude Girls.


I found myself a great purple hoodie with Banff written on it. DH found a shirt at the Harley Davidson Banff store.

In one of the shops I saw this cute t-shirt. i would have gotten it if they had it in my size.



It was lunch time and so we found this cute little restaurant called Tommy's Pub. I ordered the quesadillia. DH had a steak sandwhich, and the girls both had fish and chips. We all enjoyed our lunch.



We wanted to do some Kayaking. So we went to a tourism office and asked where we should go. They had a few options. Stay tuned to find out where we went kayaking and more pictures.

 

[DLfan4]

After lunch we drive to Lake Minnewanka, which is a short drive North-East of Banff. We kayaked for a few hours. The water flows from the snow on the mountains down into the lake, and so the lake was ice cold. The views while we were kayaking were amazing!




After Kayaking we went back to our campsite. Then that evening we went into Canmore for dinner. Friends of our recommended a place called The Grizzly Paw, so we decided to go there. The food was great. I had a California chicken club with tomato basil soup. Everyone else had Elk Burger with fries, a Bison Burger with fries, and a Beet and Greens salad . Everyone had peppermint tea, except I had thier homemade cream soda.



After we ate we shopped around a little, bought some candy from the Old Thyme candy store, and then went back to the campsite.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 5 July 9th
This morning we went to McDonalds in Canmore to get a quick breakfast, then we headed back into Banff. We went to the Banff Hot Springs. It was about $24 for the 4 of us. The views from the hot spring pool were beautiful.




https://www.hotsprings.ca/


After the hot springs, we went back to canmore and went to the Old SchoolBus icecream stand ( it is an actual school bus converted into an ice cream stand). They sell icecream and shaved ice. We got a lychee shaved ices, 2 Yulu Citrus shaved ice and a salted caramel icecream. Vert tasty.


Then we went back to the the camper to packup and eat bbq hotdogs for lunch.

Then we headed towards Calgary. We were staying with our friends who live South west of Calgary in the country. We parked the camper next to thier garage so that we could plug in. We spent the afternoon talking and catching up.

Then we headed out to a town near by and went to an restaurant called The Italian Farmhouse, which is a large old farmhouse turned into a restaurant. We had 2 lobster ravioli, Gnocchi in red wine sauce, Rigatoni with sausage. ( I cant remember what our friends had. )


Then after dinner our friends son wanted to take the girls to the Frontier Candy and ice cream store ( looks like an old frontier village) and got green tea icecream and a scorpion sucker. Then we went back to our friends house.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 6 July 10
Got up and get ready. Have some coffee with our friends. Said our goodbyes and then drove to Calgary. We met my cousin B in a shopping mall parking lot on the edge of Calgary. We found a spot to park our camper and she drove to meet us. There was a Second Cup coffee shop and so we ordered coffee or tea and pastry to eat for breakfast. Then we took our lawn chairs out and sat under the awning of our camper and chatted with cousin B in the parking lot. Then we said our goodbyes and headed towards Saskatchewan. We stopped in town about 1:30 to pick up Subway. And we arrived in Moosejaw Saskatchewan around 7:30 pm. We stopped at Superstore to get some water and lettuce and items for salad. Then headed to the Wacoma River Park Campground. We ate BBQ porkchops with salad. Then we relaxed at the campground.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 7 July 11
We went to McDonalds for coffee and breakfast, then we headed to the famous Tunnels of Moosejaw. They have 2 tours, we went on both. The The Chicago Connection Tour and the Passage to Fortune tour.
https://www.tunnelsofmoosejaw.com/
We then packed up the camper and then went to Superstore again to get more groceries. We ate Sushi and some fresh cut-up fruit for lunch. and then headed east to the Moose Mountain campground in Kenosee Saskatchewan. We get set up and then made BBQ salmon, brown rice and veggies for dinner. Then we took the dogs for a long walk around the huge campground. and then relaxed at the campsite.

 

[DLfan4]

Day 8 July 12
The reason we had wanted to stay at Kenosee was because they have a waterpark near the campgroud. However, the waterpark had been under refurbishment, and was supposed to be open for July 1st, but unfortunatly was not yet open. So we just had some coffee and pastry at the campsite, packed up and headed home.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Thank you for including the Canada portion. So much beauty up there!

 

[DLfan4]

Thank you for including the Canada portion. So much beauty up there!

Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

 

[momtohms]

This is such a fun trip report! I loved reading about your road trip, and your days at Disney! It sounds like you were able to see and do a lot

It was especially fun reading about your Seattle area adventures. I was born and raised there (mostly in Shoreline, where my parents still live!) and now live about an hour south of the city near Puyallup with my husband and kids.

I love that you visited Mukilteo too! My extended family has owned a cabin on Whidbey Island since the 60s and Whidbey Island is also where the church camp is located that I grew up attending (and met my husband at!) So I’ve been at that ferry terminal hundreds of times to take the boat over to Clinton! It’s so fun to see it in a trip report on here! Also, I’m glad you got to drive through Leavenworth - it’s the cutest place!