On the road again...

We’ve decided it would be a good idea to take a couple of weeks to go and visit family in Kansas City and so we are on our way there. Our trip got off to quite a start yesterday when I was pulled over for the very first time in my life, just south of Bellingham, Washington. I was issued a ticket for following too closely! Bad Vicki!

We drove east through Washington state and across northern Idaho and most of Montana yesterday. This was an ambitious drive, and the last few hours were rather harrowing because we were driving in the dark and very heavy rain through unfamiliar territory. The highway is very curvy and goes up and down steep hills and mountain passes. Sometimes we would get up so high (one of the passes was over 6300 feet up) that we would be driving through the clouds which reduces visibility rather a lot, as you might imagine. We were all very grateful to reach our hotel in Billings at around 11 pm. Unfortunately, the “check engine” light came on yesterday just before we crossed the border into Idaho, and after checking the owner’s manual we made an executive decision to carry on to Billings and have it checked out in the morning. This we did and it has thrown off our schedule today quite a bit – we weren’t able to leave Billings till noon, after paying $80 to discover that there was a problem with the car’s computer system and not with the engine. Bah! I guess that is a *good* thing...

Calum seems mostly unfazed, but the rest of us are in awe of the amazing scenery so far. I can see the attraction of the American west – huge, open skies, gorgeous mountains and vast wide open prairies and foothills. We love the interesting shapes of the hills here in eastern Montana and the colours – many shades of gold, green, brown and occasional patches of red where a tree has turned to fall colour. There are even hills that are red and yellow in stripes – the soil here is red!