Tough Day In Moscow

We left Seattle yesterday as Frank was smoking up some meats. We didn't have time to stay for that lunch, but we had lunch with Ed and Tia in a little bakery then showed them our trailer before we left Seattle. We drove through some beautiful countryside on Route 26 in eastern Washington. I drove; Ashleigh napped.

Last nite we pulled into Moscow, Idaho in the evening hours and parked in a Wal-Mart, which allows (encourages, even) trailer camping. We did a little shopping and had spaghetti for dinner. We did a first round of putting clothes and food in the cabinets. We slept comfortably. Ashleigh found the bathroom to be comfortable and sufficient.

This morning we woke up a little later than we had planned, shopped at Wally's again, had pancakes for breakfast, and went looking for the house her father built thirty years ago. As you might expect, however, it is difficult to find a small house in the Idaho countryside with limited directions or any idea where it is. We called the lady who lives in the house now, but only spoke to her elderly mother. The octogenarian was kind and helpful, but she was currently experiencing heart pain (troubling!) and we mis-interpreted the directions. We went astray from the very beginning, with the instruction "turn right at milepost eleven": there was no road at milepost eleven, so we turned at the first road, which was the wrong road. After wandering around the beautiful countryside for a couple hours, we gave up and went back to Moscow to get internet. Google Maps showed us that the correct instruction was to turn right at the next road, at which point all the rest of the directions probably made sense.

This all meant that we lost too much time to make it to Yellowstone today. That is a crimp in the plan because we wanted two full days (three nites) in the park, but now will only have one day. Frustrated, we pulled into a grocery store, which is when we saw that we had a flat tire! Egad! I considered fixing it myself, but since I paid so much for super-duper AAA coverage, we called them. A nice towtruck lady is changing the tire right now.