The Great Northwest and Happy Birthday Gary

We awoke, refreshed on July 5th. Gary had been working some that morning, so we explored the beautiful Lake Pleasant RV park and hiked the trail around it. Gary stopped by after work and dinner plans were made. We met him at his favorite place in Edmonds, Bruno's Girardi's Osteria for a sumptuous birthday meal. The next day, we met up at Gary's where several batches of Pizzelle's were made, including one Gluten free for Jane using an almond flour which came out surprisingly well. After checking on the animals in the RV, we headed off to Mukiltio to the Diamond Knot Brewery for pub food and drink. I had to make a home depot stop as the new brake assist system in the Mini was not working properly, with the tension on the cable too loose to depress the brake pedal. My jury rigged solution was a clip to hold tension, but I wanted to find something that would work better. Not much luck.

The next morning, we were back on the road after a pancake breakfast with Gary at the Original Pancake House (although the original Original is in Portland apparently) destination Jackson Hole, by way of Coeur D'Alene, ID and Missoula, MT stopovers. Did I mention eastern Washington is really boring country? At least Coeur D'Alene was nice. Added bonus was that I got to see an old buddy from my Washoe Co SO Pistol Team days who is on the Idaho State Police now, and Charley and I had a nice breakfast getting updated on the past 21 years before we headed out. That night, upon arriving in Missoula, we actually found the cats favorite treats at a natural food store near our RV park. The KOA was nothing special, but we had a good reunion with my good friends Geof and Debbie that made the stopover well worth it.

Off to Jackson Hole, a long days drive, with Apple maps delivering us to the wrong campground not once, but twice actually. Given the long driving day, not suprisingly, the Mini was dead, Jim!