“People do this voluntarily?”

Odometer: 64,806
Price of gas: $3.90
Kennewick to Glacier
REI stores visited: 2 (Spokane)

Today was a slog. Blech! I left Kennewick around 8 a.m. – I really had a ball with Paul, that was a great way to kick off a trip. So much so I think I’ll be back on the night of the 18th, and called up Mike Mai – the third part of our junior high triumvirate – to come down as well. Fun…

Anyway, from there it is a deeply boring drive to Spokane, and from Spokane a deeply boring drive to Newport, WA. It’s vaguely pretty, but in a very open-land and lots of brown tones kind of way.


I did get to visit another REI store:


In Newport I had to stop to interview candidate #3 of our analyst candidates. I also got some lunch. I remember Newport as more progressive than it appeared today, but it was a good stop… chance to stretch my legs, decent deli, etc. Drove on to Sandpoint, ID, and talked to Carolyn for a while about the analyst, as I have no way to transmit a report back. From there, I needed to drive: it’s a fair way to Glacier still, and it’s slow roads. The weather is not encouraging – cloudy, cold. Also deeply boring driving. There’s just not much out there. Kalispell is the first place you get to with a serious population – at least serious enough to support every fast food chain known to man, and have a Unitarian church, so it’s got to be fairly large – and then it’s still close to an hour to get to Glacier.

With the time change, it’s about 7:30 when I get into my campsite, and light is fading. I hustle to get my tent set up, and just as I finish the tent, rain starts plunking down. I get the rain tarp on, then decide to move my tent off the nicely set up flat area they have back a bit more to the woods. It’ll drip longer, but hopefully shield some of the rain from coming down in the first place. It is COLD. They have closed Logan Pass due to snow; where I am, it’s easily in the 40s and definitely a chill edge to the wind. I bless all the gear I’ve ever bought from REI. It’s enough, but not by much. I hunker down – 8:30 seems a good bedtime, as I’m tucked out – and head to sleep. People do this voluntarily?