Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: 2019 Road Trip with Ma and Pa

Wednesday – 09/04/2019 – Beautiful day driving to Chippewa Falls to my parents. Tomorrow starting an new adventure. Taking a road trip with my parents. We will be heading west and be gone for at approximately 2 weeks. The plan is to head toward Idaho and spend a few days exploring that area then maybe drop down into Colorado and possibly on to Vegas.

Thursday – 09/05/2019 – Got on the road around 7:30. Hopped on I-94 and headed west. We did not do any sight seeing today. We arrived in Bismark ND around 5:00.

Today's Mileage: 524 Tonight's stay: AmericInn – Bismark ND

Friday – 09/06/2019 – After leaving Bismark we drove a few miles west on I-94 then exited the freeway near Gladstone to drive the Enchanted Highway. Along this rural stretch of road are several large metal sculptures made by Gary Greff. He is a local man from Regent ND who wanted to promote his small town so built this series of sculptures and placed them along the road that leads to Regent. They are a wonderful example of American folk art. From Regent we continued on rural roads and returned to the interstate at Dickenson. We made some brief stops at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center and The Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Centers. Lots of miles today despite our stops.

Today's Mileage: 524 Tonight's stay: Baymont – Billings MT

Saturday – 09/07/2019 – We decided to bypass any tourist attractions and keep driving. Around Bozeman we started entering the mountains. It was cloudy and rainy in the morning with the clouds breaking up later in the day. The light and the mountains made for some awesome scenery. Lots of up and down and curvy roads. A few 6% grades but no more than 3 miles long. The steepest was at Lookout Pass (elev. 4700) at the Idaho border. We arrived at the Baymont in Couer d'Alene at around 6 PM Pacific time.

Today's Mileage: 495 Tonight's stay: Baymont – Couer d'Alene ID

Sunday – 09/08/2019 – After leaving the hotel this morning we drove through down town Couer d'Alene. It was Sunday morning so not much going on but it looked very nice if somewhat touristy. We took highway 97 south which is a scenic drive hugging the coast of Couer d'Alene. Spectacular and beautiful and curvy. Once we arrived at St. Maries we decided to take highway 5 to Plummer and pick up highway 95 which would take us to Moscow our next stop. This route took us along the south end of the lake and over the St. Joe River. According to a roadside information sign this river is the highest navigable river in the world.

The landscape south of the lake on the way to Moscow is rolling hills covered in wheat fields dotted with stands of pines. It is referred to as the Palouse. Lots of colorful contrast with the dark pines standing out against the golden wheat fields. We noticed other golden fields that were not wheat. It turns out is was garbanzo beans. In this area the wheat crop is rotated with peas, lentils and garbanzo beans. We arrived in Moscow in the early afternoon and checked into our hotel.

Today's Mileage: 90 Tonight's stay: Best Western Plus – Moscow ID

Enchanted Highway