Departed the house shortly after 6:30 am. Sixty degree temps with partly cloudy skies and a forecast for rain. That combined with the possibility of a full day of college football, caused Rick to wonder why are we leaving. The prospect of a 14-hour drive to our old stomping grounds (and where we first met) up in the Beartooths, was a bit daunting.
Headed west on Interstate 84 to Interstate 82 near Hermiston then 395 to I-90 through Spokane, Idaho and down through Montana towards the north entrance of Yellowstone. Passed the time listening to podcasts of This American Life, Rick's play lists, and pandora, testing our relationship with Rick giving me instruction on the operation of his smartphone, and just trying to decompress. It has been a challenging past few months with Rick spending much time travelling and working in Boulder, CO and me and my sister helping Mom and Dad navigate through some difficult challenges associated with her back surgery in July and then a longer-than-expected rehabilitation, complicated by repeated GI tract infections. At one point I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to make this trip, but after discussion and much thought, I decided that I needed to do this for me and us as this could be our last fall colors trip camping out of the back of the truck.
We've been debating whether to sell this behemoth of a truck given how infrequently we use it for camping. The practical conclusion is to sell it. We don't need it anymore for day-to-day use. Also, at 11 miles to the gallon and the tight parking in Portland, it just isn't an attractive option for transport. Emotionally though, at least for me, it is hard to sell the truck. I see it, I guess, as a symbol of Rick's and my connection to each other for it is through the truck we can get away, forget the stress of our daily lives, and reconnect to the natural world and, through that, to each other. I find myself concerned that selling this truck will result in a loss of this opportunity to connect. Also, I see selling the truck as an saying goodbye to a part of my life that I have thoroughly enjoyed: seeing some of the most beautiful places in this country with my life partner. I'm just not sure that I'm ready to do that.
----Note to self, if we ever do travel like this again, do NOT store the peppermint and wintergreen lifesavers in a sealed container with other food . . . unless of course you WANT all of your other food to taste minty fresh----
We cruised through Oregon stopped in Couer d'Alene, ID at the Garnet Cafe for a late lunch. Service there was a little squirrely but the food is good. We then made our way down through Montana and, finally, after 12 hours of driving, we cried uncle and decided to camp at the Pine Creek Campground located just a few miles south of Livingston, Montana. Though the campground was closed for the season, we camped at a day use area. Well, technically, we didn't camp, as that is not permitted. We "parked" given that we slept in the truck.
We had a quick dinner of meats, cheeses, wine and chocolate during which time, I became increasingly nervous about Girzzly bears. Whenever we've car camped before we never stayed in Grizzly country, where you are suppose to store your food separately from your living "accommodations" to minimize the potential of a Grizzly eating you alive while it ate your foodstuff. Granted being in a truck affords you greater protection than a tent. Nevertheless, there are stories about Grizzlies breaking into cars so I don't think my worries were completely unfounded. Well, I just drank a lttle more wine to help me forget about this, cleaned everything really well and then crawled into bed, crossing my fingers and saying a little prayer, and trying to convince myself that the bears have likely bedded down in their dens to hibernate for the winter . . . which actually is not the case, they are active throught the beginning of November but I didn't learn that until a couple of days later, but by then I'd gotten use to the idea.
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