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We just entered Idaho on our way to Glacier National Park.  And we’ve driven 5113 miles so far on our trip – passing 5000 miles seems like a big milestone.  Also the fact that we are officially heading for home now.  Will take us about a month to get there if all goes as planned but we hit our farthest point north in Tonasket and now are headed east and then south.  Lots of national parks in front of us.  Really cool was the fact that just as we hit the 5000 mile mark we saw a moose on the side of the road up in the mountains of eastern Washington.

The last week was spent visiting the Zabreznik clan.  From the Olympic Peninsula we headed due East through Tacoma and into Wenatchee where Joe’s Uncle Clyde and Aunt Lana live.  They own these really cool drive through espresso stands called Aut-to Mocha.  They are little buildings planted in the middle of parking lots or on corners and we see similar ones everywhere in the Pacific Northwest – every little town we drive through has one or two.  People here take their coffee seriously.  I guess as cold as it gets here during a large part of the year it makes sense.  I think it’s a great business model – I wonder why it hasn’t taken hold in Texas yet.  I’d certainly frequent one if it was handy.  Thanks to Clyde and Lana we drank some good coffee while in Wenatchee.  We also met up with Joe’s Dad, Rod, who flew in from Texas to join us for a few days.



Then we headed north to Tonasket which is only about 25 miles south of the Canadian border.  We actually thought about heading up into Canada and then east over to Montana but then realized they just changed the law June 1^st and now you have to have a passport to get back into the US so that was out.   We’ve also had a little bad luck with the truck and trailer  - hopefully bad luck comes in threes cuz that means we’re done for the trip.  First the battery went kaput and we had to pick a new one up, then on the road up to Tonasket our tire blew out and off – completely off so we were driving on the rim which immediately buckled up.  There were guard rails on both sides of the road, with the Columbia River on one side and a big hillside on the other so we had to limp along a little ways before we could pull off and put on the spare.  Then finally, coming down out of the mountains after Tonasket the truck started shimmying and we ended up  having to get new front brakes and rotors on the truck.  It turns out the trailer brakes were not working so the truck was having to do all the braking.

In Tonasket we stayed with Joe’s Uncle Donny and Aunt Carolyn.  They hosted a family gathering for us and we got to visit with Uncle Roy and Aunt Beryl, Joe’s cousin John and his wife Donna, his 2^nd cousin LaGail and her fiance Darrel and kids Michael and Alex.  It was great fun seeing everyone and listening to Joe’s dad and brother and sister talk about growing up - lots of good memories.   One afternoon sitting in Donny’s living room he pointed out the window at a big bird sitting in one of his trees above the Okanogan River that runs behind his property.  It was a bald eagle!  I was so in awe to see one fairly close up and right out his window!

Next on to Glacier National Park.