Day 2/3 – You Say Potato

Spokane, Washington, USA

Jason (far left), Ben (beside Jason), and many other really great people

In the morning we were treated to hot showers and even cooked ourselves up some eggs and hash browns. Mark (our host) spent the morning telling us about his eventful and somewhat rebellious youth. 9am and beer in-hand, Mark reminisced of the time he ran away from home and lived on an island with his talented kleptomaniac friend as well as his outrageous Navy experience. Apparently he did not infact want to be in the Navy and would do anything to get out again… Ben and I left them our plants as they were in desperate need of water, and a large bottle of rum that we had bought duty free on the ferry. They in turn gave us a new ‘alternative zen’ CD, small wooden cat drinking coffee, and a box of instant noodle packages.

We didn’t leave Wenatchee until after 1 pm. We were too busy listening to Marks stories and our new CD. Idaho ho!

(morning) Well, so far we haven’t spotted any apples in this city claiming to be the apple capital of the world, nor do I see a surplus of apple-y baked goods and preserves hanging about. Driving out of Wenatchee now, and the terrain is similar to inland Australia somewhat with its rolling hills of dusty grass and small shrubs. Is this perhaps the Wild West? Cowboy country?

(afternoon) Scratch that, I had the best apple I have ever eaten today. I believe it was a ‘honey crisp’. So sweet, juicy, crunchy, and fresh! It seems all the apple orchards were on the eastern outskirts of the city.

Nothing too exciting happened on the way to Spokane, but once we got there we were quite pleasantly surprised. Spokane is a really nice city, we can even imagine ourselves living there. The most amazing thing happened as well; someone found us on Couchsurfing, and invited us to stay with him. Jason was so kind to us and we had riveting conversations. He lived in a house with four other guys. AND the night we arrived happened to be movie night at his place! We watched Slumdog Millionaire (good ending, but a very emotional movie), followed by Kung-fu Panda 2 (LOVED IT!) with a group of about 20 people, all from different places around the world. We stayed up late eating liquorice and popcorn. Once everyone left, Ben and I promptly fell fast asleep on the couch we were ’surfing’.

Somewhere in Idaho or possibly Montana
Not very far from Spokane, Washington, USA

In the morning after a delicious waffle breakfast cooked by our host Jason, we were given the royal tour of downtown. Spokane is a very beautiful city with a fantastic green downtown area. It also features a giant dam, waterfalls, and a gondola! We saw quite a few older buildings and learnt a little history of the town. Ben mostly listened while I ran around like a crazy taking pictures.

We then departed Spokane, Washington, onwards to Butte, Montana. After a quick lunch (Subway in Spokane where we received the best service, not to mention sub, we have ever had at a Subway, all our lives) we decided to stretch our legs at the rest stop just out of Couer d’Alane, Idaho. We then got talking to the volunteer who was serving tea and cookies. We discussed the possibility of heading over to the adventure park 1 hour out of our way. It would however cost $80 to get in and we were well into the afternoon. Turns out this kind man had a “gold seasons pass” which allowed himself and any two others free entry! The key to good adventures is always say ‘yes please!’.

Silverwood Theme Park has four roller coasters; two wood and two steel. Our first coaster was the corkscrew, it was short and sweet but we headed off looking for more. The second coaster was a much larger wood one which boasted speeds of 60mph which, we found out once it was too late, is rather fast. We met a wonderful family Kimberley, Frank and Sammi whom we spend the rest of the day with. We talked Kimberley into going on the coaster by disguising our extremely-exhilarated-and-scared-out-of-our-minds expression to one of pleasant contentment; “it wasn’t too bad at all…”. We continued on to conquer the other two roller coasters, the one where we go up really hight and then drop to the ground (not Ben’s favourite) and the train ride where we got ‘mugged’ by some bandits with extremely real looking guns.

Today turned out to be a really great day, despite the lack of bed. We slept in the car, parked at a truck stop a couple hours past the theme park. There were bright lights, and trucks coming and going all night, not to mention very little room in the trunk of the car for the two of us. We had some initial issues of making adequate room for each other and I am not sure we have totally sorted this out yet. We slept like babies… waking up every hour. We only made a couple hours actual progress today, and did not in fact get to Butte.