After leaving West Seattle, we made a stop for the night in the quaint Bavarian town of Leavenworth. We enjoyed a little site-seeing and a wonderful German lunch. Nearby, in the town of Cashmere is where the fruity-jelly candy Aplets and Cotlets are made at Liberty Orchards. We had to make a visit to their factory. Of course, we walked away with a few pounds of the jellied candy.
Our next destination was to visit the Fairchild AFB FamCamp near Spokane, WA. However, after exiting the freeway and were only a few miles away from our destination, the "Check Engine" light came on, followed by a warning "Engine Overheating", followed by a "Engine Stop" warning. I had just enough time to pull off the road when the engine shut itself off. Sure enough, anti-freeze fluid was all over the back of the motorhome and towed Jeep. Geez - more engine problems! We called Coach-Net, our road-service. We've had Coach-Net for over 15 years and have needed to use them several times with our previous motorhome. We HIGHLY recommend them. Unlimited towing is included.
After a couple hours, a heavy-duty tow truck showed up and towed us the 8 miles back to a nearby Freightliner repair shop. After waiting at the shop for another 6 hours, the problem was resolved. Luckily, it was another small issue ($500). A radiator hose had just come off it's clamp. A new clamp was installed and the radiator re-filled. We were operational again. Being past 11:30pm, they let us spend the night in their parking lot.
This was the third time in 1,000 miles that the motorhome was in the shop. They say trouble comes in three's, so hopefully we'll have smooth travels again.
While staying at Fairchild AFB, we made a couple site-seeing trips to Spokane. We were also able to make a day-trip to Moscow, Idaho and visit Connie's cousin Jack Lane and his wife Sandy. We always enjoy meeting with them. Over a wonderful BBQ lunch, their big news this time is they are going to fully retire, live in Hawaii for half the year, and do some RV travel on the mainland for the other half. Congratulations Jack and Sandy!
Connie and I had always wanted to visit Lake Louise and Banff in Canada. Since we were going to be pretty close, we made the 2-day drive from Spokane to Lake Louise. The first night was spent in a rest area in British Columbia. We arrived at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada this past Thursday and planned to spend a week there. However, it wasn't what I was expecting. Very crowded! Although it was the "off-season", the campground was full. We ended up going to an overflow area, which is just a large parking lot for $8 (US) a night. That night, it got below freezing and snowed a few inches. We had cold, overcast weather to tour the area.
I wasn't very impressed with Lake Louise. Sure, it's pretty, but so are a thousand other lakes. It was the crowds and traffic that gave me my bad taste of this visit. We drove the 30 minutes to Banff for lunch. Another pretty town full of tourists. After a little touring, we were done with the area. Partly due to the bad weather, we decided to cut this trip short and depart after only 2 days. The drive back to the USA was probably the best part of the trip. It was a very scenic drive. We ended up seeing 3 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, and a fox on our drive out of the area.
Our next big planned stop is at Glacier National Park in Montana. Afraid it might be busy, we made reservations for a RV Park there. Since we changed plans, we're ahead of our schedule. So we stopped at the Rexford Bench USFS campground near Eureka, MT. Being that prime season hasn't yet started, there's only a few campers in this beautiful campground. The $6 a night price is fantastic. We're enjoying this relaxing stay and catching up on some computer work. We'll be here for another 4 days before moving to Glacier National Park.