Kootenai Falls, Electrical problems, Wine & Fire, OH MY!

 

 

Hello from Mt. Rainier...well maybe! That picture was about as close as we got. After one night at Shady Firs Campground the area was suddenly filled with smoke and we got an evacuation call that the fire was growing rapidly (from 90 acres to 150 overnight) and we should get ready to evacuate. It was so smoky we really couldn't even be outside so off we went. But, I'm getting ahead of myself!

After we left Glacier we headed to Kootenai River Campground. On the way there I said why are we staying for 3 nights here? Besides the falls there really isn't too much to do. Well, not only does God have plans for us...He provides!!! The first night I was up doing my nails and all of the sudden we lost power. I looked around and the rest of the campground was dark too so I thought it was an overall outage. Nope, just us! Apparently over time one of the connections on the power cord reel had fried (YIKES!!!). We couldn't have been in a better location as the campground owner, Chris was super knowledgeable on wiring AND his father in law who he called to help us on Sunday of Labor Day weekend was an electrician! Between the two of them, the neighbor and my very handy husband the main power cord was rewired!  

 

Dave told me I had to put this in to let you know it's not all mountains and waterfalls. :) Me driving and the deep cleaning day where I cleaned all the vents and filters. Yup, that's the part about taking your house with you...you have to clean it too...

...but you can't beat the view from the windows!

OK, back to Kootenai River Campground where it was a blessing we had 3 nights so we could not only fix Phoebe up but got to hike to the falls! You have to cross over the railroad tracks and then hike down to the where you can see the falls. For the brave there is a swinging bridge you can cross to hike down to the basin...very cool!

Me, at the start of the swinging bridge and Dave in the middle.

We made it across! I said it was just like walking in the motorhome when Dave's driving!

Our next stop was a boondockers welcome host who shared their amazing view of the sunset with us, plus some fresh veggies from their garden. It's always fun meeting new people and hearing their camping stories. We connected right away when they started talking about "rock hunting". They showed us their rocks from all over, including petrified wood that they had tumbled into a beautiful piece, which they gave me!

Now, on to the wine! One of my favorite vineyards is in Washington so of course we had to visit Chateau Ste. Michelle. While I was surprised by the fact that the winery is in a fairly crowded, almost industrial area the grounds were beautiful with the buildings and flowers. We had a lovely dinner out (best gluten free pizza I've ever had) and of course I bought some wine too! :)

So that takes us back to Mt. Rainier which was our next stop at Shady Firs for 5 nights. We only made it 1 night so Paladin pool this counts as a missed stop (or does it count as 4 nights??). We are bummed we missed out on hiking the mountain but maybe that's a reason to come back.The good news is we have some impromptu fun planned for the next few days so stayed tuned!

Tonight we are blessed to have found another Boondockers welcome site that was available for 2 nights on short notice. They have a lovely site and we even had a visitor. The owner is a retired Fire Captain and he and his wife were headed towards the fire to help with the evacuation. God bless them and the others that are fighting the fire!