How I Got to Spokane

1. Casper, WY (Super 8 West)
2. Billings, Mont. (C'mon Inn)
3. Great Falls, Mont. (Town House Inn)
4. Many Glaciers Campground, Glacier National Park, Mont.
5. Columbia Falls, Mont. (Super 8)
6. Kalispell, Mont. (Kalispell Grand Hotel)
7. Kalispell, Mont. (Red Lion Inn)
8. Whitefish, Mont. (Best Western Rocky Mountain Lodge)
9. Whitefish, Mont. (Downtowner Inn)
10. Yaak River Campground, Kootenai National Forest, Mont.
11. Spokane, Wash. (Hotel Ruby)

Northern Wyoming is a paradise this time of year. Billings is best seen from the Rim north of town. The Judith Gap is the "heaven" of the High Plains.

Saw three grizzlies in Glacier. Work week spent in the Flathead Valley, then last night (Saturday) right in my tent along the Kootenai.  Campfires tonight and this morning. Today was one of the best days driving I've ever had---mindblowing. Found some really cool trails. Crossed Idaho, which is thin like Vermont up here, in a few hours and came down the Pend d'Oreille in a thunderstorm.

Hotel Roby is a nice little boutique place in downtown Spokane that I'd booked in Whitefish. Psychedelic portrait of John Lennon on the wall.

After checking in, I was hungry and stumbled into the swanky old Hotel Davenport across the street without even taking a shower from camping, and wearing my camo baseball hat and still wearing the holster to my Counterassault bear spray canister (canister itself was left in the car). They seated me by the fireplace in the big main room. I ordered an Oregon pinot noir and Alaska Copper River salmon.  The salmon was very good.