thesimpleHOUSE

Brenda had never visited the Pittock Mansion in Portland and I hadn’t been there since before we were married 43 years ago. So we decided to spend part of a day and a night in the City of Roses.

Our hotel was downtown and had valet parking with “free” charging. I say that because the valet parking wasn’t free, so the charging really wasn’t free, either. But, after a brief snafu on check in, we walked to dinner.

We had asked our good friends who live in Portland for suggestions on where to eat. We were within walking distance of the Waterfront Park, so we chose, on their recommendation, Il Terrazzo. We made reservations (which was a good choice, even on a Wednesday evening). We like good food and good atmosphere and wanted to end our trip on a high note.

The food and service were excellent. We often split meal at restaurants, because true to “the American way”, bigger seems better. The photos you see are our split Caesar Salad and our split Boscaiola. The Caesar was a Caesar (it’s kind of hard, in my opinion, to mess up a Caesar salad). And the Boscaiola was phenomenal. When it arrived, we thought it looked a bit small and wondered if we should have split, but it was so rich and flavorful, we were glad we split.

The next morning, we walked to a nearby coffee shop (we love urban settings), which had good coffee and average pastries, then packed up and made the short drive back to Eugene.

We love road tripping, but we also love getting back home. We drove 2,330 miles, which was about average for one of our road trips. Total charging cost was $145.19, about a third the cost of gas.

So until next year…

Well, we were winding down our trip. And we were getting ready to be home. We typically can go about 8 to 10 days of living out of a suitcase, then we’re ready to be home. And this trip was no exception.

After the incredible time in Glacier, nothing was as spectacular or as beautiful. But we did see some pretty scenery on the way to Yakima. The drive from Couer d’Alene to Yakima is mostly uneventful, boring and nondescript. This was no exception.

Thankfully, we had a second audio book to listen to on the mostly boring drive. The Lincoln Highway. We recommend this one, too.

But we did see the Ginko Petrified Forest along the upper part of the Columbia River on our way in.

We took a short stop for coffee and charging in Hood River, then landed in Portland for the night.

The trip to Helena from East Glacier was about 198 miles, so I thought we’d have plenty of range. However, I didn’t factor in the high winds that were still buffeting the area and the speed limit (70, 75 and 80 on the road in).

About 50 miles in, our car gave us a notice we needed to keep it under 65 mph in order to make it to Helena. I hadn’t received a message like that before, but was glad to see it. It had us (at our current speed) arriving with less than 4% range. We generally don’t like dropping below about 20%, so I backed off. As I did, over the next 50 miles or so, the projected range on arrival crept back up and eventually made it to 18%. And we arrived in Helena with 18% range.

Since it was a shorter trip to Missoula, we had decided to stop at the Cathedral of St Helena for a free tour. It was worth the stop. Not only was the architecture amazing, we ran into three massively tatted guys, one who lived in Helena and had never visited the cathedral and the other two, his cousins, from Concrete, Washington. Another great conversation time.

From Helena, we went on in to Missoula for the night. We had a supercharger at the hotel. Food choice adjacent to the hotel appeared to be so-so on Yelp. So we picked the top rated spot relatively close (about 2 miles away) and went to the Tap Club.

We ordered the pulled pork tacos to split. So glad we split! It was huge! and it was probably the best meal we had up to this point. We left stuffed.

On Sunday, our last day in Glacier, we spent the morning rerouting our trip home. Originally, we were going to travel through Joseph, Baker City and Redmond to see the Wallowas, Hell’s Canyon and our favorite restaurant in Redmond, Carnaval.

But the smoke in all of those areas bumped the air quality into the unhealthy range, so we rerouted to come home through Yakima and Portland.

The timing worked well, because we got to Logan Pass around lunchtime and actually found a parking space!

We ate our lunch, packed our bags and decided to head out on the Hidden Lake Trail.

We were NOT alone.

I was glad I had my Keens, glad I had padded my blister on my toe. However, we left our hiking poles in the car. We did fine, but it would have been a much easier hike if we had them. Beautiful along the way (as is everything in Glacier NP).

But I don’t think anything would have prepared us for just how stunning Hidden Lake was. We are so glad we held out and did it. We were so glad our motel host recommended it. Words don’t capture the breathtaking beauty of this spot.

We are still talking about this hike. For me, it was my favorite. Same for Brenda. And the same for a lot of people we talked with.

When we returned to our motel, we decided to go back to Serrano’s for a second dinner. This time, we split a foot-long pulled pork burrito. It, like the tacos, was awesome. A fitting end to our stay.

We plugged in Scarlett and retired for the night. Tomorrow it would be Missoula via Helena, where the nearest Supercharger was on our route.

We were a little more relaxed going to Many Glacier. It did require a driving pass to get in, but I had acquired ours back in March. This was another reason we stayed on the east side of the park. Many Glacier entrance is north of the east entrance at St May, so staying on the west would have been even more driving.

On the way to the park entrance at Many Glacier, the road was horrible. We began to wonder if it would be that way throughout this part of the park and if we should reconsider.

However, once we got to the entrance station, it was very nice paved road throughout this part of the park. We had been advised by our motel host to take the Swiftcurrent Trail, so we did. The trailhead is at Lake Sherburne. Our host was Ryan Sherburne. So I had to ask the obvious question.

Turns out his great-grandfather, Joseph homesteaded in this area in 1896. In 1919, they built a dam (Lake Sherburne is actually a reservoir) and he was compensated and displaced. Ryan’s grandfather, Fred Sherburne built Sherburne’s Mountain Pine Motel that opened with 10 units in July 1947. Over the years, they have added more units, grandson Ryan has taken it over and he has a particular affinity for electric vehicles. He has five 240 volt plugs and offers free charging to guests and low-cost charging to non-guests.

It’s a little rustic, but very comfortable beds. And Ryan was a wealth of information. He suggested going back to Logan Pass in the afternoon and that parking would be less of an issue. We logged that for our next and final day in Glacier.

On the Swiftcurrent Trail, we saw moose (not our first) and had a nice hike to Redrock Falls. There were reports of a mama bear and a couple of cubs near the trail. And, depending on who you talked to, it was either that or a mama, papa and three cubs. The story got embellished as it went along.

We hiked in to the falls and then back out. Saw no bears.

We made it back to the trailhead around lunch time so we had lunch at Nell’s Swiftcurrent and had low expectations. Usually in a National Park, the food is at best, average. You are a captive audience, so it doesn’t have to be that good. Just passable. However, Brenda got a Grilled Cheese and I got a Bacon Burger. I usually take pictures of our food to review on Yelp, but I didn’t here.

I should have. Both were VERY good.

The next day, our last in Glacier, we decided to try Logan Pass in the afternoon and see if we could find that elusive parking space.

We got up early, ate our muffins and drank our French Press and got on our way early. The weather was amazing. Forecast was clear and mid-70s. So we made our way into the park.

We arrived at Logan Pass parking lot. Full. Drove around about six times to try and see if anyone was leaving. No one. Probably too early. So we went to Plan B (if you know us and vacations, we are experts on Plan Bs). We elected to drive the road to the west, stop wherever we wanted and take the day doing that.

We decided to hike Avalanche Lake Trail. We have discovered we are “strolling hikers”. We enjoy the journey on a trail and aren’t the type who have to conquer the trail.

After the hike, we were careful to stay in the boundaries of the park, so we started working our way back to the east. We decided to try Logan Pass the next day. Still pretty amazing views and vistas on our journey back.

After our meandering back, at the end of our day, we decided to try a Mexican restaurant in East Glacier, Serrano’s. There aren’t many options for food in this area and, frankly, most of our food up to this point was average at best. We were pleasantly surprised at this one, though. We each got the Taco Board and a Margarita and both were excellent!

We decided we would have to return another night. And we decided to go to Many Glacier the next day.

The next morning, we met Gabby and Loren at Brownie’s, got our sandwiches and headed to the park. It was cloudy, cool, windy and we couldn’t see much on the way in. We did have a wonderful conversation with them, however, and realized that yes, we did make the right choice giving them a ride.

With the “less than” weather, we skipped the Logan Pass parking lot. It was full anyway.

We dropped them off at the trailhead to Piegan Pass. That trail is 4.5 miles and has an elevation gain of 1,750 feet. The wind and clouds were picking up, so we did a few pull outs after that point, drove to the other end of the park and were a little disappointed at the weather. The winds picked up, which helped clear out the clouds, but made hiking more difficult.

Unfortunately, we drove too far west and couldn’t get back on to the road. Apparently the driving pass to Going to the Sun road kicks in INSIDE the park, not at the park entrance. No amount of pleading with the Ranger helped, so we had to loop back around the south end outside the park.

But it did allow us to visit Two Medicine on our way back. By this time, the clouds had cleared somewhat although the winds were still brisk.

On our hike to Running Eagle Falls, we met a couple from Texas, engaged in conversation and found out their favorite hike had been Hidden Lake Trail. That was on our list, but was at the Logan Pass parking lot, which fills up early. Maybe tomorrow…

By the end of the day, having made lemonade out of our lemons not being able to get back onto the road through the park, the winds had cleared out the clouds and it was shaping up to be a nice day tomorrow.

Returning to our cabin, we stopped by Brownie’s again for muffins the next morning so we could get there early for the Logan Pass parking. As we were leaving, we ran into Gabby and Loren who had hitched a ride back with someone after their hike. I asked how it was and Loren said “great!”. Gabby said “we almost DIED!”. She said there were times they hugged the mountain to keep from being blown off the trail. I think he’s a bit more adventurous than she is.

So we took our muffins back, plugged in Scarlett for the next day and settled in for the evening.

As I mentioned in my last post, it’s a charging desert around Glacier National Park. Coming in from Spokane, we stopped at St Regis, Montana where there is a Supercharger.

Yes. That’s the Supercharger. Behind me is a gift shop and gas station and that’s about it. It was a hot day but this was our only choice for a charging stop. Normally, we like to stop for lunch and charge while eating. Usually, as my friend Merlyn says “the car is ready before we are.” However, the food choices in St Regis were, let’s say, limited.

We charged, visited the gift shop (do people really buy that stuff?) and were on our way. The next best place for lunch seemed to be Plains, Montana. Population 1,100. Yelp, our go-to source for food said the Butcher’s Nook was the best option. So we gave it a go. Cute little place. Seems to be run by perhaps a Mennonite family. Very clean, friendly. We split a BLT with fries and it was actually quite good.

From Plains, we made our way on in to East Glacier and checked in to the Pine Mountain Motel. We had heard the Logan Pass parking lot fills up early, so we planned on getting up early the next morning for the drive in.

We always take our own coffee with us. Palace Coffee French Roast. We also take our grinder, our French Press and an electric water heating carafe. Yes, we’re coffee snobs. To avoid the breakfast rush, after dinner at the local pizza truck (decent, but speedy) we went to Brownie’s across from our motel (there aren’t many choices in East Glacier, either) and got some pastries for a quick morning breakfast. They open at 7:00am, so we thought we’d do our pastries and coffee, then grab some sandwiches from them the next morning on our way out.

In the process, we struck up a conversation with Gabby, who is a chemical engineering student working at Brownie’s for her second summer here from Lithuania. She asked if we had two extra spots in our car for the next morning to the park. One for her and one for her fiancé, Loren (not his actual name; he said we couldn’t probably pronounce it) who was a fifth year med student, also from Lithuania.

We said, “sure” and then wondered if that was a good idea or not. So we went back to our room, plugged Scarlett in and retired for the night.

After completing our loop, we made it home. 1,864 miles, 438 kWh at an average 235 Wh/mi. Total cost for charging was $54.83.

$0.029/mile.

That’s the best we’ve ever done on a road trip thanks to all the free charging locations. Charging along the way was simple, easy and very accessible with the exception of the Steens trip.

Maybe that will change in the near future.

We bought a Modern Spare tire to take, just in case, since we were going to be in remote areas with no cell service and potholes but we didn’t need it.

Thanks to the huge trunk in the car (as well as the sub-trunk and the frunk), everything else still fit: two suitcases, two duffel bags, two backpacks, a small cooler, a boatload of charging cables and adapters (that we also didn’t need), extension cords (110v and 240v), a tire pump, binoculars, hiking poles, water bottles, coats and sweaters.

And nothing in the back seat.

To those who ask “yeah, but would you take it on a long road trip?” I have to say, “of course. We have in the past and we will in the future.”