In our part one post we covered the first leg of our Key West to Deadhorse Adventure which took us from our home in Virginia down to Key West and Back. The second leg of this adventure covered in this post takes us from Virginia out to Bellingham Washington where we will catch the Alaska Ferry up to Alaska.
Normally, we don’t travel cross country at this pace, but the wedding described in first post on this adventure cut this time down and only allowed for a few multiday stops as we had to be in Bellingham to catch the ferry north on June 4th. As always though we found things to do every day along the way.
Day 1 – Englewood, Ohio (day 15 of the overall journey)
On the road to Englewood
There are only a few fast routes from Virginia westward and we take one we know rather well. Our main goal today is to get 7-8 hours down the road and into Englewood, Ohio is as good a stop as anywhere.
National Air Force Museum
We’ve made good time today and Nancy remembers the National Air Force Museum in Dayton – and she hasn’t been there in about 30 years. And so we divert just a few miles and have about 2 hours to explore the museum. It is well done with areas devoted to early flight, WW1, WW2, the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War and a little bit of space travel mixed in. We only have time for about 1/2 of the exhibits – but since this is one of the main routes from VA westward, we will save the rest for the next time we pass through. It was wonderful to have this unexpected stop today
Company 7 BBQ
Before we chose our lodging for a night, we try and make sure there’s a restaurant within walking distance. We usually find a great place and tonight is no exception. Company 7 BBQ was founded by a local fire department that got so good as smoking meat – they ended up opening a restaurant. We met a wonderful conversationalist, Liz, and spend several hours sharing life’s travel stories.
Day 2 – St Charles, Missouri (day 16 of the overall journey)
On the to St Charles
St. Charles is right on the Missouri River just west of St. Louis. It looks like a delightful historic river town and it is a shorter than normal drive (just 5 hours) which will give us time “to play” there. The drive there is through the mostly flat farm land of Indiana and Illinois. Along the way we cross the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
Country Inn and Suites
We check into the Country Inn and Suites located Missouri River and on the same street and just a short walk to the St Charles Historic District. Something happened here that has never happened before. There was a woman in the room across the hall singing as if she didn’t care who could hear her. It wasn’t terribly loud, but it was noticeable and she was definitely enjoying herself.
Historic Downtown St Charles
Our research was spot on and this quaint area is just our style. We decide to walk the entire length of the street – which is about a mile long – and then work our way back stopping in at few different places. We see a few B&B’s we had looked into and remark they might be nice to indulge in on a future trip.
Big A’s on the Riverfront
Our first stop is Big A’s – a great little bar with a few TVs for checking in on sports. We share a folded pizza – which was HUGE – so it’s a good thing it is all we ordered.
Uncle Joe’s Bar & Grill
This place hadn’t been on our radar, but we peeked inside and decide to grab a beer. We meet local folks Chris and Debra and end up chatting for over an hour. They ordered 3 different appetizers and insisted we try each one. We end up ordering the lemon-pepper chicken wings after tasting theirs.
Tony’s On Main
Next up – Tony’s, a place with great reviews. and it exceeded our expectations. We head upstairs to the bar area where there’s live music. Aren’t we lucky – they only have live music on Tuesdays and it just happens to be Tuesday. Our bartenders Dalecia and Sydney are a delight. One of the band members wives comes around with salted carmel candies and another one brings cupcakes to honor her husband’s birthday. This place just has such a cozy, welcoming feeling.
Riverwalk
Most of the restaurants are on the end of the street furthest away from our hotel. We’ve only managed to hit 3 places, but the sun is starting to set and we want to enjoy the walk back while we still have some daylight so we can enjoy the riverwalk.
Schlaflys Bankside Brewery
Years ago we bough 12 different pumpkin beers and did a blind taste test to pick our favorite. Schlafly’s Pumpkin Beer was the winner – and dang, the brewery is about 1 block away from our hotel. We know they won’t have pumpkin beer this time of the year, but just twist our arm and we’ll see what else they have to offer. We end up drinking a lager and a stout – both very delicious. Then we call it a night and head to the room.
Day 3 – Sioux City, Iowa (day 17 of the overall journey)
On the road to Sioux City
We aren’t going to Sioux City for any particular reason – it’s just a good driving distance and looks to have a nice hotel. Sadly, we drive through rain almost the entire day – and it is still raining when we get to our destination, with no sign of letting up. We do see the Kansas City Royals Stadium along the interstate near Kansas City before exiting for a bit of lunch at an Applebees.
Sioux City
We had passed though Sioux City a couple years ago and knew it was a decent stopping point on our way out west. There is a fair amount of Lewis and Clark things to see here with museums and monuments, but we are tired, its late, its raining and besides we had touched on some of this the last time we were here. We decided to settle in and not leave the hotel tonight.
The Warrior Hotel
The Warrior Hotel (one of Marriott’s Autograph Collection) is a recently renovated 11 story hotel originally built in 1930. It is in a central location and is park of the city’s iconic skyline. The grand staircase and many other architectural details have been restored – but newer luxurious conveniences such as internet, heated toilet seats, room refrigerators, smart TV, etc. have been added, We had planned to walk to one of the many restaurants withing walking distance, but the rain “wins” and we decide to check out our options within the hotel. First up we see the lobby bar that adjoins with a fancy steakhouse. Not what we’re looking for, we head to the rooftop bar. The view would be great – if it wasn’t raining – and we can’t sit outside. And so, we head to the third and final option.
Bowling at the Warrior
In the basement is an 8-lane bowling alley and lounge. This is definitely a first for us! It just so happens that on Wednesday’s they have half price bowling and $10 pizzas – and today is Wednesday. Winner! We rent a lane and bowl for an hour while we enjoy a few beers. Then it is time to grab a pizza. The place is very slow, so we have plenty of opportunity to chat with our bartender, Larry and the pizza chef, Al.
Day 4 & 5 – Deadwood, South Dakota (days 18 & 19 of the overall journey)
On the Road to Deadwood
The next day we push on across the vast rolling plains of South Dakota. You can really make time when the speed limit is 80 miles an hour.
Wind Cave National Park
Originally, we were going to do one of the cave tours at Wind Cave National Park but we arrived too late in the afternoon and all the tours had been sold out for the day. We ended up doing some scenic driving in the park before heading over to the Needles Scenic Highway.
Needles Highway
Needles Highway, located in Custer State Park, is famous for its views and one lane tunnels through the granite spires. It’s a beautiful day and we spend a few hours meandering around this area before heading off to Deadwood for the next couple days.
Deadwood
When gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Deadwood became one of the most notorious mining towns of the Old West. Wild Bill Hickok was murdered here in saloon number 10 and the town kind of takes its personality from this. He was supposedly holding a pair of Aces and a pair of 8’s – now referred to as the dead man’s hand. We are staying at the historic 1899 Hickok Hotel & Suites next to the music pavilion. There are a ton of casinos in town as well as live staged gunfights in the street every day.
Finding Dinner
Looking to catch some baseball and hockey play-offs, we first we stop at a place call Mustang Sally’s – where we grab a beer and some fried cheese curds. It was decent, but with so many places to eat, we move on and end up at a little downstairs place called Stan and Ollie’s Pub. Here we meet our bartender Chris and make new friends with Hailey and Shane who are here for the Hank William’s portion of the weekend concert series.
A Day in Deadwood
As mentioned before, when you travel for a long time, you need to build in “down days”. For us – today that means no driving and just enjoying this town of Deadwood. We start with breakfast at a place called the Wooden Nickel – just a plain old greasy spoon type of breakfast diner food in the back of a casino. We take time to catch up on photography, this blog and paying the normal day-to-day bills and reconciling receipts so far. We walk around the town through souvenir shops and various bars.
Outlaw Music Pavillion and the Halestorm Concert
By sheer luck, we booked our hotel months in advance before a 3-day music festival (over Memorial Weekend) had been announced. Our hotel room was about 1/3 the current going rate because of this. We got to see Halestorm and Black Stone Cherry this Friday night by just hanging out near the hotel. We won’t be around Saturday or Sunday for the other bands.
Day 6 – Williston, North Dakota (day 20 of the overall journey)
We depart Deadwood and head north towards Williston North Dakota with 2 objectives in mind. The first is to visit Fort Union National Monument and the second is to catch scenic highway 2 across Montana.
On the Road to Williston
It doesn’t take long after leaving Deadwood to get to long stretches of isolated ranches with an occasional small town. Along the way we encounter numerous long trains carrying oil in this area of the country where there is a lot of drilling still going on.
Back Country Through Ranch Land
As a special treat, we head off into the backcountry for a while on dirt roads to where as far as the eye can see, there is nothing but the rolling prairie and occasionally some cattle.
Fort Union
Fort Union was a major trading post in the Missouri River in North Dakota during the fur trading days of the early 1800’s. It makes for a great stop over for a couple hours to immerse in history. it’s only about 25 miles from our stopover in Williston, North Dakota and was a great little diversion.
Williston – Doc Holidays
In Williston we had dinner at Doc Holidays which was near our hotel. Outside of this restaurant there were a ton of cowboy, Indian and buffalo statues. The food here was wonderful and the pork chop we had was on the best I believe we have ever eaten. We highly recommend this place.
Day 7 – Great Falls, Montana (day 21 of the overall journey)
On to the road to Great Falls
Our next destination is Great Falls Montana and as we travel on Highway 2 we pass through the large agricultural area of northern Montana. You go large stretches of time between an occasional small town. We are whizzing down the road at 80 miles an hour and you can cover a lot of territory in a short period of time.
Fort Peck
We need something to do mid-day to just get out of the car for a few hours. We start seeing billboards for a dinosaur museum and are reminded of the Fort Peck Dam. The Fort Peck Dam was a massive 1930’s project to control flooding on the Missouri River and provide hydroelectric power to this the area of the country. At 21,000 feet long it’s one of the largest dams in the world and its well worth stopping off at the museum for a few hours. Along with the history of the dam construction there is a decent little dinosaur display.
Best Western and Walking
Our lodging for the night is a Best Western Plus located on the Missouri River and right next to the river walk trail. Nancy and I explore the area for a bit along this trail before heading out to catch dinner. The temperatures have dropped and it is misting outside so we don’t venture far for dinner and end up at an Applebee’s close by.
Great Falls
Great Falls is only an overnight stay for us but we get up early and take a walk down to the downtown area for bit to get a feel for the town.
Day 8 & 9- Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho (days 22 & 23 of the overall journey)
On the Road to Coeur d’ Alene
We had been through this little resort town on an earlier Glacier and Canadian Rockies road trip and had made a note about coming back and spending some time here. its a bit overcast with a bit if rain and sometimes snow as we venture through the mountains from Great Falls to Coeur d’ Alene but the scenery is still great.
The Greenbriar Inn
We are staying a few blocks off the main drag at the Greenbriar Inn. It’s a B&B that also has a full-service restaurant (315 Martini’s & Tapas) and has been in business since about 1908. Our room on the second floor has a private balcony which we take full advantage of during our stay.
Waterfront
This is a beautiful waterfront town with a number of resorts and marinas on the lake near the downtown area. There is a very large and wonderful park that is integrated into this area and we take full advantage of it exploring the surrounding area.
Downtown
The downtown (primarily Sherman Avenue) is full of shops and restaurants and as we walk, we are on the look-out for a place to have dinner.
Crickets
We first stop at a place called Beacon Street only to discover they don’t serve food. We grab one beer, chatting it up with our bartender, JR who suggests we try a place called Crickets. The decor in this place reminds us of a 1970’s Las Vegas lounge with all upholstery in dark green velvet. Here we meet our new friends Andy and Anjela along with bartender Grace.
Another “day off” – Tubbs Hill and other things
After being on the road for close to 3 weeks with the Key West leg of adventure we decide that we are taking this next day off. For us this means hanging out in town and don’t drive anywhere. Our main activity in the afternoon was a great little Tubbs Hill hike around the Lake before heading out the dinner at Capone’s Pub & Grill and our bartender Mike takes very good care of us.
Day 10 – Lake Chelan, Washington (day 24 of the overall journey)
On the Road to Lake Chelan
We take the scenic route back country route the next day from Coeur d’Alene on our way to Lake Chelan through the rolling farmland of eastern Washington State.
Grand Coulee Dam
Along the way we stop and explore the Grand Coulee Dam and Visitor’s Center.
Lake Chelan and the Campbell Resort
We reach Lake Chelan and Nancy has booked us a lake front room at Campbell’s Resort. The first thing we learn – is how to pronounce “Chelan” – which is pronounced “She-laan” (accent on the second syllable). The nearby downtown area is filled with restraints and shops and after dinner at Tin Lilly, we go swimming in the heated pool at the resort overlooking the lake.
Day 11, 12 & 13 – Bellingham, Washington (days 25, 26 & 27 of the overall journey)
On the Road to Bellingham
We are off again the next day on the North Cascades Scenic Loop which takes us high in the mountains. The winter snows are still melting here, and we pass many waterfalls along the road as we journey towards Bellingham.
Winthrop
There is a little tourist ‘wild west’ town called Winthrop that we stop at for a bit and walk around. We had stayed at this town on a prior Washington State trip and just wanted to relive a few memories.
Fairhaven/Bellingham – Alaska Ferry Docks
We finally arrive in Bellingham. We’ve rented a little VRBO unit in the Fairhaven section of Bellingham. It happens to be located at Stone’s Throw Brewery and is just blocks from where we will catch the ferry to Alaska in 2 days. Our first priority is heading to the Ferry Terminal to get our bearings on what we are going to have to do in a couple days.
Fairhaven Area of Bellingham
After getting oriented, we walk through the Fairhaven area of Bellingham to pick up a couple things at the grocery store.
Dinner with Kelly and Doug
We meet up with Kelly Rosebrock and her husband Doug for dinner at their home. Kelly was one of my interns years ago and both Nancy and I have known here for over 25 years. Thery were great hosts, and we have a wonderful meal featuring grilled salmon with pesto as well as some sautéed sugar snap peas with almonds.
A Day in Bellingham
We need a day do laundry and pack for the upcoming ferry trip. We will not have access to our vehicle while the ferry is in motion, so we need to pack both food and clothing for this 3 night journey. We don’t want to take our full suitcases or full arsenal of food – just what we will need for 3 days/nights. The ferry doesn’t leave until 10:30pm the following day so we exit our rental at 11am the next day and hang out some more with Kelly & Doug until it is time to wait in line to board the ferry.
Up Next
We will catch the ferry north and finally will land in Alaska in the coming days.
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