One of the good things about doing these road trips is that even though we can’t make another one right now, I get to relive the one we did take, so it’s like a whole journey while staying home.

Waitsburg, Washington. It’s a really neat little town. I love this old clock! Waitsburg is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,166 at the 2020 census. Waitsburg has a unique city classification in Washington state, being the state’s only city which still operates under its territorial charter.

I love the old buildings in town, too.

We had to get a new car before our trip because the old one had very (too many) electrical problems that had to be fixed… plenny kala ($$$) to do that. We just hit a milestone on this new one.

In Waitsburg, we stopped at a cool-looking hardware store. I adore going into old hardware places like this because they usually have such wonderful stuff.

Like this!

And this!

And this!!!!!

No, Mokihana. You can’t have these.

But try look this face!! The others are pretty hidden.

Waitsburg Library.

The bottom one wasn’t politically correct, but there it was.

We headed back out of town into the countryside along Highway 12.

This is in the town of Dayton, Washington. This is another cool small town.

And here’s the station master/conductor.

We’re now at Lake Coeur d’ Alene in Idaho! We’ve driven up Highway 95 heading north. That notebook on the dashboard is where Nolemana was writing down where we were when he took the photos. But I don’t know where it is now. Sheesh.

We’re now on I-90 heading east to Montana over 4th of July Pass. This is just past Coeur D’Alene.

From Wikipedia:

Fourth of July Summit is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of the northwestern United States, located in northern Idaho. Its elevation is 3,081 feet (939 m) above sea level^[1] on Interstate 90 in central Kootenai County, east of the city of Coeur d’Alene.

The summit marks the western end of the Silver Valley mining district, which extends east, along the Coeur d’Alene River and Interstate 90 into Shoshone County to Lookout Pass on the Montana border.

Captain Mullan and his crew celebrated the 4th of July 1861 on top of this mountain as they took a break from clearing passage for the road they were building over it. Thus the current name of “4th of July pass” today.

The Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by U.S. Army Captain John Mullan between the spring of 1859 and summer 1862. It led from Fort Benton, Montana, to Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, and it roughly follows the path of modern-day Interstate-90 through the Rockies.

Mullan Road was designated a historic site by the National Register of Historical Places in 1975, and the American Society of Civil Engineers designated it a historic civil engineering landmark in 1977.^[2]

Ho da fast!!!

We’re heading up into the mountains again.

I get video!

Here you can see the border between Idaho and Montana. The red marker is Lookout Pass.

This is how far we’ve come so far.

Mahalo plenny for tagging along with us!