Travel from Athol, Idaho to Marion, Montana

We drove our coach 170 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Athol, Idaho to Marion, Montana.

The map route, heading northeast then southeast:

Map route

Our coach:

Our coach

Getting ready to hook up our truck:

Our coach

We used the dump station on the way out of the campground, since we didn’t have a sewer:

Dump station

Entering US-95:

US-95

Roadworks:

Roadworks

A barn:

Barn

Paladin not overly concerned:

Paladin

Jenn changed the settings on the TV, and now the mirrored GPS is in color instead of grayscale. Yay!

GPS on TV

Jenn driving:

Jenn driving

US-95 bridge over Lake Pend Oreille:

US-95 bridge over Lake Pend Oreille

A train station:

Train station

North of Lake Pend Oreille is a town called Ponderay, which is how the lake is pronounced:

Ponderay

A Pringles snack while driving down the road:

Snack

A seaplane:

Seaplane

Canada or Kalispell; hint, not going to Canada (yet; probably in a few years):

Canada or Kalispell

Entering Montana, and Mountain Time Zone:

Entering Montana

A stream:

Stream

Kootenai River:

Kootenai River

Car on a pole in Libby:

Car on a pole

Bird on a pole:

Bird on a pole

Bees!

Bees

Middle Thompson Lake:

Middle Thompson Lake

McGregor Lake:

McGregor Lake

Our destination for one night, McGregor Lakes RV Park:

McGregor Lakes RV Park

Gilmore West Campground in Farragut State Park

We stayed at Gilmore West Campground in Farragut State Park in Athol, Idaho. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Not a bad campground, but too expensive for out-of-staters.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-08-27
Check out: 2022-09-01
5 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 77-95°F, lows around 49-60°F
A little wind

Noise:

No road noise, some train noise
Not much neighbor noise

Site:

#306, back in, asphalt
Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
Somewhat level
Large site: about 90 feet long by about 70 feet wide
Partial hookups:

50 amp power, conveniently located
30 PSI water pressure; conveniently located
No sewer connection

Picnic table and fire pit on gravel
Large trees

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 9-17 Mbps down, 5-10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
AT&T: 13-24 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
Verizon: 8 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
T-Mobile: no service
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Dumpsters
No pool

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Basic state park site for a deluxe resort price

The Good: This is a beautiful park with easy access to Lake Pend Oreille. The sites are mostly tucked into the trees, and they’re decently sized.

The Bad: Only one loop of the Gilmore campground has full hookups, and we were not in it.

The Ugly: For a non-Idaho resident to stay here in a motorhome with a tow vehicle, they charge nearly double the camping fees, and then they charge an extra “day use fee” for the tow vehicle, bringing the total to $90/night for a site without sewer. We’ve stayed at deluxe RV resorts for less than that. We camped at Farragut State Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park maps:

Park map

Gilmore West and East… I think we hadn’t noticed that West doesn’t have sewer, which wasn’t ideal after another campground without sewer, but it was fine:

Park map

Our site was pretty spacious:

Our site

Utilities; no sewer:

Utilities

The cell service wasn’t great, so we set up the Starlink dish; fortunately this site had lots of open sky:

Starlink dish

A few lingering spiders from the previous campground:

Spiders

Looking around the campground; the bathroom:

Bathroom

Other sites:

Other sites

Not strictly part of the campground, but a coffee house in a nearby town:

Ralph's

Lake Pend Oreille. Which is apparently pronounced PONDER-RAY:

Lake Pend Oreille

I flew my drone:

Lake Pend Oreille

Aerial

Edit to add: a few more aerial shots:

Aerial

Video

Video: Plymouth, Washington to Athol, Idaho motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 217 miles from Plymouth, Washington to Athol, Idaho.

Travel from Plymouth, Washington to Athol, Idaho

We drove our coach 217 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Plymouth, Washington to Athol, Idaho.

The map route, heading northeast:

Map route

Since we didn’t have a sewer hookup at Plymouth Park Campground, we used the campground dump station on the way out:

Dump station

Leaving the campground:

Leaving the campground

A stowaway spider inside:

Spider

Skoolie:

Skoolie

Bikers:

Bikers

Bridge:

Bridge

Exit towards Spokane:

Spokane exit

Paladin:

Paladin

Passing Coyote Run RV Park, where we stayed one night on the way home from Yellowstone last year:

Coyote Run RV Park

US-395:

Yellow

Exit to a rest area:

Exit

Rest area:

Rest area

Paladin:

Paladin

Back on US-395:

US-395

I-90:

I-90

Sprague Lake:

Sprague Lake

Petro truck stop:

Petro truck stop

Truck stop

Some interesting (but gloomy) architecture in Spokane, Washington:

Spokane, Washington

Paladin again:

Paladin

Welcome to Idaho:

Welcome to Idaho

Farragut exit:

Farragut exit

Farragut State Park:

Farragut State Park

Checking in:

Checking in

Paladin on the dash, driving to the campground:

Paladin

Plymouth Park Campground

We stayed at Plymouth Park Campground in Plymouth, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Spiders!

Dates:

Check in: 2022-08-24
Check out: 2022-08-27
3 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 96-99°F, lows around 63-66°F
A little wind

Noise:

No road noise or train noise
No neighbor noise

Site:

#32, pull through, asphalt
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
Fairly level
Large site: about 90 feet long by about 90 feet wide
Partial hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located
Water not used due to boil notice (we arrived with full tank)
No sewer connection

Picnic table and fire pit on gravel
Large trees
Spiders!

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 22-82 Mbps down, 8-16 Mbps up, 95 ms ping
Verizon: 0.1 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 800 ms ping
AT&T: 26 Mbps down, 13 Mbps up, 58-122 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: unknown

Amenities:

Dumpsters
No pool

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Not for the Arachnophobic

This is a beautiful park, right along the Columbia River. When we arrived, we particularly enjoyed the large shade trees and green space at each site. However, when we woke up the next day, it was as if we’d spent the night in Mirkwood. Spiders. Spiders everywhere. All over our motorhome and tow vehicle. Every nook and cranny had spider webs and a resident spider (orb weavers, so not harmful, but still). Looking up at the trees, it was obvious that there was a major infestation as there were spiders hanging between every branch. I am not arachnophobic, but it really made me not want to sit outside. It’s probably just the time of year, and it may not be such an issue any other month, but it was really, really bad at the end of August. I spoke to another camper who had been planning on staying a week but was going to leave the next day because they didn’t want to deal with the spiders. I kind of wish we’d left earlier than planned as well. We knocked down as many as we could see before we left, drove over 200 miles, and are still dealing with them a couple of days later.

It should also be noted that they were having some issues with the water system at the park and issued a boil notice, so you need to be prepared with your own water supply before coming. If they resolve the water issue and the spider issue, I’d be happy to stay here again because it really was lovely otherwise. We camped at Plymouth Park Campground in a Motorhome.

The RV park maps:

Map

Our site:

Our site

A bug:

Bug

Spiders!

Spider

Spiders

Spider

Spiders

Other RVs:

Other RVs

Playground:

Playground

A nice campground… other than the minor detail of the spider infestation, and unavailable water and sewer.

Theater seating and cabinets

While at the FMCA rally in Tucson back in March, we placed an order with Dave & LJ’s RV Furniture (based in Woodland, Washington) for theater seating and a couple of cabinets, to replace the recliners we were using since we removed the original L-shaped and jackknife couches. We liked the recliners, but they were a bit more hassle on travel days, and when we eventually sell our coach, we wouldn’t want to include them, hence deciding to get more conventional seating.

Here’s the model couch they had on show:

Demo couch

Our recliners:

Recliners

To get them out the door, I needed to remove the bases (same as when I brought them into the coach):

Removed base

We kept them — we took them to our storage unit just before getting the new seating installed. One day we’ll use them again.

Paladin suspects something may be missing:

Paladin

Five months after ordering, we stopped by Dave & LJ’s in Woodland to get the new items installed:

Dave & LJ's

We had ordered two of the wide cabinets, but due to a mixup they only had one:

Wide cabinet

We could have had the other shipped, but decided to go with narrower ones, that were in stock; we figure that the extra gap on either side is handy for storing lap trays, shoes, and such.

They brought in the theater seating in mulitple pieces:

Couch components

Drilling a mounting hole:

Drilling mounting hole

One of two bolts through the underside of the slide-out:

Bolt through underside of slide-out

Paladin supervising:

Paladin supervising

The installed couch:

Installed couch and cabinets

Installing a cabinet:

Installing cabinet

Installing cabinets

With the slides in, still plenty of room to get past:

With slides in

The front feet lift off the floor, along with the slide floor:

Front feet off floor

Paladin approves:

Paladin approves

With slides in:

With slides in

And out:

Theater seating

The center of the couch can fold up, and includes a pop-up power center, with two USB-A and one USB-C power outlets, and a Qi wireless charger:

Power outlets

Plus there’s another USB outlet along with the controls; a button to bring everything down, a button to extend or retract the footrest, and another button to move the headrest forward and back:

Controls

The new seating is comfy.

Video

Video: Kelso, Washington to Plymouth, Washington motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 231 miles from Kelso, Washington to Plymouth, Washington, with a stop in Woodland at Dave & LJ’s RV Furniture. And a fun picture-in-picture of the truck’s view!

Travel from Kelso to Plymouth, Washington

We drove our coach 231 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Kelso, Washington to Plymouth, Washington, with a stop in Woodland to get a new couch and cabinets installed (more on that later).

The first leg map route, heading south:

Map route 1

The second leg map route, heading south then east:

Map route 2

Since the first leg was less than half an hour, and we weren’t sure of the situation on arrival, we drove separately, i.e. without hooking up the truck to the coach:

Driving separately

After the installation, we continued down I-5:

Bridge

A rest area stop:

Rest area

RV passing:

RV passing

The I-205 bridge over the Colombia River:

Bridge

Entering Portland:

Entering Portland

Welcome to Oregon:

Welcome to Oregon

Driving along the Colombia Gorge:

Gorge

Paladin asleep in his safe space:

Paladin

A tunnel… not a huge amount of clearance there:

Tunnel

Gorge:

Gorge

Another rest area:

Rest area

Wind turbines and a barge:

Wind turbines and arge

Dam:

Dam

Gorge

Paladin sleeping:

Paladin sleeping

Wind turbines (and dirty window):

Wind turbines

Irrigation:

Irrigation

I-82 bridge, crossing back into Washington:

Bridge

Welcome to Washington:

Welcome to Washington

Rail bridge:

Rail bridge

Plymouth Park entrance:

Plymouth Park entrance

Approaching our site:

Our site

Little did we know of what was in store for us!

Brookhollow RV Park

We stayed at Brookhollow RV Park in Kelso, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A convenient stop.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-08-21
Check out: 2022-08-24
3 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 81-85°F, lows around 59-63°F
A little wind

Noise:

No road noise or train noise
No neighbor noise

Site:

#13, pull through, cement
Needed to disconnect toad; parked across road from coach
Level
Small site: about 50 feet long by about 35 feet wide
Full hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located
60 PSI water pressure; conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10 foot hoses used)

Picnic table on cement, no fire pit
One shade tree between each site

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 36-54 Mbps down, 3-6 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
Verizon: 30-60 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
AT&T: offline (we need a new SIM card)
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Dumpsters
No pool

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Convenient Stop on I-5

We stayed here for a few nights while we had business in the area. It was quick and easy access to I-5, which was convenient. Looks to be mostly permanent residents, but the park is clean and tidy. A bit spendy for what it is, however. We camped at Brookhollow RV Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

RV park map