August 17, 2014. Back to the USA!

CAMPGROUND:  Yaak River National Forest Park.  Woodsy, on river.  Almost empty.  Clean pit toilets. Water pump.  No other services. Pull-through slots.  $10; $5 with Senior Pass.  Recommend

LOCATION:  Northwest corner of Montana, near Libby

WEATHER:  Nice.  Highs around 80. Cooled down for sleeping

We gorged ourselves with fruit for breakfast, not knowing what is allowed to cross the border.

We drove through the south Okanagan.  Hundreds of wineries and U-pick/we-pick vegetable and fruit stands.  We were only 30 miles or so from the border.  Too early in the morning for wine-tasting.  :-(

The border crossing at Oroville was the most thorough we've been through.  The lines were pretty long.  They were inspecting all RVs, so the agent walked through the Airstream.  Her main interest was fruit and vegetables.  She confiscated our jalapeño pepper, but had no interest in a huge zucchini or blueberries.   She didn't ask about firearms or campfire wood.  I had left my dying/dead basil plant at the campground, so didn't have to declare it.  

Soon we were on the road in Washington.  We took a scenic byway through lots of national forests.  We paralleled lakes and rivers, full of weekend boaters.  We stumbled upon a great brewpub in a little town, and had lunch there. 

After buying gas and groceries, we were ready to find a campground.  Unlike earlier in the day, there were no national or state forest campgrounds.  So, we kept on driving, through Washington and Idaho.  No far across the Montana line, we found this campground.  It was much later than we had planned to drive.  With a time zone change, it was 7:00. 

There was a terrible windstorm here at this campground about 2 weeks ago.

 Huge trees are down all over the place.  

It looks like a war zone.  

We learned that no one was hurt when it struck, and only a few RVs were damaged, and only slightly.  How scary that must have been!

We hiked around looking at the damage and the nearby river.

DINNER:  French dip sandwiches.  I sautéed onions and placed them on toasted hoagie roll halves, along with thinly sliced roast beef and gruyere cheese.  We dipped the sandwiches in beef broth with some horseradish swirled in.  As a side, we had a nice salad, from a kit.  Our friend Tony gave us that tip...packaged salads for 2-3 people with all the fixings included.  Helps with tight refrigerator space.