From Seattle to Yellowstone and points inbetween

[dangermouse]

It's been 2 years since our last big roadtrip so it was with some excitement that Mum and I headed toward Heathrow to catch the first of 2 flights that would carry us to Seattle.

For cost and availability reasons, we opted to fly BA to LAX then change to Alaskan Airlines to SEA, our upper deck seats on the BA 747 had been booked for months but when we got to the airport we discovered that we'd been moved to lower deck middle seats..... not the best start and very frustrating for Mum who had been looking forward to seeing LA from the air!

The Alaskan flight was uneventful, we had First Class seats, so were last on and first off the plane and having cleared immigration in LAX we made short work of heading to the car hire terminal to collect our steed.

I booked a Rav 4 (the cheapest 4wd) from Alamo using a discount code I found online that reduced the price for 16 days to $550.
As ever, nothing is simple and Alamo have recently changed the way they work so that all the cars are parked together and you simply help yourself to whichever car you fancy from the group you've rented.

So far so good but there was no Rav 4 and no labelling at all for the class that I'd booked (IFAR) After spending 20 minutes waiting around and chatting nicely to the girl on the exit gate, she authorised me to take a Nissan Murano for the same rental cost.
This is the same engine and gearbox as the 350z that I hired in LA a few years ago, so I'm really pleased to get it.... it should make the long road sections on this trip pass by with ease.



Installing the CB, we get on the road toward Everett, where I've booked a motel for the night.... it's 10pm when we check in so straight to bed we go.