Travels with Ari – Day 3 Ari and Ann

Ari here. You heard about my car escape while we were camping along the Boulder River. Well we were back on the road today. The highlight of my day was when we stopped for lunch and I got brave and sat with Mom with the hatch open and watched a robin hop around. I wasn’t brave enough to go after it however. Otherwise, I slept most of the trip on Mom’s lap or on my pillow on the console.

Ann here. I was pretty much a Zombie at the end of the Day 2 driving. I drove nearly 7.5 hours taking shorter stops. It was a hotter day (mid-80’s and the challenge with hotter days is I can’t leave Ari in the car for long especially if I’m unable to find shade trees to park under.

Day 3 (June 3) is another long driving day though I find Montana very beautiful to drive through; wide open valleys rising into surrounding hills and mountains, some with snow still on them.

We covered western Montana, through Idaho and just into Washington. The temps were even hotter (95 degrees or so at the hottest). So stops were quick and the day kind of went by as a blur with Ari sleeping most of the day.

After picking up dinner in town (Spokane), we headed out to The Ranch where we stayed at a B&B room in the stall of their barn. It was a very clever and unique idea. They have a huge 40 stall barn and have converted three 12X12 stalls into B&B rooms. They were rustic but fun. Here are some photos of the room and the barn.

Ari had more room to roam than she did in the car, but she still wanted to get out to explore. There were at least 8 barn cats so I couldn’t let her out and I’m sure she would have just wanted right back in.

The biggest challenge was the heat since the room didn’t have windows that opened. It did have a good fan so that helped and once the sun went down it eventually cooled off a little. They had a couple of heaters in the room for winter B&B comfort, but that didn’t help on a hot day.

The Ranch had 20+ horses, many of whom were rescue horses they had rehabilitated and were trail horses for them, at least 8 barn cats of all colors, puppies, a couple of rabbits, goats, sheep, chickens, a cow and baby and probably more. Here are a few photos of the animals.

I was the only person in the barn that night so it was quiet and calm. All in all, it was a fun, interesting experience to stay at The Ranch and I felt at home with the animals. It wasn’t luxury for sure, but was worth the experience.