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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Best of the West


Jeanne Drake, left, took German guests 16-year-old Veronika Heeke, Silvia Heeke and 17-year-old Verena Heeke on a three-week trip in her 21-foot motor home. 
 (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)
Julianne Crane The Spokesman-Review

The view from the top of the Space Needle … the Grand Canyon at sunrise … 125 degrees in Las Vegas … bison roaming in Yellowstone Park … the vastness of the American landscape.”

These are just a few of the lasting impressions three German visitors are taking home after a three-week, 6,000-mile road trip in a 21-foot motor home.

Jeanne Drake of Spokane hosted Silvia Heeke and her two nieces, Verena Heeke, 17, and Veronika Heeke, 16, on the whirlwind journey of the American West.

In late July, a short time before they were due to fly back to Germany, all four travel-weary women sat around the dining table in Drake’s north Spokane home to talk about not just one, but two summer vacations.

How it began

“Last summer I traveled over to Germany with a friend whose maiden name is Heeke, the same as mine,” recalled Jeanne Drake.

“We took the trip with the hopes of expanding on our maiden name’s family history,” she said.

Drake’s friend, genealogist Sharon Heeke Kennedy of Indiana, had located a distant relative in the city of Rheine in northwest Germany. It seemed their great-great grandfathers were cousins.

That relative, Silvia Heeke, escorted the two American women around the countryside and helped them find documents in official archives and locate their ancestors’ cemeteries in Rheine, Horstel and Ibbenburen.

While in Germany, Drake and her friend visited the Heeke family farmstead and shared meals with additional extended family including Veronika and Verena.

A couple of months after Drake returned to Spokane, she invited Silvia and the two teenagers to visit the United States on their next summer break.

Where to go

Through an exchange of e-mails it was determined that the Heekes wanted to see the Western landscape, “animals in the wild” and Las Vegas.

Given those broad parameters, Drake began planning.

“I started thinking about a route to take that would include a number of our national parks in the West,” said Drake.

She stopped by AAA and picked up a complete set of travel books covering the western United States.

Once she decided a possible route, “AAA helped me out tremendously with a complete series of TripTiks.”

TripTik Travel Planners, including maps and in-depth driving directions, are available both online and in traditional spiral-bound hard copies.

The route

Drake picked up the Heekes at Seattle’s SeaTac Airport around 10 p.m. on the second Sunday in July.

The next two days were spent getting adjusted to jetlag and touring the Seattle area.

“We stopped at the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, the Ballard Locks and the Boeing production plant in Everett,” Drake says.

On Wednesday they were spotting Orca whales off Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

By Thursday they were off to Mount St. Helens.

“We could see the smoke coming up from the crater,” said Verena Heeke.

Then it was on to Mount Rainier, where they stopped in Sunrise Park for a postcard-perfect view of the mountain.

From there they headed across Eastern Washington and through parts of Oregon and Idaho, taking in the Snake River Gorge and Shoshone Falls.

By Saturday they were cruising alongside the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

“They couldn’t believe all the salt,” said Drake. “Salt is only found in mines in Germany.”

On Sunday, they attended mass at a small church in Salt Lake City and toured the Mormon Tabernacle.

Their second week began with a quick tour of Zion National Park and on to Las Vegas.

“There was so much land,” said Verena, “it was difficult to take in.”

They spent the night at the Circus Circus RV Park and left early the next day to escape the 125-degree temperatures.

“It was really hot,” said Veronika.

They pushed on to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, arriving just in time for sunset

“There was a light rain shower with a rainbow above the canyon,” said Drake. “It was beautiful.”

The next morning everyone rose at 4 a.m. to catch the sunrise.

“I was surprised at how very quiet everyone was. It was like being in church,” observed Silvia. “The gradual changing of the colors was magnificent.”

At their campground they met tourists from France traveling in a rented motor home and an Amish family visiting from Ohio.

After saying goodbye to the Grand Canyon they were off to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, where they stayed at Ruby’s Inn campground.

“We always tried to camp at the closest possible place to where we planned to visit,” said Drake.

“As soon as we got an idea of where we wanted to be by the evening, we called ahead for camping reservations,” she said. “Twice we got the very last site; one of those places was the Grand Canyon.”

Next was the inspiring red rock landscape of Arches National Park.

“We decided not to do the five-mile hike because it was hovering around 103 degrees,” said Drake.

By the end of their second week, the ladies were into Colorado cresting Monarch Pass, at an 11,300-foot elevation.

“It was very high,” said Silvia.

Once in the Centennial State, there were big Heeke family reunions in both Salida and Colorado Springs.

The final week of their long road trek found the four women visiting the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, where they saw a variety of wildlife and the world’s most famous geysers.

“There was no wind at all,” said Drake, “so the eruption of Old Faithful was exceptional.”

The group left Yellowstone through the North Entrance, by way of Mammoth Hot Springs.

“It is difficult to describe the beauty and majestic splendor of these springs,” said Drake. “It was so exciting to have this be the end of our national parks. That was something to see.”

While the official sightseeing was over, there was still one mandatory stop for Verena and Veronika before heading home.

Immediately after the interview ended, they were off to the Old Navy store in the Spokane Valley Mall for jeans, blouses and black flip-flops.