The number of homeless female veterans is on the rise: in 2006, there were 150 homeless female veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; in 2011, there were 1,700. That same year, 18% of homeless veterans assisted by the VA were women.
Re: Best dramatic drive from Spokane to Salt Lake City. I have driven between Spokane and Salt Lake City and the drive is a beautiful mountain drive through the panhandle of Idaho and Montana. Huge forests of Pine. Nothing scenic to speak of though once you hit I15. We visited a working silver mine in Wallace, Idaho and a few ghost towns in Montana.
From Salt Lake City they could easily get back to the California (or Oregon) Trail by following the Salt Lake Cutoff about 180 miles (290 km) from Salt Lake City northwest around the north end of Great Salt Lake, rejoining the main trail at the City of Rocks near the present Idaho-Utah border.