Sad But Happy

 

Sunday September 18, 2011

Well, I hope we didn’t wear out our welcome.  We had such a great time with Diane and Bruce.  Learned a lot, talked a lot, ate a lot and laughed a lot.  We had such a great stay and they are such gracious hosts.  Even let us do our laundry!   Thanks.

But as they say “All good things must come to an end.”  But we know we will be in touch much more than a Christmas card now.  Thanks Lord for bringing us together. 

Well, we’re on the road again headed for Sandpoint, Idaho, eventually ending in Coeur de Alene, Idaho.  In Missoula, we just had to stop at a Fudrucker’s Burger joint for lunch.  (We split one!)  If you’ve never been to one, you must go there.  Our first one was in Nashville about 25 years ago and we still remember it. 

The road ran along the Flathead River which went into the Clarke Fork River.  Absolutely Beautiful.  Too bad it was overcast but it was still beautiful.  Stopped in Thompson Falls for the night.  Thought we were going to see some magnificent waterfalls, but found out they had been dammed up quite awhile back.  Stayed at a marginal campground but had a decent restaurant.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Changed our route and went straight to Coeur d’Alene (wrong word since nothing is straight out here).  First rainy day we could remember!  Got to town about 11AM thanks to change to Pacific Time.  Dropped camper off at RV dealer to check a few things out and spent the day checking things out.  It is truly place we could live. On a huge lake, university town, wonderful shops, year-round good weather similar to the VY.  Had a wonderful lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Resort with was so good.  The coup de grace was an unbelievably big and delicious warm, huckleberry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and huckleberry sorbet.  Janice’s eyes were tearing with delight and almost finished the whole thing with a tiny bit of help from Jeff.  Actually met a realtor, Renice who showed us her 11^th floor condo overlooking the lake and mountains.  Just perfect for us if we were ever to move here.  

Picked up the camper and went to our campground in the Farragut State forest on Lake Pend Oreille.  It was by far the nicest campground we stayed in so far.  Quite clean, private, great sites.  Had perfect campfire that Jeff learned to build by a Park Ranger in Yellowstone,  cooked hotdogs and marveled at the night sky and stars.  There is a navy base on the Lake opened 1942 and continue to test submarines as this is the deepest lake in the US---1,100 feet.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

In the morning we got up at 7 for walk down to the lake.  Turned out to be a big laugh, we started with no map or bear protection (bear spray or hand gun) and walked for half hour and ended right back at our campsite!  Decided to take another try, but this time got all our bear protection gear and finally made it to the shoreline.  Ran into a ranger who made a point to tell us there was no worry about bears here as they were friendly and no danger.  So much for our Easterner Paranoia.  Spent the day again in Coeur d’Alene and found a great camp ground right on the lake.  Will explore some more Wednesday.  The weather has been perfect in the high 70's.