Route of the Hiawatha

  

On the shores of Coeur d' Alene, take your bow O Hiawatha.  Entering Montana Exit "0" Lookout Pass to ride the route of "Hiawatha".  The passenger trains in the Midwest, visiting Glacier National Park, all the rage because they were so fast!  They since have become biking trails and this particular route is all downhill (the only ride John will do) and they bus you back up after going over 30 very high bridges, tressels and tunnels.  

 

One tunnel was 1.6 miles long, very cold and dark, flashlights were required and a jacket unless your tough as nails like John.

    

Beautiful views and scenery.  So much water in these parts, it is really not fair.

 

  

We did it, now a relaxing bus ride and what I didn't tell John (you have to ride another 2 miles and go through the 1.6 mile long tunnel, again!)

The most hilarious part was when they unloaded our bikes he was first to watch all bikes go off, I got mine, and they had only one bike left asking who it belonged to, not me said John.  John that is your bike go and get it.  Really?  Leaving beautiful Idaho and heading to Bend Oregon for the family reunion.  Lots of shopping and fun planning to do.  Take care dear friends.  

Soaring on Eagle's Wings

  

We received a warm welcome from Ellen relaxing reading her book on the front porch.  They have a lovely home overlooking Coeur d'Alene lake.

She prepared a delicious lunch and we were treated very kindly and they too had a RV spot for us!

  

Delicious berries everywhere, great with morning coffee and a look at their very own pair of Eagles.  Do you see the Eagle?  Ellen is quite the expert on mating and relationship to the 35 Bible verses that make reference to this spectacular bird.

   

The highlight of our stay was watching John on the foot paddle board (there is a name for these water craft but I forgot). They are very fun and take very little effort physically to ride, but you do need a pretty good sense of balance.  That is why we were all so amazed that John neve fell off!  He did manage to fall getting into the float tube.

 

  

The favorite pastime of the Halamada's, floating. "Nothing to do and all Day to do it".   They tell us they are on Lake Time, and there is plenty of that here.   We really felt like kids, frolicking about in the water.

  

   

The best is the "Tram" down to the lake (most of you guessed I took the stairs).  Jerry is a master boatman, what a relaxing smooth ride and the scenery.  Do not come here unless you want to move or buy another house, and you will not want to leave.  Thank You Jerry and Ellen, love you to pieces!

Camping in style

      

Sand point Idaho, home to Ponderay Lake ( that is not how you spell it but honestly the Indian names, not easy). OK, ready...John's Sister Patty's husbands brother (or John's brother in laws brother) got it?  They built a very beautiful home right on the lake, yeah it is heaven.  We enjoyed good food and fellowship with them, and the water is warm, but what isn't warmer than 41 degrees!
  

We were the first to try out there camping site, we fit perfectly and this campground even has hook ups!  No, no that isn't Todo, that is Wally the famous master of tricks, if you have the treat.  He even has a bell to ring to get back into the house, he was good entertainment.

 

 

   

The city of Sandpoint is very quaint and stores open early, we made a fine purchase of a couple of desperately needed sand chairs.  Just a quick detour to NY City.

  

Thanks Leslie and Jim for your hospitality, now on to Cover d' Alene to visit Jerry and Ellen.

 

You can stay anywhere you want in 100 degree weather

       We are out of the Cascades heading east on highway 

20 across Northern Washington.  We have had 2 drops of rain in our entire trip through Oregon and Washington.  Isn't it suppose to be cold and damp...We stopped in a little town called Winthrop and it is almost 100 degrees, sticky HOT.  

  

The town has been refurbished from the 1800's down to the wooden sidewalks.  Very quaint unique shops.  Who doesn't need a saddle or rooster shovel, sure we have room in the motor home, honey you can sleep outside, remember we brought the tent.

 I hope they get good reception!    I asked in town how come it was so big, now mind you I was in Omak Donald's. (The McDonald's in Omak WA ) I was told to deflect the sun so the grass doesn't go brown????  I don't know if I am that gullible..what do you think.  Well we planned on staying at Walmart because we needed to shop and we were between destinations.  Not all Walmarts allow camping, but when it is 100 degrees we could have stayed anywhere.  Actually it was a pretty big newer town.  We ate at Pizza Hut (too Hot for this camper to cook) and had ice cream at McDonalds.  There was a JC Penny and Safeway too. Coming up on Sunday, hope I can get phone service so we can scout out a Church.  If anyone is still with us, Bless you Hearts!  

 

 

The last of the Cascades

     Thunder Knob Trail above Diablo Lake where we kayaked yesterday.  John has become quite the logger.  Not so much the swimmer after he found out the lake he has been swimming in is 41 degrees and gets colder everyday because of the glacial melt.

  It has been fun to catch parts of the PCT on our journey, did not run into the Wild one, whatever her name is.

 

Magnificent waterfalls were gushing from the Cascades.  We hiked to subalpine Rainey Lake and were not disappointed, the water levels are so high this year having no shoreline gives everything a mysterious look.

  

The Cascades are the least visited National Park in the Nation, but one of the prettiest.

Hanging at Cascades National Park

    

  

Nice weather for a paddle, but the water is ice cold, ask John when he flipped over in his kayak picking up an empty can in the water.  No he isn't paddle boarding, just emptying the water out.

    

  

I need a real sail for my kayak, but this did work pretty good.  Stopping for lunch at a boat/hike in camp ground on Diablo Lake, still in the Cascades.  John wants to stay one more night so he can go to the Ranger Program Thursday night at the amphitheater in the campground.  Then we are headed towards Idaho.  Thanks for hanging with us, hope all is well with you.  We have had no wi-fi for the last 4 days so there are going to be a bunch of posts that are out dated.  

 

   

2 close calls, celebrating with a pint of home made ice cream

   

Leaving Howard Miller and heading toward Marblemount to get some much needed propane, down to 8%.  Lucky for us Howard Miller had electricity so we didn't loose the frig stuff which runs on propane.  We won't talk about who was going to get propane in Birdsview.  Is that not protection, how often does a County Park have hook ups?  Actually Washington and Oregon State campgrounds are beautiful, well maintained and offer water and electric. $5 to dump.  ( not trash).  You can buy lots of Cascadian brands in the stores, it was really cool to see their farms.  We bought some Boysenberry Jam, we didn't know blueberries grew on rather large bushes almost tree like.  This is the most beautiful valley, we hate to leave, we did have 3 nights

   

Well about the close calls, we were headed out of the campground onto the 20, it was a sharp right and we had to swing wide to see left..sometimes that makes us to too far right and there was a car in that lane.....you know I hate to say anything but this was no time to bite my tounge, look out!!!   You saved us he said (ahh that was nice, we have an agreement when driving.  The passenger can say anything, if you saw it fine, but many times the driver does not see and the passenger can help avoid an accident).  

 I accidentally deleted the wire picture, but it was like the wire in this picture.  We passed the Cascadian Farm and it looked so cute we had to turn around.  Plus we saw the home made ice cream sign and after all it was the 4th of July.  There wasn't a good spot to turn around, I pointed out a few but I guess they were not good enough (actually they were very good).  Then there was a street on the right so surely I thought we would turn right, low and behold we make a quick left and it wasn't a driveway and it had bars across it so we were sticking out in the middle of the road (highway 20).  Yikes.  Windows down, hanging our heads out and talking loudly to each other, we made it!!  So glad to go back to the Farm and regroup, eat a pint of Rasberry Chocolate Chip ice cream together and get 2 more for the road.  It is 4th of July after all!.    Oh but the part about the electrical wire, all the places that I thought were good to turn around, these wires were hanging down lower than the motor home, we didn't even notice until going back and then we saw some had like red pieces (small) of material hanging from them.  If we would of turned right we would have run into them, ouch!