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| Day 1 - Santa Clara, CA Day 2 - Lee Vining, CA Day 3 - Baker, CA Day 4 - Las Vegas, NV Day 5 - Las Vegas, NV Day 6 - Grand Canyon, AZ Day 7 - Durango, CO Day 8 - Glenwood, CO Day 9 - Highlands, CO Day 10 - Highlands, CO Day 11 - Estes Park, CO Day 12 - Craig, CO Day 13 - Jackson, WY Day 14 - Cody, WY Day 15 - Mammoth, WY Day 16 - Choteau, MT Day 17 - Kelispell, MT Day 18 - Sandpoint, ID Day 19 - Omak, WA Day 20 - Anacortes, WA Day 21 - Anacortes, WA Day 22 - Poulsbo, WA Day 23 - Poulsbo, WA Day 24 - Poulsbo, WA Day 25 - Astoria, OR Day 26 - Lincoln City, OR Day 27 - Bandon, OR Day 28 - Eureka, CA Day 29 - Anchor Bay, CA Day 30 - Martinez, CA FINAL THOUGHTS |
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| We were on the road by 9:00 a.m. and headed out of
Sandpoint, ID on Hwy. 2. We looked at today as mainly a ride to cover
distance since there are no National Parks or geographical wonders
to see today, just a nice ride through a lot of Washington forests.
We stopped at the Albeni Falls Dam on our way out of Idaho and ran
into a chipmunk that must have been on PCP. That sucker jumped this
way, and then that, and I finally got him to stay still long enough
to take a picture. I have no idea why he was jumping and running
all over the place. At first I thought he was just a short school
administrator, then I realized he was cute. (By the way, for those
of you who don’t know, I am a school administrator.) Anyway,
see photo 1 for a picture of the crazy chipmunk. We have found that many of these dams have nice views of the river or reservoir and the Albeni Falls Dam was no exception. You can’t tell from the picture, but this little fellow has three generators producing a total of 42,600 kilowatts of power and each turbine generator blade is the size of a ships propeller. See the type of stuff you learn by stopping and reading the signs (photo 2 & 3). There was also a nice view of the mountains we had been driving through (photo 4). Montana, northern Idaho, and Washington are really scenic places to live or visit.
We had a nice morning ride to Priest River, ID where we stopped for a little breakfast. We talked with two sisters who were seeing much of the country and had been to some of the same places we had visited. They were quite up in years and the one sister complained that truck drivers honked at her because she drove to slow and then she said she liked to drive fast. My guess is if truck drivers are honking at you, you’re probably going to slow, not too fast. We picked up Hwy 20 toward Washington and traveled a long ways without seeing any road signs at all. I thought we had gotten lost, so I pulled into a trucking yard for directions. The girl at the gate said we were already in Washington and we were heading towards Cusick, which is where we wanted to be anyway. Pedal to the metal and off towards Cusick, then Locke, and Jared. We traveled alongside the Pend Orielle River for a good long way (photo 5 & 6) just enjoying the scenery and the nice weather. We don’t have many miles to travel today, so kicking back seems like the right way to go.
As we’re heading west, we see a road sign directing folks to Lake Gillette. We took the left turn to see what was there. We found that, back in the woods, were two small parts of the same lake, Lake Gillette (photos 7 & 8) with a good number of homes around these small lakes. Linda also found that there was a butterfly hatch and monarch butterflies were everywhere (photos 9 & 10). We didn’t know whether they were hatching, migrating, or just at a family reunion. Linda likes butterflies and doesn’t want to do anything to hurt them. Then we take off and are driving at 60 mph through the Colville National Forest where there are thousands of these butterflies flying in the air, across the road, and directly into my windshield. Splat! Oh, poor butterflies. Hey, what was I supposed to do? There are some nice places out there, just off the beaten path, but we seldom get a chance to see them. Riding a motorcycle is a great way to find these places, if you’re not in a hurry. Hwy 20 is not a major highway so we didn’t think much about dealing with trucking. Wrong, there weren’t that many trucks, but they were there. We passed nine chip hopper trucks, all from the same company. I don’t know if they all just got a late start, if there was a chip sale at the local lumber mill or what, but they were all together and they were in a hurry. The good part was after they passed us we didn’t see another truck for a good long while
As we were leaving Kettle Falls, we passed the Columbia River on our left but because of the trees, and very few places to pull over, it was difficult to get a decent picture of it (photo 11). We finally pulled into Tonasket and tried to check into a room. It was then that we experienced one small problem with traveling in small towns during the summer, not many motel rooms available. We had to continue on to the next town, 25 miles away, called Omak, Washington where we found a clean room in a small, independent motel for only $43. Can’t beat the price and they have a data port on their phone, to boot (photo 12). Tomorrow should find us in Anacortes, Washington at the end of the day. P.S.: As an aside, I thought I would share what I’m using for a mouse pad. When I bought this computer, I didn’t like the little finger pad you have to use on a laptop in place of a mouse and mouse pad, so I bought a small, laptop size mouse. Unfortunately, when we got on the road, I discovered that the thing didn’t work very well on most motel tables or desks. What I needed was a mouse pad but where do you find one when you’re a long ways from a computer store or major city? I looked but no one seemed to have one so we made due with what was available, a potholder, a masculine potholder, but a potholder, none-the-less. I paid $4 bucks in Estes Park for a potholder with a bear and canoe on it and then saw a mouse pad in the Rocky Mountain National Park for $10 bucks. I bring you all of this with my $4 dollar potholder/mouse pad. |
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