Week 158 - Missoula, North Idado - 08-23-2009

Another great week, relatively speaking

Back from Alaska and Canada, everything seems "normal" again. You can drive through a town and pick which fuel station you want to use. In CaAlaskaDa, in many of the towns, you ask "Where is the fuel station?" or "Is the fuel station open?". So we are enjoying normality and headed off to visit relatives and friends.

Our first visit was to Pete's brother Mike. We met in Missoula, Montana and headed for the Clark Fork river to enjoy seven miles of kayaking.

1) Ellen waited with the kayaks as Mike and Pete dropped off Mike's jeep and came back on the scooter. 2) We're off!

We started at Tarkio. Upstream from Tarkio are some aggressive Class III and Class IV rapids where every year many are injured or even killed. We kayaked a fun section of the Clark Fork from Tarkio to Forest Grove. Mike has hundreds of hours of canoeing experience. This was his first kayak run and it was enjoyable right up to the point where he got dumped! But he was able to recover his hat and we all enjoyed his little splash. Pete was too busy trying to avoid the same fate so there are no photos of the big crash.

As you can see the float was not only fun but beautiful, complete with bald eagle sightings.

Saying goodbye to Mike, we continued West to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to meet Ellen's cousin Sylvia and her husband Larry.

They have an awesome cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Nestled in the trees, it sits on Rockford Bay.

The cabin sits high above the lake on a very steep embankment. There are 60 steps to take you from the road to their house and 86 more to get down to the boat dock.

On the lake they keep a full assortment of water toys. They need them all as they frequently invite dozens of guests from their church to come over eat, fellowship and enjoy the lake. Larry and Sylvia have the gift of hospitality. As seen from the boat, their cabin is barely visible from the water level.

The lake is 28 miles long and you can travel up the two feeder rivers, Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe, and have access to several other lakes connected by canals. 1) This bridge was used by the railroad. More recently an elevated pedestrian and bike path was built over the railroad. 2) These Ospreys built their nest on the "Slow, No Wake" sign.

1) The Coeur d'Alene River lead us to a quiet little lake that is connected by a very secluded canal. 2) Hospitality included good conversation, refreshments, a day on the lake and BBQ chicken dinner. We appreciated the beautiful day we shared.

A short hop north from Coeur d'Alene is the quiet little town of Blanchard. Just outside of town is the Golf Community StoneRidge. Our Atascadero neighbors and traveling buddies, Ben and Sid have purchased an RV lot at StoneRidge. This is an "Ownership Park". Let us explain. Unlike most RV parks and campground, you don't have to rent your site. 1) You can purchase a undeveloped site like 280 where the MotherShip sits. 2) You can enhance it as you like. Ben and Sid added the storage shed, patio, and pergola (the sun cover).

An ownership park is a HOA (Home Owners Association). You buy your lot, pay the utilities, taxes and HOA fees. We have visited a dozen ownership parks across the USA. StoneRidge has the largest lots and the lowest HOA fees that we have seen.

Some of the facilities are just for the motorcoach owners and others are to be shared with the house owners, condo owners and timeshares. 1) The Grill has meals available daily. 2) The motorcoach pool and spa.

1) The motorcoach lounge has the sitting room, satellite TV, free WiFi, fitness room, showers, free laundry and a fully equipped kitchen. Currently there is no Verizon connection so we could only stay for the weekend. We fellowshipped, dined, played pickleball, had dinner in Priest River, more pickleball and attended a motorcoach park-wide party. Everyone was so nice and we had a wonderful stay. They are "promising" to have a Verizon tower next year, so we could stay longer. If you do not own, you can rent by the day, week or month. Thank you Ben and Sid for a fun weekend.

Next week promises to be slower paced as we hunker down somewhere to stay cool in the 80-90 degree heat!

Be blessed, love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Aug 2009