Coeur d’Alene

We had an interesting travel day yesterday.  It started off rainy, and for awhile I was wondering why I never knew Montana has hurricanes!  But the rain let up, about the time we found ourselves on a very narrow, twisty-turny two-lane road through the Flathead Indian Reservation.  That gave way to a little nicer road through some of the most beautiful country we’ve seen.  We were still doing the twisty-turny thing, but the road wasn’t bad.  Eventually, we got to I-90, wow, that was an extremely bumpy ride!  I had a pot of soup in the crockpot, and I’d already moved it to the sink in case some of the twists and turns caused a disaster.  I was worried that the bumps on the interstate would splash that soup all over the place.

But, we survived it all and arrived at Blackwell Island RV Park in Coeur d’Alene by mid afternoon in basically one piece.  The weather has been mostly gloomy since we arrived, with a few brief periods of sun and several periods of rain.     This is a very nice park, quite large, and the sites are roomy.  It’s located right on the bank of the Spokane River, which flows from Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Not long after we arrived, we got in touch with Jenny, our RV Dreamer friend who lives near here.  She and her friend, Richard came over to visit and we all went to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.  We made plans for an outing today to explore Lake Coeur d’Alene, with Jenny’s expert guidance.  She’s lived in this area for many years and knows the area and it’s history very well.

Dortha, Jenny, and I are ready to go eat!

Jenny came to the rv park about 1:00 today and the 5 of us climbed aboard the Jeep for our guided tour of the area.

Near the beginning of the scenic byway that circles the lake is this sign that provides information about it:

Lake Coeur d’Alene was formed by by a glacial moraine that dammed the rivers about 600,000 years ago.  It covers a 50 square mile area with 32 miles of shoreline.  The depth is unknown.

We got to enjoy a little break in the clouds while we made our way along the scenic route:

And saw some beautiful views.  In the center of the picture below, you might be able to pick out what appears to be a white dot:

Which turned out to be a tiny island absolutely covered with white pelicans (and 1 lonely cormorant) :

We had a lot of fun looking at the views and taking pictures:

At the end of the scenic byway we found ourselves at:

So of course we went in, got ourselves signed up with players cards and started off our next adventure with a delicious meal at the buffet.  I know, here I am talking about eating out a lot again, and you wonder how we manage to stay with our Weight Watchers plan when we do eat out so much.  It’s a matter of choice, and today I chose salad, rice, shrimp, cedar-plank salmon, broccoli and peas.  That left a little room in the plan for a few bites of dessert – yum!

The winnings at the casino were not as friendly to me, however, and I left a deposit with them.  We may have to see about getting that back at some point!

We’ve had a wonderful day today, in spite of less than wonderful weather.  It’s been fun to reconnect with Jenny and catch up with each other’s lives.  Thanks for the great tour, Jenny!