Our Road Trips

6/5/14

On Tuesday, we left Hells Gate Campground in Lewiston, ID and headed north on US 95. We passed through some very beautiful country, along with some challenging roads, and stopped in Coeur d'Alene for the replacement of the main awning on the motor home. Back on 4/28, somewhere in the middle of South Dakota, while driving west on I-90, a gust of wind from the east caught the awning, from behind, and caused to to unroll. This caused the wind from our forward motion to cause more damage. We stopped along the highway, and when we did, the NE wind pushed the awning towards the camper...looked normal when I went outside. So, we proceeded west. About 5 miles later, this happened again, so I got off at the next exit and parked behind a restaurant to shield the wind, unfurled the awning, rolled it back up and tied the uprights to the camper. About 5 miles later, it happened again, so I exited again and this time I turned into a small subdivision type area and parked so the wind was being blocked by the camper...the wind was blowing about 30 mph, gusting close to 50...it was pretty brutal. I attempted to secure it again, to no avail. Finally, we stopped at a campground that was still closed, and took the whole thing off, cutting the fabric and securing it with a roll of duct tape, placed it back up on the motor home (Barb & I by ourselves) and strapped it on, again. It rode there successfully from the middle of South Dakota to Coeur d'Alene, about 1200 miles. So I made arrangement via email, to have the parts there when we arrived. The internet is so cool, try making that work via telephone back in the day. We arrived as planned at 1 pm, and were on the road with a new awning by 4...sweet. We drove the rest of the way to our destination in LaClede, ID at a Army Corps of Engineers Camp Ground on the Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond O'Ray) River. Nice campground, well kept, water & electric for $13.50/nite...hard to beat. and we have internet.

Yesterday, we decided to wash the motor home & the car. The car gets pretty nasty while towing, and the MH hasn't had a bath since we left home (4027 miles). When we got done with that, we went for a ride. Albeni (Albany) Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River is what creates the reservoir we are on. We stopped at the dam, walked around a bit to take some pictures and read some of the displays both in the Visitor's Center & overlooking the dam. We then drove west to Newport, WA and did some site seeing on the south side of the river, back in Idaho. We were hunting for a place to see the downriver side of the dam, which proved to be a bit of a treasure hunt. But we kept trying...my dad would have been proud of the effort...success. We took some pictures, then drove a back road to Priest River, did a little site seeing and then drove another lakeside road back to US 95 and north into Sandpoint. Back in 2005, I hid from a serious storm, while on a motorcycle, in an unlocked building in Sandpoint. So we retraced my route and found that building, like another treasure hunt....success again. Then we came back to the camper, started a fire outside, did a steak on the grill and read literature about the area. We are going to be here for almost 2 weeks, so knowing what is available here for seeing will be important. It was a beautiful evening and we were almost alone in this campground, so it was a very nice evening...and the dinner was delicious!!

We will be doing quite a bit of driving from here, so stay tuned. Our Alaska trip is only 2 weeks away too.