August 30th

THE WEATHER: At the RV Resort this morning it was 75 degrees. As we left and climbed the 2,500 feet onto the Idaho mesa’s the temperature dropped to 63. We have a thin layer of clouds and sun.

THE DISTANCE: Left Clarkston, WA and entered the panhandle of Idaho. Drove 215 miles to St. Regis, Montana.


As we left today we continued to drive through wheat fields as far as the eye could see. It looks like they have all been buzz cut by very large hair clippers! The perfectly uniform lines run through miles of fields and up and down the hilly terrain. It was hard to drag Gary out of Clarkston when we found out it is called the steelhead capital of the world!

About midway up hwy 95 the scenery suddenly changed and became more wooded with pine trees. The green color is a welcome change to the fields of gold. It continued to get thicker and greener the further we went and we are now once again in mountains.

We drove through the town of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho today because some friends of ours told us how beautiful it was. Annie actually grew up in the town and Don had been there many times. Before we ever left for Alaska they had told us we needed to make this town part of our tour. So the day finally came that our motor home crossed into this town that turns out to be a luxurious resort town built around the 5 mile long Coeur D’Alene lake. The National Geographic called this one of five most beautiful lakes in the world! We arrived, saw the beautiful resort buildings, perfectly manicured lawns and stopped by the lake for lunch but couldn’t figure out what there was to actually do in the town. So…. We called Annie! When I told her where we were and asked her advice on what to see or do, she said excitedly, “I’m in town too!!! As a matter of fact, I’m only a couple of blocks from you!!” She went to pick up her husband and they were at our RV in 15 minutes. We were all dumb founded by the coincidence and spent the next 2 hours catching up on our trip and all of what’s going on at home. It was so much fun and soooo random! Only God can orchestrate such perfect timing! They have been reading the blog and were VERY anxious to be introduced to Bruno and were thrilled to get their picture with him.

We crossed another time zone when we entered Montana. We’re now only 2 hours behind the east coast.