Goodbye WA! Hello ID!

We had a very nice sleep with temperatures in the mid 40’s.  Joe left a little before 8 am.  The rain was chasing him all day but never caught up and the final temp was a very comfortable 65.  Joe said his ride was good, uneventful. That is, once Garmin took him off the washboard gravel road with a dead end and put him on the actual path to Idaho. He’s still figuring out what to wear with the cooler mornings and he’s also finding that even with the cooler temps, he needs to change his clothes a lot.  Because biking for 6 + hours will make a person sweat! Joe said the ride felt long at the end. Tomorrow is a ride into a much-needed rest day. 

Neptune rested comfortably in the dirt as I packed up today.  He was even chewing on a stick for a while like a real dog.  A huge thank you to Sharon and David for helping me understand my recent difficulty with getting the hitch attached correctly.  I even learned what the proper names for things are – coupler, clevis pin, socket.  Much easier to explain what I’m doing when I use the correct words.

Although Joe had passed into Idaho yesterday, today was my first day.  Joe kindly took a picture for me when he rode into Idaho again today.  The northern part of Idaho where we travel today and tomorrow is stunning country.  I stopped at a pull-off to take pictures of the water (Pend Oreille River) and then turned around and took a photo of the rock we are driving through.  I always find the vertical lines where they drilled and placed charges to fracture the rock fascinating. 

Neptune and I passed Joe about 10 miles from our evening stop.  We hung out and enjoyed the view before Joe rode away.  Luckily the shoulders and bike paths were pretty good today. All in all, it was a nice Sunday morning ride. 

Sandpoint, ID is a fascinating town and has a beautiful bike trail through the city. We have a couple pictures of the area driving in, including a long bridge.  Neither of us pulled over to enjoy the city, but can see it would be a good place to spend some time.  

I got to our site at Island View about ½ hour before Joe. The owners are awesome, and I appreciated the fact that they knew we were coming – 1 with an RV and 1 on a bike.  They asked about Joe right away and were interested to hear about his trip so far and what the future plans are.  I included a picture of one of their gardens and hilarious swim trunk/tree art. They also steered us to a really cool walk today.  About a mile from our site is a piece of the Berlin Wall that someone brought over, graffiti and all, and had placed outside their property.  I took a picture of both sides of the wall.  What an amazing thing to see in Hope, Idaho. 

The scenery is beautiful here and, again, a place we’d love to come back to when we have more time.  There are patches of foxglove all over (thank you mom and Diane for identifying it for me).  There are mountains and we were able to watch the rain travel across the lake (Lake Pend Oreille).  There are signs all over the area to not feed the deer.  Later this evening we discovered why – there were deer all over!  Neptune kept his eye out for deer, but he apparently doesn’t have that hunter instinct for them.  We did not see any rattlesnakes. 

It’s raining now and we’re hoping it will clean off the truck and trailer.  Tomorrow is a long day (70 + miles) to Libby, MT.  We’re looking forward to setting up and staying for 2 nights in the same place.  It’s getting tough to remember everywhere we’ve stayed!

Thank you to everyone who is supporting us in so many different ways. We hear it is extremely hot back home and we’re hoping the heat breaks tomorrow.  We are so grateful for you all.  And an early morning hello to Lisa!  We hope you get back to sleep. 😊