Way to go Idaho!!

So, by now you may have noticed... or not, that in each day's blog, I've included a picture of our truck and trailer in the place were we spent the night. You'll notice the absence of a picture of our rig in Butte Montana. Not for a lack of trying though. Here's the deal. We were leaving Butte - and glad to be on our way I must admit, when we realized about 3 miles down the interstate that we had forgotten to take a picture of where we'd spent the night. So, I turned around, drove back into Butte and repositioned the truck and trailer in the parking lot of the
Best Western with the Perkins attached and we took a picture. Now, after all that, can you believe that I must have deleted that picture before I got it transferred into the laptop!!
The problem was, I hadn't downloaded pictures off the memory card in a few days and when we reached CDA (Coeur d' Alene) it was so beautiful we wanted to take lots of pictures but the memory card was full. I began deleting pictures that I knew I had transferred over but must have gotten carried away and deleted that one too. Kind of stinks too because the way we're sucking up fuel, turning around to get that photo probably cost me $10. Oh well, you'll just have to imagine it for yourselves. Now, close your eyes and picture this. It's a town of about 30,000 people set in the mountains... but the town really isn't that nice. Now picture a Best Western hotel... you've seen them before, it looks just the same as all the others. Now picture a Perkins attached to it... and there you have it. See, wasn't that fun!! Now picture the rest. The sun rises over the Eastern mountain range, the air is cool but not too cold. You hear the gentle rustle of the wind in the prairie grasses and you see over to the side, a pickup with a trailer attached. You wait patiently and finally your perserverance pays off and the trailer door swings open and there he stands. Hair blowing in the breeze, muscles bulging from under his shirt as he performs his morning stretches against the backdrop of the eastern sky... It's him... Dr. Ross in all his glory. Ok so maybe it doesn't happen that way. More like - the trailer creaks as you can hear him inside cussing because he can't find the dang light. He bumps his head on the top of the door and falls against the wall of the trailer as he struggles to bend over and put on his socks. The door opens and his receding hairline glistens because of the oil in his hair... no shower last night either. He licks his teeth and breathes into his hand to check the breath... yep, good enough. He groans as he steps out of the trailer, reaches up with both hands, revealing his gut from under his old t-shirt... you get the idea. Oh that Bambi, she's a lucky girl!!
Anyway, it's on to Coeur d' Alene. The drive across Western Montana was relatively uneventful except it does provide excellent chances for Bambi to read to me about the towns we are driving thorugh. See, Bambi's mom Gloria sent us some AAA books with information about the states we are visiting as well as most of the area towns. It tells a short history of the area, along with any notable points of interest and then tells about area restaurants etc. It is really a cool idea and we've really learned a lot as we drive through these states gaining fun trivia. For instance, did you know that we drove right past the tallest free-standing masonry structure in the world. That's right, in Anaconda Montana, there stands a 585 foot tall smelter stack right next to the interstate where a huge mining operation used to exist. It was completed in 1919 and at the time was thought to be the tallest free standing structure in the world (you could easily place the Washington monument inside of it) and is still the tallest masonry structure. It's a relic of days gone by and a sign that Montana was, in the early 1900's, on the edge of technology thanks to it's mining wealth. We didn't get a picture, but here's a link if you're interested in a little Montana history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Smelter_Stack. We've read several other stories about mining and shipping tycoons who lived in these parts and were able to ride the boom to become some of the wealthiest men in the world back then. If you're traveling by car, the books are really fun to have along as they've taken us to some local restaurants that we'd have never tried otherwise but they are listed in the book. It's fun to get into some of these places and off the beaten path a bit. Although, if I was writing the book, I'd throw in a few more Taco Bells along the way... but that's just me!
Anyway... back to our story. Coeur d' Alene is every bit as beautiful as advertised and because we were so impressed, we decided to spend 2 days there so that we'd have a better chance of seeing it all.
Upon arrival in CDA, we went to the brand new visitors center down by the lake which is situated just across the street from "The Coeur d'Alene" hotel and resort that you will see in the pictures. We walked across to the resort which is the host hotel for Kyle's Ironman next summer. What an amazing place - way fancy!! It is situated on the side of the lake with an amazing view. The resort also boasts it's own shopping mall (attached) with easy access to downtown CDA. It has the worlds longest floating board walk which is really cool as it surrounds their entire marina so you can walk way out into the lake. It has it's own golf course with a floating green. The golf course is not attached to the resort, it's on the Southern part of the lake. However, guests of the hotel don't have to drive to the course... no, no. They are chauferred to the course on a private wooden speed boat with a cool class canopy over the bow for the golfers to ride in. Now that's classy. They have several world class restaurants and spas, swimming pools... the list goes on and on. What about us you ask... did WE stay at "The Coeur d'Alene"?? Nope... we slept in our 6X10 metal trailer - now that's livin'!! Seriously though, if anyone reading this ever wants to take a really nice vacation I could recommend CDA. Here's a link to the resort website if you want to really treat yourselves. http://www.cdaresort.com/
We decided to eat lunch in downtown CDA which is a really cool area just next to the lake and the resort. We ate at a place called Crickets bar and grill which had great food and we enjoyed it even more by sitting on their back patio with a view of the lake. The entire downtown is comprised of cool little shops and restaurants. They even had a free concert in a little park downtown with a band that was supposed to be like the beatles. We aren't huge beatles fans but it was fun anyway just to be outside and a part of the action.
We found a place to stay at Blackwell Island RV resort which was up to this point, the nicest accommodations we'd had so far. It was no CDA resort, but still pretty darn nice (It had showers, electric service at every site, AND WiFi... what more could we want!!) We checked in and paid for two nights which put us in a spot about 100 yards from spokane river which is a river that flows from lake CDA and the resort was at the junction of the lake and river which gave us some really beautiful views... all for just $37 / night. The lady at the front desk must have liked us because she was doing her best to see if we had any discount cards like Good Sam or AAA. Bambi said, we don't have AAA but my dad has the AAA towing service in Edgerton MN! The lady goes, "well that's good enough for me." So thanks Roger, you saved us 10% both nights!! After checking in, we went for a walk on the Centennial trail which goes around the lake and gives really beautiful views of the lake adn the surrounding mountains. We went back downtown too where we stopped at a bike shop to get some supplies and the manager is helping us out when I looked as his shirt and saw that it was a race shirt from the Living History Farms race in Des Moines. I said, "you by chance from Iowa?" He said that he was actually from North Liberty (Just North of Iowa City and one of the towns we're considering moving to as it is really close to where I'll be working soon.) We talked with him for a while and Bambi and I were talking about how fun it was to see a fellow Iowan in CDA. We walked around a bit more and decided to stop for ice cream at a local shop. We went inside and were asking the kid behind the counter about the ice cream flavors (Bambi settled on birthday batter -surprise surprise!! I tried the huckleberry which is a type of berry which is very common in Montana, Idaho, and Western Canada.) Anyway, we're talking to this kid and asking him a bunch of questions about CDA and what it's like to live there. He must have been about 16. Finally, we asked him if he was born in CDA and he goes "no, I'm actually from Minnesota originally" We're like no way - what part? He goes, "Well it's a really small town which I'm sure you never heard of called Jasper MN" In unison, Bambi and I were both like, NO WAY!!!! I think we startled the kid. For all of our Pella friends reading this, Jasper is only 20 miles from Edgerton and is actually in the same county. It was pretty fun and the kid seemed pretty excited to finally meet people who knew where he was from. He actually wrote down our names and said he was going to call his Grandpa who still lives in Jasper if he knew any of our family. Small world.
Way to go Idaho!! So far so good.

P.S. I did finally find that picture from Butte but decided to leave the opening paragraphs anyway. Here it is.