Day 12 – October13
Woke up to 36° in beautiful Bonners Ferry. Overcast. Not in a big hurry. I am digging the Starbucks Via coffee in the morning. We got out of there about 945a. Decided to head to Spokane then north again to check out the remote WA towns along the border. Irena and I lived in Vancouver, WA (across from Portland) in the 80’s. Never really explored the northern border portion of the state.
Put Bonners Ferry in the rear view mirror. While nice, I really can’t think of the next time I will be there. Headed south and came upon Sandy Point. Colorful little town on the Sandy River. Nice touristy downtown. Weather turned to rain. Temp soared to maybe 40.
Google maps was trying to take us off US 2 to a ‘faster route’ and took us straight into a construction zone that was hard to get out of. Finally found US 2 again. Now heading west again. In a bit of time, we crossed the Pend Oreille River into Washington at Newport. Circled a block downtown trying to get a picture without getting out of the car) of an old steam engine. Rain, one way merging traffic etc helped kill about 5 minutes..
Headed south towards Spokane. Never really been there. Rain. Traffic picking up. Set Google maps for downtown Spokane. Long story short it took us a while to get there. We haven’t seen traffic like this on the trip so far. I am sure Seattle area will not disappoint either. Found downtown. Looks great. Got caught in some nice traffic loops, could not find parking near the riverside area (which looked spectacular from the bridge) and not wanting to walk around in the rain ended our discovery of Spokane in about 15-20 minutes. Lets go north. First lunch. By now it was 1230-1p.
Found what looked like a chain family restaurant. In short. A big disappointment. Back on the road. Now 2p. North on US 395. Heavy traffic for 30-40 miles. Thinned out the farther north we got. Still raining. You could tell it was a beautiful area. Mountains on both side of us. Unfortunately we could only see the first 1,000’ feet or so. Now after 3p. Pulled into Colville. Nice town. Contemplating hunkering down for the evening. Drove the town a few times to get the lowdown. Decided to push on.
At some point we got on route 20. Pulled into the town of Kettle Falls. On the Columbia River and Roosevelt Lake.
Scoped out the town with a couple of drive throughs. Found TJ’s. Time for a beverage and dial for motels. First one called had a room left. $69. She would hold it until we were done drinking. Shot a game of pool while bantering with the locals. Looked at their menu and decided it would work for dinner.
Found our motel. Checked in. Relaxed for a few. We sat out and I had a fine cigar while appreciating remote northern Washington. We are again about 10 miles south of the border. British Columbia. This is Sasquatch country. Rambo. Fishing. Hunting.
I thought we were the only ones in the motel units. Then the firefighter crews came in for the night and filled up the rest of the units. They had been there for about 20 days. Most of their clothes soaking wet. I can’t even imagine. It’s 35-40 out. I am thankful for the heated seats in my rental.. There were lots of 12 packs of Budweiser and family sized bags of Doritos going into those rooms.
We took off back to TJ’s for dinner. We went into their ‘family dining’ section. Truly a local favorite. A few long tables filled with 10-12. We found a table off to the side. Dinner was great. Irena had a Reuben and JoJo potatoes. Giant potato wedges seasoned and fried until they were like mashed potatoes on the inside. Wow. Quite good. I went with the lo-carb hamburger plate which was about ¾ pound of fresh ground beef, tomato, onion, pickles, cottage cheese etc. Also excellent. We petted the dog that was going table to table, bantered with the waitresses and had just a nice rural America time.
Back to the motel. After 7p. You could tell we were going to crash soon. Still fight time zone changes. The problem is going to bed too early puts you a wake at zero dark thirty. Ah, no worries..
No idea on destination tomorrow.
Life is good
Oh the rain in the Pacific northwest. Great visuals and thanks for the photos and the meal description!
Beautiful country!!