July 4th

Here are some pictures that John took of the cement artwork depicting the Lewis & Clark Expedition that is displayed here in the RV park. It certainly took a lot of preplanning and dedication to complete this project but it was well worth the effort.

John told me he was having the need to see a pine forest so we decided to take a short drive towards Coeur d'Alene. Right outside of Lewiston/Clarkston there is a seven percent climb for six miles. Once you get to the top of the barren mountains, you can look down and see the river valley. The picture we took has the valley looking very hazy. We are located on the left of the second bridge in the picture below:

At the top of the mountains, the brown gives way to green meadows. It was very interesting to see the change happen so quickly. Soon we were in rolling hills with green everywhere. John decided that we would drive up to Coeur d'Alene for lunch and then return. I was fine with that. It took about an hour from Lewiston/Clarkston before we hit pine forest. The closer we got to Coeur d'Alene, the thicker the forest got. We also passed an elk farm/ranch. They had many pens with cow elk and one pen with the bucks. I guess maybe during rutting season, they put one buck each in a pen with the cow elk.

When we got to Coeur d'Alene, we headed for downtown and got turned around due to their 4th of July parade. I wouldn't have minded watching some of it but we got turned around to where there was no good place to park so we headed on. We ended up in at a restaurant called Tomato Street which is near the intersection of 95 and Apple Way. Boy, did we luck out. The place was sooo good. It is an Italian restaurant serving the usual plus sandwiches, salads, etc. John had the Chicken Marsala and I had a pannini sandwich - both were very good. They both came with your choice of soup or salad for $8.99. The portions were more than ample and we thought it was a good value. Oh, they also serve you a basket of wonderful garlic bread. They could have just kept the bread coming it was so good.

Before heading home, we stopped at the Walgreen's that was right next door as I needed a dental item. That being done, we got back in the truck and with happy tummies, we started back out of town. We stopped at the Nature Conservancy area called Cougar Bay. We hiked back a bit but as we weren't wearing the appropriate shoes and I still have problems walking on irregular ground with my left foot, we turned around and headed back. You could hear all sorts of songbirds signing their hearts out. John got a picture of an interesting looking dragonfly (different from what we saw in Sacramento). Grass blades do a good job of camoflauge.

The drive was nice heading back to Clarkston. John spotted the Red Tail Hawk hunting in the same area that I had seen it on the way to Coeur d'Alene. That downgrade heading back into Lewiston/Clarkston was interesting as it has six (yes, six) runaway truck ramps. We have never seen so many runaway truck ramps that has signs preceding them telling the truckers that there is no fine in using them. This causes us to wonder if normally a trucker has to use a runaway ramp because of mechanical failure, that they are fined? I would have never thought they would be fined if it meant saving people's lives.

We got back home and with a slight breeze blowing, we sat outside and enjoyed the evening. We spoke with a couple from two sites down who pulled in while we were gone. They also are attending the Life on Wheels conference. That is three of us that we know of here in the park.

Later in the evening, we walked around the park to get better views of the various firework explosions going on in the neighborhoods around here. They have some crazy fireworks around here. I guess anything goes and there were stands everywhere. When we went to bed, you could still here the fireworks exploding though the sounds were muffled by the hum of the air conditioners.

We hope everyone had a relaxing and peaceful 4th of July.