Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes, 10 - 14 Aug, 2010

The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is a railroad grade that is converted to a very smooth bike trail, running from Plummer, ID in the west to Mullan in the east.  It crosses a nice bridge between Plummer and Harrison, ID and runs along Lake Coeur D'alene and the St. Joe River.  We went to Harrison on Tuesday, Aug 10, 2010, about an 8 hour drive from Eagle.

Salmon River in Riggins on the way north.

Cindy's Land Rover and our tent trailer.  The campground was not grassy or very shady, but nice overall for the lakeside, swimming area and facilities.  We could walk to restaurants and ice cream too.

After biking 30 miles we were hungry, that night we went to the Marina Restaurant.

On Wednesday we visited Coeur D'alene the city, lots of boats, a museum and Farmer's Market for Kettle corn. 

The museum made Carrie's head hurt, she was learning so much.  She was a good traveler in the car and on the trails.

Anna, Carrie and I liked the lake, sea planes and many nice boats in the marina and the Coeur d'Alene Resort.

The girls on a long floating dock the surrounds the marina.

On Thursday we got back to the purpose of our trip, inflicting pain on Carrie and I.  We hadn't trained very well, and our posterior regions paid the price.  Would you want to cycle in the remote woods with these two?

Our first day was a 15 mile trip up to Plummer and then back to Harrison, there is a mild, 3% grade for the last six miles into Plummer.  The lakeside trail and trip over a bridge to Chatcolet Lake were very nice, lots of nice homes to see too.  The bridge elevation is "stepped" to make bicycle ascents easier.  The six miles uphill were a bit more work for the weaker pair, but we made it to our reward in Plummer- root beer. 

Cindy and Carrie loved the bridge, we stopped on the way back for lunch near its base, at Lake Chatcolet Trailhead.

The asphalt trail is very smooth, Lake Coeur d'Alene is very large but nice for swimming.

Carrie rests on the long uphill pull.  Over six miles uphill is hard for small legs, and old ones too. 

We enjoyed a restaurant meal on Thursday, no one had that much energy left to cook.  On Friday we headed east from Harrison.  Carrie and I went to Swan Lake and then turned back, we wanted a total of 50 miles for the two days and we made it.  Anna and Cindy went a little further but turned back with us before too far, the wind was strong against us that day.  East from Harrison the Trail runs along the St. Joe river and a chain of lakes, beautiful country.  There are some farms to pass but no motorized traffic on the Trail.  We started to meet incoming bike riders from Ride Idaho, they were near the finish of a 450 mile week long tour.  They stayed in tiny Harrison too, our campground and the whole area filled up with tents.  Carrie and I didn't pass any of them as we returned to Harrison, but a lot passed us!

Carrie and Cindy scout our trail.

Rest stops were a good time to talk and enjoy the weather.

We had a great five days, the drive was long but worth it for us.  We liked our camp site and met some nice people to talk with near us.  The large crowd of bikers made it interesting.  A band played quite late on Friday, but I slept well.  Carrie liked the time with us and she is fun to have along.

The bunk mates enjoyed pestering each other, the tent camper didn't stay very well organized.

Carrie tells me she is a tween, not a little kid anymore.  The sunsets from our site were very nice each evening.  We had night time rain and wind, no real problem with the trailer.

A sliver moon, early star, sunset and a warm fire.  Good memories from our bicycle adventure. 

MINNESOTA WISCONSIN AND A LONG DRIVE

Liz, Allison, Cindy and I had a traveling adventure this summer.  We started in Eagle with Josh and Liz' Armada towing a trailer holding my MG Magnette.  Loading was tricky because the trailer was not much wider and longer than the car, once on it was very easy to pull.  We left on Monday, July 19, 2010.

We weren't able to get Anna to go with us, so we saved time by not stopping in Rexburg.  The riders were behaving and we made it to Billings, Montana the first night, about 700 miles.  I did all the driving the whole trip, others were afraid of the trailer falling off.  Billings was busy with about 1000 bikers in town, but we found a nice place to stay at the Kelly Inn.  Allison was able to swim and play indoor golf, I swam with her for awhile. 

Allison by a casino palm tree in Billings

On day two,Tuesday, we drove another long day, we had lunch at a Chinese buffet and Mexican for dinner, risky fare for travelers. I caused a small stir in Montana regarding gas, we missed one opportunity but arrived safely in Forsythe and only needed 27 gallons to fill up.  That one gallon reserve left us with a 12 mile buffer.  We arrived in Moorhead to stay at an AmericInn.  The pool was nice for Allison and the waffle maker worked fine for me.  That left us only about 1 1/2 hours to Alexandria.  We stopped for gas at Big Chief so I swung through Cedar Park for a look.  Swan Lake looked good but I didn't see anyone out in a boat.  I didn't see anyone out in the Park either.  Where are all the kids??

We had three great days in Alexandria, Grandma Audrey was out to dinner with us on Wednesday to Fat Pete's and over to Charboneau's on Thursday and Friday.  I caught up on Verl's progress on the old International pickup he is restoring, and saw his "new" '81 Chevy step-side pickup.  We played a lot of lawn games, Allison was good as always, Iverson Luck.  We did Washer Toss, Bean bag horseshoes, and Bolo golf. 

Audrey and her three daughters.

John Westby and Allison were the overall lawn champions.

Allison and Verl on the Washer Toss boards.

Lots of Minnesota style food, very nice.

We saw Jill Kremer and her kids on Thursday, they all swam in the AmericInn pool with Allison.  On Thursday at the Charboneau's we had a big thunderstorm and even a tornado watch.  We kept Grandma in the central hallway, no basement stairs for her.  Verl had 2 1/2 " of rain in his gauge, I was glad there was no hail. 

Talk and wait for the storm to pass.

On Saturday we hooked up the trailer again and headed for Winona, about 5 hours away.  We had no trouble and arrived at Bob's early in the afternoon.  We settled in and then drove two of his Model A Fords to dinner in LaCross, WI.  Mine ran fine and but his overheated on the road to his house coming home.  We did make it home safely and had a great time with the cars.  

143 pound Whoopie greeted us warmly. 

 

Model A, buttercup yellow.

Uncle Bob settles Allison in the rumble seat.

Allison loved the horse time, especially with buddy.  Four trail rides in four days.

 

We had some cowboy fires, copper pipe enhances the colors.

Bob has the Stewart family grandfather clock brought from the old country.  It has some fine decorative painting.

 On Sunday we attended the Winona Branch and also toured replicas of the Nina and Pinta, in the Mississippi river.  We went to Angst Motors to see some of Bob's cars and pick up a chest for Liz.  I saw an old Nash there that has me thinking...Tubby, tuuubbyyy.  He is calling me.

On Monday, Cindy and I headed to NAMGAR GT-35 in Delevan, WI with the car safely ensconced on Bob's real car trailer.  Much easier to unload alone.  Lake Lawn Resort was very nice, a great location on the lake for the car show on Tuesday.  We met many of the people I have corresponded with on the internet while restoring the MGs, the Magnette was the featured car for the show.  John and Lou Shorten were over from England as honored guests.  Cindy and I had a nice drive to Lake Geneva to see how the other half lives.  Big lake homes!!

31 Magnettes were in the show, most ever in North America.

John Twist, Ed Sweeney, Kelvin Dodd and Jeff Schlemmer tune up Ed's car in the parking lot.

Cindy in front of Lake Geneva cottage.

We left Delevan on Thursday, July 29 to rendevous with Liz and Allison in Winona to start the long trip home.  We were able to re-load Josh's trailer with the car and headed out Friday morning, 7am.  I wanted to get to Mt. Rushmore to see an evening history and light show if possible.  Allison was sad to leave the horses, she had one more bareback ride on Buddy before we left.  We made good time and were able to see Mt. Rushmore and continue on a short distance to Spearfish, So. Dak.  and a Comfort Suites motel.  We were now under a little more time pressure because Liz needed to be back in Logan for an Iverson family picture, originally scheduled for Monday it was bumped to Sunday night.  Hard to be in two places at once. 

 On Saturday we again started early, our route took us by the Little Bighorn Battle Memorial, I was glad we could stop and see the layout and re-fresh some of the history there.  Allison was not thrilled.  As we got closer to home it became apparent that we needed to push through and get home so Liz could get ready to go back to Logan.  We drove 18 hours and arrived home at about 1 am.  Sure nice to be home though. 

Ali's last ride while we load up.

Mitchell Corn Palace.

I may have reached my upload limit, will try and add the final pictures later.  Our neighborhood had a wildfire scare while we were gone,  homes just north of us were burned but the fire did not jump Homer road into our subdivision.

New Years 2010 Boise Polar Bear Swim

The Make a Wish group hosts a Polar Bear swim at Lucky Peak near Boise.  Anna was determined to go, no one else was interested.  There was fresh snow to drive through to get to the marina, the roads weren't too bad.  It was about 32 degrees at swim time.