Destination.......

6:55 am - Tuesday - August 11th - Coulee City, WA - 67° F, 27% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the northwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  We roll our wheels in 2 hours.  On this day in 2013 we were in Polson, MT watching the sunset......↴

When you travel and live full time in your RV you seek out cool places  with the 'It Factor' to drop anchor.....I call these destination places.....places where you go just to enjoy the ambiance of that particular place.  When we are in this mode we rarely go sightseeing, but just stay put at the destination to soak in what it has to offer.  This is not everyone's style, for sure.  Many people we know, and I do not say this in criticism, spend every waking moment sightseeing.....that is their style.  Take Coulee City Community Park Campground for an example.....we passed through here back in 2015 and took a rest stop in the parking lot, because we needed a break, but also to check out the campground.  We decided then that if we ever found ourselves in this area again that we would stay a couple of days.  They offer over 50 full hookup sites, as well as a lot of dry camping spots......if we were here in cooler weather we would definitely have been dry camping out of the peninsula......↴

Monday morning we took our chairs down to the sandy beach, found a nice spot still covered in shade, and read for over two hours, occasionally glancing up to take in the big view......

......Banks Lake is 27 miles long with an average depth of 41'.....its surface elevation is 1,571' above sea level.  It is an irrigation reservoir, and part of the Columbia Basin Project built back in the 1930's, which created Grand Coulee Dam, Lake Roosevelt (behind the dam), and Banks Lake (held in place by two earthen dams).  

Around 11:30 am the shade began to disappear, and it was time to get dressed an go to lunch at a local culinary institution called Banks Lake Brews and Bistro, upon which Yelp bestows a rather remarkable 4.5 stars on 32 reviews.....we would be at 5 stars, and, in fact we left a 5 star review.  The bistro is part of the Conoco fuel station, and is just a 5 minute walk from our site.  If you read the reviews, of which most are 5 stars, you feel compelled to check this place out to see if everything written is even remotely true.  Based on the name we thought this was a brew pub, but it is really a coffee house with amazing specialty drinks, and wonderful, rustic, fresh food.......

......I chose their Bacon Cheeseburger with a side of potato salad, and TLE their Breakfast sandwich with bacon.  For a beverage I ordered their 20 oz chocoloate shake, and TLE their iced tea.   I had eaten 1/2 of the burger before I remembered to take a picture of it.....this is one of the top 5 burgers I have ever had in 70 years of living, and the chocolate shake was just as amazing.  They are only open until 3 pm, and serve breakfast all day long, and lunch all day long, and brunch all day long.  I hadn't eaten breakfast, so this served as two meals....lol.  I was still full at dinner time so TLE just made vegetable plate for each of us.

We took a walk around the park (our second in as many days) around 7:30 pm, and I was able to get this cool long distant shot of our coach from a little peninsula across from the swimming area.......

......our two night stay at Coulee City Community Park Campground exceeded our expectations, and we thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out for parts of two days.....time to roll our wheels once again...where are we headed next?

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It's so Coulee......

6:50 am - Monday - August 10th - Coulee City, WA - 58° F, 56% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north...clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this day in  2016 we rode our Cannondale tandem bike from TVC to Meyers for breakfast at the Getaway Cafe.......↴

Our original Jello plan called for us to be in Coeur d'Alene around 2 weeks while we waited for several packages to be delivered, but within a short time of our arrival it was determined they would all be delivered, or so we thought, within the first week, so we paid for a one week stay at the Elks Lodge.  Of course, as you know, in the intervening time FedEx managed to lose, for 4 days, one of our packages, resulting in the extension of our stay by 3 days.  That errant package finally arrived at my sister's home in Spokane on Friday afternoon whilst we were riding the Hiawatha Trail.  We didn't want to drive into Spokane on Friday as we were tired when we got home at 6:30 pm, and we didn't want to make another 90 minute to 2 hour round trip drive there on Saturday, so we opted for a third option....pick it up on our way west through Spokane on Sunday morning.  I say all of that to say this......we were up before 6 am Sunday morning, and rolling our wheels over to the local dump station by 7 am.  By 7:30 am our black tank was empty, and cleansed.  Next stop was the local Exxon fuel station were I topped off our 180 gallon diesel tank with 24 gallons at $2.08/gallon....that is the least expensive we will find until we get to Oregon, and I wanted to be sure we could get through the State of Washington, including the Olympic Peninsula, without having to refuel in that state where diesel is anywhere from 40 cents to 60 cents more per gallon.

By 8:45 am we had retrieved our package from my sister's home, and were back on I-90 west bound to our destination for the day........Coulee City, WA.....about 30 miles west of Grand Coulee Dam......

.....about 7 miles after we reentered the westbound traffic of I-90 we exited to US-2, which will take us all the way to the west coast of Washington.  We have driven this highway twice before, and love the beautiful drive, and very, very light traffic.  Initially this highway runs through beautiful farm land......

.....and then you pass through miles of volcanic landscape......

.....and ultimately to Banks Lake in Coulee City.....

Banks Lake in the distance....almost there!

.....while doing research the other day on places to stay between Couer d'Alene and Whidbey Island along US-2 I found this little city park in Coulee City which provides over 50 full hookup sites next to Banks Lake.  All the sites are first come, first served, so we timed our arrival for late Sunday morning hoping that some people had already vacated their sites to head back to their workaday lives.....we were right.  There were at least 6 pull through sites available as we pulled into the campground, and we quickly settled on Site 5......

.....we have a nice view of the lake, as well as a few shade trees to shield us part of the day from the August sun, but do not interfere with our satellite TV reception.  Our site only has 30 amp, but that is more than adequate to run both roof A/C's if need be, but that is rarely the case as one usually keeps the interior quite comfortable.

Of course, Sunday was the final day of the PGA Championship, so we turned it on to watch the final groupings of the day play their 18 holes.  At one point there were 9 guys with a chance to win, but ultimately 23 year old Collin Morikawa won going away by 2 strokes.  He chipped in on hole 15 for a birdie for a share of the lead at 11 under par, and then drove the 16th par 4 green.  He then drained remaining 8 foot putt for eagle to get to 13 under par, and the two stroke lead he never relinquished.

TLE planned surf and turf for our dinner so at 6 pm I ignited the Sea-B-Que, ran the temperature up to 480° F, put on the filet first (takes a little longer to reach medium rare), then the salmon at the 3.5 minute mark.....they both reached their medium rare temps at the same time.....

Surf 'n Turf tonight!

TLE's side dish

......we chased the surf 'n turf with a bottle of Pinot Noir....does it get any better than this?  I think not!  We were blessed with a very subtle sunset, and quickly dropping temperatures about 8:20 pm....

....in all we covered just 127 miles Sunday, and were in Coulee City a tad after 11 am....well before the heat of the day.  It is good to be back in Washington.

Thanks for dropping by!

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Winding down......

6:05 am - Sunday - August 9th - Coeur d'Alene, ID - 54° F 83% humidity, wind - CALM......partly cloudy today in Coeur d'Alene with a forecast high of 79° F, however, we roll our wheels today in about an hour!  On this day in 2016 we were dining alfresco at McP's Taphouse and Grill at Stateline in South Lake Tahoe.......↴

Saturday morning we walked back over to Prairie Pavilion Street-Eats to Jitterz Espresso for coffee and bagels.  They have two drive through windows, and a walk up window.  We ordered two Americanos and two toasted everything bagels with cream cheese.  There is a nice pavilion with tables where you can eat/drink what you have purchased.......

.....it was a great way to begin our final day in Couer d'Alene, which would be spent mostly putting away our stuff in preparation for our reposition to Coulee City, WA on Sunday morning, as well as cleaning our bicycles, equipment and clothing from our ride Friday....the cleaning part actually took quite some time.......

.....once everything dried out it became even more apparent how wet and muddy it was in that last tunnel.....l0l!  While I washed down the two bikes TLE took on the task of cleaning the Camelbaks and handlebar bags, and then running a load of wash consisting mostly of our filthy biking togs.  We have no sewer connection here, so our gray tank has been slowly filling the 10 days we have been here, but there was still enough room to squeeze in a wash before we dump everything Sunday morning....it's amazing how little water that Splendid Splendide uses.

I paced myself putting away all the 'stuff' spreading out the chores over the course of the day while watching the PGA Championship in between.  I don't believe we ever reached the forecast high of 79° F as it remained quite cloudy all day....no complaints here!  We haven't run the A/C in 4 days now.....nice!

Just as we have in the past, we have thoroughly enjoyed our sojourn here in Couer d'Alene, but the open road calls us, and it is time to scratch our 'hitch itch' once again!  Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

Rails to Trails......

7:18 am - Saturday - August 8th - Coeur d'Alene, ID - 57° F, 69% humidity, wind - CALM.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this day in 2013 we were in Glacier National Park at MacDonald Falls.......↴

The Jello jiggled Friday, but in a very good way.  We had planned to haul anchor Friday morning for points west, but early on Thursday we decided to stay in Couer d'Alene two more nights so on Friday we could drive the 67 miles to the Trail of the Hiawatha and ride the 15+ mile section of this 'Rails to Trails' bike path we have heard so much about over the years.  The trail runs along an old railroad right of way through the Bitterroot Mountains through 10 tunnels (the longest being 1.6 miles) and 7 sky high train trestles.  It is mostly downhill, and at the end you can, if you choose not to ride the trail out and back, take a shuttle back to your beginning point......well, almost the beginning point......

......we left home around 10 am to make the hour plus drive to Lookout Pass Ski Area (located right at the Idaho/Montana state line) where we purchased our trail and shuttle passes, and then 7 more miles east on I-90 to the trail head in Montana.  The beginning of the ride begins with the St. Paul Pass Tunnel, the longest of the 10 tunnels through which we would ride Friday......

 St. Paul Pass Tunnel.....1.6 miles in length

.....you must ride through this tunnel at the beginning and the very end of the ride.....the shuttle returns you to the tunnel, which separates you from your car.  It is cold, and very wet inside that tunnel, and as you will see at the end of the blog makes a mess of everything.....

 We have successfully navigated the St. Paul Pass Tunnel without too much 

damage done, and  are back in the sun light

 Not too dirty yet

.....since the ride is mostly down hill with a pretty steady grade of 2-3% you spend a great deal of time coasting, and/or standing on your pedals coasting.  There are many, many places to stop and enjoy the view, such as this long trestle (one of 7)......

.....most of the tunnels are not very long, but there were a couple more besides the St. Paul Pass Tunnel that were several hundred yards long.  You can see another train trestle in the distance......

 TLE enjoying the view on one of the 7 trestles

.....about 5 miles before the end of the trail we came upon a family of 7 that had a problem with the rear wheel of their son's bike.....he had been 'bunny hopping' and "taco'd" the wheel.  I carry a spoke wrench with me, so I stopped to render some assistance.  We managed to get the wheel straight enough that they could finish the ride......

......they tell you at the ticket office that if you decide to take the shuttle it will be about an hour wait, but that is way too conservative an estimate.  On this day it was closer to 1 hour 45 minutes....the line was quite long......

....we spent a lot of time talking and laughing with the folks you see behind me, which passed the time quite nicely.....

 You can't even see the back of the line from our position here

....we were finally in the shuttle bus heading back to the St. Paul Pass Tunnel a little after 3 pm.  We were dropped off around 3:45 pm, rode back through the 1.6 mile tunnel, which seemed even colder and wetter this time around, and back at the car around 4:10 pm.....about as filthy as I have ever gotten mountain bike riding.  Here are some pictures of the bikes and TLE.....

 This is what happens when you don't have fenders and ride through mud!

....there will be a lot of cleaning of equipment and clothing Saturday!  By the time we had stowed our Camelbaks, and the bikes it was closing in on 5 pm, and the beginning of our hour plus drive home.  After stopping off at a local food truck court (just a block away from the Elks) called Prairie Pavilion Street-Eats.......

....there are about 10 trailers parked here next to a drive through coffee shack......I got a three taco combo plate form Las Brasas Mexican, and TLE some Chicken Curry from The Curry Shack, which we took home to consume....OMG what a great way to end a great day spent outdoors!

We have decided to spend an  additional night at the Elks Lodge as it will take the better part of Saturday to clean the bikes, and put away stuff in the trailer, and we did not feel like doing that Friday evening.  That is the beauty of the nomadic lifestyle.....our plans are written in Jello, and we have no specific deadlines to meet.

Thanks for stopping by!

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1 UP......

7:28 am - Friday - August 7th - Coeur d'Alene, ID - 51° F, 69% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the south....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this day in 2012 we were visiting the iconic Goonie House in Astoria, Oregon.......↴

.....and on this day in 2017 we were standing atop Mt. Washburn, the highest point in Yellowstone National Park......↴

 When last we left off our new 1UP-USA.com bike rack had been delivered to my sister's home in Spokane, and we were awaiting the delivery of one more package by FedUp.....errr, I mean FedEx, which had disappeared into the ether whilst passing through Poplar, Montana on August 3rd.  Thursday morning we still had no update from FedEx on the trace they were running so we decided to drive into Spokane to pickup the bike rack and begin using it. 

We left Coeur d'Alene around 10:30 am in a drizzle, arriving at my sister's home around 11:15 am, where my niece, Stephanie met us (Bob and Hilary are out of town for a few days) to open the house so we could get the bike rack, and some more mail which included our California renewal tags for the Beetle.  I removed our 5 year old KÜAT bike rack for the final time and left it with Stephanie for Bob and Hilary, so they can extend its useful life into the future.  I had planned on assembling the bike rack there in the portico, but the box was much smaller than I expected, so we just threw it in the hatch and headed for home.

The drizzle which chased us into Spokane became steady rain most of the way back to Coeur d'Alene, but was mostly gone by the time we arrived home.  Within minutes I had the bike rack assembled, and installed on the VW......

.....this is the easiest assembly job I have ever had on a bike rack.  The bike rack is modular.  The initial rack holds one bike, and you just add as many modules as you need to carry the number of bikes you wish to carry, up to four.  As you put the bike rack together you begin to appreciate the thought that went into its design.  We had planned to ride the Hiawatha Trail Thursday, but since my other FedEx package did not arrive Wednesday we postponed that ride until we had the 1UP-USA.com bike rack installed.  now that we have the new bike rack we will head out Friday morning to take that ride, and delay our departure from Coeur d'Alene until Saturday morning.

By the by, around 8 pm Thursday evening I got an update from FedEx on my missing package....it was found in Troutdale, Oregon, and now will be delivered to my sister's home today (Friday).....their website says it is on the truck, out for delivery......we shall see what we shall see. 

In the afternoon we spent time watching the PGA Championship being played in San Francisco this year.  Many of the stars have risen to the top with Jason Day leading the pack at 5 under par....Tiger is 3 strokes back at 2 under par.  We had a very subtle sunset as most of the clouds from the storm had left the area......

.....thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!