One Lap

Date: 10/08/2013

Day: 12

Location: Kalispell, Mo

Miles Today: 255

Total Miles:  2185

A Trade?   Highway 2.  Priest River, ID.  Kootenai Falls.  On the Road.  A Bit of Wisdom.  Tomorrow.

A Trade?

The Colonel, tired of floating down the highway sitting on a virtual couch like a virtual potentate, has traded the Acura (trusty but dented) for a BMW.

Naaah!   

His kidneys would last about 20 miles -- if he were lucky.  They do rent Harleys for the Route 66 trip.  How far do most people would get.  Over / Under: Jolliet.  Still, those are California plates, so someone has come this far and that Beamer is a relatively comfortable bike......Naaaah!

Highway 2

This proves to be a very good road indeed.  Sometimes two lanes with fair shoulders, usually two wide lanes with a very good emergency shoulder, occasionally four lanes and once in a while four lanes with a concrete separator.  Easy to drive.  The landform is interesting as always.   Softly rolling hill country with pines, but the rolls are maybe 2500 feet from crest to trough.  I see why people fall in love with this land.  One could easily take off on horseback in any direction.  I hear it snows a bit, though.

If you have not checked this road out on the map, you might find it interesting.  The Colonel will stay on this road most of the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 1500 miles east.

 

 

Priest River, Idaho

Another small American town falls victim to the stranger with the hat and the little camera.  This is a surprisingly posh place, at least the bit I walked through.  In the middle of the day, these towns seem deserted, like movie sets waiting for "Action."  The ones stopped at so far are very clean with numerous small touches that show loving care.

 

 

Park with a fountain and a sort of found art deer.  Maybe that's a terminator deer looking for the Colonel!!

An illicit (no permission asked) photo of a young man showing us his best "Standing on the corner" tough guy persona, (look very closely and you'll note his  left foot on wall in contravention of social norms.)   Except  in Priest River it's the wall of the library and there is no one on the street to look at except for an old guy wandering about with a camera.

The Odd Fellows and the Masons keep company here, as does the Eastern Star.

If the Colonel had a log cabin, rest assured it would be air conditioned even in northern Idaho.

A long and winding path to the parking lot from the street.  Not taken.

Jammer.  That young man will hang out here in a few years, one suspects and perhaps become an Odd Fellow, if they still exist then.

Best image in town.  Look carefully at the sign.  The building is in not quite so good repair as it looks from this angle.

Closed one day a week; today, unfortunately.  Isn't Noni Italian baby talk for grandmother?  The Colonels' grandmother certainly would  not have approved of wine bars.  But, of course, she was not Italian at all but, alas, Methodist.

The Colonel should have had lunch at AJ's Café, Where Friends Meet.  The storefront to the left from this perspective is the City Police station, apparently not occupied, there are no Police vehicles in evidence.  The rest of the building is city hall.

Salon Seven.  That is a cool logo!  these people should be in Carmel.

Anita says: "Keep it simple, keep it old, Keep it Idaho."

Kootenai  Falls

Time for a stop and this was a good one.  About a mile down the path, across the concrete viaduct over the train tracks, down another path and there you are.  The sound was spectacular and the Colonel was the only person there.

The Falls.  The Colonel would say "modest rapids," but again, he is spoiled in this regard

Two images of the path to the falls (taken.)

 

 

On the Road



 

American folk art

Plaster of Paris carcasses, one hopes, not hung meat waiting for pick up.

One does not have to drive the One Lap; one could fly it.

The Barber Ship.  Too good!

A  bit of wisdom, not the Colonel's

A member of the traveling fraternity (a man not normally a font of wisdom,) once told the Colonel that of all the people you meet on your travels who might merit a tip (cab driver, wait staff, etc.) the one who needs it most is probably the person who makes up your motel room.  Prototypically this will be a single woman with a child and poor English skills.  Leaving an amount you feel appropriate under the phone is a the right thing to do.  One may claim that people with degrees from Stanford do this work, but the Colonel suspects not.  Cough up.

Tomorrow

More eastbound Hwy 2 with no fixed destination.  Isn't that a nice thing!

Wellington Boot, Col