Across the Rockies to Spokane

Huge, vertically fragmented rocks are stacked in jumbled heaps for miles on both sides of the Continental Divide.
 (Photo by George H. Jensen, Jr.) 

Today was one of our shortest drives, from Missoula to Spokane. Along the way, we crossed the Continental Divide in the Bittersweet Mountains, at about 6,300 feet, said farewell to Rocky Mountain ascents and descents for a while, passing through pine-covered slopes, never above the tree line. 


We stopped for a picnic lunch by the vast lake at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Finding an actual supermarket where we could assemble a worthy picnic had taken some persistence and time. The project included sweet-talking a Safeway employee into selling us a half-a-hoagie size loaf of bread, still frozen, but still, half a loaf was better than none --- or worse, a whole loaf, as they would have preferred it. As the half-a-loaf thawed on a bench overlooking the lake, a seagull snatched half of it, and Tom barely arrived in time to hold the thief to that portion!

We also finished listening to the last of the 4-disk, abridged version of  Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," the story of Lewis and Clark's Expedition of Discovery. We have followed it with atlases and guides at the ready and savored the opportunity to be traveling the same route, in many places, though often at 80 mph, not 20 hard-fought miles per day. How sad the demise of Lewis! He was only our Tim's age when he led this unbelievable expedition, then spiraled into what only could have been post-traumatic stress disorder after his return and committed suicide just a few years later, his journals still untranscribed.

We saw the first traffic in about a week and are now in Spokane. The lost gascap has been replaced, thanks to a trip to the first BMW dealer we could find. (There are none in Montana, where the first cap escaped from us, or in Idaho.) Our giant-sized suite at the Ramada Inn in the Everywheresville Strip outside Spokane would accommodate a rock band and a dozen groupies, but we went downtown to downtown Wild Sage Bistro  for dinner, and discovered not only a great restaurant, but also a vibrant, healthy city. What a treat! (www.wildsagebistro.com/)

We'll be on Pacific Daylight Time for quite a while: Seattle, Oregon, then California, here we come!