One More from Coeur d'Alene

Our room at La Quinta has high speed Wi-Fi, and a wall plug, so one more blog.

Maybe it's because we are travelling in unfamiliar places, but there is a feeling Mary Ann and I keep getting. This is how I explain it. You are in a luxury car showroom, the friendly salesman is explaining the features of this expensive new car, but while appreciating the features, you can't help noticing that half the rear bumper has been torn off and is lodged under the front wheels. That's what it feels like to us, seeing some of the northwestern USA. Very nice, for sure, but often something very strange that apparently only the two of us can see. We came up with this metaphor for the northwest two days ago, sitting outside at the Red Lion pub in Spokane, drinking a couple of beers and observing a new Suv parked nearby in exactly that condition.

We are finding Interstate 90 quite challenging with the speed limit for cars 70 mph. Of course many are going faster. Also, in these mountains, alternate routes are rare. So we decided to continue on I90 for a while until we get close to Yellowstone. Hopefully the traffic will thin out as we get into the mountain passes.

Picture: I snapped this on Sherman St, the main drag. It was the right car at the right place.

Coeur d'Alene

I walked around the part of town depicted in the picture, but the picture itself I grabbed from the internet for two reasons. Didn't have my camera, and didn't pay $60 for a scenic plane ride.

I am having problems pronouncing the name. There are logically 6 ways. Core/cur, + da/duh + lane/len. In French it would be cur-da-lane. According to tourist info it is core/duh/len. So I just can't get it right, since all three syllables sound wrong to me. Can't wait to get to Pierre, where there is really only one syllable to screw up.

Mary Ann thinks I should mention the scenery more in my blog. So the scenery was great all the way from Anacortes to Spokane, except for a little bit coming in to Monroe.

Breakfast at Riverside Park, Spokane

I took Burgie into town while Mary Ann was sleeping this morning, and found all this at Safeway. Although we are near the grocery store as the crow flies, there were some problems. A steep cliff separates us from the city, and access points were few. I am unfamiliar with local traffic, for example I found intersections with no signage. And it took a long time to locate those containers of cereal, which double as bowls. Then I found some fresh raspberries, and a small (by Safeway standards) container of milk, and some aspirin for Mary Ann. Unfortunately she was feeling too sick to have anything but the aspirin. Now we're in a
Motel in Coeur D'Alene Idaho, where she can rest, and I can recharge the electronics, and reinstall the weather network app, which died on me yesterday.

Spokane, Washington

Despite the heat, near 37c, we decided to camp, on the theory that no mosquitos would survive. The lady at tourist info called ahead to Riverside State Park, and here we are. We are camped by the river near a footbridge, with some giant boulders that you can see in my picture. It made me think of the old saying "God can't make a rock so big that God can't pick it up". Well, now that saying is disproven.

The Anacortes Ferry Experience

There must be easier ways to get into the USA than the Anacortes ferry. By my count, we were officially stopped five times, twice for passports, which apparently require a mandatory "mask" removal, which is how my helmet was referred to. I suppose they were being polite by not referring to it as a burka. And it was the only ferry that wanted to see the boarding pass.

On one stop, all the offloading vehicles were held in a fenced parking lot in the sun for about 40 minutes, and ordered to sit on our  bikes. The sniffer dog was brought in and headed straight for a Volkswagen mini bus. I told Mary Ann over the intercom, that "they never get the smell of drugs out of those things".  I thought nobody but her could hear me, but the woman in front of me turned around and laughed. So now I'm thinking maybe one of the humourless officials could have heard also, and everybody got punished for my harmless joke. Thank God I didn't make a joke about a bomb.

After the release from the ferry, we made it all the way Monroe, WA. We got a motel and I found a T-mobile store which charged me only $50 to set up my phone with a new sim card with an apparently almost unlimited amount of data for a month.

Picture: down load from internet.

Ready For the Return Trip

Tomorrow we will start on our trip home. Instead of going to Seattle and Portland as we originally planned, we will head for Yellowstone. So, we take the ferry to Anacortes, WA.,and will find our way from there.

My biggest surprise in Victoria was the motorcycle tour. I can't think of any other city that is as good to ride a motorcycle through, except maybe Freetown in the sixties. I think that gives Victoria my top spot as favourite city, beating my up-to-now favourite, Quebec City.

Pictures: Mary Ann and I hiding behind a painted pole in front of a painted Citroen. Mary Ann on the Anacortes ferry (our ninth ferry boat ride on this trip-the record was four in one day.)

Victoria's Seaside Touring Route

Paul led us on a motorcycle ride up to Sydney and on the return run, we rode up Mount Douglas, and finished off with the Seaside Touring Route. Although there was some traffic as you might expect, and some low speed limits, it was surprisingly easy to find open roads, and have a fun ride. Even with Friday afternoon congestion, we were not delayed excessively.

Pictures taken at Patricia Bay.