Day 2
The first ones in our household to get up in the morning are
the dogs, and today was no exception. Even though we were on vacation, they
still got us up at 6:30 AM. Actually
they got me up at 3:45 AM by letting me know that they needed to go outside and
use natures restroom. Even though we
arise early we were still the last of our group to leave for our next
destination. Our departure time was
10:00 AM, at least two hours after the rest of our group had gone. There were two routs we could take to our
next campground, Jim and Mary’s RV Park in Missoula, MT. The scenic route was 253 miles while
following I-90 was just 197 miles; we opted for the shorter and faster route, a
no brainer.
Leaving Cour dAlene, the road follows the shores of Lake
Cour dAlene for many miles. Nestled in between hills of white pine, the crystal
blue waters made this part of the route made it feel as if this route was the
scenic route. There were miles and miles
of heavily wooded lush green pine trees.
Many years ago we had
taken this route on a trip to Missoula and I have vivid recollections of
passing through Wallace, ID, Wallace was
a silver mining town and at the time and we passed through the sky was grey
with smoke from the smelting stacks. I
was looking for the dirty town I remembered from our earlier trip, but it never
appeared. Instead was a clean,
picturesque town that oozed of the kind of inviting charm that makes you want
to stop in and stay a while, which is exactly what we are going to do on our return
route at the end of the trip.
We had to climb over a few mountain passes on this route, the 4th
of July Pass, and Lookout Pass. The 4th
of July pass had no fireworks and Lookout Pass was too wooded to give us much
of a panoramic view of the area. Despite
the disappointment the names gave us, it was a beautiful scenic drive over both
passes, even with the additional elevation climb we had to make. Well
they say that what goes up must come down. Wheeeee!
As we started the descent of lookout Pass I noticed a sign
alongside the road which read “White markers represent Highway
fatalities”. Excuse me for a while now
while I pay attention to the road.
We pulled into the Jim and Mary RV Park and parked our rig
right alongside the rest of our group.
That is the benefit of making all reservations far in advance. One more benefit was that as I entered into the office to pay for our stay, I noticed a sign on the door that said “Sorry Park Full”.
That is the benefit of making all reservations far in advance. One more benefit was that as I entered into the office to pay for our stay, I noticed a sign on the door that said “Sorry Park Full”.
Jim and Mary's was one of the nicest parks we have stayed in; a flower garden had been planted at every corner and there were flower beds along with some kind of artwork displayed at most every RV site.
The park had arranged for an Evening of Music with LeGrande
Harvey and Rod Brod, a great guitar/banjo group. They looked familiar and after talking with
them for a while, I realized that we had seen them both perform at this very RV
Park on a Lewis and Clark RV trip we had made with our RV group back in 2004.
Their performance was great, and they played one of my favorites, which they
played back on our 2004 trip, “Pocket Change”.
We had a great night’s sleep with the crisp Montana air
keeping us snuggled up in our nice warm blankets.
Goodnight for now, talk to you tomorrow.
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