A quick note about photos. I’m using Windows Live Writer to write offline then publish. Microsoft stopped supporting Live Writer years ago. Their support for the photo album server was discontinued. As much as I would like to gather photos into an album in my blog, I can not with the tools I’m currently using. I may upgrade my tool set, though at present that’s not a priority for me.

Ellensburg KOA Revisited in Photos

Dave and Mary asked if we had visited the town of Ellensburg. No, we sped on to CDA. Mary said Ellensburg is an interesting all brick town with one eccentric house that stands out. It’s worth visiting. Perhaps next time. Here are more photos taken at the Ellensburg KOA.

In The News

Big in the news today: Impeachment Inquiry into Trump started in the house, Thomas Cook goes bankrupt stranding 500,000 travelers, poll shows Elizabeth Warren leading the democratic primary contenders in California.

Weather

A low pressure code front is dropping in from Alaska. Today is 10 degrees colder than yesterday, though it is sunny and warming in the sun. Tomorrow’s weather in CDA will be rain and cold, followed by cold/rain Friday and Saturday. Low temperatures will be below freezing Sunday and Monday. Snow is forecast in Glacier National Park, Lake Louise, and Yellowstone NP. By Wednesday next week temps will return to normal with lows of 44 degrees. Low temperatures in Yellowstone remain below 30 degrees for the next ten days though high temps are above freezing each day. The roads should be clear once the cold front moves through. I expect we’ll stay in Coeur D’Alene while the rain & snow moves through.

Blackwell RV Resort Photos

Moose love Apples, but No Moose So Far

Atypical for us, we seldom connect to sewer

Our Preferred Site

Cycling

It’s a cool 50 degrees at 9:30 this morning. We’ll wait for the temp to rise a bit, then break camp (oxymoron when RV’ing). To get to CDA and the bike trails, we have to go across a two lane bridge off the island. We’ve walked this bridge once last year and won’t do that again! No way we’d cycle over it. So we’ll take the short drive to the north campus parking lot. We’ll enjoy todays sunshine while we can.

CDA

Sherman Ave, the “main street” of Coeur D’Alene has tap rooms, lounges, restaurants, pubs, a bakery or two, tourist shops, and a few art shops. We have not found a great restaurant in CDA largely because we’ve looked on Sherman Ave.

We enjoyed the Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art last year. I was most impressed by the hand made wooden kayaks. Clearly these can be floated and equally clearly anyone would be insane to use the kayak and not simply mount it as art. These were beautiful. We’ll explore CDA’s art shops and look for a really good dining experience on a rainy day.

Blackwell Island

We walked to the Cedar Restaurant past boat storage, two marinas, and boat works. I stopped to admire a tall masted sloop. It was a large sailboat without a single winch showing. It has a massive main boom that houses the mainsail. The paint job is phenomenal. It looked to be a very fast boat.

The Cedar restaurant was open and had the menu posted outside. It is expensive at $42 for a filet. Dinner could run well over $140. Still, we’ll go back this evening.

Walking back to The Beast, I flagged down a tractor driver. “Do you know anything about the boat at the end of the pier over there?” “Which One?” “The tall masted blue hulled sailboat.” “Oh you mean SIZZLER. Sure it’s a carbon fiber hull.” “I don’t see a single winch on deck” “Oh all the lines run through the mast and below decks.” “It looks like it could be single handed.” “Yes, probably.” “It looks custom built.” “Yes, it is custom. It’s carbon fiber over a wood frame. We built it here at the boat works. We’re really good at what we do.” Sizzler is an amazing vessel. She’s light and carries a huge amount of canvass aloft. She must be very fast on the water.

Coyote Statues to Control Pests

I think the Pests are Wise to the Ploy

A Custom Starcraft, This Boat is All Motor

Sizzler

We ate at the Bakery, Cedars will wait ‘till Tomorrow

Back “home” it’s leftover pizza for lunch followed by a bike ride.

The Centennial Trail CDA

We drove right to the north parking lot. Even with taking off the rain covers, the bikes came down from the rack easily. Ellen’s cycle is relatively light and not a problem weight wise. It took a bit longer sorting through our shoes and clothing and getting ready. My newish water bottle cages hold our large water mugs just fine! Off we went on the Centennial Trail that runs along the lake. We stopped a few times to absorb the incredible views over the lake. It was comfortably warm in the sun in spite of a brisk wind. We zipped through town thinking we’d stop at “our” bakery, but breezed right past. The Centennial Trail transitions to back streets then turns onto E. Coeur D’Alene Lake Drive, a busy local highway. Luckily the bike lane is very wide. With a bit of uncertainty, Ellen took that in stride after a promise of “If it gets really bad, we can turn back.” Rather than getting bad, the trail reverted to a paved bicycle route along the lake. We covered 7 miles with an occasional stop to look and chat (like show and tell on cycles). Around mile 6 we hit our first hill (not one of Ellen’s preferable flat hills). With her electric boost, she soundly beat me up the hill. Good for her and a boost to her confidence. At one point I asked, “How fast do you think you can go on the flats if you try?” Answer? 18 mph though I don’t know what boost level she was running.

A road sign warned of twisties ahead. We opted to turn back. It was getting late. Coasting back down that hill I hit 28 mph which didn’t feel particularly fast. Ellen understandably took that grade much more slowly.

We found our bakery on the near side of town. Bakery By The Lake at Parkside is wonderful. I very highly recommend their croissants. They are flaky, crispy, and crunchy. Even the almond ones filled with almond paste are too. Their cappuccino was perfect. I felt like a tap dancer walking on the cement floor. Tap, tap, tap went my steel clip-in cleats. Like my bike, they’re old school and stick out well past the shoe. We ate in and brought croissants with us for breakfast tomorrow.

Funny how going to an unknown place always takes longer than returning (at least it feels that way). Our return trip went by in a flash. Cog patiently awaited our return in Li’l Beast’s cab.

Ellen’s been Tooling around the RV camp on her trike. She’s having fun. She’s grown more confident of late which is a huge change. She’s never felt stable on a bicycle; her fear of falling or crashing got in the way of “cycling as fun”. She’s having fun.