Days Inn Coeur D Alene Coeur d'Alene

... br> Leaving Saturday for L.A. where I'll meet up with Terry Chamorro and stay at her place Saturday night. Sunday morning we have a 7:45am flight out of LAX which means going to the airport at 5:45am. Ungodly time. We are flying on Mexicana Airlines via Mexico City to Guatemala City. <br>Not exactly sure yet where we'll meet up with Rose and Jim....probably at LAX before the flight.<br><br><br>

Finally got the truck back, all fixed and running beautifully. Decided to get on the road, though it was already 2 pm. Headed south along Flathead Lake through green forests and valleys to I-90, then west, west, west. All uphill, what a climb, to Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, then downhill into Washington State. Spent almost two hours trying to find Riverside State Park in the city of Spokane, finally set up the camper and tried to settle down for the night.

... in mind we grabbed some fish n chips and head off to watch the Draft Horse Pull in the main arena.  The men equalled the horses in size and as with English country fairs, the exhibitors were wearing their Sunday best, neat clean shirts, smart Stetson and extremely proud of these grand beasts.  However Draft Horse Pull is not the most stimulating events to watch (possibly 15 minutes max &#8211; an hour if drunk) and we went off to find the Mutton Bustin.<br><br>This should be in ...

... from London and having had the luxury of sampling some of the best restaurants in the world, our expectations were not that high.  The chef was leaving the next day to start a bistro in San Francisco so he was excited at what he had prepared for us.  He introduced each course with a tantalising description told us how he had done what and why (working with corn so it does not get too sweet").  We sampled corn chowder which was light and fluffy, had our ...

... at home and this was a Ford Focus but that didn&#8217;t stop him breaking the world record rally course time and nearly giving Steve a heart attack on the way! We got there in one piece and off we went to the clubhouse to sign in. Here I found that we were playing a top 50 US course famous for one particular hole "The floating green at Coeur d&#8217;Alene!" &#8211; the ...

... were quite stubborn to get going.  The Wranglers took pity on us and we all went off on a tougher hack up and down the steepest slopes and then we all trotted and then loped through the forest. <br><br>As we are going to be in the Western saddle from here on Ian and I wanted to familiarise ourselves further and to build our confidence in riding fast so we booked a lesson with the head honcho wrangler, Alison.  <br><br>After lunch Ian and I ...

... en gländewage ;o) am bowman lake acho, hämm** eus wand**tüchtig gmacht und sind loszoge, in wald ine und em see nah. Trotz warntafle hämm** kei<br>grizzlies atroffe, was eus ehrlich gseit rächt gsi isch. Wo mir zrug gsi sind, hani mi wiä üblich uf **kundigstour im see gmacht. S'isch gar nöd sooo chalt gsi, au wänn en iheimische gfunde hät, ich spinni und ob ich vo schwede chäm ;o) isch ä h**rlichi abchüelig gsi!<br>

We were up early to see the horses being driven from the mountain to the valley.  It was a great sight with the horses galloping by (loping is the word over her) being herded by the wranglers, then off for breakfast.<br><br>The first thing to do this morning was to get the boots and chaps sorted out.  Kids first and Edie was given a fantastic pair of sparkly pink riding boots (not quite boy but she loved them).  The kids looked really cute with their ...

... welcomed us in and started to show us around the log ranch house,  From the  back porch we glanced the first view of the ranch.  In the middle of this wilderness  we were struck by a valley full of  paddocks, ranch houses and horses.   It was beautiful.  We signed the obligatory insurance forms and we were off to find out log cabin.<br><br>En route we spotted another (but larger and luxurious) RV with a group standing outside drinking wine.  We were introduced ...

... were a deep green and contrasted perfectly with the water. At the higher elevations the boats and their wake looked like photo snapshots of something you would see in a vacation magazine. Many of the houses were of log design with large windows that overlooked the canyon and lakes and make you daydream about enjoying a cup of coffee on the back deck looking out over one of the most beautiful places on Earth.<br><br>The town of Coeur d' Alene is very clean and a happening place ...