Fort Hemenway Manor Saint Maries

It was a very sad morning, saying farewell to our ranching chums.  Sid and Nancy left very early for Philadelphia, Robert and Kelly to Indiana, Jill, Fred and William (who came for a long weekend) back to Dallas and the heat and Jane, Jim, Steve and Judith off to Spokane for their afternoon flight to San Francisco.  The Greens and Priests set about loading their RVs ready for the next stage of our holiday - us to drive to Plains, Montana (about 2.5hours away) and The Greens to San ...

... the elderly members of our group had a great time at the Ranch.  The combination of riding and outdoors activity, staying in amazing log cabins, the views, the hospitality, food, drink and children’s programme makes this a fantastic holiday for everyone.  We would certainly love to return.  I think it would be hard to find a ranch that would offer such variety on riding too.  It is going to be hard to ride in London again after this – the ...

... at home and this was a Ford Focus but that didn’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’Alene!" – the ...

... we went to the ring first to learn the basics on how to ride the horses fast.  I can honestly say I was really nervous as you tear around the ring with your reigns flapping and bottom wedged into the saddle creating a wave movement.  After ten minutes of showing Alison what we could do and her correcting us she announced we were ready to hack and we had no idea what was about to happen.  <br><br>This is a great time to ride, slightly cooler ...

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 ...

... the kids were cooking smores (called smores from the term &#8220;do you want somemore &#8211; s&#8217;mores)  This is a gooey cocktail of charcoaled marshmellows  with a layer of chocolate wedged between two sweet biscuits  - great for the kids as they roasted their own marshmellows on twigs.  Fun evening finishing with us all crashing into the crisp linen and soft mattress after a warm, clean shower with crisp towels (things we used to take for granted. 

... We also had the opportunity to clean up and rejuvenate ourselves before heading out for a sushi dinner at a restaurant that had come highly recommended to us. Wow, we never would have expected to get such incredible sushi, especially in a state that does have a coastal border. However, due to the fact that they fly fresh fish in 3-5 times a week, depending on the season, we could not have gotten better quality fish elsewhere in the lower 48.

When we got up this morning the boys and I went into Wal-Mart for some supplies.(the least we could do since we stayed in the parking lot) Our drive to Coeur d' Alene, ID was only about 20 minutes. The RV park is another nice one, right on the Coeur d' Alene Lake. Once we got set up, the boys and I grabbed our fishing poles and ran down to the lake. After a couple of hours, we only had a small ...

... minute of tape, and then the second band marched by. We figured this would be a short parade, and decided to wait it out. We were wrong. It lasted almost an hour, with at least a dozen marching bands and any number of other noisemakers...rumbly little cars and motorcycles, screaming cheerleaders, the whole shebang, as they say here in Montana. We'd pop off a minute of tape during the quiet parts, but mostly we waited, in ...

... to frame the world situation that will impact the doc in some very nice ways. It was perfect, that we were able to meet up with them and do this interview. It will really add to the project. And it would not have happened without Iain. After that interview, we headed back to Union Station, checked our bags, had lunch, and boarded The Empire Builder, the train that would take us, 38 hours later, to Spokane. Much was the same...the leg room, the sleeping situation, the lounge car ...