La Quinta Inn 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 ...

... 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&#8217;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 &#8211; the ...

... rakes for clearing the bunkers! I teamed up with Tim to form a Brits team against Rob and Steve &#8211; the Yanks- in a Ryder Cup style four-ball match. Tim and Rob played really well with Steve and I contributing on some holes with the match going down to the last green for me to hole a 6 footer to halve the hole and win the game 1 up. A fantastic game on a gem of a course.

... Jeannie, Marty and the kids for a kayak at Harrison Lake a few miles from the ranch.   We raced with the children, Fynn was brilliant and loved every minute, jumping in and out of the lake for a swim and trying to persuade the girls to jump in.  Edie joined in but Princess Lily swans along with her friend Rachel hooking their kayak onto Jeannie&#8217;s Kayak and created, as they called it, a limousine kayak.  <br><br>Time for our lesson ...

... 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>

... ponies which was surprising.  <br><br>The Western style of riding is significantly different to the English riding style.   Prior to our trip to the USA Ian and I had spent a fortune at Wimbledon Stables riding two hours at a time and paying the price physically and it was not long into our first ride that we realised that it had it been a complete waste of money.  We did not need to bob up and down when trotting, our reign was to be long when ...

... 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. 

In a few days I leave for ICO(International College for Officers) in London. For two months I will hang out with 25 other people from different countries around the world learning from them and hopefully gaining new perspectives on life. Right now I am not looking forward to this. I hate being away from my family. I will miss their soccer games, school ...