Leaving Craig, we headed straight to Missoula, MT. We spent the afternoon avoiding the rain in coffee shops and laundromats before finding a place to set up the car for the night.
Wandering around later, we happened upon an amazing kings and queens drag show, something neither of us would have expected to see in Montana. The show was really fun, and some of the performers really had us laughing pretty hard.
The next day we went to a local fly shop that pointed us in the direction of a trout stream between Missoula and Coeur D’Alene, our next destination. The stream was running high but clear, and we spent a few hours driving between different access points before driving into Coeur D’Alene for dinner. It was a beautiful evening in town, and apparently an Iron Man event had just concluded, as we were surrounded by athletes still wearing their competition numbers and scarfing down large meals to recover some of their burnt calories.
We spent most of the next day walking around downtown, checking out the local shops. The weather was very pleasant, but not quite hot enough for us to take a swim in the lake. In the early afternoon, we departed for Spokane to stay at Kinsey’s Aunt and Uncle’s house for the evening.
After our night in Spokane, we drove straight to Winthrop, WA. We bopped around trying to find a place to buy fishing licenses (you would think the local fly shop would want to sell them?) before heading out to find a place to camp.
We stopped at one campground, but it was completely full of people together for some sort of group outing. We made a quick dinner and listened to them perform singalongs through a powered PA before deciding this wasn’t the spot for us. Mainly, they had announced they were going to watch the second Lord of the Rings movie and we had just watched that two nights before! No need to watch it again.
We eventually found a spot along the Chewuch River and set up our tent and hammocks before heading back to town to walk around. We stopped at a few local places but our last stop, the Copper Glance, was probably our favorite. The bartender was from Chicago and had been living really close to our last neighborhood before he left Chicago to walk the Pacific Crest Trail. The drinks were fantastic, and our conversation about how he ended up living in Winthrop from Chicago was really interesting.
The next day, we spent most of our time relaxing. We went to town for coffee, fished a bit in the early afternoon, and spent the rest of the day lounging in hammocks and reading books. We had an early dinner and sat around a fire until the stars came out. Kinsey called it, “peak unemployment”. I have to agree.
Leaving Winthrop, we headed out on the North Cascade highway. We stopped at the overlook over Diablo lake for a quick snack and to stretch our legs. We then headed down the Skagit valley into western Washington. We stopped near Concrete, WA for dinner and started looking for a camping spot along highway 530. Unfortunately, we weren’t happy with any of the spots we were seeing, so we made up our minds just to continue the drive into Seattle.
Along the way, we took a few hour break at one of my favorite fishing spots along the north fork of the Stillaguamish River. We were the only people fishing, but there was a young girl practicing her French horn on a sandbar. The young player was very talented and her practice added to the sereneness of the evening.
We finished the short drive into Seattle (after traffic had died down a bit) and surprised Kinsey’s parents by arriving a night early. I hope they are ready for us…
The image follows the details in Prudentius' Peristephanon. On the canopied throne the praetor Maximian orders Eulalia's execution. Below, she recoils from a servant's effort to strip her of her clothes. Behind her, two men set up the stake where she will be burned. At her feet a servant brings the instruments that will tear at her flesh.
The man whispering in her ear is more formally dressed than the others around her, so he is probably the lictor, One of the two officials Prudentius mentions, a lictor carries out the orders of a praetor. conveying Maximian's counsel that the girl not give up so much over nothing more than "a small portion of salt…and tiny grain of incense" – that is, the gesture of reverence made at the cult statue to which the lictor is pointing. The statue may represent Apollo, the only male god mentioned in this part of the Peristephanon.
Nothing Like Cousin Eddie dropping in unexpectedly on Christmas in his beat up RV. If Clark woke up tomorrow with his head sewn to the carpet he wouldn't be more surprised than he is when Eddie rolls up in his RV.
Nothing Like Cousin Eddie dropping in unexpectedly on Christmas in his beat up RV. If Clark woke up tomorrow with his head sewn to the carpet he wouldn't be more surprised than he is when Eddie rolls up in his RV. Hand crafted in Ceramic, a built in battery pack illuminates the interior and strands of lights that decorate the top. Other fininshing touches include the acrylic windows and painting for an authentically dirty look.
Hand crafted in Ceramic, a built in battery pack illuminates the interior and strands of lights that decorate the top. Other fininshing touches include the acrylic windows and painting for an authentically dirty look.