After leaving Kalipsell, we headed south to Missoula where we were able to spend some time with my sister-in-law’s family. Barb and Mike welcomed us into their home, treating us to several hot showers, a comfy bed, and delicious meals galore! We used them as another place to which we had mail sent and again got some information from locals. We have been a little out of touch with what is going on, so were not aware of how very terrible the wildfires were on the west coast. We decided to stick inland for a bit, heading down into Idaho and Utah before hopefully popping back out to the coast once the fires have died down.
But first we had a little time to waste. Mike had been having issues with his phone and tried to replace his phone battery while in Missoula and it did not go well. He wound up having to order a new one, so we decided to check out northern Idaho while we were waiting for it to arrive at Barb and Mike’s. We had been trying to figure out how to work Coeur d’Alene into our trip. Mike had done some research while in Kalispell and figured out that the gift for a third anniversary is leather and there was a great looking shop in Couer d’Alene: Craft and Lore. We decided to head there and then circle around on Route 200 for a lovely drive back to Missoula. Off we went over the mountains.
We made it into town without mishap when things went downhill. The shop was located in a little strip mall and while pulling up, Mike decided to just park on the side street. Unfortunately, neither of us paid attention to the short, but mighty, trees along the street. We heard a terrible scraping sound and then pulled around into the parking lot of the shop. It was closed. Although Google said it was open, when looking deeper, we found out that because their online sales are so busy, the storefront is only open by appointment. We then looked on the side of the trailer and saw that the awning was pulled out alignment by about a foot. Not good. We were so disheartened. Mike felt terrible and we both just wanted to get out of there. We decided to add our extra gas to the truck and just get out of town.
As we were pouring the gas in, a couple of cars came into the lot and one of the guys came over while the others went into Craft and Lore. We didn’t share what had just happened, but did share that we had wanted to visit their shop. He invited us in and I think Mike and I were both happy to have something else to focus on. Nathaniel showed us around both the store and the workshop, telling us all about their company and what they do. They make beautiful hand-sewn pieces and Mike chose a new wallet to take with us. We left feeling much better, but still wanting to just get away from towns and obstacles.
Couer d’Alene looked like a beautiful little city, but we moved on without exploring it, heading north through Sandpoint and then around Lake Pend Oreille. The area was gorgeous, with small mountains leading down into blue water and islands out in the lake, but we saw smoke starting to settle into the valley. As the night and the next day passed, the area got hazier and the opposite shores became shadows in the smoke.
We made our way to the Clark Fork Drift Yard for the night. (We’ll tell you about that later.) Easy parking in a gravel lot and we breathed a sigh of relief to be parked for the night. Later, as I sat in Scarlet, I heard a ratcheting sound and went out to find Mike had attached a come-along from the awning frame to the truck and was slowly pulling it back into alignment. He was just trying to get it somewhat back in place, but after not too much work, the awning was back in proper position and looked and worked totally normally. We both had thought that we would need to take Scarlet into an RV place to get the awning repaired, but thank goodness for Mike and his ability to fix anything!
We had a celebratory drink and watched the sun set, happy to have ended the day on a good note.