May 3

We spent the night of April 29 in a casino parking lot in Missula. Carol went in armed wih $ 1.00 to play the nickel machines.She won $ 1.00 at which point she pocketed her original dollar and then proceeded to  lose ALL of her winnings. Oh Well. Carol had fun for an hour and a half.

The next day we headed for Lake Pend Orielle in Idaho.  What a beautiful lake. The town there is called Sandpoint and we were very impressed with the town. The people were so friendy. We found a fly fishing store for Garry. He bought some flies and while there we were told of a nice State Park with trout fishing.So we headed to Round Lake state park and spent 3 days there. Garry actually caught a trout the first aftrnoon which we had for dinner that night. However as happens with us every time we go into a campsite it rained off and on and was muddy! We did manage to get in a mile hike between the rain the second day. There is aparently a resident moose that is occasionally seen around the lake but he didn't appear while we were there. Garry did not have any further luck with the fishing there although he gave it a try several times off and on. Carol enjoyed the leisurely daysand actually did some sewing. The weather remained in the  40's.

We left on May 2 heading South. First stop was Couer d'alene for groceries and laundry. We then continued on towards Hells canyon. We went from Idaho to Washington to Oregon. Never again will we do this routing. We went from 2800+ feet down to 703  feet at the Snake river in Lewiston, Idaho. Then after we entered Clarkston, Washington we had to rise up to 3800+ feet in 6 miles.

The switch backs were   unbelievable and the drop off went straight down. We didn't get any pictures as Garry was driving, hates heights, and was white knuckle drivig only looking straight ahead. Carol was a nervous wreck looking WAAAAAAAAAY  down at the gorge. Then  after we crossed into Oregon it was down to 1800+ feet. At that point we had to climb back up again and Carol took over the driving while Garry went and laid down in the back to calm his heart and his nerves down. We finally made it back up to 5000+ feet where it finally reached a plateau thank God. We continued on to a pleasant small village called Joseph where we spent the night.  They were so welcoming with a parking area and rest rooms for Rv's. No charge. After we had dinner we walked around the town. As we were sitting back in the camper having a bowl of  ice cream we saw 3 deer right across the road from us at the Decadent Resturant, enjoying good eats while the restaurant was closed. They were eating their way through town I guess. We had noticed as we walked around the town the night before that there were these wonderful bronze sculptures on the street corners. There are a lot of artists that live in this town as there were a lot of art galleries. The picture of the cowboy is representative of what was there.

We are at a McD in LaGrande updating the blog. We are then heading off for Pendleton and the Columbia River Gourge where we hope to spend a few days before we go to Mount Hood.