Day 5 - Sand Point, ID to Thompson Falls, MT

Today - I've had some difficulty connecting so - no updates to photos or garmin info, I'll get them up tomorrow. Sorry folks!

Well, if yesterdays smells were of pine needles, clover and mountain meadows, today’s was fresh cut alfalfa (hay) and mountain air. I gotta say that today’s ride was simply GORGEOUS!!! We followed Route 200 along Lake Pend Oreille, what phenomenal views! We had mountains in front of us and the lake to the left as we rode along. It was difficult to stay on the road from looking at the beauty. Again, we are amazed at the differences in terrain each day brings. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic. When we started out, it was very marshy and had that ‘wetlands’ feel to it, there were roosts for birds but we didn’t see many occupied. There was one bird that we think may have been a young Heron – as its head looked kinda fuzzy.
There are so many incredible looking steel bridges that we’ve passed – I want to take pictures of them all. The Cabinet Mountains towering over them and us! We left Idaho behind today and we were greeted in Montana with a nice gravel road. Literally it went from pavement to gravel and no sign welcoming us in either. I gotta say they are in need of some state funding. Craig and I had no problem on the gravel, as it was just like our road on its best day - when we take it to Kensington for an after work ride. It only lasted about 5 miles and we were back on beautiful Route 2. There was supposed to be a bear zoo along the way but somehow we missed it.
We got another glimpse into the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (remember that guy with the white hair?! Marlin Perkins (can you tell Craig is with me? No way would I know that)!) As we road along the water we saw a young bald eagle feeding – so AMAZING! There was a spot along the water that had a log jam or blockage and I saw some huge fish. Then when we were walking back from dinner a doe and her twin fawns crossed by us – so cute when they aren’t in my yard eating all my flowers!
Susan and Veronica hosted us for our lunch stop – get this – grilled cheese and tomato sammy’s – YUM-O! We got back to the main hotel and gave our trusty steeds some lovin’ aka cleaned and lubed the chain and washed them down. We took a walk over to check the ‘board’ for times of the evening events and saw Susan, Chris and Veronica – Susan offered us a beer and opened the cooler to see a variety, which included a Porter from --- and An Alaskan Ale – since it was early we decided to take her up on it and took our beers down to overlook the river – what a view (again, I know you’re going to get bored hearing me say that. They said that at dusk or early morning there may be mountain goats along the cliffs. Coolio! There’s also a spot about 10 miles out on our ride tomorrow that may be good for sighting them.
Today’s weather started out cool but very sunny and the temperature climbed to over 90 and at 7pm mt. time, the bank’s gage said 98!! We have been very lucky with the weather and hope it stays nice and dry!
Dinner was at a local diner where we ate with Brian (Canada) and Mark (IN) – nothing sensational just a teriyaki bowl and a salad. Then back to the hotel to fight with technology! (Difficult to get in and stay on-line)
OH my funny sign of the day was for a motel, it was touting that it offered, “mattresses and Wi-Fi” geez, I hope I get a mattress and I hope it’s clean!!!