We drove about 70 miles north of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, to camp on Blue Lake. It’s an extremely small and deep lake that may have been blue sometime in the past, but was very green while we were here. It turns out to be in between two busy railroad right-of-ways as both lines have grade crossings right here. Can you say loud horns blowing a lot? I’m not sure how we slept thru the night, but neither of us heard them. Could have been the wine bar on the patio overlooking the lake that helped that along.
While driving thru Coeur D’Alene up US 95, the traffic lights thru town are synchronized to make you stop at each light for a long, long time, presumably for you to notice all the chain stores lining both sides of the highway for many miles. There were so many chain stores along that route, I think every national company must have been represented. Thankfully it only took about a half hour to go those 5-6 miles, then we were back on the open road till we hit Sand Point, which looked like a really nice area with a huge lake and lots of folks boating and kayaking.
When we were getting closer to the road to the campground, I started thinking about the guy mentioning the truck turnaround a little ways up the road if we missed the turn. Turns out the extreme oblique left turn was almost too much for us to maneuver, but luckily our coach has a very sharp turning radius due to its 57 degree cut and we narrowly made the turn without going down an embankment to the RR tracks prior to the actual crossing. Now I knew the real reason he mentioned the turnaround. It was almost a straight shot into the turnoff if you were coming from the north; but coming from the south with a long rig and toad will be a problem for most drivers. If I stayed there again (which I probably wouldn’t, due to the train noise) I would use the truck turnaround to come in from the north. Luckily, when we leave for West Glacier, we head north for a bit, so getting out of here should be a lot easier.
Thankfully it’s a lot cooler here than it was in Electric City. It was in the low 100’s there and mid-80’s here and we are fully in the shade here.
I broke a strap for one of the awnings while at SunBank Resort, so I found an adjustable strap and installed it. It works but is not a permanent fix. Will start the search for the exact replacement part and have it shipped home.
When we woke up Friday morning to get the coach ready for the drive to Glacier there was smoke in the air. The wind was really blowing so I went over toward the windward edge of the park. I couldn’t see any flame but there was a lot of smoke coming from the south east. We decided to pack up quick and get on the road sooner rather than later. Once we were almost ready I attempted to call the local fire department but only got voice mail. I also checked the local incident web sites but found nothing except a fire at least 80 miles south west of us. We finished stowing everything and headed out before 8:30 am. Pretty early for us, but the smoke was only getting worse so we pulled down the hill a bit to attach the car. There was a train blocking the only way out of the park when we were ready but it soon finished passing the grade crossing and the four lined up motorhomes pulled out toward the highway, three made the incredibly sharp right turn to head south on US 95 and we took off to the left toward Bonner’s Ferry then US 2 over to Glacier NP.