Yesterday was a lazy day for me. I dropped Donna off at the hair salon, then rode the Spyder down to the City Park and Beach on Lake Couer D’Alene. It was warm but breezy, so I was surprised by the number of people on the beach. The traffic in Couer D’Alene can be challenging. All of the north-south routes have many stoplights and traffic backs up.

On the way back, I stopped at Home Depot and bought a cage for Donna’s tomato plant. This thing is growing so fast, it’s sure to need support soon. I didn’t want to get a very large one, the smallest they had was 42″. I think I’ll try to cut it to a smaller size today.

After I posted yesterday, I received a message from our friend Mark Fagan. Mark and Emily are currently camped in McCall, Idaho. Mark cautioned me about wildfires in the area – we’ll need to keep an eye on it as we head south. So far, it looks like our planned route will be okay.

We’ll head out of here tomorrow. Our plan is to drive south on US95. We’ll stop at an RV park south of Grangeville for two nights. They have 80′ pull-through sites which is very convenient. Then we’ll move on to Mountain View RV park in Boise. We’ve booked four nights there and plan to meet up with Donna’s friend Dina Martin and her husband Mike. They’re in their fourth year on the road, but this is the first time we’ve been in the same area at the same time. Dina writes a blog at themartinsamericanadventure.com.

Last night was burger night at the Elk’s Lodge. We walked over around 5:30pm for burgers. The place was packed! It took over an hour for our burger order to come up. It was okay, it gave me a chance to sip a couple of pints of IPA.

We met a neighbor at the lodge the night before and he stopped by our table. It turns out his son-in-law is Ken Schutz, married to his daughter Leann. Ken Schutz was the Darrington High School principal where my daughters graduated. He said he talked to Leann the night before and got the scoop – she remembered me and my family. I lived in Darrington, Washington for about 12 years.

While we were in Alana’s driveway in Arlington, Washington my project was replacing the front shock absorbers on the coach. When we first left Arlington, I thought the front suspension felt a little stiff. Now that I have a few hundred break-in miles on the shocks, I’m very pleased with them. Parts of I-90 through eastern Washington are rough. The shocks kept the front end planted and under control. It made driving the coach much easier. Now I’ll have to see how durable they are. I’m hoping the new design from Koni holds up in the long haul.

Today we have cloudy skies and cooler temperatures – the high is predicted to be in the upper 70s. I need to run a few errands. We’ll pull out of here tomorrow morning and make about a 200-mile drive south through a variety of terrain. I’ll post about the drive on Friday.