I asked Bob, the camp host at the Coeur D’Alene Elks Lodge, where the best place was to get propane in the area. He told me there was a place a few miles south on Appleway Avenue that had the best price. Later I rode the Spyder down there to check it out. It turned out to be an RV store that had propane for $1.99/gallon. I talked to the guy  there and he said he would open a second gate for me so I could drive in and circle behind the shop to pull up to the propane tank. Easy!

While I was out, I ran a few errands and stopped at Del Taco for lunch. I rarely buy from fast food chains, but it wasn’t bad. When I got home, Donna walked to Bed, Bath and Beyond, then hit a couple of other stores nearby. She ended up buying a smaller tomato cage at a local feed store, so I won’t modify the one I bought at Home Depot. We actually gave the one I bought to Bob and told him he could return if he wanted and use the refund to buy a drink on us.

Donna’s heirloom cherry tomato plant – look closely and you’ll see she already has a tomato

On Wednesday night, Donna tried a new recipe for black bean soup with braised chicken and chorizo. She wanted to use the dry beans she bought in Quincy (one of many agricultural crops there) and read that she could do it without soaking the beans first, but it would take longer to cook. It ended up taking even longer than expected and came out much thicker than she wanted – more like a stew or pot of chili than soup. But, served with a dollop of sour cream, avocado cubes, green onions and cilantro it was very tasty.

Donna in her element

Black bean soup

I was hoping to roll out of the Elks Lodge by 9:30am Thursday morning. We loaded up and picked up the trailer, then I loaded the Spyder in the parking lot. We pulled out at 9:32am. We went directly to Bobby Combs RV Center on Appleway Avenue where I checked out the propane the day before.

The last time I bought propane was in Coeur D’Alene in July of 2014 – we went more than two years on one tank. The weight placard for our coach says the tank holds 42 gallons or about 189 pounds of propane. I’m not sure if it’s a 42-gallon tank – which would really only hold about 34 gallons of propane or a 53-gallon tank which would hold about 42 gallons. Propane tanks can only be filled to 80% of their actual capacity.

Our tank level sensor display fell below a quarter tank a few months ago and has been showing empty. It took 30.1 gallons to fill it. So, I’m assuming we have a 42-gallon tank with about 33 gallons of usable propane. The only time we use propane is driving down the road to run the refrigerator – very low consumption – or when we’re boondocking to run the refrigerator and water heater. We’ve rarely used the propane furnace – we usually stay in warm areas or run the heat pumps if needed. I hope it’ll be another two years before I have to fill it again.

After filling the tank, we drove south on US95 past Lake Coeur D’Alene and climbed into forested mountains. We would make several climbs and a few descents along the way. After a while, as we neared Potlatch, the forest gave way to farmland – mostly rolling hills with wheat fields. We continued on through Moscow – home of the University of Idaho and eventually hit the steep downgrade into Lewiston.

The grade is long and very steep with several runaway truck ramps along the way. The runaway truck ramps are lanes off to the side of the road filled with deep gravel to slow a truck that’s lost its braking power. Some of the runaway truck ramps were built into steep hillsides to further slow a truck without brakes. There were advisory signs for trucks indicating a speed of 35mph.

I thought this seemed like a reasonable speed down the long grade with a few switchback turns. I kept the Jake brake on high and only stabbed the brake pedal a few times on the way down. About a third of the way down, I pulled off at a scenic overlook. The view was incredible. Looking down into the valley toward Hell’s Canyon, we could see where the Clearwater River joins the Snake River. The Snake River flows north out of Hell’s Canyon. Lewiston is on the east bank while Clarkston, Washington is on the west bank. The Snake River continues through Washington and joins the Columbia River.

Clearwater River from left to right joins the Snake River flowing up from the south, separating Lewiston, Idaho from Clarkston, Washington.

A little known factoid is that Lewiston was the original capital of the Idaho Territory.

Click to enlarge and read about the first capital of Idaho

US95 took us across the Clearwater River at an elevation of about 750 feet above sea level. We began a long, steady, uphill grind out of the valley. It wasn’t too steep, but it was a constant uphill pull with a headwind component. And it was about 90 degrees out. With the engine running full turbocharger boost pressure, our coolant temperature started to climb. When it hit 200 degrees, I downshifted the six-speed Allison  3000MH transmission to fifth gear. This kept the temperature stable at 198 – 200 until we hit a steeper grade.I went to fourth gear and slowed to 50mph. Then the grade got steeper again. I watched the coolant temperature rise to 207 degrees and saw it flicker up to 210 a couple of times on the Scan Gauge D digital readout. The Scan Gauge operates off the feed from engine sensors to the Engine Control Module (ECM). For our CAPS Cummins ISL, 210 is the maximum coolant temperature I want to see. Later models with the common rail fuel system can tolerate higher temperatures.

I finally downshifted to third gear and slowed again. This kept the engine RPM up to 1,900-2,000 RPM to circulate coolant and run the radiator cooling fan at high speed. This dropped the temperature again and we finally crested the plateau.

For the previous hundred miles or so, we drove through farmland mostly growing wheat. On the plateau, the wheat fields were replaced by miles of barley – the grain most often used to make beer. Being rural farmland, we had to watch for farm machinery driving on the highway. We came upon a couple in the road and also drove through a few construction zones. All-in-all it wasn’t a hard day of driving though.

Slow tractor on the highway

We pulled into Bear Den RV Park just outside of Grangeville around 2pm. We have a long pull-through site with full hook-ups and 50 amp power. We set up quickly and started the air conditioners. The park is surprisingly nice considering the relatively remote location. Nice, level, long pull-throughs and good wifi!

Donna took a walk to town – about a four-mile round trip. Driving through all those barley fields left me with beer on my mind. So I opened one!

The park was quiet overnight and the temperature dropped to a low of 55 degrees. We slept comfortably with the bedroom window open. The elevation here is around 3,400 feet above sea level.

We’ve changed up our plan. Instead of making it a two-day stop here, we’ll pull out today so we can drive down ID55 and hook up with our friends, Mark and Emily Fagan (Roadslesstraveled) near McCall, Idaho before moving on to Boise.