[a/s] Coeur d'Alene, ID to Douglas, WA - July 22, 2000

[HHamp5246@xxxxxxx]

Today I saw "amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesty and fruited 
plains"...

I was sad to leave Coeur d'Alene, but don't see any reason to have wheels on 
the house if I don't plan to move it. Getting out of my camp site was an 
engineering challenge.  The motorhome next to me had a slide out that was 
within 2 feet of my side... couldn't go forward, had to back up.  I backed 
straight into a vacant site behind me, then forward to the left, then backed 
the trailer down the drive far enough to turn the truck.. Sheesh. I told you 
that place was tight.

A friend asked about the prices in Coeur d'Alene..... I always get real 
estate books....it's not as expensive as it should be.  Sure, there are 
million dollar places on the lakes... lakefront is very expensive...but the 
$1,000,000 homes are big and gorgeous.  Also little places, 5 acres ranches 
with little log houses and a horse barn for under $200,000.00 So, I didn't 
feel it was expensive... not like Jackson Hole... $350,000.00 for 1/4 acre 
building lot!!!  You get a lot for your money in that town.
I would have to list it as a place that I've been that I could live in. 

I hoppped on I-90 as far as Spokane, I had a choice of staying on 90 or 
jumping on highway 2, a two lane... I took 2.  Sure it's a little longer and 
curvier, but heck sightseeing is what the trip is all about.  The road is 
beautiful, newly blacktopped and smooth... unlike I-90.

That's where the amber waves of grain are.... as far as the eye can see just 
golden wheat.  I think it's wheat... I suppose it could be oats.  The farmers 
are baling it in huge (Toyota Tundra size) square bales.  Oddly you see just 
miles of waving grain then all of a sudden a little section will be all 
crushed, as if a heard of cattle hunkered down for the night there.  As it is 
open range I suppose it's possible that's exactly what it happened. Eastern 
Washington is almost as unpopulated as Montana. The roadsigns have a profile 
of George Washington with the highway numbers on them.

Beyond the fields you see the  purple mountains... this is farmland, with 
some rolling hills, unlike Iowa.  All of a sudden I came upon Coulee... a 
town near Grand Coulee Dam.  They have a public park with hookups.  I thought 
about staying there, but felt a little insecure.  No one is in charge, and 
it's Saturday night.... I don't know, I just felt like going on would be 
prudent.  I crossed a dam with a gorgeous reservoir on one side... and a 
river on the other..... then I started up.  I climbed a mountain and on the 
right was a wall and the left looked like a Grand Canyon kind of thing. 
Pretty neat.

Then more wheat fields....at one point the wheat fields just stopped.... all 
of a sudden there was just sagebrush and rocks.  Odd, the rocks looked 
exactly like the kind that are under railroad tracks.

That lasted about 10 miles... then back to the cropland.  Every once in a 
while a large rock sat in the middle of a field... made out of the railroad 
rocks.

I am in Douglas.... I came down a long hill... and a little soda 
fountain/general store/antique shop sits at the bottom after the curve.... 
with a grass RV parking area in the back.  It's charming. Picnic tables, 
water and electric. The dog can play Frisbee. I can use the phone to email. I 
think I can even get a vanilla egg cream inside (c:

Tomorrow the Cascades and Everett...... unless I see something between here 
and there that I want to stop and see.  

Hunter