Monday, Tuesday; September 29-30, 2008

Monday morning we awoke to a beautiful view of the east side of Glacier Natl Park from our KOA campsite at St Marys. The famous “road to the sun” was closed going west at Logan Pass. This still provided an interesting thirteen mile trip. We discovered our Grandson Jackson has a glacier named after him. We took a second road to “Many Glaciers” as named by the Indians. Once again, the scenery here was indescribable. The attached photo showing the glacier reflection in the lake will give you an idea of what we were seeing. We left Glacier Park in the early afternoon and drove to Havre, MT to hook up with our other traveling companions who had taken a different route. Gail is shown here leading the discussion to plan out Tuesday’s route. On Tuesday we drove across Montana’s prairies to Williston, ND – large farms, ranches and Indian Reservations. For those of you who would remember the Huntly - Brinkley Report, we passed Chet Huntly’s birth place at Seco, MT.

Sunday; September 28, 2008

After church, Bob, Gail, Bernie and Carol toured Waterton Park beginning with the area where Buffalo wander freely. The Aspen trees provided a host of colors, lite green, yellow, gold and orange. Glacier peaks were awesome to see. The village in Waterton is a cute little town where deer roam freely. We had lunch there and then struck out for St. Marys, MT on the east side of Glacier National Park. We crossed into the USA at Chief Mountain, MT (pictured) following a route of indescribable color provided by the Aspen trees. This is open range country and we had to be alert for cattle on the roadway.

Saturday; September 27, 2008

We arose early at our Lake Louise campsite pictured here and went for a walk along the Bow River with Don and Suzanne. We then struck out for a 300 mi drive to Waterton, AB passing through Calgary. Waterton is a Canadian National Park bordering Montana and our own Glacier Park. We arrived late in the evening at late twilight, photo attached. Here Gail and Carol had a memorable experience. RTM stayed at camp while Gail and Carol drove into town to locate a church to visit the next day. The girls came across a large herd of Elk with two males fighting over the females. They were so close they could hear the clashing of the horns of the two males as they fought. They sat there for some watching this mating ritual and of course, they didn’t have cameras with them to record the event. This experience made Gail’s trip who is ever on the lookout to see wildlife!

Thursday, Friday; September 25-26, 2008

RTM spent Thursday morning communicating via email and telephone on EMS issues. Early afternoon RTM, GDM, BJ and Carol went to lunch at The Banff Springs Hotel. While there we ran into two other coupes traveling with us who were out on their own tour of the town. See that attached photo of Carol, Judy, Suzanne and Gail. This was our second visit to this hotel. It’s a wonderful hotel and having been completed in 1888, it has a lot of history. You can learn more about it at this website. http://www.fairmont.com/banffsprings Friday we had several highlights. Gail and I went hiking on the trails that surrounded our campsite. Immediately we came across the deer pictured here. Later in the morning we discovered the site of the former town of Bankhead which had been built at the turn of the century to mine coal for the Canadian-Pacific Railroad. The town was abandoned in 1922 and 48 homes and churches were moved overland to Banff. An unbelievable feat considering the terrain! If you look closely at the attached photo you will see foundations from some of these buildings. The next neat experience was viewing Lake Minniewanka, see photo attached. The water temp in this lake never rises over forty degrees and huge trout have been caught there. In the evening we drove to Lake Louise for a viewing of Mirror Lake there and dinner at a restaurant serving wild game entrees.

Wednesday; September 24, 2008

Once again we awoke to a weather change. The little duck pictured seemed to want to travel with us. Banff, AB was the destination for four of us while Kelly and Jane struck out for Jasper to see some of Kelly’s childhood campsites. We’ll meet up with them again on late Friday. We drove the Canadian Trans-continental Highway through the Revelstoke Mountain range. Awesome scenery! As we approached the Lake Louise and Banff area, we saw fresh snow on the top of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We’ll spend Wed evening and Thurs in Banff driving over to Lake Louise on Friday morning.

Tuesday; September 23, 2008

BJ, Don and Jim got a round of golf in on a brand new course built into the side of a mountain. RTM chauffeured the ladies around to wineries. It was a bright sunny day – perfect for sightseeing. We had a lovely lunch at Quails Gate Winery.

Monday; September 22, 2008

A lazy day for RTM, spent the morning catching up on tele calls and emails. GDM left early with Carol in the Ford Escape for Kelowna which is in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. They stopped at fruit stands and wineries along the way. Highway 97 runs north through the Valley and parallel to Lake Okanagan which is 69 mi long. It is the agriculture capital of British Columbia and the vineyard capital of Canada. This evening we had our first Woodie Whoopee (happy hour and dinner for the uninitiated) while we watched Mon Nite Football on BJ’s outside TV.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Today we awoke to a cold front and a rain storm for our drive to Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada. The five of us broke off into a couple of groups for the trip. RTMGDM chose the flatland route taking us through the Colville Indian Reservation and Gran Coulee, WA where we saw The Grand Coulee Dam. See photos attached. We spent the night at the NKMIP RV Park in Osooyoos which is just across the Washington border on US Highway 97. A side note. US 97 runs from New Mexico to Canada and is a very scenic route to travel. Tomorrow we will travel to Kelowna BC which is in the heart of Canada's wine country.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday; Sept 18,19, 20, 2008

Thursday. RTM was in an all day ACBS Board Meeting. GDM went to Spokane, WA on a bus tour of the historic district. The first photo is of the Cathedral of St John, second photo is a rose garden they visited. Bern, Don and Jim played golf on the Coeur d'Alane Resort course that has a floating island green.
Friday and Saturday were boat show days. There were 132 vintege boats here from areas all over the country. I've included photos of a 1929 Chris Craft cruiser, the boat we brought, a 1929 Chris Craft triple cockpit with the orginal 823 cu in engine and a 1948 Chris Craft Custom Runabout that was restored by one of our friends. On Saturday I also toured the sales and service facility of Hagedone Marine and the 70' Marquis they have on brokerage. We closed out the week with a ACBS dinner banquet on Saturday night.

Wednesday; September 17, 2008

Again, a number of friends and vintage boats gathered to tour the south end of Coeur d'Alene Lake and have lunch at a cute little town there, Harrison, ID. A large portion of the middle and upper part of this lake is developed with lake homes of all descriptions. That's a 70' Marquis sitting in front of a building site for a home that will measure 480' from one end to the other. The south end has had very little development and borders the mountains where many mineral mines were in the eighteen hundreds. Logging was and contiues to be a major industry here. The attached photo looking from the stern of Oh Danny Boy and the other one showing the entrance to the harbor at the hotel will give you a feel for the beatuy of this area we are enjoying.

Tuesday; September 16, 2008

Tuesday was break camp day. We slept in a little later than usual, did some laundry and prepared to leave out by noon to move our rigs and the boat to Coeur d'Alene which was an hour and half south of Priest Lake. Yours truly hauled the boat down and took it to the launch ramp on Lake Coeur d'Alene. The launch was at the "Yacht Club", a sales and service center and marina representing Carver, Marquis, Cobalt and Malibu boats. This web address www.hagadonemarine.com will take you to their website. After launching Oh Danny Boy, we proceeded to the Coeur d'Alene Resort Hotel www.cdaresort.com which will be our home through Saturday the 20th. Our purpose here is to attend the Annual Meeting and Boat Show of The International Antique and Classic Boat Society of which I am a Board Member.

Sunday, Monday; September 14, 15, 2008

Sunday we cruised the south end of Priest Lake and Monday we cruised the north end. A great deal of the shore line is undeveloped. The lake sits in a valley surrounded by mountains and is immediately south of the Canadian Border. We gathered with a number of friends, photo 1, and twenty boats or so. Yours truly was the Captain on Oh Danny Boy. Our host for this portion of the trip is shown driving his Century Triple Cockpit in photo 3. We had a catered lunch on the beach at the north end of the lake. This was a wonderful couple of days!

Thursday, Friday, Saturday; September 11, 12, 13, 2008

Thursday; This was a driving day. Go from Clarkston, WA to Coolin, Id on the shores of Priest lake in north Idaho. We got a late start because we watched the 9/11 Anniversery events on TV. We also stopped in Coeur d' Alene to visit with Tom Addis the local Ford and Dodge dealer. Tom will let us store our Motor Homes at his dealership when we return to Coeur d' Alene to attend tha National ACBS Meeting and stay at the Hotel there for a few days. We arrived in Coolin early evening and joined up with two more of our friends there. A photo is attached. Friday; Bernie (PB1) and I (PB5) drove over to the Spokane, WA airport to pick up a car PB1 had left there earlier in the month. We then went back to Coeur d' Alene to pick up BP1's boat and trailer which was stored at Tom Addis's dealership. We returned back to Coolin for the evening. All of that doesn't sound very exciting does it? Tommorrow would be a happening day. Saturday; We had breakfast at Grandview Lodge on Priest Lake and launched Dannie Boy there. We then went for a boat ride on the southern half of Priest Lake stopping in at Hills Resort to have fresh oysters and Huckleberry martinis. This Huckleberry country and you can get them with everything edible and drinkable! The next stop was at our friends cabin on Priest Lake were we partied until the moon came up. This spot will be Dannie Boy's home until Tuesday the 16th when we pull him out and head for Lake Couer d' Alene. Internet strenght here is weak and I'm having a tough time posting photos. I'll catch up as soon as I can.

Tuesday, Wednesday - September 9 & 10, 2008

Tuesday. We leave our overnight in Donnelly, ID traveling north on State Routes 55 and 95 following the early trails of the Nez Pearce Indians. The route parallels the Payette River as it runs out of the mountains and into the flat farm lands of southern Idaho. We are headed to Clarkston, WA on the banks of The Snake River where we will meet up with our friends from California, Carol and Bernie whom will be traveling with us for the next several weeks. We arrive in Clarkston early in the afternoon. Our stop for the next two nights is a RV Park and Marina combined. It is the nicest RV Park we have been in since leaving home.Wednesday. Bernie and I take a ten hour round trip upriver on The Snake to the Hells Canyon Dam. The trip is 113 miles each way. From Clarkston the river rises 700' at the point of the Dam. This creates rapids of class 2 to 5 that we pass through as we go up and back. We travel on a metal boat powered with twin GM 365 HP engines and water jet drives. We can move in as little as 8" of water. We travel through Hell's Canyon most of the way. It was a great experience but a long day. Carol and Gail were at the dock to greet us as we returned. They prepared a great dinner that evening and we ate outside under the stars with a half moon providing light.In closing, you'll note I'm posting this blog on the Anniversary of 9/11. Please pause a moment during this day to remember the victims and their families. This day spawned a new era for all of us.