Tammy arrived just before 12:30 pm Spokane time. As that is Pacific time that gave me an extra hour to get her. Or something like that.
During the drive I stopped to take a photo of a sunflower growing in the ditch along a highway outside of Hot Springs, MT. Unfortunately I had my car's sun visor turned to the side to block the morning sun to the east. My car has automatic seat belts and as I opened the car door to get outside the seat belt's moving attachment came against the visor and broke it off. Plastic. Bah.
This is a $20 photo as that was what it cost me to replace my visor.
After I picked up Tammy we stopped at Spokane's Riverfront Park for a visit.
As the park is downtown Spokane parking is at a premium. I found a spot on the street. I had some coins for the parking meter but only for a short time. I asked a parking lot attendant for change for a dollar but he only had bills and no change. He did give me some pocket change, and combined with my and Tammy's coins, we had enough money for 50 minutes.
The park was nice. Lots of greenery and shade trees.
The falls were nice, but after seeing all the falls in Glacier Park, these were underwhelming.
The pavilion structure from the 1974 World's Fair was still there and looked interesting, but upon a closer look it looked shabby.
There is a carousel that looked fun if you were a kid or had kids.
The same for a large wagon.
Welcome to the big city. Crime must be problem.
Also another big city feature. Odd art.
After wandering around the park we walked a bit downtown. Typical big city tall buildings with not too much to see.
A street musician was playing the the blues as we walked by. The harmonica is amplified on that little speaker. I like the Blues. Tammy doesn't. We kept on moving. Besides, I didn't have any change left to give him.
There really wasn't much else that interested us and we left Spokane. Before doing so we looked for a souvenir magnet as Tammy collects them from places she has visited and this was her first visit to Washington State. Finding a magnet was a chore. We couldn't find any gift or souvenir shops. We tried a gas station or two and they referred us to a grocery store who referred us to a drug store who referred us to a dollar store who referred us to Walmart. Yes, that's right. Good old Walmart. To get a local souvenir we had to go to Walmart. Granted their selection wasn't much but at least they had something.
We must have spent over an hour looking for the magnet and drove a number of miles. Did I mention the temperature under the clear sky was 98 degrees according to one sign we drove past? Oh, and that my car's air conditioning didn't work? And with all the traffic and multiple lanes and strip malls and box stores I was more than ready to leave Spokane and Washington State.
With the hot weather I got interested in having a Dairy Queen blizzard but the DQs were always at interstate exits we didn't go on or couldn't get to in time due to the traffic. Frustrating.
As we drove out of Spokane and the short distance out of Washington State we noticed a number of odd looking water towers. They looked to have little water tanks on large legs.
Our next stop was Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
We drove downtown and our first stop was at the visitor information center. We discovered that pretty much what there was to do was look at the lake.
Downtown looked nice but after 5 pm on a Friday it was very quiet. We walked along the lake downtown and on the world's longest floating boardwalk. Or so they say.
We found a gift store store (where's Walmart when you need it?
) that sold magnets and Tammy got one from Idaho to add to her collection. At least we didn't have to search as hard for a magnet this time.After a drive along the lake to a dead end...
Oh! There's the interstate highway we need!
...we then found the interstate highway entrance and were on our way home.
The speed limit on the Idaho and Montana interstate highways were usually 70 and 75 mph. Being a flat-lander and from Minnesota Tammy wasn't used to these speeds and on winding mountain roads. ("What? Are we in a race?") My car door's inside handle got lots of use from Tammy holding on to it throughout the mountains. Her arms also got a good workout.
If my car didn't have bucket seats we would have been practicing COHD (Come Over Here Dear!).
Yes... I used my brakes.
That is part of the reason I had to take my car in to get a brake job yesterday.Lookout Pass is on the Montana and Idaho border.
When I drove to get Tammy I noticed how warm it got once I crossed Lookout Pass into Idaho. Going the other way we noticed a noticeable - and much appreciated - difference when it got cooler once we crossed back into Montana.This photo was taken along the Clark Fork River in Montana once we left the interstate highway. This a route I keep telling my uncles in Washington to use when they come to visit me. They never do. They never listen to me.
Rick being the latest Uncle to ignore my directions (although he did write them down - he showed me.)
A deer sauntered across the highway right in front of my car unconcerned that vehicles were barreling towards it at 70 mph. It sure gave us a fright.
We saw the sun set in Montana and it was plenty dark by the time we arrived home a few hours later.
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