Taking It Easy

After yesterday's run in the heat, we decided to take it easier today and our aim was to ride to Sandpoint, ID, a distance of approximately 300 kilometres.  There was a real variety of people staying at the motel.  In addition to the two couples who rode in after us, there was a van load of seven Amish men and women as well.

 

Another picture of an orange H-D.

 

We didn't realize it until this morning when we saw a couple at breakfast, the man dressed in home made blue denim pants, suspenders and a white shirt, and the woman in a home made brown denim dress and a white basket/bonnet thing similar to the one Mennonite women wear near Campbell River.  I spoke to the man as I was loading my motorcycle.

 

He and six other Amish were on a seventeen day vacation to the west coast.  They were from Ohio where he was a farmer.  Their trip took them through the Badlands, Yellowstone Park, and other attractions.  Today they were going to drive through Glacier National Park into Waterton National Park in Canada, then up Highway 93 to Radium, then to Banff.  They were then going to go west to the coast then work their way back to Ohio. 

 

I asked the Amish man if the Amish drive or use modern machinery.  He said that they don't use electricity, or drive cars, trucks, or tractors.  Instead they use horses and buggies to get around and use horses and older machinery to farm and harvest crops.  Their farms are small, averaging between forty and fifty acres, but they have a problem in that their population is growing but they don't have enough farms for everyone, so many of the men become carpenters or woodworkers and are employed building Amish furniture.

 

Because they don't drive, they had hired a van and driver for the journey.  I spoke to the driver and that's what he does for a living.  His wife says he is on vacation for most of the year.

 

As is the case in any place with an H-D dealership, Jim and I had to go and check it out.  Glacier H-D is a small dealership and since we had arrived before opening we had to wait.  I noticed a sign that encouraged anyone with a 'Concealed Carry' permit to carry their guns in the dealership.  When I took a photo of it an older guy in a truck waved me over and told me that if I asked the owner would give me a copy of the sign.  I declined but we began a conversation.

 

The other guy, who was the driver owned a husky/wolf hybrid that was in the back.  The dog was big and had huge paws.  I was able to get photos of the two guys, Bill and Jim, and then a photo of Jim and his wolf-dog, Ghost.  Jim was from Cherokee, South Carolina and had all sorts of stories about how to tame a bear and how he wanted to have a tame wolverine and a domesticated mountain lion.  There wasn't a lot of truth to what he said, but he and Bill provided some real entertainment as we waited for the shop to open.

 

The 'concealed carry' notice on the H-D dealership door.

Jim (l) and Bill (r)

Jim and his wolf/dog, Ghost.

Leaving the dealership, we gassed up and headed west.  For the previous two days riding in Montana we had seen small white crosses on posts beside the highways we rode on.  I estimate that on Sunday we saw at least thirty to fifty crosses between Yellowstone Park and Bozeman, and on Monday, there were probably more between Bozeman and Kalispell.

 

Today I decided to count the crosses to see how many there actually were.  Between Kalispell and Libby, MT, I counted seventy-five crosses, with one site having seventeen crosses.  Apparently a bus carrying a wrestling team crashed there several years ago killing seventeen people.  There were other sites with three, four, and even five crosses.  Between Libby and the Idaho border, a distance of about forty kilometres, I counted an additional thirty-seven crosses, for a total of one hundred and twelve crosses in less than two hundred kilometres.

 

The ride today was a real pleasure as the highway twisted and turned through the mountains.  Interspersed between these sections were long straight sections as well.  While the speed limit was 70 mph, we cruised at about 65 and pulled over to let people pass, and with the sparse traffic, we had the highway to ourselves for most of the way.  Jim saw four deer while I spotted only one. 

 

At the entrance to Libby people have set up a memorial garden with a large metal sculpture of an eagle which is quite striking.  Libby itself is a small town which is about seventeen miles from the dam.  We opted not to make the thirty-five mile round trip to the dam because the heat was increasing and we chose not to extend our ride today.  We took a break at the Subway and spoke to several local men who explained about the white crosses to us.  Apparently the white cross tradition is done only in Montana by the American Legion.  When I passed through Montana in 1977 I first saw these crosses so the tradition has been going on for a long time.

 

The Libby, MT, eagle

 

The next stop was Bonner's Ferry, ID, a small town of about 2600 people on the Kootenai River.  As we left town we passed the local high school which had been built in 1917.  Further on we crossed the Kootenai River and passed through Bonners Ferry, ID.

The highway bridge crossing the Kootenai River, Bonners Ferry, ID

The railway bridge crossing the Kootenai River at Bonners Ferry, ID.

 

The temperature was in the 90s (F) when we arrived in Sandpoint, ID where had decided to stop for the day after a relatively leisurely 289 kilometer day.  We were able to get a room at the Days Inn and wrap up the ride for the day.  Despite meeting several interesting people this morning, we didn't have the opportunity to connect with anyone else today.  One of the highlights of this trip is having the opportunity to meet and talk with people who come from different places and backgrounds.  They all have stories and are delighted to tell them.  And I am interested in hearing them so it all works out.

Kootenai River, near Troy, MT

Kootenai River near Troy, MT

 

Tomorrow we plans on making it to Oroville, WA, and then crossing into Canada on the morning of July 4th.  The ride through western Washington State should be a really good way to spend a day and as long as it doesn't rain, we can deal with the heat.  Neither of us have ridden Highway 20 so it should be another new experience for us.  And that is the whole point of this road trip.