Wednesday, June 27, through Wednesday, July 4, 2012:  Back to the States:
Wednesday morning, we stopped in Cranbrook (20 miles from Kimberley) to get our wheel situation straightened out,

and then headed for Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 170 miles away.  Our adventure in Canada had ended for the time being. (We’ll be back in a few weeks.)

The trip to Coeur d'Alene was very nice (Read:  No rain) and uneventful---except that our china cabinet doors flipped opened during the drive, and most of our china ended up on the floor in millions of pieces.  Some of it has been with us for more than 25 years.  Oh, well, this had already been an expensive week, anyway. 

We are staying at the Blackwell Island RV Resort, a beautiful facility, right on the Spokane River---about 200 yards from the place where the river joins the lake. 

We went to the local Goodwill store in the afternoon, and picked up enough used china to replace the broken stuff, and walked out for less than $7.00. When you’re on the road, you don’t need fancy stuff.

Tonight we are going to celebrate my 74th birthday by having dinner at a restaurant called "Bistro on Spruce" (recommended by Becky's cousin Bill, who lives here).

Dinner at Bistro on Spruce (which is actually on 4th Street) was terrific. Thank you, Bill.  Great selection.  Bill is a member of their wine club, where he stores his own wines for use when he dines there.  He had called them earlier today to authorize them to give us wine from his stash. 

When we got there, we were presented with a list of his wines---three pages of them!!!  We selected a Ridge-Lytton Petite Sirah from the Ridge Winery in Healdsburg (Sonoma County), California.  Delicious. The food selections (Top Sirloin, Seared Ahi, French Onion soup, and Calamari) were wonderful.  I topped off my birthday dinner with a blast from the past:  My mother used to make me Angel Food cake on my birthday every year.  I hadn’t had it in at least 40 years.  (I don’t think I have even seen it on a menu during that time, either.)

Thursday was a typical day of minor maintenance tasks, grocery shopping, going to the post office, etc.  We experienced the inconvenience of having to buy liquor---though not wine---at a state liquor store (an annoyance in Idaho) instead of at the supermarket.  How rude!

This RV park is full of flags in anticipation of the 4th of July, so I put one of ours out to join in the celebration---even though we’ll be out of here before the 4th.

Friday afternoon, we took a sightseeing walk through the central part of Coeur d'Alene, along the lakefront.

There are some very pretty spots there, including some nice parks, some beautiful homes, upscale stores, and trendy restaurants.  We had Ramsey with us, and he interacted with the locals quite nicely.  He's getting quite socialized.

Friday evening, Becky watched The Artist. I didn’t bother, because I had heard it was bad.  The fact that it won the Oscar for best picture was simply Hollywood revealing its provinciality.  After suffering through it, Becky agreed.  We had dinner from the local Panda Express.  It was good, as usual.

Saturday morning we went across the street from our RV park to visit the BLM recreational area there.

It has beautiful picnic areas, a nice boat launching area, and a sizeable wetlands area.  Ramsey found all kinds of new things to smell.

That evening, we went to the terrific lakeside home of Vicki Martin and Preston Johnson,

some Los Angeles friends of Barbara Coad we‘ve met several times before, who have a second home in Coeur d’Alene. Vicki had a bad cold, so we couldn‘t party too hard, but we had a great time, nonetheless.  Fun people.

The big event on Sunday was getting our RV washed professionally for the first time.  It stopped raining just long enough to finish the job.  It looks great.

Early Monday morning, by pre-arrangement, a repairman showed up to try to solve our slideout problem.  After exhausting a number of possible solutions, he discovered that the sole cause was a blown fuse.   I had earlier tested the fuse, but it turned out the fuses were mis-marked; the one that actually was for the slideouts was marked “Pump/Hood.”  Damn!  I wish manufacturers were more careful with these things.

We left Coeur d’Alene at 9:30AM and headed for Clarkston, Washington---118 miles away.  Everything went swimmingly until we had a blowout in one of our RV tires, only 10 miles from our destination.  We called one of our two emergency repair people, and a nice man named Tom (who had brought his son to work with him) showed up to help. 

An hour later, we were on our way again.

We are staying at the Hells Canyon Resort, adjacent to the Snake River. We were here last year. It’s a very nice park, and we have an excellent site.

Late Monday, Becky's cousin Bill Boggs stopped by on his way home (Coeur d'Alene) from attending the Olympic Track & Field trials in Eugene, Oregon.  He's a big fan.  He had already driven 500 miles from Eugene on Monday by the time he got here, and had another 115 to go.  He was exhausted.  We fed him some shrimp and sent him on his way.

The big effort on Tuesday was making a Costco run.  The place was mobbed.  We're saving the Walmart excursion for Wednesday (the 4th) when we figured everyone will be home eating hamburgers.

I put out one of our flags on Tuesday in anticipation of the coming holiday.  But the wind was so strong and persistent that I had to take down the flag before it got torn apart. 

It turned out that the wind disappeared on Wednesday, and I resurrected the flag.  Hooray!  Much of the day was spent with Becky packing for her reunion trip to McCall, Idaho, to spend with three of her high school buddies.  That night, being the 4th, there were some local fireworks that scared Ramsey.