Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Here we are just after arrival late in the day in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho at Blackwell Island RV Park. The slide is out and hookups are connected. Now begins the interior setup for the month, and then as soon as weather permits, setup and launch of sailboat at the Park boat launch just across the main road from the Park.

Here we are all set up after a couple days at Blackwell Island RV Park in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. That is our Windseeker coach center in the shot with the little silver Tracker parked just behind it and our sailboat at the far left. The little patches of blue just over the top of the coach are the Spokane River visible through the trees.

This is the downtown Coeur d'Alene resort lakefront hotel marina and beach in front of the big resort hotel, located just about 1.5 miles from Blackwell Island RV Park. That is Libby walking down the promenade with the two westies, and that is a seaplane over to the right out on the water, just returning from a tourist flight above the lake.

A bit of zoom on the same angle... this time with a classic mahogany wood water taxi just turning into the hotel marina. These water taxis run all day during the season and transport people from one point to another on the north end of the lake. It may only be a mile or two or three across the lake and it could be 12 miles around the shoreline

Here's another shot of the downtown park... a nice treed park with a promenade all along the beach and some nice water features like the one in the foreground in this shot with some reflecting pools above and and cascading waterfall that flows down into the lake. Kids enjoy playing in this mini water park. That is once again Libby and westies standing up adjacent to the flagpole.

A shot from the far end of the downtown beach looking back towards the resort hotel and marina. Water temps are a bit chilly here in mid June because of all the water flowing into the lake with the cool wet weather. However, Lake Coeur d'Alene's temperature typically peaks in July and August with temperatures around 77 degrees Fahrenheit, making for very pleasant swimming.

A charming home across from the downtown park with an absolutely beautiful tree in front. This is a very lovely neighborhood and is adjacent to the park on one end and North Idaho College on the other. Nice place to go to school, if you don't mind the cold winters.

Here we are on June 15 sailing on beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene. The weather was perfect... the winds were a bit on the light side but pretty steady for several hours in the afternoon, so we had a very pleasant cruise... only sailboat on the lake and very few powerboats... hard to figure on a perfect late Friday afternoon, the first day this nice in weeks. Note our new Garmin GPS 740s Chartplotter on the bulkhead. What a wonderful piece of electronics that is. That is Arrow Point over in the distance. We have stayed at the Worldmark Club there several times in years past before we had our motorhome. Nice spot, but they don't allow dogs and have no moorings for sailboats, so Blackwell Island suits us much much better.

Another shot sailing same day... this time off the port side, looking over towards a different hillside. That is one of the large dinner cruise boats off the port side at about 10 o'clock cruising past some of the large waterfront homes at lakeside.

Here's Libby and Corey, same lovely afternoon, sitting in the cockpit of our beautiful Catalina 22 sailboat with the Coeur d'Alene resort and downtown beachfront in the background. Note the one little lonesome cloud against the deep azure sky... a welcome change from the overcast skies and rain we have had so much of this month.

Lest you think we have gone off the deep end and are out of our minds driving around in such a large overstated vehicle, I thought I would just include a few shots of just some of the many other mega rigs at Blackwell Island RV Park where we stayed for the month of June. This is 45' Newmar super coach, tag axle, diesel pusher with 4 slide outs. This ultra coach makes ours look truly modest by comparison.

Just across the way you can see a lineup of Super Coaches... that's a 40' luxury coach in the foreground, while the one behind in a lighter color is a 45' tandem axle Monaco. and right down the row, each of these gorgeous motorhomes is equally impressive. 45' is, by the way, the maximum length vehicle (not including trailer) which is allowed on the roads without special permits.

This is a 43' Tiffin Allegro Bus tag axle... 425 HP Diesel Pusher with 4 slideouts. Cost probably close to $300K. This is a strikingly beautiful coach with an interior fit and finish to match. Someday I intend to own a coach like this! [ED: we bought a 2010 Allegro Bus like this on 4/27/14]

Right next door is a 45' Country Coach tandem axle Diesel Pusher also with 4 slides and every conceivable option, which retailed new for almost half a million bucks, making it one of the premier motorcoaches on the road. Again it makes our humble Bounty Hunter just behind it look very modest indeed. If we should decide to upgrade to a luxury motorhome, County Coach would probably be our top choice.

If we ever decide to move to a non-toyhauler luxury coach, this might be another prime contender... a Tiffin Phaeton. 40' Cummins Diesel pusher on a Freightliner chassis. With 4 slides and every amenity these are truly gorgeous coaches for a relatively reasonable price.

This eye popper is really something... this is a seven hundred thousand dollar Newmar Coach... 45' long, 600 HP Cummins Diesel, towing a 30' custom trailer which houses the guy's Corvette and his 1800 HP dragster. It carrries the race car on top and also has room for a golf cart and a workshop. This sort of expands the mind a bit as to what you can do if money is no object!

And if money is no object, the Rolls Royce of the RV world these days is the incomparable Prevost Bus by Marathon Coach, headquartered in Coburg, Oregon... 45' of top-of-the-line features... custom built in a variety of floorplans available with 1-4 slides, 4 roof mounted A/C units, 20KW generator, and a 14L 515 HP Detroit Diesel. Be prepared to shell out in excess of a million bucks.

Here are some exceptionally nice folks we met at Blackwell Island... Bill and Ginny from Scottsdale, AZ, traveling in their ultra deluxe Country Coach Magna 45'. One of the nicest coaches we have been inside of and befitting of these nice folks. We took them sailing one day and went geocaching with them on another. We hooked up for dinner and met up with them subsequently at Flathead Lake where they were staying at a nearby RV Park to ours. Proof once again you really do meet some of the nicest folks RV'ing. We plan to visit them in Scottsdale next winter on our way south to Texas. Look closely at the photo... can you tell who is the Oregonian and who are the Arizonans? LOL!

Here we are on a morning bike ride around Blackwell Island RV Park with Corey riding in my milk crate. Libby used to take Gracie in hers, but as Gracie is now over 13, she doesn't much enjoy it anymore. Corey loves it on the other hand and is becoming a seasoned sailor.

Libby on her bicycle alongside a cute bronze statue in the middle of a nice city park along the Spokane River in Coeur d'Alene.

Another shot along the downtown Coeur d'Alene beachfront with an interesting "water trike" pedaling along the lake with the CDA resort in the background.

We have added a few enhancements to our little Chevy Tracker. Badges all the way around, recovered front seats, tinted windows, tinted air deflectors on the front windows, and a custom roof rack on the removable front panel giving a longer span between front and rear racks so we can carry our kayak on top.

Libby and I with our Hobie pedal kayak at Liberty Lake, a pleasant little lake about 15 minutes from our RV resort in Coeur d'Alene. We pedaled half way around the lake and then back again... probably a couple miles. We stayed close to shore because we forgot to bring PFD's and were afraid we might get a ticket out there. There's a very nice county park there at the lake and a lot of parents take their kids down there to the beach.

Corey and Gracie at their little swimming beach in Blackwell Island RV resort, just across from our campsite. We take them over there almost every day, weather permitting. This is where Corey got in trouble beginning of the week and swallowed a fish hook... scared us half to death!

Flathead Lake, Montana

We drove down Highway 90 across the panhandle of Idaho through the Coeur d'Alene National Forest and into Montana. Mountainous and very green with dense pine forests, this is a beautiful drive as it follows a very scenic river most of the way. Here we are stopped at the first rest area inside Montana. It was a required stop for a parks and wildlife department inspection of our boat, Montana's effort to keep out invasive species like Eurasian milfoil and zebra mussels.

As I described in the blog, we drove over to Flathead Lake today, July 5, and came through the Coeur d'Alene National Forest and the Lolo National Forest. As we descended from the surrounding mountains on Highway 28, this was the view of the spectacular Flathead Lake that we were gifted with. What more can I say? Truly spectacular.

Just a few miles up highway 93 along the west shore of Flathead Lake is the little town of Rollins, the home of Sandy Johnson's Big Sky RV Resort. Nestled in the pines this charming little RV park has its own little marina, and a tasty little "eatery" home of the 3/4 lb Johnson Burger. Guess what I had for dinner? They advertise bison burgers as well, so I am gonna have to try one of those another time soon.

After we unhitched the boat, removed the bikes and bike rack and lowered the ramp door, we rolled the Tracker out of the garage and drove up the hill to our campsite. We backed in, set the leveling jacks and proceeded to settle in.

This photo gives a good idea of the view of the lake out our front window through the pines. I look forward to my morning coffee, tilted back comfortably in my recliner with a westie at my side gazing out at this beautiful lake.

It was a long day and some of us were just 'dog-tired' after all the travel and all the sights and smells of new locales. Corey decided he would retire early and catch some ZZZ's.

After one day in Big Sky RV Park, we decided it was unfortunately just not up to our standards... and it was also too remote... Polson at the south end of the lake is a charming town with various RV options and we decided we would be better off down there and just ten miles from a nice little marina we found on Big Arm Bay. So after two nights, we moved down to Flathead RV Park on Saturday, and we are much happier here. Not as wooded certainly, but easy satellite dish accessibility, excellent cell phone coverage and very good 3G Verizon wifi coverage (.89 mbps downstream) as well. Plus there is a lot more to do in Polson... certainly not so in Rollins.

The town of Polson, Montana lies in a very picturesque location at the foot of Flathead Lake nestled against an impressive mountain range to the east, part of the Flathead National Forest. The town sits just an hour from Missoula, Montana, a well known university town.

We found a terrific little marina called Sunny Shores about 12 miles up the Hwy 93 along the west shore of the Lake. It is right across Big Arm Bay from the Big Arm State Park where they have an excellent boat launch. The little bay is just south of Wild Horse Island which has reputedly the best sailing spot on the lake. Sunny Shores is a very quiet tucked away little marina with perhaps 30 slips... nice wood docks and nice grassy shady shoreline for hanging out between sailing sessions. We have already met a couple other sailors among the half dozen other sailboats at the marina, and they welcomed us heartily. We launched today across the bay and I motored across to Sunny Shores Marina (pictured at left) while Libby drove the car and trailer around to meet me. As soon as the high pressure moves out, we look forward to some excellent sailing.

Here's another shot of our boat securely moored in Sunny Shores Marina with the wide expanse of Big Arm Bay laying out in front of the dock all the way out to Wildhorse Island, about 5 miles out. Flathead Lake itself actually extends another 10 miles across on the other side of Wildhorse Island. This is one massive lake.

Same angle of our boat in Sunny Shores Marina showing the line up of half a dozen other sailboats moored here. We have met several of the sailors already... Nice folks one and all.

Well summer is still being elusive on occasion. We had a gorgeous day on Tuesday, July 10, high in the upper 80's, and then that night a thunderstorm came out of nowhere and pelted our coach with hail. In mid July! Good grief! Montana has some seriously changeable weather! That is a small handfull of hail pellets I picked up off the grass.

On Saturday, T-storms were forecast and we already had several days of really excellent sailing this week, so we decided to go on a little adventure and headed down to the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge, run by the US Parks and Wildlife, south of Flathead about half an hour's drive. As we left the basin by the lake the weather became only partly cloudy with lots of sunshine, so we had a nice leisurely visit to the Range. At the left is a photo of the entrance. My "America the Beautiful" seniors card gets us both in all these places for free. There are some advantages to being an oldster!

As we drove the 19 mile loop through the park, we saw a number of wildlife including bison, pronghorn antelope, elk and a brown bear. This majestic fellow had drawn the short straw for the day, I guess, and was sitting right along side the gravel road so we drove up and snapped a few photos. There's a herd of 350-500 bison on the range here, managed by the US Dept of Parks and Wildlife. These brutes can weigh as much as 2000 pounds and are quite formidable looking. I used my telephoto lens to capture this photo... I am not brave enough to get this close!

There are herds of pronghorns in the preserve. This is a young proghorn.... friendly little fellow, and not nearly as formidable as the bison. We learned something. As opposed to horns which are different, animals with antlers shed them each year and grow new ones... so this little fellow has little nubs as he is growing this year's antlers.

This old fellow let me stand up real close for a photo. Well yeah... he's pretty mellow after his visit to the taxidermist. He's probably filling those bags of bison jerky in the gift store, poor guy!

After a visit to the bison range we stopped at the visitor center where I started feeling kinda horny for some reason. Libby told me to behave myself and snapped this photo for the scrapbook. OK... I stand corrected, those are antlers which are shed each year... and not horns.

Here we are sailing on a perfect mid July day, temperature about 80 degrees and a 10 mph wind blowing as we cruise effortlessly across Big Arm Bay on Flathead Lake. Those are some Gorge-like bluffs in the distance. The screnery is quite spectacular around this lake.

Here we are cruising out towards WildHorse Island which lies about 5 miles off our marina which sits at the inside of Big Arm Bay on the west shore of Flathead. The purple mountain range in the distance is out beyond the east side of the main lake which is another 10 miles wide outside Wildhorse. That's another sailboat a couple thousand yards off our starboard bow.

Here we are chasing another sailboat about 4.5 miles out from the marina with WildHorse Island looming beyond. We are cruising at about 5.5 mph and gaining on him. These shots were taken on a Wednesday afternoon, July 18... another picture perfect day on the lake. We saw maybe 10 sailboats out on this part of the lake as we sailed out and around Melita Island just south of WildHorse Island.

Here we have sailed out thru the channel between WildHorse Island and Melita Island and come around the back side. Melita Island is a boy scout camp and a beautiful little island. The scouts were having a ball sailing, swimming, kayaking, and what not out of their nice little marina on the south side of the island.

There are a lot of nice homes dotted around this enormous lake. Here are a couple beauties just across from Melita Island. Prices for something like this up here are probably in the two million dollar range or more.

Here's my very capable first mate gazing out across the lake as we round Melita Island and sail back into Big Arm Bay. Winds were a little light on the back side of the island but picked up again nicely as we sailed back through the channel.

Here's your humble blogger and ship's captain at the helm of the Anne Marie as we cruise around the back side of Melita Island which is visble at the left of the photo. It is truly a privilege to be here a month and get so many terrific sailing days on this spectacular lake.

Since I seem to be spending a lot of time on the computer while traveling in the RV, researching lakes, weather, RV parks, and so on, and the concept of luxury RVing seems to be "comfort any any cost", I am thinking about having one of these installed in our coach. Looks like a great setup to work out those 'complex issues' that sometimes arise in my business. ( G ) The only thing I might have them add would be a reclining seat back and a foot rest.

Friday, July 21, thunderstorms were threatening the whole lake again, so we decided to take a day off from sailing and drive up the east side of the lake to Big Fork, a popular little resort town. We managed to avoid most of the thunderstorm activity and had a nice afternoon. Big Fork is a charming town full of art galleries, nice little restaurants, boutiques and the like. It is also home to the best summer theater in the area with a full schedule of summer musicals. We had the dogs with us so we were not in a position to go to the theater but enjoyed walking about the town.

Here is one of the charming galleries of Big Fork, housed in a very picturesque building in the downtown area. There are some exceptional artists and sculptors resident in this area.

Here is a fine bronze sculpture outside one of the galleries. It reminded me of photos I have seen of Libby as a young girl. If we were super-rich, I would buy it and make it hood ornament on the RV... but instead she simply agreed to pose for the photo. I am sure her dad, Frosty, would enjoy it.

What would a summer afternoon stroll around a resort town be without an ice cream cone? The dogs were definitely in favor of the stop. This quaint little ice cream shop was highly reminiscent of Mike's Ice Cream in the town of Hood River Oregon, where the whole family has added a few inches to their waistlines over the years.

We also stopped by Averill's Flathead Lake Lodge and Dude Ranch just outside of downtown Big Fork. This shot is from their website. This family resort has been in business since the 40's and is the kind of place families return year after year for the horse back riding, boating and delightful grounds and lodge accommodations. Wealthy families, that is. A week at this prime resort will cost you upwards of $3000 per person double occupancy, all inclusive. A little rich for our blood but fun to see and walk about.

Here's Libby on the grounds of Averill's Flathead Lake Lodge and Dude Ranch, standing by one of their "limos", an old stretch Checker with the Montana license plate Dude 1.

We couldn't resist stopping for this shot... Corey earned his nickname Captain Hook earlier this summer at Lake Coeur d'Alene when he practically gave us heart attacks by swallowing a fishhook. Fortunately, as you can read in our blog, he coughed it up just as we arrived at the vet. Whew!

Some new RV friends we met at the Flathead River Resort... Herb and Diane Krieger, from New York. First couple we have met also driving a motorized toyhauler. Theirs is a Newmar... it has a 10' garage at the rear and so one of their only options was a Smart Car. Cute little yellow convertible! But of course useless in our situation, as we need a beefy little 4WD with low range to pull and launch our boat. We all had dinner together at Riccardi's Italian restaurant in Polson which we would give 4 thumbs up!

Glacier National Park, Montana

On Saturday July 28 the weather was magnificent and we headed towards Glacier National Park about an hour or so north of Flathead Lake. We drove to the resort town of Whitefish in the Tracker where we spent the night. Sunday morning we picked up our rental car, a new Subaru Outback, which we figured was a better choice for all the climbing through the park.

We climbed all the way up to Logan's Pass (6646 ft) on the "Going to the Sun Road" thru Glacier National Park. The park has many spectacular views and it is difficult to pick the single iconic shot, but this one would be my choice half way down the other side to Saint Mary at the East Entrance to the park. That is Saint Mary's Lake with Wild Goose Island in the middle and the Glacier covered peaks in the background. Truly a 'Kodak Moment'. Here is a hi-res 1600x1083 image if you would like a copy for your computer desktop.

I took a lot of photos in Glacier National Park... some came out better than others. It's very difficult to capture the magnificence of this kind of place with snapshots, but what follows are a few of my humble attempts.

Here's a third attempt to capture the wonders of creation in 1's and zeros. These majestic rocks walls are basalt rock, like our beloved Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, carved out by the glaciers millions of years ago.

Here's Libby posing on a rock wall on the drive up to Logan's Pass in the center of Glacier National Park. Those look like shadows on the forest behind her, but notice there were no clouds. The light colored areas are sections of the forest burned in one of the more recent forest fires, started by lightning strikes.

Here I am at a different point right near Logan's Pass. We spotted several mountain goats on the rock ledges above the road in this area. Below is one of them...

My telephoto capabilities are prettty limited but you can tell this is a shaggy mountain goat resting on a ledge a few hundred feet above the road.

More glacier spotted peaks, this time as a backdrop to the Logan's Pass Visitor's Center. The glaciers have been receding at an alarming rate and the current projections have them completely gone by 2030.

This is another particularly photogenic peak in beautiful Glacier National Park

Taken through the windshield just driving down the "Going to the Sun Road".

Another majestic basalt peak. "For purple mountains' majesty...."

Taken out the side window while slowing in the middle of the narrow winding road.

What would glaciers melting in the hot July sun be without waterfalls... they are everywhere in Glacier National Park. This is a particularly photogenic one right alongside the road.

Another waterfall near the summit of Logan's Pass in spectacular Glacier National Park.

This one of Glacier's 33 red "Jammer" tour buses, originally built in the late 30's and restored in the last decade by Ford on newer chassis and transmissions to run on propane.

Another shot of Saint Mary's Lake near the east entrance to Glacier National Park.

And a final shot, through the trees, of a glacial peak in the magnificent Glacier National Park. A good time was had by all!

Well it was a long weekend of touring... we covered close to 300 miles on our trip up to Whitefish and Glacier National Park. Corey was just exhausted and since I was hogging the recliner to write up this blog, he had to make do, with the sofa!

Kelowna B.C., Canada

The charming waterfront through the entire length of downtown Kelowna along the shore of Lake Okanagan. Marinas, restaurants, and tour boats all line the esplanade, a popular spot for tourists and residents alike.

Another shot along the water front with one of the marinas in the background where we will keep our sailboat for the week. This gorgeous lake is 84 miles long with a max width of about 3 miles, and covers 137 square miles. We hope to be out sailing on it tomorrow, Monday.

A shot of the reflecting pools outside the Hotel Eldorado resort in downtown Kelowna with Lake Okanagan in the background.

Here we are at our park site at Canyon Farms RV Park just outside Kelowna B.C. This charming park run by Lesley Reid and her husband sits well outside downtown, about 15 minutes from the lake front beaches and esplanade. It is a clean quiet well-managed small park with space for about 10 RVs, a perfect spot from which to visit Kelowna and environs.

Here we are sailing on Okanagan Lake on a breezy afternoon headed toward the Eldorado Hotel Marina where we have our boat moored for the week.

This morning, Thursday, I took Corey and went with my friend Haim and his two young boys up to Myra Canyon and the rails to trails project along the former Kettle Valley Railway which is now maintained as a popular bicycling and hiking trail across numerous RR trestles and gravel path ways thru the steep sided Myra Canyon just outside Kelowna. Here's a photo of Haim and I on one of the trestles with Kelowna and Okanagan Lake in the background.

Another photo of Haim with his two boys likewise with Kelowna and Okanagan Lake in the background.

Here are the two boys, Arie and Benjie riding their bicycles across one of the trestles.

Corey enjoyed the walk through Myra Canyon, but it was a bit warm in the sunshine for fuzzy little dogs with short legs, so he was glad to get back to the air conditioned RV. Sister Gracie was snoozing in my recliner, but she took pity on the little guy and made room for poor Corey (right).

Back in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

This fall, we sold the Gulf Stream Bounty Hunter and purchased a flawless 2008 Country Coach Inspire 360 43' Founders Edition. On the new Windseeker homepage, I have explained in some detail the rationale behind this move and how this affects our future plans for the better. But simply put this magnificent coach is an irresistible blend of pure rolling art and mechanical marvel, a luxury home on wheels. We hope to take a few brief shakedown cruises this fall before we head for Texas in it after the first of the year... I will post more photos as we do.

Shortly after purchase, we took a 3 day trip over to the Oregon Coast, a few hours away. We stayed at an RV park in Waldport and it was mostly cloudy and cool on the weekend but cleared on Monday and turned into a beautiful day for our trip home. We pulled out of the park around 11 am and headed back up the coast and stopped in nearby Depoe Bay, a charming town with a great promenade along the sea wall with the waves crashing on the rocks below. At the left is a shot of our mega coach with the Pacific Ocean as a picturesque backdrop at a turnout just north of Depoe Bay.

Our Canadian RV friends Ken and Susan Henke from Calgary whom we met in Coeur d'Alene this past summer, were headed down through Washington and Oregon on their way to California for a fall vacation. They stopped through Portland for a day, had dinner with us at our home in Lake Oswego, and we all went to our local Lake Oswego Community theater production of South Pacific which was absolutely brilliant. Stephanie K. Leppert as Nellie Forbush had true star quality and I will be watching to see her name in lights one of these days. We hope to see Ken and Susan again in the winter time in Texas.

We got a little break in the rainy Oregon fall weather and decided to do another shakedown cruise in the coach. I had a few more questions for the folks at Country Coach so we picked the Riverbend RV Park in Harrisburg, right near Junction City. We reserved two nights but wound up staying four. We had been discussing the idea of upgrading our Lincoln SUV to a flat-towable SUV... and the Chevy Suburban was our top choice. I explained the rationale on the Windseeker homepage, but after shopping around the Eugene area and looking online at a whole lot more, we found a top-of-the-line Chevrolet Suburban 4x4 LTZ and bought it. We still had nice weather on Saturday so we stayed one more night and headed over to the charming town of Florence on the Oregon coast for the day. On the way back we hit some sun showers and captured this beautiful photo of the new 'dinghy' at the left.

Here we are at the Northwest Country Coachers Thanksgiving Rally at Portland's beautiful Fairview RV Park. We joined 8 other couples for the event and all the coaches were lined up in one area. Everyone contributed delicious dishes and we cooked a 24 pound turkey in the Clubhouse oven while we all toasted the holidays and then ate all the turkey and stuffing we could manage. The weather was traditional Portland in late fall.... rain, rain and more rain. Here's a photo taken during one of the rain breaks.

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