Day 7 - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

A change of direction today - north all the way up the western side of Idaho from Eagle to Coeur d'Alene. It's been a day of mountains, rivers and lakes, very beautiful! My kids would, I am sure, have predicted some of my routes, as they suffered through years of such holidays! If there's a mountain, I kinda have to go up it, specially if the road is narrow, twisty and right on the edge ... something about wanting to know what's around the next corner!
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Having said 'north', you would never know it in the car I am driving; it has a built-in electronic compass, but for some reason it won't display N - it goes W, NW, NE, E, SE, S, SW ... sometimes when executing a 90-degree turn from West to North, the display reads W - NW - SE. Very bizarre. However, I have been fortunate enough to be able to rely on the sun rather than the electronics!
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From Eagle, the landscape is hilly and bare, but the hills are crumpled and folded, rather like a shar-pei dog; the road twists and turns but eventually emerges into open grassland, with a few cattle dotted here and there. Then back to the hills, but alongside the river, climbing and twisting through pine forests and by lakes. It's interesting to be travelling at this time of year - all the summer holidaymakers have gone home but the snow and the skiers are not here yet, so it's very quiet. For much of today I seem to have been the only car on the road. The autumn foliage is gorgeous, lots of red and gold here, often in vertical lines down the folds of the hills, where the deciduous trees can find water. There are some interesting canyons too, narrow rocky defiles with white water rushing and roaring below; particularly worth seeing is the stretch of the Salmon River near Riggins - grand and desolate.
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Took a little diversion to see Nez Perce - a pretty little town miles from anywhere, but within the Nez Perce reservation; from there ID-64 is signposted to Kamiah - but at the top of the mountain the road suddenly degrades to gravel, and clings precariously to the side of the mountain for 5 miles down with no crash barriers! It's worth it for this view from the top, though! Kamiah is down in the valley, and from here all the way to Coeur d'Alene is logging country. All the roads are 'scenic byways', mostly running along beside rivers and lakes (the 'White Pine Drive'), and well worth the trip. I seem to have been following another large piece of the Lewis & Clark trail again today, though without having planned it! See here for a really good map.
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Tonight at the Holiday Inn Express (reward points again!) - arrived to find a kids' birthday pool party in full swing in the restaurant, but had been upgraded to a King Suite. Ours not to reason why, ours to enjoy, so I am at this moment sitting on a very comfortable couch with free wireless internet watching HBO on the flat-screen TV ...
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And I still haven't seen any potatoes! Probably because they mostly grow in the east of the state, and also because they will mostly have been harvested before the frosts set in ...
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Funny signs of the day - 2 today!
1 - Never try to drown your sorrows if she can't swim (seen on a store sign just south of McCall)
2 - Please unload gun and remove ski mask before entering (seen on gas station door at Rose Lake)