Spokane, Here We Come!

We found a fairly reasonable price on a flight to Spokane and we said "let's do it"!  Not knowing when Tom may go back to work we thought we should travel while we can! 

It was great to see Tim and Kathy in their home in Spokane.

I admire the closeness that Tom has with his brother Tim.  I know their time together is always special. 

Also Tom's niece Megan, and her husband Austen and their two boys, Nelson and Henry who also live in Spokane.  They all made our time there memorable.

Tim took Tom and me on long walks each morning showing us all the trails that are near to them and along beautiful neighborhood streets and into local parks.

One of our favorites was hiking in the Dishman Hills Conservation Area from the Stevens Creek Trailhead.

 We followed the trail ever higher until we came out on top to a wonderful view of the valley below.  

                                                      What a treat!

 Austen and Megan and their two sons, Nelson and Henry, took us on an awesome bike ride on the Hiawatha Trail.

They went to a lot of trouble to make this day special for us.  The Hiawatha Trail begins just across the Idaho/Montana state border in Montana and travels along the old railroad bed for twenty miles into Idaho.  What a spectacular trail it is with many tunnels, many high trestles across deep canyons, and awesome scenery everywhere you look!

What an organized, detail oriented couple Megan and Austen are to plan this wonderful outing. Each of them pull a child carrier behind their bikes but the boys each have a walking bike (no pedals, foot powered) enabling them to walk their bikes or ride in the carrier. 

Well what a way to start this ride but with a mile long very dark and cold and wet tunnel that we had to utilize our bike lights to be able to navigate through!  I was terrified!  My bike light was shining up in the air, not out in front of me where I needed it to shine and I could hear water dripping and running in the troughs running along each side of the dark tunnel.  I just kept peddling and praying, trying to keep my eyes trained on the bike ahead of me that I could barely see!

 

 
Yay! I made it out the other end and there was this gorgeous waterfall. 

Our fun group pedaled onward. 

Tunnel after tunnel! 

Lots of signs along the path describing the history of the rail line that used to run on this same path that we were riding on. 

Spectacular views around every bend! 

Fun pedaling across these long trestles which crossed the deep canyons. 

 

Nelson and Henry were fearless on their little walking bikes! 

 

 

Lucky kids getting a ride in the carriers later in the day.  

Yay!  We made it to the end.  Almost. 

 
Now our bikes are loaded onto this bus and then we board this bus for the ride back to "almost" where we started. 

Nelson and Henry are enthralled by the chipmonks running on the rocks. 

 

Well the bus took us all the way back to the end of the mile long tunnel, unloaded our bikes and then we had to ride back thru that dark wet cold mile long tunnel to get back to the parking lot where our vehicle was parked.  Believe it or not I enjoyed the trip back through because this time I got my bike light adjusted right and I could see where I was going! 

 

What an enjoyable day this has been with Megan and her family and Tim!

 

The following day Megan and Austen took Tim, Tom, and me on a rafting/canoe trip on the Spokane River.  I have no photos to show since my camera is not waterproof and we were to carry only the bare essentials since we had to walk/carry it all down to the river.  But what an epic trip it was!  Once again Austen and Megan planned a fun time!  This time on the river!  What a fantastic adventure!

 

 

 

AUGUST 2017

I have vowed to stay current on this blog going forward!  Weeks or months afterward, it is too hard for me to remember details from some of our adventures.  It would help if I would journal each day like I did while hiking the Appalachian Trail.  On that hike I made the effort at the end of each day to write about my day and even then I omitted a lot of details due to being so tired from slogging up and down mountains all day with a too heavy pack on my back all I really wanted to do was sleep!

Tom and I discovered the Katy Trail in Dallas.  It is an urban trail but walking on it gives you the feeling of being out in nature.

                                        BooBoo goes to the city!

 At the present time, the Katy Trail is only four miles long.  Work is ongoing to extend it even further out into the northern suburbs of Dallas.

 One great thing is there is a softer rubberized jogging path and a concrete path running side by side.

 About halfway along we detoured a block off the Trail to treat ourselves at the historic Highland Park Soda Fountain.  Tom had a sandwich and I had a chocolate milk shake!  And lots of ice water!

 It is a very warm day in August and we are so thankful for the shady places.

                The landscaping along the Trail was just wonderful!

 We drove in to White Rock Station on the DART Rail line where we parked our car, and rode the train to the next station to pick up the northern end of the Katy Trail.  Our original plan for this day was to walk the four miles on the Katy Trail to downtown and then walk back however once we made it to downtown, we walked past the American Airlines Center to the West End to Dick's Last Resort stopping there for a late lunch and afterward decided to grab the train back to White Rock Station to our car!

 I guess all the walking we did at the beginning to find the north end of the Katy Trail, then the walking in downtown Dallas at the end of the Trail was enough for us on this hot day!

We did a spontaneous trip to Spokane, Washington to visit Tom's brother, Tim and wife Kathy and also Tom's niece Megan and husband Austen and her boys, Nelson and Henry.

I will save that for my next post..........

JULY 2017

What did we do in July???

Well due to the cooler temperatures and more rain than we usually have in early Summer, Tom's garden was still going great in early July.

And the rain brings out the mushrooms around the large stump left from the dead elm tree in our back yard!

I accompanied some of my Saddlebag women friends to Oklahoma for a kayaking trip down the Mountain Fork River.  Gill, Louise, and Jennifer went zip-lining one day while we were there. 

We drove up there on Monday and came back home on Thursday.  Some of the women go kayaking all four days, some three, or two, and a few like me only went kayaking down the river on one day.

 I enjoyed the camaraderie of my women friends, went for long walks each day, read a book, and relished the change of scenery.

 And of course staying in a luxury cabin with girl friends in the mountains was nice.  Beats sleeping on the ground! :)

 Louise and I shared the upper floor bedroom.  Awesome!