Road Trip: Day 11

Yesterday was a long day of driving, and today was more of the same… while I drove ~350 miles, it didn’t seem as bad as I was expecting. I woke-up at my regular time, so maybe that helped… or maybe it was the hundreds of miles of twisty roads!

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The morning started with a brisk romp around Coeur d’Alene Lake. There were a few other vehicles on the road, as well as several old couples walking, but all of the twisty parts were clear. I even found a place to pull over for a quick photo.

Much of today was spent on the scenic backroads of Idaho. Looking at my maps in the hotel last night I didn’t know what the condition of the roads were going to be, but I was pleasantly surprised… almost all of the Idaho roads were two-lanes and freshly repaved. I was also surprised to see a pair of bow hunters walking down the side of the road!

When I left the forest and headed into the agricultural region of Idaho the road wound through numerous fields filled with hay/straw (anyone know the difference between them?). The air was also thick with smoke from the burning of fields post-harvest. It seemed strange to me, but I guess it helps “improve yields, reduce the need for herbicides and pesticides, reduce fire hazards, and control disease, weeds, and pests”. In addition to the field burning, there was fire activities in areas surrounding Highway 12… as a result almost all afternoon I was stuck driving through a valley of smoke.

Highway 12 was my objective for the day. I’ve always like to see my final destination show-up on backwoods road signs, but today it came with a twist; “Missoula… 179 miles”! I knew I was in my “home stretch”, but with a 50mph speed limit it took over 3.5 hours.

One of the fun things about such a long, uninterrupted, stretch of road is that you get to know your fellow travelers. Today there were two motorcyclists that were out enjoying themselves, and multiple times they raced past me on the road… only to have me pass them when they stopped to rest. It was a fun game of leap-frog! I really wished I wasn’t driving the speed limit (aka. trying to avoid speeding tickets), as it would have been fun to play with them in the corners.

The last part of my drive started when I entered the great state of Montana. Wow, I just love places that have 70mph speed limits on backroads (the same one that was 50mph in Idaho)! As I headed into Missoula I spotted a self car wash and quickly knocked-off the big stuff, as my car has become quite filthy (see the above photo).

After checking into my hotel and grabbing a steak dinner, I’ve kicked-back to relax with some college football on TV (and some free ice cream). Tomorrow I have a short day of driving up to Kalispell where I’ll be spending the next few days. Hopefully I can get some rest, as things are going to be getting busy again soon.