Three Forks In The Middle Of Noplace

is where we are tonight. It was a long day getting here and we are both tired.

Leaving Coeur D'Alene on I-90 you get into the mountains in a short time. Outside the city it is beautiful, the lake is beautiful, the mountains, the trees, a feast for the eyes. City of Coeur D'Alene itself? Meh. Here is our morning view out the window of our room.



Shortly after we left town, I saw a sign by the road that read: Wildlife On Road. I thought, no, so far it's been pretty tame, but I knew they were referring to Wild Things. I wished they had been more specific. Are they talking trout? Deer? Elk? Mountain Goats? Griz? No worries, didn't see any. We did see many bikers of the V-twin persuasion heading West. Returning from Sturgis perhaps. We saw a truck pulling a trailer with 2 bikes, one of them chromed enough to blind you from half a mile away and I bet they were there. The Harley riders were about the wildest thing we saw all day.

Right away the road starts curling around and gaining elevation. What a wonderful motorcycle road I-90 is in this area! The curves were challenging and fun. Ray was a little surprised at how well I did in the curves at the speed we were going, but I've gotten stronger I guess and I was able to keep the rig right where it should be and hold the mph. We saw so many beautiful little towns tucked into the mountains, we want to come back and explore them one day. I'm glad we'll be going over this part of I-90 again on our way back. I wanted to turn around and do those curves again today, but we had miles to make and so we didn't.

It got right chilly up in those mountains, but we persevered and didn't resort to our rain jackets. The skies were clear blue and the sun was shining. So beautiful I can't even describe it, and sad to say, no safe places to stop for pictures in the twisties. There wasn't even too much traffic.

Temperature wise, we were fairly comfortable all day, even tho it got up into the mid 80s. It's very dry over this way and there was a strong gusty wind. That wind was a double edged sword. It was cooling, but it was also yanking at our helmets and pushing us around. And it came from all directions...it was not simply gusty out of one direction, but all directions. It beat me about the head and shoulders with my own pony tail. The first time my tail end jumped up and tapped me on the left shoulder, I turned my head to see who was there. I was nearly ready to call the Ghost Hunters when I figured out it was only my hair. But it was freaky when the wind would blow my tail up and the end would whack me on the top of my helmet!

We had several occurrences of twisties and elevation changes during the day, but the best ones were between Coeur D'Alene and St. Regis. Not to be missed if you ride.

Montana has interesting rest areas. They are all beautifully sited and nicely landscaped, well kept (although many, many miles apart). Instead of large rooms full of stalls, they have 6 separate bathrooms. Each one is larger than our master bath at home! You can get a whole family in there at once and they have baby changing tables too, and toddler chairs, so you don't have to worry about what your kid is touching whilst you are otherwise occupied. Nice touch.





Today both of us found to be tiring. We think it was mostly that wind, although the numerous curves made us work. Getting a side car rig around a twisty in good order is not as elegant as riding a motorcycle thru a twisty, it's more a matter of strength and will. Each is hard in it's own way, but my arms and shoulders got a better work out than Ray's!

We went a long way today too, it is our longest day of the trip to Illinois. I could have stopped in Butte and been quite happy, but we couldn't stop there.

My communicator decided about 3:30 that it did not wish to speak to Ray's communicator any longer and since it would not do that, it decided it might as well be out of power too. This is not normal for my com, it's always lasted a full 8 hours. Not normal for it to unpair itself either, so Ray had to fix that tonight. No good having coms that won't work. Right now he's working on my helmet, as the speakers are rubbing my ears.

We went thru Missoula before we realized we'd reached Missoula, it can't be much bigger than 3 blinks. And I was afraid I'd loose Ray in the rush hour traffic in Butte. We arrived in Butte at 5:30 and if they have rush hour there, it was either not on I-90 or it was already over. We didn't even see traffic.

And soon we got to 3 Forks. This is a teeny little burg. One bar, one pizza joint, one fancy restaurant, a feed store/catering service, 2 gas stations, a sausage equipment company, a computer repair place, 2 motels, one really pricey the other moderate, (guess where we are)no stop lights, although they do have one stop sign that I saw. Our lovely motel is well off the beaten path and we will not be bothered by road noise tonight. The room is very large and there is high-speed wireless in the rooms. Plus we are on the ground floor and that is always a plus when you have to carry in every thing you have with you. We recommend the Broken Spur Motel should you ever find yourself in Three Forks, Montana. And the pizza from Stageline Pizza. They delivered it too, with 2 large cold diet Pepsis for 18.50! We think that is a bargain for what we got.