Well. We arrived in C'oeur d'Alene and to make a long story short, we could NOT find a campsite. Steven thought he saw a turn-off, off the Interstate and I said "No". Ummm...big mistake and I shall not delve any further into THAT episode, albeit to say that it was indeed the turn-off and we never could find it again. Then we looked for one that we had seen on prior trips, it always looked good then, but on closer examination, it was creepier than the Symes Hotel...toothless owners who looked like they were spawn of the devil. They gave us directions on how to find another place (we pretended we wanted to stay near the water so that they wouldn't be offended and perhaps hurt us) and we followed their directions to a "T" (they had even written/printed them on a scrap of paper, but they led us to dead -end. We finally decided that this was the end of the trip and we would just head to Bonner's Ferry, near the border, a place we know well.
We headed out of town and stopped at McDonalds to grab a coffee and just mentioned to the cashier the trouble we were having finding a nice place to stay and she told us about a gorgeous place, right on the lake, and how easy it was to get there. We looked at each other, eyes full of fear and trepidation and decided: "What the hell." and drove off. Well, it was SO easy to find, and what a great spot...nice lots right near the water, huge private shower/bathrooms with heaters, chairs, just like a fancy hotel. (we do have a bathroom & shower in our motor home, but it's so much easier to use a nice public one, saves on our water and having to turn on our gas to heat it. We use ours only when we camp where there is not full service) Anyhow, we paid and decided that we wouls end this trip with the dinner cruise on Lake C'oeur d'Alene, which is actually the biggest fresh water lake west of the Great Lakes (or something like that, it's massive at any rate)
We walked down to the docks where the boat is and it was HOT, not a cloud in the sky. We were waiting for the boat and a bit of a wind came up. Then more wind. And then more. I recalled that one of the plagues was some sort of hail & storm. Sure enough....tornado time!
As I was trying to not blow off the dock (and seriously, when I lifted one foot to walk, I had a hard time balancing myself) I lurched over to the ticket booth and asked the girl how we got our money back, since the boat would surely flip if it tried to sail. The meal would spill, that's for sure. Or come "up", if you get my drift.
She looked at me like I was a 5 year old and said: "As soon as she docks, and they load the food, it'll sail. They just tried a few minutes ago, but the wind snapped the cable, so the Captain is making another try." And she pointed, and I looked, and sure enough the crazy bastard was out there trying to come into the docks, but the boat kept going sideways. SIDEWAYS for God's Sakes. And small planes were flipping over. A fellow beside me laughed and :"It's not like we're Flatlanders!" I turned to Steven and said in a small voice: "But I AM a Flatlander..."
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