She speaks....

I had nothing to say for the last however many months it's been. I'd sit down, open up this page, and....nothin'...., simply nothing seemed interesting. I guess that's writers block. Or laziness. Or a combo of the two. It seemed like an effort to write.

But, we were in the US of A this past weekend and everything seemed interesting. I couldn't wait to get home and share. 

I realized how much I love train graffiti. Is it a "thing"? Or is it just graffiti? I don't know, but it's always fascinated me...who does it? Where does it come from? What do those designs symbolize?  Do the train owners get pissed off and have it cleaned up all the time? Why are so many talented artists hanging out by the train tracks? Do these artists recognize each others work? I wonder if they say things like "Hey...Riptide did that one..." and "damn....Snake-eyes is slipping...".

Anyhow. I like to see it, so carry on, all you train car taggers.

We went down to Coeur D'Alene for a few days and stayed at a little RV park that was close enough to the river to walk there, it was, coincidentally called The River Walk RV Park. You can walk to the river. Which we did. It was a scorching day, and the river felt great. Steven still can't swim (I don't mean he doesnt know how, but rather, his incision is still healing) so he sadly sat on his little stool and watched me.

We then took a back road over to Libby, Montana and stayed at a campground, called Woodbury-by-the-Creek. Actually, I think it is called something longer, like Woodbury-in-the-trees-by-the-creek. I guess so you know exactly what you're going to get. We were in the trees and by a creek, so, truth in advertising I guess. It was nice, and Stevens favorite part was the fact that they filled our propane tanks for $10 each. In Cranbrook they want $30 each, plus they won't fill an outdated one. This fellow couldn't have cared less about the date, and you know he probably put the $20 right in his pocket. That's all good with me.

As a matter of fact, at the previous RV park, it was $35 a night, and Steven said to the kid: "I'll give you $30 a night if you don't need paperwork." The kid jumped at it, you know that $60 went towards a weekend party fund. Win-win.

Anyhow, after a great sleep listening to the creek,

 we headed out the next day towards the Libby Dam. I've heard that it's a pretty drive, and I googled the dam to see if it they have tours, and they do, free tours actually, which sort of surprised me.  It always surprises me when stuff I's free, because there ain't no free lunch anymore. Although we found two free things today, which I know wouldn't be free in Canada. 

The first was on our way to the Dam, and I saw a sign that said something about a swinging bridge. I'm game to try something new, so we pulled over to check it out. It's a short hike, maybe 20 minutes, to the bridge, which was narrow. And swinging. I wasn't really fond of it. I instantly pictured every movie where someone is crossing the bridge and either the boards give way and you're dangling, or the bad guys cut the cables and you plunge down into the raging water below. Neither ofthese things   happened though. 

And we safely crossed and walked here:

And sat and enjoyed the sights, and the cool breeze.

I was pleased at how clean it all was, considering it was free and easily accessible. There were quite a few cars in the little pullover spot, and a small ice cream and water stand, but we didn't see any litter at all. Also, this is where The River Wild was filmed.

We then headed to the dam. I was surprised at how big it was. You just don't expect something this large to just appear in the Montana wilderness. The parking lot was massive, and also almost empty. I don't know if we just timed it right or if they don't get many visitors. 

They give a tour every two hours, and while you wait you can browse the little wildlife museum, showing the local animals, birds and fish, as well as watch a movie on the building of the dam (I couldn't be bothered, I generally tend to hate the little movies you always see in museums and other tourist attractions) or you could play with the many different interactive-hands on displays, meant for kids really, but loads of fun for everyone (meaning me)

The tour was interesting....way down to the bottom of the dam in a speedy elevator. The doors open to a cool (temperature cool) hallway with little puddles of water. Apparently all dams have leakage and seepage and its not a big deal. Not to them maybe, but to slightly claustrophobic folks like me, whose biggest fear is being trapped underwater....ummm, yeah, it's a big deal. But I'm still here, so I guess it wasn't my time.

The tour was really interesting, but you can google all the info, so I won't go into detail, other than two interests facts:

1. I was curious about all the "you are here" signs and maps, the guide told us that before 9/11, the tours were self guided and the dam is so large, with so many different levels and hallways that visitors used to get lost and sometimes ended up spending the night, so they put up signage. Now of course, they have a guide in front of the group, and a guide behind you (no sneaking off!) and constant walkie-talkie communication with someone up top.

2. After the builders installed the huge...HUGE generators and things; gauges and dials and whatnot, they found out that the company that built all that stuff was going out of business. The dam builders knew that they'd need to retrofit and repair things over the years so they purchased the entire company! TONS of stuff. TONS! Where to put it? Why, in all the corridors in the dam of course. 

So there are thousands, literally thousands of slatted wooden crates lined up on both sides of the corridors, stacked from floor to ceiling. You know what it looked like? You guessed it, exactly like that final scene in Indiana Jones. I absolutely loved it. That made the whole tour worthwhile.

Crazy Americans.