Condon to Libby

The best part of this bed and breakfast, was the breakfast. We ate in the dining room at 8:30am. The first course was a fruit plate, then huckleberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, the best bacon ever, and coffee with real cream.
I was stuffed. For the next 5 hours I wished I hadn't eaten so much. Still not digesting.
We took some pictures of Standing Stones B&B before we left. Ellen the proprietor and cook said her partner collects rocks as a hobby. Really really big rocks.

The breakfast room

 Photos from around the place:

We left at about 10, Ruben behind the wheel. On the way we listened to an autobiography of Elon Musk. Ruben is really into this book. He's going to recommend it to his friends. 

We drove straight from Condon to Libby without stopping. Three hours or so. The scenery was once again terrific. Traffic was a little heavier than it has been for most of this trip, and for about 20 miles Ru was forced to go 65 behind some campers. From Condon we took the 83 North, skirted the city of Kalispell to take Hwy 2 West to Libby. It was about three hours of driving. We really needed a rest, but it was time for lunch so we did a drive-by of the B&B and went to lunch at Burger Express. I had half a taco. It was about the right amount of food. Ru had a Hawaiian burger with pineapple, ham, sweet potato fries, and a cherry pepsi.

We hung out in the restaurant for a while, long enough for the road weariness to wear off a bit, then we started heading to our next destination, Kootenai Falls. I had read about it in the guidebook and thought it would be nice to see. So about a minute into the drive I turned around (it was my turn to drive) and we went to check in at Huckleberry House B&B.  It looked just like the picture, and Ellen and Keith greeted us like family. We dropped off my guitar, and my computer bag THEN we headed for the falls about 10 miles west.

The parking lot was busy, but not packed. We walked past the ice cream stand, past the stinkiest pit toilets ever, and went to view the falls. The hike wasn't hard, but there was a very scary three story staircase that you had to use to cross over the train tracks.

Ruben and I sat by the falls talking for over an hour. We talked about health issues, how he would spend his birthday money, and about friends. He said this waterfall made it on the top 3 list. I asked him to share his top waterfalls list. 

Waterfalls this summer by Ruben: 

1. Silver Falls

2. Holland Lake Falls

3. Kootenai Falls

4. Pinard Falls

5. Spirit Falls

6. Spokane Falls

We also did a lot of people watching. There was one man in a white shirt, white shorts who was jumping around on the rocks looking like he was trying to impress some middle school aged boys, maybe like a stepdad or uncle. The boys followed him up and over the rocks, but he was always faster and jumped further. 

We saw couples with dogs, people who looked like their dogs, and lots of families with young children. 

It was a mix of locals and visitors, and we heard a few accents and other languages spoken. 

Then we went to the swinging bridge. We both crossed, I didn't chicken out. There are actually two bridges, they built a new one and haven't taken down the old one yet. Ru took the old one and took a picture of me on the new one to prove I went. I was so brave. On the way back we took a selfie. 

I went all the way across!

As we were taking the selfie, I heard a splash. I asked Ru if someone jumped in and he said yes. We saw some kids looking at the water and looked in that direction. White shorts guy had jumped in (or possibly fell). He tried to swim to the side, but the current was fierce (see video above) and he was swept downstream quickly. We saw his head above water a few times, and again as he rounded the corner out of sight. The kids were terrified. A nice man who was watching was saying calm things like "Oh he's got his head above water, he'll be okay", but his body language was scared. Ru and I said a prayer as we left. 

We came back to Huckleberry House, and I wrote, and talked on the phone with Cab. He's leaving tomorrow morning with his kids to go to Reno. They are staying at the Grand Sierra Resort, and doing some sightseeing in his old stomping ground. We'll be back to Salem on Tuesday, they don't get in till Thursday. Cab said he left me a present on the table :)

Dinner today was a choice between Henry's Diner or Pizza Hut. Those were what was within walking distance, and neither Ru or I wanted to drive. We asked Ellen which she would pick, and she said Pizza Hut. Always go with what the locals say. I've never eaten at Pizza Hut, but this was a very nice restaurant. I had the salad bar and the loaded potato soup, Ru had pizza and bread sticks. All for less money than a lousy steak dinner. Even the waitress was super nice.  

I was going to watch a silly movie, but I think I'm just going to go to bed, our room has two twin beds and it's really cute, the bed is slightly softer than last night's. I can't wait to get home to my bed. It's a medium memory foam mattress, with three inches of memory foam topper on it.