Washington - Spokane

It was sunny when we left Kalispell this morning, but still cold (around 45f or 7c). We took Highway 2 West. The ride was excellent as we passed through the Kootenai State Forest over rolling hills covered in pine and past a few lakes.

After a few hours of riding we had crossed the state line of Idaho and stopped at Bonners Ferry for fuel and lunch. Well, we actually had a second breakfast as we changed from Mountain Time to Pacific Time when we crossed the state line and gained an hour. What was 11:45am Mountain Time was still the middle of the breakfast menu at the diner in Bonners Ferry Idaho at 10:45am!

We branched on to Highway 2 South and rode to Coeur d'Alene and then linked up with Interstate 90 West. Within half an hour we had crossed the state line into Washington and reached the city of Spokane, our destination for the day. Spokane is Washington's largest inland city with over 200,000 people. The city was rebuilt with brick after a disastrous fire in 1889 and is the smallest city to have hosted a world fair (Expo 74).

After checking in to a motel, I decided it would be a good idea to find a car wash with a high pressure water blaster to wash the crud off the bike picked up from our wet excursion through Glacier National Park yesterday. We were given directions to a self-service car wash with bays that had high pressure hoses. There were vending machines where you could change notes for $1 coins to activate the wash. I placed a note into what I thought was a vending machine, but it turned out to be payment for the automatic car wash! Kiss goodbye to $5! Teach me for not reading signs! I then found what was the coin vending machine and placed a dollar note in the slot and received a coin. I then placed a second note in the slot and the 'out of service' light started flashing. Kiss goodbye to $1. I used the coin I received and that gave me 2 minutes of high pressure water to give the bike a quick rinse and then focus on washing the dirt and muck from under the chassis and fenders. An expensive wash - $7 all up. Tracee demonstrated extreme self control by not laughing at me.