AND WE CONTINUE

After a brief pause in Great Falls, Montana to catch on a new nephew, the next stop on the agenda was Libby Montana, the City of Eagles.  Located in the northwest part of the state, the stop at Libby was because that's where Cathie's brother Rod lives.  We laid low in Libby, not doing a whole lot other than eating and keeping dry.  Rod and his wife Mary  have a beautiful home on 8 plus acres with a view of the  Cabinet Mountains that can't be beat.

 We did manage one short excursion between rain showers to Kootenai Falls on the Kootenai River.  Being springtime, the rivers are at capacity with snow melt which added to the thunderous roar of the falls.  What they lack in height is made up by the shear volume of water in the cascades.  Nearby is a suspension bridge and moves about as you walk across it.  Not for the faint of heart.

After six days in Libby, moss started growing on us so we figured it was time to move on.  We made a left turn of sorts at Libby and started heading west.  We made an overnight stop in Kettle Falls, Washington to see my brother Joel.  Tina made sure that we had plenty to eat with a feast of BBQ ribs for dinner and french toast the following morning.   By late morning we got underway and by mid-afternoon we landed in Winthrop, Washington.  Winthrop is a very busy tourist attraction consisting of old western style buildings that house shops and restaurants that cater to folks who visit here.  Arriving on Memorial Day we found ourselves creeping along for about 30 minutes trying to get through the one stop sign in the middle of town.

We managed to make it through town and settled in at  Pine Near RV Park, a really nice RV park just off the main drag.  The center of town didn't excite me much, but the area around here is beautiful.  Located on the eastern side of the Northern Cascade Mountains in the Methow Valley, the hiking opportunities abound.  It is also said that being on the eastern side of the Cascades it is dryer than on the western side.  So that means it still rains, just not as much as the other side of the mountains.  We decided to try out our wet weather gear and took a nice 6 mile hike along the Methow River.  For the most part we stayed dry and enjoyed our walk in the rain.  Even with the rain, we have already started talking about coming back next year here.

Tomorrow we will cross over the Cascades and head for the coast.  Maybe we'll get lucky and the rain will stop.   Rrrrright, it's not called Fungus Corners for nothing.