If you ever find yourself in Northern Idaho and want to get to Murray on the back roads, don’t use this map.
Sure, the map is free, but the roads on it don’t seem to bear any resemblance to any sort of reality. I think it is more of a conceptual map. It is what someone imagined roads could look like in Northern Idaho. I suspect that it was a school project by some kids in Bangladesh that the State of Idaho somehow got a hold of and decided to print off for penny pinching motorists who aren’t willing to shell out any money for a proper map. Yep, that would be us. The cheap ones. And for some reason, we have at least seven copies of this map.
Scott, one of my brothers-in-law, my father-in-law and I headed off for one of our scenic drives the other day with this trusty map in hand. And before you say it, no, there is no cell phone reception in the mountains, so asking Siri where the heck we were and how to get to Murray wasn’t really an option at the time. Sure, we could have researched our route before we set off, but what’s the fun in that?
If you find yourself up in Northern Idaho, make sure you find time to get to Murray. It is an old mining town which was known for gold and prostitutes. Today, it has a couple of bars, a museum and a cemetery and is a fun day trip from Coeur d’Alene. We couldn’t find the turn-off for the back road up to Murray, so we ended up going there the boring way via I-90 to the turn off to Prichard and then over to Murray. I suggest you take that route too (unless you have a better map then we did).
Once you get to Murray, start off in the cemetery. You can see grave markers for some of the famous residents of Murray – like Molly B’Damn. Molly (originally Maggie Hall from Ireland) was a local prostitute who was beloved by the community for her efforts nursing miners during a smallpox epidemic. Here is a picture of her grave. People leave coins and jewelery at her grave site.
And here is what she looked like. I wish I could pull off a hat and stole like she did.
After the cemetery, head into town and stop off at the Sprag Pole bar and order yourself a beer. When I asked the lady behind the bar what they had on tap, she rattled off the usual suspects, like Pabst Blue Ribbon. And then she mentioned that they had Kokanee. I asked her what kind of beer it was and she said Canadian. I have to admit I was a bit perplexed. I thought she might describe it as a lager, a stout, an amber or something like that. But no, the description was just Canadian. I have no idea what that means. Back when I was in Michigan, I thought I was so fancy when I used to drink Labatt’s, imported all the way across the border from Canada. So I decided to take a gamble and go international again with the Kokanee. It was pretty tasty - there is more to Canada then just Tim Horton's and maple syrup.
Once you have your beer in hand, head to the back of the bar and check out the Sprag Pole Museum. Admission is free and you can take your beer with you. My kind of place. It is a pretty quirky and interesting place. Their tag line is “no ordinary museum” and that seems like a pretty apt description. In addition to exhibits on Molly B’Damn, mining, logging and forestry fighting, there are also collections of all sorts of things on display. Like whiskey jugs, typewriters, buttons, coins and even those trolls that some of used to have on the end of your pencil in school. I think the museum is basically a warehouse of everything that was stored in people’s basements and garages in Murray. It is a fascinating glimpse of Americana. Like these buttons.
And these keys.
And this display of costume jewelry, complete with an Elvis pin.
Did you know you could make artwork out of old shotgun shells and bullets?
After you’ve explored the museum, walk along the main street and check out the old buildings.
Take the obligatory photo of the post office.
Then head over to the other bar in town and check out the old gold mine inside.
Once you’ve seen all the sights that Murray has to offer, if you’re feeling brave, pull out your useless map and pick a back road at random. Keep your fingers crossed that it actually leads back to Coeur d’Alene. As you can tell, we did make it back to Coeur d’Alene in the end. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this post. It was a really nice drive back and we had some great views of the North Coeur d’Alene River along the way. If you decide to take this route, make sure you keep an eye out for two things – falling rock and stray bullets.
The road we were driving along was graveled, pretty narrow and runs along a ridge with a steep drop-off. It wasn’t too bad until we go to the signs that said “falling rock” and “road narrows”. I don’t think any of us believed the road could get any narrower. It did. And there was a lot of rock on the road. It looked fresh, like it had just dropped off of the overhang minutes before. This is the kind of place you don’t want to honk your horn in. Thankfully, we survived this stretch of road. I find keeping my eyes closed helps.
But the danger didn't end as just before the road became paved and headed down to Fernan Lake, we saw a sign that read “no shooting”. Well, of course, there were a few guys up there shooting in exactly the same direction as our car was headed. Thankfully, the guys have pretty good aim and we made it back to Coeur d’Alene without any bullet holes in our vehicle. Or maybe they had really bad aim and were actually trying to hit us?
Drive on Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Coeur d’Alene is a resort town in the panhandle of Idaho (between Montana and Washington State) nestled in the mountains and surrounded by dozens of lakes. Although Scott primarily grew up in North Dakota, he did go to middle school in Coeur d’Alene and has fond memories of town. Scott’s immediate family now lives in the area, so I’ve been coming back to visit over the past 20+ years. While the area has grown considerably over the years, it still manages to (mostly) retain its charm, despite the increase in population. Scott’s dad lives in downtown Coeur d’Alene so we’ve being going for walks whenever we can.
One of the first things you see when you head into the center of town is Paul Bunyan. I remember reading about him when I was a little girl. I remember how strong he was, how he could wield his heavy axe and all the flapjacks that he ate. Nowadays, he has come down a bit in the world and is selling hamburgers.
Here is what the main street that runs through downtown looks like. They do a nice job keeping it pretty with all of the hanging flower baskets. See that Clark’s sign? The first girl that Scott ever kissed was the daughter of the owner of the Clark’s jewelry store.
Scott’s eyes lit up when he saw this mural with sailboats on it. Coeur d’Alene Lake is popular with boaters, jet skiers, kayakers and of course, the latest fad of stand up paddle boarding. Personally, I don’t get it, but a lot of people seem to be trying it out on the lake.
If you want to go sailing, you can rent Hobie catamarans near the North Idaho College.
When we go for walks, we like to poke down back alleys. They can be pretty interesting places. Coeur d’Alene is full of old brick buildings like these.
You can also find all sorts of old junk when you wander down alleys. Which I guess isn’t really a surprise. If you market it just right, this is the type of thing that people with too much money in their wallets will pay too much money for.
Scott is into taking pictures of old signs lately. Like this one.
There are a lot of new trendy restaurants and bars since the last time we were in Coeur d’Alene. I think this place used to be an old muffler shop or something. If trendy isn’t your thing (and the prices that go with it), there are still a few dive bars around where you can play pool and smoke indoors. I think Idaho may be one of only a few States where establishments can choose to allow smoking inside.
Moose seem to be a pretty big thing in Coeur d’Alene, so I’ll leave you with a couple of shots just so that you are familiar with what they look like in case you decide to come for a visit. Not only can you find moose on top of buildings, they have also turned them into giant bookends at the local library.
Walks during August 2014
Scott has had to come back to the States from Scotland to tend to some unexpected family matters, so we’ve been spending some time together in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where his family lives. Not only has it been great to see him again (it’s been several months), but we’ve also been having some fun exploring the area. Northern Idaho is a beautiful part of the country. If you’ve never been to this part of the world (the panhandle area between Montana and Washington), you’re missing out on some stunning mountains, lots of lakes and forests, incredible wildlife and guns.
People like their guns here. And if you own a gun, you need to keep your shooting skills sharp. But why go to a target range, when there are all of these handy targets right along the road in the form of speed limit signs and stop signs. Like this sign here. I’m guessing the folks that shot up this sign didn’t like the “recommendation” that they only go 25 miles per hour?
We saw this sign on a little drive Scott and I took with his father to explore some of the small towns south of Coeur d’Alene. It was a pretty drive chock full of gorgeous scenery and signs with bullet holes. We started off on I-90 and headed east to Wolf Lodge. Do you like steak? Do you like a lot of steak? Do you like eating a steak so big that it will instantly coat your arteries with cholesterol just by looking at it? Then you’ll love the steakhouse at Wolf Lodge. I know we do. If you’re a vegetarian, they might give you a salad. Maybe.
It was too early in the morning for steak (after all we had just had a big breakfast which consisted mostly of bacon), so we picked up Route 97 and drove along the eastern side of Coeur d’Alene Lake towards Anderson Lake. Pretty isn’t it?
Next stop after taking this picture was the little town of Harrison. My father-in-law and I like taking pictures at post offices – better to have a picture of a post office then have your picture in the post office on one of the Most Wanted posters.
Harrison is a sweet little town. I have no idea how many people live in Harrison, but I suspect that they are big drinkers. We went into the local grocery store and it seemed like half of the space was taken up with beer, wine and liquor sales. Okay, perhaps I am exaggerating, but they do have a great selection at the store. We even picked up a bottle of Sailor Jerry spiced rum for my father-in-law. His name is Jerry and he has gone sailing with Scott a few times so it seemed like an appropriate gift. Who wants a necktie or a “My Dad Is The Greatest” mug, when you can have your own personalized bottle of rum with a cute girl on the bottle.
After having a coffee and buying our booze, we did a little wander around the town while Scott took some photos. Scott is slightly obsessed with taking pictures of old signs these days. Like this one.
From Harrison, we took Route 3 towards St. Maries. But don’t pronounce it like it is spelled. People will instantly know you are an outsider from someplace like Cleveland. If you say “St. Mary’s” instead then you might just pass as a local. Probably not though. St. Maries is bigger than Harrison. You can find pretty much anything there. Scott found fudge. For some reason, he has been craving fudge. Real fudge, not that stuff they try to pass off in New Zealand as fudge. Be cautious of that stuff. It is nothing like fudge made in the good old USA. Yep, when it comes to fudge, we’re patriots. Instead of waving flags, we wave boxes of fudge. I think world peace could be achieved if the guys and gals at the United Nations ate more fudge at their meetings.
While in St. Maries, we also stopped at one of the stores to see if I could find a hat as the sun was super bright. I didn’t find a hat, but I did see this moose hanging up in the hardware section.
After leaving St. Marie’s, you drive along the St. Joe River and you say “oooh” and “aaah” in between bites of fudge because it is just so darn scenic. Apparently, everyone else thinks so as there are tons of RVs parked along the river in campgrounds. We hit the National Forest Service district office in St. Joe’s to say hi to Smokey Bear and load up on maps, pamphlets and brochures. I thought the pamphlet on “Edible and Medicinal Plants” might come in handy if we got lost.
After you drive through St. Joe’s (look for the signs, otherwise you won’t know you were there), we passed through Calder. I like this sign.
And then we got to Avery. Of course, we visited their post office. It takes up a tiny corner in the old railway station which has been turned into a museum.
And they have an old train car outside the museum which you can walk through. It has that certain retro vibe. My father-in-law said that it looked just like the ones he took back in the day. I love this wallpaper that was hanging up in the train.
Other than the post office, the museum and a gift shop, there isn’t too much else to see in Avery, so we continued on our way. The last time Scott was visiting his father, they did a similar driving trip. They got as far as Avery and then turned on to Route 456 to make their way to Wallace. There are a number of tunnels through the mountains and I think they only made it through two before they were stopped by a wall of ice at the end of the third tunnel. This was in the month of April. That will give you an idea of what winters can be like in Northern Idaho. Fortunately, at this time of the year, the road was open all the way through so on we went.
This is one of the bridges over the St. Joe River along the way. Scott did his usual thing of standing way too close to the edge of the cliff to take this picture.
Before getting to Wallace, our first priority was to find a place to have lunch. We stopped in a spot at the North Fork campground to see if there were any picnic tables. Have you ever seen the movie Deliverance? If you haven’t seen it, don’t. Unless, of course, you like disturbing movies about scary hillbillies who have been inbreeding for far too many generations and aren’t very fond of outsiders. Then you’ll love it. Especially the scene with the banjo music. Well, suffice it to say, we had our own little glimpse of a Deliverance type of family at the first spot we stopped at. They made it pretty clear that we should move on. We didn’t argue.
We found another spot where the people seemed to have the normal amount of toes and fingers and we had a lovely picnic which Scott had packed. I was glad Scott had brought along some wine (made by his dad!). It helped settle our nerves after the Deliverance encounter.
Once our bellies were full, we got back on the road. Here is another picture of a bridge. It is made out of wood, but it seemed pretty sturdy. The road is graveled (or “unsealed” in Kiwi-speak), so the wood bridge was a nice relief from the bumpy road. Along the way, Scott and his dad started to keep an eye out for moose. Apparently, we were driving along prime moose territory. They told me to be on the lookout too. Fortunately, I had seen that moose head in St. Maries, so I knew what I was looking for.
Along the way, there was a lot of conversation between Scott and his dad about their various hunting trips. It seems like guys from North Dakota like to talk about hunting when they get together. I kind of tuned them out after a while. I have no interest in hearing about hunting, but I’m always happy to eat any pheasant that Scott brings home, especially when he cooks it wrapped in bacon in a sherry cream sauce. I bet you wish you had your own Scott - not only does he know how to sail, he can also cook up a tasty dish or two.
After a lot of single lane tunnels (put your lights on, honk and hope for the best when you enter them), we made it to Wallace. Here are some picture of old signs that you can find there.
If you don’t like old signs, they also have a spaceship! I always wondered where the aliens visited when they came to investigate Planet Earth. Turns out it is Wallace, Idaho. I guess they didn’t know about the fudge in St. Maries or else they would have gone there instead.
And of course, no town in Northern Idaho would be complete without some taxidermy. You can find these guys at one of the many antique shops in the town.
And I’ll leave you with one final moose shot just so you know they look like in case you’re ever out in this neck of the woods.
Drive on Wednesday, 20 August 2014
Linked up to Travel Tuesday with Bonnie Camila, Jessi, and Amy
We seem to have had some new readers of our blog lately so I thought I would let folks know about all the ways that you can follow us and keep up with the latest happenings with the Cynical Sailor (Scott) and his Salty Sidekick (that would be me, Ellen).
For years and years and years, I avoided anything to do with social media. I'm not sure what happened (perhaps I was possessed by some sort of demon spirit), but now it seems to be social media mania here at The Cynical Sailor. If you look on the right hand sidebar of our blog, you'll see all the ways you can follow us if you're into that kind of thing:
- You can subscribe by e-mail (that's what my mom does). Just enter your email address and hit the submit button.
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Thanks for following along!
Being between sailboats means that there hasn’t been a lot of beach time or sightings of sea critters lately. Fortunately, while I was out at the Oregon Coast with my sister and her twin 12-year old girls, we had the chance to play on the beach, explore the tide pools and visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We even saw some lighthouses and checked out the boats in Newport. It wasn’t just cheesy tourist attractions and greasy food on this trip.
My sister rented a cute little house in Seal Rock (between Newport and Waldport) which had the beach right on our doorstep. It is kind of an old fashioned operation. The owner is in his 90s and only takes checks. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a check, let alone written one out. It was a great little place set in the midst of a lot of pretty flowers and pine trees.
The Oregon Coast Aquarium is one of the big attractions in the Newport area. It is chock full of ocean critters – otters, seals, sea lions (or “seals with ears”), an octopus, jellyfish and, of course, lots and lots of fish. For some reason, there is also a turkey vulture exhibit. No idea why. Maybe I should have read the sign. It might have explained things. And there is a gift shop. My nieces LOVE spending time in gift shops. They got grandma some socks with cute little puffins all over them. Because who doesn’t need puffin socks?
My pictures didn’t really turn out that well, except for these jellyfish. However, one of my nieces made a video of our visit which you can check out on our YouTube channel here. She put it together on her iPod in the car in about 35 minutes. Hanging around 12-year olds sure does make you feel technologically incompetent.
We checked out two lighthouses in the area – one at Yaquina Head and one at Yaquina Bay. I found the one at Yaquina Bay to be more interesting as you can explore the light keeper's house, but the one at Yaquina Head is part of an “outstanding natural area” managed by the Bureau of Land Management. In addition to seeing the lighthouse, you can explore the tide pools, go for some short walks and look for seals and “seals with ears”. If you’re out there at the right time of the year, you’ll even see gray whales. We didn’t. You have to pay $7 per car to use the area, but the pass is good for three days which is handy. We hadn’t checked out the tide tables the first day were were there so the tide pools were kind of a bust, but we came back the next day at the right time.
We are probably some of the last people to see the purple ochre sea stars. They’re dying due to a wasting disease and are expected to be extinct in just a matter of time. Unfortunately, they’re a keystone species which means the rest of the ecosystem is going to hell. It was all kind of depressing, so we went to the gift shop at the interpretive center to cheer up. I can’t remember what the girls bought there, but I’m sure it was something adorable that they can’t possibly live without.
Scott and I are trying to get the girls to become interested in sailing. We figured that we can take them out on our boat and put them to work. They’re very clever and creative. I’m sure they can figure out how to fix marine toilets and repair sails much better than we can. Plus it would give their parents a break if we borrowed them from time to time. As part of our brainwashing campaign, I suggested that we stop in Newport to look at the boats. At first, they thought this was the most boring thing in the world. Why look at boats when there are a million gift shops to explore. But then they saw little jellyfish in the water and sea lions swimming around, so it wasn’t all bad.
And I’ll leave you with a few more beach shots – some from near Seal Rock and some up in Pacific City.
Everyone knows that the best vacations usually have two main ingredients – a stop at a cheesy tourist spot and lots of greasy food. Of course, you might not want to admit that you like those kind of vacations, but you know you do. Who wouldn’t want to see the world’s biggest ball of yarn or a fence made out of bras? And of course, when you’re on vacation, how can you possibly pass up the local cooking, especially the dishes which are deep fried and/or coated in sugar.
When my sister, her two 12-year old twin girls and I recently spent some time on the Oregon Coast, we made sure that our vacation plans included the cheesiest of tourist spots – the Tillamook Cheese Factory – and some greasy food in the form of fish and chips. With a few gift shops thrown in for good measure too. My mom has trained her granddaughters well – they love browsing in a good gift shop. It doesn’t matter what knick-knacks and souvenirs they’re selling, these girls can spend hours combing through what’s on sale and pointing out all of the cute and useless things you can’t possibly live without. I bet you can’t imagine life without one of these carved bears.
Do you want an easy way to tell how old you are when you’re in a gift shop? You know those stands with name tags on them. Check them out and see if your name appears. If it doesn’t, you can be sure that you are part of the older generation and that your name is horribly old fashioned now. Or maybe that’s just me and my name - Ellen. The good news is that because my name wasn’t available, I didn’t feel compelled to waste money on one of these name tags. I did however get seduced by the Tillamook cheese t-shirt. I gave the cashier $12.99 and he gave me a t-shirt I don’t really need and a shopping rush that lasted all of five minutes.
Before we let the girls hit any gift shops, we forced them to learn about how cheese was made by taking the self-tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It’s actually pretty interesting. You can stare through windows at the folks busily making cheese and getting it ready for sale. If you want, you can spend some time reading all of the educational signs scattered about. I didn’t. My attention span isn’t nearly long enough for that kind of nonsense. It probably didn’t help that they had a ice cream kiosk right next to the signs. Ice cream vs. knowledge. I think you can guess what won out.
My sister tried to get us interested in learning more about the dairy industry. She lived on a dairy farm in Finland for a year and told us a bunch of stories about getting up at 4:00 am to milk cows and watch calves being born. I have to say, she really didn’t sell the lifestyle. It sounds like a lot of hard work and not a lot of opportunities to sleep in. After her description, I’m pretty sure her girls don’t have any dreams to grow up to become dairy farmers. However, we do appreciate dairy farmers because they keep us stocked in cheese and ice cream.
In case you aren’t convinced about how wonderful cheese is, the good folks at the Tillamook Cheese Factory let you sample different types of cheese. Unfortunately, they start off the tasting with squeaky cheese made from the curds or whey or something. The general consensus was YUCK. Thank goodness, the next batch of cheese was Colby. Everyone liked Colby. Our faith was restored.
The cheese tasting station is very conveniently placed next to the gift shop. Guess what’s on sale. Yep, you guessed it, cheese. People were buying a lot of cheese. I think they would have also bought a lot of ice cream if there had been a free ice cream tasting stand. If you have to pay for your ice cream cone, you aren’t really likely to shell out more money to buy some more. Their marketing team should take a look at this. And send me a lifetime’s supply of ice cream for pointing out this flaw in their marketing approach.
After eating all of that cheese, we needed to make sure that we ate some greasy food while on vacation. Maybe we should visit a salad factory on our next outing. That way we would have a craving for kale and spinach for dinner, rather than fish and chips. Or pescado y chips. I would have thought there was a word in Spanish for “chips”, but I guess not? I had forgotten how much Spanish is used in Oregon. My nieces are learning Spanish in school – seems like a much more useful language these days then the French and Latin that I took.
One of my nieces ordered chicken and chips and made this cute little smiley face with ketchup. Who said food can’t be fun. The rest of us got with the program and had pescado y chips.
It was a really cute spot – just look for the place south of Newport on Highway 101 with the crab cooker out front.
I know you might be a bit worried that all we did were cheesy and greasy things. But not to worry, plenty of fruit was consumed (this is berry season after all in Oregon) and we did spend time playing on the beach to work off those extra calories. Here’s proof – the girls next to some driftwood at Seal Rock beach, watching the tide come in.
