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Published: July 20th 2021
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Petty Mountain Panoramic. Click to enlargeSorry for the delay in posting, but the KOA's WiFi was absolutely terrible.
We left the KOA a bit later again, since we had less than 3 hours of driving. We got off the interstate at Petty Creek Road, yes, you heard me right, Petty, like my last name. Last night I'd discovered that there was a Petty Mountain, and Petty Creek Road, on our way to Spokane. We drove several miles down the road, hoping to see some sign telling us which mountain was Petty Mountain, but no such luck. We even went a few miles further, stopping to ask a couple of farmers about it. They weren't sure either, so we gave up, deciding we'd surely seen the mountain along the way. We got back on the interstate heading towards Lake Coeur d'Alene. We started in Montana and entered Idaho before we reached the lake. When we ended our day, we'd be in Washington state. Three states in the same day!
Between Petty Mountain and Lake Coeur d'Alene we saw several signs proclaiming a place ahead had the "Best Shakes Ever". We finally found the turnoff and Huck's Grill, which was actually part of a gas station,
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Huck's Grill, Best Shake Ever restaurant, ice cream shop, and gift shop. We ordered one Huckleberry milk shake and browsed the gift shop. The milk shake was very good, but other than the unusual flavor, I didn't think it was anything special. I did find a thimble in the gift shop, then we got back on Interstate 90 West, to head for Lake Coeur d'Alene. We turned off the interstate at an exit that said Lake Coeur d'Alene Scenic Bypass, stopping right away to get some photos of that end of the lake. I guess I didn't notice how long and convoluted the lake was, planning on taking this scenic bypass all the way around, getting back on the interstate at the northern end. Well, after 15 or 20 miles, we pulled into a gas station called Hutton's Store, to take a few photos, and maybe have lunch. Upon looking at the views, and then my phone's map, we realized we would have to drive something like 100 miles or so to reach the northern end of the lake and get back on the interstate!
We ended up having lunch there, outside, to enjoy the view. I ordered an Italian sausage and Manoli ordered
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First view of Lake Coeur d'Alene half a pastrami sandwich and a cup of cheddar and broccoli soup. We ended up swapping lunches because my sausage was a bit too tough to bite with my dentures. After lunch, we retraced our steps and ended up back on Interstate 90 where we'd originally turned off. Another 20 or so miles along, we entered Washington state, and found our exit for the Spokane KOA. When we arrived, it was just past 2pm, but whe we asked about checking in a bit early for our cabin, they told us sure, no problem. We found our cabin, unpacked, and took a short nap. I worked on this blog while Manoli watched some videos for a while. She asked about seeing some things in the area, but I told her we didn't have a lot of time, and went back to work on the blog. Shortly later, I realized it wasn't that late, and that Manoli really wanted to go see a park with gardens called Manito Park. When I asked her about it, she said sure, so off we went.
Manito Park is in the South Hills area of Spokane, about 12 miles from our KOA. Her phone got
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Another nice view of Lake Coeur d'Alene
us there with little problem, except for the heavy traffic and my getting off the interstate one exit too early. Oh well, the phone got me there anyways, after a short tour of that part of Spokane and its frequent hills. We pulled into the park and checked out the map. Manito Park is quite large, with several areas, including a Japanese Garden, a Old Fashioned Rose Garden, and a fancy garden laid out like a maze on an estate. We walked pretty much all the way around the park. The Japanese Garden wasn't that big, but was very pretty. The Old Fashioned Rose Garden was quite extensive with so many different varieties of roses it would make your head spin. We eventually found our way back to our car, and decided we would stop to get dinner an oriental restaurant on the way to our KOA. Manoli looked for one on Google maps, that would be along the way to the KOA, and we ended up going to a place called Dragon Inn. I ordered a combination plate that included three main entrees plus chow mien and egg drop soup. We waited to get back to the KOA to
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Hutton's Store, for lunch eat it. Everything was quite tasty except maybe the pork was a bit tough. It was more than enough food for both of us, and cost about $18.
Tomorrow we start the long drive of over 6 hours to the Olympic Peninsula just north of Seattle.
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