september 16th, day 5 - around coeur d'alene

Friday was the last day of our five day bike camp with the Vernon Outdoors Club in the Coeur D'Alene, Idaho area. We're already looking forward to the next bike camp September 10th to 14th, 2012 in Canmore, Alberta.

Ralph and I-90. Cycling south of Coeur D'Alene along the lake.

More lake and more Ralph.

More lake. What happened to Ralph?

Our group on a break.

Our amazing friend Al celebrated his 80th birthday during the week. He cycles like a 30 year old. (I hope I'm not insulting him by comparing his cycling to a 30 year old.)

View from our lunch stop.

  

Cycling in downtown Coeur D'Alene.

Cycling through the City park downtown.

 

Lots of room on the beach in downtown Coeur D'Alene. It's a beautiful warm sunny day but the lake doesn't look so warm, so no lifeguard needed.

Suck it in Gordo. More Coeur D'Alene. A beautiful location.

Friday afternoon, saying goodbye to Ralph and Lenore. They're heading for Canada and we're off to Montana.

Back in Wallace at an interesting park near our motel.

 

How can you tell Wallace is a mining town? The park is made up of mining equipment.

Monument to the mining families of the area.

christmas dinner at the gray's

A beautiful Christmas table setting.

Tyler greeting Mom at the door. Mom said "my you're hairy!"

Must be Christmas, must be Christmas....

Mom and Dad all dressed up and somewhere to go.

Linsey and Brett admiring their gifts from their Christmas crackers.

Tea time.

Laurel, Tyler and Darryl.

Tyler, Brian, Roy, Kirstin and Ian relaxing after turkey.

Hot tubin' Tyler saying goodbye to Joan. 

christmas day brinner

Brett is well known for his brinner meals. (A breakfast/dinner combo.) He whipped up one for us on the afternoon of Christmas Day.

Cooks hard at work. Tyler worked as Brett's assistant.

Looking good. Maybe not so healthy, but good.

Teamwork is important in cooking.

It looks like things are happening.

Tyler making sure the nitrates and nitrites are cooked to perfection.

The cooking team and hungry customers.

Brinner is served and has passed the taste test. Everyone is looking satisfied.

Laurel eating her brinner when she got home from work. Charlie is trying to help in anyway she can. Only seven days of work left for Laurel before retirement.

Charlie's bagged after a big meal.

christmas preparations

I've been so far behind in my postings and trying to post chronologically. But I feel that I must recognize the activities of Christmas and make a current post. So to all three of my followers - this is for you.

Dec 23. Brett was in constant contact with the North Pole.

Dec 23. Laurel and Tyler reading their lists and checking them twice. I'm not feeling very hopeful for many gifts this year. I don't know why, it's just a feeling I have.

Brett exercising his gift opening muscles.

Christmas eve. There's always jigsaw puzzles to be done in preparation for Christmas. The pressure is on.

The Christmas jigsaw was especially difficult this year so we had to go international and import a crack Jigsaw Puzzle team from the north and south of Ireland. Ian, Darryl, Brian and Roy took a lot of pressure off the Canadian team. They were a tremendous help.

The atmosphere was very intense and quiet. There was not a lot of talking, probably due to the language barrier.

The Canadian Jigsaw team is feeling much more relaxed now after the help of the Irish team.

september 15th, day 4 - plummer to black rock

Day four starts at the Plummer trailhead: a monument to warriors and veterans of the wars.

Laurel talking to Kerri before we hit the trail. Everyone go to the bathroom please.

On the trail again; Ralph on the left. Just a little drizzle to start the ride. First rain of the trip.

Familiar riders.

Lakeside.

Chow time at the lake. Laurel and Ralph don't seem to be talking; they've taken opposite ends of the picnic table.

Lunch is over, ready to go again.

Wildlife alert! We see a moose; actually we saw two meese.

Ralph just truckin' along.

Are we almost there?

Out for dinner in the evening to the 1313 Club in Wallace.

Must have been my breath or something I said.

Amazing what a little mouthwash will do.