Settling Down for Awhile

Two weeks ago today, we were leaving Farragut State Park (the one with the giant sailor head statue). We had been in northern Idaho for almost two weeks and were ready to move on. However, we were in a little pickle about where to go next. There were lots of forest fires in the states of Washington and Montana, to our west and east respectively. In Oregon, to our southwest, there were some fires, but also the campgrounds were filling up with eclipse-watchers. We found a campsite not far from Farragut where we could stay two nights and figure it out.

Springy Point is right on the shore of Lake Pond Oreille, south of Sandpoint, Idaho. The campsite is managed by the Corps of Engineers, meaning that I get half price camping using the All Access Senior Pass (AKA Geezer Pass). On the second day, we were able to move from the reserve site to one of the “first come, first served” campsites (and what I considered to be one of the best campsites in the campground). We stayed ten nights. It felt good to stay put for awhile, as we had put a lot of miles behind us since we left Phoenix in early July.

We used Springy Point as our springboard to other activities (see what I did there?).

• We visited the Bird Aviation Museum that I wrote about in the last post.
• We did mundane errands and chores (laundry, got a new battery, etc).
• Here’s one…I had not had pizza since we left Phoenix, so I got a slice at Babs’ Pizzeria. Now, I was initially skeptical about the name. No disrespect to Babs, but it is  not a name that I would generally associate with pizza. Luigi’s, or Geno’s, or Maria’s. Those are pizza names.  I should have paid more attention to my skepticism.

Every night, we walked along a trail by the lake at sunset.

After I took the photo above, I thought that it was a pretty cool composition, and that if I were in the photo, I would want to have it. So I walked out to the dock, and approached Chair Shadow Woman.  “Hi”, I said. “I just took what I think is a pretty cool photo, and you are silhouetted against the sunset. Would you like to have it?”. She immediately said yes, and I emailed it to her on the spot. We chatted ever so briefly, then I excused myself.

A few days later, Chair Shadow Woman responded to my email, thanking me for the photo, noting that her two sons are also in the image (fishing on the dock), and that she will use it as her screensaver through the long winter as a reminder of her vacation. It was a nice slice of life and made me smile for days.

Leaving Springy Point was difficult, as was leaving the state of Idaho. It is a state of much geographic beauty and variety, and many, many friendly people. I met a few different folks who were from the area, who spoke of having “tried to leave”, but the area pulled them back. I counted it up and we spent 23 nights in Idaho. We will definitely return some day.

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