July 7 – Oh, Deffy

Up early and stop for breakfast in Lewiston. Nice waitress brought Steve the wrong breakfast – he said “that’s OK, this is what I really wanted anyway, my usual!” She felt bad and in a few minutes brought the biscuits and gravy, no charge. I knew she was going to chew on her mistake and bring the biscuits!

Cross the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Reservation, through the NP town of Lapwai and visited the Lapwai Mission – very interesting history. Henry Spalding established the mission, then William Craig had his hands in it all. Interesting history.

Gas in Winchester ($2.79!) then Hwy 13 to Kooskia > Hwy 12 to Missoula, then return to the Hwy 12 junction and head south to Hamilton for the night. Beautiful country, although there was too much asphalt this day. We did see lots of Osprey, not much else as far as critters. The Bitterroot River runs through Hamilton.

Rain is following us – storms, really. We tried to check into Motel 6 but they were not serving customers because they were shut down. Only the manager was there, young man, neat and personable, and he said he was just there to gut the rooms. Once done he said he was “heading for Portland and out of this hell hole.” Well, I don’t think Hamilton is a hell hole, but it is somewhat depressed although the price of real estate would lead you to think otherwise. Anyway, he was looking forward to the “fun and nasty Portland.”

We ended up at Deffy’s, a fair-to-middling spot run by the manager we’ll call “Bob.” Steve and Bob hit it off and spent the evening chatting and laughing on the patio till it was time for sleep. He had some interesting theories, especially about the tipping of earth on its axis because of all the concrete and buildings and the weight of all the people. Very nice guy, but a bit…quirky, which we love!

We’ve been in and out of Idaho and Montana, tomorrow we head out of Idaho for the 3rd time and into Wyoming.