Some miles and our second state!

Saturday June 21
Ione Wa to Priest River Idaho
59 miles
We crossed into another state today!
We finally had a mileage day. It was a really enjoyable day on a low traffic road following the Pend Oreille river. The weather started out chilly in the morning but warmed up into perfect biking weather, about 70. Later in the afternoon it was probably in the high 70's but with low humidity it didn't feel burdensome at all.
We did find ourselves drinking quite a bit of water so by late afternoon we were on watch to find a water source. We found a Bible Camp where no one was around so we filled up with ice cold refreshing water there.
The folks we met last night, Dale and Lorriann, took off earlier than we did but we caught up with them later in the day. They are another couple doing this as a retirement dream. We have some similarities, Dale is a former engineer like Dave and Lorriann is a speech therapist and graduate school teacher so in the social services domain. Like Dave and I, opposites attract!
Lorriann is keeping a blog and is a really good writer.  You can check it out at lorriannmahan.wordpress.com Unlike us they were able to make it over the passes and so we can live vicariously through their triumph!

We  had a bit of an adventure with Dave losing his fanny pack and some guys finding it and actually driving it to us ! How nice!
We had stopped at a grotto called Manresa Grotto on the Kalispell Indian reservation. We stopped and had lunch and had a photo op.  In the repacking Dave left the fanny pack sitting there. For those who follow us on Facebook this is the second time this has happened.  It happened before we left home on one if our practice rides. The guys that found it called Matt in MI. Matt then phoned us and texted. It didn't ring on my phone but when I took my phone out to take a picture it looked like a family emergency.  Then Dave was going to grab his phone and found the fanny pack gone! So there we were thinking there was a family emergency AND no fanny pack with credit cards etc.
Matt had explained to the guys that we are crossing the country.  When we connected with them they volunteered to drive it to us!
The kindness of strangers has been just awesome on this trip.
I loved visiting the grotto and the caves on the hill. I've participated in a nine month prayer program based on St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises at Manresa Retreat Center in downstate MI so it felt meaningful.

The Jesuits were active converting the Native Americans to Catholicism at the turn of the century with all the changes that entailed. The tribe became less of nomadic hunters and fishers and became more farming oriented. Interestingly, later I saw a info board that explained this from a non Caucasian viewpoint with some of the sadness at the loss of culture. 
I'll post some pictures here.  We're just finished with breakfast so we want to head out. NICE to be riding.  We missed 210 miles of WA although we did follow the route in the truck. Rode 216 miles so far.