July 16th & 17th - Spokane to Missoula MT

July 16th – Fri – Spokane
Kathy & I made one of what used to be her usual last minute arrivals for our 10:30 tee time with Donna & Debbie at Qualchan GC. It was a beautiful day with a breeze to cool us off. Qualchan is a tough course for me and I struggled as I did the other few times that I played it. After golf, we left 2 vehicles in a parking lot and went together to Arbor Crest Winery for some wine tasting. The winery sits up on a bluff above Spokane valley so it has wonderful views. One of the wine pourers went to school with Kathy’s son Nick so the tasting was a little more personal and fun. Everyone bought wine except me (we will be going back to Canada) so we got glasses, had a bottle opened and enjoyed it outside – this was also a little early celebration for Kathy’s birthday on Monday.
The guys were back from an excellent fishing/float trip when we got home. They had stopped for an Effie burger in Lewiston on the way home so Kathy & I made another gourmet dinner for her & me featuring some really fresh bass. The guys were a little sunburned and felt cool in the house so we sat outside to enjoy the setting sun and then moved closer to the house and turned on a propane patio heater for a while. We got into a conversation about the changes in daylight as you go further north and ended up with the computer outside so we could do a little research – it has been a long time since 5th grade science!

July 17th – Sat – Spokane
We didn’t have a long trip today so we had coffee and then breakfast with S&K. I was able to do a final couple of things on their computer while Terry carried back all our stuff that had migrated inside. We said goodbye and were on the road just after 10.
We stopped at Dave Smith Motors in Kellogg as we went through to check out new trucks. They did not have the configuration that we want so we didn’t have to make a decision about actually buying one!
We got the last site at the KOA in Missoula, partially set up and went to Bretz RV to see a couple of 5th wheels that Terry had seen advertised on their web site. They have exactly what we want (Montana 3400RL) and we came back to think things over. We finally decided to enjoy the slight changes and fixes that we just made to our current rig and stick with it for a while.
A couple (Jim & Nancy) pulled in beside us when we were outside having a drink. They were really friendly and said they just picked up their new Montana 5th wheel. It turned out that we had seen them transferring stuff from their old 5th wheel when we were at Bretz. They were worn out and were happy to join us for a drink and to relax in the shade for a while. A steak on the BBQ ended a long day.