I departed Saturday, August 23rd with an 8am arrival at the Flying J truck stop in Troutdale to meet up with the posse. We decided to cut our own trail rather than follow the dealer rides and took a non-sanctioned northern route to the Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary event in Milwaukee. This meant riding north to get near the Canadian border on Hwy 2 as quickly as possible to begin our Eastward trek.
The weather was brisk, but ideal for riding. We headed east through the Columbia Gorge via I-84 where we watched windsurfers in Hood River and had breath taking views of the Columbia river. We saw the locks, barges of grain, and fishing boats. The scenery is always large and impressive in the gorge. By the time we arrived in the Richland area for lunch we had hot temperatures and moderate cross winds.
The terrain in this area gets dull, and the road gets even duller. It’s a confusing area where 395 joins I-82 for a while crossing the Columbia River, but even after it breaks away from interstate, it remains a heavily traveled limited-access highway with lots of traffic as it runs northeast for about 150 miles to Spokane, Washington. This route took us toward greener country near the Idaho state line. At Spokane, on I-95 east we headed to Coeur d’Alene, ID where we picked up highway 95. It heads north before reaching the Canadian border. There is a lot of scenic beauty through the forests of northern Idaho. The traffic gets thinner the farther north you get.
We ended the ~430 mile day crossing over the Sandpoint Long Bridge in Sandpoint, Idaho. Sandpoint is in, Bonner County and has a little more than 7000 residents. The key industry is recreation/tourism thanks to scenic Lake Pend Oreille and the Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort. A little known bit of trivia is it’s the headquarters of Coldwater Creek which is the women’s apparel retailer.
We stayed at the Quality Inn which is located at the beginning of the Pend Oreille Scenic Byway. We met up with some friends at the Edgewater Resort and ate dinner in the Beach House Restaurant and had a few refreshments to enjoy the sunset on the lake.
As a bonus we ran into Ben Stein (writer, actor, TV personality) in the restaurant bar. Sandpoint seems to call the “rich and famous” for all types of recreational activity. You’ll have to trust me that it’s Ben because it’s not very clear in this photo unless you have zoom capability.
Interested to know more about our “Ride Home”? Read the road blogs for: Day 2 HERE, Day 3 HERE, Day 4 HERE and Day 5 HERE.
Sounds like a fine time riding, the best way to spend time.
Dave
did you try to “win ben stein’s money”?
@ karen – no game show gymnastics for me. I did try and debate him on the NY Times columns he writes. I recall ranting about how they are shallow anecdotal arguments from pseudo-authority rife with pandering and half-cooked conspiracy theories. In other words, they are just plain silly. He bought me a drink so I would shut up and then promptly left the hotel bar! 🙂
Cheers,
Mac
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