August 13, 2008 - Northern Idaho to Central Washington

Idaho is the 42nd state I've visited.

I had to get an oil change today. The new car started flashing an alert for an oil change. According to the rental office, it had not been changed at their agency and was last changed several days ago. Perhaps the indicator simply was not reset and it had not been driven 3,000 miles, but I didn't want to take any chances with the amount of driving I would be doing. Thankfully, there was an oil change place across from the hotel.

My planned attraction for the day was the Old Mission Church in Cataldo, ID. This is the oldest standing building in the entire state of Idaho. But, I decided to check the GPS for local attractions. It appears Idaho has a Round Lake State Park. For those who know me in person, you know the significance of Round Lake for me. I had to see it.


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Round Lake here in ID is a small but beautiful lake. There are beautiful mountains surrounding it. A number of families were here swimming and fishing. Someone even pointed out a moose drinking from the other side of the lake. He was too far away to get any decent photos. But, I did try. This is the first time I've ever seen a live moose in my life. See the photos.

After Round Lake, I headed to Cataldo. The drive took me through I-90. Idaho has a short stretch of I-90. There are gorgeous views of Lake Coeur D'Alene along the interstate. I-90 mostly winds through mountains with lots of evergreens at this point.


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The Old Mission Church was very nice. The parish house was also available. They had several stations set up where you could hear audio clips from narrators. Some talked about the Jesuits while others talked about the Native Americans. The Jesuits and the Coeur D'Alene Native American tribe built the church between 1850 and 1853. It is presently a state park and not operating as a church. There is a long walking tour along the grounds and there are even small cemeteries. I saw some plants which are different from what we see in the east. See the photos.

I also visited Lake Coeur D'Alene on the way towards Washington. See the photos.

My destination for the evening was Leavenworth, Washington. This meant several hours worth of driving along I-90. As I got near the ID/WA border, I decided to look for postcards. Several gas stations along the interstate did not have any (in the midwest and west, almost every gas station has postcards!). Finally, I stopped at a truck stop. I found a number of funny postcards related to potatoes. While checking out, an elderly man fell and hit his head outside. He was injured. What was rather upsetting was that most of the clerks seemed unsure of what to do. People were asking them to call an ambulance and they just seemed nonchalant about it. By the time I got checked out, an ambulance had finally been called.


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Washington is the 43rd state I've visited plus the first West Coast state I've seen. As I drove into eastern Washington from I-90, I was amazed at the sudden change in landscape. While Idaho had been mostly forest with huge mountains, Washington had a desert-like appearance. There were some evergreen trees in the desert for a while. But as I drove further, the trees thinned out and disappeared altogether. It was just scrub plants for a long while. Despite being a desert, there were plenty of lakes. At some points, the land turned into farm land. You could see vast distances. Interstate exits were few and far between. The maximum speed is 70 mph. See photos from the first rest stop. See photos from the second rest stop.

As I got closer to the central part of the state, it became all farm land along I-90. Leavenworth is not directly along I-90. There is quite a bit of driving on rural routes that pass through small towns.

The scenery was beautiful. Too bad I could only see a little bit at night. I was getting a little nervous with this kind of driving, fearing I could have another deer incident. There were deer crossing signs throughout most of the rural areas. I was really watching for them. Apparently, I was watching so much that I drove over the white line a few times. A state police officer pulled me over to find out if everything was okay. I explained that I had hit a deer only two days before in Montana and didn't want a repeat performance. He said that they do have one deer accident each day in this area but reassured me by pointing out that it's nothing like Montana. (I recall the police in MT said there were three or four incidents in a night.)

As I got closer to the hotel, there were long stretches of cities and towns. The probability of a deer incident dropped significantly.

When I reached Leavenworth, I was amazed. I had heard that this was a German-focused tourist area but I assumed there would just be a few small things and that's it. But this was huge. Everything was lit up elegantly with blue and white Christmas lights. There was a lighted fountain. The hotels and all the other businesses had a Bavarian theme to them. I took a long walk through the village at night, taking everything in. I was also planning what I would see the next morning. There were plenty of restaurants and sweep shops. One boasted of authentic Danish food. There were lots of gift stores. One store called itself "Kris Kringl" with a byline "where it's Christmas year round." I passed by the "center" of the area. It had a sign in German welcoming people. I was definitely looking forward to exploring the village in the morning.