Slept in a bit and made use of the room to use the Wi-Fi to upload yesterdays travels. Once on the road it was only a short drive to the border and I crossed into Idaho.
Idaho is shaped different to the surrounding states that are mainly 4 sided. Idaho has a narrow strip at the top of it that runs between Washington and Montana that runs all the way up to the Canadian border. Like Florida which has a similar narrow section at it’s top it is called the “pan handle”.
After driving for a while I pulled into a Subway store and got some breakfast. Not long after that I pulled into a rest area that had a Idaho Visitor Information building at it. I picked up some free maps not only for Idaho but also for Montana And Wyoming which I will be travelling through later. Also available were brochures for Craft Breweries located in Idaho, and for the Seattle area. These I can use and then pass onto other collectors who may be doing some brewery visits after the show in Portland.
The drive in Idaho was up and down over mountains and through valleys following rivers and lakes along the way. In some sections there was lot of road works and twice we stopped completely whist work was being done.
As it was afternoon by now I took an exit from the interstate and stopped for some lunch in Wallace, Idaho.
It was once the silver mining capital of the world in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. Now the Interstate runs over it on a raised roadway the length of the whole downtown area.
I stopped at the Wallace Brewing Company and looked at all the old photos of the town and the saloons.
The town had a flood in 1930 and the water supply for the town got contaminated and not fit for use. The town Mayor ordered the saloons to stay open 24 hours a day so the locals could use the facilities and get something clean to drink, obviously for their health ! I also found out it was the town that actress Lana Turner was born in.
I bought a t-shirt from the brewery and had some lunch. The set up for the bar is quite good, with plenty of high tables to sit at and some lounge areas as well. One interesting activity is on one Tuesday night per month they run a yoga in the pub night. Where people do a yoga class and afterwards get a pint included in the price of the yoga session.
Another weird trivia piece is that the town is the self proclaimed “Centre Of The Universe” which it claims that the spot is actually right on a man hole cover at one of the main intersections of the town.
Leaving Wallace the road travelled through more mountainous areas and across into Montana. I still had a lot of driving to do to get to Missoula and the road works gave way to some good open stretches of Interstate. The other bonus is the speed limit increased to 80 mph for cars but remained at 65mph for trucks.
The weather was again very dry heat with some strong winds at times. I am lathering on the sunscreen as the sun is quite strong coming through the windows of the van and at different angles as the day goes on.
I got to Missoula about 5.30pm after turning the clock forward an hour for the time zone change. I was pretty tired and worn out when I got there so decided to get a cheap motel room for the night downtown. It cost 64 dollars plus tax. I was concerned how hot it would be in the van overnight as there is only really two side opening windows in the van and they only open an inch.
I unpacked the van and locked up the room and went to dinner at a nice family restaurant, and had grilled chicken with a salad whilst making use of the restaurants Wi-Fi.
After that l went back to the motel and watched some Olympics whilst downloading my photos. The downloading takes more time from the phone to the tablet via Bluetooth than it does from the phone to the computer at home. Finishing that I went to sleep.
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