Goodbye Lewis and Clark!

These last two days have been all about making it back to New York. They gave us a whole day to drive from Weippe, ID to Spokane, WA, just in case of snow and delays. The drive was about 4 hours or so. We had big breakfasts at Mechell's, involving pancakes and eggs. I was on the passenger seat and got some fun shots of snow.

When we finally made it to Spokane, we stopped by a small cafe whose name I no longer remember, and I had a salami and cheese sandwich and a coke. I took a bite of their lemon cake. Grossness.

I unfortunately did not come prepare to find out that our Airport Hotel was also considered a "water park."

Today was all about flying back to New York: Spokane to Seattle, Seattle to JFK, JFK to office, office to home. However, Kudos to the advertising team in Spokane - not widespread enough, but I enjoyed this ad:

Indeed. Adios Idaho! I had fun.

Land of Lewis & Clark, Day Four

For our last night in Weippe, we ate at the other town restaurant: Timberline Café and RV Park. Mariel and I decided to share the vegetarian pizza, which was like a salad on top of crispy pizza dough, really. They really like Olives in Weippe.

It was pretty decent. We ate to our heart's content, then chilled at the restaurant for a bit using their wifi. Cannot WAIT to get out of here. Not that our stay has been bad at all, I just miss New York, and Mi Cariño. Trips where I'm in a different time zone suck in many different ways. I'm going to finish watching season two of Gilmore Girls tonight, and I'm looking forward to Mariel driving tomorrow so that I get to enjoy the view up the mountain.

Land of Lewis & Clark, Day Three

Woke early to learn that it had been snowing all night. It looked beautiful... I put on my borrowed boots and stepped outside to wait for our participant to pick us up.

We set out for Clearwater National Forest. Since this isn't really a walking town, we made our way through the somewhat plowed streets. Finally, we left the houses behind and said hello to thousands of "Christmas trees."

We walked until we reached an area that had been cleared out. Weippe is a logging town, and it's one of the main employers in the area. It's not an easy sight, compared with the awesomeness we walked to get there.

We eventually made our way back, to make sure that we wouldn't be late for work. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and off to the car we went, to clear out the snow.

Our participant also asked us to come over to the Art Show the High School students were going to have in the neighboring town of Pierce. The towns share one High School. After work she came to our cabins and picked us up in her pick up truck accompanied by her husband and the Mayor. The High School doesn't have an art program, and the kids get to put the show thanks to the volunteer efforts of some of the towns citizens.

It was pretty cool - the kids were very excited and got to see their work displayed in a "gallery" which consisted of someone's store front. There were photographs and paintings, drawings and woodwork.
After supporting the kiddies, the Mayor took us to dinner to The Vug, a bar/pool/restaurant place right across the street. A pool tournament was going on.

I went for something safe and easy: cream of broccoli soup and grilled cheese.

I've had better. But it took the hunger away and as they say: beggars can't be choosers. At The Vug we also met a real life gold digger: he's the owner of the place and apparently also owns land somewhere in Pierce and it's fighting to keep it and its gold. He showed us what a real gold nugget looks like, before it goes through whatever it goes through in order to be jewelry. It was quite the busy day though, and I was glad. I fell asleep on the back of the pick up as they drove us back to our cabins and I am glad that I had established silence in the car on the way down, because hopefully no one noticed. Tired for sure.

Land of Lewis & Clark, Day Two

Day Two in Weippe. By the time I woke the place was covered in new snow and it took about 15 minutes for me to wish to be back home. We headed to Mechell's for breakfast, since it remained the only place open. They were very nice and understanding with my warm water with lemon. I got a veggie omelete with home fries. It was okay.

The day went by fairly quickly. The Weippe public library is pretty well set up - they have an entertainment center in the basement area so that teens have somewhere to come and play video games. They also have a pretty popular computer center, since the library is the only place in town where Cell Phones work, and people of Weippe can use the free wifi.

One of our participants invited us to come along with her to hike in the nearby forest in the morning. When I let her know that I didn't have real snow boots, the other participant asked me my size, said "hold on a second," and in no time at all went to her car and got me some gorgeous snow boots to borrow. I was amazed.

Dinner was once again, Mechell's. We slightly considered trying one of the bars, but figured it might just not be a good idea. I had a fish burger with curly fries.

I have to say I was very disappointed with the salmon burger. I ate about half of it but enjoyed the entirety of my fries. We took our time at the restaurant though... neither one of us wanted to go back to our tiny cabins. The nearest wifi spot outside of the library was the laundromat a good 100 feet away from the cabins. Luckily I came prepared with season two of Gilmore Girls.

Land of Lewis & Clark, Day 1

So, I managed to drive from Spokane, WA all the way to Weippe, ID - it took exactly 3.5 hours, fact I'm very proud of because it means I actually drove slightly above speed limit for the 170 miles we covered. Mariel took a picture while I drove:

It was very scary, but I kept at it. I guess it's true what they say about it being a bit easier the more you do it. But I really have no desire to that again. I'm glad I drove on the way in, because if I had seen the kind of places we were driving by I wouldn't have made it. I'm talking hairpin turns down and up a freaking mountain.

Once in Weippe I realized that the place was even smaller than I imagined: there was one main street, sure, about two bars, two restaurants, one gas station, one grocery store, and the library where we would be recording. Of course, there wasn't an actual hotel to stay at, but the town did have a trailer park with some cabins. Although there was no snow in Spokane and some snow on the way, Weippe was completely covered. Here's my cabin

I can't convey how tiny this thing was: one full size bed against one wall, with bunker beds on the other side. There was a tiny kitchenette with a microwave, tiny fridge, sink and cupboards. A small bathroom, and the tiny heater behind the bed bunks. The entertainment came in the form of a tiny tv with a vcr built in, and a bunch of movies - really, really old movies.

The pictures don't do the place justice - I wasn't able to really take a picture of the room since it was too small. The hard part is the silence though... the only sounds were the cars driving by sporadically.

One of the two restaurants in town was closed, and so we had our choice cut out for us. And so we went to Mechell's Cafe. Mariel and I chose to have grilled cheese.

It was as good as a grilled cheese sandwich can be. The fries not so much. We also went there for dinner, and I had me a taco salad.

I was very tired after, but it was still hard to fall asleep... the silence was a bit oppressing, plus it started to snow a little at night. Here goes day one!