Day 40: Coeur d'Arlene, ID: Day 41: Coeur d'Arlene to Spokane, WA (J's Version)

Good afternoon! We are in Washington State!!! WOO HOO! So exciting! Just a few more days now. We're slightly nervous because from Spokane (pronounced Spo-CAN not Spo-CANE) to

Portland doesn't really look like much. Chris, our bike guy from yesterday pretty much said there's nothing but desert. I mean, we are no stranger to desolate regions while cycling, so we'll see. Also, the ocean is still about 50-90 miles west of Portland depending which way you go. Man, I wish I had a billion dollars to fly people out to surprise G on the beach when he gets to the Pacific!

The bruise from G's fall finally surfaced. It looks really bad. I'm not even going to take a picture of it. He filled you in in his latest post about the condition of Jenard. I, originally, talked on the phone with Chris when Jenard was done and when Chris said, "There's a crack in the frame," my heart dropped for G. Cracked frames are not good in the bike world; however, luckily the crack is in a good spot, so he can still ride Jenard. Chris' shop specializes in Trek bicycles, so Jenard was with family. It was slightly creepy because I always thought Jenard was original, but there's others just like him/her with slight variations.

The Trek family!

Jenard's Red Badge of Courage

Jenard's little sister

Bike Shop Talk. I think they were talking about tires here.

After picking up Jenard, we went to another favorite type of restaurant that we like. Ever been to a

Get the joke regarding the name?

Brazilian Steakhouse? They are AMAZING. The meat is served Rodizio style meaning the servers come around with spits of meat and you use these mini tongs and take a piece of meat off. Usually there are about 20 different types of meats/marinades in rotation at once, so you get an amazing variety. If you want more you keep your token on green and when you want the servers to slow down yellow, and can you guess what red means? I'm ready to pop! There's also a buffet of sides like veggies and potato salad. I'll be honest, I was surprised Coeur d'Arlene, Idaho had a Brazilian Steakhouse. Let alone the BEST one we've ever eaten! (There's 3 in CT that I know of. Stamford, Waterbury, and West Haven)

The restaurant was along the beach front lake/river area of Coeur d'Arlene and was in an extremely lively area and so picturesque. Our hotel was about 2 miles from this area, so up until that point we had no idea that this part of the city existed. G kept saying, "We are in the cool area!" and even asked our waiter, "Are we in the cool part of town?" 

Since the area was so "cool" not to overuse the word, I stayed there for a few extra hours in the

morning to explore while G was riding. I had to walk off all the meat I ate the previous night. 2 miles along the boardwalk type of area. Absolutely gorgeous! G didn't get on the road until 9:30 because we decided to do a half day today, so we could get a few errands done later. We want to go to a Verizon store and see how much it would be to break our At&t contract OR just get a few prepaid phones from them. As I keep saying the At&t service is almost non existent in certain parts here but Verizon gets service and if we are in the desert we need to be able to communicate. From Coeur d'Arlene to Spokane is about 40 miles. He's not doing the highway either today but an actual bike trail.

Three things I learned/Tips;Advice

1. Find a specialized bike shop. Since our bikes are from Trek, it's a lot better to find a bike shop like we did this past time that actually works on Treks and sells them. Makes sense right? I'm sure other bike shops that aren't Trek based could have helped us, but overall you want a service guy who knows the brand. 

Mustard marinated steak

2. Yelp: Make Yelp your best friend. It helps you to locate motels and restaurants and basically anything that's around the area. Read the reviews, look at the pictures, and take it all in! Without Yelp our trip would NOT have been as good. If you don't already have the APP download it now!

3. Triple A or AARP: Discounts! Most hotels give you at least a 5% discount off the hotel rate for just mentioning you have either of those discounts. This whole time no one even ever asked to see the card. My word was enough. That doesn't mean cheat the system. If you are planning a long trip and don't have either of those, invest in it for a year, just to get the discounts. It'll add up over time. I think triple A is 50 bucks a year and AARP (if that applies to you) is maybe 20 a year. 

Coeur d'Arlene pictures

Have a great day!