Bonner's Ferry, Idaho
(July 10-14, 2008)
The wind had already died down by the time we reached Kathy's place at Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. Time to relax and settle down for the evening to visit and watch a little television. Flakey the cat, is sizing Mel up from a distance. She decided he was okay, and moved in closer for some petting.
The next morning we had breakfast at Chic and Chop. Not only is the food good, but the waitress is a favorite with everyone. Kathy's breakfast group has breakfast there twice a week.
The subject of the worst flood to hit Bonner's Ferry came up, and we were told to go to City Hall to get a picture of it.
During May-June, 1948 the terrible Kootenai River flood collapsed the bridge. Notice the water in the streets. On May 31st the river swept into Bonners Ferry after having been held by the dikes of the city for five days. The flood covered 30000 acres in the river valley. Virtually the entire diking system guarding more than 30000 acres of rich farm land at Bonners Ferry was destroyed.
This river is the third largest tributary to the Columbia River. Seventeen miles upstream from the town of Libby, the 422-foot tall Libby Dam now holds back 90 miles of water in Lake Koocanusa. Forty-eight miles of the reservoir lie within U.S. borders, the other 42 miles are in Canada. Libby Dam was completed in 1972 as a joint project between the United States and Canada in an effort to provide flood protection and to generate hydroelectric power. The Kootenai River fluctuated wildly in the spring causing flooding in Montana, Idaho and British Columbia, costing millions of dollars in flood damage. That's why Congress authorized construction of Libby Dam in 1951 and construction began in 1966.
Of the former flooding, one story relates, "I grew up in Bonner's Ferry," said the waitress, pouring coffee...Until Libby Dam got built and calmed things down, flooding was our big excitement. People went down and watched the water gauge. You'd have every available body patrolling the dikes. You'd see a little trickle and heave sandbags at it."
"The good old days, hey?'
"Stuff the good old days," she said. "The last 20 years or so, you can live a normal life around here. I hope I never, ever hear a flood-siren again."
After visiting City Hall, Kathy took us to the top of the hill where we could get a good view of the area below. The town's cemetery. This sign tickled our funny bone, and I had to take a picture.
This is the place....
And it certainly has a beautiful view.
Not only that, but yesterday's wind brought down lots of trees and branches....and the buildings below.
Lisa and the girls rolled into town, and Auntie, Mom and daughter Lisa pose by Kathy's beautiful petunias.
Now it's Mel and Flakey's turn.
We all piled into the motor home and drove downtown to the street market to see what we could find.
There was music.
...And there is unusual food. Kathy's buying some special little spinach-cheese filled turnovers, like miniature pasties. I bought some of those, and delicious almond rolls for later.
Mel's getting some coffee and a dozen donuts for everyone.
Can I have one?
It was fun looking around at all the artistic, and interesting things people make...but it's time to go.
We had a wonderful visit with everyone, but felt we needed to get on the road again heading for Banff National Park. Not far out of town the turbo hose on the engine started coming off again. We found a place off the road and Mel worked quite a while putting it back on. I helped hold it while he tightened the clamp. This happened about six more times, so we decided to head back to Bonner's Ferry to see if we could get it fixed. Kathy called a friend to see if he knew anyone. While we were there, Lisa and Kathy made a delicious BBQ and invited Don and his wife to share it with us. It turned out that he didn't know who could fix our motor home problem locally. Lisa found a place on the Internet. There was a dealer at Liberty Lake, Washington that could work on it.
Meanwhile, some of Kathy's breakfast bunch decided to get together with all of us for a going away breakfast. The usual Chic and Chop was closed, so we wound up at the Best Western Kootenai River Inn Casino. It over looks the river, has good food and service.
After breakfast the girls finished getting their things into their car for their trip home, and we got our act together so that we could leave at the same time. It didn't take the turbo hose long to come off again. Lisa called us on the cell phone, but we told her to go on...that everything would be okay. As we approached Sandpoint, Mel spotted an auto parts store, where he bought some new clamps for the hose. Hopefully they'll do the trick. He put one on, and then we started for the Yukon. Near the Canadian border we noticed that diesel fuel was $5.00 per gallon, so we turned around, and decided to visit Crater Lake and Wild Life Safari on the way home.
