Nancy Cycles!

Nancy Cycles!
"You got to be careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there." ... Yogi Berra

Thursday, August 25, 2022

SANDPOINT IDAHO AS WE NEAR NEXT SOTF EVENT

Perhaps needless to say, we got yet another tip from a Sister. Rosalie, our coordinator for the Big Sky event, told us about a camping possibility in Sandpoint at the Fairgrounds. Well, we thought, it cannot be any worse than this Beyond Hope RV park! Not expecting much, we drove to check out the Fairgrounds.

Imagine our surprise when we found a tree shaded campground not only with electrical and water hookup, but with wifi (which you had to buy at that other place). All that and it is about one third the cost for this delightful spot tucked under these cooling trees.



We have have plenty of space between all rigs and a quiet little place to relax. Relaxing and reading were our activity for this day as we plan to do a bike ride into and around town in the cool of tomorrow morning, and spend another night here.

Susan prepares us for lunch under the tree.



Then she naps off and on while listening to the Mariner’s baseball game. We both seem a little tired and are happy for this day to rest more than we have been over the past several days. I took a little nap inside the van, Susan snoozes under the trees.



Next morning we are up early to have what turned out to be a wonderful bike ride. Yesterday’s rest served us well. Susan had been kind of ‘dragging’ and apparently really needed this rest because the next morning she was ready to ride before I was!!! That is one for the books for sure.

We took off from camp wended our way through some road work detours and found the trail that would lead us into town. Susan is most often wanting to be ‘playful’ in some of my photos. Here she pretends she could fall through the “imperfect” fencing on the bridge.



As we move along the shoreline of the Lake, this looks like a long and detailed covered bridge…



It is a shopping center with a cafe ;’-). Thinking back, we may have walked through here on a previous trip to Sandpoint.



The trail got us right to the City Beach.



The wind was swift and hard but did not deter any of the kite sailors! There were about 5 of them doing their thing but getting a photo of any of them was difficult to impossible.

The waves looked a little mean.



This sailor was using a smaller sail that he held onto.



Others flew with their kites.

We liked the view across the beach.



Playful Susan plays again.



From here we were ready to head into town, find the next trail and ride across that bridge.



At the trailhead we remembered this guy from our past trips.



He has been here a long time. Fishing must be good.



To give an idea of where we are about to ride across the bridge. The route along the bridge goes along that spit at the bottom right.



The bridge, with Susan far in the distance. When they built the “new” bridge years ago, the kept the old bridge and made it for bikes and pedestrians only. Initially it feels somewhat strange to be riding along with fast traffic coming in you direction. We had a big tailwind going out that made us feel like speeding Olympians ;’-). Coming back we were wind fighting warriors. 



The plan was to turn around at the end of the bridge and return to town, but Susan was SO refreshed from the relaxing day we had had that SHE wanted to ride on! So we continued to ride to the Springy Campground where we have camped a few times in the past. This rather serene place caught my eye.



Having left camp early (recall that Susan was ready so quickly), it was a little early for lunch so we dawdled a bit before finding Connie’s Cafe. Connie’s has quite a history as Conrad owned a couple of restaurants in Seattle but his family lived here in Sandpoint. He came here and eventually the Conoco Gas Station went up for sale. He bought it (in the late 1950s) converted it to the restaurant and ran it for many years. There have been several different ownerships but it is still there and serves great food.


We had our lunch on the deck and the wind was so strong it moved this big tree against the rain gutter to give us a squeaky lunchtime seranade. 






Got home to the Fairgrounds that we have enjoyed so much.



This is the best place for camping — $25 a night, electrical and water hook ups, bathrooms and showers (free) AND Wifi!! Biggest bargain yet.  Works really well for us as we can easily bike into town or explore other places We highly recommend it for anyone looking for an RV spot — not tents allowed.

No time to proofread before trying to post this, so please excuse any typos you find.

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