A few weeks ago my little brother Joel called me on his lunch hour. "How would you and Dave like to join us at our friends Larry and Karen's property up in Washington over the 4th of July weekend?" We hadn't really traveled anywhere in the past few months, other than to visit our newest grand-baby. Mostly Joel and his wife Carin and their youngest daughter Abigail have traveled from Boise to our home several times in the last few months to assist with moving and sorting our mother's belongings. It has been a labor of love for certain, but also physically and emotionally draining. A trip to the Pacific Northwest sounded like the perfect way to decompress. "Do you think we could bring the boys with us? Would your friends mind even more additional strangers crashing their annual family gathering?" Carin said she'd ask. A few days later, she called and said that their reply was "Any family of yours is family to us too."
My heart melted a little. We told the boys to make arrangements with their employers to get a few days off.
This last Spring we purchased a pop-up tent trailer. It was a compromise between tent camping and staying in hotels when taking trips to mountain trails that I've researched and convinced Dave we need to hike. Last year our trip to the Colorado Blue Lake Trail ended much too late in the day; hotels were already filled. Already exhausted from our all-day hike we ended up having to drive through the night back home. If only we'd had a pop-up tent waiting for us after we got back down the mountain. Lesson learned. Dave researched for hours, joined online pop-up trailer groups, and finally we ended up purchasing a Rockport Freedom pop-up trailer. Sleeps five comfortably. This trip to Ione, Washington was going to be it's maiden voyage.
Two of our three sons still living at home announced they'd be coming with us. Andrew said he was unable to get those days off of work, since he'd already planned another camping trip he'd requested time off for. He also said he'd been planning to move out that week, but that he'd stay until we got back so that the cats wouldn't be left entirely alone. Wait a minute. What? Moving out? I felt a little knot form in my stomach. I knew he'd been planning on it, but now it just seemed sort of sudden. I forced a pleasant smile. "Well that's great son! He gave me a hug and smiled and said he didn't want to move out, to which I asked, "Why are you then?" he said, "Because it's time." Alas, another bird leaves the nest.
We left bright and early to drive straight to Newport Washington. After living in Boise for five years, I've always wanted to visit Coeur d'Alane, Idaho. We had mapped it out and it turned out to be a quicker route than going through Boise. By the time we had driven over ten straight hours, we actually missed the exit to take us into the small lake-side city. Too road-weary to care, we glanced at it from a distance, and drove on to Newport Washington to see if we could find a hotel for the night before heading to Larry and Karen's for the holiday week-end. With a population of just over 2,000 people, Newport has only two tiny motels; one which was filled and the other which had only one of thirteen rooms available and with just one queen-sized bed. Not wanting to be out of options, we quickly slapped the credit card down on the counter just as someone else came walking into the motel office door to inquire about a vacancy. The boys laid their sleeping bags on the floor and then we went to check out the Mexican food restaurant we'd seen on the drive in to town. We were quickly seated but then had a nearly hour-long wait for our dinner to arrive. Knowing we had next to no other dining options, we waited cheerfully until presented with huge plates of delicious tamales, burritos and even my favorite, a chili relleno. Well worth the long wait!
Eli diving into his plate of food at "Mi Pueblo". Delicious!
Next morning we made the short one-hour drive to Ione where we'd be spending the next few days. We were greeted warmly by Larry and Karen. Joel and Carin were still in Spokane picking up some groceries, so we made our own introductions and then got about the business of getting our pop-up set up. Larry, having years of experience with trailers stood close by to lend advise or help where needed. We set up next to a very tall tree that had an American flag mounted on it. Perfect.
Our home away from home for a few days. Thanks Larry and Karen!
Soon other family and friends began to arrive. Larry has built a few "tiny houses" on site. They are minimally furnished and one of them has a full bathroom in it. There is also an outhouse that they keep cleaner than most people keep their indoor bathrooms. A large picnic table and outdoor meal prep and cooking made for the best of both worlds of the convenience of a kitchen combined with the quintessential scent of bacon and sausage frying in the early morning. We gathered together for a simple but delicious first dinner of cold cuts and veggies and afterward played a fun game that was appropriate for all ages. Nothing quite like counting off "one, two, one, two...." to separate into teams of people who minutes ago were strangers to create instant commonalities and even friendships.
Cell phone service was pretty much non-existent. My little brother Joel who is an early-morning riser, slept in each morning. When I asked Karen what time I should plan on serving my assigned breakfast, she replied "Whenever you decide to cook it, that's when we'll eat." My kinda gal! Most mornings after being woken by very early birds, falling back to sleep and then rising an hour or two later, I'd unzip the canvas of our tent and see a few of the adults sitting on chairs lined up facing the river, coffee mugs in hand and visiting quietly. Disconnecting from the world. Connecting with each other.
Morning views from bed
We brought three coolers of food. The Lifetime cooler stayed icy cold, but the other two Coleman coolers were rapidly getting low on ice. We drove the four miles into town to get ice. No ice at the grocery store. All out of ice at the gas station. And the next gas station same story. We got some ice-cream cones from behind the deli-counter at the grocery store before heading back. We combined all of our food into the Lifetime cooler and vowing to only use these coolers from now on.
A nightly routine of ice-cream cones from local grocery store. It's quite the event to wait in line and watch the employees pack ice-cream into cones and cups. They are very generous and I greatly appreciate that!
I also appreciate that my boys are old enough now that I don't need to worry much when they are around large bodies of water. It have spent the last few decades of my life being hyper-diligent and it's a hurdle I'm grateful to be over. Karen told us about a few places we might want to check out while we were there. A living cave, a water-fall and even Canada! That's right....just a short hike beyond Gardner Cave (an amazing tour by the way, led by an excellent and rather entertainingly hilarious ranger named Erin), you can nearly have one foot in American and one foot in Canada. For a year and a half of not much travel, let alone travel to a different county, this sounded so appealing to me, even if it was mostly symbolic. We took Karen's suggestion and headed out after breakfast on our second day to go see all three. Bronson stayed back, but I wasn't concerned because of the aforementioned fact that he is an adult now and I don't have to panic about him being around the water when I'm not around him.
As we stood in awe at what looked like a huge swath of trees that divided the two North American countries, Eli said to me, "Mama, isn't it so cool how we have freedom of movement? Like, we can go anywhere in the states we want to without having to show papers or anything!" Freedom of movement. I hope and pray that that is something we don't have to lose in order to appreciate it.
Wild huckleberries, and I was never able to get huckleberry ice-cream while we were here. Guess we'll have to go back soon!
We made our way back to our week-end home. The extraordinary heat the northwest has been experiencing, combined with our small hike and several mosquito bites among us left us all pretty wiped out. Tomorrow would be a late breakfast for sure. A few of the adult grand-children had already headed back home and the evening was spent with ice-cream cone eating and sunset watching.
Our final morning, I rose late. Many of the week-end travelers had gone home by now and the river which all week-end long with boaters and water-skiers. Now the water was nearly like glass, with hardly a ripple. I got my Nikon out and headed down to the dock. Off in the distance I could see Bronson in a boat, paddling slowly toward me. I lifted the camera to my eye and took a few photos. I felt a tug in my heart. He was paddling towards me, but I also had a strange sensation of him paddling away from me. He's hardly home anymore. Nor is Eli. And Andrew will move out as soon as we get back. My camera wouldn't seem to focus completely. User error I'm sure. Maybe I didn't care. Maybe it's like when I have to do something scary and I know I have to face it, but I don't want to face it straight on and with my eyes completely open. Independence Day. Freedom for them. Freedom for my children to become who they're meant to be.
With lots of hugs and promises to stay in touch, we bade our goodbyes and with our hearts and bellies full we packed up and hit the road. We made it as far as Dillon Montana. Once again, we got one of the last available rooms. I took a two-hour epsom-salts bath while thumbing through a celebrity magazine. "Man.....these people don't even know what they're missing out on!" I wouldn't have traded our week-end with any of their exotic ones for anything.
I watched out the car window as we drove by rolling hills and and farms. The sun setting through a mixture of clouds and distant wild-fire smoke creating breathtaking views from every angle. And now, along with a little piece of land on the river, I've decided I'm also going to need a farm in Montana. Just a little one. But with enough space for the kids to come back home.
They can move out, but they'll always know where home is.
Montana - I'm coming for you next!
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