If Day 4 started out cool to cold, Day 5 started out cold.
I had a brisk walk to the gas station for coffee, before talking with a couple other guys who were looping around on rented Harleys for a while. They had gone over beartooth pass the previous day and said it was brutally cold there - having recently snowed.
We were on the road near daylight. The sky was cloudy, almost hazy with what looked like rain in the distance. Nothing was on the radar, so we soldiered down the road, trying to keep warm.
Shortly after leaving Harlowton, a mule deer buck jumped the fence by the road and ran through the ditch toward the road right in front of us. I saw him, he saw us. We both took evasive action and missed each other by the slimmest of margins. If the cold didn't keep me awake, that deer will.
We enjoyed riding through Montana's wide open spaces. The road varied through the morning between straight with some very curvy areas as well. There were virtually no other cars on the road.
We went through the Helena National forest which was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, the settings on the camera were set to overexpose at some point near the end of the national forest, making many of the later pictures from the day unusable.
Still, even without the pictures, the time through Montana was wonderful. What a beautiful state, with wide open spaces, mountains, hills, animals. The pictures in memory are worth more than the camera pictures, if a little hard to share online.
Shortly outside of Helena, we jumped on the interstate for a while, getting off just north of Missoula. We weren't in a hurry and if anything had a little extra time to get to Spokane at an appropriate time. Getting off the interstate allowed us explore some more 2-lane roads through Montana and Idaho.
We worked our way north and west through western Montana. As we got near the Idaho border, we started to see smoke, and shortly thereafter, smell smoke. There were signs warning people not to stop on the road, as there was lots of firefighting activity, including fire helicopters picking up water from the Clark Fork River. In some places, the road was completely shrouded in smoke.
Thompson Falls was smokey, but still open for business. We had a great lunch, before motoring out through Thompson Pass. I was a little concerned that the road might be gravel since signs warned that it was not maintained in the winter, but it was paved and quite smooth all the way over the pass and into Idaho.
We jumped back on the interstate to get past Coeur d'Alene and into Spokane. Getting off the interstate, we worked our way through Spokane, which was pretty crazy, even in the early afternoon.
We made our way to Keith's house. Keith was a friend of my Dad's, who was not able to make it to his funeral, but I wanted to meet him. So we made arrangements to spend the evening with him. We got there a little before he did, and enjoyed sitting in the cool afternoon on his porch.
Once he got home, we visited with him a bit, getting to know each other and talking about Dad, stories, history ... life.
Dinner that night was at Cafe Rio - which was very good and filling. Outside the restaurant, was a very unusual car - it appeared to be a Chrysler Lebaron, that was outfitted on the outside with an actual boat. From a few feet away, it actually looks like a boat going down the road. It was quite unique, to say the least. And with no frame modification, was still road legal.
Back at Keith's house, we talked a bit more before turning in for the night. I wasn't sure what to expect, given that I had never met him, but was very glad we made the stop.
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