During our stay in CDA we had the pleasure of visiting with our friends who had just moved to Liberty Lake, WA from Seeley Lake, MT. Liberty Lake is right along the border about half way in between CDA and Spokane. It was like traveling back in time as we drove down the breathtakingly immaculate country roads to see our friends’ new place.  They have about 1.5 acres out in a rural part of the community (but just minutes from downtown Liberty Lake) where they report that they were a bit shocked by the neighbors. Most of the neighbors have lived there for decades and practice old fashioned rituals like showing up at our friends’ front door with baked goods and home grown/made consumables and saying “Welcome! We’re so glad to meet you and so glad you’re here!”. We stayed several hours to catch-up and visit and hang around the ultimate back yard bonfire. It felt like it was 100 years ago with the big open sky and foothills in the nearby distance. We had SUCH a great time with these wonderful people who are so very important to us.

 

We were finally starting to feel like we were actually living life and “stopping to smell the roses” for the first time in many, many years.

Turns out that Liberty Lake, WA is an unincorporated city within Spokane County with a little over 8,000 residents. The main draws are Liberty Lake itself, the Trailhead Golfourse, and an abundance of recreational opportunities. Back in the day it was the vacation (lakehouse/cabin) spot for residents of Spokane. But now it boasts some of the most modern technology as it hosts an array of magnificent homes for those who have a few extra bucks and are not interested in living in Spokane or CDA. The shopping complex is generously sprinkled with golf carts and ATV-type vehicles as this is all allowed, if not encouraged. What a great place to raise a family and enjoy the great outdoors!

We look forward to many more visits with our friends in Liberty Lake!

 

CDA oh CDA… Where for art thou been my whole life? Why have you not reached out to me to let me know what perfection you are? Wow. Just wow. We are TOTALLY impressed.

Not only is the beauty of the area second to none, but the weather, culture, and outdoor activities are…. I don’t know how to describe it all. It was like we were Goldilocks and CDA was Baby Bear and for us, everything in CDA was “juuuuuuuust right”!

We realize that this may not be true for everyone; we can only speak for ourselves and from what we experienced, observed, and learned from some of the people who live there. Without getting too mushy on you all… I will just highlight some of the things that we stumbled across and enjoyed.

When we arrived in the afternoon we were warmly greeted by our good friends whose dogs and house we would be looking after while they traveled for a few days. Insert corny pun here: “Whew! This fulltime RVing thing is ruff!”

They moved here a year ago from Seattle and were just exploding with anecdotes explaining how much they loved CDA. Looking at the setting of their home and learning a few factoids about CDA we could easily see why. We were in love with the sky, the foothills, the water, the weather, and all of the amenities that the city had to offer. It was pretty impressive for a city of just 44,000 people. I noticed on some of their signs that their motto is “City of Excellence” and we would agree. Everything seems very well planned out and cared for.

 

We went to dinner at a wonderful place called “Seasons of Coeur d’Alene” (sorry, forgot to take pics we were so excited) where the food was excellent and the staff and patrons were happy and friendly. We sat and caught up with our friends during this long-overdue get together. We are so grateful to have such wonderful people in our lives and we are so glad to have the time to finally cultivate these relationships again. We are truly blessed.

Our first full day there we hopped on our RAD Rover bikes and toured the Centennial Trail. The downtown part was very cool with an urban vibe and lots of people enjoying the trail on foot as well as on wheels. There was a ton of park space around the trail with CDA City Park and McEuen Park being the most developed and pronounced.

 

 

CDA City Park was near Northern Idaho College along the north side of Lake CDA and on the west side of town. A sandy beach extends the entire length of the park which is full of enormous trees providing ample shade for those warm sunny days. This is the more established park of the two and in it you will find the impressive Fort Sherman Playground, group picnic facilities, BBQ pits, a large bandshell stage for regular outdoor concerts and movies. There were tons of people enjoying this park either actively or just lounging around and relaxing. It had a very urban vibe for such a small town.

McEuen Park is much newer as it was just completed in 2014. It is 22.5 acres and is located more towards the center of town with a more modern feel including a huge new playground, splash park, a fenced dog park, a “waterfalls” law enforcement memorial, endless rolling green grass hills, and several paved trails to help navigate everyone to the different attractions. It is adjacent to to the popular Tubbs Hill nature park on the north end of Lake CDA.

Tubbs Hill is 135 acres of urban wilderness which consists of a 2-mile loop nature trail and features scenic viewpoints, woodland habitats, and historical focal points. Words cannot describe the beauty we experienced during this amazing hike. What we thought was the best about it was that it was right there in town! Where we live, you have to drive at least 45 minutes to find something even remotely like this. So again, this was yet another example of the outdoor mecca that is CDA.

On day two of our stay, we had the privilege of taking a 6 hour cruise across Lake CDA and 5 miles up into the St. Joe River where wildlife was abundant! It was an overcast day with a light chill in the air which was perfect for us Western Washingtonians! We went with our same friends from the night before and had the most pleasant time visiting while surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of Northern Idaho. I really don’t understand how anyone can lift their eyes up and look around at all of this and not believe in God!

On day three we enjoyed a self-guided tour through downtown CDA. We stopped at a few interesting/outdoorsy shops and marveled at the down-to-earth culture of the people, products, and services. Again, we felt like this city was custom-fitted to the things that we like and enjoy. We will do a separate post with mainly just photos which highlight the establishments that we enjoyed. Can’t wait to return to CDA!

For those of you who don’t know, we are mainly just creating this blog as a “journal” for ourselves that we can look back on and say, “That was a great time!”. But we are perfectly happy to share it with friends and family as well, if you are curious as to where we are going and what we are seeing. We know we aren’t the first one’s to see and experience all of this, but we love keeping a record of what we’ve seen and done. So, if you enjoy it as well, please feel free to “follow” our blog by clicking the “subscribe” button. We don’t post very often, but that way you will be notified when we do post. Thanks!

We are so green that we spent 22 months preparing for this day. Granted, we had to find buyers for our business (not an easy task in our line of work), get that transaction done, buy the “perfect” RV for our needs, sell 95% of our personal lifetime-collection-of-belongings, rehome our beloved farm animals and sell our favorite farmhouse and property, and prep our RV “Brutus” and our Toad “Brody”. During that time we also starting following several key fulltime RV bloggers and vloggers, and followed several informative podcasters as well. We watched a ton of YouTube videos and stalked a bunch of fulltimers on Instagram.

So we are totally prepared, right?

Not so much. We found ourselves having to put Brutus in the shop 6 out of the 10 days preceding our hard launch date. With each appointment, Brutus got sicker and sicker. You know when you have to go to the hospital for a friend or family member and when you leave you are CERTAIN that you have contracted something from the hospital air? Well it was like that, but it was TRUE and it was with Brutus’ internal systems. Talk about stress! We had a 6 week trip planned, during which we made commitments to several friends and family members. It was so bad with Brutus that just a day or two before launch, we came very close to canceling the entire trip!

Many of the bloggers/vloggers/podders had stated that since the RV population has been growing at alarmingly exponential rates the past few years, RV service was in high demand which creates a multitude of problems as an RV owner. So we were experiencing the epitome of that and it was beyond stressful and frustrating. And then, as if God himself said, “Okay you two, you have passed my test because you have not cursed at anyone or thrown anything at them; I will let you proceed in peace.” And just like that, everything was fixed about 12 hours before our departure time the next morning.

Whew!!!

Our next step was to set-up the Toad and pull out of the driveway. Seemed simple enough. We did so while grinning ear to ear and driving toward the freeway through the streets of suburbia. We were SO proud of ourselves for all of the time and energy we put into our planning so that everything would be PERFECT.

We had to stop at the gas station to fill Brutus up and just before we left my husband suggests that we check the magnetic lights that we had attached to our Toad, Brody. I rolled my eyes (because everything was going in slow motion as my husband quintuple checked everything with full-blown paranoia) and hopped into the driver’s seat to test the lights. I watched as he gave me his hand signals from behind Brody, and I complied. Then he disappeared for a short moment before he popped through the RV door. He spoke in a very low tone, almost a whisper, as he told me that we needed to go through the process one more time. I asked him, “Why?” with exasperation in my voice. I just wanted to get on the road! He sheepishly explained that he had put the magnetic lights on in reverse so that when I used the left turn signal on Brutus, the right turn signal flashed on Brody; and so forth.

I began laughing a genuinely hearty laugh and then slowly grew more horrified as I imagined the path of destruction that we would have left behind us driving down the freeway for several hours with that configuration! OMG. “We are SUCH rookies!” I proclaimed with both shame and pride.

With all of that behind us, we began our 3 hour trip eastbound on I-90 over the Snoqualmie Pass through Cle Elum, Ellensburg, and Vantage. It had been so long since I had left Western Washington that I had forgotten how diverse the topography of Washington State is. Even I was asking myself, “This is Washington State? Seriously?”

We stayed at our friends’ property right on the Columbia River in a little hidden gem community called Sunland in Quincy, WA. We were deep, deep down in a significant canyon cut by the river. It was an absolutely delicious slice of heaven right here on earth.

Sunland is a very remote place where although it was surprisingly modernized, time stands still there. Everyone waves and says hello to everyone. Kids play freely and uninhibited without supervision as a unknown/unapproved stranger would die in the desert before making it down to Sunland unnoticed. People relax, play, and soak in every last drop of the beauty that God has provided us. We wished we could have stayed longer, but we had to be in Coeur d’Alene the next day to begin house and dog sitting for our friends. Nonetheless, we feel very blessed to have had our one night in Sunland.

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The next morning we stopped for breakfast in Moses Lake, WA and found this unusual place called “Mom & Pops Diner” where the actual dining room had been trolley car #53 of the Seattle-Everett Interurban Line back in 1939. When the trolley line folded, car #53 was moved over to Moses Lake and has been hosting a restaurant since 1946. The food was not the best but it was not horrible either. We enjoyed this place just for the unique ambiance, so in that sense we would recommend it as something to try at least once.

Next stop Coeur d’Alene, ID!