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Chapter Five
The Orphan and The Boot take the fifth and last segment of The Great Arvee trip by going to northwest Montana then west towards their lair
So, on the seventeenth day, The Orphan, The Boot, The Beasts and The Great Arvee traveled 125 miles by going northwest towards Whitefish and Eureka. Then they turned south along Lake Koocanusa to the Koocanusa Resort and Marina near Libby, Montana.
Lake Koocanusa was named for three regions: the Kootenai tribal area, Canada, and the USA, because the lake that was dammed up by the Libby Dam backed up from the USA into Canada and stretched for ninety miles in what was originally Kootenai land.
The Koocanusa campground was beautiful with very large wooded sites by the lake separated by natural growth. The team found and paid for a nice large site with woods all around.
Soon a very large predatory man with two women walked into the campsite, arms akimbo, and demanded to know if The Orphan and The Boot were occupying the campsite, while the two women clucked and nosed about the site as if they were inspectors. Clearly they were not only misinformed about the occupancy of the site, they
had difficulty seeing The Great Arvee before their very eyes, and demanded to know why The Orphan was in an empty site.
But The Orphan, as usual when called upon to stand up to bullies, took charge and sent the unsuccessful usurpers away to find one of the many remaining truly unoccupied campsites. The Orphan remembered The Bully Rule.
The Orphan, The Boot, The Beasts and The Great Arvee then decided to stay two nights.
Discussions about missing Flathead Lake ceased. After many martinis, many snacks and a huge bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios consumed by The Orphan, there was sleep – and without air conditioning since the night was cool.
The eighteenth day was spent in the campsite – because The Orphan had a chore. During the cornbread baking, the plastic stovetop cover had been left on the stove and was severely warped. Each day thereafter The Orphan exerted many great efforts to unwarp this board since the warp was a grave consternation to The Boot. The
plastic cover had a memory and, after each ministration, gradually returned to its warped condition.
The Orphan rigged a rope with vice-grip pliers and with the aid of many bungee cords and over a half of a day created a new memory of flatness in that board! The board is still flat, albeit with plier and bungee hook marks.
Susie the Dog Beast Dijon Mustard again wandered out of the campsite when The Boot became distracted and forgot to attach her to her leash. The woods were scoured frantically until she was found several campsites away, and she refused to return until chased and caught. The Boot vowed never to become distracted again, as Susie the
Dog Beast was
old and disoriented and weak of sight and hearing, not to mention stubborn, willful and disobedient.
There were Gimlets that night, and after consuming The Boot’s gourmet dinner of Chicken Parmesan Pasta, the team slept.
On the nineteenth day The Orphan, The Boot, The Beasts and The Great Arvee traveled 222 miles while viewing wildlife at Libby Dam and hiking a mile to view the magnificent and wild Kootenai Falls.
They entered Idaho and changed their watches and clocks to Pacific Daylight Time and visited Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge (Blue Goose Passport stamped of course) at Bonner’s Ferry. The Orphan, The Boot, The Beasts and The Great Arvee drove the 4˝-mile auto tour of the refuge and The Boot saw a Moose and some White
Pelicans.
The day’s trip ended at Blueslide Resort on the Pend Oreille River in Cusick, Washington, State of Taxes, after The Orphan and The Boot rejected the Idaho Country RV Park near Sandpoint, Idaho, because it was hokey and crowded.
On the twentieth day, The Orphan, The Boot, The Beasts and The Great Arvee traveled 205 miles through Colville (105°), Kettle Falls, Omak and Okanogan – all with temperatures in the high nineties -- to their old favorite campground, Riverbend RV Park, in Twisp, State of Taxes.
America was still on fire and the sky was hazy with smoke from the forests of the Okanogan. After Gimlets and dinner sleep was quick -- since it had again become cool enough to leave all of the windows open at night
On the twenty-first day, The Orphan, The Boot, The Beasts and The Great Arvee decided to travel the 199 remaining miles to their Lair by crossing Washington and Rainy Passes on The North Cascades Highway, driving through Darrington, State of Taxes, and finishing the trip down State Highway 9.
The only stop was at the Washington Pass Overlook and Trail, where they took pictures of Liberty Bell Mountain and had pictures taken of themselves with Liberty Bell Mountain in the background. The Boot saw an Evening Grosbeak, the seventieth bird species of the trip.
They returned to high-speed driving and crowded freeways for the last few miles of the trip, and re-entered the safe and secure and well-watered Lair and Wetland Gardens of The Orphan and The Boot and The Beasts.
Liberty Bell Mountain, Washington Pass
North Cascades Highway, Washington
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