Coeur D' Alene, Idaho

 Even Cowboys Get the Blues

 I had a high school buddy who lived here in Idaho. I had planned to at least call him again on the way though, but the Internet says that he passed away unexpectedly on April 30, 2014. He left behind children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was a lot of fun way back then.

It was bad enough losing good friends to car accidents, motorcycle fatalities, combat, brain cancer, and early heart attacks. Losing them to old age and natural causes is just flat depressing....apparently I will live forever and suffer either survivor's guilt or survivor's elation.

My older cousin Everett organised his 50th high school reunion back in 2010. He told me that 50 percent of his 1960 high school classmates were dead for one reason or another. He was born 12 days before me...apparently December, 1942 was a fecund period.

We're in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. It's a really nice place with public tennis courts, good shopping and movie theaters....we just saw "Minions"....it was available in 3D, but I was in a hurry.

We did the Going-to-the-Sun Road again back in Glacier. The snow pack at Logan's Pass sometimes exceeds 80 feet. The road sometimes doesn't open until mid-July. They have snow removal equipment that can move 400 tons an hour, but some days they only advance 500 feet.

One morning this week I got up at 5AM in Glacier National Park and hiked about four miles up the Going-to-the-Sun Road...I took a lot of early morning pictures which are still on a Sim card somewhere...

We had a moose run past our RV here in Coeur D'Alene...I asked Mrs. Phred to take a picture, but all we got was the legs...

Mrs. Phred has a lot of horseback riding stories...there was one time when she was riding an Arabian  in Israel which jumped the fence and bolted toward the border. It got hungry and came back to the stable......two weeks later she was near the Wall in Jerusalem and her hat blew off. When she chased it, an Arab fired a round at her feet...