Road Trippin' It Part I: Yaak (Falls), Bull Lake, Kootenai Falls

Yaak, proper. Mom's and their kids (Leslie keeps a shorter leash on hers than Emily does).


Annie's first swim in current. She's actually smarter than I give her credit for. After 2 throws of having to establish a good ferry angle and swim against the current, she started running up the bank, hopping in upstream of the ball and swimming with the current down to it! She did start over compensating for the current, however, and ended up jumping in WAY too far upstream and then the ball was nearly gone by the time she got to it...so she's not quite as clever as she thinks she is.


Annie showing Libby how to pounce.


Yaak falls. Libby was trembling in Mom's arms. We didn't let Annie out of the truck.


Proud parents: Mom and Dad must not think they have enough mouths to feed already.



Bull Lake. I can't keep Annie out of the water.


Libby's still on the short leash.



Every wrap of the leash around the chair was counter-clockwise.


Like mother like daughter.



Kootenai Falls.


Happy in Love


Swinging bridge at Kootenai Falls.

Libby Coming Into Her Own

Annie, meet Libby

Family Time

Mom, Dad, and Little Libby Lu came up to visit. We've been having a lot of fun. More to come later; we're headed to Nelson, British Columbia for the next two days. We booked a room at a B&B that allows dogs (one of two that allow dogs, the other one was booked and this one has chickens...I'll be keeping Annie on a "tight leash" and praying I don't have to pay for dead chicken!)


Proud Parents. Mom, Dad, and Libby Lu at Libby Dam.


Showing Proportions.


Dada's girls with their girls.


Walking the trail loop just outside of town.


First fur-to-fur contact. Annie is VERY tolerant of Libby.


Tuckered out.


Annie's showing Libby what the back of the truck is all about.


Constantly curious.


A dog in bed with mom?!? Mom snuggling the dog in bed?!? A nightly occurrence?!?
A sight I knew I'd never see...the stars must be realigning. Libby hasn't made it through the night alone in her kennel yet. I think we're training some "bad" habits.


Slumber party!

STOKR II

I've been falling behind on my postings. Not because I'm particularly stressed or busy with work. More so that the weather is nice and I'm getting lazy about spending time on the blog. Mom and Dad are here now and have each independently commented about my lack of postings and subtly hinted that they'd like to have some more (even though they are here now and we can actually communicate face-to-face) reading material. Ironically, I bet Dad will get online in a few minutes and read this entry while sitting next to me on the sofa.

Here are some pictures from the STOKR bike tour two weeks ago; I wish I had more, but you get the idea. The weather was perfect for the ride: mostly sunny ~60 degrees. I had a lot of fun and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think that all the food stops broke it up enough so that I didn't get bored and made sure I had enough fuel to keep me going to the next stop. Honestly, I wasn't even that sore the next day (except just a twinge on my tailbone as you can imagine 8 + 3 hours "in the saddle" isn't the most comfy seat).


The day before the ride, I volunteered to work on framing the Habitat for Humanity house (which, if you recall, is the benefit STOKR raises money for). There were about 10 other riders who volunteered on the house as well. It was very fun and rewarding to see the big smile on Rhoda's face (yellow sweatshirt) all day as we made progress on the house.

I have never done anything like this, despite being the daughter of a contractor. I found out rather quickly that I don't have good hammer skills...needless to say, I didn't tell anyone that my dad has his own construction company.

Me and Rhoda (still smiling).



The crew.

Saturday morning start at the Libby Chamber of Commerce parking lot. From left to right: Dr. Rice, me, Louis, Louis's Sandpoint preceptor (I can't remember his name, sorry).


Susie Rice giving last minute instructions to the riders. Those of us who volunteered on the house got to start the ride in the front of the pack. I was quickly overtaken by many riders including a geriatric tandem.

Louis and I decided the yellow is a very popular color amongst bikers.

Louis with the "thumbs up" ready to go.

The Yaak Tavern. This was the lunch stop for a refuel before the last 13 miles of uphill on the ride over Pipe Creek Summit.

Riders picnicking on the banks of the Yaak River. The bridge heads right toward the summit.

Emily and Louis prepping for the summit.

Emily and Louis s/p 98 miles; we're still smiling!

Sunday ride to Libby Dam. Bikers getting security clinic to cross over the dam.

Standing on the dam looking downstream.


Upstream view of Lake Koocanusa. When Aaron was here in March, he asked me where the name came from. I told him I didn't know, but that I thought it was a Native American word. He said, "Nah, I think it's 'Koo' for 'Kootenai', 'can' for 'Canada', and 'usa' for 'USA'. Later that day we ran into a guy who fishes on the lake in Canada and asked him about the name. Aaron was right.
All I could think about was, "this would be amazing wakeboarding right now; I wish Nic, Shannon, and Aaron were here with our future boat."

Libby Dam visitor's center: hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls awaited the riders inside.

I think I've lost my mind because I signed up for another tour on June 13th. This one starts and ends in Sandpoint, Idaho, and is 150 miles (NOT over 2 days like STOKR). CHaFE (I've heard some people pronounce it "cha-fee", but I'd like to think it's "chafe" because that's what 150 miles are going to do to my butt) stands for "Cycle Hard For Education" is a benefit ride for an educational foundation in North Idaho.

Louis actually told me about it when he registered for STOKR. He thought he was registering for STOKR and after he paid his CHaFE fee, realized it wasn't STOKR, so he ended up entering both rides. On the STOKR race he and his preceptors from Sandpoint talked me into registering for CHaFE. At least I'll have some people to try and keep up with; they are much faster than me, but I suppose having them in front will give me the motivation I need to keep going when I'm at mile 103 and dead-dog tired!

These are the reasons I decided to do it:
1) STOKR gave me a great sense of accomplishment, and I'd like to have that again
2) Even though the mileage is substantially more, there is only 800 feet of elevation gain (if you remember, STOKR has nearly 2400 feet of uphill!)
3) I get a cool jersey...This may be the real reason I signed up. Now I can ride around Boise in the summer in my uni' and stop at all the cool-kid coffee shops and BS with all the other bikers in their spandex and jerseys; very trendy ;)