November 11- 12, 2020

Kenny!  Happy day!  We are on our way to see Kenny and Jessica!  We are leaving Missoula and heading to the little town of Juliaetta, Idaho (population 597 - think Kenny and Jessica are in that 2018 count!).  But, we got an early morning surprise.  Snow!  Had to borrow a scraper from the hotel manager to clear our car.  The roads had been somewhat plowed but still crusty and icy.

Snow!  Looking out our hotel window.

Looking at our car.....manager suggested I use a credit card (which I have done in a pinch but your hands get really icy cold...I persisted and he offered his own....).  Ahhhh, thank you.

Funny tree outside the hotel entrance...sometimes my hair looks like this when I wake up....made me laugh

Pretty morning, but crusty, icy roads to travel:

The dusting of the trees and landscapes was just so beautiful....look...

As we turned on to Idaho 12 to head to Juliaetta we were treated with the beauty of the night snow fall.  coating everything, making powdered sugar trees:

Even though Lewiston (biggest city  near Juliaetta) was 209 miles and the prospect of the snowy roads all the way was daunting - we were going to see Kenny so we didn't care.  We would just persevere and enjoy the scenery.  And it was beautiful.  We followed the Lochsa river which meandered into the Clearwater River.

In Praise of the Idaho Department of Transportation.......We always get a kick out of Google Maps that announces as you are crossing over state lines...."Welcome to Idaho".  Just as soon as this was said the streets changed drastically.  This picture below is how the rest of the journey to Juliaetta looked....the roads were black, clear, but wet.  What a relief.

As we got closer to Juliaetta we got farther away from the snow and we saw some beautiful scenery without the snow cover.  We left Idaho 12 and turned on Idaho 3  - only 9 miles to Juliaetta now.  You  are faced with beautiful grass covered rolling hills (Don't let those "rolling" hills fool you.  Under them is nothing but chunks of rock. 

Everytime we go to visit Kenny more and more land is being planted with grapevines.  It makes for a beautiful idyllic landscape.  Right now the vines are in their autumn garb.

Right before Juliaetta we pass Stella's Pole yard....I called it a lumber yard and was quickly corrected by Kenny.  This yard only mills and tapers trees for telephone poles and such.  Lots and lots of poles there.

Kenny!!

Kenny's house with the new patio that he has been working on and the view from that porch into the Potlatch Creek canyon.

Remember I said that the rolling grassy hills were covering rocks.   Here is a cross section of Kenny's back bank and what is really under all those grassy hills ....rocks, rocks and more rocks.  Not much soil between those rocks either.

We went into town (Lewiston) to meet Jessica for dinner and completed that day.  Next morning both Kenny and Jessica had to go to work...

Jessica working on getting us directions so that we can see her at work at Lewis Clark State College.  She is the admin support for the VP of Finances.  (new position for her and she is loving the challenge ...she is a gal that can really step up to multiple tasks and thrives on it.  They are lucky to have her in that position - actually I think they know that as they created the position with her in mnd.)

Here are a few snapshots of her beautiful campus:

"Lewis Clark State College was founded 127 years ago in 1893, it has an annual enrollment of approximately 3,600 students. The college offers more than 130 degrees and is well known for its social work, criminal justice, education, nursing, and technical programs."

A particular favorite feature of Reid Centennial building is the clock tower:  It was refurbished in 1993 and has an illuminated clock with electronic chimes.

This is the administration building where Jessica works.

The LCSC Lewiston campus is full of magnificent varieties of trees. Many locals enjoy walking the campus just to view the beautiful campus. I didn't even capture the multitude and scope of all the beautiful trees we saw as Jessica gave us a tour of the campus on her lunch break.

Then we visited Kenny at George's Locksmith shop in downtown Lewiston, not far from where Jessica works

Kenny's boss , Denny, lacks the interest to be in the shop these days and the other employee, Denny (yes, Denny, Denny and Kenny,is the locksmith crew)  is the full time mobile locksmith, so Kenny is in charge of the store and the thousands and thousands of locks, keys, broken key extractors, tweezers, laser cutters and key duplicators, padlock shims, tension tools, handheld scopes, universal gas cap keys, small and large auto wedge set, slim jim set, auto shutter toolsets. electronic auto key duplicator, lock and safe scopes, tension wrenches, key decoders, safe change key set, broken drill bit extractors, Thermic lance, business software, client scheduling, team tracking (I know, small team) and invoicing as well as dealing with all the walk-in customers which sometimes come from 100 miles away.  (Sheesh, I got those tool names all on line...I'll bet there is more).  Anyway - he's a busy guy!

Bob and I decided a charcuterie board might be a fun treat for them when they got home.  Actually, we all enjoyed it and then played Mexican Train Dominos until late into the evening.  We all lost track of the time.  Okay for us but not so good for working people.

 The day ended at 11:00...........

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