Coeur D'Alene

This is where I will be for the next three days. Is that a bad thing to say on the internet? I don't think anyone can use that information against me.

There's a free hotel/conference and someone else is going to be driving, so I am going.

It's in Idaho, just west of Spokane, Washington, across the border a little farther east. I am excited to drive through the Columbia river gorge (meaning north of Oregon). In college I read a book called "A River Lost" and it still sits on my bookshelf, about the transformation of the region into the modern age through the restructuring of the river into a series of dams. Never been.

More excitingly, I am going to spend some cold hard time admiring the Rocky Mountains. I've been told by the driver, that mountains are the backdrop to the city beside the lake of the same name.

Now I told a few people how I was hoping to see the Rocky Mountains, and you know what they said? They said "Well, I don't know if those are the ones that are next to where you are headed." Baloney I thought, but I proceeded to doubt.

The internet advocates my dreams becoming reality:

"The Couer d'Alène Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains, located in Idaho and Montana."

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d'Alene_Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are my most favorite. I love the basin and ranges, but even more than that I love the rugged peaks, the ancient fossil beds and amazing techtonic forces to examine, and the immensity of them all. They feel like the call of inspiration to me.

Here's a photo I took of the Grand Canyon last May: