Thursday 20th July

We had a fun night in the cabins. Around midnight, Daddy thought he heard voices outside so he jumped out of bed and went to the front door. Nothing but trees. Daddy headed to the toilet, switched on the light and standing in front of the toilet was none other than a tiny mouse! Daddy quickly jumped out of its way, closed the door and switched off the lights. Today we are going to tackle the Hiawatha Bike Trail! Over 3hrs of bike riding, cold wet mud and all down hill with some of the trip in the darkness of tunnels.

We have moved states! Moving into the potato state of Idaho. When we moved states we also moved time zones so we are now in the Pacific timezone. It was funny driving from the Montana main office to the start of the trail and then back on ourselves. We jumped an hour forward, an hour back and an hour forward again. Elliott asked if we could keep driving and reversing to break the clock!

We tried to grab our rental bikes, but found out very quickly that the bikes were all too big for Nate. Elliott managed to get a small kids bikes and was confident on that. We enlisted the help of Ken who helped us exchange Nate’s over sized bike for a tag along bike with Mummy. Nate was happy he could ride with Mummy, we were glad there was another option. In hindsight the trail was so long, we did the right thing.

The first section is a completely pitch black tunnel that lasts forever 8,000 feet. It was a shock to start the bike ride. The tunnel was dark, cold and wet. We were covered in mud after we left the tunnel. Coming out of the tunnel felt like a movie moment, right before the hairdryer heat and air kicked in.

We met a family from Texas, who loved the boys and their accents. The lady excitedly said “got my sunnies” copying Elliott. They had driven an RV up from Dallas – just a mere 27 hours. They asked if we had an RV (which a lot of people seem to ask) and we said no! We are hotel people!

Such is life, there are always idiots about. Our idiot took the form of an orange bike, blue skull T-shirt and a bucket hat. Why is he an idiot? Well, during the bike ride if you need to pass someone the Americans call out “On your left” or “On your right” in loud voices. This guy decided to ride super fast and not call out when he was passing. He came very close to a Mummy and Elliott, then further down the trail he completely knocked over an older lady on an e-bike. Mummy told the marshall, but people are people and this one was an idiot.

There were numerous places to stop for breaks and to get snacks. One of the most popular after a large bridge, provided some great animal encounters. We saw swarms of chipmunks who aren’t silly and started jumping over our bikes for food. We even saw a deer just walking down a trail and then into the grass near us. We needed to remind the boys these are wild animals!

As most of the trail is downhill, we spent a lot of time chatting together. Some of the topics from Elliott were e-bikes, Christmas, Lego, sonic and swimming. We enjoyed the breathtaking scenario and got some lovely photos.

Now the downside, as the trail is 95% gravel we are jumped and bumping around all the time. This in turn, makes for a lovely bumpy ride and a painful bum! Mummy had just about enough, those bike seats are unforgiving.

We got talking to a grandad and granddaughter who were feeding the chipmunks on the side of the track. He was from Spokane and get ready…it was his 165th time doing the trail! He asked if we took time to look at the historic signs on the way? We did a few but kids are kids. He turned to Daddy and handed him a pink USB stick to that was loaded with all the signs and pictures!

We finished the bike trail – Go team Hunter! And started queuing for the shuttle bus back. As we were queuing a girl was walking along the queue with a Krispy Kreme box. We spotted that it was the girl from early who had fed the chipmunks. She spotted the boys and handed them both boys a large, sugar glazed donut. It was a gift from our friendly man from before.

We had Larry our bus driver inform us there was no air conditioning other than a water spray bottle. Elliott leapt forward and was the designated water bottle sprayer! Spraying Larry and into Larry’s make shift fans on the dashboard. The bus got a bit rowdy and started asking Elliott to spray people and turning the nozzle on the water to shoot jets at people.

Larry spent the journey explaining things out the window and along the way. The problem was the ex-school bus was so loud it drained out poor Larry. Larry also told us he want to do a “rollercoaster ride” and proceeded to bounce and jump the bus around blind corners and sheer drop offs.

Larry gave the boys train whistles as gifts and we headed off back to the car. Award for not giving up and pushing on Elliott! Award for most mud on a single person Nate! Award for hardest worker Mummy! Award for most coasting on a bike Daddy!

Being dirty, smelly and dusty the best thing to do is to jump into a swimming pool. The boys decided they wanted to check in to the hotel in their pants!

We enjoyed a swimming pool completely to ourselves. Mummy enjoyed the hot tub with a temperature similar to the Hot Springs! We are in Kellogg, Idaho your typical American small town. We wanted to try something different for dinner.

Mummy went for Chinese! Manning family favourite and the only Chinese restaurant in town.

Things to note, no prawn crackers (at all), no chicken balls. All mains come with rice and soup which was super tasty. We ordered a good selection of tasty treats, interestingly Elliott decided this would be the time to order a Dinner Salad! He asked our waitress if the mushrooms and water chestnuts could be placed on the the side of the plate!

Tomorrow we are heading on a long drive (4hrs) over the Washington and to the picturesque town of Twisp.