E kala mai Numbah Two. Iʻm so far behind on my posts that I had to go back to Part Thirty-Eight so see what Iʻd written. There I saw that Iʻd missed uploading the last photo. Sheesh. So I got that uploaded to the post and now Iʻm ready to go again.

Itʻs been a busy few months. I had a root canal.  We put our vacant five acres of land on the market.  I took a fabulous spinning class. Nolemana ended up in the ER (he’s fine now). And work. Holy smoke. The Portland real estate market is going crazy; I’ve been turning down 10-12 appraisal requests per day!! We’ve never seen anything like it. Right now, we’re quoting inspection dates at the middle of November, if you can believe it. We’re putting in long hours. One of the reasons for all this is because appraisers are getting out of the business because the lender requirements are getting so detailed, and they send reports back to us for clarifications, which we don’t get paid for. And of course, homes here are selling like hotcakes. (Do hotcakes sell? Where did that expression come from, anyway? No make sense.)

But enough of that. Let’s go back to da Montana road trip. Last time, we were driving through the Coeur d’ Alene reservation in Idaho, enjoying all the green hills and lovely skies.

I love the Palouse country. I love it’s rolling hills, and in this season, all the green.  I love the way the forest comes right to the edge of farmland.

I can see why people wanted to settle here. If I were a farmer and had to spend eighteen hours a day on a tractor, this is where I’d like to do it.

On our adventures, I always look at the combination of earth and sky, and I particularly love seeing this kind of contrast: the thunderheads above and the green forest and rolling hills below.

I love seeing thunderheads! Even though I’m driving, I can’t help but look to see what shapes I can see in them. My friend Nancy and I used to ride our horses to a quiet spot near the stables in Honolulu, lie down on our horses’ backs, and do the same thing. Good memories.

Let’s see. What do I see here? I see a big fish with its mouth open, trying to much on a smaller fish in front of it.

We weren’t in a hurry to get through this lovely land.

I must admit that I didn’t stay at the speed limit going through here. It was too beautiful to hurry through. The highway was pretty empty, so I could do lidat.

Months from now, these fields will be golden and ready for harvest.

There were so many tones of green here!  I know I’ve said this before, but we’ve been told that Oregonians can see more shades of green than anyone else. I think that growing up in Hawaiʻi helped that along too, for me.  And of course, the curving road appeals mightily to me, too.

More views along da roadside.

We couldn’t tell if the fields in the background hadn’t been planted yet or were still at their burn stage. Or maybe they were lying fallow this year.

It kept looking like rain, but we didn’t see a drop.

Wow! A town!! Tensed is a city in Benewah County, Idaho, United States. The population was 123 at the 2010 census, down from 126 in 2000. That’s a pretty small town, yeah? We’re still on the Coeur d’ Alene Indian Reservation.

Try look the spot of sunshine up on the hill…I love when that happens.

We kept taking photos to remind us of how lovely this country is. I’m not trying to glamorize it; I know that a lot of work and many long hours go into living here. We’re only travelers admiring the views…and I’m grateful that we can do this.

That looks like a logging road up on the hills. You can tell from all the clear cutting, too.

I stopped the car so that Nolemana could get this shot of the Red-Winged Blackbird. Oh, how I love to hear them singing!

We almost drove by the Library in Tensed without seeing it! I was delighted to know that, however small, there was one there.

I love the names of towns up this way. As we head south, we could see that we’re getting closer to Oregon, where we’d be heading makai for the first time in a long time.

During these times of driving through relatively empty countryside, you’d think that Nolemana and I would find it a perfect time for real in depth conversations; sometimes that happens, but a good part of the time we’re content to merely drive along, enjoying the views.

Yep. We always stop for Historical Markers; this one was really educational, and I remembered that the town of Tensed  was “originally called Desmet, but the post office requested a change as that name was taken by nearby De Smet. The name was reversed to Temsed and then misspelled by the post office.”

Reminds me of Aloha, Oregon. It’s original name was supposed to be Aloah, but again, the Post Office wen spell um wrong and made it Aloha.  And all the Oregonians pronounce it the original way, Alowa, which is like fingernails on the blackboard to us locals. And we still pronounce it the way it’s spelled: Aloha.  Yeah, we get corrected, but so it goes.

Here’s another interesting marker.  This is one drive that I’d love to take sometime.

So that’s it for this time. It’s interesting for me to go through these photos again, now, holy smoke, six years later!  Thinking about our trips, I realize that each one is a kind of spiritual experience for me. It’s church, really, whether Nolemana and I are driving alone looking at all the beauty, or stopping to talk to people we meet along the way, or driving along in silence or talking. It’s church when we wave to people along the road. Mahalo nui for coming with us after such a long absence. I so appreciate your company.