New Road, New Blue Love Seat

A package came to our house via UPS yesterday.

Inside, was a new LOVE seat, bright blue.  Along with the couch (a mini version, by the way):  a lovely pen and a card from Columbia Bank, informing me that they were adding to my collection of local bank memorabilia.

Thank you, Columbia Bank.

Bill and I love the love seat, and we promise shall keep it in a safe place along with that Panhandle State Bank sewing kit and my Idaho First National log bank (from childhood days) so that generations after us will have a tangible grip on some of the banking industry in Sandpoint.

Speaking of generations, I found this video to explain Columbia Bank further.  For anyone unaware, over the weekend, Columbia Bank signs replaced Panhandle Bank signs at all branches around the area.

The Love seat was a neat surprise after another pleasant afternoon drive which took me to the end of a road I’d never seen before.

Bill remembered going up the Ball Creek Road decades ago. The road takes off to the mountains west of the Kootenai Valley at the old Ball Creek Ranch, which is now a Nature Conservancy holding.

We should have stopped for a picture when we passed by the Kaniksu National Forest sign on the lower stretch of road.  Talk about historical!

 

The Ball Creek Road goes about 8-9 miles up the mountain and west, in some cases HIGH above Ball Creek; in others, right next to it. 

Bill told me that all the branches of Ball Creek have nationality names:  French Creek, Swiss Creek, English Creek, Scotch Creek, etc. 

Toward the end of the road, we noticed a side road headed down to the creek, so we parked and walked the short way where we found a campfire site and the crystal clear babbling brook flowing beneath an old bridge.

We also spotted a note inside a plastic bag nailed to the bridge.  Bill crawled onto the bridge to see what it said:  several lines from "Ecclesiastics."  Pretty neat reminders in that quiet, peaceful spot. 

Knowing we had to be back to put my sisters' horses in the barn (parent-teacher conferences this week are keeping them at school later than usual), we enjoyed the spot and then headed back to the pickup for the drive down the mountain, which featured one glorious view of the Kootenai Valley, accented by dazzling golden tamarack amidst their evergreen friends.  

It was fun, as always, to travel a mountain road I'd never traveled before AND to be able to go to its end during the first week of November with no snow. 

So, the photos below highlight some of the sights along the way.

Happy Thursday.