Slight Detour: Rainy-Day Fun

So invigorating! So uplifting!

Bridie and I have walked the fields IN daylight this morning.

It won't last long as the days get shorter, but to get outside and to be able to see the trees, clouds, remaining fall colors, green grass, etc. in the early hours of the day---it's like a new lease on life.

In the morning darkness hours of this first week without horse chores, we have gone to the shop where I have walked and thrown the ball off the wall for Bridie to chase down.

It's been fun because the shop offers a completely different environment from the barn.

But to get outside and stay outside and to see things helped this first day of standard time get off to a great start.

I'd rather have the daylight in the morning any day it's okay that the time changed and gave us some morning light.

Yesterday, Mother Nature gave us more than enough rain. Knowing it wasn't going to end all day long, Bill and I decided to take the dogs for an afternoon drive.

"How about Spirit Lake and the Brats and Brew?" he suggested.

Sounded great to me. We had gone down that way one other time and the place on the main street of Spirit Lake was closed.

So, after finishing morning and early afternoon errands, off we went.

We drove via Priest River, and Bill took the back roads, some of which I hadn't been on before.

I knew I'd never seen the sculptures at one place along the way, so we stopped to snap some pictures.

We also went by a neatly groomed stand of golden tamarack/larch.

"That's an agri-forest," Bill said.

To which I responded, "Raise 'em and graze 'em."

The rain kept falling and maybe even in more volume by the time we reached Spirit Lake. Still, we braved the wet and took the dogs for a walk.

The big question would be, "Will they get along in the pickup together?" Bridie and Foster haven't been the best of friends, but a relationship is growing.

Foster moved to the shotgun seat, while Bridie remained in the back seat.

Bill and walked around the block, and the minute we opened the door to Brats and Beer, we received a warm welcome from Cindy Lou, the manager, and from the patrons.

It's a neat interior with a bicycle theme and lots of vintage posters.

Cindy Lou wasted no time showing us all the options on the menu, and within about three minutes, we felt like we knew everyone, even though we'd never seen any of them before.

A little later, while we awaited our orders, a trio of women came in from the back of the pub. And, by golly, I knew one of them.

Mona Stafford and I are both retired teachers from Lake Pend Oreille School District. I taught a couple of her kids and her daughter-in-law. Nowadays, her son Ezra and my son Willie (high school classmates) teach at their alma mater Sandpoint High.

Mona, a couple of other colleagues and I took 28 journalism students to Long Beach back in the day. I think she also helped with a trip to San Francisco.

After retiring, Mona moved to Spirit Lake. Until yesterday, I hadn't seen Mona since before the Pandemic.

She and her friends were on a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored scavenger hunt around town.

Neat idea for rainy day stuff in Sandpoint. How about it?

Anyway, they eventually went on their way and then Bill and I perused the selection of deli mustards for our brats and homemade sauerkraut. It was a hard choice. I finally opted for the dijon.

The brats, along with the "go pick out your chips" combo were worth the trip, as was the IPA.

Along with the food came the warm camaraderie. We almost thought we were back in Ireland!

We enjoyed getting to know Cindy Lou, who originally hails from Arkansas, and, as we were leaving, a gentleman came in and sat at the bar.

Turns out he was Cindy's husband, whom she wanted us to meet.

A couple of sentences after conversing with Bob Buck, my planned departure was put on hold.

It all began when Bob told me that he had attended Lincoln School (also my elementary school) and that his first grade teacher was Mabel Kinney. He graduated from Sandpoint High in 1968.

Former colleague and friend Cheryl Klein did this painting of Lincoln School for my book "Lessons with Love."

Then, "Do you know's?" began to fly, almost with the speed of light.

Mrs. Sutliff?

Mrs. Eckholm?

A few names in the extensive Buck clan.

Charlie Stidwell?

Susie Karstad?

Holly Melior? Bob was married to Holly.

Skip Pucci---Bob worked with Skip when the latter supervised the construction of the Coeur d'Alene Hotel.

Finally, after numerous quickly unfolding revelations of nostalgic connections, I told Bob we'd have to continue this conversation some other time because I knew Bill was waiting at the pickup.

Talk about a fun finale to an already fun rainy-day diversion!

And, the happy ending of the story is that Bridie and Foster got along just fine in the pickup while we had our Saturday-afternoon fun. Plus, we didn't have to hurry home to do chores.

It really helps to get out of the house on rainy days, and ya never know how the story will end.

Yesterday's chapter was a great one.

Thanks, Cindy Lou. You're a great host, and your brats are good. It was also fun meeting your Bob.

Happy Sunday.

And, happily, today truly looks like a SUNday.