[Photos taken 03 – 04 August 2022, posted online 06 April 2023. Hello Easter Break!!]
We landed in Spokane, Washington, after about an hour in the air from Seattle. The Spokane airport is tiny so we quickly collected our luggage and rental vehicle, and began the drive east towards Idaho.
We’d no sooner got going than I realized Emma needed sneakers to go zip-lining the following day. We therefore stopped at a Spokane mall and walked out with four pairs of new shoes! Yes, shoes can be silly expensive in Iceland, and I go a little nuts elsewhere.
About an hour later, we’d found our way to Ivan & Margo’s cabins, in a canyon the mountains of Idaho.
The follwing day was full of action, as we went on a zip-line tour, and then visited a silver mine!
Wednesday 03 August 2022
Hello Spokane!
Our spacious rental car.
One of the four pairs that we exited the mall with!
Beginning our climb into the mountains.
Three rows of seating suit us well, keeps the peace!
Passing a pretty lake area.
Tall trees, an interstate, and a peak in the distance.
After a bit of driving, we found our destination. Here Finnur is carrying out refreshments by Ivan and Margo’s cottages. Margo’s family used to rent out cottages to mine-workers when the mine in the canyon was active many years ago, but only these four remain.
They have a large backyard, that would be hosting Ivan’s 80th birthday party a few weeks later.
The back of the cottages.
Enjoying the mild weather, and catching up since many years ago!
Dinner time, and then it was off to bed after a long day!
Meanwhile, in Iceland, a new volcanic fissure had opened up in Meradalir (Mare-Valley) on Reykjanes (45 min drive from our house). That big crater was the newest one before that.
Thursday 04 August 2022
Finnur cutting up fruit for breakfast.
Every morning began with a super-scrumptious breakfast, and it was never the same thing twice!
Emma petting Tux, the three-legged cat of the house. They became best friends during our stay.
We drove into The Historical Town of Wallace, and found the local zip-lining company, Silver Streak Zipline. After filling up our complimentary water bottles, it was time to put on gear. Over the course of the outing we would learn that the guys that were operating it also owned the land the zip lines are on.
We drove up into the hills overlooking the town on ATV buggies. I kept thinking how amazing it would be if the ATVs were electric, as then the ride up would have been both super quiet and much less smelly.
We’d signed up for the “West Course” which was a sequence of zip lines down the hill. (The website no longer lists it as an option.)
You can see the launch-platform back in the distance! The views were great!
Finnur demo-ing the proper way to “land”. You were to lean to the side a bit, to avoid hitting your head on the metal, and extend your hand, ready to grab the short orange cable stub. Grabbing the cable prevented you from sliding back onto the zip-line after the initial stoppage-bump.
Anna making good use of her helmet, amid the pretty views.
Bjarki landing gently. It turned out the winds were unhelpfully and unusually strong, and with Bjarki and Emma being light-weight bodies, our guides were pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to reach the end of the last one or two zip lines, i.e. they would probably run out of steam part way to the landing pad.
As a result, the guides offered us different zip lines to finish with, that are usually not part of the “West Course”. Most notably, they had automatic stoppage systems, so no more cable grabbing.
Yours truly coming in for a landing, leaning to the side to keep from banging my head, again. Helmets are amazing.
Emma mid-stopping.
We weren’t the only people in the group, we were joined by a husband and wife that were also visiting the area. When you stopped, the guides would slide the stairs under you, so you could unbuckle.
Finnur at the end of “The Big Daddy” tandem ride. It was very long but also a lot of fun, and had marvellous views of the canyon. With that, we drove back to Wallace on the ATVs.
Happy but hungry zipliners at 1 pm by the ATVs.
We walked around the corner to book tickets on the Silver Mine Tour, and then went hunting for food. We were clearly in the US!
By the spacecraft outside The Red Light Garage restaurant we meant to visit, but it was closed.
Kiddos in a spaceship.
The City Limits Brew Pub came to our rescue, and speedily too as we told them we had to be at the mine tour punctually an hour later.
The 2 pm mine-tour open bus quickly filled with people. Again, over the loud drone of the engine, which did its very best to drown out the driver’s commentary, I wished for a silent electric motor.
Emma wondering what the heck would happen next.
The bus drove us a little ways into the canyon, to a mine that was used to teach high school students to mine when the local school system noticed that their high-schoolers were dropping out of school to work in the mines. Instead they included mining into their curriculum and kept the kids in school. Very clever!
Our guide (Andy?) who was either of Swedish or Norweigan heritage and kept making fun of the other nationality!
Explaining the various pieces of equipment to the group.
Ceiling work.
The toilet.
There were three blasts per day.
To prep, they’d drill holes into the walls. And yes, he turned it on and drilled, and it was LOUD! He used to be a miner himself before transitioning into mine-safety-and-rescue.
A wiring grid. The wires were set up in such a way to trigger the explosions in a certain sequence, and LED lights were used to show us the sequence.
To move the earth between places, they used a mechanical rake of sorts. Again a loud motor was turned on, and our guide had a kid pull the levers that moved the rake to the rocks at the far end, and then another lever to pull the rocks towards us.
Animated gif of the kid operating the stone mover.
Emma and the escapeway.
Explaining the elevator system.
This earth-moving unit was nuts, and I was so surprised I didn’t even video it. The guy got on it, and it moved ridiculously fast, kinda like a crazed rodeo horse.
Out in sunlight again, enjoying the local humor.
The guide showed us a collection of stones that have come out of the mine, with various mineral veins.
The tour bus came back to fetch us at 3pm.
Going down a steep hill, what could possibly go wrong?
It sits next to the elevated interstate 90 highway. This highway is the reason that Wallace is a historical town. The original interstate plans would have it go straight through the downtown area, obliterating it. Instead, at the insistence of a guy who knew how the government operates, the townspeople went out and listed all the downtown buildings as historical places, that could not be demolished!
Even the house colors must stay the same. Rich people have begun noticing the town, that is forbidden from changing and densifying, and housing prices are rising fast.
Not everything was in pristine shape though.
The US being the US.
Kind of like driving around a movie studio, and in fact Dante’s Peak was filmed here.
A marker proclaiming this location as the Center of the Universe since in 2004, the Mayor proclaimed the city of Wallace, Idaho, to be the center of the universe (because it can’t be proven otherwise)!
After the tour was over, we got ice cream at the tour operator’s place, but the lady servicing us was distressed. Turns out an accident had happened on the interstate, and there was a massssssive traffic jam, as the accident had happened close to roadworks and for the longest time traffic in one direction was halted.
A model of a mine in the tour operator place.
More mining memorabilia.
ATVs on the left, silver mine tour operator behind. It’s not the biggest of towns!
It was 4:30 pm when we finally attempted to drive back to Ivan and Margo’s. The traffic jam on I-90 was in our way, but we eventually made it.
We relaxed for a while, but then got ready to drive into Wallace again to have dinner.
Pretty surroundings, and most definitely the Center of the Universe!
Walking towards the restaurant, the Interstate visible up ahead.
Food, glorious food!
Chatting away.
Emma being very orange!
Lastly here’s an image from Margo. At the end of the meal we were joined by friends of Ivan and Margo’s that had biked the Route of the Hiawatha earlier in the day (where we were going the following day), and then spent a ridiculous number of hours making their way to Wallace in the massive traffic jam. But they got there in the end, and dinner was waiting when they did! We had a lovely dinner and chat, and then it was time to collapse into bed!
