Soon after this we crossed the border into Idaho and Maudie, whose irritability and bad temper were becoming more noticeable, flatly refused to keep any record of the distance or pace in spite of the care and attention bestowed on her by B. on two occasions in an effort to cure by kindness. The first of these efforts however provided a picture of an Idaho road scene - for which it will be necessary to look on pg. 16 - and the second resulted in a conversation with a small hill farmer who, coming over to find out the cause of the trouble discovered we were from Saskatchewan which he recognized as the home of Seager Wheeler. It appeared that he himself was an experimentalist in the breeding of new varieties of wheat, and, as far as could be gathered was about to become famous for a new wheat, far superior to any variety yet grown, but was rather handicapped by having to pick out this wheat ear by ear from a field of mixed varieties, mostly mongrel hybrids. His conversation, however, served to pass the time for W. and L. and furnished an accompaniment to the soft words of endearment addressed to Maudie by B. He also gave us some information as to the next stage of the journey and the prevailing climatic peculiarities of the district - so, on him be the peace.

A drive of about 8 miles, some of it over very dusty roads, brought us to a spot 31 miles from the start, whence we could look down on the Bonner's Ferry, built in the valley on the South side of the Kootenay River, with the hills rising again beyond the town. Crossing the river by the bridge, we pulled up for refreshments for Maudie, and it was here we suffered our first experience of the iniquitous exchange rate - we had been unable to procure any American Currency in Cranbrook - which though quoted about 12, usually cost us 20 percent. On leaving the town we turned sharply to the right, keeping close to the railroad, through Moravia, Naples and Colburn. Some three miles of new grading caused Maudie to get very thirsty and a short stop was made at a small stream to allow her to cool off, then, the road improving, we paced a train for some distance, much to the joy of the Kid who became quite excited at times calling insistently for "more gas", usually where it was advisable to slow down. Sandpoint, 30 miles distant, was reached about 11 am., with out further incident, except that the strained ligaments in Maudie's back, which had been growing steadily worse for some time, were now causing such pain that we decided to make a short stop in the town while the doctor attended to her. This delayed us for some 2 hours, which time we spent in the surgery as the doctor was anxious to get away to attend the inner man and we feared he might leave Maudie to suffer unnecessarily. Sandpoint, a mining and lumbering town, is on the famous Pend d 'Oreille Lake, and leaving town we crossed a bridge of exactly two miles in length, over an arm of the lake, the water so clear that stones, etc., could be plainly seen, leading the Kid to believe the water was about two feet deep. Driving on for some distance, we made a late noon camp about 8 miles North of Rathdrum, near a flowing well. While we were at lunch the owner of the land on which we had camped came over to see that we did not let our campfire get away. Some recently burnt woods, passed that morning, had started a discussion on the prevention and causes of forest fires, during which the opinion was advanced that some at least were attributable to the jealous, dog-in-the-manger spirit of a certain class of settler. It was interesting therefore, to here from this man who was of a talkative disposition, his own views on the protection of the forests. Briefly, they were these - That his own property should be carefully guarded, but that the forests greatly hindered settlement and were exploited by the Lumber interest to the detriment of the individual settler. Stating that, since where one tree had grown naturally, another, of a different variety, could be grown to the profit of the settler, he himself would not be sorry to see the woods burnt. Within the last few days he had been fighting fire to help his neighbours, but once he and they were safe the fire could burn where it pleased, and he rather hoped this would be extensively. He was also overly willing to impart instruction as to how a camp fire should be left, but after watching for a time and finding that from habit we left the camp safe and clean - this latter apparently quite a new idea to him - he desisted.

Passing through Rathdrum, Maudie trod on a four inch spike and the resulting hole in her sock had to be darned by the roadside - this, by the way, was the only trouble we had with the shoe purchased in Maple Creek.

For some distance we had been advised of dangerous turns, railroad crossings, bridges, etc., by road signs bearing the name of "Dolby". These were now supplemented by others indicating our approach to Spokane, and turning South some distance further on we crossed the border between Idaho and Washington and came upon the first stretch of paved road, known we were told as the "Apple Road" and leading into Spokane, 15 miles on, through some fine orchards and truck farms. Maudie was not long in signifying her entire approval of this speedway and danced along with great abandon, but on overtaking a party accompanied by a distant relative, of better birth, gave way in her excitement to her innate vulgarity and deliberately spat at them, then flirting her skirts contemptuously cut in ahead.

Arriving in Spokane, we fed and watered Maudie and wasted some time in looking for a nerve specialist, as we now believed that Maudie's refusal to announce the rate of her progress was due to some pressure on some nerve centre. One was found who treated her for another slight disorder, but would not undertake the operation believed to be necessary, proceeded on our way westward. The paved road continuing, we made good time to Deer Creek, 17 miles out, where we purchased supplies and L. sustained the Kid with chocolate. A suggestion that we drive all night was discussed, but finally discarded in favor of a late camp and early start, when we came to the end of the paved way 18 miles west of Spokane.

The country here is dry and without much shelter and a good campsite did not appear probable, so at about 9:30 p.m. we camped on an outcrop of rock by the roadside, where some willows provided some firewood and a certain amount of shelter, 27 miles West of Spokane, having covered 158 miles. Being a stranger in a foreign land, we made sacrifice to the gods of travel in accordance with immemorial custom. Had it not been for this, the skunk which B. felt - not saw - walking on the bed during the night might have seriously interfered with our enjoyment.