Jules’ Journal:
By: Julianne Lillie, 6/18/23
Today was Father’s Day! We woke up to messages from our family and friends back home telling us that Northeast Oklahoma sustained extreme thunderstorms with 100+ MPH winds! Thankfully we received a report that our property wasn’t damaged. However, Jason’s mom’s condo had flooded again, and she was without power. Jason called her and called in reinforcements to help take care of her and the situation. (So thankful for our tribe back at home!) She’s moved into our house temporarily until her condo can get dried out and restored. After scrolling Facebook, I learned that pretty much all of Claremore and Tulsa were without power. Trees were down everywhere! Unfortunately, quite a few of our friends sustained house damage and/or car damage. I saw photos of roofs destroyed, barns & chicken coops blown away or into other buildings. That’s one thing I haven’t missed is the Oklahoma spring storms!
Meanwhile, we got ready and visited a local church, Valley Real Life Church in Spokane, WA. We attended their 9:30am worship service and the message were very good.
Jett went to their kids’ church and enjoyed their energetic service! He even got the award for best dancer during worship! They were a lot like our home church, Cedarpoint Church, in that they went all out for Father’s Day! All the dads got a Dad’s Root beer with a logo’d bottle opener.
They had food truck & bounce houses on the lawn complete with a HUGE car show featuring 150+ cars! It was a fun morning!
We headed back to the RV for lunch and gave Jason his cards and gift (a new journal). Then we called our dads and wished all a Happy Father’s Day!
Then we drove 30 minutes across the border into Couer D’Alene, Idaho.
We boarded our 90 min. lake cruise boat named “Osprey.” It was very windy and cold on the lake! (low 50s but the windchill lowered it into the 40s).
All the tables/seats inside filled up quickly, so we found a table upstairs in the open air. Thankfully, we brought lots of layers including hats and gloves so we just bundled up and enjoyed the views!
We had a great time touring the Lake Couer D’Alene’s 150 miles of coastline. We gawked at beautiful mansions, quirky shacks, and house boats.
Many of the homes were not accessible by car, only by boat. So, the homes further away from their boat docks had these rail systems put in place to carry their goods up the side of the mountain/cliff right up to their homes. Pretty wild!
We also saw a huge Resort with a golf course and a floating green! We watched as some golfers were putting on the floating green. So crazy!
After the cruise, we walked the longest floating boardwalk in the world and admired all the boats/yachts that were docked.
We saw a mama duck with her ducklings!
We then shopped a bit and headed back towards our campground in Spokane, WA.
We picked up Jason’s favorite, Wendy’s, for dinner and gave him the night off from cooking! We then prepped for our 15-mile bike ride that was taking place the next day.
Jett’s Wild Flight: We biked a ½ marathon!
By: Jett Lillie, 6/19/23
We drove 1.5 hours across the panhandle of Idaho to get to the Route to Hiawatha trailhead.
We didn’t come to stroll or get air, we came to bike a half marathon… 16.66 miles total to be exact. For the first 1.66 miles we rode in a super dark tunnel until we finally saw light at the end of the tunnel!
I was thankful we had bright head lamps on our helmets.
Then we kept on biking! Our bottoms started to really hurt halfway in, and we knew we would be pretty sore afterwards! We passed through 9 tunnels and 7 tall trestle bridges in total.
But halfway we stopped for a snack and bathroom break.
Later, I about squished 2 chipmunks playing tag when they ran out in front of my bike. They survived by just a hair! The chipmunks and squirrels were so brave, they would come right up to people to beg for food. Some people fed them, but we didn’t. We know you are never supposed to feed the wildlife. It hurts them and keeps them from being wild.
The last mile one crazy chipmunk ran in front of me again and after that, I decided to stop braking. If they got in my way, I would run ‘em over! Ha!
We finally made it to the end of the trail and rode the shuttle bus back to the first long, dark tunnel.
The line was long for the shuttle.
We were all tired. I fell asleep on the shuttle. But then woke up to bike back through the long tunnel to get back to our truck.
<WARNING: NO animals were hurt in the filming and experiences shared in this blog!> :)
Thanks for reading!
Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: BIKING!
By: Jaycie Lillie, 6/19/23
Ahhhh! Route to Hiawatha was a 15-mile mountain bike ride that used to be an old railway. We went over 7 bridges and through 9 tunnels total. It was way much colder than we thought! I had a T-shirt, jacket, and pants. It was freezing! I barely felt my toes. I had some gloves but they were thin.
The first tunnel was almost 2 miles long! It was pitch black. We had to wear head lamps. It was wet from ground water. There were two drainage ditches on each side of the tunnel. All of what we drove used to be a train track.
We saw a lot of little chipmunks! There was one that was fed by a biker. I could tell it got food often because it was chubbier than the others! When I laid down on a rock another chipmunk was on my foot and almost climbed my leg! It was a chipmunk apocalypse!
The views were pretty on the bridges.
Looking straight down!
The sun was warm, and we would go fast then cruise when we got out of the shade. There were some signs that talked about history. We were cold so we wanted to keep moving to stay warm. From the mud in all the tunnels our water bottles & pant legs were dirty. But some people went really fast through the wet tunnels and got muddy water sprayed up on their bums! It looked funny!
Once we rode 15-miles we were so tired. We had tickets for the bus ride back.
It was a bumpy bus ride. Gravel roads! (“The kids on the bus go up and down, up and down”!) My shoulders and back was sore from leaning over grabbing the handles.
At the beginning me and Jett raced. I won!
Then I was tired the rest of the time. Not too smart of me🤦♀️. I could say I had fun, but it was more exhausting than fun. But now I can say that I did it!
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