Okay, the wedding is over, well matched, well married; we’ve seen lots of Kae’s folks and now we are off on an adventure just for me. Many months ago a friend of Cokie’s, Jane, had told us about an unusual bed and breakfast place in Cottonwood, Idaho called Dog Bark Park, ‘home of the world’s largest Beagle’. Kae and I had written them an email to inquire whether or not they had accommodations for four legged folks. They had responded that they certainly did and I was very welcome and could bring along my two legged friends. I thought this would be a nice little diversion and since they had offered buttermilk biscuits for all of us for breakfast, lots of room to run and even a nice floor and blankie to sleep on that this might be fun. Off we headed into Idaho, north to Cottonwood, not far south of Lewiston. Well, let me tell you, you can see this 30’ tall Beagle thing from way down Hwy. 95, but it is the only thing to see in Cottonwood anyway!
Let me just say that this is NOT my idea of fine art. Unique? Yes. Different than any dog I had ever seen? Oh Yeah! I mean this thing has indoor-outdoor carpet for ears, folks! It was built by the owners Francis Conklin and Dennis Sullivan in 2003. It is a one room B&B with a definite doggy décor inside and out. We stayed and visited with Fran and Dennis for quite a while and then had them autograph a book titled “Buildings In Disguise, Architecture That Look Like Animals, Food and Other Things” by Joan Marie Arbogast, because “Sweet Willy” the B&B Beagle, is featured in it. They really make their living doing primitive chainsaw art of mostly dogs and bears and seem to really love what they do. They were fun to be with, so I left my MARK on their 10’ high fire hydrant and the gals took a tour of Sweet Willy. We couldn’t stay overnight because they actually are booked months in advance and had a couple from New York on their way.
We left there and headed to Coeur d’ Alene, ID to visit Cokie’s friend George and his wife, PJ. George is the father of Cokie’s god-daughter Rachel. They have several acres on the lake and a good dog that showed me all of the neat places to swim and sniff and roll. Rachel’s Mom is Linda who has to live in a 24 hour care place in St. Maries, ID because she has Huntington’s disease so we went over there to visit her. She can’t talk very well, but she was so happy to see Cokie and loved seeing all of our pictures of Machu Picchu and Peru.
The gals had a really good visit with Linda and I got to sleep in the Pod for a couple of hours. We then went to Spokane to see Rachel and her family, spent one night camping on their street because they were still in the process of moving into their new home so things were in a horrible mess.
It was a quick, but nice visit also then off we went the next day to Lake Pend Oreille, near Sandpoint to meet up with our friends Greg and Connie. We camped in a spot called “Beyond Hope” Campground because it was just outside of Hope, ID. (Clever, huh? Really was a great spot and the lake was a good swim. I had had my ‘hopes’ up for a few days that it would be.)
Greg and Connie picked the gals up and took them to a dinner party with a group of very interesting folks and some great food. Connie and Greg are friends with one of the couples and through them had met all the others. This is a group of friends from all over the US who have purchased summer homes in the same neighborhood at Pend Oreille (that’s ‘Pond Ore Ray’, guys. Go figure! Human language is tough enough, then someone has to throw one like that into the mix.) They said they had a great time and the tidbits they brought back were scrumptious, so I know the food was a highlight.
We all met up the next morning and some of the neighborhood came over to Beyond Hope to meet and say hello to me and take a tour of my wonderful Pod. I explained how it was the best, most luxurious dog house in the whole world and that I loved sharing it with my buddies, Cokie and Kae. After all of that Greg, Connie and the three of us headed north through the backcountry of Idaho and into Montana and the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
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