What's In an Old Town-Well, a Newport of Course

Today was just one of those nice, leisurely days. My wife and I had planned to run up to Rathdrum this morning, but when we got in the car, I decided to just keep going north on Hwy 41 for awhile. At first , I thought that we would only go as far as Spirit Lake, but when we go that far, I thought about gong on to Old Town/ Newport, so that is what we did.

Now Old Town is in Bonner County Idaho, and has a whopping population of 184 hearty souls. I am not sure how it became a town or when, but it has a twin sister city, and I do mean a twin joined at the hip, sister, in the city of Newport Washington. There are no natural boundaries between the twin sisters, separated only by a straight line state division. As we driving north and saw the sign that read-   Old Town-12 miles
   Newport-12 miles." my wife asked me how both towns could be the same distance away on the same highway. I told her to just wait and see. It had been years since I had been up there, but I did remember how to discern Old Town, Idaho from Newport, Washington.

The scenery along the Pend Oreille River is stunning. The people are so very friendly, and the small town atmosphere is inviting. Of course Newport is considerably more populated than Old Town, and is blessed with the necessities of life such as a McDonalds and  Safeway. Ah, civilization.

Nest, it was back down Hwy 41 to Spirit Lake. Spirit Lake has always fascinated me because it is just like stepping back in time 100 years or more. The old hotel and saloon get the blood in my veins going every time that I see them. How I would love to buy them and run them like the old wild west days. We stopped at a convenience store for a potty break and a cup of coffee , and then down the road again to Rathdrum, and then home to Coeur D' Alene.

I think about how nice that it would be to live in a place like Spirit Lake or Newport, or Priest River, but then as drove back in to CDA, I tuned to my wife and said" but Coeur D' Alene is so , so, beautiful, too. And, it is.

Historical Museum in Newport

Spirit Lake-downtown-

Pictures fromhttp://www.spiritlakeid.gov/pictures/