1. Whenever I have been bouncing off the walls in the house for several days in a row; whenever I need a break from giving attention to taxes; whenever I grow weary from days of treating the gout, but happy I can begin to see metatarsals of my left foot -- then, I figure it's high time to leap into the Sube and drive to Spirit Lake, Idaho as soon as possible. Well, I didn't actually drive to Spirit Lake. I drove to Byrdman's house in CdA and he drove us to the outskirts of Post Falls, through the city of Rathdrum, and on into Spirit Lake, Idaho.
Once there, we took a quick spin down to the northeast tip of the lake itself and then barreled into the downtown district, parked, and bellied up to the plank at the oldest continuous serving bar in Idaho, the Whitehorse Saloon and Hotel. The seasoned bartender, Dolly, extended us a warm welcome and answered our questions about the joint. She poured us each an unnamed seasonal beer from Samuel Adams. My crack research team has looked into Samuel Adams' seasonal beers and concluded that Nellie served us a Fresh as Helles, a lager with orange blossom flavor added. No music was playing at the Whitehorse, but if we needed some entertainment, an episode of NCIS played on a television overhead. Dolly moved on down the bar for a cigarette and to exchange hair salon horror stories with a customer she knew well.
2. After our beer, we crossed Maine Street and dropped into Messy's, a cozy family-owned burger joint we'd both read good things about. At the counter, decorated with a variety of America loving mottos, we established that we didn't qualify for the discounts available to veterans or other public servants (not to teachers!) and each ordered ourselves a burger with fries. The burger was superb. Not only was the meat cooked beautifully, the bun was toasted and a little crunchy, and tasted great.
3. We left Spirit Lake and returned to CdA via a quick descent into the mean streets of Athol where we made a quick inspection of the parking lot at the new Super 1. As we approached CdA, we had a tough choice to make: should we have a beer at Mad Bomber or Paragon on Government Way? Well, I thought Paragon was brewing their own beer now and I wanted to give it a try, so that's where we shuffled into. Turns out Paragon hasn't begun to brew their own beer yet -- they are breaking ground for a space for their brewery. But, we each ordered ourselves a glass of Ninkasi's Pacific Rain, a pale ale, and enjoyed sipping on it slowly for a relaxing half hour or so.
So, we had a fun time touring, having a couple of beers, and eating a delicious lunch. I wanted to make sure to head back to Kellogg within the amount of time the Deke and I have agreed to leave the corgis in their crate, and I succeeded with time to spare.
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