First time road trip to the US. Spokane/Coeur d'Alene
As a family, we've done 1 road trip to BC about 7 years ago and we always talked about driving to California, but hasn't happened yet, I guess this was the test to see what everyone would be like going half the distance lol.
Because of the fires, we ended up going thru Fort Macleod on Thursday to the Carway Montana border, just didn't want to chance it and to be honest, I'm glad I did. Even though it was an extra 1.5 hours, the drive was fucking amazing.
Stopped in Montana at the Whistlestop Cafe for breakfast and it was fantastic. Their French toast seems to be made with mini donut batter, which is full of beautiful diabeetus.
Sport+ on the X5 through all of the windy roads was crazy fun, wife hated it which made it even more fun. The speed limit thru there is 75mph in some spots, so the wife was on edge the whole time lol
We booked our stay downtown Spokane at the Centennial which was a really cool location. Around the corner a few blocks was an amazing tent city, full of crack heads that took over the entire core over there, bit just a few blocks down at the hotel and surrounding, it was a completely different city.
Beauty parks and the hotel is situated on the river with really nice pathways and its super easy and quick to get everywhere around there by walking, or there are Lime scooters everywhere. Seems super safe.
First night in, went to Sonic for something quick, never had it before but was really surprised, the burgers and shakes were really fuckin good.
Friday we headed to Silverwood, its our first time there, not knowing what to expect. Got there right at opening and the line up was massive and there was a group of 5 hillbilly trucks just smashing beers and partying prior to going in at 11am, which added to the wtf lol
We didn't do the Waterpark, just went straight fir the rides. Went to the drop of fear or whatever its called, no line up. Went to the first wooden roller coaster, no line up. The whole day we were there, the longest we waited in line for anything was half an hour and that was only one time.
The Rollercoasters: the 2 wooden Rollercoasters are crazy fast and super jarring. Went on one with my sunglasses, buddy asked if I'd be ok with them, "oh ya ill be fine" not 10 seconds in I could barely get them off my face. It was awesome lol
Stunt pilot: probably the coolest Rollercoaster I've ever been on, super smooth and fast 10/10.
Aftershock: this is the craziest coaster I've ever been on. YouTube it, its insane and I was yelling Holy fucking shit the whole time, which is something I don't do, wife said she would never go on it again lol 10/10
Overall silverwood was a success. Super expensive but that was to be expected. I say if you go, do it on a weekday or at the very latest a Friday, from my experiences the wait times were very reasonable and I was really impressed by how efficient all of the rides are to keep the lines moving.
Saturday: Lake Coeur d'Alene day. Started out at Frank's diner in Spokane for some chicken and waffles. I've kinda made it my life's work to try chicken and waffles anywhere I find them, but already planned on checking this place out prior. Their chicken and waffles were the best I've ever had, 10/10, expensive but worth it.
Driving the highway I've noticed that people are terrible drivers out there and slow as fuck, it's pretty frustrating, I found myself speeding past people alot, which isn't something I do very often at home.
Anyways, I rely on google maps to tell me where I'm going. I had no clue how to get anywhere so I relied heavy on it. So, that being said if you're an idiot like me and put in "Coeur d'Alene lake " in maps, it takes you to a residential area nowhere near the fucking lake.
Finally figured out how to actually get there after that mishap and I gotta say, Coeur d'Alene feels like a mix between sylvan/banff, it was really nice there.
Parking is actually super easy, you have ti pay but it's only $1 an hour everywhere you go, super reasonable. The beach is just ok, more of a gravel sand than anything, but it was still pretty nice and worth checking out. Nice little shops along the boardwalk etc. Pretty cool place.
For dinner we went to an authentic Mexican restaurant Gerardos for some Carne asada and street tacos. Them tacos are the tits. Again, not cheap but worth checking out.
Sunday was a relaxing day, went to a couple malls, which are absolute shit, if you want to shop, don't go to spokane lol we just relaxed at the hotel pool for the rest of the day and did old spaghetti factory for dinner, meh.
Yesterday was the drive home, took the other route home, through sparwood etc not as eventful but shorter. Mountain was smoldering but was fine all the way home, other than 10 minutes of construction.
Things I noticed getting into the US.
People drive retarded. I need to go through my dashcam and look, there was a lady that pulled out right in front of me from an intersection when I was going 60 or 70 mph. Never hit my brakes so hard in my life.
Mericans love their corvettes. Every 10th car was a corvette. I was on the prowl for cool cars and pretty much came up on nothing. I'll go thru my stuff and post what I saw, but wasn't much and I was pretty disappointed.
There are almost no BMWs out there. I might have seen 10 in total through my entire drive, saw every other dealer out there, but didn't come across a bmw dealership, found that odd.
Customer service is actually a thing there. I had nothing short of fantastic service everywhere I went, even at silverwood, which I figured would be a nightmare.
Gas is actually decently priced. I paid 4.50 a gallon for 93 in Post Falls. Took 3/4 of a tank to get home from there.
I know, it's a long thread, but maybe if someone is interested in going, this can help out somewhat. Overall I think I spent about $2500 CDN for 5 days. That is including hotel, gas, food, silverwood(park, games and food)and the little bit of shopping we did. Not cheap, but could be cheaper if you ate cheaper.
Edit: duty free coming back 17.50 USD for a 24 of banquet was the best.
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