DFW Gate E16 6:55 AM May 19, 2023
Followed by a routine flight to Salt Lake City
I arrived anticipating a breathless Gallup along endless hallways to the departure gate. Instead, I walked out of the arrival gate, kept going 30 feet straightahead and sat down at the departure gate. What a relief my bags were getting heavy, the woman sitting next to me at the departure gate agreed to watch my bag while I try trotted (I didn't dare run for fear of accident) to the men's room. When I returned on a hunch, I asked if she and her husband we're going on a river cruise. Thus I met my first group of fellow travelers. It soon became apparent that at least half of the people on the flight from Salt Lake City to Lewiston Idaho we're going on the same cruise.
Then I boarded an intimate feeling commuter jet for the flight to Lewiston, Idaho
We departed over the Great Salt Lake wher I noticed substantially more salt-sand beach than I remembered
And smog (I don't know what else to call the ugly brown haze extending from the ground level all the way up to at least 10,000 feet and cutting visibility to a mile or two, at best and necessitating and ILS Landing at Lewiston. I don't know what it's from, but it's ugly.
About 30 miles from Lewiston, I saw from the window, a familiar lake, and an airport I have talked about often. The north end of the runway is almost in the lake, and the south end is a couple of hundred feet up a mountain. All landings are from the north and I'll takeoff our to the south not because the prevailing winds, but because of the prevailing mountain.
Lewiston is a bustling airport, it doesn't have a gate, it has a portable ramp that they drag up to the aircraft. The waiting room is the baggage claim area, and the whole building is not as big as our house but they were very nice and friendly, and we were met by cruise line representatives With buses and taken directly to the motel where we were greeted given our room assignments are neck tags with our names and our room keys, and a schedule of events for the remainder of the day
I had lunch in the recommended motel café and it wasn't bad. Tomorrow at 10:30 we gather in the lobby where we will be guided the hundred yards or so to the boat dock where we will catch the jet boat to go up the snake river. My room has a beautiful view. Of the Walmart across the street had a nice little patio. Actually it's quite nice and I'm a happy camper I have met and gotten know a fellow Texan from Houston who son runs a exotic animal game farm/shooting gallery. Tonight we will be entertained with dinner and a presentation by the local nimi ipuu (commonly called Nez Perce) indian tribe, which which should be interesting.
There may be more later Tonight, but there will definitely be more tomorrow.