Wed. Oct 13 - Reminded of Why I Love Idaho Roads

With only about 140 miles to go today to get from Orofino to McCall, we decided to take a 50 mile detour on a wonderfully curvy mountain climb to the plateau where Lewis and Clark first made contact with the Nez Perce tribe members that were crucial to the success of their journey.  For a motorcyclist, what's not to like about a road that looks like this on the GPS:

The Smart Car continues to be a blast to drive -- and though I miss the "uncaged" view and addictive cornering on a motorcycle, the Smart Car's easy transition between automatic transmission and five speed shifting (complete with steering wheel paddle shifters) makes for a fun drive.  The detour rewarded us with spectacular views:

and led us to the small town of Weippe and another interesting "Discovery Center" about the Lewis and Clark expedition.  From there we backtracked over the same curvy road and continued our journey on a wonderful riverside journey to our destination (map of entire route here).  For  much of the trip, the views were like this one:

Most of the route was familiar to me because of prior motorcycle trips in 2008 and 2009 through the area.  I loved Idaho roads when I wrote about them in those blogs, and today reminded me once again.