ER

This morning Karen and Keith cooked our breakfast...sausage, bacon and buttermilk pancakes with gen-you-wine maple syrup.  So delicious.  While breakfast was cooking I played with my drone a bit and shot the view of Whitefish Lake and of the Echtra Cabin and its current guests.

Shots from my drone launched off the deck of Echtra Cabin.

North end of Whitefish Lake

Adventure Rider salutes

South end of Whitefish Lake

Echtra Cabin

Following breakfast we were off to the Emergency Room to see if we could get Sherry some relief for her aching left heel which has been growing more and more painful.  The Local ER is at the North Valley hospital which, as hospitals go, was delightful.  They whisked us in, the doctor showed up immediately and following an X-ray, they diagnosed her condition as a bone spur.

Unfortunately, they offered little in the way of treatment other than rest, ice and Advil.  One of the nurses attending Sherry was a young woman named Bess.  I had a chance to learn about her background which included being a fly fishing guide and a ski bum.  We had a great talk about local fishing opportunities.

Next up we took Sherry to an outdoor store to see if a pair of hiking boots would help (they did not), but the store did offer bits and baubles that Sherry and Karen found simply irresistible.  The young man waiting on Sherry told me that the store was employee owned.  I said, "So, you give a shit?".  He laughed and said, "Yeah, I give a shit".  Good answer.

I met a young man named Grant outside the store test casting various fly rods and decided to chat him up and test cast several very nice Winston rods.  Turns out that Grant left his job as a corporate lawyer to sell fly fishing equipment.  His dream job and he seemed very happy.  I asked how his parents felt about his career choice and he said, "They're good with it.  Now they don't have to listen to me bitch about hating my job."

Happiness seems to be a recurring theme we've found among locals in Whitefish.  The people we've met, hospital workers, grocery store owners, waiters and waitresses have been young, fit and happy and a delight to be around.  Must be something in the water.

We took a brief drive west of Whitefish and found the locked entrance to KC's old business partner's ranch.  The area was littered with beautiful lavish ranches and less-than-modest old homesteads, representing the confluence of old time natives and wealthy newcomers driving up the prices of everything.  Its a lament that is sung throughout the west as these "last best places" are discovered by the donor class and life for the working class is changed forever.

Our final stop was a small local market where we supplied ourselves for our cook-in-the-Echtra Cabin steak dinner tonite.  My pancakes are wearing thin and I'm ready to tear into a ribeye...medium rare please.