Car d'Alene

Coeur d'Alene has many faces, one of which we saw yesterday when the spring weather was warm and sunny.  Today we saw another side, the cool and wet side.  The skies were cloudy all day with occasional showers and the temp dropped to a high of 62. This is somewhat expected for this time of year of course, but even the locals were surprised by the strength of this storm system.

The first winters in CdA are recorded by French traders in the early 1800's, when an outpost was established to trade with the CdA tribe of native americans.  The name Coeur d'Alene means "heart of an awl", referring evidently to the sharp, pointed trading habits of the natives.  In the 1870's a fort was established, and a city grew, focused on lumber and mining.  Now, of course, CdA survives on tourism and the attractions that Lake Coeur d'Alene brings.

An unexpected attraction that we happened on this evening was the opening cruise of the 2014 "Car d'Alene", an annual event.  We arrived a bit early, found a public bench to sit on, and waited for the cruise to start.  In the meantime, a series of people shared the bench with us, and we enjoyed talking to people from Utah, Washington, and Canada.  The Canadian couple stayed with us for the entire cruise, even through the rain showers and the cold wind. They thought the weather was wonderful (?), but Donna and I were freezing most of the evening.

I would like to share all of the 80 or so pictures that I took, but I only have room for a few.  There were redneck hot rods, a restored Bentley (with 4 nice ladies dressed in proper english attire tossing out small packages of Grey Poupon), full on racing vehicles, off-road trucks and many 60's and 70's muscle cars.

A 427 Cobra followed by an AMC Gremlin!

There were hot rods and then there were hot rods…

A "Magic36" and a custom "Stealth" car (with apparently a flower pot on top…).

A "44Donna" and a beautiful coupe.

The Orange Truth followed by the Bentlly.

An immaculate boat tail roadster followed by a work in progress.  How do they do that?

And the quintessential, classic hot rod.  A chopped '48 Merc: