CITY OF EAGLES - LIBBY, MONTANA

 

 

Every once in awhile, we get a load to a place we haven't been before, and last week that location was Libby, Montana.  It's a quick over and back from the company yard in Spokane to Libby with a small 30 foot trailer that gets dropped in the yard around 4am.  It's loaded with grocery items to be delivered to a little "mom and pop" grocery store.

The ride over is beautiful.  Up Highway 95 from Coeur d'Alene and then over on Highway 2 out of Bonners Ferry.  Following the Kootenai River, you pass by the scenic Kootenai Falls.  Upon arrival in Libby, you can't help but notice all the metal eagle sculptures all around town. It was fun as we were coming and going to try can capture as many as I could.

Another somewhat fun thing was, once we arrived at the store, there of course was no dock.  We had to pull up in the alley and off load by hand all the items onto a metal roller conveyor which was propped up on milk crates.  Between a store employee, and Craig and I, we had the trailer unloaded in about 40 minutes.  Sure was interesting seeing all the items the store had ordered, including a pallet full of ice cream!

Come to find out this particular store gets two deliveries a week, on Monday and Friday.  No doubt we will be returning to Libby, Montana again in our near future.

ROADSIDE OASIS OF GOODNESS

 

First off, I'm still withholding my final assessment of this new team that Craig is on for another month of so, but so far, it almost seems too good to be true.  No load is ever much over 300 miles, we've yet to be close to being out of hours to complete an assignment, and we seem to have plenty of time to stop and take in some of the sights along the way.

 

Case in point is this huge warehouse fruit stand/antique mall.  It is three stories of utter goodness from the fresh orchard fruits, the vast variety of sweets, canned goodies, fresh lavender, and two levels of vintage finds to feast your eyes on.  What better place to spend your mandatory 30 minute new "hours of service" break. 

It was somewhat crowded when we stopped by, being the four day Fourth of July weekend and all, but with a warehouse this big, we didn't even seem to notice the crowds.  After walking all three levels, we ended up at the most natural place for me..........the homemade ice cream case.  There were only about 6 flavors to choose from, but right there in front was the one I had my eyes on.  Maple flavored cookie dough ice cream!  Oh my...what a treat.

As luck would have it, along with this warehouse on Interstate 90 just outside of Ellensburg, there is another one on Interstate 82 near Yakima.  Both of them on routes we will be traveling several times a week, if not twice a day.  I'd say its a big "win-win" for us and a place we will definitely be stopping at again.