“Are you from Wyoming?”
We had pulled off Highway 2 in Idaho, looking for a place to eat our lunch along Lake Pend Oreille. I found an obscure driveway that crossed a railroad track and wound back into some trees.
Then we saw the huge sign:
PRIVATE ROAD — NO TRESPASSING
Darn it. So much for eating our lunch by the lake.
I turned the car around but decided to stop and park for a few minutes. We were getting our sandwiches out when my daughter yelled: “Oh-oh, someone is coming.”
A car pulled up and the driver rolled down the window. I knew what was coming. We were going to be told to leave.
Instead, a nice-looking young lady smiled and said she had noticed our Wyoming license plate.
My car does not have a front license plate since we use it as a tow car behind our motorhome. So, if I had not turned the car around, she probably would not have seen our Wyoming plate.
She said: “Where are you from? I grew up in Dubois. Are you from Wyoming?”
The whole attitude changed.
“Heck, I’m from Lander,” I told her.
She was Jennifer Miller Stauffenberg. She grew up in the Crowheart area and graduated from Dubois High School, where she was a favorite student of my sister Susan Flanagan, who taught there.
Small world or what?
Our new best friend, Jen, has a spectacular home on the lake with her husband, Jess, who is from Riverton. She invited us inside. The home has a beautiful beach overlooking what looked like a lake.
It actually was the river that leads into Lake Pend Oreille. It was so big it looked like a lake.
She led us to her patio overlooking the water and said she had to run to town quickly, but told us to take our time. She showed us the bathrooms and then she was off.
We sat there, drank our juice, ate our sandwiches, and marveled at this amazing coincidence.
How could this happen?
Beautiful Highway 287
This had been an amazing trip so far.
It started with the scenic Highway 287 from Lander through Jen’s home area of Crowheart and Dubois and on to Yellowstone for my 57th consecutive annual trip to the world’s oldest national park.
After Yellowstone, we drove seven hours to Crystal Lake between Kalispell and Libby, Montana, where we spent four days with our great friends Dan and Cindy Whetstone. To folks familiar with that area, their home is right next to Happys Inn, a bar/resort with its own zip code on Highway 2.
Now we were headed to our son’s place near Moses Lake, Washington, taking the scenic Highway 2 that winds its way across northern Montana, Idaho, and Washington.
And now here we were, eating lunch on the patio of a spectacular home, listening to the waves lapping against their private beach.
Jen had been a teacher, and her husband, Jess, heads a large engineering firm with offices in Spokane and Pullman. They purchased this waterfront property in 2019 and recently built their dream home. Their other home in Spokane was destroyed in a forest fire Aug. 1.
Okay, what were the chances of us picking that one particular place?
And what were the chances that I would turn the car around so Jen could see my Wyoming license plate?
And what were the chances that she would happen to be heading to town at that exact moment?
I love coincidences. Sometimes I call them God Winks. This one was truly fun and fortuitous.
On Our Way
Although Jen had asked us to wait for her return, we were on a schedule and already running a little behind. We left her a note, packed up, and left, still marveling over this coincidence.
Our family loves water, but we truly got our fill of it on this trip.
First, I got to enjoy the giant Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone for the first time in years.
Next, we spent time at our friends’ home on Crystal Lake, a small but incredibly clear mountain lake in the mountains north of Kalispell, Montana.
Then we enjoyed our lakeside lunch at the Stauffenbergs’ beautiful home.
And finally, when we got to our son’s place, the first thing we did was head over to the Potholes Reservoir, where we enjoyed dinner overlooking this huge lake.
Whew!
The icing on the cake was having a nice lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Lakeside in Idaho on our way back to Wyoming.
Readers Know
Readers of my column know how much I love Wyoming’s big lakes.
From Flaming Gorge to Boysen to Lake DeSmet to Yellowstone Lake, I love them all.
But this trip through four states sure satisfied my water desires for a while.
More importantly, it reminded me once again that some of the best things that happen to us are not planned.
Sometimes you just turn down a strange driveway, ignore a “No Trespassing” sign, turn your car around at just the right moment and discover a fellow Wyomingite waiting for you.
Bill can be reached at Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
