Day 16: Lake Wallowa and Joseph

Though the weather has been absolutely impeccably behaved the views have been restricted due to smoke from the wild fires. We have learnt that one such wild fire is still burning some five miles away, though it is now under control and will burn itself out. Reports on wild fires can be found on the internet, the information on this fire shows that they are still using helicopters to drop water onto the fire. Inciweb is a good site to use.
Yesterday was an arduous day, with the long drive on the gravel road, so today we will relax a little and Sally can get up to date with the laundry. After lunch we took a little ride back up past the Wallowa Lake to Joseph. We stopped on the way as at the end of the lake, on the hill, is the grave of Old Chief Joseph. A fascinating Indian who was born sometime between 1885 and 1890 and was chief over many tribes in the area.  A mantle which he passed on to his son, Chief (Young) Joseph who led the Nez Perce in their war against the Whites (see the yesterday in Imnaha).
While we were there at the roadside we stood and watched two police cars, one ambulance and one rather old volunteer fire truck come screaming past, we later found out that a paraglider had ditched into the lake, breaking a leg in the process.

We drove on in to Joseph and enjoyed a short walk up Main Street to the Arrowhead Chocolate shop, where Sally enjoyed an excellent cup of Earl Grey Tea, while I had a coffee. So good was the tea that Sally went and complimented the manager – something about getting the water to the correct temperature and stuff. Anyway the manager was highly delighted and proceeded to give us a couple of their bespoke chocolate truffles, one of which was an Earl Grey flavour! Each one sells at $1.50 a pop, costing more than the tea we bought! OIA!