Friday, September 15
We left Bear Lake in the rain this morning. It actually poured pretty good last night. Our destination today is southeast Wyoming or northern Colorado. I wasn't sure we were going to make it too far today. The first thing we ran into was Fossil Butte National Monument. The visitor center has a display of the fossilized remains of everything from fish, to plants, to mammals. It was amazing how well preserved and abundant these fossils are. This area was once a huge subtropical lake 50 million years ago and the remains of what lived here really are fascinating. The national monument forbids collecting and removing fossils from there but there are numerous private quarries around where a lot of people dig and find thousands of fossils.
Our next stop was Kemmerer, Wyoming, just down the road. We went into a couple of shops that sold the fossils. It is really neat to think about how old these things are, and that they were once a part of a vast sub-tropical forest area in this land of sage brush and bluffs. Kemmerer is also the birthplace and home of J.C. Penney, and has the original J. C. Penney store. We couldn't pass this up. It is still an active store.
The rest of the day was spent heading east on I-80 fighting an extremely strong wind from the south. We made it to our turn and headed south on 125 toward Colorado. We made it into Colorado around 6:00 and found a beautiful boondocking site in the Arapaho National Forest. It sat above a large meadow with a pretty little stream.
After we sat up camp we couldn't get the furnace to start. We had to rely on the little propane heater to keep us warm. We kept trying and trying to get the heater going but it wouldn't start. It was suppose to get down around freezing tonight.
We had leftover bar-b-que pork and salad for supper.
Saturday, September 16
Well, still no furnace and the ground is covered with ice and snow, not to mention the camper. We had anticipated going over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain NP, but with the weather being like it is we decided to head on down through Winter Park to Idaho Springs and Denver and see if we can get this heater fixed.
We got to Denver and Camping World about 11:00 and they did a diagnostic on the heater but couldn't tell what was wrong so they recommended a full cleaning. We agreed to that. Walla, guess what had been keeping out furnace from running. There was a gaggle of lady bugs collected around the gas oriface. They were all dead now of course but this was keeping the gas from getting into the heat chamber. The furnace works great now.
We called Shelby and she and Rob came over and got us while they were working on the furnace and we went and looked at her new house and then went to get some lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. Rob had a night out with his buddies planned so Shelby wanted to head up to Rocky Mountain NP with us to camp. This was fine, so we had Carol and I, and Shelby, and her dog Max in the camper all night. It really got cold last night. It had to have gotten down in the 20s. There are still a lot of folks camping in tents up here. Can't believe it. They sure do get up and out of the campground early though :-). We saw a lot of elk in Estes Park on our way into the national park last night. We also have heard a few buggles.
We had spagetti and french bread for supper. Shelby beat Carol and I at Scrabble and we hit the sack.
Sunday, September 17
We got up and had some breakfast burritos and then went for a walk along a little stream near the campground. Saw a nice mule deer with about a 10 point rack. Shelby had to be back in Denver to meet some friends so we dropped her at her car in Estes Park and went walking through a bunch of booths there in the city park at Estes Park. They were having an arts and crafts festival. It is amazing how talented some of these folks are that displayed. I would love to have some of the paintings we saw, but won't pay the prices that they are.
I had to go to the library and get on the internet and load up what I had done on the blog. Got all of that taken care of and Carol and I headed back into the national park to see what we could see. It is such a beautiful park with fantastic scenery and beautiful meadows, and the elk are abundant. We took lots of photos of elk and some of some deer we saw, not to mention the snow storm up in the peaks. It was just a beautiful day. We're back at the campground now, we had a hamburger, squash, tomato, onion dish for supper. It was okay, but not my favorite.
The temperature has been cold all day and the wind has been blowing hard so it was not conducive to hiking. We both seem to be worn out though and will probably go to bed early.
Monday, September 18
We drove as far up Trail Ridge Road as we could today. It was closed due to snow at higher elevations. We spent all morning driving around the Rocky Mountain N.P. taking photos and enjoying the scenery. It is a sunny but cold day. We stopped and ate lunch at a picnic area, but we ate in the camper. After lunch we headed into Estes Park and I loaded up what I had done of the blog at the time. We finished up in Estes Park and drove back to Denver on highway 7, which is a scenic route that goes through a beautiful canyon. We got back to Denver in time to meet Shelby over at her new house. It is officially hers now and we got our first looks at the inside of the house. It is a very cute little house with a great deal of potential, especially with the Denver housing market. It is really much larger inside than it appears from the outside. She also got a good sturdy garage that will not only act as a garage but as a shop as well. Shelby, Rob, Carol and I went out to a nice restaurant tonight. Shelby had a gift certificate from her realtor for the dinner so she treated. We parked in her new driveway for the night.
Tuesday, September 19 through Tuesday, September 26
Help, we've been Shanghied and placed in servitude here in Denver. The past seven days have been a whirl of physical labor, cleaning, and painting. We have also become known on a first name basis at the nearby Home Depot store. They smile every time they see us walk in.
This will complete my blog entries for this trip. Since we are now involved in helping Shelby and Rob getting their house ready to live in, and we plan on leaving Thursday morning for Kansas City, there really isn't much to write about. Becky wants some help with getting ready for a garage sale when we get there, and we are looking so forward to seeing Annabelle, and Becky and Rob,again. We are committed to baby sit Saturday evening. Carol and I both hope that you all have enjoyed this blog. We are glad we did this so we have a good record of our trip. When we get home I will post some final thoughts on the trip in general, some things we would do again, and some things we wouldn't do again for any that are thinking of a trip to Alaska for themselves.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
September 8 through September 14
September 8, Friday
Well, we're kind of in a delay mode. We're taking our time in heading back to Denver cause Shelby isn't closing on her new house until the 18th of September and we want to be able to see that and probably help her get it ready to move in. We decided to do something we hadn't been able to do all summer we found a resort with a pool and just enjoyed soaking up the sun, and reading, and getting wet once in a while. Since that is pretty boring stuff to write about, this is a very short entry today.
September 9, Saturday
Another day of lounging around doing nothing useful. Ain't it great. We are getting a lot of reading done though. We did have a delicious spagetti supper and the resort we are staying at is showing a movie in their meeting room tonight so we will go and see that.
The movie was 'Failure to Launch' starring Mathew MacConahey and Sarah Jessica Parker. It was really cute and fun to watch and we hadn't seen it before. Terry Bradshaw (the old Steeler's quarterback) played the dad in the movie and he did pretty good.
September 10, Sunday
We decide it is time to head on toward Denver so we load up and leave this morning. We head south toward Moscow, Idaho. We stop at a store in Moscow to get a loaf of bread and some salsa and then we head on over to the University of Idaho and drive around the campus. It is a pretty campus with lots of pines and some small hills we find a parking lot to park in and eat lunch. This is the campus where 'Life on Wheels' originated. Some of you may not know about this. It is a training session that has full time RVers as instructors, and they tell you all about surviving on the road. Most of them have larger units, i.e. motor homes and fifth wheels, than we do, but the principles are the same. Like I said this is the granddaddy of the Life on Wheels conferences. It is usually held here in June and lasts for about 10 days. One can attend about 4 sessions a day. The sessions deal with everything from working on the road, to places to go and see in different sections of the country, to how to choose an RV, to RV maintenance. Carol and I attended one up in Des Moines, Iowa last year but it was only a four day session, but it was very valuable in preparing us for this trip. After lunch we drove around town. it is a very pretty small college town. We could live here, but I'm not sure how the winters would be.
From here we went on south toward Lewiston, ID to catch Highway 12 east. We had heard that this is a great scenic route. At the junction of 95 and 12 is the Nez Perce National Historic Site. It is operated by the National Park service and tells the store of the Nez Perce who befriended the white man when they first meet Lewis and Clark only to be betrayed. Anyway, it was a nice center and we enjoyed the visit. From here we headed east on 12 though what remains of the Nez Perce reservation and on to the Clearwater National Forest. Around 4:00 we found a beautiful small forest service campground and pulled in there to spend the night. It was right next to the Clearwater River and I put on the new sandals I had bought at the Columbia store outlet for ten dollars and went down and waded in the river to see how they worked. They are made specifically for fording streams and rivers when one backpacks. They work great. The water was fine too, it must not be snow melt because it wasn't that cold.
We had some red beans and rice for supper along with fresh corn on the cob. We really are trying to eat healthy :-). We were both tired. I actually fell asleep reading at the table at 8:00 so decided it was time to hit the sack.
Monday, September 11
We got up about 7:00 this morning so we had about 11 hours of sleep last night. It is not hard to do with the fresh, cool air and the sound of the river right next to the camper. After a breakfast of egg burritos and cantaloupe we hit the road again. We continue east on 12 which continually follows pretty rivers almost exactly all the way across Idaho. Thus this is not a fast drive, one must travel slowly. We pulled into a river access and a forest service person was there doing a survey of people stopping by. I got chosen to answer the questions since my birthday was the closest to today. It was yesterday as a matter of fact. I sure didn't mind though, she was blond, with blue eyes and about 30 so I delayed survey as long as possible. We speculated on how long Dave would have taken to take the survey after we left.
I keep pulling off to let others go by me on this road because it is so scenic. I did this one time and mentioned to Carol that this guy was really moving and he must have to get to work. Her comment back was, "Well, at least he has a job." Even I had to laugh at that.
A short ways further we stopped at the historic Lochsa Ranger Station. This is a ranger station that was built in the 1920s and 30s and is not a great memorial to the forest service. There are several log cabins that are preserved and lots of displays of items used by the rangers back then and lots of photos. There is recorded message at each of the locations that tells you about the items displayed and the building you are in. There was a massive fire in 1934 that killed a couple of rangers and burnt thousands of square miles. The ranger station was saved by the efforts of the rangers there and survived. The story narration on the fire was great.
Now, it is about 3:00 and we have found another fantastic campsite. We actually found it about 1:00 and couldn't leave it is so pretty so we decided to spend the night. We're trying to figure out how we could get the canoe carrier attached to the top of the truck camper and come back here in a couple of summers to spend the summer. We would definitely get an annual fishing license and do some fly fishing also.
We have decided that Idaho is one of our favorite states. We loved the Stanley area last year and a few years ago when we visited, and now this only adds fuel to our fire of enthusiasm for the states lovely natural beauty.
We found out from Heather, the blond blue eyed ranger, that since the rivers along this highway are National Scenic Rivers they are protected from damming, and also the scenery along them must be maintained, thus preventing logging right along the river. Hopefully, this area will survive for generations to come.
Carol is down collecting rocks as I type this. My job will be to find a place to put them. We're getting pretty good at utilizing space.
Tuesday, September 12
We left our lovely campsite this morning and just a quarter of a mile down the road was an interpretive trail of one mile so we took that. It was a very pretty walk to a place called Colgate Licks which is an area where warm mineral waters surface. A lot of elk, deer, and some moose come here to obtain the minerals, much like a salt lick draws animals. We had hoped to see some animals but didn't. We got back in the truck and about 4 miles down the road was a trail to a hot spring. It was only a two mile round trip so we packed up the day pack and headed out. It was another beautiful setting with hot spring water surging out of a rocky bluff and they flowed into some pools that mixed with the stream water right next to the bluff for a perfect temperature of about 100 degrees. We were the only ones there and it was a fantastic experience. We needed a bath anyway :-).
After we got back to the truck it was about 11:00. It is amazing how fast the days go. I think we have spent the better part of almost three days and not gone more than a hundred miles. This is what I call 'Fluff' travel. Fluff is the nickname for Dave Bryan, my buddy in St. Louis, who likes to travel slowly like this. His middle name should be slow.
Unintentionally we have been following the Lewis and Clark trail through Idaho. Every historic marker deals with what Lewis and Clark did nearby. We stopped at a visitor center at Lolo Pass and it had a large display on the Lewis and Clark expedition and a video. We finally made it to Lolo, Montana and had cell phone service. I had a couple of messages on the cell phone, one from each of the kids wishing me a happy birthday. In Becky's she said, "Well, I guess you know what happened to Trent by now" but she didn't tell me and I had no idea what happened to him. I was anxious to see if the Chiefs had won Sunday. I finally found Dave at home, in his office, and he told me they had lost and Trent Green had suffered a severe concussion. Well, there goes the Chiefs season. They don't have a backup quarterback that is worthwhile, and from what I surmised their offensive line stinks this year. Oh well, now I won't have to tie up valuable time watching the games.
After stopping at a Safeway in Missoula, Montana and picking up some groceries and going by the old Fort Missoula we headed south again. We go down to th foot of Chief Joseph Pass and stayed at a forest service campground. Dave had mentioned it and said it was free, guess what Dave it isn't free anymore, It was $10. Since we were the only ones there it was very peaceful, we saw some deer and had a good meal. I clobbered Carol at Scrabble mainly because I used all of my letters on one turn and that is a 50 point bonus. The word I spelled was 'enlarger'. I almost felt bad, but not quite enough not to do it.
Wednesday, September 13
We had known that some friends of ours from Stockton (Buddy and Cindy Frye) were going to be in Rigby, Idaho visiting his aunt who has been in pretty bad health for the past couple of months and is just now starting to get a little better, but they came out to help her get settled in a nursing home while she recovers. We had called to make sure they were going to be in Rigby before we went by and they said they were so we headed down there. We got there around mid afternoon and got directions from Buddy on how to get out to the nursing home. We went out there and met his Aunt Vicki. They have talked a lot about her and said she is quite a card. We found this to be true. She told stories about here trips down to Arizona in the winter. She has a motorhome and would drive it by herself down there for the winters. Her husband died 20 years ago. She said she cried for three years and then got on with things and started going down there abou 17 years ago. She is not a large woman and I can just imagine her driving her motorhome down there by herself. To give you an idea of her humor, she had a rear bumper sticker on the motor home that says, "Caution: Driver is too old to give a shit anymore." She really is a card and we enjoyed our visit.
Buddy and Cindy and Carol and I went out to Pioneer Pies, in Rexburg, Idaho for supper. Carol had liver and onions. I never could understand why someone would actually buy liver and onions, but she does sometimes. I had Navajo Taco, which is like a large taco made with Navajo fry bread. It was really good. We topped it off with banana cream pie. Okay, so much for the eating healthy, but this place is called Pioneer Pies, we couldn't leave without eating pie. At least we shared a piece. We had a great visit with Buddy and Cindy learning what they did all summer and we told them about our trip.
We spent the night camped in Aunt Vicki's driveway.
Thursday, September 14
Well, not much happened today. We just headed east from Rigby toward the Wyoming border. This is the road that goes to Jackson, Wy. We actually got within 50 miles of Jackson and turned south. I told Carol it was almost sinful to be that close and not go into Jackson. I resisted the temptation though and decided to check out new roads. We went south on 89 through Star Valley, and turned onto what would shortly become Idaho 34 toward Bear Lake.
We drove until about 3:00 and found a Utah state park to camp at. A cold front is scheduled to move through today and it did about 5:00. Luckily I had started grilling our country style pork chops right when we got here. We got everything rushed inside before it got wet.
This Bear Lake that we are camped at is in a large valley surrounded by mountains but there are few trees here around the lake except for a few cottonwoods. The indians and mountain men used the lake prior to it be settled by Mormans in the 1800s. It is a pretty lake. It is a very azure blue and is sometimes called the Carribean of the Rockies.
We've had supper and since i grilled the pork and made the salads Carol gets to do dished tonight :-).
We talked to Shelby this morning and she is scheduled to close on her house Monday afternoon at 4:00 so we have decided to head toward Rocky Mountain NP and spend Saturday and Sunday there and go on into Denver on Monday. It will most likely take us two days to get to Rocky Mountain NP from here at the rate we travel.
Well, we're kind of in a delay mode. We're taking our time in heading back to Denver cause Shelby isn't closing on her new house until the 18th of September and we want to be able to see that and probably help her get it ready to move in. We decided to do something we hadn't been able to do all summer we found a resort with a pool and just enjoyed soaking up the sun, and reading, and getting wet once in a while. Since that is pretty boring stuff to write about, this is a very short entry today.
September 9, Saturday
Another day of lounging around doing nothing useful. Ain't it great. We are getting a lot of reading done though. We did have a delicious spagetti supper and the resort we are staying at is showing a movie in their meeting room tonight so we will go and see that.
The movie was 'Failure to Launch' starring Mathew MacConahey and Sarah Jessica Parker. It was really cute and fun to watch and we hadn't seen it before. Terry Bradshaw (the old Steeler's quarterback) played the dad in the movie and he did pretty good.
September 10, Sunday
We decide it is time to head on toward Denver so we load up and leave this morning. We head south toward Moscow, Idaho. We stop at a store in Moscow to get a loaf of bread and some salsa and then we head on over to the University of Idaho and drive around the campus. It is a pretty campus with lots of pines and some small hills we find a parking lot to park in and eat lunch. This is the campus where 'Life on Wheels' originated. Some of you may not know about this. It is a training session that has full time RVers as instructors, and they tell you all about surviving on the road. Most of them have larger units, i.e. motor homes and fifth wheels, than we do, but the principles are the same. Like I said this is the granddaddy of the Life on Wheels conferences. It is usually held here in June and lasts for about 10 days. One can attend about 4 sessions a day. The sessions deal with everything from working on the road, to places to go and see in different sections of the country, to how to choose an RV, to RV maintenance. Carol and I attended one up in Des Moines, Iowa last year but it was only a four day session, but it was very valuable in preparing us for this trip. After lunch we drove around town. it is a very pretty small college town. We could live here, but I'm not sure how the winters would be.
From here we went on south toward Lewiston, ID to catch Highway 12 east. We had heard that this is a great scenic route. At the junction of 95 and 12 is the Nez Perce National Historic Site. It is operated by the National Park service and tells the store of the Nez Perce who befriended the white man when they first meet Lewis and Clark only to be betrayed. Anyway, it was a nice center and we enjoyed the visit. From here we headed east on 12 though what remains of the Nez Perce reservation and on to the Clearwater National Forest. Around 4:00 we found a beautiful small forest service campground and pulled in there to spend the night. It was right next to the Clearwater River and I put on the new sandals I had bought at the Columbia store outlet for ten dollars and went down and waded in the river to see how they worked. They are made specifically for fording streams and rivers when one backpacks. They work great. The water was fine too, it must not be snow melt because it wasn't that cold.
We had some red beans and rice for supper along with fresh corn on the cob. We really are trying to eat healthy :-). We were both tired. I actually fell asleep reading at the table at 8:00 so decided it was time to hit the sack.
Monday, September 11
We got up about 7:00 this morning so we had about 11 hours of sleep last night. It is not hard to do with the fresh, cool air and the sound of the river right next to the camper. After a breakfast of egg burritos and cantaloupe we hit the road again. We continue east on 12 which continually follows pretty rivers almost exactly all the way across Idaho. Thus this is not a fast drive, one must travel slowly. We pulled into a river access and a forest service person was there doing a survey of people stopping by. I got chosen to answer the questions since my birthday was the closest to today. It was yesterday as a matter of fact. I sure didn't mind though, she was blond, with blue eyes and about 30 so I delayed survey as long as possible. We speculated on how long Dave would have taken to take the survey after we left.
I keep pulling off to let others go by me on this road because it is so scenic. I did this one time and mentioned to Carol that this guy was really moving and he must have to get to work. Her comment back was, "Well, at least he has a job." Even I had to laugh at that.
A short ways further we stopped at the historic Lochsa Ranger Station. This is a ranger station that was built in the 1920s and 30s and is not a great memorial to the forest service. There are several log cabins that are preserved and lots of displays of items used by the rangers back then and lots of photos. There is recorded message at each of the locations that tells you about the items displayed and the building you are in. There was a massive fire in 1934 that killed a couple of rangers and burnt thousands of square miles. The ranger station was saved by the efforts of the rangers there and survived. The story narration on the fire was great.
Now, it is about 3:00 and we have found another fantastic campsite. We actually found it about 1:00 and couldn't leave it is so pretty so we decided to spend the night. We're trying to figure out how we could get the canoe carrier attached to the top of the truck camper and come back here in a couple of summers to spend the summer. We would definitely get an annual fishing license and do some fly fishing also.
We have decided that Idaho is one of our favorite states. We loved the Stanley area last year and a few years ago when we visited, and now this only adds fuel to our fire of enthusiasm for the states lovely natural beauty.
We found out from Heather, the blond blue eyed ranger, that since the rivers along this highway are National Scenic Rivers they are protected from damming, and also the scenery along them must be maintained, thus preventing logging right along the river. Hopefully, this area will survive for generations to come.
Carol is down collecting rocks as I type this. My job will be to find a place to put them. We're getting pretty good at utilizing space.
Tuesday, September 12
We left our lovely campsite this morning and just a quarter of a mile down the road was an interpretive trail of one mile so we took that. It was a very pretty walk to a place called Colgate Licks which is an area where warm mineral waters surface. A lot of elk, deer, and some moose come here to obtain the minerals, much like a salt lick draws animals. We had hoped to see some animals but didn't. We got back in the truck and about 4 miles down the road was a trail to a hot spring. It was only a two mile round trip so we packed up the day pack and headed out. It was another beautiful setting with hot spring water surging out of a rocky bluff and they flowed into some pools that mixed with the stream water right next to the bluff for a perfect temperature of about 100 degrees. We were the only ones there and it was a fantastic experience. We needed a bath anyway :-).
After we got back to the truck it was about 11:00. It is amazing how fast the days go. I think we have spent the better part of almost three days and not gone more than a hundred miles. This is what I call 'Fluff' travel. Fluff is the nickname for Dave Bryan, my buddy in St. Louis, who likes to travel slowly like this. His middle name should be slow.
Unintentionally we have been following the Lewis and Clark trail through Idaho. Every historic marker deals with what Lewis and Clark did nearby. We stopped at a visitor center at Lolo Pass and it had a large display on the Lewis and Clark expedition and a video. We finally made it to Lolo, Montana and had cell phone service. I had a couple of messages on the cell phone, one from each of the kids wishing me a happy birthday. In Becky's she said, "Well, I guess you know what happened to Trent by now" but she didn't tell me and I had no idea what happened to him. I was anxious to see if the Chiefs had won Sunday. I finally found Dave at home, in his office, and he told me they had lost and Trent Green had suffered a severe concussion. Well, there goes the Chiefs season. They don't have a backup quarterback that is worthwhile, and from what I surmised their offensive line stinks this year. Oh well, now I won't have to tie up valuable time watching the games.
After stopping at a Safeway in Missoula, Montana and picking up some groceries and going by the old Fort Missoula we headed south again. We go down to th foot of Chief Joseph Pass and stayed at a forest service campground. Dave had mentioned it and said it was free, guess what Dave it isn't free anymore, It was $10. Since we were the only ones there it was very peaceful, we saw some deer and had a good meal. I clobbered Carol at Scrabble mainly because I used all of my letters on one turn and that is a 50 point bonus. The word I spelled was 'enlarger'. I almost felt bad, but not quite enough not to do it.
Wednesday, September 13
We had known that some friends of ours from Stockton (Buddy and Cindy Frye) were going to be in Rigby, Idaho visiting his aunt who has been in pretty bad health for the past couple of months and is just now starting to get a little better, but they came out to help her get settled in a nursing home while she recovers. We had called to make sure they were going to be in Rigby before we went by and they said they were so we headed down there. We got there around mid afternoon and got directions from Buddy on how to get out to the nursing home. We went out there and met his Aunt Vicki. They have talked a lot about her and said she is quite a card. We found this to be true. She told stories about here trips down to Arizona in the winter. She has a motorhome and would drive it by herself down there for the winters. Her husband died 20 years ago. She said she cried for three years and then got on with things and started going down there abou 17 years ago. She is not a large woman and I can just imagine her driving her motorhome down there by herself. To give you an idea of her humor, she had a rear bumper sticker on the motor home that says, "Caution: Driver is too old to give a shit anymore." She really is a card and we enjoyed our visit.
Buddy and Cindy and Carol and I went out to Pioneer Pies, in Rexburg, Idaho for supper. Carol had liver and onions. I never could understand why someone would actually buy liver and onions, but she does sometimes. I had Navajo Taco, which is like a large taco made with Navajo fry bread. It was really good. We topped it off with banana cream pie. Okay, so much for the eating healthy, but this place is called Pioneer Pies, we couldn't leave without eating pie. At least we shared a piece. We had a great visit with Buddy and Cindy learning what they did all summer and we told them about our trip.
We spent the night camped in Aunt Vicki's driveway.
Thursday, September 14
Well, not much happened today. We just headed east from Rigby toward the Wyoming border. This is the road that goes to Jackson, Wy. We actually got within 50 miles of Jackson and turned south. I told Carol it was almost sinful to be that close and not go into Jackson. I resisted the temptation though and decided to check out new roads. We went south on 89 through Star Valley, and turned onto what would shortly become Idaho 34 toward Bear Lake.
We drove until about 3:00 and found a Utah state park to camp at. A cold front is scheduled to move through today and it did about 5:00. Luckily I had started grilling our country style pork chops right when we got here. We got everything rushed inside before it got wet.
This Bear Lake that we are camped at is in a large valley surrounded by mountains but there are few trees here around the lake except for a few cottonwoods. The indians and mountain men used the lake prior to it be settled by Mormans in the 1800s. It is a pretty lake. It is a very azure blue and is sometimes called the Carribean of the Rockies.
We've had supper and since i grilled the pork and made the salads Carol gets to do dished tonight :-).
We talked to Shelby this morning and she is scheduled to close on her house Monday afternoon at 4:00 so we have decided to head toward Rocky Mountain NP and spend Saturday and Sunday there and go on into Denver on Monday. It will most likely take us two days to get to Rocky Mountain NP from here at the rate we travel.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
August 31 through September 7
August 31, Thursday
After breakfast we scooted on over to the library I had found yesterday and i loaded up the blog and checked email. I also checked on news about the Chiefs to see how the preseason was going for them. I also checked to make sure that Mosers (Missouri State Employees Retirement System) had deposited another check into my checking account. They sure had. That just seems amazing to me that we can be out here having fun and getting paid at the same time. Miracles never cease.
After the library Carol wanted to run out to the arboretum and a Japanese gardens near the University of Washington. We walked a couple of miles around the arboretum and then headed over to the Japanese gardens. The Japanese gardens were the prettiest we have seen. We both enjoy these because they are sooooo neat and organized. By the time we got done here it was around 2:00 and we hadn't eaten any lunch yet. We headed on back to the camp ground to have some lunch. The traffic on Interstate 5 was backed up so I exited and went through downtown and caught 99 and 509 back out to Des Moines. This is the route we had used yesterday to get down to the Pike's Place Market. It is so much faster and easier, I'm surprised other people don't use it, but then, like Carol says, I'm always looking for the easiest way to do things. We got back and had some lunch and then I ran a tub of soapy water and started wiping down the camper. It had a lot of road grime on it and Carol let me use an old towel to dry it with. It looked brand new by the time I got done. Well, not really, but close. It is nice to have a clean camper again.
We didn't really have any supper because we had had left over brats and chili for lunch and we neither one were hungry.
September 1, Friday
We had to meet Dave and Linda at the Holiday Inn Express on Enterprise at 9:00. Our intent on doing that was to get down to the Pike's Place Market early before the crowd. Well, those of you who know Dave are sure to know that this plan was a complete failure. When we got there Dave had his month end report to mail so we had to go to the post office in Des Moines, that took about a half an hour cause there was a crowd, then we had to go to Sally's and get some 4X4 mousse for his hair. He never can remember his mousse. This was another half an hour. By the time we got down to the market it was 11:00 and the crowd had beaten us. Deja vu set in and I remembered what it was like to travel with Dave.
We did enjoy the market though, despite the crowd. It was fun to go booth to booth and look at what they offered. We bought a few items at a Chinese bakery to tide us over until lunch and then trudged ahead. We saw some great t-shirts with really cute sayings on them. One child size shirt said, "Momma no, daddy maybe, nana and papa yes". Carol thought she could do that on her own so we didn't buy one :-(. Another said something to the extent of, "Lifes intent is not to get to the grave with a well preserved body but to get there well used, sliding in and yelling, 'Wow, what a ride."
About 1:00 we decided to find a place to eat, so we ended up down by the water front at a place called Ivar's and we all had some sort of fish and chips and watched and listened to he sea gulls squawking for food. After lunch we decided to head out and explore so we drove over to West Seattle and found a completely different climate. It is much slower paced and relaxed over there we sat on a park bench and watched the boats in the harbor with the Seattle skyline and the space needle in the background. After that we found a nice little Mexican restaurant right across from a public beach and Dave and I had some Mexican beer while the girls had iced tea. We also got some chips and salsa and the salsa was great, different from most we are use to. This is the other thing about traveling with Dave you tend to get off the beaten path more and find some unique places when he is along, so I guess things balance out.
By now it is about 4:00 and they have to be at the Space Needle at 5:00 so we head that way. After a couple of missed turns and some diversions we finally made it. We said our goodbyes and then headed back to the Saltwater State Park to put the camper on and cook up some steaks for supper.
Saturday, September 2
We left the state park and went over to the local farmer's market. We couldn't resist some of the fresh vegetables and peaches. Next we headed on out of town toward Rainier National Park. It took us most of the day to drive up toward Mt. Rainier, of course we had to stop at a couple of garage sales and a grocery store. We ran across a great national forest recreation area with lots of open camping. We found a great campsite in amongst the pines that was absolutely free and this area was very uncrowded, which was great considering this was the Saturday of Labor Day. We actually stopped early because this is such a great campsite. We left overs for supper and did quite a bit of reading and relaxing today. A guy who camped near us had Utah plates so I asked him where he was from. He said he had been in Utah for the past year where he had remodeled a house and sold it. He had done the same thing in Florida before that. Now he was waiting to take possession of a house in Spokane to do the same thing. He bought houses in a place he wanted to see and spent a year or so to remodel and resell the houses. He said he made a pretty good living doing this. Interesting.
Sunday, September 3
We went into Rainier National Park today. It was quite crowded, but that didn't take away from the magnificance of Mt. Rainier. It dominates the countryside for miles and miles and the closer one gets the more awesome it is. We spent the day stopping at viewpoints and also the visitor center. They had a great movie on the mountain and the park at the visitor center. Around 4:00 we headed on out of the park. We didn't stop at any of the Inn's in the park because they were so crowded we couldn't find parking places. We decided to drive around the east side of Mt. St. Helen's because it would most likely be less crowded. We went through a small town of Packwood, Washington and got bogged down in a huge flea market. It was the largest I had ever seen. Wall to wall booths with all kinds of junk in them. Needless to say we had to stop for awhile. Luckily we didn't see anything we wanted. We finally found a place we could pull off and camp in the national forest for the night. Chefs salad for supper and a game of Scrabble finished up the day.
Monday, September 4 (Labor Day)
We left the campsite fairly early and headed on to Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. That was quite impressive. The devastation from the blast was tremendous. It occurred 26 years ago and it is still pretty barren. We got away from there around 11:00 in the morning and wanted to get on down to Carol's brother's (Steve) house in Portland at a descent hour, but the road was so curvy and bumpy we couldn't make good time so we ended up not getting here until around 3:30. We visited with Steve and Phyllis and Kim and Hugh (their daughter and son-in-law), and had a great time with Hailey (6) and Carter (2). Made us want to get home to see Annabelle. We had a great supper of grilled hamburgers and other salad dishes, plus blackberries and peach cobbler for desert. We went over and took a look at Steve's new shop building, well not new but new for him. It is on a piece of property that he has a rental house on, so the workshop building is a bonus. It will be very nice for his work. He does construction jobs for people, whatever they might want, i.e. new decks, fences, flooring, etc. Sounds like a fun retirement job. The name of Steve's company is Fix-It Now, Etc.
Tuesday, September 5
After breakfast and a little watching of Carter move water sprinklers around the yard and turn them on and off, we headed out about 9:00. What a nice visit we had. It was good to see everyone again.
We had the directions to the Columbia Sportwear Factory Store so that is where we went first. Carol couldn't find many bargains but I found quite a few, including a couple of pair of jeans for $10 each and a pair of sandals for $10. I also got a pair of loafers for $25. Love the prices at this place.
We headed around town and north to highway14 east. Yep, we're headed back east now. Most of the day was just spent driving along the Columbia River and exploring various sites. We didn't make very good time. We made it to Maryhill at the junction of 14 and 97 and found the state park full, so we checked out a private RV park next door and surprisingly it was less expensive than the state park. It is a lovely park with nice spots and shaded grassy sites. By the time we got done with supper it was nearly 9:00 and we just hit the sack. We need to be up at Yakima, Washington around 11:00 tomorrow. This is where our camper was made. They have a plant tour at 1:00 I want to take and we also need to check into their service campground so we can get some advice on fixing the roof and the tie-down.
Wednesday, September 6
We left the Peach Beach RV Park, which by the was very nice and inexpensive. The first thing we did was visit a replica of Stonehenge. It is quite fascinating. The original Stonehenge was built about 2,000 B.C. and this was built by a local artist to commemorate the local soldiers who died in WWI. From there we headed on up to Yakima but not without a stop at Toppenish, Washington. This town is know as the town of murals, and it does have a big, big collection. We took photos of a few but not nearly all. It was a nice little town and we really enjoyed walking around and seeing what we could. There was an old time soda fountain, and some nice shops, although we aren't in the market for anything we browse anyway. We spent about an hour to an hour and a half walking around town here. We got back on the road and finally made it to Yakima. We stopped by the Alpenlite factory first and got signed up for a plant tour at 1:00. It was noon so we ran over to the service center to check out the camping. It was a completely treeless parking lot. I have failed to mention that for the first time in three months we did not have to turn on the heater in the camper this morning. The daytime highs are now around 95. We're finally back in shorts, but obviously this does not make a blacktop parking lot real attractive as a campsite. We put our name on a list to have a technician talk to us later this afternoon and went back over to the plant for the tour. It was fun, and according to the guide who gave the tour Alpenlite is one of the top products on the market. I imagine all of them say that. After the tour we went back to the service center and while we were waiting for the technician to talk to us we were visiting with some of the folks who were there to get their coaches fixed. One couple had been there a month with slide-out problems and another had a number of things wrong with their coach. That is one thing about a truck camper. I can fix most of it myself. These folks had motor homes with lots of fancy gadgets and the more complex something is the more things to break down. We talked to the technician and he pretty much confirmed what I had thought about the roof and tie downs. I'll just have to do a little work with them when I get home. He also mentioned a few other things I needed to do to maintain it, i.e. clean he flute in the furnace each year, and clean and recaulk all the joints in the camper.
We left the service center and went over to a local mall to cool down after our time with the tech. We weren't sure what to do for the night, move on or stay. We finally decided to go to a Mexican restaurant and have supper and decide. After supper it was nearly 6:30 and I didn't want to find a campsite in the dark so we found a state park on the map just east of town and headed out there to check it out. It had lots of trees and was a lot cooler than the parking lot so we decided to stay there.
Thursday, September 7
We got up this morning and Carol wanted to go to a couple of produce stands and get some veggies and fruit. This took us awhile and I also had to fill the propane bottle. We got all those chores done and then headed northeast toward Spokane. The landscape today wasn't much, mainly flat land with a little sage and lots of dry, dry grass. We cut out some of our backroad travel and hit the interstate to save a little time. When we got on the outskirts of Spokane the scenery improved some with hills and pines. We went to the visitor center and found a couple of spots we wanted to check out We went on down to a riverside park and had some fun. We rode horses, well, not really horses. I think it is called a carousel. Carol and I each had a ride. We took photos of each other in a huge Red Flyer Wagon. Next we went to an old hotel that had been restored and is an active hotel now but they encourage tours by tourists. They even have a brochure that takes you through the hotel and tells you a lot about the public parts of it. There are also lots of photos from the early 1900s of the hotel with activities taking place. It was an excellent tour.
From here we headed on over toward Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. We checked out a county park on the way over but the cost was as much as a regular RV park and there were no showers, wifi, or laundramat so we came on into town and found a campground with wifi so I could upload this blog.
We have decided to cut back on our eating so we had corn, tomato/pepper/onion salad, cottage cheese, and a combination watermelon and cantaloupe pieces for supper. It was really good. Maybe I don't need meat with every meal :-).
After breakfast we scooted on over to the library I had found yesterday and i loaded up the blog and checked email. I also checked on news about the Chiefs to see how the preseason was going for them. I also checked to make sure that Mosers (Missouri State Employees Retirement System) had deposited another check into my checking account. They sure had. That just seems amazing to me that we can be out here having fun and getting paid at the same time. Miracles never cease.
After the library Carol wanted to run out to the arboretum and a Japanese gardens near the University of Washington. We walked a couple of miles around the arboretum and then headed over to the Japanese gardens. The Japanese gardens were the prettiest we have seen. We both enjoy these because they are sooooo neat and organized. By the time we got done here it was around 2:00 and we hadn't eaten any lunch yet. We headed on back to the camp ground to have some lunch. The traffic on Interstate 5 was backed up so I exited and went through downtown and caught 99 and 509 back out to Des Moines. This is the route we had used yesterday to get down to the Pike's Place Market. It is so much faster and easier, I'm surprised other people don't use it, but then, like Carol says, I'm always looking for the easiest way to do things. We got back and had some lunch and then I ran a tub of soapy water and started wiping down the camper. It had a lot of road grime on it and Carol let me use an old towel to dry it with. It looked brand new by the time I got done. Well, not really, but close. It is nice to have a clean camper again.
We didn't really have any supper because we had had left over brats and chili for lunch and we neither one were hungry.
September 1, Friday
We had to meet Dave and Linda at the Holiday Inn Express on Enterprise at 9:00. Our intent on doing that was to get down to the Pike's Place Market early before the crowd. Well, those of you who know Dave are sure to know that this plan was a complete failure. When we got there Dave had his month end report to mail so we had to go to the post office in Des Moines, that took about a half an hour cause there was a crowd, then we had to go to Sally's and get some 4X4 mousse for his hair. He never can remember his mousse. This was another half an hour. By the time we got down to the market it was 11:00 and the crowd had beaten us. Deja vu set in and I remembered what it was like to travel with Dave.
We did enjoy the market though, despite the crowd. It was fun to go booth to booth and look at what they offered. We bought a few items at a Chinese bakery to tide us over until lunch and then trudged ahead. We saw some great t-shirts with really cute sayings on them. One child size shirt said, "Momma no, daddy maybe, nana and papa yes". Carol thought she could do that on her own so we didn't buy one :-(. Another said something to the extent of, "Lifes intent is not to get to the grave with a well preserved body but to get there well used, sliding in and yelling, 'Wow, what a ride."
About 1:00 we decided to find a place to eat, so we ended up down by the water front at a place called Ivar's and we all had some sort of fish and chips and watched and listened to he sea gulls squawking for food. After lunch we decided to head out and explore so we drove over to West Seattle and found a completely different climate. It is much slower paced and relaxed over there we sat on a park bench and watched the boats in the harbor with the Seattle skyline and the space needle in the background. After that we found a nice little Mexican restaurant right across from a public beach and Dave and I had some Mexican beer while the girls had iced tea. We also got some chips and salsa and the salsa was great, different from most we are use to. This is the other thing about traveling with Dave you tend to get off the beaten path more and find some unique places when he is along, so I guess things balance out.
By now it is about 4:00 and they have to be at the Space Needle at 5:00 so we head that way. After a couple of missed turns and some diversions we finally made it. We said our goodbyes and then headed back to the Saltwater State Park to put the camper on and cook up some steaks for supper.
Saturday, September 2
We left the state park and went over to the local farmer's market. We couldn't resist some of the fresh vegetables and peaches. Next we headed on out of town toward Rainier National Park. It took us most of the day to drive up toward Mt. Rainier, of course we had to stop at a couple of garage sales and a grocery store. We ran across a great national forest recreation area with lots of open camping. We found a great campsite in amongst the pines that was absolutely free and this area was very uncrowded, which was great considering this was the Saturday of Labor Day. We actually stopped early because this is such a great campsite. We left overs for supper and did quite a bit of reading and relaxing today. A guy who camped near us had Utah plates so I asked him where he was from. He said he had been in Utah for the past year where he had remodeled a house and sold it. He had done the same thing in Florida before that. Now he was waiting to take possession of a house in Spokane to do the same thing. He bought houses in a place he wanted to see and spent a year or so to remodel and resell the houses. He said he made a pretty good living doing this. Interesting.
Sunday, September 3
We went into Rainier National Park today. It was quite crowded, but that didn't take away from the magnificance of Mt. Rainier. It dominates the countryside for miles and miles and the closer one gets the more awesome it is. We spent the day stopping at viewpoints and also the visitor center. They had a great movie on the mountain and the park at the visitor center. Around 4:00 we headed on out of the park. We didn't stop at any of the Inn's in the park because they were so crowded we couldn't find parking places. We decided to drive around the east side of Mt. St. Helen's because it would most likely be less crowded. We went through a small town of Packwood, Washington and got bogged down in a huge flea market. It was the largest I had ever seen. Wall to wall booths with all kinds of junk in them. Needless to say we had to stop for awhile. Luckily we didn't see anything we wanted. We finally found a place we could pull off and camp in the national forest for the night. Chefs salad for supper and a game of Scrabble finished up the day.
Monday, September 4 (Labor Day)
We left the campsite fairly early and headed on to Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. That was quite impressive. The devastation from the blast was tremendous. It occurred 26 years ago and it is still pretty barren. We got away from there around 11:00 in the morning and wanted to get on down to Carol's brother's (Steve) house in Portland at a descent hour, but the road was so curvy and bumpy we couldn't make good time so we ended up not getting here until around 3:30. We visited with Steve and Phyllis and Kim and Hugh (their daughter and son-in-law), and had a great time with Hailey (6) and Carter (2). Made us want to get home to see Annabelle. We had a great supper of grilled hamburgers and other salad dishes, plus blackberries and peach cobbler for desert. We went over and took a look at Steve's new shop building, well not new but new for him. It is on a piece of property that he has a rental house on, so the workshop building is a bonus. It will be very nice for his work. He does construction jobs for people, whatever they might want, i.e. new decks, fences, flooring, etc. Sounds like a fun retirement job. The name of Steve's company is Fix-It Now, Etc.
Tuesday, September 5
After breakfast and a little watching of Carter move water sprinklers around the yard and turn them on and off, we headed out about 9:00. What a nice visit we had. It was good to see everyone again.
We had the directions to the Columbia Sportwear Factory Store so that is where we went first. Carol couldn't find many bargains but I found quite a few, including a couple of pair of jeans for $10 each and a pair of sandals for $10. I also got a pair of loafers for $25. Love the prices at this place.
We headed around town and north to highway14 east. Yep, we're headed back east now. Most of the day was just spent driving along the Columbia River and exploring various sites. We didn't make very good time. We made it to Maryhill at the junction of 14 and 97 and found the state park full, so we checked out a private RV park next door and surprisingly it was less expensive than the state park. It is a lovely park with nice spots and shaded grassy sites. By the time we got done with supper it was nearly 9:00 and we just hit the sack. We need to be up at Yakima, Washington around 11:00 tomorrow. This is where our camper was made. They have a plant tour at 1:00 I want to take and we also need to check into their service campground so we can get some advice on fixing the roof and the tie-down.
Wednesday, September 6
We left the Peach Beach RV Park, which by the was very nice and inexpensive. The first thing we did was visit a replica of Stonehenge. It is quite fascinating. The original Stonehenge was built about 2,000 B.C. and this was built by a local artist to commemorate the local soldiers who died in WWI. From there we headed on up to Yakima but not without a stop at Toppenish, Washington. This town is know as the town of murals, and it does have a big, big collection. We took photos of a few but not nearly all. It was a nice little town and we really enjoyed walking around and seeing what we could. There was an old time soda fountain, and some nice shops, although we aren't in the market for anything we browse anyway. We spent about an hour to an hour and a half walking around town here. We got back on the road and finally made it to Yakima. We stopped by the Alpenlite factory first and got signed up for a plant tour at 1:00. It was noon so we ran over to the service center to check out the camping. It was a completely treeless parking lot. I have failed to mention that for the first time in three months we did not have to turn on the heater in the camper this morning. The daytime highs are now around 95. We're finally back in shorts, but obviously this does not make a blacktop parking lot real attractive as a campsite. We put our name on a list to have a technician talk to us later this afternoon and went back over to the plant for the tour. It was fun, and according to the guide who gave the tour Alpenlite is one of the top products on the market. I imagine all of them say that. After the tour we went back to the service center and while we were waiting for the technician to talk to us we were visiting with some of the folks who were there to get their coaches fixed. One couple had been there a month with slide-out problems and another had a number of things wrong with their coach. That is one thing about a truck camper. I can fix most of it myself. These folks had motor homes with lots of fancy gadgets and the more complex something is the more things to break down. We talked to the technician and he pretty much confirmed what I had thought about the roof and tie downs. I'll just have to do a little work with them when I get home. He also mentioned a few other things I needed to do to maintain it, i.e. clean he flute in the furnace each year, and clean and recaulk all the joints in the camper.
We left the service center and went over to a local mall to cool down after our time with the tech. We weren't sure what to do for the night, move on or stay. We finally decided to go to a Mexican restaurant and have supper and decide. After supper it was nearly 6:30 and I didn't want to find a campsite in the dark so we found a state park on the map just east of town and headed out there to check it out. It had lots of trees and was a lot cooler than the parking lot so we decided to stay there.
Thursday, September 7
We got up this morning and Carol wanted to go to a couple of produce stands and get some veggies and fruit. This took us awhile and I also had to fill the propane bottle. We got all those chores done and then headed northeast toward Spokane. The landscape today wasn't much, mainly flat land with a little sage and lots of dry, dry grass. We cut out some of our backroad travel and hit the interstate to save a little time. When we got on the outskirts of Spokane the scenery improved some with hills and pines. We went to the visitor center and found a couple of spots we wanted to check out We went on down to a riverside park and had some fun. We rode horses, well, not really horses. I think it is called a carousel. Carol and I each had a ride. We took photos of each other in a huge Red Flyer Wagon. Next we went to an old hotel that had been restored and is an active hotel now but they encourage tours by tourists. They even have a brochure that takes you through the hotel and tells you a lot about the public parts of it. There are also lots of photos from the early 1900s of the hotel with activities taking place. It was an excellent tour.
From here we headed on over toward Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. We checked out a county park on the way over but the cost was as much as a regular RV park and there were no showers, wifi, or laundramat so we came on into town and found a campground with wifi so I could upload this blog.
We have decided to cut back on our eating so we had corn, tomato/pepper/onion salad, cottage cheese, and a combination watermelon and cantaloupe pieces for supper. It was really good. Maybe I don't need meat with every meal :-).
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