Home!

I left Boise on Thursday morning, and drove about 200 miles a day, stopping overnight in various camping areas along the way, and arrived home on Monday just before 11:00. (I gained an hour coming back into Arizona.) It feels great to be home, but it is hot as the blazes here. I just about melted emptying my belongings from Minnie and carting them into the house.

The first night out of Boise, I drove 13 miles east of I-84 into the Sawtooth Forest to Sublett Campground near Sublett Reservoir. This was a free forest service campground, and only had a vault toilet and rough spaces, and NO cell signal. It was totally empty when I arrived. I picked a spot and set up camp. I heard one other group of campers drive in and around the loops, but they exited and set up a dispersed camp about 1/4 mile up the road. Hanna and I walked by their spot as we did our evening miles.

The second night I pulled into Maple Bench southeast of Payson, UT and found my favorite space available. I've camped here two other times, and like the location, plus there is cell signal. A couple hours later, a group of Boy Scouts pulled in and occupied two spaces nearby, but they were well behaved and quieted for the night well before 9:00.

I went back to Dave's Hollow near Bryce Canyon National Park for the next night, and set up in the exact same dispersed spot I had stayed in on my way north in June. Hanna and I again saw a couple of beautiful pronghorn grazing in the meadow as we walked that evening.

Hello Beautiful. I've missed you!

The last night I had planned to go back to A-1 Mountain Road outside Flagstaff where I disperse camped last year with Dale. But when I got there, I discovered a new sign stating that road was now closed to camping. I drove around some of the nearby forest roads, but every decent space that I could have gotten my rig into was taken.

I had to stop and unhitch my car twice, because I got into areas where I couldn't turn around. I was sorely tempted at that point to just get back on I-17 and head for home. But then Richard suggested I drive to Blue Ridge Ranger station and park in the compound right next to them. It was closer than Mesa, and I could also dump the next morning before going home. It sounded like a good idea.

It would have been a beautiful drive along Lake Mary Road, except about 20 miles in -- and after I lost cell reception -- I came to a construction zone, where the road was so torn up I had to slow to 6mph in some spots, and rarely got over 12mph for about 8 miles. Apparently, Richard had texted me to warn me about the construction, but it was after I went out of range. It was sure a miserable drive. To top it off, it started raining on the way!

Hard to see the ridges, but the road was terrible!

I finally made it to the compound -- after the gate had been locked. I was able to use my Verizon hotspot to get one quick text through to R, and he drove up and opened the gate for me. I pulled in, set up, and joined him and Dianna for dinner in their trailer. That hit the spot after a long tiring day.

That night, I did not sleep well, and was awake at 2:30 a.m. and could not get back to sleep. I finally got up at 5:30 and got some coffee. I piddled around getting things put away, took Hanna for a walk, and dumped my tanks. I was on the road home by 8:45 a.m.

I pulled up in front of my house just before 11:00. It was 109°. I unloaded as much as I could stand to before jumping into a cool shower and collapsing on the couch for the rest of the day. I didn't even take Hanna for a walk. But she found her basket of toys, and made sure they all got a good workout all evening.

So that's another summer trip in the books. I have some stats that I am putting together and will post a final recap in the next few days. It was a great trip, but it's good to be home.

Solar Eclipse

Daryl and Dale have already blogged about our viewing of the Great American Solar Eclipse 2017, but I want to add my recap.

After I left Glacier National Park a couple weeks ago, I was having trouble finding cool campgrounds with good cell signal. Coupled with smoke from over 500 wildfires in British Columbia and the northwestern U.S., I was starting to get discouraged and ready to head home. I've been on the road for almost 9 weeks, and I am done; ready for my comfortable house, bed, shower and TV. Besides, I was getting bored and lonely and wanted family and city. But there was one thing remaining that kept me from making a beeline south, and that was the solar eclipse.

Daryl was the first of us to make plans to travel to Idaho to see the eclipse, and when I heard he would be heading to Boise where Robin and Ken lived, I jumped on board. My summer plans of going to northwestern Montana after dropping the boys off would be convenient to making my way back down to the path of totality by August 21. Earlier this summer, Dale also began to think he would likely be far enough south to join us. And that's what we did.

As I wrote in my last post, I spent 2 weeks leading up to the eclipse in French Creek Campground, and Dale arrived on the 17th. He and I drove south of our campground scoping out possibilities for viewing, and making many contingency plans if traffic was dense that morning. When Daryl and Gisele arrived, we also took another drive south of Lake Cascade all the way to Cabarton and across the Payette River. We found a great spot, and hoped for the best on Monday morning.

As it turned out, our prime spot was open and waiting for us when we got there at about 9:30 a.m. We set up our lawn chairs, and sat back with our solar glasses to wait for the astronomical performance. The skies did not disappoint. 

Describing a total solar eclipse is difficult to do. I came up with these three terms: Wow, Oh My Goodness, and Awesome!! I'm glad I turned my iPhone video on to try to capture it. The quality is terrible, but you can hear our excitement as the sky grew dark, the air grew cold and the moon's shadow overtook the sun. I thought the light/dark effect was as if a big black bowl was being placed over us, but not quite touching down to the horizon. If we looked up, it was as dark as night, with stars visible. But if we looked down around the earth, it was twilight for 360° around us, as if someone had left a gap at the rim of the bowl. 

Many people have said they enjoyed the partial eclipse and felt like they had a great experience. But one reporter accurately opined, "The difference between a partial eclipse and a total eclipse is like the difference between a lightning bug and lightning." As we watched the crescent of sun become smaller and smaller, the difference in illumination was startling. Even the smallest sliver of sunshine was enough to give a soft glow to the entire sky and area all around us. But the light switch was turned off at the moment of totality.

And the corona! That was the star of the show. The black orb surrounded by the ring of beautiful light dancing outward was so surreal, it was almost as if we were watching something created by CGI. Except it was much more magnificent than anything I have ever seen on screen.

All too quickly, a piercing dot of light shone through and the totality was over. Our heartbeats began  to slow, and our conversation picked up, and we sat back down in our lawn chairs to contemplate what we had just experienced. We stayed through the end of the credits, packing up our chairs as just the tiniest little speck of shadow was creeping away from the face of the sun. We drove into Cascade and had lunch at a pizza joint, before heading back to our campground. 

They say once you have experienced a total solar eclipse, you understand why people race all over the globe to try to see every one. We four vowed to make every effort to be in the path of totality in 2024, and I know many of our family members will be there with us. How about you?

Interlude

The longest I've ever stayed in one campground is four days. But that changed this week. I've been camped at French Creek Campground on Lake Cascade in Idaho for a week already and may be here another week before I move on. I'm hanging out in the path of totality waiting for the solar eclipse on the 21st of August.

When I arrived here last weekend, I found the best site in the campground, set up my camp and paid for three nights. I had plans to do some scouting around the nearby forest roads and see if I could find any good spots to disperse camp. What I discovered was the roads around here are in terrible shape and the dispersed camping that I could get my Minnie to is extremely limited. The only decent spots I've found are right off the county roads without much privacy or security. I've been out driving through the woods several times and not found anything better.

So I decided to stay in the campground until Dale gets here this week. We can check out the spots I found and decide if we want to move or just hang out in the campground the rest of the week. Daryl and Gisele are flying up this weekend to see the eclipse, and we want to stay fairly close to where they will be renting a condo. We plan to view the eclipse together on Monday morning.

Yesterday I drove down to see Robin and the kids (Ken is traveling this week) and also visit Walmart. Today, I'm staying close to camp. Tomorrow I'll go into Cascade and do a load of laundry. (I could have taken it to Robin's, but decided not to spend my visit babysitting the washer and dryer. Instead, I'll make an excursion into town out of my chore.)

The weather has been magnificent here, ranging from overnight lows in the 40s-50s and daytime highs in the 70s most days. The skies were really smoky last week from the Canadian fires, but light showers this past weekend washed the air quite a lot and the sky looks much bluer now. Hopefully we are on track for a clear day to watch the total eclipse.

 Last week

Today

Fires

I've made my way all the way back down to Cascade, ID where I'll spend the next two weeks waiting for the Great Solar Eclipse 2017. I've been dodging forest fires all over the northwest. As I wrote and posted in my last entry, there was a pretty big fire just west of the campground near Lolo in the Lolo National Forest.

When I drove from there to my next camp outside Grangeville, there was a lot of smoke over Highway 12 until I got near Kooskia, then it was pretty clear from there. I found a really nice Campground seven miles southeast of Grangeville. There were several trails around the campground, the temperature was perfect, the other campers were quiet and well behaved, and I had a prime site. If I'd had better cell signal, I would have stayed for a week, but I only had one sporadic bar of 4G, so I only paid for three days.

I drove down to Grangeville one day for an internet connection so I could catch up on news and blogs, but otherwise, Hanna and I stuck close to our camp, and did a little hiking.

On Thursday morning, I moved back down to Last Chance Campground just outside McCall, where I'd spent a couple of nights last month on my way north. I knew there was a little signal and the campground was nice, right on rushing Goose Creek. This time I snagged the best site in the campground and paid for another three nights. The creek was just over the hill from our front yard, and I left my bedroom window open, so I could hear the flowing water  all night.

The second and third days, I started noticing a "haze" in the morning sky and thought it was low clouds. Today, as I drove south to Cascade, I realized it was smoke from nearby forest fires. The closer I got to Cascade, the denser it got, and when I reached the lake, I discovered you could hardly see across it.

I'm set up for just a couple of days in French Creek Campground. I got a nice roomy spot, but there are mosquitoes here, so I won't be spending much time outside. I've already had to get out the insect repellant.

Tomorrow I'll take the Fit and explore the nearby forest roads, looking for a dispersed campsite to settle into until after the eclipse. I've already checked the MVUM and found there are lots of designated areas nearby, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to find someplace nice. I just hope the smoke clears before August 21!

Wedding in the Woods

After leaving the McCall, ID area, I traveled north on Hwy 93 until I reached Grangeville, where I turned east on 13, then 12. I wasn't sure what kind of road I would find through the Nez Perce - Clearwater Forest which followed the Lochsa River in eastern Idaho, but it was some of the best driving I have had this summer. The road was wide, the grades were gentle, the speed limit was 55mph, and the scenery was gorgeous. I drove about halfway from Grangeville to Missoula, where I found a nice large campground with plenty of spaces available.

Only Loop A was off limits, because it was reserved for a wedding. Yes, a wedding, in a campground, in the woods! It really was a lovely setting, and the bride and groom must have been outdoorsy types, to hold their wedding there. They were a pretty well behaved crowd too, only playing their dance music until 10:30 p.m. when it abruptly stopped and all was quiet. 

I drove the rest of the way to Missoula on that wonderful road,  turned north and stopped into a state park on Flathead Lake, where I found one space available. Beggars can't be choosers, or I would have chosen a better spot. I was in a pullout (NOT a pull through!) along side the camp road, with just enough room for my step. It was pretty warm and I was in the sun, so I had to run my generator and AC for three hours, then my 12V fan until after 10:00 p.m. But it was on a beautiful lake and Hanna and I walked down to it where she had fun snapping at the little waves and trying to catch one.

Tomorrow, Glacier National Park!

Hop, skip and a jump

Thats how far I moved this morning. But let me back up and catch up my last two days

I spent three nights in the meadow inside Boise National Forest. On my second day there, I packed a snack, tossed Hanna into the car and we headed up FR626 toward Sage Hen Reservoir. We quickly lost cell phone signal and never found it again until we were almost back to our camp. The road was rough gravel, about 1 1/2 lanes wide on the edge of a mountain drop off most of the way, with two way traffic. Thankfully, I only met about half a dozen cars all day, so it was not too bad. There are four or five campgrounds at Sage Hen, and I drove through two of them. They were lovely, near the lake edge and each less than half full. If the road was not so harrowing (and long; about 11 miles) I might have considered camping there for a night or two. I do love forest service campgrounds.

We got back to Minnie in the meadow and hung out the rest of the day. I was debating on whether to pack up and move north the next morning when I heard my neighbors with the ATVs pull out. Glory Hallelujah! I decided to spend an extra day enjoying the peace, quiet and dust free zone. I spent the day reading, walking with Hanna and puttering inside Minnie. All was well until 7:00 in the evening when the big trailer carrying 2 ATVs and the motorcycle pulled back in. Luckily, they did not even unload them, so it was a quiet evening after all.

This morning as I was packing up, I heard a chain saw start up and looked over to see my neighbor chopping down a forest tree! I quickly texted R&D to see if that was legal and Dianna said if the tree was dead, it probably was. The tree was dead. Whew! I don't have to report them to the rangers. 😉

I moved north about 60 miles to a pretty campground along Goose Creek. After picking a site, paying for it and getting set up, I discovered two better spots, nearer the creek (which is really more of a rushing stream in my opinion). But since I'm likely only here for one night, it's not worth the move, and besides I've already registered in this space. I have 1-2 bars of 4G so enough to stay in touch.

Time to move on

I spent the weekend at HiValley RV Park, which is just a couple miles from the Holsinger's. I thoroughly cleaned Minnie's inside, shampooed the carpet with Robin's portable carpet cleaner, and did up all my laundry, including all the bedding. I gave Hanna a bath and trim, and got groceries. I hung out with Robin and went to church with her on Sunday morning.

On Monday morning, I packed up, filled my propane and water tanks and hit the road north toward Cascade and the Boise National Forest. My goal was to check out the dispersed camping areas in the zone of totality for August's eclipse, with plans to come back here for the week or two before the event. I had previously downloaded the MVUMs to my Avenza app and saw many forest roads with designated dispersed camping. I turned at Smith's Ferry and headed into the woods. About 3 miles in, I found a large enough pullout to unhitch and leave Minnie, while I went scouting some of the roads looking for campsites.

I was disappointed to discover many of the areas marked as campsites on the MVUM were simply pullouts along the forest road. I sure wouldn't want to park with my backend in oncoming traffic. The other thing I was watching for was cell signal. As I drove up and down and around hills and valleys, the reading bounced between "No Signal" to 3 bars of LTE.  I finally turned onto one road and started seeing some small meadows and short spur roads with other campers already in them. I finally settled on a nice large meadow that had 6 other rigs around the outside edge, 2-3 bars LTE, and a nice available spot between a couple of trees.

I went back and got Minnie and drove up to set up my camp. All was well until about 6:00 pm when a new rig towing a trailer with a couple ATVs and a motorcycle pulled in. It didn't take long before they were all three fired up and zipping in and out of the meadow, stirring up dust and adding noise pollution to my evening meal and Netflix movie. It went on until 9:30, when suddenly it got quiet. Ah, peace at last!

I knew it would be a chilly night when my thermometer dropped to 60 before the sun even went down. I wore my flannel pajamas to bed and pulled my double fleece blanket over me in the middle of the night. This morning's thermometer told me the overnight low was 38 degrees.

Luckily the ATVs didn't start back up until close to 10:00 this morning and they seem to have gone on a longer journey today. I see the trailer still parked in the corner of the meadow, though so I suspect they'll be back before nightfall. I hate to sound like RVSue, but I sure wish those things didn't have to zoom around my campsite. I plan to go scouting the woods a little more today, and if I find another spot, I'll come back and move Minnie.

One more thing; I'm going to confess another mistake I made. I mentioned I had my propane tank filled yesterday morning. This morning, I woke up, but was still snuggling in bed when I had the sudden realization I had neglected to turn my refrigerator back on! Good thing it was so cold overnight. Things seem to be okay. Frozen stuff is still frozen, although the ice cream is not as hard as it should be. But I don't think anything spoiled. The same cannot be said about the catastrophe at home that Daryl discovered when he stopped by to check on things.

The end of our journey

When we went through Yellowstone last week, the boys asked if we could come home through there again. They really enjoyed the geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and all the wildlife we saw on our quick tour of the park earlier in our trip. I enjoyed it too, and thought maybe the week after July 4th, it would be less crowded and we might also be able to find availability in a campground in Grand Teton National Park.

We drove back down the hill outside Gardiner on Wednesday morning and right into Yellowstone National Park. Since we had the motor home this time, I knew we would be able to leave Hanna in there with the AC running if necessary and that way we all could enjoy the visitor's centers and some of the boardwalk tours of the geyser basins. We stopped at Midway Geyser Basin (since we had toured Norris Basin the week before) and left Hanna in Minnie and took the boardwalk around the pools.

We journeyed on to Old Faithful and found a full parking lot again. I have a small rant here. I got really steamed because there are very few long spaces marked Buses or RV, and yet a lot of cars pull in and use them as end to end parking spaces. They could drive around or wait 15 minutes and find a single spot, but if I have to find a double car space, I might drive around all day and never find one. I lucked out in discovering a few open Bus/RV spots near the Ranger Station and pulled into one of them. By the time we came out an hour and a half later, cars had filled up the remaining available ones there, too. That's when I'd like to be a cop and have a ticket book. Rant over.

Anyway, we were there just 20 minutes before Old Faithful went off again, this time beating the estimated time. We watched in awe again, enjoying the cooler day than we had the previous week. We perused the Visitor's Education Center, and stopped in the Gift Shop so Steven could buy his mom a gift. Then we headed south toward Teton.

We pulled into Colter Bay Campground around 3:00 and were tickled to find they had plenty of availability. They assign spaces at the entrance based on your size and whether you want generator or non-generator loop. We selected non-generator. This spot was not as nice as the one I got last year, which was on the end of a loop, and quite private. This one was the first space off the main road, so we did get some road noise, but it was a pretty spot and the boys got to build their fire. (That was always a priority every night. They got really expert at roasting marshmallows and making delicious gooey S'mores.)

Thursday was a long driving day, with Pioneer Campground outside Fairfield, ID as our destination. It was just a half mile past a ski area, and we drove up there. The ski area was just a big dirt parking lot with a couple buildings (all closed for the season) and the ski lift. As we drove past, we noticed several trailers and motorhomes camped in the parking lot. I slowed down and asked a man standing near one if he knew if there was space in the campground up the road. He responded it was closed due to flooding. I asked if that was why so many were parked there at the ski area, and he said no, they were part of an archery club and had a meet this weekend. I said I thought we would pull in and camp there for the night and since we were leaving in the morning, probably wouldn't be in anyone's way. He said, help yourself. There's plenty of space! So we did just that. The biggest drawback was the boys couldn't make a fire on their last night camping, and we didn't have cell signal, but we entertained ourselves with games and DVDs and before we knew it, it was bedtime.

Our final journey to Boise was without incident and we pulled up in front of the Holsinger's house before noon. Steven's dog Lucy was a very happy girl to see her favorite boy. Nathan's flight took off for Phoenix the next day.

Photo by Robin

Photo by Brian

It was a wonderful journey! I thoroughly enjoyed having the boys and showing them such wonderful places in our big beautiful country. I think they were the perfect age to do this trip. They were extremely good travelers, and very good friends. They never fought once with each other. They were a big help to me ... most of the time. Toward the end, I did lose my patience one evening, and then they scrambled around cleaning up everything inside and out. 😁 I'll miss my traveling buddies, but I won't miss their stinky feet and other stinky things. 😉

I'm in Boise for a couple days recouping, and then will head north toward Glacier National Park and northern Idaho until the solar eclipse on August 21. By that time, I may be ready to turn my rig toward home.

Mt. Rushmore or Bust!

I picked up a crew on Sunday morning to go adventuring with me.

I've been promising to take my grandsons Nathan (14) and Steven (12) to Mt Rushmore ever since I got my Minnie. I remember my one and only trip to that national park when I was a young teenager. I'll never forget how awe inspiring it was to drive up that road in the park, come around a corner and see those four huge faces carved in the side of the mountain. I'm sure over the years, I've exaggerated the whole thing in my mind's eye, but I'm still looking forward to showing this magnificent wonder to my boys.

We got on the road about 10:30 and drove to Pocatello. We decided to look at a couple of campgrounds just southeast of there, and as luck would have it, we found a beautiful space in the first one.

The boys had a good time building a campfire and roasting hot dogs for dinner, and then marshmallows for S'mores later that evening. I taught them how to patiently wait for the fire to burn down to red hot coals, and spin the marshmallow slowly over those coals until it was toasted golden brown, puffed up, and centerless. Neither had ever done that before (that they could remember) and they both loved them. It became a contest to see who could roast the best marshmallows before they slid off the end of the fork.

Our first night together in the Minnie was cozy, but very doable. The boys went right to bed when I declared it was my bedtime (about 9:30, because I was tired!) and both read for a while. I never heard them turn off the light, but before long, we were all sawing wood.

I woke them up about 7:00 on Monday by making my coffee. (There are no stealth activities in a 27 foot motor home.) They were happy to get up and get dressed when I told them I was making homemade sausage egg McMuffins and juice.

We got on the road toward Grand Teton National Park at exactly 9:00. We arrived at the park entrance at 2:00 and there were signs stating 4 campgrounds had open spaces. By the time we got to Colter Bay an hour later, it was full and the park host said the other campgrounds were filling quickly as well.

So we headed east out of the park to dry camp in the Bridger Teton forest. We lucked out by finding our choice of spaces in Hatchet Campground just a few miles outside GTNP.

The boys are currently attempting to get another fire going tonight, but the wood they found in the camp site was not completely dry, so they have got a real smoker out there. 😁 At least it's keeping the mosquitoes at bay.

Learning Lessons

This is a very long post and I don't blame anyone who skips it. But I want to document all the good and bad experiences of my travels, so here it is in all its vulnerability.

When I left Maple Bench Campground, I had my sights set on a dispersed camping area near Malta, ID called McClendon Springs. From the Google maps satellite view, it looked like a tree filled oasis in the middle of a scrub desert with several dirt roads leading into it.

Following my Allstays app directions, I drove up Hwy 77 and turned on the dirt road toward the Springs. The road seemed pretty primitive, but passable. I had only gone about a mile when I turned a curve, went down a hill and suddenly came upon a rock filled dry creek bed. I knew Minnie could not cross it.

I hopped out and unhitched the Fit, turned around on the narrow road and drove back up the hill. Then I walked back down to Minnie, turned it around (which was not easy in a narrow dirt road) and went back up the hill, where I hitched up and went back to the main road.

I decided to try another road into the Springs, but found it was just as primitive and narrow as the first one. I kept a close eye ahead, but came upon a dip in the road that I misjudged, and as I slowly went through it, I heard the scrape of my hitch. I jumped out and discovered I had actually cut the electrical cord from the motor home to the car braking system, but it wasn't broken all the way through. I checked the lights and they were working, so I taped it up with electrical tape, and proceeded on. I made a mental note to try to find a different road out so I wouldn't have to navigate the dip again.

The farther I drove, the more narrow the road got, and by the time I got to the Springs, I realized it was not a good place to camp. It was totally isolated, with a sharp turn into the camping area, and all I could think about was my challenging drive back out. I decided to get back out of there and head to Burley and spend the night in the Walmart parking lot.

I unhitched the car and drove off in search of a different road out, but the farther I went, the worse the road got, until it finally deteriorated into two deep ruts in a stony, grassy desert. I got the car turned around by jockeying back and forth about twenty times and slowly crept back to Minnie. I drove the car back down the same road I had come in on, and when I came to the dip, I got out and marked it with some paper under a rock. Then I went back to Minnie and hitched up the car again.

I slowly made my way back to the dip, got out and unhitched again to slowly drive through the dip separately, then hitched back up. I got back underway, but had only gone about an eighth of a mile when I came upon THE dip. I had mistaken a shallower dip for the problem one!

I got out again and unhitched again, and slowly pulled Minnie forward a little. I got out, got some boards to drive my back wheels onto to try to lift the back end as I went through the worst part of the dip. It was not enough. Pretty soon Minnie was in a bad jam.

My mistake (at least at THIS point) was not removing the towbar completely before attempting the crossing.  I had to dig and dig, jumping in and out of Minnie to move an inch forward, dig some more,  then move an inch back, and so on. I finally got loose enough to take the whole towbar off (which is no easy feat, and is very heavy besides!) Then the hitch finally cleared the road bed and I pulled free!

Of course, then I had to put my towbar back on, rehitch the car and drive the rest of the way back out to the main road. The whole ordeal took me over three hours. I was never so glad to be back on a highway in my life. Major lessons learned about going into an isolated unknown primitive area.  Always get out and take the car ahead to check out the area I am venturing into. Initially, I didn't want to unhitch the car, but I ended up unhitching four times with all my trouble! (On the plus side, I'm now an expert with the towbar!)

I drove the 31 miles to the Burley Walmart only to find several signs all over  saying "No Overnight Parking". I felt nearly defeated. Instead, I drove two blocks to a truck stop and tucked in for the night.

I actually slept pretty well even though there was a different truck beside me in the morning than had been there the night before. I never heard one pull out and another pull in. I was totally exhausted.

The next morning (Thursday) I drove on into Eagle (a suburb of  Boise) where I settled into an RV Park a couple miles from the Holsinger's. The first thing I attended to was getting the damaged electrical cord replaced. I've now been here for a few days preparing for the next phase of the summer trip: Travels with Grandsons. Nathan and Steven are joining me for two weeks as we visit Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and Badlands National Park. We hit the road east tomorrow morning.

Full Hookups, and a Car!

I spent a week in Eagle, relaxing and enjoying visiting with Robin and the kids. Ken was on a business trip all week, which was too bad, but he left his car and keys and said I could use it while he was gone. That was a wonderful perk, and gave me a lot more freedom.

I stayed in HiValley RV Park, and for the first time ever, I enjoyed full hookups - electric, water, sewer, cable tv and Wi-Fi. Plus a great little dog park! Wow, Hanna and I really felt like we were in the lap of luxury.

Boise was having a heat wave while I was there (naturally!) so it was great to be able to run my AC. It took me a couple days to figure out I had neglected to turn the water spigot on when I hooked the hose to my Minnie, but what did it matter if I drained my fresh tank first? I just refilled before I left!

Each of the kids went to church camp for half the week, but I had time with both of them and Robin; and Hanna and Lucy got acquainted. Lucy was abundantly anxious to make friends, but Hanna was having none of it. She was such a little pill, running away every time Lucy got close, or curling her lip to let her know where the boundary was. Poor Lucy! She just wanted to play.

I left Eagle on Wednesday morning, and pointed Minnie west toward Portland.

Camper Mate for the Night

Since Steven was feeling better, he decided to join me on the two day trip from Jackson Hole to Boise. He started out fairly interested in the scenery, looking at the maps, and chatting with me. But as the landscape grew more and more stark, his interest waned and he asked if he could watch Netflix videos. If I hadn't been driving, I would have watched Netflix videos with him! That drive along Highway 26 near Craters of the Moon National Monument is some of the ugliest area I have ever been through. My apologies to those of you who are enchanted with lava rock and desert, but it's just not my bag. Nor Steven's.

We made a stop at the Visitor's Center and looked at a few exhibits, then got back on the road. We still had lots of miles to get to a cool campground and it was already after noon.

We pulled into North Fork Campground just north of Ketchum, and found a nice space. After setting up camp, we walked around the campground and discovered we were just a few hundred feet from a beautiful stream! There was a camp space right by the water that was open, but we figured it wasn't worth breaking camp, moving, and re-setting up just for a quick overnight.

We got back on the road early the next morning, and headed up over the pass to Stanley. We were chagrinned to see the condition of the Sawtooth and Boise National Forests. Half of the pines were beetle infested, and a quarter of the trees were burned. It is the saddest looking forest land I have ever seen. We did enjoy watching the beautiful Payette River flowing along in the canyon below the road, filled with kayakers and fishermen.

The last sixty miles (from Garden Valley to Eagle) was over a very steep hill. Poor Minnie struggled to hold 40mph and just about gave up before the blessed summit appeared!

We arrived at HiValley RV Park in Eagle about 2:00 to find a welcoming party of Robin and Megan waiting for us!