Category Archives: Idaho

by Carolyn | July 28, 2022 · 7:47 pm

On Vacation!

Yes, we finished our busy weekend of programs at Hells Gate State Park with record numbers. Finally, we have had good weather on the weekends. One Junior Ranger program had 19 children! These weekends are crazy, and our three days off fill up quickly too.

We just left Hells Gate to start this vacation – we are heading towards our Family Reunion in the Black Hills of South Dakota. So we are back on the road again. It’s been a year of planning for this reunion. Our children and families don’t get to all see each other much. We are most excited to have our grandchildren meet.

The reunion is in Keystone which is a good location for them to explore the wonders of the Black Hills. We have reserved cabins for them in a nice resort. The plan is for us to eat breakfasts and dinners together and for them to check out the sights on day trips.

I will be cooking – for about 20 of us. I am prepared. I have my spread sheets and index cards ready with menus, recipes and shopping lists. The breakfast burritos are finished and in our freezer, along with the chicken cacciatore (also a veggie cacciatore) and bracciole.

I planned a theme for every one of the five days. Each theme includes the food for the day, decorations and crafts. On the advice of our grandson, Griffin, we are having a dance party every night. Doug is putting together play lists of all our favorite songs and Doug will be on call to advise about day excursions and directions.

One of the nights will be a joint birthday party. It will be great for us to celebrate everyone’s special day together.

My biggest concern is our family’s travel. Most of them will be flying and right now as I write this the daily news reports of chaos in the airports is scary. So I reached out to the gods of travel and petitioned them for safe travel for our family.

A fast google search to be inclusive brought me:

Hermes, Greek god with winged sandals who protects travelers; Hermes’ Roman counterpart Mercury, who wears the same sandals, is known for his speed. Catholics have a few – St. Christopher and St. Bona of Pisa. Bona is the patron saint of flight attendants. St Joseph of Cupertino, who was known for his levitation skills and Our Lady of Loreto who is Aviation’s protector. The Universal Church also prays to St. Joseph for safe travelling. Hindu Ganesha promises safe journeys. So does the Shinto folk goddess of Japan Chimata-no-karni. I didn’t leave out Hina from Polynesia, Ilmarinen from Finland, Khonsu from Egypt, Lam Lha from Tibet who rides a golden bee, Meili a Norse god who carries a walking stick, Tir from Armenia and Mayan Xaman Ek.

I tried to cover all bases.

As far as our travels go, after Idaho we stopped our first night in St. Regis, Montana. It’s a pretty campground surrounded by tree-filled mountains. Each site is decorated with a wooden carving. The weather so far has been perfect – bright skies with cool temperatures.

Soon after leaving St. Regis, we crossed the Clark Fork River and then we followed this now perfectly peaceful lovely meandering river that about 10,000 years ago gushed the raging flood waters of Glacial Lake Missoula.

Driving near our favorite town of Missoula we spotted McDonald’s Peak. At 9,868 feet it is the highest peak in the region. Not surprised that is it snow-covered in July. We drove past Jeanette Rankin Memorial Highway (a women’s rights advocate and fierce defender of peace).

As we drive through this state, I keep my eyes pealed for the perfect place to situate a small log cabin. It is my daydream to find a spot, maybe along the Blackfoot River or beside the Sapphire Mountains. As we drive, we listen to audiobooks. Stuart Woods keeps us involved with our favorite character Stone Barrington and this trip J. A. Jance, whose Joanna Brady hails from Cochise County, brings us smiles as we recognize the locations. I am also crocheting a shawl for the upcoming wedding.

But mostly I look out the window. The road goes through the grassy plains between the mountains and those mountains are beautiful: Tobacco Root, Absaroka Beartooth, the Bridger Range, Big Belt, Crazy, and Elk Mountains, so far. Montana also has great rivers to keep me occupied: Little Big Horn and Yellowstone.

We love the area around Three Forks. It’s not just the rivers – Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin – that give us the pretty scenery, but it’s history too. It was in this area that Sacajawea in July of 1805 recognized the landscape and helped bring the Corps of Discovery to her people, the Shoshones, who provided the Corps with much-needed horses. And then the geology: in between the grassy areas along the foothills of the mountains, you can see the white soil, the ancient limestone left over from the Mississippian Era about 325 million years ago.

On Thursday, July 7^th we left the Hardin KOA. Weather is great during the day which makes driving pleasant, but afternoons and nights can be scary. Last night there was a threat of severe weather – thunderstorms, hail and maybe a tornado. It passed us but it was close and looking at the house-size heap of wood and branches from the tornado that had hit there just one week before, I was imagining the predicted 60 mile per hour winds sending those giant branches into our windshield.

But all is well. I even had time that night to do two loads of laundry and make a cheesecake for the reunion. (My refrigerator and freezer are filling up!)

Yesterday we had a huge moth bothering us during the drive. Doug finally got it out when he opened his window. One more fat black moth was killed during dinner. Then the flock appeared. At one time I counted five moths on the TV. Doug killed three before he fell asleep. When I got up in the morning, I cleaned up a few carcasses and then smashed three more while making breakfast. The big question – how did they get in???? We went from the land of spiders to giant moths.

Today we land in Rozet, Wyoming. Driving through this part of Montana is peaceful with long stretches of grassy prairies with cattle and horses. No more mountains. We passed the Big Horn River again. I love the mountains but Montana rivers winding their sparkling way through the state are beautiful. Passing the Tongue River convinced me it is one of the prettiest.

We drove close to the Battlefield at Little Big Horn. And then near one of our favorite places – Garryowen, which houses the Custer Battlefield Museum. This town has a population of two and covers 540 acres.

Friday, July 8^th is our last day traveling. We left All Seasons RV Park and began our day moving through the baled-hay fields. Last night we had a brief and pretty mild thunderstorm. The air is fresh and clear this morning.

Our journey today is just 160 miles.

Last night I made three cheesecakes – they are safely wrapped and stored in the refrigerator. I love baking in my small propane oven but I have to patient and understand the product’s “doneness”. I think the thermostat is close to accurate, but the heat is not evenly distributed. So, I check the food often, which lowers the temperature, so I have to add more time. I change the food’s placement in the oven and accept that timing is a guess. Given the oven’s size I can fit only one 9×13 sheet pan at a time. That is room for just one cheesecake. Each cheesecake takes about an hour so although these cakes are easy to prep, I can’t just forget about them in the oven. It was a total of about 5 hours making them.

Five years ago, I bought and started using a ceramic baking stone. Nothing burns on the bottom now. I learned the hard way with dozens of biscotti with very dark bottoms.

As we travel the winding S curves of part of Iron Mountain Road, I know we are close. We arrived safely at Spokane Creek Resort. We backed into our terraced site, took some deep breaths of the pine air and relaxed for the afternoon and evening. Just a few moths that night.

Our long site is backed up to a mountain covered in tall pine trees. This is a beautiful property. Everything is well maintained with lots of open space. We need to come here sometime when we really can relax.

We were happy to see a brand new playground, upgrades to the pool, shower house and laundry. There is plenty of room around our cabins to park, play and set up extra tables and chairs. We were only here once for about an hour last year so it’s good that we remembered how nice it was. It’s really better than we had hoped.

We arrived earlier than everyone else to prepare for our busy days of food and family. Saturday, after days of working on my shopping list (I did a lot more than checking it twice!) we ventured out to provision us. I took extra time with this list because it is 40 minutes and crazy mountain roads to get to the nearest supermarket.

We first checked out the trail to the Flag at the Top of the Mountain where you can see Mt. Rushmore. I didn’t make it to the top. Too rocky and steep for me and maybe for the younger kids too. But Doug got to the flag and took a photo.

We managed to get all the food stored into the RV. The freezer and refrigerator are full and miscellaneous items are grouped in grocery bags labeled for the day I will need them. Right now our sofa and floor are full too with just enough room for each of us to sit.

I have a few things to prep tonight then we move tomorrow afternoon into one of the Cabins with a full kitchen. This place seems to have a great housekeeping staff, but I expect to wash all the cooking equipment tomorrow. I checked out the laundry with one small load. It is a spotlessly clean facility.

The gang starts to arrive on Monday. Some right around lunch and others later in the evening. No matter their arrival time I will have food and drinks for them.

Can you tell I am excited? Yes, but I will be happy and relaxed as soon as they all get here.

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Filed under Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming

by Carolyn | June 22, 2022 · 1:57 pm

New Interpretive Programs at Hells Gate State Park

This volunteer position is a bit different from any other we have held. Last summer we met with our supervisor, Jeff, who was interested in hiring interpretive guides. We told him our experience, discussed some of his expectations, and then continued to discuss options over the past year over emails.

Jeff has given us autonomy to develop our own schedule with our own programs. This seemed a little daunting, but we have received great support from staff here. Due to COVID, this park hasn’t had these kinds of programming for two years. Knowing that expectations were high and that we had very little direction made us a bit nervous.

During our very busy winter season, we really didn’t have much time to focus on a whole new direction. We were hoping we could use our two PowerPoint programs: Campfire Safety with Smokey Bear and the Bat Talk. These two programs go over well with the audiences we have presented them to. During our last summer in Champoeg State Heritage Park in Oregon, we did the Bat Talk on Tuesday nights to about 25 people each time. I gave the Interp Ranger the Smokey Program and later, after we left, she emailed me to say they were continuing to use that program as well as the Bat Talk. Both programs were also successful at Kartchner Caverns during March and April. These experiences gave us the incentive to use them again.

But Hells Gate has a Lewis and Clark Discovery Center – it just seemed appropriate to create a program about the Corps of Discovery. Doug and I have both read a few books about the journey, including Ambrose’s “Undaunted Courage”. We just finished “Lewis and Clark: Historic Places Associated with Their Transcontinental Exploration” by Roy E. Appleman. The Discovery Center does an excellent job with their signage, so it was hard to come up with something new and different. Plus, our program had to be more of an intense look at a small part of the Lewis and Clark experience. The broad picture of the cross-country trek is very well known.

Lewis and Clark Discovery Center at Hells Gate

After considerable effort I came up with the idea of talking about the food they ate on their journey. We went to the grocery store and bought items for a display. This program is done outside in the early evening in an amphitheater – no electricity. This program is a show-and-tell – a different approach for us. We have done it twice and it was fun to talk about the dry provisions needed for the long trip and how we still use the same food today – only with new packaging. We also discussed the animals that were shot and killed. Did you know that during times of plenty, each person ate about 9 pounds of meat per day? And then, we introduced the subject of Sacajawea and other native tribes and how they educated the Corps about the herbs, roots and other food that they could forage. We only had a few people attend but they seemed to be interested. They really liked the recipes I handed out – some eaten on the journey and some Three Sisters recipes.

We alternate the Food program with “Exploring the Full-Time RV Lifestyle.” We get so many questions about how we live on the road that we thought we would see if anyone was interested in exploring this topic with us. We have had 3 weekends of rain so we haven’t actually done this yet. We are curious to see how this is received.

Doug has taken the lead for the Junior Ranger programs. We do this on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings. Doug introduces them to the Idaho Junior Ranger Program with their mascot Scout, the Red Fox. We take the children on a Nature Safari around this beautiful park – Doug identifies and explains the different trees and the cycles they go through each year. We discovered that local folks like to come to the Junior Ranger programs which means that we need to have multiple topics since the same kids will be coming over the summer. So we changed the program a bit – added a Nature Scavenger hunt which the kids loved. I created a Scavenger Hunt about the river which we hope to try out this weekend. Luckily, nature abounds here and there is plenty to discuss.

Doug ready for the Junior Ranger program

I took on a shift at the Jack O’Connor Center, which is located in the park. It’s a little out of my comfort zone. O’Connor was a journalist who wrote about hunting, and he hunted large game all over the world. The Center is filled with heads of the animals he killed. I have come to terms with this because with more research I found that O’Connor practiced and wrote about ethical hunting practices. So, for 4 hours a week, I greet guests and show them around the really interesting displays. I’m learning a lot there and so far, only one of the beasts on the wall bothers me – a lion whose eyes follow me around. I think this King of the Jungle is communicating something to me. We’ll have to see what I learn from him.

I added an additional program: Crafts from Nature’s Bounty. We’ve been rained out so I haven’t presented this one yet, but it should be fun. We gather leaves, twigs, rocks, grass and anything else we like and make a design with them. We advertise it for all ages so the challenge will be to keep everyone happy.

And to get to our 20 hours each a week, we rove – we help out during busy check in times in the Discovery Center. Greeting campers, giving them some instructions, turning on the movie when someone wants to see it and chatting about the Lewis and Clark inside and outside displays.

That’s our new job – Thursdays through Sundays.

This gives us three days to explore this new area, run our mundane errands and do what we love the most – spend time with our grandchildren! Jake and Julie and their three darlings are about 45 minutes away and we have already visited them a few times.

And they all came to the park for Memorial Day. It was a cold, damp day, threatening to rain all day. We had reserved a shelter and I made a typical picnic barbeque lunch. Although there was a playground nearby, our little ones spent hours down on the beach of the Snake River. Paisley, Griffin and even little Beckham were completely engrossed in skipping rocks and mainly just throwing them in the river. Their little hands didn’t seem to mind being icy cold. Jake took Griffin for a brief ride in his new inflatable kayak. The river was a little too swift for a comfortable ride but at least he got it in the water for the first time. We had a special treat – Amy was with them since she had flown in for Jake’s sister’s wedding. It turned out to be a great family day for us.

We also invited our volunteer neighbors to our picnic and got to know them better – Tom and Kaley and their two small daughters Ember and Rivlin. We are very impressed with this family. Tom and Kaley live in their large class C full time and have been doing volunteer work for a few years. This meant working while Kaley was pregnant and then with an infant, and now a toddler plus another infant. They are doing the landscaping/maintenance around the Discovery Center. It is amazing to see the two of them working with their pretty children with them. The Discovery Center is beautifully manicured thanks to their efforts, and the children seem to thrive here.

Our first weekend of programming work went well, we had some nice family time and now we can get into the groove of our new position. The weather was the worst problem we have had. For four weekends it rained. That is unusual weather here – by now it should be very hot and dry. After a long, cold winter in Arizona, I was longing for some hot bright sun. Hasn’t happened yet but I understand we could be in for a very hot summer.

As I write this on the first official day of summer, the weather finally changed. The sun has come out in all its glory. Finally, the ground can dry a little. We are very optimistic about this coming weekend and hope to present every one of our six programs. We know for sure we will have some audience because Jake and Julie and our three grandchildren will be camping here. I know they will like the craft program and they are already veteran junior rangers so they will be happy to work for another badge. Looking forward to having these boisterous darlings listening to me talking about bats.

Travels to Hells Gate State Park, Idaho

GILA BEND, AZ; NEEDLES, CA; ST. GEORGE, UT

Our first two stops after leaving Kartchner Caverns were Gila Bend and Needles. Both of these RV parks are familiar to us and have been frequent stops coming and going from Arizona. Our one-night stays there were happily uneventful.

We spent two nights in St. George, Utah at Hurricane KOA. KOAs are usually easy for us – close to the highway we are traveling on, usually pull-thrus so we don’t have to unhitch our toad and have stores and laundries if we need them. This one was a little odd. At check in we were told we had to unhitch because it would be too tight to pull into our site while pulling our car. That was true. The sites were barely long enough, and our car had to be parked diagonally in front of the RV. With our four slides out we were very close to our tiny neighbors in their R-Pod. And these were “buddy” sites – our door faced our neighbor on the other side. They were nice people but it’s not always a comfortable set-up.

We happened to be there during the International Ironman Competition in nearby St. George which presented a massive traffic problem so on our second day we just relaxed until later in the day when we drove into Hurricane (pronounced “Hurricun”) to explore. We visited the small but very interesting Pioneer Museum and talked to the friendly docent there. We learned about the history of the Hurricane Canal which made the city possible. It took a daunting 50 years to hand dig the canal. It doesn’t exist now because of an earthquake. This is the kind of tourist stop we enjoy – local history and strange artifacts. I even got to see two dolls that I loved – Honey Baby and a pretty Ginny doll. We added a stop for a Mother’s Day dinner at Mekong Kitchen for great Thai food (Red Curry for Doug and Spicey Drunken Noodles for me). We ended our day stopping for essentials at Walmart.

As with the rest of Utah, St. George and the other smaller cities near there are spotlessly clean, beautifully landscaped and, of course, have the advantage of spectacular red mountains in the background.

FILLMORE, UT

We left early to get ahead of the wind on Sunday, May 8^th. The drive was short and easy with a short rest stop to stretch our legs. The owner at this perfectly manicured KOA was nice enough to not charge us for an early check in. The cottonwood trees were barely moving in the gentle cool breeze when we arrived. We had time for a nap after lunch, some phone calls from the kids and then the wind hit. The gusts are ferociously moving the cottonwoods and making lots of noise. We are facing in a good direction, so we haven’t had to bring in our slides or worry too much. Hopefully, things will quiet down before we leave tomorrow for our last stop in Utah.

Well, the wind shifted directions and one of the cottonwood branches started hitting our slide, so we brought that one in. A little cozier but still our comfy home. Then the rain came and lasted most of the night. And it got cold! We woke up to snow on the nearby Cedar Mountains.

Just a short ride today but we have to figure out the logistics of leaving at check out – 11 am and arriving at the State Park at check in – 3 pm when we don’t have far to go.

WILLARD BAY STATE PARK

This is such a pretty park. Each site is huge with its own covered ramada over the picnic table. We got here just a few minutes early and drove right to our site. Still haven’t met the hosts. It’s really chilly here – and overcast.

The drive today was beautiful. For many miles we drove along the San Pitch Mountains in the Wasatch Range. The largest and highest spot is Salt Creek Peak. Our highway alternated by aiming right at it or positioned this magnificent peak just to our right. The Wasatch were covered with snow and sparkling in the sun. We even had a few snowflakes hit our windshield.

Those flakes were pleasant unlike the aluminum cans that were flying out of an un-tarped recycling truck ahead of us. A flying can hitting our rig sounded like a gun shot. Hope it didn’t live a dent!

Safely and warmly tucked away in this quiet park for our last night in Utah.

TWIN FALLS, IDAHO

We have made numerous visits to Twin Falls and love it here. Our past blogs relate some of our Twin Falls adventures. The Perrine Memorial Bridge gave us a look at those brave souls who jump and parachute into the river. The waterfalls are spectacular: Twin Falls, of course, and Shoshone Falls, deemed to be the “most dazzling waterfall in the state.” There are also the Perrine Coulee Falls.

Looking into the Snake River Canyon explains why I have so many photos of it. This steep canyon with its winding green river is famous with stunning views. Anyone remember Evel Knievel?

I had a strange adventure doing the laundry. I was happy to see a spotlessly clean laundry room. Everything was shiny and bright but there was a small puddle on the floor around the drain. It was a narrow room, but I easily skirted the puddle and took two of the 4 washers to do my clothes. I sat outside reading and when I went back in the puddle was a bit larger. I put my clean clothes into two large dryers and left to go back to the RV. Upon returning, the puddle was considerably larger but not near my dryers. I put my dry clothes from the top dryer on the immaculate stainless steel folding table. I went to get the second load and that dryer was icy cold and the clothes were wet. I transferred them to a different dryer but that one refused to let me put quarters in. So, I went back to the good dryer and used that one again.

Another woman came in with 4 loads of laundry. I directed her to watch out for the growing puddle, showed her the two dryers that were malfunctioning and left to report the problems to the office.

As I started folding my clothes, a manager came in – she was surprised that the washer that seemed to be leaking was the one marked “out of order”. She opened the front door – out gushed an entire tub of water. The flow hit the opposite wall. I had just moved two steps in the right direction so only a few drops hit my legs but now the floor had about 2 inches of water and the drain was obviously not working. The other woman was trapped but dry on the other side of the puddle.

This manager was asking me about the dryer problems when another manager came in the back door with a string mop and bucket – so inadequate for this mess! The first manager had her back turned talking to me and trying to mess with the bad dryers when the second manager opens the broken washer and another onslaught of water rushes out. He got soaked.

My clothes are still dry on the table, so I get my first load out of there and back to the RV. When I returned for the second load in the dryer, the water is now rippling along the floor in little waves.

In spite of the problems, both managers exhibited excellent customer service – helping us get our clothes out without the clothes or us getting wet. They managed to disconnect the evil washer (finally!) and were valiantly attempting to soak up gallons of water with the pathetic mop.

I left with clean dry clothes, and I guess that’s all I can ask for. But it certainly was not the usual time in the laundry.

CALDWELL, IDAHO

Just a one night stay at the perfectly manicured Ambassador RV Park. We’ve been there before also, and it proved to be an easy site to shelter in during the evening’s rain.

PENDLETON, OREGON

We have driven through Pendleton, but never explored it. With a 3 night stay we had a little time to check it out. Pendleton is famous for its Wool Mill, producing beautiful wool blankets with Native American motifs, and the Pendleton Round-Up – one of the best- known rodeos in North America. We weren’t there for Round-Up days and the Mill was closed for tours.

We found an even better place to check out – the Museum at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute. The main exhibits take you through 10,000 years of native culture. The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes have a rich history in this area and are currently thriving with agricultural and casino enterprises.

The temporary exhibit was my favorite. Native women re-created their childhoods, their traumas, their dreams using mixed media inside antique metal doll houses. Each display takes you into the mind and heart of the creator and by using the iconic houses of our youth, they etched their histories in small, contained rooms that exposed their souls. It was eerie, real and touching. One house, done in mostly white designs, showed the devastation diabetes has had on tribal lives. The structures in the house were all done with sugar crystals – the stark and sharp evidence of this deadly disease. Other houses had many small beds representing the awful history of the Indian Training Schools where young Natives were sent to learn English and American ways but were indoctrinated in ways that were intended to destroy their culture. An eye-opening experience for us. It was the last day of that exhibit, and we are grateful to have had the luck to see it.,

We stayed the extra day here to avoid the rain, thunder and wind that had been forecast. This meant that we arrived a day late to our new job but our supervisor, Jeff, agreed that it was better to arrive safely.

HELLS GATE STATE PARK, LEWISTON, IDAHO

So, on Monday, May 16^th we got to Hells Gate State Park. We met up with Jeff at the Discovery Center. He has given us carte blanche to develop our own interpretive programs. He gave us a broad outline of expectations and offered his support and the support of the staff and other volunteers. We have a few programs already done, but we have to re-design them a bit to work here. It’s a challenge that I think we are up to.

Swallow’s Nest Rock across the Snake River from Hells Gate State Park

After dinner our first night, we took advantage of the late-setting sun here and strolled along the Snake River path. It’s about a half mile walk from out site in the Volunteer Village to the Discovery Center and depending on what we do with our programming, that might be a nice commute. We will spend the next few days getting acquainted with this beautiful park and the people we will be spending our summer with.

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Filed under Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah

by Carolyn | November 8, 2021 · 12:26 pm

A Summer to Remember

Sometimes you just have to be flexible, and the last few months have brought busy times, family times and some problems with our RV. Consequently, we let our blog go unattended. This is an attempt to catch up with a relatively brief summary of June through October 2021.

When I was last writing this blog, we were about to leave Jim and Mary’s RV Park near Missoula, MT. From there we spent 2 nights at Liberty Lake RV Park near Spokane, WA. We stopped there to spend some time with Jodi and Ken, our son in law’s parents. A great dinner and conversation were enjoyed, and we spoke about the grandchildren we share and love.

It is primarily because of those grandchildren that we went on to our next stop: Hells Gate State Park, ID. We met with Jeff, the volunteer coordinator, to discuss us spending a few months there next summer. It’s the closest park to Jake and Julie and the kids. Jeff showed us around and talked about the interpretive work done at Hells Gate. We loved the Visitor Center, the view of the Snake River and decided this would be a good new opportunity for us. After a few emails, we agreed to be there in May 2022 and to stay until that August. Looking forward to learning some new insights into Lewis and Clark and doing some evening programming.

We did a quick trip to Plymouth Park, WA and then Cascade Locks, OR and finally on to McMinnville’s Olde Stone Village where we have often stayed. The Plan had been to spend lots of time with our kids. But things changed and we had to be flexible – Jake took a great job about 6 hours away. He is the Principal of Colfax Elementary School. Colfax is a small Eastern Washington town snuggled into the Palouse Hills. It is a great position, and they bought a house there. So instead of playing with our darlings, we spent most of our 6 days together, packing and then we saw them off to their new home.

July 1^st came, and it was time to start at our volunteer position at Champoeg State Park. Our site there was large and beautiful. We looked out at a lovely view and had great neighbors there. We met with our Supervisor Dan who oriented us to the Visitor Center where we would be working. Our schedule was great – two days on and 4 days off – giving us plenty of time to see Doug’s dad, Creighton. We loved hanging out with him, bringing him lunches and sitting around talking to him. We also took advantage of using his laundry.

My job was mostly inside the Visitor Center which had great displays of the history of the area from the Kalapuya Indians, the fur trade, the development of the first provisional government, and finally the epic flood that destroyed the city of Champoeg. I loved the history and sharing it with our visitors. We showed videos and sold items from the gift shop. The only annoying and stressful part of the job was the stupid register which had connectivity problems, often leaving our customers stuck at that register way too long. But other than that, I loved my job.

Doug’s job was much harder – the Visitor Center is famous for its historic 1860’s Kitchen Garden. Doug (or Farmer Doug, as we called him) spend many hours watering, mowing, hoeing, weeding, and harvesting this beautiful garden. Typical of that era’s gardens, we grew plants to eat, plants for medicinal purposes and plants for beauty. I am not a gardener, but even I loved to walk past the bright pink 4 O’clocks, through the hops arbor and down the neatly trimmed pathways to see the vegetables and flowers.

Doug and I also took on another job – we did a weekly Bat Talk in the campground amphitheater. We enjoyed meeting the campers, talking to the kids who knew so much about bats already and answering their questions. Most nights, a few Little Brown Bats swooped down on us to be the featured stars of the program.

We had a small family birthday party for Creighton who turned 99. With Doug’s brother Nelson and wife Lydia, Bev and Barry we celebrated by eating Dad’s favorite hoagies. We kept it small because of the virus but we had a great time and now are planning the big bash for his 100^th!

During this time, we got to see friends from Kartchner – Jim and Randa joined us for a long, wonderful dinner at a local restaurant. Then Rocky and Chris visited us in Champoeg and brought a delicious quiche for dinner. One of the best parts of our travels is spending time with our wonderful friends. We also took a day trip to nearby Silver Falls State Park.

Our July and August went well until one morning we heard chewing that sounded like it was coming from our bedroom closet. Doug discovered that a squirrel had chewed through the wires to our back-up camera! We had been worried about all those squirrels and this repair was costly and took Doug 3 days to fix.

We decided to leave our pretty (and free) campsite and escape any further damage from squirrels. We went nearby to a campground in Woodburn. From there it was a short commute to Champoeg.

On August 27^th we took our motorhome to McCoy’s Freightliner for routine repair. During the day-long wait, we hung out at Riverfront Park on the Willamette River in Salem. After a quiet nap in our car, we walked into town, had a really nice lunch and then toured the capital building. We spent the afternoon in our chairs gazing at the pretty river.

We went to pick up the motorhome and were totally shocked when the transmission light went on as Doug tested it in the parking lot. It obviously wasn’t driving well. The techs took it back into the bay, and then without any warning, we were homeless! It seemed right from that beginning that this wasn’t going to be an easy fix.

We had to leave Meriwether at the repair shop.

So, we went to Bev and Barry’s house that night. We had grabbed a few things from the motorhome – just our medicine and a few clothes. We expected to be leaving with a repaired home the next day. Well, that didn’t happen. Here’s where we had to be flexible again!

It was a transmission failure even though it is a fairly new transmission with low-mileage and regular maintenance. Nothing happens quickly in these situations – you have to get answers, and no one works on the same schedule. You have to wait until the right “experts” are on duty. Then you have to wait while the ordering is done. We needed a rebuilt transmission. Parts are scarce now. Technicians are even scarcer. One of our delays occurred while our newly rebuilt transmission sat in St. Louis. Then the transmission is on site and COVID swept through the Freightliner facility – 8 technicians were out of commission.

Our total time without our motorhome was 45 days. We spent about half of them at Bev and Barry’s beautiful new home where we had a private bedroom with a full wonderful bathroom. But best of all we had them to keep us sane and be great company for us. Our time there was peaceful, and we are totally grateful to them and their warm hospitality.

Most of this time it was impossible to know how much longer our homelessness would go on. But during one period we knew there was nothing for us to do so drove our car to see the kids in Washington. We’ve done this 6 hour drive a few times now and although the Columbia River Gorge is breathtaking, I mostly just wanted to get there and see the kids. Julie and Jake welcomed us and offered to let us live there forever. It was a special time with the kids, and we loved every minute of it. Sharing their lives, their meals, their playtime is precious to us.

Visiting Jake and the kids in Washington

But our health took a hit. The long drive caused a blood clot in Doug’s left leg which meant a trip to first Urgent Care and then the ER and medication and compression socks. Also, our darlings had a bad cold which, of course, we caught. By the end of our week there, we knew we were getting sick. But we were okay for a wonderful First Birthday party for Beckham and got to see Jake’s family.

We sadly left them, drove back to be near the motorhome. We had made arrangements to stay at an Airbnb in Sherwood. By the time we carried in our many bags, we were coughing badly and felt awful. We were happy to be isolated in a beautiful place, but we were really sick while we were there.

After that place we had reserved another place in Newberg – not quite as pretty but again all we did was binge watch TV and cough. It turned out that I had pneumonia and Doug’s cough lasted another month.

We recuperated and didn’t feel like we had any germs left, so we went back to Bev and Barry’s still “patiently” waiting to hear we could get back into our home. We got some good news with an actual date of repair. We took a few days off and went to Cape Disappointment, Lewis and Clark National Historic Park and Astoria. Our little cottage on Long Beach was just a short walk to the beach. The weather was cool and rainy, but I got to walk on the huge empty beach. We wandered around the little town of Long Beach, did some sightseeing; I ate a Dungeness crab cake, and learned more about Lewis and Clark. It was a good break for us.

Fort Clatsop replica at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park

Crossing the Columbia on the Astoria-Megler Bridge

View of Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Great views of the surrounding area from the Astoria Column parking lot

We still had to kill a few days and we didn’t want to impose on Bev and Barry who were getting ready for their camping trip, so we went to a Travelodge for a few days. It was a peaceful quiet stay there, with decent breakfasts and some simple stuff we brought to eat. Doug had another medical issue – because of the pain in his leg, he seemed to have thrown out his knee so now he has a knee brace but that seems to be something that is getting better.

One of the worst parts of all this was being unable to meet our commitment to Valley of the Rogue State Park, where we were supposed to spend the month of September working with Junior Rangers and doing interpretive and maintenance work. Although we could have driven there, we had no place to live so had to renege on that. We are very disappointed – we hate to not meet our promises and we were looking forward to exploring that beautiful part of Oregon.

Then the day came to pick our home up. Our rig, Meriwether, drove fine and we only drove him a short distance to the Emerald RV Park on October 14^th. While there we got a bonus day with Dad and then went to get brand new tires put on this wonderful motorhome.

The rest of our trip was mostly one-night stays to get south to Kartchner Caverns. We stopped in Canyonville, Redding, Lodi, Coalinga, Boron, Needles, and Gila Bend. So very glad to pull into our winter home!

Now we are firmly ensconced in our site in the Lower Volunteer Village. We pulled in on Tuesday, October 26^th and happily went to our first gathering – a Flamingo – with old and new friends. We will be working three full days with a nice long four-day weekend. After our long homeless escapade, it was a relief and a pleasure to just be in our motorhome, enjoying all that we love about it, but also now camping in the familiar, beautiful state park.

Looking forward to working hard, meeting up with family and friends, getting to see more of the wonders of this area and enjoying the beautiful weather. Our gratitude to everyone who got us through this debacle is immense. We are very lucky in so many ways.

I would like to mention right here our gratitude and appreciation to Bob Tiffin, the CEO of Tiffin Motorhomes. Doug called him to tell him what happened. Bob immediately agreed to pay a third of our cost for the transmission replacement. And he did. We sent him a copy of the bill and a check was in the mail to us a few days later. Now this is amazing customer service! It was one of the reasons we chose Tiffin because we heard about this kind of remarkable service and now, we are happy to be recipients of it.

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Filed under Idaho, Oregon, Washington

by Carolyn | September 23, 2019 · 2:44 pm

Idling in Idaho

Another new state for us! We have been to Idaho before but not in the RV. This is our 41^st state on our map. Idaho – the Gem State – with Famous Potatoes on its license plates.

BOISE

Our first stop was Boise – the State Capital. We stayed at the Ambassador RV Resort – which is one of the most manicured, clean, neat campgrounds we have stayed in. We thought it must be a brand-new campground – the concrete pads are clean and not stained. The strips of grass between the sites are all the same perfect green with no holes or dry spots. The round plastic picnic tables all look new. The rounded gravel, which is not hard on your feet, is pristine with nothing but maybe one stray leaf to mar its perfection. When I went to get quarters for the laundry, I asked how old the park was – I was surprised to hear it was 14 years old. Lots of hard, constant work by owners, staff and volunteers to keep this place up to this standard of excellence. We took a quick swim in the pool – perfect temperature, very clean and the laundry room was spotless – also a reasonable price of $1.25 for a wash load; $1.25 for one hour of drying. This park is very convenient with one turn off the highway – wide streets, no trees or boulders to make parking difficult and easy long pull throughs. We definitely recommend this campground.

We got out on Wednesday, September 5^th, to check out Boise. It was warm – almost 90 degrees but we are used to that and it seemed a good day to discover something new. Boise is a large city – but it meets all our requirements for a good city – some murals and interesting public art; benches around the main streets; lots of shops to explore; great restaurants (we loved our lunch at Boise Fry Company – with delicious Idaho French fries and burgers); and even free parking for visitors near the capitol building.

We headed right over to see the Capitol. It’s big and beautiful from the outside, situated in garden settings on all four sides. We didn’t have a tour scheduled so we watched the introductory movie and then guided ourselves through the marbled hallways.

We’ve seen a few other capitol buildings and we want to see more. It is always a great experience to see the pride of State demonstrated in Corinthian architecture and design. Each building is a little showy but it’s great to see the history of the State and be in the actual place that keeps that State functioning. It was quiet in the hallways – the legislature was not in session yet, but that gave us free reign over the magnificent building.

The gold eagle on top of the huge dome, the marble floors and faux marble columns, Winged Victory and George Washington in Statuary Hall, the newly restored barrel ceilings, all completed the Capitol of Light and represented something everyone in Idaho can be proud to show off to visitors and residents alike.

We journeyed onward – from Boise to Twin Falls where we stayed at the Jerome KOA.

TWIN FALLS

After the immaculate conditions at Ambassador RV Park, Jerome KOA seemed a little muddy. But it is a typical KOA – lots of trees and grass and the mud will probably dry before we leave.

We took off on Saturday, September 7^th for Shoshone Falls State Park. Our first stop was the Visitor Center in Twin Falls. Right outside is Perrine Bridge – the iconic span over the Snake River and its canyons. Not far from this bridge is where Evel Knievel tried to jump the canyon in 1974. We hung out near the bridge to watch the new daredevils parachute down from the railing on the bridge, glide smoothly over the water, and gently land on the shore. One jumper after another made the journey safely and gracefully.

The Perrine Bridge over the Snake River in Twin Falls

The scenery right there is spectacular – a huge gorge, the greenish Snake River twisting through the cliffs – with kayakers on the water and these crazy jumpers from BASE floating through the sky. (BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth – these folk jump from all of them.)

This bridge is one of the few locations in the country that needs no permits to jump. You just fold up your parachute, walk to the middle of the span (there’s a rail keeping the cars from hitting you); climb over the railing, jump, (or be a show-off and do a swan dive or a back flip from the top of the railing), guide your chute through the winds over the river, pick your landing spot and glide into it. Then you roll up the chute and climb the narrow steep trail to get back to the top of the bridge. Not something we will ever do but we can see what a thrill this kind of sport would be.

[It saddens me to add here that a few days after we enjoyed watching these jumpers, one of them died. It is heartbreaking to think of him – leaping off the bridge for an exhilarating flight only to have his parachute malfunction. He landed hard in the water; suffered major internal injuries. His wife, who also jumped but made it down safely, pulled him from the water and tried to revive him. How sad to think of her heroism and now her pain. Looking back, remembering how I fantasized that I had the courage to take a leap like that; remembering my joy at watching these free spirits jumping – and now appreciating the risks involved – gives this memory a whole new perspective.]

We drove about 30 miles to see Shoshone Falls. Just beautiful! Roaring waters over rugged boulders! This is a great state park, so we hung around and had a picnic lunch there.

We still had plenty of time left in our day – making the decision to do one more thing very easy. We went to Hagerman National Fish Hatchery. We like to explore the cycles of trout and salmon and this is one of the biggest hatcheries we have seen. There were lots of interpretive signs and some models of salmon and trout, and rows and rows of raceways – the areas where the fish live and grow. At this time of year, the only fish in the raceways were tiny fry. The rest had been shipped out to their new homes in rivers and lakes.

Fishing is popular in Idaho; the state fish is the Cutthroat Trout

We may not have seen much of the live trout but when we walked over to the display pond and peered into the water – Wow! The White Sturgeon hanging out there were huge! One seemed to be over 6 feet long. Other than sharks, whales and dolphins, I’ve never seen marine life this big. I was shocked at the size of them.

This was a great day of exploration for us. We saw beautiful scenery, learned new things and had a fun time doing it

Since our experience at Kartchner Caverns, we have been exploring new caves. The Shoshone Indian Ice Cave was an entirely new experience for us. This is a lava tube with glacial ice inside of it. We took the tour, across a trail of aa and pahoehoe lava; down rocky steps and into a freezing cold lava tube. Immediately, you see expanses of ice. There is lots of water still seeping in and although some of the natural forces have been curtailed, it still has a feel of authenticity. Now we can add a lava tube ice cave to our cavern repertoire.

POCATELLO

Our next camping stop was in Pocatello. We stayed at Willow Bay RV Park in Pocatello. The sites in this park are large – long, long pull throughs and a nice big grassy area between sites. It is nice to sit outside and not even see a neighbor’s sewer connections. We even have two nice views – a grassy field with low-lying mountains out of our dining window and lovely Willow Bay out of our giant front window.

Our first night brought us a thunderstorm with the worst hail we have heard so far. We felt like our RV was being pummeled with rocks. But the next day showed no damage as far as we could tell.

We hightailed it to Blackfoot the first chance we got to re-visit the Idaho Potato Museum. With Doug’s life-long love of spuds, this was a mandatory stop. We had been there in 2000 on a long camping trip in our tent trailer with Amy and Julie. The museum has been updated but there was plenty we remembered from that first visit. Even so, we learned a few more facts about the potato industry. We stopped at the Potato Museum’s Café for a lunch of baked potatoes, of course. And we hit the gift shop for a few fun tater-themed souvenirs. We think we are the only family that has been to the two potato museums on North America – this one and the one on Prince Edward Island. Yes, we love our potatoes!

We spent our last day in the Pocatello area visiting the American Falls Fish Hatchery. We fed the trout, learned a few more bits of fish information and then returned to Willow Bay for a walk along the nature trail around the bay.

That was our last stop in Idaho. On to another new state for us – UTAH!

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Filed under Idaho

by Carolyn | October 7, 2018 · 6:22 pm

On the Road Again

Our good-bye to Charbonneau Park on Friday, September 14^th, took a little bit longer than expected. Doug noticed what he thought was a leak by the oil filter as we were about to pull out of our site. So we took a quick detour to Jim’s where the oil filter had recently been replaced. While our rig was being checked out, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut where Doug can get a good Udi’s gluten free pizza. When all was well again, we headed to Spokane – a relatively short distance for our first trip in four months.

We stopped at the Sprague Lake Rest Stop on I-90 E for a walk, a beautiful view and a snack. We knew we were getting close to the Spokane KOA when we recognized the Sikh Temple on Baker Road. It’s a beautiful white building with bright yellow trim and the message “God is One”.

View from the Sprague Lake rest stop

On Saturday, we had a great lunch at Central Food in Spokane with Megan, Jodi and Evan. It gave us time to catch up, meet Evan for the first time and enjoy good food and good company. As we said good-bye to the three of them we realized that for our next few months it will be just the two of us.

So now it’s Sunday morning and Johnny and Willie are singing in my head:

Here we go, on the road again

Like a band of Gypsies

We go down the highway.

We’re the best of friends

Insisting that the world

Keeps turning our way…

Going places that I’ve never been

Seeing things that I may never

See again

And I can’t wait to get on the road again!

As we pass into the panhandle of Idaho, with lovely Lake Coeur d’Alene on my right, large purple mountains ahead of me and months of long roads to travel, I mused a bit on those words.

First, I am not sure I want to use the word Gypsies any more – what might have felt okay to say in 1980 doesn’t feel right any more. But the other words fit us so well. Due to the size of our motor home, we mostly travel on highways – it’s safer for us. We leave exploring the bucolic back roads for our day trips in our car. And that’s not saying that our highways aren’t beautiful. I have a ring-side seat to the unending magnificence of our country. I-90 is a treasure, especially the stretch in Montana where we followed the Clark Fork River as it curved and meandered through the mountains and passes.

Doug and I are best friends. Living like this you have to be. With only rare moments apart, we live our lives synced together. It’s a loving, intimate, ultimate friendship kind of arrangement. It’s a lifestyle that we’ve grown into – melded together – that brings us joy and peace every day.

We often reflect on the fact that the people we meet on the road are genuinely happy – and why not? They are doing what they want to do too and if they’ve been on the road together for a while they most likely started out as best friends too.

And the world does seem to be turning our way whether we insist on it or not. We are grateful every day for the opportunity to turn this dream of ours into reality. The only hard part is missing our family. But given that they are located all across the country from each other, we would always be missing someone. At least this way, when we do meet we usually have long, quality times together.

So going places that we’ve never been and realizing that we may not come back again makes our journey a mindful experience of focusing on the present and celebrating our moments with genuine fullness.

That’s why my heart is smiling as we get on the road again!

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Filed under Idaho, Washington

by Doug | July 2, 2016 · 4:08 pm

Coeur d’Alene and Big Sky Country

Lake Coeur d’Alene

After visiting the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, ID area for a few days, we closed up our home and moved onto “Big Sky Country” – Montana. We stopped for an overnight stay in St Regis, MT and now we are in a great RV Park (Jim & Mary’s RV Park) in Missoula for the Independence Day weekend. We’d previously found out the hard way that it’s important to reserve space on holiday weekends well in advance!

If you look at our states visited page, you’ll see that we added Montana but not Idaho. Our rule for coloring in a state is that we must have first stayed overnight in that state. Since we drove straight through Idaho (and just the narrow panhandle at that), it doesn’t get colored! And there is so much more to see of Idaho that we just can’t wait to return.

We have experienced quite a change in geography over the last two months. We started with the beautiful and rugged rocky coast of Oregon, crossed the Pacific Coast Range, followed the Columbia River Gorge, crossed into Washington and seeing Mt Ranier in the distance, experienced the absolute beauty of Lake Coeur d’Alene (seen in the above phot0), and then into Montana crossing the Bitterroot Mountains. Soon we will crossing the Rockies and the Continental Divide!

While staying in Spokane, we drove a short hop to Coeur d”Alene to see the gorgeous lake and to have a picnic lunch at a city park bordering the lake. There is a huge resort right on the lake with a marina that has a 3300′ floating boardwalk (the world’s longest) surrounding it. We walked the entire thing including the raised bridge you can see in the picture for the boast to enter and exit the marina.

Lake Coeur d’Alene

World’s longest floating boardwalk – Lake Coeur d’Alene

McEuen Park – Lake Coeur d’Alene

The last day in Spokane we went to Manito Park which consists of several gardens, a conservatory, a lake, lots of open space and trails, and undeveloped areas. We first visited the Japanese garden which was very peaceful and cool (appreciated since it was a warm day!). We then walked to the Rose Garden which had too many varieties of beautiful roses to even mention, and then onto Duncan Garden which was a huge plaza with many colorful plantings of annuals.

Spokane Nishinomiya Garden

Rose Garden at Manito Park

Duncan Garden at Manito Park

After arriving in Missoula, we checked out the downtown First Friday Gallery Walk. The streets were alive with people and the galleries had free food and drink. We crossed the bridge across the Clark Fork River where we saw people cooling off by wading and tubing.

Downtown Missoula

Calrk Fork RIver running through Missoula

Clark Fork River running through Missoula

Last night we heard fireworks from the local farm team ballpark. Early this morning we went to two of the farmers’ markets downtown. We were impressed by the amount of local produce and how artfully and neatly it was displayed!

Missoula Farmers’ Market

We have two more days in Missoula before we head north to Glacier National Park on Tuesday.

Posted from Missoula, Montana, United States.

Category Archives: Idaho

On Vacation!

New Interpretive Programs at Hells Gate State Park

Travels to Hells Gate State Park, Idaho

A Summer to Remember

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