Rolling Along

After our brief but fun time in Utah, it was necessary to move along.  I had a call from my Amarillo doctor’s office requesting a follow-up on one of my medical tests.  We decided to extend our planned visit to my nephew Bill and wife Rhonda in Idaho Falls, Idaho and get the follow-up done there. 

We made it a 2-day journey with an overnight stop in Springville, Utah, south of Salt Lake City. 

Scenery along I-15:

Once we arrived in Idaho Falls, we spent the first few days in town at the Snake River RV Park where we’d stayed before.  This year the Snake River was much more impressive with the amount of water flowing over the falls. 

The picture below was taken when we were here in early August of 2009:

And this picture was taken this month, near the same spot as the one above:

While we were there we had the opportunity to have lunch with one of Jim’s high school classmates, Sherri, who lives in Idaho Falls.  It was a treat to see them reconnect after 41 years!

We relocated to Bill and Rhonda’s huge back yard after a few days and spent about 10 days parked behind their barn:

Activities included getting that test done (good news from that), playing in the backyard with the dogs, planning meals and catching up with Bill and Rhonda and their friends.

Jim bought himself an important new piece of equipment:

And while Bill looked on, he tested it:

By making one of his famous Shrimp Boils – success!

One afternoon Bill navigated and we drove over to the Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Rhonda had her two adorable grandsons with her so she elected to stay home with them while we went on our tour.  Bill provided us with lots of interesting information about the area as we passed through the high desert area of Idaho.

An Idaho fixer-upper:

These 2 young buck elk were having a bite to eat along side the road:

This is a campground in the National Monument, the motorhome is nestled in a tiny spot surrounded by lava:

A large lava field:

Another day found us fishing on Ririe Reservoir near Idaho Falls.  That was a fun day until Bill’s boat nearly caught fire from some improperly installed wiring!  Good thing Bill is a firefighter/paramedic and kept a cool head as smoke was pouring out of the engine compartment!  A couple of other boating groups stopped by to ask if we needed help, but Bill was able to use his small trolling motor to get us back to the dock with no fire actually breaking out.

A visit to Jackson, Wyoming took another day of our visit.  The 4 of us went in our car and we had a fun day poking around town.  Rhonda and Bill enjoying their lunch at the Mangy Moose in Teton Village:

Our time in Idaho Falls was great, we so enjoyed getting to spend time with Bill and Rhonda! Thanks for your hospitality!

Next stop was on the way to visit Janna & Mike in Montana.  We learned that Gerri and Larry Gustafson, previous owners of Broken Arrow Campground in Custer, SD, were in the area.  We made arrangements to stay overnight at the same park they were at – Ennis RV Village in Ennis, MT.  Also with them were their good friends Donlyn and Jim Vickers, whom we first met at Broken Arrow.  The ladies had prepared a wonderful crockpot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables to share for dinner, what a fun evening!  Wish we could have spent more time with them, but we are on a timeline here!

Larry, Gerri, Donlyn, and Jim:

Some interesting scenery on the way to Big Timber – I’m not sure what these boards are called – maybe paddle boards?  But these two brave folks were paddling along  the very high Madison River barely clothed, much less wearing life vests!

Another view along the Madison River:

We arrived at Spring Creek Campground in Big Timber on Tuesday for a 4-night stay.  We called Janna to let her know when we got settled and she said she’d stop by after an appointment in town. 

When we arrived at the campground I went in to the office to check in and pay.  I found out that our reservation hadn’t gotten written down, so they didn’t have the full hook-up site we’d requested.  Instead, they had to put us in this riverside site with water and electric:

Just at the right edge of the picture below, you can see our chairs set up behind the motorhome, just right for sitting and watching the Boulder River flow by!

When Janna arrived, we got our hugs and then followed her up the Boulder to their house.  She prepared a fabulous chicken dinner with corn on the cob and melon salad.  Hey, this getting fed along the way as we travel is pretty darn nice!

Here’s their house, located about 20 miles from the middle of the wilderness!

After dinner, we took a drive up the road to the Natural Bridge State Park to check out the falls.  The last time we were here, there was no water flowing over the top:

On the drive back to their house, this deer crossed the road in front of us:

And we were reminded to watch out on the way back to our place.  We saw six more deer on the way home!

Janna & Mike had appointments in Billings on Wednesday and we knew they wouldn’t be back until late, so we just took that day to hang out.  On Thursday, they had one more appointment in Billings and then a Costco run, so they asked if we’d like to go along.  Of course we did, they picked us up at 8:00 and away we went in their truck.  While they were at the appointment we shopped.  They took us to lunch at Jakes, which was very good!

After our stop at Costco, it was back on the road and home for the evening.  Then yesterday Mike had more hay to cut, so Janna came and picked us up for some shopping and errands around Big Timber and Livingston.  We found a few items to purchase, we always try to do our part for the local economy!

Last night Janna & Mike joined us at our place for dinner.  Jim fixed a pork roast in the crockpot and we added beans and salad.  It was a fun visit, but way too short!

Somehow neither one of us managed to take a good picture of Janna or Mike this visit, so here they are when we climbed the mountain behind our desert hideaway last winter:

We left our beautiful river spot a little reluctantly this morning and headed for tonight’s destination,

An easy travel day, an easy in-easy-out RV park, a great late lunch at the Rib & Chop House in Sheridan, Wyoming and we’re settled in, ready for a restful night before another Wyoming travel day.

We’re rolling along towards the Denver area where we’ll spend a few days with the grandkids.  Then it’s on to Colorado Springs and final preparations for Robin’s wedding in August.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Happy Summer! We celebrated this solstice by once again visiting Zion National Park.  We left home about 8:30 this morning and actually found a good parking spot in the visitor center lot.  We rode the free shuttle up the canyon:

There are about 9 stops along the route.  You can get off at any of the stops and catch another shuttle later one, they come along about every 7 to 10 minutes.

We got off at the Emerald Pool trail and took a short hike along the Virgin River:

We experimented with some waterfall photography:

This is one of several emerald pools:

Ah, beautiful, cool shade:

After our little hike we continued on to the end of the shuttle line, making a couple of additional stops along the way.

Once we got back to the visitor’s center, we switched shuttles and took the town shuttle into Springdale, the small village (tourist trap) just outside the main entrance to the park.  I asked the shuttle driver for a restaurant recommendation and without hesitation he said, “Oscar’s” – so that’s where we went and had a very good lunch. 

I needed just a little retail therapy while walking off some of the lunch, so we visited a little shop where we each bought a shirt.

As I was going through our nearly 200 pictures from today, I continue to realize how impossible it is to convey the awesome beauty of this part of our amazing country with just words and pictures, but here are a few more examples of the scenery as we made our way back out of the park.

A close-up of a very high water fall:

I know it doesn’t look like much in this photo, but those trees along the edge of that rock are full-grown, tall trees, not little bushes!

Our friends Jo and Fred Wishnie (The Wandering Wishnies) have been camp hosting at a nearby state park, Kodachrome Basin.  They posted a blog today with more descriptions and beautiful photos of this area.  But, I have to agree with their sentiment, if you haven’t already been here you really need to put it on your list of “must see” places!

It Could Happen to Anyone!

Our hearts go out to our friends Marilyn and Ed Dray, The Happy Wanderers.  We read on Facebook yesterday about their tragic fire while they were traveling from Missouri to their favorite summer haunt, Colorado Springs.  Thankfully they are ok and were able to save their truck, but they lost their beautiful Mobile Suites 5th wheel home and all the contents when a wheel locked up and caught fire.

Ed’s message to all of us RV’ers is to carry more than one small fire extinguisher.  He said he almost had the fire out when his one extinguisher went dry.  Once again we are sadly reminded that things like this can and do happen.  It’s important to be prepared, and even more important to cherish and treasure each day and each person in our lives!

The story of their loss is on their blog entry today.

And, if you’re so inclined, there is an opportunity to help them with a donation at this RV-Dreams page.

The picture below is from last June when we had lunch with them at one of our favorite downtown Colo. Spgs. restaurants, Jose Muldoon’s.

Marilyn and Ed, there aren’t any words to express how sorry we are about your loss, but we’re grateful that you are both OK.  Please know we are keeping you in our prayers and hearts every day! 

Ahhhh….Those “Jell-o” Plans!

We did it again – after spending about 6 weeks in Amarillo, we decided at the last minute to go West instead of up to South Dakota as we’d talked about earlier.  I’ve been nagging Jim for awhile that our travels have mostly settled into revisiting places we’ve already been.  Oh, we love those places and the people we’ve met there, but there are still a lot of nooks and crannies of this country that we haven’t seen.  We decided that Southern Utah would be a great place to see while we have a few free weeks before the wedding.

So, last Thursday, we rolled up the carpet, hooked up the car and headed west on I-40.  That night we stopped at a small RV park just outside Albuquerque, the next night we stopped at the KOA in Flagstaff (won’t do that one again, sites and roads are much too tight for a rig our size), and Saturday we stopped at Wahweap Campground at Lake Powell.  That’s where the new header picture was taken.

This was our site:

This was our view from near the camp site:

From the road above the campground:

Looking back at the lake from the dam:

The lake is about 60% full right now.  With all of the snowfall in the Rockies this year, the level of the lake is currently rising nearly a foot a day.  We took a tour of the dam and got to go down to the power plant area, brought back some memories for both of us!

We will definitely need to make a return trip to this area, we’d love to rent a pontoon boat for a day (or more) and go exploring some of the canyons!

Sunday morning we went to breakfast in Page, then went to the local Walmart and stocked up on supplies for the next part of the journey – on to Zion and Bryce in Utah!

We got settled in at a little RV park in Glendale, Utah early Sunday afternoon.  Bright and early Monday morning we loaded up our picnic lunch, the dogs and our cameras and headed out towards Zion National Park:

I have to say right now that we were both left speechless and breathless more than once on our short drive through the part of the park still open to private car travel.  Yes, we took pictures, but there’s no way they can even begin to show the spectacular quality of this place.  We both agreed that this is one of the most impressive places we’ve visited yet.  The road, Utah Highway 9, winds it’s way across the very southeastern corner of the park.  It’s a through road, but everyone has to pay the park entrance fee.  It is a very twisty-turny road that goes up and down and features a small tunnel and one very narrow, very long tunnel.  The park’s website warns that large vehicles must make arrangements to be escorted (at an additional fee) through the tunnel.  They have a system to allow only one lane of traffic through at a time, so there is a wait going both directions.  But, both times through, we only had a couple of minutes to wait.

This is Checkerboard Mesa:

Some of the views:

 

This is the one trail in the park where dogs are allowed:

We will be going back to the park later this week and another time next week to take the shuttle to the areas where private vehicles can’t go this time of year.

This morning we got a few things done around the Castle, like debugging the front end and windshield – many, many bugs gave their lives in support of our trip West!  I washed the windows too, but then the day got warm and we decided what the heck, let’s go for a drive!

This time we decided to see what Utah Highway 14 is like – it runs from US 89 over the Cedar Breaks Monument area (which is still closed due to snow!) and in to Cedar City on I-15, about a 55 mile trip from here.  Another beautiful, but twisty-turny road!

This is Navajo Lake, formed from lava flow, and yes, that is snow on the far bank!

More of those red rocks and snow:

Vista from near the summit, looking South towards Zion:

And more rock formations highlighted by late afternoon sun:

And that’s just the first two days here, whew!  We don’t have a specific plan as to how long we’ll stay in this area, there are a lot of places to see!  I’d better go plug in my camera battery…