Another Beautiful Ride!

The woman who owns this RV Park is very active in tourism and has been really helpful in finding road trips for us to take and things to see and do. She suggested that we go to Leavenworth (not the prison!) and the surrounding areas. We headed up the road to Wenatchee and then on west of there. The folks at Leavenworth were in a bad way several years ago, when their town was dying. A person passing through told someone in that they had a beautiful little town, reminescent of a Bavarian town in the Alps! Thankfully, they took that comment to heart, as it truly is a booming, bustling with the flavor of a Artisan Village. Many little shops, hotels, Bed and Breakfast and restaurants. There was live accordian entertainment in the town square that we enjoyed while walking around on the streets. Every parking spot was taken, clearly a very popular spot to visit while in Washington. We stopped at a family owned fruit stand on the edge of town on the way home, and sampled some Apelets and Cotlets, a confectionary treat made from fruit and nuts with a setting syrup and dusted with powdered sugar. In Cashmere, a town just a few miles away, there's a factory where Apelets and Cotlets are made...and we stopped there too on the way home. It was a very good day, and even KayCee had a good time. They have a pet store in Leavenworth that welcome pets, so we clipped a leash on our fur kid and in we went. Usually in Pet Smart she sniffs around and is pretty mellow. Not so with this place, she about went wild greeting all the dogs and smelling all the treat and toys. Today we have been busy, replenishing the food supply, taking care of some ordinary chores and now this evening we will watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Can you remember where you were for the last Olympics 4 years ago? I can.... we were in the Wapiti Valley on the edge of Yellowstone Park. That was the only channel we got back then! This time we will spend the duration in Kalispell MT. We only have 3 nights left here and we will be on the move to the mountains!

Most of My Summer Vacation in Idaho!

It's been a long and hard month. I was going to name this post "How I spent my Summer Vacation At the Dennis Dillon RV Center" But we finally got away from there. As you can see, we have a New Coach! We had discussed the idea of looking for something smaller and while we were going to spend a few days in the Boise area, and passed by this dealership we decided to spend an afternoon and look at what they had. Who would think we would spend the next three weeks between Boise and Caldwell. We had a wonderful sales person, Dan - and the first coach we went into had everything I wanted plus it was in our price range! I wasn't going to opt for Brand new..but with the great deal, we couldn't pass it up. Our Betsy has been a very good coach, but we are wanting to go places that it wasn't comfortable for her! (or me either!) So.....we have a new house! You will hear me refer to this rig as "Teddy the Road Warrior!" It is smaller but has wonderful features, 4 slides and made by the Thor Corporation. A 2013 36ft. Thor Tuscany. The ride is much more comfortable, even though I'm having a little difficulty getting used to the seat! The inside is oh so much roomier. I have a wonderful floorplan, king bed, stack set washer dryer, stainless residential side by side fridge and all my appliances are Residential Whirlpool Gold. Bumper to bumper warranty for 7 years, so we're set. No more looking at houses for now. We will plan on being in Alaska next summer, and taking our house! The fireplace will be nice this winter and colder places. We sure don't need it now!! The move was pretty taxing, as any move can be. Losing as much storage and 7 ft of length was challenging and the Goodwill thanks us, as we made several trips! I may have to have a Uhaul to make the trip to the hunting lodge in the fall. Lots of stuff that I won't throw away, but won't haul around all the time either. It has been an adventure in itself, as with any new or different coach, there's a learning curve and bugs to work out and issues to deal with. One week it seemed like everything I touched broke! Most things we have resolved and still waiting for a couple parts to finish up...but the dealership will ship those where we are and we will have an approved service facility do the repair. We finally took off for the maiden voyage and headed through the corner of Oregon and up into Washington, making a loop and heading back towards the center to Washington. The ride is lots better and lots easier than we're used to! He's a trooper and pulls the Suburban like a champ! We are sitting at a very quaint park until the 1st of August, when we will head to Kalispell Montana. We wanted to make the trip to the coast and visit friends, see sights and tour, however, with the extra expense and spending more time with this project, we had to change our plans. Remember, our plans are written in jello!!!! Hopefully we will include that plan next summer. For now we are doing a minimal amount of touring, but enjoying Washington and the diverse crops they have around here and trying to relax a bit after the moving stress. DH spends most of his spare time reading his Kindle.  This past week, we spent one day touring Soap Lake, Dry Falls, Coulee City, the Grand Coulee Dam, Omak and Wenatchee. Today we drove to a couple of wildlife preserves, saw a coyote standing on a road, travelled over the O'Sullivan Dam and had lunch at the Blue Heron park in Moses Lake. We bought fresh ripe cherries from a roadside stand and enjoyed the ride through areas of very diverse crops. The wheat is really ready, but no harvest so far. This area has 19 different food items that they produce. Apples, blackberries, cherries, beans asparagus, onions, potatoes, grapes,wine and the list goes on and on.... lots of alfalfa and hay too. We made it through a rather severe thunderstorm yesterday that brought heavy rain and lots of wind. The most weather we've seen outside of 6 days over 100 in Boise. Our closest City is Moses Lake WA, and we'll be headed through Spokane and on east next week. Stay tuned!

Sawtooth Mountains and Sun Valley Idaho

I apologize for the lack of photos...having difficulty here but will post them to an album in Facebook.... enjoy!  www.facebook.com/kfbrown

We said goodbye to extreme heat in the desert and travelled north on I15, stopping off  in Springville Utah for a couple days to cool down and regroup. That area is just south of Salt Lake City, very heavy traffic, and tons of road construction. We couldn't even determine where to be most of the time, there were so many orange cones and barrels! The trip north from Las Vegas took one very long hot travel day, but I was determined to get up out of the heat! My plan was to stop along the way and see Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, but with forecasts of 119, I said we'd take a raincheck! We left there and scooted on north through Salt Lake and after leaving the city behind, we had an easy day's ride to Heyburn Idaho. We have spent the weekend exploring southern and central Idaho. Friday we spent viewing the Shoshone Falls, Perrine Bridge and Snake River Canyon. Shoshone Falls are higher than the famous Niagra Falls. We were lucky to be here when there was high water. This weekend in Burley is the 37th Annual Idaho Regatta on the Snake River. We walked down by the river in the afternoon and watched some of the qualifying rounds of the racers. We missed seeing some of the best and biggest racing boats in the world, but its a choice of which beautiful thing to spend your time with! Large crowds are not my favorite thing anymore either. Too many things, too little time. Saturday we covered a loop of about 500 miles, heading north to the Sawtooth Mountains, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Sun Valley Idaho and the Wood River Valley. A beautiful place, many awesome houses in Sun Valley, but I was not taken in by the lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!  I am partial to mountains as the Rockies were a big part of my childhood. The views from the top of the Galena Summit were spectacular and the water in the Salmon River is clear and crisp. The temperatures were in the low 70s with a stiff breeze. Two moumtain peaks, Castle peak and Mount Borah still bears pristine white snow and that's the best way to view it! Incredible contrast to the blue in the skys and fluffy while clouds in passing. We had a picnic lunch in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, enjoying our sandwiches by a creek. We headed back down the valleys, by the MacKay Reservoir and back to meet the Interstate at Blackfoot Idaho. Back down in the southern flats, the irrigated fields presented very green and lush. They grow a lot of contracted potatoes for french fries, Malt Barley for Coors Brewery and many fields of alfalfa, mowed and baled for the many dairies and other stock. It's a great open place. We will move on East sometime early this week after I get my mail and we get the coach looked at. Our turbo isn't boosting like it should and it makes for a slow tedious ride and I don't care to do that in the mountains and hills of Oregon that lie ahead!

Baking in the Desert!

We're up to having daily Triple Digit temps here now. I say it's time to move on - and we would, however the body shop in Las Vegas still has our bumper! We had quite a trip coming back from Nebraska, I got a bug or some bad food and was sick for the whole second day of the trip. It was an absolutely miserable day and night! Much better now. The panoramic views of  the Mountains in Colorado were awesome, captured this runaway truck ramp for proof that they actually do get used! I have never witnessed that before.  The towering rock formations in Utah are massive and stately. We headed into the city the next day to get the car looked at and pick up my new software for this computer. In getting the car estimated, they determined that they could just take the bumper off and work on it and we could still drive the car. Sounds good in a perfect world. I think if we were just driving in town and a short distance it would have been alright, however it didn't work so well, trying to drive up over the mountain at 65! My wonderful DH ended up playing MacGyver along the side of a busy highway, securing the plastic tire lining with a screwdriver and a piece of rope. The rest of the 42 miles we drove 35 mph! It took a long time to get home. Tomorrow morning we will get up and leave here at first light and make the long trip before the traffic gets bad. Or the heat! I am getting used to my new computer, the new Windows 7 Operating System and the new Microsoft Office Home and Business Software. While I upgraded, I picked up a program tutorial set by Professor teaches. I took a college course to learn Microsoft XP and Office '97. I figured it was time for a refresher since I still know enough to get me through or get me in trouble. I have done a few lessons and if nothing else, it provides me something to do when it's hot out.The wind is blowing again now, but just a breeze so far. When the wind blows in Las Vegas the strip and sky line doesn't look very pretty. We were out in the hills east of town and took pictures across the city. I think I like the Night Lights much better!  I must admit, I have a severe case of "hitch itch" and need to move on. Looking forward to sitting outside in some cooler temps soon.

An Unwanted Pause!

After spending time in Nebraska with friends and family, attending banquets, Memorial Services, Graduations and parties, it is time to head down the road again. I spread out the maps and books and planned a route for the summer. Having finished that, I felt that it was time to get the show on the road. However, we will take an unwanted pause. Yesterday we were tying up loose ends, and saying goodbye to the kids in their busy lives. I was headed for one more stop at our son's and a deer that could not tell time, decided to move across the highway at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and ruin my day! Not only ruin my day, but ruin the plan to hit the road! Lucky for my, it was a rather glancing blow, and the whole front of the vehicle wasn't smashed but just the bumper on one corner. A dent the size of a basketball, and scratches across is all that we can see with the naked eye. It didn't even break the headlight lens. Whew! I drove right to the dealership and had them check for leaking fluids, and unfortunately with it being Saturday afternoon, couldn't get a complete check and estimate for repairs. Thankfully it is still drivable and we continued on back to the County Sheriff's office where I spent another chunk of Saturday getting an accident report filed and calls made to the Insurance Company, well, left a message anyway, it's Saturday ya know. Monday I will head back and make arrangements to have the repairs. We may as well do it now, as we will be on the road most of the summer with no stops more than a week long until August. I will share some more pictures of our Memorial Service, my oldest son, a Veteran, pays respect to relatives that have passed on. Since he has been out of the Army, these services are more important to him. We were only a half hour late to the  event of the week, the 60th Anniversary party was for one of Danny's Gas Company crew. All these guys at the table worked and retired from the same office. This sweet girl is the youngest of our Musically Talented Family and she was getting ready for a Dance recital. I hope she had fun and did well, her mom purchased a cd that she will share with us later. Technology is good and bad, that they wouldn't allow pictures and they sell professional pictures and a professional copy of the recital available to the parents to purchase.They even sold advance tickets and thinking we would be gone we didn't get tickets! Everything in life today comes with a price. Not even memories are available free anymore.

Memory Lane

A 1300 mile trek across the mountains from the West was the latest trip, traveling across the newly planted fields of Corn and wheat in Colorado and Kansas. I was looking forward to some clean air and maybe some rain, minus the tornadic clouds and hail that they had experienced so very early in the season. Well, after a couple weeks in the old hometown, the memories of clean air and soft rain have faded! The wind blows 40 very regularly, and the dirt in the air from all the farm fields remind me a little of the desert! Very little rain.... they are having another hard year. I cant wash the vehicle often enough to keep it clean for just one day!  We have been crazy busy running from one town to another, visiting with kids(my son's bailing rig in photo) and grandkids, attending Pre-School and Kindergarten graduations, birthdays, a first baseball game, all trying to make it back home before dark each time to avoid smacking into the plentiful population of deer in this area. DH has played in a golf tournament and I have taken some pictures, visited with friends and played with plants and flowers. Usually we are gone at this time of the year and I don't get to see the Peony bushes in full bloom but this year I was lucky enough to not only see them but pick two bunches and enjoy their beauty on the table.  We used to use them to decorate the family's graves and this year they bloomed so early that they are all gone and done already.  Another reason for this trip was the fact that it was my 40 year Alumni Banquet on Memorial weekend.  We had 33 people in the class and two are resting in heaven. Out of the remaining 31, only 7 people  attended, and I guess we are the important ones. Our school is not functioning anymore and as the years go on the attendance gets less and less, some day to fade away or merge into the existing school that was consolidated with other towns in this area. Suprised to see some that showed up from far away and amazed that I could recognize and remember everyone's names! Not so true of lots of others in other classes, being able to recognize them but not put a name with their face! I'm so bad.... After a wonderful meal and standing up for our class picture, we headed to one of our local watering holes where my son's band would provide the entertainment for the rest of the evening. Now, mostly for the younger folks, I'm used to them and I never tire of watching Tom play the drums. I got to run around and visit with everybody. Both of my sons were there with me and it was a night right out of the past... my good friends were there. We talked to a lot of folks that we haven't seen in a very long time, and then some that we've kept in touch with. By the end of a very late night, or a very early morning, there was a pretty good crowd. I came home with aching feet and a headache from yelling over the music. Some of the time, feeling like a youngster and the rest, feeling like a chaparone! A good time was had by all. As I'm writing this, my maps are on the counter. Publications ready and I'm planning for our moves in June... very soon we will be "On the Road Again."

It looks to be a very promising and adventurous summer. I'm taking my memories with me once more!

Happy Day After Cinco De Mayo!

I had a whole complete post ready to go yesterday, pushed the wrong button and Poof! It was gone....lesson learned.... again....SAVE! This new format is a little rough getting used to, especially the photo loading. My browser isn't accepted anymore, so have to access it through yet another door. Hence. Updates in my life are coming. We have played tourist here and went "over the hump" to Vegas several times and back at night. Lots of interesting things to see and things to do.We have driven by many interesting houses here in Pahrump that I'm sure have interesting stories! It's nice to be able to drop KayCee at daycare and have the day free. Driving on Sunset we came upon Casa De Shenandoah, Mr. Las Vegas, Wayne Newton's Estate. Beautiful grounds, gates and fences.


 Continuing on down Sunset towards the "Strip" we pass by the McCarren Airport and planes take off and land about every minute.


 

We started from the south end of the Strip, Valet parked at Excalibur, then started at New York New York, walked north, window shopped, watched people and then took a glass elevator to the 4th floor of the ticket building and had lunch at an Outback Steakhouse. We have several routes around town and are getting more comfortable with the traffic. I think I always will be a city girl, even though I've fought it most of my adult life. No great plans for this week. Just getting closer to the great trek across the states to Nebraska. 1050 miles. Maybe there's more noteworthy stuff between here and there. Another day, Another Adventure!