July 3-8, 2017. After leaving Sundance RV Park in Coram, Montana we headed to Woodland RV Park in Libby Montana. We did a few things around Libby; the Kootenai Dam and did a tour. Also went to see Kootenai Falls and an old growth cedar forest. Found a high school to let the dogs run loose which also had a paved walkway around the track and into the woods.
July 8-10, 2017. Ponderosa Falls Resort in Cheney, Washington for a couple of days to get groceries. Nothing in the area to visit. We went up to the Rec Area to play some pool and even though there was a sign that said 21 and older, there were kids in there playing ping pong and foos ball. They were playing crazy, pucks and balls flying all over the room, even across the pool table. The two playing seemed very unruly and just wanted to “do whatever they wanted.” The older one said to us, “we want to play pool.” So Jim said OK, let’s play teams. We had just played one game and it seemed like the kids did not care, they just wanted to butt in and take over. Playing teams did not seem to register with them, but they played anyway. Did not listen to Jim’s tips on how to play; it was very unpleasant playing with them. Should have said NO to them about playing.
From Cheney, we went to Vantage Riverstone in Vantage, Washington. We were right on the river for a few days from July 10-13, 2017. There was a monument to horses up a mountain top right down the road from this campground, so we went to check it out. The real name of the monument is Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies, but all the signs call it Wild Horses Monument.
July 13-16, 2017. Lake Sawyer in Black Diamond, Washington, a Coast to Coast park. Did not much like this place. The billiard room was locked all the time and the place just seemed very run down. Porches were rotted. They complained because we had the girls on their leads and were sitting outside with them; said they had to be on leashes. Glad to have left that place.
July 16-22, 2017. Arrived in Rockport, Washington at Glacier Peak Resort & Eatery. Got a very nice place in the forest section with trees and brush all around us, especially between the sites. Very private and spacious. There is a trail along the Skagit River and a few trails around the back of the park through the woods.
We went to visit North Cascades National Park the other day; Hwy 20 goes right through the park and we drove over 58 miles one way to Washington Pass Overlook and then turned around and came home. Not very impressed with the park; it is just like Glacier National Park – mountains and snow. The river running through it was a beautiful green/blue and cold. There were some beautiful valleys and ravines.
July 24, 2017. Saturday drove from Rockport to Elma, Washington. It was a long drive, mostly because of the traffic on I-5 through Tacoma into Olympia. It was mostly stop and go for about 20 miles and not much fun. Elma is a small town with not much in it, and the park we stayed at was small, small spaces and no good places to walk and let the dogs loose.
Sunday we drove to Westport, a small town on the southern peninsula from Aberdeen. We visited the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, said to be the tallest in Washington. I walked to the top, but Jim did not. I think he could have made it OK, it was not that bad. There were two workampers at the top that told about the lighthouse. Had lunch at Bennett’s Fish Shack – it was good but pretty expensive.
We drove down to the Pacific Ocean and walked there for a short time. Let the dogs loose and Lucy had a great time running up and down the beach. It was very windy and chilly so we did not stay long. I got another picture of us with the ocean in the background.
Monday we drove up Hwy 101 along the peninsula to Diamond Point RV Park on the Diamond Point Peninsula. The park was not one we would stay at again; the sites are really small, they did not have a laundry room, and the internet service was virtually nill. I had a hard time finding places to walk as there were hills all over the small point, and the only place I found to let them loose was abut 1/2 mile away, down a long street to a cul-de-sac that was never developed. We visited a few places in the area, specifically Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. This park is so huge we could not even get to the west coast to see the rest of the park. That will be another trip. Then while at the park, fire smoke started settling over the area, which you can see from the pictures.
August 3, 2017. On Jim’s birthday we decided to upgrade our Thousand Trails membership and bought a Platinum Plus resale membership. That will give us the opportunity to stay at 60 TT resorts for three weeks at a time and go from park to park. We also get RPI and Encore Resorts at a discount. I think we should have done this before heading to the northwest because we could have saved a bunch of money. As it is, I find Good Sam parks but they are all between $35 and $40 per night. That adds up fast.
August 5, 2017. Changed our Thursday destination from Randle to Castle Rock, which is closer to Mt. St. Helens. The smoke from the fires in Canada have been low and causing a lot of air quality problems for the past week. We left Diamond Point on August 3 and it followed us down to Castle Rock. We went to visit Mt. St. Helens on Friday and could not even see the volcano due to the smoke filling up the canyons. The smoke is supposed to clear out in the next few days, but the air quality is supposed to stay bad through Tuesday.
My phone died on me Friday too, so we drove down to Kelso to a Verizon store to get me a new one. I ended up getting another Samsung, a Galaxy S7Edge. Been playing with it all day Saturday getting my apps in order and into their appropriate folders. My other phone actually came alive again and I was able to write down all the apps I had on it and get them into the appropriate folders. It then died again, and then came alive again. I wonder about changing We phones, but then I was having a lot of issues with it. We also changed our service as we were informed that Verizon’s unlimited plan was less expensive than the 30gb plan we were currently using. Were told it would probably be a wash as some of the monthly costs were going to go up. But at least we don’t have to worry about data anymore.
August 10, 2017. From Castle Rock, Washington we drove to White Salmon, Washington to Bridge RV Park because I wanted to visit the Columbia Gorge area, which is supposed to be really beautiful. The drive on I-84 was OK until we got to the Hood River Bridge. They were doing work on it and the traffic was backed up something awful. We turned right from the off ramp and then turned around to cross the bridge. We made it almost half way on the bridge and came to a complete stop. The bridge was very narrow and we were not over quite close enough to the guard rail and we watched the traffic coming from the other way. Jim pulled in his mirror and we heard one Class C scrape its side on the guard rail as it went by us. It was very harrowing and horrible. Needless to say we are not taking this way back.
We stayed in the Columbia River Gorge area for three nights (August 7-10) and went out once to visit the Interpretive Center. The smoke from the fires was still so bad that we could not see anything. We did not go back out again until we left. We did not enjoy the park we were at as it was very, very hot (90s and 100s); no place to really walk the dogs. Did have a trail down to the river to set them loose and swim though. But the park was so tiny that the only place I felt OK walking was on the sidewalk toward the city.
August 12, 2017. Our next stop was in Oregon at a Coast to Coast park called Neskowin Creek. We will be here for a week to see the Oregon coast. August 11 we went out to lunch at the Pelican Pub at Cape Kiwanda Recreation Area. We then walked on the beach and were able to take the dogs with us. There were lots of people parked on the beach and a huge sand dune that they walked up and slid down or had boards. I walked up a path with the dogs that was not too bad to look at the other side of the dune. It was OK but the mist was coming in from the ocean and covered everything up, so there was no blue sky or sunshine. We asked locals about the weather and were told that this was normal. There is a huge rock in the water called Haystack Rock. I took a picture of it when we got there and then it slowly disappeared with the mist rolling in.
It’s very damp here and no sunshine so far. I guess the smoke is still hanging around but I guess also from the ocean. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees, so it is in the high 60s and low 70s. This is going to be our temperature for the next week and a half until we head inland to the Bend area, where the temps will be in the high 70s and low 80s.
While in this area we drove up to Munson Creek Falls, a small park where we had to walk to the falls. We took the dogs (on leashes) and while up there a couple came walking up with their two dogs loose. Jim mentioned to them to keep their dogs away from us since they were loose. They got an attitude and accused us of being in the wrong. Crazy. There were other couples walking with us who agreed with us.
August 16, 2017. Today we left Neskowin Creek RV Resort and traveled down the Oregon coast to Florence to South Jetty Thousand Trails RV Park. We decided to stay here since we are now semi-full members of TT and can stay here without paying. We will be here through the eclipse.
August 17, 2017. Took a drive down to the Oregon Dunes – boy are they ever high. We all walked up one side and that was a struggle. Jim stayed at the top while the girls and I walked down the other to the ocean. The sand was so soft that my feet just sunk down into it. The dogs had a great time running on the beach, chasing birds and each other. The walk back up the dunes was a struggle though. I’m glad I had my walking stick, but still I was on my knees and was quite out of breath by the time I got back up to where Jim was. It was a good thing he did not come down to the ocean with us, cuz I don’t think he would have made it back up.
The Oregon coast is very different than what I expected; from huge sand dunes to a rocky coast. I wanted to see Thor’s Well, as I had heard so much about it. We missed the actual spout, but I did get some great pictures of it. We also took a dune buggy ride from a company next door to the campground. That was so much fun; we had a blast.
We then went out to lunch at a small restaurant in the Old Town section of Florence. Next to us was a family from Cleveland, Ohio and of course we talked with them for a bit. Then our waitress heard us say that we came from West Yellowstone, and she said that she and her boyfriend just moved from there. She mentioned she worked at Bullwinkles and another place, so we asked her if she knew Jordan & Juli, and lo and behold, she did. She also knew the girl we lived next door to in the cabin. Jim was so excited about hearing that he had to call Jordan and let him know. Jordan talked with our waitress for a few minutes, and we all just marveled at what a small world this is. It was amazing to walk into a restaurant and meet a waitress that knows fellow workampers.
August 27, 2017. We left South Jetty Thousand Trails on August 23 just to get away from the damp foggy forest and into warmer weather. We headed inland to La Pine, Oregon to Cascade Meadows RV Park. Unfortunately, the smoke from all the fires all around the area followed us and it has not been a pleasant experience. We decided not to go to Crater Lake NP because we talked with someone who knew someone who had just come back and said they could not even enjoy the area due to all the smoke. The RV Park we went to in La Pine, Oregon was nice, very big but the smoke from the fires hung with us and it was not enjoyable to be outside. Jim took the trike off of the trailer but did not ride it very much as the air quality was in the danger range.
I found a website that shows all the fires the area and they are all around us. Doing anything outside is virtually impossible as it hurts to breathe.
Monday we are heading toward Burns, Oregon which still may be smoky but it is putting us east in the direction we want to go.
August 28, 2017. Burns RV Park was kind of small and there was no place to let the dogs run loose. We only stayed one night because we were still trying to get away from the smoke. I walked the dogs into town of Burns, Oregon and we just walked around town to get our exercise. From Burns we went to Snake River RV Park in Homedale, Idaho, which was west of Boise. We stayed there for a few days to search out the CCC of Arrowrock Dam where Jim’s Dad worked with the CCC in the 1930s. We did not find anything out but did get a few people interested in learning about. We met with a lady who is doing research on the CCC from the Basque Museum. Jim also talked with a lady with the Department of Reclamation who was very interested in Dad’s trunk. We went to the Idaho State Historical Society and looked through a few boxes trying to get some information. I took some pictures of some information, but I don’t think any of it will be worthwhile.
Sept. 1-5, 2017. We went to Intermountain Motor Homes RV Park in Wendell, Idaho for a few days. We toured the area which was very interesting as there are canyons and spring water that just pours out f the sides of the rocks. The smoke was still bad around the area but we went to visit the areas anyway. The park was only W/E which made it difficult for us, but I just dumped the gray water every night into the grass next to us.
Southern Idaho has some very fascinating landscape, so I did a blog post on just southern Idaho.
One unfortunate thing of the park was a guy named Bob who walked around in thongs or speedos – and that was it. No shirt or shorts, just speedos and flip flops. He was a nice enough guy but I don’t think anyone wanted to have him around. Our neighbors never came out of their RV and we only saw them once. Bob’s wife made earrings and Jim happened to mention that I loved earrings, so Bob had to bring his wife’s earrings over me to look at, and I felt obligated to buy some. They were nice enough and I’ll wear them, and at least they were were not expensive. We ended up leaving a day early because of Bob and the smoke.
While at Intermountain we met a couple from Texas who are also full timers. They came over and introduced themselves as they were pulling out and said we hoped to meet again down the road as we were all heading in the same direction.
Hurricane Harvey came barreling into Houston over the weekend and flooded it downtown, in Katy and Friendswood. The flooding is rampant all around Houston. Josh & Karen were lucky in that their house did not flood, but the bayou behind the house flooded and came up into their yard, but luckily did not come into the house. Their street also flooded but started draining soon after that. The flooding has stayed in Houston and many people are still homeless. Josh said that many of their friends’ houses flooded and he has spent many days helping them get the water damaged drywall and stuff out. He is out of work right now because his job was under water. I don’t know when he will be able to get back to work.
Sept. 5-6, 2017. We were going to go to a PA park in Odgen, Utah for a couple of days but at the last minute I decided to head east a little and stay at another park for 5 days. But on our way south on I-15 I got a call from the couple we just met, Dusty, who informed me that they heard there was a fire around the road we were going to take out east and the interstate was closed due to the smoke.
So as we are driving I called the PA park and we ended up there for a couple of days. We also met up with Dusty & Tic again as we parked next to them. We all got along really well, and we kind of followed each other down the highway. We sat and talked with them for the evening, exchanged business cards.
While in Ogden we drove up to Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the first railroads met coming from the east and west. It is in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing around the site. After that we drove down to Antelope Island SP to see the Great Salt Lake. We drove down to see a ranch that used to raise sheep. The ranch just hosts tours now and all over Antelope Island are herds of bison.
Sept. 7, 2017. We stayed there two days under PA and then drove down to Salina, UT to Butch Cassidy RV Park. We met up with Dusty & Tic again and sat and talked with them for a little while. They are leaving tomorrow but we are staying until Tuesday. I need to clean the trailer and do laundry, and catch up on various things. We will also go into town to see the museum and take a scenic drive around the area.
There is another hurricane, Irma, barreling down on Florida. It is expected to land in the Florida Keys this weekend and travel up the central part of Florida and then up into Georgia and Alabama. The Governor of Florida issued mandatory evacuation of the Keys, and the Governor of Georgia has told people in Savannah that they should evacuate as well.
Sept. 13, 2017. Butch Cassidy RV park was one of the worst places -we have ever stayed. I even sent a complaint to C- C about them. When we got there, they put us in a site with no ground. I should have checked the electric before we started hooking up, but I didn’t, so now I have learned a good lesson – check the electric! We moved to another site, and I checked the electric in two others before we moved. One was OK and the other did not have any electric at all. What a disaster this place is. The septic pipes were just pipes in the ground and there was no ability to screw in our fittings or use the rubber fitting. The smell was horrible and Jim had a very hard time dealing with that. Along with sending a message to C-C I also sent pictures of what our site looked like. Our neighbor’s utility hookups were under our awning – that’s how small and tight the sites were. Needless to say, we won’t be staying there again.
We visited Pipe Springs National Monument, which was a ranch and refuse for the Mormon People.
From Butch Cassidy we traveled south to Mt. Carmel Junction to a Best Western which has an RV Park across the street. The park is OK, but their WiFi sucks and there is no Verizon service. I am having a hard time finding a place to let the dogs loose. We will stay here for 4 nights and visit Zion and Bryce while here before heading to Kanab for three nights to visit other sites. We will have service in Kanab as there is a Verizon tower there.
While here at Mt. Carmel we have sat and talked with both of our neighbors on either side of us. One side has been full timing for 15 years and on the other side they still have a house in Texas and are trying to decide if they want to start traveling more. We all sat out Wednesday late afternoon and talked. I am glad we were all able to get together and talk about RVing and sightseeing.
Sept. 16, 2017. We stayed in Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah at the Best Western RV Park for a week to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. The park was very nice, backed in with a small creek below where the dogs loved to play. Loved visiting the National Parks, and would like to go back because we did not take the shuttle into Zion, and I would like to see more of Bryce.
We decided to go a few miles south to Kanab in order to get some WiFi and be closer to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the Escalante Staircase NM. We stayed at Crazy Horse RV Park, which had no discounts but was OK. One nice thing was a dirt road running out one side to a small subdivision. While walking the dogs there one night, I discovered there was a trail along the mountain called Kanab Rim Trail, and also some empty cul de sacs where I was able to let the dogs run loose.
Sept. 22, 2017. On our way out of Kanab we made a quick stop at horseshoe bend in the Snake River. This is a very popular stop and was quite crowded. We pulled in but could not find a place to park and then drove out and were going to just leave, but Jim pulled over onto the side of the road and I walked to the river. It was about a 1 mile walk down there, but I was glad to get some pictures.
We stopped at a Quality Inn RV Park in Tuba City for a couple of days. Not a bad park, but the only place I was able to let the dogs loose was at a park across the street.
Sept. 27, 2017. From Tuba City we made our way east to OK RV Park in Holbrook, Arizona for one night, then slowly made our way across Arizona and New Mexico before arriving at Tres Rios on October 1.
Back to Daily Journal 2017
July 8-10, 2017. Ponderosa Falls Resort in Cheney, Washington for a couple of days to get groceries. Nothing in the area to visit. We went up to the Rec Area to play some pool and even though there was a sign that said 21 and older, there were kids in there playing ping pong and foos ball. They were playing crazy, pucks and balls flying all over the room, even across the pool table. The two playing seemed very unruly and just wanted to “do whatever they wanted.” The older one said to us, “we want to play pool.” So Jim said OK, let’s play teams. We had just played one game and it seemed like the kids did not care, they just wanted to butt in and take over. Playing teams did not seem to register with them, but they played anyway. Did not listen to Jim’s tips on how to play; it was very unpleasant playing with them. Should have said NO to them about playing.
From Cheney, we went to Vantage Riverstone in Vantage, Washington. We were right on the river for a few days from July 10-13, 2017. There was a monument to horses up a mountain top right down the road from this campground, so we went to check it out. The real name of the monument is Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies, but all the signs call it Wild Horses Monument.
July 13-16, 2017. Lake Sawyer in Black Diamond, Washington, a Coast to Coast park. Did not much like this place. The billiard room was locked all the time and the place just seemed very run down. Porches were rotted. They complained because we had the girls on their leads and were sitting outside with them; said they had to be on leashes. Glad to have left that place.
July 16-22, 2017. Arrived in Rockport, Washington at Glacier Peak Resort & Eatery. Got a very nice place in the forest section with trees and brush all around us, especially between the sites. Very private and spacious. There is a trail along the Skagit River and a few trails around the back of the park through the woods.
We went to visit North Cascades National Park the other day; Hwy 20 goes right through the park and we drove over 58 miles one way to Washington Pass Overlook and then turned around and came home. Not very impressed with the park; it is just like Glacier National Park – mountains and snow. The river running through it was a beautiful green/blue and cold. There were some beautiful valleys and ravines.
July 24, 2017. Saturday drove from Rockport to Elma, Washington. It was a long drive, mostly because of the traffic on I-5 through Tacoma into Olympia. It was mostly stop and go for about 20 miles and not much fun. Elma is a small town with not much in it, and the park we stayed at was small, small spaces and no good places to walk and let the dogs loose.
Sunday we drove to Westport, a small town on the southern peninsula from Aberdeen. We visited the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, said to be the tallest in Washington. I walked to the top, but Jim did not. I think he could have made it OK, it was not that bad. There were two workampers at the top that told about the lighthouse. Had lunch at Bennett’s Fish Shack – it was good but pretty expensive.
We drove down to the Pacific Ocean and walked there for a short time. Let the dogs loose and Lucy had a great time running up and down the beach. It was very windy and chilly so we did not stay long. I got another picture of us with the ocean in the background.
Monday we drove up Hwy 101 along the peninsula to Diamond Point RV Park on the Diamond Point Peninsula. The park was not one we would stay at again; the sites are really small, they did not have a laundry room, and the internet service was virtually nill. I had a hard time finding places to walk as there were hills all over the small point, and the only place I found to let them loose was abut 1/2 mile away, down a long street to a cul-de-sac that was never developed. We visited a few places in the area, specifically Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. This park is so huge we could not even get to the west coast to see the rest of the park. That will be another trip. Then while at the park, fire smoke started settling over the area, which you can see from the pictures.
August 3, 2017. On Jim’s birthday we decided to upgrade our Thousand Trails membership and bought a Platinum Plus resale membership. That will give us the opportunity to stay at 60 TT resorts for three weeks at a time and go from park to park. We also get RPI and Encore Resorts at a discount. I think we should have done this before heading to the northwest because we could have saved a bunch of money. As it is, I find Good Sam parks but they are all between $35 and $40 per night. That adds up fast.
August 5, 2017. Changed our Thursday destination from Randle to Castle Rock, which is closer to Mt. St. Helens. The smoke from the fires in Canada have been low and causing a lot of air quality problems for the past week. We left Diamond Point on August 3 and it followed us down to Castle Rock. We went to visit Mt. St. Helens on Friday and could not even see the volcano due to the smoke filling up the canyons. The smoke is supposed to clear out in the next few days, but the air quality is supposed to stay bad through Tuesday.
My phone died on me Friday too, so we drove down to Kelso to a Verizon store to get me a new one. I ended up getting another Samsung, a Galaxy S7Edge. Been playing with it all day Saturday getting my apps in order and into their appropriate folders. My other phone actually came alive again and I was able to write down all the apps I had on it and get them into the appropriate folders. It then died again, and then came alive again. I wonder about changing We phones, but then I was having a lot of issues with it. We also changed our service as we were informed that Verizon’s unlimited plan was less expensive than the 30gb plan we were currently using. Were told it would probably be a wash as some of the monthly costs were going to go up. But at least we don’t have to worry about data anymore.
August 10, 2017. From Castle Rock, Washington we drove to White Salmon, Washington to Bridge RV Park because I wanted to visit the Columbia Gorge area, which is supposed to be really beautiful. The drive on I-84 was OK until we got to the Hood River Bridge. They were doing work on it and the traffic was backed up something awful. We turned right from the off ramp and then turned around to cross the bridge. We made it almost half way on the bridge and came to a complete stop. The bridge was very narrow and we were not over quite close enough to the guard rail and we watched the traffic coming from the other way. Jim pulled in his mirror and we heard one Class C scrape its side on the guard rail as it went by us. It was very harrowing and horrible. Needless to say we are not taking this way back.
We stayed in the Columbia River Gorge area for three nights (August 7-10) and went out once to visit the Interpretive Center. The smoke from the fires was still so bad that we could not see anything. We did not go back out again until we left. We did not enjoy the park we were at as it was very, very hot (90s and 100s); no place to really walk the dogs. Did have a trail down to the river to set them loose and swim though. But the park was so tiny that the only place I felt OK walking was on the sidewalk toward the city.
August 12, 2017. Our next stop was in Oregon at a Coast to Coast park called Neskowin Creek. We will be here for a week to see the Oregon coast. August 11 we went out to lunch at the Pelican Pub at Cape Kiwanda Recreation Area. We then walked on the beach and were able to take the dogs with us. There were lots of people parked on the beach and a huge sand dune that they walked up and slid down or had boards. I walked up a path with the dogs that was not too bad to look at the other side of the dune. It was OK but the mist was coming in from the ocean and covered everything up, so there was no blue sky or sunshine. We asked locals about the weather and were told that this was normal. There is a huge rock in the water called Haystack Rock. I took a picture of it when we got there and then it slowly disappeared with the mist rolling in.
It’s very damp here and no sunshine so far. I guess the smoke is still hanging around but I guess also from the ocean. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees, so it is in the high 60s and low 70s. This is going to be our temperature for the next week and a half until we head inland to the Bend area, where the temps will be in the high 70s and low 80s.
While in this area we drove up to Munson Creek Falls, a small park where we had to walk to the falls. We took the dogs (on leashes) and while up there a couple came walking up with their two dogs loose. Jim mentioned to them to keep their dogs away from us since they were loose. They got an attitude and accused us of being in the wrong. Crazy. There were other couples walking with us who agreed with us.
August 16, 2017. Today we left Neskowin Creek RV Resort and traveled down the Oregon coast to Florence to South Jetty Thousand Trails RV Park. We decided to stay here since we are now semi-full members of TT and can stay here without paying. We will be here through the eclipse.
August 17, 2017. Took a drive down to the Oregon Dunes – boy are they ever high. We all walked up one side and that was a struggle. Jim stayed at the top while the girls and I walked down the other to the ocean. The sand was so soft that my feet just sunk down into it. The dogs had a great time running on the beach, chasing birds and each other. The walk back up the dunes was a struggle though. I’m glad I had my walking stick, but still I was on my knees and was quite out of breath by the time I got back up to where Jim was. It was a good thing he did not come down to the ocean with us, cuz I don’t think he would have made it back up.
The Oregon coast is very different than what I expected; from huge sand dunes to a rocky coast. I wanted to see Thor’s Well, as I had heard so much about it. We missed the actual spout, but I did get some great pictures of it. We also took a dune buggy ride from a company next door to the campground. That was so much fun; we had a blast.
We then went out to lunch at a small restaurant in the Old Town section of Florence. Next to us was a family from Cleveland, Ohio and of course we talked with them for a bit. Then our waitress heard us say that we came from West Yellowstone, and she said that she and her boyfriend just moved from there. She mentioned she worked at Bullwinkles and another place, so we asked her if she knew Jordan & Juli, and lo and behold, she did. She also knew the girl we lived next door to in the cabin. Jim was so excited about hearing that he had to call Jordan and let him know. Jordan talked with our waitress for a few minutes, and we all just marveled at what a small world this is. It was amazing to walk into a restaurant and meet a waitress that knows fellow workampers.
August 27, 2017. We left South Jetty Thousand Trails on August 23 just to get away from the damp foggy forest and into warmer weather. We headed inland to La Pine, Oregon to Cascade Meadows RV Park. Unfortunately, the smoke from all the fires all around the area followed us and it has not been a pleasant experience. We decided not to go to Crater Lake NP because we talked with someone who knew someone who had just come back and said they could not even enjoy the area due to all the smoke. The RV Park we went to in La Pine, Oregon was nice, very big but the smoke from the fires hung with us and it was not enjoyable to be outside. Jim took the trike off of the trailer but did not ride it very much as the air quality was in the danger range.
I found a website that shows all the fires the area and they are all around us. Doing anything outside is virtually impossible as it hurts to breathe.
Monday we are heading toward Burns, Oregon which still may be smoky but it is putting us east in the direction we want to go.
August 28, 2017. Burns RV Park was kind of small and there was no place to let the dogs run loose. We only stayed one night because we were still trying to get away from the smoke. I walked the dogs into town of Burns, Oregon and we just walked around town to get our exercise. From Burns we went to Snake River RV Park in Homedale, Idaho, which was west of Boise. We stayed there for a few days to search out the CCC of Arrowrock Dam where Jim’s Dad worked with the CCC in the 1930s. We did not find anything out but did get a few people interested in learning about. We met with a lady who is doing research on the CCC from the Basque Museum. Jim also talked with a lady with the Department of Reclamation who was very interested in Dad’s trunk. We went to the Idaho State Historical Society and looked through a few boxes trying to get some information. I took some pictures of some information, but I don’t think any of it will be worthwhile.
Sept. 1-5, 2017. We went to Intermountain Motor Homes RV Park in Wendell, Idaho for a few days. We toured the area which was very interesting as there are canyons and spring water that just pours out f the sides of the rocks. The smoke was still bad around the area but we went to visit the areas anyway. The park was only W/E which made it difficult for us, but I just dumped the gray water every night into the grass next to us.
Southern Idaho has some very fascinating landscape, so I did a blog post on just southern Idaho.
One unfortunate thing of the park was a guy named Bob who walked around in thongs or speedos – and that was it. No shirt or shorts, just speedos and flip flops. He was a nice enough guy but I don’t think anyone wanted to have him around. Our neighbors never came out of their RV and we only saw them once. Bob’s wife made earrings and Jim happened to mention that I loved earrings, so Bob had to bring his wife’s earrings over me to look at, and I felt obligated to buy some. They were nice enough and I’ll wear them, and at least they were were not expensive. We ended up leaving a day early because of Bob and the smoke.
While at Intermountain we met a couple from Texas who are also full timers. They came over and introduced themselves as they were pulling out and said we hoped to meet again down the road as we were all heading in the same direction.
Hurricane Harvey came barreling into Houston over the weekend and flooded it downtown, in Katy and Friendswood. The flooding is rampant all around Houston. Josh & Karen were lucky in that their house did not flood, but the bayou behind the house flooded and came up into their yard, but luckily did not come into the house. Their street also flooded but started draining soon after that. The flooding has stayed in Houston and many people are still homeless. Josh said that many of their friends’ houses flooded and he has spent many days helping them get the water damaged drywall and stuff out. He is out of work right now because his job was under water. I don’t know when he will be able to get back to work.
Sept. 5-6, 2017. We were going to go to a PA park in Odgen, Utah for a couple of days but at the last minute I decided to head east a little and stay at another park for 5 days. But on our way south on I-15 I got a call from the couple we just met, Dusty, who informed me that they heard there was a fire around the road we were going to take out east and the interstate was closed due to the smoke.
So as we are driving I called the PA park and we ended up there for a couple of days. We also met up with Dusty & Tic again as we parked next to them. We all got along really well, and we kind of followed each other down the highway. We sat and talked with them for the evening, exchanged business cards.
While in Ogden we drove up to Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the first railroads met coming from the east and west. It is in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing around the site. After that we drove down to Antelope Island SP to see the Great Salt Lake. We drove down to see a ranch that used to raise sheep. The ranch just hosts tours now and all over Antelope Island are herds of bison.
Sept. 7, 2017. We stayed there two days under PA and then drove down to Salina, UT to Butch Cassidy RV Park. We met up with Dusty & Tic again and sat and talked with them for a little while. They are leaving tomorrow but we are staying until Tuesday. I need to clean the trailer and do laundry, and catch up on various things. We will also go into town to see the museum and take a scenic drive around the area.
There is another hurricane, Irma, barreling down on Florida. It is expected to land in the Florida Keys this weekend and travel up the central part of Florida and then up into Georgia and Alabama. The Governor of Florida issued mandatory evacuation of the Keys, and the Governor of Georgia has told people in Savannah that they should evacuate as well.
Sept. 13, 2017. Butch Cassidy RV park was one of the worst places -we have ever stayed. I even sent a complaint to C- C about them. When we got there, they put us in a site with no ground. I should have checked the electric before we started hooking up, but I didn’t, so now I have learned a good lesson – check the electric! We moved to another site, and I checked the electric in two others before we moved. One was OK and the other did not have any electric at all. What a disaster this place is. The septic pipes were just pipes in the ground and there was no ability to screw in our fittings or use the rubber fitting. The smell was horrible and Jim had a very hard time dealing with that. Along with sending a message to C-C I also sent pictures of what our site looked like. Our neighbor’s utility hookups were under our awning – that’s how small and tight the sites were. Needless to say, we won’t be staying there again.
We visited Pipe Springs National Monument, which was a ranch and refuse for the Mormon People.
From Butch Cassidy we traveled south to Mt. Carmel Junction to a Best Western which has an RV Park across the street. The park is OK, but their WiFi sucks and there is no Verizon service. I am having a hard time finding a place to let the dogs loose. We will stay here for 4 nights and visit Zion and Bryce while here before heading to Kanab for three nights to visit other sites. We will have service in Kanab as there is a Verizon tower there.
While here at Mt. Carmel we have sat and talked with both of our neighbors on either side of us. One side has been full timing for 15 years and on the other side they still have a house in Texas and are trying to decide if they want to start traveling more. We all sat out Wednesday late afternoon and talked. I am glad we were all able to get together and talk about RVing and sightseeing.
Sept. 16, 2017. We stayed in Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah at the Best Western RV Park for a week to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. The park was very nice, backed in with a small creek below where the dogs loved to play. Loved visiting the National Parks, and would like to go back because we did not take the shuttle into Zion, and I would like to see more of Bryce.
We decided to go a few miles south to Kanab in order to get some WiFi and be closer to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the Escalante Staircase NM. We stayed at Crazy Horse RV Park, which had no discounts but was OK. One nice thing was a dirt road running out one side to a small subdivision. While walking the dogs there one night, I discovered there was a trail along the mountain called Kanab Rim Trail, and also some empty cul de sacs where I was able to let the dogs run loose.
Sept. 22, 2017. On our way out of Kanab we made a quick stop at horseshoe bend in the Snake River. This is a very popular stop and was quite crowded. We pulled in but could not find a place to park and then drove out and were going to just leave, but Jim pulled over onto the side of the road and I walked to the river. It was about a 1 mile walk down there, but I was glad to get some pictures.
We stopped at a Quality Inn RV Park in Tuba City for a couple of days. Not a bad park, but the only place I was able to let the dogs loose was at a park across the street.
Sept. 27, 2017. From Tuba City we made our way east to OK RV Park in Holbrook, Arizona for one night, then slowly made our way across Arizona and New Mexico before arriving at Tres Rios on October 1.
Back to Daily Journal 2017