Checking Out Fishing

Over the past few months, I have spent quite a bit of time recovering from my back surgery. Each small adventure we've tried was a test of how I have been healing. We found that I could pack and get ready for our trips with no problems. I didn't have problems getting into or out of the camper, or better yet, crawling into bed when it was time to rest. After this latest trip, I feel confident saying I'm back to normal, and we can continue our adventures with no worries.

Linda was online this spring and checked out the website for Huckleberry Campground up on the St. Joe River and noticed an opening at our favorite campsite. It was available Monday through Thursday, so she clicked the reserve button and secured the spot. Gotta love retirement and camping during the week.

We loaded up and spent the next few days relaxing in the shade on the banks of the St. Joe and loving it. My test dealing with my recovery from back surgery was to go fly fishing and see if it caused any problems. I can say without a doubt that I was able to fish just like I have in the past. I got a bit tired, but all in all, the fishing was unhampered by my injury. Now I just have to figure out how to catch those critters!

Linda enjoyed her time away from the stress of caregiving. She took walks, read her books, and enjoyed the quiet. On one of her morning walks, she came upon a rabbit that was determined to make her laugh. The rabbit would hide in the brush and then rush out and jump around in free-form dance, much like puppy circles, except, of course, it was a bunny. Linda said it did this about four times before it disappeared into the dense brush and out of sight. She looked for the little bunny every time she walked, but never saw it again. 

Around our campsite, we spotted many different birds, but the one that intrigued us the most was the Grey Catbird with its distinctive songs and cries. It really does sound like a cat at times, and we were able to spot it hiding in the brush next to our camper.

For our dinners, we used our Dutch ovens. The first night, I followed a recipe out of one of my many DO cookbooks for a Mexican enchilada dish.  I put it all together, and as I added ingredients, I thought t it might be a bit too plain and not have an exciting flavor. When I served the meal, we were pleasantly surprised that it had a great flavor and turned out really good! It was delicious!

The second night's meal was an old favorite that we have cooked many times, Chicken Cordon Bleu. The meal is always very flavorful, and everyone loves it. It does, however, take a bit of fussing and mixing to get it all together.  I will be trying some ideas I have to make the process less labor-intensive for the future.

Our three nights on the river went by very quickly. We were sad to have to drive home on Thursday, wishing we had just one more day. 

A Birthday Trip to Sam Owen

View from the Veterans Memorial at Hope City Park.

Sam Owen Campground is located on the Hope Peninsula near the thriving towns of Hope and Clarkfork, Idaho. To get to this spot from Post Falls, we drove north through Rathdrum, Athol (hehe, I always laugh at that name) and Sandpoint. Once through these urban areas, we started edging northeast along Lake Pend Oreille. 

We were on a mission, and our task would lead us to the East Hope City Park, where there is a memorial honoring all residents who have served our country in the military. One of the name plaques has been paid for and reserved to honor our aunt Irene Dunn's husband, "Uncle" Jack Dunn.

Jack served in the US Navy and spent most of his time on the island of Guam. He was a resident of Hope and operated his family dairy. I spent many days up at his farm helping with chores, picking cherries, and harvesting hay. It was a memorable time in my life, and I know it instilled a strong work ethic in my soul.

Uncle Jack's nameplate has been purchased, but we found that it hasn't been installed. We walked through the small park and checked out the monuments. It's a pretty little park, and we will definitely have to return as soon as we know the nameplate has been installed.

It was a short drive to our campsite at Sam Owen, and we arrived just after 2:30 PM. We set up the camper and lounged around in the shade until Rayelle and Mike arrived at about 5:30 PM.

We spent the rest of our evening chatting with the Andersons. By 9:00 pm, we were ready for bed.

The 24th of July was Linda's birthday. We loaded into Mike's truck and drove to Clarkfork, where we found the Clarkfork Pantry, an amazing bakery.  What a wonderful selection of baked goods and foods! We bought coffee and various sweet breads covered in frosting. We were in heaven.

Birthday Apple Fritters. Yum!

For Linda's birthday, I gave her some flowers and a card. The two items were supposed to accompany her main gift, but that didn't happen because that gift failed to arrive in time for this trip. Linda and I had gone to a jewelry store and replaced her cubic zirconium in a ring with a real stone. We combined her birthday and our 40th anniversary into one event.

A fish in a bikini.

That evening, the celebration continued, and we found our way into Hope, where we settled into the Old Ice House Pizzaeria. The pizza place is very popular, but we found a table with an amazing view of The Green Monarchs and Lake Pend Oreille. We ate pizza and played a trivia game that Rayelle found in a game box. It was a fun meal and very educational.

Our next day was spent in two locations. The beach or at camp in the shade. The relaxation was exactly what everyone needed.

For our evening dinner, Linda and I cooked brats and provided potato salad and fruit salad. I baked a fruit cobbler in the Dutch oven, which we devoured with no problem. The evening was topped off by playing two rounds of Mexican Train. Julia and I won a round each.

The last day of our stay was spent sunning and enjoying the beach.  We all met at the Andersons' campsite for a great dinner of hamburgers, potato salad, and chocolate brownies.  After we finished dinner, we spotted two immature Great Horned Owls sitting on a dead tree stump. The sun was setting, and my photos were not as clear as most due to the distance and lack of light, but the one shot I got works well enough to show that we did have these beautiful winged visitors.

Lazy Days on the Joe

Last weekend, we drove to one of our favorite campgrounds, Huckleberry. It sits on the bank of the St Joe River. We met up with Bill and Teri Burch.  Also joining us were our next-door neighbors, Jodi and Steve. We had a fun few days playing cards, tossing bean bags, and taking walks. We ate, drank (some of us), told stories, and laughed a lot. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed every moment of our stay.

Wild protesters gather around a fire pit.

On No Kings Day, we silently protested by making signs and taping them to our rigs.  Midway through the afternoon, a camp host came by and said, "Your signs make people uncomfortable,"  and that we should take them down.  We stated our right to free speech and said we would not remove the signs. The host drove away without further comment.  We were ready for more comments, but nothing came, so we quietly enjoyed our little political altercation.

No Kings!

Steve and his bike.

Explanation

While in Yuma, Linda and I joined Steve and Jodie in volunteering at the Yuma Food Bank on Fridays.  On one of our sessions, when I twisted and picked up a box, I felt a pain in the lower right side of my back. This was the start of thirteen weeks of pain and frustration.  

By morning of the day after the injury, I was so stoved up that I could not stand up straight and had to move in a bent over position. After having to wait 3 weeks to get in, I started PT, but it did not seem to help.

The only positive in this event was that I could sit with very little pain, and sleeping was something I could also do.

When it came time to leave Yuma, I could drive, but could not do much else. I posted the return trip adventures for all to read.

At home, I jumped into the health repair cycle and went to my primary doctor, who eventually set up an MRI and then referred me to a neurosurgeon. We met with the surgeon, and he immediately recommended surgery. This was a month and a half AFTER I returned home.

Surgery went well, and I am in full recovery mode.

That's the short story of what we've been doing or why we haven't been doing it.  Now, the adventures will continue, a bit at a time. We're leaving on our next trip today!

Windy Wanapum

Looking at the Columbia from our camp spot.

When we arrived home from our big Yuma adventure, we took the truck to our mechanics and had them take care of all the little repairs needed so we could feel good about traveling. After waiting for the repairs to be completed for almost two weeks, we were ready to take a short drive to Wanapum Recreation Area near Vantage on the Columbia River.  Our very good friends, Caroline and Don, from Westport, WA, were traveling our way to attend the graduation of their granddaughter from WSU.  We met them about halfway between their house and WSU at the Wanapum Campground, and enjoyed catching up on our lives.

Windy and a bit cool.

We spent three nights at the campground. The first two nights, the wind blew harder than I have ever felt in our camper. It shook everything and made it hard to sleep. During the day, the wind let up a bit. Caroline had parked their trailer in a position that blocked most of the wind. We were able to sit in the sun and chat. Visiting those two is always so nice; we love their company.

On Thursday, we had to get up early and head back to Post Falls. I had an appointment in the afternoon, so we hit the road at about 8 AM and were home by noon. We love spending time with Don and Caroline. We wish we could get together more often.

Back to Post Falls Life

As you may know, we got through Vegas and spent the night at a KOA in Ely, NV. Then we drove to Cactus Pete's and stayed in the casino RV Park. Once again, we didn't do any casino stuff; we just slept and had breakfast.

KOA in Ely, NV.

Our next leg took us through Twin Falls, where we merged onto I-84, heading northwest to Boise and our final destination for the night, Caldwell.

 We took wonderful hot showers, ate dinner, and watched a movie. We both slept well and got up early. We talked about our next leg, and because we were on the road by 7 AM, we decided to leave our next destination open based on how I felt and when we arrived at the next stop.

At the Wildhorse Casino, we filled up with fuel and decided to keep going. We could smell the barn and were headed home.

The rest of the trip was smooth and uneventful. We were super glad to be home and immediately started unpacking the camper.  It was a great adventure, and we were happy we had tried the snowbird life. We will discuss the future of long trips, those over two weeks, and will probably refrain from committing to those more extended events in the future. We will see. 

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Feels Good Heading North

I beleave Linda and I could not leave Las Vegas fast enough. After a relatively good nights sleep we packed our two carrying bags and quickly suffeled out to the camper and got things packed. I can not tell you how attached to this truck and camper we are. When we were seperated from the rig all I did was worry. When we got the thumbs up to continue our journy home it was like Christmas morning. 

Traffic out of Vegas was relatively lite and we crused on heading to Ely, NV. Our route on this leg of the journey took us up I-15 then on to Hwy 93 where we traveled on to Hwy 318 then back on to Hwy 93 in to Ely.  Crazy wouldn't you say.

The Grant Range. We viewed as
we drove north.

Our camp spot at the KOA in Ely.

Oh My

We left Hi Jolly at a respectable time and got into the rhythm of travel. After 188 miles, we were driving up to our next boondock spot, a casino in Henderson, NV. All went very smoothly (except, boy, was it windy) and we were approaching our next landmark when we started hearing some different sounds coming from the turbo. 

We filled up with fuel at the casino where we were going to boondock and talked about the sounds we were hearing. We agreed that we would feel better if we had it checked out

Linda began a search to find a place to diagnose possible problems. After making many calls, we found a dealership that could check it out early on the next day, but they would need to have the truck there overnight so they could get ti it as soon as possible the next morning. We headed to their service repair shop.

It was slow going in Vegas traffic, we were tired and emotionally on edge. This would mean a hotel room and a possible day or two delay. But we can't breakdown on the next travel stretch, there is nothing out there.

The dealership rep, Chris, met us and found a place to park the truck overnight. We plugged the camper in and gathered some overnight needs. Linda got online and found a hotel that had rooms for a very reasonable rate not far from the shop. Chris provided us with a ride to the hotel.

Chris had a tech scheduled to check the sounds out first thing in AM.

First night's view from the Station.

We spent a long sleepless night at a resort casino called Palace Station. Our nerves were shot and the future of the trip was still a huge question mark.

The next morning we called the dealership and Chris had a Uber pick us up. After an hour or so, Chris called us in and told us what his diesel tech had found.

First they checked out the turbo and found that there was some play in the spindle. They called the manufacturer and found that it was normal. In the process the tech found that a gasket on the exhaust side of the turbo had a leak. That was the noise we had heard. That was ok news because it did not affect the turbo but it would make more noise. We could deal with that. Chris assured us it would be safe to travel.We were very happy that we could get back on the road.

Stretching after all the stress.

Time passed and with all the waiting, wondering, and checking by the tech, we missed our window to leave Vegas and make it to Ely by nightfall. Linda reserved a second night's stay at the Station and we drove our camper down to the lot and locked it up. We really had no desire to do any casino activities so we stayed in the room and unwound.

We Move On

All the gear has found a spot in the truck or camper and we are ready to hit the road. 

We said our good byes to Jodi and Steve, gave Winnie a scratch behind the ears and we were off. 

We followed Hwy 95 north and drove 75 miles to a flat dirt spot just outside of Quartzsite. It was a short day. We wanted to make sure all was travel worthy and packed tight. 

The dirt spot is a BLM camp area called Hi Jolly. It has no amenities, just a place to stop and watch the dust blow. You can't argue with free, though. We start the longer days tomorrow.

Leaving Yuma

Over the past few weeks, Linda and I have made travel lists and focused on our travels north to Post Falls.  Linda has mapped out our route home and reserved campsites for our overnight stays. She has made reservations where needed and contacted parking lot security at the casinos where we will be boondocking. 

All the camper projects are complete, and it is in the best shape it's been in a long time. I have my schedule for loading up on our calendar, and there is not much left to do to get on the road. The countdown starts, and we are ready to launch.

The last couple of days the temperature has been in the high 90's. It is a good thing  we have air conditioning in the casita. 

I will post when I can, and hope we can have a smooth trip home.

Things We Have Been Doing

We drove out to Martinez Lake and hiked a short trail. This trail was part of the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge. The day was beautiful! We were able to do the hike, only meeting two other hikers.

Tortoise living at the park headquarters.

Linda had a welder artist create a roadrunner for our backyard. It was fascinating to watch as he cut it out, then polished and finished it. Linda helped in the process by operating the water hose. As he sprayed the metal with something that caused a reaction and changed the color, Linda would spray it with water when she liked the color. That would stop the reaction. 

Here are some photos we gathered as we went on hikes and such.

The bridge to nowhere.

The cacti in our yard are flowering.

Loud Fun!

We got a great opportunity to try something different this weekend. We grabbed some food and our chairs and met up with Jim and Wanda, two very nice people we met through Steve and Jodi. They led us to a spot west of the Yuma Fairgrounds and directly across from Yuma International Airport, where we set up to watch the Yuma Air Show. We've been to an airshow with my sister and her family near Portland. We were excited to see what this one would bring us.

The location was great! We didn't have to pay and we saw all the action that took place above us and on the runways. We couldn't hear the announcers from the air show, but that was not needed. We could see every flyover and demonstration provided. We used our phones to look at the events schedule to pinpoint what type of plane or jet was above us.

The big takeaway from this was that jet aircraft are loud beyond belief. When they push the engines to climb, the sound is unbelievably loud. So loud that you can only hear the jet engine and feel the sound throughout your body. It was amazing. Something hard to explain. We watched in awe as they flew right over us.

We watched the sky and found that when a jet plane is flying, you do not hear them approach until about 1.5 seconds after they are past.  Totally amazing. Then when they open the jets up, they are gone!  The sound of the engines is deafening.

It was a difficult location for photos. The speed made it nearly impossible to capture good photos. The lens I had also made distance shots challenging. 

Here are a few shots that showed some of the fun.

Military Free Fall School demo.

USMC MV-22B Osprey

USAF F-16C Viper

This Viper was so loud and fast!

Patriots Jet Team

USMC F-35B

USMC F-35B