Long Time, No See...

It's been about three months since Linda and I packed up and went on an adventure. We have been swept up in the end of a career and all the pomp and circumstances involved.  Linda finished out her year and we celebrated her unofficial retirement.  It's an unofficial-ness comes with the fact that her contract continues on through the summer and ends August 31.  That date will be the official date, and she will actually feel the emotion of getting up and not having to worry about being prepared for work. With all the good bye parties and other set gatherings we have stayed close to home the past few months.

The weather had been a bit funky the past couple months, mostly warm but punctuated with cold snaps shrouded with rain.  As we prepared for our trip we watched the Salmon River water levels and the weather. Our itinerary looked to include a launch on June 30th with a take out on the 5th of July.  Three days prior to those dates we were in cold rain and the river was fluctuating up and down hovering just below the no-go level.  Our list making and packing continued undaunted as we kept and eye on the future and from what we could see, the future was looking amazing.

It only takes the Bennett's a few hours to get everything loaded once they finish the four days of list making and provision gathering.  Our announced time of departure was 9 AM on June 30th, we hit the road at 9:23 AM!  As we drove down highway 95 we talked through our lists and discovered we had only left two very small items home, both nonessential.

Our TXT to Fatima about items we forgot to tell her concerning Kobi was very minimal, basically Linda's chance to make sure she took care of her Kob's. Kobi is a wonderful companion, but has more fears than any dog we have ever met. Loud noises, sudden movements, hiccups, items falling, anything unexpected sends him scurrying to his crate. We have tried everything, but his fear must have been imbedded deeply when he was a pup and we weren't around.  Fatima had the duty to watch him over his least favorite holiday, 4th of July.  We provided her with a supply of doggie downers and gave her all the tips we could remember for the safe keeping of a psycho dog during Armageddon.

As we left Coeur d'Alene we contacted the Sutherland's and Breeden's and found we were all departing within fifteen minutes of each other.  The fact that we all left so close together was amazing! Linda and I took a couple stops on the way down, one was at the fields of yellow flowers for pictures. All three parties hopscotched down to the put-in at Hammer Creek and everyone was available to assist each other with the final preparations. We departed on our adventure at 3:45 PM, five days of blue skies and very hot weather ahead.

Our first night was spent on a beach three miles down river from the put-in.  It was a beautiful spot.  It was our night for dinner so we fixed a batch of fajitas and we all ate like kings.

The next day we floated down to Killer Goat Beach and made camp.  The item of note for this day was the massive discoloration of the water. We woke up and noticed that some where up stream a flash flood had washed the river full of chocolate.  It was so thick that if you put your hand in the water you only got six inches of visibility before the hand was lost.  The water stayed dirty until the 4th of July and then it started clearing.

We had another great meal and sat talking until everyone had to hit the sack.

The next day we ran all the larger rapids with few problems, John had a little incident in Snow Hole, but everything turned out OK. We mad camp at a beach below Skeleton Creek and mad the decision to lay over at this location for the next two days.  It was very hot, in fact we recorded on a digital thermometer that it was 114 degrees in the shade. OUCH!  That is way hot!

Samurai grill man!

Blue cheese burgers coming up! 

Iced marguritas, coming up!

A finger equals fifteen minutes, sundown in 45.  Yeah right!

An exceptional river dog poses.

Say "good by" to mean old Mr. Sun!

Sunsets in the canyons are always amazing.

Posing in her domain, the kitchen!



The heat takes its toll on man and his exceptional companion!

Everyone enjoying the morning shade.

These clouds were amazing.

Dan handling his Johnson.

Seeing where we have been.

Sisters.

Fishing with Darren

During the Big Stinky Jeep improvement project I was able to get my boat into Lake Coeur d'Alene for the summer boating season.  Darren Upchurch called and let us know that they had returned from their Moab trip and so I invited him fishing Friday.

We were out for about four hours and Darren caught a Pike and a big Bass.  When Darren's Pike hooked up I had a hit at the same time.  We had our first double on but I lost mine.  It was my fault because I played it a bit, got the net and put the motor in natural. I probably should have attended to the fish but during the other movements it got off.

It was a fun day for our first cruise of Cougar Bay; many more to come.

Mid-life Crisis! Stinky Jeep

After our trip to Moab and after talking about what we wanted to do with our little Stinky Jeep, we decided that we could do some major improvements to Stinky Jeep with the money we would spend on a new Jeep.  I had my ideas about what I would do to improve the little guy, and Linda had hers.  We made a list each and compared the top items.  Linda requested a stereo, new seats and improvements to the over all ride.  I wanted the ride improvements, a new muffler, and a stereo.  We looked the list over and decided to first put in a stereo, then improve the ride and finally upgrade the muffler. Other things would come later if we felt we could.

I did some research and got all confused.  First, there are a million stereos out there and I no longer had the interest I used to possess to install music devices into vehicles.  Last one I put together had a bitchin' eight track in it. My first tunes were off the Jimmy Hendrix "Cry of Love" tape.

I drove into Aspen Sound and bought a stereo with a sound bar and had them install it into old Stinky.  While there I talked to the sales guy and asked if he knew some place to get some work done on the Jeep and he suggested Perfection Tire in Post Falls.  Heck that's where I always go for auto work!  I drove out to Perfection and talked to Tony and told him what I was thinking.

I basically said we wanted to improve the Jeep by lifting it a bit, but not huge. Three inches at the most.  He got right on it and said drop the Jeep off the next day.  I did and here are the results.

Stinky Jeep - Before

Big Stinky Jeep - AFTER



Taillight guard project, a needed improvement.