Cruising The Northern Rockies: Wyoming, Montana and Idaho

Hi friends, our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, July 24th, when we arrived in Sheridan, Wyoming after 17 days in Gillette, Wyoming attending RV rallies. We are in Sheridan for four days, the first two of which we had Peggy and Vernon Bullock parked with us. Wednesday we left the coach after lunch and went out with Peggy and Vernon to do some exploring and geocaching. We also wanted to go to the Sheridan History Museum, which is right near our RV park, but it was closed. We stopped at the historic Sheridan Inn first. The Inn is right near downtown and was built along the railroad line through town. Designed by the Thomas R. Kimball in 1893, it was constructed by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad as part of its development program in Wyoming associated with extension of the railway. Equipped with the first bathtubs and electric lights in that part of Wyoming, the Inn was considered the "finest hotel" between Chicago and San Francisco. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. Buffalo Bill Cody managed the hotel for the railroad from 1894 to 1896. He mostly attracted sportsmen for big game hunting in the Big Horn Mountains to the west, and hosted numerous notable guests. He often auditioned talent for his Wild West Show from the broad front porch during his ownership.

Designed in the style of hotels which Kimball had seen in Scotland, the three-story, wood-frame inn is 145 feet long under a gambrel roof, with broad porches 30 feet wide on two sides. The porches were designed with a gradual slope so that rainwater would run off. The hotel had 64 bedrooms on the second and third floors, each with its own dormer window. The large dining room sat up to 160 guests. As of October 2013, the Inn has been owned by Bob and Dana Townsend and Custom Services out of Tulsa Oklahoma. The first floor ballrooms have been reopened and a new restaurant named Open Range Bar & Grill opened in January 2015. The hotels rooms were opened to the public for the first time in over 50 years on May 15, 2015.

We spent some time driving around the old downtown area and some of the older residential areas, doing geocaching along the way. We ended up with five new finds for the afternoon, with no DNFs. After our driving tour we stopped at the Sheridan Elks Lodge #520. We had a cocktail and got a lodge pin, although it turns out we visited the lodge back in 2005 when we were last through Sheridan. This Lodge, which has around 700 members, was chartered in 1899 and is still in their big, three story brick building near downtown that was built in 1909. After our visit at the Elks we went to Walmart for some supplies. We then headed back to the RV park and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. Around 5:30 Peggy and Vernon came to our coach for cocktails and some escargot that Jackie made as an appetizer. We then moved over to Peggy and Vernon's coach for dinner. Peggy made her penne pasta dish that we all love. We had a great dinner, our last with the Bullock's for a while, and had a nice time. After we went back to our coach we watched some TV then went to bed.

Thursday, July 26th, Peggy and Vernon pulled out about 9:30, heading back in the direction of their home in Northern California. We will probably see them again in about six weeks when we pass through Redding, California, which is only about 40 miles from their house in the mountains. We left the coach about noon and drove to a little Mexican restaurant that I had seen while out doing my exercise walk. It was called El Tapatio Dos and was right on main street in a converted house. The inside was very cute and very Mexican, as were all of the staff. The food was OK. Not the best we have had, but certainly not the worst, especially for a place outside of the Southwest. The biggest thing is that people up here apparently don't want the spice or “hotness” that we like in Arizona and Southern California. The food was good, but a bit bland. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching and had a good time doing urban caches in Sheridan. We ended up with seven new finds, and no DNFs. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the day and evening.

Friday, July 27th, we had a stay at home day. We had a lot of administrative work to do after our two weeks of rallies, as well as a bit of house cleaning and putting stuff away. We had a quiet but effective day and got all of our chores done. Late afternoon, around cocktail hour, we had a storm blow through that was about as hard as we have had since coming into this part of the country. We had a brief period of strong winds, some small hail that did no damage, and a lot of rain. It only lasted about 20 minutes, then the sky cleared and we had a nice evening. Watched some TV and went to bed. Saturday was another travel day. We left Sheridan about 10:30 heading north and west on I-90 about 135 miles to Billings, Montana. This is our first visit to Montana in a number of years, despite the fact that both the car and coach have Montana plates as a result of them being owned by our LLC. We had a nice drive through very pretty country and arrived in Billings and the Billings Village RV Park about 1:00. We got set up, had lunch and then went out so Jackie could get a haircut. After her haircut we stopped at Walmart for a few things then went back to the coach. We stayed in for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Sunday, July 29th, I went out in the morning and got a Sunday paper and we had relaxing morning with coffee and the paper. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching and exploring downtown. Since it was Sunday we didn't have to deal with the swarm of people downtown you would have on a weekday. We were able to get ten new finds and two DNFs in the course of a couple hours. After we stopped caching we went to Sam's Club for some supplies, then headed back to the coach. We relaxed in the coach for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Monday we left the coach about 11:30 to take a day trip to the Little Bighorn National Monument, which is about 60 miles east of Billings. Our first effort was to stop at a couple of places in downtown Billings for brunch. The first place, Stella's, had great reviews. It was busy, but we got seated in about five minutes then sat for 15 minutes without anyone coming by to acknowledge our presence. We also noticed that we were sitting right across from the pass to the kitchen and we saw food being left on the pass for five and ten minutes. It seemed that the servers were all moving in slow motion and had no interest in helping people or serving food. We finally got up and left, after complaining to the assistant manager. We stopped at another promising place called the Sassy Biscuit, but after we went in and looked at the menu I said nothing on it looked good. It was a very yuppy “foo foo” type menu and so we left again. We gave up on downtown and started east on the freeway, finally stopping in the little town of Hardin, Montana, where we found a great little cafe called the Larriet. The food and service were both good and we had a nice lunch. We continued out journey, getting into the Little Bighorn National Monument around 1:30 or so.

Of course, anyone with a basic knowledge of American History knows the the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, was a pivotal point in America's Indian Wars of the 19th Century. We had never been to the Battlefield and I didn't want to pass through so close to this piece of history without at least a brief visit. We went through the visitor's center and it's museum, then went out on the patio and listened to a great talk from one of the seasonal rangers. He was a professor at Temple University in Texas, but in the summer he works at the Monument and has done so for 30 summers. He talked at great length about the characters, Custer, Reno, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and how the battle began and ended. Most of the information I already knew, but to hear it while sitting and looking out over the battlefield and the marker stones showing where combatants fell and died brought a whole new meaning to what I was hearing. After the talk we drove the ten mile road through the monument which passed by all of the various important locations of the battle, including where the Indian village was, the initial skirmish line, where Major Reno holed up and held off the warriors for nearly two days, and of course, the ridge on which Custer made his last stand. We spent a couple of hours at the monument and I was very glad we went. After our tour we drove back to the RV park and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, July 31st, another travel day. We left Billings about 10:30 and continued east on Interstate 90, heading 110 miles to Livingston, Montana. Livingston is a smallish city of about 8,500 which got it's start as a railroad town, but now relies on tourism based industries. The city is on the Interstate and is located only 55 miles north of the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U.S. and the original main entrance was on the north side of the park on the road that leads north to Livingston. We spent a whole week in Yellowstone back in 2005, so we had no plans to visit the park this trip. We arrived at the Osen's RV Park about 1:30 after both a fuel and lunch stop on the road. We quickly got settled in and then just set up and relaxed for the rest of the day. We will be here for three days also.

Wednesday, August 1st, we left the RV park after lunch and went out to do our laundry. After checking out a couple of laundromats we settled on one that was fairly clean and we got our clothes done. After the laundry was finished we stopped at Albertson's for a few supplies, there being no Walmart in town. We ended up buying more than we had on our list because they had some pretty good deals going on. Because we had bought some meat and other perishables we made a quick stop back at the coach and offloaded everything, putting the stuff that needed refrigeration into the fridge. We then left again and drove to Sacajawea Park, a city park on the banks of the Yellowstone River, for the Wednesday Farmer's Market. It wasn't real big and only took us a half hour or so to explore. We did buy some fruits and veggies. After the Farmer's Market we stopped at the Livingston Elks Lodge, #246. This lodge was chartered in 1895 and is still in their old, two story brick building downtown. They now have about 300 members. We found both the bartender and the folks who were in the lodge bar when we came in to be very friendly. We had a couple of cocktails and were able to get a new pin for our banner, since we had never been to this lodge before. After the lodge visit we went back to the coach, had dinner, put everything away and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.

Thursday, August 2nd, we left the park about noon and drove to a Mexican restaurant in downtown Livingston called Fiesta En Jalisco. Judging from their ads they are a local chain with stores in a number of towns in Montana. It was in an old building downtown that had been nicely remodeled and decorated in very typical Mexican restaurant style. They had a traditional menu and it turns out the food was pretty good. I had red chili and a taco and they were both very good. Jackie had a chicken enchilada and taco and she said they were OK, but the chicken was overcooked and dry. The service was also very good. After lunch we got on the freeway and drove about 35 miles west to the town of Bozeman. This is a larger city, about 50,000 or so. We originally went there so Jackie could get a pedi, but it turned out that the Walmart didn't have the DaVi Nail salon that the DaVi website said they had. Jackie decided to just wait on the pedi, so we did some geocaching. We ended up with six new finds for the day, and one DNF, and the last cache of the day was number 9,200 for us. Yea! After our geocaching we drove up to Costco to get gas for the car. This is the first time we put gas in since June 13th when we were in Santa Maria, California. For this tank we got 86 mpg. Yea again!

After Costco drove around downtown for a little bit just sight seeing, then we drove to the Bozeman Elks Lodge. This is Lodge # 463 chartered in 1898, but they only have about 150 members now. They used to have a big, three story building downtown but they sold that ten years ago and they now rent space in an office building. They have done a pretty good job of turning office space into a nice bar, clubroom and meeting room. We met the ER and she was very friendly and introduced us to a couple of other members at the bar. We had a couple of drinks and got our Lodge pin, then headed back east to the RV park. We were back home by 5:30 after a fun day and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Friday, August 3rd, another travel day. We left the RV park around 9:30 and continued west on Interstate 90, this time headed about 145 miles to Melrose, Montana, a tiny town about 35 miles south of Butte, Montana. We wanted to get an early start because we had to go up and over the Continental Divide today, which goes through a pass at over 6,300 feet elevation. I wanted to make sure we weren't trying to do it in the heat of the afternoon. The divide was just east of Butte and after going through Butte we finally left Interstate 90 and turned south on Interstate 15. We arrived at the Sportsman's Motel and RV park around 12:30 and quickly got parked. We have a very nice grass site with full hookups in a very picturesque location. Melrose only has a population of about 150, but we will go up to Butte tomorrow or the next day to do some sight seeing. After we got set up we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Saturday, August 4th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove north to spend the day in Butte. Although we have driven through on the freeway, we have never spent any time in Butte. There is a lot of history in this city and some interesting things to see. Butte is a city of about 35,000 sitting at an elevation of about 5,500 feet. The town is set on a series of hills, the largest of which is Butte Hill. Butte originally began in the 1860's as a mining camp, at first primarily gold and silver mining claims, but within a few years copper became the most sought after ore. The city was formally established in 1864 and grew rapidly as the mines grew and the wealth poured into the area. By the turn of the century unions were very powerful and the Butte area saw a lot of labor unrest of violence. In June 1917 Butte was the location of what remains the most deadly underground mine accident in U.S. history, the Speculator Mine Fire. 168 miners lost their lives when a fire consumed the copper mine. There is a very nice monument overlooking the site of the mine on Butte Hill.

In the 1950's Butte mining companies began using open pit mining techniques for the copper mines, as was the case in other parts of the country. The pit ate away the entire south and east parts of Butte Hill and left a pit over a thousand feet deep and a mile and a half across. The deepest part is called the Berkley Pit and is now filled with water nearly 900 feet deep. The water started flowing into the pit in 1983 when mining was halted due to declining prices and has continued. The Berkley Pit is also one of the most contaminated places in the United States and is designated an EPA Supersite. The water is somewhat acidic and over the years the acids have leached out other chemicals in the soil, lead, chromium, arsenic, and others. On at least two occasions large flocks of geese have landed in the water to rest and the entire flocks have been wiped out by the toxic mix. There is fear that in a few years the water level will rise to that of the regular water table of the area and the toxic water will contaminate the underground aquifer as well as local streams and rivers.

Our first stop in Butte was for lunch at a place called Hanging Five. It was a family cafe with really good food and service. After lunch we spent an hour and a half driving around Butte, looking at the historic downtown area, the mines, and some of the old, turn of the century mansions near downtown. We also found the Elks Lodge, Lodge #240, chartered in 1895. They are still in a building the Lodge built in 1924 which is a typical old Elks building. The public rooms on the first floor, a huge and elegant Lodge Room on the second, and apartments on the third floor for visiting Elks. They also have handball courts, weight rooms, and steam rooms in the basement. In the first part of the twentieth century the lodge had as many as 3,000 members, they are now down to about 350. They no longer use any of the building except the main floor, not even using the Lodge Room because there is no handicap access and poor emergency exit routes. Although they were not technically open when we visited, there were a number of members, including a couple of officers, who were there doing some cleaning and they invited us in. One of the old ER's gave me a tour of the building too. We had a drink and got a lodge pin for our banner, then went back to touring. While we were driving around we were also doing some geocaching, getting a total of seven new finds and no DNFs for the day. After our touring we went to Walmart and got pedicures and did some shopping, then we headed back to the coach. We got back around 5:30 and then just stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, August 5th, we had a stay at home day. I got some maintenance chores done on the coach and some office work completed and Jackie did some chores inside. We did some steaks on the BBQ for dinner. Monday was another travel day. We left Melrose around 10:00 and started south again on Interstate 15 towards Idaho Falls, Idaho, about 175 miles. We arrived at the Snake River RV Park in Idaho Falls around 1:30 and quickly checked in and got parked. After we got set up we just relaxed for the rest of the day. We will be here for three days.

Tuesday, August 7th, we went out after lunch to do some touring of Idaho Falls and some geocaching. Idaho Falls has a population of about 60,000 and is the second largest city in Idaho after the Capitol of Boise. It got it's start in the mid 1800's as a stop on the Montana Trail, one of the trails used by settlers heading west to Oregon and Northern California. The Snake River narrows in the area that is now Idaho Falls, so it was a natural spot for entrepreneurs to build toll ferries and by 1864 the first toll bridge across the Snake. By the 1870's the railroad came through town and the area took off as an agricultural center. Agriculture is still the mainstay of the area, but it also serves as a southern gateway city to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks, so tourism also contributes greatly to the local economy.

About 50 miles west of Idaho Falls is the Idaho National Laboratory which started in 1949 when the Atomic Energy Commission opened the National Reactor Testing Station. On Dec. 20, 1951, a nuclear reactor built on the site produced useful electricity for the first time in history. There have been more than 50 unique nuclear reactors built at the facility for testing, although only three currently remain active. The site was also the scene of the only fatal nuclear reactor incident in U.S. history, on January 3, 1961. Three men where killed when an experimental reactor unexpectedly went critical, overheated and caused a steam explosion which demolished the building. The site is now a national laboratory operated by the United States Department of Energy. The laboratory and its contractors are a major economic engine for the Idaho Falls area, employing more than 8,000 people between the desert site and its research and education campus in Idaho Falls. Among other projects, the laboratory operates and manages the world-famous Advanced Test Reactor.

We spent a couple hours touring the city and geocaching, getting seven new finds and two DNFs. We also stopped at the actual Idaho Falls, which are in the middle of town. It is a spot on the Snake River where the river runs through a rocky area with a series of water falls that total a drop of about 25 feet. Pretty, but not very dramatic. Jackie was disappointed as she was expecting something much higher. After our caching we stopped at Fred Meyers for some supplies and then headed back to the coach. We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, August 8^th, today would have been my mother's 92^nd birthday. Happy Birthday Mom, miss you. We left the coach about 11:00 and headed south about 30 miles to the little town of Blackfoot, Idaho. Blackfoot is a town of about 12,000 located along the Snake River. The town was founded in the late 1800's as a railroad stop, but it is now primarily an agricultural area and known as the Potato Capital of the World with one of the largest concentration of potato related industries in the country. The primary reason we came down here was to visit the Blackfoot Elks Lodge. We read on their web page that they had lunch daily during the week, so we came down for lunch, a cocktail and a lodge pin. The lunch was very good, one of the better Elks lunches we have had. I had a beef and cheddar sandwich and Jackie had a tuna melt and both were good, as was the soup. We also had a drink with lunch and were able to get a lodge pin for our banner. After lunch we drove around downtown for a few minutes, which is all the longer it took, then drove to the Potato Museum. The museum is in the city's old train passenger depot and was quite interesting. There were a number of very nice displays detailing the potato industry from farming to distributing and making things like potato chips and instant potatoes. They also had a lot of old potato farming machinery on display, and of course, a gift shop. They boast having the world's largest baked potato, which is actually concrete on display outside the museum, and the world's largest potato chip, which is actually a large Pringle, about three feet across. The Pringle is certified by Guinness as the largest potato chip, but is technically a potato crisp since Pringles are made from pressed ground corn bits, not slices of potato as chips are. After the museum we did a little bit of caching, getting three new finds and one DNF. We then got back on the freeway and drove back to Idaho Falls. Before going back to the coach we went back to one of the DNFs we had yesterday and found it based on a hint the owner had sent us this morning. He was also the owner of the other DNF we had yesterday and he told us that he had checked on that one and was in fact missing, so he told us to go ahead and take credit for it, so we added two more finds to our list. We then drove back to the RV park and stayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday, August 9^th, another travel day. We packed up and were on the road about 11:00, heading south and west to American Falls, Idaho, a distance of only about 76 miles. We made a fuel stop and then arrived at the Indian Springs RV Park just before 1:00. We got settled into a nice spot out in the middle of a meadow and got set up. It was quite hot today, so we just stayed in for the rest of the day after finishing setting up. One interesting coincidence. When putting the debit for the RV park in the computer check register another entry for Indian Springs Campground came up. I checked the date and it was exactly three years ago, August 9, 2015, for the Indian Springs Campground in Garrett, Indiana. That is where we stayed when we went to visit my niece and her family. Very weird.

Friday, August 10^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching and explore the little town of American Falls. American Falls has a population of about 4,500 and is mostly an agricultural town. There are lots of farms surrounding the area of rolling hills. It does have some tourism as a result of the American Falls Reservoir, an artificial lake created by damming the Snake River. This is the largest lake on the Snake and hosts a lot of fishing and boating activity. Beyond that, there isn't much to the town. We drove around and did some geocaching, getting seven new finds and one DNF. We toured the town and found it to be mostly a nice little community with nice homes and a small downtown with not much in it. After a couple hours of caching and touring we headed back to the RV park and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening inside out of the heat. We are in the middle of a heat wave and the temps are bumping 100 degrees just about every day.

Saturday, August 11^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove about 30 miles back east to Pocatello, Idaho to do some exploring and geocaching. We first stopped at a Thai restaurant called Thai Kitchen which had great Yelp reviews. The reviews were well received as the food was quite good and the service excellent. I had orange chicken and it was some of the best I ever had, as was the fried rice and the spring rolls. Jackie had a chicken curry dish which she said was tasty, but hotter than she thought it would be. She ordered a 2 on a scale of 5 hotness and she said it was almost too hot to eat, but she did anyway. After lunch we drove around town, looking around and doing some geocaching at the same time. Pocatello is also an agricultural town located on the main rail line and also at the intersection of Interstates 15 and 86. The downtown is old and doesn't show any sign of major business activity and virtually no high rise buildings. We spent a bit of time on the campus of Idaho State University since there were a number of caches on or near the campus. We found it interesting that the Idaho State basketball arena is called “Holt Arena.” After getting six new finds with no DNFs we called it an afternoon as it was 100 degrees out. We then did a quick Walmart run and then headed back to American Falls and the RV park. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach.

Sunday, August 12^th, another travel day. I went out early and got a Sunday paper, which was from Pocatello, and we had the paper and coffee. We left the RV park about 11:00 and continued west on Interstate 86, towards Twin Falls, Idaho, about 80 miles. We arrived at Anderson's Camp RV park about 12:30 and got checked in. The RV park is actually in Eden, Idaho and is about 10 miles north of Twin Falls. We had a bit of a snafu parking as the spot the gal in the office assigned to us was already occupied. We finally got it cleared up and got assigned a different spot. It was actually a good thing as the original spot would not have been good for getting our satellite signal, the new one worked fine. We got set up then spent the rest of the afternoon doing some chores and relaxing. We will be here for three days.

Monday, August 13^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some exploring of Twin Falls and some geocaching. We have never spent any time in Twin Falls before. Twin Falls is the seventh largest city in Idaho with a population of about 48,000. It is primarily an agricultural town that was founded in the mid 1800's but the farmers and ranchers struggled with the dry climate and lack of water until I.B Perrine, one of the local ranchers, formed the Twin Falls Water Company. A dam was built on the Snake River upstream from the Shoshone Falls creating Lake Milner in the Snake River Canyon. They then created a series of canals to distribute water from the lake to the surrounding area. One interesting thing that we noted during our exploring is that when you look at a map of Twin Falls the original one square mile town site is laid out with the streets running diagonally, northwest to southeast and southwest to northeast. The rest of the city, the newer areas, are laid out mostly east-west and north-south as in most major cities. The reason given is that the founders wanted the sun to be able to hit every window on a house at some point during the day.

Our first stop after leaving the RV park was the Shoshone Park, a city park on the south side of the Snake River overlooking the Shoshone Falls. We had heard from friends, who are familiar with the area and knew we were traveling through here, that we had to make sure to get to the falls. They are truly spectacular. You may recall that earlier I said that Jackie was disappointed with the Idaho Falls because they were so small, but she was duly impressed with Shoshone Falls. These falls are inside of the 500 foot deep Snake River Canyon where the river suddenly drops 212 feet across a 1,000 foot wide rock ledge. The Shoshone Falls are actually 45 feet higher than the Niagara Falls, but the volume of water is not nearly as much as at Niagara. They are still something to see and the position of the viewing platform across from the falls is such that when the sun is overhead shining on the mist from the falls it creates a rainbow in the canyon. Very pretty falls. We also checked out Lake Milner, which has a picnic area and boat ramp within the city park.

Also located within the park is the site of the launch ramp which was built for the daredevil Evel Knievel in 1974 for his infamous attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon on a rocket powered motorcycle. Although video evidence shows that the steam powered rocket cycle, Skycycle X-2, made it past the north edge of the canyon, a drag parachute prematurely deployed due to a design flaw which stopped the forward movement of the vehicle. The winds then pushed it south, back towards the launch ramp and over the canyon. It floated down and landed at the bottom of the canyon. Knievel was not hurt as the vehicle had been designed to land with the parachute, just not as soon as it actually deployed. The vehicle also just missed landing in the river, which would have increased his chances of death as he had no way to extricate himself from the vehicle. We kind of wanted to see the launch site as we both remembered the hoopla over the stunt, but the only way to get to it was a mile and a half hike, one way, which we didn't want to do.

After seeing the falls we went and drove around downtown a little bit and did some geocaching. We were able to get six new finds and no DNFs. We explored the area a bit, then did some shopping. We stopped at Target, Winco and Costco, getting a few supplies at each place. They were all in the same general area of town. After shopping we went back to the coach and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing in the coach.

Tuesday, August 14^th, we had a stay at home day. We did a few cleaning and maintenance chores and had a relaxing day. Wednesday was another travel day. We left Twin Falls about 10:00 and continued heading northwest going to Caldwell, Idaho, a suburb northwest of the capital city of Boise. The trip was about 156 miles and we arrived at the Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell about 1:30 after only a lunch stop. We quickly got parked in a nice site and got set up for our three stay here. Our primary reason for stopping near Boise is so that we can see Troy and Makayla Bullock. Troy is Peggy and Vernon Bullock's grandson and is the one who was in the Marine Corps stationed in Yuma. Regular readers of this blog will remember that we visited with them each winter when we were in Yuma for the last three years. Troy got out of the Marine Corps last summer and he and Makayla just recently moved to the Boise area. Makayla is also now pregnant, so we wanted to be sure to stop and see them when we passed through the area. After we got set up we went out and checked out a new Bi-Mart store that was right down the street. It is a membership store but they were offering life time family memberships for only $5, so we decided to go ahead and get one even though there are not a lot of Bi-Marts in the Southwest. After we got back to the coach we just relaxed for the rest of the day.

It has been about three weeks since we last published, so our moving today marks a good place to get this episode put online. We still have about six weeks before we will be back “home” in Pahrump, traveling through Oregon and then California visiting friends and relatives along the way. Until next time remember that two can live as cheaply as one, for about half as long. See ya.