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 8th, today
would have been my mother's 92nd 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 9th,
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 10th, 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 11th, 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 12th, 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 13th, 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 14th, 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.
