Category Archives: Idaho

Escaping the cold!

Posted on by

In my previous post, I forgot to tell everyone about a bonehead move that I did. We were leaving Juniper’s RV park in Lakeview OR. I only put down my rear stabilizers on the trailer. However, I did not raise them! I didn’t realize why it was hard to raise the tongue of the trailer to connect to the truck. I only realized after it was hard to pull the trailer when leaving. Well, I bent up an original stabilizer and bent a replacement one I put on about 2 years ago! We made it to Boise and I removed them. I found a metalworking shop to see if they could straighten them out. Jack Metal Works was able to do the repair in a very quick turnaround. Recommended, Jacks, not bending your stabilizers.

Back to our story:

We looked around Idaho Falls and did like the area. It is not growing as much as Boise but there is still an influx there and prices are increasing. We also kept an eye on the weather as we could feel the turn of temperature.

We headed south to Tremonton UT, north of Salt Lake City. We were slowly heading back to California for Thanksgiving and the holidays. I did want to visit family but I SURE didn’t want to go back to Newsomlini-land!

Tremonton is close to the Golden Spike NHP and it was somewhere I have always wanted to visit. My father was a huge train fan, both full size, and model. He lived near the famous Horseshoe Curve in Pennsylvania. When he was a child he had an entire attic full of standard gauge trains. We took many trips to see trains, including the Durango narrow gauge. We were at the California train museum’s opening weekend, watching full-size live steam locomotives 20 feet away such as the UP 4-8-8-4. So it was natural for me to visit.

The last tie placed in the trans-continent rail (most likely a replica).
The Jupiter, completely recreated.
A view to the west.

The forecast showed that the cold wave was coming south. The day after we left Tremonton was supposed to be very cold, luckily we were able to take off and head to middle Utah. It was somewhat disappointing that we couldn’t visit south-central Utah and all the beauty. We spent the night in Fillmore UT at the KOA.

We woke up to very low cloud cover, cold temperatures, breezy winds and it was starting to snow! That kicked us into gear to get going. I had only hooked up to power the night before and did not disconnect so it was easy. Heading south over a few passes, the snow picked up but never started sticking to the road. We made just north of St George for another night of running! I knew if we could hit Vegas, we should be OK weatherwise.

It was worse that it looks!

The next AM was brutal. It was COLD and WINDY! The wind chill was about 22° for us to hook up the rig! That was not fun. We made to the Lake Mead Recreation Area for a week, the weather was very nice.

Our view from our site.

The lockdown was pretty minimal in Nevada, other than not being real close to Henderson, it didn’t impact our excursions too much. We wanted to go see Hoover Dam while we were there and tried to one day. The main road bypasses the dam now but you can still drive there and even over the dam. However, you have to pass through a checkpoint before you can get to any of the dam. We pulled up to the checkpoint, they looked us over and directed us to an alternate checkpoint. I figured they wanted to look in the back of the truck, where all our stuff is. They told me I had to remove everything so they can fully inspect it. I asked if they were serious, and they were. I told the no thanks and we turned around. It was very disappointing.

We discovered, in Idaho, that our cat had a mass in her abdomen so we took her to the Banfield vet in Henderson. We had her on a steroid to help her eating and to possibly slow the tumor. We needed a refill on the steroid. The vet at Banfield referred us to a vet that an oncology specialist and didn’t want to continue the steroid as it might conflict with any potential treatment. He gave us a anti-depressant medication.

That medication sent the cat for a loop! She couldn’t walk straight, started eating her cat litter pellets, etc. We went to see the other vet on the day we left. We got her back on the steroid and decided, after 19 years of life, we would just keep her on palliative care. We headed to our next stop south of Bullhead City, AZ.

We were still looking around for locations, and the AZ or NV border area seems possible. We don’t mind desert motifs at all, heck California will be there soon enough!. In Fort Mojave, we went to see a movie, out to eat, drove to Oatman, rested and enjoyed the warmer weather. After a week we headed to a location that has always been a possibility for relocation.

Pahrump NV. We stayed at a very nice RV there, Lakeside Casino and RV Park:

We looked at numerous properties in Pahrump area. It is definitely on our list of locations. We just have to research the water capabilities there.

We left Pahrump to crawl back to CA. We were going to stay a night in Barstow and then to Bakersfield, since Bakersfield had better COVID limitations. We did a straight drive to Bakersfield, which went to the most restrictive tier two days after we arrived. No one can win with this governor.

As I write this, the dictator has closed down overnight camping. Luckily we have a place we can stay for the holidays, but once we can leave after that we will be getting out of this state, again!

More travel

Posted on by

When we left our story, we were heading to Northern Washington. We ended up in Port Angeles, staying at the Elwha Dam RV Park. This park is a cute, privately-owned location. We, however, were in a rather odd spot. It was almost like a head-in motorhome space.

There was a space in front of us and one to the right, a embankment was to the left. When we got there I had to pull the trailer in behind the RV in front and pull the truck out to the right (we talked to them and they moved their tow vehicle to allow us). I then had to park behind the trailer. Also, the back of the trailer was very far off the ground. They have to redesign the space, and they said they would.

Port Angeles is on the north end of Olympic National Park so we took a drive into the park, luckily we hit a day where there was virtually no delay getting in. It was quite a climb to the top.

View of Port Angeles and Canada across the water.
The Olympic mountain range.

Due to Covid, the ferry to Victoria Island was shut down. The Canadians didn’t want any Americans coming in. Not that we would have as we have been in Canada in each of the last three years and it is not fun going through customs on either end!

We headed back to the coast next, trying to stay cool and we succeeded. The next stop was in Ilwaco, WA at the Eagles Nest RV Park. This was quite an experience, meaning the park. The location is pretty good and the weather was cool and wet sometimes.

Our space left much to be desired. It was a back-in, which is fine, but it must have sloped over 2′ from the front to back. I tried to get level numerous times but could not get the back high enough, safely, to allow the front to be low enough to be level! I eventually just parked on the area to the side of our spot:

Standing in the spot showing where we had to go.
Using almost all my ‘Lego’ blocks and full lengths of black hose!

While I was outside I heard someone across the road drive to his spot, get out, and let out a few explicatives! He had driven over a water valve in the ground near his spot. It started leaking immediately and shortly after that all water was shut off in the park! Luckily we always have some water in our tank. The water was restored later the next day.

Another issue that was a nice issue. There were a LOT of trees in the park. This means my satellite reception was an issue. I tried it anyway and learned from it. Normally I place the dish in a location where it can tune in all three satellites but here I could only get one. I found out that even if we can’t get them all we can still watch some TV with less that then full complement.

We did many driving trips around and a bit of walking. We visited the North Head lighthouse also.

We headed to a place we have been before to spend the next week. We stayed at the Columbia Riverfront RV Park. We got a riverview spot and it was very nice.

The only thing that really marred our visit was a fisherman fell out his kayak when placing his fishing lure out in the river. They could not find him and searched for him well into the night. They found his body a few days later. While we were in the area we took Jewels (cat) for a checkup.

We were now heading back to the Oregon coast but an opportunity arose to visit a friend of Roxie and me. We went to see our friend Judy and her husband Ray in central Oregon. We used to work in the same office for many years and I got to know her late husband by doing computer work for his business. We went to their house and spent the night in their driveway. The next day they showed around the towns near them

Taken from Judy and Ray’s house

With Labor Day upcoming we were looking for space during this busy weekend. I pretty much took the first thing I could find. It was at the Port of Siuslaw campground near Florence OR. Now, parts of this campground are not the most beautiful and that is where we were. But, it was cool and we had a spot!

While we were there, the huge fires started in central Oregon. One was very near the friend where we just stayed. We were worried about them. We weren’t affected until the last 3 days of our week stay. The wind shifted to blow out to sea from central Oregon. This is what we saw one day:

The fires changed some of our plans. I had worked out reservations to have us head down the coast all the way to Crescent City, CA to get to our 2-week stay in Grants Pass, OR. However, the fires changed those plans as the road to Grants Pass from Crescent City (US199) was closed near Cave Junction due to a fire burning by the road.

We changed to stay at Osprey Point RV Resort in Lakeside OR for 6 nights. This park is a bit long in the tooth and needs some upgrades but it was OK for us since the same is true for us!

We had 5 nights left before Grants Pass and we needed to use the road just south of Coos Bay, so we stayed at the same park in Coos Bay we stayed on the way up the coast.

We really enjoyed the stay for 2 weeks at Grants Pass at the River Park RV Resort. We took many drives around, looking at properties, looking at the fire damage. It was slightly smokey some days and rainy on some others. We had a riverside spot, which was wonderful!

With the fires, the taxes (not sales) and the political clime, we have kind of taken Oregon off our list of potential home locations. So that meant we wanted to look at Idaho. So that is where we went next. We knew what eastern Oregon was like so we tried to get through there as quickly as we could.

On our way through eastern Oregon, I had a small scare in the trailer. We stopped for a restroom break and I noticed some water coming out from under our wardrobe, where the water pump was. Well, that worried me until we stopped for the night. I removed EVERYTHING from the wardrobe, lifted up the false floor, and looked inside. No liquid by the pump, good. When I was removing everything we found a liquified sweet potato and following that leakage it was apparent that the potato was the source. Whew!

We stayed at another old favorite on the way, the Juniper Reservoir RV Resort in Lakeview, OR.

View of the inside of the campground loop.
View of the outside of the campground loop.

We headed on to Boise, ID with a stop in Burns, OR. We met a very interesting character in the local pub and grill. His name was Doyle, he was a cowhand and he let us know how it really was in Burns and we loved it! On our way there we stopped again and I saw this ‘shoe tree’!

We made it to Boise (actually Eagle) and stayed at the Hi Valley RV Park for a week. We were able to visit our fellow Airstreamers, Ken and Mike, which was a great visit. We took care of some chores, had Jewels in for another vet visit, took some drives and explored the Boise area.

We had a Shasta trailer park across from us and the sun lit it up one evening:

Going to Boise was helpful. It showed us that it was not the area for us. Too busy, too much growth, and the prices that go with that growth. So, off to eastern Idaho.

We stopped at the Y Knot Winery RV park in Glenn’s Ferry, ID. This was a nice campground but the Three Island Crossing State Park down the road was amazing! Missed out on that one. However, the winery had a really good restaurant.

We got on the road the next day and stated at a City campground, the Heyburn Riverside RV Park. This was a nice, simple park, good for the night.

We made to eastern Idaho, to the Snake River RV Park in Idaho Falls, ID. We have been through Idaho Falls 2-3 other times and really like the area. We looked around at many different properties and it is definitely possible in that area. We only stayed there 4 nights due to a pending cold snap. We had to escape the weather!