Tag Archives: Retirement

Road back to California

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We had to get moving again and get back to California.  We had a trip scheduled to Hawaii (Maui), without the trailer, and had a hard date to take off.  We had almost 2 weeks to get back but we were trying to balance driving time versus distance and we had to throw in the factor that it was getting hotter the closer we were to Visalia.  After Great Falls we drove a bit over 200 miles to Beaverhead campground near Dillon MT.  This was a FREE campground with spots, pit toilets and right on a lake.  It was cool as some rain had just passed through.  True, it was right by the interstate but a large on-ramp berm blocked some of the noise.  It was a wonderful place (we even saw a man-moose for George – embedded in the concrete of the pavilion):

We still had to stop in Idaho Falls to retrieve our handgun that we didn’t try to take into Canada.  I ensured that our next stop would take us right by Idaho Falls.  Here are some ‘Idaho’ vehicles that I spotted:

Our next stop was for 2 nights at a Passport America site, Downata Hot Springs.  I didn’t get any photos while we were there but it is a nice, family oriented, park and it has a full water park with hot springs.  We did go to the hot springs but it was 90+ degrees, not the hot springs but the ambient temperature!  It would have been more enjoyable if it was cooler but that appeared to be the trend as we got closer to California, HOT!

We still had miles to go and headed toward Nevada.  This took us more west than south and through a corner of Utah.  This was extremely rural country with very few services.  We ended up in Elko NV for the night at a Casino RV park.  We needed hookups from now on due to the heat as it required air conditioning in the trailer for comfort.  Here is our luxurious spot and my lego block building prowess to level the trailer!

The next day we did another I80 leg across Nevada ending up in Fernley NV at another Passport America campsite.  We did 4 nights there prior to our next stop.  While in Fernley I was looking for some fast WiFi and checked the library.  Above the doorway was a quote from my favorite 4 book trilogy:

Still a bit to go…

Alberta and back to the states

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We left our friends, the Chens, and went our separate ways.  We were in Jasper in 2004 and thought about taking a day trip to Edmonton to see the West Edmonton Mall.  At that time it was the largest mall in the world.  We thought it might be interesting.  However, after thinking about the 350 miles round trip in one day, we thought better of it.  We found out the next day that a severe storm hit the mall with hail, wind, and rain (maybe even a tornado) with flooding and roof collapses.  Glad we didn’t go!

This time though we did plan on going.  We stayed at a little campground north of Edmonton in Morinville.  Here is a view from the trailer door:

This was a Passport America site so we saved a bit of money but still had to fight mosquitos!  They also had a lake and we thought we might use the kayaks but never did.  We stayed 5 nights, did household things (read laundry) and went to the mall one day.

The mall is pretty big.  It has the waterpark, amusement park, and a small hockey rink.  It has about every store you would need, some even are doubled!  We put on a few miles walking around.  It was interesting but now we will have to compare it to the Mall of America when we get there in the future.

We left Morinville, heading back to the United States, and I didn’t want to even mess with Calgary as the ‘stampede’ was starting.  We skirted around it but stopped at a Lowes for a bathroom break.  During the stop, a Canadian Postal worker came up and started talking to us about the Airstream.  She has a friend that has a few Airstreams and she always takes pictures of them and she did so with ours.

We ended up after a pretty long (330+ miles) at a Casino in Lethbridge, AB.  It was a nice little stop and FREE!

The next day was crossing the border into Montana.  I didn’t know what to expect.  The last time (2004) we brought the trailer back into the states, the agents went into our trailer and took a bunch of our food.  This crossing was much quicker.  A few questions (that I can’t even remember now) and we were back in the USA.

We ended up in Great Falls for 4 nights.  This allowed us to see our friends the Erpelding’s who pastor a church there.  We also saw another friend that used to go to the church in Visalia but is now in Great Falls also.

We had a great time in Great Falls (new slogan?).