#9 - Big Pines Campground - Our New Home

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Our original plan was to head into the northern Cascades after visiting Coulee, but it is being reported that there are three fires going on up there. It is also closer to British Columbia, so we are choosing the go southwest towards Mount Ranier and around Seattle via the southern route. We're a little under the gun to find a good place to hunker in over Labor Day.
As we drove away, we quickly saw  that we could have spent another day riding around Coulee. The drive was just beautiful heading south and we ended up stopping at a place called Dry Falls. Can't tell you a lot about it but the first three pictures will show you.
After our last RV site, Rick was ready for some 'back to nature' camping and I agreed. We had done some research and were hoping to get into a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) non-reservable site around Yakima, WA. Sure enough, we found a place about 65 miles east of Mount Rainier called Yakima Canyon. Big Pines Recreation Site would be our new home through Labor Day. We're about halfway between two cities; Yakima and Ellensburg with a beautiful ride through the canyon to either. Big Pines also sits along the Yakima River and about every 2-3 hours a big train meanders around us. It follows the river all the way through the canyon and I'm happy. Mountains, trains and beautiful blue skies...what more could I want? Electricity maybe? Internet? TV? At least phone? Not to be but I can do this. Rick has wanted to test Shorty and see how we do with "boondocking". That is, living with what's in the RV; limited water, 12v lighting, limited holding tanks, etc. We will run the generator for an hour/day to keep our batteries in good shape. Big Pines is our test site. Nine days worth. I'm willing to give it a try. 😯
Here's hoping for...

Happy trails. 🎵🎵

#6 - Moving On to Wallace, Idaho

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Time to leave Bozeman behind us and turn towards a little town called Wallace, Idaho. We frequently choose our next stop by determining who's about 300 miles away and whether or not they have an RV campground. Wallace RV Park was right there waiting for us. We don't have any reservations now, going forward, except for two weeks later in September. We're a little nervous about that, especially for Labor Day weekend, but we hope to find something soon. We kind of love the freedom of just winging it. 😊
Wallace RV Park was interesting. It was basically a straight paved road with gravel RV sites on each side. No grass, no picnic tables, no frills. It was in a beautiful area, though, so we signed up for an extra night and we're glad we did.😊

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Based on the recommendation of a fellow RVer in the park, we hopped on the bike the next morning and headed for Thompson Falls, about 65 miles away. We just got on the road right behind us and drove into an absolutely beautiful ride. It was another hazy day but it is what it is and we can't let that stop us. After crossing over a mountain pass, and going through several tiny towns, we got to Thompson Falls and of course, I have to find the falls right away. Turns out there isn't one. They created a dam many years ago, but on the recommendation from a local grandma and her three 10-year old grandkids, we went for a walk in that area instead. It was interesting and we met some nice people along the way. We met up with Grandma and the kids a little later and when we told her how much we loved Idaho, she said, "Honey, you're in Montana." Sure enough, we had crossed back into Montana when we went over the pass! Who knew. We stopped for a late lunch at the Wild Coyote, (also recommended by Grandma) and loved it. Shortly after that, we're riding along and Rick spotted a moose wading in a roadside pond! We circled around and got some nice pictures. What a fun surprise. We'd go back to the Wallace area in a minute.

Happy trails. 🎵🎵

#8 - Grand Coulee Dam

Saturday, August 25, 2018

We went on a tour of the dam this morning and I was a little bored just at the thought of it. Interestingly enough, I learned so much that I never knew and now, be forewarned, you're going to hear it. ☺
 
Grand Coulee Dam, located on the mighty Columbia River, is one of largest concrete structures in the world. It's 500 ft thick at its base (over 1-1/2 lengths of a football field) and has enough concrete to build a sidewalk, 4 feet wide, wrapped twice around the equator or 50,000 miles! It's not that tall (280 ft water drop) but it is also the largest hydroelectric power producer in the US, generating 20 billion kilowatts of electricity per year that sends power to 11 states and parts of Canada. Enough for 4.2 million households. I was impressed. We took a bus to the top of the dam and looked down and we went to an observation room where you could see all the big generators. Security is high. We had to go through a metal detector and bring nothing but a cell phone or camera, without cases. Before 9/11, you could walk all over the place, but those days are over.

At night they have a beautiful laser light show, that tells the history of the dam and its impact on American life through the years. We don't ride the bike at night much, but seeing that the dam was practically in our back yard, we ventured out around 9:30pm and really enjoyed it.

Moving on tomorrow...we have to try and get out of this smoke.

Happy trails. 🎵🎵

#7 - We Made It To Washington!

Friday, August 24, 2018

You'll never believe it! For the first time since we left Wisconsin, we woke up to a blue sky! Yay, Wallace! It was so pretty we decided to take a little walk around town before we left. It's a very cute little place with lots of flowers everywhere. We read a little memorial plaque along Main St. about the guy who saved the town. Apparently they wanted to put I-90 right straight through it many years ago. This guy fought it with all his heart and soul and in an eventual compromise, they elevated the highway to go over it instead of through it. What one person can do...

It wasn't long after we left Wallace that morning, that Washington (finally!) greeted us...with a smoky haze. So much for the blue sky. Spokane, WA was awful. Visibility was poor and you could actually smell the smoke which we really didn't before. We kept going west to the city of Grand Coulee and it didn't get much better. We were really concerned when the owner of the RV park where we were staying, wore a full face mask taking us to our site. They were so tired of it, I felt bad for them. Sure hope we don't have this our whole trip, but we'll see.
Our new RV site was one of the ugliest we've ever stayed in. Ha ha. In all fairness, they did tell us they only had one site left, and that's usually not a good thing. Not complaining here though, because while it was ugly, it was also the most convenient. We faced directly into the Laundromat and were adjacent to the dumpsters and propane station. Good news is we got all our laundry done, topped off the propane tank and kept a clean house. Life is good.
Off to the Grand Coulee Dam tomorrow!

Happy trails🎵🎵

#5 - Bozeman, Here We Come

Monday, August 20 & Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Monday was one of our longer drives, needing to go about 425 miles to reach Bozeman, Montana. I haven't talked much about the wildfires everywhere and the potential impact upon this trip. The further west we get, the more we wonder what each day will bring. So far we have noticed that most of our days have been hazy and we see very little blue sky. That's sorta sad because we all know a bright blue sky makes everything prettier. The province of British Columbia in Canada has more that 500 active fires burning right now. Many of the fires have been started by lightning, From what I can tell on various sites on the internet, there are 30 fires currently burning in Washington and Oregon. It's difficult to know exactly where they are and if they will be in our path. We also don't want to breathe smoky air in day after day. So we will take this one day at a time and try to make the best decisions we can. We hit rain coming into Bozeman last night and the temperature dropped considerably into the mid 40s! What a difference a couple of days can make. We stopped for some groceries and gas and then made our way to Bozeman Hot Springs and Campground. The wind picked up and we hunkered in for the night. I had two quilts on the bed and slept like a baby! Ha.
Today was a catch-up day for me. Pretty laid back and focused on bringing the blog up to date. Rick went to the hot springs and had a long soak. Nine natural springs ranging from 59 to 106 degrees.

Happy trails.

#4 - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was another wonderful experience. I had never really heard much about the park or the Badlands of North Dakota but they are beautiful, believe me. There is a 36-mile loop that runs through the park and between the perfect day (temperature in the 60s) and the beauty of nature, we were happy campers. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but you know me, just a little bit of history first. Theodore Roosevelt first came to the Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt buffalo. On February 14th of 1884, he lost both his mother and his wife, from different ailments. His wife, Alice Lee had given birth to a baby girl two days before her death. Needless to say, he was devastated and at the end of that year, he headed out for the Dakota Territories in search of healing and solitude. He lived as a rancher and worked as a sheriff for two years among others things. There's much more to the whole story that is quite interesting if you need something to Google, The park was not Roosevelt's own creation but rather it was established in 1947 as a national memorial park to honor him.

Later that day, after resting up a bit, we headed out again to further explore the area. We ended up on back gravel roads past farms and ranches and I actually started to see some of the advantages of our new trike. The ride was very smooth and I was starting to learn my way around it. It'll be just fine.

Happy trails!

#3 - We Love North Dakota!

Yikes! I'm way behind on the blog and we just got started!

Friday, August 17th

We started our day on Friday by going for a little ride on the motorcycle. We have a different one this year and the jury is still out for me. The Honda Goldwing went up for sale last fall and it sold quickly to a very nice couple who were thrilled. I was pretty sad to see it go, but Rick had test driven a Can-Am and fell in love with the fun and ease of driving it. It is very driver friendly but in my opinion, not so much for the passenger. Less room, comfort and convenience. I'm hoping I'll get used to it on this trip and love it as much as the old one.
Anyway, we had a real nice ride out in the backroads of North Dakota. The massive fields are beautiful greens and yellow goldens. I thought I was in Packer country! You can go for miles and never meet a car or never see a farm. Very peaceful. Once in a while you will come to a very small town but not much in terms of services or things going on. Most of the people in this area have to go all the way to Fargo for any type of health care, entertainment or shopping. A very different life.

We checked in with Gail later in the afternoon and went back to spend a little more time together.  We had all thought of more questions and things we wanted to talk about, but later on we said our sad farewells and headed back out to Lake Ashtabula. Thank you, Gail, for everything. We love you. ❤

Saturday, August 18th 

Our destination for today is Medora, ND, located 266 miles west of Valley City and about 20 miles from the Montana border. It is in the North Dakota badlands and the home of the south entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a place we want to visit tomorrow. I'm almost glad it's a driving day as it's hot and humid. High of 91. An uneventful drive got us there late afternoon and we went in search of our campground, Sully Creek State Park. We passed an RV Park in town that was so full and packed in, we were glad we could keep going. About two miles further out of town, we arrived at Sully Crrek, traveled down a washboard road and entered a huge fenced in field with red dirt roads, one pop-up camper, one tent, a vacant camp host site, and what felt like a 50 mph wind storm. Well, we were supposed to be in site #54 but do you think we could find it? After driving around looking at all the signposts, we were covered with a fine layer of red dust, and about ready to just pull into any site, when we found an opening in the fence that had a cattle guard entrance and a height restriction of 10 feet. Uh, oh. I sorta remembered something about that when I made the reservation, but I figured we could make it at 10'2".  We could see some campers in there so I got out to check the site numbers and sure enough, I found site 54. What a wonderful surprise it was!! A large private pull-through in amongst the trees with solid shade, and a gentle breeze. The height of our camper was just fine. Whew. Now the only thing I had to worry about was the heat as the park was entirely non-electric. We unloaded the trike and headed into town to scout it out. Lots of tourists but a very nice little place. We walked around and found a lady singing in the town square. She had a beautiful voice and drew us right in. A perfect way to end the day. I even survived the hot night with battery fans. 😌

Happy trails to you. 🎵

#2 - A Wonderful Reunion

Did you think I forgot about my blog?
There's always a story. Haha.

We left Hudson, WI Wednesday  morning, traveling through Minnesota from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Valley City, North Dakota, arriving here around 5:30pm or so. We had reserved a campsite at a campground about 18 miles north of Valley City, along Lake Ashtabula. It's a fine park but so far out in the boondocks, we had a little trouble finding it. Poor signage, instructions, and an unhelpful GPS had us all over the place! We saw some pretty sites in the meantime but it was a little crazy. We did eventually find it, of course, set up the camper along the river, and watched a pretty sunset. Being so far out, the park has no phone service, TV or internet. Life is sure very different without those things. I guess it's probably good to experience, once in a while, how dependent we have become on them. Rick actually brought me into town today and I am currently sitting in a cute little park, writing this.
Anyway....Rick's sister, Gail, has lived in or around Valley City, almost her entire adult life. She raised her four children here and is just a delightful woman. We spent the entire day with her yesterday, laughing and talking. She's three years older than Rick but a spunky little gal. She said she had a sore throat yesterday from talking too much! She and Rick reminisced about their childhood days, their parents, and life in Wauwatosa. It's always good for the soul to remember the fun (or naughty) times from childhood. We left just so we could get home before dark. She was worried about all the deer and we were too. We saw a couple but they politely stayed on the side of the road. 

Happy trails