Days 17-20...caught up...

Northern Idaho

On the way to Couer d'Alene

the beach at Lake C d'A

Day 17~ We made our way to Coeur d'Alene, ID (about 8 hours). After setting up camp, Jason started our fire for cooking the hot dogs we had bought at the small Durango ranch. While building the fire, we experienced a small crisis when wasps attacked Jason and left him with three battle wounds (the earlier mentioned cows probably called ahead to set up the whole thing:) Oh, now we know why the people next door from Canada have the wasp catcher.

Despite the insect activity, we did enjoy a camp dinner, some laughs, and a good night's sleep.

Day 18- Couer d'Alene is a beautiful city that is surrounded by some of the most beautiful forest that we have seen since Colorado and we were excited to explore it. Downtown near the lake was very busy because it just happened to be the day of their Annual Arts Festival. We walked around, had some fun at the 6000 sq ft playground, listened to a band, and had some lunch. Again, we were lucky enough to happen upon a local event on our ventures into town and I was really happy because I got to buy a parasol. We explored the city a little more, came back to camp, swam, played, had some dinner and turned in for the night. We must have been having so much fun that the only pictures we have are a few of the beach at Lake Couer d'Alene.


Day 19- We drove for about 3 hours and made our way to Missoula, MT. The drive into Montana through northern Idaho is beautiful and we were amazed by the thick vegetation of the forests compared to that of the rockier, drier terrain that we have experienced throughout much of the West. Missoula is a nice city with much access to water, hiking, and biking. Tomorrow we are trying to make our way to/through Bozeman, MT to figure out a way to see Yellowstone for a few days. Hopefully we will find a spot at a "first come first serve" RV site.

Day 20- Today, Aug. 2nd- Staying the night in Bozeman, MT and will make our way to Yellowstone tomorrow. Got to hang around Bozeman today. Cute city with a lot of old western charm mixed with the outdoors and a hip new crowd.

My goal tomorrow is to take more pictures

Tonight's sunset in Bozeman

Finally...something new!

Wow...starting to realize how hard it is to make myself get online and write a recap of our adventures!!

Day 11-July 24th~ A long day of driving. Instead of visiting Twin Falls, ID, we drove to Boise and arrived late at night. Not much of any note. Above are pictures from our drive including our picnic spot that we found along the highway!

Day 12- This was a great day in Boise! It is a beautiful city with a wonderful park system (27 miles of parks with bike paths, hiking, playgrounds, and river access). We spent the day exploring the parks by taking a trolley ride, walking on the many paths along the river, visiting the zoo, and rafting the Boise River. In the middle of all of this, I visited the rose gardens while Jason and Fletcher looked around the sites of a "Goddess Fest" that happened to be going on that day. I think that they were most impressed by the belly dancers. Also, if visiting the zoo in Boise, don't go in the middle of Summer in the middle of the day...most of the animals are sleeping, but the lions, tigers and penguins did give us a little show. Tiger wins "Most Photogenic":) There was so much to do in this "City of Trees" that we wish that we would have had more time to spend there.

Day 13_From Boise, we spent this day driving to Bend, OR. A pretty uneventful drive. If you want to know what eastern Oregon looks like...drive through west Texas! There were some nice sites along a valley and mountain pass though. When we reached Bend, there were no sites at the Tumalo State Park (we really wanted to stay there), but when you have no reservations and you reach a state park on a Sunday night, that is a risk you have to take. The Sisters/Bend KOA took us in for the night...and the next four nights after for that matter. We got set up and went in to the town of Sisters, OR for some dinner at "Bronco Billy's" who claim to have the "best burger in Oregon". We decided that we happened to have the worst "best" burger in Oregon that night.

Day 14~ Shots from our hike at Three Creek Lake

All three of us went on a pretty adventurous hike at "Three Creek Lake" in the Deschutes National Forest Three Sister's Wildnerness area. What we thought was going to be a three mile "easy" loop hike ended up being about six miles of moderate hiking, but the scenery was beautiful though. Fletcher was feeling pretty puny so we took it easy at home for a while. Eventually he was running a fever and vomiting. After two episodes and never-ending headaches, we decided to take him to the ER (the only medical help available so late at night). I was worried that he was suffering from some altitude sickness or meningitis. It ended up being Strep. He is 100% better now though! Until he got sick though, we had no indicators that he was having any trouble at all except for the occasional headache that we attributed to altitude change. Seriously...don't worry. He's back in action. After our ER trip and almost restful sleep, we were ready for a nice relaxing day the next day.

A strange and beautifully sculpted tree

Jason decided to take a dip in the ice-cold lake at the top of our hike!

Day 15- Fletcher and I were going to take it easy this day. We had the oil changed in the truck, visited Wal-Mart to "look at the toys" and rested. Jason went on a hike. This wasn't just any hike. He was going to the top of "South Sister", 3rd hightest peak in Oregon. What we thought was just going to be a 6 hour hike for him ended up being 10 hours of him wandering, finally making it to the top with the last 1.5 hours in the dark(no flashlight of course). Yes, I was very mad, worried, etc. Yes, he knows that he was stupid and wreckless. This is a situation that he will not be in again!!!!! He did make it to the top though even running out of water in the mean time. If you want to know what central Oregon looks like from 10, 358 ft., here are some shots.

Day 16- We started our day by checking out nearby Redmond, OR and having breakfast at the "Black Bear Diner"- a great place to eat if you are ever out west! We made our way into Bend and spent the day exploring the city. We had the best time at the "Working Wonders" Children's Museum. It is a fabulous hands-on museum that Fletcher really enjoyed. After that we ventured downtown to Drake Park where we fed the geese and also got chased by them! We were lucky enough to also enjoy the Bend Farmer's Market where we had a chance to sample some local fruits, veggies, baked goods, cheese, and meat. It was great!!! We then drove around town and explored. After a short game of putt-putt and a little cleaning it was time for dinner at the Tumalo Feed Company.

Working Wonders

Drake Park

okay...time to catch up...days 6,7,8,9,& 10

(Avove, hot springs in Durango) Day 6- My last post ended in Creede and that was sooo long ago. Day 6 we left Creede and headed to Durango and stayed at Haviland Lake State Park at around 8000 ft. Beautiful place, but only elec. hookup. We fashioned a fancy funnel out of a water bottle in order to have fresh water in the Kiwi because the water that was available was not a hook-up sight. Fletcher had a ball running gallons of water up and down the hill. We were quite the camping assembly line. After getting set up, we headed out to dinner at the Bar-D Chuckwagon. We had a great time there (see video of the after dinner show). The chuckwagon dinner is set up family style so we had a chance to get to know the Heck family from Louisiana and Colorado.

The next day (day 7) we spent some fun at the Durango Mt. Resort where Fletcher rock climbed and entertained the masses with a grand finale flip on the bungee tramp. We all did the Alpine Slide (a huge slide that you get to by riding the ski lift; you ride a sled down a winding water slide that has no water...super fun)and played putt-putt (if you go, skip the putt-putt:). We spent the afternoon looking around Durango and neighboring Bayfield. Fletcher especially enjoyed the goats at a small ranch that we visited on our way back to camp. While in town we bought fresh buffalo in order to have our first buffalo burgers cooked over an open flame. After we all went on a short hike, Jason went to work cutting wood with his camp axe (long process). We finally got the fire hot enough to cook our burgers and they were pretty good! Finished dinner around...well, late...and enjoyed looking at the stars- there were soooo many to see.

Day 8- We decided to make our next stop Grand Junction, CO. The drive there was pretty awesome as we had to travel through a mountain pass carrying the Kiwi behind us. Some of the pictures here are from that drive and I tried to capture the side of the road that had no railing!!! Stayed at James M. Cobb State Park on the CO River. Spent a while doing laundry, playing on the playground, and collecting rocks from a pond. Decided that this was just a stop-and-go place and would pack up the next morning and head out.

Day 9- Headed out of Grand Junction on our way through Fruita, CO to visit the Dinosaur Museum and the Colorado National Monument (see pics). Had a lot of fun at both and wished that we had more time to drive through the entire monument pass. The park rangers helped us decide to visit Vernal, UT in order to see the dinosaur museum there and visit the Dinosaur National Monument. Travelled on the Dinosaur scenic byway which involved another mountain pass...this time with rails ;) Finally made it to Vernal and stayed at the KOA. Dinner...sleep...

Day 10- I am finally caught up. We visited the awesome dinosaur museum (a must-see if in Utah) here in Vernal and the Dinosaur National Monument as well. The bone quarry at the monument is closed, but we still decided it was worth the trip. At the monument, we did get to see some awesom petroglyphs and a pioneer cabin as well as do a little hiking (BTW, it is just as hot in Utah as it is in AL; I don't care if Jason says it is a dry heat :). I have to admit, I only ventured on the hikes where there was shade. Next time we decided that we would have our outside adventures in the a.m. and the inside adventures in the afternoon/p.m. In between these two adventures, we finally got Fletcher that haircut that he requested. Went to the beauty school in Vernal and paid $5. He got a very nice haircut and is very happy with the result. WE ended our day with a very late lunch, a swim in the pool with way too many people, playing on the playground, baths, snacks, blog writing, and finally sleep...

Starting day 11 and on our way to Twin Falls, ID (hopefully)...

Here is Fletcher with his new haircut!!

days 4 & 5 (July 17 and 18)

So, that scenic byway we took ended up being quite an adventure. About 30 miles down the road we smelled burning metal and the steering was funny, so we pulled off of the road at the entrance to a guest ranch (asuming that there was someone there who would let us use a phone because we had no service). Jason began the 3 mile hike up to the ranch house where he claims to have been the victim of a cattle ambush...in the meantime as Fletcher and I watched a DVD in the truck, an unsuspecting couple drove in, just curious about the ranch. God must have been looking out for us because this couple, Dale and Nancy Hayes from small town Oklahoma, drove us to the nearest town and helped us find a mechanic, then followed us back into town after we unhooked the "Kiwi". We suspected brake trouble (I heard mumblings of rotor problems) but after the very nice mechanic examined our truck it seemed that our only and very big problem was that both of the front wheel lug nuts had not been tightened from their last encounter with a mechanic and the tires were about to fall off!!!!!! What we thought was going to be a very expensive fix ended up costing only $5. We humbly treated the Hayes' to lunch at a local diner and we each went our separate ways.

We finally made it to Creede in time to get set up at an RV park, get dressed and make it to Swiss Family Robinson at the world famous Creede Reperatory Theatre. Fletcher is now a HUGE fan of the stage and happily sat through the 2+ hour show. We are planning to take him to the next show we find in the cities that we plan to visit.

Day 5 our last day in Creede was a fabulous lunch at Kip's Grill and house keeping duties :) so that we could make it to Durango on Day 6!

Hopefully I will be able to get days 6 and 7 documented tomorrow!

Fletcher's quote: "Mom, I think that I need a haircut. Do they have barber shops in Colorado?"

3 days on the road

Sorry that it has taken me 4 days to finally post something. It is very difficult to type while driving and once we set up camp, the last thing I think about is getting on the computer :)

July 14th was our first day on the road. Leaving at 4 a.m. leaves one a little edgey, so I must say that I was pretty nervous about the whole thing and really gave Jason a hard time. We were headed for our first stop in Little Rock to stay for the night in order to make it to Colorado by day 3. It just happened to be Bastille Day. So after a few hours in the car and time for all of our nerves to settle we thought it would be a good idea to have some French cake....we had to settle for Fletcher eating a Krispy Cream from a gas station (which we frequented for multiple fills-up).

Our route to the western U.S. might not have been the shortest, but we just couldn't stand another stretch on I-10 through Texas. Instead, we travelled north through Mississippi and cut across Louisiana into Arkansas. If you've never been to this part of these states, you are missing hundreds of miles of farmland and silos.

We set up camp around 4:30 p.m. at the North Little Rock KOA. Pizza, a game of UNO, and hot showers had us ready for bed. Thanks to Bill at the KOA for getting our battery properly hooked up. We owe you a bottle of Scotch and some birds' nest soup :) We are now the proud owners of a KOA membership which leads us to day 2.

Just some extra stuff:

Fletcher is proud of his new knowledge that "couple" means two and enjoys explaining this every time someone uses the word.

12 hours is a really long time in the car.

Rabbits like to live at RV parks. You can spot them everywhere around the park.

Day 2, July 15th

Drove for 12 hours and spent the night in Amarillo, TX for the night. Most of Amarillo looks like a barren desert and railroad loading docks. The KOA here is very nice though. We enjoyed a hay ride, F and J swam in the very cold pool, and we enjoyed sandwiches for dinner. There was a nice north Texas breeze at night and all of the locals were happy that it rained later. Saw more bunnies. Fletcher came in the camper requesting carrots. I thought he wanted a snack, but seconds later I saw him chasing a bunny into another campsite and throwing baby carrots at it. Needless to say, the bunny didn't partake while we were there.

Thanks to the nice gentleman that works at the KOA for talking Jason through his first back-in campsite. Super nice people at the Amarillo KOA.

*Jason and I both agree before stopping for the night that we really shouldn't drive for 12 hours again tomorrow!

Day 3, July 16th

Jason's birthday! Well, he didn't have a party or cake, but we did finally drive into CO which is worth much more to him. We made it to Trinidad, CO to stay for the night. A cute little town with what looked like a nice downtown and cultural influence. The only problem was the 200+ youthgroup that stopped at the same time at McD's to eat. We stayed at Trinidad Lake State Park. There weren't any shower facilities at the time and we learned that it takes much more time than we spent to get a fresh water full enough to last a night. At least we had enough water to make it until 7 p.m. Baths were out of the questions though ;)

Got to sleep with the windows open and feel the nice cool air, but closed our bed windows in the middle of the night b/c of all of the extra campground noise.

Starting Day 4 today. On our way to Creede, CO. One of our favorite places. We are planning lunch at Kip's Grill and then at the famous Creede Repertory Theatre. We are taking the scenic byway 12, also called "The Highway of Legends". More to come later...