Home Again, Johnnykin

From Elko to Verdi, Nevada, is about 300 miles. We covered that in about 5 1/2 hours on Tuesday, the 20th of August, and spent the night at a KOA. We don't normally stay in KOA parks due to the tight quarters and narrow roads. This one, the Reno/Boomtown KOA was no exception, but we needed the electric service since the temperature was in the 90's and we needed the air conditioner!

It doesn't look too bad, but consider that A: this pic was taken mid-afternoon before we had neighbors, and B: this was a site on the end of a row that required us to make a 250 degree turn to exit. We did it, but had to unhook the tow car and "back-and-forth" it several times!

Next morning, our last of the trip, we hit I-80 again and finally got back to Cali!

Pulling into home 175 miles later, it was immediately apparent that some cleaning was needed to the motorhome. Along with the flagpole installation and some cleaning in 90+ degree heat, reminded me why I don't like the Dog Days of Summer!

But we had the carrot on a stick out in front of us: two burgers at In-n-Out! Extra crispy fries and a chocolate shake!

This summers trip was considerably shorter than normal because we needed to return to address some health issues, but it was nevertheless a good summer. We practically ran back to the motorhome factory for some repairs, then visited friends and family for a month or so, and then it was time to come home. We met Larry and Debbie in Forest City, Iowa, Dave and Toni in Charlotte, Michigan, Chris at the motorhome factory, and Bill and Diane in Michigan. The summer had it's ups and downs, but rather than get discouraged by the number of trees in the forest, we're concentrating on just one at a time and keeping a sharp axe!

We managed to drive the tow car 3,406 miles in 90 days, while putting 6,392 miles on the motorhome! Almost 10,000 miles in three months! It was a good time overall, and we are blessed to have the opportunity to see so much of this wonderful country, and have so many good people in our extended and immediate family.

We'll be stuck in NorCal for the foreseeable future, so I won't be posting much. Next stop....Arizona in the Winter!

Once again, Elko, Nevada

211 miles south of Declo, Idaho, lies the wonderful town of Elko, Nevada! And here we are again at Iron Horse RV Resort. We kinda hated to leave Village of Trees in Declo, as it was a nice park with lots of grass for Sasha and the Snake River close by. This morning the maintenance crew was out early with sprinklers watering the grass....it looks great!

We crossed the Snake River again in Twin Falls. As we were crossing a bridge over the canyon, we caught sight of a golf community down near the river. Pretty cool!

Bailing off of I-84 at Twin Falls, we picked up US93 towards Wells, Nevada. It's kinda lonely out here!

It's 106 miles from Twin Falls to Wells, on one of those straight and semi-uninteresting western roads. The highlight of that leg of todays journey (aside from driving through Jackpot, Nevada, a casino town mere inches from the Idaho/Nevada state line) was waiting at road construction for most of a half hour. We were hoping that we would be stopped under the wild animal overcrossing, but no such luck.

Iron Horse is a very nice park, and with the change in time to the Pacific time zone, we gained an hour, which Donna is putting to good use doing laundry!

One more stop in western Nevada tomorrow night, and then it's home to NorCal! Can't wait to see family and friends and see wassup!!

Ya Gotta Go With The Flow...

We left Great Falls, Montana, in a rainstorm. There's been a lot of that lately! Zipping south on I-15, we followed the Missouri River until it went a bit east near Wolf Creek, and into Holter Lake. We continued south into Helena, Boulder, and Butte, until we ended up in space C2 of Countryside RV Park in Dillon, Montana. The Missouri, however, continued on to its headwaters near Three Forks, Montana, where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers converge to form the Missouri.

The mountains in the distance appear to have snow on them, but it is just a collection of clouds!

Rolling into Butte, Montana, we noticed that it is an extensive city that just about fills the valley it started in.

We needed to stop just west of Butte for fuel at a Flying J truck stop. Diesel was $2.78 per gallon here, and $2.62 across the street at the Mom and Pop shop! Unfortunately, the onramp back onto the interstate left something to be desired.

Countryside is a quiet, primarily overnighter, park. The wind was kicking up a bit, and the temp had plummeted to the 40's, so we stayed indoors most of the evening.

Then things started to get interesting: we decided to disconnect the car and go into downtown Dillon. Well, maybe not....as we drove away from the rv park, we noticed some unusual shifting patterns in the cars transmission. We kept on for a few miles with no change. Uh-oh. It's Saturday night in a small town. No stores or repair shops open. So back to the park trying to decide what to do.

Leaving Countryside on Sunday morning, holding our breath, the car towed fine, so we headed south again. Somewhere near Lima, Montana, we pulled off onto a roadside rest to talk about our options. We had reservations at an rv park near Teton National Park, and planned to take a tour of the park tomorrow. After an hour of back and forth, we reluctantly decided to cancel the Tetons and go straight home. So off we went again.

In Pocatello we merged onto I-86, heading toward Twin Falls, Idaho. This is potato country. Thousands of acres of potatoes as well as a lot of sugar beets.

At a rest stop near Blackfoot, Idaho, we came across some very interesting lava formations. According to the sign, molten rock was forced upward for 30 to 50 miles through fissures in the earth, where it has cooled into the hard lava seen here. This area of eastern Idaho is primarily a lava plain lightly covered with layers of windblown soil. Eventually these lava formation will be covered with soil and vegetation.

Just a bit west of American Falls, I-86 nears the Snake River, and follows it closely for miles.

West of Pocatello about 50 miles, we found Village of Trees RV Resort, whose only address is: Interstate 84, Exit 216, Declo, Idaho. Still, it's a nice park with wide gravel roads, good utilities, and lots and lots of trees! Plus, it's located right along the Snake River!

Tomorrow we're rolling again, hopefully into Nevada if all goes well. Wish us luck!

Great Falls, Montana

We've been in Great Falls for two days and three nights, after negotiating US 87 from Lewistown, about 106 miles east of GF. Our main reason for visiting here, aside from never having been here, is to visit the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center. Quite a mouthful of a title!

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Missouri River and determine the most direct and practicable water route across the continent. Sounds simple enough, right? But at the time, the Louisiana Purchase had not been ratified by Congress, so Lewis had a custom keelboat built in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and floated it and a huge amount of supplies down the Ohio to the Mississippi. Meeting Captain William Clark there, they waited until the United States officially owned the Louisiana Purchase, then assembled a group of 44 men and additional supplies and set off. Lewis had an inventive and analytical mind, and had used this time of waiting to foresee almost every eventuality of the journey. Trade goods, extra clothing and shoes, a collapsible iron boat frame designed to be covered with animal hides, and even an air-powered rifle obtained from the armory in Harpers Ferry that could fire 40 rounds before reloading!

On May 14, 1804, the expedition set off under a 'gentle brease". Captain Clark, like so many 19th century writers, spelled words the way they sounded, with little concern for consistency. He managed to spell "Sioux" 27 ways, without ever spelling it S-I-O-U-X. Both Lewis and Clark were not totally unprepared for the coming mission, being frontiersmen and military men, but neither were prepared for a 28 month journey that would become the most universally known event of American exploration.

The Great Falls of the Missouri tested the company's skill and endurance as they had to portage boats and supplies around five separate falls. An exhibit in the Interpretive Center shows how that was accomplished. Lengths of Cottonwood trees were cut as wheels and carts were constructed to haul the dugout boats around the falls, some 18 miles overland.

With the help of many native american tribes, and making the best use of native indian guides, the Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific in mid-November, 1805. Winter quarters were set up at the mouth of the Columbia River, with conditions deteriorating rapidly throughout the season. The Corps left for the return trip in March, 1806, reaching St. Louis on September 23, 1806, with a wealth of information about this huge new addition to the nation.

We also visited the falls along the Missouri while we were in town. This is Black Eagle Falls, or at least what's left of it. Named by the Corps of Discovery after a black eagle that nested in a large tree just above the falls as they traveled through.

 The Great Falls is now also being used to produce hydroelectric power. When it was first seen by Meriwether Lewis in June of 1805, it was just short of 97 feet high and produced a cloud of spray that looked "like a collum of smoke."

Downstream from the Great Falls, the water from the hydroelectric generators and the water from the dam overflow come back together in an awesome setting.

This is grain country. Whether wheat, barley, rye or other, there are thousands of acres of grain. We saw these two combines slowly making their way across the plain.

Our last stop was Rainbow Falls and Crooked Falls. This view downstream is of Crooked Falls. Not so impressive these days, but an impassable area of the river 200 years ago.

Rainbow Falls is but a trickle of its former glory. Of course, much is made of the electricity produced, but I couldn't help but long for the wild river of the old days!

 We're outta here tomorrow, with an overnight stop in the little town of Dillon, Montana, along I-15, heading south toward Idaho. So long, Great Falls!

Central Montana

Lewistown, to be exact. Just a bit northwest of Billings and 280 miles from our last stop in Terry, Montana. We elected to leave our friend I-94 in Forsyth, MT, and take US 12 northwest. From Forsyth to  Roundup, MT is 103 miles of two-lane road, surrounded by grain fields, hay fields, and ranch land.

On that 103 miles we saw exactly 40 other vehicles. Yes, we counted them...

Eleven miles of road construction slowed us down to 20 miles per hour. We felt like we were packing down the gravel for the worker guys! A pilot car led us the whole way, but had trouble slowing down to our snails pace. We didn't want to send rocks and gravel back onto the tow car.

At Roundup, we turned north on US 87, which is a much better road overall than US 12, but still had some rough spots. The countryside continually changed from rolling hills with pine trees to flat range land. Very interesting!.

This state is truly awe inspiring! The length and breadth of the "wide, open, spaces" is amazing.

Nearing our destination of Lewistown, we began to see thousands of round bales of hay. Hay in every direction!.

In Lewistown, we're site 33 of Mountain Acres Mobile Home Park and Campground. This is a great park, with wide and long spaces, good utilities, and good weather (at least this time of year). This next weekend is the annual Cowboy Poet event, but sadly, we'll be gone and on....

As we were walking Sasha tonight, we discovered a hidden treasure just across the street from our rv park. Keep in mind that Montana is known for great fishing, and this area in particular is a favorite fly fishing area. We found a perfect little river tucked into the trees. I just know that there are hundreds of fish in there!

Beauty and the Beast

Our second day in Montana started with a couple of loads of laundry and a good breakfast. A cup of coffee fixed just the way we like, and we're off to a good start!

As we left Terry in late morning, we passed by the Kempton Hotel, the longest continually operating hotel in the state of Montana.

The Yellowstone River is just outside of town, so we went to look at it. This muddy mess looks nothing like the clean river that flows through Yellowstone Park.

Driving about 40 miles northeast on I-94, back the way we come yesterday, we found Makoshika State Park. Had to take a look!

This park is situated in an area of badlands where many fossils have been found. From the entrance station to the end-of-road turnaround is just a few miles, so here we go...

Just barely visible in the far distance is the ranching valley that follows the Yellowstone River.

Sandstone, laid down millions of years ago, has been attacked by wind and rain, leaving interesting formations under harder pieces of stone.

The road winds to the top of a hill, about 2,500 feet in elevation, that is named "Radio Hill" for obvious reasons!

They don't call this Big Sky Country for nothing!

Erosion has laid bare the many layers of sediment laid down when this area was a great ocean.

From hundreds of small "hoodoos' to great, long ones, it is amazing to think that these have resisted falling for thousands, or millions, of years.

Parking at the end-of-road turnaround, we set off to see a formation called "Twin Sisters", only to find that another visitor was on the trail! This 3 1/2 foot specimen was simply enjoying the warm sunshine. We gave him a wide berth nevertheless!

Geologic time is measured in epochs, several of which are visible here.

How do these things support those huge rocks?

Our first glimpse of the Sisters.

The trail leads through a coniferous forest, with pinecones just forming.

The Twin Sisters....

And at their base, as if to be an altar, a great slab of stone is supported by soft sandstone. The many little white specks are small, abrasive, white pieces of hard rock. I'm sure a geologist would know what to name them, but we just called them "salt"!

No more dramatic view of natural erosion can be seen than here in Makoshika.

Leaving the Sisters to stand watch over their home, we turned our attention to home.

And it's a Big Sky!

Returning to Terry, we walked with Sasha around the residential district of town. Only a few blocks in each direction, we couldn't help but notice the sad state of the town. The baseball field in the city park is overgrown with weeds and in disrepair. There may not be enough young people in town anymore to field a team.

Many occupied homes are in need of repair.

And more than a few need to have the weeds removed, or at least cut down to a manageable height.

It's so sad to see a town slowly fading away. Businesses have closed, the last dentist left town years ago, and the hospital is staffed only as needed by out-of-town people. Emergency? Call for an appointment, evidently...

We will remember the friendly owner of Small Towne RV Park and his young helpers, and wish him and his family well as they struggle to keep heads above water. Good Luck!