FMCA Rally, Redmond (OR) Rocks

We had a great week in Redmond! This is our first view of Sisters on our way over to Redmond. We stayed 3 nights in Burns prior to heading over to Redmond. While there we met a few couples who were also headed to Redmond. One couple knew Jane and Fred really well, they also camp at S.I.S.C.R.A. every summer. The couple right next to us was a neat couple from Erick, OK. We also got to see them quite a bit while at the FMCA Rally.
Several manufacturers had displays or booths at the Rally. Mr. Bob Tiffin was in an Allegro Bus that we went through and I got to get my picture taken with him. He has the respect of quite a lot of RV suppliers and RV owners. His business philosophy is the reason we chose a Tiffin Motorhome so it was really an honor to meet him and be able to talk with him.
This was taken through one of the gates into the Deschutes Fairgrounds in Redmond where the FMCA was held. We went to lots of really good seminars and the daytime entertainment was a good variety of talent and very good.
This is the row we were in. We're way down there! There were about 2200 coaches at the Rally. Lots of people and lots of fun!
This is a picture of Coleen and Mike in their neat little cart (it collapses and goes into the back of their SUV!) They are the fun couple we met in Burns prior to going to Redmond. We went out to dinner a couple of times with them and we went to the evening entertainment with them a couple of times.
The evening entertainment was anywhere from excellent to not so great. Debbie Reynolds was a real treat the first night. The Texas Tenors sing country music interspersed with a little opera! Live Bait, the Jimmy Buffet Band was a huge disappointment! We expected calypso, we got hard rock. The Motown group was a really good, talented band and we really enjoyed them. This is a picture of the Motown Group.
We left Redmond today and took this last final picture of Sisters!
I took this one as we went over Santiam Pass. There was a huge fire through her within the past few years, but the fire opened things up so you can see a lot more. We are now in Harrisburg for this week for the Freightliner Chassis Owner's Club Rally then we'll head up to the Portland area to see about fixing the Honda.

Great Boise Visit

We had a great visit in Boise! Jenn & the kids came up for a day this week and we went to the State Capital building to see the "new" building. This is Karson & Kate in one of the chambers.
After the tour we went out to lunch at a neat restaurant in downtown Boise. They had an old car set up as a booth. The kids loved it!

The next morning we went out to breakfast at our favorite spot in Meridian, the Sunrise Cafe. The favorite aunt with a very tired Claire and Kate.
Karson with one of his favorite buddies!
Jenn and Loriann looking at pictures. We also got to have dinner with Betsy's Mom and siblings several times. Had good visits with everyone and even got to hear Chuck practice the piano (it's been a long time since we've heard him play!) The last night we went to Epi's Basque Restaurant in Meridian. Really good food and even better company! After almost 3 weeks, we had to leave so we could get to Redmond, OR for an FMCA Rally.
BUT we only got to the Flying J in Caldwell!! We were parked in the RV Parking eating our breakfast when we heard a crunch. It was a fifth wheel saying "hi" to our CRV! We're not sure of the damage, but we've already talked to their insurance company and we'll probably have it fixed while we're in Oregon.
What a finale to very good visits with family for almost two months! We're looking forward to seeing our southern Idaho family when we travel through again on our way east in September.

Visiting Family

We arrived in Burley on 29 June and got to stay three weeks visiting the kids. We went to a big picnic at Jason's parents, a Ward breakfast at Harris Pond, watched fireworks from our coach, went to breakfast in Declo for Declo Days and later that day went to the Declo Days parade. We got to watch the grandkids a lot (that's always fun). And Grandma, Jenn, Kate & Claire went shopping in Twin Falls while Grandpa & Karson went to lunch and a movie (Toy Story 3) together. That was a fun day! The picture above was taken from the kids front porch at sunset. They get some beautiful sunsets over the Snake River!
We're waiting for the parade to start. Once it started we all stood up because they were throwing so much candy the kids were scrambling most of the time to get some (grandpa likes scrambling too!)
The last Saturday we were in Burley, we drove up to Lake Cleveland for a picnic. It was the first weekend it was open for the season so it was a really pretty drive. It's about an hour south of where the kids live so not a really long drive. There was still some snow on the hills around the lake as you can see in this picture, there was more in the shadows, but I couldn't get a good shot of it.
After our picnic, Jason and Karson wanted to fish on the lake for a while. Here's Jason trying to catch something and a good view of part of the lake.
Karson was fishing too while we watched and Grandpa read to the girls. We got cold as the sun was setting so we were trying to bundle up. It had been in the 90s down in Burley, but it was only 74 when we got to Lake Cleveland. As the sun set it got even colder!
Grandpa reading to Kate and Claire. We had to leave Burley 19 July so we could come up to Boise to visit family here. I haven't gotten a lot of pictures, but on Tuesday I got to take my Mom out to lunch with some of her friends to celebrate a birthday. Then we went back to her house to have cake.
Around Mom's table celebrating Clarissa's birthday. We had German Chocolate Cake and had a really fun day. Saturday we had a great family picnic at my sister, Kathy's, but of course I didn't take any pictures! The siblings and Mom also got together Sunday afternoon, but again, I forgot to take any pictures. We are getting family pictures taken on Tuesday next week though so I will get some. We're having a good summer so far, it's always fun to visit with family and be able to enjoy each person.

US 95 plus a Trabi

This trip is especially for Di & Rick because they have told us how much they miss northern Idaho. I didn't remember to take any pictures while up on the Palouse, but I did start taking them about when we passed Ferdinand on the Camas Prairie. What is more appropriate than a picture of a grain elevator for this part of the country.
This was taken on the big hill between Ferdinand and Cottonwood. If you look really hard you can see the 7 Devils peeking over the horizon. Not a bad shot for the end of June (they're not as clear as in March when the air is so clean, but to have them visible at all was pretty cool!)
This is the Camas Prairie looking toward Grangeville.
Couldn't miss taking a shot of canola in bloom.
We were stopped for construction at the bottom of White Bird hill so I took this one overlooking the Camas Prairie looking north toward Cottonwood.
At the top of White Bird Hill looking south.
You might have to enlarge this one to see the semi clear at the bottom of the hill! We went down really slow with the coach and had no problem on the hill.
If you look really hard there is some sandbar at Skookemchuck. The Salmon River was high, but we've definitely seen it a lot higher!
The Salmon River again from one of the Twin Bridges.
Looking down the Salmon River Canyon.
More Salmon River Canyon.
The Time Bridge! Our personal landmark on our ride south.
The Little Salmon River was really pretty with lots of white water.
Just thought this was a pretty shot looking south as we traveled up the Little Salmon.
One of the falls on the Little Salmon.
The "big" falls just before you get to the New Meadows valley.
At the top of the hill looking across the valley.
Had to get a picture of the cattle on their summer grazing fields. There were lots of them all over the valley.

This was taken from the hill going down into Council. It was nice to be able to go through and not stop for fuel like we always had to before.

On Sunday, July 4th, the Jones family drove to church in their "new" car. This is Jason's Trabi! He just got it running Saturday so the whole family piled in a drove to church. It makes our CRV look huge! It sounds a bit like a lawn mower, but it's a fun little car and the kids had fun riding in it. We have had so much fun with the kids and grandkids and we get to stay here in Burley for another almost 2 weeks, then we'll move up to Meridian so we can see all our family in the Treasure Valley. Summer sure is a busy time!!!!!

And Here We Have Idaho

We finally made it "home" again. It was a really good trip driving across I-90 through Montana, although it was snowing on the summit when we fueled up in Butte and the rain on our awning froze overnight when we camped in Garrison! There was lots of water in the rivers all through Montana and northern Idaho. Our first view of Idaho was of course from the top of Lookout Pass and it was spectacular. We realize how much we miss the mountains when we come back to visit.
These two got out of order so I'll just write under both of them. I had to put pictures of Coeur d'Alene on our blog for Di. I know she misses this country too. We fueled up in Post Falls and then spent the weekend at Charlie's (Howard's cousin) in the Spokane valley. On Monday we drove down to park at Granite Lake RV Resort in Clarkston, WA so we could visit family in Lewiston. The first week we were here, Betsy got to drive up to Moscow with our good friend, Carma and go to the "Lunch Bunch" and visit with lots of Moscow friends. That was really fun!
The first weekend we were in Lewiston, we took Aunt Laura and Dorothy (Howard's Mom) over to Bridgeport, WA to celebrate their sister-in-law Becky's 95th birthday. As we drove by Grand Cooley Dam, we noticed they were letting lots of water out so we stopped and took a picture. I had to get one with the two sisters in it too!
Chief Joseph Dam is just east of Bridgeport and we could hear the roar of the water clear over from Becky's deck! It was really something to see so much water in the Columbia this time of year. We had a great time visiting with lots of family members and helping Becky celebrate her birthday. Last night we had Howard's brothers and Mom over for dinner. It was fun to visit and catch up on what they're doing. We'll be here in Clarkston until Monday, then we'll head for Burley for about two weeks to visit. We've been super busy visiting friends and family. We wish we could see everyone, but there aren't enough hours in the day!!

The Black Hills of South Dakota

We decided to drive the Iron Mountain Highway our first day in the Black Hills. It is a windy, narrow road with tunnels and lots of bridges. This is the first pigtail we went through. The road was built in 1919 and is really a beautiful drive.
This is a good picture of what the road does as it climbs the hill. There are lots of trees, but also areas where you can see out over the Black Hills that are really spectacular.
After going through this narrow, low and very long tunnel, we found out the tour buses go through here too! They only use experienced drivers and there isn't much room on each side of the bus. We were glad to have the car on this road.
This was the view that we got coming out of the second tunnel on our trip. It had a bit of the WOW factor. We went around a pigtail curve, crossed the bridge, went through the tunnel and got a really good shot. We went on this drive early in the morning so the sun was shining directly on Mount Rushmore.
After all the curves and tunnels we got on a bit of flatter land and saw a few pronghorns so we stopped to watch them. Then we noticed the fawn among the adults! What a treat, it scampered around for some time so we could take lots of pictures. When we told the rangers at the Custer State Park Visitor's Center that we had seen the fawn, they said we were extremely lucky because very few are ever seen and they had never seen one!
Burros in Custer State Park are not "wild" they are actually decedents of burros the minors brought to the area. They are wild now, but are very curious when you stop to watch them. This little guy was very hard to get a picture of, it was running around and mama kept trying to stay really close. They were really fun to watch.
We took a wrong turn on the Wildlife Loop Road through Custer State Park and coming around a curve we spotted this herd of buffalo. There were about 100 head in the herd so I couldn't get all of them in one picture. It was really quite a site!
As we got around closer to the herd, we spotted lots of babies. This one got really curious when we stopped to watch and allowed me to get a really closeup picture.
After all the shots of animals (we also saw a mountain goat and a turkey and we have lots more pictures of antelope and buffalo) my battery died in the camera! After a great morning driving and getting to see so much this was a bit anti-climatic, but it was neat to see again. They haven't gotten much done in the ten years since we saw it last though.
What can you say? Mount Rushmore is really awesome to see no matter how many times you've seen it! This is one of my favorite shots of the monument. We also visited the museum again and we got to have ice cream at the cafe (that's always a treat!)

Our last day in the Black Hills we got to go to a chuckwagon dinner at Ft. Hays Dances with Wolves. It was a good dinner and show and it was fun to see so many buildings from the set of Dances With Wolves. We also went through the Mount Rushmore Black Hills Jewelry Factory. That was a cool tour getting to see how Black Hills Gold is made. We had a really good visit to the Black Hills and are now looking forward to visiting Idaho!