Travelin' Road Show

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Mon-Thurs July 8-11- Deer Park Golf Club and RV Park.. Near Spokane Washington

Mon-Thurs July 8-11- Deer Park Golf Club and RV Park.. Near Spokane Washington

Idaho Again!!

Some great scenery along the way

We were originally booked into this RV park for 3 nights, but when we saw it, we added an extra night. What an amazing RV resort. The drive up on Monday was basically a 220 mile trek along Interstate 90 through the rest of Montana and then across the northern tip of Idaho, before entering Washington State (missed the sign on the road)... Again we were struck by the beauty across this huge country... miles and miles of mountains, valleys, farmland etc.

Some more views from the car window

The RV resort was further North of Spokane than we expected, (some 50+km) but WORTH IT!!!! This place is a perfect spot for a week or two to escape the city and golf.... the resort is part of a golf club complex. The RV area is set out like a regular community, with HUGE lots, long driveways and lovely patios and street lamps. We were in site 110 and loved it.

SITE 110

AGAIN

On Tuesday we decided to go into town and do some shopping but were surprised to find that prices were not cheaper than Canada, so we didn't get anything, but the day was not wasted as we enjoyed window shopping and as an added bonus found somewhere to get Janice's broken hearing aid fixed... finally. Totally delighted! Also bought a pair of perfect shoes for the wedding. Very happy. We got back to the resort in time to fit in a short round of twilight golf. It is a fairly long course (over 7000 yds) so we only managed to get in 13 holes, also due to the fact that we were taken by surprise when they turned the sprinklers on to water the course!!!!

TWILIGHT GOLF

On Wednesday the RV resort organizes a group round of golf ($20 each plus a cart... so we were off golfing again. Got matched up with some great guys, and enjoyed a full 18 holes, followed by a LONG shower and BBQ'd dinner.... great day.

View from back of RV

On Thursday we had a 'catch-up' day and did several loads of washing, including mats etc and did some emails and basic administrative stuff, getting ready for our final push into BC in 2 days. Really looking forward to being in Canada for a while, especially looking forward to the big wedding and seeing all our kids together.

Getting ready to leave ... Want to stay longer!!

Our 'Street' in Deer Park resort

Bye Bye Deer Park

Sunday, July 7, 2013

SUN Jul 7th - Missoula, Montana.

Sun Jul 7th - Missoula, Montana.... Jellystone Park

Large statue on mountaintop.. enroute to Missoula, near Butte?

Ride with Yogi (HOT YOGI!)

ONE HAPPY CAMPER!!

What better way to spend our last night in Montana, than at Jellystone RV Park in Missoula, Montana. The drive was beautiful, especially the first section as we drove northward through an astonishingly lovely valley between two mountain ranges along hwy 191 passing through Big Sky, Montana and Butte, before arriving at Jellystone RV Park in Missoula some 300 miles later. We arrived on a hot day and were delighted to hear that they were having an ice-cream social at 7pm... $1 a big scoop... so after supper (Chicken stir-fry), I took my kid, I mean took Derek, for a huckleberry ice cream with Yogi... we didn't partake of the ride around the park with Yogi, but enjoyed waving at those who passed by. It was a delightful park to spend the night and we almost wished we could have stayed longer!

MINE!!! ALL MINE!!!

Patriotic Yogi

Great Overnight RV Park

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Friday-Saturday - Jul 5 and 6 - Yellowstone

IS THAT HAIL ON THE PATIO MAT????

YEPPERS!! IT SURE IS!! UMMM ... July?????

Fri-Sat Jul 5/6- Yellowstone
For two days we basically hung around the campsite... we had some pretty awesome storms and a little unwelcome hail. We had planned on doing some more hiking but the stormy weather put an end to those plans, so we took the opportunity to catch up on blogs, do some laundry and tidy some cupboards out.. it may only be an RV but it can sure get messy in a hurry when we spend our days out having fun and not attending to general house-jobs!!!

Getting ready to pack the rig up and head out of Yellowstone

Nicer day leaving Lionshead Rv Resort.. Bye bye Yellowstone

Friday, July 5, 2013

Wed/Thurs Jul 3 and 4 - Yellowstone

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!

WED JULY 3

NEXT STATE ON THE GROWING LIST

Enjoyed a great drive from Idaho Falls to West Yellowstone and arrived shortly after noon in time to set up and take a much anticipated drive into Yellowstone National Park. All sites were booked up in the Park so we ended up having to stay in an RV resort about 7 miles outside ... but the site is nice and we have lots of room. The drive from the park gate of Yellowstone Park to Old Faithful is quite long and it took us about an hour to get there, but it was worth it. We were fortunate to arrive just before it 'blew', which happens every 90 minutes or so. It was quite impressive. The park itself is just full of geysers, steam pots, sulphur pots and mud volcanoes etc etc.... fascinating and somewhat awe-inspiring to see such natural phenomena. A tiring day ending with a lovely BBQ'd chicken dinner at the RV.

THAR SHE BLOWS.... INCREDIBLE SIGHT

NO Not me!!!! ... the little puff of smoke in the background!!!

The two young geezers in front of the big old faithful geyser.

THURSDAY JULY 4th - Happy Independence Day USA

Cascade falls on Yellowstone River

Quite the day today. Started off very slow with a lazy breakfast. Janice feeling more than a little homesick, so we hightailed it out to the National Park and spent the whole day touring the lower loop (about 75 miles), stopping for short trail walks and views along the way.
We decided to blow off a bit of steam by taking a more adventurous short hike along the Rim from Uncle Tom's point to Artists point... a fairly steep trail up and down along the South Rim of the 'Yellowstone Grand Canyon'. It was a great hike one way, but no sooner had we started the return journey when suddenly the skies went black, lightening and hail and wind threw themselves at us and Janice forgot all about her constant fear of meeting Grizzly bears along the track and her speed was quite awe-inspiring ...the return journey was accomplished in half the time. Needless to say all the photos were taken on the way out to Artists Point. Continuing around the loop we stopped at various mud pools, geysers, and the inevitable photo ops of wild life. We saw mule deer, mother and baby elk, a bull elk, raven, and herds of Bison... but alas no bears :)).

A Roadside snack for this big guy

We also made another stop at Old Faithful and once again.. perfect timing... 10 minutes only to wait. The sun was coming down and the Geyser gushed out looking quite beautiful. We continued back toward the town of West Yellowstone capturing some views of a fantastic sunset. It was late getting in to town, so we missed the parade but, as the fireworks were to begin at 10pm, we grabbed a fresh pizza, parked the truck on the main street, and sat on the tail gate eating pizza and watching the show... great fun.

This guy prefers the lush meadow

Mule Deer (big ears!!)

Deer Me!!!!! Caught again!!

Herd of Bison (buffalo) taking a dip.

Bubbling sulphur springs... pretty whiffy ... !!!!

Mud Volcano... fascinating

Bull Elk along the way

Speaks for itself -- crossed it twice at two elevations

At the side of Old Faithful.. lots of other smaller geysers etc

Just before it blew

And there it is in all its glory

Waning

View on the way home

And again

Further along the way... very eery looking at times

Mom and baby elk

Spectacular against the mountains

Colours were amazing

Crimson skies ---- wow!!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

MON/TUE JUL 1 - JUL 2 - IDAHO FALLS

Mon July 1 -Tues July 2

Happy Canada Day, Proudly wearing our Canada T shirts as we drove through northern Utah into Southern Idaho. Today was a travel day with a 2 night stopover at Idaho Falls. RV park is adequate, but no plans to explore this town. This is just a prelude to getting to Yellowstone Park. House cleaning, laundry and odd small maintenance jobs are the plans for these two days.
Have a strange neighbour who just keeps pacing around the outside of his RV... spooky.
Derek went to a guitar history exhibition on town on Tuesday, while Janice sen the whole day updating the blog..... FINALLY DONE .... YEEEHAAA!!!

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Thur 27th June-Sunday June 30

Thursday June 27 – Sunday Jun 30

Decided to combine our 4 night 3 day stay in Salt Lake City into one update.

What a city! Mormon base now down to 55% of the population (from 85%) as Utah has become a mecca for Americans who have moved. The temperatures all around us have been at, or setting records. It was 106F in Salt Lake versus the usual 90F. In parts of Arizona that we visited only a week or two ago it has exceeded 115F. 19 firefighters lost their lives in a blaze in Prescott, Arizona on Saturday, we travelled through Prescott en route to Lake Mead two weeks ago. Very very sad news indeed.

Salt Lake City is pristine, there is no litter, buildings have been renovated and sandblasted, even the poor parts of town are well hidden, residences are well maintained and everyone seems to walk around with a smile and says hello.

The Capitol building is about the prettiest we have seen. Built with granite on the outside and beautiful marble from Georgia on the inside. With a huge cupola and 26 marble pillars the interior is reminiscent of our dreams about Roman architecture.

We went on a city bus tour and saw…the pioneer village, Brigham Young’s house (where he lived with his 23 wives), the enormous Rio Tinto copper mine, The Tabernacle, Temple Square, the late 1800’s mansions built by the miners who arrived with nothing but made a fortune in silver and copper and of course the 22,000 seat Convention Centre that is home to the Tabernacle choir. Any expectation greater than 3,000 participants is no longer held at the tabernacle…..which is therefore almost all events especially the weekly broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word” the longest continuous radio broadcast in the world now in its 89^th year! We were there Sunday to hear the 350 person choir and orchestra. The theme this week of course was very much centred on Independence week, and finished with a rousing version of “76 Trombones” from Oklahoma. What an experience and certainly a highlight of our trip to the City.

We also played golf early in the morning to avoid the heat and did a 23 km cycle down the Jordan River bike path, we even spent one afternoon actually just sitting and reading…had to tie ourselves to the chair to achieve that!!! Oh and the swordfish we got from Whole Foods and BBQ’d was a tremendous success.