Trials of camper traveling and Yellowstone continued... When camper traveling there are always problems that come up. This year has not been as bad as when our transmission went out in Texarkana on New Year's weekend. Our biggest concern, although Ron says not to worry, is the camper overheating on long grades. Ron has figured out ways to overcome the problem one of which is to turn the heater on full blast, this works out well except for the second problem we have. The automatic window doesn’t work! Ron has fixed it twice, but it won't stay fixed. The first [View Full Entry]

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Today is the first day of our 2-week road trip. Our first stop is Boise, Idaho. It took about 8 hours to get here. However, that was 8 hours of travelling through a bunch of hilly, brown landscape. It was a bit of a boring drive, but we played the State License Plate Game and the Number Sign Game, which occupied our time for most of the trip. We were pleasantly surprised with how many state license plates we have seen already-- 8 different states (including Georgia!) before we even reached I-90!! Upon arriving in Boise, we currently have found 27 [View Full Entry]

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I'm up to about 2,600 miles, now. This was a good run at 463 miles. The ride out of Yellowstone to the west was typical Yellowstone, with lodge pole pines and mountains all around. Route 20 through Montana and down to Rexburg, Idaho, gradually turned into farmland. No picture oppurtunities, yet, as this is all old hat by now. At Rexburg I took Rt 33 west. It gradually changed to scrub brush and then prairie until I hooked up with rt 93 in Arco. 93 is long valley between the lost River Range and the Pioneer mountains. there is nothing here [View Full Entry]

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5:30 Uhr, der Wecker klingelt. Habe ich schlecht geschlafen. Um 2 Uhr nachts haben sie neben dem Hotel an ihrer Nachtbaustelle gearbeitet. Egal, heute wollen wir frueh aufbrechen, unsere 6 Stunden Fahrt runterbrechen, damit wir endlich mal wieder was vom Tag haben. Die letzten 3 Tage haben wir praktisch nur im Auto verbracht. Das Fruehstueck in unserem sonst recht netten Hotel ist, na ja, fuer einen europaeischen Magen gewoehnungs beduerftig. Ruehrei, Gravy (dicke, weisse Mehlsauce) mit Hackfleischbaellchen und Breakfast Burritos ....... Um 7 Uhr fahren wir los. Raus aus Idaho! Aber auch [View Full Entry]

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The Eagle Ridge Ranch. Slept like a baby in the log cabin after drinks in the hot tub. I woke up, Regina was still asleep. It was a sunny, yet not too warm morning, so I decided to go for a run! Hadn't run in a week! I miss it. After less then half mile I realized that I'm either totally out of shape of the elevation is killing me! Guess it's a combination of both. No surprise at 6300 feet of elevation! I can't wait to go running regularly in Washington state! After we ran (Regina had the same idea [View Full Entry]

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We left Beaver, Utah and got on the road for the final stretch (for Beth and me, anyway). The weather was gloriously cool all the way to Salt Lake City. We stopped in Sandy at the local Costco, gassed up, snagged some of their roast chicken for lunch, which we had right there in the parking lot and then got on the highway. Tangent here: Costco has the best roast chicken! The chickens are always big, plump, and juicy. They are only $4.99 to boot! Beth and I can eat on one of their chickens for at least three meals - [View Full Entry]

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Our week stopover at Israel and Beth's home in Meridian, Idaho allowed us to take a break from the road. But not a break from activity! McCall On Friday we drove north to McCall where Beth's sister graciously hosted us at their timeshare lakeside condo. The temperature was about 15 degrees cooler than in the city and the breeze from the lake was much better than hot asphalt breeze from the road! Beth's brother-in-law and her nephews helped me learn to wakeboard. As I was floating along thinking that it wasn't so bad a deer sauntered over to the lakeside and [View Full Entry]

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In Idaho, the Mythical Land of my birth, there is a place called Mountain Home, which has a nearby Air Force base. The Air Force sent us elsewhere soon after my birth, so I never got to know the town or the base. For some strange reason, I thought Mountain Home might be in the mountains. “Nope--desert.”” said my sister, who is older and has some memories of the place, including a youthful escape attempt across the burning sands. So, I revised my ideas of the place: it became a vast American Sahara in my mind, with white sands and terrible [View Full Entry]

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It is dangerous and probably foolhardy to start making generalizations about an unfamiliar place in which you have spent approximately 50 hours. But here I go anyway. Idaho is beautiful, which surprises me. The mountains of the south central are beautiful, as are the semi-desert flatlands around Grandview. And Boise is beautiful, lush and green with trees and a river running through it. I drove to see the purported best view of the town, from Table Rock, northeast of the city. On this sunny 78-degree Sunday, a few other people had the same idea. We came by car, van, bike, and [View Full Entry]

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We began the morning in Gardiner, Montana, woke up early, and drove into Yellowstone. The park is definitely much, much bigger than I thought - it took us over an hour to get to Old Faithful. Of course, it is nowhere near ready to burst when we arrive, so we walked around it a little bit and saw many small bubbling pools. The water was not only crystal clear and beautifully tinted, but the heat coming out of them was enough to warm me even though I was a few feet away and the wind was blowing extremely strongly. Their one [View Full Entry]

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