By melisse: Last weekend a large lump swelled above the plain of the flat sandy expanse of Kehoe Beach along Point Reyes National Seashore. Large black vultures lined the lump’s surface, eventually flying off as we neared. Much larger than a dead seal and piled like a large mass of old carpet, we circled the mysterious object trying to figure out what it was?!?! It looked like some sort of dead animal, but what? We were relieved at its lack of stench. I held fast to Quito to prevent her from rolling in it but as goats like to climb up [View Full Entry]

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My brother, John, had a near brush with death. In mid September, unbeknownst to him, Strep B bacteria began taking over his body, rendering him feverish, weak and at times, delirious. He checked himself into the emergency room but was sent home with “the flu”. About a week later, still with fever, he blanked out and drove his car down a 200 foot embankment. This event made the front page of the Pocatello newspaper. He was rushed to the hospital and sent home with no injury. His fever persisted. About two weeks later, friends came to check on him at home [View Full Entry]

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Thursday, September 24, 2009 We knew we did not want to spend another sweltering day near Grangeville, so we departed on a hope and a hunch after checking forecast for Winchester, Idaho. We tarried long enough at our Grangeville RV park to enjoy trail cakes for breakfast. Last night I logged onto the ‘net weather feature and looked for cooler clime. After our sumptuous breakfast, we hitched up and headed north west. It took about an hour to land at Winchester Lake State Park on the shore of Lapwai Lake, south side of Winchester, Idaho. It is just what we hoped [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009 Well, this morning we departed from our original game plan and instead of traveling through a familiar route in Oregon, we drive north on Idaho Hwy 95 through some spectacular but challenging country with Uncle Joe in tow. I can’t remember the times we had to chug up mountains in “tow mode” at 30 mph with the flashers winking at traffic coming up on us from behind. Fortunately, there were passing lanes and pull outs to allow the faster vehicles to pass us. Since we stopped so often, there are some vacation pictures to share with you. [View Full Entry]

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Today we drove out around 9am. We had to stop by my storage unit and load all the rest of the itmes. First on the way to the storage unit I had to take the big truck down a "orange cone" course. Only took out one....not bad. The truck has no power. Dad called me from the truck behind me and told me to press the gas...hahaha...yea like I wasn't doing that. Literally I was going 25 over the mountain pass. Guess I am too heavy. You can actually watch the gas gage move...and when you fill it with Diesel you [View Full Entry]

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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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They are called "Chad-cations". I am becoming notorious for cramming a lot into vacations. During my "formative" traveling years, my goal is exploration. See as much as I can, and jot down the places that I want to devote more time to in future trips. The best way to do that, in my mind, is to take road trips. Road trips, as I see them, are as much about the land you pass by as the land (or water) you are driving toward. You know, the old cliche of it being about the journey and not the destination. Many times, the [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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Today started in Victor ID. I left Whitefish Friday and drove to Victor to run in the Horseshoe Canyon 10k trail race this morning. I love the Teton Valley. It is so impressive to see the HUGE peaks of the Teton range just shooting up from the valley floor. I camped in Victor for the night and had the chance to watch a storm blow off the western slopes of the mountains. It was a gorgeous sight to see. I was concerned about getting wet in my tent but the storm blew away. I walked out of my tent about 2:30 [View Full Entry]

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Coeur d'Alene, Farragut State Park, Sandpoint and Smith's Lake Sat. Sept 5-Mon Sept 7 -- Heyburn State Park was totally booked out for the remainder of the Labor Day Weekend, so on Thursdasy morning we checked the map and found a park further north which had a huge number of campsites, called up the office and just managed to get the next to the last site for Saturday and Sunday. Whenever I'd asked people for advice on where to go in Idaho, they told me Coeur d'Alene, so that was our next destination. To the early French fur traders, Coeur d'Alene [View Full Entry]

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