Our Travels: August 2009

We have been unusually busy this year after returning home from our three months in Arizona and California and are headed out for another camping trip at Meadowcreek tomorrow.

Yesterday's trip....to the Silverwood Theme Park and Boulder Beach Waterpark with Jeanna and the grandkids, Caily & Cody. I survived (Tony didn't go on this day outing). It was Caily's 7th birthday....one neither one of us will ever forget. This picture was on the "Tremors" with Caily (a wooden roller coaster dropping over a hundred feet at 65 mph into a pitch dark underground tunnel in the first 30 seconds). Other rides we did were the Timber Terror, Panic Plunge, Ferris Wheel, Tilt-A-Whirl, and Paratrooper. At the water park we took in the Rumble Falls, winding through the lazy river on inner tubes, and the Polliwog Park (everyone gets wet here).
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Because our ATV "packed up" while we were in the California desert, that was the first job for Tony upon our return. After discovering 12 teeth missing on a cog on the ATV, he ordered the part, took everything apart, and we now have a very good running ATV. We took a day off and went ATVing with Penny & Arnie to check it out. First picture shows how the ATV looked torn completely apart.

Tony finished the desk he has been working on for nearly a year....it looks great in our office, but makes my desk look a little outdated.

The next job was a place to park the motorhome. With all the trouble getting the motorhome and trailer out of the drive with all the snow last winter, we decided to take a portion of the back yard beside the garage and make it into a parking pad for the motorhome.

Family events at our home were an Easter Brunch, Mother’s Day dinner, and the 4th of July week-end. Brother’s and their families (Ray, Bill, Jim, and Paul) as well as Mom & Bob and my son’s and their families (Dennis & Ken) were all a part of the festivities. Not all at the same time, but anywhere from 20 to 28 at each event. One picture we had taken at Hayley’s birthday party were the almost all grown up foursome (Cally & Casey ~ Dennis' two oldest; and Hayley & Geoffrey ~ Paul’s two) who used to spend a lot of time together in their younger years.

Our next endeavor was to put a recently purchased metal lathe into Tony’s extended workshop. Tony extended his workshop to include the back part of the garage to give him an "L" shaped workshop (6’ x 10’ ~ an extra 60 square feet of space). The metal lathe arrived with the delivery man wheeling it up to the garage and immediately leaving. With the ATV winch, Tony and I managed to get it into place. At this time, Tony said the bench was too high, so we had to reverse the process ~ raise up the lathe (1000 pounds) ~ move it over on another bench ~ lower the bench about six inches ~ and then get the lathe back into place.

We have done some camping up at Meadow Creek with friends this summer. We started out by getting a few logs with the help of Butch & Mary. Then Butch & Mary brought us a full pickup load. Next, we opted to buy a pickup load of logs from Mike Hash. We hope we have enough logs, which means we hope the winter will not be as severe as it has been for the past two winters.

A trip to Glacier in the motorhome with Linda (Tony's cousin) & Mike and their dog "Buddy" was an experience. Buddy was left in the back of Tony’s car once. As I was walking back to the car, I heard the alarm go off. Linda was already at the car, trying to open the door to get Buddy off of the front seat before Tony saw the dog in the front seat. Our first night before arriving at Glacier was spent in Lakeside, Montana at the Edgewater RV Park before heading to our final destination ~ the Glacier Meadow RV Park. Picture (from left to right) is of Tony, Sharon, Linda, Mike, and Buddy in the foreground.

And....a picture of Buddy in the car.

If you've ever seen Bear Spray - Beware. Tony's son, Neil from London, sent Tony some Bear Spray for Christmas. Because Tony had told his sons about his concern for running into bears in the woods, Neil decided to send him many things for Christmas relating to bears (Chicago cubs apron for grilling, bear bells that only work when you take them out of their bag, Chicago cubs socks, etc.) The Bear Spray is something Tony decided to check out on this trip. Evidently he thought it was a noise maker and shot it off in the motorhome while Linda and I were also in the motorhome. It took about two seconds for the odor to reach our noses and mouths. All three of us scrambled to get out the one motorhome door....and we were coughing for a very long time. We're not sure yet that it would deter a bear, but inside an enclosed space it will certainly get everyone out of the motorhome in a big hurry.

We took a tourist trip to Whitefish, Montana for a day to visit a coffee bean factory, a museum (picture is Linda and I having fun), and a pottery mill . The pottery mill was unusual in that it has an Anagama kiln that can hold approximately 1500 pots and takes about 24 hours to load

One ride around we found a broken bike in front of a cabin ~ name of the cabin was, of course, "The Broken Spoke Cabin". The same day we stopped at the Belton Chalet for a look around.

Animals in the wild, included goats on the side hills, which were a major attraction for tourists.

We saw what seemed like millions of birch trees around the area.

A trip through a bear park ~ Mike wanted us to not tell that it was a paid attraction. Their advertisement was "great bear adventure, your car is your cage".

The next month we took a trip to Dixie, Idaho (a very small town in the middle of Idaho known as the Idaho wilderness) with Linda & Mike and Butch & Mary. We rode ATVs a lot during the five days. Riding down to the Salmon River was quite an experience (more info available here).

The animals we saw consisted of the snake, cow in the road, and deer.

Our wagon train campsite was set up close to the road and close to all the trails we wanted to ride.

Geocaching, of course, was on the agenda at one spot (Tony and Mary shown here).

This a picture of one of the old mining shacks we found off the beaten track.

First picture is the sign before we began our descent down to the Salmon River.

Bear grass was in full bloom...a plant that only grows at an elevation of above 4000 feet.

First picture is the view before we descended the long trail down to the Salmon River. Next picture is the bridge we used to cross the Salmon River. Just enough room for ATVs but not cars or trucks.

Grasshoppers were everywhere on the trip down to the "River of no Return" (even snapped a picture of one on Tony's shoulder before he realized it was there).

A fire from a couple of years ago......what a lot of burned "lodgepole pines"

We came upon what must be a hunter's camp....complete with skull left behind.

The "Code of the West" sign just shows how lucrative this area used to be.

An unusual site was a tree that must have been a favorite with the local woodpeckers.

On one of our ATV rides, Linda was trying to get a call out on her cell phone. Someone had told her ways it might work for her on a high mountain.....so here she is trying. It didn't work.

Our latest motorhome trip was to Nebraska and South Dakota for my Aunt Zetta’s funeral. The motorhome came in handy for an evening in the motel parking lot. Ended up with Ray & Judi, Dick, Bill, Jim, and cousin Dean and wife Becky spending several hours there the night before the funeral.

After the funeral we spent a few hours with friend Pam before going on to Alliance to cousin Judy & Larry’s ranch. We go there once a year for the steak meal and this time a little "Texas Hold ‘Em". Of course, Tony took the picture because he wasn’t in the game. I was able to scan a lot of pictures from Uncles Jean & Maxine and Bob. Bob treated us to his Daisy Mae’s repertoire of tricks. You can see a video of Daisy Mae running through her tricks on YouTube here. Dinner with Janice & Archie and a short visit with Cheryl & Todd rounded out our 12 day trip.