Serene Wandering

December is a great time to spend two weeks in Mazatlan, Mexico!

We have been coming here for years during March/Spring Break due to my teaching schedule and it has always been crowded and busy at the resorts.

This year the visit has felt very relaxed as we were able to extend our stay to two weeks.  (Thanks mom and dad!)  We’ve had time to spend at the pool, on the beach, and to do some things we’ve never done before.

Our first week was spent at our time-share resort Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay. We enjoyed pool time!

With the relaxed environment came new friendships. We spent time with the Davis Family from Montesano, Washington.  We hope to see them again when we visit Ocean Shores, Washington in June. When we went to this restaurant at Playa Bruha (witch’s beach) with them, we were introduced to Almond and Coffee sipping Tequila. It is so good, that we are considering buying some even though it will necessitate checking luggage – something we don’t usually do.

We also met Angela from Vancouver, British Columbia. We have spent quite a bit of time with her and she has an amazing life story. She has traveled alone through much of the world and done things way beyond my comfort zone! We hope it will be possible to stay connected with her as well. One evening we went to the Mexican Professional Baseball game together when Mazatlan beat Hermosillo, even though the Hermosillo team is the Mexican and Latin American Champions. We thought it was quite interesting that the uniforms were walking billboards.

During the second week, we moved to ElCid Marina Beach Resort.  Although we were regretting having to leave Emerald Bay, this resort has had some nice perks.  Instead of trees decorated for Christmas, there are a few sailboats decked out.  They have movie nights and a pontoon boat that goes to a private island.  We have been able to see a Mexican wedding and a Christmas party given for the staff by one of the seasonal residents.

One of the strange quirks of this place is the available TV.  There are local Mexican channels, some channels that voice over Spanish on American shows and then they have DISH – just as we do in the trailer.  We have been able to watch the Boise State Championship game and most NFL games.  The part that is curious for us is that at this resort we are getting New York City local channels (ABC,CBS, NBC and FOX).  We are always having to call DISH to get new local channels as we travel from region to region and yet here in Mexico, they get NYC channels.  It is a wonder?!

Walking around the marina, we saw the boat, Velvet Sky, from Boise, Idaho and had a chance to speak with those aboard. He retired from Camping World in Meridian,  they sold their house in Nampa and took off sailing full time in their boat with their young son.

We have talked with a few couples living full time in their boats and that seems even more extreme than what we are doing! It was interesting to hear their stories though.

We have also enjoyed watching the fishing boats come in in the afternoon and the pelicans beg for scraps!

The local wildlife also includes a variety of iguana which wander around. This one was different than the others.  He was about  3 feet long.

There are quite a few Canadians and Americans who come here for the winter year after year. A retired Canadian naval officer spends his winters  working with a Mexican orphanage. The kids came to the resort and did a Mexican Dance program to raise awareness and funds. The show was conveniently located right out our balcony window.

On another night there was a Latin Dance Program.

Randy and I went to the the Mazatlan Aquarium and Zoo. It was very different from American zoos!  The animals were very close to where you stood to observe  them. If you were so inclined, you could reach in and touch the crocodiles or the Bengal tiger. Of course, there were signs telling you to “not introduce your hands” but there was very little physical barrier.

After the aquarium we walked along the “malecon”, a sidewalk stretching for miles along the bay and beach.

We stayed along the malecon when we came to Mazatlan on our honeymoon in 1980. We have been here numerous times since and have tried to find our honeymoon hotel but couldn’t as we were always zipping by in a bus or taxi. This time, as we walked, we think we found our old hotel. It is painted a different color but the location and design seem right.

We also took a tour to the Mexican village of Puerta de Canoas.  Here we were able to make authentic salsa and tortillas and enjoy a great lunch.  We also saw a demonstration of horses being trained to dance. They train Azteca and Fresa horses for about one year. I am not a horse person but even I could see that the Fresa stallions were amazingly beautiful. We were told the breed is from the Netherlands and horses cost $60,000 before being trained. However, the picture of the Azteca turned out the best, and it is a nice looking horse too!

We also went to a Tequila Factory Tour, but unfortunately they didn’t have the sipping tequila.

This evening we went on a  Sunset Cruise and saw amazing colors!

We have had another “muy bueno” time in Mexico.   Adios!

We have spent a lot of time in the rain since I last wrote!   We stopped at Emigrant Lake County Park near Ashland, Oregon and had one nice weather day.  We explored a park trail and ended up with a nice view of Emigrant Lake.

We should have had the lake about 30 feet from our trailer, instead it was more like 300 feet.  The drought has been severe.  We walked along the lake bed with a garbage bag and collected, and disposed of, a lot of interesting junk.   We intended to go out with our metal detector near the docks but when the winds and rains came, it didn’t seem like it would be so much fun after all.  (The rain is so badly needed that I’m not really complaining about it.)

We were glad to have the opportunity to go to lunch with another of my father’s 58 cousins, Guerin and his wife, Donna.  They treated us to lunch at a nice restaurant downtown.  It was good to visit and catch up on family news.  Guerin was reminding me this afternoon by email that it was time for another post.  Guerin, this one is for you!

Another day we went to the favorite hamburger joint, Jaspers Cafe – info provided by Trip Advisor. The reviews warned of a small place and waiting for a table, and that was all true.  There were tables for outside dining, but then there was that rain….

The small tables inside had signs suggesting that you invite people to share.   After so many days in the rain, talking mostly to each other, we were glad to invite another couple to share our table.  We had a great time comparing notes about the Ashland and Boise Shakespeare Festivals, our life style, and their vocations as Zen Buddhist Monks.

My family lived for a time in Thailand when I was a young teen and I still remember being very careful not to touch or bump into a monk.  Having physical contact with a female would require them to go do all their prayers again.  So, it was quite interesting to talk to a female Buddhist monk.

Ashland feels like somewhere we’ll need to visit again.  We missed the Shakespeare Festival by just a few days and the rain curtailed other activities so another visit is warranted – in a different season.

The same is true with Eugene.   We were surprised when we drove into Armitage County Park to find that the campground was fully booked – in November!  It didn’t take long to realize the reason was because there was a University of Oregon  football game that weekend and people from outside Eugene were staying in the park.  The Ducks won and they were all happy.

Oregon State Parks are very nice in general and these two County Parks were outstanding.  The park in Eugene even had a laundry facility and cable TV, in addition to all the normal upgrades.

Alas, even though the park was one of the finest we’ve been to – we were tired of the rain and tired of being cooped up in a small space.  We left on Monday, a day early, and came to my parents’ home in Vancouver.  It is still raining, but at least we have other people to talk to and space to be together or alone as we choose.

My aunt Bonnie and cousins, Lisa, Chris and Kylee (last seen at the chili competition in Las Vegas) joined us and we had a nice Thanksgiving.   After dinner, we enjoyed our traditional Russian Rummy card game, breaking for the Seahawks win, and then concluding the game.

On Saturday, Randy and I will leave for two warm weeks in Mazatlan, Mexico.  When we come back we will head for a cold, wonderful week in Boise, celebrating Christmas and Archer’s birthday.   The trailer is at a local RV renovation business getting new window shades.  We will see it again at the end of December when we head south to warmer weather and fewer rainy days.

We spent a week at Lake of the Springs RV Resort, on the western side of the Sierras in northern California, or in other words, Our Own Private Idaho.   After seeing very few people from Idaho along this journey, there were 4 of us from Idaho right in succession along our loop. There is another former Idaho couple (now from California) up the hill.   Gooding, Priest River, Nampa and Boise (twice) are represented.   All are full timers or “most” timers.   Many spend extended time here.  I agree, this is a great place and my favorite stop.

We have a beautiful campsite with great views 270 degrees.

We have been able to see deer on almost every walk, and sometimes while we just sit in the trailer.   The deer come around and explore our campsite and we can observe them daily from our windows.

One evening it was really windy so our perch up on the hill seemed a little shakey but overall we loved it.

I discovered that I really like line-dancing.  They have line dancing class in the activity center most mornings and it is a little bit physical exercise and a lot (for me) mental exercise.  It was great fun.

One rainy day we went into Grass Valley to the old Del Oro Theater and saw Interstellar.  The theater was built in the 40s and had been refurbished in a very authentic way.

Another day we went to West Coast Falconry, one of the only schools in the country where you can actually learn how to work with falcons and hawks.   Because of our schedule and theirs, we went to an Owl Experience.  We got up close with three beautiful owls and learned a lot about owls in general.  Randy and I were even able to have one of the owls fly back and forth from person to person and land on our gloved hands.  The trainers were feeding the mouse pieces so it was okay.  Unfortunately, I had a HUGE operator error and deleted the pictures before I saved them to the computer.   I wish you could have seen them!  And I wish I still had them to see as well!  When we come back to this great park, we will return to West Coast Falconry and do the Falcon Experience and get more pictures!  They were kind enough to send me pictures of two of the owls!

Today we left Lake of the Springs and traveled (without drama) to Ashland, Oregon.  We saw a lot of trailers headed south, but not too many going north like we are!

Along a very nice section of I-5, (unlike the Seattle, Portland and LA sections), we saw Shasta Lake.  It was very beautiful and also very sad in how low the water level is.  Research indicated that they are experiencing their third lowest level all time due to the drought – and rapidly approaching the second worst.  Many interesting things are showing up as the water is receding.

We also saw Mt. Shasta.  When we saw the height designation it didn’t seem that much lower than Mt. Whitney a few weeks ago.  It prompted a search to see where Mt. Shasta ranked in US mountains.  (I am the co-pilot, I have time to do these things.)   Here is the info that I thought was interesting.

Of the 50 highest mountains in the US, the first 11 in height are in Alaska, led by Mt. McKinley (Denali).  Fourteen of the highest 50 mountains are in Alaska.

Mt. Whitney (tallest in the lower 48) ranks #12 in the US.   It is the first of the seven mountains in California that made it into the top 50.  Mt. Shasta ranks #34.

Colorado has 28 of the tallest 50 mountains in the US (yes 28!) led by Mt. Ebert at #14.

Only one of the highest 50 mountains in the US is outside of Alaska, California and Colorado.  That is Mt. Raineer in Washington coming in at #17.

Hope you found that little bit of info interesting!

Our first “detour stop” was Soledad Canyon RV Resort near Acton, California. We arrived without drama and found a nice place on a ridge looking out at the San Gabriel Mountains. We did see this sign as we entered our camping loop warning people to watch their small pets.  We were glad Elko is big.

That evening we took a walk through a huge campground that had been allowed to deteriorate in a sad way.  Large sections were unusable.  We could hear the pack of coyotes howling from across the narrow canyon. We could also hear many dogs barking from a local rescue facility.  (You could hear one or both groups pretty much throughout our stay.)  “This place is creepy” became a common refrain.  During the walk we also became aware that Elko had eaten something he found along the way.

The fact that Elko had eaten something rotten became very apparent the next day. No details are necessary, but he was running out the door to let loose every hour or so.  Since I am the one that can wake up in a moment, I was the one who would follow him out many times a night, hear the dogs and the coyotes, and  pray the coyotes and/or a mountain lion weren’t in the vicinity.  The place was creepy!

After two long days and nights we went to a local vet who said that labs eating things they shouldn’t keep him in business. He tested for parasites and giardia (both negative), and gave Elko an antibiotic and special food.  Fortunately, he bounced back in time for us to move on – we’d of had to stay longer in the creepy place if he couldn’t travel.

We had another unfortunate travel day!  We have two GPS devices, one designed for RVs which knows our height and length and is suppose to keep us out of trouble with tight turns and low tunnels/overpasses.  The other is for regular vehicles that we have used mostly successfully for years.  Since  we have had trouble with both devices on this adventure we decided to use them simultaneously -and I had an old fashioned map in my lap.   Each GPS was suggesting a different route, both of which turned out to be bad, the RV one suggested a route we were too long for and the other was trying to send us down a road that wasn’t even big enough to be on the map.  I eventually resorted to calling the resort and taking their recommendation to come in from the north (even though we were coming from the south).  We aren’t sure how we are going to solve our GPS problem – even Google Maps on our phones aren’t always  dependable.

During our circuitous route we saw lots of California agriculture, the largest feed lot ever, oil wells and some kind of light collection euipment that we didn’t understand. It appeared that there was a large array of mirrors projecting the sun’s rays onto a panel high atop this tower.  It seemed like something out of a science fiction movie.  If you know what it was, let us know.

After our travel adventures, we arrived at our second “detour stop” after dark, (very dark).   Then it is time to pick a spot!  We got up close and personal with an overhanging tree Randy couldn’t see in the dark, but fortunately had no permanent damage.   Our current place is the San Benito RV Resort near Hollister, California.  This place isn’t creepy – its nice.

After trying to avoid the animals at our last stop, here we are trying to find the local favorite, the bobcat. Bobcats are seen regularly in the park and vicinity and we have walked the route where they are usually seen many times a day.  We have seen deer on every walk and seen and heard many woodpeckers, but no bobcats…

Our other activities have been down the road a few miles at Pinnacles National Park. It is the newest park in the system having just received that designation in 2013.

Today we drove to the park and hiked to and explored Bear Gulch Cave.  We usually go to caves that have a ranger led tour and electric lights so this one was different.  This one was just us and our headlight and flashlight.  Of course, it was in the park so there were people around and wasn’t too dangerous.  It was interesting and not creepy until I thought of the San Andreas fault.

We did have a couple great things happen in the last week (besides surviving the drive, Elko’s illness and the creepy place).  We had our first visual computer link with Natasha, Seth and Archer.  Archer was far more interested in looking at himself on the computer, than interacting with us, but that will come.

And, we got our third, and final, volunteer position for summer 2015.  We will be at Chief Plenty Coupes Historic State Park, near Billings, Montana for the month of September.  It will host two large (500-700 people) Native American events in September as well as school field trips.  I will be working education, and Randy will be doing maintenance.  We are very excited about this different type of opportunity.

On the road again tomorrow….hopefully without GPS adventures…

We had an interesting drive through Death Valley! We are excited to go back someday, stay in the park, and really visit instead of just driving through. The area is so vast with many different landscapes,  as well as healthy coyotes, $5.98 gas, sand dunes, and many elevation markers.

We didn’t actually see the lowest elevation in North America, -282 feet at Badwater Basin, but this was pretty close on our GPS.

Traveling just 100 miles west , we are now in the shadow of the highest point in the lower 48, Mount Whitney at 14,491 feet.   We are in Lone Pine, California on the east side of the Sierras.

After getting settled in Lone Pine we went to Manzanar, a National Historical Site on the grounds of the former Japanese relocation center.

Having been at Minidoka, and then seeing some items from Topaz near Delta, we were stunned at this historical site.  The entire compound is still viewable.  About 10,000 people lived in barracks in this camp.  The concrete slabs are still there and they have built replicas of 2 barracks.  There are also areas where the residents built gardens, a cemetery, schools and many other regular places of life.  They just did it behind barbed wire.  The visitor center, in the old gymnasium, is very thought provoking. Some of the things they had to endure seem unimaginable now.  It was sad to think this ever happened, and this site is a place everyone should see.  (Sorry for the picture quality – it was dusk.)

The next day we got back to fun things! Our first start was the Film History Museum.  Due to its proximity to LA, (and the scenery), this area was a common “location” for movies beginning in the 1920s.  Over 200 movies were filmed in the Alabama Hills near here, mostly westerns.  You’ve seen the area many times and never knew!  It has also been used in science fiction movies and, more recently, lots of truck commercials.  If you love movies, especially old movies, you would love this museum!  We spent an hour in the museum and barely scratched the surface.

Then we went “on location” to the Alabama Hills themselves. You can purchase a map where you can see where different movies were filmed using GPS coordinates.    But we had a different reason for wanting to go.   As RVers, we have heard about the Alabama Hills as a common “boondocking” area.

Boondocking is camping without hook-ups, generally with solar panels, on BLM land, for free, up to 14 days at a time. It is not something we aspire to, but we were interested in seeing the area that people we’ve read or heard from are so excited about.  The view here would be something to get excited about!

We did enjoy driving around, hiking a bit, and generally enjoying the views!

When we arrived in Lone Pine the mountains were bare, and now there is snow! The weather has turned cold.  Randy spent the morning outside doing some of the never ending trailer maintenance (due to living in it full time and  rockin’and rollin’ down the road) and had to take a long shower to warm up!  Originally, we were going to go north and cross into Yosemite but now the pass is closed and our plans had to change.   We are headed to the west side the Sierras by going around the south end instead of through them.  We knew that might happen this late in the season so no worries – just more opportunity for me to look at maps and plan where to go!

This week we have been in Pahrump, Nevada – 60 miles west of Las Vegas and 60 miles east of Death Valley. We are in a nice park full of friendly snowbirds (like us) and with all kinds of amenities and activities, but the real meaning to the week has been friends and family, or chronologically, family and friends.

As we were driving through Las Vegas toward Pahrump, my cousin Lisa and her husband Chris were also there for the World Chili Cook-off competition held last weekend at Mandalay Bay.   Their daughter, Kylee, and my aunt Bonnie flew in Thursday evening.   Chili cook-offs have been a hobby for their family for many years and we have always hoped to be able to go have the experience.   It finally worked out!  On Friday, we drove back in to Las Vegas, visited with them, and tasted lots of yummy chili.   You buy tickets for $1 apiece, decide from whom you’d like to taste chili and then get a very small cup.  And you do that about 10 times!  (Of course, we got family chili for free.)   It is amazing how subtle the differences are in how the chili can taste.  It was fun to go to the chili cookoff and great to see family!

In the middle of our stay we did a few activities here in the park and around the area. We found that even though we are 60 miles east of Death Valley, that access is really just one small portion of the park.  Death Valley National Park is huge and we were just too far away to do much.  The weather is still too warm to leave Elko in the truck except in the morning and evening and the visitor sites in the park were too far away to leave him here all day and evening.   We will drive through the park when we leave here but our experience will be limited.   Death Valley will require a separate visit, staying right in the middle of the park at Furnace Creek and branching out from there.  That’s okay, we can do that sometime!

The most interesting excursion we went on was to the China Ranch Date Farm. At the southern edge of barren Death Valley is a beautiful, natural oasis where a Chinese man raised lifestock in the late 1800’s.  The wife of an owner in the 1920’s planted a few date trees.   Current owners moved to the farm in the late 1970’s and planted many more date trees to run as a family farm.  Currently, they grow 18 varieties of dates and ship them around the country.   It is quite a drive into the farm but the difference between the desert and the date farm oasis is amazing!   They advertise date shakes and baked goods.  We tried both!

The week here in Pahrump is ending with a visit from Kent and Pam as they head to Las Vegas for a tennis tournament. Do you think if we just stayed put near Las Vegas we would see lots of you?

We visited, played pickleball, did the winery tour and tasting (connected to our RV resort) and went to the winery clubhouse dinner.   As always, it was great to spend time with Kent and Pam!  We are so glad they travel a lot because we think we’ll be able to hook up with them fairly often.  It has only been a few weeks since we saw them in Delta, Utah.

We are also so excited that friends Darrell and Cindy have already made their reservations to go to Farragut State Park while we are camp hosting there in July and August!! I get to start working on reservations for Natasha, Seth and Archer to come north.  I know my parents will come!   We would love to see anyone who thinks northern Idaho in the summer sounds good!

We got another camp hosting job this week too! We will be at Cove Palisades State Park, north of Redmond, Oregon for the month of May.  If anyone might be available to come see us there, we will be hosts at the Crooked River Loop, site E73.

Leaving family and friends behind is the hard part as we go on this adventure– seeing you on the road is very exciting, and appreciated!!

Any place named Kodachrome Basin would have to be pretty as a picture! The Eastman Kodak company gave permission to use the name Kodachrome in naming this remote Utah park just east of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Randy felt sick the first couple days we were at Kodachrome so Elko and I did some hiking on our own. These views are from my favorite hike called Angel’s Palace.  You can see Randy if you know where to look.

Randy eventually decided to be better, whether he was or not, and we enjoyed a 4 wheel drive adventure out to Grosvenor’s Arch. The road had only been open a few days after being closed for several weeks due to heavy rains.

We also enjoyed some hikes with some stellar views!

At the top of Panorama Point we enjoyed the view, and then Randy checked out our fantasy football scores from the weekend before.  He won, I lost….There was no cell or data service in the campground but there was limited  service available in town, about 8 miles away, and at some high elevations.

Once when we drove through town,  we found we had a voicemail from the Park Ranger at Farragut State Park, north of Coeur de Alene, Idaho.   After some messages back and forth, We are delighted to say we will be camp hosts at Farragut State Park, Waldren Campground, for July and August, 2015. We would LOVE to have you come and stay at Farragut, or nearby, when we are there!

We had driving adventures leaving Kodachrome! Highway 12 is a Scenic Byway – an American Road.  We have been on a few of these designated roads and they are great – or at least they are great when you don’t have a trailer behind you!  At times this one was like a ribbon of asphalt skimming the top of a high ridge. Occasional we both had steep cliffs along side! I was really glad that Randy was feeling well enough to drive!  I wish I had a picture to do it justice.  This one doesn’t.

After a beautiful, drive through Bryce Canyon National Park, we headed further west and south, avoiding that boring old interstate.   Our plans went awry when we headed into Zion National Park.  The first sign indicated that we had to pay $25 to go through the park.  That seemed steep, but we’d pay that in fuel to go around, so we were good with giving the money to the park instead.  Then we found out that we were too long (more than 50 feet) to go through their tunnels.   So…. we took an Arizona detour which added an hour to our already long travel day.  But we made it and all is well.   Live and learn!

We are having a nice stay in Pahrump, Nevada – more about that next time!

Elko is always ready to go in the truck, no matter where it is going, but this week we’ve taken him to some unique landscapes.

It began at Goblin Valley, a very remote state park in eastern Utah. We stayed only two nights as this was the first time, in 13 years of travel in our trailers, that we have gone without electric and water hook-ups. It was survivable, and we ended up being far more conservative with our battery power than we needed to be.    The first night it was so dark in the trailer (without our electric/battery lights) that the useless TV remote control pad was our night light.   Of course the good side of it being so dark was that outside the stars were amazing.  The milky way was easy to see.   Although I don’t see us camping without hook-ups extensively, to go to unique places like Goblin Valley for a few days, it was worth it.

On another day we went to hike the slot canyon at Little Wild Horse Canyon. Randy and I thought it was great but Elko wasn’t a fan.  Parts of the canyon were very narrow, as in walk sideways narrow!  After a mile or so we had to start scrambling over rocks and that was where it got really hard for Elko.  He really likes it when we all three stay together but when we decided that I would take Elko back and Randy would go on, our boy didn’t hesitate at all.  Elko was very glad to leave the slot canyon behind!

After our two nights of roughing it, we left Goblin Valley and continued on to full hook ups at a private RV park in Torrey, Utah near Capital Reef National Park. We have driven through here numerous times on the way to Lake Powell, and Moab but hadn’t spent much time here.   We had seen the petroglyphs and natural bridge on previous trips so this time we enjoyed some scenic drives, old cabins and an old homestead museum/bakery called the Gifford House.

In this area, geologically called the Waterpocket fold, nineteenth century settlers  created a community called Fruita.  The pioneers used to barter and sell the fruit to the communities nearby and their orchards remain.   We were able to pick apples, the only fruit available this late in the season, from an old orchard,  cared for and managed by the National Park Service.

If you haven’t experienced southern Utah, it is truly spectacular. We have one more stop in the area, Kodachrome Basin State Park.  We’ve been there before, but it is worth revisiting, another unique landscape!

We are in Delta Utah, a small town on the eastern edge of the Loneliest Road in America – the section of Highway 50 that goes through Nevada and western Utah.    We drove the lonely road 109 miles to Great Basin National Park, one of the least visited National Parks in the country due to its isolation.

We drove across the great basin towards the park containing Wheeler Peak and Lehman Caves and it was well worth the trip. This cave is visually spectacular and it is very intimate in that you are right next to the formations.

Along the road we observed arrays, spaced one kilometer apart over 730 square kilometers, that are part of the Cosmic Telescope Array.  This project is way too complicated for me to understand and explain but it aims to spot energetic subatomic particles from space.  It is a cooperative project among physicists from Utah State, Rutgers and universities in Japan and Korea.   There is a small visitor center here in Delta.  Who knew?

Heading northeast from Delta we visited the Little Sahara National Recreation area. We went there during the week so we only had to share the dunes with a few riders on 4 wheelers and motorcycles.  Elko loved chasing his ball in the sand.   Reportedly the place is really rolling on the weekends!  We watched some riders going straight up, and straight down very large dunes.  I was just as happy that we had no opportunity to rent a vehicle at the park because Randy would have been wanting to ride the dunes too.

Back in town we have had a mixed bag. ..

The highlight was a visit by Kent and Pam, last seen in Colorado Springs for the football game. They went from Colorado Springs to Sedona, Arizona and then stopped in Delta to spend the evening with us on their return trip to Boise.

The lowlight was speculation that we have had a mouse.   One of Randy’s new tank sensors stopped working right before we left Boise and early this week he got under the trailer to investigate.  Instead of the wiring harness, he found wire pieces that look like they have been chewed.

That initiated more than a few unhappy moments for me and we have done quite a bit of mouse hunting and mouse prevention. There is no evidence that the mouse came with us from Boise or that he got in the living space but Randy went above and beyond to try and mouse proof the trailer as best we can.  Our trailer storage spaces smell great with lots of peppermint and tree oils!

We were able to buy the obscure wiring harness (for the sensor) and all the mouse proofing supplies on Amazon. It is amazing what you can order on Amazon Prime and have delivered in less than two days by UPS and Fedex on the eastern edge of the Loneliest Road in America!

We have really enjoyed the trains that we can see and hear across the field many times during the day and night. We saw and liked the movie, The 100 Foot Journey.  We rode our bikes into town several times to eat at a yummy Mexican restaurant, to go to the hardware store (more anti-mouse supplies), and to visit the Great Basin Museum.

When we drove into Delta, we wondered if there was enough to do to keep us busy for a week.  As it turned out, there is more to do here than we have had time for.   A couple things we had planned to do, but won’t have time for are a visit to the  U-Dig quarry to find trilobite fossils and a visit to the Topaz Japanese Internment Camp site.  These are things to do on our next trip along the loneliest road in America…

Our first destination was Castle Rocks State Park. We have been here a few times and October is the perfect time to visit.  The weather is great and the scenery is magnificent!   The flies must think so too because Randy’s hobby over the last few days has been killing flies.  I guess it can’t all be wonderful.

Although all is quiet now on Sunday afternoon, it was very busy over the weekend with lots of families and rock climbers around.    In fact, the 65ish, lady camp host is a rock climber and returns year after year.  In the winter she runs an animal shelter (www.potreropups.org) near Monterrey,  Mexico.   We have visited with Dottie several times over the years.

Although we didn’t climb any high rocks, we did take some nice hikes. Elko is a sore and tired dog!

On Friday evening we drove in to Albion to go through their Haunted Mansions.   If you like haunted houses, you may want to consider this!  It utilizes 4 buildings at the abandoned Albion Idaho college.   The big old buildings would be so cool to explore when you didn’t have to worry about zombies, scary clowns and all sorts of creepy characters jumping out at you!  Actually it was still pretty fun and amazing that any town lawyer would let you wander through these old buildings in the dark, going up stairs, and down stairs, and through walls and tunnels!

Saturday evening was dedicated to a nice fire before watching the crazy Boise State – Nevada football game (BSU won). We had considered heading to Reno  to be there for the game, but we are glad we are here.   Tomorrow we  leave for Delta, Utah.