MichelleI’m back on the road again after a long wait to get the RV slide repaired. I had a wonderful summer in Everett visiting with friends and seeing old haunts. I was introduced to Geocaching by a friend and have been dabbling in that late in the summer. It’s like looking for a treasure each time and gets you out to places you may not go ordinarily.
In early October, I went on my first camping trip since late June. I was joined by a friend at Ranger Creek Airstrip near Mount Rainier. It’s a small mountain airstrip that has camping all around the outside. It was quiet and beautiful there… and there were quite a few geocaches in the area as well. I will post some pictures from the various places I’ve been during October.
First stop was Vancouver, WA to visit niece Melissa and her family. We had a great time and enjoyed the last of the summer weather, which has been splendid! We even found a couple geocaches in the park. It was fun to spend a good long time with them which doesn’t happen often enough.
I left Vancouver and headed toward Spokane area (Mead) where my cousin lives. There were several places I picked out to stay along the way but found much of it closed which I wasn’t expecting. Time to get creative. If you haven’t heard of a website called Hipcamp, it turned out to be a lifesaver. It is just like AirBnB but for Camping. People who have land that can be used for camping will offer it just like an AirBnB with varying types of amenities. Some primitive and others with all the hookups needed. I found a hobby farm in Cheney, WA and stayed for two nights. How fun that was! It was in the middle of Palouse country surrounded by huge fields being plowed for the next planting. This hobby farm had goats, cows, ponies, chickens, ducks, cats and one very large dog Bernie. Part Saint Bernard he was a total lover. I loved hearing all the animal sounds, as well as coyote and owls at night. It was a great find. Oh, and there were geocaches nearby. The first one was near a small bridge and while hunting for it a little brown weasel popped out of the rocks to look at me. It was sooo cute! Found a 2nd cache and as I was traveling to the 3rd one I got totally lost. In the middle of Palouse country where you can’t tell where you’re at and GPS is unreliable to say the least. I must have spent an hour trying to get back to the farm. Whew! I made it just as my phone battery died. I did see some spectacular scenery though!
Next I had a wonderful time visiting with my cousin for a few days. Luckily my cousin has a driveway big enough to park my RV! We visited Green Bluff where several farms have a combination of a farmer market, gift shop, pumpkin patch, sandwich shop etc which was all decorated as fall harvest. I loved that place!
My plan was to spend the month of November at an RV Park near Boise, Idaho where my sister lives. I left Spokane on Oct 24th to allow myself a week to slowly make my way to Boise, enjoying sites along the way. LOL! It rained and snowed all day! Winter is here! I did not stay at Winchester Lake State Park as planned because it was snowing heavy there and I wanted to get lower in elevation. I continued to what would have been my 2nd stop near Riggins, Idaho. There are many recreation areas along the Salmon River, and I ended up at one on the Lower Salmon River a couple of miles away from the highway. Super quiet and gorgeous scenery (even though there were about 10 RVs there). The river meanders it’s way through a narrow canyon for miles. I took a drive up the canyon one day (after the rain/snow) and took a lot of pictures. The Salmon River is a Wild and Scenic River meaning there are no dams on the river. It looks very natural with small sets of rapids here and there, and the occasional sand bar. When the water is high, they do whitewater rafting on the Salmon River but that was all shut down for the winter. Fishing was the popular pastime while I was there, but everyone said they weren’t catching much.
On November 1 I arrived at Hi Valley RV Park in Garden City, Idaho. It is quite large with about 200 sites. All the typical park amenities like propane, laundry, rec room, etc. If you set your garbage by the road, they pick it up and throw it away for you. And snap, just like that, winter is here. Within a few days the trees had lost their leaves, there was an inch of snow, and it turned very cold. Most days there is at least some or full sun which I love. I have really enjoyed my stay at this park! It has been very quiet, and I’ve had some lovely sunset views. Staying for a month has given me a different perspective on Boise as I have done some driving around town and country. Walking along the Boise River Greenbelt is always a treat! Thanksgiving was very nice, the usual stuff yourself silly and enjoy time with family. Over the next couple of days we visited Caldwell, Idaho which has a terrific downtown square area all decorated for Christmas. There was an ice-skating rink and shops in the square, and nice walkways all along the Boise River that runs through town. A very fun time! I couldn’t believe it when the end of November came and I had to leave. Where did the time go?
as always, sounds very adventurous… time goes by soooo fast. Now you have to report on December and January. Bet you are getting skillful looking for geocaches over, under, around, and behind. keep writing and taking pictures.