Boise to Cascade, ID

Up early this morning so we could "facetime" with Lia and Tammy, then we listened to an audio of last weeks sermon from St Andrews and had our own Sunday service, then went out for breakfast at Bob's Sunshine Cafe.  One last phone call with Steph (actually last night) before she leaves for Asia for 6 weeks of research.

  Was starting to heat up in Boise for the day so time to head for higher ground.  We followed the Payette River Scenic Byway (Idaho has lots of scenic byways) north about 75 miles to Cascade.  Found a nice private campground on the Payette River just below a dam that holds back the Cascade Reservoir.  

Found some flee markets in town.  Several vendors from Arizona.  They come up here for the summer.  Checked out a historic little town that was almost abandoned when the railroad went around it.  Now a museum with a fun general store with old timey shelves stocked with authentic old product containers.  Plus some new stuff for sale.  Original 1905 wallpaper on the walls.

We came upon a farm market and got us a fresh baked strawberry-rhubarb pie that was best ever.  Maybe it was the setting, maybe it was the price (had to be good) it was so good we made a special trip to the store for icecream to go with it.

Boise, Idaho

Boise is a nice city, has a good feel as you drive around.  The state capitol is here, of course.  There are lots of nice bicycling trails here.  One that is especially nice goes all along a green space next to a river that runs through town.  However, it was 103 degrees today and just wasn't a day we wanted to do much of anything, let alone biking!

We did enjoy a drive out to the Center for Birds of Prey.  The Perregrine Fund is the Conservation Organization that breeds Condors for release in the Grand Canyon.  This is where they raise them.  They also are reintroducing the Aplomado Falcon in Texas.  Lots of exhibits and some caged birds in the interesting facility.

This Perregrine falcon is mounted but in a photo he looks like he's after something.  This is probably the biggest success story as their numbers were brought back from the brink in the 80's.

   We are planning to leave the city and head for higher elevations and the Sawtooth Mountains tomorrow and hoping it will be a tad cooler. Shouldn't complain, read it is 109 back in Tucson.

Idaho

We returned to Nevada hiway 93 and made a fairly long day of driving north.  We planned to stop in Ely, Nevada and maybe stay a night there.  We need to purchase another truck tire as we are running without a spare since we blew the tire on the road and thought Ely was a big enough town to find one. No such luck and since we didn't see much else of interest in Ely, we decided to head for Twin Falls, Idaho.  Scenery did not change much, long open valley with a mountain range on each side.  Lots of sage brush interspersed with irrigated farming.

We came across a number of these wildlife crossings which tells me that large animal migration routes pass thru here.

  We're staying in Twin Falls for a couple of nights.  Time for a trip to the grocery store.  We need to stop at a Walmart or something similar as I have a short list of things we left home without.  We're still searching for that particular tire also.  May end up having to go to Boise for that.

Twin Falls, Idaho is on the Snake River and very near Shoshone Falls.  Nice park and viewing area around the falls.  We went to pay our $3 entry fee and the attendant said our fee was paid for us by the car ahead of us.  What a fun thing. . .so we just paid it forward and paid for the next people behind us,too.  What a feel good thing to do!

Great Basin National Park

We made a small detour off our route to spend a couple of days here.  Its a very nice, little known park with lots to see and explore.  

The park showcases "the Great Basin" which is a vast region of valleys and narrow mountain ranges which takes up almost the entire region of Nevada and southeast Oregon, and east well into Utah.  Named for the lack of drainage, its streams and rivers find no outlet to the sea but collects in shallow salt lakes, marshes and mud flats to evaporate in dry desert air.  The Park is located in the Snake Mountain range near the Utah border.   We picked a spot in one of four campgrounds, this one part way up the mountain at 7000ft which meant we found our first cool mountain breezes.

Hiked to a sub alpine lake at 10,000ft.  We drove farther up the mountain to the trailhead so the elevation gain on the trail was only 600ft but could definitely feel the altitude.

This park boasts some of the oldest living things on earth--the Bristlecone Pine Tree.  This one is supposedly 3300 years old, and it is still living.  The branch on the left is still alive and well.  There is a forest of them up near the tree line which we hiked to find.  The story goes that some researcher cut one tree down in 1964 for research and then discovered it was almost 5000 years old, and still alive.  Whoops!  No one had any idea of the age of these trees until then.  We remember hiking to see Bristlecones at Bryce Canyon a couple of years ago with John and DeAnn Haan.  So today we learned more about them.

  This park had a Night Sky program last night at the visitor center.  It is really a dark sky out here in the middle of Nevada so perfect for telescope viewing.  Until the almost full moon came up--which was pretty spectacular by itself.  There is also a very interesting cave here, called Lehman Cave.  We took the 1 1/2 hour tour this afternoon and were quite impressed with all the colorful and fantastical shaped cave formations.  

  We are camped next to a snow-melt stream which causes a nice white-noise for sleeping.  We are off  

the grid here--no cell phone or internet.  Only bird song and wind in the trees.  We liked it a lot.

Tire problems.

Started out to be such a pleasant day.  Went out for a nice buffet breakfast and then packed up and left the city behind.  We're traveling north on hiway 93, also called the Great Basin Scenic Hiway.  We got about 80 miles down the road when we began to notice a severe vibration.  At first we thought it was the hiway but soon began to suspect we had a tire problem.  And then suddenly a very loud bang--and  a flat tire on one of the dual wheels in the back.  We had one tiny bar on cell phone coverage and were able to make a call to Coachnet--our roadside assistance.  Nothing to do but wait for help to arrive.  And wait we did.  It was 5 hours before the flat was changed and we were on our way again. Ughhh!!  

The tire blew as we were crossing a bridge and as luck would have it, just across the bridge was a nice wide pull-off where we could wait off the road.  So we pulled out some chairs and waited for someone to come from 90 miles away.  The sky was overcast today which made it pleasant sitting out there watching the traffic roll by as we (not so) patiently waited for help to come.

Once he arrived, he had all the right tools and was fast and efficient.  We still had a couple hours of driving time and made it as far as  Cathedral Gorge State Park.  Its quite a gem, glad we stopped.  Beautiful campground with 22 well appointed spaces--no hookups but brand new shower building.  We had time to do a little exploring before dark.  We plan to get up in the morning and hike a trail through some of the spires.

Las Vegas

We stayed in Las Vegas last night and spent the afternoon and evening sight seeing.  Can't go thru without at least walking the Strip for a few hours.  It was very hot walking the streets but we dipped in and out of attractions so we survived.  I think the summer heat brings out the "crazies", although Vegas is a world all its own any time.  People watching is the best. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower at "Paris" and got a great view of the city and the water show at the Bellagio.  Spent the evening at Fremont street--definitely a younger crowd there.  We had a taste of Las Vegas and ready to move on.

We are heading north across Nevada where the map gets pretty barren.  May be out of cell range.  Our destination is Idaho and some cool mountain air.  We'll see what we can find along the way.

Entered Nevada

Left Kingman this morning and drove north into Nevada.  We were anxious to see the new bridge over Black Canyon that replaced the bridge over Hoover Dam. You come upon it so quickly from above and are over it before you realize--that was it.  You can't begin to appreciate the structure unless you see it from below.  There is a turn off now that takes you down below the bridge and to Hoover Dam so you can tour that and walk across the old bridge.  We just wanted to see the new one, and you now can hike back up and even walk across it.  

Seems a deceivingly simple design.  It just looks like it emerges from the canyon walls.

Great pictures of Hoover Dam from the New bridge.  Because the bridge railing is so high you can't see any of it as you drive across.  Too bad.

Grand Canyon West

,We did the Sky Walk this morning.   Grand Canyon West and the Sky Walk are on the Haulapai Nation lands and run by the tribe, not the Park Service.  Its quite an experience and I thought it was great.  

You are really "out there" on the cantilevered walkway out over the canyon. You can actually look back at the canyon wall along with looking straight down--forever.  Now, friends Judy, or Loren would not think it was such a great thing, but if heights don't make you nervous, its pretty fun.  They don't allow cameras or anything out there with you for fear you will drop something on the glass floor.  Not that it is going to break the glass floor, but could chip it or scratch it--you have to wear booties so your shoes won't scratch it.  

There are plenty of other view points not on the Sky Walk.  The Colorado River that you can see in this picture is 3 miles away.  Gives a perspective of how massive this gorge is.  It was a picture perfect day.

The road out there from Kingman is nice.  The scenery is nice--not the road, there are about 9 miles of washboardy gravel--but we passed through a Joshua Tree forest.

  

We're packing. . .we're gone

We're packing the RV--getting ready to go.  We actually planned to leave on Saturday morning but when we realized we really were pretty much ready. . .well, its time to go. . .so we did.  We're in Kingman, Arizona tonight.  Nice drive across the high desert of northwest Arizona.

We have history of leaving early. . .we do this all the time.  Can't wait to get out there on the road.  Once we got set up tonight we discovered the cold water faucet to the sink isn't letting water through in kitchen.  Something corroded shut.  So we had to make a trip to Home Depot.  Nothing major.

Old friends.

We spent a day with Wayne and Judy in their Wisconsin home home. 

Will just wanted to mow Wayne's lawn for him just to remember how "fun" mowing is.

Linda G.  got on the phone an arranged a gathering of the "ol gang".  Pete and Alice even came up from South Dakota and crashed the party. 

Tess came back from the farm in North Dakota so we could see her for a couple of hours too.  Her daughter, Denise and family are moving to Shanghai so we had to talk China.

Even Karla stopped in to say hi! Loved it all

Larry and Jean's Anniversary

Larry and Jean celebrated 35 years with a family picnic in the park in Westside.  Most all of the kids, grandkids, great grandkids made it, except a couple in the military and other unavoidable excuses, but all 6 kids of blended family were there with extended families.  So great to see everyone.  Steph had not connected with her cousins for a lot of years and it was great.  

Kim and Kevin Cox

Cousins

Saturday

Downtown Rock Valley in the rain. . .which has been a common scene, I guess.  Well, the countryside is certainly lush with summer growth, Helene's flowers are abloom, farmers fields green with emerging corn.  Weather is always a topic of conversation in Iowa because it changes so quickly.

Got a tour of Les and Helen's workshops--that's plural--les has a grand set up to keep him busy with all his on-going projects.  He fixes small engine equipment like 4-wheelers and lawn mowers.

Telling Will all about the old tractor he is restoring--I missed the details, but I think it was from 1946.

Lots of people to see

Less and Helene with the most amazing bread pudding.  Smothered with ice cream and hot caramel sauce.

Stopped in to see Pete and Alice and got to see Amy and Chase, too!

Sam and Katie from Washington state were spending time with their grandparents, too. 

Road trip

We flew into Minneapolis airport and picked up our rental car for our road trip.  We had sometime before Steph's flight arrived so we did a little touring around town. 

Skyline of Mpls is nice on this warm, and sunny summer day.  Apparently they haven't had too many of these warm and sunny days yet this year--lots of people out and enjoying it.  "Spoonbridge and Cherry" is a Mpls icon that was fun to revisit.  

  Steph's flight ended up coming in really late so we opted to stay over and make for Rock Valley in the morning.  Was a nostalgic drive as this was the route to grandma's house when the kids were growing up.  We just drove, and chatted, and caught up on the 4 hour drive to Grandma's.  Pretty fun.

Its hot!

It is summer in Tucson.

I'm cool and comfy in my air-conditioned house but it is blistering outside.  108 degrees (well, 107.9) is quite amazing really.  It has been well above 100 every day since we returned home (and well before that, I understand.). We have lived here 10 years and have always managed to be gone for the summer before it really heats up but didn't quite make it in time this year.  So I went out in my air conditioned car to an air conditioned store this noon. . .guess it is the reverse of minus 30 temps of Minnesota in winter.  Life goes on, people do what they have to do.  One of my neighbors was even out jogging.  Well, thats a bit much.  I am very thankful for airconditioning that works well.  

Just looking for a picture that looks like 108 degrees.

Well, we are leaving very soon. . .like tonight.  Destination Iowa.  Think I need to bring my umbrella--contrast couldn't be more obvious right now.

Owl on the patio.

All kinds of chores to do when one returns home after 3 weeks but one little job was most interesting.  We found a little Western Screech Owl had taken up day residence in a corner of the rafters on the ceiling of our patio.  Knew immediately he was there--or at least had been because there was a lot of bird wash under the spot.  Plus, there were little "owl pellets" all over the place--little presents for us.  An owl eats his food whole or at least big chunks--will find a rodent and gobble him right down, then his digestive system takes out all the good stuff and the bird regurgitates this little "package" of bone, hair, what ever can't pass through.  If we stood on a chair in the family room, and aimed a camera through the sliding door and zoomed in, I could get a picture of him sleeping.  However, that eye comes open pretty quickly so he was aware of us looking at him. 

On our way home again.

Going to be a long day.  We are flying back to the US today. Doug's driver kindly picked us up at 6am to get to airport for a 9am departure.  Am posting from Tokyo Narita airport waiting for our connection to Seattle.  Watched one movie so far from Shanghai to Tokyo--"guilt trip" with Barbara Striesand--was good, actually.  Next leg will be 3 or 4 movies long, I think. Individual screens with individual selections makes it so much nicer.  Long no matter how it goes.  We have to drive home once we get to Phoenix, also.  We'll both not be worth much for the next few days

The elevated hiway system thru Shanghai is pretty impressive.  So much traffic in this city. AnD pedestrians beware.