I’ve always said RVers have to be flexible. We planned to leave here tomorrow and spend one night at the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights outside of Spokane. Then we would head west to Twisp for a night on the Methow River before continuing west to Mount Vernon, WA.
We will leave tomorrow and go to Northern Quest Casino so we can join our friends Dick and Roxy Zarowny for dinner. But we won’t be going to Twisp. The North Cascades Highway (SR20) is closed west of Winthrop, WA due to forest fires. There isn’t any way to detour around the closure, so we can’t cross the mountains on the North Cascades Highway. We had reservations at Riverbend RV Park which we cancelled. They don’t usually refund cancellations but under these circumstances they refunded our payment.
We’ll be crossing the Cascade Mountains on US2 over Stevens Pass instead. We’ll spend Sunday night somewhere between Wenatchee and Leavenworth before climbing over the pass.
We played pickleball Monday morning at Memorial Park. Tuesday we played pickleball again and then had rainshowers in the afternoon. Wednesday we drove up to Priest River to join Cindy and Jim Birditt for lunch at Mi Pueblo – a Mexican restaurant in town. We lingered for about an hour and half catching up. Jim was concerned about a 30-acre wild fire burning about three miles north of his place.Thursday we were back at Memorial Park for more pickleball.
Donna had a mysterious problem with the rear tire on her bike. When we arrived here in Coeur d’Alene, her tire had gone flat. Last week we stopped at a bike shop in town but they were out of patch kits. The gal at the shop gave me an old inner tube and said I could cut it to make a patch and use super glue. I found a hole in the Donna’s inner tube – it looked like she must have picked up a goathead sticker.
I roughed up her inner tube and the makeshift patch with sandpaper and fixed the flat tire – or so I thought. The next day her tire was flat again. I pulled the tube, which I had put Slime in – it’s supposed to fill any holes in the tube. I found another hole in the tube with slime oozing out of it about two inches from the original hole. This was puzzling – I had checked the tire carefully the first time looking for anything that could cause a puncture and didn’t find anything. The tire held air fine after I patched it and pumped it up. The bike hadn’t been ridden at all. So, how did it have another puncture?
I made another patch and put it back together. Again it pumped up fine and held pressure. The next day the tire was a little soft – there was a very slow leak. I pumped the tire and Donna went for a ride Sunday morning. A little over half an hour later, Donna phoned me to tell me she her tire had gone flat. I drove down in the truck and picked her up at the Hampton Inn in Coeur d’Alene.
I picked up a new inner tube on Tuesday and this morning I installed it. Again, I looked closely at the tire and didn’t find anything to cause a puncture. Donna rode for over an hour this morning with no issues.
The daily temperatures were warm all week with highs in the low 90s. Today the temperature is expected to reach 100 degrees and the forecast calls for a few degrees hotter tomorrow. Western Washington will be cooler – we can expect the daily high to be around 80 degrees there.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
Last week’s weather here in Coeur d’Alene stayed true to the forecast I mentioned in my last post. We had daily highs in the low to mid 80s from Tuesday to Friday. It rained a little on Wednesday morning – enough to clear the skies of the smoke from wildfires.
We had a fairly quiet week for the most part. Donna’s been practicing clarinet and had a visit from a neighbor while she was playing. Our neighbor to the left of us stopped by to compliment Donna’s playing. It turns out she was a former clarinet player. She left the following morning so we never found out why she no longer plays.
A couple of days later, I had a similar experience while playing guitar. The door was open and my sound must have carried – a guy stopped and knocked and I thought, “Oh no, I must be disturbing someone.” No, he just wanted to say he enjoyed the music!
I’ve been setting up my ham radio in the afternoons when I have some shade next to the coach. My Buddipole Versatee vertical antenna has been tuning up on the 20-meter band nicely. I made contact with Lou (EA7JE) in Barcelona, Spain a couple more times. I also had a strange phenomenom occur. On Thursday while I was surfing the band, I heard a guy transmitting from Athol, Idaho only about 15 miles away! His name was Gene (K7TXO). Theoretically we shouldn’t be able to make contact on the high frequency 20-meter band at that distance. Our signals should shoot over each other’s antennas with a take-off angle that sends the signal to the upper atmosphere. But we talked like we were sitting across from each other.
A little while later, I made contact with Mark (N9FAL). He was operating portable on the north side of the Coeur d’Alene airport, maybe five or six miles away! The conditions obviously favored a ground wave that allowed close proximity contact. I’ve had this happen a few times before, once in Mesa and twice when we were at Lake Pleasant. It didn’t happen on Friday or Saturday here – radio wave propagation can be unpredictable at times.
On Thursday and Friday, there was a lot of noise on the band and I could see some kind of strong interference across the band every 40 kilohertz or so. I saw a video on YouTube made by Josh Nass (KI6NAZ). He used a Software Defined Radio (SDR) program to show the interference on the 40-meter band. It looked very much like what I was seeing on 20-meters. Josh used the SDR to triangulate the origin of the noise on 40-meters. It was a series of powerful signals that obliterated all other signals near their frequency. The triangulation alogorithm placed the sources west of Havana, Cuba and also off of the southern coast of Cuba – probably from a ship.
These are presumably being created by the Cuban government to hinder communication to and from the island. The operators responsible for the jamming noise are actively monitoring the band and the noise signals move across the band to stop specific communications. Most of the ham community think the Cuban government is only jamming on 40-meters, but I find it strange that the 20-meter band had noise that looked very similar.
The noise disapeared yesterday and I had several contacts including long conversations with David (KE5MXF) in Newalla, Oklahoma and Jimmie (KA5DOB) in Alamogordo, New Mexico. While I was outside on the radio, a fellow ham stopped his truck in front of our site. He was Scott (KA6SUY) from Chico, California. He’s here at the Elk’s Lodge in a fifth-wheel trailer with his wife. He only has a two-band (VHF-UHF) radio with him though. There are active repeaters here on those bands and a net is held every evening at 6:30pm. I’m able to join the net with my handheld Yaesu FT3D transceiver.
Last year, we found something new in the area. There’s a parking lot about half a mile east of the lodge that became home to a number of food trucks. We went there on Thursday and I went for the Korean truck and ordered Bi Bim Bap – a rice bowl with stir fried meat and veggies topped with a fried egg and spiced with kim chee. Good stuff, but the spice had my head sweating! Donna didn’t find anything she wanted there, so she made herself a salad back at the RV park.
For the first week we were here, the Elk’s RV park was full. Everyday a few people would leave and their sites would quickly be re-occupied. RVers were turned away every afternoon. Early last week it changed. It was as if someone flipped a switch. Suddenly there were a dozen open sites. My theory is that many people scheduled vacation time to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday and now they’ve gone home.
I knew we were probably going to have an issue on Thursday when three campers took up residence behind and adjacent to our site. There was a small class C motorhome, a small teardrop trailer and a truck camper. They were all traveling together and when they set out a portable fire pit, put up a few canopies, tables and chairs it looked like party central. Sure enough, when we went to bed at 10:30pm, they were sitting around the campfire talking loudly. I don’t know what they were thinking – it was like they thought they were at a campfire secluded in the woods. In reality, they were at an Elk’s Lodge in a residential neighborhood with RVs within 20 feet of their party. The Elk’s RV park has quiet hours from 10pm to 7am. We had to ask them to tone it down. They lowered their volume, but still kept Donna up until well past midnight. Thankfully they pulled out yesterday.
Friday morning we secured everything in the coach. I removed the window covers and disconnected the power cord. I left our table, my antenna, the grill, the truck and a few odds and ends in the site while we drove the coach to the dumpstation on Dalton next to the Kootenai County Fairgrounds RV park. It had been 11 days since we last dumped our holding tanks in Moscow. We should be set until we’re leaving Coeur d’Alene now.
We found pickleball! On Thursday we went to Cherry Hill Park and found temporary courts set up. We didn’t get there until 10am and most of the players had already called it a day. We were able to join in and get a couple of games with people still there. They told us that most of the play at that park is organized in advance. What we came across was a group of 4.0 level players on one set of courts and beginner lessons on the other courts. They told us about open play at Memorial Park.
Yesterday we went to Memorial Park and found eight courts with open play. There were probably about 40 players there but the courts opened quickly with a four-off and four-on format. We each played seven games with less than five minutes between games. It was fun and we’ll go back.
Donna served a few delicious and interesting meals since my last post. First up is a grilled chicken thigh with an Asian inspired marinade. She served it with roasted sweet potato and grilled bok choy.
Grilled chicken thigh and bok choy with roasted sweet potato
After pickleball on Thursday, we made a stop at Costco. Donna found fresh wild Alaskan sockeye salmon. I looked for a case of bottled water, but couldn’t find any. I asked a store employee and he told us they were out of water! Then he told us why – he said members of a fire fighting crew came in that morning and loaded up all of the water. I don’t mind them taking all the water they could get their hands on – they’re battling a lot of wildfires in the forests around here.
Donna grilled the salmon with the same Asian marinade she used on the chicken thighs and it was excellent. She served it with white rice and french-cut green beans topped with everything bagel seasoning.
Grilled salmon plate
At Costco, we also bought a two-pack of whole chickens. I broke them down and Donna brined two chicken breasts Saturday before she grilled them. She made a Moroccan spice topping and served it with the leftover rice and French-cut green beans. I don’t think chicken breast gets much better than this.
Morrocan spiced grilled chicken
The temperature warmed up yesterday and we’ll see 90 degrees again today. The forecast for the coming week is mid-90s and close to 100 next weekend. Our plan is to pull out of here on Saturday. We’ll spend the night at a casino northwest of Spokane near the airport, then continue on to Twisp, Washington on Sunday. We’ll be in Mount Vernon on the west side of Washington on Monday.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
The temperature reached the mid-80s on Friday. Donna and I took a drive over to Hayden Lake. We cruised around the lake last year in Midget-San, but didn’t find any public access to the lake. This time I wised up – I took a look at Google Earth and found Honeysuckle Beach. It’s actually really easy to find – you just head east on Honeysuckle Avenue to the end of the road where there is a free parking area and boat ramp. They have a small concession trailer – candy and ice cream – and a sandy beach with an isolated swimming area.
Swimming area at Honeysuckle Beach
It’s a beautiful area with grass and shade trees as well as the sand and water. Hayden Lake has an area of roughly 3,800 acres with about 40 miles of shoreline – definitely large enough for watercraft and there are three public boat ramps. But, as we found last year, most of the shoreline is privately owned and access is limited.
Saturday morning we went to the Kootenai County Farmers’ Market. It’s only about a mile away from the Elk’s Lodge at the corner of Prairie Avenue and US95. We found all of the usual vendors there and lots of shoppers. The market is set among large coniferous trees and the ground is covered with wood shavings. It’s one of our favorite markets.
Trees, vendors and lots of shoppers
When we returned from the market, I set up my ham radio equipment. I put up my Buddipole Versatee vertical antenna and tuned it for the 20-meter band. I really like my RigExpert antenna analyzer – it allows me to really fine-tune the antenna resonance. The atmospheric conditions were not favorable and I remembered the electrical interference I experienced here last year – the noise floor was high on Saturday.
I was able to pick up several signals – including a guy in Barcelona, Spain (EA7JE) – I think he was belting out 1,500 watts. He couldn’t hear my transmissions though. I tried joining in a few other conversations, but it seemed my signal was too weak. I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with my radio output stage – I knew my antenna was set up right. Then I reached Steve (WQ6L) in Cupertino, California. Cupertino is just outside of San Jose, about 800 straight-line miles from here. He told me my audio was crystal clear with a strong signal – so all was well, it was matter of the atmosphere not cooperating with me. That’s how ham radio can be sometimes.
We had more smoke in the air over the weekend. Sunday we decided to drive over to Sandpoint – about 45 miles from here. We visited Sandpoint in our first year on the road – you can read about it here. Sandpoint is a cool little town right on Lake Pend Oreille. By the way, the town of Ponderay is adjacent to Sandpoint and that’s how you pronounce Pend Oreille.
Lake Pend Oreille is the largest lake in Idaho – the lake is 43 miles long and has a surface area of 148 square miles. It’s over 1,100 feet deep in some areas. Unlike Hayden Lake, Lake Pend Oreille shoreline is mostly uninhabited forest. In Sandpoint, there is a city beach with free parking and lots of sandy beach. It has a couple of lifeguards and a designated swimming area. The lake is also popular for boating and we saw power boats, kayaks and lots of sailboats on the lake.
City beach and swimming area in Sandpoint
In the beach photos of Sandpoint you can see the haze from wildfire smoke against the mountains in the background.
Lots of sailboats in the distance
The lake is fed by the Clark Fork River and the Pack River. It drains into the Pend Oreille River and also feeds the subterranean Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer. The Pend Oreille River runs west into Washington and makes its way north into Canada before draining into the upper Columbia River.
We walked through the old downtown area and found many of the shops and restaurants were closed on Sunday. This surprised me as Sandpoint is a tourist destination. We had lunch on the back deck of The Burger Dock, overlooking the Sandpoint Marina.
Sandpoint Marina
On our trek through downtown in search of a restaurant with a water view, we entered the Cedar Street Bridge Public Market. This is a long, narrow building set on the old Cedar Street Bridge.
Cedar Street Bridge Public Market viewed from Bridge Street City Beach access
The Cedar Street Bridge was built nearly 100 years ago and originally served as a pedestrian and automobile crossing to the train depot. As train travel declined, the bridge was hardly used. In the late 1970s, access to the bridge was blocked and it fell into disrepair. The city contemplated tearing the old bridge down in the early ’80s, but a local entrepreneur, inspired by the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence, Italy, proposed leasing the bridge and rebuilding it into a public marketplace. It went through several iterations over the years before the current 400-foot long building went through a $1.25 million renovation in 2007. Like most of Sandpoint, we found many of the shops in the market were closed on Sunday.
By the time we returned to the Elk’s Lodge, the temperature had climbed above 90 degrees. It was time for air conditioning! It’s partly cloudy this morning, but we can expect the temperature to rise well above 90 degrees today. The rest of the week looks a little more comfortable with highs in the mid-80s.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks
I failed to mention in my last post the smoke around McCall coming from wildfires in northern California and in Oregon. In the 24-hour period we spent there, it got steadily worse. The drive to Lewiston was smoky and Donna’s eyes were watering so bad, she had to keep them closed for miles. Once we climbed Lewiston Hill, we left the smoke behind and I figured we were in the clear.
After we set up at the fairgrounds in Moscow, the wind shifted and it got hazy. By Tuesday morning when we left, it was very smoky. I hit the dump station before we left – we had 50-amp electric service but no water or sewer hook-ups there. While I was dumping our holding tanks, a guy pulled up behind us with a travel trailer. He said he was camped two sites down from us at Juniper Park in Ririe. He was headed to the Coeur d’Alene area but said he was having trouble finding an available site. Our plan was to go to the Elk’s Lodge in Coeur d’Alene where we would have electric and water, but once again no sewer.
As we drove across the Coeur d’Alene Indian reservation, we left the Palouse. The Palouse is a name given to the wheat growing region north of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, east of Walla Walla and north of the Camas prairie. The northern boundary is around the Palouse River, south of Spokane. The boundaries of the Palouse are nebulous and the origin of the name is unclear, but it’s been called the Palouse since at least the mid-1800s.
We’ve stayed at the Coeur d’Alene (CdA) Elk’s Lodge for the past five or six years. They don’t take reservations, but we’ve never had a problem getting a site – until now. They were completely full including a couple of dry-camping sites. Donna was on the phone looking for alternatives while I discussed possible outcomes with the camp host. She said she could get us in on Thursday if we arrived early. Donna found dry-camping availability at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds RV Park where we had to pay $25/night for a place to park on dead grass! The temperature reached the mid-90s both days there so we had 10-hour generator run times both days to keep the roof air conditioners on.
Once again, the smoke from wildfires caught up with us in CdA. I think this actually kept the temperatures down from the original forecasted highs as it blocked a lot of the sun. It also made for interesting sunsets.
Sunset at CdA fairgrounds
On Tuesday afternoon, we made a run to Winco Foods, but otherwise just hung out. It was too hot for much activity. Donna got out early Wednesday morning to beat the heat and took a five-mile walk.
When we were in Moscow, I programmed the local repeater in my Yaesu FT3D handheld transceiver and was able to participate in the local net call there. Last night, I had two CdA repeaters programmed in and found another net on the air. Ham operators in Florida have been trying stay in contact with Cuba and had success over the weekend, but now the Cuban government is jamming frequencies on the island to prevent Cubans from communicating with the world.
Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by the CdA Elk’s Lodge again to confirm availability for today. The camp host advised me to come by early. She said if I drove over in the truck by 7am, as soon as someone pulled out, I could pay for the site and she would hold it until I brought the coach over. Five sites were expected to open up – a couple of them would go to the people in the dry-camping spots.
This morning I didn’t take any chances. I drove to the Elk’s Lodge, arriving at 6:15am and hung out waiting to see if I could get a site. At 7:15am, she told me she had site 24 for us. I wrote a check to cover us until the end of the month – it’s $25/night for 50-amp electric service and fresh water hook up. Sure beats $25/night for a spot of dead grass at the fairgrounds. She said she wanted to water the grass in the site while I went to pack up and retrieve our coach and it should be ready by the time I returned.
Donna drove the truck and I drove the coach back to the Elk’s Lodge – no sense in hooking up the truck to drive a few miles and unhook it. We were set up in no time and I immediately refilled our fresh water tank. We were below a quarter tank – we hadn’t had a fresh water hook-up since we left Ririe on the sixth. Even though we are connected to city water here, I like to have a full fresh water tank. Anything can happen – we’ve been in RV parks before where the city water was unexpectedly shut off due to some emergency or another. With a full fresh water tank, we have no worries.
We’ll be here through the end of the month. Our plan then is to head west. We have one night booked in Twisp, WA, then we’ll cross the north Cascade Mountains to Mount Vernon where we have a reservation for two weeks. We don’t book reservations way ahead of time usually, but we knew it was a good idea in western Washington to have a confirmed place to stay.
Donna served up a couple of new recipes this week. Starting on Monday in Moscow she made a ginger-garlic cashew chicken dish. Very nice.
Cashew chicken
Last night she served up shrimp with tomatoes and corn over garlic-smashed potatoes.
Shrimp with tomatoes and corn
Tonight I think I’ll go for the pizza night at the Elk’s Lodge and give Donna a break in the kitchen.
The weather forecast calls for highs around 90 degrees daily except for a spike to the upper 90s on Sunday. No rain in sight according to the weather guessers.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
I mentioned in my last post that Tye put us up in a spare bedroom. He also invited Ozark to stay – they have two cats in the house, Ollie and Frankie. Ozark made herself at home, exploring the place and finding favorite spots. Early Thursday morning I awoke to the sound of a cat fight. I quickly ran downstairs to see what was up. Ollie came flying past me with Ozark hot on her heels. Ollie scampered under our bed while Ozark crouched on the floor. I picked Ozark up and put her on the bed. Situation resolved, the cats didn’t get into it anymore, I guess they established their pecking order.
Ozark making herself at home
Donna went out for a walk in the early morning. To her surprise, she came across a couple of ponies wandering in the road. She worried about them being in the road, so she led them across the street. They wandered off down a driveway. She didn’t think they belonged there judging by the barking dogs, but at least they were off the road.
Wandering ponies
Later we went out for a ride in Tye’s Polaris side-by-side ATV. This ride is the deluxe ATV – four seats and HVAC-equipped. That’s right – it has a hard top, windshield, side windows and air conditioning! No dust in our face and we beat the heat. He drove us up on the canal path above his house. We went all the way to the Little Gem Motorcycle Park – an off-road motorcycle park with challenging hill climbs and trails.
On the way back, we stopped at a small gift shop called Grit and Grace. They had an eclectic assortment of merchandise – everything from local honey to antiques. I was interested in the end-grain cutting boards they had for sale, but didn’t buy anything. Then we drove the ATV back to Tom’s Cabin for lunch – it was the cafe we ate at the day before.
Later, Donna prepared chicken breasts which she fileted and pounded. Tye grilled them and Donna served them with a dijon sauce and garlic-smashed potatoes and French green beans with toasted almonds on the side. It was the only home-cooked meal we had at Tye’s place.
On Friday morning, Donna went out for an early walk again. This time she walked up a trail to the canal, having seen the route from the ATV the day before. She crossed the canal and climbed high on the hill. She took a couple of pictures.
Rules on the hillHole in the rock looking down on the canalGopher snake
She encountered a gopher snake in the path. Some people call them bull snakes and they are common in the foothills of southern Idaho. Gopher snakes are harmless, but sometimes they’re mis-identified as rattlesnakes. Their narrow, tapered tail lacks rattles though. They feed mainly on rodents and can follow them into burrows – thus the name gopher snake.
We went out for breakfast at the Blue Ribbon Cafe in town. It was a hearty meal and very good breakfast fare. After that, Tye drove us up highway 52 to Black Canyon Park. This is a public park on the Black Canyon Reservoir. It’s a beautiful setting with a nice boat ramp and ample parking. There are grassy areas and a sandy beach. The park and beach were full of people on a hot Friday. There’s no charge for day use or the boat ramp and parking. On the way back, I asked Tye to stop at Grit and Grace again. I decided to buy the end-grain maple cutting board.
Lousy photo of the end-grain maple board
Later, we went to the airport and picked up Tye’s life partner Karen. She flew in from San Diego with her 10-year old grandson, Sebastian. It was 5:30pm by the time we left the airport and we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse in Meridian for dinner. The restaurant was a zoo on Friday night and it took over an hour to get a table.
Donna and I decided it would be best if we moved on from Emmett Saturday morning. The forecast called for temperatures reaching 106 degrees over the weekend and we thought we shouldn’t leave the coach out in the direct sun – the temperature inside the coach was likely to top 110 degrees. I figured if we moved up toward McCall, we could find some relief from the heat and boondock in the shade of the forest there.
We took US52 west out of Emmett and hit US95 north. Donna found a boondocking spot east of New Meadows in the Payette National Forest. It turned out to be an adventuresome ride – I should have scoped it out on Google Earth, but Donna had detailed directions she found in the Escapees Days End directory.
I should mention that Ozark was not amused when we plucked her from Tye’s house and put her in the coach. She thought she’d found her new home where she could lounge around in comfort and rule the roost. Back in the coach, she gave us the evil-eye. When she realized we were about to hit the road, she burrowed into her new hidey-hole behind the pillows on the bed.
Ozark’s new hiding place when we travel
East of New Meadows, we found Cemetery Road and turned north past a few cabins and farm houses. Then we hit a forest service road. It was incredibly dusty – about like the forest service road back in Arizona on the first night of our current odyssey. We came to a fork in the road with a puzzling sign. We were looking for the sno-park. Sno-parks out west are typically a large gravelled lot where snowmobilers can trailer their rigs in to trailheads. The sign had two arrows for the sno-park, they seemed to be pointing on each fork. I walked a short way down the right fork and found another puzzling sign. This one was aimed at hunters and gave a few rules indicating it was private land. It also said no overnight camping. Later I realized the private land was behind the sign, adjacent to the National Forest.
So, we took the left fork. It was a mistake. This took us up a steep, narrow dirt road with a turn that had a sweeping view of the valley way below – and no guardrails. Donna said later that she was scared to look in that direction and also very worried that we would not be able to get turned around. After a couple of miles of traveling this road, I saw a gated spur road on the left. The gate was about 100 yards up the road. I stopped and considered my options. At that point, I felt it was best to pull into the spur road, disconnect the truck so I could back out and get us turned around. So that’s what we did. Coming back down the hill made it impossible to turn into the road to the sno-park. So we got out of there and backtracked to ID55 east toward McCall. We knew there was another sno-park with easy access – we stayed there with Mark and Emily Fagan in 2016 – you can read about it here.
We found two other RVs in the large sno-park lot and set up. I disconnected the truck and we drove into McCall to wash it. It was covered with grime from the dusty forest service road. I’ll need to get the coach washed soon as well. While we were in town, we went to Frenchie’s for lunch. They serve Louisiana fare such as po’ boy sandwiches and seafood chowder. We enjoyed our lunch on the balcony in the cool air.
We had a quiet night in the sno-park and got back on the road by 9am. We went back toward New Meadows and picked up US95 north again. We’ve been on this route a couple of times before, but going in the other direction. This was our first time heading north on this section of highway. We had a hard climb up White Bird Hill to the summit at 4,245 feet above sea level. We dropped a bit of elevation and rolled through the Camas Prairie with wheat fields extending far into the horizon. Our route followed the Salmon River through Hell’s Canyon. Eventually we followed the Clearwater River and dropped into Lewiston where it meets the Snake River at 700 feet above sea level.
The climb up Lewiston Hill was on my mind. It was 85 degrees outside and the hill climbs to 2,756 feet in about four or five miles. When we started the climb, I was going about 50mph and registered boost pressure of 25psi. I knew this wasn’t sustainable. At that boost pressure, the load on the Cummins ISL diesel was too high and we’d overheat. I turned on the four-way flashers, slowed to about 35mph in third gear at 1,900 rpm and maintained an engine coolant temperature of 195 degrees all the way up. Job done – we reached the Palouse and it was rolling hills with forest and wheat fields from here on.
We called it a day when we reached Moscow, Idaho. We pulled into the fairgrounds and found a 50-amp electric only site for $20/night. The 50-amp service was a welcome amenity as the afternoon heated up. We gained an hour along the way – northern Idaho is in the Pacific Time zone. We’ll rest up for two nights here before we continue north to Coeur d’Alene. We can expect daily highs in the 90s there for the next couple of weeks.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
We finished packing our stuff, hooked up the Nissan Frontier and pulled out of Ririe Reservoir a little later than I had hoped on Tuesday morning. One thing I noticed while packing was an error code on our Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (EMS). It showed the code PE5, which is previous error (stored) high voltage on L2. The voltage at Juniper Park at Ririe Reservoir was on the high side – I saw 124 to 126 volts. At some point, it must have spiked. The EMS will break the connection to the coach to prevent damage to any appliances from high voltage. I don’t know when it happened, but it recovered and we never even knew there was a problem.
I think the EMS cuts off the power when voltage exceeds 130 volts or so. I’m sure there were others in the park without an EMS and they were probably just as unaware of the issue as we were. I like the peace of mind the EMS provides. Others without it might have an appliance or air conditioner motor fail and they’ll just blame the unit, not knowing the voltage spike caused their problem. This is why I always like to use the EMS and I also always like to connect a water pressure regulator. We’ve been in parks where water pressure exceeds 100 psi and it can damage the plumbing. I only use a watts-type regulator and wrote about it in this post.
We headed toward Idaho Falls – the fastest route to US20 west was through town, but there is a narrow underpass with a curve and 13′-8″ clearance in town. The overhead clearance was enough for us, but the narrow roadway with concrete abutments was a little worrisome. I took a detour at Iona Road and cut across to US20.
This took us right by a travel center where I topped off our fuel tank. We weren’t that low, but we planned to boondock and I needed the generator to run air conditioning so I like to keep the tank topped up. I started pumping fuel through the high-speed nozzle when I noticed the fuel price was $4.05/gallon! What? The sign said $3.55/gallon. Then I noticed the pump I was using was marked diesel #1. I shut it off, then switched to another pump marked diesel #2 which was $3.55/gallon. Diesel #1 is a winter blend – something closer to kerosene which doesn’t gel as quickly in cold weather as diesel #2 will. I’ve never seen it at the pump before – we don’t travel in cold areas.
Our route took us west through Arco where US20 and US26 merge. The terrain was fairly flat sagebrush country with lots of wide open spaces. In the little town of Carey, US26 splits off to the south while we stayed on US20 west. A few miles past a place called Picabo – which was nothing more than a grain elevator and hardware store – we found the Hayspur Fish Hatchery turnoff on the north side of the road. Donna had found free dry camping sites alongside the hatchery.
We made our way in and claimed a site. It was getting warm with the temperature well into the 90s, so we needed the generator and air conditioning.
Our boondocking site at Hayspur
There are two creeks by the hatchery – Butte Creek and Loving Creek. Butte Creek comes out of the hatchery and runs along the east side of the hatchery road. We took a hike along the creek and saw trout in the creek. A sign proclaimed the area as a “trophy trout fishery.” The limit for trout was just two fish and they had to be a minimum of 20 inches!
Butte CreekBoardwalk on the creekside trail
I tried my hand at fishing the creek. I could see trout in the clear water, but they weren’t interested in the worm I offered them. I switched to a bucktail spinner and at least they would chase it, but they always smelled a rat and broke off before striking the lure. My fishing efforts haven’t produced much lately.
Another notable thing about Hayspur is the variety of birds. There were birds flying and chirping all around. We saw nighthawks swooping around the campsites and an abundance of other birds.
Sunset on a warm evening at Hayspur
Wednesday morning we hit the road by 9am and continued westbound on US20. We had a tailwind and no long climbs with a few short, steep descents. The countryside opened up to wide, expansive hayfields and cattle ranches. In the distance to the north we could see the foothills of the Sawtooth Range. It was very scenic with lots of green landscape.
At Mountain Home, we hit I-84 with traffic and 80mph speed limits. All across US20, we had very little traffic and it wasn’t unusual to drive for several minutes without seeing another vehicle. Now, as we approached Boise, the traffic became heavier. We turned north at Eagle Road and drove through Meridian. We’ve been through here before so I knew what to expect. It’s almost amusing. The posted speed limit on the wide roadway is 55mph. But, there are traffic lights every half-mile or so and traffic gets so backed up that sometimes the light will cycle twice before you can get through. The speed limit is a joke as you can’t really expect to go much over 35mph before you’re braking again in the traffic.
We took Chinden Boulevard – which is also designated US26 – and escaped the traffic. Our destination was a town called Emmett where we planned to visit with our friends from San Diego, Tye and Karen. I’ve known Tye Moody for several years – he was part of the regular Bay Park crew that often met for happy hour at Offshore Tavern or Dan Diego’s. He sold his house in Bay Park and bought a place in Emmett.
His house sits on a two-acre lot on a hillside overlooking the valley and town. There are 11 houses on the cul-de-sac, all with at least two acres of land. As we were coming up his street, he pulled up beside us. He was just returning from a morning on the golf course. I got the coach situated alongside his driveway on a gravelled patch. It’s fairly level.
Tye’s placeEarly morning view of the valley and town from Tye’s driveway
The town of Emmett has a population of about 6,500 people and is about 2,400 feet above sea level. Tye treated us to dinner at one of his favorite places in town and put us up in a spare bedroom. Karen had to fly down to San Diego and won’t be back until tomorrow. We plan to get out for while and explore today, but the temperatures will be very hot – over 100 degrees by the weekend.
Before we left Ririe Reservoir, Donna made a new dish for dinner. She grilled miso-marinated sockeye salmon and served it over a garlicky ramen noodle salad. It was very tasty, but Donna felt it was too labor intensive for what it was.
Salmon over ramen noodle salad
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
We’re near the end of our stay at Ririe Reservoir in Idaho. Last Wednesday, I set up my Yaesu FT-991a ham radio on a table outside our coach. My antenna has been phenomenal in this location – it tunes in really well. I made a number of contacts all over the country – I talked to a guy in Nebraska, one in Arkansas and a guy in Arlington, Texas. But the most interesting contact was with a station in Prescott, Arizona.
Wednesday was June 30th and the station I contacted had a special event callsign N7GMH and I talked to Doug there. The special event was a fundraiser for the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial. The Granite Mountain Hotshots were part of the Prescott Fire Department. On June 30, 2013, the 20-member crew was fighting a wild fire on Yarnell Hill near Prescott. Nineteen of the twenty members were over-run by the fire and perished. The lone survivor had been placed on lookout duty. He warned the team of a shift in the fire via radio and was advised by his team leader to evacuate his position. We saw the memorial when were in Congress, Arizona near Yarnell Hill the year after the tragedy.
On Thursday morning, Donna was up at 4:30am to take a ride with Jeff and Deb Spencer to Grand Teton National Park for a hike. I stayed here and took their fox terrier, Sam for a couple of walks. They hiked a trail from Jenny Lake up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point and beyond. They saw an abundance of wildlife – they spotted a red fox, marmots, river otters and a moose. They hiked a little over eight miles and were gone most of the day – it was close to a 90-mile drive each way.
Here are some photos Donna took on their hike.
Hidden FallsJenny Lake from Inspiration PointJenny Lake from a beach where a couple was launching their kayaksBullwinkleBullwinkle on the move
Donna had jambalaya in the slow cooker and the Spensers joined us for dinner on Friday. By evening, it’s enjoyable to sit outside in the shade at the picnic table. The temperatures had remained manageable with highs in the mid-80s, but we still ran the air conditioners in the afternoon.
We went back to the Idaho Falls farmers’ market Saturday morning. We ran into Jeff and Deb there although we weren’t actively trying to find them. After Donna purchased some fresh produce, we walked south across Broadway to the Japanese Friendship Garden. The garden commemorates the sister-city program – Idaho Falls’ sister city is Tokai-Mura, Japan. The garden is an island in the Snake River just south of the Broadway bridge. You might recall an earlier post where I described how the river is split down the middle with the water level on the east bank much higher than on the west bank and man-made structures create a spillway over rocks from one side of the river to the other.
The Japanese Friendship Garden island is right on this divide. Some water from the higher east side flows through water features on the island spilling into the lower west side. I’m not sure when the garden was established, but I know a pavilion was added in 2016. There are Japanese Friendship Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona, San Diego and San Jose, California.
Access to the garden is via a foot bridge from the southeast side of the Broadway bridge.
Different water levels on the west and east side of the Broadway bridge as seen from the foot bridgeDonna in the pavilion at the Japanese Friendship GardenShrine in the gardenWater features in the garden flowing from east to west
We maintained a low-key Fourth of July. Fireworks are prohibited here at Ririe Reservoir due to fire danger. There were fireworks displays nearby at Rigby Lake. We could hear them from afar, but didn’t see them. We had thundershowers around the area and the temperature cooled considerably as we dined at the picnic table on a feast of babyback ribs courtesy of Jeff and his Traeger. I didn’t pack our Traeger, so we haven’t had ribs since leaving Mesa in May. The thundershowers eventually caught us here in the park, but we were all inside by then.
Rain and gusty winds continued in the night. This morning, Jeff and Deb hit the road early heading to their next destination – the Sawtooth National Forest near Stanley, Idaho. I’ve already dismantled my antenna and started packing some of our gear. Donna went out to kayak on the Ririe Reservoir and we’ll be packing the kayak and her bike in the bed of the truck this afternoon.
It looks like we’ll have a warm week ahead of us with temperatures in the 90s daily. We plan to pull out tomorrow morning and head west on US20 toward Boise. We’ll see what comes up next.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
