Monday & Tuesday, Sept 4 & 5, 2017
These 2 days are moving days. We plan to be back in Arizona by Sept 11. Unfortunately every since we left British Columbia, we have been in smoke from wildfires everywhere except for 1 day in Baker City, OR. Monday when we left Baker City, it was smoked covered. The drive to Wendell, ID was so smokey we did not take any pictures.
Here's our home for the night. See Dusty hiding behind the tree.
What a surprise we had Tuesday morning when we opened the curtains. Could this be a hairless Sasquatch??
Forgive me Lord!
Tuesday we moved to Ogden. Again it was smokey so no pictures until we arrived. A brand new fire near Ogden, UT.
We are at a Passport American park that is mostly a mobile home park with a few RV sites. It's ok for one night.
Here's the view from our site for the night. The mountains are fairly close so you can tell how thick the smoke. We sat outside visiting with neighbors for a while this afternoon. My eyes started burning and watering and we had to come in.
This picture doesn't show how red the sun really looked due to the thick smoke. The whole sun looked orangey-red and all you see here is the lower part looking pink.
We are moving again tomorrow to Salina UT. We are hoping to be able to get away from the smoke.
Friday, May 26, 2017
Today the only plans we had were to go to Walmart and get a few last minute items.
Here near Newport, we are very close to the Idaho border. If I'm not mistaken, part of the town of Newport is actually in Idaho. Anyway we criss-cross across the borders between the states frequently.
The Walmart we plan to go to is actually in ID but is closer than the closest one in WA. We drove through this little town of Blanchard and had to stop to take a few pictures.
This is Lake San Souci in Blanchard, ID. It is a still morning so the reflection on the lake is sharp.
Again you can see some snow on a surrounding mountain.
This long needled pine tree was in the roadside park we pulled into. There were many of these "flowers" in this type of pine tree. Some of the "flowers" had pine cones at the back of them and others did not. Unique looking!
Off to Walmart.
Later this afternoon, we decided to drive to Albeni Cove which is close to the Albeni Dam on the Pend Oreille River.
This cool RR trestle crosses the Pend Oreille River.
This is the Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond O'ray) River just before the Albeni Dam.
The dam is releasing water at this time. The turbulence is very strong.
This man was fishing at the edge of the river just below the turbulence. We did not see him catch any fish.
Tic took this picture standing in the same spot as the previous 2 pictures. The turbulence goes a ways downstream.
It has been a gorgeous day. We are so blessed! Thank you Lord!
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Today we decided to go to Coeur d'Arlene and hike Tubbs Hill. We did this 2 summers ago, however much of eastern Washington was on fire and the smoke limited our views greatly. We could not see across the lake. So since today is sunny and beautiful we decided to go again.
This unique metal art is at the entrance to McEuen Park, Looks like dandelions to us.
We came here to hike Tubbs Hill and then to have a picnic lunch.
Our hike started near the marina on the right side of Tubbs Hill.
You can tell there has been plenty of rain here. There are lots of wildflowers blooming. Tic is so good to me, taking pictures of the flowers for me.
The views started immediately. Tubbs Hill is actually a peninsula. We walked around the bottom and as you will see the views were magnificent everywhere.
The tall trees provided shade in places which was nice. It is actually 82 degrees Fahrenheit here today.
I'm just posting pictures I thought showed our hike and the views along the way. When you get tired of looking at pictures you can quit.
We even saw a seaplane taking off and landing several times. We were betting he was providing tourist rides.
More beautiful views to follow.
This looks like it could be a fun family vacation! Tic's father Kirk would have really liked it!
We know that even the boaters are safe here on Lake Coeur d'Alene.
We had our picnic in the shade of a big tree. It was a lovely day!
While I was working on this blog a red-tailed hawk landed in a tree just outside our window. Tic got this great picture.Feeling blessed AGAIN!
Sunday, May 21, 2017
For the next week, we are staying at Spring Ridge Estates near Newport, WA. It is a 55+ RV/Home Community where you own your land. We've been invited to stay here at no charge to see how we like the area.
We are parked in a site actually owned by someone else. Many of the sites have RV shelters like this one. The smallest lot here is 2 acres. It is beautiful and with the acreage each site is private. I feel like it is a little too much land.
Today we plan to drive to Sandpoint, ID.
On our way to Sandpoint, we stopped at Albeni Falls Dam. Above is a description of the falls and dam.
This train trestle crosses the Pend Oreille River, (pronounced Pond O'Ray). Below is the dam. The falls have been dammed and now the falls are the spillway off the dam as seen below.
We made it to Sandpoint, ID. It was only a 40 minute drive. We found a parking place near the historic part of town.
We saw several of these beautiful blooming trees. We asked several people around and no one could tell us what kind of tree this is.
As we walked towards the marina, we saw this old building. It appears to be offices now.
Then we saw another kind of blooming tree. Name unknown again. Obviously April showers bring May flowers!
Look at the entrance to the "City Beach". Notice that when you look through the bridge you see sand and water. Then over the bridge you see mountains with snow still on them.
Now we are standing in grass next to the beach. Isn't this an awesome view!?!
The reflection of this shopping center on the still water made for a really cool picture.
On our way back to the car we saw these beautiful poppies.
If I'm not mistaken, I think these are azaleas. Wow, there were lots of kinds of flowers all around this town. It was a beautiful town. We really enjoyed our walk.
We drove a different route home and saw this heard of elk grazing in a field.
What a wonderful day. The temps today have been in the high 70's. We are feeling very blessed!
Friday, May 19, 2017
This part of Idaho is GORGEOUS, so we are off on a drive.
As we pulled out of the RV park headed for White Bird, ID, the clouds were spectacular!
We stopped at a high point and Tic got this panoramic picture.
At another overlook, we saw this road zig zagging up the hill. Above describes the road. 
We decided we needed to drive this road. It starts in the town of White Bird.
The Nez Perce Indians once called this area their homeland. As settlers moved in treaties with the Indians kept making their reservation smaller and smaller. This picture shows the battleground where the US Army fought the Nez Perce forcing them into the small area now called their reservation. The final area is only 10% of what they originally called their homeland.
We drove down into the valley to the town of White Bird. This is looking up out of the town of White Bird. WOW!
Looking a different direction up the hillside in White Bird we saw this house and boat. Looks like the boat settled there after THE big flood. HA HA
As we drove up that zig zaggedy road I showed you earlier, we saw this momma and her nursing calf standing on the side of the road.
Just around the corner, we could look down on a small group of cattle. We saw several groups of cattle like this as we drove up the hill.
This is only one of the pictures we took looking back down in to the valley where White Bird, ID is. Stunning views!!
The wildflowers were blooming all over the place.
On our way back down the hill on the other side we saw huge areas of farm land. Grangeville is located in the Camas Prairie and mainly grows wheat. However in the spring and early summer the bright yellow is canola. Camas is a blue flower and we've seen it along the roadsides in several places.
Another cool shot of a sun lit dandelion.
We saw a young buck this evening a little before sunset.
Both above and below are of the sunset tonight.
WOW God's paint brush is awesome!
A Mammoth was discovered nearby, and this replica is on display in a small park in town.
Tomorrow we are off to Newport, WA for a week.
