OUR FAMILY ADVENTURE

We are currently at Cascade Lake in Idaho until Saturday.  Then we head over into Oregon and up into Washington.  The lake here is beautiful and it’s huge. We’ve been able to catch a few bike rides and that’s been enjoyable. The weather is getting cold though.  YIKERS!!  During the day it’s about 80 which is nice but this morning we woke up to a freezing 35 degrees! Are you kidding me? LOL Chris looked out the door this morning and saw a girl walking down the road in shorts and a tank top! Holy barbells and gummy worms that’s nuts.  We think she’s insane as we sit in our trailer with the heater blazing and wrapped in blankets in the middle of August!!!!  How will we survive the winter?

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We headed out of Ashton Idaho and were going to head over to the Boise area.  We planned on leaving at 7am and made it out by 7:30 which is okay with us.  As long as we are no more than 30 minutes past our scheduled time then we don’t fret.

Since we stayed at Warm River for so long we needed to stop and dump our tanks.  Staying in Warm River was the longest we had spent in one spot and we seriously tested our tank capabilities on this one. LOL!! So we stop at the Ashton, ID visitor center and take care of the tanks even taking the time to clean them out.  YAY clean tanks! 

By the time we completed the cleaning tanks task we weren’t on the road until about 8:30.  Still no big deal we didn’t have too far to go.  For the beginning of the trip it was uneventful.  We had a few hours of rolling farm hills and really cool John Deere equipment. (My tractor obsessed dad would be proud of all the John Deere’s I pointed out and even expressed excitement over how “cool” they were)  The farms were neat since what looked like wheat was planted but done at different times so the hills looked like patchwork with some of the wheat having turned brown and the rest still green. 

Once we got past the farmlands there really wasn’t much to look at.  Luckily we made good time through the ugly parts with good conversation, good radio and lots of jokes.  Before we knew it we were in Boise and about to head north of Boise to our camp.  It was about 2:00 in the afternoon and we had about ½ hour to go. 

After driving through some beautiful mountains north of Boise, we hit our campground.  Our spot was beautifully nestled against a decently sized creek with little waterfalls right out our front door.  The spot was secluded and we LOVED it.  So Chris gets out and starts to set up the satellite. UH-OH! Now you have to understand we have made it for months with the ability to have satellite everywhere.  We’ve had no problems at all with this little task.  Chris starts moving the satellite dish around and nothing. We got nothing, zilch, zero, zip, nada. So after a few more attempts we decide to move across the road and a little higher up.

Okay we throw everything back in the trailer and no big deal we are in the same campground just across the road.  We spot another private site with its own little section of the creek and it’s totally surrounded by bushes lending to us the secluded feeling of the wilderness.

So we get the dogs set up and fed as it’s getting a bit late.  We pull out the satellite stuff and continue with the setup. UH-OH! Yep you guessed it. Nothing, zilch, zero, zip, nada.  Noooooooooo.  We attempt different satellites and after every attempt possible and some serious frustration going on, we halt the satellite setting up process. There is a mountain in the way.  There is no way around the mountain with a satellite. We are screwed and not in the fun loving kind of way either.

At this point we have to decide what to do.  Usually when we decide where to go we choose a few different options “just in case” but since we’ve never had a problem we took it for granted and didn’t plan any options.  LOL YIKES!! 

If this was a weekend it would be no problem.  Since it was a Tuesday we HAD to get somewhere to have internet so JoeJoe could log in to school. Knowing there wasn’t much else in the direct area we decided to head back towards Boise and continue on in the direction we are headed any way.  It’s now about 6:00pm and we need to get a move on in order to make it to another spot before dark.

We drive back to Boise, stop to grab some food for the road, cuss a bit, huff and puff a bit, get over it, suck it up and move on! 

So now we are settled into the drive again and we expect a couple to a few more hours on the road.  Our destination is Cascade Lake in Cascade Idaho.  After a few hours of driving we pull into a spot on the lake as it’s getting dark and late.

At this point it has been 14 hours on the road and we are beat, tired, exhausted, seeing double and in a hurry to setup.  I jump out of the car and take JoeJoe to the trailer to get him ready for bed.  I grab the dogs and drag them with me.  As we are  in the trailer bustling around determining the minimum required to set up for the night leaving the rest for the morning, Chris is outside attempting to level the trailer which is on a not so level at all spot.  Just as JoeJoe is getting into his bed KABOOM, SLAM dogs freak out, me yelping and JoeJoe saying “what the heck was that?” The trailer slammed down hard. Chris runs around asking if we’re okay. I ask what in the world that was, as it felt like we fell off a cliff and were about to roll down the hill.  Chris explained that the trailer fell off the levelers and he’s fixing it now.  Usually I am out pointing and guiding him pulling the trailer on the levelers but this time it was dark, we were tired and JoeJoe needed to get to bed so he was out doing it and we were inside.  We are generally never inside until the trailer is settled.

By the time we get everything settled, leveled (well sort of) and in decent enough shape to call it a night it is late.  After Chris stops and takes a breather. Scary for him as he was under the trailer when it fell off the levelers. Holy Charleston chew that’s scary!!!! So Chris comes inside and opens the fridge to get something cold and SLAM out falls a beer and splatters!  As he grabs it and gets ready to throw it in the sink I say “WAIT!!  I’ll take that.  No need to waste a perfectly good beer after a long, rough day” So I drank the beer and fell into bed exhausted right next to Honey!!

Lessons learned: never go in the trailer before it’s settled.  Never drive 14 hours again on the trip.  Don’t take for granted that every spot will work out without hassle. The most important lesson – No matter what after a long hard day even a fuzzy beer that’s been dropped and spewed on the ground STILL hits the spot!

We had to move on in our adventure and leave the Warm River Campground.  The campground was such a nice place to stay with so many things going on with people, wildlife and just plain life.  Below are a few of the funny or cool things that happened while we were there.

Cool: you can sit in your campsite and watch the hawks hover way up in the sky or hang at the top of a tree and swoop down to grab a fish.  We were always hopeful and cheered them on and felt bad if one happened to not get one.

Funny: every morning we would sit outside or look out the windows depending on the weather and watch the chipmunks try to steal stuff off our bikes.  In the midst of being thieves they would always take a few seconds to try to hump. One chipmunk would try and try and try to get the nuts off the bike wheels while the other one would run up and try to hump it!!  LOL

Funny: our camp had wonderful camp hosts who were really nice and easy-going. They were just laid back people. Well here is a conversation between the camp  host and a little boy with a squirrel problem: Let me set the stage. A little boy is playing with his matchbox cars when a squirrel comes up and grabs one. As the squirrel is checking out the car in his tiny little hands the boy comes up to get his car and startles the squirrel who immediately takes off into the bushes. Boy to the camp host  : Hey that squirrel just stole my car. Camp Host  : That sucks! Boy: you owe me $5 bucks. Camp host: No I don’t. That’s not my squirrel. Boy: Well it’s in your campsite and he stole my car so you owe me $5 bucks. Camp host: Nope. Not my squirrel. Sounds like an issue between you and the squirrel.  So the camp host drives off in his cart leaving the little boy staring into the bushes trying to figure out how to convince a squirrel to give it back. LMAO….

Cool: We met some really genuinely nice people while camping.  They invited us to join their campfire two nights in a row and we accepted the offer and hung out.  We had a really nice time with good conversation and few beers.  We heard great hunting stories and life in general stories.  We had a great time!! Thanks John, Sarah, Bob, Christina, all the kids and Johns mom and dad and sister and her husband for inviting us and letting us hang around your fire.

Funny: during our last night at camp, we were hanging around our neighbors campfire when we hear “SKUNK!” so everyone pulls out their flashlights and starts looking around and sure enough right in camp are two skunks.  They really aren’t causing problems but certainly need to be watched so they don’t get too close.  As the kids are watching the skunks they are trying to figure out what the skunks are doing and where they’re going. The two skunks begin to sort of circle/sniff each other and all the ideas are being thrown out as to what they are doing when suddenly we hear “THEY”RE MAKING OUT! THE SKUNKS ARE MAKING OUT!” wait who said that? It figures those words could only come out of JoeJoe’s mouth.  :/ LOL

All in all Warm River Campground was and is a really nice place to hang out!  We will be back to visit this gem of a place!

We are still at the Warm River Campground in Ashton, ID due to a mix up with UPS who was supposed to deliver a package.  No big deal.  We decided since we were going to be here for a couple more days and today was supposed to be our travel day we thought we’d drive over to the Gran d Tetons and check them out. 

WOW….they are pretty awesome to see.   The road we took to get there was a 25 mile dirt road which took us through some pretty back country areas but it was gorgeous.  Within a couple of miles of going on the dirt road we came across a lily pond or something to that effect.  It was huge!!  I, of course, included pictures in the slide show below.  We came across some meadow type places which I am still amazed by whenever I see them.  We drove through some old fire areas where clearly there was a devastating effect.  We saw wild life and even had a pretty deer stand for a bit while I took her picture. I even got a shot of her sticking her tongue out….LOL

We drove on through the dirt road and made it to pavement and what do we see? YEP you guessed it a grizzly BEAR….yikes!!!!  We had to pull over and catch a shot of this guy.  Holy crap those things are scary and I now have adjusted my imaginary plan if I run into one…forget the pepper idea (see previous blog post for that one lol) My plan is to RUN LIKE HELL if I’m ever alone in the woods. Of course I’m told you are NOT supposed to do that.  You are supposed to stand there!! WHAAAAAT?! Yah the instructions when you come across a bear are to stand there…..especially if the bear charges you! Yes you heard me right. If a bear charges you it is recommended to stand your ground.  LOL I can’t even stand still if Chris runs at me…it is my instinct to run and usually I start giggling so bad I pee(kind of like when you were a kid and played hide and seek and if the seeker came close you’d get excited and pee a little and I am not the only one who did this), which of course makes him do it to me all the time because I cannot stand still I have to run away and he thinks it’s funny…NOW I’m supposed to stand there if a big hungry bears comes at me. I’m sure I won’t be giggling and I won’t pee because something else entirely different will be coming out of me….as in scared right out of me!!

After getting the bear pictures we headed not too much further up the road and caught up to the Tetons.  I was bit disappointed because it was kind of hazy out so I didn’t get the greatest pictures but what can you do? Not much.  We drove all the way around the Tetons so we saw them from all sides. 

On our way back to the camp we were quite a ways out and pretty much out in the middle of nowhere and we see a cyclist walking his bike down the road.  We stopped to see if he needed help and sure enough he did.  He had a flat tire and was waaaaaaaaaaaay far from home as he was on a 60 mile ride.  So we chucked his bike up on top of the car and headed on our way to his home which happened to be right on our way.  That was our good deed for the day and a complete pay back for the kind person who gave Chris a ride in Colorado when he had a flat tire out in the middle of nowhere!! 

It was a great day, with beautiful sights and reminder as to why we are on this trip!  Enjoy the pictures!!

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There are two ways, on a bike to get to Mesa Falls from where we are currently camped.  There’s the rail road/trail that we took last week (see blog Warm River Campground from 8/7/2010) .  If we went further on that trail and then hit the paved road we would be at the falls.  The other way is to take the Mesa scenic highway which is a paved road right up from our camp.  I myself choose to take the paved road and use my road bike to travel to the falls.  I’ve convinced myself that if I take the dirt road I would probably be attacked by a bear being out there by myself. However if I take the paved road I won’t because perhaps bears don’t like paved roads….lol   Yes I will convince myself of these things true or not!!  LOL as a matter of fact when I am out there all by myself I will convince myself there is a wolf, bear, fox, badger or whatever I “see” in my mind.  My imagination of being attacked will increase my speed up those hills to get there faster.  I also create these “attack” plans in my mind.  If I see a coyote coming at me i’ll jump off my bike, throw it down the cliff, grab a rock and chuck it with complete precision right into the coyotes eye.  Or perhaps if a bear comes after me I’ll wait until it just gets up to me and then in one fluid motion pull out of my pedals, jump off, roll under my bike just as the bear gets to me. I’ll be under my bike as he jumps on me and I’ll use my bike as leverage to throw him off me in a roll, using my legs as the driving force.  Then I’ll chuck the bike and throw pepper in his eyes when he recovers.  You see I’ll have the eliment of surprise. Woooohoooo…I can see it in my mind and I pull it off with the skill of a daytime ninja. (by the way I have no idea where the pepper comes from but it works) So as you can see in my imagination I am a complete badass!! I’d give any action movie actor a run for their money!!! 

In reality I’m riding as fast as I can so I don’t get bit!!!  Hoping I don’t see anything because I would pee my pants.  But who wants to think about reality. I’ll live in my imagination for now.  It’s way more interesting and I am WAY cooler in there!!

So the benefit of this ride is getting to see some amazing waterfalls.  There is the Upper falls which is a 65 foot waterfall and man is it powerful.  The Lower Falls (which is the best to ride to) is a smaller waterfall but just as beautiful.  It is well worth the panic of a ride alone to see and hear these falls.

Enjoy the pictures:

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So after we finished up the first week of school we decided it was time to have some fun. Well let me clarify, JoeJoe and Chris decided to have some fun. I opted out because I prefer to keep my body parts warm.  You see we are camping on the Warm River and it’s not very warm at all.  It will actually cause you to lose all feeling in your toes when you put them in the water.  I like my toes!!  So we were talking about going tubing down the river and I started thinking ya that would be fun; nice to float in the water, laying under the sun, just getting cooled off HAAH then the light clicked on….wait! floating down the river on an inner tube, that is a float with a giant hole in the middle of it. So let me get this straight I put my toes in the water, they go numb, I float in the inner tube with a giant hole where my precious girl parts go, which means my girl parts WOAH I don’t think so. I like to have feeling in my girl parts!! My Hoo-Hah is not getting frozen.  So as it turns out Chris and JoeJoe went without me and I decided to stay at camp and take pictures. HAAH and I’m happy to report no “feelings” were lost in my decision and all “parts” are happy. So here are the pictures of their joy ride…….

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Warm River Campground is where we have been for the past week.  We plan to stay here another week.  The campground is really nice and we have a spot right on the river!!  Woohooooo!!!

We’ve been busy with small hikes, biking, hanging out, fishing, walking the dogs and JoeJoe even started school this past week.  YIKES!!  School has gone well. We are all trying to get back into the routine and figure out the online system!  It’s been interesting to say the least. 

We went for a bike ride which was down an old railroad in which years ago they took out all the ties etc. so now it is just a dirt road/path.  It was really nice and green and follows along the river.  We are camping in the calm spot of the river and road our bikes to an angrier part! LOL

JoeJoe has taken up fishing and that alone will keep him busy for hours.  He loves to head out across the river and throw casts out.  He especially gets a kick out of going fishing on his lunch recess for school.  He just thinks that’s hilarious.  He met up with some friends and has a new nickname YOYO…a cute girl named him that so now he is smitten!!

While I was out on a road bike ride Chris was taking pictures of our chipmunks and he hears a splash behind him. He turns around and BAM a hawk flew down into the water and grabbed a fish.  In the pictures below you’ll see pictures of the chipmunks and Chris was able to get the hawk just as he grabbed the fish and flew away.  AWESOME!!!

We’ve had some relaxing times and a downright scary moment (more on that in the next blog) All in all Idaho is proving to be relaxing and enjoyable.

Below are some of the pictures we’ve taken over the past week!!

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