Road back to California

We had to get moving again and get back to California.  We had a trip scheduled to Hawaii (Maui), without the trailer, and had a hard date to take off.  We had almost 2 weeks to get back but we were trying to balance driving time versus distance and we had to throw in the factor that it was getting hotter the closer we were to Visalia.  After Great Falls we drove a bit over 200 miles to Beaverhead campground near Dillon MT.  This was a FREE campground with spots, pit toilets and right on a lake.  It was cool as some rain had just passed through.  True, it was right by the interstate but a large on-ramp berm blocked some of the noise.  It was a wonderful place (we even saw a man-moose for George – embedded in the concrete of the pavilion):

We still had to stop in Idaho Falls to retrieve our handgun that we didn’t try to take into Canada.  I ensured that our next stop would take us right by Idaho Falls.  Here are some ‘Idaho’ vehicles that I spotted:

Our next stop was for 2 nights at a Passport America site, Downata Hot Springs.  I didn’t get any photos while we were there but it is a nice, family oriented, park and it has a full water park with hot springs.  We did go to the hot springs but it was 90+ degrees, not the hot springs but the ambient temperature!  It would have been more enjoyable if it was cooler but that appeared to be the trend as we got closer to California, HOT!

We still had miles to go and headed toward Nevada.  This took us more west than south and through a corner of Utah.  This was extremely rural country with very few services.  We ended up in Elko NV for the night at a Casino RV park.  We needed hookups from now on due to the heat as it required air conditioning in the trailer for comfort.  Here is our luxurious spot and my lego block building prowess to level the trailer!

The next day we did another I80 leg across Nevada ending up in Fernley NV at another Passport America campsite.  We did 4 nights there prior to our next stop.  While in Fernley I was looking for some fast WiFi and checked the library.  Above the doorway was a quote from my favorite 4 book trilogy:

Still a bit to go…

Roxie’s choice

Time to leave SLC for our meetup.  It was also time for Roxie to find and reserve some spots for us.  One of the issues when full timing, especially in the summer, is finding camping spots on short notice.  I gave her some tips, like using Allstays, Campendium, RVParkReviews, and maps.  She did very good with all of them except the maps.  Roxie does not like maps as much as I do.  I usually use the map to figure out how far we want to go and then figure out where to stay.  She found two locations, one was a state park and the other a county park.  The latter was close to Idaho Falls where we had some business to attend to.

Our first stop, for 2 nights, was at Massacre Rocks State Park.  I vaguely remember seeing the park last year as we drove by it.  We found a spot in their campground that had water and electric and reserved it.  When we got to a park, a fire had just started across the Snake River.  We determined that our site was level enough to use and changed to another.  By this time smoke was filling the air:

The fire kept burning, more up the river as that is the way the wind was blowing.  There was a cabin across the river and in the way of fire but on the slow fire line:

Here is our spot and what the fire looked like at night:

The next day the fire had burned quite a bit more, we will discuss that later.  We took a drive to Register Rock where many travelers inscribed their names on this specific rock.  There was also some artwork that one person created:

The people in Idaho that were managing the fire across the Snake River from the campsite really dropped the ball.  The aforementioned historical cabin was not protected in any way and succumbed to the very slow moving fire:

It would have only taken 2-3 firefighters to stop that advancing fireline.  The bulk of it was grass and it was burning into a very strong wind. It is disappointing to see the lack of concern for historical items.

We moved on to our next destination.  This site was the Jefferson County Lake Campground in Rigby ID.  It wasn’t too far from our current spot or from Idaho Falls.  Here was the view from our trailer:

On our way to the lake, we stopped at the Potato Museum in Blackfoot ID.  It was very interesting, we ate a couple of baked potatoes, and saw the world’s largest potato crisp:

We spent some time in Idaho Falls to shop, pick up packages and, most importantly, find a location to store our handgun.  We knew we were heading to Canada and they don’t particularly care for handguns, let alone Americans bringing in handguns!  We found a wonderful place to take care of our guns, Guns n Gear.  They were very helpful and reasonable in their fee.

We also did a small purchase in Idaho Falls.  We got a couple of kayaks.  We have been looking at them for a while but were waiting for the right time.  It was right:

Alas, we were unable to try them out at the lake right next to us as it was so windy.  I am sure we will find opportunities soon!

We had finally worked out our meeting time with the Chen’s.  It was the day we were leaving so we were right on schedule.