Happy Birthday, Lauren!

WELCOME to our two new followers!   Carolyn doesn't show a blog listing, but I think she may have one.  If so, Carolyn, let me know in my comments, and I'll give you a plug. :)   My other new follower is "rain," who also does not show a blog listing.  I thank you both for becoming Followers of Me and My Dog - Welcome aboard!

Also, quick note:  One of our new followers, Texcyn, does have a brand new blog, Texcyn Life, check it out. I'm enjoying following her posts.  Clever title, too! :)

Happy 4th Birthday to my youngest granddaughter, Lauren! 

 Lauren is 3

 Lauren is 2 (and baking her own birthday cake at Grammy's)

 Lauren's 1st Birthday Party

Lauren, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today, and lots of fun at Chuck E Cheese tonight.   I'm looking forward to adding more birthday pictures to my photos!  Grammy loves you, and Katie does, too!

Well, I can honestly say I haven't met a state I didn't love.  Idaho, from what I've seen so far, is very different from California, Oregon and Washington, in it's vastness.  As I drive along Highway 95, all I can keep saying to myself is - Beautiful!  Gorgeous!  God's country, for sure!

We drove through forests, but for the most part, this is what we've seen:

Driving through farming and cattle country, this was in front of me - talk about a wide load.

The vistas went on forever.  Across vast farm and ranch lands were hills, with higher hills behind them, and then more until a huge mountain cut off the view.

 Layers and layers of hills and mountains as far as the eye can see.

 Katie was looking out the windows most of the day.

Unfortunately my camera just didn't do justice to what we were seeing, so I couldn't use the photos I took.  I'm going to get a new camera, I think.

We stopped at a rest stop on top of a mountain to have lunch and relax.  We finally had cell phone service, so I returned some calls and went on-line.  It was warm with nice breezes.   At least until a HUGE big rig with two trailers pulled in right next to me.  We were the only two vehicles in the entire parking lot, and he had to park next to me.  I had both of my windows open to get the nice breezes and cool off the warm interior of The Palms.  With that huge rig next to me, I got all his heat from the generator, or whatever was running, and he completely blocked my window from any breezes.  What a duffus.  So, since I was about done, anyway, we packed up and drove on.  

The pet area of the rest stop has this sign:

You can bet I had my eyes open while Katie was having her potty break, and we didn't linger outside.  No long walks here.

During the day we crossed over into a different time zone, and also crossed the 45th Parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.   I thought both were kind of cool.

The only problem with the time zone change was I needed my computer to be on the correct time to receive a download from my library.   The e-mail they sent said I had to put the right time zone, if we were on daylight savings, and the correct time.  I thought my computer and GPS would automatically change the time since they are off satellites, but I wasn't sure.  Part of Idaho is Pacific time and part is Mountain time, and I wasn't sure where the cut off was, or if I had changed again driving south.  Also I didn't know if they are on Daylight Savings Time.  My cell phone said it was past midnight on Wednesday, and I was totally confused.  I think my loss of cell service might have also changed the date/time.

When I called my daughter I had to ask her what day and date it was.  Her daughter, Lauren, turns four on Wednesday the 21st (today), and because I was using my cell phone for info, I thought it was already Wednesday, but it was Tuesday.   I wanted to make sure I called on her birthday.

I finally googled the nearest airport and called them and asked which time zone we were in, whether they were on Daylight Savings Time, and what the time was.  Turns out I was off by an hour, and a day.  Really Weird!  But the good news is, I get an extra day this week. 

What I learned from all this is:  when I crossed into Mountain Time, I figured it would only be for a day or two, so I wasn't going to change all my clocks.  If I found a good campground, I'd do it then.  Who cares what time it is, really?  Does an hour make that much difference when I'm retired?  Well, yes it does.  For one thing, the TV programs.  At 10:00 last night, I checked all the channels, and nothing good was on, so I went to bed.  I checked the time on my cell phone and it was actually 11:00.  (The only clocks I changed were my computer and cell phone).  Also, my car radio and Garmin GPS still have the old time.  I don't know why, but I can't get my brain around it when I have the wrong time, even if I know it's an hour off.

How do you guys handle time changes?  Do you change your car clock, GPS clock, computer, watches, cell phones, and any other clocks you have around when you enter a new time zone?

I continued driving until I got to Nampa, ID, where there is a Costco, Target, Super Walmart, and every other store I can think of.  I didn't really need anything, but this Walmart allows overnight parking, so we stayed here.   I went to a far corner of the lot where no one was nearby and turned on my generator for a couple of hours and watched TV and played on my computer, then I turned everything off and drove to the corner where they ask RVers to park overnight.

Today we will continue on down the road.  I'm willing to overnight at Walmarts and Rest Areas the next few nights, but I'm hoping I'll find a nice RV campground where we can stay for a week or two.  I don't want to pay a lot, but I want electricity for TV.  I got good TV antenna reception here at Walmart, I think any good sized town will have good reception, but I don't want to run my generator that much if I don't have to.

So, now I'm going to call Lauren to wish her a Happy Birthday, then I'll make the quick, obligatory trip into Walmart for a few things, and then we'll take off again.

From Me and My Dog, have a nice Wednesday, everyone!  :)

We made it to Idaho!

Welcome to our newest Follower, whose name when translated is "Letter of an Alchemist."  Although he has blogs, none are RV related that I could see, but some are written in Spanish.   Thank you for following along with Me and Katie, we're happy you are along for the ride!

Well, we made it to Idaho!    I set my alarm for 7 am so I could use the public shower since I was almost completely out of water.  I got ready for the day and stashed everything in The Palms for traveling.  The fresh water and dump area is on the way out, so as we were leaving I filled the fresh water tank, since I didn't know where we'd end up today, dumped both grey and black tanks, and at 8:30 we were on our way.

I wasn't sure if we would find a nice park on the far south-eastern part of Washington, or if we would continue into Idaho.  It was a really nice drive, and I didn't see any obvious RV parks, so we kept going on into Idaho.  Very little road repair going on, and very little traffic.  Lots of fields, lots of mountains, lots of clouds - we even had a little rain with some dark clouds.

 Isn't this sky just gorgeous?

 Love those clouds.

 No real reason for this photo, I just thought this building was neat.

It was really tall.

Anyway, if no Washington RV parks came up, I had a plan.  I don't always have a plan, but I had a really good one today.  Not knowing anything about Idaho, I thought I'd better do some research for exact parks.  I had three on my list, but one was out of the way, so I crossed it off.

The first one was Bear Den RV Resort in Grangeville, ID.  It was highly rated and had everything - looked good on-line.  But when I got there, it was really plain.  Flat, pretty empty, not much in the way of trees, it really didn't look like a park I'd want to spend more than one night in, and it was around noon, so I pulled out and kept going. 

 I could see this field fire starting from far away, 

it turned out to be right across the freeway from Bear Den RV Resort.

The next one on my list was Angels Nook in White Bird.  This was a very strange park.  Right off the freeway, it was in a little valley.  There is a small town that was very depressed, and the park was right in the town, on the edge. The woman who came out to meet me was very nice and friendly, but honestly, it was kind of scary.  There were some nice houses that I could see right out of the town, but the town itself was mostly a ghost town, not at all well taken care and lots of empty buildings.  They only had dish TV and I don't have a dish, so there would be no TV, no phone (my Verizon had no cell service there), no Internet.  I decided to keep going.

That was the end of my plan, which didn't work very well, so we kept driving.  We followed a beautiful river to our right, and it was easy driving. I saw some nice parks along the road, but I didn't have cell service,  and I wanted to be able to get Internet.  Then I saw a Ranger Station, so I stopped.  The Ranger suggested I drive another 20 minutes to Riggins, where there is cell service.  "Right in town," she said. I didn't understand that she meant there is cell service ONLY in town.

Finally around 2:30 I came through Riggins - no cell service.  Tonight is the beginning of some of the new seasons on TV and  I wanted to see Three and a Half Men, so I pulled into this park, Riverside RV Park in Riggins, which has cable TV.  It's right on the river, I can hear it flowing right outside my door, and I have a great river view from my dinette window.  It's just beautiful - looks like a good fishing river, too.  I decided to stay here, probably for only one night.

The site cost for a back-in site is $22, and they have no discounts.  There are also pull through sites.  This is a very small park, nesteled right between the freeway above, and the river below.  I can't hear much freeway noise, though, I think the river is masking the road sounds.

The Cable TV works great, my Verizon cell phone doesn't work, but I was able to get Internet,  which surprised me.   Hence, the post tonight.

 The river is on the passenger side.

 Every site is on the river.

 This is our little yard area with picnic table overlooking the water.

 We started walking and Katie was acting weird, 
kept stopping and looking at me.  

See anything wrong?  Poor thing.  :)

 Katie just loves rolling around - but this might be the last time!!! 

Phew! :(

 Katie and I walked to the end of the park, a very short walk, and came back to The Palms where she decided to roll in the grass.  The grounds are really pretty and well watered and cared for, so I thought, why not?  Let her have some fun.  She rolled and wiggled and rolled and wiggled.  When she came over to me I bent down to sniff her and almost passed out.  She STUNK!  WHAT DO THEY PUT ON THESE LAWNS???  I'm sure glad I have that outside shower, because I stripped her vest and collar and leash off and got the shampoo and a towel, and she was sudsed up before she knew what hit her.  She is now a very nice smelling, sleepy girl.

I just looked up at something moving in the corner of my vision, and there were three deer walking down the road right in front of The Palms!  That's the best animal sighting I've had so far.  I grabbed my camera, ready to snap, and a boy in an orange shirt drove down the road behind them.  They got scared and ran up the hill into some trees and bushes.  I kept watching, and one came back down and hung around for a while, but she was too far to get a good shot, and it's getting dark.   That was exciting!

We crossed into a new time zone, but I'm keeping everything the same time because we won't be here long, and none of my clocks, phone, computer, etc, re-set themselves.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, in Idaho, have a great evening, everyone!  : )

Last post from Hood Park, WA

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Texcyn!   According to her "About Me" (she doesn't list a blog), she shows dogs, and has an RV that she uses mostly to travel back and forth to the dog shows.  Hopefully more RV travels are in her future. Texcyn, Welcome Aboard, we're happy to have you following along with us! :)

On Friday we moved over one site. The one we were in had already been reserved for this weekend, but the one next to us was vacant, so we were lucky.  We had to leave our site by noon, and couldn't check into the new one until 2 pm, so we had a couple of hours to kill.

Around 11 am, I unhooked the electric, put things away for traveling and went into town again for a few errands.   We needed propane, so we got that filled up.  We were about 1/4 down on the gas tank, so I topped that off, now we don't have to stop on our way out.  Coffeemate - completely out - stopped at Albertson's for that and a few other things.  I got a huge artichoke, which was my dinner last night - it was soooo good!

I have an offer on my condo.  It's a little low, but all cash.  My realtors e-mailed me the offer, I printed it out, signed everything, and went to the Post Office to send it back by overnight mail.  As you might remember, this will be a short sale, so my mortgage company will have to approve the sale.   If they DO, that will be great.  If they DON'T, then we'll know what they will accept, and that will determine our next steps.  We'll see what happens.

When we drove back into the park, there was a sign saying "No Vacancies."   There were lots of boats and fishermen here this weekend; there's only one more weekend before the park closes for the year.  This morning (Sunday), many rigs pulled out, so the park feels much more open again. 

Yesterday was WINDY, and we had some rain, and more last night.  Not a lot, but I could definitely hear it on the roof.  Exciting!!!  I've been waiting for rain.  Now, today, it's again calm, warm, the sun's out, and we're back to nice weather. As much as I'm looking forward to the rain, I'm sure the campers here, especially those in tents, would prefer dry weather, so I'll be happy for them that we have such nice weather.   Hopefully all the kids in tents enjoyed the exciting rain and wind last night, though.

 New view from my dinette window

New view from my couch window 

Friday a huge toy hauler rig pulled in and completely blocked my view of the lake - they pulled out this morning, and this is now my beautiful view.  That's the lake between the trees.  That's why I like weekdays better.  :)

Tomorrow we are leaving Hood Park.   I've really enjoyed this campground., but our two weeks are up.  It's so clean, quiet, and well taken care of.  Lush lawns, nice campsites, etc.  The next campground, I think, will still be in Washington State.  There are two I'm interested in, both closer to the Idaho border. There are no reservations in these campgrounds, so we'll just wing it.  If they are full, we'll just keep going.  Since tomorrow is a Monday, I'm thinking we won't have a problem getting a site.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)

Full Moon at Hood Park

WELCOME to our new follower, Sunny, who has a very interesting life, but she recently lost her husband, and is now changing lanes, hence the name of her new blog, Sunny is Changing Lanes.  In August she purchased a 20' 1989 Chevy Winnebago RV in immaculate condition, and she and her dog, Izzy, have already completed  their first camping trip.  Welcome, Sunny, I'm glad you're following along with us and I look forward to following you, too. : )

Katie with her chew toy - she loves these things.

I went outside to take a photo of The Palms in front of the full moon last night, and it was soooo dark outside.  We are always inside and buttoned up by dark, so I didn't realize how few lamp posts there are.

Full moon over The Palms

We had some good wind last night, I heard the tree tops moving in the wind, and thought it was raining.  It's pretty windy outside on and off today, and the weather report says we may get a little rain, I hope so.

Yesterday on our walk I tried again to get Katie to go into the water.  I wonder if she can swim, or would enjoy going into the water, but she's really apprehensive when we go near any water.  Unfortunately the last photo is blurry, but it may be the best one I'll get of her feet, at least, in the water.

 She's curious, but not sure.

Mom says it's okay...so I'll try it.

I don't think so - cold, wet - this is enough.

I was happy she at least put all four feet in the water, but she wasn't going to do more.  When she walked out I told her what a good girl she was, and she walked away with a wagging tail.  

I thought all dogs could swim, but Chihuahuas have such skinny legs, can they swim?

I'm hearing from some followers that I'm not coming up on their "Blogs I Follow" list.  Last week when I tried to get into my Design area to write a new post, Norton came up with a window that said my blog was not a safe website, and I had to click on a link to override Norton to actually get into it.  That was pretty weird, and I sent them a message saying it's MY website, and I KNOW it's safe.  At least I assume Blogger is safe.  I'm not getting that pop-up Norton window any more, but it came up for a couple of days.

Is anyone else getting these strange messages or having problems with Blogger?

From Me and My Dog, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

The two best photos I didn’t get

WELCOME to two new followers, Longdog 2, who retired June 2010 to travel with her three miniature dachshunds, and Ester, who doesn’t appear to have a blog.  Welcome to you both, we’re happy you are following along with us.  : )  Welcome Aboard!   

The campground has a lot of empty sites, as it did last week.  I’m sure it will fill up on Friday for the weekend, but I sure like it better empty. I have an unobstructed view of the lake through the large, beautiful trees and it’s very quiet.  Selfish, huh?

The day use part of the park is very large and has lots of places for people to gather. 

 

  

         

  Hood Park, WA – Day use area

    

Yesterday the park workers were doing the lawn edging and mowing, and when they got near The Palms, I heard a rock ping against the sidewall of The Palms.  Very hard and very loud.  I was planning to dump the tanks, fill up the fresh water tank and go to town today, but when I heard that rock, I went out and pulled the electric cord, hastily put everything away, and three minutes later I was driving down the road to the dump site.  I didn’t want to deal with dents in the walls and then be sorry I didn’t leave.

Luckily I already had my shopping list already to go, so Katie and I went to Costco for a few things including fresh fruit and their delicious ice cream bars rolled in chocolate and chopped almonds.  Then the pet store for food and treats for Katie, and Target for the rest.  I found a post office to drop off a birthday card for Lauren, my granddaughter who is going to be 4 on the 21st.  I’m afraid I won’t be back in a town to mail it on time, so Kristy will have to keep it for me until Lauren’s birthday.

On our way home around 7-7:30 there was a HUGE sunset, with beautiful clouds, the sky and the sun were the most gorgeous colors.  I was driving right into it wishing I was back at camp. There were all sorts of wires, buildings, etc. in the way while I was driving, so I couldn’t stop to get a good shot.  It wouldn’t have looked good.  When I got back, the sun had already set. I think those are the first clouds I’ve seen since I got here, and I think clouds help make the best sunset photos. So I missed that one.

It’s so nice to have empty tanks, full fresh water, full fridge and freezer, and the next four days to enjoy.

When Katie and I took our walk this afternoon I didn’t take my camera again.  I mean, really. We’ve been here over a week already, and I’ve taken enough photos of the area. It’s getting repetitious.  So we’re walking along and a big brown squirrel with a busy tail runs along the grass and climbs a huge tree right next to us.  He stops, looks around, goes out onto a really thin branch, turns around to face us, holding on precariously with all four feet. 

He had a really big nut in his mouth.  He must have been about eight feet from us, about ten feet up the tree and he just stayed there looking at us, swishing his tail.  I started talking to him and making squirrel noises, and he just looked at us with that nut in his mouth.  Very clear, nothing in the way, up close , the money shot – no camera.  And it seemed he wasn’t moving until we did; I thought maybe we were too close to wherever he hid his nuts, so we went on our way. From now on I'm bringing my camera, just in case.

I have a few sunset photos from the night before last, and these are the final-final sunset pics unless I get some clouds or something different.  It is sooo much fun, though, shooting the sunset. 

 

This is a monument in the day use area showing that this is on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Lewis and Clark Trail Marker

A few days ago a new camper arrived in the site across the street, he was putting up his tent with his car doors wide open and his car radio blasting country music.  I like country music, but was just settling in my chair outside for my afternoon read, enjoying the peace and quiet of this beautiful area.   I hate it when this happens. I don’t want to complain, I always hope that someone else will.  I'm thinking - my peaceful campsite is no more.

 So, he finally gets the tent up, gets in his car and drives away.  That was Sunday afternoon, and I haven’t seen him since.  He drives to his site late every night, and leaves before I get up.  I’ve seen his headlights once, but every morning there’s something different on his table – leftover food, a drink cup, a towel - so I know he's been there.  Everybody's lives are so different, we just can't assume anything, I guess.  But I'm sure glad I'm he's not here during the day to blast his radio. :(

He and I have been the only campers on this part of the loop for a few days, and with him gone all day, it’s been really nice and quiet. 

By the way, I noticed there is a small tab on the lower right hand corner of Blogger's design page, so I sent them two messages (they ask for only one issue per feedback).  One, the fact that I often can't access my design page, and the second one is that many of the blogs I follow aren't showing up on my sidebar list as the new posts are published. (Some of my followers said the same thing, my blog isn't showing up for them, either.)  It is not a personalized feedback with an answer coming back to me, but at least when there is a problem, I can report it.  I don't know if this is a few feature, but I just noticed it.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday, everyone! : )