Leaving tomorrow - Heading toward Utah

WELCOME to two new followers!  First, Peter, who is at the end of my followers list because he doesn't have a photo.  I was checking to make sure I wasn't missing anyone, and there he was!  I'm guessing you don't have a blog because nothing is listed.  Welcome Peter, I'm glad you are following along with us! :)

Also welcome to Mark who has a blog called, "The world according to Mark and Amos" (his dog).  Mark doesn't say much about himself, and he doesn't say anything about being an RVer.  Maybe he has a plan???  Welcome, Mark, we're happy to have you along. :)

Yesterday during a walk, Katie started running onto the lawn after this little guy, who ran up a tree:

 Isn't he darling?

 

Idaho Squirrel

There is a river nearby, and last evening Katie and I finally walked over to it.  It was a much easier walk than I thought it would be.  We didn't actually walk to the water, though.  I originally went that way trying to get a good sunset photo (didn't happen), and just kept walking.  One of my fellow campers said there are deer in the fields behind the RVs, he saw a big buck, so I was hoping to see some and get photos, but there weren't any there when we walked that way.

It was starting to get dark, and night comes really fast here - all of a sudden it's dark.  I didn't want to get caught out on a path going through brush in the dark with no flashlight, so we turned around and headed back to camp before we made it to the river.  I am still kind of creeped out about snakes after seeing that snake sign in the Rest Area we stopped at on the way here.  So, we're walking along and I'm thinking about snakes, and as I look down I see this:

 It's a twig, doesn't it look like a snake? See the head?

Scared the heck out of me! I almost stepped on it.

A couple of these trucks have dropped off sod this week. They're adding lawn to the area in front of the cabins.  The work is almost done, and it looks really  nice.  There are duck hunters renting the cabins during the season, so they are getting the cabins ready.

 Katie can curl up into a pretty small ball.  :)

This is Katie snuggled up ready for sleep. 
It's been getting cold during the night.

I'm expecting a phone call tomorrow morning from the library people again to help me download audio books - the last time it didn't work.  Since I'm leaving tomorrow, I decided to go into town today to do laundry, and then drove up to Meadow Home, backtracking about a half hour, to the nearest Walmart.  It's the biggest grocery store I could find, so I drove back there and was able to get everything I needed.

We have a full tank, clean clothes, clean sheets, and stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer - so after my phone call I'll be ready to go.  Check out time here is 1:00, which is really nice, and I'm getting excited about moving on.

I've had really nice neighbors all week, Tom and Maurene.  I was telling Tom about my water pressure regulator going out, and he said he noticed that morning that I didn't have one and was worried about it, so he gave me one of his extras.  That was so nice of him, I was worried about it, too, after reading some of the stories about pipes breaking and causing damage inside RVs with water pressure surges, especially during the night.  So now I'm back in business, and I'm going to get a spare to keep on board just in case.  Thanks, Tom!  I hope you guys had a good trip home!

This week I backed my blog up on WordPress.  I'm thinking seriously about moving it over, using my own domain name and paying for a hosting site.  From what I have been reading bluehost seems to be a recommended company, and it is only $5.95 a month.  To have more control over my blog, it would be worth it to pay that little bit each month. I have step by step instructions that tell you how to move a Blogger account over to WordPress, moving posts, comments, blogroll and Followers.  I like the little Gadgets I have on my blog, and I don't know if they would work on WordPress, but if I can't bring them along, it would be okay.  I would at least be able to control my blog without all the issues I'm having with Blogger.  I still can't get into my dashboard with IE or Chrome, and can't use some things in Firefox. This has been going on for more than a month.

Anyway, at least I have it backed up now, so if Blogger loses it, it won't be gone forever.  I'll let you know if I decide to move it, but you won't have to do anything.

Moving on down the road tomorrow.  Where will we end up???  I'll let you know when I find out.

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

RAIN - finally!

WELCOME to our new followers, Trent and Teresa!  They are new Canadian Snowbirds who just downsized, started their blog, and will be scraping the snow off their Tioga RV(love that photo!)  and snow birding this winter. (They bought FroggiDonna's rig - from the photos in their blog, it looks brand new.)  Trent and Teresa, it will be fun following along with you on your adventures - have a great time on the road!


RAIN!  Look at the grey skies and wet roads.  The sprinklers are on in the center grassy area, but the wet roads are not from the sprinklers - it's from the rain.  It's really coming down hard.  When it rained on The Palms briefly before, I was disappointed that it didn't sound louder on the roof, but now I know it wasn't raining very hard then, because it's LOUD today!

Katie was acting a little scared, so I picked her up and brought her to the open door and talked in a happy voice about how good and nice the rain was.  She buried her head in my neck.  :(  She's curled up in a ball in her pillow right now.  I think she's okay though, she will get used to the noise.

 This is behind The Palms

 This is on the other side of the park.

 What tree is this?

I don't know what kind of tree this is, there are a lot of them in the park. When the wind blows, each leaf blows and makes noise.  Together they make a wonderful sound; it sounds like it's much windier than it it really is.

So...  all day long I kept hearing this music, the bass was low and it was really annoying.  I could hear it over my TV.   There is a rig next to me, and one next to him on the other side, and I figured that's where the music was coming from.  I took Katie out for a walk on a recon mission to find out how long these noisy neighbors were going to be here. I didn't want to have to hear their music for another four days.

So I walk past their driveway,where his truck was sitting with all the doors open.  Great!  He's got it blasting from his truck so he can hear it at his picnic table behind his RV, I thought.  I checked his post, and the reservation ticket said he's staying all week.  Rats!  I decided I'd ask him if he could lower the music a little, and down the walk comes a man my age.  ???  I was expecting someone in his 20s.  I mentioned something about the music, and it turns out there has been an event much larger than the car show at the golf course all weekend, and today they had bands playing all day.  NO WONDER IT WAS SO LOUD!  He said he and his wife walked up there earlier to watch the football game on their large screen TV, there were over 100 people watching it.  

The event is called "Between the Vines," and it's an annual event with a car show, music, helicopter rides, etc.  From their website:  CAR SHOW! WINE TASTING, TOURS, GRAPE STOMP COMPETITIONS, ALL DAY RAFFLE, KIDS EVENTS, HELICOPTER RIDES W SILVERHAWK AVIATION, HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE RIDES, LIVE MUSIC THROUGH THE DAY!

The music ended at 5:00, which was good since the clouds started coming in around that time, and they had a beautiful weekend up until then for the outside event.  Considering it was just up the hill from me, I'm amazed it wasn't louder.  

And that's why you always approach these things with a nice attitude. :)   I was able to meet a very nice neighbor who lives close by.  He was funny.  He said his truck doors were open because his wife's clothes took up the closets in the trailer and his stuff was basically in the truck.  So whenever he needed anything, he went out to the truck and just left the doors open. 

And here's why I always keep my camera strap around my wrist:

My camera would have landed right on the road.   Speaking of cameras, I've decided on my next camera, and they have it at Costco.  It's a Nikon Coolpixi S9100.  If I buy it on their website I also get a 4GB SD card and a Nikon leather case.  I don't know if it comes with those at the store site.  It looks like exactly what I've been looking for and has very high ratings.  My current cameras has a 10x optical zoom, and this Nikon has an 18x wide angle optical zoom lens.  Do any of you have this camera...  any reviews?

Monday morning:

Last night my water stopped.  It was dark outside, so I used my flashlight to check the hose and hookups through the window and it all looked okay, so I just used my on-board water tank for the little bit of water I needed for the rest of the night.

This morning I went outside and checked everything I could, and it seemed the water in the park wasn't working, except the sprinklers were on and working fine.  I checked my hose and filter and they seemed okay, but when I hooked them up to the faucet, the water would flow, then stop.

Luckily, as I was finishing my testing, a volunteer came by and I asked him about the water.  He re-checked everything I did and had the same results, then he screwed just my water regulator into the faucet by itself, which I didn't do, and it turns out that was the problem.  The water flowed out, then stopped.  My water regular is bad.  So we took that off the hose and everything is working fine.  I'll have to get a new one when I'm in town.

Another thing he told me is that I'm doing my water filter wrong.  I recently got one, and someone told me it didn't matter which end of the hose I screwed it onto, so I've been screwing it into the rig with the hose on the other end, and then the other end of the hose goes directly into the campground faucet.  When I told him that, his wife said that's the wrong way.  I should screw the water filter into the campground faucet, then the hose into it, and the other end of the hose directly into the rig.  They said they used to put the filter on the rig side of the hose, and the weight of the filter, over time,  pulled the fittings out of the rig.  That was really good information.

Which end of your hose do you put your water filter on?  The rig side, or the campground faucet side?

Then she said to make sure I have the anode rod for the hot water heater changed out every year.  I've never heard of an anode rod, but she related a story of theirs' almost completely deteriorating, and their RV repair shop said to replace it every year.  So now that's on my list for next summer.

Do you replace your hot water heater anode rod every year?

There is so much to learn, I'm glad all this information is coming slowly, one bit at a time.  I can't imagine having a crash course in RV Maintenance and Information, and having to remember everything.  Do you have a good chart/list of things that have to be done on a regular basis so you don't forget anything important?  I'm going to have to do a search on the forums to see if one is available.

This morning the rain is gone, the sun is out, the sky is blue and it looks like a beautiful day.  I want MORE rain, but I'll take the beautiful day, too. 

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

Four more days in Glenns Ferry, ID

I decided to pay for four more days here at Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, Idaho.  A lot of people are leaving today, so it will be a quiet week and the cost will be half price from Monday through Thursday, and then we'll leave on Friday around 1:00 - the check-out time.  I'll do some laundry and shopping somewhere along the way,  and then drive to the nearest Walmart or Rest Area on Friday evening to spend the night.

Katie is back to normal.  Thank you for the nice comments hoping she's better soon.  It took a while this time, she hasn't been eating much, but did have some food yesterday and today she is hungry and full of energy, so I think she's feeling fine.  Next time we're near a PetSmart, I'm going to see if their vet can give me something for motion sickness for her and we'll see if that takes care of the problem.  She's been pretty mopey, looks at me with such sad eyes, I knew her tummy wasn't feeling good.  Thank goodness she's her old self again!

Yeaaa, she's eating again.

When my neighbor in the next site was packing up to leave, Katie and I were just getting back from our walk, and he came over and knocked on my door.  He's from California, too, the Stockton/Lodi area, but he moved his family to Idaho and they love it here.  

He told me he and his wife were talking about how much they admire my courage, being able to drive an RV and traveling by myself.  That was really nice of him to say, and I realized I don't even think about it as having courage anymore.  In the beginning I did, I tried really hard not to have any fear about this adventure I was undertaking, just to go with the flow and enjoy it.  Now, after four months, it feels pretty normal, and that's a good thing.  And since I have Katie with me, I don't feel like I'm traveling alone. 

This is a tree outside the restroom/shower building - isn't it pretty?  It has long vines instead of branches.  I looked at it up close and inside the vines, and it looked kind of like grape vines.  Very different and pretty.

Katie and I took a longer than usual walk today, since she's feeling good again.  We went up the hill to the upper loop of RV sites.  It was an easier walk than I thought it would be.  Losing 25 pounds in the last few years and walking so much every day since we've been on the road is making a big difference in my stamina.

There is a golf course next door to the RV park, and they were having some sort of car show today.

 

A helicopter buzzed over us and landed at the golf course, then buzzed over us again.   It looks like a private helicopter - I wondered if a rich and famous person was attending their function.  But now, a couple of hours later, it's back and making many trips around the area and landing again.  They must be giving helicopter rides today.

While taking our walk, this guy had Katie's attention.  She sniffed it, and I got close to snap a photo, but he just kept walking.  He has wings, but just kept walking.  He's pretty big, some kind of beetle.  Can you see him in the rocks?  When Katie notices a bug, she gets really close to it, probably to see if it's edible, and usually jumps back quickly when it moves. 

I know they have deer here because some of the younger trees are wrapped in wire, but I sure haven't seen any.  That beetle and swarms of little flying gnats are about all I've seen since we've been here.  A few birds, there were some doves yesterday cooing nearby.

 Rate Page

 Companion Site

 Another companion site

I haven't seen this kind of site in the other parks we've stayed in.  It's a double site with two tables, two water faucets and two electrical hook-ups.  It works out to only $20 per rig if you have two people paying for it.  There are quite a few of them, and when I came in I asked if people can reserve a companion site and just pay half, and have someone else come in an pay for the other half.  He said no, if I reserved it, I would pay the entire $40.28. 

It doesn't seem like a good plan to me.  How many people travel in pairs or groups?  I know some do, but you can reserve sites in advance that are next to each other.  Having companion sites eliminates them for single RVers, unless you want to pay the premium.  Surprisingly, there were quite a few occupied while I've been here.  A 1965 High School Reunion was going on when I got here and they had a few of them next to each other.  A couple of families have reserved a few. But for the most part, the single sites are being used, and many of the companion sites are not.

There are also some cabins:

I peeked into the windows when they were empty, and they are pretty bare.  Bunk beds, a couch, table and chairs and not much else. I guess when a camper moves in, though, they look more homey, and they'd be a good thing for people who don't RV and don't want to tent camp.  They have A/C and heat, no water.  They have picnic tables and water hook-ups that are the same as the RV sites. Nice looking little cabins.

It's going to be a quiet Sunday for me and Katie, other than taking some good walks.  Most of the RVs on this lower loop are gone, only a few are still here.


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

Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, ID

We are happily settled at Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, ID.

We started out from the Walmart late morning after getting a so-so night's sleep.  It really is bright and somewhat noisy in Walmart Super Centers, so I never count on sleeping soundly.  As I pulled out onto the street leading to the freeway, I noticed a weird sound coming from the right rear tire every time I braked.  It sounded like paper rubbing on the tire well,  like I had something caught.

I pulled in to the K-Mart parking lot which is large and was empty, and I stopped and got out.  I got on my hands and knees and tried to eyeball every part of the tires in the rear, especially the right side.  I didn't see anything amiss.  So I got back in and drove and braked, and it was still there.  Then I backed up, braked, and no noise.  I drove forward again in gear 3, braked, no noise.  Drove in gear 2, braked and no noise.  Weird, huh?

I put it in Drive again, went forward and braked, and the noise was gone.  I was afraid to go out on the freeway again, though, where the speed limit is 75 mph, so I called my son and told him what was going on.  He said it sounded like I'd be okay, but to listen and monitor the brakes, and if they started doing it again, I should have them looked at.  He said that even though the brakes are in a closed environment, they could have picked up some dirt.  Maybe backing up dislodged it.

So off we went, listening intently, but everything was fine.

Highway 84 between Nampa and Glenns Ferry, ID

Donna, of Travels in Therapy, wrote in her blog post today,  "I am filled with a feeling of peace and contentment. I feel a small measure of the emotional tug of oneness with the land."  I've been trying to find the words to describe what I'm feeling sometimes as I drive along, looking all around me at the beauty of the States I'm driving through. When I read that, I said to myself, "That's it!"  Sometimes I have tears in my eyes from the emotion I'm feeling.  Thank you, Donna, I know exactly how you feel and the photo above was one of those times.

 Roadwork on Highway 84, driving beside the lane.

This was kind of funny:  I was driving along, the speed limit went from 75 to 55 because of the roadwork going on (see photo above).  They had us blocked from the actual lane, and we were driving outside the white line at the edge of the road.  I was being really careful, driving at exactly 55, with about 6 or 8 vehicles behind me.  This was going on for a while and I was getting tired and decided to pull over at this exit and rest for a bit, before going on to the rest area where I planned to spend the night.

So I take the turn off, and so do the next few cars behind me.  I pulled over right away and pulled out my "RV IDAHO" map that I got at a rest area to see if there were any RV parks here.  As I'm sitting there, all the vehicles that followed me turned around and went back to the on ramp to get back on the freeway.  They all followed me off, because they couldn't see around me, and didn't realize I was on an off ramp.

That brought a smile to a tired traveler.  But it was a quick turnaround and back on the freeway for them, so no harm, no foul.

Looking at the RV IDAHO map, there were actually four RV parks here, and one was a State Park, so I headed for it, and found Three Island Crossing State Park.  It had reservations posted for all but three sites, so I chose one through Sunday night.  The site cost for a single site is $23.32, which includes taxes, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday people with a Senior Pass get half off, or $11.66 per night.  I wanted to secure my site through the weekend since it's so popular here over the weekend.  On Monday I will probably extend at least through Thursday since the cost is half price.

This is the view from my cab window:

And here we are:

As I've found before with Sate Parks (and COE parks), this one is clean, well groomed, the grass is super green and thick, and the rules are enforced.  My kind of park.

After two days of driving and a poor night of sleep at Walmart, Katie and I slept until 10:30 this morning.  We've taken a couple of walks so far today, but Katie has been vomiting again.  Last time this happened was after a couple of days driving, too.  Katie doesn't eat much when we drive, and today she hasn't eaten at all, except a treat, which came back up.  I'm hoping she will be back to normal tomorrow after we've been here for a full day.

My son sent me these photos of his two older kids today:

 Gavin (6) as Goalie - look at that concentration!

Gavin is a super athlete and plays soccer and baseball.

 Kennedy (8) wearing a hat she bought with her own money. 

Cute, cute, cute! 

Tom said this is the first thing she's paid for with money she saved.  She also lost another tooth.

When I got those photos from Tom, I checked Kristy's Facebook page to see if she had any photos of Lauren's birthday.  This one was there:

 

 Lauren on her very own balance beam!  Happy Birthday from Daddy!

My son-in-law, Matt, made a balance beam for Lauren for her birthday.  Now that she is four years old, she has been invited to join a competition gymnastic team, Dream Extreme.  They asked Kristy last week how old Lauren was, because they wanted to ask her to join their team, but they have to be four.  So Lauren will be on a team and will compete.  I'm really excited for her, because she loves it.  (Her cousin, Kennedy, competed last year on a "Cheer" team, and actually traveled a little, and her team was invited to a competition in Las Vegas.  They live in San Diego, so that was pretty exciting. She also competed in Los Angeles.) 

 Drew (6) and Lauren (4)

This photo was also there.  I knew Drew was playing soccer, he 's played previous years, as well as baseball.  He's also a great athlete, pays attention, concentrates, and does really well.  I didn't know Lauren was now playing, too, though.  They look pretty happy!  Lauren's shin guards go up to her knees. :)  So cute.  You go, girl!!

Those are four of my five grand children, we're missing Graydin (2 1/2).  They all play sports, and even Graydin is amazing at kicking a soccer ball across the lawn, so I'm sure he'll love sports, too.  It's time-consuming and expensive for parents, but I'm glad my kids are encouraging their children to play sports.  Especially the girls. 

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

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!  :)