Cascade - Poison Creek

We left Moscow on Saturday morning, headed back to New Meadows to pick up our boat where we had left it at our neighbor's cabin, and went to the Poison Creek Campground in Cascade where our friends, Ron and Sharon, had moved to finish out their camp hosting job.

We had a nice spot and what is even nicer when we camp by Ron and Sharon, is that they share their electricity with us! We had a good time fishing and visiting with them.

The mosquitoes got pretty bad towards evening, so we ate a meal and spent some time in our screen house.

Terry's brothers (he is the youngest) both came up and camped with us too. They look like the three Howard Musketeers!

Terry's brother Ron out fished everyone by catching this nice bass. He had a hard time deciding whether to eat it or turn it loose. He finally decided to turn it loose.

We left Cascade Lake on Saturday and we are headed to St. Maries, Idaho. Why St. Maries everyone asks. Well, I lived there for about ten years, from age 3-13, and we still have friends there. I will tell you all about it in the next post!

Moscow-Baseball

We left McCormick on July 15 to go to Moscow where our grandson was playing in a state All-Stars baseball tournament. We went as far as Grangeville and spent the night and then went on in to Moscow the next day. We got permission to park in the parking lot right next to the park where the games were held. We found a great spot under a tree, with a picnic table. There was also a nice playground for the kids. It was great because Sean played two games a day and we could eat and hang out where we were parked and didn't have to travel. Shay and his family stayed at my niece's home at night in Pullman, WA, which was only about ten miles away. She and her three kids came to the games each day. My brother, Ron, from West Richland, WA, also showed up for a game. That was an added treat to see him.

We would carry our chairs, blankets, and snacks from field to field to watch the games.

Sean was the pitcher/second baseman/fielder on his regular team in Idaho Falls. He played fielder/second baseman on the All-Stars team. He is a good little player. Their team had some tough luck in the timing of a couple of their games, but they did okay. It was a lot of fun being able to be their with all of them and watching Sean's games.

McCormick

Each year for the last 20+ years, my family has gone camping at McCormick Park on the Snake River at Hell's Canyon, starting the weekend after the 4th of July weekend. My brother Bill and his friends from Oregon started it and the rest of my brothers and sister and families have built on it. There have been years when we have had close to 60 people there all together. Two years ago, all of our kids and their families, except Jill's husband were there. This is the same park where Terry and I were camp hosts for two months last summer. This year, almost everyone pooped out on us. Only us, our daughter Jill and her family and some friends of theirs, and my sister Lorrie showed up on the usual date. I think my brother Bill will be there in August after his 40th !!! class reunion in Emmett. I think that maybe some of us will make a trip down while he is there. Bill forgot to tell us he changed the date! I am not sure he knows that he is the main draw for the get together. I hope someone tells him so that next year we will have more of our family and friends there again! I know that he reads our blog, so this is giving him due notice!

We still had a lot of fun, even with the few that came. Of course, it seems like there is usually a rattlesnake sighting! Jill's husband, Dan, did the honors of cutting it's head off. We found it slithering across the lawn down by the river.

Not all of the kids were brave enough to touch it. But, we can always count on Jill's son, Boe. He seems to never be afraid of things like that.

The fishing was great! Even 4-year-old Kamber could reel those crappie in one after another. We had a big fishfry one night and still took fish home. The pontoon boat is always a great hit on the Snake River. You just have to remember to "duck your head" as we go under the bridge going up to Brownlee Dam. We haven't lost anyone yet going under it, but there is always a first time. As the grandkids get older, they kind of test Grandpa's theory that there just may not be enough room to go under it unless everyone ducks their head!

One hot day we took the boat out and found a nice calm spot. Almost everyone jumped in and got cooled off. Dan and Jill took the plunge together.

Typical of Boe, he did a fancy sumersault into the water!

Kamber was a little more skeptical about getting in. She did eventually get talked into it, though.

They told me the water "wasn't too bad after you got into it." Don't ever believe anyone when they tell you that! It was VERY cold, but refreshing. We couldn't talk Terry into getting in. I think the climb back up into the boat worried him. Thank goodness he was still on the boat to pull the rest of us up!

This is a typical picture of my sister Lorrie and Terry and the main activity of the day, besides eating. We are looking forward to going back in August when Bill gets there, and hope to have a lot more there next year.

Cascade-Blue Heron

After getting hom from Girls Camp at Sagehen, we spent a couple of days in Emmett. We enjoyed having Sunday dinner at the Manwarings. Hopefully, someday they can join us on some more of our adventures. They are supposed to be retired, but we are beginning to wonder! We then left for Blue Heron Campground on the lake in Cascade.

Friends of ours, Ron and Sharon Vickery, are camp hosts at Blue Heron Campground. They invited us to stay at the park as their guests. We had a really nice time. Ron showed us how to catch perch and we had plenty left for both of our freezers after the fish fry.

Our son Ryan and his family--wife Lori and kids Wesley, Ryley, and Chaz--came up and camped with us for a few days. One of the funnest things we did was watch the fireworks set off at Cascade over the lake, in our pontoon boat out in the middle of the lake. What a sight! It was really dark when it was over. The light on the back of our boat is no longer there, so we had to hang a lantern over the back and then use a flashlight to find out spot on the bank where we moored. It must have worked because we had another boat follow us in, using our lights to find their spot. There were so many boats on the lake that it looked like it was on fire with all of the boat lights heading back to camp after the show. I think this will be a really memorable 4th of July for us.

There are a lot of sailboats that use Cascade Lake. In fact, they had a big race the day we left. A lot of them have cabins in them and are self-contained. One year, Cascade was able to get a grant and they put in a floating dump station for boat holding tanks. We went out and took a close look at it.

We took a boat ride one day and Ryan decided to jump in to cool off. Wesley pretty much will do anything his dad does, so he jumped in with him.

Then Ryan talked Chaz in. He thought that was pretty cool. Hopefully he won't think he can just jump off of Grampa's boat any time we are out on it!

He had to talk a little harder to get Ryley in, but he finally succeeded.

The Blue Heron campground used to be used only for day-use, but they changed it an now allow a few RV's to park, and a lot of tents. In fact, on a busy weekend, there get to be almost too many tents. But, we put our tent up for the kids to use and then put up our screenhouse to keep a little space around us. It worked well.

Ryan and Lori have moved a lot during the time they have been married. Hopefully, this is the last move. When we got back from Cascade, Ryan went and got the moving truck and they filled it with all of their stuff. Ryan has a new job in Payson, AZ, where Travis and his family live. He will be the Athletic Trainer for their high school. Hopefully, this will be the last move they will have to make for a long time. We wish them good luck!

Home & Camping at Sagehen

We are back in Emmett and getting ready to go play. I know that everyone thinks we "play" all of the time (and mostly we do), but we do a lot of just plain "living" in our 5th wheel. There are still all of the "living" things to do like housework, cooking, laundry, etc. But, loading up our camper on the back of our dually and hooking onto our boat is "playing!" We have a 15-foot pontoon boat that we got about 12 years ago. We have lots of fun in it. It needed a few repairs this year before we could use it. The crank was broken on the hitch so we had to replace it. But, after a year of non-use, the motor started right up!

Our camper was a different story! We haven't used it for about three years, and since that time we have changed pick-ups. We now have a Dodge dually (the Hippo) whose bed is shaped differently from our previous Ford. So, the tie-downs wouldn't work on it. We had a hard time finding some that would work and that we could afford. The refridgerator wouldn't work and needed a new compter board. Then, when we were all set to load, we went to back under the camper and realized that the "Hippo" would not fit between the jacks. We were leaving the next day to go camping, so Terry jimmy-rigged the jacks with some bolts. It was pretty scary loading it because the bolts bent with the weight of the camper.

We went camping at Sagehen Reservoir with Terry's brother and sister and their spouses. We had such a good time. We didn't catch any fish, but the lake was beautiful. Sagehen is a little Reservoir about 50 miles north of Emmett. It is right in the middle of the pines.

We were lucky to find three spots together. You can do that if you get there in the middle of the week like some of us retired people can do!

We did a lot of sitting around, playing games, fishing, walking, napping, and whatever else we wanted to do. It was great.

We couldn't get any cell reception from our camp, but if we went out in the middle of the lake, there were several little areas that we could get reception! So, we would take a ride out there once in a while and make our calls.

Terry and I stayed for a couple of days longer than his brother and sister did. We walked about half-way around the lake one day. It took us about two hours, but that was because we were not in a big hurry and took time to check out the other three campgrounds along the way.

There were lots of ducks and geese along the way. Some of them had their "family" with them.

Here is a Mama duck with her little babies swimming along behind her.

A few days after getting home from Sagehen, we went back up with our Church girl's camp. They needed a couple more adults to go and asked us. We readily agreed. It was great. The girls did most of the cooking and clean-up. So, it was like a vacation to us. We made ice cream in a bag one evening and omelets in a bag for breakfast. We played games and sang around the campfire. The girls put on skits for us. We helped with some of their activities. A special one was a "faith walk" where the girls were blindfolded and had to follow a rope for about a quarter of a mile along trees and through brush. This trail represented life and everything around it were the obstacles and trials they may have, but if they held onto the rope (their beliefs and standards) they would make it to where they want to be. Three of us women were all dressed in white at the end of the trail. I was the first to greet them. I got to take off their blindfold, give them a hug, and tell them that they had made it! What a great experience it was.

Here are all of the girls during one of our hikes. Thanks to Butte Ward for letting us go back to Sagehen and to their Ward Girls Camp!

Tremonton, Rexburg, and Home

Hot Springs, near Tremonton, Utah, is a really fun park. It is one of our Camperworld parks that we have belonged to for about thirteen years. We have gone to it a lot and have seen a lot of improvements in it through the years.

It has a nine-hole golf course, a huge hot springs swimming pool with two large hot tubs, a fishing pond, a playground with a volleyball court and basketball court, a clubhouse with a pool table and game machines, and a bunch of RV trails.

It doesn't have too many campsites, though. But, they are working on getting more ready. These are the ones we look down on--the ones with the nice lawns in front of each site. We stayed on the top level where there is no grass yet, but we had a nice view.

We met our son Shay and his family there. They live in Idaho Falls so it is not too far from them to come. They told us that they were doing all of the meal cooking and inviting us to join them! Boy, was that a vacation for me. I think the only meal I cooked was the first breakfast because they ended up with a few problems with their trailer, which got fixed by the next meal!

It was just the day after Terry's birthday, so they brought over a birthday cake that Heidi and Marissa baked. It was very yummy! We stayed at Tremonton for three days. We all went to Church on Sunday at the nearby town. It rained a good part of the time we were there, but we still got to go swimming, played games, and enjoyed the kids.

We ended up going on to our daughter Jill's home after we left the Hot Springs campground. They live in Rexburg, not too far from Shay in Idaho Falls. They just put sod in their yard about a month ago. It sure makes their home look nice, and Jill is so glad to be rid of all of the mud.
It was fun being with Jill and the kids. Her husband, Dan, was in Boise all week for a wrestling camp, so we kept her company for part of the week. Little Kamber has her arm in a cast because she fell off of a chair and broke her elbow. She missed out on swimming lessons and gymnastics because of it, but she was a pretty good sport about it. I think she is pretty proud of her hot pink cast! Jill babysits three sister-in-law's children four days a week. This is her back yard with the new sod in it. Several weeks ago, it was mud. I am sure she is really enjoying having nice grass, and it looks so good! She said that sometimes she just goes out and lays down on it!

Well, when we leave Rexburg we will be heading home to Emmett for two and a half months of camping and fishing! I think we are ready for it! Hope you come along with us--at least on the Blog!

From Ogden to Bear Lake

We left Dugway the day after Memorial Day and headed to my Uncle's house (Terry & Nancy) in Plain City, Utah, which is close to Ogden.
We parked in their driveway for three nights. The day after we got there, my aunt had to have surgery on her knee. We brought dinner in that night, but other than that, I hope we were not too much of a "pain in the knee" for her! They are always so hospitable whenever we stop at their house, which is usually a couple times a year.

They even let us plan a get-together with some of the rest of the relatives, at their house. We planned to have a barbecue outside, but it ended up being too cold so we moved inside. This is my Mom's sister, Eulala, Terry's wife Nancy (with her knee surgery), and my Mom's brother, Terry.

I have a cousin that we got re-acquainted with last year, but the others had not seen her in a long time, so we invited them to the get-together. This is Nicole (her daughter), my cousin Vicky, and her husband Ken. My Aunt Ann was also there. We had such a nice time reminiscing and getting to know each other again. I think Nancy was pretty tired out at the end of the day, but she said it was all worth it to get everyone together. Thanks, Terry & Nancy!

After leaving Ogden, we went to Bear Lake, which is half in Utah and half in Idaho. We have a Camper World (our Utah camping program) park where we usually stay at Bear Lake, but we were meeting Terry's sister and husband there and they are not members of Camper World. So, we stayed at another park that is an affiliate of Thousand Trails program, which we are both members of.

It was a really nice park with lots of grass and right on the lakefront. We were able to park in a way that put both doors of our 5th wheels facing each other, which was really handy. It was nice weather and we were able to eat a lot of our meals together outside.

Bear Lake is just beautiful. It has lots of sandy beaches and a very gradual, sandy, slopping bottom. It is so clear that you can see the bottom quite a ways out. You can drive around the lake (about 48 miles) and the lake is about 8 miles wide. We didn't do any fishing, but they say that it is good fishing. You pretty much have to have a boat because it is quite shallow until you get out a ways.
We drove around the lake one day and looked at all of the lakefront homes. This one was quite unique! In the yards of most of the lakefront homes, you see a tractor. They use them to launch their boats because the lake is so shallow for quite a ways out and is very sandy.

We had to be tourists and walk around the little shops in town. Of course, as we were at Bear Lake, there were a lot of bears around. We made friends with this one!

Lolita and I had to try on some of the local offerings. We decided to pass up a few of the items, as they would have broken our budgets for the next couple of years!

These fur coats were several thousand dollars each. But, they made us feel rich for a few minutes while we wore them!

Terry chose a little different style to model. I thought he looked pretty good in that hat! The elk seemed impressed.

Bob even liked it. But, neither of them liked it well enough to take it home!

One day we drove to Paris, Idaho, and toured the Tabernacle that was built by the Mormon pioneers in 1889. It was made from sandstone from a quarry on the east side of Bear Lake. All of the timber came from nearby forests and the wood was painted in a "graining" style to make it look like hardwood because there was a lack of natural hardwoods.

It was especially beautiful inside. The Church still uses it for some of their meetings. The original organ from 1928 is still used today. It has seating for 1,500 people.

Then, we traveled on to Montpelier, Idaho, and the National Oregon/California Trail Center. We became members of a simulated wagon train headed west. Before "leaving" on the wagon trail, we had to visit the blacksmith, the gun shop, and the general store to get all of the supplies we needed. Then on the way, we made a couple of stops to visit with others who had stopped along the trail. It was a fun experience and was all indoors, which was good because we didn't have very good weather that day.

The day before we left Bear Lake, we played in the water a little. Well, at least I did a little wading. I couldn't get anyone else to even take off their shoes!

It was Terry's 60th birthday! I made him a cake and Bob and Lolita celebrated with us and gave him a new deck of pinochle cards. He will be much easier to live with now that we are finally the same age again!

Tomorrow we will leave. Bob and Lolita are going home to Emmett and we are headed to our park near Tremonton, Utah, where we will meet up with our son Shay, and his family! See you there!