From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

The distance from Carson City, NV to Santa Nella, CA is 240 miles.  We started out early for us, a little past 10 AM, and arrived at 5:15 PM. It was a long, long drive.  We took Highway 50 into Lake Tahoe then hooked up to the I-5 near
Sacramento. It was sad to see the sign that said, "South to Los Angeles," because it meant that we are really on the way back home.

The first part of the drive today was really beautiful, with mountains to climb, lots of green pine trees, and then along the shore of Lake Tahoe.  Once we hit the I-5 things turned golden brown with the exception of an occasional grove of fruit or nuts trees and vineyards.

Our home for the night is the very, very old Santa Nella RV Park, which as you can see is right at the intersection of the I-5 and Highway 33.  We can see Pea Soup Anderson's out our kitchen window.

Up early tomorrow to Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles for the next two nights.

Carson City/Virginia City

We arrived in Carson City, Nevada yesterday afternoon after a long boring drive down Highway 95 and 395.  We are here for two nights.  We explored Carson City a little and found the Target, Costco, Staples and all the other comforts of home.  They even have a Trader Joe's.  The Carson Comstock RV Resort is OK, but we are packed in like sardines.  We had to squeeze into our spot, and Kathe is a little worried about squeezing out tomorrow when we leave for Santa Nella.




My biggest worry is the wide open dog run.  I almost got my head bitten off this morning by a "sweet" pit bull.  We aren't taking anymore chances, we are just going to walk around in the RV park and avoid disaster.  Speaking of disaster, I ripped the ear off bunny this morning and thought he would have to be sent to Grandma for repair, but Kathe sewed it back on and he's almost as good as new.






Kathe and Jim drove to Virginia City today. They took a trolley ride around the town and learned all about the Comstock Silver Lode and the many historic buildings in the area.  They toured the Fourth Ward School, a four storied wooden school which was built in 1876 to accommodate the over 800 children that were living here at the time.

After the tour, they had lunch in the Palace Saloon, did a little gambling, and toured the Nevada State Fire Museum.  At the "Silver Queen" Hotel they saw a painting of the "Queen" with over 340 silver dollars decorating her gown.  There was so much to see and do in Virginia City that we will have to come back here again and stay at least a week.

Over the Mountains...

Today we had to leave McCall.  We had such a great time.  Wish that we could have stayed longer, but we didn't want to wear out our welcome.  Next time we will have to book at least a week here.  Kathe and Jim went to the Shore Lodge for dinner with Richard and Darlene on Wednesday and from the picture they took it looks like they had a wonderful time.  They didn't invite me to come along.





Thursday morning it was time for us to head out to our next stop, Caldwell, Idaho.  We drove down Highway 55 along the beautiful Payette
river.  The pine trees disappeared as we got closer to Boise and Caldwell.  They were replaced by fields of corn, wheat, and potatoes on both sides of the road.

After spending the night in Caldwell, we were up early and out on the road again.  We drove almost 200 miles today and tonight our home is Winnemucca, Nevada.  It's hot, dusty, and dry here and we really miss the trees!  We can't wait for the sun to go down so it will cool off a little.

We will leave tomorrow for Carson City, Nevada where we will stay for two nights.  Can't believe that we are finally heading south and west, we are on our way home.

Enjoying McCall Idaho

Today is our last day in Idaho, and believe me all the days have been FULL!  Kathe and Jim barely have time to walk me and feed me because they are doing stuff everyday.  Most evenings they get home too late or they drink too many Margaritas to help me with my blog.  So today I wanted to write it before they go out to dinner, again!

Yesterday morning we were out having coffee, and I was minding my own business when a bald eagle flew right by and landed in the pine tree across the river from us.  It was very exciting, but now Kathe is watching me like a hawk while the "hawk" is watching me.

I have been trying to make friends with the little black dog next door, but so far he just stays in his yard and just stares at me.  I asked Jim what breed he was, and I found out he's a "ceramic."  I guess those aren't a friendly breed.

Jim and Kathe went for a hike yesterday on the Lily Pond Trail in Ponderosa Park.  It was quiet and peaceful in the shade of the Ponderosa pine trees. After the hike they found a huckleberry patch and picked enough berries to make a cobbler for dinner.

Today they packed a lunch and rented kayaks for four hours of fun on Lake Payette.  Darlene, Richard, Janet, and Dave knew exactly the perfect place to launch the boats.  Then they paddled upriver for a couple of hours before finding the perfect picnic spot.

Louie Lake

I don't care about biking, hiking, fishing, kayaking, or riding around the lake in a motorboat.  I don't even want to play ball. All I really want to do is chase squirrels.  I want to catch one and bite it's head off.  Kathe takes me for long walks and I see plenty of the furry little devils, but I can't seem to get close enough to get one.  This morning two of them ran right up the pine tree and actually laughed at me.  A sad state of affairs.  I am practicing killing them using my stuffed bunny rabbit, shaking it until it's neck snaps.  Just you wait, Mr. Squirrel!

Anyway, Kathe and Jim went off this morning and left me AGAIN!  This time they met Richard , Darlene, Dave, and Janet and went for a hike to Louie Lake.  It was a very steep climb, and the three guys went ahead of the gals and promptly lost the trail.  Luckily, Janet knew the way and everybody eventually got back together.  The guys brought fishing poles and the gals brought lunch.  Richard was carrying the beer in his back pack, and one of the bottles exploded and squirted all over the place.  Little Lake Louie was beautiful and quiet, there were only a few other hikers on the trail and hardly any fishermen.

Jim caught two rainbow trout and three rocks.  Dave caught five fish, so Richard owes them both five dollars!  None of the fish were large enough to keep so they will be cooking a pork tenderloin for dinner tonight.

McCall Idaho

Today we arrived in McCall, Idaho after a beautiful but challenging drive down Highway 95 from Grangeville.  The first half hour of the trip was a steep downhill grade of about 7% for nine miles.  It was very scenic, but looking over the cliff was a little scary for all of us.

We drove through an area called Hells Canyon Recreation Area along the Seven Devil Mountains. Then we followed the Salmon River into Riggins, Idaho and then down past Payette Lake and into the town of McCall.

It is so beautiful here.  Our site is right on the the river and it's one of the best sites in the whole resort.  One of these pictures was taken looking out the front window of the coach and the other is from our patio area.  The weather is great, clear blue skies and mild temperatures.  I'm glad we will be here for a while.

Kathe and Jim went to dinner with Darlene and Richard and then they went to listen to an oldies band outdoors at the opening of a new restaurant. I made them take me for a long, long walk when they got home.  It's a short blog, because Kathe had too much wine at dinner, again!

Watching the Hay Grow

Mountain Time, Pacific Time, how am I supposed to know what time it is?  I'm a dog for goodness sake.  I thought it was time to get Kathe up this morning and  boy was she crabby! Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.  I didn't know it was only 5 AM here in Idaho, it felt like 6AM in Montana to me.  Everyone got up a little bit early thanks to me.  Now they tell me that the time will change back again when we get to McCall tomorrow.

Once Jim got up and saw that there were hard water spots on the motor home after the sprinklers came on, he was outside with his cleaning rags.  Get out the umbrellas folks, because this can only mean one thing--RAIN.  That's how we help the farmers here in Idaho, we wash the motor home, then go to the car wash, then it starts lightening and you know the rest of the story.

There isn't too much to do here in Grangeville except watch the wheat and hay grow.  We asked the local people what we should see in town and no one had any suggestions.  We found the Chamber of Commerce and picked up some information there, but everything they suggested was out of town.

We found an interesting Lake located 6 miles out of town in the middle of some hay fields.  Tolo Lake was once part of the Nez Perce home territory and a gathering spot for animals for at least 11,000 years.   In 1994 they drained the lake when completing a fish and game rehabilitation project and discovered a thigh bone of a Colombian mammoth.  In that summer of excavating they found nine mammoths and two bison.  Scientists believe that Tolo Lake may be the largest mammoth graveyard in the US with up to 200 mammoth skeletons.

We also visited the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho.  It's a beautiful stone convent built in 1907 on the Carnas Prairie by Benedictine Sisters from Washington.