Lake Minden (April 22 - May 13)
Three full weeks back in the Sacramento area visiting family and friends. Good time seeing so many folks. Dana spent 2 different days at Skycrest Elementary School visiting teaching colleagues and kids from last year's class. She came away convinced she made the correct decision to retire last year: :}
The campground has a private 41 acre lake that we did multiple stand up paddleboard sessions.
We had numerous visits with Jim's mom including 3 meals out and shopping for shoes as well as other outings. We also visited the owner of our cat Boots for some play time.
We also had fun game nights, dinners and a track day with Declan's running club. The track day took us out of commission for a couple days with soreness from doing so many sprints.
Dana met up with multiple friends from water aerobics, dinner at Ned and Linda's house, hanging with pickleball group, and doing group cardio classes, while Jim was able to play indoor tennis with the group he's played with for 10+ years as well as hang out at friend Ray's house for tennis in his backyard. Jim met with buddies Rob, Dave and Tony for a couple beers and multiple laughs.
Mount Lassen (May 13 - 16)
Beautiful campground amongst the pine trees in the forest (awesome). We spent half a day in Redding, CA picking up a new mattress, sheets and all the stuff to replace the unit that came from the RV manufacturer, much more comfortable now:).
We went to Lassen National Park and came away amazed. We were sorry we lived only a few hours away for many years and never made it for a visit until now. Unfortunately, the interior road within the park was closed as it was covered in 16 feet of snow! So we didn't get to go see the Devil's Kitchen like we planned. However, the hikes around Manzanita Lake and Lily Pond were amazing. We went up to the snow line as close to the volcano we could get. There were skiers there just getting back from the run. It took them 3 hours to climb to the top of the volcano for the 15-20 minute ride down.
Spark Marina and RV Park (May 16 - 17)
Just a quick overnight near Reno. RV park was actually nice and access to a nearby lake to run in the morning, plus a weight workout at Planet Fitness.
We made a quick trip to REI sporting goods to outfit ourselves with backpack/frontpack combinations for our upcoming trip this fall to Europe and future trips to other parts of the world.
Clark RV Park (Battle Mountain, NV) May 17 - 18
Trying to blow through Nevada as quickly as possible. Incredibly boring scenery (or lack thereof) driving through this state. Stayed at same campground last year on the way to Salt Lake City and it's fine for an overnight since it's close to the freeway with easy access to fuel. Nice to get back down to $3.19 diesel after getting gouged in California for $5 per gallon for the last few months.
Rock Creek County RV Park, Twin Falls, Idaho (May 18 - 20)
Twin Falls was a total surprise for us. What a great place. Incredible beauty nearby and very clean city with kind people. The county park we stayed at was awesome. Clean with huge 18 hole frisbee golf course. Great place for us to both go running and walk our dog in the morning.
We drove out to the Shoshone water falls for an amazing day. The Snake River feeds this 212 foot tall by 900 foot wide waterfall (taller than Niagra). Cool place to see. Just down the road we went to site where Evel Knievel failed to jump the Snake River in 1974.
Finally we took another quick drive to the Perrine Coulee Falls. This 200 foot waterfall was cool since you could walk behind the waterfall as well. Pretty neat. Here's a video link - can you guess the movie reference?
Virginian RV Park, Jackson Hole, Wyoming (May 20 - 23)
What a cool town! Beautiful western mountain town. Very cold in the mornings. We had to use the heated hose to avoid the water freezing to the RV overnight as temps were below 32. Otherwise daytime temps were in the 50's to low 60's. We stayed 3 nights right in the downtown at a cool RV Park that backs up to the Rocky Mountains. Toured the downtown one morning - awesome, but touristy and expensive. We used the park's hot tub and Dana used the pool a few nights.
Not a bad view from our RV of the Rockies.
Downtown Jackson Hole with Ski resort behind.
Our trip to the Grand Tetons National Park was amazing. The first day we hiked 4.5 miles round trip around Taggert Lake. Upon entering the park, the incredible jagged peaks rise up from the valley floor in dramatic fashion that is stunning.
The wild life here is amazing. We saw a small fox, a moose (no antlers) and a brown bear (luckily we were in our truck). There are Grizzley bears in the park, but we didn't see any. We also saw a herd of Bison grazing in the distance, but too far for our camera phones to get a good look. Jim ran next to the Elk Preserve, but there were no elk there.
It was a great 3 days, and all was fantastic, until we were coming back to the RV park when we got a call that someone bumped into our RV while they were trying to park there rig. Uggh, not the kind call you want to receive. The pictures below are what we arrived to. Now we have to deal with insurance claims and trying to get the front cap of the 5th wheel replaced. Scheduling and living while under repair will not be fun. We'll have to find a hotel that takes dog's somewhere along our travels. Oh well, just need to roll with it.
Add comment
Comments