Lincoln Rock State Park

Its been about a week and a half and many more miles since our last post.

We moved both the Montana and the Dog House from

Twin Falls, Idaho to Walla Walla, Washington.

We then moved the Dog House to Jim & Kristis place in the

foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Cle Elum, Washington where it

will stay till we return from Alaska in July.

While all of this was going on, Kate lost her Aunt Jean' 

Having helped raise Kate - Jean was like a second mother.

So we were scrambling to try and find flight accommodations that would

allow Kate to make it to Long Island.

Unfortunately we were in off the beaten trail enough that she would have

to spend almost 24hrs traveling to get there so the decision was made

to remain here in the west.

Jean was a Librarian and avid reader and loved to receive our blog.

She would often say how much she anticipated receiving the next installment.

We spoke often of the places that we were visiting and the sights that we were enjoying.

She traveled with us thru the blog.

She will be missed.

Since leaving the coast we logged about 6,000 miles in just under 2 weeks.

After finally dropping off the Dog House in Cle Elum,

we arrived back in Walla Walla where we spent last weekend with

John, Jim, & Kristi and got some much needed downtime. 

On Monday the 5th we moved on and now are settled at Lincoln Rock State Park

just north of Wenatchee, Washington on the shore of the Columbia River.

It is a beautiful park.  Lots of green grass, trees, and there are only a few other

campers here so it is quite peaceful.

The weather is cool, dry, delightful.

There are lots of Marmots - small Beaver like little critters scurrying to and fro...

It is a constant source of amusement for the Doodles.

The view of our front yard.

The view of our back yard.

We are going to stay here for about 10 days.

While we are here I plan to run across the border into Canada and

get the sim card that I need for my iPhone that will give me

the data coverage I will use for work while traveling 

thru British Columbia and the Yukon.

Staying connected is key!

Today after work we took a short drive up into the foothills

to the town of Leavenworth.

Leavenworth has this whole faux German Village thing going on.

Originally a timber town, In 1962 the townsfolk got together and

decided to reinvent the town as a mock Bavarian Village.

Its in a very pretty setting with the snow capped peaks surrounding the town

It was fun for a short visit but hard to get too excited over

since we've been to the real thing.

Back down in Wenatchee we headed for the river.

They have over 10 miles of park and walking paths along the Columbia River.

That was the scene for todays self portrait.

We probably won't be doing another post for a week or more since we'll be basically

static and I don't anticipate too much excitement in the week ahead.

However in just over 2 weeks we will be heading north and I expect

that there will be much more to share then.

Stay tuned.

Back Twin Falls

We made it back to Twin Falls, Idaho last night around 8pm

We hit the road from Casa Grande Arizona at 5am.

Due to a winter storm warning for central Nevada, and high wind warnings

for most of the route we decided to just hit the road and get north out

of the worst of it before it got bad.

It was a quick 1,700 mile round trip.

We left Twin Falls heading south the morning after a light snowfall.

The fresh powder dusted the mountains and the sagebrush.

It was 840 miles - almost all of it on 2-lane US 93.

Further south in Nevada you can see the road stretches out before you forever.

It is well over 100 miles between towns, and most of the towns are 1 or two blocks long

with just a few buildings...

Very remote and wide-open country for sure.

After hooking up the Monty and getting a nights sleep it was back on the road.

Headed north our forecast was for winds in excess of 40mph.

South of Las Vegas the winds started to pick up in earnest.

At times it was a tailwind which was fine.   

Other times a cross wind and two-handed driving fighting to keep the rig between the lines.

On the way North we battled our way thru dust storms.

I snapped this photo of one off to our left.

At times the visibility dropped significantly as we ran thru the dust..

Further north in central Nevada the clouds lowered and soon were

driving thru solid rain storms - in the desert!

Soon that rain changed to snow...

Keeping an eye on the outside temps allowed us to continue to push on.

Playing a game of Weather Cat and Mouse we wondered

if the temps would hold out long enough for us to get north of the winter storm warning area.

What I did not want to do is get stuck 100 miles between towns in the snow.

We did have plenty of propane and food just in case.

The Sirius Weather Radar in the truck was a great help keeping me appraised of the big picture.

When we got to Jackpot, NV near the Idaho border I knew we were home free

since the terrain ahead would start to descend off of the high plateau and

with lower altitudes would come warmer temperatures

Arriving in Twin Falls I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt getting out of the rig

in 30mph winds and 38 degrees.

Today we just stayed put.

This morning my phone rang and it was our buddy John.

He knew from the blog that we were in Twin Falls and he was passing thru so

we got together for lunch and some sight seeing.

These are the Shoshone Falls, just downstream from the Twin Falls that the town was named after.

They are 14' higher than Niagara Falls.

This is looking down the canyon of the Snake River.

Further down stream US 93 is carried over the Snake on a bridge that is over 300'

above the river.   It is used every weekend by base jumpers but unfortunately the winds

continued to howl today so it was too windy.

That would have made for some cool photos.

Instead I'll leave you with this "cool" photo - taken by John.

Tomorrow we'll move the Monty 6 hrs west to Walla Walla, Washington.

Next day we'll deadhead back here to pick up the doghouse and do the 12hr

round trip in one shot.

Then the Doghouse will almost be home....   for now.