Tuesday, October 30/2012

I awoke to hear the birds walking on the roof of the bus this morning.  I have no idea what they were but it was rather neat to hear them.  It reminded me of when we camped at Clearwater Lake and the squirrels would use the top of the camper for a racetrack!!
The sun is shining this morning promising another warm, lovely day.  We do not have very far to travel today as we are stopping for the night in Nephi.  We will visit with Kay for a bit.  She needs a crash course on how to winterize the camper as Ray has usually done it but since he stayed in Arizona this summer, Kay has this task to complete before she closes it up and heads to Arizona for the winter.  Her days on the job are coming to a close for another season and she says she is ready to relax for the winter.
Being that we only had a few miles to travel, we got a late start but were settled along a little creek about an hour later.  Kay is still working so John got out the chairs and we took refuge in the shade of a rather large tree.  It is hot out and I am sure it would be sun burn weather if one sat in the sun for any length on time.
We wandered over to the Salt Creek Lounge a while later and eventually Kay got home and joined us.  We sat there for several beverages then eventually went back to her trailer and had a few more.....like I needed more!!    She has been feeding a stray cat and her two babies and the Mom and one baby came to visit last evening.  Man, they sure are cute.  Kay said that Ray already warned her NOT to bring them home!!  Hogan was not impressed by either one of them!!
Eventually, it was time to call it a night and we wandered back to the bus.

Ducks on the pond

Headed out

Salt Creek Lounge

Beautiful wood work

"T" our bartender

Monday, October 29/2012

It is a lot more noisy here this morning but I guess that is what you get when you park at a gas station/truck stop.
The sun is shining and it is warm in the bus.  We did not even leave the heat on last night!!  It is getting warmer!!  Woo Hoo.

A sign we seen on the way to Walmart

Yes,  another Walmart

Heading out

Awe green grass!!!!

Hogan chillin during the drive

Welcome to Utah

I - 15 S

Salt Lake City

tons of traffic - just in time for rush hour!!

Our spot for the night

Sounded like blackbirds but they were BIG!!

Back in the shorts

The pond we are parked beside

Thistle

Horses in the pond 

Hogan scared this one

Standing guard

Sun going down

Lots of geese and ducks

After a quick stop at Walmart, we will be down the road, out of Idaho and into Utah.  We are actually making good time despite the fact that we have stopped at a few Walmarts along the way!!  John really needs to learn to relax!!
We continued down Interstate 15 again today and this took us past several green fields.  Yes GREEN!! On my gosh, I have not seen green since leaving Canada!!  Many of the trees along our route still have their leaves on but many too are turning colour and will soon drop their leaves like the ones back home.
Interstate 15 S takes us right through Salt Lake City and just our luck, we arrived during rush hour.  Man, seven lanes of traffic (at times) and a billion cars!!  Wow.  There were a few "brake checks" but all in all, we got through unscathed and it relatively good time although since this area is so populated, it seemed like it took forever.
We stopped for the night at a Flying J truck stop and managed to get a spot beside a huge pasture with a pond.  There were three horses in the pasture and they didn't seem to mind that we were parked so close as they eventually made their way over to the fence line by the bus.  Hogan was not impressed by them so had to take on the role of protector once again,
The pond and pasture was home for several ducks, some geese and a couple of ring necked pheasants.  I got the binoculars out and was able to watch them until the sun went down. I took several pics of the horses and managed to get a few with the sun going down.
It was so warm out that we got the chairs out and sat in the sunshine.  John was in his shorts!!  I think the temperature was in the 70 and it was awesome.  Nothing like a cold beer while one is sitting in the sunshine.  Oh and to think, we have all winter to do just that!!  What a tough life.
The temperature does drop when the sun goes down so we packed up and headed into the bus.  I text Kay and said we had stopped for the night in Provo, Utah and would be stopping by to see her tomorrow.  She has her trailer set up in Nephi which is not too far down the interstate. It will be good to see her again.
Ray text us earlier to see how our travels were coming so we had a bit of a chat with him as well.  It will be good to see all our friends in Wickenburg.
Tonight was clean out the fridge night for supper and that is what we did so now there is a bit more room for beer!!
The truck stop is quickly filling up and it was quite entertaining seeing how some people park.  There are a few motorhome here now and they are like dogs, who tend to circle before they actually lie down.  Just when you think they are parked for the night.....they move to a different spot!!
With the entertainment in the parking lot finally settling down, I was off to bed.

Sunday, October 28/2012

Heading out

Interstate 15 South - part of the Nez Perce' Trail

This cute little river flowed along side the interstate today

Coming into Butte, Montana

Our spot for the night - Blackfoot, Idaho sitting beside the Snake River

love the patterns of the snow

Cows

Definitely, snow in the hills

Finally, out of Montana - Welcome to Idaho

It was quiet here last night and there was no gun fire this morning!!  I heard rain on the roof early this morning and the ground is wet although it looks like we are headed into another nice day.
We got started on our journey today, heading towards Butte, Montana and hopefully, we will be out of this state today and into Idaho.  Montana is a large state and it does take a couple of days to travel through it.  It really is vast and I guess "Big Sky" Country is more than fitting.
We stopped at the Walmart in Butte as there was one thing I forgot in Helena and while I was in the store, I found a couple of can coolers with the hard liner so that the melting ice stays in the cooler and not in the box of the quad.  I hate when that happens!!
On our way out of town, we found diesel for $4.09 a gallon so stopped and filled up.  It was $4.19 the other day so today's price was even better.
Once we were filled up we hit the interstate again and continued south.
Our travels today took us past the Big Hole Battlefield National Monument.  It is here, on August 9th and 10th, 1877,  that the Nez Perce' Indians fought a battle against the U.S. 7th Infintry Regiment in a failed attempt to escape to Canada.  This battle was the largest one fought between the Nez Pearce' and the U.S. Government forces in the five month conflict known as the Nez Perce' War.  Basically, the U.S. government, changed their minds about where the Nez Perce' should settle and wanted them to move to an Idaho Reservation (which was much smaller than their current Reservation).  Chief Joseph wanted to move his tribe to Canada where he believed that his people would be treated differently and where they could unite with Sitting Bull, the leader of the Lakota there.  Six weeks into their journey to Canada, the U.S. cavalry launched a predawn attack on the 800 men, women and children encamped at Big Hole.  The Nez Pearce'  mounted a fierce resistance and during the day and a half battle lost an estimated 60 to 90 men, women and children.  The Cavalry lost 28 men and suffered approximately 40 serious casualties.  After the battle, the tribe fled East into Yellowstone then North towards Canada.  In October of 1877 (about 2 months after the battle) the starving and exhausted Nez Pearce' surrendered to the U.S. forces.  They were 40 miles from the Canadian border.  Approximately 150 Nez Perce' managed to make it into Canada before Chief Joseph surrendered where he was reported to have said, "Hear me my chiefs.  I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever".
There is such incredible history in so many of the areas that John and I travel to that if one takes the time to "google", one finds out some amazing information.   Thanks to Google and Wikipedia, I can share this with the readers of this Blog.
We also travelled past the small town of Spencer, Idaho today.  This town of 38 people claims to be the Opal Capital of America.  Once again, thanks to "google", I found this in fact to be true with the quality of the opals rivalling the quality of those found in Australia.  Now isn't that interesting!!
We stopped for the night just outside of Pocatello Idaho.  We have travelled a "long" day today and both John and I are tired.  I had a roasted chicken in the slow cooker while we travelled and that is what we had for supper.
We watched some TV and had a few refreshments before calling it a day.  Oh, ya..... I saw a Walmart  just down the street from where we parked tonight so will have to make a quick stop there tomorrow before heading further south!!  I will be saving John more money!! He should thank me!!!