Be prepared, this is a marathon post!  We've been at MacKay Reservoir,Idaho, for almost 2 weeks.  We followed new, wonderful friends, Maria and Gene (from California), here from our last campsite at Pink House Recreation Area.  They too are leaving tomorrow and we surely hope to see them again!  Today the weather took a turn to the cold side.  40 mile+ winds and the temp has dropped 13 degrees in the last hour and a half on the way down to the low 30's tonight.  Brrrrr!

But as you can see, we're warm and cozy as 2 bugs in a rug :)

A few days ago it was much warmer, in the 90's, and we went exploring!

2 days ago we struck out on a memorable hike in an attempt to make it around the reservoir and scale the hills across from our campsite.

Legend has it a white horse occasionally appears on these hills and brings good luck to those who see it.  Maria and Gene told us about the "Legend of the White Horse".  We never saw it but they said it appeared when we were out exploring.  Wendy did say she saw a huge fish surface and look around.  Sort of like the Loch Ness Monster, so we're thinking about starting our own legendary story.  We'll call it the Legend of the MacKay Reservoir Monster!  So we started out with no water, no cell phone and no bear spray (terribly dumb, I know).  10 miles later we arrived back to the campground, beaten to a pulp in the 93 degree heat.  We will be prepared the next time out!  We honestly had no idea we would be gone that long.  Hear are some pictures of that adventure.

It's hard to appreciate the slope of the this hill, but it's quite the slope!

Here's where it starts to get interesting.  We had to work our way past the wet, marshy area to a drier mud flat.  We could walk on it but the ground was quite spongy.  I told Wendy to walk a ways behind in case we ran into quicksand.  I know I've been watching too many Westerns when I start thinking about quicksand!  Anyway, we separated a few feet nonetheless.  We came across a stream we thought we could cross.  It was pretty shallow and we could see the rock and pebble bed beneath the surface.  It was indeed firm footing.  But to get to it we stepped into a bank of mud and sunk to our knees.  I felt relieved when we stopped sinking at knee level!  It was just like pluff mud, if you've ever experienced that feeling.  Well, we escaped with our shoes and socks still attached to us.  We stopped in the middle of the stream, on firm footing, and spent the next 5 minutes cleaning off mud only to enter another mud bank on the far side!  Arggggg! 

Here's proof some weren't as lucky!  Don't ask me what the 2nd picture could be :)

This was one big bird!

On past the flats to the other side.

These are nice pictures.  I wish they could express the beauty we witnessed.

Time to prepare for the long trek back!

We decided to make it easy on ourselves the last 3 miles by taking the easy road back!

As I finished this post, a strange sound drew outside me out to investigate.  It's now snowing!!!  I hope this brings a cool feeling to those enduring the heat!  God bless and be well!

It was cold and windy today!  As you can see, it snowed at higher elevations next to the campsite.  That's probably 9 or 10 thousand feet up there.  35 degrees is forecast for tomorrow AM.  Now we'll be looking for warmer climates, lol.

I finally arrived to the place that I really didn't want to find myself.  Behind in my blogging and having a very difficult time organizing pictures and recalling events.  Rats!  No excuse for this!  This is my best attempt at playing catch up.  I'll finish up our visit to Pink House.  We left 2 days ago after staying 13 days.  It went faster than we wanted.  2 trips to Lewiston, 40 miles one way, were needed to retrieve needed UPS orders.  We are set!  :)  Here are a few pictures to wrap up our visit.

Blackberries again!  Yum :)

We even found a pair tree, although the pears were not ripe.

And what naturally follows a picture of a pear tree?  You guessed it!

PARTRIDGES!  Wendy gets a really big kick out of watching these guys scurrying around in a big group!  (I do too).  I'm convinced they would rather run around on the ground than fly.

It was just an overnight stop and was devoid of any real excitement.

This brings us to the journey to Joe T. Fallini Campground at MacKay Reservoir, Idaho.  I'll soon start taking pictures of this place but wanted to share a few of the trip here.  Of the 225 miles or so, most were along rivers and through mountains and very beautiful.  The skies are very smoky from California fires.

These are a couple of my favorites!!!

To be fair, Wendy insists I post this one before I become unrecognizable.

Now the rest of the pictures to finish out this post.  Be well and God bless!

Salmon season opened 2 days ago but we've yet to see anyone fishing.  They may not have made it down this far yet.  I was hoping to get some ideas for the next time we're here.  We will be leaving Tuesday for points south.  By then we will have been here for almost 2 weeks.  It will be hard to leave the beauty and peace of this place!  Aside from a spider biting my forehead we are safe and well.  I am posting random pictures of the time we've spent here.

There are a ton of blackberry bushes here so this is what we get to eat each morning!  Yum :)

The last time we were in Idaho we went to Me 'n Stan's Restaurant, where they had NO POTATOES.  In Idaho!  We googled and discovered they went out of business a couple of years ago.  Imagine that!  NO POTATOES.  IN IDAHO!!!  The first visit went famously bad so there will be no return visit, especially since they are out of business.  Here ends my rant.  We were last at Benewah County Fairgrounds in St. Maries, Idaho and are now at Pink House Recreation Site, still in Idaho.  It's BLM territory (Bureau of Land Management).  The fairground folks were preparing for an upcoming county fair so we only stayed a couple of days.  Here at Pink House we are next to the Clearwater River, famous for it's fishing and rich logging history.  It's on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

This was at the fairgrounds.

Just down the road, the local cemetery had this wonderful tribute to past, fallen veterans.

Now this is a little odd.  The picture was taken at a local supermarket next to the laundromat.  After running the truck through the car wash and while waiting for clothes to dry, we went shopping.  As I walked along the rear aisle, I could swear I was walking uphill.  Coming down the next isle, I felt I was going downhill.  Upon meeting Wendy at the end of the aisle I remarked, "I swear this floor has a slope."  She said that she noticed it too.  She then started laughing as she told me to look at the grocery shelves, thus the picture.  If you look close enough you can see that the red containers are leaning to one side.....gravity got them, lol.  At the back of the store there was at least a one foot drop, rear to front.  I didn't get a chance to ask why, they were very busy.

The waters are very fast and way too cold for a dip.  We had the heater on this morning and in 2 days it's supposed to reach 105!  Yikes!  I can foresee a trip to dip our toes in the near future :)

Be well, friends!

We're still at Sloway, until Monday.  Then off to Idaho.  Our experiences with solar power have shown us that we use more than we make, so a few lifestyle adjustments were necessary.  All is good for now, as long as it's sunny!  Here are a few more pictures, down by the riverside.

Did I mention I really like the Ponderosas?  :)

And now here's a really neat story!  Wednesday we were fiddling around with our solar set-up when we went through our normal 1 to 2 hours of total shade.  So we decided to do some grocery shopping and stop by another campground to check out their dump-station, not a particularly enviable task..... the checking of the dump-station, that is (we don't have 1 at our campground).  The campground was divided into 2 sections.  The dump-station and camp hosts were to the left, according to the sign, but I figured to first check out the other side.  We came upon a trailer with a riding lawn mower parked beside it and as we approached we saw a "camp host" sign and 2 people resting in lawn-chairs.  Now, the entrance didn't reveal there was a camp host to the right.  We got out of our truck and approached them.  The conversation went something like this.....after introductions, I mentioned that we just sold our house and are living in our travel trailer full-time.  I told them we were from South Carolina.  They giggled at each other and looked up and said "We are too!"  She said "Charleston!"  And we replied "Us too!"  I said "Actually we're from Awendaw, a little up the road from Charleston".  "Well, we're actually from Daniel Island."   I said "I go to see my doctor on Daniel Island, her name is Lucy Davis."  "THAT'S OUR DOCTOR TOO!"  they exclaimed.  Well, after settling a little from the shock I had to see how far this went!  I thought about the people I know who live on Daniel Island and could not think of anyone who lived there any longer than Bob and Kay U.  So I blurt out "Do you happen to know Bob and Kay U.?"  "KAY AND I BELONG TO THE SAME BOOK CLUB!"
So there you have it!  2 couples, 2500 miles from their home, on a Wednesday afternoon.  Any changes to anything throughout the day leading up to this, including me taking a right instead of a left, could still have put us in the same place, but at a different time.  Christina and Stan may not have been sitting outside in their lawn-chairs and I wouldn't have stopped.  I called Kay the next day and she enjoyed hearing the story.  Now, some people see this as a remarkable, highly unlikely, set of circumstances.  But you and I know better.  I just can't figure out the why part!

Yesterday we made it here and are happy we did.  We looked at several free campgrounds along the way and were VERY disappointed.  Too far off the beaten path and felt insecure.  Sloway is also next to railroad tracks... very close.  It will wake you up at 2 AM for sure!  But infrequent passings are not bothersome.  4 or so a day, and a couple at night.  We'll probably stay here at least a week.  $5 a day is a welcome treat.  Temperature extremes are unusual for us.  High 90's for daytime and 50's for nighttime.  As we are now using solar to regenerate our batteries, we are unable to use our air conditioner (we have no power here).   At least we have a water spigot across the road.  Believe it or not, 95 and low humidity is not bad in the shade.  And we actually have to crawl under the covers around 3 AM.  We are semi-off the grid!

We had a couple of residents greet us upon arrival.

Let's see how this shows on the timeline.  Now that I see it posts at the top, I'll finish the story.  Our next stop was River Edge RV Park and Steakhouse in Alberton, Montana.  A 2 night stay that was busy and enjoyable.  It was very close to the highway and train tracks, but was pretty quiet late at night.  We dined at their restaurant as there were no others within 30 miles.  They had live music by a superbly talented duo by the names of Louie Bond and Kimberlee Carlson.   We talked at length with Louie and enjoyed listening to him talk about his career.  I'll post several pictures of this stop.

I made the mistake of driving down another gravel road for many miles.  I then pleaded with the campground owner to let me wash our truck AGAIN!  I had no idea I would be spending so much time cleaning off road muck!  Montana is VERY dusty!

We went to several places to explore options now that we are "solar ready"...lol.  We took many photos and I cannot recall all of our stops, but I did take these pictures.  I'll be more careful in the future, in regards to my cataloguing duties!

I'll start by closing out our visit to Riverfront RV Park.  We said our good-byes to Sharon and "the guys".  It was her birthday, so we sang her "Happy Birthday" after we interrupted "the guys" during their every-morning staff meeting.

I couldn't remember this fellow's name we met the night before, but if I could just grow a beard like his.......... :)

Here is my feeble attempt, I think I need a couple more months!  In all fairness to me, I will tell you I misplaced my comb!

Our stay here was so enjoyable that we reserved all of July 2021, and hope we're able to make it back then!  One picture I wish I had taken was of a dear woman named Katie (probably misspelled).  She reminded me so much of my dear, departed, Great Aunt Icy Mae.  Her love for everyone is so heart warming.  She make the BEST biscotti!  And she supplied us with enough to last a long time!

Our time here at Riverfront RV Park is coming to an end.  We have met many people and made many friends!  The owner, Sharon, and her helpers are so, so, friendly, and we are thankful to have passed through here.  This is the first  place we've visited that we hope to return to next year, and stay for a month or so.  Simple, beautiful, friendly, and even has a Church on the grounds.  We've been here for 2 and 1/2 weeks and don't really want to leave, but feel called to move on to our next destination.  We have been very blessed!

We went out on a limb for my birthday, to see the "cribbage capital of the world" in Nelson, Montana!  There were two buildings, one with ten mailboxes in front of it and the other with none!  I'm not sure how this "town" acquired the distinction of being renowned for much of anything, but hey, the sign says differently.

We started up a gravel road that led to a trailhead we wanted to explore.  I'll tell you that we accumulated a pound or so, of dust and dirt, that took a good amount of time to remove from within the back of the truck. 13 miles in and 13 miles out!

I followed my tour guide through thick and thin, and she led me to many wonderful places!

We had to take a few breaks for water and rest.

Ponderosa pines are pretty cool!

All in all, it was the best birthday I could hope for!  We even met some fellow "Casitans" on their first trip out with their new trailer!  Cool beans!!!!  We were also able to get some solar equipment to prepare us for "off the grid" camping that we'll soon encounter.  Wish us luck!  :)

I have posted many pictures on today's post and, as usual, the pictures don't do justice to the experience.  We decided to take a trip over the mountain pass to Helena and climb Mt Helena.  We started from 4300 ft elevation, as measured at the parking lot, and climbed to 5360 ft.  By the time all was said and done we had a ton of fun and our legs were like rubber at the end of the day.  I am sure to pay dearly for the adventure tomorrow, lol!  We want to do it again, in a couple of days, if our bodies permit it.

We can't say we weren't warned!

The views were fantastic on the trek upward!

Looking towards our goal.

We came across a cave that was used by miners as a resting spot.  I probably need to fact check that!  Anyway, that's what I'm going with :)

I'll take the time here to tell you that we met many people up and down the trail, from toddlers carried on their father's back to those nearly my age, and all were as friendly as you could hope for!  Smiles from all!

Wendy appears to have lost her sheep!  Me.

We are close to our summit assault but we need time to rest.

We made it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to let it sink in.

Others who are enjoying their journey.

It's official when you see the spike indicating the peak, even though technically, I saw a few higher rocks.  But Wendy set foot on the highest around.

And now for the rest of the story!  Wendy led us up the ascent as she is a trailblazer at heart.  I decided to lead us down as I wanted to block her roll, so to speak, if she lost footing and went tumbling.  Well, after 10 or 15 minutes of descent, she calls out to me "this doesn't look like the way we came up".  I said that it looks different because we are going down.  "Are you sure?" she asks.  About that time a young woman was ascending the path and I asked her if we were on the "1906" trail?  And she says "no".  "Well can we get to the parking lot from here?"  "No worries, just take a left at the next marker and you'll be ok".  Well, we made it back just fine.  But I've lost my "homing pigeon" reputation!  Thus the title of this day's blog, (blush).

This is still hard to believe!  We ran into friends we met back at Short Stay in Moncks Corner, SC, more than 4 months ago.  We're in Garrison, Montana, for cryin' out loud.  A mere couple of thousand miles away from were we first met.  I said to Wendy, "that sure looks like Susan and Gary".  She said "it does".  And guess what, IT WAS!!!!!!!  We attempted to catch up over the next hour or so, and really enjoyed seeing them again.  They've seen and done a lot over the past 4 months, as have we.  It was good to tell each other our "war stories".  We get to stay connected through our blogs now :)

Here's a picture of nothing but big, beautiful, Montana sky.  We are really enjoying the cool mornings around here.  Usually in the mid forties when we wake up.

We started out the day from Riverfront RV Park  in Garrison, Montana and went a short distance to Deer Lodge, MT.  Civilization does exist there.  2916 people.  We visited Old Montana Prison Museums.  I did not post photos of the prison as they are depressing in the sense prisoners had to endure the most difficult of conditions.  Established in 1871 in an attempt to tame the wild west, it was an active prison until 1979.

As usual, we were distracted by another ice-cream stand :)

Some trains from days long past.

Part of the visit was at this same prison location.  The Montana Auto Museum has over 160 cars from the 1880's through the 1970's.  I posted many pictures that some may enjoy.  Norm, I hope you are watching :)  My apologies for not including descriptions.

Here's one for you Dad!  I believe yours was red as well.

And another for Dad.  A 454 like you had.  This is a '65 and I think you had a '64.  The only time I've driven around a racetrack!  On a Monday late afternoon and no one within miles at the Summerville Race Track.  Back in the day it was a 1/4 mile dirt track and I couldn't get above 30mph because of ruts/washboard conditions.  So, around the turns I felt as if it would turn over because of the banked turns and my slow speed:)  Seems like yesterday!

Finally we have come across wonderful, cool, weather with beautiful views.  With temps getting down to 42, and tonight the mid 30's,  and our daytime temps in the low to mid 70's,  we're in hog heaven, lol.  We've extended for a week and may do so again. 

This is not the view from our camper, but it is from the campground.

  We were out exploring this morning until we came to these tracks.  There are mountain lions in the area and we did not want to come up to one unexpectedly, so we headed back to camp!  AMENDMENT....our dear friend Lisa informed me the tracks were not likely feline, so that's a relief :)

We are at Old West RV Park in Reed Point, Montana, population not very many :)  Maybe 96.  Things are pretty much closed up due to Covid.  This has been a 2 night stay.  Yesterday we went to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Park.  We fought cold and rain early on but it turned out to be a beautiful day.  On the way back we stopped for an oil change and tire rotation.  It's hard to believe we've put over 12000 miles on the truck since March. 

Here's where some of the Indians assembled before their charge up the hill.  They refer to this as Battle of the Greasy Grass.

A couple pictures of close by the campsite.

And finally, our campsite.  Nothing spectacular but the hosts were so very friendly!  And we met the nicest couple, Judy and Ron, who were camped next to us.  They left before the picture was taken.  Judy gave me some valuable advice on photography!  We most certainly hope to see them again someday :) 

I've been behind on my posts lately so I'll catch up with this one.  We were trying to get out of the hot weather and finally made it.  Yay!  It's now Thursday am.  Sunday we stayed at Cedar Bluff State Park in Kansas (pictures in previous post).  Monday night we were in Enders State Recreational Area, Nebraska, Tuesday night at Guernsey State Park, Wyoming and last night at Tongue River Reservoir State Park in Decker, Montana.  This was a busy week but we made it to cooler weather.  Yesterday it was 105, ambient, driving through Scott's Bluff, Wyoming and we woke up to 52 degrees, nice indeed.  It was probably a little cooler during the night as I didn't get up until 6 am and the sun was already climbing.

As usual, we are easily lured by a sign with an ice-cream cone displayed :)  We were not disappointed!

In 1998 we were here with Wendy's parents.  We had endured a long travel day and got there 30 minutes or so before it closed for the day.  It was very hot and the visitor center said we could not walk out to Chimney Rock.  We would have had to take a donkey ride there, which was about 1/4 mile away for way too much money and the donkeys would have to suffer in the heat.  Boo!  We hopped back into the car, drove by the rock and took pictures.  Although the adventure was a bust, we recalled it with fond memories over the years.  The visitor center is closed now for renovations and the rock appears unchanged.  The temp was again hot, 22 years later, and thankfully there were no donkeys on duty.

Here are a couple pictures of Guernsey State Park in Wyoming.  Plenty of deer and turkeys here.

Here is Tongue River Reservoir State Park in Decker, Montana.

We made our move westward today after spending the last week at McConnell AFB, Kansas.  We enjoyed our stay but were ready to move on to cooler territory.  The Red Path of Pain is in our rear view mirror....yay!  As we left our campsite we traveled a short distance to the dump station to "take care of business," so to speak.  The water pressure was unbelievably high and Wendy had the bathroom duties.  She directs the water into the black tank to help flush it (TMI I know) and was distracted.  The hose came out and danced all around the very small bathroom, uncontrolled.  Poor Wen and everything got soaked.  Only clean water was involved so all was ok after we had a good laugh about it. We had only to endure the 3 or 4 minutes that led up to the laughing.  Even if I had pictures I think it very wise to withhold them from the public.  We are now in Cedar Bluff State Park near Ellis, Kansas.  It's nice here but we'll be leaving in the morning.

I could make up a pretty good fish story here!

We are now at McConnell AFB in Kansas, near Wichita.  Our friends back in Charleston are having to endure 108F heat indexes, so I won't lament about 100F ambient, as it's a dryer heat here.  Wendy and I got a chance to walk/jog (you know which one applies to me :)), before the sun came out from behind the clouds.  It was actually quite refreshing.  Seems the base closed up the golf course some time ago and paved a path through the fairways.  It stretches 2 1/2 miles with asphalted pathways throughout.  The asphalt was mixed in with red granules , probably bits of recycled rubber.  I think they did a good job.  One point of contention I must make.  There are many, many exercise stations scattered throughout the serene landscape.  A sight I would not give a second thought to a mere 40 years ago.  There were many opportunities to swing on monkey bars, sit in awkward positions to stretch and test various parts of your body, step ups, step overs, hop overs, slick gloss painted push up and pull up bars, places to do inclined sit-ups and a few other apparatuses I never did understand.  I tried the pushup bars.  They were brightly painted a glossy green, I suppose to blend in with the ex-golf landscape. The bars were about a foot off the ground so I was forced to put myself in a position I've not been in for many years.  I do my own style of pushups so I'm accustomed to the torture.  I'm sure to pay dearly for that tomorrow!  One slip and my teeth would have left a bright red stain on that glossy green steel bar.  Later  I managed 2 pull ups, a feat I would have been able to easily multiply by 10 in a previous life. Wendy tried most of the challenges and won.  We'll see how she feels tomorrow.  I, for one, could not appreciate the many constant reminders of things I loved to do 40 years ago but am now unable.  Here ends my rant!  I did enjoy, and am thankful for, my walk this morning and will ignore the distractions on tomorrow's walk.

These are probably not exercise structures :)

These are nice shelters.  Hope we don't have to use them!

Our site for the week.  We figured to homestead here for July 4th weekend as campgrounds tend to be very full on holiday weekends.  Shade around this park is scarce but we managed to find a tree to cast some late afternoon relief.  As you can see.....more washing and waxing!

After a 5 1/2 hour drive we arrived here.  Mostly an easy drive.  But I will tell you that occasionally, when we were not expecting it, we did encounter some pretty massive potholes.  The bone jarring kind!  Part of the life I guess.  I am training my eyes to be better detection devices, lol.  Here are a couple pictures of our site.  I was in my relaxed mode :)

Easy trip today, about 120 miles on decent roads.  The work Terry and Josh did yesterday on Cassie made a huge difference in our driving comfort!  We will enjoy the next two nights and days here.  No traveling on our Anniversary tomorrow.  This is our first day traveling to nowhere, YAY!

I just want to give a little shout out to LHOTR for such great work on our "Cassie".  We enjoy every visit with them!

Terry and Josh hard at work on cutting off and grinding previous weight distribution brackets and rear Atwood stabilizers. They also put on a couple of scissor jacks and weighed the trailer.  The result is a more comfortable tow down the road and improvement in leveling Cassie at the next campground, a job Wendy greatly appreciates since that is her AOR (area of responsibility) :)

We made it through the storms last night, no damage.  It was very windy and rained heavily throughout the night.  Shoes and mat were blown across the neighborhood.  Our little cement pig, Kaytie, took a trip across the lot and sustained minor injuries, lol. We had to move to another spot for one day because of reservation issues and will have to move again tomorrow for 2 days, all within the same park.  Then our adventure really starts!  No destinations and no time constraints until mid October.

That is another Casita parked in the shade beside us.  Dale and Deborah are our wonderful neighbors for a day.  We were supposed to go to a different site but someone ran over the water spigot and we had to move to our current "emergency spot".  Very seldom do we see any other Casitas and now we are parked next to one :)  And they have many modifications to their trailer, so I may have some project ideas for myself in the near future :)

Had to put Reflectix up for all the windows as hail is indeed headed this way.  Winds are really strong so hopefully the Reflectix will slow down the rain if windows are shattered.  Will update a little later.  We are next to a shelter if the sirens go off.

For some strange reason I felt compelled to change rims since we needed new tires anyway.  Unfortunately the Casita factory was on the other side of Dallas so we got up at 0430 to beat the AM rush hour.  That strategy worked for morning traffic, but backfired for the afternoon traffic :(

It was good to get back and relax.  BTW, this is Hickory Creek COE in Corinth,  Texas.  The sun was down to provide the only shade we had.  No choice of spots because of weekend reservations.  Reflectix in the windows really helped keep the heat out and the cool in.  Fires had to be in the fire ring so I put my grill in their grill,  lol.

We took a 500 mile detour for this event!  3 years ago we came across the town of Garfield, Arkansas and discovered "the world's largest cone".  This was our 2nd time back and I suppose it won't be our last.  We overnighted at War Eagle COE in Springdale, Arkansas and as you can see it was a challenge fitting our rig. 

Anticipation was building as we stood in line awaiting our turn!!!

OH NO!  Wendy's a little disappointed.  She ordered a LARGE cone and this is all she got.  Wendy felt a little short-changed.  I must admit last year's was a little bigger.  We'll have to try again next time through and be sure to post the comparison!  I will tell you that the ice cream did not melt enough for her to lose a drip :)  We have become pretty adept at consuming them before any is lost due to melting.

On the way back we stopped to visit Pea Ridge National Military Park, a park preserving Civil War history.  Pretty interesting and a beautiful park.