Sunday, June 20, 2010

A short trip

We took a one night trip Saturday to join some friends at Sealander Park near Idaho Falls.  This was a fun gathering with great people, good food and good music provided by a couple of the participants.

Here are some pictures:

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We just took everything out of the camper and pulled it over to the storage lot.  Our next planned trip starts July 18th, but we may take some local trips before then.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A long wet road!

We have just returned from a nine day journey to Columbus, Montana.  I have had only very limited internet access along the way, so I will try to capture the whole adventure in one blog posting.

On June 9th, (Wednesday) we headed north on Hwy 20 towards Henry’s Lake, ID.  It was our intent to stay at a free County Campground on the west shore of the lake.  However, when we arrived we were greeted by massive swarms of mosquitoes and other nasty flying insects.  They were so thick we could hardly see the sky.  We quickly changed our plans and headed around the lake to the southeast side where there is an Idaho State Park campground.  We got a great spot near the shore with electric hookups for $19.  Rosie got to walk the dogs for miles and I got to try a little fishing, but no catching.  Here are some pics of the lake and our site.

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On Thursday, we traveled to the town of Columbus, Montana and found our way to the Town Park and Campground.  This is a great find for low cost camping (it is free, but the town does solicit donations).  There are many campsites with picnic tables and fire rings.  The sites are not designated, which means you can camp anywhere.  There were four camping rigs in our group so we formed a circle around a table and fire ring.  We met two of my brothers and one of my sisters here for the weekend.  One of my sisters-in-law had members of her family there and we all had a great weekend, except for the rain on Thursday night and all day Friday.  Saturday and Sunday were much better.  I also had a contract assignment to complete in Billings, which I did on Friday morning.  This campground is huge.  It is all dry camping (no utility connections, but they did have flush toilets). Rosie and the puppies got to go for long walks.  Here are some pics from the weekend.

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Monday, we pulled up stakes and headed for Yellowstone National Park.  We went in the north entrance at Gardiner, Montana and came out the West Entrance at West Yellowstone, Montana.  About 12 miles out of West Yellowstone is a USDA Forest Service Campground on Hebgen Lake.  No hookups again, but the price is right at $8 per night for us old folks with Golden Age Passports.  We meet some really nice people camped next to us.  They were also from Idaho Falls so we may have made some new friends.  One of them had a boat and I was invited to go out fishing with the two guys, Bob and Ron.  We were trolling for trout and I caught an 18” Rainbow ( a rare exception for me) and had a great time.  The Verizon service was really spotty, so internet access was limited.  The site is wooded and right on the shoreline of the lake.  We got to take the pooches for good walks. Monday evening was nice.  Tuesday morning was good, then the wind came up in the afternoon and by evening it was starting to rain.  Wednesday morning it was still raining so we hitched up and headed for home.  We got home about 11:00 am.  Here are pictures from Hebgen lake.

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The batteries on the RV don’t appear to be charging as fully as they should.  I kept having to run the generator to charge the batteries, which does not please some fellow campers.  But I kept it as minimal as possible.  I may have ignored the RV Forum advice to replace all batteries when you get any new battery.  I had purchased 2 new batteries for this camping season and kept 2 of the old batteries.   We may have to bite the bullet and spring for 2 more batteries like the 2 I just bought.

We have a one night campout this Saturday with a local group of friends.  Then we are headed for a major trip starting July 10th and ending about August 28th.  We will be traveling through Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana.  The high point of the trip will be my family reunion in Colome, South Dakota in August.