We had been in Montana, Washington and Oregon for nearly eight weeks this summer, and made our way back home with a few fun stops and lots of eye candy. Just in time for Fat Bear Week, we left all the bear-obsessed states behind.
We swapped all those bears for the long-distance sunrises and sunsets of the desert Southwest.
Boise, Idaho
We had a very brief stop in beautiful, outdoorsy Boise to visit groups of friends, and to partake of their fabulous Boise River Greenway bike path — one of the best urban trails ever! The downtown Freak Alley Gallery was an artistic marvel — literally an alley with a few parking lot offshoots, all done up in graffiti — some in pottery, some in broken mirrors, most in good ole spray paint. Eye candy, indeed!
One of these days I’ll do a post specifically dedicated to graffiti, but Asheville NC (before the River Arts District washed away) and Truckee CA spring immediately to mind, as well as Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo TX.
Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada
Cathedral Gorge State Park is a wondrous place created of millions of years of geology – volcanic eruptions, plates shifting, lakes filling and receding, water eroding and changing this landscape.
If you were in the Gorge 2.5 million years ago, you would have needed gills for the enormous freshwater lake that covered the area.
We hiked the trails and explored all the nooks and crannies, crevices and crawlways, and hidden areas in the soft clay, and marvelled at our place in the starry universe under very, very dark skies here in the middle of nowhere in eastern Nevada.
If you like this kinda stuff, similar places to explore around the country include the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in New Mexico; and the many amazing slot canyons of Eastern Utah. Side note, Philip wouldn’t have fit here a year ago, 55 pounds heavier. 🙂
Pioche: “Nevada’s Liveliest Ghost Town”
The nearby Western not-quite-a-ghost town of Pioche, Nevada was an amusing afternoon road trip. It’s an old 1860’s mining town, where they were more famous for general lawlessness than their claims, and a few quirky people still live there.
We were a few days late to a big Saturday-of-Labor-Day celebration they hold annually, which includes street dancing, the Renegade Races featuring homemade racing rigs of all sorts, and an after-dark drone light show. In fact, it seemed the whole town was hungover somewhere, with nary a person to be seen.
But we embarked on a fun photo safari of old mining rigs and the aerial tramway for moving ore, the tiny, decrepit downtown, the historic 1873 Thompson Opera House, the so-called “Million Dollar Courthouse,” and the quirky Boot Hill Cemetery.
At Boot Hill, the oldest tombstones, decorated with cowboy boots, seemed like final chances to lodge a complaint.
Fascinating tombstones (tombplanks?), including: Lynch: Shot During Dispute Over A Dog. June 26, 1875: Shot By Officer 5 Times. Feared By Some, Respected By Few, Detested by Others, Shot In Back 5 Times From Ambush.
RV Eye Candy
Our first RV was a Class C, which is a truck body with an RV that goes over the top of the cab. We had “Lucky Charm” for 7 years.
Our second RV, necessitated by more trips of much longer duration, is “Elsie,” which we have also had for 7 years now.
On the road, we always see interesting models and configurations. Philip favors something like this…but has yet to convince me that we need to haul a full-size smoker around the country, no matter how much I love brisket.
Finn, meanwhile, would prefer one with a private, glassed-in sun deck, and an unlimited dog biscuit dispenser.
Our next rig — IF it happens — will likely be a diesel pusher with an interior layout more suited to (1) longer stays in fewer places, and (2) the ability to bring multiple grandchildren along from time to time. Behold, our favorite eye candy: the Tiffin Phaeton 37BH, which we toured at a Vegas dealer on our way home.
We toured the Tiffin factory in Red Bay, Alabama, last year, and were very impressed with their operations and quality manufacturing. Time will tell if we bite or not, but seeing one in person was a fun diversion on a hot Vegas afternoon. In the meantime, we’re planning to replace the peeling upholstery on our current rig, which is a fraction of the price of a new RV, and will hopefully give us that “like-new” feeling about our aging beauty, Elsie.
Eyeing our Offspring
With Philip’s major back surgery in June delaying our “regular” summer departure, this trip was already shortened on the front end. But it got shortened even further on the back end, for a very important reason: the imminent arrival of our newest grandbaby! Kelsey and Cam are expecting a son to join his big sister any day now, and we wanted to be home to help. Here are baby boy (still cooking for 10 or fewer more days); Violet, 3; Tabby, 5 months; Connor, 5; and BG, 3! All our littlest loves!
We started this trip with a major repair on the first day (hydraulic lines to the levelers broke) … and ended this trip with a minor — but amusing — repair on the last day. The AC unit was making a terrible racket, so we called a mobile tech to the RV park, and discovered a hitchiker! A FROG had crawled into the rooftop unit, and met his untimely demise. So sorry, Kermit! But, Finn got frog jerky for dinner.
Hit the Road With Breaking the Bank
What has NOT been eye candy on this trip, is the price display of every gas station we hit. At 4-6 MPG on a good, wind-free day, and an 80-gallon gas tank, OUCH. But we can’t control that, and don’t let it hold us back, and you shouldn’t either. Instead, save money other ways using some of these tips in our article that recently appeared in RV America Magazine!
Navigation Tips for this Blog
If you receive this blog via email or a Facebook link, you may be unaware of a couple of features on our site, which you may find useful in trip planning. One is the clickable map on the “Past Travels” page, which shows the routes of every one of our trips, but more importantly has a mini-review and rating of every campground we’ve stayed at (497 so far!).
And, the U.S. map on homepage is also clickable, leading you to posts about charming adventures in every state. So, if you’re planning a trip to Montana, for example, click it on the map and check out all the posts — which are further listed by city or area.
What’s Next?
Our next major trip will be in January, 2027. We hate to leave Arizona during the winter, when the weather is picture-perfect, but our ultimate destinations in South Florida are miserable in the summer months, so it must be so. Besides a number of fun stops getting there and back, our ultimate goal is to snag the last 3 National Parks (of 51) in the lower 48, that we have yet to visit (Biscayne, Everglades, and Dry Tortugas). Click here to read about many of them that may be on your bucket list, too!
We love hearing from friends and followers!
Thanks for all the ongoing encouragement and sharing of your charming adventures, too!
Leave a reply