The Sacajawea Historic Byway

Yesterday morning, I decided that Emma and I were going to drive the Sacajawea Historic Byway along Idaho state route 28.  Of course Rte. 28 wasn’t exactly close to us, so we also drove portions of the Fort Henry Historic Byway and the Lost Gold Trails Loop for 70 miles in order to reach Rte. 28.

These were bigger than life-size silhouettes erected on a rise depicting the Nez Perce warriors.

It was a dirt/gravel road at this point, and was it ever dusty!  I had to stop at one point to allow an airplane to use the road as a runway for taking off.  First time I’ve ever had to do that.  Most of the land in this area is owned by one huge ranch, so maybe that’s how they check on all the cattle that are scattered for miles.
I eventually made it to the town of Dubois, and headed down Idaho 22 for a thirty mile stretch before intersecting with Idaho 28.
22 took me through another valley, and the irrigation sprinklers were on full tilt all along the way.  I guess you could say that folks in this valley ‘make hay while the sun shines.’  :)
I wasn’t able to stop at all the places shown on the map or else Emma and I wouldn’t get home until midnight!  I just don’t like to do much night driving anymore.  My first stop was at the BLM campground at Birch Creek (for a pit stop).   All of the sites are along the creek following a bumpy dirt road.  This campground is for those that don’t mind having no hookups.  However, there is no fee to camp there.
I must say that it was hard to keep my eyes on the road with such great scenery surrounding me.  :)
We took yet another dusty gravel road for the six miles it took to get to the charcoal kilns.  I was hoping there might be a spot to have lunch and exercise Emma a bit. 
The remaining kilns are about twenty feet high.  I suppose they were built so far up in the mountains to be near the supply of logs.

As it turned out, there were two picnic tables at the kilns.  This is the view I had as I ate my sandwich.  Once again, Emma and I had this marvelous location all to ourselves.  :)

After a refreshing break, Emma and I headed out.  We still had about 70 miles to go to get to Salmon, ID.
Our destination in Salmon was the Sacajawea Interpretive Center.  This is the visitor’s center and museum with the statue of Sacajawea on the left side of the picture.  The entrance fee was $5.00.
They have placed the statue so that Sacajawea’s beloved Bitteroot  Mountains are behind her.  I’m sure you all know how she helped out Lewis and Clark, so I won’t go into that.

The grounds of the Interpretive Center are quite expansive, and include other sculptures as well as trails.  The afternoon was waning, and I still had four hours to drive to get back to camp, so I had to skip the trails for this trip.

WE WALK UPON MOTHER EARTH FROM THE TIME WE ARE BORN TO THE TIME WE DIE. THOUGH MANY MAY JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY, NO ONE WALKS THE SAME PATH.    SUN WOMAN
How true are these words!  A good thing to remember…No one walks the same path, nor should they.
The outdoor portion of the Sacajawea Interpretive Center is pet friendly.  Emma really enjoyed the nicely groomed lawns.  Suffice it to say that everything came out all right.  :)  After a 200+ mile drive home, we finished our sojourn for the day.  It was another excellent adventure!

I would like to welcome Kerry as my 50th blog follower.  Thanks for signing on!  As other bloggers have said, “I never thought there would be fifty people following my blog.”  What a pleasant surprise to find that though no one walks my path but me, others have decided to join me on my journey.

I think I hear those hummingbirds calling my name….

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

P.S.  I tried to post this on Thursday afternoon, but the park wifi was down all night.  Bummer.  :(

Thar she blows!

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting outside in my rocker enjoying the sun (for a change) and reading a magazine.  Along about three o'clock the wind suddenly blasted out of the northwest catching me by surprise.  That really put my nerves on end as I quickly jumped up to roll up the awning.  A similar gust of wind ripped my awning this summer before I could get it rolled up.  I was lucky yesterday...no rips.  That initial gust turned into high winds for the rest of the day, overnight, and today.  It has been one "whale" of a wind storm.

After spending yesterday relaxing, I got busy today with my chores of cleaning the rig and doing the laundry.  I can't believe the improvement in my Internet reception since I got my new laptop.  I don't think I've ever had such fast reception.  I'm thinking it's a combination of the new computer and taking my son-in-law's advice to go to a Sprint store to have them install my air-card software.  When I plug in the air-card, I get a totally different small window on the screen than before and it says 3G.  I remember being at this same location last year, and it could take up to 30 minutes to upload one picture to the blog.  Now I can upload five pictures in just a few minutes.  I have to say that this has been money well spent!  ;)

There are several games that I enjoy playing on the computer like spider solitaire and scrabble.  A year ago, I purchased a $7.00 game called Flip WORDS2.  It is a word game similar to Wheel of Fortune, where you solve phrases only there is no wheel.  In order to get a letter, you have to form a word beginning with the letter you want from a grid of jumbled letters.  With it installed on my old laptop, I had used up about 60% of the phrases in a year's time.  When I reinstalled it on the new laptop things started over.  That means I'll probably have another two years of playing.  Talk about an entertainment bargain!  Anyway, the game also offers an online version that you can play against others over the airwaves.  I've occasionally tried to sign into the online game, but never had a strong enough connection to be able to play.  So today while the clothes were drying, I gave the online game a try, and wonder of wonders, it worked.  Oh boy, there are players all across the country that play this game, and are they ever fast at finding words!  In no time at all, it seemed, ninety minutes had gone by and I was still enjoying myself.  I'm thinking this could be addicting.  :)  I'll just tell myself that I'm keeping my mind nimble and warding off Alzheimer's!

I must say Happy Birthday to my granddaughter Avery Jade.  She has now embarked on her terrible twos!  If they are terrible, I'll be surprised.  She has been such an easy going baby for my daughter. 

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

Back in business (I think)

Well, along about lunchtime, there was a loud knock on my door. Viola! The UPS lady had arrived and delivered my package of a new power source for the amplifier. I hooked it in, and was pleased to see that the antenna was working. It's been a long week since I've been in contact with the outside world! I now have internet reception and cell phone reception as long as I stay within two inches of the inside antenna. I can deal with that. The first thing I did was get my email and respond to several queries.

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One of my phone messages was from Kirk and Pam Wood. It turns out they were arriving today to volunteer for two months. I had sent Kirk directions to get here last week, so I thought there would be no problems. However, when I went to Sumner early this morning to cancel my oil change appointment for the motorhome, I noticed that the road to Chilicothe was closed. Of course this was the route I had told the Wood's to take. Well, after an aborted trip to Chilicothe for groceries, I headed for Brookfield, MO, a smaller community, but was able to get what I needed. When I returned, I sent an email to Kirk telling him about the road closure. I was too late; they had already tried to arrive and had to turn around and go back to Chilicothe. Eventually, I was able to get in contact with them and give them another route to the refuge.

This is the view from my rocker on my patio before they arrived.

This is my present view.

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I actually have someone to talk to for a change. That makes the change in my view acceptable.

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The temps are on the rise again here, and were in the nineties today. I rolled the awning back in tonight before coming in since there are possible thunderstorms forecast for the middle of the night. I always need to be aware of the possibility of high winds, so I'll sleep better tonight with the awning in.

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Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Elephants don't bite

Recently, I was reading an article in the Escapees magazine written by Kay Peterson, one of the founders of the Escapee RV Club. She suggested that elephants don't bite, but it's the little things in life that get in our way and can prevent us from getting all the joy we should out of living. I really liked that article and have been endeavoring to not let the little difficulties in life get in my way.

I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it in general. However, I admit that I need to try harder in the area of my internet connection. :) I need to remind myself that it wasn't that long ago that none of us could even conceive of the internet let alone be upset by an iffy connection.

So, moving on.... this week we will be preparing for the Balcones Canyonlands NWR Annual Songbird Festival. Next Friday through Monday, we will have many folks visiting to enjoy the migrating birds. So far, I'm scheduled to lead a couple of bird walks. I'll spend a couple of days this week making sure I have my hand on the pulse of where to find those species that most folks will be interested in. It's hard work, but someone has to do it... ;)

The weather forecast for this week is outstanding. It's interesting that I have the furnace on first thing in the morning with the temps in the 40's and by mid-afternoon, I have turned on the AC as the temps rise to the middle 80's.

I'm still enjoying the avian view outside my window!

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy