Our Winter Trip

Yes, I know that it is Spring now. But we didn't get to make any trips in the winter. Marshal was having problems with a bone spur on his left elbow, so after two trips to the Salt Lake VA, we finally was able to get a surgery date of March 23rd. This is after we made arrangements to meet his son and family in Moab, Utah the 4th of April. The reservations had been made and paid for at least one night. Marshal's surgery was not scheduled until noon, so we did not have to spend a night in Salt Lake. The only problem was scheduling the follow up visits to have stitches removed. The nurse wanted to schedule it for the 6th of April, said no way, we were not gonna be in town. The stitches had to be removed before or after we got back. After going around and around, finally settled on April 3rd in Pocatello. That nurse was not happy with me. But I decided that since it was not life and death, and we had sat around all winter long waiting on a surgery date, they were gonna work around me for a change!!! We do go back to Salt Lake for surgery follow up on the 20th of April. Oh well.

We left here April 4th headed for Moab. I told the son that the season was just starting in Moab, it would be a good idea to have reservations. When I mentioned going down there on a Yahoo group, a friend let me know that being it was the week before Easter, the Easter Jeep Safari would be in full spring. So I made sure that son made reservations. He had to call about 5 or 6 parks to finally get us sites. Good thing.

We stayed at Slick Rock Campground. I can say a few things about this place. Only use it if you can find nothing else. Sites are narrow and close together. Office help, well, put it this way, she needs a crash course in what is pull through and what is not. I asked if there would be a problem if we parked so that our units could face door to door. She said no problem, as one site was pull through and the other back in. Well, we got there in the afternoon, so had plenty of light to see. Both sites were back in. No way could anyone pull through the sites. Not with full, mature cottonwood trees at the one end of the sites. So we did pull in and the kids when they got there that night, backed in.

The place was packed with those that went to bed early. I assumed that meant 10pm. Which was me. And the others that stayed up later and felt no pain, until morning. There was quite a bit of drinking going on. The kids arrived around midnight and yes, we made noise getting them set up. But as we weren't bothering anyone, we went right ahead. Those that were still up, were feeling no pain.

The first day, we took the kids to Arches National Monument. They loved it. Had to cut it short, as the Jeep started giving me problems. So we didn't dare go far. The girls loved seeing some of the arches and doing some hiking.

Next day was kind of a rest day and seeing what was in Moab. There was a local museum that had lots of fun, interesting stuff. The girls really loved that also. Daughter In Law mentioned that taking a tour would be fun. She checked to see which had the best reviews on line and we went to their office to check that out. We decided that the Sunset Tour in a Hummer for two hours would be the best for all. So that evening we headed to the tour company. The Hummer we were in held 10 people including the driver. Our trail for the evening would be Hell's Revenge. Here is a link that comes closest to what we experienced.

http://hobojeepers.tripod.com/MemorialMoab03HR.htm

We did not do the whole trail. Enough to really experience serious rock crawling. Although DIL is afraid of heights, she didn't kill the driver. But we all had a blast doing it.

At the tour company, one of the women talked about how all Jeep owners are Red Necks and toothless. I proudly pointed out my Jeep to her, grinned to show that I had most of my teeth. Then said I was proud to be a Red Neck Jeep Owner!!!!!!!!!! LOL I don't think she got it!! LOL

I at one time did want to do some rock crawling, but figured, oh well, maybe someday. And someday came. Man, I was having an adrenalin rush for this tour. I did take lots of pictures. If you check the link on the right hand side of this page, you can see them. Had lots that I had to delete though.

On Sunday, we loaded up and drove the Sand Flats road, to the Castle Valley Road and to the Colorado River. This was suppose to be an hour drive that turned into about 2 1/2 hours. But we had fun. Saw some scenery that was beautiful.

Over the years I have been through Moab, even stopped a couple of times for the night. Have been to Arches, Dead Horse Point, and Canyonlands, I think that this trip was about the best one there.

Seems like here lately I am spending quite a bit of time at the computer. So much so, that my hand has been giving me fits. The big problem was that I knitted three sweaters in the month of November. And really didn't give my right hand and wrist much of a rest. So I have overtaxed a tendon I am thinking and have tendonitis. So today got around to doing some thinking. I do have a wrist rest for my keyboard and it helps. Why not a rest for my mouse? So I thought, I could whip a crocheted/knitted rest up in a matter of an hour or so. I did look for a pattern on the internet, but didn't find any that I really liked. I read a brief note that putting in an hot/cold pack would also help. Then saw where several have put rice or barley as stuffing. And those can be heated/cooled as needed. Then it hit me. Why not take some fleece, make a little bag, add rice, and viola, a wrist rest for my mouse!!!!!!!!!!! I just happen to have some leftover fleece, sewed three sides, added about half cup of rice, sewed the fourth side and here it is in all it's glory. Fleece doesn't have to be turned and the seams can be plain as I did or fancy. Depending on your mood. Sure does work nice.

Gosh, where does time go? I haven't posted anything here since the end of October. I have been on line, but just have not felt like putting anything here. I have been busy getting Christmas gifts made up, dealing with doctor's appointments for Marshal and my mother. And the first 3 months of the new year have quite a few doctor's appointments for both of them. I want to get all the doctor stuff out of the way, so that I can go camping and traveling.

I have been busy with different crocheting and knitting projects over the past couple of months. Several of the things that I have made have been a couple of Kindle covers, a netbook cover, an IPad cover and three sweaters for Christmas.
This is the first Kindle cover I made. The oldest granddaughter received a Kindle for Christmas a year ago. Thought that maybe she would enjoy having some kind of cover to collect dust. She is reading all the time, so I don't think her Kindle will spend much time in it's cover. Found a pattern some place on the internet using sock yarn, which I just happen to have in my stash. I also had the buttons saved for a project like this. She fell in love with it.

The next project was an IPad cover for grandson's IPad. At four years of age, he is a pro using the IPad. In fact, he showed Grandma how to use it. I asked him if he would like a cover and what color did he want. So here is it. This one is crocheted. It is also a pattern that I found on the internet. I am gonna have to write down the sites that I get patterns from.

On the way home from our last trip, we stopped in Pagosa Springs, Colorado to visit with a brother of Marshal's. One afternoon we went shopping in Durango. That Walmart there happen to have the netbook I had been looking for, but was unable to find one here around home. So I bought it. So when I got home, that meant I needed to have a net book cover. I used purple yarn for this cover. It shows blue though here.

Then it was time to see what I could come up for Christmas for the grandchildren. Decided to use a pattern for a hoodie sweater on the Lion Brand website to make sweaters for the three grandchildren.

This is the sweater for the grandson. I thought that camo would make a good choice for a little boy. Then for the girls I used mint green and light lavender. Was able to get all three sweaters done in plenty of time to ship them for Christmas. The kids love having the sweaters. I did do a couple of slight modifications to the sweaters so that they would fit better.

We stayed at home for Thanksgiving. Did go to the truck stop with friends for dinner.

In November, we did receive a good snowfall. It came down pretty good and stayed for awhile. At the time, we were thinking that we were gonna not see the sun until March or April. So far, we really haven't received any more snow or rain. Just slight amounts. But it has been cold.

For Christmas, we stayed at home. We did go to the free Christmas Dinner at the Senior Center.

For Christmas, one of the gifts I received was a Kindle. I have figured out how to use it and have downloaded several books to it so far. I did want a different type of cover for it. So used plastic canvas and needlepoint. No pattern, just did what I felt like doing.

New Year's found us at home.

Hope that everyone has a fantastic Happy New Year.

Yes, it has been quite a while since I posted anything here. Life has gotten in the way of things I do.

The trip we were on the first of July ended when we came home. Marshal wanted to see a brother of his that lives in Helena, Montana, so we came home that way. The drive from Grangeville, through the Selway Wilderness to Lolo Summit and into Montana was a fantastic drive. We took two days getting home.

Once we got home, Marshal started talking about getting a puppy again. I have been putting it off, as I know what we are faced with having a puppy around here. But I finally broke down and found a puppy Shih Tzu on KSL classified locally. So we took a look at two puppies and this is the one we came home with. Marshal is so original in his thinking, he named the pup George. And the picture is of George. Yes, he is cute. But he is all pup. He hasn't met a rug in the house that doesn't like him. I will be replacing all the throw rugs in a couple of months. He also loves shoes and boots. No matter how big those boots are, if he can drag one, he will. There is nothing down close to the floor. He likes to rearrange things. In the past couple of months, he has really grown and gotten his first hair cut.

More about George later.

One of our main goals while here in Grangeville, was to make a jet boat ride down Hell's Canyon. Well, first day here, friend Jane calls the company that we chose for the ride. They had a boat going down that morning and if we could be there in 2 hours, we had a seat. So off to Hell's Canyon we went.
There was 9 people all together on the boat including crew. The normally carries about 30 to 40 people. The captain said that since we were so few, we could take our time at stops and really see things. Headed down the river, the captain was very informative about the different sights and the river. One thing that he said, was the river was pretty darn high for this year. We saw several different wildlife. Deer, Big Horn Sheep, bear, eagles. There were a few rafters also on the river. Watched a bunch of fishermen at the dam fishing for steelhead. While there, one was caught.

Headed up the river, we had three rapids to run. One was classified as a semi bad one. But it sure was fun to do. I really see what river runners see in running the rivers. It is a rush that is super fine. Marshal even says that his day on the boat was awesome.

And I am sure that if he gets the chance to come back, he will.

We now have a couple of travel days to reach our destination of Grangeville, Idaho. Hoping to make it in there to spend a week and to avoid the 4th of July travel. So as I am the navigator, I get to chose the route we take. So it is from I84 and Boise to the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway, where we turn onto the Wilderness Canyon Byway, which this picture comes from. And finally to the Payette River Scenic Byway.

One thing that we see in these places, are the rivers, which are very high and fast due to the snow melt and rain that Idaho has had this year. We hear on the television that night how one woman lost her life close to Boise due to high water and a kayaker was lost in the Payette River. There are stretches of the rivers, and I mean miles of river that are white water and very dangerous.

This picture is from the Wilderness Canyon Scenic Byway. By the time we arrive in Grangeville, our count of scenic byways is now 6 byways.

We do spend one night at Cascade, Idaho in a nice park. Our site was close to the river. Really too close for my comfort, as the river was running high.

I have found a very nice rv park here in Grangeville, Bear's Den RV Resort. As they are very booked for the 4th weekend, we get a couple of pull throughs for two nights and then we back into some new sites that they have been working on. The owner was working hard for those first two days just to get some new sites available. He had rigs parked on the grass, and in a couple of the sites that have the hook ups, but not really a good place to park. As we have been in worst, it was no big deal to move from the grassy nice sites to the ones we are in now. We have a level site, with full hook ups and wi-fi. We are happy.

We are traveling with a friend, Jane, who purchased a book that describes a good many back road adventures using a Jeep. And this book gives very good detailed instructions of where these sights are to be found. One of them is Bruneau Canyon Look out. So off we went the next day after a good night's rest.

Following the directions, we went down a canyon wall into the nicest, sweetest valley. The present owner of the ranch still ranches and farms the land. We didn't see anyone though. Then it was up the opposite canyon wall onto the flats. Following the instructions in the book, which said to follow the path to a y-junction, take the right hand path and follow it to the playa, then follow the trail to cow path and then across country. We never did find the cow path!!! LOL
But we did find the canyon overlook. Amazing. Well worth the trip in.

Coming out, saw some dust. Turned out to be a pickup with federal government workers checking out the sage hen habitat. Told them that it was nice to know that we weren't the only ones out there. The driver took a look at friend's Jeep and said it was nice to see a vehicle that could pull them out if they got stuck!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

It was well worth the trip in and out. A beautiful sight that most people cannot get to.

Our next day at the campground was a down day, which we took advantage of.

As always, if you want to see more pictures of our adventures, click on the My Pictures link and you can see more.

We took one day and explored the Owhyee Uplands Back Country Byway. It is definitely back country and very desolute. We saw very few people, vehicles and animals. But it is a very beautiful country. The roads were mainly dirt and/or gravel. The drive starts in hay fields with quite a few farms around, then rapidly heads into the a high mountain desert type of land. As Idaho has had lots of rain and snow this year, the sights were absolutely beautiful with all the wild flowers blooming. We went from sagebrush and wildflowers to rock-walled rivers and streams. The total drive is 101 miles long and well worth the trip. As there are no services out along the drive, it is a good idea to start with a full tank of gas and lots of water to take with. We stopped in the only campground on the drive and had lunch. We carried our own sandwiches with. We made a side trip to Jordan Valley for gas, even we had plenty, we were taking another road and I wanted to be sure we had plenty.

The next road we took that day was to Silver City, Idaho, a ghost town. In it's heyday, quite a bit of silver was taken out. It really didn't have much, but we did make a stop at the cemetery. And that was an adventure. There is only a one lane track to the cemetery and we were in my Jeep. Met up with some ATV's. There was a little track going up the side of the hill for them to pull over to let me by. Yes, I had the right of way. First ATV'er went up the track. Second one refused to move. The girl I am thinking was afraid to go up the hill. And I am thinking it was her husband on the first one, they had an argument, which she lost and she got out of the way. I went on my merry way. While walking in the cemetery, I heard the two of them down on the road having an argument about what had happened. She was not a happy camper. Oh well. After seeing the sights at Silver City, we headed back to our camp after a full day of seeing some beautiful country.

Our count of scenic byways is now 3.

Our next stop was Bruneau Dunes State Park south of Mountain Home, Idaho. It is a nice little park with some rv parking and camping with tents. For this short jaunt, we did the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway. Making it two so far.
We use the state park as a base to explore some of the country around that area. One of goals was to check out the Owhyee Uplands Back Country Byway. Which made 3 scenic drives for us.

City of Rocks National Reserve

This unique geologic area became a landmark in 1843 for California bound emigrants. A few granite pinnacles and monoliths are in excess of sixty stories tall and 2.5 billion years old. The smooth granite faces offer exceptional rock climbing.

The Reserve boasts Idaho's champion pinyon pines, at more than 55 feet. City of Rocks pinyon pine forest is the northern most extension into Idaho. Wildflowers are abundant in the spring and summer months. The diverse habitat of the reserve supports a large variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, and invertebrates.

Geology

The landscape of City of Rocks has been sculpted from granite that was intruded into the crust during two widely spaced times. The granite that composes most of the spires is part of the 28 million year old Almo pluton. However, some of the spires are made of granite that is part of the 2.5 billion year old Green Creek Complex, and contains some of the oldest rocks in the western United States.

California bound wagon trains (1843-1882) left Raft River Valley and travelled through this area and over Granite Pass. Names and initials of emigrants written in axle grease are still visible. Emigrants consistently referred to the city as one of the memorable scenic wonders of a phenomenal journey: "This is one of the greatest curiosities on the road" wrote Eliza Ann McAuley in 1852.

A short drive through the reserve taking pictures and thoroughly enjoying the sights of the rocks. Just imagining what it was right for the wagon trains going through this. We used our imaginations to guess what the rocks looked like to us. I saw one that reminded me of Jabba the Hutt. The wildflowers were still abundant, as this has been a wet cold year.

We found another side trip to take. This was definitely a dirt road that had not seen much use. So off we went. Well, make this our second road we had to turn around due to a snow drift. Better safe than sorry. As we were headed down the road, there were several 4WD vehicles headed up. We stopped them and explained about the drift. Guess they decided they could go through. Well, there was like 4 of them and the drivers were all young men.

We headed down the mountain towards Oakley and another side trip out of there back towards where we were parked for the night.

We did our first scenic byway, City of Rocks Back Country Byway.

One of our goals on this trip is to explore as much of the back country of Idaho as we can get to. So after Albion, headed south towards City of Rocks, we found a side trip to Mt. Harrison tempting. So up the mountain we went. That is until we found this snow drift that completely stopped us in our tracks. As we could not go through, we turned around. This makes our first turn around. But that is all right. Now further south to the City of Rocks.

We are on our latest adventure. Left home on June 24th with a friend from Oklahoma. Jane also has an rv and Jeep. Our plans were to see as much of Idaho as we can. We made our first stop in Declo, Idaho. Yes, I know not that far from home, but there was some sights that we wanted to see, like City of Rocks and Albion Normal School. The plan was to stay one night and see what we could that first day. After getting our rigs parked and set up, off we went. Our first stop was Albion Normal School. Here is some info about the school.

Albion State Normal School was an institution of higher learning located in Albion, Idaho . The school was established by the Idaho Legislature in 1893, as one of two Normal schools in the state. Citizens of Albion had actively lobbied for the school's establishment, and donated land and labor for the new campus.

The school remained a small institution throughout its history, focusing on the training of teachers and drawing its student body primarily from south-central Idaho. Albion Normal offered a two-year teacher training program until 1947, when it was renamed "Southern Idaho College of Education" (SICE) and authorized to confer baccalaureate degrees. The school remained troubled by low enrollment and a lack of funding, however, and was finally closed by the state in 1951. Its academic programs were transferred to Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) in Pocatello.

During its existence, Albion Normal awarded some 6,460 degrees. Perhaps the most notable alumnus of the college was Terrel Bell (1921-1996), who served as United States Secretary of Education from 1981 to 1984.

The college's athletic teams were known as the "Teachers" until 1935, when they became the "Panthers." School colors were Cardinal and Black, and the annual student yearbook was called The Sage.

After SICE closed in 1951, the campus remained vacant until 1957, when Magic Valley Christian College opened at the site. Magic Valley Christian, in turn, closed in 1969. The campus was deeded to the city of Albion the following year, which continued to maintain the grounds while alternative uses for the property were explored. Finally, the empty and deteriorating property was sold at public auction on June 2, 2007; a group of Idaho investors were successful with a bid of $810,000. The new owners have begun rehabilitating a portion of the campus to serve as a conference and retreat center, called "Campus Grove at Albion."

I guess I am a glutton to punishment!!!! I really hate to sew squares together, but decided that youngest granddaughter needed an afghan for her 5th birthday coming up in August. This is a merry go round with two horses. I am sure that she will love it.

Yes, for those that can find them, there is a couple of mistakes, but at this point in time I am not going back in and fix them. I had to take most of it apart to fix quite a few mistakes. I am going to put a backing on it, due to having lots of small, short ends to deal with and cannot thread them in.

No more of this type of afghan until the grandson turns 5. Which will be next year. Then no more of them!!!!!!!!!

I have heard about yarn winders for years. At first, thought well, I really don't need one. And as most of the skeins I purchase, I can pull out a strand from the middle of the skein. Back years ago, a skein had to be wound into a ball, as it could get easily tangled from the way yarn companies packaged the yard.
The more I thought about it and got to checking, a yarn winder would make perfect sense for that yarn that I did not use on a project and I put into my stash. So I checked to see what kind of winder would be the best. Found that one with metal gears would be best. I then went to Amazon.com. My favorite website and I have some credit there. Was able to find a yarn winder at a good price, so ordered it. I have had it about a month now and love it. The first couple of days I had it, I rewind every ball of yarn I had in my stash. Makes nice balls of yarn and they are easy to stack in a plastic storage crate. I wonder what I did before I had one!!!!

For some reason I purchase some foam door hangers. Guess they were on sale or something. But was thinking for a gift or little something for one of the grandkids in the future. Well, I was sitting here and it hit me. Why don't I fix up the door hangers for Sydney, Peyton and Mason. A little extra something for them. So I found some foam letters and decorations I had in my storage room and made up the hangers for them. I did both sides, that way they can change when they feel like it.