April 18 - On to Idaho

We hooked up the trusty trailer early April 18 and were again on the road Southern Idaho is blessed with the beautiful Snake River.
The Snake River originates in the Teton Mountains and empties into the Columbia River in southeast Washington state. It is a life support system for this part of the state, indeed we drove through irrigated fields of potatoes, wheat, hay – all interspersed with sparkling reservoirs of water courtesy of the Snake River.
In south central Idaho we encountered beds of lava of some magnitude which meant that once-upon-a-time there was a volcanic action in this part of the world. In fact, in 2002 we visited the Craters of the Moon National Monument many miles north of the freeway we were traveling. These craters were formed by volcanic activity, and as we recall, were absolutely astounding.
Finally, late in the afternoon we arrived at our destination for that night, Mountain Home Air Force Base Campground, Mountain Home, ID. We are staying here until the 22nd and, again, days of rest and catch-up. The truck air conditioner is not working properly so that must be taken care of, as the days are getting warmer and warmer.

April 16 - The Grand Tetons-Oh my!

We left Riverton, following the beautiful Wind River for over 100 miles, to the town of Jackson. It is more commonly referred to as Jackson Hole, but Jackson Hole is a big valley between mountain ranges, the Tetons being on the western edge. The Teton Mountains are the mainstay of the Grand Teton National Park, directly south of Yellowstone. The mountains rise so abruptly from the valley floor, there are no foothills, they are just all of a sudden are there “in your face”.
Teton County is the richest county in the state of Wyoming. As one local told us the billionaires, have chased the millionaires out of town. Property taxes are so high many of the working people have sold their homes and moved to Idaho (about 30 miles away) and commute back and forth to work in Jackson.
Many of the backroads we would have enjoying driving were still closed due to snow. We did drive over Teton Pass into Victor, ID and back by way of Teton Village, a high dollar ski resort area. We were able to take a short hike down one of the closed park roads. We could just imagine how beautiful it would be a little later in the season, with wildflowers in bloom.

Later than same day we drove to park Visitor Center and discovered that their wasn’t much we could do, not being part of the jetski crowd.
In summary, our opinion is that Wyoming is a state of spectacular scenery and it should be visited again at another time, another season.

April 13 - Wind River Canyon

We arrived at Riverton, WY, a delightful western town about 11,000 population (for Wyoming a large community as the entire population of the state is less than 500,000.)
We stayed here for 3 days for rest and recuperation. On April 15 we took a drive up into the Wind River Canyon to Thermopolis, WY, another beautiful small community. Had a wonderful lunch (homemade strawberry/rubarb pie for dessert). Lou found a wonderful quilt store with 1000’s of bolts of fabric. It was heaven.
The Wind River Canyon is a geological canyon carved by the Wind River with bluffs of 2000 feet or more and home to Big Horn Mountain Sheep (or so the tourist info says, but we didn’t see any.)

April 12 - Traveling on!

We bade farewell to the sandhills and historic Fort Kearney and headed west as the wagon trains of old. Our impressions of Nebraska is that it is a harsh land. We left early the next morning and as the pioneers of old we continued westward on our adventure.
On down the road twilight was rapidly approaching and we needed a spot to park for the night. After much searching and despair, we spent the night in the County Fairgrounds of Mitchell, NE. It was a free spot so what the heck.

April 10-On to Kearney,NE

On our way to Kearnery, located in the Cauker

City, NE we came upon an amazing site. We encountered the World’s Largest Ball of Twine. Evidently this little town has an annual event each year (like we have Turkey Trot) and each year the diameter keeps growing. It sounds like they have a “ball.” We both vaguely remember Bill Gist on the CBS Sunday Morning show have a feature about this and attending their festival.

We made our first destination today, Ft. Kearney State Recreation Area on the Platte River at Kearney, NE. About 500,000 sandhill cranes begin arriving on the Platte River in Nebraska in February each year to rest before they finish their long flight to the Artic Circle and their nesting grounds in early April. Unfortunately, most of them had already flown away by the time we arrived but there were several hundred of them in the corn fields that surround the recreation area.

We enjoy the sandhill cranes so much. We spent the winter of 1999-2000 at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, helping to make their winter more comfortable. They are beautiful birds that mate for life and care for their young with love and devotion. We could learn much about family life by watching these beautiful creatures.

The Platte River is a fixture in southern Nebraska.
The North Platte River originates in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, The South Platte originates in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. They join together to the Platte River in western Nebraska at a town called, oddly enough, North Platte, Nebraska.
The Platte was often referred to in Western lore as a river that’s a “mile wide” and a “foot deep.” It’s river bed shifts constantly, yet it plays a very important role in the well-being of Nebraska. By the way, it flows into the Missouri River at a place called Plattesmouth, Nebraska just south of Omaha.

April 9-2nd Night

We made better mileage today, stopped about 4:00 pm at Paxton, KS. We aren’t too happy when we have to stay in a commercial campground. however the one we spent the night in was really nice. The RV pads were very large with good distance between them and very scenic. Their shower rooms were so clean you could eat on the floor. Good stay.

April 8-We're finally on our way!!

Here we go! After getting a late start from home today (10:45 am), 4 stops along the way to take care of last minute business stuff, we were finally back on the road. We drove 150 miles the first day to Lake Stockton, MO and spent the night in a nice Corps of Engineer campground. Being very tired we hit the sack early for an early start the next day.