Mountain Home AFB Fam Camp

October 6 & 7 we made camp at the Fam Camp at Mountain Home AFB.  The military has many campgrounds on or near their bases.  Joe is retired Air Force so we are able to use these facilities and will be doing so during our travels.  We have stayed at Fam Camps before and have found them very nice.  This Fam Camp has about 30 sites all with E/W/S, $14.00 per night.  It is about 13 miles south of Mountain Home, you have to go in the commercial gate because of the tight turns in the main gate.  Even though it rained all day on Thursday, it is very pleasant here, the Commissary, BX and bowling alley are all within walking distance.  The base is very clean and everything looks brand new.

This is a terrible picture, not sure what happened to the split from top to bottom, but I needed a picture of the FamCamp at Mountain Home to remind me later what it looked like.  Lots of trees here so you have to maneuver the satellite a little.  

Today we are relaxing, catching up on the blog, Joe had to take our water pump apart again as it gets clogged with yuk.  Don't know what is causing this except a dirty water tank, we might have to replace the water tank.  Of course the people that we bought our trailer from a year ago didn't mention this little problem.

Tomorrow we will leave Mountain Home and take Hwy 20 to Ketchum ID, just south of Sun Valley for the Jazz Festival, it's about 125 miles or so.  We will be dry camping in the parking lot of the River Run Inn for a week.  This will be a real test for our new solar system. (We also have a Honda 2000 generator for emergencies, like making coffee in the morning)  This is our first time at the Jazz Festival so it's all new to us.  There will be several RVs in the parking lot and we are allowed to use the generator during the day.  The River Run Inn also will be letting us use their bathrooms and showers.

Safe Travels to all

Nancy

The Adventures Have Started

Wednesday 10/5/11 at 0835, Lacey, WA, we have finally got it all together and we are off the see this beautiful country of ours.  We headed south on I-5 towards Portland to the 205 and then east along I-84.  This is a great way to head east because you don't have to up over the Cascades.  On this trip we are heading for Ketchum Idaho to the Sun Valley Jazz Festival.  We are planning on being there early arriving on 10/8 so we can see the "Trailing of the Sheep" which is an annual event of the sheep running through town along with many other activities.   The Jazz Festival doesn't start until Wed or Thurs.  This will be our first time there.
Our first night was at a small little campground called Hillgard Junction State Park, exit 252 (still on I-84), just off the hwy about 10 miles west of La Grande.  This is primitive and only $5.00.  Very quiet right along the Grande Ronde River.  This was over 300 miles from home so we were tired when we got there and slept very good listening to the rain all night long.

The trip along the Columbia River, on the north side (hwy 14) or the south side (I-84 or Old Hwy 30 is excellent too) is spectacular and if any of you are in the area it is well worth the trip.  Below is a tug boat pushing four barges up the Columbia River. Picture taken about a month ago on the Washington side of river across from Hood River.

Sunrise on Columbia River, from the WA side across from Hood River. Behind the mountain is smoke from the wildfire in the Goldendale WA area.

I will eventually get better at adding the pictures, right now it's kind of a hit and miss/

Safe travels to all
Nancy

Catching Up

I’ve put this off long enough, time to get busy on blogging.  We have had a very busy summer at home just trying to get more organized and ready to leave for about ten months.  So lets back up a little.  We had a great time at the Good Sam Rally in Redmond, Oregon.  There were about 3,000 rigs there.  I was worried that it would be too crowed for me but having the rally at the fairgrounds really spread out the people.  The best part for us was the fantastic entertainment.  We both volunteered and I was an usher at the entertainment every night.  Oh darn, right there with good seats, but someone had to do it.  We saw Vince Gill, Herman Hermits just to name a couple.  Seeing all the vendors was also a good plus, and of course we had to buy a couple of things.  We did purchase a solar system and a "Tailgater" Sat system from Dish.  A & M Solar has completed the installation of the solar and the Dish works great.
My birthday was on July 24 and my two sisters and family came for a visit, we all went over to Pacific, WA at the Military Fam Camp. The Fam Camp there had about 45 RV sites and then separate areas for tents.  Of course along the way my brother in law, Gary stopped at Top Foods and bought six very large crabs to take there.  He bought the crab at Top Foods because they looked good, and they were some of the best crab we have ever had, very meaty.  Along the way we stopped in Hoquiam and bought about two  - three dozen, Oysters to BBQ.  We also had excellent home made wine from my other brother in law, Jim.  We ate and drank, then walked on the beach forever and then ate and drank more for three days.  What a great way to spend a birthday. 


The rest of the summer was just getting comfortable in our new home, meeting the neighbors and a couple of Airstream Rallys.  The big one was what we call "Potlatch and Salmon Feed."  This annual rally has been going on for about 40 years or so.  The big deal is the open pit alder salmon BBQ.  The pit is about 30' long by 4' wide.  This is an all day event to get the fire and coals just right.  I can't describe to you how perfect the salmon turns out.  There is always plenty and we were given a very large piece of salmon, some of the very best you could ever hope for.


This blog is just a catch up and hopefully I will be able to blog two - three times a week, as we have just started our adventures around our beautiful country. 

Redmond Oregon

Today is really July 13th and I thought I would just bring everyone up to date.  I will still continue the blog on our BC trip also.

After our BC trip we arrived home on June 27th after a long day of driving 470 miles. Home for two days washing clothes and getting ready for our next outing.  We left home on the evening of  June 30th heading to Baker City to meet up with some other Airstream folks.  We left in the evening because we were taking I-90 and there is a place we like to stay over night at exit 93 behind a small family run fruit stand.  Several years ago they said we could park in the back.  The following morning to Baker City Oregon for a Rally with about 70 other Airstreamers.  After Baker City then over to Joseph to the Wallowa Lake State Park for a few days.  Beautiful place.  Then on to a state park in Mt Vernon (John Day area)  I don't remember the name of right now.  Then on to Prineville, and finally on to Redmond Oregon for the Good Sam Rally.  We have never been to a Good Sam Rally.  We are looking for a couple of items here;  a solar system and a Dish.  We have been without a TV since about March which is just fine with me but Joe likes TV and occasionally we like to listen to the news.

Just a quick note of were we have been lately.  Pictures later. 

Safe travels to all

Hazelton

June 12 & 13

Prince Rupert was our furthermost destination.  Now we will back track a bit and travel back to Hazelton 175 miles. Here we stayed at the K'san Historical Village and living museum of the Gitxsan people.  To get there we crossed the Hagwilget Suspension Bridge; a single lane bridge, one of North America's highest suspension bridges.  The bridge passes over a canyon over the Bulkley River which then goes into the Skeena River.  Here we were able to tour the Gitxsan village and see several of the restored tribal houses.

The confluence of the Bulkley and Skeena Rivers, muddy still from the high water they had this spring

The single lane suspension bridge

We had a wonderful tour, however we were not allowed to take pictures inside.  Well worth stopping for a night or two and then take the tour.  Great gift shop also.

While we were here we also took a drive out to several villages and saw many totem poles

Safe travels to all

Prince Rupert

June 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12  (Only a little behind)

The secenery on the way to Prince Rupert was stunning, many water falls and the road mainly followed the Skeena River.

We have been told that Prince Rupert gets about 7 days of sun a year.  While we were there they had about 3 days of sun and the other days were just a little overcast.  We stayed in Kinnikinnick Campground which is actually in Port Edward, about three miles east of Prince Rupert.  Port Edward was famous for 200 canneries operating during the boom of the fishing industry.  Now it is The North Pacific Historic Fishing Village and is a National Historic Site.  The main canery building now has antique belt-driven equipment.

Crossing the bridge from Port Edward to Prince Rupert

We were here for five days so some folks could take a side trip to Haida Gwaii which was about a six hr ferry ride.  AKA Charolette Island.  We did not go there, but others did and they had a good interesting time.

On the way to Prince Rupert was a shoe tree.  This was a big cedar tree and people and families have nailed their shoes to the tree.  Not sure of the significance of this.  I've seen trees where people have tied their shoes together and then threw them up over a branch, but these look like they are nailed to the tree, and some look like they are shoes from a family.  Anyway I thought it was kind of funny.

While in Prince Rupert they had their annual Fish Festival with a fantastic parade.  Everyone for 200 miles around was either in the parade, watching the parade, or selling food.  I love these kind of small town parades.

Prince Rupert's main tourist area, Cow Bay, is cute, quaint and on the waterfront close to downtown.  Many places were decorated with cows.   Click on the picture below to see a larger picture and you can read the history of Cow Bay.

Notice the stool with udder

Safe Travels to all

New Aiyansh

New Aiyansh (sounds like ranch without the r )  is the largest of the communities of Nisga'a First Nation.  It is near the Nass River just north of Terrace.  Tther communities that make up the Nass Valley and the Nisga'a territory ar Greenville, and Canyon City.

We stayed for two nights at the Nisga'a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park. About 250 years ago the volcano erupted, killing approximately 2,000 people creating a pocked lava plain. As the lava spilled from the crated it followed a creek bed down slop to Lava Lake and down the Tseax Valley to the Nass River. The volcano was not a mountain, the lava just bubbled up and then created a cone. Several of us hiked to the top of the cone with a guide through a beautiful forest that was not touched by lava but had a layer of black ash. Then  a little down the way and we would be in the lava area.  This area is incredible with lava flows in and out of the forest.  We had to be careful to stay on the trail as there were many pocked areas of water in the lava and if you were in a thin area you would just fall through.

The lady in the blue is Kay, 88 years young, she goes everywhere and does everything.  Kay and Ron just celebrated their  61st aniversarry, Ron is on the far left holding the camera.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The streams were flooded as this was a very snowy and wet year

Bark of a Black Cottonwood

While at the Provincial Park we also visited Canyon City and the Gitwinksihkw Band, above is a bridgew crossing the Nass River on the way to their village                                                                                    

They used this fish wheel

Next is Gingolx aka Greenville.  I thought this was a great sign at their church.  Since all these tribes or Bands are right on the river everyone fishes and dries their salmon.  All the areas we visited people came to talk to us to find out who we were and where we were from.  Everyone was very friendly and very talkative                                                                                                             

This is in front of every school representing the different bands of their area.  This is the Frog, Killer Whale, Raven and Bear                                                                                                                                    

On our way back to camp we came across this friendly little guy.