FROM OUR TRIP AROUND THE LAKE 

LAKE COUER D'ALENE

Finally summer! We have had rain and cloudy weather all the way until here. The sun is beautiful here in Couer d’Alene and it is a lovely town. From our front window we can see water, a pond and a huge osprey nest on top of a telephone pole. The mamma bird is busy feeding her two babies.

We took a drive around the lake on Sunday. The lake is 25 miles long and has over 135 miles of shoreline and is an average of 120 feet deep. We stopped at a deli on the way and had sandwiches for a leisurely Sunday drive. After the drive, we went for cruise on the lake. What a great place to live! I wouldn’t want the snow and ice in the winter though.

We’ve had a good rest for four days here but are off next to Seattle for three weeks. We will stop overnight on the way at Ellensburg.

THE VIEW FROM OUR RV SITE ON THE LAKE 

THREE DAYS ON THE ROAD

We were finally ready to leave the rally. We were able to really fine tune the RV with info that Zoe gleaned from seminars and the help from the participants. On the way out of the Rally grounds, we stopped to have the rig weighed. Four flat scales reminiscent of bathroom scales, we put under each wheel. We were pronounced as balanced excellently, thanks to Zoe’s conscientious efforts.

As we left Gillette, there were rolling green hills with pronghorn antelope grazing in the fields along with cattle. Once we crossed the Montana state line, the rolling hills continued but there were no more pronghorns. Maybe Montana didn’t sign a contract with them. Closer to Billings, Montana we started seeing some welcome evergreens. We didn’t realize how much we’ve missed them. We were happy to see the snow covered mountains in the distance after Billings also.

We have decided instead of paying $25 when we only need an overnight site, we will stay free behind Cracker Barrel restaurants and Walmarts when available. They both welcome RVers. We stayed at the Cracker Barrel in Billings. You have lots of room, it’s quiet and you can go in and have a great breakfast in the morning. In Butte we stayed at Walmart with about a dozen other rigs. As funny as it sounds it is fun. Try negotiating a Walmart parking lot in a 40 ft. rig towing.

We passed a herd of buffalo between Deer Lodge and Missoula. Molten rock cliffs paralleled a rushing stream beside the road.

A bunch of weary travellers parked for the night in a Walmart parking lot in Billings, MT. 

DRIVING LESSONS ON DEVIL'S TOWER. THIS RIG HAS LOTS OF POWER. 

THE ALFA NATIONAL CONVENTION PRE RALLY

Although Gillette only has a population of about 20,000, it is the fourth largest ‘city’ in Wyoming and one of the richest. This is because of coal and gas deposits nearby.

We came to the pre-rally to help to set up the rally. Our chapter of fulltimers (the Roadrunners) was responsible for setting up the rally this year. So many showed up that we didn’t have to do much. So we could catch up on paperwork and writing.

Zoe went to the maintenance seminars and learned more technical stuff. We had more work done on the rig to fine tune it. There isn’t much left to chance for trouble. A satellite glitch that we thought would cost us over $1500 was solved by one of the participants for $1.63. The men in this organization are always eager to step in with a helping hand..

We’ve had a good taste of Wyoming weather, even a nearby tornado. The weather can change in seconds from hot and sunny to cold and rainy. We’ve had some heavy rains that turn the red earth into mud but the local residents are happy as they have had a drought for seven years. (Next the locust?) With nothing to impede its progress, the wind here can cut right through you.

We are having the rig weighed on Wednesday to assure of proper weight distribution. Then we rush toward Seattle with a brief stop at Lake Couer d’Alene.

Before everyone arrived one of our participants who is a retired commercial pilot took this picture with people spelling out the word "ALFA". Our rig is in the bottom far left corner.  

Us going through Powder River Canyon in Wyoming. 

THE LARGEST HOT SPRINGS IN THE WORLD

We are still on caravan. We left Lander, Wyoming and wound through the dramatic Wind River Canyon with its high rock cliffs above the road. Signs along the road identified the dates of different rock strata going back as far as 3 billion years ago. Rolling green hills led us into the town of Shoshoni for a stop at an old-fashioned ice cream parlor where I had a black-and-white sundae that I haven’t had since I was a kid. Across from where we parked was an adobe two-room jail dating from 1907.

The next stop was an RV resort in Thermopolis with its own hot spring fed mineral pool, part of the largest hot springs in the world. In 1918, while drilling for an oil well, the hot springs was hit instead. The spring comes out of the ground at 136 degrees and is cooled down to 104 degrees for the large swimming pool. The spring has built up a smoothly-coated colored cone eight feet high from the mineral deposits. It was wonderful to soak in the mineral waters and we changed our RV park reservations in this town to come back to this same park in August.

While at Thermopolis, several of us took a short side trip to Digby, population 47. Someone remarked that with our group, we enlarged the population by 25%. The object of the trip was to go to Butch’s bar and grill for the ‘world’s largest hamburgers’. Afterwards we took a drive through the surrounding hills and saw deer and buffalo. Then we stopped at the state park that has the world’s largest mineral pool. The mineral waters here and flowed over a small drop to make a mix of yellows, browns, pinks before flowing into the river. It was as beautiful as the hot mineral pools in Yellowstone.

Continuing on towards Gillette, we passed many pronghorn antelope grazing in the fields. Of course, we had to stop for cinnamon rolls at a small café in Ten Sleep. (Do you get the idea that this group likes to eat?) From there, we could see red hills to rival Sedona, AZ. Here we wound through Ten Sleep Canyon to Powder River Pass at an elevation of 9686 feet. The road wound back and forth and a rushing stream paralleled it but the climb was not that noticeable. Shasta Daisies lined the roadside. Patches of snow were by the road but the road was clear. It started to snow as we drove. We passed even more deer and pronghorn antelope plus moose coming into Gillette and our Alfa convention.

This is our thermal pool (part of the largest thermal pool in the world. This is heaven.