September 24...Wallowa Lake State Park (Day 4)

(Kim's Perspective)
We needed to do some research on the jet boat ride through Hells Canyon so we took the laptop and went into town (Joseph). We grabbed a soda and a coffee and two slices of pie (finally!) at The Soda Shoppe and utilized their free WiFi to get some info on the different outfitters that run boats through the canyon. We called several and finally settled on Snake River Adventures. Our 5 hour tour is scheduled for Tuesday at 11am. Wooohooo! We’re REALLY stoked about it. We’ll start out on a jet boat and then transition to a boogie boat which will take us through the Class IV and V rapids. SWEET! We’ve been looking forward to this since we initially researched Hells Canyon while we were in Stanley.

We were disappointed to learn that part of the road that takes us there was destroyed from a flood so, in order to get there, we will now have to drive around the canyon - which will take four hours. Since we can’t leave the Boys that long and there are too many unknowns with a 4 hour drive to make a specific reservation time, we decided to move camp – back to IDAHO. Yay!!!

So, while eating pie, we also researched campgrounds on the Idaho side of the canyon and decided on Swiftwater RV park. There aren’t any state parks near Pittsburgh Landing (the boat launching area) so we’ll have to suck it up and deal with an RV park for a couple days. Fortunately, their season is winding down and the owner said there are plenty of sites open for next week. Hopefully it won’t be too hateful.

While Bill caught up on email, I performed some navigational calculations and decided that we’re going to have to do a LOT of driving to hit the remaining parks we want to see and still get home by the end of October. Honestly, I’d rather just stay out longer but we have the cats to consider, church to consider, money to consider and well, a new business that needs to get launched. Regardless, we have to come back eventually (even though Dave is influencing us to extend as long as we have gas money - and, I must say, it's hard to turn away from that temptation) so we’re going to try and stick to an end of October return. We initially said we’d be home mid-October (DOH!) and now are calling it the end of October. More likely than not, we won’t get home till the first week in November. I’ve struggled with this because I really don’t want to be home November 12th. That will be the year anniversary of Mom’s death and I don’t want to be sitting around the house for that one. Perhaps we’ll be home and just schedule a day trip somewhere. ??? Eh, we'll see.

We drove the 5 miles into Enterprise to pick up a few items at Safeway and then found a fenced in soccer field and took the Boys to play stick. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was perfect and the sun was out in full force. I love the sun. I need to remember that when I start complaining about how hot I am when we go to Moab. ;P

We headed back to the campsite and sat outside mapping and reading for a little while until the sun set. The temperature in the valley we’re in changes drastically with the arrival and subsequent disappearance of the sun every day. Once the sun goes down, it’s time to trade in the t-shirt for a sweatshirt (and in my case, my down vest) for the rest of the evening.

We took the Boys for a long walk around the campground and checked out the different rigs. I guess I’m a bit of a voyeur because I like to look into peoples’ trailers to see what they look like (the trailer I mean, not the people). HA! It amazes me how many people are so oblivious to being watched. Hello! You might want to drop your blinds people – just because you can’t see me doesn’t mean I can’t see you. Most RVers are old folks, so maybe they just FORGET to put the blinds down. ;-O

We had soup and salad for dinner and then watched a couple episodes of SG1. An uneventful, non-picturesque but research-successful day.