We took our time cleaning up and getting ready to leave. We were still done in under an hour. We left at noon and took Rt. 3 North towards Lewiston. Rt. 3 turns into 129N once you cross into Washington. It seems that amazing motorcycling roads share the lucky number 129. ;)
I sat in the passenger side and flipped from state to state in my trusty atlas. Huh. Despite the mega-out-of-the-way side trip to Hells Canyon, we were intending on heading back towards the coast and hitting Klamath Falls, then Crater Lake, and then Lassen Volcanic in time for my birthday. I’ve been wanting to do Lassen for the last 7 or 8 years but as I considered all the driving required to hit those two parks, I realized that we would constantly be on the road and rushing from one destination to the next. We still have several parks we want to do on the way home and now that we’re past the halfway mark of the trip, we’re not going to have time to do any more mountain biking or major hikes since most of our days will require traveling from one point to the next. So…I changed my mind. I decided we’re going back to Stanley. :o) I am SO looking forward to it. I will spend my birthday in a little part of heaven here on earth. Ah, yes…my beloved Sawtooth mountains.
That was the first of the day’s trip plan change. There was another.
We giddily crossed back into Idaho
and were amused to see we had come to the proverbial fork in the road...head to Missoula or head to Boise...?? Or, there's always Coeur d'Alene.
This was hard...North to Missoula could mean another run down Big Mountain in Whitefish. South to Boise could mean wonderful days in the Sawtooths. Both directions would rock...but I'm determined to celebrate my birthday in what I consider to be one of the coolest places on earth. Oh wait. Yes, it IS one of the coolest places on earth. ;)
The scenery, like always, was very cool. Lots of twisty roads, lots of free range cattle, lots of cool canyons.
We stopped for gas and pulled in behind an old beat up truck with two yellow labs in the cab. Ha that rhymed. ;P I couldn't resist the puppy face, so I snapped a shot.
Come to find out, the owner of the truck had locked his keys inside and hadn't bothered to put the windows down for the dogs. Bill offered assistance, but the old coat hanger trick (which I've seen him successfully employ in the past) didn't work. The owner resorted to taping up his wing vent window and busting it out with a hammer. Bill and I were scratching our heads on this one. Uh...you know that your front windshield has a ginormous crack and needs to be replaced, right? So why exactly would you break a perfectly good window? To each their own.
Our original destination was an RV park in White Bird, Idaho that was recommended to us by the Snake River Adventure lady who booked our jet boat tour. While looking at the map, I noticed there was a Wolf Research and Education Center in Winchester, Idaho. Oh, and how convenient, Winchester Lake State Park is right next to it. Sweet. Change of plans #2.
I asked Bill what he thought and he responded with “tell me where to go, I’m just the driver.” I love this man. We really do this road trippin’ thing very well together. I trust his driving implicitly (which is a big deal considering the roads we’re driving and the trailer we’re pulling); he trusts me to take us to cool places – no questions asked. The best part about it is he's totally game if I change my mind and make significant alterations to our original plan. "Original Plan" eludes to actual plans though - we really just had more of an IDEA of where we'd go. This winging it thing has been FANTASTIC. I like not knowing where we'll be until we get there. See....I've let go....I'm not nearly as OCD as I used to be. ;) Whitey, Robert - Imagine ME with no itinerary. Hard isn't it? ;->
We arrived at the campground late afternoon and found a nice spot. There was one other camper in the entire loop. Ah...Idaho.
We set up and took the Boys to pay our fee. We continued our walk along some of the park's hiking trails and hiked for almost 2 hours. We headed back to the trailer, had dinner and chilled for the rest of the night. Knowing we're so close to Stanley makes me very happy.
(Bill's Perspective)
Today was the first time, I think in my life, that I actually cooked the brakes on a vehicle. We stopped at a pull off as we were heading down into a rather large canyon and I actually smelled brakes. I was surprised as we were going rather slow. The truck does an amazing job in tow/haul mode of downshifting and taking a lot of the strain off the brakes but I guess I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. After that, I just shifted manually and gave the brakes a break. :) Hopefully, it won't happen again. I guess in addition to tires and a multitude of other consumables that will need to be replaced WAY before their time, the brakes will be added to the mix. We have almost 20 thousand miles on the truck now. We bought the truck April 17th. :) Oh well. After the lift kit goes on, we'll need new tires anyway...big ones!!!
(Kim's Perspective)
We are NOT getting a lift kit.
(Bill's Perspective)
Of course not...now. I'm sure it will be months before we get a lift kit. :)
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