This post covers two days of travel.
We left Winnemucca around 8:30 heading north on Hwy. 95.
There was a lot of construction on the highway with many delays.
We cruised along through the high desert for hours.
A whole convoy of dump trucks went buy us going the opposite direction. I think they were going back to where we got stopped by the flagman. They are probably planning to snarl traffic even further.
We went through the town of McDermitt.
Several miles later I started recognizing the country. It looked like we were entering the Owyhee bad lands.
Soon we entered the valley of the Owyhee River where we crossed the river at Roam Crossing. Looks like a good kayaking place.
We traveled through some agricultural lands complete with tractors on the highway.
And more construction delays.
Eventually we entered Idaho.
Southern Idaho is a lot like Nevada with some high desert but with more farm land with lots of corn and Hay fields
Eventually we got near Nampa and Patti Gave Lillie and Tom a call. Tom gave her instructions to get to a gas station where we were to meet them. We followed his directions and waited at the gas station for only a few minutes when Lillie and Tom showed up. We followed their jeep to their place.
They live out in the farm land on 5.5 acres in a very nice two story farm house.
We arrived around 3:30 and visited with them for a while.
Later on Frieda and Gene came by. We all visited for a while. Around 6:00 Tom grilled some burgers and we sat down to a very nice dinner.
Frieda and Gene left around 9:30. We sat up and watched the 10:00 news and then hit the sack. We slept in an up-stairs bedroom rather than the RV. It was a little cooler in their house but it was still pretty warm. This whole trip so far has been very hot.
Nampa to the Coeur d’Alene Casino.
We left Lillie and Tom’s around 9:00 am and once we got through Nampa, we headed north again on 95.
We drove through more farm land.
Patti saw a lot of cool looking barns on this stretch of highway.
She also found some of the RR bridges interesting.
This one looks almost too low.
We crossed the Weiser River
and passed through the town of Weiser, Idaho.
Once we got through and started to climb out of the Weiser valley we entered a stretch of forested hills.
We drove along the Little Snake River for a while.
Eventually we left the forest and entered an area of arid grass covered hills
and came to the main Snake River.
We followed the Snake to Lewiston, Idaho. The grade out of Lewiston was very long and steep. I stopped about half way up to allow the engine to cool down but with the outside temp near 100 degrees it wasn’t working very well. Eventually I decided to just get to the top of the grade and hope the engine didn’t over heat. We made it but the temp gauge was right at the high end of the normal range.
There was one more grade almost as bad as the Lewiston grade to go over.
Eventually after eight and a half hours of driving we arrived at the Coeur d’Alene Casino. We got set up in the RV parking area and went to the Hotel to pay for our space. The RV parking area provides electricity and a place to park but nothing else. They charge $20.00 per night but they give you $15.00 of free play at the casino.
Patti called Shirley and she met us at the hotel desk with big hugs.
We followed Shirley to where Bill, Susanne, Roy and their friends Dona and Greg were feeding the slot machines. More hugs and hand shaking.
We had dinner at the Sweet Grass Cafe in the casino with Shirley and Bill.
After dinner Patti remained at the casino to gamble a little while I went back to the RV to start writing the blog. I didn’t finish it last night so I worked on it this morning.
It was a long hard drive but we are here now and the rest of the trip should be much less stressful.
No comments:
Post a Comment