Star Valley Wyoming

We continue east thru southern Idaho, thru Pocatello and Idaho Falls. As we go east, we have been, more or less, following the path of the Snake River. Once we get thru Idaho Falls, we turn onto Hwy 26 and head southeast thru the Swan Valley. The closer we get to Wyoming, the greener it seems to get.

Star Valley is about 60 miles south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Some people would think it's in a remote location; nothing could be further from the truth! It's right in between Etna (Pop. 160) and Thayne (Pop. 366). If that isn't enough for you, you could head down to the BIG city of Afton (which boast a pop. of almost 2000). What more could you need? At Star Valley Ranch, most of the residents are owners (of their rv lots) and spend the majority of the warmer months there. It is cold enough in the winter, though, that everyone bugs out for warmer climes. The time we spent there, though, the weather was perfect.

Star Valley Ranch has been on my list of places to visit since I made an acquaintance at Park Sierra in Coarsegold CA. He told me this is where he spends the summer and urged us to check it out. Once I took a look at it and found out it had BOTH pickleball and golf, it was just a matter of when, not if!

They had a pickleball club, eight courts and a number of tournament rated intermediate and advanced players. We arrived on Friday afternoon, so I was on the court first thing Saturday morning... and most every opportunity I had! The play was so good, we extended our stay another week!




It's a good thing that we had planned a longer stay as our RV woes continued when we arrived. What had initially been problems with our hydraulic leveling jacks had now extended to include the slideouts. The living room slide out extended with no problem, but the bedroom slideout only extended about 6". When the RV park handyman showed up to look at the problem, we found out that we could retract neither the living room nor bedroom slides. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to fix the problem and left on vacation a couple of days later!

After being is Star Valley for a week, we decided to go do some mountain exploring. Some of the locals had told us about sightseeing along Grey's River Road. Well suh, you can jus as easy git on it out of the town of Alpine or jus down pas Smoot. Uptayuu. If'n y'all aren from round these parts, you meisjusaswell look for FS road 10072 an foller it till you git to FS road 10138. If ya stay on that a pret fir piece, you'll end up in Alpine - slick as a whistle! Sos that's jus wat we did!

We stopped in Afton and got some Subway sandwiches then had ourselves a picnic at Sheep Pass (so named because at one time about 100,000 head of sheep grazed the range and nearly destroyed the land).

Did we mention it was a dirt and gravel road?

We met some locals headed home for supper

It was a scenic but very long drive (over 3 hours). Getting back to the RV, I noticed that my leg, which had been bothering me for a few days, is swollen. After numerous, useless calls to our medical insurance, we head to the nearest emergency room in Afton. (Amazing experiences in non-California ERs, no crowds!) After an ultrasound, the diagnosis is a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) in my leg. Wendy was sure they were going to hospitalize me, but, new guidelines are to prescribe blood thinners, keep the leg elevated whenever possible, use compression and let the clot dissolve on its own over a period of 3 to 6 months. Sadly, doctors orders are no pickleball for a at least a week!

We leave the ER at around 11:30. I haven't eaten, and I'm hungry. Figure we'll hit Burger King (the only fast food joint in town) on the way home. Well, no such luck. Burger King, like everything else in Afton, Thayne, and Etna closes by 8:00 pm. I was looking forward to  that burger too!

The next day, I take Wendy to Jackson in Jackson Hole for a shopping day. It's her birthday, and I hope she'll find her own present...

Elk antlers shed every year, so no elk were harmed for the making of this picture

First stop, the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for a beer to ease the pain...of shopping. 

Birthday dinner is at The Kitchen, weather was great, so we opted for seating on the deck underneath aspen trees. Vegetable summer rolls to start, (and maybe an adult beverage or two) then Ribeye with bonito roasted fingerling potatoes and baby turnip for Tom and Thai Breakfast (rice noodles, scrambled egg, sugar snap peas, bok choy, and carrots) for Wendy.

Finally, it's the day of reckoning...time to get the slides back in, so we can move. The living room slide has to be hand cranked back in. This is an arduous task,  cranking each side of the slide a few turns with a socket wrench (imagine how many turns it would take to tighten a 3 foot long bolt). Fortunately, we had the good fortune a couple of days earlier of meeting neighbors, Tony and Pam. Tony is a very helpful sort, so he came over and cranked one side and I cranked the other. Getting the slide in called for a celebration, so we took a couple of bottles of wine over to Tony and Pam's converted bus and had a nice last evening.

That's Tony and Pam's conversion bus in the middle

So, on July 5th, we are on the road again, heading back to Idaho. Our RV parts are in, so our plan is to be back in Boise on the 10th.

Heyburn Riverside RV Park - Heyburn ID

We leave Boise and head to Wyoming! Our first stop on the way there is Heyburn Idaho, about 170 miles east of Boise.

We've a city park to stay at called Heyburn Riverside RV Park. When we get there, we are pleasantly surprised by how nice the park is. It is only slightly off the main drag, but it's grounds run into the school grounds next door.

For any of you looking for a great campground when you're passing through southern Idaho (as long as you don't mind the cemetery across the street), this is it, full hook-ups for $25 a night. Can't remember for sure but seems like the wifi here was pretty good too.

The park itself is next to the Snake River, and it has a river walk.

For my sons: Along that river walk are trees native to other countries, and there we found the mythical tree of your father's story so many years ago, although in its pre-pickle form...

We stay in Heyburn a couple of days, long enough to pick-up prescriptions (I checked, and there are no Walgreens in Wyoming), check-out some of the homes along the Snake River (they look like they have some pretty impressive views), and find the taco bus (aka, Taqueria El Patron).

Chile verde plate

Carne asada, carnita, and chicken tacos 

Dig in!

Bosie ID

It's Friday, and we land at Country Corners RV Park in Caldwell on the outskirts of the Boise area. It's a campground that looks like many others we've visited. We decide to venture outside this county park and head to Boise proper and take a walk along the Bosie River Greenbelt.

The Boise River Greenbelt is a series of pathways/trails that run for miles along the Boise River. We start at the Willow Lane Athletic Complex and make it past the Whitewater park before turning back.

Question: What water sport would you just not expect to see in Idaho?
Answer: Surfing... (at least our answer) but there it was, right in front of us at the Whitewater park on the Boise River.

The next day, we spend exploring the Boise wine country. Did you know Boise had a wine country? I didn't. The first place we visit is the Huston Vineyards on Chicken Dinner Rd in Caldwell.

There, I make Tom buy me the Chicken Dinner white wine just for the name.

Then we head over to Fujishin Family Cellers. We get to sample quite a few interesting wines and the tasting is free!

The final day in Caldwell is spent at the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately for us, there wasn't much wildlife about while we were there. We did manage a distant view of an osprey nest. 

 We move on to the Bosie KOA the next day to move closer to the RV repair shop in Boise. At this point in time, 3 out of the 4 hydraulic leveling jacks on the Beast are no longer working. So we have our fingers crossed that Wilson's RV Repair will have us fixed and on our way in a day or two. But this was not to be...turns out our fears were true, it will take 7-14 days for the parts to arrive. So how will we bide our time waiting for the parts?
Wellllll, it seems that Tom has been wanting to go to Star Valley in Western Wyoming, where there is a nice RV resort, with both golf and pickleball!

EASTWARD HO!

Fish House Inn - Dayville OR

The Fish House Inn & RV Park is a very small RV park and inn in Dayville, halfway between Bend and Boise. It was only an overnight stopover for us, but bears a post because it turned out to be such a quaint, beautiful spot.

Dayville is a small town of about 150 people. Contrary to what you might think, there isn't a river or stream that flows by the Fish House Inn, nor do they have a restaurant that serves fish. It is named for the owner's astrological sign, Pisces. The RV park only has about 6 or 7 RV sites, but the sites are spacious, and the grounds remind me of an English garden (not sure why because there weren't many flowers). (As a reminder to myself: Fish House has the best wifi of anywhere we've stayed.)

It only took us about 10 minutes to stroll the entire length of the town. 

Seems like they don't take to kindly to folks misbehavin' in Dayville. These two just might get run outta town.

That night was dinner and pie at the Dayville Cafe, so good.

Sorry no pictures of the pie, but Tom had the German Chocolate and I had the blueberry peach. 

After dinner, Tom started a conversation with a very nice couple, Jim and Steff Smith, who had just set up across from us. They invited us over for wine, so we spent the evening in very enjoyable company. Jim and Steff are from Boulder and had just started full-timing about the same time as us. Seems we covered a lot of the same places, and just missed each other by a few days! Jim volunteers on the Amgen Tour of California, so you know he and Tom had a lot to talk about!

Crown Villa RV Resort - Bend OR

Well, here we are in Bend, Oregon. Initially, our thinking was we could have the RV leveling jacks repaired here, but those hopes were dashed...as the repair shops might be able to squeeze us in by mid-July. However to make up for it, we run into tire trouble with the Subaru, so being in a decent sized town is a good thing.

Although this area is a somewhat dry region of the state, there's lots of state parks and forests, and camping seems to be popular in the area. Because of this, camp sites are difficult to come by. We are fortunate to find an RV park with space available. It turns out to be a lovely resort with paved roads, lots of shady trees, and long RV sites made of concrete and brick pavers.  Each site has a separate parking space for the car and a wrought iron patio table and chairs (no picnic tables here!). For Tank, there's lots of separation from the other sites (and their dogs), lots of grassy space, and a large fenced dog run.

RV resort green belt

It's a great place to lounge outside, drink in hand, in the shade of the tree. We spend our time here relaxing, finding pickleball for Tom and shopping to replenish our wine supply for Wendy...all this after getting new car tires of course!

Our BBQ pork and pineapple pizza experience

YUM!

Crater Lake OR - aka Goldilocks...and the Three Spots

Once upon a time, there was an furry little character... let's call him, umm, "Goldilocks." Yeah, that's a good original sounding name; besides, it suits him, I think... don't you?

Well, Goldilocks went for a drive in the forest of Oregon when he and his two companions came upon a magnificent lake called Crater Lake. "But where will we stay?" wondered Goldilocks.

The trio kept wandering until they came upon a campground and went inside. This being early June, there were lots of places to stay, so they tried one.

Goldilocks liked this one very much and wanted to go outside and play, but one of the companions was not happy. "This spot is too crookedy with dark and foreboding tree limbs and has too many mosquitos!" she exclaimed.

So they went on to another spot.

Goldilocks liked this spot also and again was ready to go out and play, but... "This spot is too unlevel," said the other companion.

So on they went.

Goldilocks sees another spot that looks just heavenly, and, besides, his need to go out and pee on the nearest tree was almost too much to 'BEAR' (see what I did there??).

So onward they go until the come upon the third spot. Goldilocks growls at his companions, "This spot IS JUST RIGHT!"

So there they stayed... that is until two days later when "F" loop opened up, and they snagged a spot with electricity. And THAT SPOT WAS JUST RIGHTER!

THE END

So if the story hasn't put you too sleep yet, here is more of the adventure.

We arrived at Crater Lake early afternoon on Thursday, June 7th. Mazama campground and village is just inside the southern entrance at about 6000'. Because it was still early in the year, the park hadn't started taking online reservations, and everything was first come first serve. We knew this was the case and hoped for the best. It turned out to be almost an "embarrassment of riches;" we had our pick of spots and ended up almost having a whole loop to ourselves. Once we finally got situated (see story above), we headed to the visitors center and then up to the rim of the lake, which is about seven miles north and 1000-2000 feet higher in elevation. What a sight! We wanted to take advantage of the sunny day (without fog on the lake) and spent a couple of hours there.

On Friday, our plan was to drive the west rim of the lake. Although both the northern and southern entrances were open, the road around the lake was only plowed around the west side and a little ways around the south side. Quite a bit of the area still had a considerable amount of snow, so not many trails were accessible. But light blue skies, puffy white clouds and a deep blue lake were quite a sight.

We were also able to go a few miles along the southern end of the lake where the road was open as far as the Sun Notch Trail. This trail still had patches of snow, but lead us up to views of the southern rim and the "Phantom Ship."

We had been watching weather reports for the last several days, and new a front was coming in, which promised rain and possible snow at the higher elevations, so Saturday was going to be wet! We'd been hoping that "F" loop, which has electrical sites, would open. Returning from our day trip on Friday, hallelujah, F loop was open! We found the perfect site, just in time to beat out the wet weather (and with satellite reception for game 4 of the Warriors/Cavs playoffs)!

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Roughing it at Crater Lake

Saturday, we did indeed wake-up to snow!

So we head back up to the lake to see it with a snowy backdrop...

Then looking down away from the crater...

...and to find Tank a place to play in the snow.

Playtime is over.