Alaska redux
Eleven years
ago Rob and I took off on our first long adventure by motor home. It took us
three months to get to Alaska and back. We’ve threatened to go again, but
wanted to go with friends. This year our friends from Camarillo, Steve and Jeannie
Michel, (Steve having recently retired) committed to joining us.
We started
planning in the spring 2017 with a Michel/Brown meeting at Diamond Lake,
Oregon. Rob and Steve spent the entire time pouring over info at a picnic table
outside the coaches. The months following involved pre-determining where we
would stay, making reservations where necessary, identifying the route, making
lists of important tasks to complete before we leave and miscellaneous other
activities as they arose. We decided we would leave in late June.
In the meantime,
once the snow melted and the weather warmed, we were busy…
Brand new
vinyl liner in pool is leaking. American Leak Detectors and liner installer
were frequent guests and finally got the leak reduced to ¼ inch per day by the
day we left.Fix and or
replace sprinklers, Deweed vegetable garden area, borrow neighbor’s tractor,
till field, level it and plant fall and winter vegetables. Make sure area has
water, Help rescue neighbor’s horse from another neighbor’s swimming pool. He
had escaped from his young rider’s control and ran right over the pool cover.
Apparently, it wasn’t rated to hold a 1200 pound horse, Wash motor home. Clean
out cupboards and drawers in motor home, wax motor home. (This alone took
several days,) finish Trout quilt. Attend fly fishing school (Rob plans to do a
lot of fishing and thought it would be a good idea to learn how)!
So much to do, but we got it done.
Michels arrived Friday afternoon in time for a smoked brisket dinner. Rob
started the smoker early in the morning and by dinner time, it was done.
Perfectly I might add.
Saturday a
shopping trip for camera batteries, fishing flies, fresh vegetables, new toy
for Charley (Michel’s Jack Russell). Could not find a camera battery, but a
trip to Costco awarded Jeannie with a new camera.
Sunday, June
24th, found us scurrying around packing last minute stuff in the
coaches, walking the dogs, rechecking the house for forgotten items (don’t they
have stores where we’re going?) and finally hooking up the cars. We headed out through the lush farmland of
southwest Idaho eastbound for Challis, 215 miles away.
The weather
was beautiful all the way and our campsite at Challis Hot Springs was a short
walk to the Salmon River. Once settled we headed to the soaking pools to
unwind. Tomorrow, another day driving.
Pond that feeds the hot pools
We’ll stop
for two days in Anaconda, MT.
