Friday, February 9, 2018 – Left San Diego 9:40am and arrived in Yuma at Westwind RV,  site 179 facing west.   Good park, friendly people.

 

Sunday, February 11, 2018 – Windy and cooler.  Went to the “Center of the World – History in Granite Museum”, Felicity, CA (population 1?).  Really, kind of a cool little place with all major recorded world events etched in granite blocks.

 

 

Saturday, February 17, 2018 – Left Westwind/Yuma to a Thousand Trails campground in Cottonwood, AZ, site #144.  All gravel & not level.

 

Sunday, February 18, 2018 – Quick day move to Dead Horse State Park, site #105.  Windy.  Lots of hiking around the lagoons, Lime Kiln trail, Tavaschi marsh to the Verde River, cool old cemetery.   Moved to site #100 on Friday the 23^rd amid snow flurries.

 

 

Friday, March 2, 2018 – Left Dead Horse/Cottonwood for Lost Dutchman State Park near Apache Junction, AZ.   We didn’t have long term reservations here, so had to move sites 6 times!  It was worth it.  The best view was from site # 68 (no power).  Hiked Prospectors Trail, Green Boulder, Treasure Loop and many other smaller trails around the park.   Enjoyed meeting up with Sandie & Gil again, as we did last year, and hope to again in 2019!

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 14, 2018 – Had to cut this trip short.  Long drive straight back to San Diego today after news that Uncle Jack was hospitalized. ;(

 

Lost our beloved Uncle Jack this month.  Flew to Orlando to attend services and a bittersweet reunion with cousins.  Spent the next couple of months with Mom in San Diego, and celebrated our 40^th wedding anniversary with a party at the house.

 

Sunday, July 8, 2018 – Back on the road.  First stop tonight, the North Las Vegas Elks.  It was 110° when we arrived at 3pm.  Not a great place, or a great part of town, but we don’t gamble and it’s an inexpensive, safe overnighter.  We prefer being on the North side of Vegas when heading out in the morning to avoid the morning downtown rush hour.

 

Monday, July 9, 2018 – Traveled from Las Vegas to Mountain Shadow RV Park in Wells, NV.  Nice park. 98°

 

Tuesday, July 10, 2018 – Left Wells, NV toward Round Valley RV park in Challis, ID.  Huge sites at this campground!

 

On the way, we saw what looked like a nice place to camp & check out another time, on 93, north of Makay, ID near the dam.  We also stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument.

 

Wednesday, July 11, 2018 – Left Challis at 8:30am.  Stopped in Florence, MT to enjoy a wonderful lunch and visit with Dan Colombo.  A dear colleague & friend from many years ago at old ComStream.  Such a gracious host, beautiful home, and sweet puppy, Tammi. J

 

 

Arrived at Jim & Mary’s RV park in Missoula that evening.  Lovely campground with amazing flowers all over the place.

 

 

Friday, July 13, 2018 – Left Missoula and arrived at Stoneridge Resort, in Blanchard, ID.   Beautiful, paved, RV sites.  The place boasts a golf course, private homes, RV sites for purchase, pools, a lake, timeshares, walking trails, free laundry facilities (!), and really nice people.

 

It was very hot, so enjoyed early morning walks around the park perimeter, riding our bikes, and cruising in our inflatable kayak around San Souci Lake.   Made day trips to Sandpoint, Hope, Coeur d’ Alene, Spirit Lake, Newport WA, Albini Dam on the Pend Oreille River.   Enjoyed an evening at Brent & Deb’s site along with Larry & Tina.  Great folks.  Sweet dogs Gunner, Bentley & Bodie.

 

 

Thursday, August 2, 2018 – Reluctantly left Stoneridge and arrived at Flathead River RV in Polson, MT.  The park isn’t much to look at, but it’s friendly and a great location.

Friday we went to the Kerr Dam built between 1930 and 1939.   Hiked down to the overlook, which is a steep walk down from a very poorly marked parking area.  The signage to get to the parking area is even worse and don’t think your GPS or cell phone directions will work either.  Amazing views of the dam and area all around.  Vertigo alert!

 

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Drove around beautiful Flathead Lake and saw another great place for future camping at Finley Point in Flathead Lake State Park.    All the way around the lake were people selling homegrown Flathead cherries.   They were delicious!

 

We enjoyed walking along the docks in Polson enjoying Flathead Lake and its river.  Beautiful swimming places.

 

Wednesday, August 8, 2018 – Headed from Polson, to Bozeman.   We stayed at the beautiful home of Joe and Cortnee Spear on Bluebird Ln.  Their front yard had plenty of room for our RV!  They, and their adorable kids, were gracious hosts and we enjoyed our visit with all of them so much.  Bozeman is such a great town and they have been so lucky to find such a beautiful home in an amazing neighborhood!

 

Saturday August 11, 2018 – Hugs all around as we left Casa Spear for Lincoln Road RV, site #29, in Helena, MT.    Cruised the Mansion district, saw the awesome St. Helena Cathedral, original governor’s mansion, and Benton Ave. historic cemetery.

Walked Centennial Park in Last Chance Gulch and downtown walking mall.

 

Monday, August 13, 2018 – Left Lincoln Rd RV in Helena and arrived at the West Glacier KOA that afternoon.  Rusty, Marcie, & Conner stopped by on their way to Kalispell!   There was a horrible fire burning on the north side of Lake McDonald which closed “Going to the Sun Road” and made the air terribly smokey.  The usual stunning views were not to be had this year. 😦

-Tuesday we took a fun raft float down the middle fork of Flathead River with Rusty, Marcie, & Conner.  Then a late lunch at Eddie’s on Lake McDonald and ice cream!

 

 

-Wednesday we all drove up to the east entrance of Glacier at St. Mary’s, then up to Logan Pass.  Would have been beautiful except for all the smoke.

 

 

-Friday we rented a pontoon boat on Flathead Lake.  Cruised around Cromwell Island and made a couple of stops on Wild Horse Island.   A great day (except for not spying any wild horses and the smoke again).

 

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Saturday, August 18, 2018 – Change of plans.  We were going to head back down to Missoula to enjoy that area and visit with Dan Colombo a bit more, but the smoke was too much for us and we decided to book over to the west coast as quickly as we could.   So we spent this night at a Cabela’s in Post Falls, ID, which was extremely smoky.  We purchased some air filters and taped them up on our air conditioning vents which helped and then also purchased a small air purifier.  Sucks having to stay in the coach all the time though….

 

Sunday, August 19, 2018 – Left Cabela’s and drove through extreme smoke in Spokane Valley and Columbia Gorge.  Bad traffic and smoke through Snoqualmie Pass.  Arrived at the Elks club campground in Puyallup, WA, (pronounced pew-ALL-up).  Still some smoke, but not as bad.

 

Saturday, August 25, 2018 – Finally!  Rain and cleaner air!  Enjoyed the Puyallup Farmers market – so much good stuff!

 

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 – Left Puyallup, and headed up to the Escapees Park in Chimicum, WA near Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula.   We love this park and ended up putting our name on the LONG waiting list for sites to open for lease.

-Met lots of nice people this time:  Annetta and Logan who used to have an RV just like ours, same kind of tow car and their little dog, Sunny, looks exactly like our Poppins (on a little smaller scale)!

Jaime & Scott, a young couple who full time in their Winnebago and run a blog called Away We Winnebago.

And Jill and Andy with a beautiful ’99 Country Coach Prevost.   Greg and Andy are both audiophiles and Jill and I roll our eyes in unison.   🙂

-Jas flew up and joined us for 3 days at the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend.  Lots of interesting classes and beautiful boats in a gorgeous setting.  The last day is usually a huge “sail by” with 300 or so wooden boats on the bay, but this year we had very gusty winds that instigated a small craft warning – so no “sail by” this year. 😦

We also walked Hurricane Ridge and the Dungeness Spit in the cold and rain.  Lots of good hiking around Anderson Lake from the campground.

 

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 – Left Evergreen SKP park and started our journey south.  Arrived at the Elks campground in Tillamook, OR.  Two perfect weather days for hikes at Cape Lookout, and visits to the Blue Heron and Tillamook cheese stores.

 

 

Saturday, September 29, 2018 – Headed down to Pacific Shores RV in Newport, OR.  Another  favorite.

Rented site #12 this time from the owner.  Backed up against 101, but traffic sound isn’t too bad.