Lava in the Crators park, there are a few volcanos here, but a lot of the lava just came up out of fissures in the ground. Shepherd, Cernan and another astronaut trained here in the 60s prior to their moon flight. This stuff is really sharp and can literally tear you shoes to pieces if you walk on it. Talked to a guy from WA near St Helens, he is an avid Packer fan, since he was six, also a Badger fan, loves our band.

Momma bear in only berry patch along the Hells Canyon drive, baby disappeared into the brush as Mom stood up on her hind legs.

Aug. 9th

Just a short note, we are at Arco ID, leaving tomorrow for Victor, ID. Went to Crators of the Moon today, then drove up over the mountains into the Salmon River Valley, down through Ketchum and then back around the horn to home base. Truly beautiful. Not to hot and very dry. Will add some pictures.
Tom and Betty

The view across the Columbia River near Entiat, WS

Dancers come out of the square at the top of the building and music plays every half hour.

Michael eat your heart out

Nampa, ID Aug 7th

Well since we split with Barb and Mike, we traveled down Hwy 97 to the most beautiful city park in Entiat, WA. Stayed 2 nights, went to Leavenworth WA for the day, it is a Bavarian themed town, created about 40 yrs ago when the town was dying. The townfolks decided to create a new image and chose the Bavarian theme. The thing was that all the businesses had to agree to follow the theme and any new ones could only come in as Bavarian. So imagine a McDonald's in Bavarian mode, gas stations, motels, etc. Had a great lunch, listened to a Bavarian music group in the town square and so forth. Will post some pics.
We then followed 97 down to Oregon and along the way saw Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adam and Mt. Hood all in the distance but spectacular. Have been here for yesterday and tonight then on to the area of Craters of the Moon for 2 nights. Today we went to Hells Canyon, it took all day but was worth it. Poor Kita thought she had been abandoned, didn't eat all day.
Most of the week will be in ID, then on to Yellowstone early next week, Sun or Mon. Then unfortunately we will really be heading east.
Tom and Betty

Finally someplace with WIFI!! We are in Helena, Montana which is very hazy right now due to all the wildfires around. There are 14 fires going in Western Montana right now, several of them fairly large.
After we left Quesnel, we continued down Hwy 97 to the border. There is an amazing transformation along that stretch of road. You go from a lush green North Woods to a true desert within about 50 miles. We camped one night on the Thompson River which runs thru this desert like land and creates an oasis, more or less. It was 101 degrees that day! And the hottest day we have had all summer prior to that is only about 75. Quite a change!! This section of the country is in the shadow of the Coastal Mountains who capture all the precipitation. Only about 6" a year on the east side.

Took Washington state hwy 20 across the NE corner of Washington. Beautiful road, quiet & scenic! Camped one night at a Washington Rec area campground called Skookum Creek, only about 12 campsites, but the amazing thins is that they are free. Washington does not charge anything to camp in their rec areas. Have to remember that!

Mike & I split from Betty and Tom after we entered Washington. Michael is starting to get anxious to get back to the cabin. I'm doing my best to slow him down, taking him along winding, scenic roads but I think I'm about out of those as we are just about out of the mountains. So I anticipate being back in Gordon by the end of this week. Briana reports the lake level at the cabin has dropped even further down so that the end of our pier is now at the edge of the water. We now have more beach than we have ever had!
Barb

View from Dragon Mt looking down on Dragon Lake and Quesnel. The main industry here is lumber, with about 10 processing plants. There is a pine beatle infestation going on that is killing millions and millions of acres of Lodgepole Pine trees. The government is encouraging the lumber companies to harvest the wood before it is unusable so they are very busy.

Barkersville Main Street. All the wooden sidewalks are elevated to avoid the mud when it rains.

We've spent a fair amount of time is this area of BC. Several days at Wells where we went to Barkersville. It was a very interesting historic site, well off the beaten path. A replica of a 1860 gold mining town with the entire staff dressed in period clothing. There are even children playing in the streets. It has all the stores and saloons, a stage coach, and gold mines. Since there were many Chinese who were here too, it even has a Chinatown. Then we drove about 75 miles to Quesnel and have spent 3 days here. But there are chores to do even when you're traveling. Oil changes, grocery shopping etc. and this is a very pleasant spot to do it. Quesnel is a very pretty city of about 11,000 people, many, many flowers all over the place. Gardens, hanging baskets, you name it. And Mike was able to get his bee venom shots here so he was quite relieved.

We went geocaching this morning, found two but failed on one more. One of our hunts took us to the top of Dragon Mt where there is a spectacular view of the countryside. The trip up there was hairpin gravel so I got Betty's gravel/dirt road for today. But it's a beautiful day so it was no problem.

Probably a couple more days in BC, then back to the US. At least there I will get my phone service back.
Barb

Use your imagination, in the center of the picture is a black spot, it is a black bear doing whatever it is that bears do. If you blow the picture up you can see his ears and head. So I do occasionally see a bear. Betty

Main street, Anglican church

2 of the actors at Barkerville

Bear Glacier on the way into Stewart, what a drive

Provincial campground outside Stewart

Dirty rig after the Cassiar

Quesnel, BC

We have a really good wifi hook up for a change. Spent the last 2 nights at Wells out on the end of Hwy 26. The real end is in Barkerville, a restored 1860s gold rush town, with actors taking the part of actual people from back then. Didn't down load pics of there yet but will dig up a few new ones. Didn't intentionally try to get the actors to break character, but they just don't break. Any question you ask them is answered in terms of 1860s. It was a beautiful day. In the afternoon we drove to a ghost town, only an old store remains standing and it has recently be privately purchase and moved onto a sound foundation, the walls and windows are finished and the owner is working on the inside. Had to remove 100 years of rat droppings, yuck! Nice guy to talk to, but then everyone in BC is just incredibly nice and eager to talk and to answer questions.
We are at an absolutely beautiful campground for the next several days, even have cell service.
We continue to have good luck with the weather, any rain is after we get set up. There was a dog agility contest going on when we arrived, truly incredible dogs.
Did 5 loads of laundry here, groceries tomorrow and cleaning the rig. Chores are always there even when traveling.
Talked to Eric Fri. and the word is that Marshall passed his drivers test. Way to go Marshall, you'll have to take Grandma and Grandpa out for a spin next spring. Also it is once again raining in Texas, wish they would share a little with the home stomping ground, very dry there, but it will save us money on paying for mowing.
That's it for now, will head further south in a few days.
Tom and Betty

10 weeks on the road as of last Monday. Hard to believe. And Chris & Jim left us that day to head home so now it's down to Betty & Tom and Mike & I. We've been heading down the Cassiar Highway (#37) in BC. It's very interesting that up here all the highways have names. I guess it's because there are so few of them! Northern BC has been having a lot of rain in the past few weeks and some of the highway actually washed away and closed the road right before we got to it. Luckily they were able to get it fixed enough to allow vehicles thru by the time we got there. A lot of gravel and pot holes! Several washouts where it was down to one lane but everyone got thru just fine.

We are camped at a Provincial Park on Meziadin Lake outside to Stewart, BC. which is on the border with Hyder, AK. This is actually a small port on the Pacific ocean, connected by the Portland Fjord. That was a surprise to me. It looks too far inland to be a port. Hyder is virtually a ghost town, many boarded up buildings. It's only claim to fame is the bear watching during the salmon runs. But of course there were no bear when we went. The salmon are not quite there yet, just a few, thus not many bears. We are a week too early. That's been the story of this trip. A week too early.

Heading toward Prince George today. We need to find a place with electricity to recharge batteries.
Barb

A Hazy day in Haines

This picture was taken from our boat coming back from Juneau. It was drizzling but the sun was trying to be seen. Taken at 8pm.

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