Great San Francisco Trip 2013. Day 38 Granite Bay, CA

Day 38 Tuesday August 27. The halfway point on our trip.
We started the day with a car wash that was actually done by hand for $8 dollars.  We scarcely recognized our car.  A quick trip into Sacramento brought us to the site of John Sutter's Fort, which is located right across the street from the Pioneer Congregational Church, UCC.  We had a quick tour there, and then headed to the Railroad Museum.  We ate a picnic off the trunk of our car in the parking garage, and then had a great time in the museum.  It is extremely well done.  Then we walked around Old Sacramento, which is  the original tourist trap, but high prices for simple items aside, it looks great.  We then walked around the State Capitol, a longer walk than we had been doing recently.  We rewarded ourselves with fat free frozen yogurt, which you serve yourself.  This is a reward that Bill is very partial to.  Traffic was heavy on our way back to the campground, a reminder that beautiful as California is, it is jammed with people.  Our scouts had a campfire which kept Judy in the car much of the evening, but they went to bed in a timely fashion, as did we.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013. Day 37. Granite Bay, CA

Day 37 Monday August 26
 Judy  reveled in the dry, clear air and slept very well.  We made a dubious choice and headed back east to the Marshall Discovery State Historic  Site.  It is very well done, but the smoke was too present for Judy and we headed for Auburn to eat lunch and then drove to Grass Valley, which we decided is a misnomer.  It has a lot of trees, but no grass.  We enjoyed the Empire Gold Mine State Historic Site.  The thought of working two miles underground was not appealing.  The Bourne family owned the mines, and their gardens are still beautifully kept.  We went to the cemetery to try to find one of Judy's Pegar relatives, but it is a large one with no office, and many of the graves are cement slabs with the name on a plaque at the end.  We were not up to such an undertaking.  Unfortunately the Auburn Library did not have a strong enough Wifi to let us do our work.  So back to Granite Bay to discover that we had a scout troop for neighbors.  They went to bed at a reasonable hour, and we slept well.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Day 36. Granite Bay, CA

Day 36. Sunday August 25 Our 51st Wedding Anniversary
We had intended to attend church and then make a leisurely drive into Reno, but the smoke is worse there.  So we opted to start early and drive as far into California as would get us past the smoke.  The first half of the drive featured more very desolate landscape; land that does not even grow good sagebrush.  For Bill, who is a lifelong train buff, the trip was one of ecstasy because we met or passed six long trains in an hour.  This is the main route of the Union Pacific, the original transcontinental railroad.  We stopped in Reno long enough to have a fabulous shrimp diablo and a grilled taco at Bertha Miranda's and to zip through the Car Museum.  Then it was over Donner Pass and on to the campground at Beal's Point in the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area in Granite Bay.  We had finally run through the smoke.  At times it was very thick, but the car air conditioning preserved us.
The campground is very pleasant; it is near a popular beach.  We walked along the beach and noted several signs that there are rattlesnakes in the rocks above the beach.  You know we stayed on the paths!  We are just a mile away from Folsom Prison of Johnny Cash fame.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Day 35 Winnemucca, NV

Day 35 Saturday August 24
Another driving day.  Our first hour's drive was through wonderful farming country where we say lots of onion fields in addition to potatoes and orchards and a series of hops fields.  We also passed through Harmon Killebrew's home town.  We then passed through some of the most desolate scenery of our entire trip in southeastern Oregon.  In 130 miles we passed through one village of 200 souls and one ten. We did find a pleasant spot for a picnic along the Owyhee River.  Our goal was to spend the night in a campground in Winnemuca, but there was too much smoke from the Rim fire.  We found a simple motel, and had a good sleep, but we had to run the air conditioning all night, and that always challenges Judy's asthma.  Again the Wifi was not up to our blogging.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Day 34 Weiser, ID

Day 34 Friday August 23
Thursday ended with a surprise: we returned to our campground to discover that a thunderstorm with little rain, but strong  winds had blown our tent over the picnic table at our site.  In a light rain, we put everything back together on a more secure location.  Despite a little more rain we had a good night's sleep and managed to pack everything except the plastic we put under the tent in dry condition.  This was a driving day as we made our way through mountains and dry farm land to Weiser, Idaho.  We had a picnic near a replica of a mammoth found at Grangerville.  For supper Judy made wonderful pulled chicken tacos; unfortunately they were too spicy for her to eat.  One bite practically did her in.
Our campground was a humble one, but it had the best laundry we have yet encountered: clean and very reasonably priced.  The Wifi. was not up to our blogging.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Lewiston, ID Day 33

We survived the showers and headed for Moscow.  The home of the University of Idaho is also the County Seat for Latah County where three Olson brothers settled in the 1890's.  They were first cousins of Judy's Grandmother Alma  Olson Henrickson..   When Judy's Aunt Emma died, she had had an album of  pictures from Moscow without names.  The Emigration folk in Sweden helped Judy identify who the relatives were, but not who is pictured in these fine portraits.  We have spent the day in the Moscow library, the Latah County Historical Society, the Troy, ID library, and cemeteries in rural Deary and Moscow.  We have had a lot of gracious helpers.  Daniel at the LCHS was particular gracious and recommended that we have lunch at the Filling Station in Troy, which made a cheese less pizza for Bill - much to his pleasure.  There we ran into Dorothy Anderson who is the local historian.  Daniel had suggested we look her up.  Serendipity of the first order. We had coffee with her and enjoyed meeting her, but at 83 she is too young to have known the people in Alma's album.  Again taking advantage of the good help available at the Moscow library, we are posting this before we head back through the Palouse to spend another night in Hell.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Lewiston, ID Day 32

Day 32 Wednesday August 21
This was a serious driving day as we followed SR 55 and Us 95 from Meridian to Lewiston, Idaho.  The scenery ranged from pleasing to spectacular as we followed the North Fork of the Payette River up to McCall and Lake Payette where we had an idyllic lunch interrupted by hungry bees.  Then we came down from McCall following the Little Salmon River, which we decided has about the right difficulty for people like us to raft on.  There were a lot of rafters having a good time. We did stop at a Hell's Canyon Visitor Center and the White Bird Battlefield site of the Nez Perce NHS.  Another tragic tale. We ended up in Hell.  No kidding, we spent the night at Hell's Gate State Park, right on the Snake River.  The campsite is gorgeous, but the showers are a challenge. We also just avoided a skunk on our evening walk.  But it was peaceful and cool after another day in the 90's.

Great San Francisco Trip. Boise, Idaho Day 31

Day 31 Tuesday August 20
We had a very fine day in Boise.  It included a lot of walking.  First we visited a nature center and then took a walk on a bike trail along the Boise River.  Next came a visit to the Boise Zoo, which is excellent - not least because it has so much shade.  We were smitten by two three month old snow leopard cubs.  After lunch in the park where the zoo is located we drove by the Capitol and back to another part of the park to visit the Museum of Idaho History.  It is well done, but is long on reading: one display for each county becomes mind-numbing.  A quick trip through the rose garden (it was in the nineties) brought us to the library where a  group of younger men helped Bill unlock the IPad, which was in a snit because it had not been unlocked.  We had dinner at Whole Foods, and returned to our campsite to discover that we had a family of  seven for neighbors.  They were a quieter than we are, and a good night's sleep was had by all.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Boise, ID Day 30

Day 30  Monday August 30
We headed further west on our way to Troy, ID, but decided to spend a day in Boise before heading north.  We got a good start, and had one last walk along the Snake River before leaving.  We stopped in Hagerman National Monument to see if things have changed since we were here in 2008.  The answer was not by much. When we first reached Boise, we went for a walk in Albertson Park.  Boise has a plethora of beautiful parks.  Before heading to the campground we had some wonderful frozen yogurt at the Blue Cow. The KOA west of Boise is a huge one with over 220 sites; almost all of them are filled with RVs.  They put us in a site beside their work sheds that felt very exposed and very inadequate, a ghetto for tents.  Then they moved us to a small RV site, much better.  We could not make their WiFi connection work, and the owner came to help us.  Unfortunately it still did not work, but fortunately the Boise Public Library is a great help.  Temperatures in the upper 90's made putting the tent up very sweaty work.  But we had a good night's sleep.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013 Twin Falls, ID Day 29

Day 29 Sunday August 18
We had a quiet day starting with worship at the First Presbyterian Church in Twin Falls.  We worshipped with them five years ago; they are still an extraordinarily friendly congregation.  People make a point of finding newcomers and saying, "I don't remember if we have ever met."  The special music was a trombone quartet, which is a first time we have had that opportunity. We spent the afternoon at the Shoshone Falls; they are impressive.  Bill asked for a meal at Taco Bell to use their new low fat option.  Many fast food chains are trying to offer such options; we persons with heart issues applaud their efforts.  We needed to move our tent over one site this morrning, which was easy - we did not need to dismantle it -but the process revealed that we had a tiny snake under the tent. It was barely a foot long and half an inch in diameter, but it did not run away, and a campground employee killed it.  We had hoped just to chase it away.  No bigger snake returned to extract revenge.

Great San Francisco Trip. 2013. Day 28, Twin Falls, ID

Day 28 Saturday August 17
We took advantage of being in the largest community we have visited since Kansas City: getting a haircut, having the oil changed, shopping for a couple of shirts, etc., etc.  We began the day with a walk along the rim of the Snake River Canyon, which is very beautiful, and enjoyed watching people jump from the Perrine Bridge with parachutes.  Judy might have done this when younger, but Bill wouldn't dream of doing so except in nightmares.  In the afternoon we drove to the Minidoka National Historic Site, which has been partially restored to show what a Japanese Relocation Center looked like during World War II.  This is a sad part of American History, and it is good that we remember it.  We are about 75 miles south of Sun Valley which has a huge forest fire burning west of it.  Our neighbor in the campground had to leave her home which is in the path of the fire.  It is clearly a  frightening  and stressful experience.We think we see the smoke in our northern sky.  We had hoped to visit that area, but will go north by a westerly route on Monday.  Temperatures were in the mid 90's today, but it cooled off very nicely before bedtime.

great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 27-Twin Falls, ID

Day 27 Friday August 16
We journeyed from West Wendover, NV to Wells where we visited an Emigrant Museum and headed north to Jackpot where we had lunch at the one table in the town park.  Located on the Idaho border this little town has five casinos.  Northeastern Nevada is very arid and has little vegetation or habitation.  We were in Twin Falls, Idaho early enough to use their fine public library, to shop at Fred Meyer (Walmart on steroids), to learn that Best Buy does not sell laptop batteries, to have a non-fat frozen yogurt treat at Orange Leaf, and to walk the rim of the Snake River - a favorite spot for Judy from our 2008 trip.  It was a very hot day, but cooled off surprisingly in the night.  Our campground was practically full; we had two handsome dogs for neighbors. We are intrigued by how many people travel with pets.  A single older woman was parked across from us in her RV with her St. Bernard!

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 26-Wendover, NV

Day 26 Thursday August 15
We spent much of the day roaming the middle of nowhere, I.e., northeastern Nevada.  We started with a visit to a Fremont Culture archeological site near Baker, NV. We ended up in West Wendover, NV the very week of Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats, just ten miles east of town.  Not caring to see vehicles go 450 miles an hour, we tried to take a back country loop to get a good view of the Salt Flats.  We spent an hour on gravel and dirt roads and never found a viewpoint where our phones could take a picture that does the scene justice.  West Wendover is a small town, but it has five casinos.  Just walking through one to get to a restaurant practically does Judy in because of the cigarette smoke. All around town are piles of salt which have fallen off of vehicles which have been on the Flats.  This is clearly a big deal for those involved.  We had a nice tent site and very pleasant sleeping weather.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 25-Great Basin

Day 25 Wednesday August 14, Sam Burrow's birthday
After several stops for sightseeing, food and gas in Fillmore, we headed across the Great Basin.  Bill tried to check in with our Condo Board's meeting, but the service was inadequate.  We were entering a stretch with no travel services for 83 miles.  Judy drove much of it, and we reached the Great Basin National Park in time for lunch.  This is Bill's 351st NPS site.  We drove up Wheeler Peak, and took a short walk.  Then Bill toured the Lehman Cave.  This park started as a National Monument for the Caves declared by Warren Harding in 1922.  Judy dislikes being in caves and chose to watch the movie and sit on the porch looking over the vast Basin before her.  The cave had all the usual cave items including shields, a variation on stalactites and stalagmites, which few caves have.  We spent the night at the Bo

rder Inn, where our room was in Utah and the adjoining restaurant and casino was in Nevada.  It was a very modest, but most adequate accommodation.  After six straight nights in the tent, Judy deserved a bed.  The motel was actually a string of double wide mobile homes connected together.  This is a desolate part of the world, but it has its own beauty.  We were aware that there is a haze in the beautiful blue sky, and Judy's asthma duly recorded it.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 24-Fillmore, UT

Day 24 Tuesday August 13
Another wonderful day.  After breaking camp, which we do in a most leisurely fashion, we headed back to the Arches and walked two simple trails to see several fine arches.  We have been in the park three different times, but do not recall doing the Windows section, which is easy to access and has really fine arches. We had lunch at a beautiful park in Green River, Utah after purchasing a locally grown melon.  Unfortunately, Judy took one bite and had an attack of coughing.  So, in the next three meals, Bill had five pounds of delicious cantaloupe. It had a slightly acidic flavor which is probably what triggered Judy's reaction.  We spent the rest of the day on I-70 and US 50 and I-15 driving through starkly beautiful landscape to the Fillmore, Utah KOA, which turned out to be an excellent site with grass for the tent, a shelter for the picnic table, a light in the shelter and a good water and electric supply.  The only downside was the wifi, which was very slow.  Fillmore was the first territorial capital of Utah; the original Capitol is still preserved.  A hot but dry day.

Great San Francisco Trip. 2013-Day 23-Arches NP

day 23 Monday August 12
We spent the whole day in Moab and the Arches National Park.  We did a couple of short hikes at Arches.  Judy's asthma kicks up too much if she has to do much up and down hiking.
The whole area remains one of her most favorite places for the imposing beauty of its landscape.
much of the trip we have found that campground wifi is inadequate; we think that is because every one in the campground is trying to get on at the same time.  To our rescue came the Moab Public Library, winner of the Library Journal 2007 award as Best Small Town Library in America.  We spent over two hours cleaning up emails and catching up on blogs.  The weather has been beautiful with lots of sun and evening showers that amount to sprinkles. It has been perfect for sleeping, and the night sky is marvelous to contemplate.

Great San Francisco Trip. 2013-Day 22-Canyonlands NP

Day 22 Sunday August 11
A gorgeous morning.  We had breakfast looking up at the most imposing cliffs.  Worship at St. Francis Episcopal Church was a most uplifting experience.  We spent the afternoon at the Canyonlands National Park in its Islands in the Sky district.  Some of the views here rival the Grand Canyon itself.  We took some hikes which again stretched our lung capacity.  Judy bravely walked out on an arch only to have Bill take a picture of his thumb twice in capturing her feat!  We found reading the Salt Lake Deseret an interesting experience: it reflects its Mormon bias very strongly.
We had all sorts of  Internet challenges.  Another great night for sleeping.  The dry air is so good for Judy.

Great San Francisco Trip. 2013-Day 21-Telluride

Day 21. Saturday August 10
We poked around Montrose in the morning.  They have a good deal of interesting art on the Main Street.  We also got a card off to grandson Sam whose Birthday is this Wednesday.  We were glad to hear from his folks who are back from their 25th wedding anniversary trip to Machu Pichu.  This is also the day the class of 1983 at Tripoli High is celebrating its 30th Reunion.  After a great pulled pork sandwich and cup of gazpacho, we headed to Telluride only to encounter some heavy rain which threatened to wash out the road into Telluride.  They actually sent out a truck with a snowplow to move the mud off the road.  We found the campground there to be very muddy and full.  A forecast of a low of  40 degrees persuaded us to look at the spectacular falls east of town and head through the rain for Moab, Utah.  We were intrigued to learn that we were driving through Paradox Valley.
After a picnic supper at a very pleasant state Rest Area (near the Hole in the Wall tourist trap), we found the Moab KOA to be just what we were looking for.  This is high season in Moab, and the place was packed with French, Germans, and Japanese.  There was no rain, and we had a great night's sleep.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 20-Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP

Day 20. Friday August 9
Late in the afternoon some threatening but not productive showers appeared, but the day began with beautiful sunny skies as we explored the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  It is a special place.  We admired several of the lookouts, had a picnic at the High End of the Canyon, and then hiked the Mark Warner trail.  He was a Presbyterian minister from Montrose who lobbied long and hard to preserve the Canyon, and persuaded President Hoover to name it a National Monument.  Climbing at 8,000 feet was hard on both of us.  Judy did about nine/tenths of the trail, and Bill brought back pictures of the last leg.  We fell into bed early with very tired legs.

Great San Francisco Trip. 2013-Day 19-Curecanti NRA

Day 19 Thursday August 8
A lovely day with clouds in the mountains.  We went back to the Great Sand Dunes, but did not find a trail that worked for us other than a nice nature trail. There were lots of families enjoying sledding on the dunes.  We headed on through lots of potato fields and,we think, flax fields.  Judy wearied of the long trip down the pass to get there, but we had a nice picnic in a lovely Gunnison park, which revived her spirits.  Of course, the rain began to chase us as we explored the Curecanti National Recreation Area.
Had a good hike just below the Morrow Point Dam where we observed a silt laden stream emptying into the lovely green waters of the Gunnison.  On to a good campground in Montrose  where we found the City Market grocery store to have a salad bar. These  have disappeared in New Englad, but they really work for tenters  like us.  Sprinkles, but no rain of consequence.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 18-Great Sand Dunes NP

Day 18  Wednesday August 7
We are definitely in the high desert.  It rained in the night, and the tent was bone dry in the morning.  A pleasure to pack!  We went to Alamosa via Walsenberg where we lunched in a city park and watched people ignore the threatening storm clouds.  We decided to stay in a cabin due to the rain chances, and made a rained out visit to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Charged all of our electrical equipment and got the car tidied up.  Everything has its place, but getting Bill to keep it there is a challenge.  Quite cool for August in the desert.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 17-Sand Creek Massacre

Day 17  Tuesday August 6
Temperatures in the high 90s as we headed to Colorado.  Mountain Time begins in the last county in Kansas, which is Greeley County, and it has towns named Tribune and Horace!  We found the Sand Creek Massacre site to be a modest one, with a horrific tale to tell of military misconduct: of women and children shot down and then butchered.  Many Colorado soldiers refused to participate because the tribes were flying the U.S. flag and believed themselves to be at peace with the U'S. Army.  But they were not at the fort where they were supposed to be (because they were starving there), and a Col. Chivington wanted to teach them a lesson.  It is a stomach-churning story, but it is important to remember.  Pleasant stop at the Welcome Center in Lamar where they have a Madonna of the Trail (Santa Fe) statue. We also stopped at Bent's Old Fort where much better dealings with the native tribes are recalled.  On to the KOA in La Junta and a wonderful dinner at Felisa's Restaurant.  More thunderstorms, but no trouble.  Lots of beautiful wild sunflowers.  We figured out the the terrible corn crops we had been seeing were actually sorghum fields.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 16-Cottonwood Ranch

Day 16  Monday August 5

A quiet day.  We visited the Cottonwood Ranch State Historical site, where immigrants from Yorkshire had built a farmstead that looks very much as though it came straight from Yorkshire.  We did not realize that Kansas has Monument Rocks, but they do, and they are quite impressive.  We spent the night in an Elm Grove at Lake Scott State Park.  We were the only persons in that part of the park.  We drove into Scott City for groceries and watched a very threatening line of clouds approach us, but we were the only people in town who were worried by them!  We have seen the damage done by flood waters, but have missed the downpours on our whole trip across Kansas.  After looking at the pueblo ruins in the park, we had a great night's sleep without any rain troubles.  Judy uses her Weather Channel app on her IPhone constantly, and it is most helpful.

Great San Francisco Trip. 2013-Day 15-Nicodemus

Day 15 Sunday August 4
We backtracked to Ft. Larned.  It is extremely well restored and presented; very few written descriptions, but every building is just as it would have been in the Post Civil War era.  Back to Hays for a fine salad bar at Dillon's grocery store.  On to Stockton and Lake Webster State Park.  We were able to pitch our tent on a cement slab with a roof over it that looked like a mushroom.  This protected us from the light rain which fell in the night, but not from the dew/mist which came in the morning.  We journeyed over to the Nicodemus National Historical Site, which is a few miles west.  It is a very humble site which acknowledges that this town was settled by freed slaves who wanted to escape the racism of the post- reconstruction era.  It flourished until the railroad went south of the town, and many people moved to the neighboring towns.  There are still 250 descendants of the original settlers in the area, a handful in Nicodemus.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 14-Eisenhower

Day 14  Saturday August 3rd
We went back to Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library.  The Presidential Libraries have devised their own passport, but I am not pursuing it even though Judy and I have been to all but two of them.  It is very well done and took us two hours to tour.  We have been to places connected to Churchill, Truman and Eisenhower this week.  Their stories relate to much of the history of the first six decades of the 20th Century.  They do remind us that things have felt like they were falling apart many times in the past.  This afternoon we had a great time at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas.  They have fine exhibits - especially the ones on fossils and prehistoric animals.  Kansas was once covered with a vast sea, and the fossil record of that time is available in several chalk quarries.  Not liking the weather forecast we are in a motel in Wakeeney, KS.  This is a bit like parts of Maine - not the end of the world, but you can see it from here.  Their lawns make Hampton East lawns look lush and proper.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Daqy 13-Tall Grass Prairie Preserve

Day 13  Friday August 2
It rained much of the night, but we were very snug in our bed.  We headed west into Kansas to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, a combined effort of the NPS and The Nature Conservancy.  This makes NPS site 347 out of 401 for me.  We walked only briefly because it was in the 90's and Judy is still feeling the effects of her cold.  Fortunately she is much, much better.  We then headed to Abilene where we stopped briefly at the Eisenhower Center.  This area is still reeling from a 5" downpour that flooded fields and roads earlier this week.  The crops look to be way behind those in the states east of Kansas.  We spent the night in a cabin at the Salina KOA.  I think the massive grain elevators here were used in the film "Picnic".  We were worried about rain, which did not materialize - it went south of us.

Great San Francisco Trip 2013-Day 12-Truman

Day 12  Thursday August 1

A museum-packed day.  We started with the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence.  It gives a good general introduction to the five trails west which began in the Independence area.  And, it has five stamps for NPS stamp collectors like myself.  Then we visited the Truman Presidential Library.  We were here 42 years ago with our girls.  It was hard on the back, but very well done.  After lunch on the grounds, we drove to the Truman farm south of town and then came back into Kansas City to visit the WWI museum, which is extraordinarily well done.  It covers many different aspects of this war which still complicates our lives today.  Night at the Oak Grove KOA.