Calypso......

7:54 am - Real Saturday - August 1st - Coeur d'Alene, ID - 70° F, 57% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the south by southeast.......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 87° F.....much better than 100° F!  On this day in 2017 we were hiking Busen Peak in Yellowstone National Park.......↴

Man, it is time we headed for the coast, and cooler climes.  This time last year we were living in the sweltering summer climate of Ramona, CA. I was going to work at 7 am to beat the heat, and we were living half our day in air conditioning.....dreaming of cooler weather.  This summer we're not working, and still find ourselves in the occasional heatwave, but not a summer long sentence of daily oppressive heat, and we are mobile, so in a few days we will do just that....head for the coast where daily highs are in the 60's and 70's.

After finishing my daily blog post we jumped in our still freshly washed VW and headed to Calypsos Coffee Roasters over on Lakeside Avenue, down by the Lake Resort for coffee and breakfast.  When we were last in Coeur d'Alene we stayed for a month, and visited Calypsos a number of times.  We love the cool, funky vibe then, and were hoping it had survived the 7 intervening years......

......this place is full of old couches, and breakfast sets....it kind of feels like the interior of a high end furniture thrift shop, and we love it.  Good news, the cool, funky vibe lives on.....being that it was after 9:30 am on a Friday morning the place was mostly empty, and we pretty much had it to ourselves.  There is an alfresco seating area (see background of the picture below) where you can sit outside and have a view of Lake Coeur d'Alene.....

....which is just a block distant.  Yelp gives Calypsos 4 stars on 107 reviews (ours being the most recent)....we are at a solid 5.

Over the past few weeks we have ordered a few things on eBay and Amazon to have delivered to my sister's home in Spokane, plus my son, Chris, had forwarded an envelope of mail, so we headed to Hilary's home after breakfast to pick up those packages, and mail.  One of the packages was a NEW Dickinson's Marine Sea-B-Que.....the one we have been using for the 12 years we have owned the Newell is 38 years old, and has worn out.  We have loved it so much that we had to replace it with a brand new Sea-B-Que......

......it is pretty much the same BBQ, but with some improvements in the design.  At $319 this is the most expensive BBQ I have bought, but why make a change when you know you're holding a winning hand, right?  With the acquisition of the new Sea-B-Que we now have replaced every major appliance (except the A/C units) in the Newell....to recap:

1) New Dometic toilet - December 2019
2) Newer Dometic refrigerator - February 2012
3) New Norcold refer - June of 2020
4) New Winegard automatic satellite dish - October 2019
5) New Sea-B-Que - July 2020
6) New built in electric heaters (3) - March of 2013, and September 2014
7) New Girard Tankless water heater - March 2020
8) Newer Honda 2000 portable generator - January 2019
9) New LED light fixtures over sink, and vanity - September 2019

The afternoon temps got over 100°, and stayed there until after 7 pm.  Needless to say we spent most of the afternoon inside the cool confines of the Newell, but around 8 pm I went out to unbox, and setup the aforementioned new Sea-B-Que.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Pacific time.......

8:30 am - Friday - July 31st - Coeur d'Alene, ID - 72° F, 48% humidity, wind - CALM......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 100° F.....our first triple digit day this summer.  On this day in 2018 we were dining at Beale's Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor, ME..........↴

 Lobster Rolls and Allagash White.....

......the best Belgian White ever made!

I was up shortly after 6 am Mountain DST (really 5 am Pacific DST) in anticipation of an 8 am departure....very early for us, but needful since the high temperature for the day at our destination, Coeur d'Alene, was going to be 97° F...we wanted to arrive while it was still in the high 80's.  True to plan we exited the KOA around 7:55 am, and were soon floating westbound on I-90.  At about the 6 mile mark we got off the Interstate to pay the rent at the local Love's truck stop where we took on 110 gallons of diesel at $1.87/gallon....this will be the least expensive diesel we see until we pass through Washington State, and into Oregon.

We were warned by our friends Richard and Rhonda that there were numerous construction zones standing between us and our destination, and two of them were quite lengthy.....

The cone zone

.....we made good time in the light traffic, and soon we were at the halfway mark....Haugan, MT checking out the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar......

....we stopped here back in November of 2008 on our first long Newell trip to my sister's home in Spokane, WA for Thanksgiving.  I actually bought a silver dollar back then.

Just past Haugan, MT is Lookout Pass, and then the Idaho border......

....where we re-entered the Pacific Time Zone for the first time since March 3rd of this year.  After Lookout Pass we had just one more pass to slip over.....4th of July Pass standing at just 3,069' above sea level......

 4th of July Pass - all that stands between us and Coeur d'Alene, ID

......the first view of Lake Coeur d'Alene (just past Wallace, ID)....not far now......

.....the last time we were in Coeur d'Alene in the Newell was September of 2013.  Then we stayed for a month on the banks of the Spokane River at River Walk RV Park....we got winter rates then ($440 for a month), but now their winter rates do not begin until October, and their weekly rates right now are $325, so we opted to stay at the Coeur d'Alene Elks Lodge #1724 for $20/night.  They have a 30 site RV park in the back of their property providing 50 amp electric, and water.

We arrived around 11:30 am Pacific DST, and were set up in site #11 shortly thereafter after paying for one week.....

.....this is a tight 'cheek by jowl' park, but very quiet.....we are about 4 miles off the Interstate here.  Once we had backed our 62' into site #11 I quickly connected the shore power, while TLE turned on both A/C's to cool the hot interior.  The high temp hit around 5 pm, and then it finally began to cool, but oh so slowly.

We spent the rest of the day staying cool inside the Newell....I took a long nap to make up for my early start to the day, read some, and napped again.  We had a subtle sunset around 8:25 pm....about an hour earlier than the past couple of months whilst we resided in the Mountain Time Zone.....

.....thanks for stopping by!

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Hurry up and wait.....

6:50 am - Thursday - July 30th - Missoula, MT - 57° F, 86% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high in Missoula of 95° F.....it' going to be a warm one!  On this day in 2012 we were in Long Beach, WA on the Olympic Peninsula.......↴

With only 86 miles to drive Wednesday, and a tentative check in time of 3 pm at the KOA in Missoula we had a leisurely morning.  We didn't take anything out of the trailer, except the car and the anti gravity chairs so all I had to do after putting away the anti gravity chairs Tuesday evening was put away the sewer hose, water hose, the VW, and finally our electrical umbilical cord.  Even leaving at 11 am (we actually left at 10:30 am....you know me.....when I'm ready to go, I'm ready) we would still arrive in Missoula well before the posted 3 pm check in time on the KOA website, but we thought we would just call when we were about 40 miles out and see if we could check in early....that usually elicits a positive response.  Take it from me, it is never well received by office staff when you arrive early....unannounced.

The drive west back to Missoula was mostly downhill as that is the direction the Clark Fork River flows, and rivers tend to follow the pass of least resistance which happens to be downhill.  By 11:15 we were just 41 miles outside Missoula as we pulled into a Rest Stop.  I called the KOA, and was advised we could check in as early as 1 pm...perfect.  We were around 45 minutes out, so that meant we had to kill about an hour.  We hung out at the Rest Stop for about 15 minutes, and then continued on to Missoula.

When we exited I-90 it was just 12:30 pm so we found a large parking lot in which to park, and kill the last 30 minutes.  By this time it was edging quickly toward the high of the day, and it was getting warm in the Newell....this is one of the reasons why we prefer to begin our travel days earlier in the day during the summer so we can beat the heat to the next RV park, plug in and get the A/C going before it gets hot.  On this day we had no choice but to begin our day much later than we prefer.  At any rate, we arrived at the park at 12:55 pm, and were in our pre-paid site by 1:05 pm, and cooling down the Newell interior with both A/C's running.  Within 10 minutes the interior was pleasantly cool, and we were relaxing.

So why only travel 86 miles Wednesday to Missoula, when we could have left early from Deer Lodge and been in Couer d'Alene, ID?  Well, our good friends, Richard and Rhonda, who also own a Newell, were traveling east bound on I-90 into Missoula, and we made arrangements to meet them at the KOA....it's been 18 months since we last saw them at their home in Inverness, FL and we needed to catch up......

Richard and Rhonda in front of their 1999 Newell....9:30 pm and it is still quite light outside!

.....we've known them since 2008, the year we bought our 1982 Newell, and have become good friends, and this is what good nomadic friends do........they adjust their travel schedules to hookup with friends!  They arrived at the KOA a little after 4 pm, and by 5 pm we had walked over to their coach for cocktails, dinner, and lots of conversation....about 4+ hours of fast paced conversation.....even though it has been 18 months since we last saw them, it felt like just yesterday.

And that my friends was our Wednesday......we roll our wheels in about 45 minutes to Coeur d'Alene where the forecast high today is 100° F.....got to get there before it gets too hot!

Thanks for stopping by!

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A little inconvenience.....

7:06 am - Wednesday - July 29th - Deer Lodge, MT - 52° F, 75% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south....partly cloudy today with a forecast high in Deer Lodge of 83°......on this day in 2012 we were in South Bend, WA on the Olympic Peninsula having breakfast at Hamps 101 Restaurant after an early morning bicycle ride.........↴

TLE said she thought the table was looking at her

We had plans Tuesday (the reason we stayed over until Wednesday) to visit Fairmont Hot Springs down in Anaconda, MT for a good soak in their hot pools.  In preparation for this foray I vacuumed out the VW for the first time in weeks, then took it next door to the Conoco fuel station where they have an automatic car wash.....something else I have not done for months.  By the time I finished with all that and returned to the mother ship it was after 10:30 am.  As I walked in the door TLE announced she had called Fairmont and was told that due to the Wuhan Flu (Covid-19 strikes again) only annual members can use the facility, and the price for membership per year is $450/person......we both agreed $900 for a soak would be a little on the high side, so it was on to plan 'B'.

The high temp for Tuesday was supposed to be in the area of 86° F, but it was already getting humid which we all know makes it feel warmer than it really is, plus the heavy cloud cover looked threatening, so we opted to remain home reading in the air conditioned comfort of the Newell.  I was in the middle of another book by Elmer Kelton titled 'The Day the Cowboys Quit', and was eager to see how it ended so it was an easy decision.  Around 3:30 pm I went outside to find it had cooled significantly, so we turned off the A/C, and I moved to the 'Lido Deck' to finish my book.

As long as the sun was hidden behind clouds it remained very comfortable outside, but as soon as the clouds parted, and the sun returned it became too warm and humid again, so we closed all the windows, and turned on the A/C once again.  Around 6 pm we walked over to the local Subway at the  Sinclair fuel station to buy a foot long sandwich for dinner (we had a discount coupon from the RV park office), and then ate it onsite.

Upon our return 'home' we queued up a couple of Hallmark movies and passed the balance of the evening laughing and crying....sometimes at the same time.....lol.  We were in bed a little after 10:30 pm.....time to roll our wheels again, and we do just that in 3 hours!

I managed to catch a large flock of birds in the above photo

Interestingly, since we departed Wittmann back in early May we have been inconvenienced very little.....I can count the times on one hand.  We have pretty much been able to go where we want, and do what we want when we want.  I think a large part of that freedom we have experienced is due to our travel plan, which we have followed pretty faithfully.  Our plan has been to travel secondary roads as much as possible, and reside in very remote areas.  As a result we have been able to dine out pretty much whenever the mood strikes us.  Until we arrived in Kalispell about 10 days ago we rarely saw masks being worn, and when we did it was usually the employees of the establishment we were frequenting.  As we move westward we are beginning to move through larger and larger population centers where we are seeing more mask wearing.  We still only wear masks when required to do so in order to go shopping, or get a haircut.  The early shortages of paper goods have all but disappeared, however it is still difficult to find those Lysol hand wipes.....we have never run out, but have come close a couple of times.  All of the counties we have been in including Flathead County (Kalispell) have zero to two deaths since March, and a handful of diagnosed cases.  The only person we know who we think had the Wuhan flu was our daughter Sharon (an elementary school teacher), but neither her son, nor her husband caught it from her.....this was back in late February....she had all the classic symptoms of the Corona virus, and was quite ill for about a week, then lethargic for a month afterwards.  We both continue to be asymptomatic, and that's all I have to say about that.

Thank for stopping by!

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Home again.....

7:52 am - Tuesday - July 28th - Deer Lodge, MT - 57° F, 69% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.......cloudy today with a forecast high of 86° F.....the view this morning.....↴

 We are back at the Newell after a two day hiatus

.....on this day in 2012 we were in Raymond, WA camped on the Willapa River......↴

Our brief vacation from our 'vacation' came to a conclusion Monday morning.  Bob and Hilary were heading back to Spokane, and we back to the Newell in downtown Deer Lodge.  We had a wonderful fun packed two days with them, and we will see them again when we reposition ourselves to Coeur d'Alene near the end of this week.

It's about a 30 minute drive from Rock Creek Cattle Company back to Indian Creek RV Campground, and about 70% of that is a well maintained dirt road.  We were home by 10:30 am, and within minutes had the patio awning deployed (we do not deploy it when we are going to be gone for more than a few hours), and were relaxing in our anti gravity chairs reading, and listening to Classic Vinyl on XM Radio, and that is how the bulk of our day went.....reading and listening to music.  Around 2:30 pm it was close to 90° F (the high for the day), so we opted to move inside to the air conditioned comfort of the Newell for the balance of the day.  It looks like we are in for another heatwave of temps in the 90's and low 100's over the next week, so we will need shore power to survive the heat.

We had a rather dramatic sunset sequence lasting about an hour......

 Takin' a walk

....we took a walk around the park around 9 pm, and got back to the Newell just before it began to rain.....it didn't rain hard, or for long stretches, but I heard the rain falling periodically throughout the rest of the night and early morning hours.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

"RAZRing...."

8:15 am - Monday - July 27th - Deer Lodge, MT - 55° F, humidity 50%, wind - CALM.....7 days in a row without morning wind  Skies are clear, and blue with a forecast high of 90° F.  

Day 2 at Rock Creek began with Bob and I heading to the driving range.  I haven't swung a club in a few years, and just wanted to hit a few balls.  I started with a pitchig wedge, and didn't do too bad.  The same with the 4 iron.....not too bad, but with a 7 iron I stunk.  I moved onto the 3 wood where I shined the best.....out of ten drives I hit 7 pretty straight, and (for me) pretty long.....about 225 yards.....of course, straight is the operative word.  Next up was working on my putting at the putting green. After 3 years I did okay I think, but that was enough golf for the day.......hitting the links will have to wait until we get to Spokane.

Next up on the menu was a RAZR ride into the local mountains to get a view of the little valley in which this upscale developement is located.....TLE joined Bob and I for the ride, while Hilary went to play a round of golf with her future son-in-law, Jake.  As always, the ride to the top of the mountain was a blast.  On one side of the mountain you can see I-90 in the distance, as well as the Clark Fork River......

.....and on the other side the Rock Creek development.....

.....below you see the 16th and 18th holes of the golf course......

......and then a short video of the ride to the top in Bob and Hilary's 4 seater RAZR.....

.......Bob drove us over to the shooting range, and then  to the site where he shot his first elk last year.  By the time we had finished with that it was time for lunch so we headed directy to the poolside grill to meet Hilary.  We sat talking and eating until almost 3 pm before heading back to the house.  Then I did something I have not had time to do for a few days.....take a long nap! 

Around 6:30 pm we all conveyned to the firepit area for pre-dinner cocktails followed by a sumptuous dinner prepared by Hilary on their patio.  We drank good wine, ate great food, talked, listened to some Nora Jones until after 9 pm when we retired to the living room for more conversation until almost 10:30 when we bid adieu to our hosts and retired to our unit for the night.

Our two day interlude with my sister and her husband has exceeded our expectations in everyway, but Monday we will return to the Newell to continue our journey westward to Coeur d'Alene, ID.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!