Wind, but no rain......

7:06 am - Monday - June 15th - Island Park, ID - 33° F, 97% humidity,↴ wind - CALM....clear, very cold skies today with a forecast high of 64° F......first time in two weeks there has been NO wind.  On this day in 2017 we drove our rig from West Yellowstone, through Yellowstone National Park to Mammoth Hot Springs where we began our summer job working at the General Store......↴

 Madison River....just inside the west gate

 Mammoth Hot Springs General Store

Heading down the Gardiner River Gorge to Gardiner, MT where we parked the Newell for the summer

Sunday we continued hunkering down as high winds buffeted Henry's Lake all day long, and into early evening.  I spent most of the day watching all 18 holes of the final round of the Charles Schwab PGA golf tournament held in Ft. Worth, TX.  That I can write that is amazing....Saturday and Sunday is the first golf I have been able to watch since everything shut down in March.  And that really sums up our Sunday.....we didn't go anywhere, drive anywhere, or do anything except stay inside out of the wind.

Sometime after 8 pm the wind stopped blowing and I was able to go outside and capture this shot of Henry's Lake.  The skies were beginning to clear which foretold of a very cold evening, and indeed it was.  The overnight low got into the low 30's, and for the first time in a month the inside temperature got down under 50° F......47° F to be exact.  Why does it get that cold inside when we have gas heaters?  Well, we don't like to run them at night as they are too noisy, and keep us awake, so we put an extra blanket over the spread, and stay quite comfortable.

Picture taken after 8 pm.....stays light until 10 pm

We will be rolling our wheels our of Bill Frome County Park in less than two hours heading for Bozeman, MT and a visit to the local COSTCO Pharmacy where I will refill my blood pressure medication prescription for the first time in 3 months.  We'll either spend the night in Bozeman, or continue another 27 miles to Livingston to spend the night there.  It looks like we'll have rain Tuesday and Wednesday (90% chance according to the weather guessers, but they also predicted 80% chance of rain here in Island Park for Sunday.....hardly got a sprinkle).

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Housebound.....

7:46 am - Sunday - June 14th - Island Park, ID - 44° F, 79% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the south by southwest.....feels more like 5 mph here at Bill Frome County Park where it is heavily overcast, and has been raining since 4 am.  Today's forecast has more rain until early afternoon with a forecast high of 55° F......the view this morning......↴

 Our neighbor between us and the boat launch ramp is leaving this morning....

.....and he is gone...we now have a partial view of Henry's Lake through the trees

Saturday began nicely enough, but by mid morning the wind had risen, and just before noon it was obvious we would have to stow our awnings, so we did.  Since rain was coming early Sunday morning I began to put away everything (chairs, anti gravity chairs, fireplace.....you know....all the stuff that makes me happy) in preparation for our departure from Bill Frome County Park Monday morning.....yup, it's time to change our view once again.

I've been wanting to switch out the OEM threadless stem that came with my Haibike as it is only 2.5" long and I always feel like the handlebars are too close to me when I am riding, or just standing over the top tube.  I've had an extra 3" stem for some time that I wanted to replace the short one with, but have been lazy about doing it.  Since the wind was keeping us housebound anyway I decided to fire up my Honda 2000 generator to power the trailer and make that switch......

 The OEM 2.5" stem.....

......the new 3" stem installed

......I know .5" longer does not seem like much, but it feels worlds different.  The rule of thumb when making any adjustments to your bike is to make them in small increments, as a small change can make a big difference. I think I will try to find a 4" stem in the near future, but for now the 3" one will do.  While I was swapping out one stem for another I plugged in the Haibike battery to bring it back up to 100%, and by the time I was done with the stem the battery had been recharged, and is ready for another foray.

The rest of the day was spent inside out of the wind....I could never live for long in a perpetually windy place as the constant wind just wears me down mentally.  I know many people live where wind is the norm, but I could not do it.  I've begun to read some new westerns written by two new authors, Elmer Kelter and William W. Johnstone, and spent part of the afternoon reading, and napping.  Around 5 pm TLE and I began to watch a Netflix series (streaming) entitled 'Shooter'.  This series is produced by Mark Wahlberg, who starred in the original 'Shooter' movie.  There are three seasons available, and 10 episodes in the first season.....we managed to binge watch all 10 episodes of the first season before we headed off to dreamland around midnight.

We'll ride out the forecast rain for Sunday, and be ready to roll our wheels Monday morning for Bozeman, MT.....stay tuned.

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Day 4.....

8:30 am - Saturday - June 13th - Island Park, ID - 62° F, 48% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the south by southwest.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this day in 2014 we were in South Lake Tahoe at the Getaway Cafe having breakfast.......

.....we rode our bicycles 5 miles out and 5 miles back....I miss South Lake Tahoe!

It's one of those rare days when I took absolutely no pictures, and neither did TLE.  We had plans to go hiking, but the wind came up unexpectedly, and TLE's allergies made an appearance scuttling the hike idea.

I worked on a couple of minor repairs which involved a minor amount of soldering, and set up the Sea-B-Que in preparation for the grilling of filet mignons that evening.  I considered, briefly, taking another bike ride, but the thought of riding into the very stiff wind in either direction held no appeal for me whatsoever.....even with the aid of an eBike.

As we edge toward the weekend the Bill Frome County Park also edges towards maximum capacity.  This is a very popular local access point for those who engage in the art of removing fish one at a time from the waters of Henry's Lake for personal consumption.....my brother-in-law, Claude, managed to extract a trout from the lake's edge this morning (Saturday) and provided this picture to memorialize his triump......

.....that is definitely a 'keeper' Claude!

Eventually the wind died around 6 pm, and I was able to grill the aforementioned filets to wonderful perfection.  TLE provided sides of mushrooms and barley along with grilled asparagus, and a wonderful Malbec which paired beautifully with the steaks and sides....we are really a good team.

Thus ended day 4 at Bill Frome County Park....thanks for stopping by!

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Cowboy Woks, and dropping pins......

8:24 am - Friday - June 12th - Island Park, ID - 52° F, 81% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the north.....cloudy right now, but mostly sunny later on with a forecast high for today of 79° F.  On this day in 2013 we were in LaCrosse, WI visiting a local micro brewery.....

I haven't taken a Haibike ride for a while and Thursday seemed to be the perfect day for it with temps in the low 70's, light breezes, and lots of sun.  I set out riding south on Henry's Lake Road (County 055) around 11 am....just past our campground the pavement turns to dirt, and goes back and forth between well graded, smooth dirt/gravel roadbed to pavement for 6 miles before turning back to pavement permanently.  At the 6 mile mark I noticed some RV's down by the lake......

....and decided to investigate this public access area for possible future boondocking opportunities......

......you can just see Bill Frome County Park in that grove of aspens about 4 miles as the crow flies to the north......

.....after descending down to lake level I found several great boondocking sites, including this vacant one (picture above), which would easily fit 2-3 Class A RV's.....right across the street from the lake.  Below you can see a large 5th wheel, and a 40' Class A.....

.....if we weren't already set up, and completely happy with our current dry camping spot I would have suggested to Claude that we head directly there.  This great spot is a 'Public Access' point to the lake, and includes two pit toilets, as well as a boat launch ramp.....

.....in all I covered 7 miles out before I turned around to head back.  I came to a fork in the road advising Red Rock Pass was only 22 miles distant.....I don't think I'm into a 44 mile round trip ride today......

.....a 'sign of the times' perhaps?  There were a number of beautiful cabins along County 055, including this one which looked like it was designed to look like an old mining stamp mill.....

.....very intriguing.  In all I covered exactly 14 miles on my one hour and 20 minute round trip ride.....I needed that.  In covering that 14 miles I only used 11% of my battery capacity as I rode mostly in the first assist level for the entire ride, burning 880 caloric units, and averaged 10.9 mph for the entire ride.

As a reward for my physical exertion I pulled out one of our anti gravity chairs, and a good book to while away the afternoon......

 It dasn't get much better than this

....Claude and Gail took their dogs for a hike while I was gone, and shortly after I returned from my ride I got a text from Claude asking if we would join them for a BBQ'd chicken dinner prepared by their hands.....of course I accepted.

Around 5:30 pm Claude began to BBQ the two whole chickens while Elaine and Gail prepared some sides on Claude's amazing Cowboy Disc Wok which he had made for $75......

....I've watched Claude use this wok to prepare several meals now, and I am considering buying one....you can actually buy these online for about $140......

TLE sauteing some mushrooms for dinner on the 

Cowboy Disc Wok...you can see the hash browns Gail has 

already cooked ringing the outer edge of the wok

......by 6:30 we were eating, and raving about the BBQ'd chicken, and sides.....everything was delicious....thank you Claude, Gail and TLE.  We ended the evening with another fire before retiring inside around 9 pm for the evening.

Since all the camping here is dry you can hear the buzz of generators until about 10 pm when they all are dutifully shut down (quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am here).  It gets so quiet after 10 pm you can actually hear a pin drop.....that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

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Two 'lido decks'......

7:53 am - Thursday - June 11th - Island Park, ID - 45° F, 91% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the north.....clear, blue, cool skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.....YAY!!!  The view this beautiful morning.......↴

Henry's Lake in all it's blue sky glory!

It has been cold, and dreary since last Saturday, but Wednesday we finally had a mixture of clouds and sun......more sun than we've seen in days.  I actually spent some time in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops in the afternoon.  It's amazing how such small pleasures make life seem glorious.  We are so loving Bill Frome County Park.  It's the first time we've found a new 'IT factor' place on our own in some time.  Most of the dry camping/boondocking places we have found have been suggested by fellow nomads, and for their help we will be eternally grateful, but it's nice once in a while to stumble upon one all on your own.

TLE hadn't been anywhere by ourselves in a few days so we drove into West Yellowstone to do some grocery shopping.  We haven't run into anyone wearing a mask in days, and were quite surprised to find both workers, and patrons at the supermarket wearing masks.....not everyone, mind you, but about 50% of the customers, and about 25% of the employees were not wearing masks.  West Yellowstone is in Gallatin County (Montana) and has had one death, and 165 diagnosed cases in 4+ months.....nothing to set your hair on fire about, right?

We found everything we were looking for including some coveted Wilcoxin's 'Stuck In A Rut' ice cream.  Wilcoxsin's is a family owned and operated creamery centered in Livingston, MT for over 100 years.  They supply ice cream exclusively to all of the General Stores in Yellowstone......I personally scooped hundreds, and hundreds of scoops of this ice cream when I worked in the fountain at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store back in the summer of 2017.  'Stuck In A Rut' is triple caramel....TLE actually served me some for lunch Wednesday......once again.....proof of love....lol!

We were home early afternoon, and spent time helping Claude deploy his Wanderlodge patio awnings (yes plural), which have been stowed for 7 years.  One of them required some friendly persuasion from a hammer, and some penetrating oil to free up one of the support arms, but we finally got them deployed, and working as they should.........

Claude's Wanderlodge has two patio awnings 

stretching some 30' along the passenger side

.....I have to say I am somewhat jealous of all the shade he has on his 'lido deck'.  

We are both getting plenty of sunlight upon our solar panels, and both got back to 100% by noon time, even with as many clouds as there were in the sky Wednesday.  We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun, talking, and enjoying the local ambiance.  As would be expected there were a couple of naps thrown in for good measure.

Around 7 pm we lit the fire in my portable fireplace, and were joined shortly thereafter by Glenn and Laureen who drove over from their full hookup spot at Henry's Lake State Park.  They will be leaving Thursday to begin their 3 week trip back to Austin after visiting a few more National Parks along the way.  We talked, and laughed until almost 9:30 pm before it was time to say our 'until next times'.  They will both be missed.

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No escrow required.....

7:11 am - Wednesday - June 10th - Island Park, ID - 37° F, 98% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the west by northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 62° F.....got down to 37 ° F overnight.......50° F inside the coach......the view this morning.....↴

 Looking east towards the rising sun

I have to admit that I had mixed emotions about moving to our FREE dry camp spot at Bill Frome Memorial County RV Park Tuesday morning.  The high for the day was only going to be 53° F, it was heavily overcast, and rain was in the offing according to the weather guessers.  Not an optimal day for unplugging and heading off into the kind of unknown, but that is kind of what makes this nomadic life interesting, and new every day.....the unknown.  On top of that I was not feeling 100% physically.....my intestines had been gurgling for a couple of days along with the expected loose bowels.  Nevertheless, by 11:25 am we were completely unplugged, and I was dropping our 2007 American Trailer back on the hitch.  Within 1/4 mile of the park I turned north on Idaho 287 heading up to County Road 055 which would take us to our site for the next 5 days, or so.

After paying $210 for three days of full hookups while we rode out the series of winter like storms sweeping through Island Park it was good to be facing no fees for the next period of time, and being closer to Henry's Lake.  Let's face it, there are times like the past three days, when you have to bite the bullet and pay way too much for full hookups, but it is the free camping, dry camping, and boondocking that evens out the average daily cost as you change your view from time to time.

We reached the County Park just before 12 pm, and were set up by 12:15 pm......Claude and Gail arrived about 45 minutes later, and are parked in the site just to the west of our site.  We opted to pull in head first to get a better view out our front windows.....

....and Claude backed his Wanderlodge in to his site to create our own common area between the two rigs.....

......I told Claude I was feeling a little under the weather and he suggested I ingest a couple of ounces of apple cider vinegar for my stomach and digestive tract, so I did.....TLE just so happened to have some on hand....and what do you know?  Within an hour I began to feel better.....you just never know.

Since I was feeling better I walked down to the boat launching area to check out the view.  I found two storks in the water next to the boat dock....

.....and a few sea gulls.....yup, sea gulls.  This little FREE county park is basically a fishing camp for locals, and it appears that the lawns get mowed on a regular basis.  There are concrete picnic tables, fire pits, and pit toilets, as well as the boat launching ramp.....all for free, and we did not have to go through escrow to change our view......just haul anchor, drive 8 miles, and drop anchor......no titles, no deeds, no property taxes, no utilities....just livin' off the grid......

 Nicely mowed lawns separate each site here

....and the park is surrounded by aspens, which must have been planted when the park was built years ago.  We spent most of the afternoon indoors as it barely hit 50° F, and there was a breeze, but it is supposed to warm up into the 70's by Thursday (60's by Wednesday), which is when we'll do some exploring.  We had a nice sunset.....

 Looking northwest

Looking southeast

.....as is often the case when I when I have my bouts of self doubt about a particular decision, this one turned out to be a good one.  After 8+ years of being a vagabond I am learning to trust my instincts, and they are more often than not right.  We love our new views, and location!  Our orientation is north/south.....we are facing south, so the sun will rise directly over our flat solar panels and replenish our electrical supply in our two 8d batteries.  At The Big Eddie we faced north and got great results.  With the sun almost at its zenith with the summer solstice fast approaching we need not tilt our panels anymore.  This is the first time we have done much boondocking in late spring and early summer....it's nice not to have to tilt the panels to get the same results.

By the way, we are currently residing in Fremont County (Idaho) where there have been just 4 confirmed Wuhan flu cases, and ZERO deaths.  Our little tribe continues to be asymptomatic, and loving our lives in rural America.

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