Ok, we’re gonna go over to Dan’s place today – trying to thread an elephant through the eye of a needle – the truck and trailer through a narrow gate with a bunch of trees on the other side. But first, we had to get there! We pulled out of the KoA and waited for Dan across the street, in a large parking lot. While sitting there, we saw two school buses pull up, and from looking at the wings on the back, I’m guessing they’re for a NASCAR race or something:

The entry into the property actually did not go too badly, I was surprised. Hopefully leaving will be as easy. Had to get turned around so I could park it close to electricity by the apartments in the rear of the property, which took a little time, but went really well. Here’s where we’re parked:

And it’s free! Woohoo!

We’ve been here before! Stopped by the KoA for tonight only, and tomorrow we go off with Mr. Bond … Dan Bond. Old work buddy from our Kodak days. We’re gonna help him re-roof his cabin in the canyon. Why yes, we ARE stupid, but not totally! Nope – I don’t climb ladders … ask my good friend Sherry Daerr about that – she witnessed the last time I climbed a ladder and almost ended up with a concussion – nice inch-long gash on my forehead. Yeah, neat story, that one.

Anyway – another early start, so we could go into town and arrange to drop off the truck – needs a little TLC – has an oil leak and a couple of noises we need looked at. Then, of course, BEER. And food. Went to Black Bottle Brewing. Hmmm. Well, the beer was good, but EXPENSIVE. Didn’t get the Stout because it was $9 for an 8 oz glass. REALLY? The cheaper one was $7! I settled for a Pumpkin Porter that was only $5 for a 14 oz glass. And it was good! The Bear had a Juanita Brown Ale that was only $4.50 a 14 oz glass, that was also quite good. Food? Small dishes, quite expensive, so we won’t be back. Good flavor, just not much there. Meal prices for appetizer sizes.

After that – check out the road to Dan’s cabin, then check out campgrounds on the road back, then dinner and SLEEP.

Ugh. Another long day of driving. Why Rock Springs? Well, it’s near Green River, WY, and they have an IMBA Epic trail – The Lunatic Fringe. With a name like that, WE HAVE to ride it! Got in kind of early (as in mid-afternoon), and headed in to town for some lunch, but first, stop in at the local bike shop, The Bike and Trike. Sadly, not very helpful. There was one guy in there by himself, working on a bike on a stand, so we chatted with him a bit – yes, he’d been riding last Sunday, yes, there were trails in town, but not marked at all, so good luck finding them. “What about the trails on this flier you have here on the counter?” Oh, yeah, you could go there, but that’s in another town. Not very enthusiastic, either. Oh, well, we had the flier, so go next door to Bitter Creek Brewing and have a brew and a burger before we go looking for trails. The brews were ok, and the burgers were ok. Best part of the burger were the fries – freshly made! None of this frozen crap I’ve grown to hate. These were good!

So, off to Green River! We found the trails, but no sign of Lunatic Fringe. The guy and the bike shop had never heard of it (that’s never a good sign), so we were on our own. Also, GR is supposed to have a bike park, and we saw signs of fit, but then lost the scent somewhere along the way. What to do? Chamber of Commerce! They put out the flier we have, so let’s go see them! Well, not much help either. And no bike shop in Green River, just the one in Rock Springs … yeah, we know, thanks. So that was a bust – BUT they WERE able to point us to the bike park, so we went there. Very nice park! I’ll post photos later.

And now it’s later! Thankfully, Dan has internet at the cabin. Back to the post.

VERY nice bike park, especially for a town of only 12,500 folks:

I also liked the company that does their Porta-Potties:

On the way to Colorado, we stopped outside Laramie to fill up, and I saw the first honest bathroom sign I’ve ever seen:

And that could have been a picture of me running in there.

Travel day … again. Long one, too, but we need to get to Colorado.

Not much else to say other than long drive. Breakfast in Twin Falls, dinner at the Red Iguana. Went there last year, so we went back this year. Food’s still good! Here’s a photo:

On the way over, we saw this:

Do they mean it’s not fair to park there? No, the State Fair is in town, and that’s what it means … I just thought it was funny taking it the other way. Yes, I have a warped sense of humor!

Tomorrow – Wyoming!

Travel day! Long day, too, as it’s the reverse of what we did getting to Bend. Not looking forward to it.

Well, it wasn’t TOO bad, I made a few quick stretch stops, mostly to get rid of excess water. That’s one of the advantages of towing a travel trailer – wherever you go, you have a bathroom! Well, yes, but you can’t always use it, as I found out today. I put a lot of stuff on the floor in the bedroom, which is the bathroom access while all collapsed for travel, as the rear slide keeps you from going forward into the bathroom, especially with the two road bikes there. But that was not the problem. The problem was that the sliding door between the bedroom and bath was not latched open, and so it closed wile driving – which is why it has a latch to hold it open. No big deal, that’s happened before, and it kind of jams itself shut to keep from damaging itself, you just have to lift it and scoot it at the same time, and voila – it’s open. Unless what you had leaning against it on the other side falls behind it … which is what happened. So – the door would not open more than a couple of inches, not far enough for me to get an arm in there to try and dislodge the offending item. Well, we were in the middle of nowhere, and, being a guy, not really a problem, so I just went back outside and watered some roadside flora. Deal with it later.

What WAS weird is the haze in the air. When we drove up almost a week ago, the air was crystal clear – something we seldom saw last year because of all the fires, but this year there have been very few fires, so we’ve had clear air. Very nice! But not today – but it didn’t look like smoke, nor smell of it. Best guess is now everyone is cultivating their fields, so it’s probably dust that they kick up when they do that. Here’s what it looked like, if you can tell:

Anyway, stopped back at the Apple Peddler for lunch and had a very good burger, then continued. Some time later, nature called again, and there was more traffic, so I figured better to just open the door to the bathroom and do the right thing … or do the thing right, so to speak. Got in there and started shoving on the door, and the box behind it (I could see what it was – it was the scale we keep there in its box). I REALLY needed the facilities, so I kept pushing, and finally got the door open enough to get my head in there and get a good look. Not the brightest of ideas. I had shoved on the door and popped my head in, and of course, the door came back closed a bit. Didn’t strangle me, but my head was not going to come back out! Long story short, push, heave, shove, and our scale needs a new box now, but I GOT INTO THE BATHROOM. Whew!

Anyway – after that, got into the KoA, parked the rig, and went out to get a fews supplies, fill up the truck, and grab some dinner. While out shopping, I saw this:

Really? Cappuccino flavored potato chips? That is just ALL KINDS of wrong! If anyone is brave enough to try them, let me know how they are, I’m curious, but not enough to spend my hard-earned cash on them!

So, that was the day – long and tiring, but just a prelude for tomorrow, where we go another full day, to Salt Lake City, UT. Even further than today, but mostly Interstate, so should be quicker. I hope so – today was long enough!

Travel day! Where? To Oregon! Yup, we decided to make it happen. Went by the bike shop to see the guy who suggested we go to McCall, ID, and he again said you HAVE to go to Bend, so off we go! Well, not Bend, actually, we’re staying at the KoA in Culver, OR, a bit North. Same diff!

Got an early start because it’s a loooong drive. Before long, we were in Oregon, and I learned something I did not know –  lot of Oregon is high desert! Beautiful, but:

That was across more than 120 miles of Oregon, BTW, in those three photos.

We stopped in Burns, OR to get fuel, both for the truck and for ourselves. We did see this (for Richard White):

But I prefer REAL food, so we passed it by. Fill up the truck first, though, and when doing that, I noticed what the last guy had put in his truck:

Sure glad my tank’s not that big! Breakfast was just up the road at The Apple Peddler. Here was my breakfast:

And The Bear’s:

Look at how thick that bacon is! Fantastic breakfasts, both of them. I wish they’d given me more corned beef hash, though.

After that, the second half of the drive, which was not only flat, but straight:

Booooooring! And the speed limit was 55, too. That really sucked! oh, yeah, surprising factoid about the truck – I hoped that driving 55 would get me better fuel mileage – NO! Still got the same as when I was pushing the hell out of it doing 65-70 up the mountains. Go figure.

Drove through Bend, and it reminded us of Steamboat Springs, CO and Jackson, WY, except bigger. And that is NOT a good thing. I really, REALLY hope the riding pans out up here, or we’re gonna be PISSED. We’ll see. Tomorrow, bike shops and USFS, maybe BLM. Info gathering!

Oh, yes, and today, we have been out one more day than last year. Well, there’s gonna be a few ore days yet to go, so keep reading!

Drive day! Fairly early start. We don’t have to be out until 13:00, but that’s awfully late, so we leave at 10:00. Not in a huge hurry, because we’re only going to Boise, which is only about 110 miles away, but it’s through the twisties, so it will take over two hours, maybe almost three.

The drive goes well, except for my back – when it hurts, it really doesn’t like to drive the truck, so it’s a bit worse for it. Hopefully it will straighten itself out again soon. I wish I knew what magic to do, but all I’ve ever been able to do is wait it out. Eventually I’ll wake up and it will be perfectly fine. Weird.

After setting up camp (when we FINALLY find the KoA – it’s hidden, and they have no signs pointing you to it as EVERY_OTHER_ONE we’ve ever seen has had), we’re off to the bike shops. We hit George’s first, as we did last year, and were reminded (again!) that they’re ok, but not the place we want to be. What was that other one we went to? I Google it, and YES – World Cycle! We arrive and talk to the VERY friendly guy behind the counter, who figures out who we talked to last year – Brett – but he won’t be in until tomorrow. No problem, we’ll be back, but we still stay and chat a while. I like places with friendly, helpful folks!

For breweries, we’d been to the Barrel House before the bike shops (had to have lunch after that drive!), and they had pretty good beer, and good food. I had the Meatloaf Sandwich, which was AWESOME. VERY spicy, and they have some weird sauce for the fries, which was also quite resplendent. Tasty, too! The Bear had the Sins of Our Fathers Imperial Stout by Crooked Fence:

I had the Deschutes Obsidian Stout – Very good (both of them!), and then we split a Three Picket Porter, also very good.

After the bike shop, we swung by Cloud 9 brewery, and these folks have GREAT brews! I had the Salted Caramel Stout, and The Bear had the 9 Grain Porter. Both VERY good! I actually liked the Porter better than the Stout, which was a little on the bitter side.

Ok, travel day! Early start – no breakfast – no time! Want to get there early! Southern route. Mapquest says 175 miles. GPS says 350 miles. We’re going to take the Mapquest route.

Well, as it turns out, Mapquest was going to take us on a dirt road for a bunch of miles so … NO. 350 miles it was. Should have taken the Northern route. PLUS – miles and miles of construction. We went probably 30 miles at 25 mph. YES – over AN HOUR to go 30 miles! And on Sunday, there’s no crew out there working, but the speed limit signs are still up. DAMN!!!

Well, lunch in Boise and we managed to pull into the State Park before they closed – cool! Got a really nice site – not the one we had last year, which I wanted, but the one across the road from it. This site is a double, so we have LOTS of room to spread out! I’ll try to post photos later.

We did have time to go to a local brewery for some brews and dinner – Salmon River Brewery. Pretty good stuff. Here’s the beer menu:

I had the Chunder Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, and The Bear had the Buzz Buzz Coffee Porter. Both had a coffee flavor, hers stronger than mine (as you’d expect from the name!) The food? So-so. Beer was good, though.

After eight hours driving (almost nine on the road!), I’m DEAD tired. Off to get my beauty sleep.

Travel day today … it’s supposed to rain – yay. We knew it, though, so last night we put everything inside the trailer. To say it was a little crowded would be an understatement!

Anyway, woke up to – NO POWER. And no water. Evidently the two are connected here. Back home, water is kept in towers, so no power, you still have water. Not here! BUT – that’s why I keep water on board, no problem, just turn on the pump! And it worked great! Until it ran out, but luckily as the last dish was getting rinsed. Great timing! So, off to buy breakfast here at the KoA – they have a good one, and quite reasonable, so it was a no-brainer. Power came back on, got everything tucked in, and off we go – back to Salmon, though for the first time this trip. The bad news? It’s supposed to rain the whole time we’re there. Bummer.

Get in just minutes after high noon, the RV park manager is out, but we have a slot number, so we get parked. No KoAs nearby, so it’s an independent. Almost half the price of a KoA, but no pool – ok, we never use that particular amenity, so … what’s the downside, again? Full hook-ups and WiFi, what else do you need? Oh, and less than a mile to the bike shop/pizza place (that has great beer!), and only a quarter mile from there to a brewery … again – what’s the downside? Oh, yeah – rain. It’s gonna suck. But we’ll survive!

Ok, we WERE going to go to Bend, OR, but the logistics just did not work out. Would have had to stay in Washington State and commute to Bend – not good, so we’re gonna blow it off. So, back to Missoula we go, to get a little more of the Rattler!

Uneventful day, just drive back.