25 August ‘08

Monday

Well here we go again…Monday, another day off, and IT’S RAINING !!!!  Let’s hope tomorrow will be better.  We joined Larry and Pauline at “Franklin’s Hoagies” for breakfast and then headed over to the Coeur d’Alene Mall for a little “window shopping”.  As we were about ready to pay the breakfast bill I found out that I had left my wallet back at the park (20+ miles away).  Thank goodness Louise had hers and had enough money to handle the bill.  After our stop at the mall we went over to a store that had been recommended to us for appraising a couple of Navaho rugs we had been carrying in the coach for quite some time.  They gave us the appraisal and then made us an offer “we couldn’t refuse”.  Well we had been carrying those two rugs from house to house and house to motor home and only once did we ever display them, so selling them now just made a lot of sense. 

Today (Tuesday) we headed back to Coeur d’Alene.  Our first stop was about the same as most as we get close to Starbucks, stop and have a cup of coffee…  I’ve been accused of being a “coffee snob” and I guess they’re right…any excuse of finding a Starbucks will do.  Then it was off to finish a couple of errands that we didn’t finish yesterday.  Completing those, we drove down to the Resort, retrieved our "Nordic Walker" walking sticks out of the back of the car and got ready for a hike around Tubbs Hill.  We’ve walked Tubbs Hill many times over the past 28 years but today’s hike was different.  This was the first time we had used our Nautilus Walking Sticks on Tubbs Hill.  We really enjoy using these walking sticks as they definitely give us a serious workout.     It was so serious that we stopped by the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company for a glass of their micro-brew.  

We happened to have purchased a case of their beer a couple of months ago at Costco and we really liked it, so having the opportunity to stop in and sample a couple of other beers was a real treat.  We will go back…  But now we must rush off to dinner at Joelle’s.  Trev was there with us as he has moved back home to go to school.  He registered for his first year at North Idaho Community School and is looking forward to his studies.  But now we’ve got to eat….

24 August '08

Sunday

We’re sitting here tonight watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics from Beijing and constantly asking ourselves “how are they doing that, or did you see that?”…  I’m sure that we’ll be talking about the opening and closing of the Olympics for a long long time…  We’ve been very fortunate to have been able to watch just about every event that was broadcast these games and still get all of our work done here at  Farragut.  It’s hard to believe but we’re into our 3^rd week already.  The second afternoon we were here we had a surprise visit.  CW and Gina came riding up on their bikes.  They are the couple that we took over from 2 years ago.  You might say that they taught us all we know about “Camp Hosting”… They have the same days off (Monday and Tuesdays) so we started looking for things that we might do together.  As it turns out, they have a couple of inflatable kayaks so we immediately started looking for the best time and location to go out for a paddle.  But first things first…  Back in the early 80’s when we lived in Coeur d’Alene, there was one local event that we really enjoyed going too…”Art On The Green”. 

Joelle and Amy called and let us know that they were on their way so Louise and I jumped in the car and off we went to join them for the day.  Art on the Green is a gathering of artists, restaurateurs, small business owners, and musicians of all types.  When we started going, you could walk the entire gathering in an hour and 45 minutes or less and still have time to see and enjoy everything.  This time it took us well over 4 hours and we didn’t see everything but we sure ate well.  Last Tuesday we got together with CW and Gina and headed down to the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene.  There are a number of smaller lakes that have formed off of the Coeur d’Alene River and the St. Joe Rivers and they can be reached by entering Lake Coeur d’Alene and paddling up the St Joe about a mile.  Unfortunately, when we woke we found that the sky had turned threatening and looked like we might find ourselves in a heavy downpour.  Well we struck out anyway.  A little over halfway we were overtaken with the heavy rain that we were hoping to avoid so we turned around and headed back.  Seeing as how it was still early morning and we felt that none of us had had enough coffee, we headed off to find a place that would be able to supply our needs.  On Thursday Louise went to the Spokane airport to pick-up Lil-Louise and Drew.  They flew in from Seattle to spend a few days with us.  Of course they were immediately drawn into the work around the campground and for exchange we supply the smores…

Our “assignments” are to sell firewood, rake up the campsite

and clean the picnic tables when the campers check out, and watch over and be around when or if one of the new campers have a question or problem.  This is done for 5 days and the next two we are off to do whatever and for all this we get a free site. 

To clean/rake a campsite will take the two of us about 7 to 8 minutes and on an average day we will have about 9 sites that will vacate…pretty easy deal.  The rest of the days while we are “on”, we can do whatever we want and that includes leaving the area.  If we do leave, we let the rangers know and also make arrangements with our neighbor camp-host.  This afternoon Larry and Pauline drove out to spend the afternoon with us. 

We had a little different morning.  We knew Lar and Paul were to be here about 2 but by 1 we still had 4 campers that hadn’t left.  Now with check-out being 1 and check-in at 2 we were behind the ball especially if I was to get my shower before they arrived…well it all worked out and we enjoyed the visit.

Leaving Lincoln behind, we headed off to Chewelah, Washington and an all too short of a visit with Dave and Carol Hawkins.  Our route took us along the shores of Banks Lake from Lincoln north to Cedonia and then across to Chewelah.  With our GPS, we easily found our way to the Chewelah Golf and Country Club and the front porch of Dave and Carol’s home.  Again, like Karl and Nicki’s home, Dave and Carol have found a beautiful place to call home,

and they made us feel so absolutely comfortable.  As you walk through the “Great Room” and out to the large covered deck, you could be lucky enough to be watching a world class golf match taking place in front of you.  Carol had been working hard over the last few weeks in putting together a women’s golf tournament and here we come, guests on top of the big tournament tee off the next morning….  And then on top of all that, Dave out did himself by serving the best “Texas BBQ Brisket and Hominy” dinner we have ever had.  After dinner Dave took me out to see the course.  We jumped into his golf cart and hit the links.  I haven’t been on a lot of golf courses, but this one was really beautiful and in my opinion, must be one hell of a course to get a decent score on.  Early the next morning, Louise and I joined them at the club house for a quick breakfast, watched the “shotgun” start and pulled out for our next destination…Farragut State Park in northern Idaho.

Heading northeast from Soap Lake, our next destination was to visit our close friends and “old neighbors” (from 1965-1971) along the shores of Lake Roosevelt in Lincoln.  Earlier in the year we had met Karl and Nicki in Parker, Arizona.  They have a “Winter” home at Lake Havasu and their home here at Lincoln. 

 Lincoln, with no commercial businesses except a small RV park, is a secret community that is laid back, out of the way, lakeside community.  If there is any draw-back, it is that they have sooo far to go for basic supplies, but other than that it is absolutely beautiful.  If you ever get to Lincoln you won’t have any problem knowing which home belongs to Karl and Nicki…just look for the greenest and largest perfectly mowed yard around…it is a piece of art. 

We had a wonderful time getting together with them again…talking hours and hours of the “ole days”, eating a wonderful dinner, and raiding and enjoying all the fruit and veggies from Karl’s garden. 

Our drive out of Yakima took us through some of the county’s largest “hop” fields…why the Yakima valley????  I have no idea but they hung high above us as we drove the secondary roads to our next destination, Soap Lake.  (Right now, I would love to have a picture of the hops but we didn’t take the time to stop and take…damn!)  This is the first time that we have been in a campground that was owned by Western Horizons (the membership only campground club that we bought into a couple of years ago) and then sold to a private ownership and changed into an “open camping” campground.  We still have full “membership” access for 2008, but beyond that we’re just another camper.  Oh well, we’ve had a second opportunity to search out the must see locations within 80 miles of the lake so I would say we’ve “been there”.  Taking a little time to hit one of the beaches here at Soap Lake, we found this couple taking advantage of the "special" mud from the bottom the lake.  

We were in Ephrata the other day and found out that they were having their annual “Ephrata Valley Music Festival”. 

The weather couldn’t have been better and our personal schedule (schedule, I don’t remember having a schedule…) would allow us to grab some “booth food” and settle down to watch and listen to some great jazz and rock for the next few hours.  As always when such a festival like this is going on, we went looking for the Farmers Market.  We couldn’t go home without having stopped.   On the way back to the campground, we came upon another "celebration".  It was the annual "Bikers of Soap Lake" event. 

That evening at the campground, we went out for a walk and soon found ourselves in conversation with a camper from Bellevue.  His family had taken the tour bus from the campground to the “Light Show at Grand Coulee Dam”.  He and his wife had immigrated to the US from India a number of years ago and now are raising their kids in Bellevue.  Louise and I found our brief conversation with Richard very interesting and asked him to join us for a glass of wine up at our coach while his family was away enjoying the light show.  Later Lou and I found ourselves invited to his “cabin” for dinner the next night.  The dinner was described to be a “typical Indian” dinner consisting of a spicy rice dish, chicken, beef ribs.  We had a wonderful evening.   The host and his extended family Richards wife, Minni, Margret (Richards mother), Joseph his father, cousin, and her daughter both visiting from India. 

All in all, after enjoying a great meal and wonderful conversations with some new friends, it made for an evening we won’t forget.