July 26

We made it home!


The traffic from St. George, UT, to Ventura, CA, was fairly light. We encountered short backups only twice. This made the trip home pleasant. Of course the trip seemed shorter to Linda since she managed to sleep a few hours - the advantage of being a passenger. We unpacked the van and put everything away as soon as we arrived which was tiring and required a nap before going to dinner and shopping for the food items we might need the next morning. Then it was home to get into bed for the night. We had a great time and hope you who visit this blog enjoyed our photos.

July 22-24

From Rexburg, Idaho, to Provo, Utah.

We departed Rexburg, Idaho on the 22nd and camped that night at Utah Lake State Park. The weather was hot and muggy, and the paper wasps were busy looking for place to build nests. The citronella candle seemed to drive them away. The clouds rolled in, but dropped very little moisture, but did cool things down a bit.

On the morning of the 23th we headed to St. George, a trip southward on Interstate 15. When we arrived at Santa Clara (next to St. George) it was only 98 degrees. Thank goodness for air conditioners. Linda's sisters & brother threw together a family dinner that night. JoAnn brought out some old family photos; some them very old photos of relatives generations back. We had a great time. Gary was recovering from gall bladder surgery he had undergone four days earlier, but seemed to fair well. We stayed at Karen's house.

The morning of the 24th we took Karen to JoAnn's so Dan could show them how to make crumpets, our latest food fascination. Linda and JoAnn worked on scanning a damaged photo of their dad at probably about 2 year of age into Linda's laptop. Linda worked on cleaning up the damaged areas so she can print copies for them all to have.

We had lunch at JoAnn & Brent's house, then Linda took a crumpet to her Mother and visited there for a while. That evening Dan made his vegetarian spaghetti for dinner with Karen at her house. We plan to continue the trip homeward tomorrow.

July 21

Ken & Evelyn decided to drive us to see Cave Falls, which friends had told Ken about. We stopped at this general store on the way out of Rexburg. Here were equipment & clothing for camping, hunting, fishing, and farming. Ken picked up some worms hoping to catch some fish to cook for dinner. Dan saw a hat he just had to buy for Linda, and it was on sale, 75% off. It cost him a whopping $4.00!

There were several falls along the Bechler River. We reached then after driving along a paved country road for a while, then 14 miles of gravel road. We found the falls just inside the south west boundary of Yellowstone Park.

Butterflies were working these blossoms.

When we stopped at Cave Falls Campground we found the perfect place to stop for lunch. Table in the shade, restroom nearby, and at the edge of the river. This was our view.

There were mosquitoes buzzing us, so we applied the repellent. Dan & Linda already had some bites and wanted no more. We stopped at a burger place in Rexburg on the way back to the house. We had root beer floats and colored on the place mats. Linda made crumpets to go with our dinner that evening using the rings we has purchased at the Kitchen Gadget store in Oregon.

We have enjoyed our visit here and all the dogs that live here.

Oh, and the little river through the Veterans Memorial Park in Rexburg. Another stop on the way bact to the house after having the root beer floats.

July 20

We noticed these lilies along the front walkway of the Jones' home. We have never seen a variety like this one, and Evelyn couldn't recall the name. We were heading to Yellowstone National Park this morning hoping to find a spot at a campground and spend the night.

We spotted this moose crossing the road just after leaving the Jones' house. He walked into a wheat field and paid no attention to us.

When we entered the park we saw a large sign listing the campground. All but 2 were full. We thought that we might be able to get one of the cabins in the Old Faithful area. We drove to that spot, parked in a huge parking lot and saw this bus in front of the lodge.

We walked the geyser loop, a 5 mile path. There are several steaming, boiling and erupting geysers in this area.

The colors are varied and interesting. The deep blues being the hottest - 199 degrees F. The white is next in cooler temp, and as the colors move from yellow - orange - tan - browns - almost black the temperature progresses to 80 degrees. The cooler colors are produced by bacterium that exist at the various temperatures.

This little guy caught our attention with his bright blue color as he flew to this spot.

When we returned to the lodge we enquired at the desk for accodations at the campgrounds, cabins and lodges. There were only two rooms at one of the lodges about an hour away, but at $230 a night that was not acceptable. Every thing else was fully booked, so we decided to go back to Rexburg.

Now where did we park? Luckily we made it a point to take careful note of where we parked so we could find our van when we were ready to leave. We had walked for 3 hours in the hot sun and were exhausted.

In traveling to and from Yellowstone we passed through a portion of Montana. The west entrance of the park is in Montana, but the bulk of the park is in Wyoming.

Returning to Idaho. We were hot, slightly sunburned and very tired, but we had enjoyed the visit. However, we decided that we would not return to the park for a second day.

July 19

Ken took us boating on Lake Island Park Reservoir. We had stopped by a little store for sandwiches, chips and sodas to eat after reaching the other side of the lake.

Our spot for lunch.

We're back at the dock after a very enjoyable time on the water.

Waiting for Ken to bring the boat trailer to the launching dock.

We stopped a this waterfall on our way back to the Jones house. There is a lot of water in this area and the farmers cultivate potatoes, wheat, barley, and a plant from which canola oil is made.

July 18

We traveled to Rexburg, ID. Since there was very little of interest to see we make good time and arrived at Ken & Evelyn's in time to eat lunch. We spent the rest of the day visiting and relaxing. Ken prepared a delicious dinner of spare ribs, fresh corn on the cob and tossed salad. There was strawberries and whipped cream on angel food cake for desert.

July 17

The landscape changed as we progressed eastward on Interstate 84.

The Snake River and the fields of Idaho.

The river view from the Three Islands Crossing Campground at Glenns Ferry.

Our campsite.