Our RV Travels

Updates on our Full-Time RV'ing lifestyle. Feel free to add your comments, replies and stories of your own.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Week of 18 July

The week started with a Church Service provided by the Avion Travelcade Club chaplin assisted by several members.  Our collection will be donated to the Idaho Food Pantry which mostly goes to help children and the aged.  Later we had a gathering of the Full-Timers where we visited and exchanged several ideas.  One item that we discussed was locating good RV service facilities. 
 
I offered to assist in this project and have added a post to this page named RV SERVICE SHOPS.  At this time not much there, but with your help I hope this will become a valuable resource.
 
We have nothing scheduled till the evening program and Joker tournament, so are spending the afternoon on personal projects.
 

6 Comments:

  • At 11:26 PM , Blogger Andy W2UCZ said...

    July 19 Boise, ID

    I started the day at 6:30 helping to administer the Ham Radio Exam. Then after a very short break, 3 others and myself loaded into our truck. We joined the carpool to Mountain Home where we parked in Albertson’s lot. We identified ourselves and boarded Air Force busses for the trip to Mountain Home AFB. We had an excellent tour there starting with an Attack Dog demonstration. Then a tour of the Jet Engine Repair facility. After lunch in the Officer’s Club, we toured the base including the Flight Line. Then at the Weapon Standardization building, we watched a couple of videos then we toured the facility where they load armament in the planes. Lots of pictures and information about the operation there. The flight line included several planes from the Israeli Air Force in for training. They had planned one more tour, but we didn’t have enough time. So back to our vehicles and then to the fairgrounds to attend the Travelcade Meeting where we got our travel assignments for tomorrow. Loretta and I went to the Sockeye Grill for supper. Then back to pick up some outside as it was starting to rain. At about 7: we went to the evening entertainment, which were some excellent dancers. This was followed by drawings for Flying J fuel prizes, then a business meeting. When we came out at about 9:00, it was raining, so we came home to secure some for the move tomorrow.

     
  • At 12:48 AM , Blogger Andy W2UCZ said...

    Mountains to Sea Travelcade

    July 20 Kamai, ID

    This morning after visiting and farewells, we got secured and hooked up to travel. We were in the 3rd group and left the fairgrounds at 0850. The trip was through some of the most scenic and beautiful countryside one could imagine. The first part was the same as we took to get the Thunder Mountain Train ride and the bus back from Cascade. It was just one fantastic scene after another. But the roads were very crooked and there were some really rough hills. Only one really caused any problems, it was hot and the hill was 7 miles long. We had power enough to make the climb in 3rd gear, but the fan speed was too slow and the temperature was building up. So I shifted into 2nd and still ran as warm as I cared for. Did run the heater for a while to help and we made a cool-down stop about a mile from the top. Also quite a few downgrades were done in 2nd and 3rd to keep from using the brakes too much. Other than a stop for lunch and rest, we continued on to Lewis and Clark Campground at Kamai, ID arriving a bit after 1500. While parking we were backing up to the rear of another unit and our stepladder struck his bike carrier. No damage to that but pretty well destroyed the stepladder and slightly bent the trailer roof ladder. Then it was time for Social Hour under the trees to rehash the trip. We then went into the Café on site where we were treated to a delicious buffet supper then had our Travel Meeting for the move tomorrow. By then we were tired so came home.

     
  • At 12:51 AM , Blogger Andy W2UCZ said...

    Mountains to Sea Travelcade

    July 21 Missoula, MT

    We had a buffet breakfast served by the campground. After that we secured the trailer and got ready to move to our next stop. We again traveled through indescribably beautiful countryside. The road was very crooked most of the way and somewhat mountainous (but not like yesterday). After everybody arrived and got set up in the campground at Missoula, we carpooled to a historic Carousel where most of us took a ride. Then our riders and we stopped for supper before returning to the campground. Shortly later, we took our chairs into the Social Room here where we were entertained by 2 excellent musicians playing Country Music - most of which one had written. Ice Cream and cookies then our Travel Meeting for tomorrow’s move followed this. Several of us needed to do some shopping so before calling it a day made a trip to the nearby Wal-Mart. The parking lot there looks like a campground. By time we got back to our trailer to catch up on the day’s bookwork, it was about 10PM.

     
  • At 12:12 AM , Blogger Andy W2UCZ said...

    Mountains to Sea Travelcade

    July 22 West Glacier, MT



    After coffee, I secured the hoses and took a short walk. Then we secured inside then got hooked up. We were leaders of group 3 and pulled out at 0920. Beautiful trip through lush farmland, forested areas, lots of mountains and along lakes. We made 2 stops for rest and some shopping along the way and arrived at San-Suz RV Park near West Glacier, MT shortly after noon. After parking, setting up and some visiting, Loretta made lunch. Our mail had arrived, so I got to work on that. Gene Blasé came by to tell us that there would be a Happy Hour at 1600. So we went to that and after a nice visit and some entertaining stories, took our chairs to where the Soup, Salad and Fruit supper was being served. There we got the fill-in on the activities for tomorrow. After supper Loretta took a tumble going into the rest room. No broken bones, cuts or bruises, but she apparently broke a blood vessel in her wrist and it is really puffed up. At this time she has it wrapped in an ice pack hoping to reduce the swelling. There will be a Campfire later, but as of now I expect we won’t be attending. This is such beautiful country that it takes ones breath away. And so relaxing to visit under the trees in sight of the mountain.

     
  • At 11:30 PM , Blogger Andy W2UCZ said...

    Mountains to Sea Travelcade

    July 23 West Glacier, MT



    Loretta discovered bruises on her hip and she hurts in several places. We had coffee here, and then joined the rest of our group to carpool into Glacier National Park. There we toured the McDonald Lodge, shopped and visited. We boarded 3 of the Jammer Busses. These are 17 passenger busses made by the White Motor Company in the late 30’s. Ford restored these at a cost of about a quarter million dollars each. They now have propane powered V8 engines, hydraulic brakes and automatic transmissions. They got the name “Jammer” from when they had manual transmissions. I can imagine that it was a real challenge to drive them in those days. I think the National Park has over a hundred of them and about 30 in Glacier National Park. Our trip was up the Going to the Sun Road, which climbs about 3500’ from Lake McDonald to Logan Pass along the side of the mountains. This was very interesting as much of the way there was a drop-off of hundreds of feet on our right side. Some places there were no guard walls at all and in a couple the right side of the road was being rebuilt as rockslides had taken it down the mountainside. We made several stops to view and photograph the fantastic scenery. In addition to many peaks, valleys and waterfalls we saw glaciers including Jackson Glacier - the largest in the park. The beauty is indescribable. After stopping at Logan Pass Visitor Center to take more pictures, make a rest stop and shop, we descended the eastern side of the mountains over 2000’ to Rising Sun on Saint Mary Lake. There we had lunch and shopped in the Gift Stores there. Our return was by the same route stopping again at Logan Pass. On the return trip, our lane was against the side of the mountain. Our busses had removable canvas top, which we had removed so we could stand to take photos. So a couple of times our driver ran under water that was coming out of the mountain so we got lightly sprinkled. It was pretty hot, so it did feel good. At one of our photo stops, a mountain goat walked up the wheelchair ramp right to us. We had gotten some good photos earlier as they aren’t concerned about people, but this was the first chance at about 6’ distance. Our driver was a hiker that hiked from Salt Lake City to his job here taking 2 months for the trip. In addition to telling us about the many features in the park, he gave us insight into the life of a Professional Bum (Hiker). At McDonald Lake, we returned to our vehicles and returned to the campground. We were quite tired and Loretta had been in pain all day, so we took a nap for a while, missing the Happy Hour if there was one. I checked at the office for location of a Medical Clinic in case Loretta is still in pain tomorrow. I also bought 2 of the homemade cinnamon rolls they sell.

     
  • At 1:12 AM , Blogger Andy W2UCZ said...

    Mountains to Sea Travelcade

    July 24 West Glacier, MT

    This morning started with a delicious Belgian Waffle with Huckleberry topping, coffee and juice at the dining area in the office. After a bit of shopping, we loaded our laundry and went to Whitefish, MT. There I took Loretta to the Glacier Medical Clinic. An exam and x-rays revealed no broken bones but she is sure badly bruised - lots of black and blue marks. He offered a prescription for pain medication, but she felt that it wasn’t needed. However he recommended a Tetanus shot which she accepted. We then went and did laundry after which we took a short ride around town. The arm where they had administered the shot was paining her quite a bit by then, but she felt she would be OK later. We headed back stopping at Columbia Falls for fuel and lunch. By then the pain was bad enough that we returned to Whitefish for a prescription, which we filled at the Safeway Store nearby. Then back so she could take some medication and a nap.

    In the evening we had a Church Service under the trees conducted by the Club Chaplin Chuck Berry assisted by several other members. This was followed by group selection and carpool assignments for the next few days. After some visiting and exchanging tales about the Free Day activities, we came home, as I still had to finish working on the mail that was here when we arrived. Needed to get through that as tomorrow we enter Canada and wanted to have things in order before that.




    PS: Will probably not be able to do daily updates, but will fill in when I can.

     

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home