MONDAY 29 JUNE ARCO, ID - DARBY, MT

29 June 2020, Arco, ID
It is so bloody cold here you would think it was February.  It was 37 degrees when we got up!
At first Rob said he wanted to leave early this morning to get to Montana noonish, but then he looked at the weather and saw it was going to be PE rainy, so he said never mind.
The RV Office had free waffles at 9 am.  That was nice. They were good.
When we got up I noticed all the dry food from Bella’s bowl was gone. This is the second time is three days.  The first time I thought maybe a critter from outside came in through the doggy door, but last night the slide was in the door so nothing could come in or go out.  Hmmmm. Bella sleeps under the covers and the bed is pretty high so I’m pretty sure I would have known if she got up in the night and ate it all. I’m afraid we may have a critter living in the bowels of our home on wheels. 
We flipped the recliners over and noticed there were some mouse droppings and nesting material. I vacuumed it all up and washed the blankets we had back there.  While they were in the dryer we tried to take Bella out for a walk, but it started to rain.
We gathered our stuff from the dryer, packed everything up and finally hit the road at About 11 am.  It had rained real hard and then stopped as we departed.
The drive was beautiful.  We went Highway 93 the whole way.   It is known as the Lewis and Clark Trail.

I noticed as we were going through Moore, ID that we were approaching some mountains and they seemed to have a bit of snow.  As we approached Mackay, about 20 miles later we were definitely approaching mountains.

 The storm that came through last night and this morning really dumped some fresh snow in these mountains.

The glimpses of them as we were driving by were gorgeous.

As we continued on we drove through Challis. The terrain changed a little bit.  We were following the Salmon River.  It was really pretty.  It rained on us.

At one point it even hailed on us.  We meandered through the mountains and through the farm land and ranches.  We followed the Salmon River for a long way.The Shoshone Tribe called the Salmon River the “River of No Return” because of it’s dangerous churning.  At the town of Salmon, there were a lot of hay or alfalfa fields.

The town of Salmon is hemmed in by sheer cliffs. It is also the home of the Sacajawea Interpretive and Education Center, celebrating the Lemhi-Shoshone woman who served as interpreter for Lewis and Clark as they crossed the Bitterroot Mountains.  A one-mile-long walk brings her historic culture to life. 
 There the Salmon River went off toward the West.

There was quite a bit of wildlife along the way.  I saw lots of deer and a couple fox.  Lots of ranches with cows, horses, sheep and some donkeys.
After being told by Shoshone Indians that the Salmon River could not be navigated, the Lewis and Clark Expedition decided to cross the this pass. What they encountered was by no means a leisurely hike.  In fact, one member of the party described their route as "the worst.....that was ever travelled."  Today, following the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, Rte. 93 (which we are traveling on) zigzags up through dense forests and then, cresting at about 7,000 feet, descends into Montana.  Right about there as well, we crossed the Continental Divide.  Further along,  at about the town of Carmen we picked up the East Fork of the Bitterroot River .  We crossed over it several times.
 At Conner I had to come to a complete stop and prayed that Rob, behind me pulling the Rig, and especially the 18 wheeler would see me in time to stop as well.  The reason being, there were a herd of mountain goats, young and old frolicking in the highway.  Little ones were jumping (which is what I noticed first, something jumping in the road) older ones decided to butt horns, and some just crossed over. 
At any rate, we had to stop and let them get out of the road.  It was pretty fun watching them.
                    
We finally came into the town of Darby, our final destination.  It’s a cute little town.

We pulled in to Traveler’s Rest and found our spot.

We set everything up and then went for a bike ride.  I love it here so far. MIT is gorgeous.  It is a bit over cast and has low laying clouds, but there is a river at the edge of town and we are up against some snowy hills. 

So, the reason we are in Darby Montana.  We have been watching a new series on Paramount network of Direct TV staring Kevin Costner called “Yellowstone” it is about The Duttons who are big Ranchers. In fact they are the largest contiguous ranch in the United States.  

The Dutton Ranch filmed in then series is actually the Chief Joseph Ranch and it is located here in Darby. We rode our bikes out to see what we could of it.

We were able to see the gates, pastures with beautiful horses, and some of the barns featured in the series with the big “Y”

We were also able to catch some glimpses of the beautiful log cabin. 

It was pretty chilly riding our bikes. Rob was freezing so we figured we’d better head back. 

We grilled brats and boiled corn on the cob for dinner then chilled before going to bed.

SUNDAY 28 June Kemmerer, WY - Arco, ID

Sunday 28 June 2020
Nothing to exciting happened in Kemmerer during the night that we are aware of.  A couple trains went by.
It is chili and overcast this morning.  
We only had a three and a half hour drive today so we weren’t in a big hurry.  
We did get on the road at about 10:30.
We headed out highway 30 and right away saw that we were on the Auto Tour Route of the Oregon and California Trails.



Leaving and going through Kemmerer was actually kind of pretty

We went through the little town of Cokeville

And then hit the Idaho State Line.

Idaho was real pretty. It was free with a lot of farm land and lives talk. 

Bennington, Idaho

As we continued on the weather got worse.  The sky darkened and big ugly clouds were forming up. By Soda Springs, around noon it was pretty stormy looking

As we drove on it would look like maybe we wouldn’t get rained on. It would look like it was clearing up.  Lava Hot Springs didn’t look as bad as Soda Springs....

But it opened up and poured on us for about the last hour and a half of the drive.  I was dreading arriving and having to set up in the rain.
But, when we arrived in Arco it had stopped.
We stopped and fueled up both vehicles just before the campground. Again, our spot was like the first one, right at the entrance.  Easy peasy.  
We are only spending one night again so we didn’t unhook the truck. We hooped up power and water and opened things up. 
It was only 3:30 so we figured this was an excellent time to do laundry. And that’s what we did.
We ordered a small pizza and fish n chips from the camp ground cafe.  The delivered it to us which was nice.  Best of all, it was really good.
We spent the evening getting caught up with correspondence and played on the computers the. Went to bed.
We are hoping to get an early start tomorrow.  We are going to Darby, Montana tomorrow.  It is outside Missoula.  We are going to Darby because it is where a new program called “Yellowstone”, starring Kevin Costner was filmed.  We watched a couple seasons of it and the landscape is amazing.  We are hoping to be able to go check it out.
Oh, did I mention that it is real cold here.  It was only 54 degrees here which is another reason why we figured staying inside and doing laundry was a good idea.
I hope the weather is nice for the rest of the time we are in Montana.  I love it there and want to do as much outdoor activities as possible.

SATURDAY, 27 June; Steamboat Springs, CO to Kemmerer, WY

Saturday, 27 June, Steamboat Springs, Co
We are moving on today.  We are headed to Whitefish, MN, but it is to far a drive for one day.  I really don’t like driving more than 5 hours unless we are goi g to stop and do things along the way.  I’d really prefer no more than 4.  Anyway, so we are going to take two days to get there.  Tonight we are stopping in Kemmerer, WY just for the night. It’s going to be a 4.5 hour drive.
We got new neighbors yesterday afternoon.  They are from Grand Junction, CO. They said a 5 hour drive.  They are driving a big Mercedes type van and pulling a trailer.  Inside the van are four large crates, each containing a Bernese Mountain Dog.  They are show dogs and they are beautiful. 
Like us, the first thing they did, after positioning the trailer, was set up their fence. Then they let the dogs out.

More and more people are traveling with portable fences.  It just makes sense.  Can you see trying to sit out side with these dogs on leashes?! What a tangled mess that would be.
They were a nice couple and beautiful dogs.
After coffee we packed up and hit the road.  We were all gassed up so we just hit the road.
It was initially a pretty drive out of Colorado through the hills.
We got out of the hills and into the flat land. 
Baggs, CO was pretty.

We passed through a little town called Craig, Colorado. That was funny so I had to let our friends Craig and Pam know about it.

We crossed into Wyoming around 11:45. And the landscape was pretty boring for quite some time.

1:30 we passed through Rock Springs, WY and it was getting prettier.

We went through the big, lighted tunnel at Green River.

And out the other side.

Finally at 3:15  we passed through the little town of Diamondville and into Kemmerer. 

 We found our RV campground and pulled right into our little spot. It was pretty level, so since we are only going to be here for one night we didn’t even disconnect from the truck.
It’s a funny little place, right in a neighborhood with houses and RV spots mixed in next to each other.

After setting up Rob went for a run. Bella and I took a nap.  
Later we sat outside and watched the neighborhood.
Kemmerer is the largest city in the County Seat of Lincoln, County, WY. It started as a coal town in 1897. It has over a 100 year history that is steeped in rich stories and journeys including coal mining, bootlegging, and historic trails.  It was also home to the second JC Penny store (when Mr. Penny was in business with partners) and called the store the Golden Rule store, the “Mother” store.  Also here is the J.C. Penny house where Mr. Penny lived with his wife and children and remains open for tours in the warmer months of the year.

FRIDAY, 26 June; Steamboat Springs, CO

Our plans today were to do a hike.  While sitting around having our coffee Rob found a creek-side cafe that was open for dining in and serving breakfast. So, we dressed and left 

He had called them to make sure they were dining in and to see if reservations were required. Yes dining, reservations not required.  But when we got there they asked us if we had reservations (no) and then told us it was a 20 min wait.  So, we gave them our name and phone number and went for a walk.  This is a new thing with the pandemic, restaurants and campgrounds are taking your name, phone number an sometimes pictures of your drivers license. Just in case there is an outbreak.

Anyway, we went for a walk 

We walked across the bridge and noticed that there were people walking up the ski jumps. And then we noticed they were coming down and jumping. We had to get a better look.

It was so fun to watch.  They were just kids.

We received a text that our table was ready so we headed back to the restaurant.  A little disappointing that after having to wait 20 min they didn’t seat us by the creek, but rather closer to the building and in the sun.

It was a cut place, tranquil and the food and service were both very good.

From there we drove up to Fish Falls Trailhead.  It is a 4.7 mile (round trip) hike up to the top of lower and upper falls.  Once again it was quite difficult.  

The hike up to the lower falls was pretty smooth and easy...

But then it became a bunch more difficult.  Steeper, rockier, narrower and cliffs

Bella is an amazing little trekker.  She can scramble up huge rocks. 

 I wasn’t quite sure I was going to make it all the way, but then we could hear the falls and just around the bend. There they were.

It was really pretty up there as well, with the rocks and the wild flowers.

We headed back down. Man oh man. That became more difficult than going up. Not huffing and puffing, more like grunting and groaning as my knees were giving out and my hips were starting to ache.

But we made it.  We stopped at the liquor store for some beers for Rob later and for waters to put in the Jeep and we headed back to the RV

I had a couple missed calls while on the hike. One was from the Title Company in Fresno.  Barbara’s house is closing escrow today and they needed signatures on the final Docs. I was able to talk to Barbara and she was very relieved about being out from under the house and all it’s expenses.

I tried to talk with Mom, but every time we connected she couldn’t hear.

Rob went back out Mountain biking.  He wanted to do do the Lupine trail all the way up and then the NPR down, a little faster this time.

 Rob went to bed early.  I stayed up finishing the blog.

We got a little bit of rain this evening and it made for a pretty sunset. The pictures don’t do it justice, but it was pretty.

Hug your loved ones and hold them tight. Life is so short. You just don’t know what waits around the corner.