Thursday, August 2 Moving from Colville we stopped in a small town for a break. As we found a place in a city park two children ran out to say she had shot her space gun at the trailer and the “bullit” didn’t come down. After some negotiation with Fred, the boy was allowed to
climb on top of the trailer. It took 3 tries for him to find it on top of the awning role. For the next twenty miles Fred worried the boy had stowed away!. Alas, it was just the two of us!
We found Marcy & Darin at their home which backed onto the
Spokane River.
Their front yard contained their vegetable garden, and
our home for a few days.
Friday August 3 the Upchurch’s took us to town via the river and past many
beautiful homes along the river.
The closer to town the bigger
the homes and boats. As we parked the boat at the downtown docks we noticed a fun looking
boat with their couches and palm tree.
The Coeur d Alene area is a mecca for retirees and we could see why. It is beautiful!
Saturday, August 5 we took a day trip to follow the
St. Joe river. The Upchurch’s had recommended the Huckleberry campground, so we went to see. We were a little disappointed as the park was grown up with weeds, but it did have a couple of empty sites. Maybe another year. We continued to follow the river where we saw many
rafters enjoying the water.
At one pullout we saw a Lavender Farms bus. This farm’s products are sold in Utah, Idaho, Ecuador and France. These vendors were here to see the USA and enjoying the St Joe River.
Up and over the Bitterroot Range we stopped in St Regis, MT before going back west on I-90.
Today was Marcy’s birthday and we rushed back into Coeur D Alene to celebrate with them on the floating
restaurant “The Cedars.”
The Upchurch’s were excellent hosts. If we needed something, all we had to do ask and they made it available. We have fond memories of our stay there.
Sunday, August 5 we found our church home at the
Community United Methodist Church in Coeur D Alene. The District Superintendent was filling in for their pastor who was on leave for the month.
We attended the traditional service which
included a screen.
We packed up the rig and drove north then south east into Montana and another forest camp recommended by Marcy & Darin. This campground was beautiful with
lovely sites on the Bull River. We would have loved to stay here several days, except as we sat outside by the picnic table, sweat rolled down our noses.
Monday, August 6 Olivia researched and found a
Passport America site about 20 miles away in the town of Trout Creek. When we arrived the sites we found were nice, long, not crowded and a nice price. In fact one of the nicest PA we have been in.
Trout Creek has an estimated population of 1500. One billboard congratulated the eight area high school seniors.
Thursday, July 9 after several days rest, and making more new friends we took off to pick
huckleberries. Some of the new friends lead us up the mountain to a great place to pick. Fred found a good bed of plants and Olivia learned a new way to pick. Just
sit down among tall buses, pick all you can find, then slide down the hill to another bunch. We managed to pick about 3 quarts in 4 hours. Yes, they are tiny, but sweet.
Arriving back at the trailer we were really bushed! But we felt we were ready for the Huckleberry Festival on Saturday.
Friday afternoon we walked with Bob & Marcia, and Christine & Gerald to the festival park and browsed in the booths. Entertainment included an organist/comedian.
Saturday August 11 started early as we found our way to the
Fireman’s Huckleberry pancake breakfast. Serving ham, huckleberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for $6.
The fire hall was already
crowded but the
line outside was growing as we left. They do this both mornings from 7-11 am. They blew the fire whistle at 7 am to signal the start of the serving.
After browsing the booths we walked back to our
spot to watch the Huckleberry parade.
The parade started with
Smokey the bear riding on top of a fire truck. One of the cute entries was a
peddle motivated float. They peddled to music and their peddling paid off as they were never left behind.
A
Scottish band and highland fling dancers were a big hit with the crowd.
The Shriner’s had a unique entry with the
big tub and three babies.
Concluding the race was the
big tub and three babies.
Concluding the race was the
Back to the park to be sure we were able to get the
chicken Fajita’s cooked as we stood in line. This was another big hit of the festival as the
Sunday August 12 we departed our nice campground, friends and festival and headed toward Missoula, MT to find a drug store for Olivia’s meds. Along the way we followed the Clark Fork river and saw lots of
smoke from a forest fire to the south.
Clearing Missoula we turned west onto Highway 12 and over Lolo Summit. The Lewis and Clark party crossed this pass Sept. 13, 1905, westbound for the Pacific. From the headwaters of the Missouri they crossed the mountains to the Salmon. Finding that river impassable, they traded for packhorses, hired an Indian guide, and came north to an Indian trail across these Bitterroot mountains. Tired and ill-fed, the men had a hard struggle in the early snow along the steep ridges for most of its 125 mile course west to the Clearwater River.
Highway 12 commemorates their trip from Lolo Pass to Lewiston along the beautiful
Lochsa and Clearwater Rivers paralleling the Northern Nez Perce trail.
Our camp for the night was at Powell Junction Forest Service headquarters and campground with electricity. The river was clear and inviting along with the very nice campground. Thank you someone last year that told us about the spot.
Monday, August 13 we continued to follow highway 12 as it followed the rivers west. It is too bad Lewis and Clark didn’t have this
nice pavement to follow.
The country 100 miles north & south of this 125 mile road is all wilderness. There were fires both directions and the air was
filled with smoke. We never saw flames.
This night we landed in another recommended camp near Orafino. It was
Pink House BLM park with full hookups on the Clearwater River. Each site was level and paved. We found a good one that was long enough for us with trees shading our big window and a view of the Clearwater River. The only downer was no AT&T service. Most of our trip we have been fortunate to have service or we were way out in the boonies. This is first time when we felt there would be service. Guess we really were in the boonies.
The camp host is a retired golf pro and keeps
the ground around his spot like a golf green. He is the most active host we have ever seen. He knows all about each visitor.
Tuesday, August 14 we drove into town and scouted out the area then drove out to see the
Dvorshak Dam. This dam is the highest straight-axis concrete gravity dam in North America. We looked for volunteers we had been told to visit. We were told he had a heart attack and was taking two weeks leave. Too bad we couldn’t visit with them.
Wednesday, August 15 we visited the library to check messages then returned to the AC as the temperature soared into the high ninety's. Fred says 100.
Thursday, August 16 was moving day again. This time we were moving south. We stopped between Kamiah & Kooskia to visit the “heart of the monster.”
This mound is the
heart of the Nez Perce people. Their home landscape is alive with stories. Features like Heart of the Monster embody important myths, as if the earth itself were a language, filled with creatures who are at once animal, human and spirit beings. In their tradition of storytelling, the Nez Perce often use the terrain to teach lessons and moral behavior.
COYOTE AND THE MONSTER OF KAMIAH
Native American Lore
This story tells how Coyote made the different people, including the Nez Perce, and how certain animals came to look as they do today. Without Coyote's cleverness in outwitting the monster, the people and animals today would still be imprisoned in the Monster's belly.
Once upon a time, Coyote was building a fish ladder, so that salmon could go upstream for the people to catch. He was very busy at this, when someone shouted to him, "Why are you doing that? All the people are gone now because the Monster has eaten them." "Well," said Coyote to himself, "then I'll stop doing this because I was doing it for the people, and they are gone. Now I'll go along, too."
From there he went upstream, by way of the Salmon River country. Along the way he took a good bath, saying to himself, "I will make myself tasty to the Monster." Then he dressed himself all up, saying, "This is so he won't vomit me up." Coyote tied himself with rawhide rope to three great mountains, Tuhm-lo-yeets-mekhs (Pilot Knob), Se-sak-khey-mekhs (Seven Devil's Mountain), and Ta-ya-mekhs (Cottonwood Butte). After the people came, these same mountains were used by young men and women as special places to seek the wey-a-kin, or spirit who helped guide them through life.
From there, Coyote went along the mountains and over the ridges. Suddenly, he saw a great head. He quickly hid himself in the grass and gazed at it. Never before in his life had he seen anything like it. The head was huge, and sweating off somewhere in the distance was its big body. Then Coyote shouted to him, "Oh Monster, let us inhale each other!" The big eyes of the monster looked all around for Coyote, but did not find him, because Coyote's body was painted with clay and was the same color as the grass. Then Coyote shouted again, "Oh Monster, let us inhale each other!" Coyote shook the grass back and forth where he sat.
Suddenly the Monster saw the swaying grass and said, "Oh you Coyote, you inhale first. You swallow me first." So Coyote tried. Powerfully and noisily he drew in his breath, but the great Monster only swayed and shook.
Then Coyote said, "Now you inhale me. You have already swallowed all the people, so you should swallow me too, so I won't be lonely." The Monster did not know that Coyote had a pack strapped to his back with five flintstone knives, a flint fire-making set, and some pure pitch in it.
Now the Monster inhaled like a mighty wind. He carried Coyote right towards him, but as Coyote Went, he left along the way great keh-mes (Camas bulbs) and great serviceberry fields, saying, "Here the people will find them and will be glad, for only a short time away is the coming of the La-te-tel-wit (Human Beings)." Coyote almost got caught on one of the ropes, but he cut it with his knife. Thus he dashed right into the monster's mouth.
Coyote looked around and walked down the throat of the Monster. Along the way he saw bones scattered about, and he thought to himself, "I can see that many people have been dying." As he went along he saw some boys and he said to them, "Where is the Monster's heart? Come, show me." As they were heading that way, Grizzly Bear rushed out at them, roaring. Coyote said, "So! You make yourself scary only to me," and he kicked Bear on the nose. Thus, the bear today has only a short nose.
As they went on, Rattlesnake rattled at them in fury. "So, only towards me you are vicious. We are nothing but dung to you." Then he stomped on Rattlesnake's head, and flattened it out. It is still that way.
Coyote then met Brown Bear who said, "I see the Monster has kept you for last. Hah! I'd like to see you try to save your people!"
But then, all along the way, people began to greet Coyote and talk to him. His close friend, Fox, greeted him from the side and said, "The Monster is so dangerous. What are you going to do to him ?"
Coyote told him, "You and the boys go find some wood or anything that will burn."
About this time, Coyote had arrived at the heart of the Monster. He cut off slabs of fat from the great heart and threw them to the people. "It's too bad you are hungry. Here, eat this." Coyote now started a fire with his flint, and smoke drifted up through the Monster's eyes, nose, ears, and anus.
The Monster said, "Oh you Coyote! That's why I didn't trust you. Let me cast you out."
Coyote said, "If you do, people will later say, 'He who was cast out is giving salmon to the people.'" "Well, then, go out through the nose," the Monster said. "But then they will say the same thing." "Well, then, go out through the ears," the Monster said.
"If I do," answered Coyote, "they will say, 'There is old ear-wax, giving food to the people."
"Hn, hn, hn, Oh you Coyote! This is why I didn't trust you. Then, go out through the anus."
And Coyote replied, "Then people will say, 'Old faeces is giving food to the people."
The fire was now burning near the Monster's heart, and he began to feel the pain. Coyote began cutting away on the heart, but then broke one of his stone knives. Right away he took another knife and kept cutting, but soon that one broke, too. Coyote then said to the people, "Now gather up all the bones around here and carry them to the eyes, ears, month, and anus of the Monster. Pile them up, and when he falls dead, kick them out the openings." With the third knife he began cutting away at the heart. The third knife broke, and then the fourth, leaving only one more. He told the people, "All right, get yourselves ready because as soon as he falls dead, each one of you must go out through the opening that is closest to you. Take the old women and old men close to the openings so that they may get out easily."
Now the heart hung by only a small piece of muscle and Coyote was cutting away on it, using his last stone knife. The Monster's heart was still barely hanging when Coyote's last knife broke. Coyote then threw himself on the heart, just barely tearing it loose with his hands. Then the Monster died and opened up all the openings of his body. The people kicked the bones out and then went out themselves. Coyote went out, too.
The Monster fell dead and the anus began closing, but Muskrat was still inside. Just as the anus closed he squeezed out, barely getting his body out, but his tail was caught. He pulled and pulled and all the hair got pulled right off it. Coyote scolded him, "Now what were you doing? You probably thought of something to do at the last minute. You're always behind in everything."
Then Coyote told the people, "Gather up all the bones and arrange them well." They did this. Then Coyote said, "Now we are going to cut up the Monster." Coyote smeared blood on his hands and sprinkled this blood on the bones. Suddenly there came to life again all those who had died while inside the Monster. Everyone carved up the great Monster and Coyote began dealing out parts of the body to different areas of the country all over the land, towards the sunrise, towards the sunset, towards the north, and towards the south. Where each part landed, he named a tribe and described what their appearance would be. The Cayuse were formed and became small and hot tempered. The Flatheads got a flat headed appearance. The Blackfeet became tall, slender, and war -like. The Coeur d'Alene and their neighbors to the north became skillful gamblers. The Yakima became short and stocky and were good fishermen.
He used up the entire body of the Monster in this way. Then Fox came up to Coyote and said, "What is the meaning of this, Coyote? You have used up the body of the Monster and given it to far away lands, but have given yourself nothing for this area."
"Well," snorted Coyote, "Why didn't you tell me this before? I was so busy that I didn't think of it." Then he turned to the people and said, "Bring me some water with which to wash my hands." He washed his hands and made the water bloody. Then with this bloody water, he threw drops over the land around him and said, "You may be little people, but you will be powerful. You will be little because I did not give you enough of the Monster's body, but you will be very brave and intelligent and will work hard. In only a short time, the La-te-tel-wit (Human Beings) are coming. And you will be known as the Nu-me-poo (later referred to as Nez Perce), or Tsoop-nit-pa-lu (People Crossing over into the Divide). Thus, the Nu-me-poo Nation was born. Today, the heart and liver of the Monster are to be found in the beautiful Kamiah Valley in Idaho, the home of the Nez Perce tribe. Thus, the beginning of the La-te-tel-wit (Human Beings) was at hand.
After following the Clearwater River to it’s headwaters, then over a hill we were faced with a
seven mile, seven percent downhill to the Salmon River.
After the Salmon turned east we were following the Little Salmon when we found a favorite stop from four years ago.
Fiddle Creek Fruit stand held lots of goodies including home grown tomatoes and peaches. We enjoyed a favorite, BLT, for supper. Boy was it good, just dripping with tomato juice.
This night was in an RV park in a field with water & electricity. We sure did miss the trees from our last stop and were glad to see the sun go behind the hill.
Friday we continued following the Payette, Little Payette and the Little Salmon rivers toward Boise. The Little Salmon river was
white water all the way. We thought of Roy & Linda Fouts and Bob & Pat Daniel as they had floated a river like this in Idaho. At Boise we turned south west passing Mountain Home, where we think Linda grew up, and landed in the small town of Glenn’s Ferry.
Saturday, Sunday we enjoyed the little town by walking the streets and visiting their small farmers market. They even had hand cranked ice cream at noon.
One morning the sun was
orange for a long time because of the forest fire smoke in the air. We were at least 50 miles away from the fire. This picture doesn't show the true color.
Monday, August 21, we moved southwest following the Snake finding the
Thousand Springs scenic byway. Old lava flow had changed the geologic structure of this area and created a multitude of famous springs here.
Over thousands of years, volcanic activity repeatedly spread lava over the Snake River plain, slowly forcing the river southward in a great curve. Successive channels of the river and its tributaries were filled with spongy lava, and became both reservoirs and underground conduits, gathering water from far to the northeast. Torrents from one or more of these buried channels burst forth on this canyon wall.
We continued to follow this scenic trail stopping at several pullouts. At one rest stop we discovered water coming out behind the left rear tire. So we started looking for an RV repair shop. Thanks you daughters for encouraging our iphone purchase. One of our RV apps has an icon for repair shops. There was one about 10 miles from us on our route.
When we stopped at the repair shop we realized we had a newer, bigger problem. The tire in front of the leak was
stripping tread! We didn’t dare move any further. They changed our tire to the spare and fixed our leak. The loose tread had also caused the wheel skirt to come loose.
We were so thankful for the water leak to cause us to find the larger problem before we had a big accident.
We found a nice county park on the edge of Twin Falls exhausted from our 50 mile move.
We attempted to find some good pizza and landed in Gerdie’s stone oven restaurant. The crust was not like any pizza we have had, but the pizza looked like Cici’s. They boasted of 100 different kinds and brought it around the room for us to try. We did sample about 15 kinds, but were not excited about this restaurant.
Tuesday, August 21 we enjoyed our walk through the county park trail. Shortly afterwards it started a nice slow drizzle. We waited in the trailer until about noon then struck out to do some shopping and getting gas.
After our shopping we took off to see Shoshone Falls and were we surprised.
Fred looked down on the Snake River and one of the many small falls coming out of the canyon walls. .
We drove the winding road into the Canyon northeast of Twin Falls and tried to imagine the forces that created this geological marvel. We learned this canyon was formed when the natural dam of Bonneville Lake broke. This lake shown on the
map in light blue
Shoshone Falls and the fantastically eroded basalt cliffs surrounding it are relics of the Bonneville Flood, a catastrophic torrent that ripped through the canyon about 15,000 years ago.
The natives call this falls,
“the Niagara of the West.” In fact Shoshone Falls tumbles 212 feet to the Canyon floor, 50 feet further than Niagara. The waterfall’s terraced; thousand-foot span is truly one of Idaho’s most magnificent sights.
September 8, 1974 was the day Evel Knievel, world famous dare devil attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in his sky cycle. A dirt ramp is the only remnant of that day. As we remember he landed in the water as we watched on TV by the millions.
As we were eating supper the back crown holding Olivia’s bridge came loose. So she looked up a dentist and make an appointment for the next day. It’s a good thing we don’t make reservations as we now planned to stay over.
Wednesday, August 22 we piddled away the morning, then Olivia visited the dentist and came away able to chew again. One of his staff recommended a steak place so we asked our neighbors and the four of us ate well.
Thursday, August 23 this time we did leave and headed east, staying on the scenic road until we arrived at I-84 going south toward Salt Lake City. About 20 miles down the HOT busy interstate we stopped for a break when Fred noticed the wheel cover protecting the bearings had come loose from one of our new tires. OH HECK! We drove back to Heyburn and another Les Schwab where they fixed it satisfactorily.
By this time it was time to stop so we drove a couple of miles to another Passport campground and enjoyed their tall trees.
We know you have problems with your cars and house so understand it is just like staying at home. Things happenl
Friday, August 24 we finally made it to Layton, UT just north of Salt Lake City and a Mobil Home Park that accepts RV overnighters for a nominal fee.
We plan to do some research at the LDS library on Harrington and Burton lines. Also there is a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives place called the Red Iguana that sounds good. He recommended their mole, Charisa tacos, avocado sausa and killer Mexican food.
We’ll let you know in the next blog how it was.
As usual, let us hear from you. We both love notes from you.
Just email us at olivia@bobheck.com or Fredharrington@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment