We Turned Right This Time

The entrance into Yellowstone National Park

reminded me of crossing the border from Mexico.

Just a few miles in 

which was to be the best of the day.

You could throw a rock and hit him, he was that close to the road.

I caught this on the way out from the visitor center parking lot.

I'm more interested in mosquito spray though.

More Moose

I ended yesterday's series with the parting moose photo.  Yes, he passed right by outside our door at 9 pm in the evening.  Beans heard him sloshing through the water before I did.  It was nearly dark and I hastily snapped a few pictures before he moved on out of sight.  This is why the pictures are not all that sharp.  Just really low light, camera not set correctly and some camera jiggling all combined.

I really wished this one was sharp showing the water running from his mouth.

  

The shot I showed yesterday was caught using my iPad which accurately shows how dark it was.

Life by the River's Edge (Part Two)

Life by the River's Edge (Part One)

Yes, the mouse lived to see another day.

Part Two Tomorrow

But it is Only Flat on the Bottom

One day I noticed this.

How on earth did a stick get stuck in the sidewall of the inside rear tire?  That is a fairly easy question to answer.  Just a set of perfect circumstances of the outside flipping up the stick and the inside tire catching it just right while being held firmly on the ground by the outside tire.  And how long had it been like this?  That I really wish I knew.  I check my tires before each day's drive.   I am pretty certain I did so before leaving Craters of the Moon.  Pretty sure?  From there it was to do laundry, a lunch stop and then on the Henry's Fork.

I broke camp and drove slowly south about 5 miles to a gas station to them put the spare tire on.  Fortunately Idaho road workers were painting the lines on the highway and I could crawl along behind the paint truck at a slow speed for a few of those miles.

Then it was on down to Ashton 30 miles further to a tire shop that had just one tire of the correct size left in stock. Finally my luck has turned?  It became my new spare tire.  I was back at camp by three in the afternoon and was elated to find "Camp Perfect" still there waiting for us.  All I can say is that I parked in the same exact spot as before and now the RV is a bit more level which leads me to believe the tire was flat when we arrived five days earlier.

A $263.53 splinter of wood.

 

 Yes, it will be mounted inside the Little House on the Highway somewhere.

What Do You Do All Day?

We spent several days here and you may wonder what does one do all day? 

 Well you can watch a gopher dig out his home.

Meanwhile Beans snoozes and misses the gopher action.

You can watch women fly fish.
I've seen fishermen come by here and never catch anything.  Both times we were here, nothing. 

 Then one day three ladies from Utah came by.  They caught fish.  The only ones to do so.

And you can go for walks in the fields of wildflowers

Think you could do that?

We've Come Full Circle

We ended up making an unintentional grand loop of the Pacific Northwest winding up where we camped the first of June, along Henry's Fork River.

This was one of our best camps and I found it only to be better the second time around.

 The water had warmed up enough I could do a long soak each day. 

So refreshing.

How would you like to open your front door to this every morning?

Laundry Day

It had been laundry day for a long time and I kept putting it off.  When we left Craters of the Moon the first town would be Arco, Idaho.  Just before entering the little town was a small RV park and I saw the word Laundry on a building.  I wheeled in there and found this just to be the ticket.  

So much better than a regular laundromat with a bunch of people milling about.

Very nice and clean.

And yes it was and it did.

Now as you can see Arco is famous for being the very first town to be lit by atomic power.  

Well I swear the dryers in that little laundry room must have little mini nuclear reactors in them. 

 The clothes were so hot I could barely handle them.  Nice!

Camp and Trailers

Our camp at Craters of the Moon when everyone was gone.

Some unique trailers.

This one the top raised up like a big bug readying to fly off.

The only thing was you could see in those tinted window very easily.

Privacy is at a minimum here.

I have never seen this before and saw it was made by Airstream.

I bet it cost a pretty penny.

Lastly I saw this go by while making dinner.  I loved the map and had to go track them down.

They were a young couple with two little ones and one humongous dog.  Great Dane I think.

I learned they have a tiny house and built this from what they learned from tiny house living thinking maybe they would live this way for awhile and see how it fits their lifestyle

It would be neat if the water fill hose was at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The young lady said she knew of another cat owner with a cat named Beans.

No, I didn't go around and take a picture of the other side.  Really BIG DOG remember.

Looking at this now as I set up this post the marks of where they have been reminded me of bird splats.  Now if I had a big map on the Little House on the Highway you know I would be marking my stays with bird splats for sure.

Best Souvenir Buy

I really liked this post card and it makes a fine addition to the collection on the walls inside the

Little House on the Highway.

I was concerned about buying some glasses to safely view the eclipse by.  I figured there will be vendors all up and down the eclipse path hawking cheap Made in China viewing glasses and I certainly am not trusting the Chinese in protecting my eyeballs from the sun's glare.
So I was very happy to see these were made in the good old U S of A.

Moldy Trees?

Tree Mold Trail

Okay, when I first read this in the brochure that's what I thought.  Once

there at the trail head I had an "oh I see" moment.  This was a long one

mile hike in.  Yeah, one mile isnt that far but it was mid-day, getting

hot and through a lava field.  But I was glad I went to see the tree molds.

When the lava flowed it passed through a forest of trees.  One tree

remained standing and left a perfect round core in the lava.

A few others fell and left their impressions where you can still see the

distinctive pattern in the bark.  There are probably many more impressions

buried beneath the surface of the lava.

Looks like tire tracks from 2000 years ago.  Hmm...

Craters of the Moon had the most descriptive trail signs I had ever seen.