Travels with The Rayman

Today is Sunday the second day of October, 2016.  Weather report for the Idaho panhandle looked good so we went hunting.

Specifically, we were hunting for moose, bear, elk, deer.  To hunt we headed north to Sandpoint, Idaho.  I was driving.  Before we left I did a bit of research on places to find these wild animals.  The Forest Service had a good looking website that directed me to drive to the nearest Forestry office  which happened to be about 3 miles from our RV spot.  Only it isn’t open on Sunday.  So, from my research, I noticed that there were lots of roads that led into the forest and, by George, I found one.  That’s where we came upon a family of deer.  In someone’s front yard.  I don’t know where the forest begins and ends but there were houses on acreage all along the road we took…until it turned to dirt.  Undaunted, I drove straight away up the dirt road until it started feeling, like, uhm, paramilitary territory.  I base my feelings on no facts whatsoever.

Here’s part to their website.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/ipnf/recreation/hunting/?recid=6762&actid=54

So I turned around.

We then headed up a road that ran parallel with highway 95 which is more to my liking.  No cars on those roads.  Until we could not go any further.

I was also secretly looking for Mark Fuhrman of O.J. Simpson fame.  It has been reported that he lives in Sandpoint.  Didn’t see him either.

So, as a reminder, we were looking for moose, bear, elk, deer.

What we saw were ceramic owls tastefully displayed on utility poles, a few sheep (real), a bunch of cows (real), one hawk (red tail, we think)real and it was perched on a telephone pole, and some wild turkeys (real).  Heck.  We could have stayed home and seen those.

So, we turned back to Coeur d’Alene and Rayman drove down the western side of the Pend Oreille River/Lake.   And we drove through a few small towns.  Everything was closed.  Sunday?  or the day after Oct. 1?  Who knows.  But things were locked up.  We wanted to get a drink by the lake but we could not find one establishment anywhere.

We did espy a few Lock Her Up signs and a few Trump/Pence signs.  And lots and lots of signs for local election people.   Oh, and lots of American flags…which made me nervous.

But we did not see a moose, a bear, or an elk.  We were very disappointed.

September 28

Me and my mousse!!

We slipped into Coeur d’Alene today.  What a beautiful place.  Before we started out this a.m on our long trip from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene (17 miles), we stopped into Freedom RV in Liberty Lakes to have them take a look at our RV DirecTV/Winegard satellite problems (couldn’t get it to work).  While we were waiting, we lolligagged around the showroom which had comfy couches and chairs to luxuriate in.  Along came Lord Flautaroy (spelling is not right) in his dungaree suspendered pants.  He had a Fab 4 hairdo from 1963, bangs and all.  And an accent that sounded straight out of the Ozarks even though he and his wife live up the road here.  They go south every winter to a place in AZ I’ve never heard of.  He says it is in a flood plain, where he keeps his other RV there in AZ.  Oh, dear.  What a character.

The RV place fixed our problem and off we went to Idaho.  We are now in an RV park right on the lake.  It is quite lovely.  We like it so much, we have decided to stay here until we have to head back to Portland for the wedding.  Besides this beautiful place, we plan to visit Sandpoint where I will be looking for Nazi sympathizers.  I’ll know them when I see them.  And we want to go further north to Naples, ID.  A friend lives there that we want to visit.  And then there are the 3 muni golf courses in Spokane that we want to play.  So there is plenty to see and do here.   This place has a flouting boardwalk.  Can’t wait to walk on it.  And there are plenty of places to hike.  We plan to take it all in.

So, here I am blogging in bed.  The sheets are clean as I did the laundry today and I discovered a new rule.  If a park has 4 washers, they are always occupied.  If a park has 10 washers, none of them are in use.  And this is a universal truth.

RVing is such a great way to travel.  You meet new people.  Today, we met a couple from New Hampshire.  They are doing the U.S.  Yesterday we met a couple from Texas.  They live in their RV full time.  He was a pilot for the Army and was stationed awhile in Barstow, where my dad used to live.  And this Texan flew out of Ft. Irwin, where my dad worked and I visited more times than I wish to think about.  What a hoot.  They were in a huge diesel pusher (read expensive) and were on the move all the time.  Love the lifestyle and plan to continue their gypsy ways.  I suppose that is really one of the draws.  Meeting people.  Everyone has a story.  Everyone has an opinion.  And because you are all in RVs it’s assumed you have something in common.  Most people have dogs or cats onboard.  Many people have bicycles on the back of their home away from home.

Tomorrow we golf at the famous golf course here.  It has a floating island green which I plan to hit on the first attempt.  It will be memorable.

So wish us luck and come on up to visit.  We’ll be here for a few more days.  I’m sure there are flights.  The weather is great.  Company is better!!

September 29th

Well, we cancelled our golf.  They required us to have a caddie and neither one of us wanted one.  So we booked golf tomorrow at a place near here.  And we drove out to the expensive, world famous golf resort and had lunch overlooking the famous floating green.  Spoiler alert.  No one got on that green the entire time we watched.  Too wicked.

Mystery man and the floating green.

After lunch, we went into the pro shop which had beautiful clothes.  As I was looking, I grew faint and so I ushered myself onto the floor (Ray was in the loo).  I immediately started feeling better but not before the staff came running.  I gave them a fright.  Without a beat, I reported that I grew faint when I looked at the price tag.  That got um going.  So, here’s the good news.  I did not faint.  I did not pass out.  I just got light headed and had the presence of mind to sit myself down on the floor.  Embarrassing, yes.  But, all is well.  My low blood pressure was the culprit, I’m sure.  And I can still type so my brain must be okay!!!

Incidentally, we saved about $245/each plus the tip for the caddie.  And we didn’t lose any balls.  We agreed that if our game was in better form, we might have done it.  But our games are in the toilet and our money is in our wallet.  Tomorrow’s rounds will be $45/pp.  It’s at an Indian Reservation.  We have had lovely rounds of golf at many Indian properties and I’m sure this will continue that trend.

Here’s some info re: this beautiful spot.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d%27Alene,_Idaho

We walked around town and we bought Beau a new collar and his sister, Jaycee, a gift.  Everything is on sale and there aren’t a lot of people here as it is the end of the season.  Perfect to my way of thinking.

Missing you all.

As the sun quickly sets on Spokane, Washington, we are are heading out for dinner.  When we drive and then plan to drive again the next day, that’s what we do.  We eat out.  Quick, easy, no muss, no fuss.

When you are in and out, saving time becomes a priority.  Why gussy the place up when you just have to un-gussy it in the morning for a quick getaway.  And tomorrow, we need a quick getaway because we have an appointment at the Freedom RV storefront in Liberty Lake, Washington.  And why is that, you ask?  Because we cannot get the DVR to see the satellite, or visa versa.  And, lord knows, we want to get DirecTV while we are out roughing it!!  Just because.  I mean, really, people, if you pay all this money to have the niceties of life, then that is what you should have.  And satellites are the way to get it.

So, a quick in and out.

We had such an interesting day today after an interesting day yesterday.  Yesterday we played 18 holes of golf on a golf course that we could actually walk to because it was right next to the RV park.  And it was a lovely course.  It had grass, which is more than I can say about Dairy Creek, our local course at home.  It was inexpensive and it had trees so the golfer could shade up.  Shade is important when walking a golf course.  Even as north as we were in Walla Walla, the sun was intense.  Luckily, most people playing were twosomes so we just zipped along.  It only took about 4 hours to play.  Great day.  I lost but I don’t care.  It was totally enjoyable.

Rayman and trees and grass;

We came back to the RV and barbecued chicken for dinner.  Had a great meal before the big DEBATE.  What an interesting debate it was.  Never in my life did I think that a woman would be this close to the Presidency.  And, by my account, Hillary did what most women do.  In order to be considered plausible a woman must be twice as good.  And she was.  Mission accomplished, Hill.  And that is all I will say about that.

Today, we got up and moved out.  And drove from Walla Walla to Spokane via backroads.  Eastern Washington is mostly rolling hills with no trees.

Miles and miles of this.

Every field has been planted and the crops have been harvested.  Golden is the color of the hills.  Miles and miles of rolling golden hills with no trees.  However, there are lots of windmills, the giant white type that generate electricity.  On all the hilltops, there are these windmills.  It is a very interesting landscape.  Like the plains, with hills, as Rayman describes it.

We passed spots in the road like Starbuck.  Who knew?  And Dayton.  Very cute berg.  But mostly, it was just harvested fields.  A few horses here and there.  Were they wild?  We think so.  But the most impressive sight was the Snake.  It slithered along.  It is such a wide river to be completely awe inspiring.  Remember, my idea of a river growing up was the Salinas River.  Now, I can scoff.  I’ve seen the Snake on the western end.

As we approached Spokane, the treeless landscape became more treed.  Conifers mostly but colorful deciduous trees too.  Spokane, at least on the 90 freeway, looks very industrial.  It was a surprise.  And lots of big churches.  We hear there is a riverwalk but that didn’t happen tonight.  After our gin and tonic, we drove to a place in a strip mall called Hay J’s Bistro and had a fabulous dinner.  Three shellfish risotto.  Yummy.  Rated number one on Trip Advisor for restaurants in Liberty Lake, a suburb just east to downtown Spokane.  Wow.  We were impressed.

Our Washington wine.

Three shellfish risotto

And so tomorrow, we head to the RV dealer and then to Idaho for a few days of golf and perhaps some fishing.  I would love to catch a trout for dinner.

If you rush right up here, I’ll cook you fresh trout with all the trimmings.  Anyone?

It is so frustrating getting, say, up in years.  As has been our whole lives, nothing stays static.  Everything changes all the time.  And that is how it is.  Fine.  However, as we grow older, the changes are coming at such a clip, it is disorienting.  It seems so hard to keep up with the latest stuff.

Case in point.  We have a new Dog House.  It has the latest and greatest electronic stuff (a technical term).  Only, we can’t get anything to work.  Holy, moly.  What the heck?  I spend hours, days, weeks?  I don’t know.  A lot of time trying to stay up with the latest this and that,  And what does it get me?  I still can’t get Netflix on the RV TV.  I still can’t access my DirectV in my RV.

Life almost isn’t worth living.  The debate is tomorrow night and I can’t watch it on my channel of choice.  Deplorable!!

But I digress.

We had a fabulous day today as drove from Tigard, Oregon to Walla Walla, WA.  What a wonderful trip.  We followed the Columbia River and traveled east through the Columbia River Gorge.  And as we moved east, the landscape changed from evergreen conifers to cliffs with nary a tree.  And yet, the grand old river rolled along.  It is sad in a way because they have dammed the river about 270 times.  It doesn’t stand a chance at being a wild woman.  It is stifled.  It is calm.  It is controlled.  It is sad in a way.  But still, it is awesome and beautiful.  I just sort of feel sorry for her, the Columbia River.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/crgnsa

The landscape changes so radically, that it reminds me that rain is a good thing.  As we moved east, the landscape looked like moonscape.  We could have been in Nevada, for heaven’s sakes.  With water.  Perhaps Lake Mead.  Just saying.

And as we moved east, the traffic eased.  The entire trip followed the river as did the train tracks.  On both sides of the Columbia there are train tracks and they are used extensively.  Didn’t count the number trains we saw but it was more than a few.  And at one point, we observed a train coming out of a mountain.  Turns out there was a tunnel and we drove our RV over the tunnel which we would not have known was there if we hadn’t been in the right place at the right time.  Amazing.

It does appear to me that the eastern part of Washington is suffering from a drought.  I might be wrong.  But I might be right.  There are miles of irrigated crops here.  Guess they don’t have to drill down far to reach water with the mighty Columbia nearby.  However, I do wonder about the effects of global warming up here.

We are now in an RV park in Walla Walla.

Welcome to Walla Walla

Tomorrow we will play golf and we can walk to the course.  It is right next door.  We drove to town, about 3 minutes and had dinner tonight.  It was 85 degrees so we ate out on the sidewalk.  So much fun.  Discussed moving to Oregon.  I think we are going to do it.  My family on my dad’s side is here.  Ryan, number one son, is here.  We have had such a good time with them on this trip, it seems the dye (die?) is cast.  I am having a hard time with this but then I think of the wonderful family life we’ll enjoy and I say.  Well, okay.  What the heck.

Change is good.  Except when it comes to electronics.  And then it sucks.

p.s.  the picture at the beginning is my new pair of shoes I bought for the wedding.  Love them.  Hope you do too!!

So, while the Rayman ventures out to the grocery store, I will take to the keyboard.

Another interesting day in the great Northwest, boys and girls.  The sun made an appearance and Beau had an appointment at the beauty parlor.  He was getting a bit, well, ripe.  It was time for a trim, a bath, and various other procedures that groomers do to the canines among us.  And his appointment was high noon which actually is a great time to venture out because the mornings can be quite nippy here.  The afternoons are warm as the ground heats up.

We dropped off our Beaumeister and headed to Silverton, OR which is south of where we are staying.  Most of the trip was on two lane road and we followed it to the beautiful Oregon Gardens of Silverton.  So much fun to see different plant species presented so beautifully on this multi-acre preserve.  Admission for us old codgers was $10 a head.

We wandered through a conifer exhibit.  Conifers that we had never seen before.  Weeping varieties, miniature models, tall skinny trees that looked somewhat anorexic.  Some were green and yellow.  On purpose.  It was sort of a Grand Central Station of conifers and it held our interest.

The grounds also had water features with water in them!!!  And beautiful bushes with flowering flowers (oops, repeating myself).  Lots of lavender, and rosemary.  I plucked some rosemary for my lamb dinner tonight.  Rosemary also might finds way into the potatoes.

But I digress.

We saw a snake!!  A blackish one slithered across our path and into the shrubs.  That was very exciting.  It was only about 14 inches long.

They also had a grove of white oak trees, a strand of oaks that was very impressive.  The granddaddy of them all was a 400 year old specimen.  99 feet and looking healthy as a horse.  Bad comparison but you know what I mean.

The place had a shuttle but we hoofed it (in keeping with the horse reference).  The weather was mild and it was perfect for wandering around the grounds.  While we walked, we discovered an area for ideas on how to garden if you own a cat or dog.  Actually, the whole property is dog friendly.  And where was Beau?  at the beauty parlor.  Probably sitting in a cage waiting for various intrusive acts to be performed on him.  Oh, well, we had 4 hours to kill so this seemed perfect.

There was also a house on the property.  A Frank Lloyd Wright house.  We went to see it but it was closed.  Didn’t know you had to arrange ahead for private tours.  But that was the case.  What a bummer.  It would have been interesting to see.

After walking all around, we grew hungry so we went into the visitor center and discovered that they were serving fresh baked pumpkin pie made from the pumpkins they grew on the property.  That’s we had for lunch.  It was outstanding.

On the way back from our foray to Silverton, Rayman got anxious about getting the dog on time.  He said, “Well, it’s 45 minutes to four.”  Really.  He said that.  In all my days, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone tell time like that.  He is amazing.  I think it’s his dyslexia.  Such a refreshing new way to tell time, don’t you think.  Instead of 3:15, it was 45 minutes to 4.  Very inventive and thinking outside the box.

He left for the store and I may not see him for hours.  The rush hour traffic here is horrible.  Main  highways have stoplights every mile or so.  It’s bumper to bumper.  I wanted to stop on the way to pick up Beau but he said no.  Bad decision.  Oh, well.  Rack of lamb at 8 has a ring to it.  Good thing we had that pumpkin pie or I might waste away to nothing before my next meal.

Today we were to play golf but nature intervened by producing a cloudy, cold morning.  We decided that golf would not be much fun with the weather at hand so we opted out for a trip down to McMinnville, OR to visit the Aerospace and Air Museum.

I saw and read about everything from a plane much like the Wright Bros. invented, to the latest dazzling aerospace wonders.

The Spruce Goose was there and looking fine.  She towers over all in the great hall.  And then there were the Titan missiles, the cockpit of the astronaut’s capsule, and everything in between.  It was interesting as much as it could be for a woman of a certain age.  Guys get all goo goo over this machinery.  I look at all those tax dollars and just moan.

However, I did learn that Oregon was bombed by the Japanese in WWII.  The only place in the U.S. that was hit by the enemy.  And I found out how they deal with human waste in the Shuttle.  There were many pictures of good looking astronauts.  All white men.  I didn’t see Sally Ride.  I didn’t see Amelia Airheart (mispelled intentionally).  They also left off the part of story where Howard Hughes goes bonkers.  And what about that woman astronaut that wore diapers so she would not have to stop on her quest to find her man?  That was interesting but they left that story out of the museum.  So many ways to spice things up to give people a laugh.

They did have pictures of a Soviet woman that went into space.  And because the Russians beat us to the punch initially, their history was in clear view.

I did not see a monkey.  Didn’t a monkey go airborne for the good of the order?

There was a section of planes that all painted black.  AeroNoir if you will.  Rayman worked around SR-71s when he was in the Air Force and one of those black planes was an SR-71.  Quite stealthy looking, if I may say so myself.

There were planes used for training.  Planes used for bombing.  Planes for reconnaissance, planes for snatching capsules out of the sea.  Planes for spying.  Planes for droning.  My, oh, my.

As we were getting ready to leave, there was an exhibit quoting the second amendment about the right to bear arms.  Really?  It had to get political?  That was a turn off.  As a person that grew up around guns and took a hunter safety course, I think it is reasonable to expect that some people should not own guns.  And I see no reason to own an AK-47 for anything other than killing people.  I also think it is a public safety issue to let anyone own a gun.  But, let’s not ruin the tone here like that exhibit obviously did for me today.

After we visited the first terminal of planes (giant hangers is a better description), we walked Beau for a while and then went to La Rambla, a Spanish tapas restaurant in McMinnville.  We eat there every time we visit that cute little town.  Had fish stew.  OMG.  And green beans with blue cheese and hazelnuts.  Oh, and the wine.  Broke down and had wine with lunch.  Muy bueno.

Then we went back and visited the space hanger.  I found it more interesting, I think.  More contemporary, certainly.  It occurred to me that there are people that deny we ever landed on the moon.  Conspiracy theorists.  Can’t understand that.  These are some of the same people that swear you cannot trust the gov’t to do anything right.  But, wait.  if they can’t do anything right, how is it that they would be able to perpetrate the hoax so effectively?  Just sayin’

So, that was the day of flying machines.  Tonight we will watch movie in the Dog House.  Watched an old Gene Wilder movie last night with Donald Sutherland, Start the Revolution Without Me.  It was a gas.  It was a rip on the French Revolution.  King Louis the XIV dressed in a rooster outfit, mumbling that he thought it was a costume party.  One of the bad guys was Count Escargot.  Silly, funny, silly.  In keeping with war time motif, we will watch Syriana tonight.  Rayman will follow the plot line, I will stare at George Clooney!!  Yes, ladies, you know what I mean.