WATCHING NEVADA GO BY

Friday, was the day to drive through the rest of eastern Nevada. Although we only had around 360 miles to do it took us about 7 hours. It's a slow climb for us. Many parts are flat but the gradual climbs really slowed us down. 

That gave us lots of time to watch Nevada go by. 

We always travel without music, it's only been Nevada in the past that has broken us down to find something to listen too.

It's a great route though. We call it the Idaho Express because of the predominately Idaho license plates that we drive by. If you are headed north its a good alternative to the I15 through Salt Lake City.

Pulling out of Pahranagat we stopped in Alamo for gas. To take this route you really need to be on your gas levels. Between Alamo/Ash Springs and Jackpot there are only three other places to fill up.

We need to stop for gas every time it is presented to us - Alamo, Ely, and Wells.

We first head up the 93 then turn left on the 375 slightly to get on the 318 north. We stopped briefly at Sunnyside - the first of two rest areas along this route.

A very subtle landscape although there are surprises now and then. 

The most snow we saw to this point. This is just south of Ely - the place where there is usually snow along the road when we come through in March. 

It's a bit of a climb to Ely - the summit is close to 7,000 ft.

At Ely we get back on the 93. North of there comes the Heeby Jeeby town. Looks like it is as Heeby Jeeby as ever. We started calling this town by that name years ago when we first came through - it is such a forlorn looking place. 

This building doesn't help. We figure that this town would be a great place to shoot horror movies - it has a weird feel about it.

This is the Pony Express rest area further north. We used to stop at this one when we stayed the night in Wells but if we want to make it to Jackpot there is no time to stop.

Our traveling buddy for a few hours.

We've just turned west at Lagas. Funny that there is a gas sign there because there hasn't been a gas station since Ely.

Hole in the Mountain Peak in the distance.

Finally, we made it to Wells. I find the drive from Lagas to Wells the toughest - I swear that someone keeps moving Wells back as we move closer.

As we moved north the clouds appeared.

It was starting to look ugly. Hopefully we weren't driving into THAT!

We made it to the Cactus Petes RV Park around 4:30pm. It was a long day of driving. Last time we stealth camped in Jackpot but this time we splurged - it was going to be cold overnight. Well worth the $18 to plug in.

Not the best picture but there were a lot of RVs with us for the night.

Saturday morning and we lost an hour right away at the border. Good thing we only had about a three hour drive to get to Nampa.

Just west of Twin Falls we take highway 30  - the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway. This is main street Buhl. The weather was much worse when we came this way in March 2012.

This is one of our favourite routes over the years.

Now back up and heading west along I84 through southwestern Idaho.

Knowing there were three girls to play with in Nampa Idaho, Cassia was pretty restless throughout the trip. Not long after lunch we arrived to our good friends place in Nampa.

556 miles (I know it says 916 miles - not sure why!) in two days - another long ride. 

Add that to the 863 from Bisbee and we had totalled 1,419 miles or 2,283 kilometres in 4 days. 

Time for a rest.

And we've had it.

It's been a blast at our friends place since Saturday, we haven't visited them in two years.

Great people, good food, sofas and chairs and a real bed!

An 8 year old friend for Cassia.

More good news!

We are able to move into our new home a few days early!

So - we are going to continue our trek north come Thursday to enter into Canada on Friday. We'll head a few hours north of the border to our new posting.

Are we excited?! 

We have no idea when we'll have our internet hooked up there, so we might be missing for awhile. Cassia and are headed to Vancouver Island for the third week of March to visit with my family. 

The good news is that when we are back on line we'll have a lot to tell you about plus all the pictures of our new home!

Until then…..

Teresa

Snake River Canyon - Nampa, Idaho

It was a beautiful day for a Sunday drive. Our friends J and K suggested a ride out to Snake River Canyon south of Nampa. It gave them a chance to go for a spin on their bike and for us to test our recently fixed truck out on the road.

We are excited to announce that our truck is almost finished. Mike has been great and spent Friday replacing our tie rods (which really needed doing) and our power steering pump. We just need to go get a front wheel alignment on Monday and we will be good to go. AND Derek finally solved our trailer break issue with a new magnet from the guys at Interstate next door and he did an oil change. So Tuesday we should be on our way east and south.

The trail to the overlook.

To get to the canyon today we traveled through a beautiful area of first hobby farms which gave way to larger scale crop and dairy farms. Soon civilization fell away to be replaced with open grasslands and sage - just what we like! The sound of nothing.

Cassia learning about the large birds found in the area.

The view to the left.

The view to the right.

From the parking lot it is just a short walk to the canyon overlook - much to the disappointment of Roofous who had to remain on his leash this time around. The view was magnificent with all of the fall colouring of the grasslands and shrubs - I love the golden colour of fall grass! The sun was warm on our backs - what a real treat for the end of October.

Cassia enjoyed climbing on the volcanic rock.

A man and his dog - gee Derek looks a bit scary here - ha ha.

Our good friends J and K on their bike. 

Just can't beat the USA for beer! Yes, we can great some really good micro brews back at home but the selection here is great as well. I am not the biggest beer drinker but like to try the unique. Derek found Harvest Pumpkin Ale from Blue Moon Brewing Company which is comprised of "vine ripened pumpkin and flavors of clove, allspice and nutmeg." It is pretty good - I like it -  but to be honest I cannot taste those flavors!

Today's Interesting Link: While cruising around the internet last night I happened upon 'Becoming Minimalist'  by Joshua Becker - I took a quick look around. The 2 articles I have enjoyed  most so far were are under the most popular posts category - 35 Gifts your Children will Never Forget and Why Fewer Toys will Benefit your Kids  - boy do I agree with him!!!

Thanks for visiting!

Nampa, Idaho - in a holding pattern

It has seemed strange these last few days to not post a blog entry - just as I was getting warmed up with our trip thus far. The problem is that when here at our friends - we seem to do a whole lot of nothing.....we stay up late and get up late and spend the rest of the time catching up on some tv and movies - we have become real couch potatoes. Cassia has a living room about twice the size of our cabin to run around and oh so many new toys and even a tent to play in.

In addition to stopping in to visit our friends here our other goal was to get some much needed work done on our truck - we need new tie rods and a power steering pump. Since the extended family here is mechanically inclined we figured that if we were going to hand over some $$ to get them fixed we may as well pass it on to someone we know.  Also, our friend J. has been called away on a job for 3 days - so just as we were starting our visit he has been gone. Although we are in the best of hands with his wife K. who is a very generous hostess!

Cassia enjoying a visit with the bunny.

Our friends live not far from the Warhawk Air Museum and Nampa Airport. This provides us with a nice area to walk to during the day and after dinner - particularly when there are some planes around. Yesterday on our way back 2 very large jets flew over us which we haven't experienced since our Holtville days last winter when jets and planes of all sorts fly over constantly. The other night when we were there we spoke with a local man who had just gotten out of a plane - he had just come from the Hell's Canyon area. He lives locally and works in the sugar beet industry.

I'm sure Derek would love to go for a ride!

For me this 'holding pattern' is no problem and it seems to have little affect on Cassia of course. I figure we have the next 6 months to travel and so a few more days wait is ok. The third member of our family however is a very restless type who can't wait to get back on the road. Utah awaits and in the back of our minds we are thinking about the weather - will it stay nice for the next while - is it going to snap cold? We are so looking forward to hiking around the Moab area that we are a bit restless to go there - me included.

Today's interesting link: I have recently found this really great site and thought to pass it on to all your travelers out there - I am sure we will be using it a lot! The mapquest gas price site - which gives national and local prices for gas. I have been using it to see what kind of prices we can expect during our trip. Since we go through so much gas it is something that is at the forefront of our minds - although nothing we can do about.

This just in from Travel with Kevin and Ruth - they suggest GasBuddy to check prices -  the Gas Price Heat Map is very informative.