Working on Heading South!

Hi gang!  It has been a little while since my last update...sorry!!  But I've been kinda occupied getting ready to head south and follow the "warmer" weather.

I think I had mentioned that I was getting the charging fixed on Bertha. Well, it is fixed and she is running pretty well for a 40 year old RV!  Battery is charging, cranks every time, and is doing a good job!

I headed south on the 5th, and all has gone well. I'm still in Idaho, close to being out of Idaho! But had a little hiccup in plans...still getting used to being on a "fixed income"...and when some things come along that were not planned.....OR....when something comes along that you've forgotten about, thinking that it had reached the end....you sometimes have to modify your plans!!!  LOL!!!  Well, that's me!

So, I've been camped out for the past few days, and will be camped out for the next 3-4 days. I'll be rolling hard towards Tx on the 16th. And should be in Tx around the 21st or 22nd.

Had a great visit in Challis. Met a lot of great folks that became friends, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again next year when I get back up to this part of the country.

Ernie and Sally, the couple that opened up part of their yard for me to park in, are a really sweet and just plain great couple! Ernie was my guide to see some of the area that after 2 years of camp hosting I had still not been able to go and see!

Now, granted, this time of year, a lot of places are already closed up for the winter months...but you can still see them and have an idea of where and what you will do next time through!

We made a run up to and through Bayhorse Ghost town, which is now operated by the Forest Service. But it is very well done, has good parking and quite a bit to see.

From there we traveled on over to Bonanza & Custer Ghost Towns, with a stop at the old gold dredge that is between them. The dredge is now a museum that is open during the summer months (another place that I will have to get to next season) for visitors.

 

Ernie has been up here long enough that he has a pretty good grip on the area and places to see...and he does love going out into the countryside and getting into those places!

 

And it is really fun when he looks up a road on a hillside and then says...."you think we can make it up there?"  My response was " You know your truck...and as long as I don't have to walk out...have at it!!!"  LOL!

And due to him knowing the area pretty well, there are some fantastic views to be seen!

Now you also know you are out in the country when, as you drive around in Challis, you see "the city deer"! The deer are all over that town! And they are just as comfortable being in your front yard as they are being at the main highway intersection downtown!

And the wildlife out here is just everywhere! From the deer to the antelope to the big horn sheep.

Didn't get a picture, was too late, but one night I even saw a cougar wandering through the trailer park where I was parked.

That pretty well catches me up on what's current with, as one of my new friends calls me, "the transient local"!!

And as soon as my "budget" catches up with me I'll be rolling along south and getting a couple of more updates ready for you....both still shots and I'll also have more video uploaded in the next couple of weeks!

It looks like a mess...but it really isn't...just have to stack and balance in order to get all my stuff in reach to be able to work on my projects!!

I've also had time to "purge" more stuff from out of Bertha! It is amazing when you make the decision to "lighten the load" and simplify...just how much stuff you have that you really never use! It is almost a spiritual feeling to get it gone!!!  LOL!

Take care and be safe!!  C'ya!!!  :-)

Getting ready!

It's laundry day!  And today was blanket & sleeping bag day also!  The little laundromat in Challis is one of the cleanest I've seen in a while! So all clothes cleaned,  sleeping bags also. And of course I forgot to bring the blankets,  so one more run in a little while!

The weather here is "cooling" off!  Calling for teens for lots the next few days & highs only in the upper 50's. So I'm definitely looking at having south.  But it's still HOT in Tx, so I'll be taking my time getting there!

I find it hard to realize that I've been in Challis for a month now!  Time really does by!  And it has been a good stay.  Already looking forward to being back up here next year.  There are a lot of places to still get to & shoot & explore!

I'm planning on pulling out on Saturday, 11/5, and spending about 12 days on the road getting to Tx. I've found and marked several BLM sites to stay at on the way down. Plus I'll probably be stopping at some of my "old overnight spots" from my driving days.

So stay tuned and I'll be uploading pics and videos during the course of the next 2-4 weeks of the trip and what we find on it!!

America...You Need To See It!!

So we are starting!!  This is to let you know what I'll be doing as I travel around the countryside!

America...You Need To See It!!

Hey, hey hey!!!!  Maybe this will work better!!!!!

Challis, ID for a couple of weeks!!

Sitting in the Challis, ID library! Like the little pink pigs!?!?!?!?

Made it to Challis for a few weeks. Have to get Bertha worked and want to do some "sightseeing" in  the area for the video. It is a gorgeous area, with high desert plains to 8,000 ft "hills" (LOL...mountains) and creeks, rivers, canyons...just a really neat area of Idaho!

I will be getting Bertha into the shop around the 19th to have her charging system fixed...then shortly there after I'll be headed for Texas...will do my best to get there by T'day to be with the kids there. Then I'll be headed to Alabama for the Christmas and New Year season...probably be in AL until end of Jan or middle Feb.

The Sawtooths are just spectacular!!!

In case I had not mentioned it...I am now an official member of the "Old Geezer" society! Got into the club on the 18th of August this year! 

Soooo...I also now have my "Senior Access" card for the Nat'l Forest & Parks system. For those of you that don't know what that means....most all the Federal camping areas are now half price for me AND I get into all the Parks, Monuments, etc.....FREE! Going to make good use of that card!

Went for a drive this past Monday with Earnie...went West into the mountains next to Challis...and it was gorgeous! I'll get some pics uploaded in the next couple of days...soon as I get the uploaded from my phone!

Since I started this update...I've let a week go by and I've been on another ride with Ernie. We went east this time and rode up to "TV Tower" mtn...and what a view from there!!

The picture above is a little hazy, but almost in the middle of the shot is the city of Challis, ID. It's the county seat of Custer County, and a really neat little town. The population is somewhere around 1,000-1,300...the perfect size as far as I'm concerned!!  

 Below is a look across the valley at "The Twin Sisters" Peaks. And as you can tell, winter is about to be upon us here! But no matter what season, the views here are just outstanding!!

We traversed across the mountains into the Pahsimeroi (Pah-sim-ah-roy) Valley...and it is just move beautiful views and....

ELK!! All over the place if you wait for them to come out!! When Ernie & I went looking for them, no luck. We took a break behind/around a small hill off the main road, for about 20 min, and when we came out, the empty field across from where we turned in was now full of elk!!  LOL! The herd must have had about 125+ head in it! Beautiful!

Then as we were headed back into Challis, decided to take a short detour towards Stanley and see if we could see any of the Bighorn Sheep that "are supposed to be in the hills" right outside of Challis. Well, I have been running back & forth on Hwy 75 for 2 summers and have not ever seen one of those critters along the road or on the hillsides. But look what we found about 1.25 miles in, right on the side of the highway!!! They are really beautiful creatures!

  Just the other evening we had an awesome sunset with the clouds looking like they were just glowing!!! It was a great view!!

I do not remember this, but I was in the middle of changing living areas/styles! But it did some real damage to the state and the area. The picture below shows the plate drop/shift that in some places exceeded 7.5 feet!

But even with all that damage to the land, it didn't hit any major population areas too badly, which is a good thing. But when I read that the plain basin is widening about 1/2 inch each year...that is amazing! And that means that there will be another shaker!!

I just did my first "upload" to my YouTube channel...it is just the header for the video work I will be doing as I travel....not bad...I'm just so far behind the power curve on this social stuff I'm kinda like a fish out of water or in rapids I can't jump over!  LOL!  Let's hope the link works!!!

Just did another post from youtube app....IT WORKED!!!  LOL!

Have a great week and more to come in a few days!!! 

On The Road Again!!!

Technically I'm back on the road again! Closed down Sunny Gulch and am now "retired"!!  So I have no true itinerary! So I'm sitting at Mormon Bend Campground visiting with Kevin and just winding down from a long summer!

Next week I'll be going to Challis and getting Bertha maintenance done and she'll be charging again. The I'll do a little site-seeing & more relaxing and a little more maintenance on Bertha, and I'll be headed south!!

It was a good summer, and overall a very enjoyable season! Had many good, actually, great campers! And I will hate not seeing them next year, but it is time for me, Abbie & Snickers to get on the road and start to build up the "America, You Need to See It! video adventure that I have been wanting to do for....oh...the past 25+ years!!  We'll definitely be running the back road from now on and trying to share the other side of the USA that so many folks have forgotten about...the backbone of the country!

RRMofA Potluck lunches!

We had a LOT of rain and runoff this season.

The skies are grand!

Stanley, ID...Come be under a rainbow!!

I had LOTS of great campers this year!

But the season has come to a close and the winter cold is coming, so it is time for being back on the road seeing what all I can! But there's nothing like taking time to just sit and enjoy the mountains of Idaho!!

At least I just about look the part for living in the mountains all the time!!! And being on the road full-time!! I must admit...I do love it!!!

But time to say Bye-Bye to the Sawtooths and Stanley...until next year! I'll be back to visit in the summer and next year I'll be making tracks up to the northern end of the state on the By-Ways!!

Stay tuned for more of the adventures of Frog, Abbie & Snickers!!

Camping Season Ending!

The camping season is coming to an end! This coming weekend is Labor Day Weekend. I'm in the process of packing and getting ready to travel back to Texas and Alabama. I'm plotting a route that will take me through ID, UT, WY, CO, NM & TX in the next few weeks. And I'm already shooting video to start using for showing the "backroads of the U.S." so keep an eye open for upcoming video podcasts on my blog and the FaceBook page "America, you need to see it!"

Fire Still Growing! And Smokey Days Again!

For those of you that don't have a need to follow my FB Sunny Gulch page updates, I thought I give you the link and let you have an idea of the size of the fire here.   I tried a link here...didn't want to work...so if you're interested in seeing my updates on the FB Sunny Gulch page I created, just search on FB for "Sunny Gulch Campground". I've been updating my campers for several weeks about the fire, even have some decent pics on there of the smoke and this camp! 

Still Smokey..but Good Days Also!

It has been a long couple of weeks. The big fire ( the Pioneer Fire in the Boise Nat'l Forest) is still burning...and burning quite well!  It is up to 71,000+ acres. Needless to say, we have had our share of smoke and ash here. And we are still 30-40 miles away from the main body of the fire.

Over the past week, I have had several campers cut their stays here short due to the amount of smoke in the air and it making them uncomfortable, and even have breathing issues, due to the amount of it that comes in every evening.

AND...I'm down to about 4 weeks and I will be done for the season, probably. I have not even been half full at least 4 out of seven nights for the past two weeks. That really is telling that the season is basically over.  Schools are starting all over Idaho during the next two weeks, so folks are not coming out, time to get ready for the new school year!

And I've about reached my limit for social interaction for the year!  LOL!  I'm ready for some time of personal introvert activity deep in the woods!!!  Heheheheh!  And I'm in the perfect part of the county to do just that!!! Before the winter snows settle in for the winter! I'm not in the frame of mind to endure -45 degrees any longer!!

That about brings me up to current with what is happening here in Idaho!  I'll try to do an update later this week again!  :-)   C'ya!!

A Smokey Weekend at Sunny Gulch!

(Note....This update was supposed to supersede the earlier update made today! Gotta love technology!!!)

Hi gang....it started as a really nice weekend yesterday....and then.....the smoke started rolling in from the fires in Boise Nat'l & Idaho City. The Sawtooths have "disappeared" several times in the past 24 hours!  In fact, they are gone now as I type! The wind changed again and the mountains disappeared in about 5 hours!  And there is also ash falling again. So it is becoming rather not so fun being outside. Which I hate for my campers!  But that is what happens when you are in the "wild forest"!!

It has also be in the high 80's to 90 for the past week! Which up here is HOT!!! But there is supposed to be a "cold" front moving thru the next couple of days, so I'm hoping that it will cool off quite a bit!!  I come north to get away from the high heat of the southern areas!

Besides that, I am still throwing away stuff and selling stuff. As I think I mentioned before, Bertha has stage four wiring harness cancer and she will very possibly not be leaving Idaho this year!  I'm starting to save up to replace her in the spring. Will be spending time in TX, AL, MI & WI this winter. Might work a bit.  But mainly getting ready to start my "wanderings" this next year! Want to get on the road and start working on my "video blogs" about the little places in the USA that today's fast pace of life passes by each day.

Even as busy as it has been here in Sunny, I still have quite a bit of time to slowly go thru stuff and decide what is NOT needed for my lifestyle, and I am really thinning out my posessions here in Bertha. I'll be headed south with a short U-Haul trailer (if Bertha stays up here), and being up here so far from any major stores or population centers & being where getting something delivered is not always so easy.  So, even after all these years of my saying that material things were not very important to me....I'm getting the chance to actually follow thru on that way of thinking and living!

So stay tuned for the continuing saga of "The Truckingfrog's Navigation thru Retirement"!!

Pioneer Fire slowing camping

The Pioneer Fire, which has grown to 48,000+ acres, is slowing down the camping here in the SNRA. Yesterday the smoke was not as bad as it was on Sunday and Monday. But it still rolled in during the afternoon. I have not been full for 3 nights now, and it is not looking real good for the weekend. And I don't blame the campers. You can smell the smoke, and the ash is rough on folks that have any breathing issues. Probably not too good for any of us when you think about it!  LOL!  The Forest Service daily post about the fire is calling for total containment date of 15 September. So that is close to the time of the season that we either close down or are close to closing down for the season. So most likely it will put a dent in the number of campers that I have for the rest of the season. :(

But I'm still clearing out stuff and thinning out what I carry around with me. But downsizing is really easy once you get over the initial shock of throwing out stuff! And when you get honest with yourself about what you actually need and use on a daily or weekly basis, the number and quality of things that you have in your "collection" of needed living items, and what is actually necessary for daily life....it is truly amazing how little we actually have to have to survive!!

It is about time for my morning rounds here in Sunny Gulch...the first of several "rounds" I do each day. I have had mostily quiet and  easy campers this summer, which has overall made it a pleasant summer. Just have those few that really have no need to be out here in the woods!

I'll add a couple of pics to this update when I go into town and have better connection! Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll have more to add later!

Busy Days!

Hey folks....if you're planning on coming up to the SNRA for the weekend,  Sunny & Red Fish are staying pretty well full. I might have a couple of sites open in the morning, but I'm full by afternoon, if it takes that long! 

We're having some smoke in the air from the Idaho City & Boise fires, & we're under a "High Fire Chance" warning, it's been windy & very dry.

So if you're coming out for the weekend, be prepared to have to hunt for a site!

A strange start to the season!

It has been a really different season so far this year...in fact...Sunny is probably behind last year's numbers by close to 50%! Part of the problem is the weather...today has seen some sun, but it has mainly rained with two times of sleet/ice falling on us!  The low tonight is supposed to be in the low 30's and that will be the low for the next several nights.  And we have some fresh snow on the peaks and it rained most of the day a couple of days ago. 

It is also a fact that gas is $1.20+ a gallon cheaper at this time than it was last year, and when I ask my "one nighters" where they are headed, they are usually headed a fairly long distance away....taking trips that they have put off for several years due to the price of fuel.

But the 4th of July weekend was a good week and weekend, my headcount for the week totaled about 1,007 folks...so it was a full and busy week/weekend.  But it has since fairly well died down. So overall I am enjoying the slower pace and just almost acting like a camper!  :-)

The other evening I was sitting in the golf cart, just relaxing, and got the feeling that I was being watched! So as I looked around the site, I realized that there were a pair of eyes peeking at me thru the young trees on the front side of my site....and guess what I saw.......

 

this little guy was standing there looking at me! Nice looking 6 pointer (if you're in Idaho, he was a 3-by-3).  He then did about 4 turns in place and bedded down for a nap!

 

 A couple of my campers have seen 3 elk come thru the campground late in the evening...those I have not seen yet....but I keep watching out for them!

This coming Wednesday I am headed for Challis, ID to have the valve cover gasket replaced on Sidekick. Hopefully there is a shop in Challis where I can get a "spa day" for Abbie (she really needs one!!), and I am going to go look at some old travel trailers. I'm considering moving "down" to a small trailer that Sidekick would be able to haul. It will help my SS budget go a lot further! And it would let me get into a lot of places that you just have a hard time getting a class C into it.

So things just keep sliding along here in Idaho..I am enjoying the cool weather...I apologize to all of you in TX, AL...even MI....but I can also truthfully say....I am not missing the heat!!!!!

Take care and I will try my best to update a little more often!!

C'ya!  :-)

"Cool nites"...Nice Days!

It has been really nice weather here for the past week....you guys are-missing- out on some really good camping weather!

If you're coming-out for the Fourth....come early as possible in the week..I'm hoping to be full!!!

C'ya then!