Russ and Kappys' Adventure 2017

Yay!!  We made it.  Only a couple of flat tires and a shattered trailer window.  Thank God we were so lucky.  We traveled a total of 11, 555 miles which only goes to show you that we took the circuitous route on mostly 2 lane highways. This morning I got a run in -- only 5400 feet of elevation in Elko -- and at the end of my run I took these 2 pictures. The kind of places we haunt Elko, NV The rest of the day was about 289 miles of smoke and highway 80.  We arrived home around 4pm and after the initial transfer from the trailer to the house, we were visited by Chuck Jackson, Omar Jackson, Montana and Cohen Mitchell for pizza dinner.   We sat outside on the back deck and can only describe the Reno evening as "balmy".  One of the greatest compliments I can give an evening.   So glad to be home.  But, in a way, it is kind of like post-partum depression.  I am left with the feeling, "is that all there is?"  This trip...

Greeted in my adopted state of Nevada this afternoon by a beautiful rainstorm which I am sure everyone welcomes here in these here parts.  Of course this rain did not come until AFTER Russ and I had spent an hour at a car wash getting the dusty, dirty mung off the trailer.  The truck still has to be attended to however. We were up early this morning to clear out of our beautiful campsite in the Sawtooth Mountains and head on a long 6 hour run to Elko.  We were helped by the fact that the time changed (not so my techy watch) when we crossed the border from Idaho to Nevada.  The change in scenery was astounding, crossing from mountains and evergreens to high desert and sage brush.  We actually went through an area in Idaho that resembled the moon -- interestingly enough it is hope to the Crates of the Moon National Monument.  The volcanic activity here eons ago had to have been amazing.  Sorry, no pictures.   You will just have to check it out her...

  This morning I remembered why I had told myself not to bother running over 7000 feet.   Pooh.   Had to stop a couple of times.   Ceilidh kept looking at me with that expression that said “Are you all right?’   I made it.   Tail tucked between my legs.   Live to run another day.   Russ made me almost exactly the breakfast I was fantasizing about on my run.   An almost frittata of left over sausage, cheese, onions, tomatoes and eggs with a little Slap your Momma spice.   Oh and did I forget to mention?   A couple of pieces of his own bacon.   Lots of protein and just a bitty of fat.   Just what the doctor ordered.   Breakfast over, we hit the road for Ketchum on the chance that we might meet up with Buzz and Luanne Mandeville.   I had no idea whether or not they were in town but I did know that if I failed to try to contact them, there would be hell to pay (or at least a few hurt feelings).   Cell...

How lucky can a girl get?   Today we left our campground on the Salmon River Campground along the Salmon River and  drove along the scenic Salmon River byway in Idaho and mostly endured increasing smoke.   We had planned to camp on highway 21 just the western side of the Sawtooths but as we drove down that highway we just kept sinking deeper and deeper into eye-burning smoke.   I asked Russ, can we turn around and go back to Hwy 75 – which we had passed and where the smoke seemed less (at least we could see that the sky had a blue tint).   He said, "whatever you want.  "  So we did it and this time it was the right move.   First we stopped at this campground that was called “Glacier View” on the Redfin Lake.   Should have known, there was cell service there, way over-crowded and just not what I was looking for to spend 2 of the last 3 nights on our trip (last one will be in Elko where we can have Basque food and full hookup...

Yep, that's right and I am looking forward to my house and comfortable bed and green backyard. What a journey it has been.  We are now in North Fork on the Salmon River and the temperature is 93 degrees.  My skin is crawling off of me.  My nose is bleeding from the dryness and my eyes are stinging from the smoke which has been with us for the past 3 days.  I fear that it will continue as we travel towards Reno.  When I think of the differences in weather across the country it astounds me. I cannot leave today without mentioning how devastated I am about what is happening in Texas.  Hurricane Harvey has been a force to be reckoned with.  I am so saddened by the trials my fellow countrymen and their pets are having to go through.  I don't know what I would do under the circumstances except, like them, survive.  If there is one place in this country that can weather this storm it is Texas.  Look out Harvey because as the saying goes: "D...

Took my time getting out of bed this morning.   Spent a bit of it with the book I am reading:   The Road to Jonestown .   Boy, Jim Jones was really influential in California, wasn’t he?   Who knew he was friends with Angela Davis, George Moscone and Willie Brown?   Mr. Wacko.   Can you believe all of his parishioners thought he was god?   I guess he used props like chicken guts to perform miracles by   removing   “cancerous tumors.”   Some of the stuff he did, I must say, took a lot of imagination – on both his part and his believers.   I guess it is easy to see how evil and misguided he was in retrospect.   I just don’t think I ever would have followed that man --- but you never know. Anyways, today was a quiet, nap, hike and almost swim day.   I wanted to take a dip in Park Lake.   I even went so far as to put my swim suit and water shoes on but when I got there, the wind was so cool and the water not so warm...