Beaver, Utah

We are staying in a KOA here......it's OK, I guess. I like the parks that have grass, but this one is all gravel. Not too inviting to be outside. Got here yesterday and did a little laundry. Today we went to see Bryce Canyon. Oh my stars!! It is SO SO beautiful!!! We spent all afternoon on about 20 miles on the rim...jumping in and out of the car at viewpoints. Lisa was in charge of the binoculars and she took her job very seriously. She had the strap around her neck and held it firmly in her little hands. There are ravens around and I was lucky enough to actually touch one. He was such an ebony, shiny black and very aware of me, but not frightened at all.
At one vista area, Alan called Kris so I could talk to him from 9300 feet. A few years ago, Kris, David and Jack climbed Mt. Whitney and at the top, they actually called me! This is the closest thing I could do and it was kinda funny because I caught Kris in Target! I so wish he had been with us to see what we were seeing!

Tomorrow, we have a short day travel wise, so we will take our time getting out of here (hopefully, I can sleep til maybe 8!! That would be awesome.) Today was an early day as Alan noticed we had no power...then found that the entire park was out. It's ok now...guess they fixed it while we were gone.

Springville, Utah

This was a nice park with a dog run and a pool, great showers and laundry. We took one day of the 3 we stayed here and went to The Museum of Ancient Life. What a fantastic place!! We had so much fun. Saw a 3D movie on T-Rex that was cool......made you feel like his jaws were inches from your face! Then we walked among the fossils and skeletons of dinosaurs......really fantastic!
Lisa loved the pool, as always. It's good for her...she feels light and agile and she's getting exercise, too. I didn't go in, too cold, but enjoyed sitting in the sun and watching her. We are noticing some problems with her Alzheimers...irritability, refusing to mind and forgetfullness of things she had down pat a year ago. I plan on taking her to the doc when we get back to Camptonville, for sure...it's sad. Still, we know she is really enjoying herself!
Our rear camera went out so we now can't see behind us, It's covered by our insurance so we'll get it fixed once we get to CVille. Also, the satellite drives Alan crazy....working only sometimes and hardly ever recording our shows fully. And that should be covered also. 2 of our blinds need to be re strung, so I'll need to buy a kit online. I hear it isn't hard...just time consuming. 7 years isn't too bad for  cloth, really.

Downey, Idaho

This one is a doozy!! This was a truck stop/RV park. We figured it might be a bit noisey, but it was just one night, so WTH? It had apparently really rained there! We had to unhook the truck and squirrel the coach around  til we found a place to park it that wasn't in a lake!! Finally, we got it and then realized our sewer hose was not long enough. It was raining, we were cold and just decided "screw it....we'll do it in the morning. And that's exactly what we did!! It was a weird place, but, strangely, not noisey at all!! An ok layover place.

Leaving Dillon, MT

We are leaving Dillon tomorrow and we had a good time here. It's a nice park with a river running through it......we have to cross it each time we go to and from the park.WAY better than our last place! The tables/benches were kinda cool.....they could go either way. Woke to snow this AM, but just a dusting...it was gone 2 hours later! Yeah...now that's how snow should behave!
Yesterday was a low day...took care of the laundry and groceries, did some housekeeping. Today, we went to the Big Hole Battleground National Park. The ride out was beautiful. Very isolated. Very "Little House on the Prairie" When we got there, there was a guy working on a buffalo hide.....scraping the fur off. We talked with him and he even let me try it! It's confirmed....I am not squaw material...they had to work too hard!! I came away with a mass about the size of a silver dollar and he let me keep it, too! He told us that the buffalo didn't go any further east than the Rockies, so the Indians on the other side would travel into Montana for buffalo, stay maybe a year and then leave. Each buffalo hide only weighs about 5 pounds and they used 10 to cover their teepees. That way, a horse could easily carry the teepees and all belongings. One hide would work to cover a person and, of course, they were warm. The fur is really soft...not as much as, say, a rabbit, but very soft.
It took 2 antelope hides to make a woman's outfit and we got to feel that, too. It was kind of like a thin chamois cloth.
The Nez Perce tribe was brutally hunted down and attacked at 3:00AM. The soldiers were told to shoot low into the teepees and in that way killed many in their sleep.They didn't care who they killed...men, women or children. It makes me so sad. We watched a 26 min. video on it and it made me cry to see the awful way we whites have treated them. I just don't get how it was decided to take away land from people that had lived there and thrived.What was left of the tribe kept moving, trying to avoid the soldiers and some did make it up to Canada.  As Chief Joseph said on his surrender "I will fight no more forever".  I guess that's kinda me....I am not a fighter and I abhor violence of any kind.
We decided to have lunch in the little (very little) town of Wisdom. (cool name). It was a great little cafe that even had sweet potato french fries! On the way out of town, we stopped and paid our respects in the town's cemetery. Lots of really old headstones and being Memorial Day weekend, it seemed fitting.
Lisa is doing Ok, though she did ask me today when she was going back to school. We are all doing better with being in close quarters.....learning to lean left when someone is going right or needs into a cabinet....stepping into the bathroom to let someone by,..that kind of thing. I still very much miss my house and all my land, but life changes and you just have to flow with it.

We leave tomorrow for Downey, Idaho.

Kinne Adventures!!

As only the Kinnes can do it! LOL! We left Sheridan, WY where it did nothing but pour down rain, thunder and lightening like I have NEVER seen before.We filled the tank "just in case" and met some nice RVers headed the same way and also stopping in Livingston, Montana. Alan came back from paying the lady with a styrafoam cup that we got "for free with fill up" A $250.00 freakin' styrafoam CUP!! LOL!!
Our route to our next stop should have been Hwy 90 the whole way, but it was closed over the mountain due to flooding. So we talked with locals and decided we just had to get out of there and if it was too awful, we'd turn back by the halfway mark and just wait it out. They gave us an alternate route that sounded fine. It WAS absolutely beautiful, that's for sure! We were on Hwy 14 and climbed 9,000 feet with twists and turns like crazy and 3-4 feet of snow on the sides at the summit. I was pretty proud of myself....I kept checking my mirrors and I kept that coach and truck in my narrow lane the whole time. Some of those dang curves were 20mph. The scenery was wonderful and we really enjoyed it. Stopped at a rest stop to have lunch and then back on the road. That's when it all went to HELL!! Montana and Wyoming have two seasons according to the locals......winter and construction. We have driven miles and miles of hwy cut down to one lane for no apparent reason....or there is one tiny thing and still 20 miles of one lane! You know how a dirt road gets rutted when people drive too fast? Ok, now imagine that same road with 6 inch deep ruts all over the road! The speed limit was posted at 35mph, but I never got over 25mph! After about 8 miles of this, I come up on a carload of blue hairs (yeah, yeah, I know, but I don't drive like one!!!). The woman driving is not gonna go over 5 mph, NO MATTER WHAT!! It took me about 3 miles to get mad enough to honk at her and, let me tell you, we have a big honking airhorn! I kinda liked the power!!! She pulled over and we continued for a total of 13 miles of this rutted, crappy dirt and mud road. I felt like my fillings were gonna fall out! It did break the latch on the pantry door, so we'll have to fix that somehow.  Drove about 10 miles longer and realized I really needed a break, so we pulled over and Alan took over from there. Arrived in Livingston maybe an hour and a half later, but not before we had to go thru flooded areas on 90. The Yellowstone River was just raging as were all the little creeks going into it. We even saw some poor schmuck on a motorcycle lined up to go thru 5-6 inches of water......glad we were in a nice high motorhome!
When we got here to Livingston, we were happy to have found it and end the longest day of driving yet, but as we looked around we weren't at all impressed. I couldn't believe my eyes, but there are several tents set up! It is COLD out there at night! The sites are very cramped, supposed pull thru's, but I wouldn't want to try it.
Typically,  when we get to a campground, the person not driving handles the check in, so that was me. I got to the office door only to find a sign saying the manager was in #6 in the mobile homes. What mobile homes?? Took me a minute to realize they were next door! I found #6, stepped around the huge piles of dog shit, climbed the rickety wooden steps and knocked on the slider. At once, the biggest German Shepherd I've ever see was there lunging, barking and growling!! Scared the pee waddle out of me! The manager appears and she was so classic, I couldn't believe it! Housecoat and slippers, cigarette in hand and screaming at the dog. "Yeah?" "yes, hi, we're the Kinnes. we have a reservation?" " Oh, oh yeah (drags on her ciggie). I got a 30 amp pull thru and a 50 amp out there, no sewer" She points to what looks like to be a storage yard....piles of wood and trash, weeds, and gravel. "um, ok, I'll go take a look at it" "Yeah, whatever" and she walks away. Once I got there, I realized it really wasn't too bad and was much larger than anywhere else. I walked back to the office (man, getting some exercise today!) and it's LOCKED! She's apparently gone back to the damn mobile home!! Shit!! So, I trudge back there and I can just tell Alan is looking at me thinking WTH is going on?? I find our lady and her massive dog (still barking and snarling at me) and tell her we'll take the one in the field "Twenty five" she says and holds out her hand. I handed her the cash and went back to the coach. It took a bit of maneuvering and unhooking the truck, but we did it.
Our neighbors were interesting. I honestly try not to judge people, but I do love to people watch. Our neighbor was a class C coach, maybe 25', torn curtains, metal blinds bent so many different ways and sitting in the front 2 seats were at least 3 big dogs and 1 little one! My first thought was "oh, no, these dogs and our Irie are gonna bark all night long!" But we got lucky, the owners came back and immediately pulled down all of their blinds and we never saw them again. No barking, yeah!!
We decided wine was in order and also water, since we were afraid to drink the water here, so Alan took off in search of a grocery store. I locked our door and had the bear spray handy, just in case! LOL! The wine was a nice Californian called Chill Out , cheap and very good! And the name was pretty damn perfect, too!

So, today, we are headed to Dillon,MT ...it's a shorter hop but we may get some snow flurries, so I'll close. Just know that we love you and miss you all, but we are having a ball!! Each and every day brings something new and different or scenery that just takes your breath away.

Spearfish, SD

We decided to take this route home because there were things we wanted to see here that we didn't have time to do before.....unfortunately, it is POURING!!!!! Seems like we've had nothing but rain for 3 weeks. So.... instead, I am doing laundry and we decided to go see Pirates of the Caribbean this afternoon. Out of here tomorrow, back to the campground we liked in Sheridan, Wyoming. After that we'll head south...supposed to be warm there. My Fibromyalgia will love that!
On our way to the last place, Alan swore he saw a camel on the hillside. I was doubtful, thinking a camel wouldn't make it in the harsh winters. I was wrong! His name is Otis and according to the KOA owner does just fine. Crazy! Yesterday, I saw something you would never see in California....a billboard saying WEAR FUR with animals in the background. Ick.

Midland, SD Koa

I drove here from Salem with only the last maybe 75 miles in the rain.....REALLY pouring now. Alan has rubber boots, so he volunteered to set up sewer, water and power. We got lucky....the pad was level!!! Yeah!! The roads here are gravel and most of it is puddles and mud.
The picture of Lisa Alan took while we drove.....my daughter is a nut!! LOL!! Notice the sunglasses OVER her hat!!

We'll be here 2 nights and then we are off.....looks like tomorrow will be a "sit around and read" kinda day....nothing to do around here anyway.