Tag: Idaho

Day 20 – Utah, Idaho and Oregon

We’ve started retracing our steps heading back home. The plan today was to go from Snowville, Utah to Pendleton, Oregon.

It’s a 6.5 hour trip BUT…we get to cross a time zone so we gain an hour. It’s much nicer going this way because losing an hour sucks. Although honestly, by 9pm we were tired because it would have been 10pm. Or maybe it’s just exhausting navigating 4 people and their feelings and emotions inside of a truck and trailer for 3 weeks.

I was up by 7:30am and made coffee and set the trailer straight. I actually LOVE the simplicity and straightforwardness of trailer living. Everything has a place. You only have what you need. You use something, you put it back in its place so it’s easy to find when you need it next. It’s easier to do that on a small scale. I need to find a way to scale that for our house. I do have lots of things set up like that but it’s harder to stay on top of it when it’s a larger home and there are more people involved.

We got on the road just after 10am. The boys are ready to go home. They miss good internet and the comfort of their own bedrooms. First world problems.

We stopped for gas at a station in Sublett called “Middle of Nowhere” and they had a pen on the property with goats and alpacas and donkeys. They were adorable. It was a nice surprise and opportunity to stretch our legs and see cute animals.

We carried on driving through Idaho. We had the most fabulous tailwinds and just cruised our way through Idaho toward Oregon.

Between navigating Google Maps (like a boss), planning our routes, booking RV sites, writing blog posts and looking up interesting facts of information about our travels; I have also knit or crochet 5 dishcloths. I’ve even tried patterns that I’ve never made before. Crazy, right?

We’ve also listened to a variety of podcasts while on the road. From murder mysteries, to unsolved mysteries, medical mysteries, stand up comedy, talk shows and even the above one about women of the Wild West. It’s been an eclectic mix interspersed with current pop hits, country music, classic rock and our favourite, radio roulette. You just keep hitting the button until something comes on clear.

The weather has been pretty good for us but we can definitely tell that we are getting closer to the Pacific Northwest. It’s colder and wetter and there’s a whole lot more evergreens than we have seen. The skies have been cloudy and stormy looking for most of today. Still beautiful in their moody brooding way though.

Siah exclaimed, “Well, this looks familiar.” as we approached Pendleton. He didn’t mean the city but the landscape as we were passing through forests of evergreens interspersed with packs of snow on the ground. It definitely looks like home.

We pulled into the Pendleton KOA around 5:30pm and off towards the Blue Mountains a storm was looming. We even got a storm warning on the weather app. There was a gorgeous double rainbow that Jon called us outside to see.

We ordered pizza delivery to our campsite – how fun is that – and even watched a few shows that we had previously downloaded. We hunkered in expecting the storm to blow through overnight but it, thankfully, missed us.

It was a quiet night and we only have a few more days ‘till we’re home. This time has been such a gift and we have so many incredible memories that we will treasure for a lifetime. I’m so grateful that we were able to do this.

Day 3 – Idaho

We woke up in Pendleton, OR; had breakfast, packed away the beds and Jon washed a few dishes before we hit the road.

We are getting pretty efficient at packing up and hitching up the trailer. We got on the road around 10:30am and headed towards Idaho.

Day 3

There has definitely been a learning curve to this whole RVing adventure. We encountered massive headwinds which drastically reduced our fuel economy. As we passed Baker City, we looked at our fuel and thought, we can totally make it to the next gas stop. Ha ha ha

Jon was white knuckling it as we swerved all over the highway. The wind was brutal and had massive gusts of crosswinds. We watched the gas gauge drop faster than the Hellevator on a summer day at the PNE. We cheered as we saw a huge GAS sign off the highway. We took the exit, pulled under the overpass and searched for the gas station.

Nothing! There was no gas station in sight. We saw a road crew truck and asked where the nearest gas was and he said it was either back at Baker City or possibly at Huntington.

We got back on the highway and Jude pulled out his phone and said there was a gas station at Huntington. Siah reached over and hugged Jude for finding the gas station. It was an epic moment of family bonding and panic.

Based on the info from Jon’s truck we might make it or we might need to park on the side of the road and unhook and just drive the truck in to get gas…..or the third option was to just drive as far as we could and hoof it maybe 2 kms to the gas station.

We had options. It was a glorious stomach clenching, breath holding 15 minutes. And the worst was when the truck stopped counting the kilometres left and just said low gas.

As we rounded the final corner into Huntington and saw the little old gas station with its one pump – but 4 Tesla charging stations? – we cheered, breathed a sign of relief and then all three of the guys hoped that it had enough for us to fill up.

We filled up, used the restroom, grabbed some food from the trailer and started the final leg into Idaho.

As an FYI, Jons truck holds 25 gallons and he filled it with 24.2 gallons. That’s closer than we’d ever like to get again.

Note to self, make sure you know where the gas stations are on the trip. And fill up earlier than necessary.

We made it into Idaho and hit 1000kms travelled. Pretty exciting, eh?

I am LOVING the scenery. The rolling hills, the blue skies , the open spaces. It’s so beautiful.

We made it to Twin Falls and had reserved a spot at Rock Creek RV Park. The boys said this was their favorite spot so far. It was less RV park and more parking lot with power but there was grass and trees and pathways and a tiny river and it was in a little canyon in the middle of town surrounded by rocky hills that Siah climbed. We got unhitched and plugged into power but there was no running water or Sani dump to connect to.

After dinner we went for a walk. That’s a weird aspect of travelling. I’m used to getting in 10,000 steps or more per day and I’d be surprised if I hit 4000, even with our walk.

We’ve seen a few tumbleweeds as we drove and Jude was excited to find one in the campsite. It was big and prickly and SO light.

It started to get cold so we headed back to the trailer, played a few games, made oven s’mores and got ready for bed.

The boys have always surprised me with how well they travel, given how much they seem to crave routine and familiarity. Jon has been a rock star of dependability and strength and it’s been a great couple of days. I’m looking forward to the rest of our adventure. We are aiming for Utah tomorrow. Woot!