Tag Archives: Idaho

The Long Drive with the Long Trailer

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I move my mobile mansion from Wenatchee to Lake Powell.

I’ve been traveling for the past week or so, starting in Wenatchee Heights, WA and ending in Phoenix, AZ.

Day 1I left Wenatchee Heights with my 5th wheel RV hooked up behind my husband’s Chevy pickup. The first day’s drive was relatively short: from Wenatchee Heights to Walla Walla, a distance of only 190 miles. Only a small portion of the drive was on a freeway (I-90); the rest was on back roads through farmland.

It rained for part of the drive, but never enough to make the road slick. I took my time. The trailer weighs in at 15,000 pounds and although it tows well, I can never really forget that it’s back there.

At Walla WallaIn Walla Walla, I stayed at the Blue Valley RV Park. It was a relatively pleasant place, with average sized RV spots, full hookups, picnic tables and grass. The trees were too young to give shade, but I bet they’ll be nice in about 5 years. The main building had a pool table, laundry room, and restrooms. Everything was clean and the place was quiet. I got some laundry done, wrote an article for AircraftOwner Online, and relaxed.

I had dinner at two excellent local restaurants: T. Maccarone’s and Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen. It was nice to have a change of scenery. I was there for four nights. The wine with my dinner at T.Maccarone’s is what sent me to Dusted Valley Winery for a tasting, where I bought four bottles of wine.

Day 2 of the DriveOn Friday night, I got the trailer hooked up again and mostly ready to go. I needed to be on the road early for the next leg of my trip: from Walla Walla, WA to Draper, UT (south of Salt Lake City), a distance of 606 miles. I was on the road not long after dawn. The route took me south almost to Pendleton, OR, then onto I-84 through Oregon and Idaho and down into Utah, where I picked up I-15. The landscape started with farmland, then mountains, then more flat farmland, then more mountains, and then finally into the Salt Lake basin. I’d driven the route before with my underpowered Ford F150 pickup towing my old 22-foot Starcraft. It wasn’t fun then; Saturday’s drive was much more tolerable. I stopped three times for fuel and twice for food. It was very unlike me to make so many stops; I usually try to get food and fuel on the same stop, but the situation made that tough. I rolled into Draper, UT’s Camping World parking lot at 6:15 PM local time, just 15 minutes after the store closed. I’d called the week before and knew I could park out back, so I did. I even got to hook up 50 amp power.

Ann TorrenceOn Sunday, @AnnTorrence picked me up for a drive to Ft. Bridger, WY. There was a Mountain Man Rendezvous there with hundreds of people in period clothes set up with period campsites. The “period” was apparently mid 1800s. Ann was there to take photos and research a possibly future book project. I was there to take pictures and look around and have a day off from driving. I didn’t take a single photo, although I carried my camera bag around all day. Well, that’s not true. I did use my BlackBerry to take this shot of Ann. She, in turn, used her iPhone to take a shot of me with my only purchase: a genuine raccoon skin, which I hope to turn into a hat.

After a very pleasant lunch at Cafe Trio in Salt Lake City with Ann and her husband, Robert, I went back to their house to relax on the front porch. @BWJones showed up and I finally got to meet him in person. After a tour of the garden, Ann and Robert returned me to Draper for the evening. Again, Camping World had just closed for the day. No one had left any notes on the RV or truck (which was still attached) and the power was still connected. Alex the Bird entertained us for a while.

Day 3Monday — Labor Day — was my last drive day. I drove from Draper, UT to Page, AZ, a distance of 370 miles. I got a very early start, pulling out of the parking lot at 6:30 AM local time. By the time I stopped for fuel two hours later, I’d already gone more than 100 miles. (I parked with the big rig trucks and discovered that my rig was about as long as theirs.) This part of the drive was mostly on I-15, but started east on route 20 to Highway 89, which took us all the way to Page. The roads were mountainous and there was a lot of climbing and descending. There were also a lot more vehicles on the road, making driving a bit more of a chore.

Thunderbird RestaurantThe only food stop I made along the way was at the Thunderbird Restaurant at Mount Carmel Junction. The place is a bit of a tourist trap, but it does have good “ho-made” pies (whatever that means). Odd thing happened when I tried to leave. They couldn’t give me a bill because the computer was down. Apparently no one knows how to do basic math. All I had was a piece of pie with ice cream and an iced tea. They apparently expected me to wait until the computers came back online. With Alex the Bird in the front seat of the car, that was not an option. Finally, my waitress disappeared into the kitchen where she may have used her “lifeline” to get help with this difficult math problem. The verdict was $7.79. I was afraid to count my change.

I arrived at the Lake Powell Resort just west of Page, AZ at around 11:30 local time. I’d been on the road for 7 hours.

Mike and PlaneMy husband, who’d flown up in his plane and spent a few hours swimming in the lake, met me at the lodge restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, we put fuel in the truck and parked it (temporarily) at Page Municipal Airport. I gathered my belongings — forgetting only two things, one of which was vital — and we loaded into Mike’s plane. Then we started the long (90 minutes), hot (90°F+), and bumpy (I almost got sick) flight to Wickenburg. The only sights of interest along the way — keeping in mind that I make that flight about 1000 feet lower at least a dozen times a year — were a handful of forest fires east of our Howard Mesa place and a heavy rain shower coming out of a remarkably small cloud near Granite Mountain.

Back in Wickenburg, we put the plane away and went straight home. Hot and sweaty, it was good to take a shower in a real bathroom.

I was asleep by 8:30 PM.

Wenatchee to Walla Walla to Lewiston to Coeur d’Alene

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On the road again.

Those of you who read this blog regularly, may have begun wondering why I’m not posting as regularly as usual. The truth of the matter is that I’m traveling, on a long road trip from Washington State to Arizona.

We’re doing the trip at a leisurely pace, with stops 100 to 250 miles apart. No rush; our friend John is watching over our place. (Hi, John!)

Wenatchee to Walla Walla

Our first leg was mostly in the farmland of Central Washington, ending up in the wheat- and wine-growing area of Walla Walla. Walla Walla has special significance to me; twice it was listed as one of the top ten places I should live by FindYourSpot.com.

Ghost Photo

Some places just scream to be photographed at night. (Hey, is that a ghost?)

We spent two nights in the Four Seasons RV Resort, which I rate 4 out of 5 stars. (Partially wooded and relatively quiet, park-like setting with tall trees and shade, pet friendly, washer/dryers, limited WiFI, affordable.) During the day, we explored Walla Walla, ate in great restaurants (I recommend Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen), visited wineries, and went out on the bike trail. In the evening, we did a little photo shoot of this weird spot at the back of the RV park property.

Walla Walla to Lewiston

It was just 100 miles or so to Lewiston, ID. We drove on route 12, which wound through small farm towns and wheat fields. It’s mostly past harvest now, so the fields were left with short-cut tan stalks of wheat or plowed brown dirt.

After the Sun

View from our campsite. Not too shabby, huh?

In Lewiston, we stayed at Hell’s Gate State Park, which I rate 5 out of 5. (Wooded, riverfront sites with full or partial RV hookups, beach, bike trail.) The idea was to hop on a jet boat tour down Hell’s Canyon, but we soon discovered that all day trips are 11 hours long and half-day trips don’t run regularly. Since Lewiston isn’t exactly our idea of a great destination, we only stayed one night.

Lewiston to Coeur d’Alene

We drove up to Coeur d’Alene on route 95, which winds through some of the prettiest rolling hills and wheat fields you could imagine. We had a little adventure when we pulled off the main road in search of a picnic lunch site and found ourselves, pulling our trailer, on a narrow dirt road used by large trucks for some unknown (to us) purpose. We got about 3 miles down the road, trailed closely by a very large truck, before we found a place to turn around. We wound up having lunch at a cafe in Plummer, ID. Can’t say I recommend it, although the peach pie was good.

Dropping in at Cabella's

Jim took us to lunch at Cabella’s. (Pardon the crappy quality of this cell phone photo.)

In Coeur d’Alene, we camped at the Blackwell Island RV Park, which I rate 2 out of 5. (Full sun on all sites, closely packed sites, gravel driveways not long enough for rigs, a list of rules longer than my arm, sporadic WiFi, riverfront location, expensive.) After exploring a beautiful and vibrant downtown area, we met up with my friend Jim and his wife, Teresa for dinner at 315 in the Greenbriar Inn. Jim runs a helicopter charter business remarkably similar to mine. On Wednesday, he took us for a helicopter tour of the area that included landing at Cabellas at State Line for lunch. I spent the evening catching up on some work while Mike went swimming in the Spokane River with Jack the dog.

Coeur d’Alene to Glacier National Park?

Well, that’s the plan, anyway. We hope to be on the road by 8 AM. More later.

Light Matters

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Two shots prove it.

We spent Monday night camped out along the east shore of the Snake River in Hell’s Gate State Park, just south of Lewiston, ID. The river is held back by a dam downstream to form a long, meandering lake that has plenty of boat traffic, including the “jet boats” that take people upriver through Hell’s Canyon. All that traffic makes for rough water, but I reasoned that early in the morning, around dawn, the water could be pretty calm. With first light on the gold-colored hills across the river from our campsite, I might be able to photograph some interesting reflections without a lot of effort.

While the idea of waking before dawn to take a few photos might seem like a chore to some folks, it isn’t usually a big deal to me. I’m usually awake by 6 AM anyway, and that was certainly the case on Tuesday morning. So I threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera and tripod, and went out along the path behind the camper to see what I could shoot.

What I ended up with was a great example of how the quality and color of light can change a photo.

Before the Sun

This first shot reveals an interesting scene in gray light. Photo details: 1/50 sec, f4.8, ISO 200, 35mm

I set up and framed my shot. The reflections were as good as I’d hoped and the shots achieved the almost mirror-like look of land reflected on water. But the light wasn’t quite right for the first bunch of shots. Even after the sun rose, it failed to cast its rays on the scene before me. For a while, it was the high hills behind me, to the east, that kept the sunlight off my scene. Then it was a cloud. The light was gray and colorless.

After the Sun

This shot was taken a minute later, when the cloud had moved away, revealing the sun. Photo details: 1/80 sec, f4.8, ISO 200, 35mm

Then, suddenly, the cloud slipped away and the low sun shone directly on the scene before me. It lit up with a golden glow and I snapped another photo. This shot was taken exactly one minute after the previous one. Rather than slowly creep down the scene to illuminate it, the sun shined full on the scene, all at once.

It wasn’t until I reviewed these two shots in quick succession in my camera that I noticed the dramatic difference you see here. These images were not manipulated in any way in an image editing program other than to downsize them for the Web. I think they speak for themselves as they are.

I’ve read a lot about photography, especially in the past year or so. One of the things I read recently was a “tip” by a photographer who basically said not to bother shooting in bad light. These two photos do a pretty good job of explaining why light is so important. And while I won’t tell anyone not to shoot in bad light, I hope these photos help them understand how light can make a difference in their photography.