Crisscrossing Montana and Idaho

Wallace,Idaho

We headed next to the little town of Wallace, Idaho. Why? Glad you asked. For it's Wallace that is one of the only towns that didn't get destroyed by the catastrophic wildfires with hurricane force winds blowing through in 1910. It, too, is a living museum to the mining era of this area. Almost every building in town, including the homes, is on the National Registry also. No theaters left here (there were three at one time), but the town is very prominently displayed in the movie "Dante's Peak" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118928/ and also has a smaller role in the infamous film "Heaven's Gate" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080855/ . We did a four mile hike up to the area where a group of firefighters took refuge in an old mine while the firestorm in 1910 blew through the area. While several of them died, most made it back to Wallace due to the heroics of a fellow named Ed Pulaski. It's a fascinating story, and we're not sure why someone hasn't written a screenplay for a film about it. The Coeur D'Alene bike trail winds through the mountains from there all the way to Wallace, and there are several well known ski resorts nearby. Smarty drove us down I-90 to Coeur D'Alene

Coeur D'Alene

, a beautiful resort lake area surrounded by mountains. The town is bustling with restaurants, shops, hotels, and tons of tourists! It was busy. We decided, after having lunch with the tourist crowds, we would come back over to stay during a shoulder season sometime when it's not so crowded. Down the highway about 20 miles to the West is the much larger Spokane. We toured around the old and active downtown area and then deadheaded it for a resupply of food stocks at one of our ever reliable targets on the road, Trader Joe's. We were running low so this hit of TJ's was especially timely.
Next stop is Helena, Montana, which sits in a valley in the North Central part of the state. It's a pretty short jog from the Wallace area to here, and entering through the mountain passes in the west, we start descending into town. We drive past the State Capital building and the interesting looking, mostly old, but well preserved, downtown. In preparing for our trip in and since we're both (always) in the mood to look at the theaters in these towns (mostly because they're still there and the locals frequent them), we noticed that one of our all time favorite actresses from any era, Myrna Loy, 


Inside The Myrna Loy Center

is from Helena, and that there's a movie theater named for her. Two local movie enthusiasts started a film society and named it with reverence to her. Later, with the help of a grant, they bought a great old building to house the Myrna Loy Film Center  http://www.myrnaloycenter.com/aboutmlc.htm . It's quite unique, and the town's lucky to have it. Food in Helena? The most interesting find is The Parrot http://www.parrotchocolate.com/. Around since 1922, this is THE place in Helena for home made candy, ice cream, sodas, and some yummy fun food. Almost everything here is made in-house, as it was over 90 years ago. As the Myrna Loy is to movies, this place is to the old fashioned fountain. I ordered a cherry phosphate with vanilla ice cream and a foot long Sabrett hot dog while M A went with the homemade chili and a chocolate mocha shake. Yum! We got the tourist pass from a very sweet young employee named Jade (below). Think she could tell we were more than normally interested in the place, so she took us to the kitchens and let us sample the just made candy! Wow, what a fun treat. Made lunch there all the more special. Their chocolate reminded me a little of that we used to get from our St. Louis chocolatier as kids, Mavrakos. Very special.

From Helena, we begin our track back East and south, towards the West Yellowstone area again. Our trajectory has changed, and we are heading to....Iowa. Why? Stay tuned....

Western and Northern Montana

Fairmont Hot Springs

It wasn't easy to leave Moose Creek, but on July 20th 2012, it was time to head north and explore as much of the Western part of the enormous State of Montana as we could. Our first stop that day was at Fairmont Hot Springs  http://www.fairmontmontana.com/Fairmont%20Hot%20Springs , not too far from Butte. This lovely resort, built around the very hot mineral water flowing up into their pools, is sitting really in the middle of nowhere. 
Located about 20 minutes west of Butte, a former boom town that grew out of the very rich mineral deposits in the area, and a 15 minute drive to Anaconda, another copper mining boom town, Fairmont boasts a golf course, tennis, lots of other sports, and of course, the huge mineral pools, one indoor and another outdoor. We spent the better part of the day Saturday lounging around the outdoor pool and soaking in those therapeutic waters...very relaxing! On Sunday night we drove into Anaconda for one of the lures in the area to us, The Washoe Theater http://goldwest.visitmt.com/listings/10873.htm. From the outside, this historic movie theater looks like just another small town cinema that has  managed to survive the ill fate of so many others we see as we trek across the country. Once inside though, it's easy to see why it is listed as one of the best examples of Nuevo Deco style from the 1930's by The Smithsonian and is also listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. It was designed by the same architect who did other iconic movie palaces during the Golden Age of Film, most notably The Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. It opened in 1936 (although it was finished in 1931 and the opening was delayed because of The Depression) and has been in continuous operation ever since! About two thirds through the movie, the house lights went up and the intermission sign flashed up on the screen. I hadn't seen that since I was a kid at the movies!

Washoe Theater

It seemed like we might have been the only tourists in the sizable crowd for a Sunday night because we were the only ones who were a little surprised by all this. The concession stand filled up again, and we could only think about the genius marketing going on here. They only charge $4 admission on Sunday, which is the reason for the crowd, and they make a lot of it back with their reinvention of "intermission." Why has some other movie chain not figured this out?
 As we left the theater, we stood outside to admire it again. A couple approached us, and the man told us he'd grown up in Anaconda and has been going to the theater since he was a small kid. He seemed very proud...and well he should be. What a great evening!
We drove into Butte too, a couple of times. These towns are really interesting living museums from when the mining companies built them to support their operations...company towns. There are closed mine shafts scattered all over what was called "the richest hill in the world." There are union halls all around town, as well as neighborhood taverns. One of them in downtown is famous and was the set for a film we both like called "Don't Come Knocking" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377800/ . The M &M Cigar Store http://www.mmcigarstore.com/  has been around for 122 years...and looks like it! The food's so-so, but the atmosphere was worth the price.

Just about a hundred miles north and west is Missoula. We spent a week here and enjoyed this college town of about 100,000. Did we have another ancient theater experience? Yes, indeed we did! The Wilma http://thewilma.com/history.php was built in 1921 and is still operating. The theater itself is in the ground floor of an eight story art deco building, whose interior looks like the set of a 1930's movie.Missoula is built right on the banks of the Clark Fork River and is a very livable town. Almost all streets have bike paths and they are heavily used...like being in Europe. We wonder what this place is like in the deep part of winter though. We are here for the summer, where 90 is really hot for them, and most mornings you wake up to 55 or so. It's one of those places that has one of everything. One Costco, Best Buy, Target, all those, but also several good bakeries, the best for us is Le Petit Outre http://www.lepetitoutre.com/index.php/fuseaction/history.main.htm . Cafe Dolce (see pic below of their great looking space), a fantastic to look at open air eatery, gelatoria, bakery, and coffee bar in a mostly residential neighborhood, gave us mixed feelings. For our first visit we had a really nice lunch, a roast beef sandwich with a good horseradish dressing, and a good mixed salad. Next visit we came for coffee and ordered two pour overs. Price? $9.00!! Granted, they were a full 2 cup serving each...but still! Where are we? New York City? A bit pricey...but good Intelligencia Coffee. The last visit for dinner was a bomb. M A ordered a sausage and kale fusilli dish which she reported as "OK"...not her most enthusiastic response ever (looked good on paper..not so well executed). I ordered a simple plate of Penne Marinara and needed to have dinner again when we got home. Compared with Mary Ann's normal sized serving, mine was roughly half the size. The service was ok at first and then we had to wait long stretches to finally get settled up. Big city prices? Give big city service and food..then we're happy. We won't probably go back next time, even though the atmosphere is really good. Downtown is filled with diners and cafes, all sorts and sizes.
We took a drive up north from town to Flathead Lake. Not as well known as some of the other large bodies of water in this country, but every bit as beautiful. It's right on the way from Missoula to Glacier National Park. What we didn't know is that it is one of the most prolific Cherry growing regions in the area. The entire lake is covered with Cherry orchards. Flathead
cherries are a bit tart and also sweet. They also grow Raniers and other varieties. Needles to say, we have given up apples and other fruits for the time being. When in Rome!! Our day trip took us as far north as Kalispell and through the little tourist town of Bigfork http://www.bigfork.org/. We turned back around in Kalispell  (eating cherries!) and headed down the other side of the lake towards home after logging about 200 miles that day. Before we left Missoula though, we had to try one of the biggest attractions..The Big Dipper! This place is listed on every food blog about the town and for good reason. It's all about the handmade, high fat, few ingredient, ice cream. People are lined up all hours of the day and evening to taste this unusually creamy, good stuff. We went twice. We had to hold off going back again..it's that good!

From Missoula, we head west to Wallace, Idaho for some more historic sightseeing, Coeur D'Alene, and Spokane, then on back to Montana..Helena, Montana, in the next posting...

Moose Creek Ranch..Victor,Idaho

Beautiful Moose Creek Ranch

It's June 9th, 2012, and we pulled out of Island Park for the slide down the backside of The Tetons towards the Jackson (Hole), Wyoming area. We drove past The Harriman State Park and beautiful Upper and Lower Mesa Falls, and then rolled further south until we came to the village of Driggs, Idaho. The first thing we noticed in Driggs was the number of cool looking restaurants and shops on the main drag. For a place with an official population of around 1700 it didn't make sense at first glance. As we continued on about ten minutes down the road, we came into Victor, another small village of about 1900 people, again with a bunch of neat looking eating places, shops, and even a little movie theater. Just past town, and a turn to the left, we followed a gravel road about a mile off the highway and came to what was going to end up our new home for over a month, The Moose Creek Ranch http://www.moosecreekranch.com/ . This sprawling property, tucked into it's own valley, where the Moose Creek runs right through...and we mean RUNS, feels about as far off the map as one might care to be, yet is only a few miles into town. There is a large lodge house surrounded by small buildings with individual apartment-like rooms which include kitchens. There are several larger houses, too, for family gatherings, big tents for "camping" right on the creek (they all have bedding with fine linens and wood fireplaces), a dressed up barn for weddings and events, lots of horses and a stable, and three ideal parking spots for RV's. Up the road is the Moose Creek Trail head, an area wide destination for hiking and horse back riding. We could not pick up any TV, so when we did want to see something we used our Roku Players (not very often) to keep up with the outside world. This place is really a little slice of heaven, one of those few places we've been so far that we were reluctant to leave. 

From the left Mary Ann,Marty,Craig,& Linda @
The Knotty Pine in Victor

In fact, our new RV buddies, Craig and Linda and their dogperson, ZUNI (we are Uncle Marty and Aunt Mary Ann to this amazingly smart animal), who we got to know during our extended summer stay last year in Santa Fe, had been hearing such positive reviews from us about this place, they decided to head on over ( a short 1500+ mile drive from their home in Michigan!!!). They spent a week with us and were not disappointed either. 

Together, we visited The Grand Targhee Ski Resort http://www.grandtarghee.com/, drove over the pass the 18 miles to Jackson Hole, hit as many eateries and breweries as possible, and just relaxed at the lodge. There are so many good eating places, we didn't have time to cover them ourselves in over a month! One reason was our constant return trips to The Brakeman http://www.brakemangrill.com/ for their amazing burgers (see picture below for a look at three of owner, Joe's, works of hamburger art!). Mary Ann (who hardly ever eats any fried food at all) couldn't keep her hands off the fries either. They were as close to perfect as fries get, but after all, where would you expect to get great potatoes....but in Idaho. Any food critic who doesn't include this place in their top 10 burger list in the U.S. is ignorant of it or has no taste buds!

In fact, while hanging out at Wildlife Brewing for a pizza and a beer http://wildlifebrewing.com/, another couple we met from the Houston area, David and Karen, asked about food in Victor. We sent them to The Brakeman, and they wrote about it in their blog http://wecouldlivehere.blog.com/ . Other mentionable places we hit in the area are Pendl's Bakery https://www.pendlspastries.com/index.php, Forage http://www.forageandlounge.com/forage.lounge/home.html, and Teton Thai http://tetonthai.com/driggs_home.html ...all in Driggs. We also bought grass fed Idaho beef directly from the source at TWR Ranch there. In Victor, besides The Brakeman, there's The Knotty Pine for BBQ http://knottypinesupperclub.com/Knotty_Pine_Supper_Club/Music.html, Scratch for a great home brined corned beef Reuben, and don't miss the old fashioned soda fountain in The Emporium for a real cherry phosphate with vanilla ice cream. A combination bike shop/coffee bar called Fitzgeralds/ The Nine Bar http://shop.fitzgeraldsbicycles.com/about/the-nine-bar-pg138.htm was our go-to place for the best pour over coffee from a porcelain dripper (healthy!) and amazing organic home baked pop tarts and other goodies. While staying at Moose Creek Ranch, we got to know our hosts and the owners, John and Susan, pretty well. We shared a meal out at Forage and had them over for a movie and just enjoyed a few evenings together under the cool Idaho sky. A few times, after sunset, we all had to go put on extra layers of clothing to stay warm! In July. Nice...They are great people, and we'll try staying in touch with them. We think we'll return here sometime for more cool summer stays. We did drive in to Jackson Hole several times for shopping and to hang out in The Square. There are lots of restaurants and we did try a few, but by comparison, and to our surprise, we kept wanting to try places over the pass in our area of Victor and Driggs. They seemed much less touristy to us than most of the Jackson Hole places. In fact, we got confirmation on this from other locals we spoke to, the longer we stayed in the area. The main reason for the drive over the pass was to visit Grand Teton National Park. This and The Grand Canyon are at the top of our personal national park favorites so far. There is panoramic beauty everywhere here. Not only are the three main iconic peaks fabulous, but the lakes and other hiking venues we visited in the three times there are world class. There is so much to write about in Northeast Idaho and Western Wyoming, the hikes, the food, the natural beauty, the people we met, we could almost go on forever, After almost five weeks in the valley at Moose Creek, we knew it was finally time to move on, so after a farewell evening under the stars with Susan and John, we planned our next move. This time, we'd head for the high mountains of Montana...

Island Park and Northeast Idaho

An American Pelican near the Snake River in Island Park ID

On June 2nd, 2012, we headed out of West Yellowstone, towards our new home for the week, The Island Park Village Resort http://www.islandparkvillageresort.com/ . We decided to use a week from our time share bank and get off the road to pamper ourselves a bit. This place is a bit of heaven. A condo community surrounded by a golf course and with tennis, swimming pool, sauna, bikes, you name it, at your finger tips. We thought it'd be fun to just hang out and explore a place we'd never even heard of. Well, lots of other folks from nearby and way far away have heard of Island Park. If you fly fish this is ground zero! There were people all over in the rivers doing the national sport here. Food? If you like Trout (as Mary Ann does), you've come to ground zero for the local delicacy. The little Island Park Lodge http://www.islandparklodge.org/index.html serves up some of the best we tried. I even had some fresh Halibut, and it was perfect also. This is not upscale cooking, but cooking with the freshest ingredients and keeping the preparation basic to let the natural flavors come through. Simple idea, but not so easy to execute! The Trout is caught within a few miles of this place. On my birthday, Mary Ann had to come up with the best burger place around (my usual request for my birthday and New Years Eve dinner). That honor went to Boondocks.  A great, juicy burger and a glass of wine....ahhh. Life is good. 

Boondocks

There are many more surprisingly good eating places in this mostly rural vacation spot. We're looking to a return sometime to try some. Our week off the road, with Harvey parked basically right in front of our condo, went by like a flash. We toured around the area lakes and streams, crossed over the beautiful Snake River a lot, saw another moose on a hike, and drove down to Idaho Falls ( a mere 60 miles to civilization) for some shopping, banking, and a quick look around. On the morning of the 5th of June, we woke up to a pretty solid snow, so we had a snow day. We put on a fire in the fireplace and didn't work much. It was pretty surreal talking to people in Texas who were complaining about the 100+ degree temperatures though. Our next move, after this little vacation from the rigors of our chosen lifestyle (we kid!) is to go back around to do that extended visit of The Tetons. After all, we're still in the area. Only trouble is we can't seem to find a good place to stay near Jackson Hole. Mary Ann was browsing some magazines when she stumbled onto an ad in the back of one of them. It read something like..MOOSE CREEK RANCH, weddings, events, horseback riding, beautiful setting, 3 rv hookups. She showed it to me and said, "Call. Maybe this is the place we're looking for." I did. It was. Can't wait to tell you about it next.....

Yellowstone...We bear all on this one

Bubbling minerals from beneath Yellowstone's surface

It's May 29th, 2012, and we are driving from Themopolis,WY. now, trying to beat those feisty and harried TOURISTS into Yellowstone! The race was on. We are taking the Southern route in, through The Grand Teton National Park, and up, because the East entrance was still closed due to heavy snow from the previous few days. Harvey's wheels were burning up the road so fast, we both were reminded of our first (and the newbiest of newbie) long trip on
to San Fransisco three years ago. Dallas to Marin County in about four days. What were we thinking? Driving as if possessed by the ghost of Evel Knievel. When we first layed eyes on The Tetons, we just came back to our good senses and remembered why we RV...and we slooowwwed down to bask in the amazing sight out our left windows. Mary Ann said, "We are coming back over here for a closer and longer visit." The rest of the drive up into Yellowstone was awe inspiring too. There were tall trees, beautiful lakes, and the mountains seemed to be closing in with every mile. Our first night in Yellowstone was at a park that has no hook ups (for you non RV'ers, electricity, water, sewer connection) at all. You're totally using all your internal systems, and it was wonderful. We were parked near the big lake and there were great views all around. We had dinner, took a little hike, and read a bit, then turned out the lights early for our first day of seeing the park. Goodnight.......WHOA! What was that bump?

Mama Grizzly print (measured
 more than 10 inches)
on Harvey's door....WHOA!

We both felt something shake Harvey just as we were falling asleep. It stopped, so we continued into the dream state. The next morning, I opened the door and noticed a print on it,  a bear print. A BIG print..from a BIG bear! We reported it to a ranger, and he said they'd like to see the picture. A mama Grizzly had been seen around the camp but, so far, had not tried to make any contact. Well, we decided to leave it alone, but here's the proof. 

Other than that excitement, we did see more bears...from afar. Some cubs were spotted playing near the road near us, we saw lots of Buffalo and Elk, and toured all corners of the park for the next three days. After the first night, we moved to an RV sight that does have all the amenities. We should have stayed where we started out. This RV park was four times more expensive, very cramped, and not nearly as scenic. By the way, I wouldn't say we had the place to ourselves, but it was not very crowded at that early part of the season, and our rush to get there was unfounded. Yellowstone is huge, unique, and quite beautiful. Would we visit again? Maybe, but only after we'd seen all the others national parks.

On the Road to Yellowstone..Spring/Summer 2012

Mt. Rushmore at night

After another quick stop in Omaha, we stayed basically along the same route that Lewis and Clark took, up the Missouri River basin through Nebraska and then a left in Sioux City,Iowa to pick up Interstate 80 and then toward South Dakota. It's now mid May 2012, and our next overnight stop was a little detour off I-80 to South Dakota's capital city of Pierre. We noticed an RV parking area right on the banks of the Missouri before you drive over the bridge into the town center. There was no one else there but after checking around, we found a space that actually had electricity and water that worked and we hooked up. After making dinner at home, we drove into town and looked at all the cozy little houses, the state capital building and offices, and saw the little movie theater with a nice sized crowd waiting in line to buy tickets. Of course this was our chance to interact with the locals so we got in line and went to the movies. It's a small town so we saw nobody texting in the theater, no one talked loud when the show began, nearly everyone smiled, and a few of them even said "hi", probably wondering who we were. We notice that sort of thing a lot in small towns we visit. We're still not used to it either, coming from the big city. There is a difference. It's a little perk for being on the road...like going back in time. Anyway, the next morning, after looking around at the park near our camp and reading the signs about the Lewis and Clark Expedition camping there too, over 200 years ago, we headed back toward I-80 to pick up our trek west to Rapid City.
We made our next major stop in Rapid City, after a night in Wall, SD to visit the famous Wall Drug. This place has been around with highway signs on I-80 since the 1930's. Some folks think it a tourist trap, but we found it fun and worth the stop. It covers about a third of the little town center, offers 5 cent coffee and handmade donuts in the morning, and, well there's so much stuff about it on the web, you can look for yourself http://www.walldrug.com/t-history.aspx/ .
Rapid city is a good sized town of around 70,000 and is the gateway to Mount Rushmore and The Black Hills. Our visits (twice, once during the day and also at night!) were awe inspiring...better than the pictures you see! We took a day trip to The Badlands National Park and did a little hiking, and spent quite a bit of time exploring the revitalized downtown in Rapid City. There are neat restaurants (best one we stopped in was Tallys Silver Spoon http://tallyssilverspoon.com/#f07/custom_plain),

President Reagan in front of Tallys Silver Spoon

shops, and park areas all around, and the town has a very good and active feel, even at night. There are statues of the presidents scattered all over downtown, with lots of benches to sit and pass the time at a bit slower pace than the big city (here we go again). Next, it's on to Sheridan, Wyoming, another surprisingly cool little city. This place has lots of uptown vibe also, especially for a much smaller population center (around 17,000). Sheridan's city center boasts lots of good eateries and coffee places (if you're there, check out Red Velvet http://www.facebook.com/RedVelvetBakeryAndTapas). We even walked in to one eating place and noticed the baked goods for sale in their little bakery section. We asked if they could bake us some fresh bread (we were having a tough time finding some REAL bread, without any funny stuff in it!!) and they did. We picked it up the next morning, and they told us they baked two loaves for us. It was still warm. Need we say any more? After exploring downtown, it was time for another day trip. This time to The Bighorn National Forest. This drive takes you through some of the most scenic and diverse land that we visited in the gorgeous State of Wyoming. No photos can do it justice, and the main attraction was our first Moose sighting! We were driving back towards home and there he (or she) was, just standing in a field, not too far off the road. Another traveler stopped, walked over to us and looked quizzically..."Is that a........M? "Yep! We both replied at the same time." We stared a few moments and then back on our way. He looked almost out of place to us. It could almost have been an Elephant or Giraffe. We've seen several more since, but that first one was really neat. After a week in Sheridan and getting to really know the place, it was finally time to start moving closer to Yellowstone. We wanted to get there before the big tourist rush because we'd heard the stories of rush hour like traffic.

The drive between Sheridan and Thermopolis, with a short stop in the cool little town of Buffalo, was harrowing. Harvey had no problem climbing the 10,000 foot pass with Smarty in tow, but near the top we ran into a rain, wind, and snow storm that was blowing good sized rocks (one about 10 inches diameter) on to the road. They were falling off the sides of the steep cliffs and besides the fact that we were on a narrow, two lane winding road, chiseled along the mountain, there was nowhere to go except over the cliff. We did make it through with a sigh of relief.

Downtown Buffalo,Wy

 Soon after that, we reached Thermopolis, Wyoming, to visit the mineral baths. This was a very fun place to spend a night or two. Besides their quaint little downtown area with  a couple of good restaurants, the state park mineral baths are locally famous and terrific. To be fair to all and to follow the wishes of the Indian tribes in the area who lent the land, everyone gets 20 minutes in the water. Not sure if they're as therapeutic as some think, but it sure feels terrific to soak in 104 degree mineral water for awhile. While relaxing in the hot water, we were disrupted by a scene straight out of one of the Chevy Chase Vacation movies! A family from Wisconsin all jumped into the pool at the same time, announcing.."We're goin' to Yellowstone and all have to be back in the car and dried off in 30 minutes!! We can drive two more hours before stopping again. HURRY!!!" Whew, our leisurely trip towards Yellowstone suddenly notched way up into another gear. Gotta beat those tourists!!!!!!!!!!!! We managed to calm ourselves down, but did leave the next morning and dead-headed straight to Yellowstone.

RV Technology.."This is not your Grandpa's motorhome!"

Wilson Cell Phone Amplifier

  One of the main reasons we decided to become "homeless by choice" last year is that we felt the communications technology had finally progressed enough that we could run our businesses and stay in touch to the point where it would feel somewhat seamless from sitting at the traditional office setup. Although there have been a few glitches along the way, our bet was correct. From time to time we'll break from our usual travelogue to go into the geek prone world of high tech devices we have onboard that have enabled us to do what we do.

Motorola Photon with it's HDMI output

  When I look at the roof on Harvey, sometimes I think people must think we work for some spy agency, what with all the antennas up there. The main component of our communication setup is, of course, our cell phones. At the moment (this stuff changes quickly), we both use Motorola Photon Android Smartphones. What? We don't have Iphones?? How could that be? The fact is that for us, where often our phones are the only means we have to be in contact, these very highly sophisticated devices fit the bill best. They are most computer like when they need to be, and they seem more compatible with PC oriented programs than Apple products (still). A quick example is that when we mentioned that to subscribe to this blog you need to hit the "atom" button on the left column of this page, a friend emailed back and said when he clicked the button it took him to the wrong place. We finally determined that it was due to his Iphone incompatibility. (We've since fixed this by simplifying the subscription link on the newly designed sight you're looking at).The radio part of the Motorola phones tends to be a little more powerful than many others too. This is really important to us since we spend a lot of time off the map ( I'm writing this from Victor, Idaho, about fifteen miles west, through the ten thousand foot pass, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming), Oh, did I mention that the phone also has a wireless Bluetooth keyboard that connects to it and turns it into an actual minicomputer? Sometimes a little extra power is needed to connect a call or get data. For this, we have a Wilson signal booster installed. This takes the weakest cell signal and amplifies it when we are really way out of range. This little device has come in handy more than once. The only problem with it is that you have to be standing in a certain area of the coach where it's antenna is located for it to work properly. It's better than no phone at all though!
 Back to the Photon phone for a minute. This little black case does way more than let us talk and send emails. When it's plugged into it's dock in the front of Harvey, a built in HDMI connection sends it's a/v signal to the big screen tv and allows us to watch Netflix and other programming over the internet, over our phone. Because this phone uses the Sprint network there are no excessive data or roaming charges (even when we're off network). Right now in Idaho, we are roaming on Verizon, but there are no extra charges..sort of. If you need more info about this, let us know.

Watching Netflix on the big screen with the Photon dock

  Besides the fact that the coach has four computers aboard, one that runs the whole house music and tv operations for the screens and speakers in the livingroom and the bedroom, a mini projector for watching movies, etc. on a 65" screen 

Toshiba mini projector mounted on the livingroom wall

with a Bluetooth audio setup, and Roku players, for even more tv options, connected to both tv's, the front of Harvey is also equipped with a Blue Ray player for our travelling dvd collection (you know, we are foreign movie fanatics!) for when we're really offline and have no internet connection at all. There are some innovations on Harvey that have nothing to do with any of that! In the kitchen, we have installed two induction cook tops over our usual propane ones . We feel that induction cooking is the wave of the future for RV's, boats, and especially regular stick houses. If you're not yet familiar, we'll explain more in the next RV Tech article.....gotta run now. Time to catch a movie.

 

Catching Up Pt 2/FL,ALA,TN Spr 2012

John Travolta's Ocala, FL. home

It's the end of February 2012, and we're beginning our climb north from Central Florida, except we both got really busy with our businesses and the weather reports just a few miles up the road sounded as if Old Man Winter were still in charge. So we decided to head back over to the Bushnell area. It's located basically at the top of a triangle made up of Orlando at the second point and Tampa at the third, and it's a really neat place to hang out. It's about a thirty five minute drive down to Orlando and forty five or so to Tampa. It's very close to some of the most beautiful parts of Florida in our opinion, horse country. The town of Ocala, where John Travolta lives inside his famous airport home compound (read this, then come back) http://www.jumbolair.com/Architectual%20Digest.htm is also very close by, as well as the city of The Villages, about a twenty minute drive. The Villages was a total surprise to us. We thought it was another version of the Sun City style retirement areas...you know, rows of houses, dance lessons at 2, shuffleboard at 4, the typical place for those of a certain age. What we saw instead was a very well planned mixed use city (fastest growing metro area in the U.S.!) that evidently appeals to people of all ages. Of course there are lots of seniors there (it is Florida, after all. They're everywhere!), but we also noticed lots of younger folks and kids too. You may know it because of the Golf Cars.

Smarty (he's the big one) & Golf Cars in The Villages, FL.

Yep, almost everyone there has one...not a Golf Cart, a Golf Car. They look like little BMW's, Mustangs, Jeeps, some have their local football team paint jobs, all different styles to keep them unique to the owner. There have been lots of national news stories on this, and we're told by our friends (and resident RV experts) Linda and Craig in Michigan that The Villages runs ads everywhere on local tv to attract new buyers, mostly from the Midwest and Eastern parts of the U.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrpq5A-KAoA  The place is built around two major town centers (soon to be three). There are shops and restaurants, theaters, walking spaces, water features, and golf courses and tennis courts all around. Everyday at 5pm there's a happy hour with live music, food and drinks, dancing, and visiting with neighbors in each of the centers. It reminded us of Italy. Of course if you run out of things to keep you busy there, you can always drive in to Tampa or Orlando in no time.
As the weather finally started to warm a little, we began moving slowly back along the Gulf Coast. We stopped again in Destin at a great state run RV park..right on the beach. The town of Fairhope was beckoning us back, so we hugged the coastline and headed west, back to the Eastern Shore of Alabama. This time we decided that we'd just live there for a month so we hooked up at another great little RV park where the Southern charm oozes. We started revisiting some eateries we'd already discovered like Pinzone's Italian in downtown, where they serve very authentic dishes in a lovely bistro like indoor/outdoor setting. Another favorite, actually the place that became our hangout when we needed breaks from working, is Jessie's in the tiny town of Magnolia Springs. Jessie's makes you feel like you're back 75 years ago in the Deep South. It's a charming white frame building where there's an everything made from scratch bakery/deli on one side of the building. Townsfolk gather there for morning coffee and breakfast. On the other side is a full service restaurant and bar. The food and service are 4 star! Lots of people from all over have retired in Fairhope, and one of the other attractions to the area is the high quality of very available health care. We took advantage and got dental and medical checkups, and the service was top notch. Living for a month in March was very easy there, and the time flew by, but the open road beckoned. During the winter we had pretty much planned to head north to New England, but the allure of The West and all the places there we had not yet been was too strong, so we redirected through the Deep South, and, as we left Alabama, headed into Mississippi to Tupelo, birthplace of The King........Elvis!! (click on this for extra mood while reading this

M A & Little Elvis in Tupelo

section ( http://www.shoutcast.com/radio/Elvis ) Just writing about this makes me crave a peanut butter and banana sandwich, with a side of Bologna and ketchup!!! You may now get up from your computer to take a break and go make one for yourself...and bring back a Pepsi and some burnt bacon with grape jelly to eat later. Anyway, Tupelo is a really nice little town. It's a little larger than we expected. Lots of big box stores, nice homes, parks, and even a little traffic on the main drags. But then...there is the birthplace of The King. The town leaders have put some thought into the area and made it very accessible and the small museum and grounds are very well kept and even classy. It was definitely worth a stop. While in Tupelo, we took a side trip over to Oxford, Mississippi, home of Old Miss, another very pretty Southern town. With it's tree lined streets, big old Southern style homes, large town square with shops and upscale eateries, it looks like something from the minds of one of the many novelists who call it home (including John Grisham). From Tupelo, we kept heading north to revisit one of our favorite RV parks that sits right on the bank of the Mississippi River in Memphis. We can see the barge and boat traffic constantly moving up and down the river from our dining room window in Harvey. One of the highlights of this Memphis visit were an afternoon at the Stax Records Museum ( http://www.staxmuseum.com/video-images/videos/view/rufus-thomas-tribute-video). Anyone interested in music from the golden era of the Sixties and Seventies would love this place. They have recreated the feel of the Memphis Sound, which in my mind, is right up there with Motown. Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T and the MG's, Rufus Thomas, and on and on. A must see for music fans, and as important as a visit to Sun Records. The other highlight was our trip to Gibson's Donuts! Memphis is filled with iconic places...Graceland, BB Kings and Dyers on Beale Street, The Peabody Hotel and their famous ducks, all of the other BBQ joints, and Gibson's is one more. Google it and you'll see the pages of stories and accolades that have been written about it before we got there. We walked in a little after the morning rush and looked into the cases of fresh donuts. The selection alone would make you think right off this is no Dunkin' Donuts!

As you know, we are picky eaters, so we pick our splurges carefully. This place is not to be missed if a trip to Memphis is in your future. A cheerful fellow behind the counter noticed us oogling and asked (he already knew we were newbies), "First time here?" Mary Ann replied to the affirmative, and he began to explain all the little nuances about their donuts. I pointed to a cream filled beauty and before I could finish my sentence, he was off to the kitchen area...said he'd be right back. In a minute or two he came out with a double stuffed, fresh from the back, honkin' huge custard cream over-filled donut that looked like it would tip the scales over. He said, with a big grin, "wanted you to have the best, since it's your first time in!" Then he helped M A pick out of a couple of gorgeous choice winners too. Turns out, even though all the staff behind the counter looked to be very helpful, the owner is on premises and knows just about everyone who walks through the door and engages them in conversation regularly. For a donut shop, it's a rather large place, with tables where the locals take a seat and Don greets most of them by name with a joke or a quip. We visit so many little places in our travels, where you walk in and sometimes feel like you're interrupting the employees. This place is the opposite. Not only are the donuts about as perfect as they can be, the owner takes pride in the back and front of his operation. He came over to see how they were and sat down at our booth next to Mary Ann. We chatted small talk for awhile and when he was satisfied that we were happy, started moving around the place to visit with the regulars. There is something to the stereotype of Southern Hospitality, and Don typifies it. We have mentioned more than a few times, "Wonder what's going on at Gibson's in Memphis this morning..." Guess we'll just have to wait for our next trip back South to find out. Don will probably act like he remembers us (especially when I ask him to repeat his double stuffed custard routine!) even if he doesn't. That's just the way he is...and it ain't bad! By the way our stop there was on the way to stock up provisions at the local Whole Foods. The rest of the day we lived on organic carrots and celery...something's gotta give somewhere.

We pulled out of Memphis and headed for fast stops, first in Branson and then on to Kansas City. Kansas City was a major food stopping point for two reasons. First, there are Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Second, we were heading up to parts unknown from there, and our refrigerator needed to be overflowing with good stuff. Besides a short stop in Omaha to get Smarty re-tired (new shoes!!), Kansas City was the last larger place we planned to be for awhile. We visited The Plaza, met up with Ed and Pat's friends, Gary and Lana and son, Scott, took in a movie or two, got Harvey serviced at a gigantic Ford truck service center in North Kansas City, and headed up I-29 towards Omaha. Oh, almost forgot. We showed the Kansas City Doll Hospital to our travelling Teddy Bears, Bobby and his bear, Mr. Baby. The hospital's motto is.."We've NEVER lost a patient!" Scared the hell out of both of them when we told them that this is where they'd be sent if their arm, leg, or eyes or other parts fell out! They've been very quiet since....Next up, The Dakota Badlands, awesome Wyoming, and beautiful Idaho! Stay tuned.

Catching up...Part 1 AZ to FL Fall 2011

Tombstone,Arizona

 Since it's been such a long time since the last post, a bit of catching up is in order! By the way, this is being written on Memorial Day Saturday 2012, from Sheridan, Wyoming, a beautiful small town at the foothills of The Big Horn Mountains. The temperature is a balmy 44 degrees, and it's snowing all around us. On May 15th, 2012 we celebrated our first year of living and working and traveling in our RV. You might think from the last post that we never left the West after visiting Gallup. Well, that is not exactly the case! We are in Sheridan after more than a 4,000 mile trek from the Southwest last fall to South Florida and then back through the Gulf Coast and the Midwest to our present location. Here are some highlights of those travels.

Don & Greta in Flag

 We left Gallup, New Mexico in the fall of 2011 and headed to spend some time in Northern and Central Arizona. Munds Park is a small village about 17 miles south of Flagstaff. We spent almost a whole month there and left because it........started snowing...in September! While there, we spent lots of time in Flagstaff, had our bikes refitted with new tires, drank coffee at the great little bar in the old Hotel Monte Vista, visited with our friends Don and Greta (on the right here,who drove up I-17 a couple of times from Scottsdale to get out of the heat), hiked the Cococino Mountains behind our RV park, and drove over to Sedona a couple of times (one visit there brought us in touch with my college roommate, Bruce and his wife, Marsha from New Jersey. They were visiting with their kids in Phoenix and drove up to see us too!). We also made an encore trip over to the Grand Canyon for a little hiking. When the snow started falling, we packed up and traveled about 40 miles downhill to Camp Verde, Arizona, which is a little closer to Sedona and especially one of our favorite new towns anywhere, Cottonwood. With it's active retail climate and very cool little original downtown area, Cottonwood became our new go-to spot (at the expense of visits to Sedona). Don and Greta even did drives to meet us there too. One day we all drove up to the old mining town of Jerome, which is literally hanging off the edge of a mountain, and had a great time looking in all the little shops and walking the historic downtown. As the weather cooled, we kept creeping down to lower altitudes and wound up back in Scottsdale for more hangin' out with our buddies. In October, we finally began to head East for our eventual landing for the deep winter months in Miami with brother Ed and sister (in-law) Pat. We stopped for several days in Tucson, then rolled on through Tombstone, back through New Mexico to Las Cruces/El Paso, stopped at Balmorhea State Park in West Texas, and kept tracking South by East along I-10 towards San Antonio.

At The Grand Canyon

 Once reaching San Antonio (well almost...the quaint, historic little town near San Antonio, Boerne), we put down anchor for around a week, long enough for still another visit, this time with close Dallas friends, Bunny and Ivan. They had come down for business, and we waited for them to finish so we could see them. Halloween night we hung out in the Riverwalk area, we visited The Alamo again to see Mary Ann's ancestor's names on the plaques all over it, and went to Earl Abel's and a few other terrific San Antonio eateries. Then we headed to Houston, but not before a quick stop in Sealy TX for a total Harvey tire change (those are six big honkin' tires ya'll!). About 2 hours and we were on our way...and Harvey had some fine new shoes!! A quick stay near downtown Houston and a Sunday night in Rice Village (always a favorite area for us) and then on to Louisiana.
 Our next stop was off I-10 finally because we wanted to stay along the River Road, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The Poche Plantation is a neat RV park in Convent Louisiana on the grounds of a old plantation. The current house dates back to 1867. There we based ourselves for a trip in Smarty to Baton Rouge to tour the river town and many (stopped counting, actually) trips to a little crossing in the road called Sorrento, La. to The Coffee House. If you are a fan of beignets and Cafe Au lait, this place is worth the way off the road trip. Best ever...even better than Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans! Period.

All the sidewalks in Fairhope look
like this...

Two short trips into New Orleans, mostly to eat at places like Mothers, Central Grocery, and Cafe Du Monde, and we headed over along the Gulf towards an area we'd only heard snips of info on, Fairhope, Alabama. After turning south past Mobile, we drove down Old Highway 98 through one small town after the next in the area known as The Eastern Shore. We intended to stay overnight and ended up spending 3 weeks there. Fairhope has already been discovered by many travelers before us! There are plates from everywhere. We met folks from back East, the Midwest, Texas, just about everywhere. 

Monkeying around on Las Olas Blvd, Ft Lauderdale

It's an idyllic little town that looks like some designer from Disney went there to make it look real...only it is real! Enough said. We hope it doesn't catch on any more than it already has for fear it might disappear as we know it. Next, on along the Gulf into Florida. We spent a few nights in Destin, then to Bushnell in Central Florida. We took Harvey to a terrific RV indoor storage facility near Orlando, unloaded him, and drove Smarty and a rental car to Miami to stay with Pat and Eddie from Christmas to the end of February. We took alot of our cooking supplies with us and had fun preparing meals for the four of us, drove down to the upper keys for Stone Crabs, searched for new Latin restaurants, hung out on Lincoln Road at the Nespresso Store (we're addicted to the stuff!) and the Florida outpost of the NYC burger institution, The Shake Shak (addicted to those too!). We took Ed and Pat's boat out a few times, set up their new 83" 3D TV for them, and just had a great time visiting with family for almost two months.

Ed & Pat on Miami Beach with us

 At the end of February, it was time to get back on the road and restart our amazing American Odyssey. We left Ed and Pat and went back up to Orlando to get Harvey out of the kennel. After a couple of visits to Whole Foods, Publix, Penzeys Spices, and a few other merchants, we were stocked back up and ready to roll again. Part 2 of the catch up will head us back up the Florida Peninsula...stay tuned.