December 28, 2014
Christmas time in the cold, snowy Rocky Mountains!
All of the kids, their spouses, presents, good food, games, hikes, movies – good times!
L-R: Austin Mills, Michelle Mills, Amanda Mills, David Kamin, Christine Askham, Lisa Doggett, Lee Doggett
Some Wildlife!
From our home to yours, we wish you a Happy New Year!
Cliff and Cyndy
December 9, 2014
We spent almost 7 months traveling through British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska – all popular areas and known for their scenic beauty and wildlife. We look at our pictures and marvel at what we saw, feeling blessed to have made the trip. We note the ways we have changed and what bubbles to the top as important these days.
We find ourselves living closer to the outdoors, picking where we will go based on the weather and what we might see in that location. In the coming year we will travel back to Alaska, to the Oregon coast, down south to Texas and even explore a bayou in Louisiana. We have developed more of an interest in the wildlife we share our space with and who would have thought we would care so much about a flock of wild turkeys?
Right now we are home in the St. Vrain State Park by Longmont. If you look out your windows on the east side you see I25 and endless traffic. But with your trailer parked right next to one of the many lakes and looking to the west you have a beautiful view of the mountains and lots of wildlife.
Bald Eagles – we have seen up to 6 in this tree!
Maybe what we learned over the 7 months was to be content, be more observant and get to know even the most unlikely of God’s creatures, wild turkeys!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Cliff and Cyndy
Now that we are back in Colorado, having spent over six months on the road I have been evaluating our trip. These are some of my thoughts and I thought I would share.
First, would we do it again? Would we sell our house and become full time RVers and would we drive all the way to Alaska for the summer. This is the easy question and the answer is, “Yes in a heartbeat.” In fact, we plan to return to Alaska next summer and we are glad that we sold the house. Of course, it helps if you’re married to a woman like Cyndy. Actually it was Cyndy who first suggested that we go full time.
The second question that I’ve been thinking about is did we buy the right RV, in our case a 40’ 5th Wheel by Lifestyle. The answer again is, “a resounding YES.” We have pulled it nearly 15,000 miles over some pretty rough roads and through some pretty bad weather so we have some strong thoughts regarding how to shop for a RV.
For several nights during our return to Colorado the temperature dropped to single digits, but we stayed nice and cozy. Understand that trailers are designed for many different purposes and when I bought my first trailer they said it was a “four season” trailer. In RV language that means that if you are camping in the deep south you’ll be fine, but if you experience really cold weather like we did you better buy a RV designed for “full timers.” There is a big difference.
You also might think that living in something this small could cause claustrophobia but for us you would be wrong. For Cyndy, who struggles with walking, it’s great and both of us would agree that it’s just cozy.
Of course some of the real benefits of living the RV lifestyle are getting to camp where it is warm or if you don’t like your neighbors you just move on. Today we had some great neighbors:
The view this morning from our kitchen table – two bald eagles.
As we look at this journey, the odds were against us. Married again while in our 60s, blended families, set in our ways, but I love this lifestyle and love this woman.
Best regards,
Cliff
November 21, 2014
As Cliff and I were getting married we went through a questionnaire designed to discover our areas of compatibility and areas of concern. Cliff discovered that his new wife has barnacle tendencies, she does not like to be moved! And here we are, traveling around the country in our fifth wheel and living the life of gypsies! The barnacle is now attached to the trailer and enjoying that the scenery changes now and then!
We returned to Colorado today after our 6.5 month adventure to Alaska and Idaho. We made a few new friends, ones that we will want to visit again next summer. We traveled the Alaskan Highway through British Columbia and the Yukon, marveling at the beauty and handiwork of the Creator. We found ourselves volunteering and expanding our sense of community and giving back some of the blessing given to us. We had surprises and a few disappointments but the journey was incredible.
We made fun of our trips across I80 in Wyoming as they have been mostly snowy, blowing snow with blizzard like conditions. This time we sailed right on through the state, listening to a book on tape and spending the night in Rawlins.
We are excited to see our family and friends and to attend our church.
We are not excited about the snow and cold weather and will head to Mesa in early 2015 to bask in the sun! In the late spring, we are off to the Oregon coast to volunteer in a fish hatchery before we head back to Alaska for the summer.
Thank you for reading our blog! Your comments have meant much to us and have helped us to feel connected back to you. We will continue blogging so check back now and then!
We stopped to take this picture as we drove south on I25. It is good to be home!
Cliff and Cyndy
November 16, 2014
We said goodbye to new friends at Dworshak Dam, spread out the last of the corn for the turkeys and quail and made sure we did not leave behind anything of vital importance or at least that we could not replace. The trailer was in Lewiston to finish the repair work started in October so we left from there to head to Boise.
We had been watching the news and hearing about this major winter storm spreading out over the country with snow and very cold temps. Guess we thought it would not get in our way but we were wrong! We had the cold temps but most of the snow had been cleared away on the drive, all good until we arrived in Boise.
US 95 following the Salmon River
“Time Zone Bridge” over the Salmon River.
Yeah, back to Mountain Standard Time!
We arrived in Boise after dark and discovered lots of snow piled up in our space in the RV Park. Unhooking the trailer and connecting up the water, electricity and sewer is just not fun when you’re standing in snow and your hands are freezing. The night temperature dropped to 6 degrees and yes, we’re thinking about Arizona next year!
Boise
We will be in Boise for a few days and then continue our travels towards Colorado. At some point we will need to head across Wyoming, really looking forward to another shot at being stranded in the snow!
Cliff and Cyndy
October 27, 2014
It seems this fall has been long, and it has! We started to notice fall colors in August in Alaska and it was definitely fall in Canada in early September as we made our way to Idaho. The fall colors here in Idaho have been special and the trees are just now starting to lose their leaves. The quilter in me wants to capture all of the fall colors in fabric and I just might!
Cliff took a picture of the area we are in and pointed out the Visitor Center and our trailer.
And here is the latest update on the wild turkeys! They are getting bigger and bigger and for a few days we thought something had happened as there were only 11 turkeys instead of 14. But then yesterday we counted 13 turkeys so maybe only one is lost!
We continue to work at the Visitor Center and maybe have 10-20 visitors a day. A few more because the fishing is good right now and hunting season has opened. It is always good when visitors come in and they are chatty! We plan to leave here about November 15, heading to Boise to spend time with family for a few days. We will then make another stop in Utah to visit friends and then start the trek across Wyoming and back to Colorado. That means another chance to lay over in Wyoming because of a snowstorm but we are pros now, no big deal!
Cliff and Cyndy
October 21, 2014
In October of 1805 Captain William Clark and an advanced group of the Corps of Discovery stopped at this spot on the south bank of the Clearwater River just west of the confluence of the North Fork of the Clearwater and built 5 dugout canoes that they used to float all of the way to the Pacific. I have always marveled at the work it must have been to build those canoes, but I never really knew the facts.
They built 5 canoes out of Ponderosa Pines. Four of those canoes were 50’ to 55’ long and between 2½’ to 3’ feet in diameter. The fifth canoes was about 35’ long and 2’ to 2½’ feet in diameter. They had to haul a crew of 34 and each canoe carried a minimum of 7 men and 800 to 1,000 pounds of equipment each.
A display of a dugout canoe at the actual spot where Lewis and Clark built their 5 dugout canoes for their trip to the Pacific.
Consider how much time it would take to chop down a tree of that size and then hollow it out with hand tools. The Indians taught them how to use small fires and/or hot coals to help make the wood brittle and easier to chip out. After making their way over Lolo Pass and the continental divide they nearly starved to death and were then rescued by the Nez Perce Indians.
Today, a road follows the Clearwater from Orofino to Lewiston, where we often shop for groceries. They started down the river in October when the river runs pretty low and the Corps of Discovery ended up pulling and pushing their canoes in ice cold water for much of the first 30 miles. This real life adventure kind of kills my desire to have been a pioneer!
A actual canoe built by the Nez Perce Indians about a hundred years old.
Cliff
October 5, 2014
Oh just hanging out in an RV repair shop parking lot, enjoying the Bronco game and the free, fast wifi. We will enjoy watching several weeks of teachings from flatirons this evening that we cannot get up at the dam.
Taking your home with you wherever you go is a cool concept until you think about the disadvantage of taking your home with you wherever you go. We put our home through the shake, rattle and roll test with every trip we make and sometimes things shake loose. RV dealers understand the issues of repairing a trailer that is your home and they have hook ups in their lot that allow you to at least spend the night in your trailer. And we are not the only ones here!
More wildlife! Cliff makes the rounds of the campgrounds around the reservoir and he spotted these whitetail deer. The does are about the size of a Great Dane dog.
Wild Turkey update. The rafter of turkeys still visit us every morning and evening, looking for their dried corn and seed. The quail come right after them and pick up what is left. We count the turkeys every day to make sure there are still 14! They are getting much bigger and flap their wings around a lot to get more of the food.
Cliff and Cyndy
I continue to read about the journey of Lewis and Clark as it is a great way to find out about the area where we are working and since we are actually on their trail we get to visit many of the areas mentioned in their journals.
After crossing over the high passes in the Bitterroot Mountains, located on the border of Idaho and Montana, L&C descended the North Fork of the Clearwater River (this is a correction of an earlier blog). This is the river that is backed up by the Dworshak Dam. Because they got to this area in late fall, the water in the river was very low and could not be navigated by canoe. Once they got to the confluence of the rivers, near our town of Orofino, they stopped and built 5 dugout canoes. Still, they ended up having to drag the canoes over several low area in the river. Once they reached the Snake River, near present day Lewiston, the river was deep enough that they were able to canoe almost 30 miles a day.
Looking west over the town of Orofino, ID at the Clearwater River. This is where Lewis and Clark built their 5 dugout canoes.
This is also the lands of the Nez Perce Indians, whom they met as they were coming down the west side of the Bitterroots. Last Friday, I drove through two of their villages (Perce and Weippie) to get to one of our campgrounds. The Nez Perce fed them and taught them how to build dugout canoes, plus escorted them down river to the great falls of the Columbia. The Nez Perce tribes raised horses and used them to cross over the Bitterroots to go hunting for buffalo in the spring of each year. On L&C’s return trip they were able to buy enough horses from them to get back over the Bitterroot Mountains and they were able to follow them as they rode to hunt buffalo in Montana.
Cliff
September 20, 2014
The closest town to the Dworshak Dam is about a mile away called Ahsahka with maybe 50 people (on a good day if you count pets) but 5 miles from the dam is a town called Orofino (or ō fē no) with a population of 3,000. If you want to go to a real city, you then need to travel about 45-60 minutes to the towns of Lewiston, ID and Clarkston, WA separated by the Snake River.
Those two towns are at the confluence of the Clearwater River which runs west from the Bitterroot Mountains and through a canyon and passes by Orofino. The Clearwater River was the route of Lewis and Clark. They traveled down the Clearwater to the Snake River and then took the Snake to the Columbia. Although I was a history major in college, I never really studied Lewis and Clark’s trip and only knew what I learned by watching TV. Today I picked up the bible of their trip called “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose, which I’m really enjoying. The title came from a letter that President Jefferson wrote saying that Lewis was a man of “undaunted courage.”
Orofino is Spanish, “Oro” means gold and “fino” for fine, so this is the town of fine gold. It is the county seat for Clearwater County and was a “Canoe Camp” where Lewis and Clark built 5 dugout canoes in 1805. I understand that today they like their small community and have managed to keep out all of the fast food restaurants with the exception of Subway. They have one gas station, a post office and even a library which has free WiFi. As mentioned in an earlier blog, their biggest event is the county fair which we attended and watched the horse pull.
One thing that Clearwater County does have is lots of wildlife. Two nights ago we were driving home from dinner with the other volunteers and saw 11 deer along the side of the road. I almost hit two and every day we get a visit from the 14 wild turkeys and a small flock of quail. In fact as I write this, those turkeys are just a few feet from the window eating the bird seed I threw out. They don’t even run off when I go out to throw out more seed. Oh this is a sight not seen before, both the turkeys and the quail are out. Normally the turkeys chase the quail off.
We regularly sit around with the two other host couples and talk about all of the places we have been and the experiences that we have had. I think that those stories may grow a little each time we tell them. What can I say? After so much pain and sorrow in my life the Lord has blessed me more than I ever dreamed possible.
Cliff
Just Milling Around! 