I had hoped to post more photos while still on the trip but obviously that didn't happen. The overall trip itself was a great time, making lemonade out of lemons!
So much so that when we did get back, I suffered from some pretty heavy 'post trip' depression and that feeling with the catch up of work while we were gone meant I didn't post until today. Yes, from such a great time to back at the same 'bump and grind', well, just a little bummed.
While gone though, a GREAT TIME!!!
Yes the IJJA conference was just the usual IJJA conference, I was glad to be out of it as the event photographer after 6 years, and Stacy was out too with any involvement in the core IJJA group. We currently have no plans to go next year although Stacy may have to go for one day for her state level meetings that take place the last day of the conference. We need a year off!
As conference centers go the the Shilo Inn and Convention Center was NOT a good place to be this year! The food was pretty bad this year and ran the run from plastic wrapped sandwiches that had many people upset to from raw to way overdone Prime Rib for the banquet with the "guests" not being given the option of which style you may want, raw or overdone! Mine was very well done, the person's next to me was basically raw and she wound up not eating most of her plate of food.
And for those poor attendees that were vegetarian, like Stacy is, they had to wait until everyone else, over 300 people, were served food most didn't even eat! Only to get a plate of extra spicy noodles and some steamed veggies. And the plate was way too spicy for Stacy to eat.
The old building also suffered cooling and ventilation problems in the conference rooms. One standing room only packed speaker was sweating with the rest of us when the air conditioning apparently failed and couldn't keep up with all the warm bodies which became many very sweaty people well before his 2 hour talk ended. The A/C problem lasted the whole conference, warm to hot and muggy in the building.
I was very glad we were staying 5 minutes away in our RV and not a prisoner in a hot room.
So, back to the trip!
When we'd gotten to Idaho Falls on the 12th of September, it was pushing 90 degrees, but by Monday afternoon cold front storms had started to work through the region and it got pretty cool and rained daily, usually overnight and in the morning to be partly cloudy in the afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday it became very windy and rainy and even with it now 'off season' (after the last big holiday of the summer, Labor Day) the RV park started to fill up as other travelers decided to play it safe and hole up there to wait out the storms over chancing an accident with the really strong winds.
Above: the rain on the window looking from the dinette Wednesday morning
Below: One evening Stacy and I walked all around the place since it wasn't raining then.
It was pretty full!
Below: Same walk, Stacy posing at the back of the RV
Thursday morning the 17th we packed up and headed slowly back towards home.
We had pre trip planned to go to West Yellowstone after the conference for a couple of days as we had done back in 2010, the last time the IJJA meeting had been in Idaho Falls.
This year though the cold fronts were very cold and there was snowfall predicted that turned out to actually occur in the Yellowstone area. I saw from another Blog I read that had photos of the snow on the RV and ground in the Yellowstone area. So no, no Yellowstone, not this year!
Below: On the road and near the border of Idaho and Montana and it wasn't looking too good ahead. Luckily, while we did get some rain there were no hard winds. When it cleared up a bit you could see the area peaks were all dusted with snow and when the photo was taken it was 43 degrees outside.
As we drove along Stacy started looking up some places to go or things we could do since we did have three and a half days we could be out before having to be back.
We decided to stay at the KOA in Dillon, Montana, and go check out Montana's "Virginia City". Like the more famous Virginia City in Nevada, it is historic for mining and wild west adventures.
I thought the town names couldn't be a coincidence and must have had some kind of a connection. I bought a book while we were there called "Names on the Faces of Montana" which is one of those books that goes through every city and tells how it got named. Turned out my guess was wrong, no connection. But we wanted to see the place and see if this Virginia City was as touristy as Nevada's.
After getting set up at the KOA we drove the about an hour out to the town. Stacy on the boardwalk that are the sidewalks there. With the couple of weeks early cold weather, most of the shops had closed early for the season not to be open again until next May, like the "Montana Picture Gallery" where you can get those recreated old west photos done.
While nowhere near as touristy as the Nevada town, with slot machines and all, this one was actually more interesting with so many shops actually museums that could be walked into and see how things would have looked there back in the late 1800s.
Above and below, the general store was a very interesting place!
From all the store goods that would have been available on the shelves to the wall paper on the ceiling, we spent quite a while there looking around.
Below: the office of the KOA (Kampgrounds Of America, a nationwide campground chain). It was still a bit nippy that afternoon and night. It got down to 37, we were very happy to have the heater in the trailer!
The next day, Friday the 18th started sunny but cold. We packed up and continued on towards home.
The next two photos are from the rest area near the town of Anaconda, Montana. Below is one of the original smelter buckets that had once head molten metals from the mine on display at the rest area along with a history of the mine.
Below: Stacy gives you an idea of how large it is!
Above: Still at the Anaconda rest area, we walked out to a nature trail and as we walked back all the trucks and other RVs were coming in around ours.
Yes, we stop at quite a few rest stops! Easy in and out when you're dragging a 33 foot long trailer behind you! Below is a stop that was also our lunch break that day near Missoula, Montana. We got the good slot that we could have the slide out open without worrying someone would come in and possibly hit it.
We spent the night at the Missoula, KOA again. The old guy checking us in said we couldn't have a spot in the area we'd stayed the week before, the one with the really nice patio area. Although there were several empty spaces in that section all night, oh well.
The next morning we were on the way again. Below at a stop near Idaho now. Then we got to the road construction on I-90.
It's said there are two seasons in the North, Winter, and Road Construction, and that's actually true!
So, so since we had rejoined KOA on the way out towards Idaho Falls at the Missoula, KOA, we used to be members back in the motorcycle trip days, we now had the campground directory and while looking through it Stacy discovered there was a KOA not too very far from where we live but in Washington. So we decided to stretch it one more night, go there and then have a short drive home the next day, Sunday. We were really glad we did!
The next few photos are of the grounds of the Little Diamond Lake, KOA and Thousand Trails Campground near Newport, Washington. It was a bit late in the afternoon when we got there so all these photos were taken the next morning when we walked around the area a bit. It is a pretty large place at over 300 acres. It was the first time we'd ever seen a combined camping facility for both the public KOA and the private Thousand Trails organisations. It is a very nice facility and since off the beaten path quite a bit, not crowded. We were told that many of the campers are from the Spokane area due to it being a large city about an hour away.
Above and below: nice gravel road and sites with many sites separated by a few trees made for a better camping experience than many places.
To get our trailer on the more level spot for parking we had to disconnect the truck and park it behind the trailer so it wouldn't stick out in the street.
The ONLY thing that wasn't too nice while there was being next to the RV on the left in the photo. Since it was a Saturday night, they felt it would be good to be a bit loud and then get drunk to the point of trying some karaoke around their campfire. So they had some friends come on up and had a party.
Next time we'll ask to be several spaces away from other trailers! The 5th wheel on the right were great, nice and quiet, they were friends with another 5th wheel on their right so other than ask us about our trailer we didn't hear from them.
Below, Sunday morning, and Stacy's starting to pack things up. At about 70 miles away we will be back there again!
And finally, below, just back home early in the day and already starting to unload much of the stuff from the trailer.
We would have emptied much of it anyway as anything that can be damaged by freezing has to be out of it. As it WILL be freezing during the winter around here!
But we also had to take it to the dealer's on the 26th for it's first annual warranty inspection and to get some things fixed under warranty. We have the "Forever Warranty" that is "free" to have and will cover major components of the RV but you must have annual checks at the dealer to keep that warranty in force by making sure things that are often missed by owners get checked.
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