with a nudge

from Chester (thanks honey), here is a post.  With more to come ~ I just went back through those that I'd loaded photos for and never done the text and posting.  WOW I am waaay behind!

We are in Rupert, ID at the moment, on our way to our appointment in UT on Thursday to have the hydraulic line (that blew out a while ago - six weeks maybe) to the coaches leveling system replaced as well as a recall on the refrigerator addressed.

The photo above and the one below were taken at a really neat water feature in Caldwell, ID where we were a week and a half ago for a few days.  We stayed at an Elks Lodge there - not one of our better stops, but we were there three nights I think.  The town of Caldwell was such a sad town.  Another town with more vacant buildings than occupied buildings.  It seems like all the retail and dining options are in the next town - Nampa.  We've seen this so many times and this one was particularly distressing and very hard to define.  Nampa had a lovely, old, established, thriving downtown as well as a major retail strip (ugh what a frustrating road that was to travel - stop light after stoplight after stoplight.  The downtown was a delight though.

Anyway, we'd seen this type of water feature before, but had never taken Sir to enjoy one.  Not sure he was enjoying it as much as we thought he would, but it was quite hot ~  90+ that day, so we figured it might cool him off a bit.  He seemed intimidated by it and never fully enjoyed it in spite of all our efforts.  

After we left Caldwell we went to a lovely state park in Rupert, ID.  Rupert is another very tiny town, but there is some activity here and an outstanding quilt shop (the Gathering Place ~ not a great website to say the least but a great shop)- another of my addictions, but I did so well when I went in there on Saturday - I came out with no less money than I went in with, as well as no new charges on the credit card.  Way to go girl!  Umm, honestly, I may go back before we leave here on Thursday - I saw some fabric that would make such an adorable Muffin outfit for next summer.  I've been a sewing fool lately, working to get my fabric stash within a "reasonable" size.

Here are a a few photos from the Snake River just below the Minidoka Dam at Lake Walcott State Park. This area is also a National Wildlife Preserve.  In the photo below, if you can enlarge it, you will see a tiny portion of the vast population of white pelicans that live here.  

Isn't it interesting to see those brown mountains in the background?  "High desert" as it's referred to in these parts.  I just can not fall in love with a desert, high or low, it just isn't my favorite, Rick on the other hand really really loves it and has since the first time we crossed Texas and into New Mexico two and a half years ago and he got his first glimpse and first stayed in a desert.  I remember being rather whiney (seriously, I was ~ hard to believe, but it's a true statement!) I was so tired of seeing brown - I really needed to see a green tree, green grass a green plant ....  I do think, however, that it is nice to see this high desert stuff as a background to the beauty of the state park and the Snake River.

I found out bright and early Saturday morning that one of the many benefits of rising early (thank you so much Sir Arlo) is seeing a beautiful sunrise!  When Sir woke me up around 6:30 on Saturday morning there was an outstanding sunrise and it was reflecting so beautifully on the lake.  It is difficult enough for me to get out of bed in the morning, never mind grab my eyeglasses so I can see more than three feet in front of me.  With that said, grabbing my faithful camera companion is absolutely out of the question.  Well the sunrise Saturday was so outstanding that I made an extra effort to lay out the camera and eyeglasses on Saturday night so I'd be able to document said sunrise on Sunday morning.

Well we got up a bit earlier on Sunday so the sun hadn't risen as high as the previous morning but it was still quite outstanding and I captured it on "film" - huh, film what's that?

We left the State Park yesterday morning (a compromise - I could have stayed there several more weeks, but Rick really needs to be in a more active area than a state park ten miles from the nearest store, restaurant, "civilization").  We are now at an Elks Lodge here in Rupert ~ surrounded by lovely green grass .... (because it owns part of the local "country club").  

Ahhh, so I'm on my way to getting "current" with the blog AND we just completed a project that's been put off for weeks (well, alright a couple months) we replaced the lift motors and lift arm assemblies on two of our three vent fans.  The one in bathroom hasn't functioned in three or four months (imagine the most important place for a vent fan!!) and the one in the bedroom has been "dicey" for a few months.  Mission accomplished.  NOW this afternoon the water heater starts gushing water!  UGH, apparently a line leading into the heater is having a connection issue or something - oh well no hot water for dishes or showers tonight!