Big Wheels are Rolling Again!

YEAH! After two medium length drives, up a few inclines, the Alfa seems to be running very well. It's as if she can finally breathe!

We stayed in the Freightliner parking area Friday night so we could get an early start on Saturday.

Sunday's weather forecast cited 100° temperatures in Salt Lake City. Time to move north. My aim was to find a place that was not too far away, but in cooler terrain.  

I found what sounded like a delightful place listed in our Passport America book. 140 miles north, the Cub River Guest Lodge and RV park is in Idaho and is just on the edge of the mountains. We called ahead and reserved the last of their twelve RV spaces.

It was fairly easy to find and get to. Except for the eight miles on the small Cub River Road, it was not much off our chosen route. 

Personally, I liked the place very much. After several nights in the city, in a hotel and in a parking lot, I was ready for a few days at a mountain retreat such as this. Small, friendly, cool!  



What more could you want?

The answer was a clear view of the sky so Craig could get the broadcast of the Women's World Cup soccer games with our rooftop Winegard satellite dish. I have to point out that it's rare that  the dish can't see the satellites, but of course this had to be the time when it was not possible with all of the trees overhead and the sheer mountain wall that loomed over us to the south.  Most of the time, Craig would be OK with not being able to get TV for a few days, but this is Women's World Cup time, and watching the games is a major pleasure for him. 

We solved Saturday's dilemma by driving south 30 miles and going to a Wild Wings Sports bar in Logan Utah to see the game. If this happened more often he would probably invest in a secondary portable dish, but finding a sports bar is much less expensive. The hot wings were good, and their TVs were top-notch!

There are several more important matches on in the next few days, so Sunday morning we again packed up and sought a park with fewer trees. There was another park that accepts Passport America  about 40 miles away, and Craig called to ask if they had a spot with a clear view of the sky. They answered "yes".

Downata Hot Springs is a little, older park with a variety of activities. They feature a large heated pool, water slides, spa, and two large hot spring fed soaking pools. 

But when we pulled into our assigned 50 amp RV spot, we discovered there was a big tree that prevented the dish from seeing its satellites. Craig walked the rather empty RV parking area and found a spot that looked better. It was no problem getting reassigned. The new spot is only 30 amp, so we have to be a bit careful with what we have on when the AC is running. 

After a nice dinner of grilled fresh salmon, we noticed the sunset was developing. To the west of our site there is a large grass pasture with several horses. I decided to try to get a picture of both the horses and the sunset. I may have done better with our big Nikon camera, but these are what I got with my little Sony:

Looks like a good place to be a horse!

This guy was pushing his nose as far under the fence as he could get to reach some of these thistles. I pulled one and put it up on the top rail of the fence and he quickly chomped it down. 

I think he would have liked me to pull more for him, but I don't think it is right to feed other people's animals if you don't know what is good for them.

It was very cool Sunday night and we enjoyed sleeping with the windows wide open. Monday's daytime temps were in the high 70's. Sweet!

On Monday we enjoyed the hot spring waters in the early afternoon before the soccer matches.

The large pool and hot tub area attracted the children. There are two waterslides for them to use. The pool is kept at 96°.



We chose to go into the two large hot-spring soaking pools. There was one other couple in when we arrived, but soon we had both pools to ourselves.

One was 101° and the other was 105°.  The jets in the first pool were very strong and the temperature of the second was very relaxing! An added plus was they did not smell of sulfur like many hot springs do.

Life is good. Craig has his soccer,  I have hot water pools, and the Alfa is running smoothly (for now).