Bands on The Lake Cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. 7/5/19

After a busy July 4th week we got together with other workampers and enjoyed the Kelly Hughes Band. The gang went to dinner and then to the marina to wait for our ship to come in.

              One of the two ships that were tied together for the evening live music cruise.

                                    Kelly Hughes about ready to party on the cruise ship.

                                                            Party on the deck

The beautiful Coeur d'Alene Resort Hotel and Marina in downtown.

Sandpoint and Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort

On our day off we did more exploring and went to Sandpoint and then up to the Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort.  Sandpoint is less than 50 miles from Coeur d'Alene up Hwy 95.  Sandpoint is a cute little town on Lake Pend Orielle, the largest lake in Idaho.

After cruising downtown we decided it was time for lunch and we decided on Fiesta Bonita for Mexican food.  It was good, but nothing spectacular. The server we had was a hoot and it made lunch much more enjoyable. We visited a few shops and enjoyed speaking with all the friendly people.

After lunch we took the scenic drive up to Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort with plenty of photo ops along the way.

It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and perfect for a cocktail outdoors near the snow.

           The town of Sandpoint and Lake Pend Orielle from atop of Schweitzer Mountain.

                                                Warm weather, flip flops, and snow.

Summer at Blackwell Island RV in Coeur d'Alene, ID

We arrived in Coeur d'Alene on April 16th and settled into Blackwell Island RV Park for our summer job.  The owners seem extremely nice and we are looking forward to going back to work. A day of rest and then it's time for grocery shopping. But first we visited Fuel Fitness and after getting the information, we decided to join. The staff seems awesome and the facility very nice. Friday April 19th, we went for our first workout, Just have to do our best to stay healthy.

I'm on the treadmill for my cardio and the television is showing DQ and Domino's Pizza commercials...LOL

                     We got settled into site #1 and I finally got our motorcoach clean.

Finally got out to do some exploring and we visited Hayden Lake which is at the north end of 

Coeur d'Alene.

                                           Brunch at "Le Peep", a nice spot on the river.

Cocktails at "Mulligan's"

Summer in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

After one month in Pahrump, NV we started our journey to the far north. We met up with our friends Tom and Cindy Inskeep and traveled together. The trip through Utah up I-15 was great, I had no idea how many beautiful mountain ranges there were in that state. We met the Inskeep in Las Vegas and started our journey from there.

We drove through a little piece of Arizona before crossing into Utah and got to experience the Virgin River Gorge. We hit about one minute of now, but the gorge was beautiful.

                            As we got into Utah, the mountain ranges became more numerous.

We decided to stay for two days in Heyburn, ID so we could rest up a little but also visit Twin Falls.  Twin Falls was a short drive from our city park and we got to enjoy the beautiful Shoshone Falls, the Snake River Canyon, and a great lunch at "Elevation 486" which overlooks the canyon.

                                                                Shoshone Falls

 The Twin Falls Visitor Center was nice, and offered a couple of photo ops.

 The trip did include some adventure such as coming over Deadman Pass in Oregon. I only learned of the scary pass the morning we were headed out. Ended up not being too bad, but the unknown raised the old blood pressure for a while. It's also known as Cabbage Hill and it's 6 miles of twisting turning 6% grade downhill into Pendleton, Oregon.

                           After Oregon we drove north up highway 395 into far western Washington.

We went north until we got to I-90 and then went east through Spokane and then hit the Idaho border which is a few short miles from our destination of beautiful Coeur d'Alene.

Here is our summer destination for 2019.

Pahrump, NV.

We left Yuma on March 12th and headed for the Nevada Treasure RV Resort in Pahrump, NV for a 1 month stay. This will be a stopping point to kill time on our way to Coeur d'Alene, ID for the summer. It's still way too cold to go north and the park won't open until late April or so depending on weather.
We head out about 9 AM and as luck would have it, we hit rain in numerous areas of Arizona and California. The occasional road flooding at the low water crossings slowed us quite a bit. It should have been about a 6 hour drive, but the weather and some road construction extended us to a little over 7 hours. We arrive at the resort around 4:30 and it's a real nice place. We get site 3-3 which is listed as a "long premium lot" complete with a gazebo and an outdoor kitchen. The motorhome and the Cadillac are disgusting filthy from the trip in the rain. The car's windows looked like they were painted brown as you could literally not see out of any window. Once we got parked I headed for the nearest car wash to get most of the grime off. I got it looking much better, but I was hungry and tired so I'll wash it again in a day or two. The resort does not allow washing so you have to use "their guy" for motorcoach washing. He supposedly brings his own water and the price is very reasonable.

                                                             Our outdoor kitchen

$70 later and we're back in business with a clean coach.

Our site, #3-3

   .        The sites are nice and we have a very nice view of the mountains from our windshield.

As far as amenities go, this place is awesome. The main clubhouse has a state of the art fitness center with many machines and free weights. Also both the men's and ladies' locker rooms have a hot tub, sauna, and a steam room. I'm enjoying the workouts!

                                               The swimming pool area is extremely nice.

The resort also has a gift store, free book exchange, free DVD movies,  it's own bar and grill, and six lane bowling alley.

Being only an hour from Las Vegas we just have to go spend the day. The sights and sounds of Las Vegas just never get old. Stopped for a cold drink and then some dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, but I must say Las Vegas prices are getting out of hand, they're not the bargains they used to be.

                                              Awesome Aston Martin cruising The Strip.

                                                    and a beautiful Lamborghini SUV

Oklahoma for the Holidays

We get home to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas in Oklahoma with family, and oh boy did we get to see some crazy weather. Oklahoma had a good round of snow for the season!

                                                Didn't plan on this when we came home!

                                                       Beautiful sunrise after the snow.

                                           A rare beautiful sight seeing snow on Mt. Scott.

Winter in Yuma, AZ

After a wonderful Christmas visit with family at home in Oklahoma we went to Yuma, AZ to visit Kathy's brother and his wife. We had numerous cold days and even had some heavy snow to deal with.

Off to Yuma in search of warmer weather. During our trip we decided to stop again at Elephant Butte State Park and Truth or Consequences, NM. Of course we had to visit the River Bend Hot Springs for a nice relaxing dip in the spa while overlooking the Rio Grande River.

We arrived in Yuma and stayed on a private lot in the Foothills area.  We stayed on a great lot owned by LeRoy and Anne Willis. We had lots of fun teaching the Willis' and the Nix's the game of "Pegs and Jokers". Our friends Tom and Cindy Inskeep were already here in Yuma so we got to hang out with them and visit Kathy's brother James.

During a full moon they have an event called "Howling at the Moon" hosted by country music musician Kelly Hughes. Saturday night, Jan 20th was the full moon party held just a few miles down the road from us in the desert. A crowd of about 2500 fun loving people attended and we had a great time with food, drinks, fun, and lots of music. yes, the crowd howled at the moon as it rose above the mountains.

Fun with Tom and Cindy.

                                             Some people even dressed for the occasion.

  Visiting with James and Danelle Nix was a special part of our visit. Dinners and swimming pool time was nice.