Karla's Blog

September 5, 2021

Hoping for the best we dumped at the Spokane Fairgrounds and got back on the road, this time headed to Idaho. The air was smokey from all the fires going on and we were hoping it wouldn’t be bad where we were going. 

We have friends in Fruitland, outside of Boise that we wanted to stop by and see so we decided to make it a long day. We had made a reservation at a halfway point but, because of the steering issue, we left a day later than planned and had to cancel that reservation. So we ended up driving all the way through to the next place in Payette which is about 20 minutes from Fruitland. We got on the road around 10:30 am. Poor Larry had to do all the driving since my legs were still in pretty bad shape, but we took lots of breaks. We finally reached our destination around 8:00 pm. 9 1/2 hours . . . whew!! What a trooper Larry is!

Just to clarify, there are lots of boondocking options but many of them can only accommodate smaller rigs or won’t allow pets or generators. Also, because the heatwave was in full swing (103+ in some cases), we needed to secure places with 50 amp electric hookups so we could run both A/C units.

So we were able to spend time with our friends and keep the RV reasonably cool. They showed us around Fruitland and Payette and Weiser and took us to a shop called Second Chance.

OMGosh, this was the most awesome shop! There were so many things I wanted to buy but, in an RV, you have no room for knick knacks or wall decos. So I just admired the beautiful wares and only bought a small scratchy cloth that our friend swore will get the bug guts off the windshield. LOL. I could’ve spent all day in that amazing shop! Maybe another time.

After our 3 nights in Payette we headed west to Oregon where we had secured a couple of nights in a little town called Prineville. It was only around 5 hours but still a long driving day. Our host (the owner of the property) was not there. He had gone on an RV trip of his own. We thought we would have electric hookups but, when we arrived we found that another boondocker had taken that spot :-\. However, it didn’t matter because the temp was actually quite comfortable and it was a little breezy so we were able to open all the windows! AHHHHH! How long had it been? Weeks? Can’t remember but, boy did it feel good to have that cool air blowing through the rig. Not only that but it wasn’t smokey, which was a huge relief, although we could see smoke in the distance.

So we relaxed in our chairs with a nice vino and watched the sunset before turning in for the night. 

The neighborhood we were in was nice and very quiet! Probably the best night’s sleep we’d had in a bit. When we took the dogs out the neighbors we encountered were nice and friendly, which was so welcome because, I’m sorry to say, it’s not like there everywhere.

To be continued . . .