IDAHO

We finally made it to Idaho on Thursday.. Miles of prairie and grassland until we got to Utah where we saw some mountains and then as we crossed into Idaho--more prairies. We couldn't believe it. It is very dry and agricultural in the south. They even have to irrigate. It is just like South Texas except you can see mountains in the distance. And the wind is unbelievable all across the Great Plains. Tex didn't even want to tarry long at the rest stops. He wanted back in the coach. Stacey, I can understand why you said that you would never move back to West Texas because of the wind.

We spent Thurs. night in Boise and then went to White Bird near Hell's Canyon on Friday. We finally got to the mountains and it is beautiful but still a dry area. We camped down in a canyon between the Salmon and Snake Rivers. On Saturday, we rode over to Hell's Canyon--45 min to go 17 miles. Those were rugged mountains. We rode a jet boat up into the canyon some 60 miles or more. The white water was great coming all the way in the boat over the top and on the sides and we got drenched. Then I went swimming in 65 degree water. You never warm up in that. The canyon is the deepest in North America at 1 1/2 miles deep. The Grand Canyon is only a mile. The family that owned the boat and campground were having a family reunion. They only had 8 paying customers and the family on the trip. They were so friendly and we asked lots of questions about Idaho. We just felt like we were visiting them. We saw black bear, a bald eagle, Rocky Mountain sheep with full curls, and several sturgeon being caught in the river. WHAT A GREAT INTRODUCTION TO THE WILDS OF IDAHO!

On Sunday we drove on to Coeur D' Alene to visit Fran and Dan, our RV friends that we met in Red Bay, AL at the Tiffin factory a couple of years ago. 2100 miles to get here!!! Up here it is

very green, lots of evergreen trees and mountains--so much different from southern ID. The town is set on a lake with mountains all around and it has become quite a touristy place in the summer. Houses worth millions of dollars. Celebrities even have houses here--Patty Duke,JohnElway, Ellen Trivolta(John's sister) so he comes to visit here. We are looking forward to exploring it all.