Logan Utah to Emily’s House

Logan is really a nice town; surrounded by mountains, it is very picturesque. Here’s a shot I took as we entered the town.

We were here for three days, and during that time we stocked up on supplies from Walmart and I visited two fabric stores. Bob and I also visited a new brewery in town.

It was annoying that out of the list of seven beers on the menu, only three were in stock, but then we found out they had only been open for two weeks so we quickly forgave them. Our beer was good, the wait-staff was very nice, and we enjoyed chatting with them. 

Then we were on to Idaho. We spent one night in a little county campground, then continued directly to Emily’s house. Such fun we had seeing everyone! My daughter’s town allows them to have chickens in the backyard which was very cool. They get fresh eggs every day.

On Friday, four year old Silas and 1 year old Luca came with us to Babby Farms in Caldwell, a large petting zoo filled with exotic and farm animals. Silas got a pony ride and was able to go into the kangaroo pen to pet the ‘roos. They had a nice selection of species, from camels and emus to monkeys and rabbits. Silas and Luca loved it.

The next day we took Quinn and Eve for a weekend GrandCamp. They swam in the pool and learned to do kumihimo (note the concentration

…and visited the Boise Aquarium. Eve used my camera to take some great photos.

On Sunday Bob and I went to church with Em and her family.  I had been worshiping online with this body of believers since the start of the pandemic so it was a joy to be there in person. 

Bob spent Monday building walls for a new chicken yard while the kiddos played outside and Emily and I visited.

We did help some, but it was mostly Bob!

On Tuesday Emily and I went thrift shopping while Bob and Anthony went golfing. We then drove into Boise to meet up with our Mesa friends, Joy and Mark, who have a home here. After touring their lovely home we went out for Pad Thai for dinner. It was fun to see them, and will see them again in October when we are all back to Mesa.

On Wednesday Emily, Anthony, Bob and I went to Caldwell for a yummy lunch at the Orchard House Restaurant.

We had the best portobello sandwiches. We then went over to Ste. Chapelle Vineyards where we tried some of their wines.

What a beautiful setting! We brought a couple of bottles to bring back with us for a special occasion, too.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye. We should be in Mesa on Monday.

Ugh oh in Utah

Our two nights in Wyoming were pretty uneventful except for the really pretty views from the Sweet Water Event Center in Rock Springs, WY.

This place takes no reservations, yet always has had space for us. It’s quite reasonably priced, too. 

We set out for Utah on Saturday morning, expecting to arrive in Logan around 2:00 pm. It was less than four hours away and the weather was beautiful.

We stopped for a brief break around noon and saw across the road there was a family of five pulled over with the hood of their truck up. The truck had overheated, and Bob brought over a small cooler with water from our sink to fill their radiator so they could be on their way. We then continued on and came to a few miles of twists and turns in the road along with steep declines. By the time we got to the bottom we could smell burning rubber. Ugh oh. There was a nice spot to pull off so we stopped and got out to see what was wrong. This was when Bob realized he should have used the engine brake; the brake pads were now smoking. There was a small campground about six miles ahead so, after waiting a while for the brakes to cool down, we continued along and stopped to see if the campground had room for us for the night. Fortunately they did, so after I made a quick call to the campground in Logan to say we would be delayed until tomorrow, we settled in. We were right on Bear Lake in Garden City, Utah, one of the prettiest spots you could imagine, with a lovely view of the lake. I’ve actually had this place on my list of places to visit so it really worked out.

We walked down to the beach and saw this odd-looking tractor towing a flat-bottomed boat out of the water. Water levels are so low that the tractor could just drive out and hitch up the boat!

Bear Lake is currently about 19 miles long and 7 miles wide, and has gotten smaller with lingering drought conditions. At its deepest spot it is over 200 feet deep, but not where we were! 

The next morning we set out again for Logan which was now only 47 miles away. The ride through deep canyons was beautiful and the engine brake was engaged so there were no problems.

Not a relaxing ride, though, after the day before. But we made it! We’ll be in Logan, UT until Wednesday morning and I’m looking forward to visiting some interesting shops.

North Platte, Nebraska

I have to say, though, that we really enjoyed our stay in North Platte. We stayed at Holiday RV Park, right off route 80, yet we’re not bothered by highway noise at all. We were within a mile and a quarter of a Walmart and only a couple of miles from a really nice quilt shop, The Quilt Rack and Wool Cubby.

They also carried rug hooking supplies and wool by the yard for wool embroidery. Plus bolts and bolts of wool felt, which thrilled me because it can be hard for me to find except through mail order sources. We were right around the corner from the Buffalo Bill Cody Trading Post and Fort, which was a fun place to visit.

The fort display was a little sad…

but there was a nice diorama of Cody’s Wild West Show, all hand carved.

Next we visited Bailey Yard, the largest rail yard in the world.

At 2,850 acres, the yard is is 8 miles long with 400 miles of track. They process 12,000 railroad cars a day (125 trains,) repair 1,200 locomotives a month, and use 18 million gallons of diesel fuel every month. We went up in the lookout tower at the visitors center and had a panoramic view of the rail yard.

It’s pretty amazing. Yesterday we went out to lunch at Pal’s Brewery, a couple of miles from our campground, and sampled some really great beer (free samples!) and enjoyed a veggie pizza, no cheese. Yum! It was a really friendly place, too, and we left with some fun memories.

Afterwards we drove over to Buffalo Bill Cody’s ranch where he spent quite a few years. It’s a pretty place and nicely restored.

Today we head for Wyoming for a couple of one-night stops, then will be on to Utah for four nights.

Lee’s Legendary Marble Museum

On Tuesday I was finally out of Covid quarantine so Bob and I drove to York, Nebraska to see the largest collection of marbles in the USA.

How could we pass up the chance to see it? We had a nice chat with Lee himself as we browsed the museum and shop (he also sells antiques.) We learned that he started collecting as a child and established the museum in 2000. The estimated value of his collection is over a million dollars, and he figures he has examples of every type of marble ever made. The collection holds over 1600 quart mason jars of marbles in addition to the glass cases around the room.

We saw antique marbles, college team marbles, Marvel marbles, and Pokemon marbles.

We purchased a vintage marble game that looked like fun; a Nine Men’s Morris game stamped Berea College. All the original marbles were with it, stored in the four sides of the game. Very cool! 

After the museum we traveled back past our campground to the town of Grand Island, NE to have lunch at Kincaider Brewery where we had the best onion rings I’ve ever had. Plus a salad to balance it out!

Onion rings are a rare treat that I allow myself to have once in a while.

Today is a moving day and we head for the North Platte, NE area for a week.