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What's New from July 2001
July 1
I just updated Ron's new article "The Scenery Can Change Fast" and my new article "Keeping the Commitment". We are just finishing up our last weekend here at the State Park. We will do a campfire program on Tuesday, July 3 and maybe one on the 4th then we leave the next morning. We will not go directly to Moscow as the drive would be about 7-8 hours long so we have found a campground about half way and we will stay two nights so we can finish the work on our programs for the Life on Wheels Conference. We are looking forward to meeting a lot of new and old friends there. On a recent day off we took a nearly 90 drive north on dirt roads (you should have seen the Toyota when we returned) to search out the ghost town of Rocky Bar. We found it and it was very ghostly. In the 1860s over 2000 people lived here and gold was the reason for its existence. We walked around and peeked into some of the buildings. The wallpaper in this house was interesting so were the stairs. This one looked too dangerous. This one looked quite neat so we opened that screen door above to peek in. Oops!!!! It looks like someone lives in this one. Good thing no one was waiting for us with a shotgun. Another mystery picture. Where were we? No one guessed where we were when these pictures were taken. To see if you can guess correctly please go to our Guess page. July 4 Happy Independence Day!!! We packed a small suitcase and took off after work on Sunday. We just wanted to get away and really wanted to go to the mountains, but motel rooms were all booked up so we went south to Jackpot, Nevada. The Cactus Pete hotel there was great, inexpensive and the pool was wonderful. Food in the hotel was great too. Don't ask about the slot machines. We enjoyed our two nights away from the state park. On the way we saw some beautiful scenery on Idaho 30 (east of here). My panorama didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it so I just inserted the little picture on the left and did not attach it completely. That river in the picture is the Snake. July 14 The Life on Wheels conference was terrific. We were so excited to be with so many of our friends and to meet new ones. We heard lots of good comments from all who attended our classes. Part of the packing it in seminar was a slide show that I had prepared and many suggested that I put it on the web site so I will work on that. Right now we are in Spokane at a Yogi Bear campground near the airport. Tomorrow at noon we pick up Kristopher and James and Monday morning we will head out for our vacation to Glacier and Yellowstone. This park has phones at each site and I am in heaven. While at the conference we did get email once, but the battery on our lap top does not keep a charge long and there was no electrical plug near the phones so I couldn't do much else. Also I must apologize that I did not take any
pictures while at the conference. I just wanted to enjoy it all with out
carrying around a camera. I hope you forgive me. I will write more later.
Maybe even in the morning.
July 22 We are still camped at Glacier campground in West Glacier, Montana. We were supposed to leave for Yellowstone on Saturday. We were all packed and ready to leave. The last thing I do is turn on the engine to warm it up and put up the jacks. When I turned the key nothing happened. We had never had a problem before, in fact it had always started like a gem with never a hesitation. There was no way to get help on a Saturday morning. We called Good Sam road service, but they couldn't find anyone who could come out and fix our problem what ever it is. We couldn't be towed anywhere because our jacks are down and they don't go up until the engine starts. So we paid for two extra days here and hopefully someone can come out tomorrow morning. There is a truck repair facility in Kalispell. I have moved up our reservations at Yellowstone and we hope to get there by Tuesday or Wednesday. Meanwhile we were comfortable and we just played a little longer here in God's country. Kristopher and James James and Kris ![]() July 27 This is the first chance I have had to up date this. We have no cell coverage here at Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone. I just found out that there is a modem at the nearby lodge so I will be on my way there momentarily. Northwest Truck Repair came out to our site early
last Monday and he worked for several hours trying to find out what the
problem was. We called American Coach and they gave him all they help they
could and suggested we call Spartan. When we finally got through to them
they helped our mechanic to trouble shoot. It turned out that Spartan had
a hidden solenoid which was no where near the ignition; it was defective
but a few hits and we were able to start the engine. To be sure it wouldn't
happen again we drove to the Truck Repair place in Kalispell and they gave
us a new solenoid. We were on the road by 2 p.m. and drove until about
6:30. On Tuesday we arrived in Yellowstone and we have been having a great
time. I will write more about it later. I will be late with the monthly
stuff (Coffee, Letters and our columns) but I will do them as soon as I
can. We will be in Yellowstone until Sunday them we have three hard days
driving to get these boys back to Kansas City. So you see we won't have
time to sit around and work on this site. Thank you for your patience.
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