Post Falls, ID to Deer Lodge, MT

It's hot and windy here in Deer Lodge, unseasonably hot, I understand.  When we got here, Dave unhooked the car for me and I went into town to visit Quilters Corner Quilt Shop.  I looked around for a while and bought some fat quarters to make into potholders.  I also bought some quilt binding clips to hold the binding in place while I sew it onto a quilt.  It's always fun to look around quilt shops because each shop displays different fabrics made into quilts and other projects.  This shop was fun because it was in an old bank building.  They used the upstairs as a sale area.

I drove by the Old Montana State Prison, which also contains a car museum.  I decided not to tour the museum because the weather was too hot!  The tour looked like it would be interesting.

As  Dave mentioned, a while after we drove southeast of Missoula on I-90, we came upon an accident.  Traffic was stopped for a little while and then we had to form one lane to get past the accident.  Everyone was driving slow, so I was able to take a couple of pictures. 

The first picture is of the tow vehicle that turned on its side.  The picture that I did not get was of a Dutchmen trailer that the car had evidently been towing when it jackknifed.  The second picture that I took was of the Life Flight helicopter that had arrived on the scene. 

This third picture is of another car that we think was involved in the trailer accident.  This car looked like it flipped at least twice and ended up landing upright.  Stuff from the car was strewn all over the median.  This accident did not have an ambluance present, but the first accident did.

Almost directly across from where the first accident took place, teenagers were climbing the rocks, playing in a waterfall, and watching what was happening across the road.

I do hope no one died in that accidents, and for sure that Dutchmen trailer won't be doing any camping for a while.  Before and after the excitement, I took a few pictures of the terrain that we traveled through in Idaho and Montana on I-90.

Purple hills

We are staying at Indian Creek RV Park in Deer Lodge, MT.  We not only did not see any deer, as Dave mentioned, but we did not see a creek. 

Site 54

Tomorrow, God willing, we will be spending the night in Hardin, Montana.

Vancouver, WA to Post Falls, ID

Dave and I left Vancouver, Washington, at 8:50 am and arrived at Suntree RV Park in Post Falls, Idaho at 4:40 pm.  We stopped at a rest area west of The Dalles, OR, then at a rest area at Boardman, OR to eat our lunch.  We stopped for gas at Flying J at King City, WA, just north of Pasco and paid $3.79/gallon after the ten cent discount.

Below is a the view of the Columbia River Gorge that we had from the I-84 eastbound rest area west of The Dalles, Oregon.   We had this view long enough to take the picture through the window, and then a big truck pulled in next to us and blocked any further pictures.

Crossing the Columbia River for the third and final time today at the Tri-Cities, WA.

We stopped at another rest area along US 395 North, and then got gas again at a Spokane Flying J/Conoco where they didn't honor the discounted price.

Welcome to Idaho and lower gas prices!

Here at Suntree RV Park, there's a Flying J and a Love's next door, with the welcoming Idaho price of $3.55/gallon.  We should have checked out our GasBuddy app and waited to gas up in Idaho!

Site 99 at Suntree RV Park in Post Falls, ID

Tomorrow, it's a shorter day to our reserved site in Deer Lodge, Montana.

Heading to the Hills

Dave and I are leaving Sunday morning for a motorhome trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota.  We had planned to go on this trip three summers ago, but that year I needed to get an unexpected artificial aortic heart valve, so I had to cancel all of our reservations.  Last year we went on the Yellowstone part of that previously planned trip, and this year we are going to spend 3 1/2 weeks traveling through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and then back home again through Oregon.  Dave or I or both us will undoubtedly write posts about summer travels.

In the meantime, I have been working on more quilting projects.  I made a pink flannel quilt for my great-niece, Amaya Mei Tanaka.  She happened to be born in Atlanta, GA on the same day that I mailed the quilt. 

Baby Amaya leaving the hospital

Baby Amaya's quilt (front) Back of quilt

Burp cloths--she may be the only baby girl who has a Cars-themed burp cloth!

Cars pillow which I made for Amaya's four-year-old big brother, Braylon

I finished up one of the quilt tops that I pieced while we were camping at Mallard Creek.  I am planning on donating these lap-size quilts to a nursing home or maybe to project Linus.

Then I decided to make one more Charm pack quilt.  To quilt this yellow and black quilt, I decided to play around with stippling, a free motion quilt technique which I am just learning.

Front

Back

Binding

That's the end of my quilting projects for a while because I have decided not to take my sewing machine along on our trip to Mount Rushmore.  No doubt I will find a few quilt stores along the way to visit, though!

Oregon Zoo with Sophie

For granddaughter, Sophie's, first birthday Dave and I gave her and her parents a membership to the Oregon Zoo in Portland.  Their membership includes two guest passes each time they visit the zoo, and today we were the lucky recipients of the passes.  This visit was scheduled this several weeks ago and today the weather turned sunny just in time for our visit to the zoo.  Even though the signs said that the zoo parking was full, we persisted and found a great parking spot.

Sophie in her carrier on Kiersten's back:

We walked around the zoo for a couple of hours and saw the highlights.  Since they have a zoo membership, we didn't have to try and see the entire zoo today. 

Black bear with dried grass on his rear end:

Beaver (sorry Duck fans, we saw ducks, but I didn't get their picture):

After I took this picture of the sleeping polar bear, he woke up and stretched and rubbed his back, and put on a bit of a show for the crowd of people.

A visit to the elephants was a must, as well as a visit to the elephant ear concession stand.

An overview of part of the zoo as we climbed back up to the entrance.  This is a beautiful zoo with lots of greenery, but like most zoos, it's a bit hilly.

Another picture of a now-sleepy Sophie.   It was cute--Sophie kept trying to pat Kiersten's hair through the netting of the carrier.

We said a final good-bye to one of the park's choo-choo trains:

Two "Charming" Weekends

Last weekend I took my sewing machine along with us in the motorhome when we went to Mallard Creek Golf and RV Resort.  While Dave played 18 holes of golf on three different days, I pieced some quilt tops.

This time, however, I didn't have to drag along my cutting board, rulers, templates, or rotary cutter.   I pieced together 5-inch square pieces of fabrics from Charm packs.  Each Charm pack that I used contained 32 squares, four each of eight different patterns that all go together. 

Sample Charm packs

All I had to do was sew the pieces from two Charm packs together, and voila, the result was a pieced lap-size quilt top.  I was so eager to start sewing that I didn't think to take a picture of the Charm packs used to make the following pieced quilt top.

Another project that I worked on used the following Charm pack:

These Charm packs were not $5 on sale, they were marked down even lower, to $2 per pack and $2.50 for two 1-yard coordinating fabrics.  What a deal--thank you Walmart!

Rather than just sewing the squares together, I sewed the sale charm pack squares into half-square triangles: 

Then I sewed the triangle squares into an interesting pattern:

That project still needs to be finished!

My final project for last week was the following quilt top, which I finished quilting this weekend. 

Here's the back of the quilt with the coordinating fabric:

This is the first "real" quilt that I have made.  I have FINALLY learned how to sew on the binding and make mitered corners.

Not perfect, but a lot better than I could do a few months ago!  And yes, I enjoyed my last two weekends "charming" weekends!

Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery near Sisters, Oregon

Dave and I spent the last few days at Mallard Creek Golf and RV Park near Lebanon, Oregon.  Dave has been busy golfing and I have entertained myself by sewing some quilt tops.  I'll blog about that another day.

Today Dave took the day off from golfing and we drove up the mountain on US Highway 20 to Sisters, Oregon, about a two-hour drive from the RV park.  I visited "The Stitchin' Post", a very nice quilt and yarn store in Sisters.  Then we had lunch at Bronco Billy's Grill and Saloon, located inside the old Sisters Hotel. 

Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery

After lunch,  we drove out to Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery, located along the Metolius River.  This is one of the best fish hatcheries that we've visited.  The fun part is buying a handful of fish food and feeding the fish.  The fish all come swarming and jumping to get at the food. 

Swarming fish

The fish nurseries are round so that the food gets more evenly distributed, otherwise the stronger fish get all the food.  These fish are too small to be fed the pellets available in the fish food machines.

Besides being a fish hatchery, this is a very tranquil place to spend some time.

A majestic Ponderosa Pine

The Metolius River

The weather was cool and a bit windy, but we've had no rain the last couple of days!

Happy Anniversary to Dave and Me

Yes, Dave and I were married 33 years ago on May 12, 1979 in Riverside, California.   We were married on a hot Saturday afternoon at Hope Lutheran Church in Riverside.  Just like this year, Mother's Day was the following day.  We stayed around to honor my mother and my new husband's step-mother, who were both in town for the wedding, then on Monday we left for a glorious 15-day honeymoon in Hawaii. 

Dave and I met in Atlanta, Georgia, where we were both attending a Burroughs computer convention.  We were introduced by a mutual friend.  At the time we met, I lived in Stamford, Connecticut, and Dave lived in southern California in Colton, east of Los Los Angeles.  It was a long-distance romance until I was able to get a transfer with my company, Hewitt Associates, to their Newport Beach, CA office.  I moved to Huntington Beach and Dave still lived 60+ miles east of there in Grand Terrace.  After the wedding we were both able to live in the same town (and the same house!) in Grand Terrace. Later we moved to Riverside, where we lived until we moved to Vancouver, Washington in 1993. 

May 12, 1979

Today in Vancouver, the temperature was in the mid-80s.  Dave and I drove to Vancouver Lake, where we went for a bike ride, then sat by the lake and ate our picnic lunch and read our Nooks. 

The park was busy today with several crew boats, a bicycle and running race, and lots of families enjoying the warm weather. 

For our anniversary dinner, we went to Osaka House, a teppanyaki-style Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver.  Good food, good company, and a great anniversary celebration.  Thank you, Dave, for putting up with me for 33+ years!   I love you (still)!