HOME for the winter

 A great summer trip is behind us now and back home to spend the winter. Here's a map of our five-month travels...

Five months. 37 Stops ! ....and many experiences, locations, and sites along the way.

Just a few of the Highlights:

• Glacial Lake Missoula
• Kayaking in Lake McDonald at Glacier National Park
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park car trip in North Dakota
• Staying at a yacht harbor in Duluth, Minnesota
• Cheese, cheese, cheese in Wisconsin!
• Iowa state capitol in Des Moines
• Custer State Park in South Dakota
• Elk in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
• Kayaking under the Grand Teton Mountains, Wyoming

Grand Tetons, Wyoming

Lake McDonald, Glacier NP, Montana

Tetons from the kayak...spectacular!

Lower Falls on the Yellowstone River

CHEESE in Wisconsin!!!

Male Elk in the Madison River, Yellowstone NP

Elk. Male, Female and young ones hunkered down in the grass upper right

Sunset in Iowa

We hope you enjoyed our journeys as much as we did. I apologize for not posting more entries along the way....we sure saw some wonderful things....maybe next trip. 

We celebrated our 30th Anniversary on this trip!

Katie keeping watch.

No other place like Cajun Country

Got to Cajun country outside of Lafayette, Louisiana in time for the Mardi Gras golf cart parade at Cajun Palms RV park.

Oh...the colors...well....Purple Represents Justice. Green Represents Faith. Gold Represents Power.

Cras? Oh....as in Mardi Gras.

Check out the purple satin pants and colorful leggings !

We also bought the traditional King Cake while there. Delicious ! (We usually go to Lafayette to buy the best there is in the area but got lazy and bought at a local bakery.)

Used to be called "T-Sue's Bakery" when we were here before. They have a red light on their street sign that flashes when the fresh bread comes out of the oven. 

Those boxes on the bottom shelf are all King Cakes.

The History of the King Cake
King Cakes didn't always contain a baby Jesus; in the late 19th century, celebrators hid a bean, pecan or jeweled ring inside the baked item. Whomever found the treasure within would be crowned the king or queen of the season's first Mardi Gras ball.

The plastic baby was first baked into a cake in the 1950s, and now, these little plastic figures come in a multitude of colors, including pink, brown, green, purple and gold. Tradition dictates that whomever finds the baby in their slice of cake must provide the next cake for celebration.

When ordering a King Cake from a bakery, the plastic baby might come on the side to be inserted into the cake by you. This protects the bakery from any potential litigation as a result of chipped teeth, choking or other injuries.

Yummmy! The Baby represents Jesus. (see above paragraphs)

We went down to Butte Larose to see the homes along the bayou. Some are pretty neat...and others....well....

But they have satellite TV!

All sizes, shapes and conditions...no zoning here.

Lastly, we like to take Katie for a ride around the RV park when we can. While we drive at 5 mph, she stands up on my lap, hangs out and loves it.

Weeeeeee!

You taking my picture!!??

There's more in this part of the country but that's a long enough entry for now.

steve/kim/katie

Some Idaho Railroad History

A nice, simple blog entry this time but we like it. Hope you do too.


We've been wanting to take in the local Nampa Historical Train Building for some time and so we dropped Katie off to get groomed (which takes a couple of hours) and headed a few miles into town.

As the Oregon Short Line railroad originally bypassed Boise, Nampa has the fanciest of many railroad depots built in the area.

Nampa began its life in the early 1880s when the Oregon Short Line Railroad built a line from Granger, Wyoming, to Huntington, Oregon, which passed through Nampa. More railroad lines sprang up running through Nampa, making it a very important railroad town. As the Oregon Short Line railroad originally bypassed Boise, Nampa has the fanciest of many railroad depots built in the area.

It's a beautiful building, inside and out. Let's look at some of it....

This was not in the original building...don't know it's history.

The Oregon Short Line Depot shortly after construction in 1903.

1903 Original building 

The building was eventually donated to the Canyon County Historical Society by the Union Pacific Railroad. It was partially restored and converted into a museum by the Canyon County Historical Society and dedicated July 3, 1976.

We decided to join the historical society so we could come back many times for the one-time fee (only $30 for the two of us). There's too much inside to take in for one trip.

Inside, we were greeted by two friendly and extremely knowledgeable ladies, both volunteers. One took us around the inside and gave us more insights and information as to what we were viewing....like....

This is the entrance and the ticket booth where you would purchase your train ticket.

This is where the railroad person would be on the other side. Those copper "pointy things" in the background are from the roof of the building. You can see them in the outside photos.

Here's something interesting for you: To the left was the Ladies waiting room and bathroom. To the right was the Men's waiting room and bathroom. This was because, in those days, it was not proper for ladies and children to overhear "business talk" from the men !!

Men only !

A sensational collection of keys and locks donated by one of the family members. In order to be a locksmith for the railroad company, you had to have special registration. Not any locksmith credentials would do.

They had two railroad trains running while were there. So much detail.

This is what was used in the dining car when travelling on the railroad. Imagine getting this today on an airplane??!!

Nice milk bottle collection, except only two were local.

This is a child's set of cooking ware. It's tough to see the scale but it's tiny.

A large collection of wedding dresses from many decades.

I guess people are really into bottles. Seems like there's a collection in every museum we visit. This one is unique because one of the old bottles still has the original beer in it ! 

Ladies waiting room converted into the museum.

A gorgeous piece of furniture from Europe.

I was opening a few of these very thin drawers when the lady told be it was a dentist's cabinet. I quickly retreated.

Looks like my new wheelbarrow after I'd been using it.

My new chainsaw. This one must've made a LOT of racket.

Adjoining building that we never went through. Next visit.

Check out this donated tricycle. A local person completely restored it and it letting the museum display it. It was built in 1937 ! 

They have to keep it up high so children won't jump on it when they see it. I held the camera above my head to get this shot.

 Nice, nice place. There was much more but we've bored you enough.



Now, on to the cute stuff....

After working outside, I like to get in our $25 Wal-Mart pool and cool off. Katie likes to lay on her float at the same time.

This is her spot !

Helping plant roses in our garden.

Katie likes to look at the rabbits at our local hardware store.

Yes, we watched the eclipse. We were just about 30 miles to the south of Total, but got good viewing anyway. It almost went total.

It looks like we are each looking at a different sun ! "It's over here!....No, it's not, it's over here!"

Kim is proudly showing off her Official Eclipse paper.

That's all for now...glad you visited.

kim/katie/steve