My life is to make everything around me beautiful.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Camping Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!

The only thing more boring to me than watching paint dry is looking at photos of other people. Yep, get ready for torture!!

Most people think of Idaho as lush, green, woodsy and mountain men roaming free. Well, while we do have that , the southern portion of Idaho is desert. Boise is known as the City of Trees because it has planted so many trees. When the settlers headed here they irrigated this desert and it is fruitful but it is still mostly desert in the southern part - all across the state mostly. It is lush and green in the northern part with beautiful lakes but it is becoming more populated. I think most Idahoans like to think of themselves as mostly independent and free to just live their lives as they would like without too much government interference. And they do. Idaho men and a lot of women are hunters. But if you ever come here and drift across the Snake River into Oregon you'll be very surprised. Oregon is desert also in the eastern part of it. What you see below is just exactly how it is 40 miles to the west of us here in Boise. Desert until you get across to the western part of Oregon. Surprises the heck out of a lot of people.

My hubs' sister and brother-in-law came for a visit several years ago from Pennsylvania and they could simply not believe the vastness of the west. Consider that while the eastern part of our United States has many states, there are not nearly as many here as back east. Our west coast has only 3 states: Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Land goes on as far as the eye can see. My brother-in-law asked hubs who all the land belonged to as he was astounded at how much land there was. Hubs said it belongs to you. It's BLM - Bureau of Land Management. That having been said, I invite you to get a little look of Idaho the next couple of posts.......along with the camp-out. ;-) And other things, of course..........don't wanna bore ya to tears, chicks!! ;-)

This is starting north of Boise heading up to Grandjean and Stanley. Stanley, Idaho has a population of about 69 people but it has some high profile movie types with gorgeous "little cabins" up there, as well as Sun Valley which isn't too far to the east of Stanley.



Nowwwww, we get to the fun part! Hubs putting camper up. Let me say here that you had better make sure you have plenty of band aids, neosporin and bug bite lotion. My only request to hubs was to pleeeeeease not make us the lead story on the six o'clock news that day or the next. We drove for about 3 hours to arrive at our destination with one stop at the Albertsons store to pick up a cold drink, some popcorn and wet wipes for hands (I'm certainly glad we did get the wet wipes too!)

Our own "Private Idaho" just below our campsite on the South Fork of the Payette River.

Looking down the river where it is low this time of year but lots of river rafters on this river.


The next 4 pictures I'm standing in one spot the whole time just rotating the camera around our campsite. Note the trees for positioning of camera when snapping pix. The site is about 1.5 miles down a dirt road from the highway and is free. It comes with a ring of stones for a fire pit. That's it. We brought our own toilet, shower and water. We could go 4 or so more miles down the dirt road to a National Forest campground and get water and we do. But we like being alone on the river. There is also a hot springs on the river down near the paying campground. Why would anyone pay when you can get it free?!?!?!



This is a Ponderosa Pine, which is indigenous to the western part of the U.S. They are really pretty and kind of remind me of the redwoods but they are not related, just have that kind of reddish bark.


We use these 2 trees for a clothesline.

If you enlarge this pix, you can see our watermelon in the little dam we provided for cooling it. That water is COLD!

Sleeping part of the trailer.

The ugliest fabric ever made! The ol' travel trailer stuff that was manufactured by the miles to go in trailers. I'm already negotiating for new roses fabric for the cushions and curtains, chicks! Have no fear. It'll be done by the spring when Love Bunny gets that "urge" to camp again! I am sooooo NOT into camping as I age. *Sigh*..............

I think I should give the camper a name. Any ideas?!?!

The picture of a contented man! He's so happy that he didn't amputate his fingers.....oooohhhhhhh, that's for tomorrow's post!! It wasn't pretty, let me tell ya, ladies! Hahhhhh...... :-)

18 comments:

  1. Connie it looks like you all had a great time. Just being together at the lake eating watermelon that was cooled by the lake. Roughing it! What did you cook?

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  2. Oh, Jack looks so happy!! And look at those pink tumblers!

    You are a better wifey than me ~ I'd be "scary-fied" to sleep out in the wilderness!!

    No Lucy/Ethel moments? I expected sumpin' silly from you!! LOL

    Love you,
    Stephanie
    Angelic Accents

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  3. Hi Connie,

    It looks like you two are having a wonderfully natural, relaxing vacation. I could almost hear the river running!

    Hmm, a name for the Camper? The first name that came to my mind was "Bessie". Why you ask? Because it's funny and you always make me laugh, so I thought something out of the ordinary would be fun!

    Have a great trip.

    xo Cath

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  4. Definately needs the 'Connie' touch! Rachaelxo

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  5. Your desert wilderness looks so lovely and peaceful, and you are the world's most lovely and peaceful wife to go camping with your love bunny even tho camping is about number 582 on your list of things you love to do, you Wonderful Wife.
    :-))))

    Ronda

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  6. It is beautiful there! I grew up camping and we owned a campground in Michigan for 4 years when I was in High School, that I worked at every May-Sept.
    Hugs,
    Penny

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  7. Looks like tons of fun!! Camping is not for me either - well, maybe at a Hampton Inn or something like that, with all the amenities. I bet you will transform that camper into a unique "Connie Creation"!!

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  8. Hi, I really enjoyed your pictures. It looks like you had a great time. Im too much of a woose to go camping as Im afraid of all the beasties flying about

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  9. i cant wait to see your camper fixed up! It does need some womanly touches! We sold our pop up a couple years ago, had a great 10 years with it. we now have a lovely 1952 rollahome...pink and blue!

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  10. Connie, you had your own little feast going, the food you cooked sounds delicious. I love all that you named, and atleast it wasn't *you* that burn the potatoes.LOL! Deb

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  11. Nice little tour. Thank you. We had a tent camper too, with shower etc. Nice way to camp. I am one who was surprised to find desert when we traveled to Idaho. Beautiful state.

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  12. Connie...It does look beautfuil there!!! And talk about peace & quiet!!! How wonderful would that be! LOL
    I loved the pink tablecloth...lol.. good for you girly!! A name..hummmm....if you fru-fru it up in pink & roses...
    how about "Pinkys Pop-Up"???
    LOL....just being silly!
    Hugs..
    Deb:)

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  13. Love the camping adventure! So cozy too :) I can't wait to see the rose fabric for that camper.

    Michelle

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  14. I hope you had a great time.

    I'm just not a camping girl. But, I do like hotels. ;-)

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  15. you a regular ma and pa kettle...hope it was fun...can't wait to hear about the other antics that went on...you are too funny...

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  16. Connie Looks like you had lots of fun.The veiw is beautiful.I can see you decorating the pop up with roses then you will enjoy it so much more.You can hang pics on the wall and all.Jack looks very HAPPY!!! Glad u enjoyed your time together,Love Ya,Jen

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  17. Reminds me of some good times in our pop up camper growing up with Mom and Dad. Yum s'mores! Have fun.

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  18. Your camper is so cute! I'm reading these posts backwards, so I must say your poor hubby, he really had a rough time of it, didn't he? I'm glad he's ok!

    We have that same awful ugly fabric on our sofa in our motor home! UGH! I can't wait to see what you do with it, I long to do something with ours!

    Glad you got home in one piece!
    Margie

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Comments are so nice and I thank all of you that leave one for me.