Author: Miss Lynne

As we were not sailing to the Saturday, we took a trip to the local cross-stitch store and of course i managed to find a “free pattern” well free if you bought the kit to go with it! But it was an adorable little pin cushion with crabs on it, so I am happy. That evening we just had food delivered to the room as it was far to cold to walk anywhere.

Saturday morning we were off to the cruise terminal and I have to say it was a rely smooth boarding process. No queues at all and straight up to our room to leave hand luggage then off for an explore of the ship and lunch. 2.30 we checked in at the stitching meeting room and were given our swag ( all the stitchers will know what that means) we were all scheduled for an early dinner sitting but we had a small table for 6 allocated to us and we were also able to use that table for the rest of the trip, but by special arrangement we were allowed to chose food from any of the 4 main dining rooms. These were themed, we were in Cyprus and then there was Cosmoploitan, Tuscany and Normandie.

Both Sunday and Monday are sea days as we cruise on down to Basseterre/St Kits/Nevis arriving on Tuesday morning. On Sunday we spent a great deal of the day in the stitching room, there was a presentation from Jean Farish in the morning and then smalls exchange swap was in the afternoon. For my British friends, you can imagine how excited i was to find that afternoon tea had scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam, it was lovely but they did insist in over sweetening the scones, luckily not enough to stop my enjoyment.

Here is a little information on the ship I am on, it’s Celebrity Apex, it can carry about 2500 passengers and on this trip there have been no children visible. The room is very nice, plenty of storage space and a lovely little balcony area with seats and a coffee table. The top half of the picture window can slide down so you can get plenty of fresh air. We are on Deck 6 so maybe 3 floors above the water, which makes it pretty stable. Great sunrise this morning and after breakfast we had a class with Michelle Bendy Stitcher and she showed us how to add beads and netting to this great project. 

We drove down to Wellington CO, with plans to stay for 3 nights. As it was not that far from Pine Bluff, we were able to go visit Colorado Crossstitcher in Loveland that afternoon and also call into the historic area of Fort Collins for a quick look around. Dinner in the RV and making plans for a hike early tomorrow to beat the heat of the day.

We drove over to the Poudre Canyon road, it was a really great drive following the Poudre river up to the Hewlett Gulch Trailhead. This was a really fun hike over 8 miles and 1200ft elevation. the scenery changed many times during the route and we came across a few piles of bear poo, hind leg of a deer and had a close encounter with a prairie rattle snake. But we still enjoyed it. We went into town for an early dinner and looked to find another hike for the next day.

Another early start and this time we went to Lory State Park and did the Arthur’s Rock, Timber and Westridge trail. Just over 7 miles but over 1600ft of elevation. No critters this time but great views and a fun scramble up to the top of Arthur’s Rock. Both days the weather reached 98degrees with overnight lows not dropping much below low 70’s.

Monday we packed up the RV and drove over to just above Morrisson in the Foothills. First stop was to drop off the RV at our friends Kim and Mike and that will be the last we see of it till Saturday. We were staying with Sally and Jim for the next few days. As usual Chef Sally cooked up a great dinner Monday night. Tuesday she and I drove into Denver to pick up the food for the planned dinner party on Wednesday. It was great to relax and just enjoy their company but of course Chef Sally delivered yet another great meal. We woke up Wednesday morning to hear that a wildfire (known as the Quarry Fire) had started just over the hill from where we were staying, We were pushing ahead with the plans for the dinner party while keeping a close eye on the news. By 5.30 that evening all our friends had gathered, Sally and Jim, Kim and Mike, Rinah and Tom, Jill and new friends Jody and Pam. Dinner and conversation was amazing but at 8.30 all of our phones were buzzing warning us that we were now in the Pre Evacuation zone. So everyone went home to make plans and we helped get Sally and Jim’s alpacas into the trailers to take them to the large animal evacuation zone. This was just to err on the cautious side as if the call to evacuate came the last thing you need to worry about is scooping up 15 alpacas.

Thursday we all kept a close eye on the updates, but in the afternoon Sally (who as well as being a great cook is also an outstanding Realtor) had a showing and we went with her. The place was amazing, on top of a mountain with fantastic views and over a 100 acres of land as you can imagine, way out of our price bracket. After that we went to visit Rinah and Tom, the purpose was to see the new puppy but we had a great time seeing their amazing property.

Friday we just helped move around the fleece so that it could be stored safely (we had to move it out of the trailers to move the alpacas) and then Friday night we went to Two Forks for a great dinner with Sally and Jim. Saturday morning we had breakfast up at Conifer and then collected the RV and drove to Pueblo for the next two nights.

Sunday we drove to Royal Gorge and Hiked 6miles around Arkansas River Canyon Rim and the Overlook loop. Stunning views of the Gorge and the river running through it. After the Hike we went into Canon for a great lunch and then got ourselves ready for the long drive to Amarillo.

We drove to Picabo Idaho and camped at a really nice site, that evening we met Virginia and Bill for dinner and caught up on life in general. We arranged to meet Virginia the next morning to up to the top of a ridge above Hailey and Sun valley, Unusually for me, I had to give up after 1.5 miles up the trail as the altitude and lack of sleep the night before had really got to me. We were starting off at 6900 ft and even that short climb till we turned around was quite something. We hiked back down and then did a 5 mile walk but starting at 1000ft lower and that did not affect me. Sounds like I need to do lots of prep before we hike from lodge to lodge at Machu Picchu in Peru.

We had lunch down at one of the lodges in Sun Valley and was able to walk around it, there as an ice skating competition in full flight and a writers conference in the big auditorium. It’s an impressive place and we will be back in the future.

The next day we drove to Salt Lake City, the campsite was in the city itself and although very busy, it was quiet and clean (apart from the trains that run through the city, oh and the fireworks that went off at 10PM in the State Fairground next door.) We were up early the next morning to Bells Canyon and the Lower Falls, 2.7 miles to the falls with a pretty consistent elevation gain all the way up, although the last .5 miles was clambering up boulders. The falls were very pretty and the walk back down was easy after the boulders were completed. Highest elevation was 6732 ft. No altitude issues but I was well hydrated.

Next day we drove to Rawlins and stayed overnight before traveling on to Pine Bluffs WY – just on the border with Nebraska and Colorado. On the way we stopped at the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. It was an interesting place to tour around and had Butch Cassidy housed there at one point.

Pine Bluffs was a Harvest Host location and it is a Whiskey Distillery. Its majority family owned and all the grain comes from local farms. Tonight they had a local rodeo star, Brody Cress, in attendance selling and signing bottles of his chosen barrels. We had a gin cocktail to start ( they produce gin and vodka as well) and then were lucky enough to be given a tour of the distillery and to sample some of the Bourbon straight from the barrel. Chad, the owner, was very gracious and his parents and uncle quickly spotted that we were not local in amongst the crowd that was there, and came across to talk to us. All in all it was a great night with some delightful people.

We are off to Wellington Colorado next, just outside of Fort Collins and more importantly for all my stitching friends, very near Loveland and Colorado Cross Stitcher.

.

Drive to Canyon Pines just outside Riggins Idaho, we had a little bit of excitement on the way. All of a sudden we had some alarm going off in the RV, after checking the towing brake system, the tire pressure system and the GPS and it turned out it was Rob’s phone warning us that there were new wildfires and and road closures. luckily after some googling we realized that we would be ok if we stuck to our current route.

Really nice caravan park and we were able to book a jet boat trip for the next day. We went into town at 8am to sign our waivers and then drove a very interesting 30 plus miles up and over a very narrow and winding mountain road and down to the lower Pittsburgh landing, ready to board our boat. Here is what the website says about this route The 31.5-mile section of the river between Hells Canyon Dam and Upper Pittsburg Landing is designated as the Wild river section. Rapids vary from Class II to Class V. At the mouth of Granite Creek rapids, approximately seven miles downstream from Hells Canyon Dam, the river elevation is 1,480 feet. The canyon depth here is 7,913 feet when measured from He Devil Mountain, towering over Idaho’s Seven Devils range at 9,393 feet. 

We stopped at one of the original homesteads, now a museum. Next stop was for lunch and so far we had only been a few of the gentler rapids and we had passed quite a few of the rafts coming down the river.

Further up the river, we got to see some of the local wild life and also the rapids were getting a lot bigger. in fact there was a non group boat that got itself stuck in the Cat V rapids on the rocks. according to our captain the water gets higher in the afternoon as the reservoir lets more water out, so the boat would either rise and float free or sink. Thank goodness it was the former.

Once we got to the reservoir we stopped to see the visitor centre and then turned around to go back to the landing, All of the rapids were much higher and with the wind blowing up the canyon we were getting soaked on the way back – lots of fun

We were up early so that we could drive to the start of the Hiawatha trail, we were one of the first there to buy our pass and get the ride done before it got too hot. A lot of people cycle down and get the shuttle back up but we wanted to ride both ways. The trail is listed as one of the top 10 rail trails in the US and it is 15 miles long, with 9 tunnels and 7 sky high trestles.

The first tunnel we rode through was 1.6 miles long and once you are through the first 20 yards it was pitch black, your only light was that on your bike or a headlamp if you chose to wear one. The first tunnel is also the muddy and wet one so a great way to start the day. All was well and we made great progress on our way down to the end of the trail. The scenery was magnificent and the trees gave us plenty of shade. Quick turnaround at the bottom and then we reversed the route and started the cycle back up the mountain, the gradient was gentle, just under 2% but consistent for the 15 miles. We had a little shock in one of the tunnels, right in the middle there was a Deer trying to cool off but luckily he did not run into either of us. Our bigger challenge was the amount of people cycling down that did not keep to their side of the trail but we managed the return trip without incident, apart from going back through the 1.6 mile long tunnel, it was much muddier our side of the trail.

Back to the RV and off to Spokane Valley which added another state to our growing list of states this trip. One of the main reasons we added this destination is because we had met some great people in New Zealand while we were on the Milford Track and we promised to visit JD and Cherokee as soon as we were close enough. Day one with them was a great tour of downtown Spokane, lunch at a local brewery and later we had dinner at a different brewery (there seems to be a theme here). The next day we went down to the river and JD and Cherokee very kindly brought their tandem Kayak and we took it in turns. They are really good but as you can see from the pictures Rob stopped paddling when he thought I would not notice.

We had lunch at a winery up in the hills, there were great views and actually the reds were pretty good. The day was rounded out with pizza salad and a delightful red wine at their house. We will definitely be back to see them and more of this area in the future.

Next day we left Spokane Valley and drove to Riggins Idaho.

Once we were back in Ronan, we met with Brenda and the rest of the gang for a day out at the Quinns Hot springs, they were really good to remove any of the aches and pains from our adventures at Glacier. The evening was rounded out by dinner at the Durham bar, live music from locals that want to give it a go made it very interesting.

On the Thursday, Brenda Zaga and I went into Missoula for the day, a little bit of shopping, and a stop at a cider brewery to sample the local concoctions. We went on to the local theatre to the Edgar Allan Poe show, it was a mix of monologues of his stories, each one was delivered with a different cocktail. Rob went out for a little drive in the car which turned into a 368 mile odyssey with him landing within 10 miles of the Canada border !

Friday Rob and I cycled into Polson, which was on a very nice cycle path, 35 miles round trip but we met the girls at the local coffee shop for coffee and cake so that helped. That evening we were treated to another of Dave’s amazing meals and the appetizer was a great cheese board full of local cheeses. There were also some more beautiful sunsets and Rob walked up a little higher than the house to see what he could capture.

Saturday morning I met Brenda at the coffee shop and went out to watch her train to be a volunteer at the stables for Horse therapy for disabled and mentally challenged children. Also got to see both of her horses, one of which was saddled up so she could give him a good workout.

Sunday morning was a meet up at the cafe for coffee breakfast and farewell hugs, we were driving off to spend the night boondocking at Lookout Pass Ski Area on the Montana Idaho Border, ready to do the Hiawatha bike trail tomorrow