Thursday, September 27, 2012

SW Tour - some pics

A photo of the alligator at Miracle Hot Springs (and a turtle in the background...



 And a couple from Crystal



Southwest Tour - On the Road

We headed SE with dispatch toward our first purposeful destination at Miracle Hot Springs in Idaho. Our first two nights were waypoints we had visited before - the Wild Horse RVP near Pendleton and the Mason Creek RV Park in Nampa Idaho - both of them nice, easy in-easy out stops.  We also stopped at another previously visited park in Baker City to follow up on a shirt Kathy found in May with a nice motor home theme.  She has considered doing something similar.  We learned the shirt was not mass produced, but rather a hand made item.

Miracle HS was full when we tried to stay in May.  It is a nice park with a great combination of large pools and smaller hot spaces.  Flies are a problem this year due to a not-so-cold winter, and we picked up our share.  Our next destination was Crystal HS.  This was a very welcome 3-day stay after daily drives.  Our space was on the bank of the outlet stream where a number of ducks and geese went about their day providing us much entertainment.  We were issued a spot with 50A service and because they did not have the correct adapter, and we liked the spot, they allowed us to cross our cable over to the next site, basically giving us two spots (gotta love off season travel).  The pool area was a long walk - made easier by a neighbor who transported us in their van.  Crystal has a number of pools and a big tubular slide, and yes, we both "shot the tube".  They also had an Olympic size pool that was being refinished so not available.  We continued to battle the flies.

Our next destination was Salt Lake City.  We arranged a pedicab tour of temple square.  The temple provided free transportation to the square on the condition we took an escorted tour of the tabernacle and visitor center.  Two missionaries - nice young ladies from Germany and Latvia - showed us around and waxed Mormon.  We met up with our pedicab driver (peddler, actually) and had a tour of south temple street.  It included some magnificent buildings.  We saw homes of the silver mining wealthy, the church of the magdalene, the Masonic Hall and a number of other sites.  It sure beat walking.  We finished the day with a lovely dinner at the Market Street grill and a cab ride home.

Having had some success with those long sticky fly strips, but finding them pretty icky, we tried some flat sticky pads on the dash board that were successful and allowed us to watch the little pests struggle to free their feet - a satisfying payback for their bother.
.  It was very interesting.

Southwest Tour - On the Road

This is a test - the iPad/blogspot means of communicating has not been successful.  If you can read this more is sure to follow.