THE MIGRATION SOUTH

We are here in Surprise again and had a pretty good trip on our old route Interstate 84 and highway 93) through southern Idaho and eastern Nevada.  We had to wait until 8 a.m. to cross the US border on our way out on Oct 30 and drove to Mountain Home, ID that first day.  It was very windy from Spokane to the Tri-Cities and we’ve never seen so many tumble-weeds.

  

We spent the night in a budget motel that was near a railway track with lots of trains and a guy next door who watched loud TV until after midnight.  Not a great sleep so we were happy to be up early and on the road again at 6:30 a.m.  Driving into the sunrise towards Twin Falls was beautiful.

We shared the driving and stopped at the usual rest areas along the way.  At the one north of Ely, NV they have set up an informational tribute to the Pony Express riders who traversed that part of the state in 1860.  Interesting to read the qualifications for the riders:  young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18, expert riders, willing to risk death daily, orphans preferred, wages $25 per week.  Not sure how many applicants you would get these days!  Here are photos of the information board:

After a long driving day, we spent our second night just east of Boulder City, NV at the Hoover Dam Lodge.  It is a casino hotel that is the base for a helicopter company that does aerial tours over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.  Nice enough place for a night on the road.

VIEWS FROM OUR ROOM

We arrived at our lot on Sunday around noon and spent the next couple of days getting set up with cable, internet and of course, getting all the stuff out of the shed and back into the RV.  Everything survived the hot summer and the golf cart battery charged up well with no major problems.  Stuart had to do the bulk of the work as my knee and back were sore after the long driving days.  I’m working on rehab in the swimming pool, hot tub and fitness room and the change of environment is going to take some adjustment (i.e. less distance to walk in the RV but many more stairs to take).

Each spring, in the back BBQ area behind our shed, we put away our winter flower pots, still full of the old potting soil.  The BBQ area is completely enclosed but there is a 20 cm space under the metal louvres and space above the louvres at about 3 metres high.  We noticed that there was soil scattered around the pots and thought it might have been very windy this summer.  However, when Stuart looked in the pot, he found a bunch of quail eggs, some hatched and some not and a couple of dead, dried out little quail.  I guess they thought it was a great nesting pot set up just for them.

It’s wonderful to have the warm weather and sunshine, although we had 2 days of clouds, showers and some wind.  At least there is no snow!!