Day Twelve
After breakfast, we gathered our adventure stuff and headed to Blue Heart Kayaking. In a tandem kayak, we did 5miles of the Snake River including the Blue Heart Spring and a circle around Ritter Island (which is a state park).
We were already booked, so the staffer didn’t need to sell us on it, but she did not do it justice at all! The Spring is “the” reason people kayak this part of the river. I even asked her, “why are you sending us into a hole?” so she explained it was a spring that stays 58º year round. Lots of people got out, but we enjoyed it from the kayak.
She also told us to pass Ritter Island and then come back south between it and the shore. Looking at the map, I thought, “that’s weird, but whatever”…but after we did it that way, we totally understood why the instructions are funky. It was a beautiful stretch filled with water falls. And, while we went against the current for part of it, the end half was pushing us back out to the main river.
We finished the 4-hour journey with 1:20 to spare. The takeout point is an indoor hot springs pool and campground, so we killed time wandering around, borrowing their wifi, and watching arriving campers check in.
Day Thirteen
Lowes. I swear, the number one place RV owners go is Lowes. The seats of our dinette were put together with staples. Literally four total screws (two per seat) were supposed to support two grown humans. They weren’t even supporting one each. These same supports were also mounted horizontally, presumedly because that is easier and faster. But if they had taken the ~3 minutes needed to screw them and mount them vertically, they’d be far stronger. Thanks, Jayco.
So, we headed to Lowes for two boards and a box of screws. About two hours later, including the errand, it was all put back together and reinforced, too. We also took advantage of the project to better organize what we store in there.
Thorough social media, we were invited to a meet & greet, but they planned to meet at a campground that is closed due to fire damage. They also won’t have cell signal in the forest, so that didn’t work out.
In the afternoon, we drove to the Twin Falls for which the town is named and out to Balance Rock where we found a neat little campground along the water in the canyon near there.
Miracle Hot Springs. This was a pretty good one. Private rooms are tiny, but cheap. The main pool was nice, but the one next to it was filled with kids. I don’t get why parents take their kids to a hot springs. There is nothing there for them. And it’s not like they remind them to be quiet or not to run or jump or splash. The worst offenders, though, were three “future creepy guys” who didn’t know how to dive in or swim, so they were splashing everyone and making big waves. Guaranteed these guys don’t take “no” for an answer. ew. Still, we got in a good soak, our skin and my hair felt amazing afterward.
We spent the rest of the evening at the OxBow Bar & Grill. Two big tables of guys were there on this elaborate, street-legal scooters with lights. We chatted with our server/bartender while E watched the Cowboys pre-season game…and then we closed down the bar at 9pm. LOL at small towns!
Day Fourteen
Hummingbirds have a special stopover spot in the south piece of the Sawtooth National Forest. It was a very rough road getting to them. And then one family was picnicking there and would. not. shut. up. We were finally able to enjoy it after they left. We didn’t count the feeders, but there must have been nearly 50 of them. We only saw one fight between the birds and it was pretty minor compared to the ones we’ve seen in our friends’ back yard.
Jackpot, NV (my first footing in the state) was our next stop for a late lunch and to watch a little gambling. Our food and drinks were great. The place is barely smoky (on a Sunday). The pool and hot tub were quite nice. And they have an RV park for only $24/night if you are ever in the obscure area.
Pool time! Most of the families with kids checked out today, so we got to enjoy the pool with a reasonable crowd of us+3 well-behaved kids instead of with a dozen screeching banshees. Dear RV Parks, please save the last hour or two of your pool time for adults only. PLEASE! Just put a coded lock on the gate and a little web cam to catch cheaters. We help pay for it, we should also get to use it.
Day Fifteen
Next stop: Brigham City, UT
The drive was hella boring punctuated by “fun” distractions like: two long stretches of high winds, a long flash storms area (not today, thankfully), several deer and game crossings (didn’t see critters, either), and two very long sections of construction. That last one was especially annoying. Hardly anyone was working, they were all mostly in one spot, and on the southern one, the barrels were a third of the way into the lane left for us. Come and use a little common sense, Utah. You don’t need 15 miles of barrels to work on one side of one intersection, and you don’t need a 1.33 lanes for nothing.
For dinner, we found E’s favorite: wings.