Sunday, Oct 14th

A bit of a slow start today, I washed the motorhome where all the road grit from the travel coming down from Red Deer and then down from Idaho.  Looks OK now, but it will get a proper cleaning when we get to AJ.
Went to the Bingham Canyon mine today, Kennecott Utah Copper, the largest open pit mine in the world.  It is apparently the only manmade structure visible from space.  It is 3/4 mile deep & 2.5 miles across, pretty big stuff.  They have a bunch of those huge trucks, much like Ft McMurray, everything is huge at this facility.  It produces 1/4 of all the copper in the USA, as well as huge amounts of silver and substantial amounts of gold and was first started in something like 1906.  While we were there, they blew a charge in the bottom of the pit and it was so loud, Marg almost jumped out of her skin.  All we could see after was a big cloud of dust.  The commentator said the annual copper production would replace all the household wiring in: Mexico, the USA & Canada as well as all the cars built in the US for a year.
After we stopped in at IKEA and looked around for another sink cover like the one we already have, but it was discontinued.  We also had a late lunch in IKEA, pretty good food, actually.
On the way home we stopped in the Cabella store in Lehi.  I was looking for a new rear sight for the Ruger, but they didn't have it in stock.  We managed to get a few things, as usual Marg found some great bargains.  Nice store, nothing like the Edmonton one, this is a real Cabellas.

Plan on leaving here tomorrow to head down to Mesquite, so stay tuned.

Saturday

On the road today, but an easy travel day.  We drove from Idaho Falls down to Provo, Utah.  The rainy weather is heading into Idaho & leaving Utah, so good day to make some miles.  We had a sprinkle of rain on the road, but nothing serious, mostly just cloudy.  We only drove 360 miles today, but the best part was we got through Salt Lake City.  You may recall my dislike of SLC from prior years, but rv'ers generally do not like the drive through the city.  It takes about an hour and there is always construction.  The construction was just in the south end around American Forks & traffic light, so not too bad.  We picked an rv park off the internet, Lakeside on the shores of lake Utah & it is very nice.  Sometimes you get lucky.  Marg seemed a little down, so took her in to American Forks for a little retail therapy.  4 or 5 bags of stuff we really needed and she had a big smile.  This is a nice place, just off I-15 and at the base of the Wasatch mountains.  There is snow on the tops already, will try and put a pic on tomorrow.

Friday

Another sunny day in Idaho Falls.  The morning started off cool, but by lunch time it was very nice and warm, in the 70's.  Every year we have driven by this huge army surplus store on the highway just south of here, so we went there today.  Everything from old army vehicles, shell casings for howitzers and a bunch of camping and outdoor stuff.  We bought a few things, but spent hours around in there looking at neat stuff.
Drove around the area and saw the big mormon temple on the river as well as some very nice areas here.  The city is the same size as GP, but a much older settlement, so some very nice areas. 
Dinner tonight was Appleby's, it's been a while since we ate there & loved it.  Packing up tonight and off to Provo, Utah tomorrow.
Lots of Canucks in the campground, everyone heading south, some for the winter & others like us to leave their rv's in the area they will return to after Christmas.

Tut Tut

We were fortunate that the local museum has the King Tut exhibit, so we went to see it.  The displays were accompanied by some very well done documentation that gave us an idea of how the tomb was discovered and excavated and how the Egyptians buried the pharoahs last remains.  It must have been a truly awesome spectacle, the lavish display of wealth that even now is hard to believe possible.  The solid gold ornaments, bed, even a knife & sheath so far beyond anything even wealthy people could afford  & all of the other stuff that was in the tomb to help them on to the after life.

Idaho Falls

Such a nice day that we decided to stay in Idaho Falls and see a bit of the city.  It was a sunny day, I think it got into the low 70's, too warm for a jacket.  Our first stop was a visit to the falls that gave the city it's name.  There is a river walk &/or drive that are truly an amazing feature.  Then we went into the old downtown.  From the architecture, you can tell that many years ago it was a very prosperous area.  Sadly now they suffer from the typical vacancy and malaise of many cities.  We had to go to make a deposit at Wells Fargo & it was very conveniently located with parking right in front of the door.  Marg reported outstanding & friendly service at the branch, something we have come to think of as a signature of this bank.

Idaho Falls - Wednesday, Oct 10

Day 3 on the road and more of a normal day for us.  The thumping wheel(s) seem to be humming again.  It was chilly out, but so far the roads have been good & traffic light. Yesterday without power, we were early to bed / early to rise.  We crossed the border at Coutts just before 8AM.  We made it to Great Falls on the fuel we purchased in RD yesterday and were finally able to enjoy the very reasonably priced Montana go juice - it worked out to about 81.9 cents a litre.  Oh yes I almost neglected to mention the very reasonably priced scotch whiskey - for Canada anyway; but it sure doesn't compete favourably with the stuff I picked up in Wales. 
The border agent was one of those guys with no sense of ha ha, so it was: yes sir, no sir, 3 bags full sir.  He never even asked us about fruit or vegetables & for a change we never had any.
It was a bright sunny day, and at Helena we took the bypass to miss the mountain pass through deer park or elk park, whatever it is that goes to Butte.  Our bypass took us throught Townsend down to Dillion where we rejoined the I-15.  By that time I was tired of driving, so Marg drove through the Monida pass to Idaho Falls, where we stayed at the Snake River rv park, again.  It was too late to make dinner & we have no fruit or vegetables, so we went to a local eatery called Jakers.  It was very good, will have to go there again.

Another year has started 2012 / 2013

We are off on our early trip to take the motorhome down to St George for storage.  With any luck it will be a bit of a vacation as well.
Monday Oct 8th - we went to Edmonton & saw mother for a visit.  It was really cute, she had bought a package of Dads cookies for us so we would have something to munch on during our travels.  God Bless her.  We left her in good spirits and made it to Red Deer, not a great travel day, but when you live in GP, nothing is close.  LOL  Spent the night at the Westerner rv park.  Oh yes, took the Anthony Henday to Sherwood Park when leaving Edmonton.  Now you may ask - are you sure that is on the way.  Well if you have to ask, you don't know I missed the blasted turnoff in the construction zone, so got to see it again about 20 minutes later.  Arghhh! 
Tuesday Oct 9th - All day yesterday, the new tires on the front of the coach seemed to be thumping, so went in to Fountain Tire in RD.  They were very good, took us in fairly quickly and re-balanced the two new front tires.  Not sure what went wrong, but there was no charge, just one of the advantages of dealing with a large company I guess.  It was after lunch by the time we got out of RD, but it was good timing for going thru Calgary, middle of the afternoon.  Made it all the way to Milk River, where we spent the night.  A Bit of a surprise as the park was full and we had to stay with no services, good thing this unit is fully self contained.  Usually we encounter 2 or 3 other snowbirds staying the night.  Apparently there is so much pipeline and oil patch work the park has been full for quite a while.