Weekly Mileage #170 and Our First Camping Trip of the Year

Monday I did some more alcohol ink experimentation. I'm getting closer to the look I'm after, but still not quite there. After a bit of research I decided to order a few more supplies to see if they help me achieve the look I want.

Tuesday I voted. We had online music lessons, and I went for a bike ride in the basement.

Then I worked on a new bag pattern- a smaller version of the tote bag I previously made. I like it, but sometimes you want something a little smaller.

Wednesday I went for a super hot and humid trail run. I found some cool fauna, but I am sooo glad I didn't do my 50k on this day as I'd originally planned. It would not have gone nearly as well as it did.

We did a couple ground firecrackers in the driveway that evening. Ocean was worried about the noise, so he went and grabbed a pair of earmuffs 😂

Thursday I went to the chiropractor and ran a couple errands, which were mostly prep for our camping trip. But further packing and preparation didn't happen as a migraine came on in the afternoon.

Friday we went on our first camping trip of the year. We spent the morning packing and loading the RV.  Not optimal from a stress point of view, but we only left about an hour later than planned, so it could have been worse.

This little guy was super happy to leave the house. He doesn't get to very often these days....

One of the boys took a picture of me and daddy's leg 😂

We drove about an hour and a half south and camped on the edge of a field, next to a river.

We played in the river.

This is very representative of Ocean. Dirty, but happy. Though frequently he's even dirtier.

 

This was pretty neat:

The glowing orange specks on the log are smoldering moss.

There was lots of room for the boys to run around- always a drawback of crowded campgrounds.

This was the view from the edge of the river, looking up the bank.

There was some really cute little piglets in the field next to us. Super tame and if you started scratching their tummy, they'd do these cute little grunts, fall down, and roll over onto their tummies so they could get even more scratches.

The view from where the piggies were. The river was at our backs.

There were a couple tent campers, but they were far enough away they couldn't hear our generator and we couldn't hear or see them. It was a great spot! I found it using HipCamp, which was a new-to-us app for people to list their property for tent camping or RV camping, like AirBnB, but strictly for campsites.

We had thought about visiting the local sights, but decided against it- Ocean is not the best at following directions and still puts his hands in his mouth all the time, so better not to. So we just hung around our campsite, played in the river, and relaxed.

Sunday we drove back home, and that evening Jeremy and I had our temple recommend interviews via zoom.

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 10.0 miles biked
Wednesday- 3.50 miles run and walked
total- 13.50 miles

2020 totals

24 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

157.49 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
170.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
338.49 miles total

Weekly Mileage #121 and My First Time on a SUP

Monday morning was cloudy, but it was warm and not supposed to rain, so we headed out to Flaming Gorge reservoir with all sorts of floating toys that we had fun with. Kayaks, SUPS, a giant inflatable duck, and so on. 

Sunshine and her cousins N and A giving River a ride on a SUP

My sister also gave River a ride 

River paddled anything he could get his hands on: SUPS, kayaks, floaties....

I did some kayaking, but I also tried the SUPs. I tried one years ago, when I was pregnant with River, but never successfully got on it because it was a child's SUP and not rated for my pregnant self. So this was my first time up on a SUP. I liked it, but it was also a bit disconcerting. It felt weird to be standing on the water. I need to do it more often though, because I had some sore muscles the next day in places I've never had sore muscles before.

Mr M also tried out a SUP and did some kayaking.

We had fun, but most of us ended up sunburned to one extent or another. River was a little pink on Monday and back to normal on Tuesday- he's got that olive complexion that doesn't really burn. The rest of us didn't fare so well.

Tuesday morning we all packed up and headed home. We stopped in Colorado for a minute to pick some things up, then headed east, spending the night in Kansas.

Wednesday was a full day of driving. Around 9pm we were driving down I70 in Missouri when a rock or something shattered the window above the jacknife sofa in RV. One minute it was fine, the next there was a lot of road noise and the blinds were being pulled on by the wind. We pulled over (conveniently on an exit ramp) and quickly realized what had happened.

We tried calling the insurance company, but they were closed for the night, so we decided to call them in the morning. In the meantime, I found a Walmart 7 miles away where we bought plastic sheeting and gorilla tape. We spent a half hour or so securely taping off the inside and outside of the window, then hit the road again for a couple more hours. We decided to at least get to the other side of St Louis so we wouldn't have to deal with big city traffic in the morning.

first look at the window. by the time we got to walmart, most of the glass had fallen out

After spending the night in a Cracker Barrel parking lot, we hit the road again and arrived home Thursday night. After thinking about it overnight, we decided not to file a claim and to contact an RV body shop to get a quote. They couldn't give us exact numbers because they don't know how much shipping will cost for the replacement window, but the final total should be less than our deductible, much like what happens when you replace a windshield.

I wasn't able to work on my computer all day Thursday because it stopped charging the day before (or maybe even on Tuesday?) and the battery was dead. I thought it was just the power cord (I've had one or two die on me in the past), so I hopped on my phone and ordered a new one off Amazon.

Say what you will about Amazon, they do have fast shipping. My replacement cord arrived on Friday, but my laptop still wouldn't charge. We ordered a different part (where the cord attaches to the laptop, which we've replaced once before), but it won't arrive till Monday.

We spent the day recovering from way too much time driving, unloading the RV, and starting mounds of laundry. We have fun on our trips, but it's always nice to get home and sleep in our own beds after sitting in RV seats and carseats for way too long. Someday we'll be able to travel at a much slower pace, which will be so nice, since those super long days of driving are just not sustainable.

Ocean celebrated his fourth birthday and requested a cake with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries and rainbow ice cream (rainbow sherbet). Yum! He thinks he's so big now :)

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 1.31 miles kayaked and SUPed
total- 1.31 miles

14 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.56 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

73.53 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
15.87 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
80.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
171.96 miles total

Weekly Mileage #120 and Our Family Reunions

Monday we drove to Mr M's reunion at a national forest campsite in the mountains, about half an hour past Idaho City. The narrow, twisty mountain roads made the drive longer than it would be otherwise.

Ocean played in this pile of dirt for more than half an hour, happy as a clam

There was a rustic cabin with 6 or 7 campsites around it, and that was surrounded by forest. I loved how quiet it was, and the fact that we didn't have to worry about making too much noise and bothering the other campers. The cabin had running water in the kitchen and bathroom and a propane powered fridge and water heater, and there was an outhouse nearby as well.

the boys helped clean the dutch ovens

There were a couple power stanchions, but they only worked if the generator next to the cabin was on. There was also water and sewer, though the sewer system was having problems when we were there. But it was a super cheap campsite, so no one could really complain :)

helping is dirty work

I was still not feeling great while we were at this reunion, though I did feel better as the week went on. We went to town twice while we were camping so we could find wifi to use. Mr M needed to check stuff for work and I had some work to do to make sure I was ready for the affiliate launch I was part of the next week.

there was a forest fire in the area in the not-too-distant past, but the forest is recovering

The drive made me nauseous, though, so while we could have gone to town again, or to a swimming spot further down the mountains, we didn't. I do wish we had done some hiking- there were trails that started right at our campground, but I wasn't up for that, either. It was nice to just relax in the mountains and not worry about the work I could be doing, since I couldn't do it :)

Some of the guys took advantage of the surrounding national forest to do some shooting practice. Mr M took Sunshine along and she got to shoot a .22 pistol and a .45 pistol. The last time she went shooting was 5 years ago, so it was a good refresher. I stayed at camp with the boys to make sure they didn't follow. River really wanted to go, but we decided he needed to wait a little longer. Next time.

Friday we were up early so we could break camp and head back to Boise. We stopped to pick up a package we'd had delivered to grandma's house, then headed for Flaming Gorge. We checked to see if we could stop by Craters of the Moon since we'd missed it on our trip west, but there was still no time. We arrived at our campground outside Flaming Gorge after dark, so it was good we didn't make any other stops along the way. We'll visit Craters another time.

McConkie Ranch petroglyphs

We had planned on going to the reservoir on Saturday, but it was cool and overcast, so we headed south for some exploring instead. First, we visited McConkie Ranch in Vernal to look at the petroglyphs.

McConkie Ranch petroglyphs

After hiking around, looking at those petroglyphs, we went to Dinosaur National Monument. Sunshine wasn't enthused about doing a Junior Ranger book until her cousins said they wanted to do it. Then she was much more willing ;)

the girls working on their books

River working on his

We didn't have enough time to fully explore (we weren't able to do any hiking, though apparently there are some trails where you can see fossils in the wild), though we did go to the quarry (the covered area where dinosaur bones were first discovered) just before closing.

the variety and number of bones is quite impressive

Once the visitor center closed, we headed out in search of more petroglyphs before calling it a day. It's quite impressive that they've managed to last this long.

On the way back to camp we stopped for dinner at a tiny BBQ joint and made their day (and their week, possibly their month) ordering dinner for 18 people. Totally skewed their sales numbers, but in a good way. The ribs were good, but the coleslaw was uninspired. If you've ever had Mr M's coleslaw, you know that most coleslaws don't come close to it.

Sunday after church we did a group photo (minus my older brother and his family, who were only able to stop by for a few minutes and missed all the festivities and my nephew who just went on his mission).

We also played around with some indigo dying. After you submerge fabric in the dye and pull it out, it looks green. It turns a deep, dark blue as it oxidizes in the sun. I forgot to take a picture of the finished products, but I just love the deep blue that results. I've been trying to come up with some projects I can use indigo dye for, just so I have an excuse to play around with it some more.

Weekly Mileage
Saturday- 5.0 miles hiked while looking at petroglyphs
total- 5.0 miles

14 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
1.25 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

73.53 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
15.87 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
80.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
170.65 miles total