“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Mae West

That’s us beside Lake Tahoe where we stopped yesterday for lunch and a few hours of walking around, checking out this Northern California/western Nevada recreation mecca. It’s a tricky road winding in and up especially when you don’t listen to Gabby Garmin (me), you can find yourselves half way up the mountain only to turn around due to height limitations and go back the initial way the RV Garmin says! So great scenery twice!

Navigating canyons is not for the feint of ❤️. Crossing through Shoshone Paiute reservation was open range for cattle 🐄 therefore canyon highway is considered open range. Sam was not sure at all about the long horned fellow crossing with his herd. For of you NC mountaineers who have driven the Shulls Mills road from Valle Crucis to Blowing Rock, this was X 25 in experiencing hairpins! We stayed a night in Elko, NV that claims to have a large stuffed polar bear in its lobby. Casinos are on every street corner of course in the Silver State bringing in all kinds of interesting characters to these small towns. We decided to make double time and race the snow across the mountainous terrain of El Dorado pass and landed in Folsom Lake State Park outside Sacremento for the next two days. Folsom may sound familiar as it is the theme of that Johnny Cash song…”Folsom prison blues”. Yes there is a state prison somewhere here…but not where Charles Manson is…yes freakazoid me checked! Haha

California dreaming! Cheers this am from the open road! n&j ☕️☕️

“ We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.”  Wilbur Wright

Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park was a delightful respite over the weekend. Noted as the largest natural sand dunes in North America, I ask if the topographer has visited our OBX Jockey’s Ridge? 😎 We enjoyed hiking the dunes, watching kids sled and sand board and doing a bit of birding lakeside, those are maybe pintail ducks. Nighttime at Bruneau is one of the best star gazing opportunities in western skies 🌌, during summer months an observatory just below us one can see out into the great beyond! Reminds me of nighttime on Bald Head Island….a million stars ✨

Campifires 🔥 and roasting marshmallows, being lazy, reading a fun new book of short stories by Tom Hanks and and of course some college football 🏈 were the biggest happenings of our weekend. Our neighbor did go hunting down the road Sunday am and we watched him clean a pheasant and stick it in a bucket of brine. Said his wife to fry it up for Sunday night supper. Sounded yummy. Weather was so nice we stayed through Sunday night and had the park to ourselves after the families and scouts packed up for home. High winds rocked our little world on wheels in the wee hours of Monday so we pulled in our slides and slept out the rest of the night fort style… yes all of Dos Leggos on the big bed. 

Headed into the Silver State next….

Cheers from the open road! n&j 😘

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.“ Norman Maclean

Alas many of our days start to merge into one and certainly we can say a river runs through it. Anyone who has read the novel or more likely seen the movie based on Norman Maclean’s book “A River Runs Through It” can relate to this quote and man’s primal cleave to water and the great outdoors. The vistas and chance river and lake meetings we are experiencing are simply soul stirring for us. Makes it hard to relate adequately in words and photos even though they are supposed to paint 1000 each. Much of each day on the road is mundane talking, joking, laughing, me arguing that the Garmin girl is NOT right or just being quiet taking it all in. My token foodie blog shot was indeed the best chocolate milkshake made in the West and you decide which is scarier the Grizzly or the skeleton? We’ve left Montana and Wyoming and are headed west across Idaho passing many a tater truck along the way. Adventure and yes a Friday night cocktail  will meet us in Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park shortly.

Life is grand from the open road! 🥂n&j

“To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life.” ….Elizabeth Gilbert

My apologies to Ms Gilbert for eating twice in the Legg version of finding my brand of balance.

Pulling into town Monday I made a list:

1. Rent a car ✔️

2. Have dogs bathed ✔️

3. Find yoga ✔️

4. Wash RV✔️

For those of you that like ✔️ing off a list, note there are a few of my work habits hanging on…

Our days in Bozeman this week have been action packed…Yes that is your daily driver hauling bull elk shed in the back of his pick up truck down Main Street! Only in Montana! We found the happiest place on earth for Sam and Daisy at Snowfill off leash dog park. A 30 acre fenced play romp run just outside of town that a local family placed in a land trust. Sam has never experienced such freedom and is now the poster dog for happy hound. Bozeman is super dog friendly. We pass at least 10 people walking their dogs downtown every visit, shops have water bowls and leash posts at each block. Ok..so the food let’s just describe as gastronomic delights in ranch to table eats.  Bison, pheasant, pork, trout and the freshest salads and vegetables, hence the “Eat” twice. We dined at Plonk! last night, recently featured in Big Sky Journal, photo above bar has a hundred+ ranch brands, fun to sip our cocktails under. Finally for my yogi enthusiasts, I found my yoga and went twice yesterday, one morning work it out flow and then a lovely restorative class late afternoon. Om yeah!

In addition to Ms. Gilbert’s sentiments, we’re taking a page from the annals from our good friend Ricky Evans. Eat well, Pray well, Love well and Live well!

Cheers from Big Sky Country!🍷🍷 n&j

Montana….we have arrived!!

Talk about a tag line that just nails it! Montana has got to be the last best place, in our hearts 💕 anyway. Oh the places you will go and the people you will meet. We noticed a NC plate a few rows over from us last night in the KOA, happened to strike up a conversation this morning walking our dogs. They are from Fayetteville! He’s retired military and they started out 3 months ago, plan to be out for a year! Wow! Pretty amazing, two couples out on the open road meet in MT and live about 10 miles from each other back home. It’s a small world 🌎 after all.

We hit the road and spent today in Livingston enjoying a walk along the Yellowstone River (where A River Runs Through It was filmed) and the lovely Sacajawea Park. Ate sandwiches streetside next to Parks Reece Gallery, resident MT artist, also a Goldsboro, NC native. Then over to camp out in Bozeman for a few days. We decided to go by the Bozeman Airport and get a car so we can traverse a wider path in Big Sky country. And finally I can go to a yoga class in the morning!! Ate at Ted’s, a tradition for us, where you can find the best Bison burger on the planet. 😋 

Gotta love ❤️ a good quote from John Wayne tonight!

cheers from Big Sky Country! n&j

“Two roads converged in a wood, and I -I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”  …Robert Frost

Well maybe…depends on the difference you are willing to embrace! So here are some real life scenes from our travels. No successful napping when you have furry friends as pillows. We had one bar of cell signal when we arrived at the Lewis and Clark State Park, hence the delay in post. Dos Leggos ambitious to follow the famous trail west coupled with slow driving against the relentless ND prairie winds settled on LCSP for the night. Should have been clued in to the park ranger’s reply, “Oh, there’s a whipping wind out there and only one other camper.” The good news is we had the entire park, beachfront along the mighty Missouri and meandering wooded walking trails to ourselves.  Got to pick out my Christmas 🎄, someone call Jeff at Bell’s and tell him I’ll have it delivered December 5th please. We saw what I think was a snowy owl, and John for the first time EVER got to church early. Mother Nature programmed our wake up call at 4:00 am w howling coyotes which prompted howling beagle in our RV, but thankfully we were blessed with a sweet sunrise 🌅 over the Missouri. God is good.

Happy Sunday evening from the open road! n&j

Well, we meandered south and west and found ourselves only 1/3 of the way through the top half of North Dakota, hence not near Fargo. The destination is the journey according to our friends Mark and Beth! God definitely has the helm as I pray each morning I find the right spot/course to set for us. Ask and ye shall receive. We’ve landed in the enchanting  Graham’s State Park on Devils Lake, ND. Honestly, one of the prettiest views and settings we’ve had, tucked into a martime forest that lines up along a generous shoreline. Free range green space and a spectacular sunset sky! Friday night cocktails are flowing. You can see from the NASA shot, Devils Lake is the largest natural body of water in ND. The Spirit Lake Reservation is located on the lake’s southern shores. The name “Devils Lake” is an approximate translation of its Lakota name, Ble Waka Sica (“blay wah-kahn shee-chah”; literally: “Lake of the Spirits”) Hope y’all enjoy me tapping my inner “Lulie” to share a bit of history each evening.

Cheers 🥂  from the lake front! n&j

“All serious daring starts from within.”.

…Eudora Welty

Due to limited open options for overnight stay north of the border, we decided to bust it west like the RVing pioneers we are! Stopped for picnic lunch at Beltrami Island State Park just off  Hwy 11, also called Waters of the Dancing Sky Scenic Byway which followed much of the Big Fork river. We actually saw a bald eagle with a fish in talons fly right in front of us…too quick for a picture much to my blogging dismay.

After much searching w Gabby Garmin, we settled on the small but accommodating town of Thief River Falls in way western Minnesota. The lack of amenities, low power, no water is made up for by park and green space, honor system payment and pretty private surroundings along the confluence of the Thief River and Red Lake rivers. The name is derived from warring factions of the Dakota and Obijwe tribes back in the the day that swore one side was “thieving the river bank” from the other. Now these tribes are incorporated as part of the Red Lake Chippewa tribe. Low power was a good excuse not to cook so we found a great pub in walking distance. Saw this quote in the ladies room and thought it perfect to share. Thanks to everyone following  and commenting. It’s fun to report to y’all on our travels and adventure!!

Cheers from the road! n&j

We motored north and left our boat friends busy dry docking for the season. After passing the Boundary Waters Outward Bound exit in Ely, ate lunch and stretched our Leggs at a cool trail head called Taco 🌮 nite. 9 miles down the trail was a bar and grill! That’s worth 9 miles in! Eventually we landed at a quaint fish camp in the Voyager National Park. We are off the grid essentially, grateful for the owners WiFi share. Beautiful forest setting along the Ash river. A few hard core fisherman left in camp as the degrees dip, wind whips and they search for northern pike and walleye. We are about 50 miles from the Canadian border and plan to head across tomorrow and over near Winnipeg. Cheers from fish camp! n&j

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
…..Denis Waitley

Friendly sturgeon named Snowflake kept coming up to be petted in his tank, a very flirty porcupine block headed blowfish showing off his helicopter fins as you see in the video made the Great Lakes Aquarium a big hit today! There is a minature of Lady Liberty statue commemorating the bicentennial and otter silly 🙃 pics. How sweet are those seahorses with their tails curled together sleeping! Beautiful weather along the Great Lake today topping out at 70 ☀️😎

Talked to two of my work mates today and believe it or not Quest marches on and survives without me! I miss my pod mates and peeps though. Hindsight is a good perspective to appreciate some of the better things, like the people and creatures you meet!

Love this maya angelou quote:

”I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Cheers from the Great Lake Superior tonight!

n&j