Last week we bought a cheap used camper.
Initially we began searching for a pull behind that was around 16 feet or so. Something easily maneuverable. Something cheap. Something structurally sound. As long as the frame was solid and it didn't leak, we didn't care if it included a bathroom, a stove, a heater or any other niceties that so many look for when they are looking for a camper.
With the money we had to spend on such a thing, we figured that we would eventually come across a good frame and would have to completely redo the inside (with the only priority really being a bed).
After driving all over Hell And Half Of Georgia (as they say back in the south east) we finally resigned ourselves to the following:
1. Anything in our price range was a falling down, leaking, crumbling piece of junk
2. People lie like dogs and straight to your face
3. The money people were asking for straight up pieces of garbage was outrageous. LC got angry before I did, but by the last trip to Idaho Falls mid week last week, I walked away in disgust, declaring to LC that "people are out of their Fucking minds!"
Capital F.
A day later we were standing in front of the house talking to a neighbor, when another neighbor (who had just come back into town after wintering for months in Arizona) pulled up beside the house.
She had been talking to yet one more neighbor, and she and her husband had a camper for sale.
Yes we knew. Thank you but it was just too expensive for us.
She talked. We talked. We made a deal. We now have a camper.
It's bigger than we wanted and it is old but everything works.......and that's a good thing after what we have wasted time on recently.
More on the camper after I take pictures.............
Yesterday we drove to Idaho Falls again because we had found a camper break system on one of those local online classified sites.
After picking it up we drove to the same park and river access that we had visited a couple of days after bringing Kory home from the Boise airport in November:
The name of this area is officially John's Hole Forebay Recreation Area, but I always think of it simply as the Idaho Falls Greenway.
The first time we visited the greenway in November, we and Kory were still strangers to each other.
LC and I were still hurting from the death of Jamie - the wonderful pup that had been in (first) my life and (then) both of our lives for so many years. Who had traveled all the way to Alaska and back with us. Who had eagerly and enthusiastically followed us across creeks and rivers, up hills and mountains, and on endless trails from one end of the country to the other.
The dog who had slept at the bottom of our bed for so many years - who had curled up beside us during good times, bad times and horrific times, and who somehow had unwittingly made the world feel a little safer simply by her sheer presence and sweet goodness.
And then here was Kory.
A dog who had mysteriously showed up at a shelter in Tampa Bay, Florida and who had been living on borrowed time. Who had been adopted out of the shelter by a friend of ours and then flown out to us a week later.
A Florida dog who somehow found herself in Idaho and facing two strangers that SHE didn't know either.
She has become a valued member of our family in only a few short months.
She is a loving, kind, caring, protective spirit who barks when a door bell rings on TV, who sleeps in her crate at night because a crate feels safe to her, who loves to rip the stuffing out of stuffed animals, who frequently approaches us for attention, who enthusiastically jumps as high as my head when it is time to go for a walk, and who simply and absolutely loves to run.
Five and a half months after that first, quick trip to the greenway, we were back.
Still growing together as a family, but now no longer strangers.............
The last time we were here I snapped a quick picture of the caution sign without even reading it.
More interested in quickly getting a lay of the land and more interested in monitoring our new dog, I was too distracted to realize that just down the walking path was a water fall.
This trip we had more time, the day was warm and filled with watery sunshine, and we decided to go find the falls..................
LC and I have both missed water over the winter, and over the past couple of weeks have actively begun to seek it out.
Places to fish. Places to kayak. Places to walk next to the water.
This section of the Snake River (that cuts its way through the center of this far-too-busy town of Idaho Falls) was a place to fish and walk.
But with waterfalls close, and a fast moving current that precluded paddling in the opposite direction, it was likely not a kayaking spot.
Regardless, on this day it was a place to walk.
As we began to make our way down the paved walking trail I realized more on this trip than on the previous, that this was a lovely green space in the center of town.
Looking around me I saw joggers, moms pushing strollers, elderly men and women slowly wandering and enjoying the day, a couple of boys on skateboards.
Smiling inside I thought "this is a nice place"..............
There were a lot of ducks and geese swimming in the water.
There were also many noisily wandering around on the small island in the center of the river and on the grass on the trail we were walking, and I smiled at my dog as I watched her frantically sniffing the ground and crossing over from one side of the trail to the other and back again.
She was having a great time walking with her people and processing all the odors she found on the ground............
A small cabin sitting close to the edge of a small island that was located in the center of the river................
If you click on any picture they will all enlarge and begin a slide show.
The signs in these pictures tell both the story of the small cabin and the story of the Idaho Temple (pictured above)..........
A very sweet bench found along the paved trail.
I really liked the color, the shape, the form, the sheer mechanical ingenuity of this thing..............
I should have taken more pictures of across the road, but didn't think of it at the time.
The road was one way (which greatly controlled the volume of traffic), and across the road from the greenway trail were beautiful hotels that looked out over the water.
All had balconies with views, and all had outdoor patios - not open yet but open soon.
By the time LC, Kory and I had gotten this far I was really enjoying this walk. Much more than I was prepared for or expected.
The totality of the experience - walking with LC and my dog, the warm day, the friendly people who were doing whatever they were doing but who were all enjoying the relaxed day as much as we were, the ducks and geese and squirrels, the water, the beautiful island and beautiful church........it was all very good...............
Along the trail we came across some huge and healthy evergreen trees.
At the base of one a squirrel saw our approach, and he quickly scurried under the low limbs of the tree and disappeared.
Impulsively I ducked under the low branches and plunged right into the dark space of the underside of the branches.
In the shadows I saw this guy.
Actually, I saw HIM looking at ME looking at HIM and snapped this badly lit picture............
Snapping one more picture of staring-squirrel I smiled at the sight of him (I missed the sight of them and momentarily was thrown back in time to Tennessee where they were so abundant in our back yard).
Still smiling, I turned away from this sweet and skittish little guy, ducked back under the low branches and found myself back in the watery sunshine of a Saturday afternoon..............
One more interesting and fluid shaped bench found along the trail.
And the blackbird that decorated the bench...........
We had been walking very slowly - all three of us really enjoying this beautiful place on this beautiful day.
After snapping these pictures of geese I looked to my right in search of the growing noise.
I could hear the falls now but still could not see them because of the trees and bushes that lined the trail.
I was very glad that we had decided to stop here.................
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and
stay that way later in the fall................Nadine Stair
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