ALL ABOARD

On Sunday we drove 25 miles to McEwen to ride the Sumpter Valley steam railroad. It is a narrow gauge railroad and top speed is about 25 miles an hour. The two in blue overalls are husband and wife. They use to be a pilot and a stewardess. Now they enjoy working on the railroad.

Lynda and Larry on the train. It was cool this morning - 62 and breezy. By the way the elevation is 4100 at this station.

Next to Ellen and Beecher Vaughn is Linda Kline. She and her husband ,Art, were camping at Mountain View when we arrived. We camped with them in PA on Memorial Day. We both belong to East Penn chapter of NCT. They then left for Alaska and were just headed home. They saw on my blog where we were going to be camping and joined us for a few days.

We sat outside to see the sites but there was a very nice passenger car.

The conductor collecting our tickets. He told us the train only burns wood, so our clothes would not be stained by the soot. But our clothes did get holes in them from the embers as they were blown back over us.

Since this was an area they dredged for gold we heard rumors that there may be gold on the train since the sheriff was on board.

Oh no the train was being robbed!some of the outlaws. There sure was a lot of shooting, but I don't think anyone was killed.

The train at Sumpter station.

The dredge used up to 1954.

The park service now owns it and trying to preserve and restore it. The ranger gave a very informative tour. The dredge ran 24 hours a day 363 days a year.

In the afternoon Lynda and I went to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City.

We saw a very informative and entertaining presentation about a traveling medicine man.

He tried to convince us the need to buy his potion, much like an infocommercial does today.

I really enjoyed the exhibits at the Interpretive center.

We got back to the campground by 6 just in time for a delicious supper made by Carol and Ellen. We then had fun playing 31, a card game, with them. Lynda was the winner of the second game.

MADE IT TO OREGON

Larry got tickets for our group to go to dinner and a show in Glenns Ferry at this historic opera theatre.

Since it was Friday night we saw the play Cafe Murder, a murder mystery, who done it play.

All of the food was delicious. I had steak, baked potato (we are in Idaho) carrots, salad, bread, strawberry lemonade and ice cream and brownie for desert. Oh and they came around with shrimp during the meal.

After dinner we moved to chairs up front to see the play. This is Dorothy she played the piano all during dinner and for the play. The piano in 100 years old. I'm not sure about Dorothy.

We left Three Island Crossing State Park early Saturday morning because a cold front is scheduled to come in this afternoon with some strong winds. We had a uneventful drive with no wind at all. The road is rather hilly and curvy through the mountains. We are now in Pacific Time zone, so we gained another hour.

By noon we were at the Mountain View campground in Baker City, Oregon. I love the front of the office.

In other words the laundry.

We walked around a car show in town and then went for a guided tour of the Grand Geiser Hotel. It was built in 1889. The hotel was closed and totally destroyed for thirty years until it was restored and reopened in 1997.

Our guide in period dress was full of interesting stories of the restoring of this hotel. This is the cellar where we could see the tuff stone that was used to build the hotel.

The beautiful stained glass ceiling, chandeliers, and metal railing. Only the metal railing is from the original hotel.

Carved hinges on many of the doors.

During the turn of the century the clocks on the copula of the hotel were shot at by drunk cowboys, so they were replaced with these lion heads. See the bullet hole in this one, at least they didn't have to replace it. When the restored the building the clocks were put back in.

Back at the campground after dinner Godiva ran off as Lynda was taking her out. She ran from one camper to another. One of the camper is here full time and had two outdoor cats. They had her cornered and out numbered. Larry was able to rescue her before a big cat fight. If she wasn't scared we were.

IDAHO

We crossed into Idaho on Monday, Aug 16. We toured this center in Montpelier,ID.

We pretended we were traveling to Oregon in 1850. This was our wagon master and he was helping us buy and pack our wagon. We then crossed the Platte River, a rather bumpy ride. We met a woman from a wagon train up ahead and she shared some of her stories of their travel.

This area was heavily settled by the Mormons. We toured this tabernacle in Paris, ID. It was very beautiful and unfortunately we missed the organ concert by a few minutes.

(Sorry I just deleted the picture of the tabernacle)

We all ate breakfast at this truck stop. We have been here twice before and always amazed by the pancakes size. Our group didn't really believe us when we said they were the biggest pancakes we ever saw. If you can eat THREE of them they take your picture and put it on there wall of honor. Only Bill was able to finish ONE pancake. Even on the small stack the pancake was bigger then a usually size pancake.

Larry took a golf lesson and played 9 holes at Montpelier's Trail Ruts Municipal Golf Course. Lynda and I went to Soda Springs in the afternoon. Lynda's first time to see a geyser.

It is a captured geyser and on a timer to go off every hour.

A skywatch tower from 1955 to 1959 to watch for attacks to cities in the US from planes or missiles.

August 18 we camped at Massacre Rocks State park by American Falls, ID. It was a bit of a challenge to get into this spot. The road was a one way road and too narrow to back into with all the rocks, so Larry had to go to the restrooms turn the rig around and go the wrong way to get parked. It was a double site and we had a lovely view of the Snake River.

Indians attacked a wagon train here on Aug 9, 1862 killing 5 white men. 35 men pursued the Indians to recover the stolen property. When they attacked the Indian camp four more white men were killed and later a wounded woman died, bringing the total number of emigrants killed to ten.

Our view of the Snake River.

A few miles away was Register Rock where some pioneers had signed their names. It is protected by a fenced in pavilion.

Some of the signatures.

We waited to evening to take a mile and half hike out to these ruts. It was still hot, today's weather was over a 100.

On Thursday we traveled to Twin Falls. There was a lot of construction on I-84.

Our first stop in Twin Falls.

The Snake River Canyon. Evel Kneivel tried to jump across it in 1974.

We saw two elks standing up on a cliff as we went to Shoshone Falls, what a sight!

The last time we were here we hardly saw any water.

The water was low right now because they use it for irrigation, but it was still pretty impressive and a lot more then we saw before. Lynda hasn't been to Niagara Falls so she was thrilled to see Niagara Falls of the West.

there was a lake here that was a perfect swimming hole for these boys on a very hot day. Watch them jump off the rocks into the water.

Children must take a lifeguard required swimming test to go in the water.

There were lots of restaurants and stores on route 93 in Twin Falls. Lynda treated us to a very nice meal at this local restaurant. I had the trout and Lynda the steak. They had a nice small portion menu but then we stuffed ourselves with big desserts.

Larry took the RV and went on to three Island Crossing State Park while Lynda and I spent the day shopping at Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls. We then took the scenic route on 30 past the Thousands Springs and Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument.

We arrived at Three Island Crossing about three and went to the Oregon Trail History and Education Center. Here was a very dangerous crossing of the Snake River for the wagons. The Center talks a lot about how the migration affected the Native Americans and the relationship between the settlers and Native Americans throughout the years.

I remember these wagons going through Sadsburyville on route 30 when I lived in Chester County,PA in 1975 to celebrate the Bicentennial. They went from Oregon to Valley Forge, PA.