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Post by Ratty on May 9, 2020 1:28:53 GMT
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Post by slh1234 on May 10, 2020 0:53:54 GMT
I'm gonna try to share a bit here of our super-secret we're-quarantined-in-Washington-but-can-drive-to-other-states-to-decompress trip that Mrs. SLH1234 and I took to celebrate our anniversary. I'm hoping if others are feeling cooped up, you can get out and discover, too. We originally planned to go to Cancun, but ... COVID-19. Our plan B was to go to Yellowstone - a place I've been several times, but is on Mrs. SLH1234's bucket list - but ... COVID-19. We decided "The heck with it. We're not 'Hiding in our basement' kind of people. Let' just set off with no itinerary other than our hotel reservation and see what we can discover from there. We took off through Montana, then down into Idaho. We used a hotel in Idaho as our launching point, and just took off each day to see what we could see. I had a few ideas, but Mrs. SLH1234's ideas usually proved better than mine. In a nutshell, we made crags to farmland, waterfalls to waterworks, standing snow to high deserts, standing in icewater to photographing wildlife in refuges, photographing bears to whatever I can't remember. It was a full week, and I came back needing to go to work in order to get some rest. I've worked in Idaho before, but had limited time there for outings. I was surprised at just how diverse and beautiful it really is. It proved perfect since Montana and WA were both locked down so tightly, but Idaho put a little more trust in people to be smart ... and they seemed to be. It was easy most days to social distance by 6 miles or so, rather than just the 6 feet advised. We had remarkably little human interaction, but what we did have was very friendly and nice. I'll limit it down to a half dozen or less photos, I promise, and I won't shock you with our faces in any of them  Image 1 is one of our many photos of the Mighty Shoshone Falls, AKA "The Niagara of the West." It was so windy the day we visited that the plume of water farthest to the right sometimes got caught and blown back up and out of the falls by the wind. We went to Perrine bridge to walk across it after this, but the wind was so strong that it sometimes made me stagger a step to the side ... which made the bridge across the Snake River absolutely terrifying for both of us who are not normally scared of such things. We couldn't walk all the way across the bridge (and not just because of our knees), and certainly couldn't take our cameras out to take any pictures from there ... but it was a great day.  You know, we couldn't take anybody's word for the National Parks being closed, so we took one afternoon (after visiting Craters of the Moon) to drive out to Grand Teton and see if we could get into that, and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming. In Grand Teton, there is a highway that is not fee. That was open. However; when we got to the fee part of the park, it was, indeed, closed, and the gate was as far as we could go. However; we got that great view of the Grand Teton Range from the side of the highway. This is a panorama from there:  The lady found a place called "Bear Lake" and we discovered there was a wildlife refuge beside it. One of the more remarkable sites from the wildlife refuge was a pair of Harpy Eagles nesting. I won't post the video of the harpy eagles since it has our voices in it, but here is a quick glimpse of Bear Lake where we enjoyed Kimchi Stew for lunch that day. The weather was cool, and it looked like glacier melt because of the color, but the water actually wasn't cold at all.  On the way back home, the lady found a place on the map named "Redfish Lake" and we decided we had to go see it. It was a spectacular mountain drive on the way there, and we actually stopped at a picnic area in the national forest to eat lunch. When we got to Redfish lake, all of the picnic areas were closed, but we found a place we could safely park and took a walk out to the lake. This was our view. I have this thing from childhood where I always want to get my feet wet, and I did here, too. The water was so cold my feet hurt by the time the lady got her camer and got a picture of me in it. If I'd been singing, it would have been soprano ... But it was a beautiful place for a few hours on the drive back home:  I mentioned high deserts ... they're a good portion of the state, of course. In this case, the lady found a place named "Castle Rocks" on the way back to our hotel from Shoshone Falls. We took a couple of hour detour to check it out. It is a state park, so it was open. It was actually quite interesting. Our knees were hurting by this time, but we still managed to hike about a mile in the park. I can't do justice to the magnitude or true beauty, of course, but here is one panorama from one set of crags in Castle Rocks:  "" I said I would limit it to no more than a half dozen, so for the sixth picture, let me just give one of the pictures that just happened as we were driving, and found a place that just took our breath away. This is actually from the pass as we were going to Grand Teton National Park. It was just too beautiful to not stop and get a photo.  Some of the places I couldn't get within 6 include: Mesa Falls, ID; Idaho Falls, ID (All the small cities are clean as can be. Idaho Falls itself is actually a combination of manmade hydro-electric and natural waterfalls on the Snake River. It's not too tall, but is quite long and unique in that it runs lengthwise with the current.), Missoula, MT, much beautiful farmland, Palouse Falls, WA ... and some others that just happened as we were driving. The world is still out there. In fact, with the State Parks now reopened in WA, Mrs. SLH's restaurant is quite busy again ... although they can only do take-out and delivery. There are shortages on some ingredients, so she has had to raise prices temporarily because the prices of ingredients went up with the shortages, but the people who come are hikers, bikers, tourists, and a few locals, and they are so happy to be able to "legally" get out and get to a restaurant again that nobody is complaining. |
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Post by slh1234 on May 10, 2020 0:58:59 GMT
When we saw those things in Korea and Japan, they were just "Asian Giant Hornets." I wonder how it is that when one was found in the US, they suddenly became "Murder hornets?" For real? I think Chinese Black Fungus needs to hire their marketing department. |
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Post by sigurdur on May 10, 2020 3:40:16 GMT
My bro-in-law wanted to get a toolbox today. I needed 3 items from GF that aren't available locally. It snowed 3 inches last night, I wasn't shipping seed today so I called him and said let's go!
Lowes was packed! Sams was packed!
Was about supper time. Where should we eat? Welllll, being my Bride has Alpha gal disease, we don't eat any type of red meat. My BIL thought a steak would really hit the spot. Texas Roadhouse had interior dining. It was PACKED. We duly waited to get a table. I will say, that steak tasted as good as I remembered a steak tasting. It may be another 18 months before I enjoy another steak, hope the memory fulfills that desire.
People in Texas Roadhouse didn't seem the least concerned. Same at Lowes and Sams.
SLH. Thanks for the great read and pictures!
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Post by Ratty on May 10, 2020 4:21:33 GMT
My bro-in-law wanted to get a toolbox today. I needed 3 items from GF that aren't available locally. It snowed 3 inches last night, I wasn't shipping seed today so I called him and said let's go! Lowes was packed! Sams was packed! Was about supper time. Where should we eat? Welllll, being my Bride has Alpha gal disease, we don't eat any type of red meat. My BIL thought a steak would really hit the spot. Texas Roadhouse had interior dining. It was PACKED. We duly waited to get a table. I will say, that steak tasted as good as I remembered a steak tasting. It may be another 18 months before I enjoy another steak, hope the memory fulfills that desire. People in Texas Roadhouse didn't seem the least concerned. Same at Lowes and Sams. SLH. Thanks for the great read and pictures! Ditto to that ... thanks. |
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Post by duwayne on May 10, 2020 22:08:38 GMT
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Post by sigurdur on May 10, 2020 23:32:40 GMT
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Post by Ratty on May 10, 2020 23:58:05 GMT
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Post by sigurdur on May 11, 2020 0:32:32 GMT
Yep. More true than I like to admit. |
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Post by missouriboy on May 11, 2020 0:41:17 GMT
I'm gonna try to share a bit here of our super-secret we're-quarantined-in-Washington-but-can-drive-to-other-states-to-decompress trip that Mrs. SLH1234 and I took to celebrate our anniversary. I'm hoping if others are feeling cooped up, you can get out and discover, too. The world is still out there. In fact, with the State Parks now reopened in WA, Mrs. SLH's restaurant is quite busy again ... although they can only do take-out and delivery. There are shortages on some ingredients, so she has had to raise prices temporarily because the prices of ingredients went up with the shortages, but the people who come are hikers, bikers, tourists, and a few locals, and they are so happy to be able to "legally" get out and get to a restaurant again that nobody is complaining. Those are great. Hope you enjoyed yourself. I think I'm going out to the Canyonlands of Utah. Maybe the National Parks will be open. But, if not, there are thousands of sq miles of open space in Utah. I was happy to see the Director of BLM on Carlson the other night saying ... We are open. Come on out and have fun. It irritates me to see the National Parks shut down. Where better to social distance than in a campground. But no ... we have to shut them down. I'm pretty sure that National Park Service employees are still getting paid ... so, it probably doesn't take much to convince them that it is better for the Public if they are closed. If THEY weren't getting paid, they might have a different opinion.  |
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Post by nautonnier on May 11, 2020 12:40:33 GMT
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Post by Ratty on May 12, 2020 5:43:59 GMT
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Post by nautonnier on May 13, 2020 16:50:47 GMT
Watch to the end
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Post by Ratty on May 14, 2020 0:35:19 GMT
Don't try this at home ....
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Post by Ratty on May 15, 2020 0:08:53 GMT
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