A beautiful morning greeted us as the kids woke up around 6:00 AM. But we went back to bed anyway for another 45 minutes. After showering, etc., the kids and I went out for their morning constitution, they dressed in fur coats, me in hat, gloves and ski jacket. Fortunately it warmed up pretty quick.With breakfast done, I checked all the weather and road conditions and decided we could head out by 9:30 AM or so. With both rigs squared away we were on the road by 9:40 AM with a stop for fuel in Twin Falls.
After picking up fuel we left I-15 for US-26 East through the Rocky Mountains toward Jackson, Wyoming. This is a beautiful drive up Swan Valley, 45 miles of rolling hills all set for planting and with snow covered mountains to both sides.We made one stop at a roadside picnic area to let the dogs stretch their legs and take pictures of the mountains. While we were there, Diane had taken Candy and Toby over to the sidewalk and was walking toward the viewpoint when a loud noise startled her two dogs and they jumped off the sidewalk and slid down the hill pulling their leashes out of Diane's hand.
What excitement! A man from another coach and Don went down the hill toward the dogs while I angled down the hill toward where Candy was trapped.
Don got Toby and took him up to Diane while the other gentleman and I were able to retrieve Candy and lead her back along the hillside to Don. Nobody was hurt, and the kids seemed to shake off their traumatic experience as soon as treats were presented.Shortly after the rescue sandwiches were made, pops opened and everyone had lunch, then it was back on the road towards the small town of Alpine just over the Wyoming border. This was a stunning section alongside the Palisades Reservoir. The reservoir was created in 1957 with the completion of an earthen dam on the Snake River. Built for flood control and irrigation, the reservoir also provides major recreation opportunities in eastern Idaho.
Eventually we reached Alpine and left the reservoir behind as we continued to climb through the Targhee National Forest into the mountains toward Jackson and the Snake River KOA (http://www.srpkoa.com/). We passed Hoback Junction where US-26 joined US-89 and US-189/191 for the final ten miles to our campground. We pulled in around 2:30 PM and got our assigned spots, disconnected the car and trailer, parked the rigs, leveled up and spent an hour walking around with the kids, down to the river and about the camp. It had turned into a beautiful sunny day with light fluffy clouds and in the mi-50's. A little later we decided on having dinner in town and made plans for tomorrow.
About 5:30 PM we drove into Jackson to the Rendezvous Bistro (http://www.rondezvousbistro.net/) and had an absolutely wonderful dinner. Tina had Duck Comfit and I had Salmon while Don and Diane had Rib Eye steaks. For desert I had a chocolate brownie sunday with caramel, Don had two scoops of vanilla ice cream and Tina had deep fried donut curls with chocolate sauce. Yummmm!! After dinner we stopped to watch a dozen parasailers launch themselves from a clifftop to catch the afternoon thermals just south of town.
Leaving Jackson, we returned to camp and took the kids for a walk down to the river where Wicket decided to go in for a swim. She only got wet up to her ankles and decided that was enough. Walking back to the coach we thought we'd play a game or two, but it was 9:15 PM when Don brought his camera over to download photos. At this point it was determined to be too late to play any games so after the photos were transferred to the camera, we said lets wait for tomorrow and settled in for the night.
Miles driven today, 140 - total for the trip so far, 7,600 miles.
To see all our photos, click on:
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