Thursday, September 8, 2022

9/8/2022 It’s all about spam

As a kid in the 60s we ate fried baloney and if lucky Spam. It was great fried with eggs on campouts  


I am a big fan of spam that I am😂,Sandy doesn’t seem to share the taste for such a delicacy😉


Anyhow while here in Iowa I discovered that just across the border in downtown Arlington Minnesota there exists the one and only “SPAM MUSEUM” and I was successful in convincing my beautiful wife to go with me. She can now say she has officially been spammed!


Did you know there are multiple flavors?  Or that it is sold worldwide? Or that the state of Hawaii is the largest consumer of spam in the United States?  You do now!


The museum is free and they give you samples. Yumm!  They also have a store that sells everything spam. We (at least I) enjoyed the visit. Its an hour stop in a nice older downtown. Here are some pictures











Monday, August 29, 2022

8/29/2022. Salt Lake City. Time with Friends

From Twin City we spent 3 enjoyable days with the Gaither’s.  Kim Gaither was a Girl Scout Leader a few(?) years ago with Sandy.  Kim acted as our tour guide and driver (which I very much appreciated).  The first day she showed us around the her town of Farmington (suburb of Salt Lake City),  arranged an enjoyable hike, and took us to lunch at a restaurant for delicious crepes.  The second day we traveled up into the mountains east of Ogden to Windsurfer Beach on a water reservoir.  I was amazed at the people along the reservoir enjoying outdoor sports by water skiing, kayaking, boating, stand-up paddle boards.  People around Salt Lake truly enjoy the outdoors.  After the reservoir we drove to farm stands for fresh fruits and vegetables.  I was surprised of the sheer number of farm stands.  They were scattered along every mile and the produce was very delicious and inexpensive. The third day we met Kim and Don for several early morning pickleball games.  We introduced the game to them in Mesa and they’ve been practicing ever since.  We’re going to have to make finding pickleball courts along our travels a priority to keep up with them.  Then another urban hike and more visiting and we had to say goodbye for now, but we’ll be through the area again as we traverse the country and look forward to more visits with them.









8/29/2022. Twin City and Salt Lake City Utah

We spent two nights in Twin City Utah checking out the town.  Twin City is an interesting town located along the Snake River.  It is also the launch site of Evil Knievel’s unsuccessful jump of the Snake River Canyon.  The pictures below show the ramp and the cement footers used to support the rest of the jump structure.  As it turns out Evil Knievel’s team determined that he could not make the jump on a Motorcycle so they built a rocket cycle with parachute to try the jump.  He never made it across the canyon and the parachute deployed.  


Also below is a picture the Perrine Memorial bridge which crosses the Snake River.  You can legally Base Jump off the top which is 486’ above the Snake River.  It is the 8th highest bridge in the United States.
















Wednesday, July 27, 2022

7/26/2022 Salt Creek Recreation park. WWII Bunker.

This is a county park located west of Port Angeles, WA just outside of Olympic National Park.  The park has campsites located on the water facing Victoria Canada.  It is a great location for anyone with a small RV.  Some of the sites have electric and water, but no sewer.  There is a sandy beach within walking distance.  


We went there on a whim just to check it out and do some hiking.  What we didn’t realize is that it apparently was a WWII fort with artillery that is no longer on site.  We stumbled across an old WWII bunker while a trail that started to make us curious.  As you can see we did explore the bunker (even though the signs said to stay out).  I was surprised at how a county park hid the remains of an old hidden fort along the water bordering Canada.  No mention that it was once a fort.  A hidden gem for sure and an ideal campground for those in the know.


Oh and this was another 7 mile hiking day for us.  Time to relax :-)












7/25/2022. Olympic National Park

 7/25/2022. Olympic National Park


Today we explored and hiked in Olympic National Park.  We hiked the trail at the end of the road called “Hurricane Ridge”. It is 1 1/2 mile long of which we hiked 1 mile in and 1 mile out.  The trail is paved with long drop offs on both sides and climbs upward and upward to a peak that overlooks the water stretching to Victoria, Canada.  Both the elevation 5000+ feet and the huge drop offs on both sides of the trail made me a little nervous.  On the trail we saw a Momma Black tail dear with her baby (see pictures below).  The scenery with snow on the mountains is gorgeous.  Sandy stated that this park is in her #1 or #2 of all the parks we have been to which to date is quite a few.  In my opinion, I would still say the Tetons is my favorite, with Yellowstone, the Cascades, Bar Harbor still being my Top 4.  Olympic National Park being #5.