I'm just going to "level" with you......

We were so happy to be back in the States and had some great driving time with views of Lake Superior!

We decided to stay in Grand Marias on Lake Superior and found it to be a charming little village.

Timmy and I set up camp and headed into town for some dinner at the "Raven Spirits" water hole.

As I looked around there were all kinds of "Figure Heads", the old wooden mermaids that sat on the front of old boats.

I took some pictures, but they were so risque I am surprised they let families in for dinner and didn't ask for I.D.'s.

I thought of the days when pirates must have sailed the waters and as we were driving  home I glanced out of the jeep and caught

the black sails of this schooner.

Hmmmm

Coincidence.... I think not.

I snapped a few more pics of the harbor and it was time to head home.

*****

Our next stop as we continued to head west was Devils Lake, North Dakota.

We tried several campsites before we found one that

had space for the "Jetson Mobile".

The campsite was right on a very popular fishing lake and

we were happy to be near water, once again.

A cute young boy, near the age of 13 was manning the front desk and was bombarded with phone calls as we were registering....

"yes, we sell worms.....

.... no we don't have frogs....., he rolls his eyes...."

He tells us there is one site left.... and after we arrived,

 we could understand why...

 it has probably been the one and only site

most people don't even attempt to use!!!

It was so uneven, and the back end of the site

near the hookups looked like a sheer drop off!

(Now why would they put the hook ups way in the back, knowing that big RVs can't back all the way towards the back, without major damage to the entire structure of the RV, not to mention falling over the cliff? )

Timmy used a few cuss words upon arrival and

walked the grounds masterminding

 "The Plan".

He does such a great job of leveling every time we park and it is amazing how the jacks under the motorhome can make such a difference in keeping our RV level.

Timmy unhooked the jeep and it was "Gametime"

We already had one of our neighbors, (the ones directly behind us) voice his opinion  and he was pointing and advising Timmy

 what he thought was best.

 I am sure he was  more concerned that the " Jetson Mobile" might tip too far over and come crashing down on his 5th wheeler

parked about 20 feet from us.

After about 10 minutes of inching our way back, bit by bit,...

I could barely bring myself to watch, as I was holding my breath

 most of the time.

What you are about to see is very similar to the "Mackinac Bridge"...

considered an engineering wonder....

Do not adjust your screens.

This is not an optical illusion.

I had to be careful exiting the RV as the steps were so high and there was so much distance to the ground, I  had to hang onto the railing on the side of the rig and kinda swing myself to the ground, guessing when the right time would be to jump.

But never mind that...

Getting back into the RV was the real challenge.

Pole vaulting immediately came to mind...

and our next door neighbor yells....

"maybe you  could use our kids trampoline"

  I mean seriously,... look at those steps,... I could do chin ups on that thing!

 Thank God this part of the country is not known for earthquakes....

We survived the "cliff hanging" experience and

we didn't even break any bones.

I  think they must have a hidden camera somewhere in the trees and use this camp space as a streaming live "reality" show, 

and quite possibly show it in the local casino,

 as people with a warped sense of humor place their bets.

*****

My hubby had told me to " sleep in"  the next day and

 not to worry about anything,

 the morning of

"Lift Off" ...

that he would 

move the  "Jetson Mobile"  

 hook up  the jeep

 and take care of everything...

I thought ... how sweet...

I found out a few days later as he was talking with a friend on the phone,

 he was a little more nervous about the "situation" than he led on,..

and probably didn't want me to

bite off the rest of my nails during our departure at " Cliffville"...

so he kept me secured in bed with no visual contact of the "situation".

so as far as I was concerned....

everything went great!

(good cover up Timmy)

I am just  so grateful that we didn't fall over and go boom!

  

*****

Timmy's youngest sister Annie and her husband Duane live in

 Lewistown, Montana, and we were excited

 to spend a few days with family.

The fair was in town and reminded me so much of the days in good ole Webster City when the county fair came to town.

We went to watch the demolition derby and of course everyone in town was there hooting and hollering.

 Annie and Timmy - Graber siblings!

It was a beautiful night at the fair and after the derby we walked the grounds and checked out the rides.

I couldn't pass the opportunity of catching the sun go down with the silhouette of the kids on the carnival rides.

And speaking of kids,... I absolutely fell in love with

Duane and Annie's son, little Duane.

He is quite the gentlemen and was a very happy boy as he took home a blue ribbon showing pigs at the fair.

They served great meals while we were there and I was surprised that I liked Buffalo meat as well as I did.

Duane is an avid hunter and,... and has a huge collection of Deer and Elk.

 I did feel better when Annie reminded me that this particular buffalo was injured and was going to be put down anyway.

I believe other than that, it is against the law to hunt buffalo, so you won't see many of these....

    

look at the size of that flat screen T.V.!!

We said our goodbyes and headed down the road towards Idaho.

*****

I have been a mortgage loan officer for over 25 years and one of my dearest friends who did most of my title business on my loans, now lives in

Coeur d' Alene, Idaho.

I had come through here last year and missed her, so we made arrangements to get together.

Timmy had work to do, and being the gentleman that he is, told us to go ahead and get our "girl talk"  out the way, and he would join us later for dinner. June picked me up and it was great to finally see her lovely home!!

Timmy met up with us in downtown Coeur d' Alene and we enjoyed a great dinner at a really chic restaurant just a block from the lake.

Timmy had a meeting with some guy a few miles outside of the city, who wanted Tim to sell some of his antique motorcycles, so I took advantage of a lovely walk around the RV park, which was right on the lake.

A storm was brewing, and you could smell the rain coming.  As we headed south towards Boise, we enjoyed the brief thunder storm and we knew my favorite highway in the country was on the menu for the day.

Highway 95 in northern Idaho is absolutely incredible.

  

It seems that everywhere you looked, you would either see hay fields, mountains, valley, rivers, ... you name it.... Highway 95 has it.

Devils Canyon is a beautiful gorge cut in the rocks by the Salmon River.

My sister in law and one of  my best friends white water rafted on this river a few years ago, so it was especially fun to follow it again by road.

The "Jetson Mobile" has done such a great job of taking care of us, so I decided to snap a shot of  him too, with the "Jeepster."

We knew it was going to be a long driving day, 10 hours to be exact.

We normally just drive 5 or 6 hours and find a place to camp for the night, but Timmy had made reservations in Boise at the local " Cat " shop...

 (I think that is short for caterpillar)

 to have the generator and the leveler looked at. 

What?

What does that mean exactly?

I knew that the generator runs the air conditioning, so now I am starting to worry ,... but I began to fret at the thought of not having a leveler....especially after surviving our cliff hanging experience

 in North Dakota.

Timmy was hoping by getting to Boise by Friday morning they could work on the rig both Friday and Saturday if need be.

As we continued our drive south towards Boise, we needed some fuel and stopped at Riggins.  This is where we rented our rafts a few years back and the town was full of rafters. 

 Timmy was bound and determined to pull into this one

and only diesel station available.

Once again, it was time to bite my nails.

Oh Brother, how do we get ourselves into these things....

and how are we going to get out...

the other side was just as close to the pumps and I would have taken a picture of that, but Timmy was standing there and

I didn't want to make him any more nervous.

For the first time in our 25 years of marriage....

I was speechless!!

As I walked into the store to get us a few ice creams, my mind was racing,

... what if we scrape the pole or knock it down...

...what if we take out the fire hydrant....

what if he swings to far to the other side and hits the gas pump...

and that's just the motorhome....

we still  have to get the jeep to make the turn as well....  

I calmly walked back and handed Timmy his ice cream

 while he was finishing the fueling.

A crowd had gathered now and for a moment

 I felt like yelling out the window...

"Why don't you take a picture, it will last longer"...

but realized that was childish and went back to biting my nails.  

Timmy puts the RV in drive and I take a deep breath,... and caught myself  quietly humming "Do you believe in magic" by the  Lovin Spoonfuls....

I always forget Timmy drove a Hook and Ladder, Fire Engines and everything in between for 30 years...

and although it took several slow minutes to crawl out of the space,...

we missed the pole by inches...

we missed the fire hydrant by inches...

we missed the gas pump by inches...

Timmy looks at me with a big grin and nonchalantly says...

"Are you okay,.. what's the problem..."

I just said....

"No problem here....how's your ice cream?

And that was that....

or was it?

About 3 hours later Timmy says he needs to pull over for more fuel....

What?

He didn't like the price at the last station, so he didn't fill up....

Seems, Big Tim might have been more concerned than he led on...

as he found out when he went to fuel up again, he had left the gas cap back at the last gas station...

probably still sitting on top of the pump,

 across from the pole and fire hydrant....

Luckily I had brought some basic office supplies for the RV and had some good package tape that I had used to

 tape our anniversary balloons on the motorhome.

Timmy was able to fill up this time,

 and managed to close the hole with tape.

I was going to ask how long  the tape would stick to the motorhome, if my memory serves me correctly, it didn't stick very good, but decided to just keep my mouth shut.

***

Boise

One of my dear ya ya sisters Jill Timm Wilson lives in  Boise, and I always make a point of catching up with her and her wonderful husband Jim

when in town.

They had relatives in town for the weekend, and had invited us over for Jims famous fish fry. Seems this is the 3rd year in a row I have been able to enjoy his fish fry and I am just glad that Jim is such a great fisherman.

Love that salmon and keep em coming Jim!!

One of Timmys best friends also lives in Boise and is hosting an antique motorcycle ride up in the mountains for the following week.

Ron was kind enough to let us park our rig in front of his house and even told us we could use his shop to do some more work on the RV.

I had a day free to do some shopping and get my nails done...

just basic necessities

 and I get a call from my hubby

he had picked up the RV from the Cat shop and was driving over to Rons shop and the RV just died......

he was waiting for AAA to tow the rig back to the Cat Shop.

My mind was racing...

how can we expect to take the Jetson Mobile up in the mountains for the antique motorcycle tour with all these problems...

now what do we do?

And the problem with the "Leveler" still had not been addressed...

Do we still go up in the mountains?

We have been so excited for this motorcycle tour.

As long as the rig gets fixed and is running properly, I don't see why not...

but

what about the leveler?

Seems to me the main objective

was the

LEVELER

I've always thought it was important to

be on level ground....

 but at that particular point in time.... 

all I could think of was being 

"LEVEL HEADED"

but that is just me.