Our Visit to Jayme and Colin, McCall, Idaho, July 1-6, 2006

July 6, 2006
Lee is returning from the trip to Boise to do the airport drop, and my sister, Judy and I have somehow wedged her things into the RV. Evan (4.5 years) is on his way home, and nothing will be as entertaining. We will all miss our new best friend Lighteneing McQueen (if you don't know Lightenin, get a Happy Meal) He immensely enjoyed sleeping on the pullout sofa in the “mystery machine.” Jayme arranged another rafting trip, the 4th at the Ponderosa State Park Lake, wonderful fireworks over Lake Cascade, a trip to Tamarack resort- the fabulous resort where she works, and a grand finale-Evan’s 3rd trip to see ‘Cars.’ We also had a train ride and a ride on the lake in a Tamarack pontoon boat, the same boat George W. rode in when he was here. Bobbi survived. We leave today for the Canadian Rockies.

July 1, 2006
The Seabolts are still upright and rolling, but trust us, we have survived the biggest, baddest thunderstorm in the history of Idaho. We left the Walmart parking lot with thunder clouds on the horizon. I’m confident that my insistence for a stop at the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store is what delayed us 5 minutes and saved us. The rain started with a gentle pitty pat, and quickly escalated to hail. We were driving south out of Ontario, Oregon (Idaho border). The ground is rolling hills covered with sagebrush. There had been a fire here a couple of weeks ago. Everytime we went between a hill, the wind came down and hit us broadside. Lee estimates between 50-100 mph gusts, enough to blow us into the next lane, which was vacant, since the rest of Idaho was smart enough to stay home. On the other side of the median strip, Lee saw a tractor trailer flip on its side. The driver survived and was quoted on the TV that night as saying " I saw the back end lift up 3 feet in the mirror and knew I was going over.” The wind coming by the burned area was picking up the soot and ash and a dark brown cloud of water and ash completely surrounded us -we could not see a thing. We kept moving, since we could not see to pull off and we thought forward momentum would keep us from going over. Brad would like to give us a quote for the blog: "Holy Crap, there is no way to say it any nicer.” Lee’s quote: " I don’t get paid enough for this job.” We finally found a small hill that we could park behind on the shoulder and we waited out the rest. The rain was sheets of water, some times brown, sometimes just water. It let up and we started up again, but the side of it followed us for a while. A pickup turned over later that afternoon on our side about an hour south of us, and as we write this we are in what the radio called a 20 mile backup. We solved that problem, as we solve many of our problems- we decided to pull off and eat. We gassed up ( and that is a depressing event!) and had a wonderfully satisfyingly greasy meal at the truck stop. Throughout the ordeal Lee Seabolt was magnificent. Bobbi has renewed his driving contract. Brad has added crisis driving to his Dad's list of attributes worth admiring, 2nd only to his golf long drive.

Today we are heading back up to Boise to do the plane swap- drop off Brad to head home and pick up the rest of the clan to head back to McCall and Jayme's house. We will plug in again at Jayme's but last time we blew the outlet her freezer was plugged into and most of you can finish that thought.
Brad dragged us to a whole different set of adventures. We saw 2 fish hatcheries, an alligator exhibit (seems they eat the dead fish- all part of a strange eco plan), and the birds of prey exhibit. Jayme set us up with a raft trip down the Salmon river with class 3 rapids. Mom sat in the middle and gratefully held the "chicken wire" strap and Lee , Brad, Jayme and Colin paddled their hearts out at each rapid. We all got soaked regularly, which was great, since it was 100 degrees. Brad returns an experienced RVer- he can do the brake buddy hookup and is a tolerable naviguesser. Bobbi has enjoyed the respite from the maps and campground books. Brad got in his day of ‘doing nuthin’ but most of it was done inside in the AC. The campground had the sprinklers on.