We pulled out of Sundown RV Park in Grangeville yesterday. I looked it over and came up with an exit plan. Although we were in a pull-through site, pulling forward to exit had some complications – namely a row of trees across the narrow roadway and a post at the right side of the site at the edge of the road. I decided to reverse out of the site – all l I had to do was get the trailer to turn about 45 degrees. All went as planned and we were out of there in one shot.

We left town heading south on US95. We climbed a bit – we were at an elevation of about 3,440 feet above sea level in Grangeville. Our route took us through the town of Riggins, which is interesting. Riggins has a number of whitewater rafting outfits and jet boat rides to run down the Snake River to Hell’s Canyon. What I really found interesting was the physical size of the town. The sign at the town limits says the population is 419. But almost all of the dwellings are on the main street through town – the river is on one side and a high bluff limits the other side. So, the town of 419 seems to go on for a long way.

Coming out of town, we saw a long line of vehicles heading north into town. I told Donna I had a bad feeling of a road closure or single lane ahead. We were cruising along well below the speed limit due to a slow motorhome about four cars ahead of us. In my mirrors, I saw an empty log truck rapidly gaining on us. He caught up with us just as we saw road work and lower speed limit signs. The speed limit dropped from 65mph to 45mph then 25mph before we were stopped completely.

We saw a guy standing outside his truck smoking a cigarette and figured we would be stopped for a while. I shut off the engine. There wasn’t any traffic moving in either direction. I picked up the CB radio mic and asked if anyone was on channel 19. A trucker answered immediately. I asked if he had any idea how long the delay would be. He said it would be 20 minutes. I thanked him for the info, then he said the delay was 90 minutes a week ago!

When we started moving, traffic was going in both directions through a detour around a rock slide. This morning, I read about it – the rock slide happened on July 3rd and they’re still dealing with it. Unstable slopes had US95 closed for a while and the delays are necessary as they move rocks and earth that may come crashing down the slope.

After we drove through the detour and past the stacked traffic on the other side of the road, I figured the log truck driver would be impatient and want to get by the slow caravan created by the motorhome and another RV ahead of us with a few cars in between all going about 50-55 mph. I thought maybe the log truck driver was the guy that told us of the delay time as he probably drove this road almost daily.

I could see the oncoming lane was clear on a long straight stretch so I picked up the CB mic and said “Hey, log truck, if you make your move now, I’ll slow down and let you get by.” I didn’t have to tell him twice, he immediately pulled out and overtook us. But that just got him ahead of us, he was still trapped behind a few cars and two slow moving RVs. I lived in western Washington for 15 years and I’ve had plenty of experience with log truck drivers. I know they tend to be impatient and aggressive. I was hoping the lead motorhome would take a clue and turn out, but he just plodded along. When we hit another long straight section, the log truck went for it. He passed the cars and two RVs all at once – it looked a bit scary, but he got it done.

At New Meadow, we turned away from US95 and took ID55. This brought us to McCall at Payette Lake. We continued south another 14 miles or so to the town of Donnelly. Donna had found information on a city run campground an the edge of town right on the water at Lake Fork – an offshoot of Lake Cascade. It is a dry camping area with 15 marked sites that have picnic tables and fire rings. We pulled in and walked around to check it out.

The dirt roads to the north end have low hanging tree branches and looked to be very narrow for our size. There’s another entrance to the south of the main area with two sites down by the beach area, but a travel trailer was down there with a noisy generator running. We decided on site 11 and pulled in with our windshield facing the lake. It’s a nice view. Only two of the 15 sites were occupied and we feel like we have the place to ourselves.

The site is long enough to fit our coach and trailer. When we dry camp, there isn’t much to set up. I hit the HWH automatic leveler and put the slides out. Unload Midget-San and we’re set.

When we were in Grangeville, there were two grocery stores in town. Donna bought a rib-eye steak at Cloninger’s Grocery and told me they had a good selection of meat. Later she saw a sign advertising babyback ribs for $1.99/pound.

I grilled the steak and Donna served it with baked potato, green beans and corn from the farmers’ market. The corn was something called 90-day corn and was the second crop of the season. It was a real disappointment as it was starchy and neither of us finished a cob. The steak was excellent though.

We went back to Cloninger’s and I looked the meat over. We found that many small town grocers have their own butchers and they have great cuts of meat. The ribs looked good but they were frozen rock hard. I bought a rack and also picked up a London broil that was trimmed perfectly.

When I prepped the ribs, I found the membrane on the bone side had already been removed and the ribs had almost all of the fat trimmed. It made for an easy prep. I put the ribs on the Traeger Sunday afternoon and did my usual method. We had the ribs for dinner but something was wrong. I have my Memphis style rib routine down and they always come out tender, juicy and flavorful. Not this time. Something was off with these ribs, the meat seemed stringy and chewy, not all tender. Bummer.

I couldn’t figure out what went wrong and chalked it up to a bad cut of meat. Maybe it was too lean? I came up with an idea – Donna cut the rest of the rib meat from the bones and made a vegetable soup and added the rib meat to it. Now that worked. We had the soup for dinner last night and it was great.

I made a batch of beef jerky from the London broil and really outdid myself. I think this is the best I’ve made so far and I’d put it up against any jerky you can find.

A cold front swept over most of the country on Sunday night and Monday. Yesterday, I heard many conversations on ham radio about the abrupt temperature swing. Areas of the Rocky Mountain states went from near record heat to snowfall overnight. When we left Grangeville, it was only about 60 degrees. Last night the temperature here at Donnelly cooled quickly once the sun set over the mountains to the west. We went outside last night and the lack of light pollution here made the stars in night skies unreal. We could see the Milky Way and hundreds of stars we don’t usually see.

This morning, it was 49 degrees in the coach and I had to run the heat pumps with the generator. We’re at an elevation of about 4,900 feet above sea level and we expect it to get warmer over the next couple of days. We’ll move on to Mountain Home, Idaho on Friday.

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