July 25th - We take the kiddies to the park

The area we live in is called Flinn Springs. Named for William Flinn who bought the land in the 1880s.  Originally from Kentucky, William and his wife are buried in a small family cemetery in the area.  Flinn Springs is nestled in a small valley east of El Cajon and south of Lakeside, Ca.  Olde highway 80 is the main road through the valley.  There is a small county park here, and we spent some time this afternoon there with the kiddies.

They played on the jungle gym, and the swings, and also played on some large rocks until I took them one at a time and put the in the crook of a big tree for pictures.  It was warm, but they had fun.  Kids don't care.

Evie.  Yeah, they are all hams.

Kalliope

Corbin

Evie, I'm just so cute, right?

January 6, 2017 - In-Ko-Park Road

On a trip to San Diego, we stopped at the Desert View Tower.  We had the cat in the truck and had to leave the truck running, so we didn't have a lot of time.  We checked it out, asked some questions and took a few pictures.  we'll be returning to get a fuller look, later.

There had been an old road that ran through the mountains to the valley.  When they put in a modern road, it cut across the old road.  Bert Vaughn got the credit for the design of the new road and he built the desert tower as a monument to the workers who built the road.

You take the exit for In-Ko-Pah park road, which comes up pretty suddenly on the winding mountain roads.  Then a drive up a long road to the park area.  We passed by a place with a house, several RVs, and lots of junk. (Did I just see a flying saucer?)  The tower park has great views of the surrounding lands.  Admission is only $6.50, but as stated, no time. There are some "caves".  The attendant, said it's really mostly a walk through rocks.  In there, a number of early native wall drawings can be seen.  I'm sure the view from the actual tower is great.  We took pictures from the "lobby" and found out that the guy down the road is a bit of a hoarder.  Apparently, he filled his house with collectables, bought an RV, filled it, bought another, filled it. and on and on.  Interesting.

A visitor

Oh, it was a flying saucer!!

September 13- 16. Idaho Falls.

The trip from Bismarck through Montana and into Idaho, thanks to a bad tire took us two days.  After getting a replacement tire in Butte and having a great Montana steak dinner, we stayed the night and hit it early.  It was nice to get out of Montana without further incident.  We were cruising down the road with few worries, when the truck just stopped working.  A positive note was the tow driver had an attachment for his rig that allowed him to both load our truck and pull our camper.  We got to an AAA approved shop and they luckily had a place where we could put the camper and stay in it, complete with water and at least 110V power.

The truck had a major problem and was going to be costly and take time.  Time we had.  We were planning on making a stop in Utah at Zion National Park, so by deleting that from our plans, we had time. The wonderful people at the shop provided us with a couple of rides and even a loaner car once.

We explored the little town of Idaho Falls.  Originally called Eagle Rock, there is a basically man constructed river fall system that provides power for the town.  The downtown area has a lot of personality and is going through a revitalization project.  This part of the trip was a drag for the costs, but once again, we got to explore something we would usually drive by and had our trip enhanced.

So, after a few days, we got onto the road again.

Cruisin'

Not Cruisin'

Snow Eagle Brewing. Trendy, but not really great.

The Falls

Local Mormon Temple in the background.

The surrounding park boasts many interesting chairs and benches.

Topiary

Another

Bench

Goose chairs

Caboose converted to a taco shop.

The shop had a bunch of vintage autos.

Amazing sculpture showing the town's original namesake, Eagle Rock

Apparently, they will let the water flow freeze before turning it off in the winter.  I hear it's beautiful.

Idaho Brewing Company.  Great people here.