We arrive at the Snake River RV Park in Idaho Falls on June 29th. It’s a nice, well kept campground - one of those where neighbors face each other and we have more yard room. Luckily we also had cool neighbors the nights we were there, otherwise I can totally see how it would have sucked. June 30th, Sunday morning, we went to breakfast at our friend’s house. Best biscuits and gravy we have ever had!!! We had a great time meeting his beautiful wife (who does awesome bag reviews on her YouTube Channel, Glo Mommy), and kids and seeing his super cool woodworking @gnarlywoodworks That afternoon they came over to the Glamper for some dinner and we hung out until the kids had melt downs (ok, maybe we corralled the kids and let them have melt downs while we hung out). It was so great seeing them!
The next morning we bid Adieu to Idaho Falls after the all-you-can-eat pancakes at the RV Park #poundwinning. Our drive to Boise was uneventful (thank heavens) and I scooted into an evening Zumba class just in time to shake my booty. It's been difficult to stay active the last month so I'll take anything I can get! The Boise Riverside RV Park was conveniently located...just off the road close to stores but no road noise. It was also on the Boise River Greenbelt but we didn't know what that was until the next day - July 2nd - when our friends took us on a bike ride next to the river. Well, that was certainly a surprise, Boise is absolutely lovely! They have all sorts of spots to stop off like parks and recreation areas...including a wine bar, which we did a tasting at before heading back. That evening we chilled at their place and ate some delicious steak, salad and potatoes. We drove back to the Glamper in the Jeep with no doors, singing our butts off. Again, a great meet up with friends!
July 3rd, Wednesday, we take off heading to West Glacier, MT for a week on our own. The drive through Idaho was spectacular. This was one of the prettiest drives yet, curling along side the flowing rivers, and winding through the towering trees. I drove some of the way and allowed #thedrivingartist to do his magic for most of it. That evening we rolled into Missoula, MT. Missoula is a an adorable old town intermingled with a hipster, modern art vibe. Biga Pizza was our choice and we nailed it! Some damn fine pizza, delicious salads and of course....vino! We highly recommend it if you find yourself in Western Montana one day. That night we boondocked at a truck stop before pressing on to West Glacier.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! Well, it was supposed to be for us but I wasn't having it. Now that its passed, it's much easier to write about. Like I've mentioned in some previous blog posts, I have suffered from depression in the past and recently weaned off anti-depressant medication a few months ago. However, after the episode I had on the 4th of July, I believe that the depression will always be a part of me and will linger around, popping up full force once in a while. Manic-depressive was a suggested diagnosis. Sound nuts? Well, it feels nuts to go through it. Let me try to take you there: You wake up feeling great, but then an event happens, a gesture is made, a few words are said...could be anything. We will call it a trigger (and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that was). So you get triggered and anger steams up. It fills you from the core, so much so that you emit it all around you through your extremities. At that point your screwed, buckle-up, you are going for a ride. You fume, you blame, you cry, you punch (hopefully pillows), you wallow, you feel sorry for yourself, you bite (again, hopefully a pillow), you scream, you cry some more and all the while wondering why you feel like you don't deserve to live, are not good enough, are fat, ugly, mean, and spoiled. Don't forget to add a good dose of guilt...you feel guilty for feeling this way because others may have it so much worse, you feel guilty for treating the people you love like shit, you feel guilty for hurting yourself and for calling yourself nasty names. Then you cry some more. This has gone on and off for days before, weeks even. Eventually, you run out of tears. This time (luckily for me), it lasted just that one day. After the tears come the emptiness, the void, the feeling that you don't care about anything. Your house could blow up and you wouldn't blink twice. I call it the Blahness Stage. You feel blah, nothing really matters and you don't feel anything good or bad....just blah. The Blahness Stage usually is intermingled with all of the above except the anger and violence - those came only on occasion with a trigger, at least for me, and at least most of the times I have been in that dark, scary, sad, lonely place. Well, that blah feeling can last for years! The other thing that happens while you go through these turbulent emotions and thoughts is you learn to hide how you feel from society. Friends, family, lovers, children...no one knows unless you tell them. No one can help unless you ask for it. Sometimes, that is the hardest part...telling another living being that you don't want to live anymore. Perhaps that's harder than just not living...and I'm still here because I told someone and got some help. Individual therapy, couples therapy, group therapy...work books, self-help books, journal books...doctors, friends, family. Asking for help is hard as hell for some of us, but it's better to do it than to terminate - at least if you live another day you have another chance of getting better and actually having some fun...eventually. I remember what one therapist told me: You get out of it what you put in it. You have to do the work, no one else will do it for you. Also, it’s good to have a therapy buddy, someone you can call to help calm down and bring you back to reality. Ok, so now you have an idea where I went in my head on the 4th and I followed it up with a very blah day on the 5th and some of the 6th. I did enjoy a lovely canoe ride with Ted and Azlan on the evening of the 5th, preceded by some delicious Huckleberry ice cream. I didn't know Huckleberry was even a fruit until now. The morning of the 6th started with Ted getting creative. He made pancakes in the shape of letters and spelled Azlan's name - 10 points for dad!!! We had a chill day, checked out the Horseshoe Dam and enjoyed another beautiful sunset on Lake Five. July 7th was a bit more special. On this day, 12 years ago, we had our wedding ceremony in Miami. That's right, 07-07-07. We usually do something fun or very adventurous like running with the bulls in Spain, or in this case, white water rafting in Montana. It was pretty epic! We went through Wild River Adventures and would totally go back to the same company. Category II and III rapids, some slow chilling pools of flowing water, and lots of full body splashes made for a darn good time! Azlan enjoyed it, despite the cold water, but he still requested that the next time we go white water rafting we get him a baby sitter in Hawaii. After all that effort paddling, we stopped at the Wandering Gringo Cafe for the largest burrito I have ever seen. We made 2 meals of it, it was easily 5-8 lbs. Sunday ended with some more Huckleberry ice cream and the prettiest sunset yet.
On Monday morning, after the Honey Pumper came, we went into Glacier National Park. What is a Honey Pumper, you ask? Well, we were not able to get a full hook up on Lake Five, we only had electric and water. That means that the black tank needs to get emptied somehow. So, instead of closing up the Glamper and going to a dump station to do the deed, we had the Honey Pumper come to us. Honey Pumper is just the nice way of saying Poop Pumper. Back to Glacier, HOLY MOLY!!! Grand Teton just lost first place on our Favorite National Park list. Glacier National Park is actually Waterton-Glacier, America's first International Peace Park (1932), shared with Canada. We took the Going-to-the-Sun Road all the way to Rising Sun, stopping along the way to admire and stand in awe of some pretty miraculous natural scenery. At Logan Pass, we crossed the continental divide, saw a hoary marmot, a mountain goat and some Columbian Ground Squirrels. The landscape is a merging of mountain and valley, divided only by the crystal clear rushing water...be it vertically down the mountains or horizontally through the brush and rocks. This is the prettiest drive we have ever been on globally, second only to the one we just did in Idaho! During our drive back from Rising Sun, we also encountered a young elk - which crossed the road in front of us and hung out with us for a bit - and a mama bear with a cub...from a much greater distance than the elk. It feels humbling to witness nature so up close and personal. We also stopped off for me and Azlan to sketch. That's my favorite part of these stops at the parks. When I sketch, I really look at the landscape, as a whole but also in a lot of details. I memorize the edge pattern of the mountains against the pale sky, I see the curves and angles of tree branches, noting the subtle color changes and the general color fields. My appreciation for being here on Earth grows exponentially and it's like I'm truly at peace for a moment. Sketching is one of my healthier habits and I'm glad I'm finally using it!
That night, we went to bed pretty satisfied!
July 9th, Tuesday, was a chill day hanging out by the lake and grilling hobos. On Wednesday we moved out to Libby, MT as we had a recommendation from some gents on the rafting adventure to check out Kootenai Falls and their swinging bridge. We stopped at a gas station for a boondocking night and took the Jeep closer to the falls trailhead. It was a lovely little hike out to the bridge and the falls. The bridge is pretty cool (if you are scared of heights, forget it) and you can totally see why you should NOT go swimming in this river. It's very potent, like a category VI...aka not passable. The falls themselves are pretty but I still prefer Hidden Falls off Jenny Lake in Grand Teton or one of many in Glacier National Park.
Thursday we finished the drive to Spokane, WA where we pulled into our FH site with everything we need at the Spokane KOA Journey. We wrote off the rest of the day in the hammock, bathing in the warm weather. Friday, yesterday, was spent meal planning, going to the store and stocking up on food, linking up with one of Ted's Army buddies, and jumping in a body of water that did not feel like ice needles poking your skin! We also had some homemade pizzas. I threw some lettuce on top of mine for a pizza salad...super healthy!!!
That sums up the first part of July, let's see what happens as we move to Seattle and go to Alaska!
Love,
Daisa, Ted and Azlan
PS: If you are wondering why I hyphenated the title of this blog, I'll tell you. During my college days, I really liked to party and flirt with young men. I also related to the song Ho by Ludacris...I didn't sleep around too much, but enough to probably shock some people. Any ways, instead of "You's-a-Ho", it's "I-da-ho" (insert my cackling laugh here). Ask some of my college girl friends what I was like circa 1999-2003, I am certain they will tell you very enthusiastically. As for Mon-tana...well, mon tana needs some work, I need to get some more sun. That's my bad joke for the day, peace out!