VW Fun

The annual Bus Pilots family reunion was a few weeks ago. It was fun as always, but this year we also attended the Saturday morning event which we'd never gone to before but which turned out to be gobs of fun. This was a type of scavenger hunt where we had directions like--turn left at the 17th street you pass, or turn right at the 5th stop sign. I navigated while Craig drove like he was 19 again (I'm so glad we all made it). We had the kids with us and they "helped" us count streets and I think they got a little bored towards the end, but had a good time overall. Here are a few photos of some sweet vee-dubs.

and Heeeerrrrrreeee she is!

A VW for Everybody...plus one for the cat.

We are getting a ’72 Bug (if everything goes as planned—I have to add this disclaimer in order to try to prevent the gods of whammies and jinxes from interfering)! It doesn't look quite so shiny as the one in the original VW brochure pictured above, but it is the same color.

Craig and I have looked at a LOT of bugs. We have been talking ourselves in and out and in and out of getting a bug for, well, pretty much as long as we’ve been together and we finally found the right one and we are going to do it (if everything goes as planned).

I’m not going to try to describe it because really, only pictures can do justice, but I just wanted to get my excitement out to anyone who cares! She is currently owned by a really cool guy we met who is a VW enthusiast and quite obviously takes pride of ownership in his vehicles. He’s done a lot of work to this little girl and she is fantastic. We should (if all goes as planned) have her on Wednesday and we should also be rid of Clearwire by then so I will be able to upload some photos!

We will then have a ’64, ’72, and ’81 VW. We are kind of excited to have three decades of VW’s at our house. It is kind of like a museum—we should start charging admission (if all goes as planned).

Panic Ensues

Craig and I went camping at Kirkham Hot Springs on Friday. We’ve gone there several times and it is different every time. The pools vary a little in size, depth and temperature with regularity, but it is always enjoyable. This time, however, was altogether shocking. We started the little hike down to the springs. I was paying close attention to my footing and little attention to my surroundings when suddenly Craig said “they’re gone!”

For those of you who have never been to Kirkham, there are two tiers of pools and the lower tier (normally) borders the Payette River. Currently, the river is running “120% full” (whatever that means…it wasn’t flooding, so how is it more than full?) and the lower tier was quite literally gone. It was so bizarre—like a building being torn down overnight. There were two pools partially remaining in the upper tier so we took full advantage of those; and Craig tried to make a dam to block the river water.
(FYI—the little hike at Kirkham is fun if you are ever there and are tired of swimming/don’t want to swim/ there are no hot springs in which to swim.)

The next morning, we went to Bonneville Hot Springs because 1) Craig has been wanting to for quite some time and 2) we thought maybe they might be more separated from the river. We found them to be a little disappointing. People have used several tarps over time to try to keep the pools warm and at this point it looks really trashy. Also, the river has taken over this hot spring as well.

We also visited Pine Flats Hot Springs. These pools had a huge nerd filter on them because normally you can walk on the bank of the river to get to the pools. As you’ve probably guessed by now, the river was really high here as well leaving no bank. We “billy goated” it as best we could to get a good view of where the main pool normally is. Nothing but river.

Also, every time we drive the road to Lowman, I try to find Staircase rapids. I have consistently missed them so we made a point of finding them this time. We found them, and it is my non-professional opinion that if you want to run Staircase, but are a little chicken, this is the time to do it. It was really quite flat and nothing like the videos I found on You Tube yesterday.

Long story short—hot springs campsite camping is still great right now…just don’t expect much from the actual hot springs.

Camping with kids

Last night we took Craig’s kids camping for the first time. We went to Grime’s Creek which is near Idaho City. We had a fantastic time doing several traditional, cheesy camping activities. We threw rocks in the river, made a smoky pine needle fire, roasted marshmallows…and dropped them in the dirt, ate smores, the boys peed in the river, went for a hike, and slept semi well and semi coldly in the beautiful, quiet, peaceful wilderness. It was really fun and about 100 times more pleasant than I thought camping with the kids would be. So fun, in fact, that I’d call the weekend nearly perfect even when taking today’s emergency room trip and stitches into consideration.

Last night we took Craig’s kids camping for the first time. We went to Grime’s Creek which is near Idaho City. We had a fantastic time doing several traditional, cheesy camping activities. We threw rocks in the river, made a smoky pine needle fire, roasted marshmallows…and dropped them in the dirt, ate smores, the boys peed in the river, went for a hike, and slept semi well and semi coldly in the beautiful, quiet, peaceful wilderness. It was really fun and about 100 times more pleasant than I thought camping with the kids would be. So fun, in fact, that I’d call the weekend nearly perfect even when taking today’s emergency room trip and stitches into consideration.

Road Trip!

Sometime last year in the middle of Craig's toughest semester, we decided to plan a vacation that'd we'd take after his graduation--partially as motivation to get him through the tough moments. Several hot tub sessions, spreadsheets and weeks later, we decided that it would be really fun to take a road trip in Penny.

We planned out this fabulous trip that would take us 2500 miles from Boise, through Utah to the Grand Canyon, to LA, Las Vegas and back to Boise.

Craig spent three nights putting in a subwoofer, after all, you can't spend 49 hours in a car without mind blowing tunes. We packed everything snuggly into Penny's cabinets and drawers which was so exciting since we'd never before fully utilized her built-in storage space. Craig and were so happy with our impecible preparation. Our campsites were reserved, our daily routes were mapped and printed, our neighbor was ready to take care of our garbage, mail, house and cat, and we were stoked to get going.

We headed out on our potentially awesome (albeit ambitious) road trip. Craig--who is always the pilot--was ready for a good 8 hour stretch of driving. We got 5 miles out of town and realized that, while we'd considered the fact that we'd have to take it easy so that Penny wouldn't overheat, we didn't realize just how much hotter Penny would run in the summer (we bought her in October). We got several miles out of town and Penny's engine temperature had reached 245 (warranty is void at 250) so we pulled over into a rest stop to consider our options. We were both upset and frustrated. We pulled the engine cover off to let Penny's engine cool down and amid our frustration, Craig said--wait--just how many miles did we make it? We checked the odometer and discovered that we had made it a whopping 15.6 miles of our grand road trip. At this point, the irony was too much and we both burst out laughing.

To make a long story short, we decided that if we had to make the trip in 15 mile intervals, stopping one hour between each leg to cool down, it would take us approximately 3 weeks to get to SLC (okay, we didn't really do the math). We decided instead to fly to LA and then drive to Las Vegas. Our trip turned out fabulously, and while it was much less secluded and grass-root-esque than our originally scheduled trip, and we were, for a while ready to give Penny away to the highest...or lowest...or really ANY bidder, after talking to our mechanic and getting some new tips, we have renewed faith in her and we are ready to take another trip up to Kirkham next week.

Somewhere in the Lake Mead Recreation Area

Craig's improv version of a road trip...airport video games.

At the Las Vegas temple.

A mine we hiked to in Nevada.