Our site at Mallard Creek

West on I-84

Cards before dinner - I won!

Columbia River

Stu at # 14 at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course

More pics from the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course

Idaho to Oregon

Well we made it safely to Oregon yesterday, Thursday, July 9th, and will be here at the Mallard Creek Golf and RV Resort for three weeks. The park is beautiful and very well maintained and right on the golf course. We got in and settled and saw everyone with hugs all around. It was great to see so many old friends - duration of friendship, not their age. They planned a dinner party in the clubhouse with pasta sauce and three different pastas plus salads, garlic bread, and brownies and ice cream for dessert. Before dinner we played "Screw your Neighbor," which is a card game where the lowest card puts a quarter in the pot - everyone begins with three quarters. You get one card and if you don't like it you can change with the person on your left unless they have a king which can't be taken. Well the folks were very nice once again and let me win the game, all 36 quarters. Now we can do laundry.

But I am ahead of myself because we still had some golf in Coeur d'Alene and a wonderful drive. On Tuesday, our last day in Coeur d'Alene, I played golf at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course. The course is very pricey but I did a Golf Digest visit so the price was right. Tippy rode around with me and we had a wonderful afternoon. It was a little chilly, low 70's with a breeze, but I was fine with just a golf shirt but Tippy was chilly just riding in the cart. She had a sweater on and then put my sweatshirt on her legs and later added my rain jacket for additional warmth. Fortunately the golf cart had heated seats so her bottom stayed nice and toasty! The course is simply beautiful and very carefully manicured as you can see from the pictures above. I played pretty decent on most holes and shot an 83 with a triple and two doubles. I also made a "sandy" par on number 14, the floating green, and received a nice certificate to memorialize the event.

On Wednesday we left and drove about 240 to Stanfield, Oregon. We drove west on I-90 through Spokane, WA and then southwest on U.S. 395 which crossed the mighty Columbia River just below Pasco, WA. We stayed at a Pilot RV Park, part of a Pilot Truck Stop at 395 and I-84, and the first one of those we have stayed at and we found it to be very nice. The sites were all paved, very large, and very well maintained. I didn't think to get a picture so you will have to take my word for it.

On Thursday morning we set out for lebanon, Oregon which was a trip of about 279 miles according to Charlie, our GPS. The first 170 miles was pretty much right along the Columbia River and the views were spectacular! Sometimes we were up high at the top of the gorge and sometimes down inside the gorge at almost river level. Just east of Portland, OR we left the river gorge and merged onto I-205 and then the I-5 which took us down to Lebanon. As I said earlier this park is very nice and we look forward to our stay here. I will post some pictures of the course in a few days so in the meantime be safe.

Fireworks Show

More Fireworks

Last set of Pics

Fourth of July Fireworks

We had a front row seat last evening for the fireworks and they were great! The show started about 10:00 and lasted for almost a half hour. I was doing some experimenting with my camera trying different lens opening times to try and catch the explosions. I got a few pretty good and did better as the show went on. At one point I took a break and just enjoyed the show but went back to picture taking before the finally. Hope you enjoy the pics, more in a few days from Oregon. Be safe.