Terroir Travel

There’s this website called “find your place”, and it always told me I should live in Couer D’Alene, ID. This was the opportunity to find out why.

Brent’s 2nd cousin, on Mom’s side, Rusty is a former ranger, who retired, then started a guide business. Now he’s more low key, but busy with his dogs, cats, horses, mules, and one randy llama named Moses.

Again, expectation vs. reality comes into play here. We didn’t really expect much- a place to stay on the way to Portland. What we found was so much better. A genial host, friendly critters, peaceful setting and a nice ride into the sawtooths.

See this ear below? I rode a mule! And to my surprise, he was one of the most thoughtful steeds I’ve ridden. Steered clear of trees (instead of some horses that try to swipe you off). His name is Mr. T. He’s a good boy. 

Not Mississippi, but Wyoming, where I lived for 2+ years in another era. Where snapping my ACL gave me an inroads into learning more about myself and my Dad. I was expecting so much to have changed, and I was right. What surprised me was how much was the same.

Of course, the important thing here is the view, and what a beautiful sight. There are many beautiful professional shots of these mountains, but even a shot from the phone is still good.

Many moons ago, I lived in Jackson Hole for a little over 2 years. I had an awesome apartment above a garage, and there was a 2 week stint one summer where my landlords had family coming in, so I camped for that time. This knowledge of this semi-secret excellent site came in handy when we needed a place to pitch the tent. 

  
What a view after a short morning hike looking down into the valley.

Loaded up and heading west. Had to stop for some vittles at Johnson’s Corner.

 
We made it to Dubois, WY, which has a free public park for camping in town. We had the back of the car set for sleeping with the hatch open, so we were good. 

Had a surprisingly good meal here:   

I was told that my dad had an RV outside of Atlanta in storage- perfect! We’d sold our house, and were not sure where we wanted to settle, so, why not give driving a house around a try?

The first thing we did was pick it up, and drive to my friend Yuri’s house. Nt wNting to run the generator all night, we ran the fan to vent. It was mid-June, so it was pretty warm. Unfortunately, this killed all the batteries. What we don’t know about RVs is a LOT. But Lawson gave us a jump, and drove down to the farm (see previous post).

Here’s the beast on a good day:

More about our cross-country motor home extravaganza later.

One of my favorite places in the world

I love cooking in this kitchen

Days away from US: 198
Countries: 10
Cities/towns: 51
Hotels/guesthouses/apartments: 54
Trains: 13
Buses: 15
Planes: 5
Boats: 4
Taxis, songthews, vans: 11
Rental cars: 2
Cases of bedbugs: 1
Pairs of shoes trashed: 2
New Facebook friends met along the way: 15
Photos: about 3,000
Memories: thousands.

What an incredible city. I usually prefer the feel of a small town, because cities are cities are cities. Not Roma. Around every turn another spectacular church, marble pathway, bridge.

We had an apartment one block north of the Piazza Navona, so a perfect location for exploring the city on foot. We stayed in Rome longer than any other place in Italy (5days), and barely scratched he surface of this constantly surprising city.
The blue dot is our apartment location.

How surprising to just stumble across the Forum while out wandering aimlessly the first day.