Missoula, Montana

We hurried through the Bitteroot valley to Missoula, so we could spend a couple of days with my sister Jill, her husband Bruce, Nate and Melissa and Haven. They are in the process of moving, so our time was limited with them, but we had a very nice visit. We loved Missoula. We plan to go back through there on our return trip through Montana. Jill and Bruce might even meet us at Glacier Park when we go there. We headed to Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday, May 6. We walked around the City Center a bit, but decided to move on. It is a beautiful place, but it was 65 degrees and partly cloudy, so we didn't ride bikes. Today, May 7, we are headed toward Seattle, but will take a couple of days to get there. We plan to spend the night in Ellensburg, Washington.

Salmon, Idaho

We got to Salmon, Idaho today. The weather is beautiful: 58 degrees and sunny. You have to realize that we have been dealing with temps in the 30's and 40's. We are high up on a hill, at Elks Club #1620. This is the first time we have been able to stay at an Elks Club on our trip. We had wanted to fish for trout in the Salmon River, but the water is high and flowing fast, and it is not good fishing this early in the year, so we will pass on fishing. We are going to ride our bikes tomorrow if the weather stays nice. Then we will go to church here in Salmon, Sunday, leave in the afternoon and head for Missoula. My sister and her husband live in Missoula, as well as Nate, Melissa and Haven. We will stay there for a couple of days before heading to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Family Connections in Shelley, Idaho

Since we were staying in Idaho Falls to warm up, we decided to go to the library in Shelley to see if we could find the address where I had visited my grandfather when I was three. I talked to my mom and my brother and we pieced together some information. Steven, my nephew, had the date of Gustav Anderson's death, so the library gave me the microfilm for the Shelley Pioneer Newspaper June 3, 1954. I found two articles, but this library had no way to duplicate the microfilm. I tried taking a digital picture, but that didn't turn out that great. Denny suggested we go to the Shelley Pioneer, which we did. They easily made copies of the two articles we found. Then they realized they knew the family, and relatives of ours lived right down the road from the newspaper office. So she gave us the address of a second cousin (my father's first cousin, Mark Anderson). We went to his home, and we had a delightful visit. As it turns out, the home I had visited when I was three was only two doors down. Also, right across the street was the family homestead of my great grandparents who immigrated from Sweden, Gustav A and Maria Anderson. We made a great connection, as Mark is really interested in geneology, and is going to send me pictures, and his version of the family tree which he has worked on.

Idaho Falls, Idaho

We visited my dad's birthplace today (Shelley, Idaho). It was really cold, so we didn't really try to find the house where he lived. We went on to our favorite campground, Walmart (this one in Idaho Springs). We took the historic tour and saw these beautiful Canadian geese and their goslings. When we returned to our fifth wheel, it began to snow. The forecast for tonight is 27 degrees. We think we will stay put here until it warms up, or at least until we can feel assured the roads won't be icy.

So Great To See Old Friends!

Today we woke up to ice on the ground and fence right behind where we were staying in Torrey, Utah. Later, we went to a little Baptist Church in the town . There were four adults and two children! There were three visitors: Denny and me, and another man......from Tucson! We thought that was pretty amazing. We had a lot of admiration for a man who ministers in this small town to this small congregation. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
We left there and headed for Helper, Utah, where Kent and Karen Templeton live. We had not seen them in 20 years. Kent and Denny used to take long bike rides when Ken and Karen lived in Tucson. We were so delighted to see them. What a surprise it was to find that Karen is a sculptor, and was commissioned to do the memorial for the miners who were killed last year in Utah. It is a huge undertaking, and we were thrilled to see the project in progress. What a marvelous opportunity to be involved in such a matter dear to the hearts of this coal mining country.

Bryce Canyon National Park

We were in Bryce Canyon National Park for two days. It is so absolutely gorgeous. We were in a campground at 8000 feet, and it was really cold.... Fridday we headed out to just explore (in the truck) a little before it got dark. We ended up taking a hike 550 feet into the canyon. We realized we were really unprepared. I had my cute little black sketchers on, and we had no water. We started getting worried about being lost, and getting out before dark. Just then we ran into some guys, and they told us how to get back up........... It wasn't that far, just 550 feet back up! We went to all of the viewpoints today, but did not take any hikes. It is beautiful, but there is snow on the ground, and it was too cold for us!

Glen Canyon and Zion National Parks

We left home on April 21 in the afternoon. We spent the next two days exploring the area around Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Zion National Park. We plan to stay in Zion for two more days then head to Bryce National Park.