Road Tripping in the Four Wheel Camper-West to Midwest USA and Canada

Our Memorial Day campsite along Coeur d' Alene lakeshore  We're upscaling it with water
 and electricity and a million dollar view.

We're at the end of day two of a month-long road trip with our sturdy and efficient little friend, the Four Wheel Camper. We've taken numerous journeys with the camper, and I sometimes post afterwards. But what I have wanted to do is  an on-the-road  travelogue.

This is challenging, one, because we're often without wifi or cell phone service, and two, because I am lazy and undisciplined, a  person who is compelled to write but spends more time thinking about it than doing it.

And then there's the can't-make-things-work-photo-downloading issue that I'm gnashing my teeth over exactly now, as we're parked 10 feet from the shore of beautiful Coeur d Alene Lake in Harrison, Idaho, and rain is pounding the metal roof and we are discussing how to reach our rain gear in the back of the pick-up cab without getting wet, so that we can head over to a nearby restaurant/bar where they advertise $2 Jello shots and Jager Bombs, which we do not intend to order, but are nonetheless amused to see being prominently advertised. (The photo issue is solved but I"m leaving this paragraph in as it demonstrates the  frustration of computer problems and bursts of bad weather, especially at the same time, that drove me write a sentence of almost 100 words.) 

Whew. The rain has stopped. The light on the water is dramatic. I've downloaded one photo and am confident that more will appear. We're ready to see what the restaurant has to offer other than Jello shots and Jager bombs. (The burgers were authentic, smoky and good!)

En route to where are—Harrison, Idaho, which is an access point for the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes—we had a couple of pleasant surprises. One was the proliferation of wind turbines all over the place in northeastern Oregon.

As we drove over curvy undulating country roads, hundreds and hundreds of giant turbines rose from fields of winter wheat. Often the tips of turbines would peek foot by foot (blades are about 50 feet long) from behind hills as we wound through gullies and over hillocks.

Then was the wonderful Cottonwood Canyon State Park, in its second season. We scored the last campsite on Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. Lucky us. The primitive camps - meaning we'd have to survive without electrical, water, or sewage hookups, cost $10 each. The campground is along the John Day River, which was swollen with brown water from recent  rains. A good thing to see while so much of the West is drought stricken.

Entrance to this Oregon State Park includes a museum and interpretive center.

Pinnacle Peaks trail along the John Day River out of Oregon's Cottonwood Canyon State Park in north central Oregon. If you go, bring a mountain bike to navigate the trails. Our road bikes? Not.

The John Day River was muscular, swirling with brown water on its way to the Columbia River.

That was yesterday. Our destination today was Harrison, Idaho, where we're poised to tackle a two-day bike ride up the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes tomorrow morning. Fifty miles up, 50 miles back. But we'll stay in a hotel in Wallace, Idaho, tomorrow night so we have time to gather energy for the return trip. Fifty miles isn't really that much, but neither one of us is in great bike shape. But hell. We have all day to get there. We have snacks. We have t i m e.

This is where we'll start tomorrow. Can't wait!