March 30-April 1, 2011 Lowman, ID at Kirkum Hot Springs, Kittitas, WA and then Home at last!!

Since it has been such a strenuous and stressful trip we decided we’d better visit one last Hot Springs for a proper soak before immersing ourselves in our “real” life…haha! It just so happens that Idaho has the largest concentration of Hot Springs than any other state and we have to drive through it on our way home…so why not?? We tracked down some natural hot springs outside of Lowman, ID. It was 20 miles out of our way…not too bad. We drove thru a Wildlife Scenic Byway to get there. There were steep, granite rocky hillsides with the South Fork of the Payette River raging wildly in the valley floor. We saw lots of Elk, deer, a huge golden eagle, a marmot, and some other birds…cool. We got to the campground and could see the steam rising from loads of vents on the hillside across from our campsite. Sonia walked over to check out the likelihood of having the springs to ourselves…looking good. The only other car was loading up and heading out…good timing!

We gathered up a few things and excitedly walked down the trail to the 2 hot springs pools just above the river. There was some garbage left behind—don’t people realize that Hot Springs are sacred and they should be properly cared for??? Ignorant people. It could’ve been so much worse—its spring break and is a great party place, therefore could have been really thrashed. We did our part and picked up the diapers (grosse), bottlecaps and paper trash when we left. The pools were hot and lovely. Cascading waterfalls of steaming hot water flowing down and collecting in a few pools. .. what’s not to love about hot springs? These HS are a result of active fault zones. The friction among the shifting rocks heat up the water as it rises to the surface. These HS weren’t smelly either like some mineral springs. Many people have commercialized the hot springs here and make it into a pool or spa setting rather than simply soaking in collecting pools out in the great outdoors. We prefer the great outdoors. We soaked for about 30-40 minutes before we turned into raisins and headed back to camp. We tried to dunk into the very cold river to seal in the heat (like a girl in Gila told us) before getting dressed but it was just too cold and downright painful.

Back at camp, we did something we have not done yet on this trip. Relaxed and read in the van with a cup of tea while there’s daylight!! It was grey, rainy and cool outside—no need to be out in that. This was kind cute…some high school kids were camping a few spots away and they came over to ask for help getting their fire started. Jason, being the boy scout he is, went over to help. They had huge chunks of wet firewood, no axe/hatchet and minimal skills/experience camping. Jason shaved off pieces of wood and the fire was slowly catching on…he left them with our knife to keep at it…About a half an hour later, they returned our knife after giving up. Sonia offered to help them out, but they said it was “hopeless”. We let them know if they needed anything to come ask…that’s all we can do.

We sat back and enjoyed our books until dark, then ate dinner and went to bed reading more. Ahhhh….a great day again.

First thing Thursday morning we soaked in the pool right near camp (not down by the river) about 30 ft away! It doesn’t get much more convenient then that. We soaked in the 115 degree water for a short while, then ate breakfast, loaded up and headed for home.
We drove a lot of miles today--almost 450!! Poor Loafy and Poor Us…we were excited to get home now that we were “so close” in relative terms, of course. We pulled into Palouse Falls State Park in Eastern Washington. The falls were a hot chocolate color and downright raging! Pretty cool. What a cute little campground and park…it’d be perfect place to spend our last night but we were heading to Kittitas to Matt and Kate’s for our last night--fellow Westy owners and good friends. Matt and Kate were actually at our house the night before we left for the Loaf Love Tour in January, so they are like bookends for the Tour. Jason did all the driving today to…Sonia did offer several times, but he kept on going. It was soooo frickin’ windy in the Columbia River Gorge, as usual. We were getting tossed around in that wind…scary. Sonia thought to herself, “if we crash 300 miles from home….” But we made it safely to Matt and Kate’s by 815pm that night. So happy to be out of the van!!

We had a few beers, ate pizza and swapped stories. Their van is currently not operational but Matt is working on it so we can take some trips this summer together. We have lots of tips and tricks to share with Westy folks.
April 1, 2011, we left after breakfast--anxious to pick up DeWayne from Tammi. We know she and her daughter, Taylor, will be sad to part with Waynee…but we are soooo excited to have the family back together again. We made it over Blewett Pass just fine. Watched the raging Swuak and Peshastin Creek flowing like mad from all the rain and spring run-off as we drove down.
DeWayne was at Tammi’s workplace and was initially cowering from uncertainty, (“is this really them??”) then got his tail wagging as he remembered our smells. Then he was all kinds of excited, as we were too. Tammi was crying big ol’ alligator tears. Awwww…We were so fortunate to have Tammi and Taylor looking after DeWayne so lovingly. He’ll miss them too.
We loaded DeWayne in the already packed van, but he was happy to go…no change there. He’ll go anywhere, with anyone, anytime…
We were happy to walk into our house and be home! Yeah! We now feel like we live in a mansion…all this space and furniture and kitchen stuff and electricity and plumbing…we were pretty happy. Monty, the cat, eventually graced us with his presence later that afternoon. Monty and DeWayne were pretty happy to see each other, they even kissed--how sweet.
Now we are all back together again under one roof…life is good.
Unpacking….ughhh! But we’re home-YAH MAN!!