Chapter Four:

Sandpoint Airport

or

The Really Cool Plane!

On Sunday after looking at camping across the hi-way from the train behind the gas station (you can only imagine the beauty at that campground:) we finally saw Camp Cocolalla. It was beatiful, on a small lake it's a year round camp and they need year round staff and that's not exctally what we're looking for...so after checking out the camp and saying goodbye to our friends we decided to check out the airport in Sandpoint.

We knew no one would be there on a Sunday afternoon, but we at least wanted to see it. We found the headquarters for Quest Air, one of the companies Danny was looking into. We ended up meeting a man who used to have a flight business in Alaska. He and his wife had just moved to the area. Long story short Danny ended up helping him with his plane. It was an awesome plane and we have some cool pictures with it.

After that we drove to Spokane, Wa and lucky us the KOA had a spot right next to, you guessed it a train!! What's a trip without a few funny memories. We were very tired and slept well that night but the train woke us up early so we got on the road to Silverdale!

My first view of Washington!

Chapter Three:

McCall and Beyond

or

Drive, Drive Again!

Before spending the night at the camp, Danny and I got to spend the day in McCall. It was nice, kind of our first opportunity to hang out and really feel like we were on vacation!

As you can see McCall is a beautiful city on a lake, and we are told there's good hunting, fishing skiing/snowboarding, white water rafting...the list goes on and on!

The town is quaint, with a touch of tourism (okay, maybe more than a touch). We like that area, however finding a job might be difficult. (We would like to work at camps part-time to begin with, so we need jobs that will give us summers off, so maybe a ski resort?...)

After McCall we (Mary and I in the 4-Runner, Danny and James in the Honda!) drove, again. Driving looks different on paper than in real life! It wasn't all that bad, but it was a crazy trip. The new company kinda broke things up for us and was greatly appreciated, plus it's always good to see old friends! I think that most of the cities in N. Idaho are on lakes.

Sandpoint is no exception. In fact the camp we looked at there was also on a lake. It is in the city of Cocolalla, on Lake Cocolalla and it's called, you guessed it Camp Cocolalla! (It's really fun to say Cocolalla, it seems like Dr. Suess named it--I actually believe it's Native American)

Camp Cocolalla is on about 11 acres, they have a big waterslide into the lake, a fort and a gym! They are a year-round camp, and it seems very busy. It's also in one of the prettiest settings I've ever seen.

Chapter Two:

Finally Sleep!

or

The Beautiful Drive.

After 23+hrs of driving, we finally stopped by the Payette River at the Swinging Bridge Campground. Rest! Danny decided that we only needed our backpacking tent (he remembered it being larger:), but we brought our big sleeping mats! Needless to say we were very "snug" in our small tent!

We drove up the river towards Camp Shiloh. The drive was absolutely breath-taking! Pictures don't even do it justice.

Wouldn't is be nice if this

was your summer cabin?

The area around the camp is mostly farmland. The camp is about 15 acres with many places nearby to take campers on wilderness trips. We got there on the last day of camp, everyone was so kind to us! We went out to lunch with the staff and were invited to stay the night. Mary and James (who are also looking at camps) met us there and we were given a tour of camp. Thank you to Camp Shiloh for your kindness, and hospitality!!!

The nearest big (and by big I mean a couple thousand people) town is McCall. It's a beautiful town on a lake, a lot like Lake Tahoe, only smaller. Boise is about 2 1/2hrs. away. While we were there we had to go to the airport---where the headquarters for the smoke jumpers just happens to be!! Danny went in to talk to the mechanic, and I got some pictures of some REALLY cool planes!

We're home!! We made it back safe and sound, thanks I'm sure to all of your prayers! Nothing really bad happened to our new car except a small crack from a rock on our windshield. We're so thankful for God's protection, we drove over 3,700 mi. and only the crack! So I'm going to break up the trip into chapters, because I have so many pic's to share, and so it's not one looong story. I'll try to get one done a day! Thank you again for all your love and prayers!

Chapter One:

The Long Drive

or

We must be CRAZY!

Due to many unforeseen circumstances we left San Diego about two hours later than we wanted to on Wed. night. You see the plan was to leave S.D. by 6:30-7ish, get to St. George, Utah and camp there for the night. Well, due to our late start we got to St. George at about 5am! (We were switching drivers and even slept at a rest stop for a while once.) We still checked out the campground thinking we could sleep for 4hrs. then get on the road...we decided not to pay $12 to sleep 4hrs., plus there were no trees and once the sun came up it would be too hot to sleep. So we drove on!

About two years back Danny had an opportunity to move to the St. George area, Cedar City to be exact. All I can say is our drive through there made us thankful we didn't! Pictures can be

very deceiving, there's nothing like seeing a place first hand! Now I'm not saying it horrible, just very different from what we invinsioned.

So here are a few pic's from our first 231/2 hrs. of driving. Utah is known as the Beehive State. We never saw a beehive, nor a bee?! Come to find out it's the land flowing with milk and honey--Duhh. I guess we missed that one on the way through!

Finally we made it to Idaho. The southern part was mostly farm land. We drove by the Snake River which was beautiful. Once we drove out of Boise, up towards McCall--it's some of the prettiest land we've ever seen!!!