Memorial Day 2019
It had been just over a month since our last travel in the Greyhawk. We were itching to get back out and take the boys with us. Typically we don’t like traveling on holiday weekends, but each year we make an exception for Memorial Day. We gather with friends on the North Fork of the Clearwater River in remote North Central Idaho for good food and company and to celebrate our dear friend Heather’s birthday.
First trip towing the Jeep
This was our first trip towing the Jeep. Practicing the hookup a few days before our trip paid off. Everything went smooth on departure day and away we went! The transmission on the Hawk had a real workout as we climbed, dropped, and wound our way along Grangemont Road out of Orofino. Some helpful towing tips from a Ford owner at camp gave us renewed confidence for future trips.
The perfect campsite
Arriving on the North Fork of the Clearwater River, we had a 15 mile drive over potholes and washboard to reach our destination at Washington Creek Campground. We’ve traveled over rough roads with pull trailers behind us, but never a motorhome. Instead of your belongings being in a separate unit, they are in the same area and you hear every little bang as you subject the RV to thousands of earthquakes. As Jason said, “it sounded like World War III in here!” We were relieved to arrive at our destination and thrilled to find our favorite river-side campsite available.
It was a big group this year
Our group was bigger than normal this year. We were joined by friends Chris and Heather, four of their family members, three of our family members, and good friend/adopted family member Lorraine. There were only two other campsites occupied at Washington Creek making it feel like we had the place all to ourselves.
One of the more memorable events from this year’s spring camp was celebrating Lorraine’s retirement from Washington State University. For nearly four decades, Lorraine dedicated her career to the health of animals across our state, country, and even the world. Some of her work was used to diagnose Siberian tigers on the other side of the world—how cool is that?! Lorraine was a coworker of mine for many years and I’m grateful for our friendship that transcended the work environment. Congratulations on your retirement friend and here’s to the next phase of your life!
Mixed bag
We had a mixed bag of weather over our time at spring camp. We had everything from pouring down rain to sunny, blue skies—all in the same day! We always go prepared for this typical spring weather and we always have a great time catching up with everyone. This year was especially nice for Jason and I since we had the luxury of staying as long as we wanted. We stayed six days which gave us another good test of the Hawk and gave us additional time toward acclimating ourselves and the cats to full time RV travel.
No pictures of the boys lol. Looks and sounds like a fantastic weekend. Always nice to get away from it all with family and friends. Congrats to Lorraine for a job well deserved called retirement!