Saturday, November 16, 2024
35.0°F

Cross-country camping trip remains memorable

by David Keyes
| June 21, 2010 9:00 PM

Just a word of advice, do not ask your child to write an essay quite yet about what he or she has done this summer.

Can you spell expletive? This rain has to go away for sanity’s sake.

The Keyeslings didn’t like my idea about this being a perfect time for them to clean their rooms before the “real summer” lands. I was pretty sure I heard at least one expletive coming from one of their rooms but it was drowned out by the torrents of rain hitting the roof at the time.

Want to act like a retired NFL quarterback? The Sandpoint Senior Center is looking for drivers to deliver meals to seniors throughout the county.

There is some reimbursement for mileage and you might not even have to use your own vehicle.

Call Norma at 263-6860.

Retired Broncos/Cardinals signal caller Jake Plummer has been delivering meals for the center for a few years and has told me and others that the act of meeting and helping these seniors has touched him profoundly.

Dana Williams took me up on my offer to share vacation trip adventures.

She wrote:

“I have had many “memorable” vacations. One my favorites was when I was going to be a sophomore in high school. (Summer of 1969)  My father was offered a job in Clarkston and he decided to move us from Colorado!

“He and my mom moved first and looked at houses. My cousin ‘volunteered’ to move my sister and me when we finished the school year. It would be a cross country camp-out!  Along  for the ride were our two horses, our dog, and my cousin’s two other dogs.

“We looked like a family of gypsies.

“Our first night we spent in a small town in Wyoming. We found a campground and pitched our tent. All was going well until the horses took off and headed downtown. We chased them all over town. The dogs even got into the chase, as did the local police department!

“Everytime we stopped for a meal my younger sister would meticulously count out every cent from her little coin purse. (She was in charge of the $$). On two occasions well meaning adults questioned us, about where we were going, and if we had indeed been kidnapped!

 “Night two started out uneventful, until the thunder and lightning. The horses did OK, but the dogs were soaking wet and my cousin put them in the canopy on the back of the pickup. A great solution as we didn’t want wet dogs in the tent. Well, the tent had a leak. Soon we were up to our  *****s in water.

“Our clothes were wet, our sleeping bags were soaked through. My cousin’s solution was for all of us to go to the canopy on the back of the pickup.

 “We got to sleep with the three wet and smelly dogs!

“Our last day on the road and we stopped at a rest stop. My sister and I got the horses out of the trailer and walked them around. The dogs were smelling around and ‘marking.’ Apparently the only familiar smell for our dog was my cousin’s leg. Yes he did it, the dog ‘peed’ on my cousin’s leg. He was not very happy and notably spoke a few harsh words to the dog and to my sister and myself. Of coarse this was all viewed by the numerous visitors to the  rest stop. (Things are not always what they seem!!)

“The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were able to enjoy the scenery coming into Clarkston and Lewiston. Whenever I talk to my cousin he remembers our ‘camping adventure.’ too.”

Do you have a vacation trip adventure you want to share? Drop me a line here at the Bee.

 Police report: Sandpoint Police responded to a call to a residence on North Division.

“Passerby thought a BBQ was on fire; it wasn’t.”

I want to know how anybody has a barbecue going with all this rain. That’s the real story.

Police report, Part 2: Sandpoint officers Dressel and Bailey responded to a call on South Ella.

“Report of a suspicious vehicle; it was a religious organization going door-to-door.”

Deep thought of the week: Since Boise State has been invited and is leaving the Western Athletic Conference to join the Mountain West Athletic Conference, wouldn’t it make sense for the University of Idaho to “right-size” right now and jump back into the Big Sky Conference?

And while I am at it, wouldn’t it be great if at least one of Idaho’s three major universities actually recruited athletes from Sandpoint or this neck of North Idaho?

The drive to Moscow to watch a game at the Kibbee Dome would be a lot more tempting if at least one or two players on the UI team grew up near or could pronounce Lake Pend Oreille.

E-mail of the week:

Jay Leno:  ‘With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’