Where is Jack, Day 140?

So, how do you get to Salmon from Stanley? Why you follow the Salmon River (Yankee Fork) every inch of the way. We miss Stanley, and we're not too impressed with Salmon, but let's see what the next few days bring. Nancy signed up for three days. She had a discussion with the owner when she signed in. He's a grumpy old man. He kept going over the dog rules like he was reading the bible. In response to his lecture, Nancy said, I don't like irresponsible dog owners either," And, she showed him her pink bags, snarling, "Yes, he's always on a leash." On and on he went with what the consequences were if she didn't pick up my poop. Ten minutes of discussion about MY poop!

Finally, Nancy said to him, "Look, if you don't want dogs here, you should put that in the description of your campground. I'll be happy to go somewhere else. You're not a very nice person. Sometimes I wonder why people like you are still alive and my husband isn't." He stopped talking and told her he wanted her to stay.

We went to our site (it's a very small campground), and Nancy walked me. She took me all the way out of the campground and we were gone for a while. When we came back, she hooked up the water and electric. She was just about finished when the grumpy old guy came over and apologized. Nancy said "Apology accepted."

We went for another short walk and came back. There was a knock on the door. I started to bark, but Nancy said, "No Bark" in a very loud whisper and for some reason I listened. It was the grumpy old man bringing her a newspaper saying that he was finished with it and thought maybe she'd like to read it. He said he was going away for the weekend and told her to talk to the people in the site next to his building if she needs anything. Good, let him go spoil someone else's day. (Since then, we have often thought that he was nice enough to apologize. Maybe he was having troubles that day, and maybe Nancy was a little too hard on him.)

There are rabbits here EVERYWHERE! The first two surprised me when they came running out from under the camper-no, I wasn't scared, so there. Then we saw several more on our walk-they look like domestic rabbits-one was a blonde. I wonder if the geezer picks their poop up. I DON'T like walking in it any more than he likes walking in dog poop.

Okay, now for the ride over. Nancy remembered going through lower Stanley and coming to Sunbeam Dam. She doesn't remember the rest of the route-maybe she had her eyes closed as Rich drove along the river, and for good reason. There is no shoulder or guard rail. The road is narrow, curvy, and hilly, and the river, in parts, is a couple hundred feet or more straight down. We went through a section where there were massive cliffs-just plain rock so high that the sun didn't shine on the road. It was like no-man's land-the land was unusable. We came across a blinking light sign that said, "Caution, mountain goats on road next 3 miles." They lied.

Idaho has many hot springs along main roads; most of them informal places for people to sit and enjoy the stinky sulphur smell. Some of them, however, are not on main roads. Nancy and Rich saw naked people, several times, in more remote areas, just sitting and soaking (they call themselves soakers) without a care in the world. TMI or in some cases NEI, if you get my meaning. The first picture shows springs and steam coming up out of the ground. The water seems to flow under the highway. On the other side, down by the river (quite a ways up and down) are the pools where people sit.

This is an old bath house that has been renovated.

Nancy remembered Sunbeam Dam very clearly. It's fascinating-especially the history of it and the story about how they blew the hole in the side so the fish could get through.

Kayakers enjoy the river-even at 40 degrees. Last night it was in the 20s. This morning, we bought more propane and discovered a leaky valve. Nancy had to crimp the hose to stop the leak.

Welcome to Clayton. It's the only town we remember except for Challis on the way.

We couldn't stop so Nancy couldn't get pictures, but she said she wouldn't want to live anywhere near some of the mountains of loose gravel. We wondered whether this might have been a casualty of a land slide. You could see where huge chunks of road were taken out and resurfaced. We may back track with the truck and try to get some more pictures of the terrain.

Before we left Stanley and before we tried to find animals at dusk yesterday, Nancy took pictures of the town. We're only going to post a few. The first was the only "restaurant" in town when Nancy and Rich were in Stanley. They had the most delicious Salmon dinner ever in this place. They'd always hit it when they were in town; sometimes two or three times.

This is where Nancy and Rich used to make business calls from and call Susie to see what mail had come in. Sometimes, they'd have to make a trip all the way down to Ketchum to see what business had come in via email. Stanley has come a long way.

This is where Rich used to park the motorhome. The space all the way to the right with the fiver as you look at the picture. There were only three spaces and 6 motel rooms. At that time, there was a nut that had such bad OCD that it's hard to describe. We think he polished the blue stone-Nancy has some funny stories to tell about him. They met a very nice couple who parked next to them the last time they were there. Their last name was Chesser. Nancy has lost track of them.