Monday, July 15
The campground is nearly full when the crew and I leave on a run up to Dillon for groceries.
I remember how much I enjoyed this seventeen-mile trip to town last summer.
The drive is an interesting display of farms, ranches, and rock formations.
We return to Beaverhead Campground. Some of the campsites have been vacated.
I always get a happy feeling when I first catch sight of the Best Little Trailer.
I park the PTV and put groceries in the refrigerator. Then I drive us over to the day use area. We walk down the boat ramp toward the reservoir.
I unhook the leashes. Spike runs ahead and settles himself into the water.
Bridget goes right in, too! She likes to march around in circles.
The white rim at the base of Armstead Island shows how low the water level is.
A man and woman arrive and prepare to kayak.
It’s a serenely beautiful day.
When Spike soaks, his head is in the clouds.
I’m grateful for my two sweet companions, my comfortable home, and some of the loveliest real estate in the world.
rvsue
MY SINCERE THANKS TO EVERY RVSUE SHOPPER! Here are some of the products bought through my Amazon links:
303 Products Aerospace Protectant – 32 oz.
Professional Cordless Pet Clipper Kit
Multi-Flex LED Task Light and Book Light
Keurig Single Cup Coffee & Tea Brewing System
Foldable Table Laptop Cart
Surfwise: The Amazing True Odyssey of the Paskowitz Family
I love clear water lakes and rivers. I could never get used to the muddy water rivers and ponds when we lived in NC. Do they allow swimmers there? Or would it be too cold? Is that an eagle? Such a beautiful area!
You can swim here. The bottom is muddier the further you go out. Mostly kids swim and there aren’t many of them around.
No, that’s not an eagle. It’s either a gull or a pelican.
What a sweet place to stay. Spike looks so comfortable soaking in the cloud filled water.
It’s a dreamy photo… fits Spike’s state of mind when he soaks!
Spike is just TOO funny! 😀
He certainly knows what he likes!
Oh my gosh, tears in my eyes. Love those two dogs!
If they only knew . . . 🙂
Thank you for your serene post. I love the simplicity of your life and yet when the moment is before you the good deeds you do. I am in the middle of the political future of our country with responsibility beyond what most people reading this space would understand and yet daily I read to keep my self grounded. I have a motorhome that has sat still for six months. I need to take it into the hills for retreat but until I will enjoy your posts and pups. I have two of my own and often as I arrive home in the late hours and pull up a chair and have a sip of brandy they climb onto my lap and let me know all is well. Safe travels. You do more good than you know.
Thank you, Bob, for your kind words and for letting us see a bit of your life.
One needs a way to unwind and recharge. Our canine pals help with that. I hope you will get out to serene places with your motorhome as soon as you’re able.
I notice that Bridget is starting to get in the water more – good for you, girl! What lovely pictures of a peaceful area. Whenever I travel, coming home and seeing my house is both reassuring (yay, it’s still there) and comforting (home sweet home).
It’s finally raining here and we set a record of the lowest high temp (huh?) yesterday of 71 degrees. Delightful, but short-lived. It’s supposed to get back to the 90s by the weekend.
Hi Cari . . . Yes, Bridget is loosening up in many ways as she matures. She’s willing to try new things. We’re a lot a like!
Being able to come home is one reason why I prefer a travel trailer. Not that there’s anything wrong with the other RV choices. They each have their strong points. For me, a separate home is important.
Glad you got some rain and a break from the heat . . .
Now here is the philosophical approach to deciding RV or towable — being able to come home to it. Coming home has a big emotional value that, now that I think of it, driving one’s (RV) home all around all day doesn’t. Hmmm. Good point. These little gems pop up when I least expect them. Thanks!
Glad you had a great day. Spike and Bridget are so adorable.
Home sweet home.
It was a lazy day and a lazy post. I hope you had a great day.
RVSue:
Oh this was good, the perfect exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and revelation I’ve read since yesterday’s blog. This was so calming. The water is so clear and the sky so blue.
I am so going to this place someday, someday soon.
Been continuing to buy my items for my dream container, last purchase was disposable rubber gloves for dumping tanks and levels for the Casita. Took that firearm lesson, shot a gun for the first time, and thought about your blog when you were getting ready for your adventure.
Your blog has helped me and I am sure many others get ready!
Phyllis in Oklahoma
Hi Phyllis . . . I saw those orders! Thank you.
I don’t know that this post followed story structure very well. 🙂 After our trip to Dillon and a little play time at the reservoir, we came home and I cleaned the bathroom. From then on I was lazy, lazy, lazy. My brain was dulled and couldn’t put together anything interesting for this blog, so I let the photos do the work.
I’m glad my blog has helped you get ready. Nice of you to let me know. . .
So serene! Ha, got a kick out of Spikes head in the clouds! Nice shots today.
Enjoy and thank you and crew.
Thank you, Diane. An absolutely calm day… no wind, no worries!
Beautiful photos Sue……………a paradise to enjoy and I feel how content and happy you are right at this moment………….enjoy!!
Hi Glenda… These are precious days with my crew. I hope you enjoy where you are, too.
I do mostly tent camping…now they make tents a single person can put up…it’s call a pop-up tent. I unzip a bag, lay out the tent walk inside it and push the middle pole up and pops into place and it’s done in less than 10 minutes! Anyway, I also sleep on a cot I bought at military outlet store..it folds up into a nice bag and easy to assemble. I love to set up my cot outside my tent and take naps or read during the day and move it inside the tent to sleep. Sometimes, I’m too darn lazy to hike so I stay in camp and get lazy. Your photos conjures up my lazy mode days…ah to just lie there, look up at the sky & surroundings…soak up the peacefulness. I’d be right there w/Spike with toes in water.
Hi Rita . . . I’m fascinated by the tents I see in different camps. The one my family had when I was a kid was green, heavy, depressing, a chore to erect, and had a weird smell. Now the tents are light, different colors, and easy to put up.
I love your “can do” attitude! And, yes, lazy days are important! Most of my days are lazy. 🙂 I find the less “doing,” the more I get out of life (up to a point, of course). Doesn’t make sense but it’s true . . .
I waded a bit and would’ve gone in deeper but the bottom becomes muddy and sucks your feet in. Eww. LOL
Hi Sue, I haven’t ever commented on your blogs but have read every single one of them with great anticipation. So I guess I’m a blog stalker! But the time has come, you have made it close to my part of the world! I’m not a very public person and am wondering if you would e-mail me. I would really like to converse with you. Thanks so much, Paris
Hi, Paris . . . You may have been here for a while, but let me welcome you anyway . . . Welcome to my blog! I’m glad you are with us. Thank you for reading from the beginning.
I’m not a very public person either. I can be open about myself and my life in cyberspace because there’s a certain amount of anonymity. I discourage face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and emails. People I’ve known for years on a personal level will tell you I rarely answer my phone or make phone calls.
Please don’t take offense . . . It’s the way I am and the way I have to be. I’ve turned down other readers for the same request, so to be fair I need to be consistent.
It’s a good thing I made the decision early on to limit personal contact. If I hadn’t, I would be overwhelmed by now (and it doesn’t take much to overwhelm a loner, as you probably know personally). Like a lot of folks, I get too many emails as it is.
I hope you will understand. I’d love to converse with you here, Paris!
What a relaxing post! I so want to see Montana – it is on the list for next summer! Thank you for sharing these photos.
You’re most welcome, Kellee! I hope you are in Montana this time next year. . .
….happy sigh… thanks for the sweet post. It helps me as I get ready to swing into another day of high tension work.
I was thinking of you Friday and Saturday night as my dog Katie and I were ‘camping’ in the back yard. The weather was perfect, the skies were beautiful with stars…but all I could hear was the distant freeway roar. I thought to myself..no way would RV Sue camp here, it’s too noisy! 🙂
Well, Dawn… Funny you mention “too noisy.” Immediately after I posted this “serenity” entry, a truck camper pulls up, parks right next to us (rather than any of the many places they could have chosen and been by themselves), and turns on the generator. They ran it for three hours in the early evening, which is the nicest part of the day to sit outside.
Then this morning they woke us up with the generator! I wanted to blow kisses at them when they drove away a few minutes ago . . .
But, yes, you’re right… To be able to get away from noise is one of my favorite things about having a house-on-wheels. I was planning to leave if the generator people didn’t.
Thanks Sue for the best soaking Spike photo ever.
I’ll relay your thanks to Spike in the way of cuddles. 🙂 There’d be no soaking photo without him.
Sue I really enjoyed all the pictures. The water is so clear…I would be sitting in the water beside Spike if I was there. We are in a heat wave here…90 & humid for this week….I filled the wading pool for the dog yesterday rather then take her downstairs to the lake & listen to her bark at the waves….it cooled her just fine. Last night we had more fireflies then I have ever seen at once. Beautiful.
This is the one & only blog I ever followed until I found yours & it quickly became my favourite. Life on the open road. lifeontheopenroad.blogspot.com/ If you get a chance to check it out, she has been boon docking 14 yrs….. But just to see yesterday’s pics are worth a look (Beartooth Mountain). Sometimes she includes a short video…wonder if that is a possibility for you to give us a glimps of spike & Bridget “live”. Would be fun.
Hi Val .. .
The wading pool is a great idea for dogs in the summer! I used to do that for Spike. Bridget didn’t care about wading in those days. When I fostered dogs it was a riot watching them run and jump in and play. . . each in his/her own way.
Yes, Diana’s blog was one of my mainstays back when I was in the dreaming-of-fulltiming stage. (I suspect there are very few, long-time, RVer blogs that I’ve missed as I relied on them to keep me sane before my retirement.)
I don’t read many blogs these days. Occasionally I look at one of my reader’s blogs just to see what they’re up to. Time is precious and I have to get away from the laptop so I’ll have something to write about!
I’ve considered videos. In the end I decided against them. I prefer to keep my blog simple in its design, its writing, its presentation, and its philosophy.
Hope your heat wave moves away soon!
What a nice post. Now I am relaxed and can start my workday. 🙂
Hope I don’t put you to sleep!
No…just in a better frame of mind.
Oh, Sue, what a beautiful spot!! Water surrounded by mountains… doesn’t get much better:)
It so a riot how Spike always plops down in the very edge of the water, never too deep. Typical fellow! While Bridget is all the lady, and always so white…a dainty splasher!
You describe the crew very well!
You know, Spike is obsessive-compulsive. I wonder if he plops down to soak because that’s what he did the first time he went in the water, so now he has to do the same thing every time. The little nutcake.
Yes, Bridget’s my dainty darlin.’
Nice spot Sue, and those water pups are great too. Timber says hi to all. It’s been raining real good here near Drake, AZ., ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Rusty
Oh, you’re back at Drake! It’s good that you’re getting some rain. Arizona certainly needs it.
So nice to hear from you, Rusty. Hi to Timber, too…
I have searched here and the archives but not much comes up. What camera are you using?
Hi John,
It’s a Panasonic LUMIX 10x optical zoom DMC-TZ3
Hey Sue, I am still loving reading your daily blogs and dreaming of when I can hit the road. Just curious, is there one book you would recommend to figure out some the daily nuts and bolts of living your lifestyle, like which state to choose as a home address, etc.?
Hi John… If there is such a book, I don’t know what it is. I haven’t read one book on the subject. I gleaned info from reading blogs, like you’re probably doing already.
Nice to hear you’re “still loving” my blog!
Sue, I hope you don’t mind my responding to SSI John.
I wish there were one book!!!!! A good resource that I have found is RV-Dreams.com They have a lot of information and there is also a nightly chat session. The chatting is not always about RVing but it’s a good place to ask questions. It also depends on who is there each night so asking the same question on different nights works also.
It gets going about 9 p.m. east coast time and goes for 2-3 hours with people coming and going. It’s a conglomeration of wannabees, weekenders, and full timers. (I’m still a wannabee.)
I hope that helps. And if you ever DO find a good book, let me know. 🙂
Okay I agree with everyone else! The photograph of Spike soaking in the clouds is the best Spike soaking image ever! This would be a great cover for your upcoming book! LOL! IF you ever decide to write a book! Love this campsite! But then, I don’t think you have been in a campsite that I didn’t like!
Hi Geri!
Thanks. The way the water reflected the clouds was quite stunning. I was thrilled when I first saw that photo of Spike and the clouds. I never knew photography could be such fun… and all I do, pretty much, is point and shoot!
This is one of the loveliest, most serene posts you’ve ever done. Your words and pictures together create an atmosphere of peacefulness that made me forget that I just came in from humid 90+ heat and annoying traffic. Thank you, Sue and crew!
You’re welcome, Marcia. Sounds like lots of folks are suffering with humidity east of the Mississippi. I hope you get some relief soon.
Oddly, after the very warm, calm day of this post, the following day (today) is windy and cold! The crew is under cover of blankets in bed and I just put on socks because my feet were cold. Mid-July!
Photography IS fun …but you do more than point and click. It all starts with your brain “seeing” the picture. Without that happening first, you wouldn’t be taking the picture at all.
The camera is only as good as the photographer behind it.
Thank you, Brian.
Beautiful. Wish we were camping with you. Samantha and Julie would love the water.