End of August - Nick

8/23/17

Yesterday we packed up in the morning and then started driving to our next site. After we had been driving for 3 or 4 hours we heard a loud clunk so we pulled over and as soon as we did the back wheel on the passenger side on the trailer just fell off. We called a towing company to fix it but when they got to us they didn’t have the right parts to fix it. They kind of half fixed it with the parts they had to get us to a pullout for the night. They were going to come back in the morning.

8/24/17

Oregon Trail

Yesterday morning the towing guys showed up in the morning again and fixed the wheel enough to get us to their shop. When we got to the shop we unhooked the trailer and went to the Oregon Trail Visitor’s Center. There was a big diorama in the middle of the Visitor’s Center. It showed the Oregon Trail with wagons, oxen, and people on it. It looked really rough. Some people didn’t even have shoes. I read that there was a grave every 80 yards. After that we got lunch at a Chinese place. It was really good. Next we went and picked up the trailer because the towing people were done. We were going to go back to the Visitor’s Center but when we got there our car was leaking coolant fluid. So we went BACK to the towing shop AGAIN, and they fixed that for us. Then we found a campsite, had dinner, and went to bed.

8/25/17

Yesterday we woke up, had breakfast, and then dad took the RV back to the shop because something still wasn’t right with the trailer, but I’ve lost track of what’s broken and what’s not. While dad took the RV in, we stayed at the site and did homework. Then dad came back with just the care and said we had to pick up the trailer in a little while. I rode my bike for a long time after I finished homework. Then we went to pick up the RV, but as we were pulling out the guy that fixed it heard a popping noise and said there was something wrong with the axle, so we got a hotel so they could fix it overnight. We swam at the pool at the hotel for a while and then went out to a pub for dinner. I got a really good fish fry. When we got back we all went swimming. I played horse. There was a basketball hoop. Then I met a kid my age who I played horse with too. Then we came up to the room and went to bed.

8/26/17

Yesterday we had the continental breakfast at the hotel. Then we went swimming at the hotel one more time. My friend was there again and I played horse with him again. Then we started driving to our next site in the Sawtooth National Forest. It was a pretty long drive. When we got there Andi and I rode bikes for a while. Then we had dinner and watched a movie.

8/27/17

Yesterday we drove to Craters of the Moon National Park. At first I had no clue why it was called Craters of the Moon but as we were driving through I figured it out. It was a huge rocky landscape. The rock was dark black and there were craters all over and it looked like the moon. All the rock was volcanic rock. There used to be tons of volcanoes about 2,000 years ago. You could see places where the rock was really smooth. In places like that, that is where rivers of lava cooled. We did a small half a mile hike through a bunch of volcanic rock. Then we did an even shorter hike to the top of a ‘spatter cone’. Spatter cones are little mounds of volcanic rock where lava sputtered up from a crack in the earth. Then we came home, had dinner and played dominion.

Lava cave in Craters of the Moon park
We crawled on our bellies to get through

8/28/17

Yesterday we drove to Craters of the Moon again. When we got there we did a 2 mile hike. It was called tree mold hike. At the end of the trail you could see tree trunks and branches imprinted in the volcanic rock. In one spot the lava cooled around a standing tree, so there is a big, perfectly circular hole in the ground. Then we started hiking back. On the way back I started feeling weird and then my vision started blurring. After that from what I heard I fainted. Dad dragged me into some shade and poured water on my face. When I woke up I had some water. Then we just sat in the shade for a while. My mom thought the reason I fainted was a combination of hunger, heat, and dehydration. After I was feeling better we hiked back. Then we had lunch which helped a lot. Then we went and looked at some caves. Most of them were really big and had really high ceilings. But my favorite one was called Boy Scout Cave and it was tiny, but long. In some parts you had to crawl, crab walk, army crawl, and twist your body in weird ways to get through openings. Then we came home and had dinner. We also played Dominion.

8/29/17

Yesterday we started driving to our campsite in the morning. It was about 4 hours. We did a lot of education in the car. I also read a lot. When we finally got there it was raining so we sat in the camper for a while. When it was done raining I rode my bike for a while. Then we had dinner. Finally, after dinner, we all played Wii together.

8/30/17

City of Rocks

Yesterday we slept in a little and then started driving to the hike we were going on at about 11:00. The hike we did was about 3 miles. It went through the City of Rocks which is a bunch of rock formations jutting out of the ground and they look like buildings. The hike took us a really long time because you were allowed to climb on top of the rock formations and we stopped to climb a lot. One of the rock formations looked like a stack of pancakes, and I love pancakes, so that one was my favorite. I forgot to mention that the Oregon Trail went through the City of Rocks. There were some arches and small caves along the trail and they were cool. After the hike we climbed most of the way up a rock formation called Bath Rock. We didn’t go all the way up because you need special equipment. Then we came home because it started raining. When we got home Andi and I played Wii for a little while. Then we had dinner and watched a movie.

Today we got going early in the morning. We started driving to the hike we were going to do but then it started raining, so we just drove around and looked at the rock formations from our car until the rain stopped. Then we started our hike. This hike wasn’t as much through the rocks, but it was through more of a prairie. We end up hiking almost six miles. We climbed on a few rocks but not as many as the day before. We also saw a family of climbers who we watched for a while. Then after the hike we came home and had dinner.