When I write for our blog I usually have an event or activity that we have participated in that I intend to write about. I start with a title at the top of the page and immediately save that much. Then I just let the ideas flow from my brain through my fingers.
The last few days have been high: High on Dixieland Jazz and high in the mountains in Sun Valley Idaho, (6000 ft). It has also been cold also, but with warm sunny afternoons. We woke up to temperatures down to 21 degrees some mornings and always in the 20’s when we dashed down to the lodge for a shower. We camped in the River Run lodge parking lot with 50 or so other Jazz enthusiasts and with our long time friends, Ed and Sarah Daugherty in the coach with us. The Sun Valley Swing-N-Dixie Jazz festival is one of the premiere Dixieland events in the country. They serve up Jazz in a dozen venues from 9:30 am until after midnight in some locations for five days. The festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday afternoon and the bands come from all over the country and even some from Canada and Europe.
If you check below and you will catch some photos of our crisp clear and cold sunrise, a reed man that can’t get enough of a good thing and the littlest “flapper” on the dance floor.
Besides the Jazz, Ketchum and Sun Valley are neat places to bicycle and hike. Judy and I got there a day early and biked the paved bicycle/walking/cross country ski trails all around town. Each morning the four of us would find somewhere to walk. One morning we walked perhaps a third of the way up the Warm Springs ski run. On that hike we saw a red fox slip through the underbrush beside the trail, what a thrill.
When it all ended we said farewell to our friends. They returned home and we are setting out on our winter adventure through the South West. I think Arcturus, our Alpine Motor Home, must have been feeling a little neglected and perhaps overwhelmed at times. When we got ready to go the slider wouldn’t budge. There were some anxious moments while we studied the owner’s manual before we discovered the parking brake had been released and that prevented us from engaging the hydraulics system. Next the brake lights and trailer brakes wouldn’t work. That required opening up the front fuse panel and searching out the brake light fuse and replacing that. Finally we departed on a beautiful sunny 50 degree day. Now we are parked in the free camping lot in Jackpot Nevada and watching a beautiful sunrise over the desert. This is the designated gambling Mecca for Twin Falls Idaho, but we were able to resist the temptation. We are still over a mile high in Jackpot and the low was about 31 degrees this morning.
We still send warm love and hugs to all our friends and relations. Stay tuned.
Gary and Judy
