After spending a couple nights in Seattle with Jo’s relatives, we made our way down to Benton City in a rental car to become reacquainted with the RV that we left with Mark and Charissa. We left it with them for nine months ish….five years ago!
I had a few things to do before we got on the road again while also trying to dodge the hornets that had made their homes in the nooks and crannies which just happened to be in the same places I was fixing things. I did get a little fright when under the vehicle changing the oil. I heard a buzzy sound and I thought nothing of it at first then remembered Mark saying that the rattlesnakes around don’t rattle they make more of a zzzzz sound, fortunately it was just the oil pan vent! The next day however, Charlotte spotted one near the chickens!
It was a giant, all of at least 12 inches (rattlesnakes don’t come in metric). It was hiding under the wood pile, so armed with a plastic bat and wearing our best New Zealand safety Jandals, we moved the wood pile to get a better look. Steve Irwin would be impressed, that is until Mark removed the sharp end! I wanted to at least put it in some Tupperware for a night!
Since we’re all experts now, I should inform the uninformed that the baby ones are more dangerous than the big ones because they can’t control their venom and will inject everything they have into a threat whereas the mature snakes don’t see you as prey and don’t want to waste on something they can’t eat. That’s the reptile lesson for today!
We got on the road after four nights there and drove though Oregon and into Idaho on the interstate all the way. Had a semi truck swerving to the side of the road and back, I didn’t want to stick around when he fell completely asleep, as we passed him we could see that he was hooked up to oxygen! Hmmm.
Had a good little visit to our first interpretive centre, the kids did the junior ranger program there learning about the Oregon trail. I reckon the writer of 1883 must have gone there and written the entire script after a wonder. One of the writings mentioned 8 to 12 foot rattlesnakes back in the early 1800s, they were probably quite tame back then though! And weren’t metric then either!
Had our first night in Boise, Idaho near the Hilton….in a Cracker Barrel car park next door.
The last time we were in the RV was five years ago, the kids have aged and grown a collective 20 years, last time they all slept in a pile like where the wild things are, now they want weird things like….space, and they are the wild things! Haha. They’re going to have to stop growing as the sleeping arrangements are getting a bit tight and now every time one of those lumps move, the RV moves, I’ll have to start putting down the jacks.
Today, after visiting Walmart and 🎯, I got ours phones and air conditioning working. Hopefully both keep working, especially the air con! We proceeded on to Craters of the moon national monument to learn about lava! Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos on my phone so can’t put them on here right now. Tomorrow we will make our way towards Jackson Wyoming and Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National parks.
The McMillan Roadshow 