Tent camping on a motorcycle

Whoa - what a trip. We're just home from a two-week camping vacation on motorcycles. My husband and I rode our Honda Goldwing and pulled a neat little trailer loaded with a tent, sleeping bags, clothes and a coffee pot and ice chest. Our daughter Lisa and her 7-year-old daughter Jenee rode their sidecar motorcycle and pulled Lisa's beautiful bike trailer that she made herself.

We rode across Northern Nevada into Idaho and then Montana and Wyoming and then back home. Our tour was almost 2,700 miles in 13 days on our motorcycles. We had mostly good weather with beautiful scenery, lots of neat little back-country towns and a great Sidecar Motorcycle Rally in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. There were no problems; it was just a laid-back wonderful road trip.

On the first night we camped right along the Snake River in Homedale, Idaho. A deer was drinking out of the river while Jenee was swimming and fishing in it. It was a great campsite with lots of soft grass, shade trees, hot showers and no mosquitoes. The Snake River is more than 1,000 miles long and it has many beautiful waterfalls and awesome rapids. We went white water rafting on the Snake and loved it. I sat in the very front - and got very wet.

Idaho is really beautiful. With town names like Fruitvales you know it's a good agriculture area. We cruised along cornfields, potatoes, onions, tall hops and lots of other crops. The river meanders through the countryside of rolling green hills. Little ranches, big ranches, carpets of green grass feed horses, cattle and sheep. There's also lots of lumber in this very fertile state. We stopped for gas ($3.25 a gallon) in Weiser where some of our Fish Springs neighbors have moved: Linda and George Del Chiro and Sharon and Ralph Truax. The gas attendant recognized Ralph's name. It's a small world.

On the next day we drove across miles and miles of prairie land with its bright yellow Rape Seed flowers that's used for making Canola oil. In Grangeville there was a sign saying "Toto Road Mammoth Site." Do you suppose some day there will be a sign in Gardnerville saying "Dump Road Mammoth Site?" We followed the Nez Perce trail through deep canyons with rushing rivers. The French people called the Indians Nez Perce, meaning nose pierces.

On the second night we camped in Hayden, Idaho, where there were a lot of kids to play with Jenee - and climb trees and catch frogs. When the sun set, there was a big bonfire with marshmallows to toast and other memories for children of all ages. The next morning we were awakened by the breakfast call of hundreds of sheep and little lambs. The campground was right next to a big sheep ranch. "Baa, baa." It was time to go to gorgeous Coeur d' Alene for the Sidecar Rally and then onto my very favorite place - Yellowstone. Guess I'll write about that next week.

In the meantime, my thoughts and prayers certainly go out to all the firefighters and other people who are affected by this devastating fire at Lake Tahoe. That includes our daughter Christy who lives up there and was totally involved with the evacuations. I pray this tragedy will never happen again.

-- Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.