July 8, Ending in Nat Soo Pah, Idaho

 We DID manage to get into the hot springs at Sunbeam, and it was so very lovely. We made the mistake of bringing our dogs with us, and they didn’t care for the water or the smell or the temperature of either the water or the sidewalk very much. So, back to the car with them, rolled down the windows, and checked on them every 15 minutes, offering them water when I did. Heck of a hike up and down that bank to the car. They were fine. Should have left them in the camper, but how could we know? The time we got to spend in the spring with friends was really nice. John was super blissed-out and stayed after we all left.

Then we returned to camp, showered (thank goodness for a fancy camper with a decent shower), got all clean and dooded up for dinner at the Stanley Supper Club. By “dooded up” I mean that I brought some makeup and used the inverter to plug in the curling iron a bit for my hair. I looked amazing. Jim Shaved and smelled great. He also put on his pink flamingo shirt. P had an identical Pink Flamingo Shirt – Jim had ordered two from Amazon a while back. He also ordered a blue/white/black stripe 50s-style TV-logo bowling-type shirt that he’d brought along. C. commented that he should have brought a shirt he got, but oh well. Well, Jim loaned and then gave him that blue shirt. Jim and P and C, all dooded up in their cute shirts. It was fun to have C included in the Man Club and he was real happy to be included.

 

What a treat that restaurant was. A small place with a small kitchen, but with lots of love for their food and what they do. We ordered way too much food, from their gorgeous housemade bread and side treats, to their sausage plate, and two teams of two got the fried chicken for two. P & D’s kiddo C took a bite and said, “Oh my God, oh my God!” And then we were all on tenterhooks, waiting to find out whether he thought it was good or terrible. He thought it was the best fried chicken he’d ever had. And I’d say he’s right; it was delicious. We packed up leftovers and cried that we didn’t have room for dessert, with their homemade ice cream sandwiches and giant decadent cakes. Rolled back to camp and stayed up till at least 11 to see the stars come out.

 

Today we broke camp, and leaving the Sawtooths just about broke my heart. I really got to love that area again. And we loved the time with our friends. I hope we’ll go back. Maybe with the trailer, maybe not. We did like Sunny Gulch. I didn’t love how hot it got and how it baked our black tank on day 3; there has got to be a cure for that.

 

(Side note: We left on July 8, and a fire started at Redfish on July 11. As I publish this, we're watching the fire reports and noticing how close it is to Sunny Gulch. There's a kickstarter campaign for the Redfish Lodge. We know it may not look the same if we were to go back next year or even years from now. We are so grateful to have seen the beauty we saw while we were there and to NOT have been there when the fire broke out.)

 

It was not a terribly long drive from basically Stanley down here to Nat Soo Pah, but there’s a heat wave on. I had a sweater or a pillow over my legs for most of the drive, since the sun coming in the windshield wanted to burn my skin. That heat took it out of us, and especially Jim. I should have driven from Bellevue, where we stopped for a few provisions and a deli lunch of the messiest tacos known to humanity. Tasty, though.

 

Nat Soo Pah is way farther away than Jim remembered, so it felt extra long in getting here. And we got here in the middle of the day, when it was just brutally hot, like 92. Set up camp as quick as we could, got the air conditioner turned on and it valiantly tried (and succeeded, in time) to cool down the interior. Pumped the tank about 75% full of clean water, set the stabilizer feet down, and took a NAP for about an hour. Siesta is the best-a. We did cancel plans to meet with family in Mountain Home, and sorry for that. Just too beat to meet.

 

Then we set about the daunting task of changing almost the entire set of reservations for the back half of our trip. We’d originally planned to go back home through Nebraska, but it’s going to be SO hot. Better to seek altitudes so we are a little cooler at night. So we kept Ft. Bridger but moved it to tomorrow. Then decided to try Thermopolis; got a ressie there. Then Spearfish for trying to find those keys in site 70, and that’s a two-day stay for a quick rest. Sioux Falls is next for one night. Then one reservation left if we decide we need to stop between SF and Madison. A bit of juggling to make it all work, but luckily we are after July 4 weekend and we are mostly mid-week. Just don’t want to be so hot ourselves or for the dogs or tax our AC too much. And we are ready for home and real indoor plumbing.

 

Once that was all squared away, we went to the pool here at Nat Soo Pah, the whole reason we came to this delightful, po-dunk, middle-of-nowhere campground. Jim used to swim here as a kid, even before he could really spell. His parents would talk in front of him about taking him to the “P-O-O-L,” spelling the trigger word so he wouldn’t get too riled up. At some point, he understood that that spelled the best place in the world, and he asked his parents, “So, are we going to the P-O-L or what?”

 

It was still pretty warm out when we got over to the pool around 7. The sun was setting, the air was thick with shrieks (but no fruit – that’s a P.G. Wodehouse ref, folks). The pool is heated naturally by a hot spring, so it’s a real treat to just wander right in with no warming up to be done. It was not too busy, but there were just enough people for good people-watching. Lots of babies. A curly fiberglass waterslide to go down (Jim badgered me into going down it, which I did, but then kicked something hard underwater and might have bruised my calf. Meh.) Anyway, we sat in the “spa” and then in the hot soaking pool, then back into the big pool. Jim was SO tickled that he got to be back there, and was happy to share it with me. I was thrilled to see him so happy, after having been so tired from today’s drive and heat and worry. Best of all? They played the occasional music at the pool, and he remembered hearing Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours there as a kid. Like magic, “Gypsy” came on and he got so blissed out I thought he might explode. It was just a trip.

 

Kept the AC on till about 9:40, when we decided it was finally cool enough to open all the windows and crank the fans. The sun has set to our driver’s side and it is the most amazing brown and cream monochrome sunset I can imagine. Why am I writing about it from in here? Must fix. Catch y’all tomorrow, after a 5-hour drive to Fort Bridger. I hope they have laundry; we need it.