reunion – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

08-09-2014 Last Days of the Reunion

Current Location: Home in Rocky Point with clear skies and 79F and low humidity day ahead

On the Friday when I was wandering around my old haunts in Northern Idaho, a large contingent of the rest of the family met at some unearthly hour for a tee time at a Post Falls golf course. A good number of the Oukrops are avid golfers and most of the rest of them do it for fun. I heard the stories later, but not being a golfer, I was much happier hanging out with old friends.

walking Riverside SP (2 of 12) Mo opted out of this activity as well, choosing instead to hang around the park with Abby, let her play and swim and relax for a bit. I have a sneaky suspicion that Abby wasn’t the only one of this pair that needed some down time.

By the time I got back from my part of Idaho, the golf group was returning as well, and it was time to head to the west side of the South Hill for a wonderful hosted dinner of lasagna, salad, and bread. Can you imagine making dinner for 33 people and not having a single potluck contribution?

Wynn said that she spent an entire day cooking up these gorgeous pans of tasty lasagna.

It was fun seeing how many people could fit on Don and Wynn’s deck without it collapsing. Well built deck, I would say. Before and after dinner we were entertained by the little ones playing around on the grass and listening to all the conversations on the deck as we watched the almost full super moon rise over Hangman Creek to the east. The view from the deck was gorgeous. We even managed the “complete” family photo with everyone attending the reunion gathering on Don’s lawn. I have a sequence of about 12 different shots, all with varying degrees of success at getting everyone to look forward and smile at the same time. The joys of photographing a group are not to be understated.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm, and was a perfect day for the family float on the Little Spokane River. Don is an avid kayaker, and knows the area paddles well. He picked this one the last time we were in his area, and it was a great choice. Everyone opted for the 3 hour float rather than the shorter paddle.We had a large number of rubber boats to compliment the few kayaks, and the best part of the morning was the gathering of people as we stood around while Don tried to explain the logistics of the car shuttles, organizing the designated drivers, and trying to figure out who would be where when. I won’t post a bunch more photos of this day because in the first reunion post I chose to share my favorite shots of everyone participating.

The Little Spokane is a meandering river, with just enough current to make it fun, and enough that I was glad we were only paddling downstream. Much of the shoreline is in a natural wildlife area, and we didn’t discover until the end of the trip at the takeout that no dogs are allowed on the river! UhOh. Glad we didn’t read the sign because Abby had a great time.

Golf and Silverwood required a weekday, so the float got the weekend day by default, and Saturday wasn’t the best day to be on this lovely river. It is an extremely popular place, especially on a hot sunny weekend, and we were accompanied by a large number of fellow rafters. I think our group might have been the biggest, however, and maybe all those other rafters were wishing they had picked a different day as well. Something a bit disconcerting to be on a gorgeous river and come around a curve to the smell of cigarette/marijuana (legal in Washington) smoke and the sound of loud rock and roll on someone’s radio.

We all had a great time, and the kayakers in the group thought the trip length was perfect. A few of the floaters thought it was just over the limit of comfortable, especially the ones who had to keep blowing up their boats. I wish I could remember Susan’s youngest son David’s exact words, something to the effect of “If we don’t stop right now I am going to die” Susan, if you read this, please post that comment in the comments. I would love to get it word for word!

Oukrops on the Deschutes River 2010

I think the float trip is my favorite part of these Oukrop reunions, and remember fondly our float trip on the Deschutes when Roger and Nancy’s family was in charge of the festivities.

After a long day we arrived back in camp just in time to change and clean up a bit to drive in a different direction to the home of Ginny and Gabe for their fabulous fully hosted dinner. Once again, no potluck allowed, and Ginny and Gabe put on the best pulled pork BBQ ever!

Ginny is a professional portrait photographer, and incredibly artistic. She had the yard all decorated with Martha Stewartesque jars of baby’s breath and wooden table runners, all coordinated. There was even a lovely basket with an assortment of beautiful quilts for spreading on the grass. Her appetizers and casserole accompaniments to the dinner were fabulous. Not to mention the infused waters and banana split dessert!

Gabe had a regulation volley ball court all set up with a 20 foot high barrier to keep the ball from ending up in the neighbors yard. Did I mention this is a very athletic family? The barrier wasn’t high enough, and Gabe spent a good amount of time going over the fence after the ball.

It was so much fun watching Ginny and Gabe’s dog wandering around trying to play volleyball, and watching all the little ones running around underfoot.

We went home to the campground by the light of the almost super moon, one more night before it would be full. The next morning, folks began dispersing, some to the airport, rigs loaded up and ready to roll toward home, and Mo and I spent some quiet hours all alone at the park enjoying the river and the trails.

Our evening destination was only a few short miles north toward Bonners Ferry where we planned to overnight before our border crossing early Monday morning into Canada. No need to rush. A wonderful end to a wonderful reunion with plenty of time to decompress and relax before the next leg of our journey.

Next: Fabulous Kootenay Lake in British Columbia

08-07-2014 Silverwood with Thirty People

Current Location: we are home in Rocky Point Oregon

I have a huge soft spot for Silverwood Theme Park in Northern Idaho. It didn’t exist when I first moved to the nearby village of Rathdrum in 1972, population 751. My kids went to grade school, junior high and high school in Rathdrum. Rathdrum is about half way between Spokane and Athol, where the Silverwood roller coasters now dominate the landscape. Hate to say it, but say “Athol” out loud and laugh with all the old locals about their town. I think I read long ago that both names came from somewhere in Ireland.

When I lived in that area, Silverwood was just a dream, and at the time was simply a funky old train running around the property and a restaurant called the Henley Aerodrome. I drove by it every day on my way to Bonner County to map soils as a brand new soil scientist. The theme park didn’t actually open until 1988, and just about everyone from Spokane to Coeur d Alene thought the owner was making a very huge, very expensive mistake. After all, there wasn’t the population base and it was out in the middle of nowhere!

My house in Rathdrum in the mid 70’s

Well, let me tell you, he was right and we were all wrong. When I moved to CDA, the population was 14,000. It now is close to 100K in the surrounding communities and the houses stretch across the Rathdrum Prairie for the entire 35 miles between CDA and Spokane. Plenty of people to fill the huge parking lot daily and make that man a zillionaire! Our sweet little Rathdrum now boasts more than 6,000 inhabitants! rathdrum 2010

Rathdrum in 2010 with the huge Burlington Northern terminal sitting on top of the Spokane Aquifer

When Don was working on the schedule for the reunion, he had to choose which activity would be most likely to be affected by weekend crowds, and Silverwood won. As a result, he chose Thursday for the big family day at the park. We got group rates in addition to senior rates for a few of us, meaning Mo and I only paid $18.09 each for the full day. Good deal!

What I didn’t realize when Don was talking about swimsuits and lockers was that there was an addition to Silverwood called Boulder Beach, a water park. Now I used to take my kids to water parks in Spokane…you know…a water slide and a pool, so I wasn’t that excited about that part.

I was more excited about having the chance to enter the gate at first opening and then RUN all the way to the line for TREMORS, one of my favorite roller coasters. You see, I am a roller coaster addict. I can’t explain why I get seasick on a ship or in a car, but a roller coaster just makes me feel all alive and buzzy. Like the best hit of whatever that you could imagine. Go figure.

waiting in line for Tremors I have a dream to do a roller coaster trip and catch all the big ones on the east side of the country, but that entails traveling in the summer since all the big parks close on Labor Day. Sigh. Who knows if it will ever happen.

100 foot drop at 60 mph rated 9 in the country and 17 in the world for wooden coasters In the mean time, however, unlimited rides on Tremors and my possible alternative favorite, Timber Terror, famous for its “air time” was enough to keep me excited about this particular family activity.

Many folks in the group had other ideas, and the water park was highest on their agenda. While everyone hurried to the park to snag the best waterside seats, Mo and I and “the kids”, Callie and Josh, ran with us to the roller coasters. And oh my gosh…it was as good as I remember, although on this supposedly unbusy Thursday morning I only managed about 3 rides before the lines got too long to deal with.

photo of the photo. I knew where the camera was from past years on this coaster Back in 2001, when I took my then 14 year old grandson to the park, we managed 18 consecutive rides between the two roller coasters. Mo only opted for one ride on each coaster, but at least we got the photo. You can tell I know where the camera is on this one!

Mo and I waited almost 45 minutes to take another ride with some cool water splashes, but when the line stopped moving and no one said why, we gave up and headed for the water park.

I had the surprise of my life. Probably anyone with young kids in their lives know that water parks aren’t what they used to be, but I had no clue. We walked in the gates (all included with our Silverwood ticket), and a Disneyland of water opened up before us. There were several combinations of water slides, a “lazy river” with inner tubes that looked fabulously inviting, and two giant wave pools. Can you believe I have never actually been in a wave pool?

I would have loved to float the river, but we needed to find the family. No problem…there were at least 20 of them somewhere, right? For a slow day, I have never seen so many people. After a bit of wandering and searching, we finally found them all lined up by the first big wave pool. That water felt fabulous. Kinda like being in the Caribbean without the sand or the salt. On a busy day.

It was great fun with the family and all the little kids that are now becoming a bigger part of the Oukrop clan. Neither Mo nor I had brought swim suits but we jumped in anyway. I have an entirely new concept now of what a water park can be, and if I am in the mood to deal with crowds to get cool I won’t turn my nose up at one again. Probably wouldn’t go there on our own, but with family or kids it is great.

By evening, we all migrated back the two hours to Spokane, with just enough time to dry out and change clothes for the big family dinner at Casa De Oro. This restaurant on Division has great Mexican food, and a room big enough for all of us.

I can’t believe that I not only didn’t take my camera, but I didn’t even try to take photos with my phone! Guess I was just too worn out from all that fun during the day.

Thanks to Randi, I got some phone photos to collage to give an idea of what it was like in a restaurant with a big family. For once, I wasn’t checking my phone, but that wasn’t true of everyone, thank goodness! At least we got some photos!

What a fabulous day and it was just the beginning.

Next Post: I take some time for myself to revisit old homes and friends in Northern Idaho