American Goldfinch

We love watching for different varieties of song birds where ever we go. The bright yellow and black American Goldfinch are abundant here in Montana. One morning there were 3 hanging around the motorhome side-view mirrors. When we're fishing we see them streaking across the river from one bank to the other.

This is an interesting and informative website. I'm going to dive into it more to learn about attracting and photographing birds. I loved the links they provide to the bird songs. Enjoy. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Goldfinch/id

First Week Fishing Report

The river water level has been rising each day - from 60 to 120 to 250 to 315 to 400 to 480 to 590 cubic feet per second (cfs). We've fished the past 10 days and each day we're getting to know more about the early season bugs and the eating habits of the fish. This is our first time being here so early. Last year we wanted to get here for opening day, but we were delayed and arrived in mid-June. There are no dry flies happening so it's all nymph fishing and tiny nymphs at that.

This is really different and perhaps reminisent of years ago fishing in the West Yellowstone and Last Chance areas early in the season. We can still see snow on the surrounding hillsides and there are more than a few local rivers (like the Big Hole) nearing flood stage with the warm weather bringing heavy snowmelt. And some of the local rivers (like the Madison River) are experiencing muddy conditions as a result of the run-off. Because of the above average snowfall in many parts, the lakes and reservoirs are at near-full capacity. Not dangerous levels, just good levels.

The water temperature in the river is about 46 degrees and the outside temperatures have been around 70 degrees during the day, with the nights getting down to the low 30's. Good sleeping weather! For the first couple days of fishing we put on our shorts and water sandals and wet-waded. The cold water felt good - for about 5 minutes. Then once numb we could last quite a while longer in the water. Thank goodness we caught a few fish so we could walk to the bank and out of the water to release them and defrost. It was pretty darn cold and a number of fellow-fishermen would comment on our ability to stand the cold, which made me able to stand the cold a little while longer. When I walked out of the river yesterday a guy asked me "Do you have any feeling in your legs?" I replied, "Yep, like a thousand pins and needles."

For a couple days the temperature dropped a little and we decided to break out the waders. Yep! We gloved up. We pulled on the rubber pants. We laced up the Patagonia wading boots, some of the lightest boots out there, and they still felt like cement shoes. It was nice to be able to get in up to our knees and not freeze our toes off, but we both would rather wet-wade. For a couple days we wore the chest waders, the only time we've wadered-up in a few years. Today we weren't even going to fish because of all the people camping and fishing on this long holiday weekend. But I talked Rick into it and we grabbed our rods and chest packs, and with our water sandals, we fished for about 3 hours. We caught a few fish each and were very happy.

The absence of mosquitoes in these early days has almost made up for the number of fishermen on the river. Rick says the blood-sucking mosquitoes will be showing up any day now so I'd better enjoy it while it lasts.

The river all to ourselves

What a difference from the last couple days. Most of the campers pulled out of the campground before noon today and headed for their homes, the last day of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. There were a couple other fishermen on the river when we went down at noon, but they soon moved on. A few boats drifted past and didn't stop. It took us a little while to figure out the fish were taking olive green nymphs, but with Rick and I changing our flies a few times we zeroed in on the right color, size, shape combination. I brought most of my fish to the shore and released them and Rick was having more of a challenge in that department. He was hooking more fish than me, but the fish are ferocious fighters right now, running up-river, running right at us, and shaking their heads to get rid of the hook.

Rainy Sunday

Sunday, my day to sleep in, as Rick says. I did sleep in and when I finally got up I made my famous "angler's sandwich" for brunch. It was cold and drizzly outside and the entire day was spent inside our mobile fishing lodge. I had planned to bundle up with a blanket and a book, but its late in the night now and I never opened the book. I started out with some delicious coffee (sweetened only on Sundays) and soon was working on computer issues for family. I won't name names, but you know who you are. I was happy to help with some digital photo issues, helping to create greeting cards, and a couple other special projects I can't divulge. Rick also did some "family computer support" and the timing was good. We'd already decided that today would be a day off from fishing. What better way to spend the day than with family, even if it was long-distance.

My angler's sandwich consists of grilled ham, grilled onion, cheese and scrambled egg on grilled bread, all made in a skillet on the stovetop. Easy to make in the motorhome or on a griddle over a campfire. I start out warming the sliced ham and thinly sliced onion in the skillet. I remove those ingredients and set aside with the cheese on top. I scramble the eggs and place that on the other stacked ingredients. I place one piece of bread, buttered side down, in the skillet and add the stacked meat, cheese, onion and egg and top with the other piece of bread. Turn when the bread is grilled to your liking. I got the idea for the sandwich from a little corner convenience store/gas station in Shelley, Idaho. We used to stop in there with Eric before floating the river and they made a "farmer's sandwich" which had everything on it, including bacon, sausage and hashbrown potatoes, wrapped in foil and it would last you all day. Mine are made with whatever I have on hand and usually a little smaller. One of Rick's favorites.

Fly Tying Bench

Rick created this wooden fly tying bench this past winter. It’s made of maple and very sturdy.

He used to keep all these tying tools and supplies in a shallow box and he’d have to set everything up before starting to tie. Now everything stays put and the whole tying bench fits into an overhead cabinet in the motorhome. Actually, it usually stays out on the dinner table while we're camped on the river so he can tie flies whenever he wants to.

(Rick has a lot more tying materials and he brings along another box or two to hold the extra materials and hooks.)

Everything stays organized and he’s ready to tie flies at a moments notice.

I'm very thankful that Rick ties all our flies. Buying flies can be expensive. And besides, he's able to immediately 'match the hatch' and tie whatever bugs we see on the river.

I haven't tied flies myself in more than 10 years, but I'd like to start again. It is very satisfying to be able to catch a fish on a fly you've tied yourself.

Communication Outage for a day

I think this is the first time that we've been without phone or Internet communication in a long time, maybe forever. Even when we've been in areas with limited or sparse coverage, we've been able to put up the Wilson antennae and get a weak signal. But we learned today that all electricity to the nearby tower facility had been knocked out yesterday and there was no communication at all for Verizon and a couple other carriers. It was out for almost the entire day! Right after midnight one of the phones regained consciousness and it woke me up with its chime.

Neither one of us are big users of cell phones. We don't text or Twitter. We use the phones as phones for talking with family and friends. Just this week I saw a TV show about families that were addicted to electronic devices like cell phones, video games, the Internet and they had stopped talking to each other in person and had stopped eating meals together. Pretty sad, but I had a tiny glimpse of going without Internet for a few hours. The TV show had them give up their gadgets for a week or 2 and the family members grew closer to each other and spent time together. They ended up being happier without all the electronic toys and gadgets.

We were on the river fishing for most of the day, but when we got home I wondered what I'd do without the Internet. Well, I read a book and I played with my digital photos a little and prepared some new greeting cards to print, but mostly read the book. Rick was happy because he's always reading or tying flies. He didn't miss the phone or the Internet for that short time. The electricity wasn't out in the campground so we had satellite TV to entertain us (like we need TV to entertain us??). I realized how much I "enjoy" my laptop and the Internet. For a while I kept thinking that I could use the computer and look something up (a fly pattern, something about the camera, a map, a fishing report), but then I'd say "nope, no signal." I admit I do turn it on in the morning to check news and email, but then I don't think about it at all while on the river. When we get home in the afternoon I again check the news and email, and upload any photos from the cameras. Perhaps I should spend less time on the computer and set aside time to read more books. Perhaps I should do less blogging. Maybe I'll work on a healthy balance between all activities. Maybe I'll fish more, read more and use the computer less. Maybe.

A little wind, a little river, a little fish

Actually, a lot of wind, increased river flow, and some nice trout.

We skipped opening day because it was a zoo. A 'people zoo' and we were happier to sit it out until there was more room to cast.

We fished Sunday and caught a few nice trout. It is sort of like riding a bike when you've been away from fly fishing for almost 8 months. When I had a fish on the hook I felt like I was testing the hook, testing the line, testing the reel, testing the rod, and testing my arm. How much pressure could I put on the fish? How much tension should I have on the reel? Did I dip the tip at the right time to keep the fish on? Should I reel or let it run? That's what Sunday was all about for me. It was exactly what I'd hoped for.

Monday there were even fewer people on the river and the temp was about 75, but the wind was constantly blowing at about 25 miles per hour, the river had been raised yet again from 140 to 315, and was scheduled to go up another 75 cfs. After fishing a few hours in the morning the wind had increased and the grasses and muck floating downstream was collecting on our line. They were raising the water as expected. We'd been using 5X tippet, 2 BB weights, and small nymphs. The nymphs were size 16 or 18 sow bugs and midge larva. With the wind blowing downriver I was lucky to be able to chuck my nymphs straight out from me, let alone upstream. We'd both done fairly well (according to what - I don't know) and decided we'd call it a good day of fishing.

Doesn't Rick look like a happy fisherman? Nice brown trout Rick!

1st day fishing

Life is Good

Temps, Flow, & People

Day one = 54°
Day two = 64°
Day three = 74°
Day four = 84°

The river is flowing at about 84 cfs.

And there are about 84 people in this one mile stretch of river that runs past the campground.

Well OK, maybe I'm exagerating about 84 people, maybe there are only 54 people. On opening day they are all on the river that is flowing so skinny, all the people fishing within arms reach of each other, able to cast and hit the other bank. There are groups of fishermen here for the opening weekend and they were on the river early.

The day before opening day campers in trailers kept arriving, more right now in the campground than we usually see the entire time we're here. I can't remember ever being at a river for opening day, and now I know why. With so many fishermen and children here the day before the river opened, we knew we were going to sit it out. We knew it would be a zoo with so many people. We were OK with sitting on the bank and watching. We know we will have many, many more days to enjoy.

We walked down to the river and watched, taking a few photos, throwing the stick for Clover to fetch. We talked with a few of the guys, watching them tangle their fishing lines together because they were so close. They were catching fish, doing OK, having fun, and drinking beer, but we were content to watch. A group of 10 took turns fishing a short section, 5 of them rotating every so often. Another group of 3 guys were fishing in tight quarters unable to move up- or down-river, surrounded on both sides by another couple groups of fishermen. Like I said, we were content to not fish today, but look out tomorrow. We're going to try to find an open stretch of river and we'll get our lines wet.

Another long day's drive, but we're here!

Our second long day of driving was another windy venture. The tailwinds weren't very noticeable, but the blasts that hit us from the side weren't much fun. Needless to say, I always drive with 2 hands on the wheel. I watch the traffic ahead of us, if there is any, for gusts that might blow them around. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic on the interstate so I could stray out of my lane without consequence. After a day of driving Rick always says "Good job. Thank you for getting us here safely."

Remember I mentioned the orange barrel-size construction cones that line the interstate? This doesn't begin to show how many there are in the state of Utah.

We arrived at our campground in the afternoon, greeted by the owners and their dogs. We love having the dogs with us for the summer. You'll see lots of photos of them. We spent the rest of the day setting up the motorhome for a long stay. While Rick managed the outside, I organized and cleaned the inside. Rick likes to meet all the fellow campers so he was a happy camper himself being out there. Since we had lived the last 3 weeks with the windows open and the wind blowing through the motorhome, we had dust everywhere. Not as bad as Quartzsite can be, but it sure was nice to have it clean. The water in Las Vegas was very hard and left calcium waterspots both inside the shower and outside on the coach. Nice to get that cleaned up also. It felt good to be up and moving around after a long drive.

We drove up and over a few summits on our way north and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. 5000 to 6500 feet. And the tall mountain ranges were completely covered with white. We had a tiny bit of rain, just enough to make sure the windshield wipers worked.

We're going to have one full day before fishing season opens on the river. There are already more campers in the campground than we have ever seen.

400 miles

I drove 400 miles today and we're in Utah, the state of never ending road construction. Where do they get all those orange barrel-size traffic cones? I love to drive and I love that Rick lets me, but I have to grin when I think of the maze-like road construction that seems to always be along I-15 throughout Utah, year after year.

The weather was good, though very windy for the first half of the day. It's nice to be parked high on the hill, overlooking the city lights. Tomorrow will be another 400 mile day, but then we don't plan to do much moving around.

Our Internet connection is not very good here and I keep dropping off, not like our usual good connection with our Verizon air card. That's all for now, more tomorrow perhaps.

In transition

We're in transition, ready to leave Las Vegas and ready to settle in at the river in Montana. We've been reading old fly fishing magazines, brushing up on bugs and knots, and putting the old periodicals aside so we can donate them to the campground laundry room in Montana.

Rick's been reading a new book about every three days - historical fiction. I've been playing with photos and making greeting cards while watching recorded episodes of the TV show Lost. I've watched it since the beginning, but somehow got 12 episodes behind. I've also started a new book, Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.

The campground is thinning out a little. It seems that when 2 motorhomes leave only 1 comes in to take it's place. There are no scheduled activities in this Thousand Trails campground, unlike other TT parks, but with so much going on in Las Vegas it doesn't make sense to have organized events here. A lot of people go out to eat and gamble, some go to hike and sightsee. We've done a little sightseeing, visited a few casinos, drove up the Strip (with quite a bit of building construction going on), we even gambled at the poker table for a short time. I love to play Pai Gow poker, a slow moving card game with a $5 minimum bet, and after an hour or so I'd lost $15 and decided to give it up. High-roller, huh? We don't enjoy large crowds (of strange people) so we've stuck pretty close to home. And we've really enjoyed being in our motorhome.

Next Wednesday we'll leave here and travel about 10 miles to Cummins Intermountain for an "adjustment" on the engine. There's nothing wrong, but Cummins issued a campaign for recalibration of the ISB engines. I guess it's more of a service bulletin. The appointment should be finished quickly and then we'll be on our way to our overnight stop. I'll probably have a 6 hour drive on Wednesday and then 6 hours again on Thursday. It's getting a little warm here - 94 - and it's hard to imagine that in a week we won't be running the air conditioner. We'll be running the heater. Our low at night here is 85 and when we get to Montana we'll be lucky to have highs in the day of 75. It's going to be a nice change.

I didn't take the two photos of the Las Vegas city night lights, but remembered that some friends had been to Vegas a couple years ago and had taken some. I couldn't find any photos on the Internet that were any better than these.

Water sandals

We made a quick trip back to Bass Pro Shop a couple days after our first visit to buy some new water sandals. I'd tried them on while there the first time and after thinking about how comfortable they were, made for wading, and the price wasn't too much (especially compared to Teva, Merrell, Keen and Columbia - all of which we have) decided to go back and get them.

We prefer to wet-wade when we river fish and a good pair of water sandals make for a good day of fishing. These are the Bass Pro Shop brand RedHead Finley River Sandals. On the inside of the straps they're lined with neoprene and seem to have good support. Rick got a pair also because you cannot have too many pairs of wading sandals.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope your day is filled with love!

When in Vegas...

When in Vegas...Go to Bass Pro Shop. "What?" I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why, with all the sights to see in Vegas, why would we want to go to a fish store? Because we like to fish!

Although we like the small local fly shops, Cabela's and Sportsmen's Warehouse, we'll visit any fishing shop if we know about it. I looked on the Internet for any local fly shops and found there is a Bass Pro Shop just south of the Las Vegas Strip. We had a gift certificate from our retirement celebration and Rick needed a new fly line, so off we went to tour the store.

I'd read about a free show at the Silverton Casino that was supposed to be an interactive fish feeding at the casino's aquarium. Sounded good to us and we realized that the Silverton was connected to Bass Pro Shop. Sounded like a nice afternoon to us! We walked around the store, enjoyed all the displays and small aquarium and Rick found a couple items we needed. In the transition area between the store and the casino there's a very big waterfall and canyon setting that connects the 2 businesses.

The large aquarium was right outside the perimeter of the Bass Pro Shop. While we waited for the fish feeding to start, we spent a little time looking at the huge floor to ceiling aquarium full of tropical fish. As we were watching, and taking a few photos, we saw a scuba diver drop in from the top. And then something at the back of the aquarium that looked like a big fish. Lo and behold, it was a mermaid! Reminicent of childhood vacations at WickiWachee Springs in Florida when I was a kid. Although we didn't see anyone feed the fish, the scuba diver appeared to be inspecting and cleaning the coral formations and the mermaid put on a interactive show with the kids who had gathered to watch.

Photos of Thousand Trails Las Vegas campground

There are a few shady campsites in this Thousand Trails Las Vegas park and they are the ones everyone wants. It's only 90 degrees and I can imagine what a scramble it is for the best sites here in the summer when the temps are way above 100. (Actually, the staff assigns each camper to a site when they check in so there is no scramble.) Today was the first day we turned on our air conditioner, but some neighbors have been running their's since we got here. Up until today it was overcast and breezy. Opening all the windows all the time has been more than sufficient to keep us comfortable. Even cool. Today was the warmest in 2 weeks.

This park is very popular in the winter, obviously not so popular in the summer heat. We attended the manager's meeting on Saturday morning which was well attended by the members. When talking about the amenities at this park he told everyone that this TT park is not the revenue generator that other TT parks are. There is no food service here because Thousand Trails cannot compete with the casino buffets. This is the entertainment capitol. Most who stay here go downtown for food and entertainment and use the park as a safe haven to return to at the end of the day. It's not a destination park, but rather a nice campground that enables you to see the local sights. It makes for a quiet campground most of the time.

The park is quiet, but every once in a while we hear a big jet fly over, headed for the airport. The jets aren't too noisy, they just remind us that we're in the middle of civilization, not in a national forest. The traffic out on the street is not loud, but we must be near a police, fire or ambulance station because the sirens are very noticeable at times. At night we've seen the police helicopter circle overhead. It may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. We're in a big city and it's expected. It's a nice campground, a good stopping place on the way north, friendly people, and it seems to be safe. Having a TT person at the front gate to check everyone in gives us a good feeling.

Thousand Trails Las Vegas is a clean, well maintained park and they have upgrades and improvements planned for this summer when the park is empty. There is a well-stocked store, an activity room with a pool table, a couch and chairs, and wi-fi access. The swimming pool and hot tub are just outside the store, right next to the fenced dog run. We've seen some of the campers have difficulty with the turns and streets, but I don't think that's the fault of the park. In fact, the wooden posts that mark the grassy areas can be easily removed if someone gets into a pickle turning a corner too tightly.

We spoke with a friend in Montana and he said it's cold and about the time you think it's going to warm up, it rains or snows, and then turns cold again. Having a motorhome with exposed holding tanks and hose connections, we need to be more cautious with freezing temperatures than a stick-and-brick homeowner. We're anxious to get to Montana, but not anxious to face frozen water hoses. We'll probably be here another week, with the air conditioner running.

Just one more -- one more Vegas buffet

We went out this morning to the Fiesta Henderson casino for what will probably be our last Sunday champagne brunch and all-you-can-eat crab legs. A true bargain when we have a 2-for-1 coupon and the total cost is less than $10 for the both of us. We could have had almost any type of food at this morning's buffet, true of any good Vegas buffet, but we choose to stick with our original plan of only crab legs. They are such a mess, with crab juice dripping down our arms to our elbows. And having to crack all those shells to get to the tender white crab meat, but oh so worth it. Oh yeah, we did have a few shrimp, but they were shrimpy and we quickly abandoned the shrimp craving. We both tried some of the spicy, grilled fish and we both ended with some non-fat frozen chocolate yogurt for dessert. It's been our favorite brunch stopping spot for years as we travel through Vegas on our way to Montana.

Thousand Trails - Las Vegas

We've been here about 10 days and have another 10 to go. Having never spent this much time in Las Vegas, I thought we'd be bored and unable to stay put this long. We're not gamblers nor do we like to mingle with thousands of tourists. But half way through this visit we're enjoying ourselves and our motorhome lifestyle. We think we'll stay a little longer.

Our TT membership allows us to stay at a member park for 21 days and then we're able to move immediately into another TT/LT/NACO preserve without being out of the system. There are no other TT parks on our route north so as long as the weather is not too hot here we're going to stay and explore Vegas. It's been about 10 degrees cooler here than in Phoenix, with overcast cloudy skies and lots of wind to keep us cool. If we feel the need to move we'll look for campgrounds in Utah. Opening day on the river is May 16 and we plan to be there.


Thousand Trails Las Vegas is not like other forested, rural, green-grass, scenic campgrounds we've visited. However, it's not a casino parking lot for boondocking campers. Far from a parking lot. This is a little bit of an oasis in a big, bustling metropolitan city. A heavily populated city that stays awake allllll night long. Vegas never sleeps. They never sleep because they don't have clocks in casinos to remind people what time it is. Clocks are the enemy of casinos. Gamblers get so engrossed in playing, and hoping to win, that they lose all common sense. That may not be true of all gamblers, but walking through a casino at 8:30 in the morning and seeing all those slot machine junkies propped on their stools, you just know they've been there for hours. Sorry, that's not for us.

I plan to post photos of this Thousand Trails Las Vegas park soon.