In our two years of travel we have only stayed at one truck stop in our fifth wheel. We never stay places without at least partial hookups. We just aren’t really set up for it. But on our trip to Alaska in the summer house, we got used to not having many amenities and we were without hookups almost the entire summer. And, We survived! So we decided we would stay the night at a rest stop on our way from Oregon to Idaho. It was a quick stop on our way through and they advertised that overnights are allowed for up to 12 hours. It was a great place to sleep on our way through, even with the trucks running all night long. A little white noise never hurt anyone.
The next day we made it to our destination, Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho. We had stayed here about a year ago. This time we were a couple weeks earlier in the year and the water was still on. Last year when we came through the water was off and we were not prepared. Luckily in their horse area the water was still on and we were able to fill our tanks.
This year the water was on, luckily, because after playing on the dunes, the boys desperately needed showers.
Emmett has been watching a show on his kindle and they have “creature power.” He said he needed to “activate bee power” before going to the dunes, so he wore a bumble bee costume while climbing on the dunes. It was a warm day and, just like last time, incredibly windy. The boys all had a blast racing trucks down the hill and rolling down. They each had about a pound of sand in their hair. We could have saved it and made our own personal sand dune.
Another family that we had met online came to meet us also. They stayed at the rest stop but got in late and we didn’t have time to visit. So they came along with us to the dunes. We enjoy meeting new people on the road and especially love when they become friends and we get to meet up again. That is usually a highlight for all of us when we know we are going to see friends. We have all made some great friends through our travels.
Bruneau dunes has been a great stop again. Emmett was able to get his Jr. Ranger badge. The other boys got theirs last year, but Emmett wasn’t even two yet, so not ready to work on books. Now he’s almost three and really enjoys them. If we come back to Bruneau dunes for a third time we are going to plan ahead and go when the observatory is open. They have a special lens on their telescope for looking at the sun and at night they have an educational program and you can look at stars, planets and the moon. It seems no matter where we travel, our list of places to see and things to do will never end, it just keeps expanding.
