Day 16

Melba, Idaho (at Colleen’s house)

Weather: Day 85 Night 50's

Today was a recuperate and relax day. I think we really needed it. We got up at a normal hour due to the highway traffic noise (Colleen lives right on a highway), but took our time about getting to breakfast and getting moving.

After coffee and breakfast, Dennis did some diagnostics on the camper water tank and pump problem we’ve been having. After narrowing it down to a problem with the pump, he and Bill headed up to the camper store to get a new pump. They spent the rest of the morning installing it and now our fresh water tank and pump are fully operational! We can now do some dry camping (which means not having to be hooked up to anything-water, electric or sewer) which is much cheaper and gives us much more flexibility! This will be good for many of the places we are planning on going to in Utah.

Dennis hard at work fixing the water pump-it is located under the bed in our room.

The kids did some little things with Colleen and Bill-they played foosball, jumped on the little trampoline, did a little hand sewing project with Colleen, Bay and Uncle Bill took a ride in his old Peanut Car and also Bay rode the riding lawnmower around the driveway for awhile. Leah fed the goats some mint from a nearby field of mint, Dennis and I each took naps, and someone put a movie on at some point.

 Colleen's house is surrounded by mint fields-they harvest it and distill it for the essential oil locally. She and Leah picked some stems and feed them to the goats for a treat.

Bay had fun riding Bill's riding lawn mower around-he is big enough to reach the pedals on this one. Dennis' is too big at home for him to reach. He was even shifting gears and doing little spin outs! 

Near dinner time, Ehud (Dennis’ nephew) and wife, Cassie, came by and we all went out to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant named Chapala. We then took our full bellies out for some moderate exercise-a nearby park (West Park) had Frisbee golf and a playground. It all went very well until the 8^th golf hole presented  water hazard-a smelly pond full of cattails. Three Frisbee discs went into the pond, we were able to recover 2 of them.

 Cousins together-not something that happens too often in our family!

 Ehud obliging Bay with a little upside down spin around!

 Dennis gave Ehud a frisbee disc 11 years ago when Ehud came and visited us in North Carolina. It must have made an impression-because he still has the disc and plays out here!

 Leah getting in on the action

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 Ehud-all grown up and just as sweet as ever! What a wonderful young man

 Bill tries to avoid the camera, but I got some good candid pictures of him

The sign reads, "Please Stay out of Pond, Water May pose risks to your health" Well, they got 2 of the 3 discs and scrubbed up real well afterwards! We may go back with a pair of waders and get the last disc!

It’s early to bed tonight and another relaxing day ahead of us tomorrow before we get back on the adventure trail Monday morning!