The River of No Return Lodge.

For the crappy hours that Jeff has a work. He sure does get some great perks. He qualified for a jet boat trip to a lodge on the Salmon River. We went this last Sunday and Monday. Sadly I forgot the camera but Glenda and Alethea took some so I hope to get copies.

You can only get to the Lodge by boat so we had to start our trip out at Corn Creek. It is about 30 minutes past Mario's cabin. The literal end of the road. The parking was parking was limited and our car is so small that we just had Mario park behind us in a space. We got our bags and headed for the boat. Now this is a river that many people float. I know that almost everyone who reads this blog has been white water rafting. Imagine doing that but in a jet boat with more power. WHAT A RIDE!

We stopped a couple of times for some sightseeing, and to learn the name of some of the little creeks and we learned alot about the history of the river and the area around it. The best part about the trip down was seeig the bald eagles. We was the mom and dad and last years baby. they were beautiful! The trip to the lodge including stopping for lunch took about 2 1/2 hours.

There was a nice grassy area all around the lodge and the cabins. There was no electricity. The forest service won't allow it. So everything was propane ran. Only drawbacks were no phones and no AC. It was HOT! Well it wasn't really that bad until you tried to go to bed.

Anyway, oh I forgot to tell who all was there. There was Mario and Glenda (Jeff's boss and his wife), Scott ( Jeff's sales manager), Steve and Alethea (finance manager and girlfriend), and Gary (co worker).

After we got settled in and met the cook we went on another boat ride to the hot springs. This was great for 2 reasons. The first was that we had to go over Salmon Falls to get there. Yes I said over the falls. I wasn't really sure what to expect. How can you take a jet boat over some falls and survive. Well it wasn't that big. The scariest part was the fact that you had to go between two rocks to go down it and there was maybe a foot on each side of the boat away from the rocks. but we did catch some air. The second was that the hot spring we went to was just like a hot tub. It was on the side of a hill and had some tubes that had hot and cold water. There was even a plug in the bottom in case the water looked a little questionable. Now on the way back we had to go back up the falls. Just as much air was caught. Then of course, having men acting like little boys we had to turn around and go back down and up the falls again. I had to admit I had a blast. Then we headed back to the lodge for dinner.

The men decided to challenge each other to a game of horse shoes. No growing up everyone of my dads company parties and I think some church outings revolved around horse shoes. One of the curses of growing up in Wyoming.

So it started. Steve and Jeff against Mario and Gary. The rest of us rotating in then others lost. Steve and Jeff won the first one. Then Scott and Alethea challenged the winners. Alethea learned as she went. Not sure she had ever played before. Jeff and Steve won again. So then Glenda and I decided to challenge the winner. Within the first 10 minutes the score was 7 to 0. We were ahead. Woo hoo!. We ended up winning but barely, they had a great comeback at the end. We barely lost our next game to Scott and Alethea. They were as impressed with my skills as I was surpised I could still play.

We played until dark. During one of the last games I had the crap scared out of me. The couple that run the lodge had been telling us about this bear that sticks around named Boo Boo. We were sitting there watching a game and the players all of a sudden went. TURN AROUND LOOK OVER THERE. Now the first thing that came to mind was OH CRAP. A BEAR !!! But is was only Pricilla. A deer that had come looking for handouts. Apparently the cook feeds her scraps along with some rock chucks named Rocky and the Rockettes.

I had a blast and had fun onthe boat trip back the next day. As I said I hope to have some pictures soon.