105 & Smoky Today, Road Trip, Thrifting & Olympics Mayhem

105 And Smoky-
Today was just miserable, 105 (record breaking) and the smoke was so thick from three wildfires in the mountains north of here that I can barely see the foothills. It sucks. It's so dry and hot I can barely do any yard work except first thing in the morning. It's was 90 at 10 p.m. tonite! Miserable, but I am grateful to have A/C and that luxury. What a thing to come back to after a great road trip!

101 but it got hotter later

Road Trip-
Dave took a week off, so we did a two-day road trip, what we could afford. We went to a Raspberry Festival up north in Cottonwood, Idaho. It's on the property of St. Gertrude's Monastery, with female monastics. We'd gone there years ago with the three kids to see what it was like and had a great time. They had a huge quilt contest that time, but sadly, not this year. They have all organic gardens, and have a very sustainable lifestyle, growing almost all their own food. I'm not Catholic, but I love the art work and vibe of the place. We took a tour of the church there, just gorgeous. Most of the sisters are older and very kind. I bought raspberry jam, vinegar, and "healing salve". They served a wonderful lunch, with live bluegrass music- pulled pork sandwiches, slaw, raspberry lemonade and a HUGE dessert of cocoa cake and fresh crushed raspberries and whipped cream. Dave and I split one dessert, as it was so big. WOW, we were full after that! It was pretty cute going by a very rural golf country club nearby, with a parking lot of brand new, shiny pickup trucks. Not something you see in the city!

Since it was a long drive (5 1/2 hours) we stopped in McCall, a gorgeous mountain town for the night. We had camped south of there a couple of weeks ago. We found a really nice place to stay for the night for a great price. Clean and quiet, and tried some new restaurants and hit some thrift stores :)

I almost had a coronary when I got home and the chicken waterers were EMPTY, OMG!!! I had kept them in the coop due to a local cat problem, for their own safety, with a mister on. The 2 waterers were full when we left but they obviously drank more than I thought they would. One smaller one got knocked over :(  I let them out right away when we got home. I watered them, got them ice chips, and gave them wet oatmeal. They perked up right away. Thankfully we got home when we did, and no one croaked. Lesson learned- get a 2nd gallon waterer if gone. The poor garden just wilted terribly too with no water for almost two days. Now every day it's water-water-water. Here's some photos of the trip-

On the way up to St. Gertrude's

the view from St. Gertrudes, the "palouse" plains

The gorgeous church

Icon by the main entrance

Payette Lake, McCall

More Payette Lake

Guess what was for sale across the motel's parking lot? A "Sisters on the Fly" glamping trailer! I wish I could have seen the inside!!! Great paint job! It was in front of a "junktique" store. It was closed, dang! Wanted to go in there...

Thrifting-

I hit a couple thrift stores before, during and after the road trip. Here's my score-

Talk about perfect timing- I got the like-new Thermos jug (with a cup in the top) for $2.00 and we took it on the road!

Two Pfaltzgraff mugs- a buck each, another mug, a glass flour jar $2.00. I also got a nice sweater, cord jacket, flannel blouse, nice wool scarf from the U.K., new cord slacks, and a skirt. Great deals!

Olympics Mayhem-
I stopped watching the Olympics this year, as it too oriented towards professionals (many of them) and not so many true amateurs, IMO. Kristin Armstrong appears to have possibly bribed someone to get her child up on the podium (after being told "no" by everyone in authority) to be with her getting her gold medal. She then mysteriously left early and will not be in the closing ceremony. Maybe she was told to leave? Hmmm.... not very nice to break the rules....