July 25, 2024. Day 18 of trip.
We successfully navigated from Leavenworth, Washington to Athol, Idaho with a stop along the way in Spokane, Washington to get Dexter’s orthodontia repaired.
Our current campsite is located immediately adjacent to Silverwood Theme Park, and if you look out the window you can actually see the roller coasters from our rig.
We spread our Silverwood visit over 2 days as Silverwood is a large amusement park (413 acres of land). There is one area that is primarily water slides (Boulder Beach) and one part that is primarily roller coasters and other rides. Since yesterday was much hotter than today, we went to the water park yesterday and then to the amusement park today.
Silverwood has a bakery / coffee shop that opens prior to the rest of the park and Heidi scouted it out and determined that I needed to be there right at 9AM in order to purchase their famous cinnamon bread. Yesterday, I got up, got dressed, got Dexter’s piano set up and wanted Dexter to practice. Dexter insisted in joining me on the walk to get the cinnamon bread. We walked past the bag check at 857 and tried to enter and were accosted by a Silverwood employee, “You can’t enter yet, my security guard isn’t here.” We noted that it was nearly 900 and she said, “You have to sit over here on these benches until my security guard arrives.” About 905, the security guard came lumbering up, so we departed our benches and headed inside.
When Dexter and I passed the gate, they scanned the barcode on my phone, took our picture with a webcam, and we headed into the bakery / gift shop. I picked up 2 orders of the cinnamon bread and a nonfat latte for Heidi, and Dexter and I headed back to the rig. All told, it took us about 35 minutes to retrieve the breakfast treat.
I had to move Annalise’s cello and case from under the dinette to make room to eat, and as I swung it around, I whacked Heidi right in the ear. It wasn’t too violent of a hit, but it was completely unexpected and brought a brief tear to her eye. Usually my klutziness only impacts my own personal health, but this time it (literally) impacted Heidi. We ate the cinnamon bread with yogurt and fruit, and then the kids practiced their instruments until it was time to leave. We all headed to Silverwood just before 11AM.
The lines for the water slides were exceedingly long and we couldn’t wear shoes, so I feel like I spent most of my day standing barefoot on hot concrete. It took us over 3 hours to complete our first 3 slides.
The most notable water slide of the day was the newest one called “Eagle Hunt.” It’s not legal to hunt eagles in the USA, but I think the idea is that you are the eagle and as you go down the slide, you are soaring around and you are the eagle who is the hunter as opposed to being the human hunting eagles. “Eagle Hunt” is considered to be a water slide and roller coaster because it has multiple uphill sections were jets of water push you up the slide at a high rate of speed. I really enjoyed the intensity of this slide and we all got absolutely soaked. Annalise enjoyed it even though it was rated as a “high intensity” ride, which was nice.
We stopped for lunch at the Mexican restaurant (Pablo’s) where Heidi and I had burritos. Annalise and Dexter had the PB&J kids’ meal lunchboxes and we all shared chips and cheese nachos. Annalise bought a bag of cotton candy and the nearby dessert place and she ate most of it, but shared a little with the rest of us.
After lunch, we did a few more water slides, but mostly spent our time in the lazy river and the wave pool. Both locations were nice as they had soft bottoms which didn’t hurt our feet. While in the lazy river, a little boy (maybe 3 years old) in a life jacket snuck up behind me and vigorously dunked my head in the water. I turned around to see who dunked me and he declared with a grin on his face, “I’m a pretty good dunker.” He dunked me multiple times, and then I had him dunk Dexter for a while. In the end, I gave him a piggy back ride and he was quite pleased. There were a lot of people in the lazy river, but no obvious adult was supervising this boy. When we headed out, I asked him if he knew where his grown-ups are and he assured me that he knew where to find them.
A little after 4PM, Annalise was getting cold, so she and Heidi changed into dry clothes and went back to the RV to give Ranger a potty break and to stretch his legs.
Dexter and I played at the water park for another hour and then we all met up for supper at Lindy’s restaurant where we had garlic potato dippers and huckleberry lemonade. The garlic potato dippers were outstanding and it felt appropriate to eat potatoes while in Idaho. The huckleberry lemonade was tasty but it was a little too sweet for me.
Next we headed to the amusement park side of Silverwood. Dexter, Heidi and I did the stunt pilot roller coaster and Dexter and I did the tremors roller coaster. I had sinus surgery last October and I continue to have significant sinus drainage and pain from my left maxillary sinus. Unfortunately, when I go on roller coasters, it irritates that sinus and makes it feel like I’m having a toothache.
We headed back to the log flume ride where there was a group of people gathered at the machine where you can pay a quarter to spray water on the people on the ride. Dexter and Heidi shared a log and Annalise and I shared a 2nd log. We all got quite soaked during the experience. Annalise was the main person who wanted to do the ride, and she wasn’t the person who got soaked the worst, that award definitely went to Heidi.
We were still a little hungry, so we went to the ice cream shop where we ordered their signature dish: 4 large scoops of ice cream in a single bowl for $7.99. We picked cotton candy (Annalise), cookies and cream (Dexter), Moose Tracks (Heidi), and chocolate chip cookie dough (Tim) and had it served in a waffle cone bowl. We sat down with 4 spoons and promptly devoured the ice cream.
We then meandered back to the entrance area to go on the 3.5 mile train ride loop around the entire Silverwood property on the west side of the freeway. We got to see a small herd of bison, including one youngster who was running across the field gleefully. The narrators on the train ride told us about the history of Silverwood as well as some of the history of Idaho.
After we finished the train ride, we made a brief stop at the gift shop where Annalise got something for one of her friends and Dexter got a deck of Silverwood-branded playing cards.
Annalise said that the only good part about the day yesterday was the junk food even though she appeared to enjoy each of the activities she engaged in.
Dexter seemed to enjoy the lazy river the most, probably because it didn’t require any waiting in line.
Heidi and I have noticeably aged since the first time we came here 2 years ago. Riding the high intensity roller coasters doesn’t have the same pleasure to pain ratio as it once did. When I was a teenager, high intensity roller coasters had a pleasure to pain ratio of probably 10 to 1. Now it is probably closer to 2 to 1. I think the pleasure is still the same amount, but the pain has increased substantially. I can now understand why you never see any elderly people riding high-intensity roller coasters. I do take comfort in the fact that you do see elderly people on the ski slopes, so I will have that to continue to look forward to as I continue to age.
One of the inspirations for going on this trip was reading the book “Die with Zero” by Bill Perkins. His premise is that one should not focus on maximizing wealth, one should focus on living the best life possible. He notes that all of us are primarily constrained by three things: time, money, and health. When you are young (say 20s and 30s) you tend to have time and health, but not money. When you are old (Say 70s and 80s), you have time and money, but not health. When you are middle age (40s-50s) you tend to have money and health, but not time. Ultimately, time is the most precious resource we have, and he advocates spending your time in middle age doing things that improve your overall life experiences. Right now, I have enough money to do this trip, I have enough health to do this trip, and the only real constraint is taking the time off work to do it. When I made my intentions clear to my colleagues at work, they were universally supportive of me.
Many of them thought I was insane (“You are seriously going to spend a year livening in a 28 foot trailer with a 12 and 14 year old?”), several of them described me as “brave” but all of them loved the idea of going on a grand adventure. Working as a hospitalist, I care for a lot of people who are in the final chapter of their life’s journey. If you ever want to understand how precious life is, talk to someone who is dying. I hope that when it is my time to go people will say of me, “He truly lived.”
Silverwood Day 2
The kids didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, but I told Dexter we wouldn’t head out until he got his practicing done. Heidi and I got caught up on laundry, we ate breakfast, Dexter practiced his piano, and we started walking to Silverwood shortly after 11AM.
Dexter wanted to do roller coasters all day, and Annalise only wanted to do the raft ride and eat junk food. We started with a quick trip down “Stunt Pilot” which is a fabulously smooth and fast roller coaster. Dexter and I rode while Annalise and Heidi waited. After “Stunt Pilot” we headed over to the area where you can “Drive” antique cars around a track. There is a rail in the middle that prevents any “real” driving, but it is still fun.
We then went over to the river rafting ride called “Thunder Canyon” where we all got soaked. The lines were very long again today, and it took us nearly 3 hours to do those first 3 rides, just like yesterday. Annalise wanted to eat “lunch” (actually eat junk food), so we headed for the carnival area where we had funnel cake, ice cream, giant pretzels, and chips and cheese nachos. Annalise then headed (by herself) back to the RV so she could practice her cello. She has been feeling like we are not “allowing” her to practice enough on this trip and today she took full advantage of the opportunity to practice her instrument instead of having fun with the rest of us.
Dexter wanted to ride “Tremors” so we headed that way, but the line was much too long. We wanted to ride “Aftershock” but it was closed all day due to wind. We went back and rode “Stunt Pilot” a few more times. We then went on the bumper boats which is a ride we had never done before at Silverwood. By this time, it was almost 500, so we headed to the Magic / Illusion show called “Phantasm.” We invited Annalise to join us, but she choose not to. After the show, we headed back to “Tremors” again, but the line was still too long. We decided to order a pizza for dinner and the pizzeria is in the same spot as the magic show, so we claimed seats in the front row while we waited for our pizza. Annalise decided to join us this time, and we watched the magic show a 2nd time. Dexter stayed afterward and got autographs from the magician and his assistants.
Annalise and Heidi headed back to the rig, and Dexter and I went back to “Tremors” again to try and ride it. By this time it was 8 PM, and the line was still too long. We went back and rode “Stunt Pilot” a final time and headed back to the rig.
I put away the Blackstone in anticipation of departing tomorrow and I’m sitting outside in my camping chair typing this next to my propane fire pit. I’m loving my fire pit as it gives 90% of the ambience of a campfire with none of the hassle and none of the smoke.
Tomorrow we drive past Sandpoint, Idaho and Lake Pend Orielle (Pronounced pond-a-ray) on our way to “Green Acres Ranch” which is a HipCamp near Thompson Falls, Montana. We will be changing time zones (Farewell Pacific time, Hello Mountain time) tomorrow for the first time on this trip. We’re only staying in Thompson Falls for a single night before we drive past Kalispell to stay at a HipCamp near glacier national park. After tonight, we have 5 nights of boon docking which will test our skills. Other families our size are able to successfully boon dock for up to 7 nights using our setup, so I’m optimistic we can make it 5 nights, but it might be challenging.
When boon docking, resource management is key. The main resources are: propane, electricity, water, gray tank storage, and black tank storage. The weather should be mild over the next few days, so we won’t use much propane (only for the hot water heater, we won’t need the furnace). We have solar panels to harvest electricity, 690 amp hours of lithium for energy storage, a 12V DC to 120V AC inverter, as well as a generator. With our electrical set up, we are fine for many days, with the exception that we can’t use too much air conditioning or else we’ll have to run the generator a lot.
We have 100 gallons of fresh water on board, and 40 gallons of black tank (toilet water) storage, 40 gallons of bathroom shower/sink (grey tank) storage, and another 40 gallons of kitchen sink (grey tank) storage. I suspect that the limiting factor for our boon docking will be running out of fresh water or running out of fresh water storage.
Many RVrs only stay in locations with full hookups, but I really like to stay in places without other people around.
Tomorrow’s site is a grassy field on a farm with a river nearby and a horse next door. As nice as it has been to be walking distance from Silverwood, I’m ready for a break from all of the people1 I tend to be extroverted and I like people, but after hanging out in crowds for the last few days, I’m ready for some peace and quiet.
SAOTD: Heidi, when she got whacked in the ear with the cello case.