Pet companions howl over Dog Bark Park Inn

Twice a month during the summer of 2010 I would drive past the Dog Bark Park Inn on my trips between Spokane, Wash., and Riggins, Idaho, on the Salmon River.

Without fail, every time I hit the crest of the hill near Cottonwood, in north central Idaho, I'd glance to the side of Hwy. 95 and smile. Who wouldn't smile at the sight of two huge beagles? I loved those dogs. They are such a 'sweet' sight.

'Sweet' because the Dog Bark Park Inn is home to 'Sweet Willy' and 'Toby,' the "World's Two Biggest Beagles."

Toby, a 12-foot tall beagle statue, was built by Dog Bark Park artists Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin.

Sweet Willy, officially known as Dog Bark Park Inn, "is one of America's latest additions to the type of roadside architecture popular in the early days of automobile vacation travel when travelers would often buy gas, eat meals or stay overnight in a building that looked like something else," say owners Dennis and Frances.

One recent review on TripAdvisor states: "Where else can you stay in a dog and cozy up for bed in his head? Dennis and Frances have created a one of a kind experience - not only by the unique accommodations, but by providing such a warm atmosphere with every creature comfort you could want - including a delicious breakfast and munchies."

As for the town of Cottonwood, it boasts a population a tad under 1,000 and sits "in the heart of the Camas Prairie where wheat, barley, canola, blue grass and hay are the dominate crops." The town features places to stock up on groceries and fuel.

Dog Bark Park Inn
2421 Business Loop 95
Cottonwood, ID 83522
208.962-3647
e-mail: frances@dogbarkparkinn.com
url: www.dogbarkparkinn.com
Hours: Open year round. Daily 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Approximate driving times --

From the North: Lewiston, Idaho 1 hour; Spokane/Coeur d’Alene, 4 hours.
From the South: Riggins, 1 hour; McCall, 2 hours; Boise, 4 ½ hours; Salt Lake City, 11 hours.
From the West: Richland, WA, 5 hours; Seattle/Portland, 7-8 hours
From the East: Missoula, 4 hours; Bozeman, MT, 8 hours

Photos: Courtesy of TripAdvisor

Knoebels Amusement Resort

Have you ever stayed in a campground with a full amusement park on the property? At Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania you can do just that. Knoebels is an old-fashioned, family friendly amusement park with no admission fee and reasonable prices for rides and food. To make it an ideal spot for RVers, there’s a 500 site campground on the property with accommodations for the biggest rigs.

Originally built in the early 1900s, Knoebels sports two wooden roller coasters, an antique carrousel, water flumes, bumper cars, and a wide range of modern amusement rides and attractions for all age groups.

The campground has electrical hookups only, but there are enough fresh water fill stations and dump stations to meet the needs of RVers.

Knoebels Amusement Resort is located at 391 Knoebels Blvd., Elysburg, PA 17824.

For more information call 800-487-4386.

Photos courtesy: www.knoebels.com

Historic Paper House, just north of Boston

In 1922, Ellis Stenman, a Swedish immigrant, started building a two-room summer cottage almost entirely out of newspaper.

The house, began as a hobby, has a wood, floors and roof, the walls however, consists of 215 layers of newspaper. Stenman mixed up his own glue, basically out of flour, water and "a little sticky stuff like apple peels."

The furniture and curtains are also made from newspaper. Stenman, a mechanical engineer, painstakingly wrapped paper around wire to form chairs, desks, lamps and curtains.

In all, it is said he used about 100,000 newspapers. Visitors can pause to read the walls and find historic headlines from the 20s and 30s.

Paper House
Address: 52 Pigeon Hill St., Rockport – Pigeon Cove, MA
Hours: Daily 10 a.m. –5 p.m., spring through fall.
Admission: $2 adults, $1 children, 6-14
Phone: (978) 546-2629

URL: www.paperhouserockport.com

Photos of Paper House exterior and the (mostly) newspaper fireplace by Mister Bisson

Biggest Idaho spud?

As we motored up to examine this heavy load a little more closely, one of our (I kid you not) blonde women friends whipped out her camera. With a straight face she exclaimed in her charming, southern drawl, "Well, I'm sure this just can't be a real potato, can it?"

We'll let you make that call on your own if you happen to get a little north of Driggs, Idaho.

Photo: R&T DeMaris. PS to Shirley: We love you just the way you are.

Yellowstone Bear World

Yellowstone Bear World is a drive-through park in Rexburg, Idaho where you can get up close and personal with both black and brown (grizzly) bears.

Visitors can drive their own cars or RVs through the park or use one of the available loaner cars. Escorted curator tours are also available. The bears in the park were all born there and hand raised, but opportunities for visitors to feed the animals are limited to cub feeding in the petting zoo, and carefully controlled feeding opportunities on the curator tours.

There are several dozen black bears roaming through Bear World, and since visitors’ opportunities to see them varies, the price of admission lets you drive through the park as many times as you like on the day you visit. The park has bison, elk, mountain goats, a moose and several varieties of deer on display.

Your ticket also provides access to amusement rides designed for young children.

• Yellowstone Bear World is open 7 days a week from 9am to 6pm.

For more information call  208.359.9688.

Photos: Lew Pinsker

Make a lighthouse tour part of your Florida RV trip

If your RV travel plans include Florida, here's another item for your "bucket list:" View each of Florida's 30 historic lighthouses.

While the first navigational aid on the coast may have been the watchtower at St. Augustine back in 1586, the first real lighthouse didn't light up the sea until 1824 when a 73 beacon was constructed at the same town. More lighthouses were built over the years, some standing to this day, while others seccumed to the forces of nature or economy.

Each one Florida's lighthouses has a distinctive daytime color and a unique nightime light sequence to aid in navigating more than 1,100 miles of coastline. By the 1940's, the Coast Guard took over the assignment of keeping the lighthouses manned and operated. But that manning part shrank, as by the 1960's lighthouses became automated--taking away just one more romantic job.

But the romance of lighthouses is far from dead. Folks just seem to be fascinated by them, so many are now on the National Register of Historic Places. some can be toured, others just appreciated from afar. Here's a great trip-planning aid from the Florida Maritime Heritage Trail.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

You may not think of Deer Lodge, Montana as an RV destination, but if you are ever on I-90 between Missoula and Butte, and you don’t stop in Deer Lodge, you’ll be missing something special. The Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge is a 1600 acre working cattle ranch operated as it was in the last part of the 19th century.

The ranch house, it’s furnishings, the outbuildings and ranch equipment is all original to the family of Conrad Kohrs, known at the time as the Cattle King of Montana. The ranch was given to the National Park Service in 1977, and it is open to the public free-of-charge.

If you visit you’ll be able to tour the house, the blacksmith shop, the bunkhouse, the barns, and hang out with the horses and cattle. The ranch maintains about 100 head of cattle for demonstration purposes. It is staffed by volunteer and part-time Park Ranger cowboys who handle the cattle, make the hay, and do the chores necessary to keep a ranch operating.

The ranch is especially kid-friendly with many educational activities for the youngsters.

If you are looking for more to do in Deer Lodge, the town is also the home of the Old Montana State Prison Museums, and there are  many miles of scenic country roads in the area.

The Grant-Kohrs Ranch is open year round. It is located at 266 Warren Lane, Deer  Lodge, MT. For more information, call (406) 846-2070. There are two private RV parks in Deer Lodge and others within 10 miles.

Photos: Lew Pinsker

RV stop passing through Vegas

There are some long stretches of dry country in Nevada, nevertheless, Vegas is one of those spots that you always wind up passing through on the way. Red Canyon is a great RVing spot, but when summer rolls around the oppressive heat rules it out. Where you gonna overnight? Sam's Town.

We're not great fans of RV parks, but we'll make an exception of Sam's Town. It's a clean park, and despite the fact that's it's smack on the edge of the busy Boulder Highway, it's relatively quiet from an in-city RV park. Management keeps the grounds clean and trim, and there are a lot of choices in terms of spots, a variety of lengths in back-ins, and some h-u-g-e pull throughs for the motorcoach set.

Pool and sauna are strategically set in the middle of the park. On our most recent summer visit we found the pool guy could have paid a bit more attention to keeping the tree needles skimmed, but it was a refreshing to get a dip in the midst of the Vegas humidity. The shower rooms are clean, with private booths. Run your laundry for a buck and a quarter a top-load.

Rates? A great summer spot, we found overnights with fullhookups as low as $17 a night.