A few minutes later we found the street the place was supposed to be on, and then saw it.

Marilyn: The condos looked pretty nice from the outside and I was curious to see what it looks like from the inside.

Of course, that found us the building.  We were supposed to be in #7.  But there were no numbers on the door!  So after finding some temporary parking, we tried doors until one opened.  Well, actually, we tried a bunch twice, cause the key didn't work the first time.  But before long, we found and were in our condo.

While Chad and Marilyn ran inside to start putting our stuff away, I went outside to check out the sourroundings real quick.

Marilyn: However, we could not find our condo unit because they were not clearly numbered. After wondering around lost for a little while, we finally located our condo. It had be a long day so I was really glad to reach our final destination.

On the streets right outside our place, they were having some sort of fair.  All sorts of booths selling things.  Mostly crafts.  Some foods.  Some other things.  Looked interesting.  Unfortunately though, as we arrived they were just closing up.  There had been a big even all weekend.  It was all over now.  All the booths were packing up and getting ready to leave.

But right above the booths...  there were the ski slopes.

Marilyn: Yea, I was disappointed that we could not look at the things that were being sold at the booths. It was starting to get dark outside and all of the street vendors were packing up for good.

So then I headed back inside the condo.  It was time for the tour of the place.

First, the living room:

Marilyn: The living room is very cozy and would be great in the winter time when you could light the fireplace. It is too warm to do this in September.

And there was a big Sun on the wall.  Because it was Sun Valley.  Get it?

Marilyn: I like the Sun theme. It is very cheerful.

There was a full kitchen:

Marilyn: I dig this kitchen. It is small and but enough to work in. If we had more time here, I would definitely be cooking lots of stuff in this kitchen but since we will be on the move most of the time we will eat out pretty much every night.

We let Marilyn have the big master bedroom.

Marilyn: Chad and Sam were very sweet to let me have the master bedroom. It is a very relaxing room and the king size bed with down comforter is so comfortable.

I somehow agreed...  nay...  even SUGGESTED...  that Chad take the other bedroom, and that I would just take the couch in the living room.  After all, there was a TV and stuff up there.  Chad could have the little bedroom.

Of course, I would come to regret this decision.

Marilyn: Chad's room is much smaller than mine. There was not enough room to even walk around in there. I am so glad that I got the other room instead,

Chad: Yeah Sam, thanks for letting me have the other bedroom!

After having brough in everything from the car, we relaxed a little bit before moving on to other things.

Marilyn: The picture of us in the mirror is really cool. Sam likes to takes pictures of things and people using mirrors. I think that it is his trademark.

We went to check out the area right around our condo again.  There were great mountain views, and this booth selling old skis still hadn't closed up completely.

And then there was that ski slope.  It was right there.  Right past our condo.  Hiking up this would definately have to be on our agenda before we left.  No question about that.

Marilyn: Wow, what I view. I think that hiking up this mountain would be a piece of cake, don't you Chad?

Chad: Well, piece of cake for me anyway. :)

We were at the base of Bald Mountain. At Warm Springs.  On the right hand side of the map above.  We were looking up the Lower Warm Springs Slope, connecting up on the left to "Picabo's Street" and on the right to the Mid Warm Springs Slope.  Yup.  Targets for later.  But first, we were hungry.  Nothing around Warm Springs was open in the summer season it seems, so we headed into Ketchum.

Marilyn: It is off to Ketchum we go. I am hungry.

We parked in Ketchum then wandered around a bit looking for places to stay.  We actually bumped right into the guy with the lizard who had checked us in on Day 1 and talked to him about places to eat.  But we ended up not taking his advice. 

We were hungry, and we were standing right next to a place that had people eating on the roof.  Eating on the roof sounded good.  So, The Roosevelt Grille it was.

Chad: You mean places to eat.  You said places to stay.  We already had place to stay.  Just being annoying.

From our seats we had a great view of a Ketchum intersection (and some mountains).  But the intersection caught my attention, because a car drove by that was being attacked by a giant octopus.

While I was thinking of Octopi, Chad and Marilyn started having an in depth chat.  This time a lot of the conversation was about family members they had lost in the last few years and how they had dealt with that.  They were bonding.  Awww...

Of course, I had the camera set wrong and focused on the wall behind them instead of on them, so this is all blurry, but hey, it would have been a decent picture if I'd actually focused on Chad and Marilyn!

Marilyn: It was nice chatting with Chad. I enjoyed our conversation and getting to know Chad a bit better.

Chad convinced me to have a Buffalo Steak.  Bison meat.  I was not to sure about that concept.  I usually don't eat steak at all, let along Buffalo Steak.  But I must admit, it was pretty good.

As we ate, sun set over the town of Ketchum.  It was beautiful.

Marilyn: Buffalo steak, YUK!

As we left, we noticed the moon also setting.  I tried to get set up with my mini-tripod to get a non-blurry shot, but it was too fast for me.  This is all I got before the moon was gone.

Marilyn: Then sun setting is absolutely beautiful and it is a full moon too. Ketchum is such a quaint little town. I really like it here.

Before heading home, we found a small grocery store in town (one of two apperantly) and stocked up on staples for the trip.  That done, it was time to head home for the night.

And it was time to break out the hot tub!!!!  Chad and I got the cover off and ready to go.  Marilyn realized she had left her swimsuit at home.  I suggested that a swimsuit was not really necessary, and that I was sure neither Chad nor I would have objections if she went au natural in the hot tub.  But Marilyn was not convinced.  So she just took pictures.

Marilyn thought Chad looked really good in the hot tub.  All in shape and stuff.

Marilyn: No way in hell was I going in the hot tub in my birthday suit. Not too shabby Chad. Show those Pecs.

Chad: Thanks Marilyn. :)

Now me on the other hand...

Marilyn: If you look closely, Sam's swim trunks are see-through...ha! ha! Just kidding!

Chad: We had a Snake sighting?

Yeah, so OK.  A year ago the previous summer I had been all active and biking and doing all sorts of fun stuff like that (as well as weight contests at work) and was in the shape I wanted to be in, but this last year I'd let myself go a bit.  All round and pudgy.  Only a couple pounds from an all time weight high.  Woops.

And of course Marilyn helps by snapping the pictures when I'm in the worst poses possible...

Marilyn: This picture is just too funny of Sam. I laughed so hard when I saw it. Don't Sam look so silly? He is doing his John Travolta Grease Lightening act.

Chad: It is a great pic!

Well, that's OK.  We'll do all sorts of hiking and stuff on this trip.  I'll get in shape!  :-)

After the hot tubs antics were over, we all went inside, and once again spent some time looking at all the pictures that had been taken so far.  After about an hour though, Chad and Marilyn decided to call it a night.

I stayed up though, got myself connected to the Internet and spent some time working on the trip log until a couple hours later I too got too tired to stay awake.

Marilyn: Looking at the pictures of the trip is pretty cool but I was getting sleepy. It is time for night night......

As I was getting ready to sleep, I realized with horror, that I had no sheets or blankets or anything.  and it was getting a bit chilly.  I didn't want to wake up Marilyn or Chad.  So I just grabbed a couple of the throw pillows and tried to hug them to me to keep me warm.

It did not work.

I spent the night tossing and turning, rolled up into a ball, stretched out, head one way, head another...  trying to use pillows as blankets.

It was miserable. 

Each time I woke up, I cursed myself for offering to take the couch.  I'd paid for and arranged this place after all!  Yeah, they would pay me back, but why shouldn't I have a nice bed!  I thought about tossing Chad out of bed.  Or joining Marilyn in her huge king size bed.  Or just having a blanket.  A blanket would be so nice!

I decided that I'd make Chad switch at the half way point of the trip.

Satisfied, I slept until morning.

Marilyn: Sam is so silly. If I were in that situation, I would have been miserable without pillows and blankets. I would have make a point to get them before going to sleep and not suffer. Sam likes to suffer & be uncomfortable apparently. I would have given him a pillow & blanket if he asked for them.

Chad: It's not like we didn't have extra bedding!  You could have wandered in the room and took the stuff out of the closet and I probably wouldn't even have woken up!

Getting up was a slow process.  People first started rising around 16 UTC.  But there was no rush, and we SLOWLY got up, and SLOWLY got our stuff together.  The plan was to try to make an attempt at the random spot today.  But right now, we were just taking out time and getting ready. 

Well, Chad and I were.  Marilyn was all up early and super peppy and kept telling us to hurry up, because we wanted to get on the road and find the spot.  "Hey, just don't ever say it is always the girl that makes us late!"

Finally, 2 hours later, we were about ready to head out the door.

I had just filled my CamelBak, and was all ready to go, but you could tell I had not gotten much sleep...

Marilyn: I was eager to get going. I hate to waste time while on vacation. I like to see as much as I can. Sam and Chad were slow pokes.

Chad chose this time to focus on the fact that I had brought dress shoes.  He laughed at how unnecessary that was and how crazy I was.  How was I supposed to do?  Maybe we would go somewhere nice!

Marilyn: My beat is that Sam's dress shoes would stay right there and collect dust.

Chad: Sam brought way too much s**t with him.

So, off to the Abulmobile to head to the random spot!!

Marilyn: Check out all of the dirt collected on the Abulmobile. I felt it only fitting to mark the SUV with an appropriate name.

Uh...  but before heading to the spot, there was a desire for coffee.  So we went into town.  And met a bear.

Marilyn: Ah, how cute? Who do you think it cuter...Sam or the stuffed bear?

Marilyn had to sit with the bear too.

Marilyn: And the answer of course is me...:-)

Chad: Definitely.  And the bear's a little pudgier...

We headed to the Ketchum Starbucks to do the morning coffee thing.

Marilyn: I love Starbucks. Starbucks rules!

Now, at the Starbucks, the women's room was out of order.  So they told Marilyn to just use the men's room.  So she did.  But she forgot to lock the door.  So some random guy walked in on her.  So after that we left quickly, so Marilyn didn't have to sit there near the guy who had walked in with her. 

So NOW it was time to head to the random spot...

Marilyn: That was so embarrassing to have some strange guy walk in on me. I didn't want to look him in the face when I came out of the restroom.

Well, OK.  Actually, not quite.  We started heading in the direction of the spot, but fairly quickly stopped.  We had to go swim suit shopping for Marilyn!

Marilyn: I needed a new bikini anyways and was eager to find one that fit right. It is always challenging finding a swim suit that looks flattering.

Chad: Weren't we just talking about how we need to get moving towards the spot??  

After what seemed like hours of walking from store to store in the little shopping district in Sun Valley, and after trying on several suits, Marilyn found one she liked.  Whew.

"Hey, just don't ever say it is always the girl that makes us late!"  Uh huh.  :-)

While we waited for her to pay, Chad and I stood outside and looked at the fish in the little nearby pond.

Marilyn: Thanks to Sam and Chad's help, I found a bikini that looked good on and fit pretty well. Thanks guys for your help & patience.

Chad: I aim to please.

And then finally...  for real...  we were heading out of town toward the random spot.  A few hours later than we had originally intended, but off we went...

Before long we entered the Sawtooth National Forest...

Marilyn: Sawtooth forest is very beautiful and breathtaking but we were headed to Challis National Forest to check out the random spot so we didn't have any time to explore the Sawtooth forest.

Occationally we got out to stretch and enjoy the view.  Or throw rocks.  Or take pictures.  Whatever.  There were just lots and lots of views.

Marilyn: One of my favorite pictures is of Chad and myself throwing rocks at the same time. Sam caught a good action shot. Chad was better than me. He threw his rock further than him but he is a guy. :-) By the way, you can see Chad's rock in the air..how cool is that?

Chad: That is kinda neat.

And next thing we knew, we were entering Challis National Forest...  where the random spot was.

Marilyn: I really like this picture too of all three of us. Sam used his tripod and put it on his car to take this picture.

Then Marilyn asked...

"Do you think we'll pass a restroom any time soon?"

Chad and I looked around.  Road.  Mountains.  Trees.  Occational Stream.

"Nope.  Don't think so."

As we were starting to contemplate the notions of Marilyn running behind a bush somewhere, I spotted something brown out of the corner of my eye.

Marilyn: I started to feel really sick from the coffee that I just drank. I almost made Sam turn around because I knew that there weren't any bathrooms in Challis besides the vast wilderness and I refused to consider that as an option. Thank goodness Sam found an outhouse. In most circumstances, I refuse to go in outhouses but I was really desperate. It smelled pretty fowl in there. I held my nose the whole time. Anyways, I felt much better and was ready to get on our way.

Yes, indeed, it was a lovely little outhouse, attached to a small campground.  We pulled in.  We took advantage of the outhouse.

I'm sure Marilyn will speak to just how pleasant the outhouse was.

In the mean time, Chad wanted to point out how upset he was that way back at the Starbucks, he had spilled coffee all over his shirt.

Marilyn: It smelled liked shit...no pun intended! Chad, shame on you...we can't take you anywhere.

Chad: Yeah, I was pissed at my clumsy self.

Chad also wanted to document that I was wearing the Savvy Traveller t-shirt that my friend Ron had made for me the previous year after I'd been on the Savvy Traveler radio program for the Aylesbury random trip.  I'd felt it was the appropriate shirt to wear for the random spot attempt this time around.

Marilyn: Sam looks very scary on that tee-shirt. Is he a mad scientist or a mass murderer..what do you think?

Then we were on the road again.  Following the GPS deeper into the park, looking at all sorts of great views, and slowly getting onto smaller roads.

So here are a bunch of pictures of pretty mountains and stuff we passed along the way...

Marilyn: It was nature in all of it's glory. Sheer perfection and peacefulness!

Chad: It was beautiful out there.  And the weather was perfect.

Marilyn: Cows! Cows! They were everywhere!

Marilyn: I have not ever seen anything like this before. This mountain is glowing orange. It almost looks like lava that is above to erupt. WOW!

Marilyn: Who would be crazy enough to live in the teepee in the middle of winter? Absolute insanity!

Eventually we got to a point where we passed a small ranger station with a grass runway next to it for small planes to come in.

Marilyn: This is the last stop for any civilization...after this point we were all on our own...pretty scary ah? Hopwfully, if we got lost the rangers would resue us before we die a slow and painful death.

And then, shortly after passing the runway... well, a few more miles down the road, we came to a bend in the road that was, according to the GPS, the closest point on a road to the random spot. Chad was saying we should stop a little earlier and cut cross country a bit more on foot, but I was insisting on going to the closest spot.

So we did. At that bend in the road we pulled off onto the grass and parked.

Earlier while driving we had been listening to a random shuffle of songs off my iPod. Marilyn always insisted on skipping anything even remotely rap-like when it came up. So now, as we got our stuff together, just for Marilyn, I started blasting at full volume "Straight Out of Compton" by NWA. Marilyn enjoyed that.

Well, soon I realized that I had left my CamelBak at the condo, which annoyed me. But I had remembered the walking stick my mom had brought me back from Sri Lanka as a present a year earlier. It would be good to have a walking stick.

Then we were ready to hike. It was just over 1.5 miles to the spot. Time to go.

Marilyn: Rap sucks! I can't stand it at all. Thanks Sam for filling my ears with that crap!

So we started hiking up the fairly steep hill that was in the direction of the spot.  It was slow going at first, but before too many minutes we were up aways and out of site of the truck.

Marilyn: This hike was a piece of cake...not! Sam looks cute with his walking stick...boy that thing came in handy so that you supporting yourself from breaking an ankle...that would have been really bad.

Marilyn and I were not used to this kind of thing.  There was a loit of climbing going on.  And scrambling over loose rocks and around the scrub and such.  I eould go a little bit, then have to rest a bit, then go a bit, then rest a bit.  Most of the time Marilyn was right there with me.  The two of us would find a trail together and help each other as needed.  I was glad I had the walking stick.

Meanwhile, Chad was dashing way ahead of us.  We kept yelling at him to not get too far away, but he kept going way away, sometimes out of sight over the hill.

After the third or fourth time we asked Chad to stay close and he zoomed off over the horizon, Marilyn and I were getting a little annoyed.  I reclaimed the GPS from Chad though, so he wouldn't go TOO far, then he stood at the top of the ridge and waited for us for a bit.

Marilyn: Chad could run a marathon. Meanwhile Sam and I were straggling along. Chad could have made it to the random spot and back by the time Sam and I got there. The high elevation definitely made the hike a lot more challenging. This is an awesome aerobic workout even better than pilates trust me. If Sam and I did this every day, we could kick Chad's butt. Watch out Chad!

Chad: Pick up the freakin pace slowpokes!

Eventually, as Marilyn and I managed to drag ourselves to the top, the truck came into view again, way in the distance.  With maximum zoom, I could get a picture of it.

Marilyn: Look at Chad on the top of that rock. He looks like the size of a peanut. Sam and I still have a ways to go to catch up to him.

Having finally made it to the top of the ridge...  where Chad had been waiting for us for a long time...  Marilyn and I posed on a rock for Chad to take a quick picture.

Marilyn: This picture is too cool! I love how we are almost blacked out with the sky on the background. It was very windy up there. Wow! What a view! i felt so small compared to the vastness around me. This was a picture perfect moment. :-)

We were all proud of making it to the top.  It was a long hike!  Uphill!  I was joking that I had probably already worked off that gut you could see in the hot tub!

Then, we looked over the other side of the ridge...  and realized that we had only gone half a mile or so...  there was still a mile to go!

Marilyn: Another mile to go....are we crazy or what? If you believe that...going down hill was more difficult that going uphill. My feet were being smushed into the front of my shoes. After a little while of going down hill, my feet really began to hurt and I was more afraid of falling. Sam let me borrow his walking stick which definitely helped but I still did fall once on my butt...no injuries...yea!

Chad: Come on guys, going down hill was a breeze.  I mean, we had GRAVITY on our side!

So, we started heading down again.  Once again, Marilyn and I going slowly and carefully, with one of the two of us always using the walking stick, while Chad dashed way ahead.

Marilyn: Chad is a pro at this hiking thing...no sweat. He was smoking by us with little effort. You suck Chad!

We scrambled down that ridge, then up another ridge, then started to head down the next ridge...  and realized we would have to go down, then up again...  and we were still three quarters of a mile from the spot.

I wanted to push onward.

Chad and Marilyn started to get worried that we would run out of sunlight and end up returning in the dark.  I was sure this would happen, but I was OK with it.

Chad and Marilyn were not.

After some discussion it was agreed that we would turn around and not try to make it the rest of the way now.  I agreed on the condition that we would try again later in the week, bringing the camping supplies with us, and camping over night here.

So, time to head back to the car...  but not without one longing look in the general direction of the random spot.  It was only 3/4 mile to go darn it!  We could have kept going!  Oh well!

It was off in this direction. We would try again in a few days.

Marilyn: Thank god that Chad has some sense in his head and sided with me on turning around and heading back to the car. We didn't have any supplies or flashlights. It would have been plain stupid to keep going. Sam, this is how people get lost & die in the forest because they are just plain idiots. Please...please in the future use some common sense. I like you to come back alive from your future random vacations. :-)

Chad: It's nice being the voice of reason once in a while.

The picture above was in the general direction of the spot, but to get a good reading of direction, you have to be going more than 3 miles per hour.  So Chad took the GPS and started trying to run toward the point to get a good reading.  He ran way down the hill, then way up again.  He reported that the readings were not making sense.

Woops. I had already reset the GPS to point back at where we had parked the car instead of at the random spot.

Chad had spent ten minutes running around like a chicken on a steep hillside for no reason.  Woops.  My bad.

So, we started heading back...

Marilyn: Chad got pretty annoyed at Sam for not telling him that the GPS was no longer programmed in the direction of the random spot but when all was said and done they kissed and made up.

Chad: Sam, you are a jackass.  I mean that in a nice way.

And as we were reversing our route, and heading back up and down the ridges we had passed on the way, Day 2 was over.

Marilyn: Chad looks like his is standing on top of my head. Well, it is back to the car we go. Sam and I were both exhausted. Chad could have offered to carry us both back to the car. I guess not! Day 2 ends finally...what a long and fun day it was.....

Chad: I could have, but that probably would have put us a little past sundown as well. :)