High Horizons Wolf Den 5/26/21 High Horizons Wolf Den 5/26/21

Lava Hot Springs East KOA

Our stay at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. We stayed at the Koa East.

While this has not been our first visit to Lava, it is always a welcome visit in our family.

Between the actual KOA and the hot springs, we really do love coming here as often as we can.

The KOA is genuinely nice, they have done a lot of upgrades including adding in new tiny houses, a new area for Rv spaces, as well as upgrades to the bathhouse.

We usually stay up on top of the hill for our visits, but this time we decided it would be worth it to stay in RV spot 11. My oh my it was amazing. Having the river right outside the door was fantastic, Furgus loved it as well. Sadly, I think previous people have fed the ducks (The KOA has signs saying not to) because we had a pair of ducks who kept coming around. They became kind of a nuisance because they would stay underfoot when cooking and, they would lay under the chairs and the camp chef burner/cooktop we have. I was more concerned for their safety above all else.

Regardless of where you stay in the KOA campsite, you have direct access to a trail that leads directly to Hot Spring as well as the cute little town it is nestled in. On this trip, we stayed a total of 4 days, 3 nights. We made a point of walking through the town and seeing what was there. We do not have children, and we do not really care for the water park; but if you do have children or just like water parks, they have a big park as well as pools. You can even rent innertubes to go river rafting. We have yet to do that, but hopefully next time!

We stopped in their grocery store in town, and it was nice. They have a small deli and such for those on-the-go cravings as well as a small section with small needs. It has quite a few random stuff you may need such as tape to fix floaties and first aid kits and such. There are a lot of food places to choose from, so whatever you may be craving they probably have it. Small shops and such dot the main road, along with a few bars. There is also a new bar/hangout lounge in town, and it is nestled into the mountain. The trail that leads to it also leads back to the KOA.

We stopped in an ice cream shop called “Sweet Stuff” and it was such a treat! They have traditional flavored ice cream, and the fun part is that they are square scoops! I had 2 scoops of Moose tracks and it was delicious. Chris got a 160z berry smoothie that he enjoyed.

Chris and I love the hot spring, we try and stop by as much as we can when we go up to visit his parents. They have a few different pools, each varying in temperatures. The closer you are to the inlet, the hotter it is. The further the coolest. We tend to stay in the 2 hottest, simply because the cooler ones are usually full, but also because we really love soaking up to our necks. Chris loves going under the water, I have gone a few times but choose to stay above. Just remember to drink plenty of water. You will be sweating a lot and not realizing it. We feel it is best to go in the winter when the snow is still on the ground. It is a genuinely nice soak, and the cold air makes giant steam clouds that cover the entire area. Most people enjoy it better during this time, but Chris and I go even in the summer. We simply increase our water intake.

Overall, I say we had a wonderful time, and look forward to going back. We love it here, and we hope that if you visit that you will too.

The Whittens

You can find out more about the Lava Hot Springs East KOA Here.

Have you been to Lava Hot Springs?

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High Horizons Wolf Den 5/24/20 High Horizons Wolf Den 5/24/20

Bearing Packer Review

Bearing packer Review

Howdy campers,

Today is the day we talk about the #BearingPackers that we used for our #Airstream.

We did use 2 different styles, and that is simply because the first version broke.

The first packer we will call WHITE, and the second we will call RED. This is just for ease of reading and reference. The exact names and brands will be listed as the title of the breakdown for said part, as well as the end of this review along with other pertinent information.

White was very cheap. To say the least, it was more our fault for trying to take the cheaper route. However, we already had the other needed items such as the grease gun it would attach to and the grease, so to us this seemed like the smarter purchase at the time.

Red was $30 which is not exactly expensive, but keep in mind we have a budget we are working with. Even though we have said budget, we are still going to be living in the Airstream and would do what needs to be done to accomplish this goal.

Let's break it down shall we.

Here is a glimpse at our setup we had while doing this job. Link to this post at the end.

Bearing Packer (WHITE shitty one) Brand Name #PerformanceTool #BearingPacker

This $8 version (pictured below) required a grease gun (which we had) simple design with 2 cones and the gun. The cone was plastic, but the middle of the cones where metal and the part that screwed onto the #greasegun was also metal. He put the 1st barring in the gun, the grease went into the barring fine. The problems came when unscrewing the cone to take out the barring. He cleaned off his hands and tried to take it apart, he did not cross thread but the other part was basically glued down and wouldn’t come off. It took about an hour to try and get it to come off, even after it was cleaned off and such. At $8 it was a waste of money, simply because it required a lot more cleanup(used an unnecessary amount of grease), it broke after the 1st barring, and it wouldn’t adjust to fit the inner barring.

We did not like this one, but someone may like it or not have these problems. However, we do not recommend buying this.

Barring Packer (better one RED) Brand Name #LisleHandyPacker #BearingPacker

The $30 one was completely made of plastic(pictured below). It was a thick-walled plastic cup that has a rubber sealed floor pan that pushes into it coating everything in grease. First, you put the grease in the cup, put in the barring, then push in the sealer. This pushes grease into all parts of the barring, and takes out the old grease (that was difficult to get out from cleaning). This was very useful because the old grease collected on the top of the container to make easy cleanup. This packer also stores the new grease in the bottom of the cup, as well as has a top to keep it airtight(red cap).

In our opinion and experience, this is the packer to get, especially if you will be doing this more than once, have multiple trailers, or you know you will be doing it more than just the one time for your project( in our case we are doing all for the work whether mechanical or not on the Airstream) so it is definitely worth the $30.

Overall, we should have just gone with the more expensive one as it was less of a headache overall and did the job #efficiently.

After making the mistake of buying the WHITE version we realized that we shouldn’t have tried to skimp on a very important job. But you live and you learn and you regroup to get things done.

So, if you take anything from us, it is do not skimp and just get the RED version.

Both or our packers were bought at #Oreilly’s Auto Parts Store

The White Version is called: Performance Tools Bearing Packer $8 (white cones)

The Red Version is called: Lisle Handy Packer Bearing Packer $30 (hard plastic cup)

Grease we used: #LucasOil #XTra heavy duty grease (green tube)

-The Whitten’s-