By the time Frank was 4 and Ami 2, we were ready for another change of duty station. For several weeks, Ron would come home and say we may be going to Hawaii, Germany, Florida. Where did we end up? Mountain Home, Idaho. Mountain Home is in the middle of the desert in southwest Idaho, about 60 miles from Boise, the capital. I was not pleased with this assignment, to say the least. It was far from family and in the middle of nowhere. But, we did adjust and even found some fun things to do. In Idaho, you either fish, ski, hunt, or camp. We decided on camping along with a little fishing.

Another thing that changed in our lives was Great Danes. Ron decided that if we were going to have dogs, we would have a "real" dog. We found a breeder around the Chicago area who sold Danes, bought one, and had him sent to us in Idaho. His name was Odin of Aasgard, "Odin". As he grew, Ron trained and practice with him and finally started showing him around the area. We would pack up the camper, the kids, and the dogs and head out to near-by dog shows. We also took the camper and traveled back home to Pennsylvania a year after being stationed in Idaho.

         

The first picture shows Frankie with baby Odin at a rest stop in Nebraska. In the second picture, Ron is accepting a ribbon for the now grown Odin at one of the shows on the Oregon coast. Schnitzel was still around. She accepted her role as little dog, but remained boss!

During the trip home to visit with family, we learned about the new camper. The first night, we stopped in Utah about suppertime. I couldn't get the stove to light. Ron tried and that didn't work either. We finally called a repairman. He attempted to light the gas from outside and experienced a large poof of flame. It seemed that the connection to the gas tubing hadn't been fastened tightly. This was an omen for our trip. The next day, as we traveled, smoke kept pouring into the cabin. We found a camper repair shop, and they discovered that the insulation had been sprayed too thickly into the wheel wells and was rubbing every time we turned the camper. Two days later, new insulation in place, and back on the road again, we still smelled smoke. This repair was to replace the gas lines to the engine. Fuel was dripping out onto the hot engine causing the burning smell. Fortunately, it didn't cause a real fire. It was then that we found out that our camper had been put on a chassis that was three years older than the body. We finally made it to York safely, Ron called the camper salesman and told him in no uncertain terms, that we would be returning the camper when we got back to Idaho and expected a full refund! When we returned, that is exactly what happened. We then went to another dealer and got a second camper. It was much better and served us well for the next 2 years.

As you can see, we made it safely, and Charlie, Susie, and Dee were able to be there as well.

We also were able to take a trip through Nevada and California before leaving Idaho. Ron really wanted to see Las Vegas and we wanted to take the kids to Disneyland.

         

On June 10, 1977, my mother passed away after a 5 year battle with cancer. This time, I flew home with Frank and Ami. We stayed for 6 weeks, until Dad got into some sort of routine of going to work and running the house on his own. Frank attended first grade during that time in the school where Mother had taught.