MY STORY

One chapter in a life shaped by wildfire, aviation, family and Garden Valley

I started fighting wildfires in 1976 on Oregon’s Mt. Hood National Forest. At the time, I certainly had no idea that one summer job would end up shaping so much of the rest of my life — where I would live, who I would marry, what our sons would eventually do, and, nearly fifty years later, even the inspiration for The Lookout RV Retreat.

Five seasons later, firefighting brought me to Garden Valley, Idaho, 

where I became the first woman on the Garden Valley Helitack crew. 

The following season,  I headed to Cali to join the newly forming Arrowhead Hotshot Crew, 

based in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

And that's where I met Joe.

Joe and I married in 1982 in Zig Zag, Oregon where my grandparents lived, it's a tiny community on Mt. Hood. Joe and I continued working in fire for another couple of years before he joined the Army to become a helicopter pilot. After ten years of Army life and wonderful adventures and two awesome sons, we had the opportunity to return to Garden Valley in 1994. We came home, put down roots, and raised our boys here. 

And, as it turned out, both Grady and Casey followed us right into the world of wildland fire.

After high school, both boys started with Forest Service engine crews right here in Garden Valley. Casey eventually joined the Boise Hotshots, while Grady moved from an engine crew to Garden Valley Helitack, 

where he worked as a heli-rappeller, before joining his brother on Boise Hotshots. 

They spent a number of years there together. 

Apparently, fire and helicopters really had become the family business.

Years later, that combination took three-quarters of our family halfway around the world. 

During the war in Afghanistan, Joe spent nine years there working for Columbia Helicopters on a DOD contract, and both of our sons eventually joined him, working in Afghanistan as well. At that point, Joe would only hire former Hotshots, 

because they could handle the horrible conditions.

When the boys came home, their paths changed again. Casey started his own tree business in Boise, 

while Grady returned to the Forest Service. And in one of those strange full-circle turns, Grady eventually ended up right back where my own Garden Valley story began. Today, he’s the captain of the Garden Valley Helitack crew — the same crew I joined as its first woman more than four decades earlier.

Meanwhile, I took a very different path here at home. After returning to Garden Valley in 1994, I worked at Valley Real Estate for seven years before starting Garden Valley Properties which I owned and operated for nearly twenty years. 

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I also started Uncle Billy Bob’s Redneck Trailer Vacation Rentals. 

Eventually, I turned Garden Valley Properties over to the next generation and, about three years ago, 

retired Uncle Billy Bob’s nightly vacation rentals.

You would think two businesses might have been enough.

Apparently not.

Now, at 70, I decided I needed one more project.

So, I took the old Billy Bob RV sites and started over — this time creating something that brought together nearly fifty years of our family's history in Garden Valley, the outdoors, wildland fire and the Forest Service.

And The Lookout RV Retreat was born. It seemed only fitting to bring a little of our Forest Service history along with us. 

The Lookout’s name, colors, materials and vintage touches are a nod to the people, 

places and wildland-fire years that have been woven through our family for nearly fifty years.

But The Lookout isn't about recreating the past. It's about creating a place where other families can slow down,                         spend time outside, laugh around a fire, explore these mountains and make stories of their own. 

We wanted to create the kind of place we'd want to stay-private, comfortable, 

a little nostalgic and unmistakably Garden Valley.

So bring your own primary suite. Aka (RV, Camper, Trailer or Van)

We’ve got you covered with the rest.

Welcome to The Lookout RV Retreat.

We hope you make some damn good memories here