Driving Again

 

Muskingum River, Blue Rock, OH

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

For a while today, our day was fairly frustrating again, and tiring. It began with us unable to find our spare Jeep key, and we spent 30 minutes searching just as we had finished dumping our tanks and were ready to hit the road. The delay made me nuts, plus we left without finding it. It's important, because the key is needed to operate the auxiliary brake system. We did have Joe's key, but that would mean that if the Jeep decided to lock its doors, we'd be sunk without a way to get in. We finally used his key and left the window cracked enough for him to get his arm through to release the aux brake if it did indeed lock.

Then we hit the road, and the GPS led me a way I had not expected. It wanted me to go back up the hideously steep road we had just come DOWN-- so i went a different way, and i think that added time to our trip because i was facing the wrong way to begin with. I was livid and ranted for the first 10 minutes after that. Then it turned out that the highway we were on, US 40, is so steep going over the mountains that there are signs FORCING trucks over 10,000 pounds to STOP at the top before heading down--the road is so steep and winding! I had the RV in first gear the entire way down, and still had to keep pumping the brakes. It was harrowing-- thank God it was a dry day, albeit not what you'd call "clear"-- the sky was gray all day, and it had rained while we were dumping the tanks (a miserable job in any case.)

But we did get down the mountain safely, and when we reached Washington, PA, we stopped at a Walmart for lunch, and then for a shopping trip. Oh, and Joe found the keys at that point, too (on the floor in the bedroom--they probably fell out of his pocket two nights ago when we arrived at the campground.) It was a long stop, and i was really tired the entire time (I am still really congested--at least i could get meds for that at Walmart.) So Joe drove the last 2 hours of our trip.

I have to say, though, that our site tonight did put me back into a much happier frame of mind. It is a Boondockers Welcome site. BW is a group where people can offer a parking place at their home or property for other RVers to spend the night for free. (We stayed at our first BW site last fall in Chattanooga.) The owner isn't here, but we communicated this morning and he said his plans had changed, but the site was all ready for us. So we followed the GPS and then his detailed instructions, and found this lovely location along the Muskingum River. We are on a dead-end road about a mile or so long, and many of the homes here have boats, as does our host (we can see inside the shed.) His "guest quarters" has a fire pit, a wooden swing, and chairs to relax outside. And it's quiet. It was just so much nicer than we'd anticipated! 

Our site for the next 2 nights--fire pit, swing, and all!

 So we had some dinner, and I've been catching up on my blog now. I picked up some brochures at a rest stop, and now have some other things we can go see in Zanesville tomorrow besides the art museum. I am hoping the weather is nicer than today-- it was occasionally warm, but mostly gray and a bit chilly.

Three Really Big States: Driving, Driving, Driving

 Saturday/Sunday, Sept. 11-12, 2021

All in all, we spent 8 nights—an entire week—in Minnesota. It is a. BIG state from North to South, and I think we drove vertically for the most part. But finally we left from the middle to head west. Then there’s North Dakota. When I say there is NOTHING THERE, it’s not 100% true. But it’s definitely true of the northeast corner, where we entered the state. It was flat and completely nondescript. We drove and drove and drove. All in all, we drove about 350 miles on Saturday.

We were going to spend the night in Minot, ND, at a Walmart. We did shop there, but the lady at the customer service desk said we couldn’t stay. Then we went a few miles further to a Flying J. They said we COULD stay, but despite them having a big parking lot, the area they wanted us in was awkwardly arranged, and we couldn’t figure out how to “fit”. So we went 8 miles even further down the highway, to a town called Burlington. They have an adorable little town park with a campground loop of 12 spaces, most pull-through (meaning we would not have to detach the Jeep) and with electricity. So we ended up paying $21 for the electric, and spent a very quiet night (there were only two other RVs there.). 

We left this morning, and continued. Driving, driving, driving. After about 150 miles, we got out of North Dakota and entered Montana. We kept driving. Driving, driving, driving. North Dakota was huge (400 miles-ish, I think.) Montana is huger. We did gain an hour when we crossed the border, so we decided to use it to drive even further. I’d had places planned out for stops all along the way, for depending on where we were when we’d had enough driving. But we made it to Havre, another couple of hundred miles, i think. So tonight we ARE at a Walmart lot. Along with several other RVs, including one from New Jersey with a woman who opened her door to ask, “Where in NJ are you from?” She is living in her van for the year, after selling all her stuff, and is also heading to Glacier National Park, as are we. She’s from Madison, NJ. We exchanged phone numbers.

Tomorrow, we will be driving yet again, until we get to Glacier National Park, at which point, we will try to find a place to stay. There is only one campground open now that Labor Day is over, and it’s first come, first served. We’ve gotten lucky in the past, and we are just hoping to get lucky again. Meanwhile… I’ll be happy to STOP driving. We’ve been on US-2 across the upper part of the country for the past 60 hours, and I’m getting tired of it. But this is a huge country, and there’s just no describing the wide-open vistas we have passed. This afternoon, we finally started seeing mountains! So we are definitely getting someplace. I will try to add a photo or two (that’s all we have!) tomorrow.

Driving Down the Eastern Shore

Friday Aug. 6, 2021 We woke up to bright blue skies and a quiet Walmart lot, where we both slept great last night. We took our time getting dressed, having breakfast, and before we were ready to pull out, we decided to walk “next door” (the other side of the parking lot across the street) to the Dunkin Donuts and get some iced coffees. We took Cassie with us, and although in the end it got hotter than we’d thought, we enjoyed the exercise. We finally pulled out of our “site” at about 10:00 in the morning, and headed south down US 113. We travelled this route last year, and I recognized some of the places we passed. But it was an uneventful drive-- local traffic when passing through towns, and otherwise a rural landscape. It sure beat the heck out of I-95! We stopped for lunch by pulling into a large supermarket parking lot along the way, and decided it had finally gotten REALLY hot. We switched drivers, and kept on going. At about 2pm, we made it to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We’d loved going over it last year, and it was just as beautiful today. There were so many fishing boats out enjoying the bay breezes, and the views were awesome. Unfortunately, the bridge-tunnel ends at Virginia Beach and then Norfolk, and the traffic was HORRIBLE. We crawled along for a while before getting out of Norfolk. I don’t know if it’s always like that, or if it was due to a problem on the road plus friday afternoon traffic. We also had a first--just before the tunnel entrance, we had to pull over for a propane check--they made sure we’d turned off our propane tank. We’d turned it off already, though, from the bridge-tunnel, and hadn’t had a chance to turn it back on. (The lady at the toll booth had asked us about it; then she gave us a dog biscuit for Cassie!) The check only took a minute, though, and now I know how to turn the propane on and off.

On the other side of the tunnel out of Norfolk, we had some fast highways for a while, and then a two-lane road that took us into North Carolina. Somewhere along that road, we went through a huge cell hole where NONE of our phones could get a connection, even using our new wifi booster. But we knew we were on the right road, and besides, I could always refer to my paper map if the online mapping program wasn’t available. We headed directly for Kings BBQ in Kinston, NC. We’d heard about this place on the Drew Barrymore Show (don’t ask-- it was an accident that I saw it and when I realized they were having a BBQ Taste-Off, I kept it on.) Kings won the taste test, and Joe and I put it on our agenda for this trip. However, before getting to Kinston, we had noticed that the sky was getting darker and darker, and the weather reports said rain. We saw some incredible thunderhead clouds, and soon we were driving through a torrential downpour. It seems our beautiful blue skies are gone for the time being. We found Kings BBQ with no trouble. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting-- it is a very small neighborhood place (although there are two of them, so it must be popular.) We went in and ordered dinner. Sadly, as it turned out, we were disappointed. This is supposed to be premier “Eastern NC barbecue”, and I guess maybe I don’t like that variety. For one thing, the only bbq sauce we got with it was way too vinegary for my taste. I did love the collards, though, which I got as a side dish, and the hush puppies were good. Joe liked his collards and slaw, too. But we thought the actual meat was just “meh.” Joe’s comment: “Don’t watch Drew Barrymore, and don’t take her recommendation for barbecue!” We’re planning to make up for it tomorrow at lunch, when we’ll got to the BBQ House on Oak Island. Their stuff is fantastic, and you get a choice of sauces too.

After dinner we came right to our favorite campground franchise, Walmart. I picked up a few things (I’m seeing my granddaughter tomorrow-- I needed to get her something, right??) including a bathroom scale to keep in the RV. I’m trying to lose weight before our reunion in October, and the scale will help keep me honest. (Joe was appalled when I mentioned it!) So now we’re ready to call it a night, and to try and stay comfortable in all this humidity.

And We're Off!!

Thursday, August 5, 2021

We’re off today on our second “10 week” vacation in the RV (mostly). As we did back in 2019, we decided to drive the RV, with the Jeep towed behind, down to Oak Island for our annual Cohn-Mezer Beach Week. When the week is over, we will proceed with the second stage of our trip, meandering toward Milwaukee. But for now, we are focused on Oak Island. Last year when a tornado forced us to relocate our vacation, we rented a house in Kill Devil Hills, on the North Carolina Outer Banks. To get there, Joe and I drove down the coast through the Eastern Shore (Delaware, Maryland, and a smidgen of Virginia), took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Norfolk, and stayed east to get to the Outer Banks. The drive was so lovely that I said, Next time we drive to Oak Island, the heck with I-95, the most miserable highway in the world... let’s just go this route all the way down to Wilmington. So this year, we are doing exactly that. We have the RV this time, so we can take a couple of days to get there, like we did in 2019, but the drive is much prettier. Today we started off by driving through the New Jersey Pinelands, the small but incredibly lovely town of Haddonton, and ended at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which we took back in April. Except for the time we spent on the NJ Turnpike, we have totally avoided I-95. So we left home at 1:55pm (my absolute must-leave-by time was 2pm) and headed south, as I said. Our drive was uneventful, except for one stop to find out why the front tire under me was screaming (we have a tire monitor.) It was apparently too inflated, and Joe released some air to solve the problem. Other than that, and one wrong turn that we fixed right away, the drive was uneventful. We arrived at the Ferry at 5:10 pm, pulled into our slot, walked the dog, and relaxed until it was time to drive onto the ferry. The voyage was delightful; we sat in a shady place and watched the NJ horizon move farther and farther away. I leaned back and dozed for a while, which was just perfect; I think Joe probably did too (he drove the entire three hours.) We finally docked at about 7:30, and drove 30 minutes to Georgetown, DE, where we are comfortably parked in the very back of a Walmart. We don’t expect any issues to arise overnight, and the air is cooling off quite a bit. Joe made me chinese dumplings (frozen at home, and brought along with us) for dinner, and that is pretty much all about our day! (I left out the packing all morning, of course, and the quick lunch at Highand Pizza... it takes a LOT of packing to get out of a house for 10 weeks!) Tomorrow’s plan is to head down US113-US13 into Maryland, cross the Chesapeake Bay, and find someplace in North Carolina to stay for the night. The pickings are kind of slim down there, so we will need a little bit of luck. All part of the adventure! And that is Day 1 of the Cohn RV Journey of 2021.

Rain, Pappy’s, and Driving Some More

Joe points to George Takei’s menu

2019-10-11 (Friday)

It rained a lot early this morning, and before bedtime last night too. Not sure I mentioned it in last night’s blog, but with all the rain, we discovered we have a leak over our bed where Joe replaced the old, non-working exhaust fan this summer with a new one. There was definitely a very damp spot in the ceiling before we fell asleep, and it was notably larger when we woke up. This is not good news, and will have to be dealt with asap (but not before we get home.)

We left our very damp campground at about 10 as usual, and noted that every river we passed in the vicinity was overflowing. Wow, it was wet everywhere! But we were fortunate that it didn’t rain at all today while we were driving. It was just gray skies all day, that’s all.

We stayed off the interstate as long as possible, rejoining it about 30 miles from St. Louis. Then we gave ourselves a treat—we drove into the city to have a late lunch at Pappy’s Smokehouse. Pappy’s was voted the best ribs in the country by the Food Network, and I think Joe agrees. However, today he didn’t have ribs, he had a pulled pork sandwich, while I had my usual, the BBQ pulled chicken. I even have notes on my phone to remind myself not to bother ordering the brisket, because the chicken is “that good!”  Seriously yummy— we really enjoyed it!

Inside Pappy’s— walls lined with celebrity menus

Just a little more about Pappy’s— it is not a pretentious place, but man, is it popular! We were there at about 2:30 or 3:00... and there were about 20-30 people in line ahead of us! The place just never stops. The wait time is pretty short, and while you are on line, you can read all the famous autographed messages on menus lining the walls. (We sat next to one from George Takei.) In order to make it go fast (which it does), they hand out menus while you wait in line. Then you get up to the cashier, give him your order, pay, and move out of the way. If you ordered a fountain drink, they give you a huge cup, and you move on to fill it. Then another staff person finds you a table in the large but basic dining room. A minute or two later (literally), another staff person emerges from the kitchen with your food on a plate, calling out your name. I went to the ladies room to wash my hands as soon as we were given a table, and by the time I came back (and wash my hands was ALL I did!), the sandwiches were already on the table.

Folks waiting on line at Pappy’s. Sometimes the line is out the back door.

So we tried not to wolf our food down, hungry as we were by that time. Another thing I didn’t mention was the parking. You’d think it’s brave to take an RV towing a Jeep into a city. And it is. But I just don’t “get” this neighborhood. The street Pappy’s is on—a major street with a bus route—never has anyone parked on it! It has metered spaces, and we just drove up to the curb and parked (we took up two spaces with the Jeep.) This has been our experience every time we’ve gone there. I think maybe it’s kind of on the fringes, in a semi-industrial area on one side of the street, and a small college on the other (we parked next to the college.) But in any other place with a college, all the spaces would be taken. We’ve never seen that here. And it’s only a few blocks from the interstate exit. So we get off, drive two blocks, park on this totally empty street, eat, come back, and hop back on the interstate. It’s ridiculous by east coast standards, if you ask me.

Anyway.... that was our excitement for the day. After lunch, back on the I-70,and we zoomed past the St. Louis Arch, over the Mississippi River, and into Illinois. We planned to stop at the Illinois side of the border with Indiana, but the Walmart we went to, despite getting good “overnight reviews” on our RV Parky app, told us (when we asked inside) that we couldn’t stay there. So we had to drive another 25 miles or so into Indiana, and we are staying at a Walmart in Terre Haute. We were tired and not very hungry when we got here, so we “hung out” a little bit, and now we’re going to sleep. We want to make a reasonably early start tomorrow, because we are heading to visit Jan and Gary in Ohio, and watch the football game with them.

We're Back in Kansas, Toto

2019-10-09 (Wednesday)

As exquisite a day for scenery as yesterday was, that's how bland today was. It's a bit of a difficult transition to drive from Colorado to Kansas, and that's just the truth.

We had a good night at the Walmart lot in La Junta, Colorado, and woke up expecting to get a pretty early start. We WOULD have gotten out before 9:30 (that's early for us!), but I noticed after I walked the dog that I couldn't find my phone. Joe was helping a neighbor--an older woman on her own in a large RV who couldn't get her generator to start, and I was cleaning up our RV, and then I realized I didn't see my phone.

I had actually thought I'd taken it out with me when I took Cassie out, maybe 30 minutes earlier, and I realized before the walk was finished that I didn't have it. I assumed I hadn't really taken it-- I mean, it would have been in my shirt pocket, which is hard to lose something. But I got Joe to come help me, and we spent an hour searching for the phone both in the RV and combing the area where I'd walked. The Life 360 app on the phone said it was still where we were, but we were stymied. After an hour, I went into the Walmart to ask if by chance, someone had found a phone. It seemed like a long shot, but.... YES! They had my phone! So I guess miracles CAN happen.

After that, we got going pretty quickly, but it was already something like 11:00ish. The roads in the eastern park of Colorado are not very fascinating, although the southeast corner where we were today sure beat the I-70 corridor we took last year, which we thought was pretty much unsurpassed for drabness. At least we passed through some small towns.

Just at the state border, there was a rest area, and we stopped there for lunch. We were also happy that they had a dump, because we'd felt perhaps we needed that particular facility. So it was a reasonable stop, except I was somewhat in despair that we were still not even out of Colorado, and it was about 2pm when we left the rest area.

Luckily, the rest of today's drive was less dilatory. The only issue was the significant wind we encountered in Kansas a bit before Dodge City, through tonight when we stopped at Pratt, Kansas's Walmart. (Joe says one thing he likes about this campground is "No quiet hours," ha ha!!) Anyway, I drove the last 80 miles, I think, and the wind was something not fun to deal with. The road was a 65mph road, but that was too fast to drive; I stuck to about 60 instead.

We got to Walmart just at sundown, having made 299 miles (our goal for the day is 250-300 miles.) We had dinner, and I thought we had a long evening ahead, but we just figured out, we are now in the Central Time Zone. So we are only one hour behind home now! Oh, we did have to leave US-50, our road since Reno; US-50 wants to join up with an interstate highway soon, and we'd like to avoid that as long as possible. So we plan one more day on the "blue highways."

No photos today--I was driving a lot, and there was really nothing exciting to photograph. We did note the fields of sorghum, which were impressive, but otherwise nothing really exciting. We were beside the Arkansas River all day, but it seems to peter out in Kansas, and the bed was pretty dry a lot of the time. So... no scenery. It's just Kansas. As we passed through a small town somewhere, there was a sign at the far end of town: "I'd turn back if I were you!" We laughed, but besides that fact that that's an OZ warning, and we were still in Kansas, it's no joke. If we could turn back to Colorado, we just might do that! Except, I have to admit, I miss my babies! So Eastward Ho tomorrow!

Colorado US-50

Along the Gunnison River

2019-10-08 (Tuesday)

We woke up to an exquisite morning at 8,000 feet-- a blue dome of a sky uninterrupted by a single cloud, crisp mountain air, and the colors of fall all around us, reds, yellows, and rusts (plus evergreen, of course.) I guess that was invigorating enough that it got us moving a little ahead of our usual departure time.

The Jeep, of course, was not attached to the RV, so we drove down the mountainside with me leading Joe in Samantha. What we got to see was what we'd missed driving up-- the valley below us spread out in an endless vista. Wow, it was spectacular-- but of course, no one could take a photo, because we were both driving. We got to the bottom quickly (a lot easier than laboring up the mountain yesterday), and I soon found a pullout so we could hook the Jeep back up to the RV. And then we were back on the road again.

We are still following US Route 50, which started out in Reno, became the "Loneliest Highway", and now is not lonely, merely beautiful, through most of central Colorado. We had driven on this road before, back in 2015, and I think I must have taken a lot of the same photos back then! We drove through canyons, and past ranch land, but the most beautiful areas were Blue Mesa Reservoir, and the Arkansas River canyon after the reservoir, to the town of Canyon City. Really, it was a lot of "wows" again. The only problem was, it was pretty slow driving, and we were trying to make our "average" of about 275 miles/day so we get home on time.

Along US 50 in Colorado

 One thing that slowed us down was the Monarch Pass. Some time last night, I remembered that we had gone over it in 2015, and it was HIGH! 11,300+ feet. So we made plans to unhook the Jeep yet again before we headed up the mountain. I have a book for truckers, which describes all the high passes in the western states, so I looked up our route, and Monarch was the only high pass on our trip today. So, using the info from this book, we figured out we needed to stop in the little nothing town of Sargents to unhook, and we could re-attach ourselves someplace around 10 miles down the mountain after we went over the pass. And that is what we did! It all worked very smoothly, but I figure at about 15 minutes per hookup or un-hook, it added almost an hour to our day.

Blue Mesa Reservoir

 In any case, we traveled safely over the mountain, and I took a selfie at the summit to commemorate the event. And from there, we headed through along the Arkansas River, with more oohing and aahing, until suddenly we seemed to be back into traffic! From Canyon City we drove to Pueblo, which is a REAL city, and then, one final hour (I was driving by this time) to La Junta. And we are spending the night in the Walmart parking lot here. It's not a typical Yom Kippur, that is for sure, but we are being truly appreciative of what we are lucky to have, and pondering the coming year with both hope and gratitude. We'll continue to be introspective tomorrow as we head on into Kansas, still following US-50.

Arkansas River Canyon

Walls of Arkansas River Canyon

Me and the Jeep on the Continental Divide, Monarch Pass

Dinosaurs Again, and Ghengis Khan

Most Complete T-Rex Skeleton Ever Found

2019-09-07 Saturday

We woke up today to gray skies, but the rain had stopped falling. Joey told me he had been up in the middle of the night (I slept like a log!!) because he heard a “strange noise.” Upon investigation, it seems that our oldest water hose had burst. Since it had already been repaired twice, we put “new water hose” on our shopping list.

Despite having the Jeep still hooked up from last night, it still took us a ridiculous amount of time to leave the campground. I took Cassie for a long walk, and she played with another dog in the huge fenced in dog yard, so that was nice for her to get some exercise. Finally, we pulled out just at 11:00. We drove about 15 minutes to the Museum of the Rockies, adjacent to the Montana State University (wrong MSU again!) campus. There was a large RV Parking area, so we were comfortable leaving the RV there while we went inside.

This museum is famous for its dinosaur collection, and it certainly did not disappoint! Montana is one of the premier states for dinosaur discoveries, and the museum focused on Montana in the presentations. This was no problem, because just to name one thing, the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever discovered was found in Montana, and it is in this museum! MSU (the one here, I mean) has a distinguished paleontology department as a result of the rich fossil record in their backyard. All of the displays included the name of the person who first found the bone(s), as well as the team who removed it from the rock. Often these folks were interns or doctoral students studying at this school.

The displays also were excellent in  that the beginning of the dinosaur section included some basics, such as what paleontology is, how the museum handles its samples, and the fact that all the displays included whether it was the real thing (labeled B for bone) or a replica (R). They explained that sometimes the real bones are still being studied. There was even a small lab included, with a volunteer inside working on cleaning some bones. The sign on the door said to “knock if you have a question,” and we actually did that at one point.

Bottom line, we got to the Museum at 11:30ish, and we stayed all day, until 4:00 (it closed an hour early, much to our dismay.) We did take a break to go have some lunch in the RV, but otherwise, we were with the dinosaurs. There were amazing samples and explanations, including the fact that paleontolgists now classify dinosaurs as either “non-avian” or “avian.” Most of the extinct larger dinosaurs are “non-avian,” but a particular class of dinosaur is still alive--they are the “avian” class--which we call BIRDS! I knew that the general understanding now was that birds “evolved” from dinosaurs, but from a paleontological point of view, apparently they ARE still considered dinosaurs. To put it another way, dinosaurs are not extinct! Only some are, the way some mammals (such as the ones we saw at the Ashfall Fossil Beds) are extinct. [Note: Blogger has become impossible to manipulate photos into... so all my photos will be at the end of the blog (I hope.)]

I could have spent a lot longer in the dinosaur section, because I didn’t have time to watch a number of videos, such as one which showed a day in the life of the paleontologists who found a particular fossil. I did sit through one which explained how the microbes and bacteria which we saw at Yellowstone (all those colorful bacterial mats at Grand Prismatic Pool, for instance) are actually examples of what happened all over the Earth as the geologic ages passed. The reason Yellowstone is so fascinating is that we can see for ourselves life forms which survive based on chemicals rather than on light (such as plants.)

Meanwhile, the dinosaur bones were the stars of the exhibit. The T-Rex was found in Montana, and is on loan to the museum. It was found on Bureau of Land Management land, which means it is strictly speaking owned by the American people. It’s on loan from the BLM. The skeleton is the most complete T-Rex ever found, and we were fascinated by the reconstruction. The creature had two sets of ribs, but no sternum attaching them-- Joey told me he thinks they must have been contained by the musculature of the animal.

One thing we noticed (which is what we asked the volunteer worker about) was an odd, long bone which seemed to come down between the two femurs. It looked very odd, and was something we saw in almost all the dinosaurs. The volunteer said she thought the bone was analogous to the pubic bone in people, but here it seemed to extend quite far from the pelvic bones. Joey added while I was writing this that what really freaked him out was the similarity of the “hands” of the bipedal dinosaurs to human hands--they have not evolved that differently. He says he also learned a lot about the comparative anatomy of birds that he didn’t know before-- the scientists who study this stuff do a lot of work with modern animals looking for similarities in bone structures, which helps to understand what the dinosaur’s body functioned like.

Another thing we learned was that some of the features of some dinosaurs, such as the plates on the back of a stegosaurus, may have been for “display”, the way modern birds have colorful features for display (think of peacocks, for example.) So several of the reconstructed dinosaurs were depicted with some distinct colors, with feathers in various parts of their bodies (this is known from the bones themselves.) It was just fascinating. We saw dinosaurs which probably burrowed underground (again, similarities to features in modern burrowing animals), and clutches of dinosaur eggs. Most everything in the dinosaur exhibit was original--there were not very many reconstructions, although the series of triceratops skulls had several reconstructions in order to present a complete display of the animals from when they were babies, through the juvenile stage, to adulthood. The skull undergoes certain changes as the animal ages.

One more funny thing-- I read that T-Rex’s teeth replaced themselves every six months, so the animal went through a number of sets of teeth. This sounds so weird, but the display explanation added, “Humans only replace their set of teeth once during their lives.” Until then, I had never thought of people as “replacing” a set of teeth this way--but of course, that’s what happens when we lose our “baby teeth” for our adult ones. The same thing was true of dinosaurs, only more frequently during their life span.

All in all, this was so interesting, but at about 3:00 they announced that the museum was closing an hour early for a private event. We hadn’t seen ANYTHING else except a movie in the planetarium, on how the earth was created. Joey said it was very good-- sadly, I fell asleep while Jupiter was the only planet, and I missed the rest of the movie. But besides this, there was a hall of “original peoples” of Yellowstone Park, i.e. Native Americans who lived in the vicinity. In that hall there were also posters and photos of the original stores and hotels set up in the late 19th century for tourists. I have to say, we pretty much ran through that section.

To our surprise, when we went into the next room, it had a lot of early 20th century vehicles used in Montana, including a set-up of a gas station, a “sheep wagon” (which looked sort of like a covered wagon with a bed, stove, table, and cupboards--in other words, an RV!-- for the guy who followed sheep herds over the prairie), and a “tar-paper shack”. We looked around for 10 more minutes.

Then we hurried into the last exhibit, a temporary exhibit on Ghengis Khan. We started at the wrong end for that-- and I found it fascinating, but Joey wasn’t as interested as I was. I have a book on Genghis Khan, so I knew his history. Basically he united the Mongol tribes, controlled most of Asia (the idea of the Mongols sweeping down and conquering people was entirely true), and then he implemented a lot of ideas which we still use today, such as diplomatic immunity for political representatives of other areas, the pony express concept (which was described by Marco Polo), national parks (he set aside some of his favorite hunting areas and forbade settlements there), wearing trousers (men wore robes before that, but trousers were much more convenient for riding horses), protection of water sources, religious freedom, the use of paper money (also reported on by Marco Polo), and tollbooths! There was also a brief video explaining that Ghengis Kahn (or perhaps one of HIS ancestors) was the progenitor of a huge percentage of Asian people--discovered by tracing the Y chromosome which unites this large group. So maybe he also populated the countries as well as ruling them!

Ghengis Khan also wrote a code of laws and morality (he lived at the beginning of the 13th century), including such items as, “All religions are to be respected equally,” and “Lies, theft, treachery and adultery are forbidden...whoever violates these commands is to be put to death.”  Joey’s favorite was, “Do not wash clothes until they are completely worn out.” I had to notice this one: “Don’t behave as high as a mountain. Though a mountain is high, it will be climbed by animals.”

All this information was, as I said, at the very end of the large exhibit, and we didn’t have time for most of it (including the information about horses, warfare, etc.) They even had a dance group from Mongolia (which is now an independent nation) so we could learn more about the Mongol art and music-- of course, we did not go to that either. At ten minutes to four, I rushed into the gift shop, looked around hastily, and let them kick me and the last stragglers out of the museum. I could have used the extra hour!! All in all, this museum was absolutely fantastic, and I’m still thinking of going back tomorrow; our admission was good for two days.

From there, we drove to Walmart, where we are spending the night. The wifi reception was excellent, and we were able to watch the entire Michigan State (the right MSU) football game. There was also a home game for the wrong MSU today, and we are joined in the Walmart parking lot by at least 20 other RVs. It is quite remarkable; I have never seen so many overnighters at once. Our guess is that they are here for the game--the RV park we stayed in last night was booked solid tonight so we couldn’t have stayed even if we’d wanted to. After the game was over, we went inside and paid for our free parking with a $200 purchase of groceries, a new water hose as mentioned above, some TV cables to perhaps get local TV stations on my computer, and a pair of sweat pants for Joey, among other items. Now, I just have to fight with my blog platform, in an attempt to upload some of the many museum photos I took today. And then, to sleep!

Comparative leg sizes

Clutches of Dinosaur Eggs

Feet and Leg Bones--they got stuck in the mud!

Comparison of Horned Dinosaur skulls as they aged

Tyrannosaurus again, with some other skulls of other T-Rexes

Neck of previously unknown dinosaur, still being studied

Ghengis Khan

 

Interior of Tar Paper Shack

Taking Care of Business

2019-09-01 Sunday

We stayed put today in our campground in Rigby, Idaho, so we had some leisure time to take care of some of the more prosaic things which often we don't have time for. Joe's first priority today was to change the oil in the RV. He did an inventory of his supplies, and needed an oil filter, so he took the Jeep to a local auto parts store. Meanwhile, I was cleaning up around the "house", putting away stray items, making the bed, etc.

The oil change went quite smoothly. I was set up outside in a lounge chair, reading my book, but every so often Joe needed me to hand him something under the RV. It was only during the cleanup part, and the disposal of the used oil part, that I really needed to lend a hand. There were some inevitable spills, but we doused them with detergent and used the hose to spray away most of the evidence.

After that, Joey wanted to reorganize his tool boxes, which had gotten a little messy also. And we also decided to put up our sun awning, because the sun was coming in from that side of the RV. So that all took some time, and then we had a quick lunch, so we could go to the Museum of Idaho. This was one of several museums on my list of places we hadn't had time for last year when we came through this way. So I wanted to see at least ONE of them today.

We left Cassie in the RV with the fan on (it was noticably cooler inside than outside, in any case, and our site is shaded) and we drove 12 miles south to Idaho Springs. As we drove through town, we noted the beautiful Snake River and the Riverwalk, as well as the immense Latter Day Saints Temple absolutely looming over the entire city--by far, the largest, tallest building we saw all day.

The Museum of Idaho was very small-- I think because they were undergoing a new expansion. There was clearly a large, modern building there, but all the exhibits were in the original building, which was the Library of the city until it was turned into a Museum. There were three exhibits--one on the history of Idaho, one on Idaho's nuclear energy contributions (the first nuclear energy plant was in Idaho in 1951), and the current special exhibit on Archimedes. (Last year, the one we missed, was about Steampunk, which I thought sounded fun!) The first two exhibits seemed pretty abreviated, although they were well done, especially the Idaho history exhibit. The Archimedes exhibit reminded me a lot of the one we saw last year in Iowa, on Leonardo da Vinci. There were a lot of models built according to Archimedes' discoveries, some of which we were able to play with. We spent about 90 minutes or so in the museum, I think.

Our next mission was to hit the Walmart--we had a long shopping list with everything from face moisturizer to potholders to an oil filter to groceries. But on the way, we decided to stop and see the falls which the city is named for. They turned out to be right on the route to Walmart, so it was perfect. We got out of the car, and there was an ice cream place right there. Both of us were actually feeling quite tired, and I think I was dehydrated as well, so we went and refreshed ourselves. Then we looked at the falls, read the historical signs, and took photos. The river really is beautiful there. Originally the falls were a series of rough rapids, but there is now a diversionary dam in the river which makes an area that is almost like a lake, and then allows the waters to cascade over the rocks in a number of places. They aren't high falls, certainly not as impressive as Shoshone Falls, which we saw last year, but they are beautiful anyway, and the city is smart to have that  beautiful Riverway park along them for quite a distance.

We then drove another 3 minutes to the Walmart. Both of us were really tired by then. We got through the non-food selections on our list, and then Joey begged off and went to rest in the car. I did the food shopping (it must have taken at least 45 minutes... Shopping in Walmart takes forever because the aisles are so big, and it's hard not to miss something, so you always end up going back and forth a couple of times. Tiring!) Joey came in when I was ready to check out, with a second shopping cart to help (mine was overflowing due to all the water bottles and soda.) We finally got home at about 7pm, and rested for a while before having dinner.

Tomorrow we have to be out of here by 10:30 (campground rules). We will be heading up to West Yellowstone, to the Madison entrance of Yellowstone NP. We'll be looking for a campsite for the next couple of days, and then if we still have the energy, we'll take the Jeep into the park.

Driving North

Rosh Hashanah coming to Salina, Kansas

2019-08-24 Saturday

Today was one of those days where we just needed to put the pedal to the metal and drive all day. Now that we’ve seen Natan and Ruby, our agenda is to head toward the Black Hills in South Dakota, by way of Ashfall State Park in Nebraska. We found out about Ashfall last summer when we were at the University of Nebraska State Museum, also known casually as the Elephant Museum. There, we not only had an incredible time, but we found out about Ashfall, a place where during prehistoric times, a volcanic eruption buried large numbers of extinct mammals, much like the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii. As soon as I found out about the park (which we had driven past, more or less, the day before!) I was determined to map my next route via Nebraska again, so we could go there.

I knew it would take either a VERY long day of driving, or two days broken up, to get there from Enid, and we really don’t do long drives the way we did during our first RVing days. So, with an almost 500-mile trip, today was given up to driving as far as we possibly could before stopping.

We didn’t do too badly--we made it 350 miles today. We left Walmart at 9 a.m., but we had to get some propane first (we are running our refrigerator on propane.) We found a good-sounding place a bit north of Enid, which was fine, since that was our direction anyway. When we got there, though, we discovered that it was impossible to just drive up to the huge propane tank at the business; we would have to back in next to it. So we unhooked the jeep, which took a little longer than usual because of the angle we were at (that was our fault), and then I backed up in place. The actual propane fill took less than 5 minutes! Then it took us another 10 or so minutes to hook back up (I had to back the RV carefully toward the Jeep, to line the two vehicles up properly), and then we made a very tight U-turn to get out of the parking lot. All in all, it was at least a 30 minute stop, and so it was 10 a.m. before we left the northern outskirts of Enid.

From there, we drove. I had waked up at 5:00 this morning, so I realized my eyes were a bit tired after only an hour or so. We changed drivers, and kept on until around noon, when we stopped for gas and lunch. Then we drove another couple of hours, and stopped again, this time for a rest break. We took that off the highway, at a Walmart, because I had realized we only had two gallons of water, and I prefer to travel with a lot more than that just to be on the safe side. So that stop also turned out to be about an hour, so that we could rest. That Walmart was also where I was so surprised to be greeted by the Kedem display above! We read up on the history of Jews in Enid-- it seems that (other than Natan) there aren’t any there anymore (certainly no organized presence, that is.) So seeing this set up for Rosh Hashanah in Salina, Kansas, was a surprise. I do think Salina is larger than Enid, but still, it IS just pretty much “the middle of Kansas someplace.” 

After I shopped, I went back to the RV and while Joe snoozed, I was looking for a likely place to spend the night, and discovered that there were almost no choices. So that was how we ended up where we are-- at what amounts to a large parking lot about 100 yards from Interstate 80. The next closest campground was an hour further down the road, and that would have just been too much. Considering the extreme lack of ambience, the place does have the benefits of water and electricity, and a bizarrely designed but very hot shower. Since we needed water, like to have electricity hook-ups, and need to dump our tank in the morning, this is a fine overnight situation, despite the ugliness of the location. Also, one nice thing is that the weather has cooled down--it was overcast most of the day, and is quite comfortable at the moment.

We set ourselves up, Joey made us a steak with cauliflower and baked potatoes for dinner, I took a shower (he has crashed so he’ll have to do that tomorrow morning), and as soon as I finish this blog, I will go to bed. Tomorrow we hope to leave by 9:00 (I *really* hope!) for the last 135 miles to Ashfall Park. It doesn’t open until 11:00 a.m. anyway, so we should get there by noon or thereabouts, and after lunch have 3-4 hours to explore the fossils. Then, depending on the time and what the overnight options are, we will either head toward South Dakota, or spend the night at the state park and move on on Monday. I’m a little behind my original itinerary time line at the moment, but there are always ways to tweak the plans, so I’m not worried about it.

Great Day in East Lansing

Deb & Joe at Spartan Stadium

Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 [Note: I am missing a couple of photos]

Friday was just a great day for us! We started out with showers in the excellent shower house at the campground, and then drove about 90 minutes to East Lansing-- or to be precise, to Okemos, the town adjacent to E.L.Our reasoning was that we knew that the game-day parking lot would not open before 3:30 (and they DO stick to that!), but we wanted to get into town early for a particular reason--we needed white MSU shirts to wear to the game. They had decided to "stripe the stadium", meaning that depending what section you are in, you are supposed to wear either green or white. We only owned green shirts, which is what we had with us, but we were in a white section. So of course, we headed to Walmart. We knew we'd be able to park, and also that they would have a healthy selection of Spartan swag, including t-shirts.

We went inside, and the store did not disappoint us, having their entire "sports" section set up behind a Spartan sun tent. They didn't have as much fun "stuff" as I remembered from last time, but we did both find white MSU t-shirts that we liked. Then, resisting the impulse to buy new folding chairs in green and white, we went back to the RV and had lunch.

Walmart's Spartan Section

It was only about 1:30 by that time, however, and I was hoping to see just a little of downtown EL and maybe figure out how to get into the Student Book Store, where I just KNEW that I'd be able to furnish and entire house, if desired, with the MSU-themed items they would have. So we drove slowly into town, noticing all the new buildings, and the absolute mobs of people (not a big surprise on game day). We even caught a glimpse of our first apartment building, although we didn't drive past it for logistical reasons. Joe drove, and with me directing, we were lucky enough to find a large space on the curb a few blocks away from Grand River Avenue (the main drag through town) where we could slide the RV in and just fit!

At that point, Joe made the wise decision to stay in the RV and relax. I had a little over an hour to go shopping. I headed down the street, noticing all the students on their porches (so many of the houses are obviously rentals--I wonder why Joe and I ended up in a single apartment instead of a fun house?)  They were just starting to set up for their pre-game parties.

The town was simply MOBBED, and I noticed an awful lot of people closer to my age than to college age! There was hardly a soul who was not wearing and MSU t-shirt, if not a complete green and white outfit. DEFINITELY game day in the Big Ten! I went to the Student Book Store, and as expected, there were about three rooms devoted to Spartan swag-- I have no idea where the BOOKS might have been, because I did not see ANY! But I spent well over 30 minutes browsing through EVERYTHING (I WANTED everything, too, but I knew I truly did not need a deck of MSU playing cards, or any more MSU coffee mugs, or a Vera Bradly MSU-pattern tote bag, or ANYTHING else... and Cassie did not need a new MSU leash, and the car did not need another MSU magnet. The RV, however, DID need an MSU license plate frame , and Joe did need to replace his horribly faded Block-S green hat with a new one (identical). And I needed just one (ok, two) new magnets for my refrigerator. I *almost* needed an MSU garden stake, but then I decided against that too.

By the time I left the store, it was time to start heading back to the RV so we could continue with the main event of the day. We carefully drove back through the residential streets, dodging large groups of students who were gathering on porches everywhere, and found our way to the RV parking lot at the very fringes of the campus. I didn't mind driving down there, because the route took us past Holmes Hall and Akers Hall, our freshman year residences. The trees seem a lot taller on the East Campus than they were 40 years ago!!

At 3:36, we were already the 6th RV into the lot, meaning we didn't get a place along the curb (and grass) at the edge of the lot. But that was okay, because we wanted to be as near as possible to where the shuttle would pick us up. All in all, there were about 15-16 RVs in the lot by 6:00pm. Most of them had tailgate parties going on, or at least dinner-- but at MY RV, my husband decided to put on the new license plate holder. Of course, it turned out not to be the 10 minute job he expected (something about "locking bolts" holding the license in place, which had to be removed and replaced with something more manageable.) I, otoh, was not stupid-- I sat in a lounge chair in the shade cast by the RV, eating chips and dip and drinking a vodka and tonic.

In the end, we did NOT make any dinner-- at 6pm, Joe had finished the license frame renovation, and it was time to start heading for the station. We had to walk a short distance to catch the shuttle bus. On the ride, we chatted with other passengers, one of whom happened to come from..... Metuchen, NJ!  I mean, how CRAZY is that?

So we got to the stadium, and wending our way through the huge crowds of tailgaters at the foot of the Sacred Building (and past a couple of idiots waving placards and begging us to come to Jesus), we found our way inside, trudged up the zig-zag ramp to the very highest reaches of the stadium, treated ourselves to some stadium food in lieu of a healthier dinner, and finally looked down on the Kingdom of the Spartans from a very fine birds-eye view (our favorite vantage point.) We were in time to see the Spartan Marching Band's pre-game show, enjoy the gentle breeze cooling the warm eveing, and just drink in the atmosphere.

The game was much closer than we expected (or hoped!), which made it exciting, since in the end the Spartans narrowly avoided being upset by a supposedly much inferior team (which was, in truth, quite a good team!) All in all, it was a marvelous evening, and we totally loved it. Joe was so pleased that physically he was in good shape, despite all the walking the event entailed. The game ended sometime around 10:30, and we went DOWN the endless ramp, found our way back to our shuttle point, and rode back to the RV lot again. We waited for a little while, so that some of the massive traffic could clear out of the campus, had a snack, and finally just before midnight, we pulled out of the parking lot and returned to the Walmart. According to our "parking app", it was legal to spend the night there, and we have done it before... but just in case, we waited until the store closed at midnight so there was nobody to ask permission from, in case they would have refused it!

And finally we went to sleep-- it was very quiet, the temperature was low enough to be quite comfortable, and we felt completely happy with the way our day had gone. YAY! V-4-MSU!

Two Low-Key Days

Colorado River near Kremmling

Friday/Saturday, Aug. 24-25, 2018

When we woke up yesterday morning and looked at the lake, and Joe said, "OMG, just LOOK at how beautiful this is!", I decided that there was really no rush to go anyplace, and our lakeside view was too good to give up. Unfortunately, we did have to move, because our site was reserved for Friday night. But the next site on the road, about 25 feet along, was a "first come" site. So we rolled forward and claimed it before anyone else could come along.

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing! I put our chairs up, and I fell asleep for about an hour or so in the sun (I put my sweatshirt over my face to protect me from sunburn.) Joe napped inside. Cassie spent most of the day outside, tethered to our picnic table, which provided ample shade. The temperature reached perhaps the high 60s, although the sun made it feel warmer. I chatted with one of the camp hosts for a while, and she told me that it hadn't gotten above 80 degrees there all summer! The altitude was about 8,000 feet, which made it quite nippy at night, down into the 40s. So we just loved it.

Selfie of me, sunbathing

This morning we packed up, though, because we had plans to meet up with our friend Noah sometime around dinner. He texted us that he had to go in to work, however, so it was unclear when he might be free. Nevertheless, we needed to head east. And although the least mileage was to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, we just weren't up for it. Joe has been feeling the altitude, and I did not want to be freaked out by the 12,000 foot road through the park. The closer alternative was US 40, but that went over a 12,000 foot pass also! So we retraced our steps past Sulphur Hot Springs and Kemmling, down to I-70, and took the Interstate through the Eisenhower Tunnel, which went through the mountain instead of over it (at 11,000 feet, still!) We did a lot of gasping for breath.

Soon we stopped at a Walmart, where we picked up some groceries and some other household necessities. Then we tried to figure out where we could possibly meet Noah, although we hadn't heard from him yet. But it was after 4pm. So we decided to drive to the Cabela's which was not terribly far (we thought) from where he lived, and hang out there. We were getting worried about camping, because due to city ordinances, the Walmarts and the Cabela's did not allow overnight parking. Our only choice seemed to be the Cracker Barrel, not too far from Cabela's.

Anyway we got to Cabela's, and I went in to browse while Joe rested. I actually found a vest just like I'd been wanting, at the price I had wanted to spend ($15!), and I splurged on a pair of earrings. By 6pm, we still hadn't heard from Noah, and he didn't answer his phone. So we assumed he got tied up at work, let him a message that we'd see him sometime soon, and tried to find a place for the night. I thought it was kind of early to stop at the Cracker Barrel, and was thinking we should just start heading east on the interstate (tomorrow's route) and see if anything turned up.

Joe, meanwhile, was also searching on his phone app for any possible campgrounds, and found Standley Lake. It was only 16 miles away, and he convinced me we should just try it, even though I was convinced that this late on a Saturday night, it would be full. I drove and he navigated, and when we got to the park, the ranger station was still open, and the girl inside told us that she thought there were still spaces in the "walk in" section. There were only 12 to start with! But we got the very last one!! Ironically, we are only about 6 miles from where Noah lives (much closer than we were before), but he sent a message that he got tied up at work with his team and had no idea when he might be free.

Standley Lake Campground in the evening

In any case, we feel lucky to have found this site, given the lack of other options. I feel that Denver is, overall, a very RV-unfriendly city. Besides the traffic (as with any large city), the western suburbs are very "steep" whenever you leave the highway, which makes it hard to get around. And with the no overnight parking laws, it means there's really no place to stop and rest! So I will add Denver to the list of places I will drive around rather than through, from now on. It's too bad we have friends here!

Tomorrow we will head for Nebraska. I have some stops planned out, and it should not be too arduous to get to East Lansing in time for the football game next Friday night!

View of Standley Lake on Sunday morning

Housekeeping in Wyoming

Day 23: Sept. 18, 2011

It’s always a bit strange spending the night at an interstate rest area--on one hand, no one ever bothers us and the highway noises are never as loud as you might expect. But we always wake up early, and it’s a conducive way to get an early start. So we were actually back on the road by about 8:30 this morning.

We had several priorities and a general direction in mind. The former included finding water--we discovered before dinner last night that we had run out! I’m referring to Mo’s tank of water, which we use for washing dishes and flushing the toilet--for drinking and cooking, we use bottled water, which we still had plenty of. But it is disconcerting to turn the tap and get nothing! Usually we top it off whenever we get the chance, but we must have missed doing that, or else we used a lot. Also Joe wanted to change Mo’s oil, since we have travelled over 3,000 miles. The general direction was: east on I-80 to Laramie and Cheyenne, and then south to Denver and a connection to I-70 east.

50 miles down the road from our rest stop, we stopped in Rawlins at a Flying J for the water fill-up, gas, and tank dump. By then it was just after 10, so with the help of our Next Exit book, we found an auto parts store in Rawlins. Joe bought oil and some other stuff so he could change the oil and filter, and repair the boo-boo Mo got when we tangled with the rock the day before (the muffler to the generator had gotten knocked off.) It only took Joe an hour to change the oil and fix the muffler--he is amazing! I did some internal housekeeping meanwhile--washing the dishes from the night before, now that we had water, sweeping, and putting away stuff that was floating around.

At 11:30 we left Rawlins and drove another 100 miles to Laramie, arriving just at lunchtime. We went directly to the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site, a “gem” attraction in the AAA book. We ate lunch, then went in to find out more about the only prison which had ever had Butch Cassidy behind its bars.
The place turned out to be very interesting. The prison building itself was built
in 1872 and was used until the very early 1900s. Then it was taken over by the University of Wyoming, which used the buildings and land as an experimental stock farm. It was restored and renovated in the 1990s using rigorous archaeological principles, and the panels explaining how the building was rebuilt were very well done. They did make use of their Butch Cassidy connection, however!
Most interesting were the stories of the prisoners, and the information about daily life in the prison, from the pov of not just the prisoners but the wardens, the guards, and people who came in to give the prisoners some access to culture, religion, and education. They had people of every type as prisoners at one time or another. This is a panel about Julius Greenwald, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. He was a cigar maker by trade. The plaque says that he shot his wife at a “house of prostitution”. One is left to assume that he found her working there. A nearby panel referencing the problems of domestic violence mentioned that women sometimes worked as prostitutes to bring more money into the family. Evidently if this is was Mrs. Greenwald was doing, her husband didn’t appreciate it. But it’s certainly not the usual story of a Polish immigrant to America! While he was incarcerated, he made cigars which were sold all over the country. This was not that unusual--a number of the prisoners were able to pursue their trades in prison and this made money for the lessee of the prisoner laborers.
Besides the prison, the historic site includes renovations of the wardens’ house, the broom factory, and several buildings left from when the site was used to raise stock. So it was later than I’d expected when we left, and we still had to stop at yet another Walmart. We needed some basic groceries and a few things for Mo. It’s amazing how we run out of *something* we need almost every day--I suppose it’s because we keep everything in small quantities. We did have an unexpected bonus as we left the store, though. The clouds in the sky were extra-dramatic, and there was a semi-circle of sunrays coming through the clouds. I pointed it out to Joe, and he said, "It's heaven!" If nothing else, this photo shows how big the sky is out here, but I think you can see the rays, too.
By this time, I had realized that no way would we make it any farther than Cheyenne tonight, and that is where we are, at a campground in Cheyenne. As usual, we had wonderful scenery on the road here. We are hoping to see a little bit of Wyoming’s capital tomorrow, before we get back on the road.

Big Sky and Big Box Stores

Day 10 Sept. 5, 2011

Today was a very strange day for our usual vacation. We woke up in a gorgeous campsite on the side of a mountain in Yellowstone National Park, overlooking the road entering the park and the mountains beyond. Our campsite was on the outermost “ring” of the campground, which meant there was nothing between us and our view. We ate breakfast at our picnic table, looking out at the gorgeous vista.

At last at around 10am, we finally realized we’d better hit the road. We reluctantly tidied up and left Yellowstone. Just as we passed the ranger booth at exit, we saw this last group of pronghorns, gathered to wish us a farewell.

The road from Gardiner MT up to I-90 at the town of Livingston was beautiful--a lot of fishing goes on up there, because the river runs along State Highway 89 through the valley. We did stop for gas at a General Store in a small town, and it was a true general store--they had everything from fishing tackle to groceries to the latest People Magazine. The cover struck me as completely incongruous in that setting.

Once we got to the interstate, however, the most important “errand” of our day began. We headed for Bozeman, 30-some miles west, and the Walmart Supercenter there. I didn’t mention, but Joe lost his eyeglasses back up on top of the world in the rocky glacier field on the Beartooth Highway. He discovered this when we were stopped for lunch in Cooke City, and although I suggested tongue-in-cheek that we go back and look for them, we both decided against that. Luckily he has prescription sunglasses, which he has been wearing all day anyway. He takes his glasses off entirely to read something like a book, but he can’t drive at night, or see too well inside buildings, without the other glasses. We couldn’t do a thing about it for the time we were in Yellowstone, so we just let it go until we left the park.

We had several ideas as to how to deal with the glasses. Idea One did not pan out, because when Joe called the Pearl Vision Center at home to ask them for his prescription, they refused to give it to him--they said it had been more than a year since he’d had an exam and they couldn’t tell him the Rx. This meant we couldn’t simply take the Rx to someplace for new glasses, he needed an exam first. Plan Two: Go to the Vision Center in Walmart and get an exam. Then if they couldn’t make the glasses right then, have the glasses made at another center in another Walmart farther down the road, and we’d stop and pick them up when we got there. Plan Two didn’t work, because there was no one at the Walmart Vision Center who could do the exam. But the girl who worked there gave us Plan Three: try the local Lenscrafters.

By this time it was around 12:30, and the earliest appointment they could give Joe was 3:30. He told them he wasn’t sure we’d still be in Bozeman by that time. But as it turned out, we were. Our day was a veritable tour of Bozeman’s big box stores. We had a big shopping list of items. Walmart came first--groceries, and a few other odds and ends. It took us about an hour in the store, and it was lunch time when we finished up. Mo was parked out in the lot between two other “vintage” RVs. This was the funniest part of the day--everywhere in Bozeman that we went, we saw what we consider “old” RVs, i.e. as old or older than Mo. We were parked next to a Winnebago almost our exact color and size, and nearby was a small trailer which was even older. All day as we drove around, we saw 1970s-1980s vintage RVs of every kind.

Anyway, after lunch, we went to Home Depot. We needed a new latch for one of our cabinets, something to fix the seal on our refrigerator, and a couple of other things, including propane, which we forgot to buy at Walmart. While Joe shopped in Home Depot, I swept out Mo and then took Roxy for a walk. That led to a surprise: the shopping center (with Home Depot on one side, and an REI and some other stores on the other) was surrounded by a sidewalk with flowers, shrubs, grass, and even some benches to sit on! Understand this looked like a 6-lane “highway” when we drove down the road, but with these sidewalks. So Roxy had a VERY nice walk, rather than the expected parking-lot walk.

By the time Joe came out, it was 3:00, exactly time to start looking for Lenscrafters. This led us to the Gallatin Valley Mall, probably the last place Joe would ever choose to spend even 2 minutes during a vacation. But no choice--we wanted him to be able to see again! He had his eyes examined, and then they made the glasses then and there (the lenses were even on sale, half-price with a purchase of frames, which of course he also needed .) While Joe got his eyes checked, I did a little bit of gift shopping. Then we both had a drink while we waited for the new glasses to be finished. At last, around 5pm, Joe could see, and we left the mall.

However this was not the end of it. We’d remembered our plan from a few nights ago to get rid of our old grill--it is broken. I’m not sure why we remembered, we were discussing our plan to buy one at Walmart, which of course we’d forgotten while there. But as we were driving past the Home Depot again, Joe looked over and saw something called Sporting Warehouse, and decided we should look there for an inexpensive grill. This store was literally right next to the REI. Apparently everyone in Bozeman (and the rest of Montana) is so into outdoor sports, hunting, fishing, hiking, and everything else imaginable, that two enormous big-box type sporting good stores can literally be built side by side and both stay in business! As you can see from this sign, to paraphrase Dorothy, we are not in New Jersey anymore. The sign was posted inside the door of the Sporting Warehouse.

Alas, however, neither of these stores had an inexpensive grill--I didn’t want to pay almost $100, especially since we had spent a fortune already today. We certainly did our part for the Bozeman economy, which may be a good thing. We passed at least 3 pawn shops between the Home Depot and the mall!

At that point we jumped back on I-90, and I am actually typing this while we drive along. It is the most ironic thing that our day in Bozeman turned out to be shopping instead of some kind of outside sporty thing (not that we are such sporty people, of course--my original plan was to visit the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, on the Montana State University campus. But Joe would not have been able to see inside the building anyway until we got the glasses, and by then the day was over!) The interstate went through absolutely beautiful wheat fields and then rangeland, always with mountains in the background.


Bozeman, btw, is surrounded by mountains and that was amazing, driving down a road filled with stores like Home Depot and Walmart, but looking right at these huge mountains which seemed as if they were right at the end of the road (and in some cases, they are!)

So now we are about 30 minutes away from our campground in Missoula, MT. The only thing we forgot to do when we left Bozeman was stop at the Flying J and dump our waste tanks. This means we needed a place to dump them tonight/tomorrow, and our only good bet is a private campground. So too bad, because I’d hoped to stay at a Montana State Park tonight. OTOH, I’ll be able to upload this blog, and the one from yesterday.

Our plan tomorrow has us driving through Idaho on the Lolo Pass road, US 12, which is on a lot of “Most Beautiful Roads” list. We will most likely be in a National Forest Service campground someplace in eastern Oregon for the night, not too far from Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area, which seems by the map to be pretty much inaccessible! So we are looking forward to a real adventure, and also to adding at least two more states to our map.