July 20, 2006 - Arrival in Michigan

The trip has begun! The girls and I are now in Michigan (Jim is still slaving away at home for a few more days). The girls are spending the day visiting with Leola while I'm in Ann Arbor helping my sister-in-law Sarah present her paintings at the prestigious Ann Arbor Art Fair. The trip almost didn't start the date planned, since Callie unexpectedly broke a finger at camp last week. We managed to fit in all the necessary doctor's appointments before we left, and she is fine. So we will spend a few days here before departing for the wild, wild, west.

July 23, 2006 - Ann Arbor Art Fair and heading to Iowa

We just finished up a 4 day stint helping my sister-in-law Sarah at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. That was a fun experience. Sarah was moderately successful in selling her pastel paintings (visit her web site at sarahblumenschein.com if you are interested in buying one....yup, I'm still trying to sell). For me it was also a flashback to the 1980's and my college days at the University of Michigan. My kids had to deal with my brother Jim, Leola, and me saying "Hey, look at that!" and "Remember that place?" The kids were told the appropriate response was "Cool, tell me more." Funny, they didn't cooperate.

Now that the art fair is done, we drove to Chicago this morning to drop off my brother Jim and wife Sarah to fly home. We are taking their motor home back to New Mexico for them (by way of the National Parks). Leola and Doug will meet up with us in Mitchell, South Dakota tomorrow night. When we talked to them earlier, they were in traffic around Chicago watching the cops chase participants in an illegal road rally. Interesting.

We are currently traveling through Iowa. Jim (the husband, not the brother) has taken to driving the motor home like a fish to water. If I start finding applications to trucking schools lying around the house, I'm going to get worried! We are hoping to make it to Des Moines tonight. With the help of free weekend cell phone minutes and my Mom and Aunt Ruth back in Michigan with their Internet connection, they found us a Super Wal-Mart to grocery shop at and hopefully spend the night at. We are on the way there.

Tomorrow it will be on to Ames, Iowa, where we will relive Jim's college days at Iowa State. Say it kids, "Cool Dad, tell us more!" I don't see them cooperating with him either. :-)

July 25, 2006 - Iowa State University and on to South Dakota

It's been a couple of days since we've had Internet access. I managed to download some e-mail in Iowa at a rest area (yes, their rest areas have WiFi). But that's been it. So when I upload this, you'll get a two-fer.

We enjoyed our visit to Iowa State. It was fun seeing where Jim went to college. The girls heard some of his stories about his days at school. Apparently Jim did more than study. But he kept the stories wholesome. Honestly.

After visiting ISU, we put the "pedal to the metal" and made tracks through Minnesota and into South Dakota. We spent last night in Mitchell, SD. It was 96 when we arrived. Janelle and I were just about to jump into the campground pool when we were told a storm was coming through. Sure enough, with 8 minutes it was hailing and the temperature dropped 20 degrees.

Leola and Doug caught up with us last night. Who would have thought when Leola and I were growing up together that we would one day be traveling with our families in RVs. You just never know.

Today was spent visiting the Corn Palace in Mitchell, and then touring the Badlands. There my brand new digital thermometer read 100.6 F outside. And it was. We hiked a few short trails (too hot for anything longer) and traveled the loop through the park. The scenery was spectacular.

We are now on the way to Hill City, SD. We'll stay a couple of nights there and visit Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. But right now I'm thinking about the pool at the campground.

July 28, 2006 - Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, The City of Deadwood, Top Ten List

I finally have a few minutes to document what we have been up to the past couple of days. I've had excellent Internet access, but updating the web page has taken a back seat to seeing the sights, as it should be!

I think today is Friday. It must be Friday, we are on our way to Montana. Right now I am comfortably seated in the RV typing away, while the blistering 100 degree heat is held at bay the by the RV's air conditioning. It's been really hot out here. Fortunately, the nights are cool so we can sleep comfortably. But I digress.

On Wednesday, we visited a couple of sites (see the photos by clicking on the Black Hills link to the left). We started with Mt. Rushmore and had to dodge a few rain drops. But it was enjoyable. One hears a multitude of languages when visiting such a place. Overall, the visit was what one would expect.

In the afternoon we visited the Crazy Horse Monument. I had see this private monument back in the mid-seventies when my parents brought us out here. Quite a bit has changed since that time. All there was then was a hole under the arm and the top of the arm flattened off. Now Crazy Horse has a face. It's been under construction for 50 years. I suspect it will be many more years before it's complete.

After that, Leola, Doug and Jim decided they wanted to do a helicopter ride over Crazy Horse and Custer. I opted to stay back at the camp ground with the kids with my two feet planted firmly on the ground. They enjoyed their 20 minute ride. I'll have to wrestle some photos out of Leola to post here.

Thursday morning, we made the short drive up to Deadwood. This is a town that appeared in the mid 1800's as a result of gold being found in the area. It was a lawless town at the time, full of gaming houses, loose women, whiskey, etc. Now it's a great place to visit! There is still a gold mine in the area, although it's inactive. The state of South Dakota allows gambling once again in the town as a way to finance the town's historic preservation. So we wandered the main street, looking for trouble, I mean fun.

Kids are allowed in the casinos/saloons, but are not allowed to gamble (of course). I put a quarter in a slot machine and had a $2.75 payout in quarters. Hey, that's laundry money (have any of you done laundry in a laundromat lately? It's expensive). Leola tried a quarter and got nothing. Later Doug tried his luck with a single quarter. Wouldn't you know it, he won $45!!!! It was all in quarters of course, and he can't possibly generate that much dirty laundry. But he turned it into paper money and now can buy even more gas for the RV.

In the evening Jim, the girls and I visited a local rodeo. It was great fun! We had never been to one before and were not sure what to expect. Watching all the events was interesting. We have no clue how they scored the contestants, but we cheered anyway. People up here are serious about their rodeos. I saw people marking the scores in their programs, much like you see at a baseball game. We also saw a large number of cowboy boots, hats, plaid shirts, and blue jeans with creases down the front. I think we stood out as being oddly dressed.

I'll finish this entry with the Top Ten Things we learned have learned about RVing thus far.

1. Expect a crisis every day. Today's is the Crichton's RV steps won't open and close as they should. Yesterday it was a leaky pipe under the Crichton's kitchen sink. Prior to that, we have had horrible squeaks from the microwave while driving, and a piece of trim fell on Jim's head while driving. Both of those problems are fixed now. Doug will deal with the steps tonight.

2. Never rely strictly on a laptop and GPS software to route you. We had the experience of the software routing our oversized vehicles down a dirt road. We realized the problem before we turned down the road. But it resulted in much discussion, and having to backtrack.

3. Walkie-talkies are indispensable. They are great for talking between RVs and for finding lost adults in crowds.

4. Flying J Travel Plazas are great places for getting gas. They can handle large "rigs" like ours easily. Jim loves them.

5. Don't mix up the zones when you have two air conditioners in your RV. You'll bake at your end and freeze your kids.

6. If you bring along a large number of DVDs for the kids to watch, the one they want won't be among them.

7. You can never have too much bottled water on hand when it's 100 degrees out. Never.

8. As much as you hate Wal-Mart Supercenters in your own neighborhood, they are a godsend when in an RV. You can get everything there (food, WD-40, beer, screwdrivers, etc.), and spend the night if you just need a place to stop.

9. A $50 National Parks pass is a good deal. A really good deal.

10. Only one laptop for a family of four is not enough. At least not for ours. I've had to fend off Janelle's attempts to get her hands on this one for most of the day.

Onward!

July 30, 2006 - Devil's Tower, Custer's Last Stand, Glacier National Park, Montana

We just finished up three days of driving to and enjoying Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana. What a place to visit! More on that in a minute. All the pictures pertaining to this entry can be seen by clicking on the Glacier button to the left.

Driving up here took us two days. It wasn't just driving however. We fit in a couple of stops. We visited Devil's Tower as we cut through Wyoming. It was HUGE. Check out the pictures. There is no way to describe it. Janelle really enjoyed jumping around on the rocks that are at the base of the tower. As an added bonus, there is a town of prairie dogs in the park. We spent a good number of minutes watching them pop in and out of their holes.

We also stopped at Little Big Horn. If you remember your history, this is the site of Custer's Last Stand. It was the last battle of the Indian Wars where the Native Americans defeated the U.S. soldiers. It was incredible to us that a battle actually took place here. It is a series of rolling prairie hills and not much else. It was incredibly hot for us (100 degrees again), we couldn't imagine the U.S. Cavalry surviving in the heat in their blue wool uniforms. The presentation of the battle was interesting in its unbiased telling. There is a paved road that follows the route of the battle. My neighbor (you know who you are) would have enjoyed this stop.

You have to wonder on these trips if the girls (14 and 12 years old) are getting anything out of it. They appear to be in pain when we stop at these historic sites. But I've decided they must be absorbing something! Janelle disappeared into the back of the RV to watch the DVD Hidalgo (set in the 1880's). After a few minutes she popped out and said "Hey, they just mentioned Lt. Col. Custer and how he died at a great battle!" Then a few minutes after that, "Mom, they were just talking about Deadwood!" Something sunk in!

The crisis of the past few days (I alluded to it in my Top 10 list in my previous posting) is Doug and Leola's RV step not retracting. The repair attempt was quite the site on Saturday morning. Doug was on his cell phone talking to the RV dealer in Michigan. Jim was under the RV trying out what Doug relayed to him. Despite their joint efforts, the step is still stuck. Actually, they managed to get it stuck in the retracted position now. So some duct tape (gotta love it) is holding the step in place and Leola and Doug are using a newly purchased step stool (from a Wal-Mart of course) to get in and out of the RV. The step will have to wait until they get back to Michigan to get fixed.

We stayed at a very nice campground outside of Glacier (two, count'em, two hot tubs). From there we spent all day Sunday touring the park. There is a road called the "Going to the Sun Highway" that traverses the park through the mountains and crosses the Continental Divide. The scenery is beyond words. Just look at our pictures. We took the car (both motor homes are too big) on the highway and went as far as we could, driving West to East. We were unable to go the full length of the road due to a forest fire at the East end of the park! We were close enough to see lots of smoke and the occasional flame jumping high.

At Logan's Pass (at the Continental Divide), we got out and took a, ahem, short 3 mile hike up to a lake and back. 3 miles is a long, long way at 6000 feet. Just ask Leola and me. We had a whole list of excuses as to why we lagged behind the others. I could do another Top Ten list on those, but I'll spare you. Anyway, along the hike we had pair of mountain goats come up to us (mom and baby), and tons of Columbian Ground Squirrels performing for us. We even saw a Marmot. At the end of the trail, we had a great view of a glacial lake. It was worth the sore knees (me) and the aching foot (Leola). The hot tub sure felt good that evening.

So after the fun of Glacier National Park, we will now wander our way down to Yellowstone. Tune in later to see what we discover on this part of our trip!

August 4, 2006 - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Bison and coyotes and deer, oh my!

Greetings from the wilderness! We have really been roughing it...four days without Internet access (and thus no web page updates) and spotty cell phone service. So, if you sent any of us an e-mail, it's still sitting in our in-boxes.

It's the morning of our last day at Yellowstone. I'll type this up now with the intent of uploading it to the web site later in the day when I find an Internet connection. Yup, we are really roughing it out here.

Yellowstone is a massive park. It turns out the expected highlights weren't, and the unknown (to us anyway) features were the highlights.

We came in from the north on the first day. We checked with the park service to see which roads were the easiest for massive RVs and proceeded along that route. It was cold and rainy and we made tracks for our camp ground in the middle of the park. We had made reservations back in early May, so we had spots at the only camp ground in the entire park that has full hook-ups. So I guess we aren't totally roughing it. Upon our arrival, we hooked up and decided it was time for a quiet evening, something we have had few of this trip.

The next two days we spent in the car touring the sights. We, drove first along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. It was a nice drive, and afforded us our first view of elk and bison. The lake is gorgeous (I feel like I am running out of adjectives to describe the sights we are seeing...look at the pictures instead).

Then we headed to the most famous feature in the park, Old Faithful. The geyser erupts only every 90 minutes these days, as opposed to every 60 minutes 50 years ago. But we managed to get there within 20 minutes of its eruption. We ate our lunch while watching the geyser and the hordes of tourists. Old Faithful, while nice, wasn't such a big deal. After the eruption, most of the people headed back to their cars. But we took the trail through all the geysers surrounding Old Faithful. Now that was very nice! Yes, the walk was a highlight. We saw more bubbling, spurting, gurgling holes in the ground than you can imagine. And we also made a lot of "old geezers by the old geysers" cracks.

Day two of our travels in Yellowstone took us to the north part of the park. Here's where we saw our second unexpected highlight, Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls and the Yellowstone Canyon. We were talking during the drive how none of us knew that the park even had a canyon or falls. We took a hike down to the lower falls (again, see the pictures). It was very steep and we were at 8000 feet. We purposely did the walk first thing in the morning while we were fresh. But wouldn't you know it, one of us got a touch of altitude sickness. Want to guess which one of us? Janelle, probably the most physically fit of all of us! She started feeling nauseous. So Leola and I sat with her while Doug got her some water. After about 15 minutes of resting, she felt better and we continued the 1400 feet climb back up. But the lesson from this adventure is to make sure you drink lots of fluids at high altitudes. Janelle had neglected to drink anything at breakfast. She' s learned.

We had lunch at 9000 feet! There was a dirt road that led up to a rugged look out. So we stopped, pulled out the sandwiches and ate. I discovered I my cell phone worked there! So my brother Jim got a call from the top of a mountain to report on his RV. Ok, there is some technology working in the park, you just have to go to 9000 feet.

In the afternoon we visited the north entrance of the park and the Mammoth Hot Springs. What a huge disappointment! Back in the 1970's, this was a huge area of mineral springs that bubbled up and down a terraced slope. I recall it being very spectacular from my childhood visit to Yellowstone. Nowadays, there are one or two springs still spewing hot water, but most of them have dried up. All there is now is this huge network of boardwalks going around dead, dried up spring beds. It was actually kind of depressing. If we had known that was the state of things, we probably would have skipped the visit and saved ourselves a long drive to get there. The only good thing is that the level of inactivity in the springs is not due to man. Things change under the ground of Yellowstone constantly. And this is just one of them. I suspect in 30 years, they springs will be active again.

There is a lot of wildlife in the park. When we departed on our road trip yesterday morning, we came across a bison in the middle of our road! We were probably 5 feet from him. He just kept wandering down the yellow line, grunting as he went along. We, of course, had the windows open and the cameras out.

We have seen a couple of coyotes in our camp ground. Leola's dogs usually give the "alarm" when one is around. We have also seen a lot of deer, some elk, pelicans, and a moose having breakfast in Yellowstone Lake. There are herds of bison that graze just north of our camp ground. One was actually in the campground yesterday. The easiest way to spot the wildlife is to look for the cars that have pulled off to the side of the road to stare at it. Well, maybe the absolute easiest way to know wildlife is around is when you are stuck in a traffic jam as people rubber neck at the animals.

Yellowstone is supposed to get half of its annual 3 million visitors during the months of July and August. We haven't found it all that bad. We'll have to check the attendance figures later in the year. But I suspect the price of gas is keeping a lot of people at home.

As of this point, Janelle has earned her Yellowstone Junior Ranger patch, we have crisscrossed the Continental Divide 6 times, logged 2820 miles on the RV and have spent $1231 on fuel in our RV alone (Doug and Leola have spent slightly less). Now we are on our way to Grand Teton National Park. Yet another adventure awaits us. Wait, I see our next adventure up ahead already! Mule Deer are holding up traffic. Time to get the camera out!

August 6, 2006 - Life in a RV

I just added a section entitled "Life in a RV." It's all the topics that struck me as strange and different when we started this trip. If you want, you can view my comments and pictures by clicking on the button at the top-left. Tomorrow (if ambitious), I'll tell you all abut our visit to the Grand Tetons. But right now, I'm sitting next to the pool watching the kids swims ....I'm not feeling that energetic!!!!

August 12, 2006 - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

It's been six very busy days. I haven't had much of a chance to do any updates to the web page. Sorry! But trust me, we haven't been sitting around idle!

To continue our saga, we left Yellowstone (was that only six days ago) and headed down to Grand Teton National Park. It's immediately South of Yellowstone, so it was a very easy drive. We got there mid-day, a first for us! That enabled us to have a lunch NOT on the road and to check out the immediate area, go swimming, check out the Jackson Lake Lodge and make arrangements for what we wanted to do the next day.

The Teton mountain range borders a number of lakes. We stayed at a campground on Jackson Lake (think Jackson Hole). As a result, most of our touring was done by water! On Saturday morning we took a boat tour on Jackson Lake. But it wasn't just a tour of the lake, it was a tour of the mountain range from the water. We learned about the formation of the Tetons, local history, etc. The Tetons reminded us of the Alps. They are very jagged, much different than either Glacier or Yellowstone.

In the afternoon we took a floating trip down the Snake River. It's not white water rafting, and it's not floating down the river in an inner tube. It's kind of in between. We were in a LARGE inner tube raft that holds 12 people and a guide. The guide used two very long oars to guide the raft down the river which dropped 400 feet over the course of the 10 mile trip. During the course of the trip saw a bald eagle, a moose very close up, and other assorted wild life. There was just enough "white water" to make it fun and get a few of us a little wet.

The next day, we checked out the town of Jackson (very trendy, bring your wallet) and then headed out of the mountains. Our joint adventure with Doug and Leola was coming to and end. We traveled with them as far as Rawlins, Wyoming and then parted ways. Doug had to get back to work, their RV needed to get back before it's warranty ran out (had to get those steps fixed), and we were heading to Colorado.

Estes Park, Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park

On Monday the four of us arrived in Estes Park, Colorado. That is the town at the Eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. The town reminded me a little of Jackson, Wyoming; catering to the tourists. But it was cute town none-the-less.

We stayed at a very nice campground in Estes Park, one of the nicest of the trip. We decided to do a little more relaxing our few days there. The pool and the hot tube were used more than once. Janelle found some new friends from Lincoln, Nebraska. We allowed ourselves some down time.

But it wasn't all relaxation. We drove into Rocky Mountain National Park on the "highest altitude major road in the U.S." The Timber Ridge Trail as it's called, runs East to West and traverses the park. At it's highest point, you are at 12,000 feet. It was very pretty scenery, allowing you to see a lot of the back areas of the park. Jim and I did a short hike to the summit at the visitor's center in the middle of the park. What a view!

Denver, Colorado

On Wednesday it was time to head for Denver and put Jim on a plane back to Rochester. We were out of the camp ground by 5:30 a.m. Ouch. Jim drove the rig down to a spot we had picked out close to Denver International Airport. We had debated on how to get him to the airport itself. There was NO WAY I was driving the RV into a major airport. The solution turned out to be simple. We parked near a hotel, called a taxi, and he was on his way.

Then the most dreaded part of the trip started for me. I had to get this 38 foot long RV towing a car down to my brother's in Albuquerque. Yikes!!! I had had a few hours of practice with Jim by my side giving me non-stop tips and directions. But he was in a taxi and I was on my own. Well, it turned out to not be too bad. It was easier to concentrate on the driving without having to also listen to advice (sorry Dear). I actually got pretty comfortable driving the RV. I just made sure to stay in the right lane and pass only when necessary. We stopped a few times for the inevitably necessary breaks. But the girls and I made it to Albuquerque by 5:00. Yeah!

Albuquerque, New Mexico

So the females made it to Albuquerque. Jim was on his way home for a good night's sleep in his own bed...or so he thought. His Denver to Atlanta flight got redirected to South Carolina due to Thunderstorms. By the time they refueled and got to Atlanta, his connection to Rochester had already departed. He ended up spending the night in an overpriced-flea bag hotel in Atlanta without any baggage or toiletries (a blessing as it turned out) since I had it all. We had to scramble to find a temporary home for the family guinea pig back in Spencerport (his babysitters were going away) and find someone to pick Jim up from the airport the next day. Thanks Martha! Then the Terror Alert Level got elevated! Jim's lack of toiletries saved him from having to pitch shampoo and toothpaste. But he still had to experience the confusion all the airports experienced that first morning. Jim finally got home 12 hours later than expected, exhausted and just very glad to be home.

And this is where our summer adventure ends. The girls and I spent a pleasant couple of days visiting with my brother and his family. We got the RV cleaned up and put into storage. The cousins all got to play together. And all too soon the visit had to end.

So, as I am typing this, We are currently sitting in the Atlanta airport (yes, the same one Jim got stuck in). It's been a few days since the Alert Level was elevated, so things are running pretty smoothly now. We are flying into Michigan so I can reclaim my mini-van from Leola and Doug's driveway. We should be back home tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our adventures. It's been a great trip, we saw four very different National Parks. I can't believe it's over already. But we have been on the road for almost four weeks. We are ready to go home and gear up for the school year (and sleep in our own beds). Here's hoping our flight will be on time. Happy Travels!

August 16, 2006

One last note...the final tally was 3956 miles put on the RV and $1528 spent on diesel fuel. Ouch. I may have to put out a collection jar to pay my Mastercard bill. What the heck, it was worth it!