Posts Tagged With: RV travel

Great Falls to Glacier

Posted on August 28, 2017 by Doug and Jackie

Great Falls of the Missouri River

Our journey continues northwest, as we head out from Great Falls toward St. Mary to camp in Glacier National Park.  Leaving Great Falls we had to find our way to the Missouri River again, but this time we wanted a view of at least one of the 7 falls through town.  Our map wasn’t very clear about their location, so we stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and had a nice view of Black Eagle falls and the dam. Lots of gulls and ducks on the river, but a new addition for us was the white pelican.  Cool.

white pelicans

White pelicans

Grocery store for sale

And the local bar, too

Comes with a convenient bathroom

 

The road out of town, heading to Browning, Montana was a decent road that traversed the high plains through lots of hayfields and small towns like Fairfield, Coteau and Bynum.  Gosh, the general store in one was for sale along with the local pub and four outbuildings (looked like maybe the whole town).

One of many grain elevators

Cute farming towns, but gosh the shopping must be tough. As we crossed the hayfields a fawn popped across the road in front of us, but we avoided disaster this time.  On through Blackfeet Tribal Lands into Browning and we started on the last stretch of road before the east entrance to the park.  But, woah!  Serious road construction meant the nice paved 2-lane just stopped and became total gravel.  The roadway for a good 6 miles or more was being scooped up, ground up and moved around, with much of it a one lane, follow-the-pilot-vehicle, bouncy mess.  That was not fun in the motorhome towing an already damaged car.

Glacier approach

But the approach road to Glacier got better and the view became jaw-dropping.  Unimaginably tall mountains loomed, with others standing behind broad “U” shaped valleys.  Like nothing I have ever seen before.  Unfortunately, a wildfire burning on the western side of the park has most everything shrouded in haze, but it is still impressive.

Campsite in St. Marys

Campsite is in an open field surrounded by aspens, spruce and lots and lots of berry bushes.  We were given firm instructions on food storage, told about the bear safe boxes around camp and that grizzlies do frequent the campground.  Well of course, with all those serviceberry bushes, chokecherry bushes and ripe rose hips around. So we kept a cautious eye, but once we saw how darn busy the camp was (cars coming and going all night, it seemed), we were less concerned.

Lots to do tomorrow.

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Bighorn Boondocking

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Doug and Jackie

Heading out of Custer State Park our next destination was Bighorn National Forest just outside Buffalo, Wyoming.  One stop along the way was Devil’s Tower Monument, you know, the one made famous in “Close Encounters?”  Since we had been busy watching bison in camp for a few days, we needed another stop at Rapid City’s Wal-Mart for basic supplies, then off we went to Devil’s Tower.

Devil’s Tower and Smoke Ring sculpture

As close as we could get.

The only glitch we discovered was there was very limited parking for motorhomes and trailers, in fact it was at the base of the tower and not yet up to the Visitor’s Center.  Even though we could have disconnected the car to drive closer, we hopped out, took the shots and kept moving.

Devil’s Tower Monument

As we got closer to our destination, I kept scanning the low hills for anything that looked like mountains.  Our campsite was in the Middle Fork Campground and it was hard to see anything that fit the description of mountains, but then it was very, very hazy on the drive.  I couldn’t figure why so much haze and ground level ozone in such a wide open area, but then we learned we were in the path of smoke blowing down from wildfires in Canada and Montana.  As we got closer to Buffalo we finally spotted the mountains looming in the haze… looks like a proper location after all.

Umm, I guess we should shift to a lower gear…

Well, yeah… it was several miles of 7 and 8% grade up, relentlessly. Up, up we went, while the engine temp did the same.  But the outside temperature did the opposite, going from upper 80’s to low 70’s.  Wow, we had a bit of a pause to go downhill a bit, then Jackie shouted, “there, the turn is there –  slow down.”  We exited the highway, across a narrow cattle grate and the road seemed way smaller, in fact it turned into dirt and gravel.  Hmmm, okaaaay…  are you sure this is it?  Oh yeah, the next turn was even tighter, across more cattle grate and less gravel.

Are you sure this is the right way? Can we fit in there?

But the sign announced the campground.  We took a deep breath, drove very slow and across a one-lane bridge, found our gorgeous campsite and decided to disconnect the car and tow dolly and hope there was a turnaround ahead for the motorhome.  There was, and we eased into the site, one that was the BEST ever.  A clear mountain stream rushed along the site and we were in the midst of beautiful spruce and ponderosa pines in a narrow gorge that was now in the mid 60’s.

Great campsite in the spruce and fir forest.

Middle Fork of the Bighorn River, alongside our campsite.

We knew the spot was without electric or water hookups, but there was a handy water pump across from the site, just in case.  Took Kodi off for a walkabout, chatted with the camp host, grilled a great meal, played a game of cards and went to bed with the sound of the stream.  Next morning it was 42 degrees and we were dead on power. The house batteries had drained to nothing and we couldn’t even crank the generator to recharge them.  Ugh.  What went wrong?  I think we forgot to switch the fridge from automatic to LP gas.  It drained the batteries overnight.  So I cranked up the engine (hooray, that worked) and tried to get some charge to the house batteries, but it was never enough to spark the generator or start the fridge, even on LP gas.  So we were without electricity and although we had plenty of water, we couldn’t operate the pump to get it out of the tank.  So the hand pump across from us came in handy for cold, fresh mountain water.

Our campsite was in the wooded gulch in the foreground.

Since we got up way early, thanks to Kodi’s alarm, we took a break to hike out of camp a bit and discovered the beautiful vista we missed the day before: Cloud Peak Wilderness area in the Bighorn National Forest.  It was clear early morning, but within an hour the smoke moved in and you couldn’t see them at all.  Other than that, we totally loved the spot.  We did a late afternoon hike into the wilderness for less than a mile before the elevation got to us (trail was 8,000, camp was 7,400 feet).  We did make a run into Buffalo with the car (down then up the 7% grade) to get a couple bags of ice to put in the fridge.  Total boondocking camping without showers, running water, electricity, heat … oh my, could we survive?

A tribute to the Native Americans who died at Little Big Horn.

The view from Last Stand hill.

We were only in camp two nights and took off early in the morning to see if we could get to our next stop: Billings, Montana and a KOA.  Short detour to see the Little Big Horn Battlefield (Custer’s last stand against the Indians) and on to civilization and an electric outlet!

a Billings KOA (2)

The KOA was actually the FIRST KOA in the world. Very nice facility.

a Billings KOA (8)

The camp sat along the Yellowstone River… how cool.

We made it, hooked up and got everything running again.  Nothing in the fridge or freezer spoiled, in fact the ice cubes were still good.  Lesson learned for the next stop off the grid (which will be Glacier for a week) – we need to check the fridge and be sure to run the generator before turning in at night to be sure everything is charged up.

Lots of hay was being harvested in this region of Montana.

Eclipse Day!  We were off to Great Falls, Montana and figured to be about halfway there by 11:30’s solar eclipse moment.  The route we took was a wonderful 2-lane road that went over the hills of Montana and through the Musselshell River valley, quite scenic.  We still saw plenty of wildfire smoke in the distance, but it was easy to see the many hay fields and sheep grazing around us.  Magpies flew up from the road shoulders as we passed a lot of worn and weathered small towns along the way.

The town of Moccasin, Montana

We stopped in Judith Gap to watch the eclipse, which was around 90% and we had glasses in hand ready to view.  As you can see, everyone in the area pulled off the road to watch the event.

Judith Gap, Montana — where we stopped to watch the eclipse.

The crowd of eclipse watchers left the road and the traffic came to a standstill.

We noticed it was a bit dim outside, but we still saw our shadows just fine.  Ah, well.

Ready with our eclipse glasses … where is the camera?

We made it to Great Falls in time to disconnect the car and check out the three breweries in town, celebrating the “non’clipse” we witnessed.  Mighty Mo, Black Eagle and The Front Brewing were a lot of fun with very friendly people.

Black Eagle Brewing

Mighty Mo Brewing

The Front Brewing

Our campsite was the KOA in town, conveniently located just behind a huge Wal-Mart.  So we are well stocked and ready for our journey into Glacier.

You will notice how convenient the Wal-Mart is to the campsite.

Actually, the view from the other side of camp is quite “Big Sky.”

Yes, more adventures for two former teachers who should know to read and follow all directions.  Blame it on the altitude, we were woozy headed.  Stick with us, as we are headed to Glacier National Park.

The KOA was actually the FIRST KOA in the world. Very
The camp sat along the Yellowstone River… how cool.
Our campsite was in the wooded gulch in the foreground.
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Of Rivers and Wildflowers, Part 2

Posted on August 12, 2017 by Doug and Jackie

Sunset at F.W. Kent Park

As we continue to make our way to the Badlands of South Dakota, we have had gorgeous weather. The temperatures have fallen into the 70’s and even as low as 55 degrees overnight in Albert Lea, MN. The view from the cab is dark green fields of soybeans with ribbons of green and golden tassels for the cornfields, punctuated by white and red barns, silver and white silos and many white wind turbines spinning against a bright blue sky. Simply amazing. Yes, lots and lots of corn, from Illinois, through Iowa to Minnesota and into South Dakota.

Home for our RV

Up early and out of F.W. Kent park in Iowa, we headed north to Albert Lea, Minnesota, passing through Cedar Rapids and crossing the Cedar River. Not too far along we crossed the Winnebago River and Jackie quickly searched out the Forest City location of Winnebago Industries. Heck, it was just about 10 miles away, so we made sure the motorhome got to go home and visit. Treated ourselves to a new purchase (two Tervis cups with Winnebago design) after touring their visitor center.  But all that corn was getting to Doug, so we picked up some farm-fresh corn at a farmstand and grilled them later that night.  Melt in your mouth good.

Just a little souvenir

Doug got his corn!

We had booked a site at Myre-Big Island State Park for the night and were just hoping for an easy spot near the interstate. A little nervous, since all they had were back-in sites and we didn’t yet want to unhook the car, but couldn’t be helped. Turned out to be an amazing place.

Myre-Big Island State Park

Again, another example of tallgrass prairie with some woodland borders. An early afternoon arrival allowed us time to go for a hike on some well-groomed trails. Gosh, the grass on the trail was far better than my lawn at home. We watched lots of goldfinches on the thistle, but they were too quick for the camera. Tons of colorful blossoms and fruits. Kodi got spooked by some fox scat (droppings) on the trail and we in turn spooked a young doe (yet again the deer). I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Heading out the next day (yes, 55 degrees overnight!) we had South Dakota in our sights. The interstate was straight, flat and pretty much empty as we drove through the most gorgeous cropland. Once across the state line, we made a stop in Sioux Falls for a visit to the Big Sioux River and the start of our brewery visits.

The park along the falls was amazing to see and the several block walk to downtown yielded Prairie Berry Winery and Miner Brewery. Great spot to have lunch and a flight of three beers each (their Irish Red Ale was the best) and we were happy campers. Made some new peeps already: Alan, Jackie and their son Austin. Go figure, Alan was a high school math teacher and his son Austin had just landed a middle school math job (poor thing). Naturally we had nothing to talk about.

Prairie Berry and Miner Brewery, with street art

Miner Brewing flight

We wanted to sample one more brewery three doors down, Monk’s Gandy Dancer. Jackie was just enoying her bourbon barrel aged brew when in walked our new peeps. So the conversation continued. Good people.

Now that is good public art!

Monks Gandy Dancer Brewery

New peeps!

Late afternoon we rolled into the Mitchell KOA, a typical KOA campground, but it does have full hookups to get us ready for no-water sites the next week. Unhooked the car, and drove to Mitchell to visit the iconic Corn Palace. Have a look.

Mitchell KOA

Corn Palace

Corn murals

We are off to the Badlands for a few days, followed by Custer State Park, so we are hoping for some good wildlife sightings. Catch up with you later.
The adventure continues . . .

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Plotting the 2017 Adventures!

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Doug and Jackie

The rather mild Georgia winter is almost over as we make plans to de-winterize the motorhome and hit the road with some new adventures.  I figured it would be a good time to update everyone and share the excitement of a new season of outdoor fun.

The motorhome got a cover for the winter.

Repairs and Diagnostics (skip if you aren’t much into RV maintenance)

First task was to correct the problem of our motorhome’s gimpy back leg, so to speak.  The leveling jack for which I replaced the springs and foot would not extend and it was more than my feeble brain could figure out, so we uncovered the van, drove it to our local RV shop and within days they made the repair and had everything back to order.  It seems a solenoid needed replacement.  Yippee – back to “four on the floor” when needed.

The leveling jack that needed replacement springs and foot. The wood wedges were needed to expand the springs enough to install.

Back in the driveway I ran the generator a bit, connected the shore line for electricity to charge the house batteries and did a bumper-to-bumper diagnostic.  The dashboard 12v power outlet (formerly known as cigarette lighter) had not worked since I replaced the radio, so this was a needed repair.  Simple, right?  Not so fast, buddy.  The nice thing about the Winnebago dash is that it is hinged, so you can swing it up to have access to all the gauges and connections.  But you also have to have enough flexibility in your wired connections not to unplug things when you do that.  The short wire on the 12v socket needed to be a longer one, so I replaced a longer negative wire and connected to a grounding screw in the frame.

Power to the positive was harder, since I couldn’t find a handy splice or available connector in the wiring nearby. It must have been spliced into the old radio power supply.  The remedy for this was to run a new wire from the fuse box way over on the left side to the outlet way over on the right side.  Hmm… how to best do this?  Let me remind you that I taught 6 years of technology and engineering, one unit of which was electricity and electronics – but that really doesn’t mean I have all the right wires, connectors and electrical understanding to just bang this out without thinking.  A hammer, nails and lumber — that I can do. Automotive… not so much.

But after a few runs to several automotive supply stores I found a nifty add-a-fuse power splitter that let me connect to the radio’s slot on the fuse panel and we had success!  Radio works, power outlet works, and now we can conveniently charge the cell phones and such on the road.  Yes, we do have an inverter with AC outlet for just that sort of thing, but it is above the windshield and not within reach while driving.

Adventure Planning

So what’s next on our travel bucket list?  We want to do some more camping in the Georgia mountains and maybe nearby Alabama and Tennessee State Parks this spring.  We booked two weeks back at St. Andrews State Park, Florida in early summer, which is our time for snorkeling and paddleboarding.  But the big trip late summer and fall will be out West to visit Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks.

Just a wee bit ago (yes, that’s Doug) there was “The Great Camping Adventure of 1969.”

We researched and planned out the trip to do a southern route to Grand Teton NP, then Yellowstone NP and on up to Glacier NP before the snow arrived.  Booked the date in Yellowstone and were all set to book Glacier when … my, my, what do you know?  A little ‘ol 5 minute solar eclipse was scheduled to pass along the Tetons on the very day we wanted to stay there. Booked up full — the whole county. Nothing available until weeks later. We were told by park rangers that they had been getting calls about it 5 years ago! End of days? Nah, not for us, but it did require an entire re-working of the trip.

So I reversed our path to a northern route to Glacier NP first, then looping back down to Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP.  We made the changes in reservations and filled in the gaps. On the trip out, we will camp in South Dakota in the Badlands NP and Custer State Park, checking out Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial and the Black Hills.  From there we stay in Bighorn National Forest, check out Devil’s Tower National Monument and then to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.  Lots of hiking planned and probably a rafting trip down the Snake River, too.  I bought a new lens for my camera to better capture the wildlife and scenery and we are looking into buying a spotting scope for more close-up wildlife sightings (wolves maybe??).

“The Great Camping Adventure of 1969,” probably in the Needles section of the Black Hills.

Some of this is revisiting places my family camped in when we pulled off “The Great Camping Adventure of 1969.”  Yes, during the most historic summer of the century, while hippies were hitch-hiking to Woodstock; Watts and Newark were burning from riots; Charles Manson and cult were murdering Sharon Tate and men were first landing on the moon, my family of six was packed into a Plymouth station wagon, pulling a Cox pop-up camper, speeding across the US on a 6-week grand adventure! No TV, no Internet, no cellphones or social media, just a poke-your-sister-in-the-backseat kind of entertainment.

In Yellowstone we listened by car radio one night as Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon.  Yep.  Missed that one live on TV.

New Traveler

Every good Shetland Sheepdog knows how to keep a close eye on the flock.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know about Kodi from the postings that Merlin (our cat) has been making on his Mews page.  Kodi is a few months old now and is somewhere between a toddler and a teenager, dog-wise.  He loves going for walks on a leash, fetching a ball, rope knot or any of his toys, and is just learning some agility.  He has made some new dog friends and visited lots of folks already.  But the best part is that he will soon be joining us in the motorhome on our camping adventures.  He has checked it out and it seems to work for him – although we haven’t rattled down the road with him in it yet.  Benji will always be our special Adventure Dog and travels with us in spirit, now Kodi is set to learn what it is like and joins Merlin in the motorhome as we head out into the world together.

Kodi trying out the agility tunnel.

So while we await the arrival of nasty yellow pollen and plan the final de-winterizing of the motorhome, we do what everyone else at this time of year does: we plan for the upcoming season of warm weather, sunshine, warm water and wild adventures.

We will report back from time to time, so follow along with us!

PS. Merlin says you should keep up with his Mews page, too.

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Island Hopping

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Doug and Jackie

Off we go to the Florida Keys and Key West!

Of course getting there is half the fun, right? Slow start getting out of Atlanta (traffic), but we made it to Ocala area and stayed a night at Silver Springs State Park, a really nice campground that could have been the start of some nice hikes and paddling down along the river. But we were just here overnight and set out the next morning to bypass west around Orlando and get to the Pompano Beach area. Hmm, not such a great choice, since most of the local road was a retail area filled with traffic lights. And we seemed to get them all. We probably spent an extra hour and a half to two hours heading through Howey-in-the-Hills, Clermont and Winter Garden until it finally broke loose near Yeehaw Junction and we got onto I-95 south.

And of course, when you travel in your home on wheels, there is always a little maintenance. It seems one circuit of three wall outlets in the kitchen is out and the culprit seems to be the GFI outlet. A quick stop at Camping World for a replacement outlet (yikes, $24!!) may be the solution, when I get a chance to change it out.

Of greater concern was the annoying beeping from our “jacks down” alarm in the dash. When you travel along, the heat will sometimes make the hydraulic jacks extend just enough to set off the alarm. Pushing the “store” button usually fixes the problem, but this time it wouldn’t stop. Naturally it was during a heavy Friday night traffic rush hour on I-95 outside West Palm Beach, where shoulder space was lacking. Finally found a spot to pull over and check, only to be greatly surprised to find NO retraction springs and NO foot to the leveling jack in question! When and where did they leave us?

Since everything was fine when we left camp in the morning, I think the culprit was a chunk of debris I ran over earlier in the afternoon. That happened at a time when I had cars tight behind me and a motorcycle just to my left, so swerving to miss the debris (it looked like a piece of firewood!) was not a safe option. I figure it must have bumped up under the chassis and dislodged the foot and the springs happily departed the ship.

So not much further down the road (beeping all the way) we pulled into a Home Depot lot and I went in search of a solution. A ratcheting strap seemed likely to help keep the jack tightly in the “up” position, so I bought that, we drove to our campsite and I installed it in place of the springs and foot.

We leveled on the front two jacks for now, but it was luckily a very level campsite. By the way, we are camped in a nice Broward County park area called Easterlin Park. Real close to the interstate, (real close) as you can hear it all night, along with the trains. No complaints: clean, level, convenient. Before we head out this morning I am going to replace the GFI outlet and then check to be sure the jack is fully retracted … or else disconnect the warning buzzer! Ah well, the life of an RV adventurer is always fun. Off we go to the Keys and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.

UPDATE: We are now in camp on Key Largo and all is well. The jack is not beeping, nor is it being used, but the RV is level and just fine.  Replaced the GFI outlet and that fixed the circuit problems.


In John Pennekamp St. Park on Saturday they were having a tournament to collect the invasive lionfish. Coolers full of them were being turned in then a ceviche of lionfish was offered as samplings. You spear these guys while scuba diving. Actually good eating but a tricky fillet.

We paddleboarded through the mangrove canals in search of manatee, but none so far.
Sunday we took a 4 hour snorkeling trip out to three reefs. Amazing fish and coral.  Barracuda, tang, parrot fish, sergeant major, angels… lots of fan coral. Well worth it – just amazing snorkeling.

So much more to see, but once again limited WiFi so most pictures will have to wait til later. Onward to Key West!

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