DAY 17: Mt. St. Liz's-Gut-Is-On-Fire!!

Wednesday, June 17 - Kelso, Washington

Have I mentioned how much I like this campground??  Chuck likes it a lot too!  He & Murphy tried to climb what we now call Mt. St. Helens, Jr. which is the hill across from our RV. Unfortunately, Murphy made it to the top and Chuck, well......didn't.......he rolled down the hill...(Norm, do you see a pattern here???)......For those in his fan club; he's okay.......I tried to get him to do it again so I could get a picture & share with you all, but he declined.

After the AM roll, we debated on whether to try to head to the actual Mt. St. Helens today since it was threatening rain.  We decided to hang out around town, wash the trike AGAIN so we could see out the windshield, get some prescriptions filled,  find out what Kelso is known for, and take Murphy for a ride on the trike.   

We discovered by driving around town that Kelso must be known for the record on lowest bridge clearances.  Thank goodness we weren't in the RV......it would now be a convertible.  We are hopeful we will be able to find the pharmacy again.....we were a little lost when we found it the first time AND, we took Murphy for a long ride on the trike by driving the 120 mile round trip to the pacific coast.  He loved it!  Had coffee and some hot fried potato thing that, I've got to tell you, I'm still burping up while eating Tums like candy right now.  Geez.....I feel like I have a volcano going off in my gut.....Mt. St. Liz's-Gut-Is-On-Fire...........Overall, a nice, relaxing very good day......with the exception of the eruption!  

Tomorrow??  Chuck's going to try and climb the REAL Mt. St. Helens.........today was just a practice...

DAY 16: Can A Campground Really Make You Happy??

Tuesday, June 16 - Kelso, WA

What a difference a campground can make!  I'm in SUCH a good mood tonight because we are in a normal campground.  No, no, no....in a WONDERFUL campground!  Last night, we pulled into what appeared to be a "worker camp."  Now, let me fill you in on what their website said, and I quote, "Come stay overnight at the ranch..on the scenic Yakima River in central Washington."  It goes on to say, "Easy Pull-Through Access, Rustic Club House, Livestock and Wildlife Viewings."  Now, let's break down Truth from Fiction.  Stay with me now...here we go....

STATEMENT:  "Come stay overnight at the ranch"......REALITY:  There was no ranch.  There was a patch of grass in the middle of a cow pasture.

STATEMENT: "On the Scenic Yakima River in Central Washington".  REALITY:  We were 5 miles from ANY river.  I heard they call central Washington a "desert".

STATEMENT: "Easy Pull-Through Access"...REALITY: There was nothing easy about maneuvering 52' of motorhome & trailer through parked cars, trucks and 100 year old airstreams. I also had to dodge the port-a-potty, which, BTW, was the view out our dining room window.

STATEMENT: "Rustic Club House".......now unless they are referring to the bulletin/chalk board at the road that told the rules and a kiosh to put your payment in, I never saw any such club house.

STATEMENT:  "Lifestock and Wildlife Viewings".....REALITY:  Well, this one may be the closest to the truth.  We were sharing a field with the cattle, and the wildlife viewings we saw were mosquitos that were running rampant here.  Even poor Murphy was scratching from the mosquitos.

But today is a new day.  We lucked out by finding such a nice campground just up the road from Mt. St. Helens.  We have a concrete slab that is level instead of the patch of grass with cow manure on it.  We have our very own picnic table....under a tree....a beautiful tree instead of nothing to eat on or under.    We have neighbors that are quiet and normal and nice...instead of LeRoy scratching himself as he stands in the doorway of his 15' 1948 Airstream on blocks.   

I'm so happy!!!   What a difference a day makes..........

DAY 15: My Butt Is So Sore.......

Monday, June 15 - Ellensburg, WA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLEN!  For your birthday today, we decided to stay in Ellensburg!  

It was a 435 mile day.......and my butt feels every 435 miles of it!  We said goodbye to Hungry Horse, Montana and hello to Washington state!  

Since we drove most of the day, not too much happened, however, we did get to see some beautiful scenery.  We saw Idaho for the first time for either of us, and were surprised and a little disappointed at what Washington state looked like......UNTIL......we got to Wanapum Lake in Vantage, Washington.  WHOA!  Imagine that you're driving through Amarillo (no offense to my friends in Amarillo!) for 2-3 boring hours of flat land with nothing on it and then you turn a corner and WHALAA.... you're in Colorado.  It was amazing....I didn't even see it coming....  And before I could close my mouth from the beauty we just saw, I was heading up, up, up a steep mountain that I bet we used 40 gallons of gas getting up......the "rig" stayed in 4th gear; then dropped to 3rd gear; then back up to 4th gear.......and continued doing this for what seemed like an hour.   I could hear the gas tank going, "gulp, gulp, gulp.....and my wallet going "chaaching...chaaching.."

We finally arrived at the campground and noticed that the shower door had come off the track somewhere between Montana and Washington, so my handyman hopped in the shower to fix it when his arm accidently turned the water on and drenched him.  I could hear him yelling, "Turn it off; turn it off" but I couldn't cause I was laughing so hard.  He promptly dried himself off and fixed a wonderful pasta dinner for us.  What a great guy, huh?!!

So here I am watching The Bacholerette and writing my Blog.  Tomorrow we're going to find Mt. St. Helens and see if we can witness any eruptions.........wish us luck!

DAY 14: This Place is Filthy!

Sunday, June 14 - Hungry Horse, Montana 

I got to tell ya; living in a total of "maybe" 350 square feet with a dog and Chuck for two weeks can get pretty filthy.   And let's not forget the mud puddle we were parked in for 4 days in Cody, Wyoming.  The "Rig" was getting pretty nasty.  So, we delegated DAY 14 as "Clean the RV Day". Chuck took the outside and I took the inside.  Cleaned every inch of the 300+ square feet and it looks and smells so much better!  

We rewarded ourselves with a trip to Wal-Mart about 25 miles down the road.   We had only passed through this town, Kalispell, on our way in on Friday, so we really hadn't had a chance to check it out.   Boy, was Chuck ever excited when he saw an Ihop......and then we saw a Costco.......and then a TJ Maxx; and then a Pier One......and a TARGET!  I love Target!!!  We hit the jackpot!!!  So we each went our separate way shopping our little hearts out!  You would think we had been in a concentration camp and hadn't seen a store in 10 years.   By the time we made it to Wal-Mart, clouds were rolling in and the sky was turning dark......We organized our quick trip into Wal-Mart for the essentials and were in and out in no time at all, trying to beat the growing storm.  We threw everything that would fit into the trunk of the trike and poor Chuck was left to hold everthing else...including the dish drainer.  But like I told him, he could always use it as protection if we got hailed on.

As we headed the 25 miles back home, we could see there were actually two storms coming at us from opposite directions.  We were in the middle with sunshine.......I drove like a bandit to try and beat it as best I could and made it home just in time.  YEA!

Oh ya, I almost forgot.  We washed clothes with our washer/dryer combo in the "rig" for the very first time today.  I just can't quite comprehend how one unit can wash & dry and you never have to move your clothes.  But it worked........Yea.....we can quit turning our underwear inside out now.

We'll be pulling up stakes tomorrow for a new destination...........hummm......wonder where we're going???  (I really don't know!)

DAY 13: Is The Dam Breaking????????

Saturday, June 13 - Hungry Horse, Montana

My morning started at about 1:30 am today......you may recall, yesterday was not one of our better days......all I wanted to do was go to sleep so today could come quicker.  Well, it did!  At about 1:30 am, I awake to, what I know as, a tornado siren.  A very very very very loud tornado siren bouncing off the sides of the mountain.  I sit straight up in bed trying to remember where I am and why I'm hearing a tornado siren in Montana.  They don't have tornado's here, do they?  As I sat there trying to make sense of what I was hearing, many thoughts were racing through my mind.  Here's just a few:  

1)  Tornado - We are camping inbetween two large mountains.  There is no way a tornado could occur here even if it wanted to.  Ruled out Tornado.

2)  Fire - I looked out all windows, smelled outside, looked for light in the sky; nothing.  Ruled out Fire.

3)  Bomb - I really didn't know what signs to look for in the event we were being bombed.  We don't have satellite reception, no cable and very limited PBS Tv to check on this so, I ruled out Bombing from a foreign country due to lack of information.

4)  Dam Break - Ahhhhhh....this was much more believable.  I saw a billboard on the way in last night that said Hungry Horse had the largest and bestest dam on this side of Montana...and I knew it was just up the road a couple miles.     I didn't rule out Dam Break.....

So, I did what any good computer geek would do and pulled out my trustee internet card.  Checked out everything I could on the Hungry Horse Dam and learned it would take out many cities if it were to break.  Yikes.  And we were only a couple miles from the dam......By this time, I could hear helicopter(s) and what sounded like a heavy duty tractor close by.  It's now been 30 minutes that the very very very very loud alarm bouncing off the sides of the mountain has been going off and I'm freaking out.  Chuck is sleeping peacefully......The neighbors appear to be sleeping peacefully.  I refuse to go outside as the neighbors told me there had been two bears in the park the night before.  These are the same neighbors who pulled out their lawn chairs from their tiny little trailer and parked themselves within 15' of us as we pulled in last night and watched as Chuck and I talked to each other between gritted teeth.  They got themselves a beer or two and sat back and smiled as Chuck and I argued over whether to put the jacks down or not and whether to pull the slides out prior to lowering the jacks, etc.  There's a lot of steps, folks, to this camping thing.   You don't just park the rig and plug in.  The first thing the neighbors said to us was, "You call that camping?"    Anyway, I digress; back to the Dam Break Alarm.  It finally quit around 2:15 am and I figured if we were going to be swept away we would have already been swept away.  I sordof ruled out Dam Break.....

The next morning, I was at the office waiting for them to open to find out what the heck that was.  Turns out, its a small town and they have a volunteer police, fire and ambulance department.  Everything in town is volunteer. So when they have an emergency such as a car wreck, heart attack, broken finger nail, they sound the alarms.  Oh ya, no dam break; someone probably just fell out of bed.  Errrrrrrr.......

So I must say, early morning alarm aside, today was a much better day than yesterday.  Got the Trike washed (I've never seen it so dirty); tried to cross over Glacier National Park, but lo and behold, the road was closed due to 70' of snow.  Yes, you heard me right.  70 FEET of SNOW at the top.  It's JUNE!!!  How can this be???  We came here to travel the well known road called "The Road to the Sun", but all we got was "The Road That Was Closed".  Errrrrrrr..... But that's okay; we decided to check out the dam that didn't break.  Way cool!!!

Tomorrow Chuck wants to go to Wal-Mart.........

DAY 12: Hungry Horse, Montana.....Now that's A Cool Name....

Friday, June 12: Hungry Horse, Montana

The name of this town does make one wonder about the horse that was so hungry they named a town after him, huh?

Today was a long day......although we didn't cover a lot of miles, we covered a lot of ground.  We left Camp TeePee this morning pretty early (for us.....9:00 am is early) and headed on the road to Hungry Horse, Mt. near the Glacier National Park.  We had gotten about 150 miles up the road when we saw a huge RV dealer off the highway that claimed to be the largest in the entire state of Montana.  Since we didn't know for sure whether Chuck had fixed the problem from the day before, we decided to stop in there and have it checked out.  They informed us we needed to see the Cummins Diesel guys down the street instead.  So off we went....to the Cummins Diesel guys.  It's now about 11:30 am and they were just getting ready to go to lunch....so we waited....By the time we left there, it was 4:30 and they had done every kind of diagnostic on the RV known to man and everything was showing okay.  I guess this makes me happy, however, I would still feel so much better knowing the exact cause of the trouble.....just in case it happened again...

We knew we had another 2 hour drive ahead of us, so we scooted out of there and headed towards Glacier National Park near the Canadian border.  Well, whoever told us we had a 2 hour drive LIED to us.......more like 4 hrs.....between major construction; two lane roads; mountains to climb; stupid Garmin GPS giving wrong directions, we finally pulled in here around 8:30.   Cool thing, though.  The lady and man who own this RV campground (which is VERY nice) live half the year on a lake outside Tyler, Tx just down the road from us.....how about that!?!  I asked for that Texas Discount!

Anyway, that's been our day......we are bone tired and at each others throats, so its time to call it a day and start fresh tomorrow.

DAY 11: We've Arrived At Camp Teepee

Thursday, June 11: Butte, Montana

We hadn't planned on stopping at Camp Teepee tonight, but we ran into a few "hiccups" today which kept us from getting any further than we did.  

Remember the RV issue from last weekend?  Well, it's baaaaaccckkk......Yep, we couldn't wait to get out of the mud-pit in Cody, Wyoming this morning.  Of course it was raining when we left; heavy fog and cold; same old-same old.  The minute we crossed the Montana border, SUNSHINE, and dry ground.  YEA!!!!  We enjoyed every town, every site, every dry blade of grass we saw! Until we got to Bozeman, Montana.  We stopped at a Flying J to fill up and the RV wouldn't start. Wouldn't even try to turn over.  Chuck and I were scratching our heads wondering what is going on.......It had been running great today....no problem at all....no WARNING light...nothing.  We called a local guy to come out and help and he was just as baffled as we were.  After about an hour under, over and around the RV, he thought he had it narrowed down to a starter or something.   Also about this time, here comes the manager of the Flying J asking how much longer we were going to take up his fuel bay......thats right, put some pressure on us & kick us while we're down!  Chuck then got a great idea to check some fuses at the front of the RV to see if they were all working properly.  He found one that  needed to be reset, so he pushed it and it reset.  Whallaa......everything started working.  We don't know how, we don't know why; we just know it all started working again.  Our fingers and toes are crossed it continues....

Now, on to where we are.  We ended up stopping in Butte, Montana.  Now, I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't want to live in a town called the back-end of my anatomy.   But it sure was fun getting here; using my jake brakes down the mountains (I love the sound of jake brakes...I feel like such a trucker!) and creeping up the mountains (see pict of Chuck & Murphy) wondering if its going to make it.....Chuck, Murphy and I kept repeating, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can".  We felt like Lucy and Desi in the Long Long Trailer!  We stopped at a campground on the side of the highway and it has a little bit of everything living here.  We have your TeePee dwellers; we have your long-term dwellers; we have your antique RV dwellers; and absolutely nothing is level.  I talked Chuck into not putting the leveling jacks down just in case the RV didn't start in the morning;  in case it needed to be towed.  So now, we are leaning to the left....ALOT. Poor Murphy keeps sliding down the tile floor from his food dish to the sink; and I'm figuring Chuck's going to have a little company on his side of the bed tonight.....The upside is we have excellent TV reception.....if you tilt your head to the left.

And tomorrow is yet another day........

Day 10: I finally Saw a Grizzly Bear!! Sordof.....

June 10, Yellowstone National Park

Yep, we saw a grizzly bear today; sordof.  Actually, he was sleeping under a tree about 1/2 mile away. Had the park ranger not told us that was a grizzly bear, we would never have known it.  It looked like a huge lump of bear dung under the tree to me.  But the facts are, we saw a grizzly bear!  YEA! That was the whole goal of today...the last day at Yellowstone.  Mission Accomplished! (See picture above)

It was still a very cold day here at Yellowstone.  And wet.  Rained hard last night, therefore, our campground mud-pit was now a mud-swamp.  Oh ya.....but that didn't stop us!  No sir-ee.  We hopped on that old trustee trike and headed the 30 miles down the road to the East Entrance to Yellowstone.  We made our way through rain, sleet, HAIL, and a little tiny bit of sunshine and the views were breathtakingly worth it.  Absolutely indescribable.  We saw tons of buffalo; some so close you could reach out and touch, but Chuck made me promise to keep the Trike in gear so we could make a run for it if we needed to.  One way to be sure you don't miss anything is to pull over when you see other people pulled over & check out what they're looking at. Chuck and I thought it would be funny to pull over and "act" like we're excited and looking at something really important (pointing/picture taking/excited...)  and then watch people start pulling over for nothing.  After we got our kicks out of that, we decided to find the waterfalls.  They were beautiful.  We had parked in a kinda  "illegal" parking spot and when I went to pull out, I thought it would be easier to just go straight between these two curbs instead of backing up.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but what I didn't see was there was an actual BIG curb beyond the two I went between.  After the front tire went off this BIG curb, we were now teetering back and forth.  Do you have this picture in your head yet?  We couldn't go forward as we would probably take out the gas tank on the BIG curb; we couldn't go backwards cause the trike is too heavy.  We're drawing a crowd about this time and finally one old guy came up to me and said, "What were you thinking, little lady?"  "Well, little man, it seemed like a good idea at the time", I said.  We could tell he was doing everything he could to stifle a laugh which I thought was pretty considerate of him.  We both got off the trike, put it in neutral and pushed it backwards until we got the front tire up over the BIG curb.  I thought the crowd was going to cheer!  It kinda reminded me of the time I got the riding lawnmower stuck on the septic tank cover and I then promptly fell in the septic tank when we finally pushed the mower off.  I really hadn't seen a pattern until just now......hum......

Anyway, by the time we made it back to the RV, it was late...and poor Murphy had his legs crossed and was having an anxiety attack.....We rode about 240 miles on the trike today and our butts are sore, our bones are cold and wet and we are going to sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow, we pull up sewer hose and head north.....to warmer weather!

Day 9: Why Do They Call It Yellowstone?

Tuesday, June 9: Yellowstone National Park

Seriously, why do they call it Yellowstone?  I didn't see any yellow stones.  I saw a lot of white snow; I saw this big Buffalo that was brown and shedding, but nothing yellow.  However, I did see the most beautiful scenery I have ever experienced; looked like Heaven to me.  A cold Heaven. My pictures and description can't possibly tell you how beautiful it is here.  Just trust me; its surreal.  

Thanks to everyone who wished us well on the RV repairs.  We found out today that it was probably a loose connection which was causing the problem.  The batteries turned out okay and the service guy, Derick, said there were several loose wires that could have caused this to happen. He feels confident that this was more than likely the cause of the shut-down.  I would have preferred 100% confident, but I'll take "more than likely".  Chuck & I turned this over to God and know He will take care of us no matter what.  So, we're feelin' GOOD............and we have faith!

Hey, today we met two motorcycle dudes from Michigan.  Here's how it went down.  After we dropped the "rig" off at the repair shop, we headed out on the motorcycle to an awesome motorcyle road we've heard a lot about, Beartooth Pass.  We couldn't wait to ride this road as it guaranteed to have grizzly bears on it & make your "hair stand on end" and I couldn't wait to see Chuck's bald head do this.  Sooo, off we went.  Now, this was going to be one of those all day rides; this road was a good 125 miles away from Cody.  We were about 10 miles down the road when we ran into unbelievable fog where you couldn't see 5' in front of you.  I'm serious. Crazy, no good, very bad fog.  So we made the decision to turn around.  As we got back into Cody, we stopped to get gas (& Charlie some coffee) and ran into these two guys; one Harley and one Honda rider.   Anyway, they were probably in their 50's and had left their wives behind in Michigan & were having the time of their lives riding to Seattle on a 2 week vacation.  We talked with them for awhile; swapped stories and then headed out in different directions.  We decided to head into Yellowstone National Park (about 50 miles away).  As we arrived at the entrance to Yellowstone, Chuck's coffee started kicking in and we needed to make a pit stop.  Well, who do you think drove up while we were there?  Yep, the two dudes.  Crazy!  We swapped some more stories, oood and aaad over each others bikes (that's what bikers do) and headed out.  About an hour later, Chuck and I decided to stop and get a bite to eat in Yellowstone and who do you think walked in?  Yep, the two dudes again.  Now, normally I might think we were being stalked, but these guys were harmless.  Had lunch together, good conversation and hugged each other goodbye.   It was a good day.  A very good day.

Tomorrow?  Who knows........hope its as good as today!  (Check out my Buffalo picture!)

Also, we posted another YouTube video of our ride to Yellowstone & another one is on its way....go to:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGcGNklUjY

P.S.  I would like for Stacy, Scott, Brandon & Garrett to know we're thinking of them and keeping them in our prayers during this time.  Our hears hurt for you right now....

Day 8: Does Anyone Know Who Buffalo Bill Cody Is?

Monday, June 8 - Cody, Wyoming

I learned something new today.  I now know who Buffalo Bill Cody is.  I know I must have been the only person in the world who didn't know who this guy was, but western/history never really was my thing.  This dude has his own museum here; and its very popular!  While Chuck checked out the 3,000 guns on display, I decided to go check out this movie room.  That seemed more of my liking.  Unfortunately, the whole film was on, you guessed it, guns.  What's the deal??!  So, I did what I always do when I'm bored to tears and I whipped out my Ipod Touch and started playing games.  I really don't know how many times the gun video played over and over again, but just as I was rounding the final lap on Crash Bandicoot on my Ipod, I feel someone looking over my shoulder. It was Chuck.  Oops......

We met a neat couple at breakfast this morning who were at the table next to us.  Chuck had been trying to figure out whether that animal head on the wall over my head was a Deer or an Elk.  It was really big so he felt it wasn't a Deer.  The couple at the next table said it definitely was an Elk.  We asked the waiter and, as he looked up at the huge animal head said, "I never even noticed that there before."  Hummmmm......... Anyway, turns out, the couple at the next table live in Cleburne, Texas.  Wow!  My sister and niece live just outside of Cleburne.  I asked if they knew my brother-in-law, Dr. Brady Rusk, who is the one and only dentist in Keene. Sorry Brady, but they get their teeth cleaned in Ft. Worth (I tried to get you some new business though).  In true Liz-style, I started talking and talking and talking and told them about this crazy cowboy that my sister and I saw a couple months ago sitting on a bull on the side of the freeway near where they live.  Turns out, that "crazy cowboy" is a good friend of theirs and goes to their Cowboy Church.  Whoa........how weird is that????

Well, tomorrow we take the "rig" in to the RV Hospital.  Keep your fingers crossed; include us in your prayers; throw salt over your shoulder, whatever works for you, that it turns out minor.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Day 7: Can you Say B-L-I-Z-Z-A-R-D?

Sunday, June 7 - Cody, WY 

And I don't mean the Dairy Queen kind of Blizzard!  And the worst part of the blizzard?? 

Wasn't the blizzard.  

We knew it had to happen; we knew at some point this was going to touch our lives, we just didn't know how or when.  Well, now we do.  We broke down.  Sordof.  We were going along enjoying the beautiful scenery of the mountains minding our own business, when the WARNING light came on the dash.  Seconds later, every light we have came on the dash and then the engine started shutting down.  By the time I pulled the "rig" (learned that from Dan-See Day 5) to the side of the road, the engine had stopped.  It started right back up and all looked ok, but I wasn't moving an inch until I knew why it had all shut down.  We had mountains to climb and it would be a cold day in June (oh ya......today was a cold day in June...) before I started down a mountain and lost power to 35,000 pounds of metal with no brakes.  So, we decided to use our Good Sam Emergency number to get help.  I take that back; Liz decided to use the Good Sam Emergency number; Chuck was willing to risk our lives by continuing on.  About this same time, here comes the blizzard.  You could see it coming......hard wind blowing snow headed right for us perched on the side of this mountain......thats when we got another good idea.....why doesn't Liz ride the trike on down the road to see how far the nearest town was and how many big hills did we have to climb to get to it.....  So we unloaded the trike and I went to scout out what we had ahead.  Good time to remind you that we were in a BLIZZARD and I was on a MOTORCYCLE.   Visibility was zero and I was covered in frost and snow when I returned back to the cliff-hugging RV, Chuck and Murphy.  Now, I can hear you saying, "What about the Good Sam Emergency call?" right?  Well, they were having trouble finding someone able to come out to us on a Sunday afternoon in a blizzard.  We weren't sure how long we might be perched on top of this mountain and, to top things off, our generator wouldn't start.  It was getting cold fast.  Sounds like something out of a scary movie, huh?  Ya, that's what I was thinking. What was the name of that movie where the people had to resort to eating each other for food???  

Anyway, we decided to go for it to the next town which was 5 miles down the road.  We made it just fine and the Good Sams guy came out to us and drove it into Cody, Wy for me.  We "think" it was a bad battery or connection which also caused the generator not to work.  Fingers crossed and prayers going upwards.  I hope its that simple.  We'll know Tuesday.  But for now, we are safe, warm and comfortable inside our precious RV at the most beautiful campground outside of Yellowstone National Park with views each of you would kill for.   

We are so blessed to have so many things go right today; there was a nice wide easement for us to pull onto when it died; we had wonderful cell service in the middle of nowhere; we found a really great guy to come help us on his day off; and Murphy saw even more cottontail rabbits to chase.  Overall, a good day.  It sure could have been worse!

The pictures above are the view we're looking at from our RV site and Charlie at the repair shop in Cody, Wy.

Tomorrow is yet another adventure...

Day 6: They Didn't Want Us To Leave.....

Saturday, June 6, Casper, WY:  

We were sad to leave Colorado as we had made some new friends and it was so beautiful there.  But alas, alas, we must move on......

As we headed into Wyoming, we were struck by the beauty of the massive rocks jutting up from the earth and the fact that we don't believe anyone actually lives in this state.  I think its just a pass-thru for travelers....I really do.  Plus, it is incredibly WINDY in this state.  Like hurricane force-wind windy.  I asked the lady at the campground how long they had been having such high winds and she just said, "What wind?"  Hummm...... This may explain why no one lives here.... My steering wheel was sideways the entire time we have been in Wyoming!  

Murphy and I took a blow (Wyoming talk for walk)  this afternoon and came across a field that he was particularly interested in.  As he was scouting about for a home for his poop, we both saw something move right in front of us.  We both were on point at this point.  It was a little rabbit.  And then we saw another one...and another one....and another one....  As I looked all around me, we were surrounded by rabbits who were standing perfectly still hoping we wouldn't see them.  Some had their head in the ground, others were laying down, and still others were standing.  It was like we were playing the game "freeze" and they forgot to tell us. Poor Murphy was so confused....he's more of a squirrel guy, so this rabbit thing really had him baffled.  It was so cool!  So we headed back to the RV to get Chuck so he could experience the "freeze" game too.  

The pictures you see are Chuck and his new friends in Colorado as well as a shot of my Navigator navigating us into Wyoming (actually, I think he's eating). 

Can you guess where we'll be tomorrow????

Day 5: It's Good To Have A Slowwwww Day

Friday, June 5 – Loveland, CO

7:00 am - YEA!!!  We slept in today!

Well folks, not a lot happened today.  How wonderful!  We rode around the town of Loveland, shopped a little and rested.  Met our campground neighbors, one of which, Dan from Oregon, had plenty of advice for us from how to properly back up a "rig" with a trailer  (the key, according to Dan, is to outsmart the trailer and let it know who's boss....ok.....) to how to properly empty your poop tank.  That was an interesting conversation......He also told us how to turn Murphy into a "service dog" so we can take him into stores, restaurants, churches,  etc....hummm.....I'll have to check into that!

Made a trip to TJMax and got these adorable shoes....aren't they cute!?  

Well, we're on the road again tomorrow.  My navigator (aka Chuck) says we're heading into Wyoming and checking out Yellowstone for a few days.  Should get there by Sunday evening.  

BTW, the other picture is of our campground here in Loveland. Real cute.....except for our spot.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Day 4 - My Eyes Are Glued Shut & What's That Rash On My Face??

Thursday, June 4 – Loveland, CO

6:00 am - AGAIN!

Why do I insist on getting up at, what my friend Jen calls, the butt-crack of dawn each morning??  Errrrr....

Well, we couldn't wait to get on the motorcycle this morning and get scooting down the road to Estes Park and then through the Rocky Mountain National Park!  We had it all mapped out....250 miles from start to finish....great motorcycle winding roads; through mountains, forests, plains, snow, wind and whatever came along.  And sure enough, that's what we got.  I also got eyes with so much gunk in them from the wind they can barely open and a strange rash on the left side of my face.  Yep, I have a slight resemblance to an elderly oriental lady and a 16 year old going through puberty.  Other than that, GREAT day!  Chuck only fell asleep on the back of the motorcycle once that I know of and I know this only because his helmet kept hitting the back of my helmet and pushing me forward. And then he snored.  

We rode the bike through the Great Divide (check out the YouTube video Chuck shot from the back of the bike...www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bwP8WOa2Ac ) and it was absolutely spectacular!  Words or video cannot do it justice.  People were giving us a "Thumbs Up" and taking pictures of us as we rode through massive winds at the 12,000' summit and, although I couldn't hear them, I could pretty much guess what they were saying to each other.  "Hey, check out the chinese chick and the tall dude on the motorcycle hanging on for dear life"....."What were they thinking???"....."Look at those crazy kids!"...yep, I bet that's what they were saying!

Anyway, we saw a herd of elk, a coyote and a bull elk and his partner in the middle of the road.  Too cool!  Check out the pic's at my website, www.LizEtheridge.com.  It'll probaby bore you to death, but its there if you're already bored. 

What will tomorrow bring........????

Day 3 - You'll Love Where We Are Today!

Wednesday, June 3 – Loveland, CO

6:00 am

Why are we up so early on vacation??  We were asking the same thing; until we realized the time zone changed to Mountain and we were still on Central.  It was actually our normal 7:00, but the sun was out and shining in our eyes at 6:00.  Ugh.....

I must start by telling you that last night when we went to bed, we noticed the bed seemed "higher" and definitely "harder" than usual.  We have a sleep number air bed in the motorhome and each side has its own remote control where we can set our own number depending on how firm or soft we want our individual sides.  Chuck is a 40 and I'm a 30.  Well, when we noticed the bed seemed "higher" and "firmer", we checked the sleep number remotes and they both showed to be 100.  Whoa.  The bed was as full of air as it could handle.  It was about that exact time  I recalled my very smart sister telling me before we left home to be sure and let the air out of the bed before heading into the mountains; something about the altitude.  Well, the bed almost exploded.  I had visions of us driving down the road and hearing a huge explosion in the rear of the RV and wondering what the heck that was.....until we went to bed that night.

Now, on to today.  We had a real nice drive to Colorado; no weird stuff happened and we were patting ourselves on the back thinking we had finally left the stupidity behind.  Then we got to the campground.  Our first glance that maybe we weren't out of the woods yet was when we were checking in at the campground, the lady behind the desk fell out of her chair and hit her head on the bookcase behind her.  Fortunately, she was okay; we think.  She was still laying on the floor when we left and people were stepping over her.   Then we followed the dude to our campsite which was a tight turn with low branches.  I was half in, half out when it was decided we best not try this just yet.  The dude jumped in his golf cart and headed out to get a ladder.  Came back with a ladder and reinforcement.  He set his ladder up (I must mention at this point that the dude was at least 105 years old) and his reinforcement climbed up our RV ladder on the back and now was on our roof.  He goes to cutting a huge limb off this tree.  Tom, the 105 year old dude, was on the 8' ladder helping.  It was decided that more of the tree needed to be cut off and then a little more.  Before you knew it, half the tree was gone and his reinforcement is still on our roof telling me to pull forward; no backwards; no a little more forward and we finally made it in.  Folks, I don't make this stuff up.  Really.

Anyway, tomorrow is another adventure.......we are heading on a 250 mile journey on the motorcycle through Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We will be going through snow, mountains, craters, and who knows what else.  Keep your prayers coming people!  I think we're going to need them! 

Day 2 -We are in Raton Pass, NM

Tuesday, June 2 – Raton Pass, NM

9:00 am

Got moving early this morning....couldn’t wait to see if I could get us out of the RV parking space I managed to lodge myself into without any insurance damage.  We disconnected the motorcycle trailer, moved the RV carefully past the 5th wheel (I believe I visually measured 6” between us) that was parked next to us, drove around the block and came back & picked up the trailer.  Now I was in the park backwards.  Couldn’t make the sharp u-turn at the end of the road, so Chuck and I both thought, “Hey, there’s a road to the right we could take....I bet it goes out”.  Well, it didn’t.  DEAD END.  Yep, you guys haven’t been praying hard enough for me not to have to back the RV up with a trailer....a major no-no.....so I was forced to BACKUP WITH A TRAILER.  I’m just glad this issue isn’t hanging over me anymore....I’ve now done it; nothing was damaged in the process and I’m not nearly as frightened of doing this now.  We still had to disconnect the trailer and reposition the RV, but hey, it all worked out and we didn’t yell at each other in the process.

So we get on our way down the road.  As we were chuckling over how stupid we were, it started raining.  Hard...VERY HARD..  Chuck and I looked at each other and decided we were being tested to see how we handle difficult situations....and today we passed I’m happy to say!

7:15 pm

We are now in Raton Pass which is just south of the border of Colorado & NM.  We made good time today even though we had 40 mph SIDE winds (verified on the weather channel) and are currently perched on top of a cliff overlooking the mountains and the highway that the semi's are crawling up.  Chuck is making pasta tonight and it smells G-O-O-D!!  This driving thing makes you hungry.  

Murphy is doing great.  He's loving being an only child and wearing his favorite sweatshirt....did I mention it's 48 degrees outside (crazy cold front blew in with the 40 mph winds....go figure!).  We've been pulling burrs out of his paws since we got here that he got at the gas station.  He had a little...ugh....how do I say this delicately....diarrhea at the gas station.  

All in all, today was a good day.  Much much better than yesterday and we are looking for tomorrow to be even better than today.  I would be including pictures of all of these nice adventures so far, but I left my digital card reader at home, so until we get by a Wal-Mart, I'm just including pictures from Google.  Talk to ya tomorrow!

Day 1 - Today we are in Clinton, OK

Monday, June 1 – Clinton, OK

10:00 am

We finally left....late...due to trouble with the straps on the motorcycle, but finally made it out of Mt. Vernon.  Chuck had planned on us stopping at Red Rock Canyon State Park about 40 miles east of here, but once we got there, it was more geared for smaller campers, no pass-thru’s available, but the absolutely WORST part was the steeeeeeeep; did I mention STEEP,  hill down to the park.  I kept thinking; what goes down must come up and I wasn’t too sure we could do it.  But we did and got the heck out of there.  

6:30 pm

After trying two other private campgrounds that looked like something out of S. Dallas, we kept moving on.  Ended up in Clinton, OK which made it a 365 mile day that started late at 10:00 am.  Since we are so long with the trailer (about 52’ long), there was only one spot that would work and it “barely” worked.  Actually, we’ll know better tomorrow morning whether it actually worked or not  and that will depend on whether we hit anything.....fingers crossed...