Anyone trying to reach me ... don't hold your breath

[DianaCox]

We are going to be leaving in an hour or so to see Old Faithful. We'll probably be back around 5-6.

 

[Munchkin]

Hope you are having a ball!

 

[DianaCox]

We are now in Twin Falls ID, on our way home. Tomorrow will be the horrible day - 450 miles from here to Reno, in 90+ temps, across very windy hot desert, and no functioning A/C. More on that in a bit. We'll stay there for two nights, and then drive back to CA.

I have been lax about updating here - Susan K and her friend Rodney, and Steph and her husband, and Charles and I had a very nice time together in Red Rock RV Park - despite the lack of internet and TV. Susan came all the way from the Philly area, and Rodney from DE, so their trip was twice as long.

We mostly went our own ways during the day, and then got together for dinner - Steph made an entire TURKEY, and it was amazing - she is quite the RV chef (and I can only imagine how she would do in a real kitchen!). I made a beef stew. (Susan is vegetarian, and poor Rodney came begging for meaty meals with us and then took us out to dinner the last night.) One thing none of us coastal folks thought of was that we were up very high, and it really affected our stamina - the sun was HOT even when the temperatures weren't extreme, and it didn't take much to tire us out.

We took TONS of pix. I will not bore you with (many) of them - but there was a Facebook group where they were posted, so I can snatch a few and post them here.

Susan and Rodney decided to leave a day earlier than originally planned, and we had planned to stay a day after that - we bailed out the same day they did - one thing about staying outside the park (and about 30 miles from an entrance) for several days is that you do a LOT of driving over roads you've already seen, just to get into the park to see a new place. That got a little tedious.

So, we decided to blow off the last two days we had paid for at that park, to move 90 miles south to Victor ID, which is to the west of the southern entrance to Grand Teton National Park, and spent yesterday visiting there - which was SPECTACULAR, by the way. Breath-stoppingly beautiful as you drive into the park from Jackson WY.

Most of our visit was very nice. Yellowstone is fairly busy this time of year, as you can imagine - we spent a very unpleasant 30+ minutes trying to get a parking spot at one feature. But it is amazing and well worth a visit - not just Old Faithful, but also the many geothermal features, falls and just plain spectacular scenery. We saw elk, zillions of ground squirrels, bison, antelope, eagles, and yesterday, finally MOOSE (yes, moose and squirrel!).

I didn't like being disconnected - I even missed Anderson Cooper, who I was getting pretty sick of. I ended up changing my data plan to up it to 20G/mo (four times as much data for twice as much money), because we're going to need it while we travel. And I've had to spend a few hours doing work over the last few days as well. We have TV for the first time in 10 days tonight, but only two channels - I don't care.

Now, the kinda bad, but adaptations were made: besides ****** internet and no TV, the park had biting things - mosquitos or gnats - whatever they are, I am pretty allergic to them. They invaded the RV in the evenings whenever the door was opened - I spent a lot of time stalking them and zapping them with my electric fly swatter (the cats helped point them out). And bought bug spray and bite-soothing stuff. Sunday night, we lost all electrical power (fortunately, JUST after we got back to the rig - otherwise, the cats might have cooked (I bought a baby monitor with temperature monitoring before we left, but it needs to have STREAMING data to work!!) - we left them closed up with the A/C on. Unbelievably, the campground knew an RV technician who came out at 9:30 PM on a Sunday night to diagnose the problem - he couldn't fix it (we fried the transfer switch box, which detects whether there is AC power available vs. the generator vs. propane (for the refrigerator) and switches to the best source. In order to make it possible to continue our trip (the transfer switch is a part that has to be ordered), he hardwired the coach so it ONLY works on AC power, which means although the generator works, we can't run the fridge, microwave or AC unless we are plugged in - making the long trip tomorrow potentially miserable.

And for three days, it was really really windy at the campground - too windy to even build a fire. And i dropped a box of canned goods on my second toe a couple of days ago, and turned it purple (but ice kept it from swelling too much - I even hiked the next day in Grand Teton). And today, on a steep windy and windy (both pronunciations) downslope, one lane in each direction, Charles sort of ran the RV (towing the Jeep) off the road into a shallow ditch - the wheel probably got caught in a rut and got pulled into the ditch, but he did a great job keeping control and coming to a quick stop.

When we get back to CA, the park I've been staying in does NOT have an unbroken month available for us - we can't stay, because they are sold out two weekends in a row in mid-July. And of course we have to get the coach fixed (apparently, there is something fried in the fridge control panel too - the propane won't light even on propane-only mode). And there has not been even one offer on the house. I am getting more than a little worried about that.

BUT - we had a good time, and it was very very worth it.

Here are a few pix:

Sulphurous springs

Bison

Waterfalls

Roasting marshmallows:

Elk:

Hot springs

Scary highway

Grand Tetons

Lake in the Grand Tetons

Waterfall we hiked up to after a boat ride across a lake

Charles and me on the boat

And moose on the way back to the campground from GTNP

 

[newanatomy]

Nice pictures! It was a such a pleasure to meet you and Charles. Susan and Rodney, too. Jim and I are still munching on turkey leftovers, yum! We are going to have to take our 5th wheel in to have the hot water heater checked and probably replaced but we are going to wait till we get back from Austria.

We leave for Vienna, Austria on July 13 and will return by way of Salzburg on the 20th. Looking forward to the many sights and sounds of the land of Mozart! We will also be doing a Sound of Music tour getting to see some of the film locations.

Grizzly enjoyed meeting everyone, too!


Take care and have safe travels!

Here are a few more pictures:

1. Grizzly
2. 16 pound Turkey ready to roast.
3. Diana, Charles and Rodney plus, a bit of Jim's knees in our 5th wheel.
4. Jim and Steph at the campground.

 

[southernlady]

@DianaCox and @newanatomy love the photos...

Sounds like y'all had a blast. (okay, not the issues with the rigs but the visit). We would have loved to be there but finances were not in our favor. That got fixed this week (see my renovation thread). We also found out we had toilet issues in our rig...the valve died and needs new parts. We could take it in to be repaired but easier to get a mobile rv repair guy out to fix it. We've also put trips back in our budget...rallies to be exact. One is a Newmar Rally in WV in Aug and another is the IRV2 rally in Indiana in Sept. (near the home of Newmar and many other brands)

 

[newanatomy]

@DianaCox and @newanatomy love the photos...

Sounds like y'all had a blast. (okay, not the issues with the rigs but the visit). We would have loved to be there but finances were not in our favor. That got fixed this week (see my renovation thread). We also found out we had toilet issues in our rig...the valve died and needs new parts. We could take it in to be repaired but easier to get a mobile rv repair guy out to fix it. We've also put trips back in our budget...rallies to be exact. One is a Newmar Rally in WV in Aug and another is the IRV2 rally in Indiana in Sept. (near the home of Newmar and many other brands)

Those sound like a lot of fun! Hopefully next summer, we can meet someplace interesting!

 

[southernlady]

Those sound like a lot of fun! Hopefully next summer, we can meet someplace interesting!

We hope to!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

We are now in Twin Falls ID, on our way home. Tomorrow will be the horrible day - 450 miles from here to Reno, in 90+ temps, across very windy hot desert, and no functioning A/C. More on that in a bit. We'll stay there for two nights, and then drive back to CA.

I have been lax about updating here - Susan K and her friend Rodney, and Steph and her husband, and Charles and I had a very nice time together in Red Rock RV Park - despite the lack of internet and TV. Susan came all the way from the Philly area, and Rodney from DE, so their trip was twice as long.

We mostly went our own ways during the day, and then got together for dinner - Steph made an entire TURKEY, and it was amazing - she is quite the RV chef (and I can only imagine how she would do in a real kitchen!). I made a beef stew. (Susan is vegetarian, and poor Rodney came begging for meaty meals with us and then took us out to dinner the last night.) One thing none of us coastal folks thought of was that we were up very high, and it really affected our stamina - the sun was HOT even when the temperatures weren't extreme, and it didn't take much to tire us out.

We took TONS of pix. I will not bore you with (many) of them - but there was a Facebook group where they were posted, so I can snatch a few and post them here.

Susan and Rodney decided to leave a day earlier than originally planned, and we had planned to stay a day after that - we bailed out the same day they did - one thing about staying outside the park (and about 30 miles from an entrance) for several days is that you do a LOT of driving over roads you've already seen, just to get into the park to see a new place. That got a little tedious.

So, we decided to blow off the last two days we had paid for at that park, to move 90 miles south to Victor ID, which is to the west of the southern entrance to Grand Teton National Park, and spent yesterday visiting there - which was SPECTACULAR, by the way. Breath-stoppingly beautiful as you drive into the park from Jackson WY.

Most of our visit was very nice. Yellowstone is fairly busy this time of year, as you can imagine - we spent a very unpleasant 30+ minutes trying to get a parking spot at one feature. But it is amazing and well worth a visit - not just Old Faithful, but also the many geothermal features, falls and just plain spectacular scenery. We saw elk, zillions of ground squirrels, bison, antelope, eagles, and yesterday, finally MOOSE (yes, moose and squirrel!).

I didn't like being disconnected - I even missed Anderson Cooper, who I was getting pretty sick of. I ended up changing my data plan to up it to 20G/mo (four times as much data for twice as much money), because we're going to need it while we travel. And I've had to spend a few hours doing work over the last few days as well. We have TV for the first time in 10 days tonight, but only two channels - I don't care.

Now, the kinda bad, but adaptations were made: besides ****** internet and no TV, the park had biting things - mosquitos or gnats - whatever they are, I am pretty allergic to them. They invaded the RV in the evenings whenever the door was opened - I spent a lot of time stalking them and zapping them with my electric fly swatter (the cats helped point them out). And bought bug spray and bite-soothing stuff. Sunday night, we lost all electrical power (fortunately, JUST after we got back to the rig - otherwise, the cats might have cooked (I bought a baby monitor with temperature monitoring before we left, but it needs to have STREAMING data to work!!) - we left them closed up with the A/C on. Unbelievably, the campground knew an RV technician who came out at 9:30 PM on a Sunday night to diagnose the problem - he couldn't fix it (we fried the transfer switch box, which detects whether there is AC power available vs. the generator vs. propane (for the refrigerator) and switches to the best source. In order to make it possible to continue our trip (the transfer switch is a part that has to be ordered), he hardwired the coach so it ONLY works on AC power, which means although the generator works, we can't run the fridge, microwave or AC unless we are plugged in - making the long trip tomorrow potentially miserable.

And for three days, it was really really windy at the campground - too windy to even build a fire. And i dropped a box of canned goods on my second toe a couple of days ago, and turned it purple (but ice kept it from swelling too much - I even hiked the next day in Grand Teton). And today, on a steep windy and windy (both pronunciations) downslope, one lane in each direction, Charles sort of ran the RV (towing the Jeep) off the road into a shallow ditch - the wheel probably got caught in a rut and got pulled into the ditch, but he did a great job keeping control and coming to a quick stop.

When we get back to CA, the park I've been staying in does NOT have an unbroken month available for us - we can't stay, because they are sold out two weekends in a row in mid-July. And of course we have to get the coach fixed (apparently, there is something fried in the fridge control panel too - the propane won't light even on propane-only mode). And there has not been even one offer on the house. I am getting more than a little worried about that.

BUT - we had a good time, and it was very very worth it.

Here are a few pix:

Sulphurous springs

Bison

Waterfalls

Roasting marshmallows:

Elk:

Hot springs

Scary highway

Grand Tetons

Lake in the Grand Tetons

Waterfall we hiked up to after a boat ride across a lake

Charles and me on the boat

And moose on the way back to the campground from GTNP

Yeah...the Yellowstone Commute. That's why we stayed at Fishing Bridge one time and Grant another. If we were to return, it would be to the hotel at Mammoth. Eventually, we might see a number of things we want to see!

 

[DianaCox]

We thought it would be better to stay outside the park. I didn't realize how far out of the park it was, how long the repetitious drives were, etc. Next time, we will know better. But it was still beautiful.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

We thought it would be better to stay outside the park. I didn't realize how far out of the park it was, how long the repetitious drives were, etc. Next time, we will know better. But it was still beautiful.

Not a huge error...and very common, especially given a big rig like yours...and the cats..you need hook-ups...it's even LONG drives from within. I vote for a two-week stay, changing campsites/hotels every few days. And make time for the tours and Ranger talks...very good things.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Glad y'all had a great time and were able to meet up. So is Susan K a board member here? I have a hard time keeping up sometimes and have a memory sometimes as long as my pubies that all got shaved last Friday for hernia repair.

 

[DianaCox]

I don't recall if Susan ever joined this board - she was on Proboards, but may not have migrated over here. She's a band-to-sleeve revision.

Spiky - our granddaughter turned 4 yesterday - I'm thinking a return trip in about 3-4 years might be in order.

I was surprised to see so many people bringing very very young kids on what might be a once-in-a-childhood trip to Yellowstone, including many foreigners. I wouldn't bring little kids there - there is too much traveling between features, too many opportunities for moderately long walks/hikes that they can't do, and DAMN it's a big deal to go there if you're not going to remember much if anything! There were a LOT of whining and crying little kids ... and I can hardly blame them.

 

[DSRIGGS]

BTW, I say the same thing about Disney and litlte ones and yes we took our boys there when way to young and obviously there is still a ton of things at Disney to do for little ones but like you say. It seems silly when they won't remember anything.

On a related note. We took the boys to the Grand Canyon when they were 6 and 8. Talk about being scared shitless the entire time. There aren't any walls there and you know how boys are. I was puckered the entire time.

 

[DianaCox]

I would have had at least the 6 year old on a leash! I was scared myself of falling over the edge at the Grand Canyon.

 

[Clematis]

What a wonderful trip! Well except for the parts that weren't. Sorry about the power failure and no a/c.

't stayed inside Yellowstone a couple years ago and the figure 8 shaped main road through the park can get a little monotonous even for those bunkered within the park. The entry roads -- we drove in the first morning from the east, so Cody, maybe? -- were bumper to bumper to bison haunches to bumper so I can't imagine doing that every morning. (Yes there were buffalo in the lines of cars -- a giant mixed herd of bison and steel.) And we were there at the end of September, not the height of the season. Speaking of heights, I was gasping for air with even the slightest exertion. My son rolled his eyes and said I was making it up until I pointed out that blood was running out of his nose from the altitude. Some people are just more sensitive than others.

I am terrified of heights. Years ago I drove up Mt. Rainer but could not drive down. I was sobbing and whimpering while my sons at ages 8 & 9 murmured soothing reassurances from the back seat to get me to keep my foot on the gas pedal. Those same sons at ages 4 & 5 would have been rough housing and gone over the side at the Grand Canyon, so I hear ya' about fear, Scott!