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Ok folks, time for a trip report. Some may have noticed a diminished presence of madness around for a while. I know a few of you were crushed to not have my daily wit enriching your lives, some were glad I was gone, and most never noticed but I was off adventuring as I am wont to do.
Early in June it became clear that my wife’s grandmother was not long for this world, so we loaded up the travel trailer and headed to Idaho. We were able to spend a few days visiting, also took the kids to Craters of the Moon National Monument where they earned Jr. Ranger badges. (Brian C , you should get one, very educational) Also went to the DOE site commemorating the first breeder reactor used to make electricity. Arco Idaho was the first city in the world lit by atomic power.
After traveling all the way back to California for a whopping three days we got word that it was already time to go back. Fortunately I am a somewhat lazy sort and the trailer was still half packed. We loaded back up in a hurry and took off. We got the call at Donners Summit that we didn’t make it, she had passed so hurrying was no longer necessary. What to do now? And so it begins.
Somewhere between nowhere (Wells, NV) and no place (Jackpot, NV) I managed to break a ¾” grade 5 bolt on the trailer hitch. Guess how many hardware supply houses that stock ¾” bolts there are between nowhere and no place? I rigged it and slowly went on to Twin Falls, ID. So I find some bolts at a farm supply store and get it fixed. Now what? “Let’s just go on to City of Rocks National Monument, it’s only 60 miles” we say. It’s 6pm, the sun doesn’t go down until after 9pm, no worries right? After about 15 miles, the road becomes gravel. No big deal. 25 more miles the road becomes dirt. It’s ok, I’ve driven over much worse. 5 more miles and the road is skinny and twisty, and dirt, and rough. Oh yeah, it’s dark now too. We drove through the park from the back way in pitch black. I knew there was a campground on the other side of the park, somehow I missed it. Being dead tired and annoyed, I just pulled over on to a graveled area at an intersection of two county roads and we went back and went to sleep, by this time it was 11pm.
At 6am I decided to just unhook and leave the trailer there, go explore and come get it later to go on to Blackfoot. About this time two locals in a county dump truck come rolling by, stopping to tell me “Hey, you can’t camp here, this is a county right of way.” I tell them what I’m doing and that I won’t be here past noon or so, at this point they decided to get friendly and chatty. They made sure to tell me don’t try to go out the other side of the park with the trailer, that road is terrible. When I told them that was how I came in, in the dark. They just stood there dumbstruck for a minute. I’m pretty sure that bought me some street cred, hee hee. After seeing the park and hitching back up I discover that the other road out is under construction. Marvelous. Turns out it was worse than the twisty dirt road.
We got where we were going, the funeral was nice. We saw lots of family that we hadn’t seen in years and may never see again, most definitely not at the same time. Now what? Should we go home? Oh hell no, let’s go to Mount Rushmore.
So we head off to Jackson Hole Wyoming, north to Grand Teton National Park (more Jr. Ranger Badges), then a quick pass through Yellowstone National Park, in through the South gate, over to Old Faithful then out through the East gate, I had never been to either gate before. I always go in from the West Yellowstone side. I really put the hammer down and went east past Cody to Greybull Wy. Where we stayed for the night. There is a small museum there with some old warplanes that was cool to see. From there to Sheridan Wy. through Bighorn National Forest is the steepest, hardest pull I have ever done with my trailer. Holy crap, what a steep twisty hill, turbo screaming and black smoke pouring. From there it’s all interstate hauling ass to Gillette the over to Rapid City, SD. Until about Sturgis anyway. Somewhere along there the rear spring hanger on the trailer decides it no longer likes being attached to the frame. It’s Sunday evening in South Dakota. Marvelous. Again I rig it and slowly go to the RV park I have reservations at, still quite a ways off, south of Rapid City near Rushmore, but we made it. I found a welding shop Monday morning and got it all put back together.
I hadn’t seen Mt. Rushmore since I was a kid so it was almost like new for me too. The kids got more Jr. Ranger badges of course. The lighting ceremony at night is something to be seen. At the end of the slide show they asked everyone who is current or past military to come down to the front, there must have been 200 of us on the stage when the colors were lowered and folded (by a Boy Scout troop, from Michigan I think). The flag was passed between each of us and presented to someone. It was quite a moving experience for me that I can’t adequately describe. You just have to see it.
We also made a day trip backtracking to Devils Tower (more Jr. Ranger badges) then a quick trip up to the Montana border to find a couple of geocaches, I have a goal to find one in every state. We ran out of time that day or I would have run up to the North Dakota border to do the same. Not a big deal since we have determined we have to come back to the area to see the rest, we missed so much.
My favorite thing was by far the Crazy Horse Memorial. Wow, this thing is huge. Really enormously gigantic. Imbued with much bigness. Not only is it really, really huge it is privately funded. Money has been refused from the Feds twice so far. The only sad thing is that it will not be complete in my lifetime, I would really like to see it finished. Hopefully my children and grandchildren will. If you don’t know the story of the Crazy Horse Memorial and why the sculptor and his family have refused public money, as well as why it was commissioned and what will ultimately be on the site, please Google it and read up.
While in the Black Hills, we learned of yet another person close to the family passing. We cut the stay short by one day and I drove all night across Wyoming to get us home to SLC (our other home). By this time my wife is about to have to go to work, so I flew her home to California and stayed with the kids at our house in Utah doing maintenance on the trailer which seems to be trying to fall apart all of a sudden (after 40k miles around the country in 5 years, go figure) and on the house, which isn’t falling apart but I only get time to do the inevitable projects a few times a year.
After the wifey works her shifts and flies back out to us it’s nearly the 4th of July. We were invited up to spend it at a cabin owned by my best friends in the world’s family (they call it a cabin, it’s a cottage) on the beach at Bear Lake. A day filled with 4 wheeling in the mountains, a little bit of shooting and a long afternoon of boating, waterskiing, tubing and kneeboarding, we put the boats (3) on the trailers at dark. Then into the evening watching fireworks, making smores and drinking beer until midnight. What an awesome day.
Now here I sit, back in the nutbowl called California. Coming home seems so anticlimactic.
Pictures to follow. Maybe. If I get around to it
Early in June it became clear that my wife’s grandmother was not long for this world, so we loaded up the travel trailer and headed to Idaho. We were able to spend a few days visiting, also took the kids to Craters of the Moon National Monument where they earned Jr. Ranger badges. (Brian C , you should get one, very educational) Also went to the DOE site commemorating the first breeder reactor used to make electricity. Arco Idaho was the first city in the world lit by atomic power.
After traveling all the way back to California for a whopping three days we got word that it was already time to go back. Fortunately I am a somewhat lazy sort and the trailer was still half packed. We loaded back up in a hurry and took off. We got the call at Donners Summit that we didn’t make it, she had passed so hurrying was no longer necessary. What to do now? And so it begins.
Somewhere between nowhere (Wells, NV) and no place (Jackpot, NV) I managed to break a ¾” grade 5 bolt on the trailer hitch. Guess how many hardware supply houses that stock ¾” bolts there are between nowhere and no place? I rigged it and slowly went on to Twin Falls, ID. So I find some bolts at a farm supply store and get it fixed. Now what? “Let’s just go on to City of Rocks National Monument, it’s only 60 miles” we say. It’s 6pm, the sun doesn’t go down until after 9pm, no worries right? After about 15 miles, the road becomes gravel. No big deal. 25 more miles the road becomes dirt. It’s ok, I’ve driven over much worse. 5 more miles and the road is skinny and twisty, and dirt, and rough. Oh yeah, it’s dark now too. We drove through the park from the back way in pitch black. I knew there was a campground on the other side of the park, somehow I missed it. Being dead tired and annoyed, I just pulled over on to a graveled area at an intersection of two county roads and we went back and went to sleep, by this time it was 11pm.
At 6am I decided to just unhook and leave the trailer there, go explore and come get it later to go on to Blackfoot. About this time two locals in a county dump truck come rolling by, stopping to tell me “Hey, you can’t camp here, this is a county right of way.” I tell them what I’m doing and that I won’t be here past noon or so, at this point they decided to get friendly and chatty. They made sure to tell me don’t try to go out the other side of the park with the trailer, that road is terrible. When I told them that was how I came in, in the dark. They just stood there dumbstruck for a minute. I’m pretty sure that bought me some street cred, hee hee. After seeing the park and hitching back up I discover that the other road out is under construction. Marvelous. Turns out it was worse than the twisty dirt road.
We got where we were going, the funeral was nice. We saw lots of family that we hadn’t seen in years and may never see again, most definitely not at the same time. Now what? Should we go home? Oh hell no, let’s go to Mount Rushmore.
So we head off to Jackson Hole Wyoming, north to Grand Teton National Park (more Jr. Ranger Badges), then a quick pass through Yellowstone National Park, in through the South gate, over to Old Faithful then out through the East gate, I had never been to either gate before. I always go in from the West Yellowstone side. I really put the hammer down and went east past Cody to Greybull Wy. Where we stayed for the night. There is a small museum there with some old warplanes that was cool to see. From there to Sheridan Wy. through Bighorn National Forest is the steepest, hardest pull I have ever done with my trailer. Holy crap, what a steep twisty hill, turbo screaming and black smoke pouring. From there it’s all interstate hauling ass to Gillette the over to Rapid City, SD. Until about Sturgis anyway. Somewhere along there the rear spring hanger on the trailer decides it no longer likes being attached to the frame. It’s Sunday evening in South Dakota. Marvelous. Again I rig it and slowly go to the RV park I have reservations at, still quite a ways off, south of Rapid City near Rushmore, but we made it. I found a welding shop Monday morning and got it all put back together.
I hadn’t seen Mt. Rushmore since I was a kid so it was almost like new for me too. The kids got more Jr. Ranger badges of course. The lighting ceremony at night is something to be seen. At the end of the slide show they asked everyone who is current or past military to come down to the front, there must have been 200 of us on the stage when the colors were lowered and folded (by a Boy Scout troop, from Michigan I think). The flag was passed between each of us and presented to someone. It was quite a moving experience for me that I can’t adequately describe. You just have to see it.
We also made a day trip backtracking to Devils Tower (more Jr. Ranger badges) then a quick trip up to the Montana border to find a couple of geocaches, I have a goal to find one in every state. We ran out of time that day or I would have run up to the North Dakota border to do the same. Not a big deal since we have determined we have to come back to the area to see the rest, we missed so much.
My favorite thing was by far the Crazy Horse Memorial. Wow, this thing is huge. Really enormously gigantic. Imbued with much bigness. Not only is it really, really huge it is privately funded. Money has been refused from the Feds twice so far. The only sad thing is that it will not be complete in my lifetime, I would really like to see it finished. Hopefully my children and grandchildren will. If you don’t know the story of the Crazy Horse Memorial and why the sculptor and his family have refused public money, as well as why it was commissioned and what will ultimately be on the site, please Google it and read up.
While in the Black Hills, we learned of yet another person close to the family passing. We cut the stay short by one day and I drove all night across Wyoming to get us home to SLC (our other home). By this time my wife is about to have to go to work, so I flew her home to California and stayed with the kids at our house in Utah doing maintenance on the trailer which seems to be trying to fall apart all of a sudden (after 40k miles around the country in 5 years, go figure) and on the house, which isn’t falling apart but I only get time to do the inevitable projects a few times a year.
After the wifey works her shifts and flies back out to us it’s nearly the 4th of July. We were invited up to spend it at a cabin owned by my best friends in the world’s family (they call it a cabin, it’s a cottage) on the beach at Bear Lake. A day filled with 4 wheeling in the mountains, a little bit of shooting and a long afternoon of boating, waterskiing, tubing and kneeboarding, we put the boats (3) on the trailers at dark. Then into the evening watching fireworks, making smores and drinking beer until midnight. What an awesome day.
Now here I sit, back in the nutbowl called California. Coming home seems so anticlimactic.
Pictures to follow. Maybe. If I get around to it
I'd hate to know how much you spent on gas and repairs on that Canyonaro?? regardless amazing trip dump those pics in a slideshow on photobucket and link it!