Well, now that we're here, the real adventure begins.  Internet will be an issue - a single bar (sometimes) of 3 G wireless service means, for all intents and purposes we will be on a text-only basis at the "rancho" an d will come into town (20 miles or so) for any "real" internet activity.  So don't expect to see frequent emails or blog posts.  And things might get a little boring for a while, anyway.

The convoy (with the Subaru + trailer w/motorcycles behind all that)

 

Total distance, with the swing over to Helena, was 1157. 

And, of course, it looks like it's going to rain again this afternoon.  I'm ready for some dry weather one of these days.

To be continued

Damn it! It did rain - buckets!

Well, after thinking we'd ended our day with a baby thunderstorm, we got a real one.  Wind, lightning, thunder and gobs of rain.  The RV felt almost like it was rolling down the highway.

Unfortunately, we'd left the windows open on the Honda.  After all, it was warm, sunny, and nice when we pulled in.  Had to get it on a charger since the tiny battery can't go a day without driving it when we tow it.  Now the seats are soaked, the dash it wet.  I did get the windows up for the night - left a bit of opening at the top, under the protective covers, in the hopes some of the wet will evaporate overnight.  But, those seats are going to be soggy for quite a while, I'm afraid.

But to cap off the day, there was a glorious sunset, with a bonus sunset in the east, complete with rainbow.

Sunset in the west

Sunset in the east, with rainbow

Almost there . . .

Today was a fairly easy day, except for the unintended side trips.

Here's a look at our cheap RV park.  We were in the corner - if still there we'd have blocked the view of that short school bus.

First, as we left the little RV park Tom sat quite a while at the edge of the street.  I began to think he wanted me to signal left or right, then, he took off to the left.  Wrong way! What I couldn't see was a tow truck to the right, making multiple attempts to back a tow into the garage.  So, Tom figured he could go left, and find a place to go around the block or turn around.  I told him I'd scout.  At first I thought around the block wasn't going to work - it looked like the side street ended smack up at the railroad tracks, so I scouted away from the freeway, hoping there'd be a big parking lot to turn around in.  Nope, all too small. Then I realized the side streets did go to a street along the tracks.  So we did the round-the-block, almost, and came out on the cross road back to the freeway.

I forgot to check the gas gauge before we took off.  I was just under a quarter tank, not enough to get as far as Tom could.  I flashed lights & signaled "right" as we approached Dillon, MT.  I wasn't down to fumes, but it wouldn't be long.  What I didn't know was that all the gas stations were at the other end of town, so we had an unintended "tour" of  town.  Then, while I filled, Tom missed the turn back to the freeway and found himself on another highway.  Luckily the "sometimes weigh station" was not being used and made a great meet up and turn around spot.

For the first time in weeks we had a day mostly without rain, mostly sunny.  There was a short thunderstorm late this afternoon, after we were set up here in Clancy.

A bit after 4 we arrived at Clancy and our last en route stop.  The land is sloped - the house is at the top of the hill, so we needed to put the RV's left wheels on blocks (2 in the back and 4 in the front to get "close enough" to level for one night.  To get it closer we'd have to go up high enough to take a wheel completely in the air.  No-no.  Better a little off level than swinging in the air.

Assessing the lay of the land.  We wound up next to the 2 cars up by the house. 

 The Subaru & bikes were parked in the grass

The guys have gone to get a trailer to move their mom's stuff back to her house for the summer.  Tomorrow the convoy grows to 3 rigs towing something; RV+car, car+motorcycles and SUV+cargo trailer.  Whee!

And the Honda is on a battery charger.  Its little battery can't take more than a day without being driven when we tow it - the brake unit uses the power to run the compressor that pushes the brakes, and to light up the signal, tail and brake lights.  Tom's planning to add a power wire to keep it from dying if we run multiple days on the road.

Four State Day

This trip is one where a four state day is not hard to accomplish.  Evanston, WY is almost directly on the Utah border, so minutes after getting on the road it became a two state day.  We started our day with a trip to the fireworks store (one of the family obligations since we come through where you can get the "good stuff") and we were on the road just after eleven.  We had a lot of cloudy weather, a little rain, and a few moments of sunshine.  Luckily, the wind was much less.   But, then, we were out of Wyoming.

  Three hours later we crossed into Idaho. 

 

The part of Idaho we cross on this route is potato and grain country

. 

 

And very volcanic.  You can see broken lava flows all around, and at times, in the distance you can look at a hillside and see that it is a lava flow over the top of previous flows.  Some areas along the interstate have blocky ridges, and some look like collapsed lava tubes.

Just before seven we crossed into Montana, and a few miles later, pulled over at a small, cheap RV park. 

We knew about it because we've stayed here once or twice before.  $15 (plus tax, of course) gets you full hookups, $10 gets you an electric site.  I had forgotten we needed to dump our black tank before we settle for the summer, but he let us dump for no additional charge.  Can't help but wonder if the lower fee is really because the water connection broke and he can keep using the site anyway.  $10.70 total for the night.  Regardless, it is one of the bargains out there.   Don't expect much, some gravel driving paths, some grass and hookups.  There is a school right behind it, home of the Lima Bears, and the field (track football, what have you) is right next to the site we were in.

There's a café across the way, so you can walk to dinner if you want.  Not great food, but reasonable.  We celebrated "monthiversary" number 392 (that's 32 years and 8 months, all celebrated at least a little bit) at Jan's with sirloin steaks and an add-on of shrimp to make it surf-n-turf.  One of the potato choices was twice baked, and you get soup or salad.  This morning, the leftover twice baked potatoes, with added sour cream to alleviate their dryness, and the dinner rolls that sopped up the steak juice, will be our breakfast.  Lunch will be my leftover steak, split into two thinner slabs, on sourdough bread.  So, three meals, and Max's dinner, too (Tom's leftover steak cut into bites).  We had "12-ounce" sirloin steaks, but they were both much larger than what I've been served as a "12-ounce" steak in other places.  I think their twelve ounces might be after cooking instead of before.  It could have used some salt, and garlic, but in Lima, Montana there aren't many choices and it was good enough.

To be continued

I am sooooooo tired of rain!

Not long after we arrived, it began to rain here in Evanston.  Then it picked up.  Then it rained harder.  Eventually it stopped.  Then, this morning, it started again, and picked up and got harder and got harder. At the moment it's not so bad, but we've been in the rain for over a month.  Maybe there were a couple of dry days, but I just don't remember.

Looks like weather up the road will be much like yesterday's.  Mostly clouds, but some more rain in places.  Damn I'm tired of the rain.

Heading North

Today was the big day.  We cleared out the old freezer and defrosted it and unplugged it yesterday.  Today we cleared out and unplugged the refrigerator.  Then the drama really began. 

May has been wet.  There MIGHT have been as many as 3 days without rain this month - in Denver.  At our place, by the time I realized it was noteworthy, I couldn't remember IF we had any days without rain.  Very possibly not.  It probably started raining in late April and hasn't stopped yet.  And a lot of those days had some snow, too.

I mention this because when we came home from the Shake Down cruise, Tom tried to park the motorhome partway on the driveway.  Unfortunately the low spot is low enough that to level it, at least on corner was left with the tires off the ground.  Not good.  So, it went in the low spot.  And, when he tried to pull out so we could hook on the Honda, it wouldn't move.  I just spun tires and slung mud.  Tom put plywood in front and back of the rear tires.  It would touch the edge and spin and sling.  I was about the call our friend and neighbor to ask his help, when wife came over, saw what was going on and offered to go get him.

.

They brought over some gravel and I went down to town for a couple bags of kitty litter.  It took 4 people, the plywood, the gravel the kitty litter and anchoring the plywood to get the Spotted Dog out of the driveway.  We ARE going to fill that low spot with gravel.  No question about it.

 

Video by Leigh BD

Once we were on the road things went much better.  I detoured to fill my gas tank and we met at the first pass of the trip - Willow Creek Pass.  Tom pulled over and had a snack during his short wait.

 

Of course we encountered rain.  It looks like Wyoming has had the same wet weather as Colorado - it's really strange to see water between the sagebrush and full, running rivers.  And, of course, it's raining pretty good right now as I write this.

We also saw a couple of pretty scary things.  Luckily, they were both on the other side of the freeway.  There was a truck making an awful sound - worse than when they've been running on a flat dually tire and it's flopping an shredding.  I glanced in the rear view mirror thinking tire and what I saw suggested he'd run flat so long it was his wheel that was disintegrating - it looked sort of like when a big chunk of snow hits the pavement and explodes.  But there was no snow, no accumulated ice on any of the vehicles on the road.  The other one, was also sad.  There was an Airstream motorhome that was folded in the middle and had a big hole right in front of the door.  Tom thinks it may have hit the guard rail.  When I saw it I thought that being metal it came out of it better than a fiberglass unit - one like ours would probably have disintegrated instead of folding like that.

So much for the first day of what should be an interesting summer.  We'll be living in less than 300 square feet all summer.  We've done it for a month, so it shouldn't be any kind of problem.

To be continued.

Memorial Day Parade

Memorial is on of the days Grand Lake hosts a parade.  And for Grand Lake, it's pretty good sized parade.  And on a day when Trail Ridge Road is closed, like today, there can be fewer people in the parade and watching it.  Add rain and/or snow, and there's another potential drop. 

Today they weren't lined up 4 and 5 deep, but there were few, if any, gaps along the parade route -- all 5 blocks, or so.  You'd be surprised how many vets were in our parade.  Our whole county has fewer people than many of the smaller towns on the other side of the "hill". 

Just last Friday Tom was talking with the organizer of many of our parades and he asked Tom to join the other veterans in the parade.  This is his first time marching with the other vets.  The guys in uniform did a better job of marching in step, the other group had a marching song to help keep them nearer to being in step.

Color Guard

 

First the active duty military

then veterans from many decades, mostly without uniforms

If you look on the far side of the street, in the black jacket, with a white candy bag ... it's Tom!

 

And, the rest of the veterans

And a tribute to those still missing

 

 

To cap off the parade, the color guard and special guests present a ceremonial raising of the colors.  The flag they raised was originally presented to Nursie Young, a Pearl Harbor survivor.  Each part of the ceremony is presented by a vet or someone closely related to the vets.  One touching moment was when the MC asked all veterans and active duty service members to raise their hands and keep them up so the rest of us could look around and identify one or more to shake hands or give a hug later, to thank them for their service.

 

I'll keep the photos to just the veterans, but every parade we see local businesses of every size, local clubs, and it's an excuse to ride your horse in town, or walk your dog down the middle of Grand Avenue.  And, the sheriff, fire and other emergency services; even the dog catcher was in the parade today.