Been away from the internet for the past three months while my wife and I traveled the country in our RV.
It was a blast, and yes, we’re still married - in fact, we got along so well that she only called me an A-hole once - and in her defense it was early and I hadn’t had any coffee yet so I’m sure it was accurate.
I kept a journal, wrote up each day every evening. I’m going to try and attach the 3 PDF files.
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Actually we did hit Vegas - I lost $10
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That’s pretty amazing just $10, I lose that walking in the door, my wife could lose that playing the penny slots, if they still exist.
First I won then I gave it all back
That’s cool!! We just recently came back from ours to Yellowstone, but it was only 5 weeks.
LOL… Been there, got the medal…she called me that a few times… But I hear ya, it’s tough being together 24/7 in a small space… It really tests you… and 3 months, you’re really brave.
Plus, we made it even more crazy, as we brought a new 4 month old puppy along… oh boy… I wanted to wait to get the puppy until after we got back. But she said: “get it now, how bad could it be”… Man, she really had to eat those words…
What kind of rig do you have?
Sounds like a great trip! Are you retired, or were you able to work remotely?
That much closeness can definitely put a strain on a relationship. Glad it worked out for you.
I’m retired, she does a little consulting, about 40 hours a month.
The Starlink internet thing worked out perfectly !
How does that handle on the highways? I have a Class C too, on the E450, and these things are top heavy in their factory configuration. I’ve seen some of these lift kits done, but wondering that you’re sticking it even higher above the suspension, which increases the roll point.
I like to hammer it on the highway, and my cruising speed is up there. Wonder how your rig handles at speed and wind?
I’ve done all the other suspension upgrades (sway bars, steering stabilizer, helper spring adj, Sumo Springs, Track Bar, just to make it driveable.
Night and day better then stock. It gets a bit squirrely over 75 mph. It’s at it’s happiest both in handling and RPMs in cruise control at 64 mph
Sideways wind sucks but really no worse than stock
PART 1 of 4
April 27 – Day 1- Off to Gettysburg. We stayed at Artillery Ridge Campground right outside the entrance to the park. Did the Auto tour through the battleground, an app took us from spot to spot, explaining what happened. Saw the house Eisenhower retired to after his presidency; it’s in the battlefield near where Picketts charge began, shockingly tiny. He raised chickens n stuff. I can’t see Obama doing that in a house like this.
Standing on the edge where the troops lined up, on both sides, it’s hard to imagine how the men felt, especially the Rebels. Looking out over that mile long uphill field with the top of the hill bristling with cannon set up with grapeshot, like giant shotguns, they must have expected that it was their final day. For a lot of them it was.
Later I climbed around in Devils Den, something I did as a 10 year old kid.
After the tour we went into town and walked around. Same hokey souvenir stores that every tourist trap town has. Did have a Kilwinn’s ice cream, that was really good !
April 30 – Drove to Johnson City Tennessee. Set up camp in Warriors Path State Park.
That afternoon we took the jeep and went to Harlan county to the town of Evarts Ky where my family is from.
Crazy drive with some of the worst roads I’ve ever seen. Narrow rutted roads with hairpin turns and cliffs on one side and drops on the other and logging trucks flying down them like maniacs. They say “if you can drive in Harlan, you can drive anywhere”, I believe that! The town of Evarts is the size of a postage stamp, you hiccup and you’re through it. We went to the library with my family history stuff and a photo of the house that my great grandfather built. Southerners are definitely reserved when speaking with one of us here Yankees. After I explained who I am and my connection to the town they went from one word answers to not shutting up ! They pulled out a book on old Kentucky graveyards and we found my families, located right on the edge of town on top of a mountain (all the boneyards are on top of mountains, so they don’t use up valuable farmable land).
Lisa, the librarian didn’t recognize the house but said “Honey, you come with me, I may know someone who can help” She took me next door to the Masonic Lodge where four old timers were having their daily lunchtime coffee clutch. It started off the same, one word answers, but again, once they realized my connection they talked my ears off. One of the guys not only recognized the house but knew exactly where the graveyard was. They tried giving us directions, that didn’t go so well. “You make a left where the dog is tied to the tree (hey Earl, didn’t that dog die? How are they going to know what tree?). We ended up following the one gentleman to the house. We waited at the end of the driveway while he walked up to the porch and spoke with the owner. They waved us up, his name was Gary Helton, and he was a retired coal miner who’d been injured in the mines. Told him that my great great grandfather Millard Kelly had built the house and I showed him the photo of my great great grandmother, my great grandmother and my grandfather in front of it.
He thought that was great, and helped Ann and I recreate the photo.
From there the gentleman guided us to the entrance to the cemetery, good thing since we never would have found it on our own. It was an unmarked dirt driveway between two single wide’s. We said goodbye and thank you to the guy from the lodge and drove up the quarter of a mile or so to the end of the road where there was just a dilapidated abandoned single wide and a rusty dead 1990 Firebird and a lot of “NO TRESPASSING” signs. There was a locked gate with a footpath leading up the mountain off to one side.
Ann was pretty freaked out so she stayed in the jeep – pointed down the mountain, still running, ready to run, while I hiked up the rest of the way to the top.
Found the Kelly graveyard, it’s not just Kelly’s but a couple of the Evarts town families. Very very old! Most of the graves have sunken 6 to 8 inches and a lot of the limestone stones are long worn away. Found the section with my family.
The Kelly end of the graveyard:
My Great great great grandfather, William Brownless Kelly
My great great grandfather, The Honorable Wright Kelly. His stone has fallen over. It’s pretty big and is going to take me and both my sons to come back and fix this.
I’m assuming that Sara Smith, aka “Pipe Granny” is also here but we won’t know until we fix the stone.
My Great Grandfather Millard Kelly and his first wife, my great grandmother Lena Lewis Kelly
Took a pebble from the grave of my great grandfather Millard, I’m going to place it on the grave of his son, my grandfather Burnis, when we get to California City. (Note to self - Don’t forget to send a copy of the Descendants of Jonathan Kelly to Lisa at the Evarts Library, and the photo of Pipe Granny at Millards wake to Gary Helton who lives in the house).
On the way back we stopped into the town of Harlan. The bank where my great grandfather was a director is now a “Pronto Pizza” shop. Unfortunately the area is so run down since the coal mines were shut down that it was way too sketchy to stop for a slice. We took some pictures from the Jeep and headed back to camp.
May 1 – We explored around Boone Lake Tn, Loved it! I could live here but lake property is very expensive, not NJ expensive, but still pretty pricey. Speaking to a few guys at the neighborhood gas, liquor, gun and tackle shop, it’s the air B&B’s that have driven the prices in the area so high that their kids can’t afford to live there. I hadn’t thought of that but I can see where it could be true
May 2 - Hung around camp, fixed little camper things, had a blown Pex connection at the clean water hookup. A young guy who worked at the campground had the part and fixed it for us. Thank God because there was no way I could have done it, he was really tall with long arms, I couldn’t even come close to reaching it. Threw him $100 and bought his three year old daughter a toy. That afternoon we explored some more. This area of Tenn is really beautiful.
May 3 – Driving day. Drove to Ashville, NC. Boondocked behind U-Joint.
May 4 - Ashville NC
Walked around town, really nice town. Had the Rigs 4x4 serviced at U-Joint, greased and new transfer case fluids. Ready to go !
While we were in town we went to underground brewery/distillery and had a “Farm Burger”, a local chain with great burgers!
May 5 - Drove to Nashville. Stayed at the Franklin Elks lodge #72. Incredible lodge, pool, gym, beautiful “U” shaped bar cantilevered out over the edge of the hill. They sold their building on the highway to Target for a million bucks and used the money to build the most incredible lodge I’ve ever seen.
Did Cinco de Mayo and dinner with the Elks. BS’ed with a guy who flew Orion subhunter planes in the navy. Very cool stories about hunting Russian subs and dropping sonobouys to drive them away from our ships.
May 6 - Checked out the town of Franklin in the morning. Very fancy, and very pricey little town. They are famous for doing a Dickens style Christmas, with everyone dressed up, even the horses and carriages.
We did Nashville in the afternoon/evening. Hit all the top spots, had a GREAT time !! No one expected me to like it, I surprised em and loved it !
First stop was Tootsie’s, the most famous bar on the strip, three floors with a different band on each floor.
Bon Jovi’s, kinda lame but Jersey so we had to represent.
Kid Rocks Honky Tonk, by far the best bar on the strip! Jammed, crazy, dancing on the bar and reasonably priced to boot ! Great fries, we missed the potato skins, didn’t know about em. We were later told they are life changing. Next time.
Old Red, Blake Sheltons place. It was OK, most expensive spot on the strip by far.
Luke Bryan’s, very twangy country music, I’d have had to shoot myself if we had stayed for more than one beer.
We stood in line in a light drizzle for 20 minutes to get Hatties Famous Hot Chicken for dinner. It was really good, but not 20 minutes in the drizzle good.
We finished the night at a little bar, one of the originals, a few doors down a side street. Teddies. Really liked it and the band was excellent. Next to Kid Rocks place, it was my favorite, but I love old dark smoky bars.
May 7 - Travel day, drove to Memphis.
May 8. Memphis. Camped at the Graceland RV park on the Graceland property.
Up to this point this is the most important thing to remember – Go to The BBQ Shop !!! https://thebar-b-qshop.com/ . Best BBQ EVER (so far, and I’ve had ‘Q up and down the east coast. This was even better than the joint in the middle of nowhere in Alabama with the old black guy and his wife working the pits out back of the old closed up gas station, who made his ‘q extra tender because he didn’t have any teeth to chew it with). Two words that should in no way ever be said together, but here at this place are amazing! BBQ spaghetti !! I sh!t you not ! I think the trick to their ‘q might be butter in the bbq sauce and on the shredded meat. I’m going to experiment when we get home.
Our waitress “DJ” had some cool Graceland stories. She was the personal bartender to Priscilla Presley every time Pricilla would come to the club DJ worked in. Says she was very sweet and down to earth.
May 9th - Ann’s 62nd birthday. We toured Graceland. It was a lot smaller than I expected. I’m not a big Elvis fan by any stretch, but it was very cool and I’m glad we did it. Took a lot of photos
Next we had to make a stop at “The Temple” of Bass Pro Shop on the Mississippi River. The huge glass pyramid. The place was gargantuan! So huge that it even has a hotel inside it. There are bridges crossing over ponds and streams inside with 20lb stripers in them.
After that we went to Beal St. but it started raining so we didn’t stop. The whole Beal Street thing is very small, certainly not Nashville by any means.
May 10 - Drove Hwy 61 along the Mississippi River to Vicksburg. There would be a tiny run down town then nothing, just farm fields and woods for miles and miles. Because of the way the river overflows, the road is very far from it. We never saw the water the entire drive south. Drizzled a lot of the way, not that there was any reason to stop anywhere. Kept looking for BBQ with no luck, finally found Tommy’s BBQ just before getting to Vicksburg, it was OK. Stayed at Vicksburg Elks where they had just had a BBQ competition, figures.
I had a great time in the lodge while Ann caught up on her idiot TV realty shows. Great people at this lodge. Heather was the bartender and knows how to get a party going; her husband (Gary?) is the district leader. They got me drunk, I taught them to play Dool, a game my friends and I invented that combines pool with darts. I left the bar to “Y’all gotta come back, yer family now!!”
May 11 - I toured the Vicksburg battlefield while Ann did some organizing. Very interesting stuff. I never knew it was 90% a cannon battle. They have a partially restored ironclad you can tour.
Around noon we left for New Orleans. Crossed the longest bridge over the marshes and bayou that I’ve ever seen, about 20’ over the water. It went for miles and miles. Was told it was 10’ underwater during Katrina. There are all kinds of homes that you can only get to by water, like in the movie Cat People.
Camped at a KOA deep in the hood (it’s ALL the hood around New Orleans!) about 20 minutes outside of town. The place was fully fenced with a 10’ steel wall all the way around it, and a full time security guard at the gate.
That night we went to Dragos in Metairie just outside of NO for Mothers Day dinner. It was amazing!!! Charbroiled oysters over wood fire (like escargot but oysters), Gumbo, Crayfish etouffe, and shrimp and crab in a Cajun cream sauce..
Thought I was a good Cajun cook, I was wrong. I have to figure out how to do those oysters at home, they were amazing. That gumbo was in another stratosphere above my pitiful attempts
May 12 - Hung out at the camp ground, did laundry and stuff until 4:30 then took the shuttle to the French quarter. We partied hard, very hard. Started at Ryan’s pub for an Irish Car Bomb,
then Willie’s Chicken Shack for dinner,
The Bourbon Street Drinkery,
Then Pat O’Brians aka the famous home of the Hurricane - for Hurricanes obviously.
(by this point we were forgetting to take pictures)
Jambala at Zeke’s Gumbo House.
We spent a lot of time going back and forth at a dueling piano bar which was attached to the Jazz Preservation Bar where I got them to play some Dr John. Tried the other New Orleans signature cocktail, the Sazarac,
closed the night with beniots (their version of a zeppoli) at the famous Cafe DuMond… (ya can’t drop a dead cat around this town without it landing on some “famous” place).
May 13 - The mornings not starting well for Ann, Applied aspirin, diet soda and sent her back to bed. I feel fine, but I only had one of those sweet sugary, hangover inducing, drinks NO is known for. I stuck to whisky and beer for the most part.
Left New Orleans for Holly Beach, the “Riviera” of Louisiana
Arrived around 4:30. The “Riviera” is more like a Raritan bay beach. The entire “town” is about 10 blocks by 3 blocks with one tiny store. Water is ugly, the mudline is about a mile out, unfishable. Still pretty cool camping on the beach though.
May 14 - Wind on the beach last night was ridiculous, 30 to 40, with gusts even higher. It was supposed to be less than 20. More worrisome was that it was an onshore wind with a full moon tide. Around 2 A:M I chickened out, worried that we were going to flood, and moved the camper back to the beach opening. Everything was covered in fine sand.
We left in the morning without even making coffee. Stopped at a Blue Beacon truck wash to get all the salt off. Great place, great job. Camper and jeep together only cost $69.
Less than an hour later on Rt 10 we drove through a swarm of locusts at 70 mph. Figures. Never saw a swarm of locusts before, now the camper and van have green goo all over them. Hope I never see another @&$^ locust ! My son Ryan, who’s not a fan of big crawly bugs, would crap on himself if he got in the middle of one of these swarms.
As a driving day, today sucked! All of Rt 10 in Texas is under construction, hours of white knuckled driving between temporary concrete walls with tractor trailers, major bumps and lane shifts – EFF TEXAS !!
Boondocked at the Seguin Elks outside of San Antonio. They closed early so didn’t hang out. Thank God they had a plug in - 100 degrees here.
May 15 - Thank God for AC!!! Went to bed last night as the sun went down, woke up with the sun. Marlene, the lodge treasurer was in to the cut the lawn and do the books so we got to swim in the pool and wash our dishes in the kitchen. I’m becoming a very big fan of our Elks membership.
Anns going to do some work on the computer, I’m off to see the worlds largest pecan in front of the Pecan Museum on the side of the town hall.
Drove the hour to our next campsite a semi off grid place, Everfree Shire Ranch in Devine Tx. Outside of San Antonio. A guy with a ratty horse farm has 11 sites with water and electric he rent’s out. Looked great in the photos and had great reviews, he must have paid em off.
If you ever want to experience living in a single wide 20 yards from a backroads highway, this is it.
Hit 107 degrees and humid. We want to go to Riverwalk in San Antonio tonight, but damn it’s ugly out there. I bow in the direction of Robert Carriers grave (invented air conditioning)
After dark when it cooled to a more comfortable 98 degrees with high humidity, we sucked it up and drove into San Antonio to do the River Walk. Very cool idea, a sunken pathway along a canal through the middle of the city with every tourist trap theme restaurant in existence, lots of cheesy art shops and the standard souvenir/t-shirt shops. Would have been better if it weren’t so $#&@ HOT.
May 16 – We had lunch at a local place in Devine TX. Life changing homemade, handmade corn tortillas. I’ll never have another one without remembering these.
Went to the Alamo, very cool place and it wasn’t as hot as it was yesterday, only 100 degrees. Had no idea the Alamo sat in the middle of a city! I always thought there
would be a field around it, but no, it has city all around it. We hit happy Hour at the Davey Crocket Bar at the Crockett hotel across from the Alamo.
Back to camp, picked some prickly cactus fruit and played with the cat. Poor things owner, a tenant here, was hurt bad in a hit and run, probably not going to make it. Anyone want an awesome cat? Seriously, coolest cat I’ve ever met. If it were nearer the end of our trip I’d defiantly have taken it home with me.
Cat at Evershire ranch. Wish my dog was this good.
Stopped at the grocery store to restock my beer supply, the girl behind the register was surprised, said she’d never seen a NJ license before (“What are y’all doing HERE???”) Honestly for a poor, somewhat run down town that’s had the life cut out of it by the closing of the local railroad, the people are really nice and the town is well kept and clean.
May 17 - Travel day, drove to McKinney Falls State Park outside of Austin. Once again it’s HOT!! The timing of this freak spring heat wave is terrible.
We went to both waterfalls on the river here hoping for a nice cool swim. Nope! The falls were both totally dried up with a very crowded disgusting green pools at the bottom. With all the kids in it, it was safe to say that the urine to water ratio was probably extra high. No thank you!!
It’s showers and cranking AC for the night. I’m beat from driving anyway.
So far not too keen on Texas.
May 18 - Ann hung out in the AC, I went out and met up with a friend from a muzzleloading site I frequent at the local Cabelas then I went to the town of Kyle Flea Market. Scored some great stuff super cheap and had a crazy good beef taco. People here are very friendly.
Drove into Austin, went to Terry Black’s BBQ, had beef ribs, incredible! Beyond incredible!! Two big thick ribs, 2 sides and 2 beers, $175 – and WORTH it !! I can be a cheap bastard, so that’s saying a lot ! The meat was buttery tender and velvety. I’m very surprised we both didn’t drop dead from clogged artery coronaries on the spot.
Drove 5th and 6th streets where all the music venues are around 6:30 P:M, pretty dead but it is Sunday, plus they say stuff doesn’t even start opening until 8.
After Nashville, New Orleans, and Riverwalk in San Antonio, we’re pretty partied out, and we’ll be at the Stockyards in Ft Worth day after tomorrow, so we decided to give our livers a break and skip the Austin bar hopping thing.
And there are homeless all over the streets, not just people down on their luck but the crazy kind. Worst town I’ve ever seen for homelessness and having spent time in Philadelphia and Seattle, that’s saying a lot.
May 19 - Driving day to Cleburn TX outside of Dallas / Ft Worth where we stayed at an Elks lodge. Hung out with some good people at the bar. Mostly with a couple who had just sold their Huey Helicopter parts business. He flew in Nam, crazy stories.
May 20 - Ann tossed me out, she had a call to do, me just breathing is a distraction. I explored the area. Had a fried peach pie that was amazing. Between the BBQ and the deep fry, how everyone here hasn’t dropped dead of coronaries is a mystery to me.
At a real nice little bait n tackle and assorted trinkets shop I met Angelica Smith the g-g-granddaughter of a local moonshiner Brub Bybee who was friends with Bonnie and Clyde and also with Jack Binion the Vegas casino owner/mobster. She has a picture of Brub dancing with Bonnie on the porch of the building we were standing in. He owned Outlaw station, the hacienda looking building made of petrified wood in the photos. He dealt moonshine out of there as a serious side gig during prohibition.
Brubs brother was Hilton Bybee, who broke Clyde out of jail the last time (see the old mug shot).
Jack Binion the casino guy, used to buy moonshine from Brub to supply his illegal gambling houses in Dallas. Had an altercation at one of them and shot a guy dead. Brub helped spirit Binion out to Las Vegas before they could lock him up. The guy ended up owing a Vegas casino and had Brub put in his will to be taken care of for life. Every month for the rest of Brubs long life a black limo would come pick him up for a Vegas trip
In the evening we went to the Ft Worth Stockyards. I like this place, the stench of cow piss is somewhat overwhelming, but overall a fun place to party.
Hit two bars, Tanahills, then watched the last few innings of the Yankee/Texas Rangers game at Filthy McNasties Saloon. Had a lot of fun there, Yankees won and I definitely risked an arse whooping by a few biker types who didn’t appreciate my joy at the Yankee win.
We all ended up friends in the end. The young guy sitting next to us was at a layover on his job. He flies with million dollar racehorse around the world working for a small high end transport company. He had all kinds of interesting stories.
We finished the evening with all you can eat beef ribs at Ricky’s BBQ. I was hoping to get through the night not needing a defibrillator, could have gone either way.
We’re going to hit Dinosaur Park in Glenn Rose in the morning then leave for Wichita Falls and another Elks club.
May 21 - Ann had a call, and didn’t want to go anyway, so I went to Dinosaur Valley Park and waded in a stream with dinosaur footprints, extremely cool stuff !!!
On the way back stopped for another fried pie, this time blackberry. Good but the peach one was better.
We made the drive to Wichita Falls. On the way stopped at the World’s Largest Bowie Knife. All this stupid but cool stuff can be found on the Atlas Obscure app, a must have for any road trip.
Got to town and had dinner and drinks at the Elks club. Another fun night, not sure how many more of these my liver can handle.
May 22 Thursday - Losing track of what day it is. Today was a driving day to Amarillo TX. This part of the state is very different than the lower eastern part. Very, very sparsely populated, huge farm fields and pastures, even bigger windmill farms, most of which aren’t even working. Camping at the Rt 66 RV park. Showers, laundry, and finally a non-coronary inducing dinner, then in the morning over to the Cadillac Ranch to spray paint an anarchy symbol on those stupid cars sticking out of the dirt.
After the cars we were going to Roswell NM, but it’s going to be 101 degrees with “violent” storms and possible baseball size hail.
Eff the stupid aliens, we have to make a new plan.
May 23 - Screw Roswell and 101 humid degrees! We’re going to drive an extra hour and climb 4000 feet higher elevation to Santa Fe (7000 ft, 1000 higher than Denver) and 80 degrees with 14% humidity.
Went to the Cadillac Ranch before hitting the road, it was a mile from the campground. Put a big anarchy sign on a car.
Ann did the kids and us in little hearts. I thought it was going to be stupid, and it was. I’d do it again.
From there it was a 4 hour drive through never ending hot nothing, nothingness as far as you can see. Did see some pronghorn antelope just off the road, they didn’t look happy.
Santa Fe is an incredible city, very fancy, very expensive, very much like San Clemente in Ca. but this is all low southwestern style stucco with nothing more than two stories so that the mountain views are not obstructed. We’re staying at the Elks lodge here. This Elks Lodge thing has been working out exceptionally well! Had a few at the bar and went out to Maria’s, which the folks at the bar said we had to try, for authentic New Mexico fare. The place was HOPPING! We didn’t think we had a chance in hell of getting in since the parking lot was completely jammed but Mother Cabrini pulled though again and a couple pulled out just as we made a second run around the lot, right next to the front door. Note to self, alcohol hits you a lot harder at elevation, two beers and I feel it, which NEVER happens.
May 24 - Went back into Santa Fe to check it out. On the drive in saw a small ghetto prairie dog town in the trash strewn strip between the road and the railroad tracks. What they were doing there I’ve no idea. They must be getting fed by drivers stopped at the light, either that or pulling knives and strong arming any critters trying to pass through.
Saw the “Impossible Staircase” built in 1880 in the Chapel of Lorretta.
Walked down to the Santa Fe Rail Depot and Farmers Market, had lunch and an authentic English Bitter beer. Found home grown dried chili’s, and took a Lyft back to where we had left the car (eff Uber, they suck!)
That afternoon we made the drive to Albuquerque where we stayed at the Rt 66 Casino and RV Park. We did 2 nights there, very nice with incredible views of absolutely nothing. The wind in the middle of the night was crazy. It seems to blow constantly this side of the Mississippi.
May 25 - Did the Sandia Peak Tram in Albuquerque, awesome!! It’s a must do if you’re in the area. Had two beers at the lodge at the top of the mountain. At 10,000 feet two beers is a lot ! Took a video on the way down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmyTSBjDfPs
Went into Albuquerque, checked it out, turned right.
Back to the camp ground, swam in the pool, had dinner, went to the casino – got completely wiped out in 15 minutes, eff that chit! Wind in the middle of the night was crazy again.
May 26 - Suicide drive to Silver City NM, 5 hours+. Thought I saw a lot of nothing in Texas, I had no idea what nothing actually meant, New Mexico is truly a massive expanse of bone dry dust and nothing ! Dust Devils are cool, little dirt tornadoes all over the desert. I read that NM is the opposite of NJ, the least amount of people per sq. mile. I believe that.
We’re staying at the Silver City Elks Lodge, they have full hookups which is always a nice surprise. We may stay for 2 days, Ann needs to catch up on work. The people at the bar in the lodge say the only thing to do in the area is drink. I’m sure I’ll find something interesting to do. I did see a roadrunner at the bottom of the lodge back driveway which was cool. Bad arse looking little bird.
And it turns out the guys at the bar were right.
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PART 2 of 4
May 27 - Woke up at the Elks Lodge in Silver City New Mexico. A very nice lodge with full RV hookups, even has a mini slot machine casino by the bar that I’m not going near after our last slot machine experience. Not a lot to do here and Ann had a call after that she hung out at the Adventure Rig (our new name for the RV) and she caught up on work all day. I went out and explored the town. Scored a Pelican 100 reel at a thrift shop and saw a live roadrunner at the bottom of the hill the lodge is on, pretty much the highlight of the day. Not much going on here. When I asked the guys at the lodge bar last night what there is to do in town, in unison they all said DRINK!
Later in the day, just before dinner in the Rig, went in to the lodge to hang out and have a beer. Met a guy from Rockaway Beach on Long Island who’s been here for 30 years. All I could ask was “Why???”
Weather here is very different. It’s warm, high 80’s today, but it’s so dry and breezy we never needed AC.
May 28 - Left Silver City New Mexico and drove over the White Mountains to the Petrified Forest in Arizona. Absolutely gorgeous country, I could live in parts of those mountains, but driving the camper pulling the jeep through them is something I’d rather not do again. We had to pull over a few times to let either the tranny or the brakes cool down.
On the other side of the mountains are vast areas of nothing but brown dried grass. Most of the lakes and rivers are completely dry and the reservoirs are really low. The cows are not happy. No fires and no target shooting on the BLM lands until they get some rain, buzzkill since I was going to teach Andrea how to handle the 45.
We boondocked overnight at the Visitor Center at the Petrified Forest. We’ll unhitch the Jeep and go explore it tomorrow.
Having an issue with the starter battery, had to jump it twice today. The Battery Tender power pack was a very smart purchase. Will get the battery tested and probably replace it tomorrow in Holbrook.
May 29 - Did the Petrified Forest, it was incredible!!! Left the camper where we had boondocked the night before at the Crystal Gift shop / visitor center and took the Jeep on the four hour back and forth drive though the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Parts of it were directly out of Star Trek. Took a lot of pictures, none of which do the place any justice.
Saw some ancient petroglyphs etched into the rock
Pretty sure it spells out “Sparky is a hump”
Lot’s a very cool little lizards running around. They have virtually no fear of people at all
Drove to Holbrook to stay at the Elks lodge there. Not just no but HELL NO! Would just as soon boondock in Camden. First time I’ve ever seen a lodge surrounded by razor wire. We drove the extra hour to Winslow Arizona, an OK little town with a really old Elks lodge. The only thing it really has going for it the tourist business because of the Eagles song “Take It Easy”. The RV parking was in a city lot next to the lodge, not the greatest but it was free and had electric. Had drinks with the retired chief of police, cool guy. Huge freight train yard about 2 blocks away, remember that scene in My Cousin Vinny with the freight trains? We got to live it.
May 30 – Took the required pictures on the corner at Winslow Arizona
There’s a light haired girl in a bright white Jeep slowing down to take a look at me
After that we drove to Flagstaff where we got a new battery for the RV. Went to Crackerbarrel for dinner and to boondock since it’s the only place in the area where it’s allowed. When we came out of the restaurant a ridiculous number of homeless in beat up vans and campers had showed up, a full out homeless camp. We got the hell out of there. Amazing how many homeless are out here in the west, lots more than in NJ.
Decided to do the drive to Sedona immediately. The hour drive through the mountains on Rt 89a to Sedona was incredible, and totally effin terrifying! Thank God we did it with Ann driving the jeep, not me towing it. The first sign that it was going to be interesting were the signs reading “no vehicles over 40’”. The drive started with a very long steep drop into Oak Creek canyon with lots of hairpin turns. Ann planned this route and drove lead. At one point, heading down to a switchback turn with a 1000’ drop on one side, I started to wonder if she was eyeballing my life insurance policy. By the time I got all the way down, a full hour of terror, I was absolutely convinced she was after the insurance!! I refused to give here the satisfaction and made it down alive! I didn’t even scrape the side of the camper on a cliff wall, pretty much a miracle. Multiple people later said “You drove that thing… Down that road ??!!”
I do have to say it was spectacular, possibly the most beautiful road in the country, not that I could really tell since all I could pay any attention to was the 30’ of road right in front of my bumper. And I don’t have any photos, no way to do that with both hands in a death grip on the wheel.
I always thought Sedona was flat, I was extremely wrong. It’s a valley surrounded by mountains and possible the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. We’re staying at the Elks Lodge here and the view out their bar window is stunning.
Bar closed early, not the liveliest lodge, not even open on Saturdays.
Had a little Solo Stove fire and drinks outside the camper and looked at the stars.
May 31 - So we had many drinks, both moving slowly this morning.
Drove out to Cornville outside of Sedona. Went off road to a little waterfall at a place called Mormons Crossing on Oak Creek, a stream deep in a green valley, where we spent the day swimming.
Back to the Adventure Rig for dinner and kicking back and looking at the incredible view.
June 1 - A day of nothing, just kicked back, drove around the town a little. We needed it.
June 2 - Driving day to Williams AZ just south of the rim of the Grand Canyon. The only way to go, is back through Flagstaff. We did “NOT” go back to Flagstaff on 89a!!! We took the very easy alternate route of Rts 179 and 17, which we should have done to begin with. More proof that Ann was after the insurance $$ taking me down Rt 89a.
June 3 - Got to the Grand Canyon Train RV Park yesterday afternoon where they advertise themselves as “glamping” - lol. Had dinner in the Rig, watched a movie. About 1 in the morning nearly had a heart attack when a freight train came though blowing it’s horn about 40 yards from our heads (I had wanted to go to the Fred and Barney RV park, closer to the canyon and with a Bedrock village, but noooooo)
June 3 - Drove to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Lifetime Senior Parks Pass got us in free, which was nice (edit – that pass paid for itself many times over during the course of this trip). Took a series of shuttle busses along the rim stopping at all the viewpoints except one, which of course was the one that had bighorn sheep walking around. Had a great time, took lots of photos.
We sent one of me standing on the lip of a cliff thousands of feet high to my acrophobic (fear of heights) mother, she was not happy.
The wildlife here has absolutely no fear of humans, elk walking on the sidewalk with us, ground squirrels almost sitting on our feet begging for food.
Back to the Rig for dinner and a massive crash, doubt I’ll see 9 p:m.
June 4 - Actually made it to 10 PM last night. I’m turning into Andrea with this early to bed early to rise junk.
Hung out and did some camper stuff in the morning. Went into the town to check it out. Pretty much a single street of touristy type stuff, but not like the other places, this one is all locally owned. Had lunch at Goldies Rt 66 Diner. A classic old style stainless steel panel type building with a lunch counter that could easily be found in NJ, Not so much out here. Hamburgers and onion rings with an awesome chocolate malted. Walked around the shops for a bit and stopped at an old dark, slightly stinky bar (my favorite kind) called the Canyon Club, for a beer. We ended up hanging out there for a few hours with two couples from the Phoenix area who were boondocking their 5th wheels just outside of town to escape the heat. Had more than just a beer and a lot of fun.
June 5 - Driving day. Packed out at 10 am and drove down Rt 40 to some BLM lands just before the town of Kingman for our first serious off grid camping. Found a good spot way down a very rough dirt road with an amazing view of the mountains. Sat around a fire, heard my first coyote. Still haven’t seen any night sky anywhere that you would think was much different than in Jersey. That’s been surprising
June 6 - Drove to my cousin Mariella and husband Larry’s house in Bullhead City. It’s right where Arizona, Nevada, and California meet. A desert town with the Colorado River running through it. They took us out to dinner for my birthday at an Italian place owned by a New Yorker.
June 7 - Went out on my cousin’s speedboat on the Colorado, 104 degrees and still lots of fun. Have to admit, the dry heat really is different. Another few days of it and my skin might start growing lizard scales. We launched the boat in Needles California (Worthless trivia point of the day – That’s where Snoopy’s brother Spike is from).
First stop “Pirates Cove”, an offshoot off the main river that people go to just like Tice’s Shoals in Barnegate. We met up there with their neighbors, and about 50 other boats, hung out put down some beers and swam for a while. I can’t understand how there can be a river almost the size of the Delaware with nothing growing more than 20 feet way from it, just desert and scrub.
After that we went down to The Gorge where the river goes through high red rock walls. Just like in Greece but with different color stone.
Got my rod out of the case and realized I had my backup reel, with no line. Doh! So much for fishing. Set up chairs in the water by a lonely palm tree under a cliff at the Gorge and swam. Larry did a good deed on the way back, gave a guy with a blown engine a tow back to the launch.
June 8 - Drove to Mojave Cemetery outside of California City to visit Grandpa Burnis and Grandma Connies graves. Brought that little round pebble I took off Grandpa’s fathers grave back in Evarts Ky (Millard, my Great Grandfather). I buried it next to his stone.
Took a photo of the public library Granny worked at just down the road. It’s for sale if anyone is interested.
From there it was a scenic drive to the Porterville Elks lodge an hour outside of Sequoia Forest.
Interesting drive, first through the high desert then down into the fruit and vegetable growing area of California. Also saw our first large scale oil rig operation, shocked that it was in California not Texas
June 9 - Drove to the Sequoia RV Park about 20 miles outside the Sequoia National Forest. Miles and miles of fruit trees, mostly tangerines (Don’t ask me how I know), then a climb up into the mountains past a huge resevior that we may go back to after doing the trees tomorrow.
We expected to be camping under Sequoia trees in 70 degrees weather. Massive fail, no giant trees and 90+ degrees. There is a beautiful pristine stream, with a deep swimming hole. Spent the afternoon swimming there then back to the Adventure Rig for dinner then cocktails around the fire.
June 10 - Drove the Jeep into Sequoia National Park. Very similar drive to 89a into Sedona, maybe even a little more terrifying –but totally doable in the jeep, I’d have had a coronary for sure if I tried to do it in the RV. After about 45 minutes of back and forth hairpin turn climbing, we hit 6000 feet (we started at 960) and out of nowhere we were in this massive forest of giant trees. It was pretty spectacular.
Deep in the park we visited the General Sherman tree, by mass the largest tree in the world. I have a pinecone and a small shed of bark I picked up off the ground. With any luck there will be a seed still in the cone and in 3000 years there will be a giant Sequoia in a front yard in Manalapan NJ
Ate lunch sitting on the stump of a Sequoia then drove out, most of the way down the mountain in second gear. They really need to add guard rails on some of those turns. Someone’s brakes burn out on the 9% downhills and they hit one of the hairpin turns with no rails (no vehicles over 22’ allowed) and they’ll be in the air for 15 minutes before hitting the ground. Grandma, who’s terrified of heights, would have been screeching the entire way up and down.
Outside the park got ice cream then went back to the stream at the campground and swam until dinner.
After dinner we had S’mores around a fire with a couple from east of Oroville Ca., somewhere in the foothills of the Rockies, and their grandkids.
Off to the Hoover Dam tomorrow.
June 11 - The drive into Hell. Did a suicide eight and a half hour drive from Seqoia to Boulder City NV. The longest climbs we’ve ever done. The Adventure Rig handled it well, us not so much. Hit 115 degrees in Baker Ca. We stopped there for a taste of home at a Jersey Mike’s and took pictures at the World’s Largest Thermometer, which I’m surprised wasn’t on fire.
Baker is in a valley just south of Death Valley, salt flats and all. The climb out of the valley was so long and hot there were signs that warned us to turn off the AC to avoid overheating. The ride was tough even with the windows open “but it was a dry heat”. Surprised we didn’t burst into flame.
Stayed at the Elks Lodge in Boulder, right outside of Las Vegas. Hung out with another visiting couple from Idaho, then Ann and I sat around our little Solo stove at the camper and had a few more.
June 12 - Visited the Hoover Dam. Very cool, not as big as I expected, but still very impressive. Parked on both sides and took pictures. Wind was crazy, warnings on the highways for bigger rigs. Also, 106 degrees, which was just lovely.
After the dam we went to Vegas. I’ve never been there with a car before so took the opportunity to explore more than just the Strip. Really clean, really nice, even the sketchy parts were clean without graffiti. Also, very few homeless wandering
about. The ridiculous heat must keep them away or just light them on fire (or the Mob may do that).
Stopped into Circus Circus, the last of the original casinos. Was hoping the revolving bar Hunter Thompson wrote about in Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas was still there, but unfortunately it was not.
Played a video blackjack machine at the bar, doubled my money, then gave it back in 5 minutes at a slot machine. I’m never touching another one of those damned thieving things again.
Up early tomorrow to head to Zion.
June 13 - Friday the 13th. Driving day. Rt 15 through the Virgin River Gorge was epic, gorgeous, and little white knuckled, other than that a fairly easy drive to some off grid camping off Kolob Terrace Rd, just outside Zion National Park.
Set up camp under a Mesa, near a small brook. After setting up camp took the Jeep through Zion all the way up to Zion Reservoir. Beautiful and a lot of it was much unexpected! Up at the very top it looked more like Wisconsin than Utah, meadows and cows. The rest of it was hard to put into words, the photos explain it better.
June 14 - Drove to Bryce Canyon. The plan was to drive through Bryce from west to east and boondock out in Escalante but that changed when we got to the Bryce Visitor Center and found that there’s a 22’ limitation on vehicle size due to the steeps and the tight switchbacks. I had enough of white knuckle death rides back on 89a to Sedona in Arizona, so we chickened out. We had an early dinner, elk burgers and deep fried green beans. I have to remember to do fried green beans at home they were delicious.
After dinner we set up camp off grid camp in the Dixie Forest on the west side of Bryce.
After setting up we went to the Bryce Rodeo, it was a lot of fun.
We’re going to go explore the Escalante Grand Staircase with the jeep tomorrow.
(edit, we screwed up, the sketchy road is not the one to Escalante. We could have done that no problem, but the back and forth to Ruby’s RV Park would have added around 5+ hours of extra driving so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing)
June 15 - Fathers Day. Moved off grid campsites in the morning to one we found with an incredible view.
Road trip all around The Grand Staircase today, very cool, took lots of pictures. Gave the Jeep its first real off road test up onto a mesa plateau at around
7000 feet. Then went back near camp, and near froze my cahones off swimming in a high mountain reservoir I found this morning a few miles from our campsite.
Having some Starlink internet issues this evening because of all the smoke from a semi-nearby forest fire, nearby enough to be a little concerned about. Currently about 2000 acres are burning with -0- % containment. They say the odds are low of it coming this way because of two previous fires that cleared all the fuel in between us and the fire. Hope they’re right.
(Edit – it’s a month later and that fire consumed 24,000 acres – also a guy camping in the same off grid place we were got bit by a rogue black bear)
June 16 - Got up real early and shifted the RV away from the trees to try and get internet, still nothing. Drove to a parking lot by Ruby’s RV Park in Bryce Canyon city, where we’re checking in at noon. City is a funny word for a one street town 90% owned by one guy. Still no internet. We finally figured it out, and of course the internet issues were our fault, you need to occasionally use the phone to find satellites. We didn’t know that. Got back online in the nick of time so Ann could get her sh## together and do her weekly 9 A:M call.
Standard procedure is for her to throw me out of the RV for that stretch of time, seems my merely breathing is an annoyance to her. Since I had time to kill I decided to test out the Jeep.
Went about 10 miles out of town and took a left out into the high prairie. Followed old hunting trails way out. Ran into some pronghorn antelope who looked at me like WTF are you doing out here?
Had to follow some power lines to find my way back to a road. Some of the trail was seriously sketchy, even had to climb some rocks, but the jeep handled it well.
All of this is before 11 in the morning
Checked into Ruby’s RV camp at noon and took the Jeep to Bryce. WOW! It’s a 18 mile climb to the top, at Rainbow Point at over 9000 feet. The view is spectacular. You can see the Escalante Grand Staircase in the distance.
The first stop up the mesa was the “must do stop” Sunset Point and Wall St, where I hiked 1/3 of the way down a mile and a half trail to get better photos of the Hoodoo’s, which were really cool. Hiking there at 8000 feet was a bit rough.
The binocular trick worked well. “When you’re gasping for air, pull out your binoculars and look around. People will think you’re cool, just checking out the view, not actually about to pass out from lack of oxygen”
The fire outside the park is still raging. We got pictures of it as it crested the mountain. I won’t be surprised if we get evacuated tomorrow
Back to the RV for hot showers, a nice dinner, and drinks around the Solo Stove
June 17 – Haven’t been evacuated but the smoke in the sky is really heavy. Did nothing cool today at all. Spent the day in the campground doing laundry, cleaning, fixing small things, kicking back resting. From what I’ve been hearing I’m going to need it for tomorrow’s death ride to Capital Reef National Park. Taking “scenic” Rt 12, part of which is a red line road in the Motor Carriers book (map book that tells truckers what roads are safe to drive, and which aren’t, red lines are bad) Especially looking forward to the stretch of narrow road with 1000’ sheer drops on both sides and no guardrails.
June 18 - Yup I was right to be worried about Rt 12, long climbs, steep drops, one at 14% which is the kind of drop that sets your brakes on fire if it’s long enough, fortunately this one was only a mile.
The part of the drive that has the 1000’ drops on both sides of the road and no guardrails was legit and up around 8500 feet altitude. I’ll bet the view was spectacular but I saw nothing but the 30 feet of road right in front of me. You couldn’t have jammed a pin up my butt with a jackhammer the whole way across.
Stopped to rest the Adventure Rig a few times, at high altitudes the RPMs seem to run 500 to 1000 more to go the same speeds. I suspect it’s due to the lower oxygen content in the air? Have to remember that anytime a drive is classified as “scenic”, stay the hell off it!! FWIW. Rt 12 is considered the most scenic drive in the country. We’re lucky the Adventure Rig survived it. Did get some great photos at our resting stops.
We stopped at Lower Bowns in Dixie National Forest (which is gargantuan) Lower Bowns is a high altitude reservoir about 15 miles before reaching Capital Reef park, and about 6000+ feet high. Drove a pretty rough trail back to the dispersed camping area, the 4x4 has been coming in handy. A couple came by on one of those off road side by sides to warn us that they just had just seen a bear a little way up the trail.
A heavily armed Andrea with the 44 mag, Kabar knife, and bear spray canister was ready.
The area is labeled a “dark sky” area so we stayed up with a fire until 10:30 to see the stars. They were amazing! The cows that came wandering by in the pitch dark was a bit creepy (100s of square miles of BLM lands are “free range” friggen cows and cow sh#t are everywhere)
June 19 - Took the jeep through Capital Reef. Very different from Bryce. In Bryce we were on top of the mountains, in Capital Reef we were down in a narrow valley cut by a stream. Saw ancient petroglyphs that looked like aliens, very strange.
Back up at altitude on the mountain at our campsite, 20 degrees cooler up here, and a little hard to catch your breath at times.
Had a nice dinner then took the jeep and
climbed all the way down the steep trail 4 miles to the bottom of the mountain to the reservoir. Shared the beach with a herd of cows.
Got too windy (it NEVER friggen stops blowing out here!!!) so went back up to camp. Met Alan and Wendy from Price Utah, right by Moab, who came by to check out the Adventure Rig. Allen has the Youtube channel “The Trail Explorer” which focuses on Moab, so we got a lot of great tips on which trails to take the jeep on. Also, have to remember to listen to the band Hardy. They were shocked we had never heard of them.
Stars were incredible again, satellites all over. Went to bed around 10:45, set the alarm for midnight to see the Milky Way rise. Got up and saw it but still pretty faint. Too far from the new moon to be Nantucket like visible, another week and it should be great.
June 20 - Driving day to Moab. Took “scenic” Rt 12 down the mountain. As I’ve mentioned before, if the word scenic is used to describe the road, be prepared to have the living SH-- scared out of you. The road had multiple white knuckled 8 and 10 degree drops all strung together. Close to 15 miles of steep down, but we had no other option to get off the mountain. We had driven it in the jeep the day before, going to Capital Reef, so we knew enough not to try towing the jeep down those steeps, Ann followed. A little more than halfway down I started smelling my brakes burning, never a good thing. Managed to get it to the bottom, not on fire, and figured the worst part was over. I was very, very wrong. For the entire four hour drive across the desert, the wind was crazy, easily a steady 30+ with gusts way higher, trying to push us off the road or into oncoming traffic. So windy we couldn’t safely hook up the jeep, Ann had to drive separate. This thing is already like trying to drive a sailboat down the highway, even worse towing the jeep.
Drove though miles long orange colored dust storms. The memory both Ann and I are going to carry most from the western leg of this trip is really dry, really windy, and really dusty, lots of red dirt and dust. We’ve reached the point where we’re really missing green stuff, grass, trees that aren’t pines, ponds, streams… There’s just no water here, dry as a bone, and everything is covered in fine powder like dust. The indians and then the early settlers must have been filthy people.
Realized I definitely need to drink more water, this really dry air is affecting more than my skin. Took two full days but finally dropped a cinder block at a really nice little gas station, convenience / souvenir store carved into a giant stone out on highway whatever, just outside a three street town no one knows the name of, in the middle of effin nowhere.
Never heard a commode make a sound like that before. Hope I didn’t damage the plumbing, it could go either way. Felt so bad for the person in the store who’s going to have to unplug it that I bought an overpriced crappy souvenir on the way out.
Stopped at Goblin Valley State Park halfway on the way to Moab. Very very cool! If you’re ever out this way it’s a must stop! The wind driving the dust was brutal (see the photos and video). I can see how the goblins were carved by the wind, I lost a few layers of skin myself.
Got to Moab, very neat town, bigger than I expected. Set up at our “Glamping” destination. I have to reiterate, if they advertise glamping, expect to be shoehorned into an at best meh rv park, like sardines. Guess I shouldn’t complain too much, its over 100 degrees and we’re plugged in with AC. Think I’ll drink some water right now.
Went out for dinner in town and checked out the shops. Same stuff, in the same stores, just with different park names.
Bed early, we have an early reservation for Arches National Park tomorrow. The place gets so busy you need a reserved time so that the parking lots don’t overflow. After that I’m going to attempt get Ann to pee herself on some of the MOAB trails.
June 21 - Up early for Arches National Park. Drove straight to the end to Devils Garden and the Landscape Arch. Hiked a mile out and then back. Wind and sandblasting dust through some of the narrow cuts was crazy.
Worth it, the arch was long and thin and probably won’t be around for much longer. Made all the stops on the way out, took a lot of pictures.
Back to town, lunch at the food truck court, best gyro and falafel I’ve had since Athens.
Dropped the leftovers off at the Adventure Rig and headed off to Onion Creek Trail. Had to do a 20 mile long drive in the canyon cut by the Colorado River to get to the trailhead. The scenery was awesome, epic cliffs on both sides.
The Trail was fun and a bit scary at times. The lower parts were easy, basically a dirt road. but as it climbed it got pretty sketchy.
It wound it’s way up a series of cliff faces, no more than 10 feet wide at times with a cliff on one side and a long drop on the other, with very rocky areas and hairpin turns. The heights would have killed Ma. Andrea dealt with it like a trooper, even drove a little herself.
Back to the Rig for dinner and an early night, we’re both whooped. Driving day to Flaming Gorge tomorrow.
June 22 - Last day of the second third of the trip. Driving day to Flaming Gorge. Have to be careful using the RV app. It wanted to send us a way that was mostly red line in the Motor Carriers map book, meaning that it’s unsafe for trucks (like it did to us going from Flagstaff Az to Sedona Az - 89a which was a nightmare). We changed to the safe route, which was only 20 minutes longer, then followed the apps directions. Damned thing changed it back without us knowing, cost us over an hour and a half of extra driving.
After more hours of red dirt desert, mountains, mesas, and dust (we’re pretty much done with the red dirt stuff) we climbed into the mountains and went through a very beautiful mountain valley loaded with trucks carrying crude oil. Lots of pumps 2 and 3 at a time spread along the valley floor. I never knew there was oil in Utah. Seems the Ute Indian tribe does, they have their game seriously together. By far the
nicest, richest, reservation we’ve driven through, not even close. Rather than a casino they have their own oil company. All the major stores and car dealerships are there, you’d think it was Rt 9 in Manalapan.
Got to the Gorge and set up way off grid all by ourselves on a finger of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir out on Antelope Flats. I think we’re going to spend a few days here, it’s too perfect to leave. Getting closer to the new moon on Wednesday and the stars are spectacular. Too bad it’s going down to the 30’s tonight. We’ll save the fire and stargazing for tomorrow when it’s a little warmer.
Just us and a few Pronghorn Antelope, one mother with a fawn.
We’re still in Utah but the other side of that ridge is Wyoming
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PART 3 of 4
June 23 - First day of the last third of the trip. Still off grid at Flaming Gorge. Today was a take the jeep and explore day while Andrea did some work in the Adventure Rig. My goal was to find some good fishing spots and a tackle shop. Massive fail. I went the wrong direction, into Wyoming. There is one road with a dozen dirt trails running off it. No people, no stores, no houses, nothing, anywhere. I drove the road and the trails for three hours. It was fun, the scenery was epic, some of the trails got a bit exciting. I saw water way in the distance a few times, but almost never saw anything that resembled human habitation. There was one ranch with a house on the main road. That person lives a very lonely existance.
Back to the Rig for dinner. Had a bad noise coming from the RV water pump. Turned out to be a hard line vibrating against the wood panel, easy fix, wrapped it in a hand towel.
After dinner did some fly fishing right here at the RV. Small spinners were emerging, too small for me to copy. I momentarily hooked two on a way too big fly, but only for a second.
As it got darker the big fat Sulphers with inch nd a half long wings started emerging. I had a good fly for that. I was surrounded by more bats than I’ve ever seen in one place, some flying within inches of my face. Good thing Ann was watching TV in the Rig, the screaming would have scared every antelope and deer for miles. The fish started popping like crazy. It didn’t last long but while it did I managed to catch one Kokanee Salmon, a few medium size rainbows and dropped a big rainbow as I was trying to grab it to unhook it (next trip I’ll remember a net). Have to work on my dry fly hookset, I missed way too many. (edit, spoke to Digger the next day, he knows his fly fishing – turns out I was setting the hook far too early)
Before bed I took in the dead stick rod that had been out with a crayfish tail for a few hours, had a big carp on it.
As I’m writing this the free range cows on the other side of this finger of water, and which are EVERYWHERE, along with their poo, on BLM lands out here, are mooing their heads off about something. Hope it’s not a bear.
On the topic of bears, once again we’ve been just two or three days ahead of the problems, tornadoes in Tenn, giant hail in Texas, straight line winds in NM, and yesterday a guy got chewed up by an aggressive bear at Bryce in the forest we disperse camped in three days ago.
July 24 - Hit the Green river below the Flaming Gorge dam at a spot about 5 miles down called Little Hole. Ann stayed at the RV, read her book, fishing’s not her thing. I caught
a few rainbow and browns on the fly rod. Wind kicked up big, had to walk back to the car to get spinning gear. Fish were all over a little Yozuri minnow. Back to the RV for dinner. Too windy to fish. The effin wind NEVER STOPS out here.
June 25 - Back to Little Hole. Picked up a few decent size rainbows and browns on the fly rod then the @&$* wind started again. Ran into the guy I talked to yesterday, who’s from Ct and now lives here and works with the state stocking the river. Fished a hole just below where he stocked and bailed on the fish, most on a spinner, too windy to fly fish. Quit at 40 fish in just under 4 hours, about 30 of them stockies from the one hole.
New moon tonight, been waiting for this, true dark sky area!
Ended up being a bit disappointing, a million stars but the Milky Way was still just a faint hazy band. Out west doesn’t hold a candle to Nantucket so far a star gazing is concerned
June 26 - Driving day to Cody with a stop at Thermopolis. Bit sketchy climbing out of the Flaming Gorge canyon but a nice ride the rest of the way.
Shockingly, no wind, the whole way. Most of the drive was up in the high Rocky Mountain plateau (I never knew anything like this even existed) so for it not to be howling wind was a blessing and a nice surprise.
Stopped at Thermopolis at the Hot Springs Hotel and Spa for drinks. Place was very cool, every huntable animal you can think of is nailed to the wall or floor. Ann wasn’t too keen on it. I can understand why she wouldn’t be, 100 dead animals staring at you from every corner of the room might be a bit disconcerting.
Drove through the Wind River canyon to get to Thermopolis. As we drove up to the mountains from the Utah side we wondered how we were going to get through them, it looked imposing and a bit worrisome, but the river created a cut going right through the mountains with a nice level road alongside of it. It was like an enjoyable 89a. The drive turned out to be easy and beautiful. If you’re a hardcore fly guy this looks like a spectacular place to fish.
Got to Cody, and discovered that there’s no room for RV parking at the Elks Lodge. Ended up at Walmart, along with 30+ other RVs. I’m not a big fan of overnighting at Walmarts, they can be a bit sketchy but this looks like it’s going to be fine. When you see million dollar RV’s in the lot, you know there’s nothing to worry about.
June 27 - Busy day. Ann hung out at the RV, I went to the Cody Buffalo Bill Museum, another must do thing for anyone who heads out this way. The gun museum part was amazing as was the Plains Indian section. Spent five and a half hours there (Ann would have HATED it). An hour of it was spent BSing with the guy who was doing the cowboy camp cooking presentation at an original chuck wagon out front. Best Dutch oven beans, biscuits, and coffee I’ve ever had and I’ve been meaning to learn how to cook in one of these things (Edit – I bought one and a week later proceeded to turn a pot of Texas Red chili into a black cinder). He was also a big black powder guy, won a few competitions, and when he was young was a real, on the range cowboy, so we had a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.
I created a bit of havoc in the museum by asking about the Buffalo Bill house at Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch. No one knew anything about it. They called in their lead historian, turned out to be Paul Andrew Hutton, who I’ve seen on TV a million times. He was stumped as well. Turned out the house was part of a super high end rental development, called “The Reservation” created by Nathan “Nate” Salsbury, who was Buffalo Bills business manager. The development was partially financed by Bill, who supposedly stayed there in the house.
Went back to the Adventure Rig and picked up Ann. Went to the “famous” Irma hotel, bar, restaurant and hit the prime rib buffet for dinner. The prime rib was butter tender as were the buffalo short ribs. They lost a lot of $$ on me this evening. I’m probably going to have the meat sweats tonight.
The huge carved wood bar, which was a gift to Buffalo Bill from a king in Europe (can’t remember which one), is magnificent.
Took a walk in town, checked out the shops, ended up in the Elks lodge for a beer and some ghost stories, the lodge supposedly is haunted. Between the meat sweats and the creepy arse stories I’m not expecting to sleep too well tonight.
Tomorrow off to Yellowstone.
June 28 - Busy day! Before we left Cody for Yellowstone I had a really interesting conversation with a guy from Switzerland who was there in two 4x4 Ram vans he had converted to RVs and shipped over into Georgia. He’s driven with his wife and young son across Russia and Mongolia for 600 miles without seeing a single human being. That’s hard-core offgridding!
Drove into Yellowstones East entrance on Rt 14 along the Shashone River. Incredible! A trout fisherman’s dream.
Stopped at “Last Chance Gas” ran into a guy from Bayonne – Jersey people are everywhere.
Next to the gas station is a weird looking house/structure. The story is that the guy who built it back in the 1970s was obsessive compulsive and just kept adding to it – until the day he fell off and broke his neck
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Got to Fishing Bridge RV park in Yellowstone, set up, had a quick lunch and went out exploring with the jeep. Where did this giant lake in the middle of the park come from? I never knew it existed.
Took the Jeep down to the South entrance to Grand Tetons National Park, very majestic.
Went back to Yellowstone and drove the entire lower loop taking in Old Faithfull, Gibbons Falls, North Geyser Basin, and all kinds of elk and bison between Norris and Canyon.
Back to the Adventure Rig around 9 PM, this is considered early around here since it doesn’t get fully dark until after 10:30. We were completely exhausted. But not tired enough not to polish off a bottle of champagne and a few beers.
Just found out that once again we were only a few days ahead of another possible disaster.
Boulders narrowly miss swimmers at popular Utah waterfall https://share.google/OGMN99S0NwMWjfpWF
June 29 - Second day in Yellowstone. Did the upper loop of the “8” today. Started out seeing a black bear and a brown black bear on the other side of the Yellowstone River just a few miles from the campground. Few more miles down were the bubbling mud pots and steam pools. There was a huge Bison next to one of them, laying there, kicking back chewing his cud. Didn’t care at all that there were a hundred people walking by on a boardwalk 10 yards away taking pictures. It was pretty warm out so I figure he was there because the sulfur steam kept the mosquitoes away, which are horrible here, as bad as Sandy Hook.
Next was the Hayden Valley, a great overlook over a huge grass plain, the popular spot to see the bigger animals of the park. Yesterday some of the people with higher power optics saw a pack of wolves out by the tree line. Today we saw bison and I got a glimpse of a Grizzly as we drove through. On the way back a few hours later we got a good view of him lounging in the mud next to the stream. Unfortunately he was too far for our cell phone cameras. We could only see it with binoculars and a nice guys spotting lens.
Next was the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and an amazing and very powerful waterfall.
Kept on the upper loop to Tower Falls then the Tower Roosevelt intersection where we stopped for ice cream and a coffee. Each of the six main intersections have services, general store, restaurant, gas… Continued on to Mammoth Springs, which is more of a town, it’s where all the park employees live, then down to Sheepeater Cliff which is a basalt cliff that looks like a miniature version of The Giants Causeway in Ireland (AKA the cover of Zepplins Houses of the Holy). A very underutilized spot, only a few people there and the cleanest bathroom in the park according to the ranger who swung in to use it. Good thing cause Ann was near to exploding. I climbed the base of the cliff, a huge pile of big hexagon shaped stones, for some photos.
BSed with a ranger for a while (who did not see me climbing the rocks, doubt he would have liked that). The ranger was a young guy who turned out to be from East Windsor right down the road from our first condo. He filled us in on what stops to make on the final part of the way around, Thunder Mountain and Geyser Flats, then gave us a gold Jr Ranger badge/sticker he says he only gives to certain people. It’s proudly stuck on the Adventure Rig by the door.
We stopped at Thunder Mountain, no idea why it has that name, just a white and yellow smelly slope, from the sulphur, with a few very small steam vents. Stopped at Obsidian Cliff, scored a nice chunk that had fallen off and was lying next to the road. Most of it is going to become flints for my flintlock rifle, but a big part will go into our backyard rock garden where we have rocks we’ve brought home from all our travels.
Tried to go to Geyser Flats but it was a zoo so skipped it and went back to the the Rig. We detoured through the Virginia Cascade Trail, a narrow one way road with a steep very very long straight down drop on the passenger’s side (I could hear my height affected mothers screeching in my head) into a very narrow canyon cut by a beautiful little tiny trout stream. Above the tall narrow waterfall it was pretty level with quite a few guys trying to catch Itty bitty fish.
We’ve covered a huge amount of the park in just two days, nine hours out and about yesterday and seven hours today, no idea the total miles involved. Tomorrow is going to be a laid back day, staying in the general area of the campground and doing some laundry.
Went to bed at 11 with wolves howling in the dark. The sky was amazing, but between being freaked out by the wolves, and worried that there could be a bear 50 feet away and I wouldn’t see it because it was so dark, I only took a quick look. Too bad we can’t have fires here; sitting around a fire under this sky would be great.
June 30 - Kind of a kick back day, not easy to do that after all the go, go, go days we’ve just had. Did a ton of laundry, had a nice lunch, then headed out around 3 P:M. Had to stay relatively close because of a five car pile up on the southern loop and that grizzly we saw yesterday in the Hayden Valley causing total chaos, which blocked the north route. So we went down to Lake Village, probably the most underutilized area in the park, and very beautiful. We’re going back there tomorrow to do the beach on the lake thing.
After checking out Lake Village we went back towards the East Gate.
We had stopped into the Visitor Center at Lake Village where we were warned about the traffic issues.
The ranger said we should go to Sylvan Lake and Sylvan Pass where we might see a mother moose with calves and bighorn sheep. Double fail on both of those but we did see a big grizzly pretty up close, 75 yards or so, right by Steamboat Point at Pelican Bay. Ann got a really good photo.
Back to the the Adventure Rig for dinner. Hung out with a guy from Memphis who grew up in Livingston NJ. Did some damage to the bottle of Willett
July 1 - Went towards the East Gate to Sylvan Lake thinking we’d swim and fish. When we got there a momma moose and her two mooselets were on the other side of the bank.
Clouds rolled in and it never got warm enough to swim. Cold up here when the sun’s not out.
Today was a critter day, saw up close large herds of bison with calves, elk, sandhill cranes, otter, and a golden eagle flying in front of a huge rainbow.
Back to the Rig to prep for tomorrow. Oil change, grease the front end and get the water pump looked at, then off to the Bighorn Battlefield to see where Custer got himself pincushioned.
July 2 - Got up and out early, got fresh oil and grease into the Adventure Rig. The water pump banging noise is going to have to wait until we get home. The RV pros couldn’t find the #&÷*! thing either. Have to take the wall apart, not doing that out here. We still have water, the only issue is an annoying noise when the water from the holding tank is running, so it can wait.
Finished up with that and left Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone around 10:30 a:m. Drove the extra hour to go out the Mammoth Springs entrance up rt 89 to 90 rather than the hour faster route of rt 14, which is another “scenic” route through the Bighorn Range. I’ve my fill of “scenic” death routes.
Got to the Custer battlefield at 5:12, it was CLOSED!!. WTH !
Took Rt 212 which runs along the area of the battlefield, gave us a good idea of what the terrain was like (you could hide 5,000 pissed of Indians really easily) The rod ran a long Long LONG way through vast distances of low hills and grass mostly through Montana, a lot of it through the Crow Nation Reservation. The Crow do not have their game nearly as together as the Ute did back in Utah. Lots of shanty single wide and shacks spread over a long distance with a few nice little ranches dispersed throughout.
Did see a herd of wild horses and a few herds of antelope, other than that… cows, lots of cows.
Got about 45 minutes from Devils Tower around 8 pm. Wind was howling and there were huge thunderheads in the direction we still had to go. We decided to chicken out and boondocked in a little convenience store truck stop with good people and a great grill in Alzada, Montana. Slept tucked in out of the wind and incredibly close lightning in a row of tractor trailers. Safe as in yer mommas arms.
July 3 - Woke up, the trailers on either side are gone and the sun is shining. Went into the store for breakfast sandwiches and got talking to the girl behind the counter.
There are 17 people in this town of 40 square miles, that’s the size of Middlesex county at home with over a million people, and it turns out she’s from Bayside Queens. During covid she started exploring the country in her car. During the worst snowstorm in 20 years she went off the road into a ditch here in Alzada Mt and never left.
The main industry here, besides cows, is mining. Not mining for copper or gold, but mining for cat litter, seriously (I never knew it was mined, thought it was made)
Drove to Devils Tower, we’re at the KOA right at the base. People in the Airstream next to us are from the other side of the woods next to our neighborhood. Small world.
Took it easy. Watched Jerimiah Johnson, which was filmed in the national parks in Utah, a lot of it in Zion. In bed at 9:30.
July 4 - Ann tossed me out, once again the mere fact that I was breathing was an annoyance. She did have some work to do and I do have the occasional issue with shutting up. I went into town, Hulett Wy, and went to an antiques shop/ museum. Turns out the guy who owns it, and about half of the town (about 4 buildings) is from Sussex NJ. After that hit Capt Rons Rodeo bar for a few beers. A dark, stinky bar with a pool table in the back and a few old timer locals nursing beers. Definitely my kind of place. Back to the Adventure Rig for lunch then to Devils Tower to reconnoiter. Did the main road then went off on the dirt trails where there were amazing views.
Saw the frames of prayer lodges built by the various tribes that consider this place holy. When they come to do their thing they cover the frames with buffalo skins. The trees all around the Tower are adorned with strips of colored prayer cloths knotted onto them to carry the prayers to heaven.
Crazy people climb Devils Tower every day, weather permitting. I was talking to two guys who had just finished the climb and who pointed out two of their friends who were still up there
Back again to the RV where we hung out, watched TV, had dinner and watched the Macy’s NY Fireworks on TV.
Watched the fireworks here which were actually pretty good although not what we expected, not around the Tower at all.
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PART 4 of 4
July 5th - Kickback, do nothing, relax day. Ann went into town souvenir shopping, I watched the Yankees suck it against the Mets. Boone has to be near getting fired! Later took Ann through the park, she loved the “Oh my God, they’re so cute!!” prairie dogs.
I do have to admit, they are cute little critters. Go check out Poppy the Prairie Dog on Youtube.
Went to the biker bar at the top of the hill for dinner. Motorcycles are huge out here, everyone seems to ride. Great kids working the place, food was crap. After dinner everyone went out in the parking lot to see if the storm back by the Tower was going to form a tornado. The locals were pretty nervous; one came out of a very similar cloud the year before and did some damage.
When we got back to the Adventure Rig everything outside, chairs, tables… had been blown into a pile.
Hung out and watched the 4 hour long extended version of Dances with Wolves. We’re going to be where it was filmed tomorrow so it made sense.
July 6 - Where do I start? Made up for the lack of doing cool stuff yesterday in a big way.
Drove though some of where Dances With Wolves was filmed, Spearfish SD - Kicking Bird and Ten Bears would be sick if they saw the tourist trap it’s become.
Went to Deadwood, had a beer in the bar where Wild Bill Hickok was shot. The bar room downstairs is “semi” preserved in its original form. It’s all in the right spots but not the original furniture.
Went to the Maverik Casino for early dinner. On the way out stuffed a bill into a slot machine, couldn’t figure out why we had no credits, it had spit the bill back out, or never took it. Took that as a sign and got the hell out of there.
Next we hit Sturgis. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to ever go there outside of Bike Week, which I hear is insane.
From there it was off to Mount Rushmore. We were told not to bother paying to get in, you can see it just as well from outside the park, but after the looong very steep drive up we decided it was worth the measly $10 parking fee just to give the Rig a good rest. Glad we did. It’s a far better experience up close, and the museum is really interesting.
Went offgrid, way offgrid, in the Black Hills for the night. We were in the process of trying to squeeze the Rig into a little spot that took forever to find. While we were blocking the trail, another car came by, one of two cars that passed over the entire night. The woman came out to chat with Ann. Her family owns the gold claim here and she was looking for the tree that marked her mother’s grave. It’s pretty creepy down in this narrow canyon, and there’s a huge old tree right next to the camper.
Nothing freaky better happen tonight. Weather is rolling in and the view from the front bed is really earie
July 7 - Other than a third night in a row of massive thunder and lightning, nothing freaky happened last night. No strange woman’s mothers ghost. The tree next to the Adventure Rig must have been a different tree.
Drove the three miles from camp to Crazy Horse, where they still haven’t gotten very far carving the mountain, pretty much just the head and some of an outstretched arm and a hand. I’m glad it was only 2 miles away or it would have been very disappointing.
After Crazy Horse we headed off to Wall SD where we set up camp near the edge of a cliff known as “The Wall” at the edge of the Badlands in Buffalo Gap National Forest.
Some other campers stopped by, the Rig seems to attract people. Hung out and had drinks with a 30 year old IT guy fron NC who’s been on the road for 4 years, and a couple near our age from St Louis - many drinks. Lot of fun with an amazing view. 2d photos do not give this place justice !
!(https://njgunforums.net/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c48679211d6d7383cfa21def6fe0ebd92abb12f8.jpeg “Camping on “The Wall””)
July 8 - I went out and scouted while Ann did a few hours work in the camper. Went through Badlands. On the other side found an awesome taco truck, Katie’s Kantina and had the best taco of the trip
A few miles past the truck is “The Baja” a famous off-roading site where I actually scared myself a few times.
Back to the Adventure Rig, picked up Ann and went to Wall Drug, one of the world’s most epic tourist traps, for an $18 roast beef sammich with mashed potatoes, all smothered in gravy, and TOTALLY worth it. The cake donut was pretty good too.
After that we went throught the Badlands National Park which is amazing, impossible to explain, pictures can’t even do it justice. We went all the way out the far side of the park to the taco truck so Ann could have one, and then to The Baja for another round of offroading.
On the way back through the park to the Adventure Rig, using the hidden, you don’t have to pay to get into the park, 7 mile long, 55 mph, dirt road between massive prairie dog towns, I just missed running over a rattlesnake. Backed up, saw that he was OK and used one of my aluminum walking sticks to get his dumb arse out of the middle of the road and back into the grass. Nasty bastage took a good lunge at me but I blocked him with my stick. Yup, now I know what a rattlesnake looks like coming at you, with mouth open, and fangs out. I’d rather not see it again. Shame Andrea screwed up the video, it pause instead of play.
Rattlesnake at badlands National Park
Back to the RV. Cocktails on the edge of the cliff where there was a really good cool breeze, listened to some song dogs in the distance under an almost full moon, then bed.
July 9 - Driving day, heading across central South Dakota on Rt 14.
We started on Rt 90 and stopped at 1880 Town near Midland SD. This guy bought a ghost town and refurbished it as a museum. I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out to be very cool.
Next we went up Rt 83 through the Fort Pierre National Grasslands to Pierre SD, the state capital. Got to see what the actual prairie looks like, there’s not much left, its all cows and crops now. A lot of Dances With Wolves was filmed there. The 1880s town had a bunch of the movie props.
In Pierre we got on Rt 14, the next stop was for my annoying little sisters. The town of De Smet SD where we took pictures of the Laura Ingles house.
This is the last one the parents lived in, after the house on the prairie, and they are buried in the cemetery down the road.
Kept driving trying to gain as many miles as possible. On the way passed a small lake, with Pelicans swimming around! WTF?? Pelicans in the middle of nowhere? (and that’s putting it very mildly)
We ended up at a Walmart parking lot in Brookings SD, the Elks Lodge didn’t have a parking lot so we had to make due. We’ll be in Minnesota tomorrow.
Our overwhelming memories of South Dakota are going to be flies, clouds of flies. We feel really bad for all the cows and horses here, and there are a lot of them. Virtually every single one is in a constant state of losing its mind with the biting flies.
July 10 - Power driving day, the east end of South Dakota, all of Minnesota, and a big chunk of Wisconsin. We made it all the way to Lake Superior, I was whooped.
Minnesota is a beautiful place, and possibly the cleanest, most organized borderline OCD place I’ve ever seen. Not a speck of garbage anywhere, the roads are perfect, even the poorer homes on the edge of the highway are clean, painted, and perfect, with manicured lawns and flowers, nothing like the rusty, dilapidated trash dump single wides you see in a most of the rest of the country. If there are cars and trailers on the property they’re perfectly lined up and spaced. John, Nanny, and Terri were meant to live there.
So we went from open prairies with thousands of cows and hay being grown everywhere in SD, to huge fields of corn as far as you can see in southern Min, to small farms, lots of small lakes (with more pelicans! WTEFF??) and even some swampy lowlands in central and northern Min, to deep dark hilly woods in Wisconsin. Nice to see dark damp woods again, they don’t exist out west.
Got to our campground near the Apostle Islands in Bayfield Wi. just before dark. Set up and had a fire. Only the second one in a fire ring of the whole trip. Great to be away from the high fire hazard areas, although coming back to the humidity might take some getting used to.
July 11 - Went to the beach. A beautiful red sand beach and crystal clear water, just a little chilly. Nothing like the ocean beach, here it felt like I just took a shower getting out, not like at the ocean where you feel like you’ve got a sticky crust covering you.
Went and checked out the town on the way back to the RV. Very nice, very quiant, like a cross between New Hope and Keyport.
Back to the Adventure Rig for dinner and another fire.
July 12 - Bought local fish fillets, whitefish, something I’ve never seen before, to do up for lunch back at the RV. Pan fried they were delicious, a lot like crappie.
Went into town with Ann, walked around, people watched. Lots of weird artsy types here in Bayfield Wi. Went to a local winery/cider brewery. We each had a flight, Ann. had wines that were pretty good, me ciders that all had a distinct, and quite strong back flavor of toilet bowl cleanser, not so good.
The local liquor stores all sell 10mg THC infused lemonades, iced teas, and seltzers. My tooth that’s been acting up a little for a few days isn’t bothering me at all anymore.
Rest of the evening is laundry, a fire then bed as we are up and out early heading to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
July 13 - Driving day. Heading towards Marquette Michigan on the Upper Penninsula. Stopped halfway and dispersed camped at Bond Falls West camping area in Ottawa National Forest. We were setting up in a decent spot when an older guy walked over and said he had the best site in the whole place, right on the lake, and was leaving if we wanted it. Of course we jumped on that! Had we known he was incapable of moving and talking at the same time, and he NEVER shut up, and it would take THREE hours to pack his shit up, we might have stayed put. Had he taken a shower in the previous week it wouldn’t have been so bad.
In the end it was worth it, the spot was beautiful and secluded with a perfect swimming and fishing area.
July 14 - We stayed put for most of the day, too nice and secluded a spot to leave. Went swimming, fished a little, and made my first attempt at cooking over coals with a cast iron Dutch oven. I learned how to burn a pot of chili into a black cinder block. We packed up a little after 3 and heading over to our next stop, the town park and campground in Marquette Mi, on the shore of Superior. What a great place! All kinds of access to the big lake and the campground is right on on a smaller, but still pretty huge lake. Tons of hiking and biking trails, even BMX trails, boat launches, free beaches, and plenty of free parking at all of them!! The town is putting up a stage at the park for the Hiawatha Music Festival that’s happening here this weekend, too bad we’ll be a few hundred miles away by then.
Set up camp, had dinner, then went exploring. Found two amazing spots to fish in the morning.
No fire tonight, we’re whooped, straight to bed at dark (which isn’t until 10:30)
July 15 - Ann had a call at 11 so she threw me out again. I went fishing. One of the spots we had scouted yesterday was as perfect a spot as you could ask for. It was right at the base of a small dam with a single hydroelectric generator in it. Got all kinds of bent out of shape when nothing bit, not on lures, worms, even live soft shell crayfish, aka fish candy. Saw nothing, not even a minnow, not one! Made absolutely no sense at all.
Had a BS session with the park ranger, he says he’s never seen a single fish be caught out of there. He also told me the name of the river. Its The Dead River! LOL! I can see how it got its name.
Went down to a half mile long jetty going way out to a lighthouse on Lake Superior. Walked halfway to the end and saw nothing alive there either, not even a sunnie or a minnow, nothing!
I did get to watch iron ore being loaded from railroad cars onto a huge freighter. The “Edmond Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot kept running through my head. There was a French speaking guy from Ontario there. He’s a longshoreman at home who unloads these freighters. He had come to see where they were loaded, where it began. Cool guy, learned a lot about the shipping business on the lakes. From one end to the other, and the whole way in between, it’s dangerous work.
Most surprising part of the day was the stop at Walmart to pick up supplies. I couldn’t find a few items so had to ask. Every employee, and there were a lot, mostly putting together curb pickup orders, spoke English! Even the girl at the checkout was a local kid. Almost all college students who go to Northern Michigan State which is right down the road, working their way through school. I haven’t seen anything like it in the past 20 years.
Tomorrow we leave for Pictured Rocks, which is supposed to be spectacular, and then our next campsite.
July 16 - Pictured Rocks was a bust. When we got there they were doing roadwork, road closed, and the only way around would have added three hours of driving. Not an option today, windy, cold, rainy, not a day for an extra long drive. Got to St Ignace and the Lake Shore RV Park, on Lake Michigan.
Some little schysters came around selling painted rocks and sticks for the firepit. Thank God they did ! Turns out I dropped my wallet somewhere along the drive. I have a Tile location device in it and whomever found it brought it all the way to Mackinaw City and dropped it off at the local police dept. We’re going there to go to Mackinaw Island tomorrow, so we’ll pick it up in the morning.
I’ll be buying a painted rock for $10 from the little strongarm bandits, they deserve it!
It’s getting dark earlier as we go south, almost ten and it’ll be dark in a few minutes.
July 17 - Had to cross the Straights Bridge with its $4 toll, to get to Mackinaw City to pick up my wallet at the police station. You can see the problem here…….
I managed to talk my way through the toll. The girl in the booth was very sweet and when I said I could pay it on the way back, said “Don’t worry about it”
The folks at the town hall/police station were really nice too. This is definitely not NJ!. The wallet was turned in to a cop out on patrol the evening before. A couple in an RV found it in the parking lot of the rest station we had stopped earlier. I remember taking my hoodie sweatshirt off before climbing back into the Rig, it must have fallen out of the front pocket. Lesson to all - DO NOT put important stuff in the pocket of a sweatshirt.
Scouted around a bit to see what there is to do here. The original plan was to take the ferry across to Mackinaw Island, a very quaint place with no motorized vehicles, just bicycles and horses. Unfortunately the weather was chilly damp and windy, so that kaboshed that.
Went back over the bridge to the Yooper (what locals call the Upper Penninsula. The lower is called the Thumb) and picked up Ann at the Adventure Rig. We crossed the bridge again heading back to town and I went to the same toll lane that I had talked my way through earlier.
The same girl was there and she wouldn’t take the money, just said “Don’t worry about it, pass it along”, which I will certainly do.
The first thing we did in town was to go to a shop recommended by the girls in the town hall and order pasties. They are like really big fat empanadas but baked instead of fried. Filled with ground beef, potatoes peas and rutabagas, and covered in gravy and a big scoop of sour cream, they were pretty awesome.
After lunch we went down to The Fort Mackinaw Park where Ann hung out on the beach reading her book and I explored the fort. It was a fully reconstructed fur trade era wood stockade with about a dozen buildings inside and reenactors explaining what went on in each building. There was also a fully operational archeological dig going on. It was very interesting and very well done.
After that we walked around in town. Basically one street with the same tourist t-shirt and chachkie stuff you find in every other tourist town. They did have a fish n chips place with a line of people waiting to get in. Figured that had to be worth a try. I got a bowl of lake whitefish chowder and some hushpuppies. Ann got ice cream from the place next door.
The fish soup was a mistake! We were on the bridge, which is incredibly long, by far the longest suspension bridge I’ve ever seen, when the internal bubbling reached the point of desperation. Just barely, seriously, just barely, made it to the rest station at the base of the bridge. Obviously stayed extremely close to the camper for the rest of the evening.
July 18 - Driving day. Headed down to Saginaw Mi, parked at a Cabellas and made a side trip in the jeep to Bay City on the shore of Lake Huron.
Went to the town “beach”, a term I’m using extremely loosely. Town “mud” fits better. We waded out a bit with the black mud squishing up between our toes, it was nasty.
Headed back to the Adventure Rig and had dinner at the Bob Evans that was right there in the parking lot. If you ever go, try the Cowboy Fries ! French fries smothered in sausage gravy topped with melted cheese. It should be served with a diffibulater.
Tomorrow we hit Ohio and visit the CMP and splash around in lake Erie. I’m looking forward to it.
July 19 - Got up early and made the drive to Port Clinton Ohio. Got to the campground early, place was cool and let us take our site. Ann parked it in the sun on her chair with her book while I went to the CMP store at Camp Perry. Turned out the the Nationals were going on and the whole place was hopping. Got to watch some rimfire and the tail end of the 200 high power. Found out that last week my clubs Junior team won it all again? That’s at least twice, if not more, in a row. Who’d ever think that a NJ shooting team would be the one to beat?
Got back to the Rig and did dinners for the next 2 nights. Had nothing better to do and now that’s one less thing to deal with tomorrow and the day after.
Campground had a band, another term I use loosely, playing up by the pool. Ann and I went up to swim and be moderately tortured. Could only handle so much of that and went back to the Rig, where the sound was at least slightly muffled.
Tried to have a fire bit it started drizzling, enough to end the fire but not quite enough to shut the damned “band” up.
July 20 - Went to the Ottawa County fair. A real country fair with critter judging of every kind of farm animal, some HUGE draft horses, pig racing, lots of 4H stuff, even a make your own Jesus t-shirt booth. Had my first corn dog. It was awesome, can’t believe I’ve never had one before. The best part of the fair was the greased pig competition. It was in a fenced 40x40(ish), one foot deep, sloppy wet mud pit. There were 10 groups of kids from age 12 down. They would oil up four small, but not too small, pigs then have the kids dip their arms into a bucket of mineral oil up to their elbows. The MC would have the kids lie in the mud and roll from one side to the other, then stand them back up and give the “3, 2, 1 GO!” and total mud covered chaos would ensue. Would definitely have given Nanny a stroke.
If a kid caught a pig they got $50 or got to keep the pig. I think most of the kids took the pigs.
On the way back we stopped to check out Lake Erie and a cool little light house.
Dinner back at the Rig, and a fire to finish off the stuff that got rained out in the firepit from the the night before.
Out early tomorrow heading to the last planned stop of the trip, Canton and the Pro Football HOF.
July 21 - The last day. Nine hours from home. Drove the two hours to Canton and the NFL Hall of Fame. If you’re a football fan, this is a must do. We spent about two and a half hours going through it all. Very cool stuff.
After the hall we did a few hours of driving then did an hour dinner break. Plan was to drive until dark then do a rest station about 3 hours from home. That turned out to be a fail, the first three rest stops were closed and because of that the next two were mobbed, more trucks then I’ve ever seen in one place. Not just in the rest area, but for a mile before and after on the side of the highway.
We said screw it and powered through. Got home around 1 A:M. It was actually a strange feeling to sleep in my own bed again.
Good to be home!
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Epic!!! What an adventure! Utterly amazing!
I wish yall had let me know when you were in Texas. I could have directed you to some better scenery, and put you on a tour of the best BBQ joints in the state. We are north of Austin, in Georgetown. Lot of excellent BBQ and Tex-Mex to explore in central Texas.
I’m glad you weren’t here during the flood a few weeks back. Central Texas was NOT the place to be in an RV during that storm.
If you do make it back, I would highly recommend a tour through Big Bend. It’s stunning.
Glad you are safely back home. Time to rest up and plan the next big adventure!!
Stock is a nightmare, and white knuckles all the way. All the chassis upgrades fixed that on my rig. The rear track bar really helped with the side gusts, and keeps the box over the frame. My cruising speed is around 75 mph. I hate following trucks, or getting passed by one, so I go around them.
You missed us by a few weeks. We were in Yellowstone the first week of June for 5 days. Came in the South entrance, spent the day before at Colter Bay in the Tetons before going in, then came back out of Yellowstone that way and did two days back at Colter Bay, before heading South to Salt Lake City.
Reading your trip plans, you combined 4 of our separate trips into one big one. We’ve stopped at many of those points of interest that you listed.
The List :
Favorite places - nature
Off grid on a finger of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah/Wyoming border. Just us and a few pronghorn antelope and crystal clear water.
Sequoia National Forest. The trees are awe inspiring!
Camping on “The Wall” in Wall South Dakota. Off grid camping by the edge of a very high cliff at the edge of the Badlands
Yellowstone, seeing bison close up, elk, black bears, grizzly bears, momma moose and two mooselits, otters, eagles…….. and wolves howling at night (which totally freaked me out).
Favorite places – with people
Nashville – Kid Rocks bar in particular. We had a ball.
The Vicksburg Elks lodge – As Elks we can stay at the lodges that have space for an RV, some even have hookups. The people at the Vicksburg Lodge were like a family and they adopted me for an evening. I haven’t laughed that hard in years
Boating on the lower Colorado River with my cousin out of Bullhead City Nevada. Partying with her friends and swimming in the gorge between the two red cliffs was a ball.
Best roads –
Minnesota, by far. Not a pothole or rough road the entire way through. We saw one scrap of paper on the shoulder, once ! Perfect and spotless (we honestly believe the entire state has a touch of OCD)
Worst roads – TEXAS !! Rt 10 from Louisiana to San Antonio was horrible, beyond horrible !! Solid construction from one end to the other, hours of construction site driving. Concrete walls squeezing you into two narrow lanes with semi’s and at the same time lane shifts with extra rough road and potholes bouncing you all over. The fact that we got all the way through it without damaging the RV was a miracle! Off the highways on the side roads was even worse. I wish I took some photos of the embarrassment that the roads in Texas are.
Friendliest people – Mississippi and Tennessee
Least friendly people – Texas (actually the only state where the residents were consistently very aloof)
Most beautiful states –
Michigan. The Upper Peninsula, aka the “Yooper” is amazing (while it’s not buried under 7 feet of snow). You get three months of kicking back on a red sand beach next to the woods on Lake Superior with crystal clear water and perfect 80 degree weather, the rest of the year you freeze.
Tennessee. The mountains, waterfalls, lakes, very beautiful
Most fun outdoor activities –
Off-roading in the Jeep at Moab
Fishing the Green River below the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, 40 trout in 4 hours – them be some stupid fish !!
By ourselves swimming in the river by the little waterfall at Mormons Crossing just south of Sedona was pretty great too. The river cut a deep narrow green canyon through the desert and the water was crystal clear. After a long stretch of heat, dry and desert, a good soak was wonderful
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Nicest towns
Sedona Az, no question. The most beautiful town I’ve been in in the world. Before this it was San Clemente in Ca and a little town in Greece who’s name I can’t pronounce. Sedona blew them both away.
Sante Fe NM was also really nice and very unique with the southwestern architecture zoning. Every building has a southwestern adobe hacienda type design to it.
Worst towns
Holbrook New Mexico, just west of the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. The Elks Lodge is ringed with razor wire, enough said. We decided not to overnight there and went to Flagstaff, which also didn’t work out so well.
Also New Orleans. The KOA campground 20 minutes outside of the city is walled in with 10’ high steel panels and a guard at the entrance. We sat in a bar at the window on Bourbon St watching people eat out of the garbage cans. We were told DO NOT venture past the two tourist streets.
Austin Texas. It wouldn’t make this list if it weren’t for the massive number of homeless wandering around. Worse than any other city I’ve ever been in, including Philthadelphia and Seattle.
Most interesting places that you’ve never heard of
Goblin Valley State Park in Utah – Very hard to explain, but it’s a small valley where the wind has carved the hoodoo’s into odd rounded almost lifelike shapes. It’s a must visit
The Baha. An off-roading area just outside of the Badlands in South Dakota. Lots of fun.
Evarts Kentucky. The town has been decimated by the closing of the coal mines and is trying to reinvent itself as a tourist spot catering to off-roaders. You can rent Polaris side by sides and seriously risk your life off-roading some hardcore deep dark mountain trails. Just getting there on the mountain roads is an experience in itself.
Best meals
Terry Blacks BBQ ribs in Austin Texas – You have to get a beef rib. Expensive as hell, but worth it!
Dragos in Metairie just outside of New Orleans. Fire cooked in the shell oysters in butter and garlic that will change your life. The gumbo is also off the charts good.
And you have to get the smothered roast beef and mashed potatoes at Wall Drug (the world’s best tourist trap) in South Dakota. The donuts are pretty amazing too. Also, the 5 cent cup of coffee is legit, not a hook like I expected it to be.
2 Likes
Yellowstone and Sequoia were my favorites also, also went to Zion, loved the colors of the rocks, but I think Tennessee Smokey mountains driving the loop and the people were just extremely nice.
Zion blew my mind. I never expected there to be a high plateau that looked more like Wisconsin then Utah.