Yellowstone

After leaving Twin Falls, we drove to West Yellowstone and arrived at The Grizzly RV Park at 12:50 pm. We saw snow in the mountain passes and could see where the park had recently had a lot of snow. Thankfully, there was no snow when we arrived, but there were some small piles around the park. Of course in the week we were there, it did melt.

The whole seven days we were at the Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, we never knew whether we were going to have Internet or not. The park charges for unlimited WiFi, but not all the spots receive it very well. As it happened, we were in one of the worst spots. No, we didn’t pay for the usage, but did opt for “coupons” which allowed us to connect free every 10 hours. As I said, the connection was terrible (actually, it sucked!!) but I worked around it. I couldn’t even get good cell reception on my air card, so that wasn't even an option! I did use my iPhone to get emails and such when we were in town. There were a few times I was able to upload and get stuff done on the PC, but that didn't happen often. When I did manage to get on line, the service was more like dial up and not speedy at all....it seemed to take forever to get anything done on it. Even though Internet and cell reception were an annoyance, it didn't stop us from enjoying the days we were sightseeing (and geocaching) in Yellowstone Park.

Friday morning we woke to 33 degrees, but the sun was up and shining bright all day long. The temperature actually got up to 67 degrees, but the evenings were so cold that we had to use the heater. We hurridly got our stuff together (cameras, binoculars, snacks, and jackets) and drove into Yellowstone. Boy is it nice to have the Golden Age Pass! We just showed it to the ranger at the entrance and drove through with no charge.

Since Yellowstone is a National Park, no physical geocache containers are allowed to be placed there. The only thing allowed is Earth Caches and Virtuals. Earth Caches deal with geological formations, and the person who places the cache asks the finder to email them some type of historical data (or post a picture) in order to claim the find. As for virtuals, the finder has to go to a certain spot and email the owner something about what you see there (usually a name or something). Of course, there are many geological features in Yellowstone, so there were a lot of "caches" to locate. As it was, we ended up finding 29 of them.

Since Friday was our first day in the park, we drove to the most famous spot of all (Old Faithful). Old Faithful, as usual, was great. Almost as soon as we got there, the geyser was about to go off. However, we were in for a surprise and got to see both Beehive Geyser and Old Faithful going off within 2 minutes of each other. The ranger said that is not a common occurence, so we were really fortunate. The first picture is of Beehive going off and the second picture is the world famous Old Faithful spouting off.After watching those two go off, we continued to walk around the boardwalk and saw more hot bubbly pools and spouting geysers.

It was still early when we left the upper geyser basin, so we wanted to go see the Grand Prismatic area (mid geyser basin) but it was closed to bear activity, so we ended up going further north to Mammoth Hot Springs.At Mammoth, we climbed the steps to the top of Minerva just to find the answers to one of the Earth Caches we were researching.Some of the stuff needed was pretty technical, but we managed to send the owner an email on what he was looking for. We had planned on having dinner at the restaurant in town, but ended up with an an ice cream instead. Neither of us was very hungry after climbing up and down the steps around Minerva.

As we were driving back to West Yellowstone, we saw a group of Bison (cows and calves) on the road. These animals are so big, the cars don’t even bother them. We all had to stop and wait for them to move on down the road.

Saturday, we headed northeast to Canyon City and drove around both the north and south rims to view the the falls areas.The prettiest spot is the overlook called Artists Point. The colors were awesome! It was a fantastic 70 degree day, and we spent a lot of time walking the “many” steps up and down to various view points.

From Canyon City, we headed south to Fishing Bridge, then back by Old Faithful and north again to Madison and on to West Yellowstone. During that drive, we saw a Grizzly Sow and her cub, along with a lot more Elk and bison. This is a long distant shot of the sow and her cub. The sow shows up ok, but the cub is really hard to see.Here is a good close up of a cow Elk.Sunday, we got up early and actually looked for, and found, three physical caches that were hidden near town (not in the park). It was cold and sprinkling rain, so we didn’t stay out long. Good thing we went back to the coach because the skies turned black, and it started to rain very hard. It poured the rest of the day and most of the night. Again, we had to have the heater on because it didn’t get over 59 degrees that day.

Monday, the sun was back out and the temps were back up. This time it actually hit 70. Could not believe what a beautiful day it was. We went back into the park and drove south to West Thumb and walked around the basin there. West Thumb is actually a crater within a crater inside the huge Caldera of Yellowstone. Confusing, but with all the earth caches we were doing, we learned a lot about how the whole area was formed. We spent a lot of time in West Thumb and took our time driving back to the coach.

Tuesday, it was again a very nice day, so we drove to Jackson Hole. Now that was a long drive!! We were amazed to see Lewis Lake completely frozen over.Yes, there was a lot of snow along the Continental Divide, but once down in the Tetons the only snow we saw was in the mountains.

Jackson really hasn’t changed since we were there several years ago. We stopped at a couple places and even had lunch there, but everything was so high priced we didn’t buy anything. We spent more time stopping and taking pictures of the Tetons. What amazing mountains. No matter how often we see them, they continue to awe us.It was late by the time we got back to the coach, so just had a quick snack before cleaning up and calling it a night.

Wednesday was a clean the coach day (inside and out) and get ready to leave on Thursday.

Thursday, May 28, we were up early and off to Boise, Idaho. We are now in Ken's brother's driveway (huge parking area) until Monday morning.

Fun with Family

We had a great time visiting with our son and his family the six days we were in the Twin Falls area. The kids live in a small town about 40 miles north east of Twin Falls, so we had a long drive each day just to visit and to attend the three huge events that our twin grandsons were celebrating.

On saturday, May 16, we were honored to watch the boys (James and Edward) receive their Eagle Badge from the Boy Scouts.Grandpa Pavelek, who is an Eagle, had the privilege to speak at the boys “Court of Honor.” His speech touched on how much work the boys had to do in order to reach the Eagle level. Plus he spoke about the history of the Eagle, and how things were different 50 years ago when he received his Eagle Badge. James and Edward had to work their way up many levels in the scouts and finish a public service project in order to qualify for the Eagle. We are very proud of them for sticking with their goals and not letting “girls” or other peer pressures sway them from attaining their goal.

On Sunday, we were in attendance when the boys graduated from their church’s Seminary class.They along with others from their class had to attend a 4 year religious training and history class that began at 7 am, Monday thru Friday. In order to graduate from “Seminary,” they had to have an 82 percent attendance. The church where the graduation took place is in Carey, which is another 15 miles east of where the kids live, so it was a long drive for us, but it was gratifying to see these two boys again stick with something and complete it.

Finally, on Monday the 18th, James & Edward graduated from High School.
This is Edward.This is James.
That day it was 95 degrees and the graduation took place in the high school’s “very hot” gym at 8 pm. The class of 2009 was the largest class Richfield has had, and I think every person who lives in Richfield was there to watch. The “huge class” of 20 had been together since grade school.The long speeches and accolades ended at 10 pm, then everyone received their diploma. That’s when the party began. Our grandsons had a group of kids over to their place for Pizza and Root Beer (they don’t drink alcohol) and were up all night long partying. It was a hot, glorious evening for all!! We didn’t stick around for the party because we still had the 40 mile drive back to the coach, so we left right after the boys received their diplomas.

The week’s visit with the kids ended all too soon, and we pulled out of the KOA park Thursday (21st) morning.

Drive to Twin Falls:

Friday, May 15 was not fun!! We left the park around 8 am and made it down the road a few miles before being stopped for road construction. We had a long wait before a pilot car led us through the one and only lane that was open. We then made it down the road about 45 miles and 6 police cars coming at us with lights flashing forced us to the side of the road because they were escorting 3 huge loader bodies on trailers down this very narrow highway. These police cars were spread far apart, so thankfully they gave us several miles of warning. Thank God there was a wide enough shoulder for us to pull over on and wait until they all went by! After about a 10 minute wait, we were back on the road and heading for Jackpot (on the border of Nevada and Idaho).

The road from Ely to Jackpot was a very long boring drive, and Ken needed a little break, so we decided to pull into the rest area about a mile south of Jackpot. As we made the turn into the rest area, we saw a sign that said “NO TRUCKS.” Oh, Oh, we were already committed and couldn’t turn out, so we headed on in. Well it looked fine and we really thought we had enough room to turn around in.Ken wasn't worried, so he went ahead and took his long needed break. With the Jeep attached, we measure about 65 feet in length, so our turning radius is not good.

This is a picture of what we look like hooked up and ready to roll. No, this was not taken in the rest area. This was actually taken a little south of Ely.After Ken had his much needed rest, he decided to try and make the turn to get back on the road. Well, he turned the coach and Jeep as sharp as he could, but we ran out of room. Of course with the Jeep attached, we couldn't back up....SO, the only thing we could do was to go outside and unhook the Jeep. After we unhooked, Ken had the ability to back up and jog the coach around to make the drive out. All of this time, we had the entrance blocked and people were driving in watching and waiting for us to clear the area (not fun). Finally, he got the coach in position where I could pull the Jeep up behind, and we re-hooked up and got the heck outta there.

The final 40 minute drive to Twin Falls was uneventful, but then we got on Blue Lakes Blvd on the north side of Twin Falls. As far as we knew the route through Twin Falls to the Jerome KOA (where we were staying) is north on hwy 93, then east on hwy 30, and north on Blue Lakes Blvd to I-84. Yes, we were using the GPS, but that was/is the main route and we didn't want to try any unknown routes with the coach. Well, we made it to Blue Lakes Blvd with no problems, then, just a couple blocks north on the Blvd, we ran into more road construction (aarrgghh). All the south bound lanes were closed and were being routed on to one of the two north bound lanes and the left side of the north bound lane was merging into the right hand land…..Thankfully, we were already in the far right lane that was being merged into, but the traffic was extra heavy and the traffic lights (many of them) seemed to last forever. Plus, there were those idiots who thought they could rush up as far as possible then force their way in ahead of those already in the right lane. Well Ken kept the nose of the coach as close as possible to the vehicle in front, so no one was going to get in front of us (grin).

It took us 30 long, nerve-racking minutes to travel five miles, but we finally made it through the mess and to the KOA just north of the I-84 interchange. We checked in and were settled by 4 pm.

When we checked in at the KOA RV Park, we were told of another way to bypass the construction, so we did drive back into town to do some shopping at Costco and get a marvelous dinner at a local Thai Restaurant. Temperature was 67, but the forecast was for warmer weather in the next couple days.

Ely, Nevada

We left the AVI Casino/RV Park on Wednesday, May 13. It was 7:10 in the morning and already 74 degrees! We took the Mojave Highway north to highway 163, then west where we connected with 95 going north to Searchlight, Nevada. At Searchlight, we cut west to I-15 and drove north towards Las Vegas. One thing about I-15 going through Vegas….it is NOT fun!! They were in the midst of road construction where the freeway goes behind ALL the casinos along “the strip.” We were forced from three lanes down to one all the way through town. After we got through town and on the north side, the lanes opened up to two, but the traffic was still very heavy until we got to the junction of I-15 and highway 93.

At the junction of 93 and I-15, Ken took a break from the driving and parked the coach in a “truck stop” spot where a Mexican “Taco” lunch wagon was set up serving some nice looking meals.A lot of trucks were pulling in and out of the area during the 15 minutes we parked there. I saw one trucker taking a huge burrito back to his truck for lunch. If we had been hungry, we would have gotten something. Alas, we were in a hurry and had to move on. By then, the temperature was 85 degrees.

We headed west on 93, then took highway 318 towards Ely, Nevada. As we headed north, we could see snow in the distant mountains, and the temperature was getting cooler (what a relief). We reached the KOA in Ely, Nevada at 3:30, and it was a blessed 64 degrees…..no air conditioner(s) needed that night (grin). After we were settled, we went into town and had a steak dinner at nice restaurant and did a couple local caches before going back to the coach where we headed to bed early (we both were tired).

Thursday, May 14 was a busy day! We went caching and Garnet mining. The caching was minimal, only found 12 caches, but we had a ball Garnet mining.


We have been to these Garnet fields before, but never really found anything nice. This time, we actually found a couple neat small stones (and a lot of tiny ones). The Garnet fields are overseen by the BLM and at various times of the year they blow up the fields to crumble the rock for locals and others to come up and “dig” for Garnets. It was a marvelous day and the temperature only reached 67 degrees……Oh so nice!

Like I said earlier, we did some caching while in Ely. We took a drive up in the hills to a place called Summit Hill for a cache and actually ran into snow. We didn't drive in any, but did drive through a lot of melting (muddy) runoff. This picture is where we stopped at the top (for a cache).

Yep, that's us way down there!

It was a fun day, but as all good things do, it had to come to an end, and we had to head back down the mountain and back to the coach. The next day (Friday) we were pulling out and heading for Twin Fall, Idaho.

Queen Valley to Mojave

During our last few days in Queen Valley, the temperatures were well into the 100s, but no humidity made it somewhat comfortable. That’s what’s great about Arizona, it’s a dry heat after all!! Plus, we had the Air Conditioners on (grin).

We left Queen Valley on May 10 (Sunday) and had an uneventful trip through Phoenix. We traveled west on I-10, then north on highways 72/62/95 through Parker and Needles and arrived the AVI RV/Casino (KOA Park) at 2 pm. At that point, the temperature was 97, but quickly hit 102 (whew). Thankfully, by that time we had the ACs on (both of them) and were very comfortable. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning in and outside the coach. That evening, we were too tired to cook in, so we drove across the river to Bullhead City and had a relaxing dinner.

Monday, the 11th, we got up early (a glorious cool 73 degrees). One great thing about being near a casino is the great inexpensive cafés and restaurants (grin). We didn’t want to cook in, so went for breakfast at the AVI Casino’s Café. Our breakfast was huge and not expensive! After eating, we were stuffed and needed to work it off, so off we went to the hills for some off roading and hiking to caches. As the day wore on, it got way too hot to continue (101 at 1pm). By that time we had found 11 caches and hiked enough to wear ourselves out, so quit and headed back to coach. We were wise enough to have turned the air conditioners on, so things were nice and cool. The temperature that day hit a high of 103 at the Bullhead City Airport, but we recorded 105 on the coach’s thermometer. It was again way too hot to cook in, so drove back to Bullhead City and had dinner at the Black Bear Diner.

Tuesday, May 12, was going to be even warmer, so we left the coach early, and after grabbing a quick breakfast at McDonalds, we drove about 20 miles east to Oatman.

This is a fun, historic town in the hills on old Route 66 that is a living Ghost Town. The biggest draw to Oatman is a herd of “wild” burros, that really aren’t that wild anymore. The herd is several generations old, and are protected and under the control of the forest service. These “begging” burros are seen all around town waiting to be fed carrots from the visitors. They actually were at the entrance of town when we saw them, and in the middle of the road, so we had to drive around them in order to get into town.

We walked from one end of the town to the other and then back again, going into every souvenir shop. We even had some homemade ice cream while watching a robbery/shootout in the middle of town (great fun).

Naturally, we cached on the way to Oatman, in Oatman, and on the way back to coach from Oatman. Yay, we found 17 caches! A few of those caches were off road (some 4 wheel drive roads) and involved some uphill scrambling. Some were pretty easy and close to where we parked. One was actually in a shop in the town of Oatman (that was fun!)

As we left the mountains, the temps rose to 105 degrees. While in the hills, we were warm/hot, but there was a nice breeze…..that just was not so in Bullhead City.

Twitter does it all

As you all can see, my daily ramblings from Twitter are all being posted here on the left hand side of my blog page. That is the reason I am being lazy about doing long blog updates.

I promise I will post pictures and a more detailed blog once I have more time. Hopefully, that will happen once we slow down after the visit with the kids.

We arrived in Twin Falls on Friday after a two day stop in Ely, Nevada. We will be here in Twin Falls until Thursday the 21st, then move the coach to Yellowstone.

We had a very nice day yesterday with the twins Court of Honor. The Boy Scout Eagle Badge is quite an honor!! We are very proud of them both for this very special achievement!!

Today is a graduation rite from their church seminary (something I really don't understand), but we will be tied up all afternoon and most of the evening with that festivity.

Then, the final event is their high school graduation tomorrow night. After their graduation ceremony, there is a huge family gathering with tons of eats. Actually, each day has involved eating with a large family grouping. I don't know why we can't get away from food, but I guess that is the way it goes when you are retired (grin).

Anyhow, until I can post a more detailed blog, just keep up with my tiny posts via my Twitter updates on this page.

HOT

It hit 105 today!! Thank heavens for air conditioning; today would not have been fun without it. What's really nice is when the sun goes down. The baking stops and things do start cooling. We turn the AC off around 9:30 pm and open all the windows for a marvelous cool breeze. The low this morning was 73. Now that may sound warm to all of you, but we actually felt cold (grin). According to the weather report, it's going to stay in the triple digits for at least the next week (maybe longer). At least it's a dry heat!!

We are pulling out of Queen Valley Sunday morning and heading for Laughlin, NV. Unfortunately, even Laughlin will be 105 when we get there. We were planning on doing some caching while there, but it may be too hot. Not sure, but we may just go out for a short period in the mornings and stay inside during most of the day and come back out in the evening. May even wander the river walk to keep cool.

We are almost ready to go. The sun shields still have to come down and the awnings need to be put up, but we won't do those things until after sunset tomorrow.

This morning while Ken was taking stuff up to the shed, he saw this on the road. Needless-to-say, he had to grab the camera and take a couple pictures.


This guy isn't the biggest we have seen, but he is just as poisonous. He really wasn't that worried about us and never did coil up. He just leisurely crawled off into the brush.

I just looked at the thermometer on the coach's dash, and it is showing 99. That's because the sun is setting below the hills and isn't shinning on the front of the coach any more. Now it will get dark fast and the temp will drop to the high 70s...Sweet Relief!!

Almost Ready

Only four days to go and we will be heading for Laughlin, Nevada. We would have loved to leave earlier because it is going to be hot, VERY HOT (triple digits) the next few days. However, we aren't quite ready!! And, Ken really only wants to travel on a Sunday....since we missed this last Sunday, we have to shoot for this next Sunday the 10th.

The bench in our storage shed still isn't done, so it looks like that will have to wait until next season. We will be putting our Wrangler in the shed this summer, which is more secure than it was last summer. There is sooooo much on the Wrangler that can be stolen, and we were very uncomfortable leaving it out in the open last year. At least this year, we can breathe a lot easier.

Finishing up on the addition to the rock shop has been a big job for Ken, but he is almost done...just a couple more things to do, and he will be able to lock it up for the summer.

The stuff around the coach is mostly put away, but still have the outside lights to take down.They are the easiest of things to take down and put away, so that all can be done in a couple hours.

Our mail from home arrived today, but that was after the office was closed, so can't get it until tomorrow. The office here is now on "summer" hours and is only open a few hours a day and not at all on the weekend. Our park is several miles off the main highway and there aren't that many "unreserved" travelers showing up for a night, so the managers feel the office really doesn't need to be open for long. It really is like a ghost town around here right now. Because of the heat, we only see a few people wandering around; usually early in the morning or late in the evening and never during the middle of the day. Yes, the manager does see the unexpected arrival of travelers who suddenly drop in for a night or two. Of course, the phone in the office and the manager's residence is still operating, so the people who have reservations are always being taken care of.

We still have to check the hookup for the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) and make sure the turn signals, and brake lights work, but that can't be done until we pull out of the site and hook things up to the coach. We always hold our breath until things are all hooked up and working.

SO, we are on the count down for leaving our winter home!! Our schedule is to be in Laughlin three nights (10th, 11th, and 12th), then we will be in Ely, Nevada on the 13th, and 14th. On May 15, we will be parking at the KOA in Twin Falls, Idaho for 6 nights. While in Twin Falls, we will be attending our twin grandsons (Edward & James) graduation from high school, and their very special award of the Eagle Badge from the Boy Scouts. We are VERY proud of them!!