Category Archives: RV-Travel

Posts related to our active involvement in RVing.

2013_07_30 (Tue) TRNP-NU and Medora ND

Entrance to Red Trail Campground.

We are staying at the Red Trail Campground in Medora, Montana. The WiFi signal is strong, and the Internet connection is fast enough to work, IF nobody else is using it. We kept getting disconnected and finally turned on our Verizon MiFi device. Bingo! I love 4G/LTE when it’s available.

Entrance to TRNP South Unit in Medora MT.

We decided last night that this morning we would tour the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It’s a 62 mile drive to get from the entrance of the South Unit in Medora to the entrance to the North Unit, in the middle of nowhere. Rain was forecast for today but we wanted to get there early, so we were on the road by 7:15 AM MDT.

(BTW: This MDT thing becomes important in this part of North Dakota as the dividing line between the Mountain and Central Time Zones zigzags around this part of ND basically cutting off the southwest corner of the state for Mountain Time and leaving the rest as Central Time. A careful look at the state highway map revealed that the dividing line runs right down the middle of the North Unit of TRNP on an east-west line. We actually crossed the line while in the Park and our phones changed to Central Time for a while.)

The North Unit may be in the middle of nowhere, but it is very much on the route to somewhere, namely Williston, ND some 60 miles north and bit west of the Park. Williston is the hub of the northeastern Montana / northwestern North Dakota oil boom, and the truck traffic and equipment moving up and down US-85 was something to experience. Apparently North Dakota expects this to continue for a while as much of this stretch of US-85 is being widened.

CCC shelter overlooking the Little Missouri Scenic River; TRNP North Unit.

Once we turned into the Park, however, all was very quickly quiet and peaceful. Not being adjacent to a major Interstate Highway, the North Unit is probably much less visited than the South Unit, and we encountered very few other vehicles driving the 14 mile road (28 miles out and back). The weather was thick, as is obvious in these photographs, but it was an interesting and different way to see the Park. We encountered a “back country ranger” at this overlook and had a great, long conversation with him about the Park and the area around it. He told us that the North Unit does not have the wild horses that the South Unit has, but it does have bison, moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain lions. Although he didn’t mention them, we saw wild turkeys and a pheasant in addition to a couple of bison and deer.

Thick weather in the TRNP NU.

The weather in the North Unit was very thick this morning and the mood in the park is very different in this kind of weather. The Ranger told us that The North Unit is usually very dry this time of year but has had an unusually high amount of rain this season, and has already exceeded its normal annual rainfall. The Little Missouri Scenic River has water in it, when it would normally be dry, and the Park has a lot of greenery and flowering plants.

Clouds rolling up out of the river valley to the rim; TRNP NU.

On the drive back to Medora we stopped at the Painted Canyon Rest Area and Visitor Center on I-94. This facility is located at the southeast corner of the South Unit of TRNP and affords nice views of a corner of the park where the interior roads do not go.

[04722 CN A chokecherry bush (I think).

Back in Medora, we stopped at the TRNP South Unit Visitor Center, which was closed when we went for our drive last night. On the way in from the parking lot we passed through an area of plantings that were labeled. I think this bush was a chokecherry, but I didn’t see a label for it. There are a lot of chokecherry-based products for sale in Medora, so I’m sticking with my story.

TR’s “nicer” log home, now on display in TRNP SU Visitor Center in Medora MT.

In the backyard of the center is Theodore Roosevelt’s 2^nd (and nicer) North Dakota log cabin. Our timing was good as we got there in time for the 2 PM Ranger-led tour of the house, which is otherwise locked. It was very fancy for its time (1884), with three rooms, wood floors, an attic, a cold cellar, and glass windows.

We left the South Unit Visitor Center and drove through the adjacent De Mores Meat Packing site, now a state park with the smokestack and remnants of the foundations of the buildings that once stood there. We then had a slow drive through Medora and back to our coach. Here are a few pictures of the town:

Just down the street from the entrance to TRNP SU in Medora MT.

Shouldn’t every pizza parlor have a saloon, and look like this?

Medora is a much more refined town than its “rough” exterior suggests.

Even the post office and bank are quaint.

For dinner this evening Linda prepared a Kabocha squash that she bought for $1 at the Cody Farmers Market last Saturday. Niether of us had ever heard of this squash before she bought it. She cut it in two halves and microwaved them for 8 minutes to start the cooking process and cut down on convention oven time. She sauteed a mixture of brown rice, onion, garlic, carrots, bell peppers, and kale seasoned with salt, black pepper,dried basil, and Tamari sauce and stuffed the squash halves with it, mounded over the top. She backed these for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F using convention feature of our convection microwave oven. The squash came out perfectly cooked with a light yellow to slightly green color that paired wonderfully with the slices of honeydew mellow and the Riesling wine that accompanied the dish. Savory, nutty, chewy, and a little spicy without being “hot”, it was another wonderful example of what she has learned to do with these basic WFPB ingredients.

We have been back in “vacation mode” last week and this. We would prefer not to be, but we need to be back in Michigan in early August and are trying to see what we can on this trip with the time we have. We have not taken hikes that we would like to have taken, done any geocaching, or had the luxury of waiting for the weather to change. We did not go for pre-dawn or post-dusk drives and we did not stay up late enough to view the stunning night sky at the new moon in the deep, deep darkness of the west. We did not visit the Chateau De Mores (State Historical Site) or see the Medora Musical (OK, never really planned to). And we did not bring/operate our ham radios. But we did what we could with the time that we had, and it was all good. And when we are be back this way we intend to be managing our time differently. But for now, tomorrow we must move on and cross North Dakota.

2013_07_29 (Mon) A Short Drive to Another N. P.

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We only had 138 miles to travel from Miles City, MT to Medora, ND, and could not check in to the Red Trails RV Park until noon, so we hung around the Meadows RV Park for the morning. Besides, we had a pretty good Internet connection which made it possible for me to update my posts for Thursday (Chief Joseph & Beartooth scenic drive) and Friday (Grand Teton N. P.), both of which included lots of photos.

I have already had a minor issue with spam comments on our blog. I mentioned this to Cherie yesterday and she suggested that I install a WordPress plug-in named Akismet. I discovered that it was already installed but not activated, so I got the API key and activated it. I hope it helps with the spam problem without interfering with legitimate comments.

If YOU are reading this and think you have posted a legitimate comment that did not get approved or appear on the blog, please send an e-mail to us@omnibus-mi.us

Around 9:00 AM it started raining. This was the first sustained rain we have experienced since we were in Gillette, Wyoming over a month ago. It was over by 10:00 AM. I finished working on the blog just before 11:00 AM. We finally pulled out around of the Meadows RV Park around 11:10 AM MDT and were through Miles City and back on I-94 eastbound by 11:15.

The weather was partly cloudy and cool, with high temperatures in the region of 78 degrees F. The terrain was hilly, but not extreme. I set the cruise control at 63 MPH, 3 MPH faster than normal, and the coach ran very strong all day while maintaining normal engine temperatures. On balance it was a pleasant and stress free drive which we both enjoyed.

Goodbye Montana, Hello North Dakota.

Linda had never been to Montana until this past week, and I don’t think I had ever been in eastern Montana. For sure neither of us had ever been to North Dakota before, so we did not know what to expect. I associate this area with the “northern great plains”, meaning endless, treeless fields of waving grain. Not so Kemosabe.

A taste of things to come.

I-94 going northeast out of Billings tends to follow the Yellowstone River. This part of Eastern Montana and on into western North Dakota is a minor “badlands” with river valleys and small canyons. The terrain does roll up and down long hills, and much of it lacks trees. There are fields and cattle, here and there, but much more of the landscape is rock and sagebrush. It is a beautiful part of the country; reminiscent of other paces we have been, but uniquely its own.

We arrived in Medora, North Dakota around 1:30 PM (still MDT) and were checked into the Red Trail Campground and parked in our site by 2:00 PM. This was the first campground we have stayed in with trees and shade since we left our home in S. E. Michigan on June 9th.

Linda with “Teddy Roosevelt” Joe Wiegand.

Medora is a charming but modern reconstruction of a western town; small enough to be easily walkable, but with plenty of choices for shopping, lodging, dining, and drinking. (Hey, it’s still the west.) Even the campground is part of the town, albeit on the edge and on the other side of the tracks (literally), only a couple of short blocks to the main area. There are several attractions in town that other RVers had told us about, especially the “cowboy musical.” Our interest, however, was in Joe Wiegand’s personification of Theodore Roosevelt. Joe’s performance was outstanding and well worth the $10 adult admission. He delivered a one hour monologue without missing a beat and took questions, as TR, and answered them without hesitation. Joe not only resembles TR (at a certain point in his life) he has clearly made a deep and serious study of Roosevelt’s life and internalized it. The last time we saw something this good was Hal Holbrook’s personification of Mark Twain.

Local coffee with a western feel.

After the performance we stopped at a local coffee shop and sat on their porch enjoying their brew and the view.

The real attraction for us, and our main reason for booking two nights in Medora, was a chance to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I-94 is the southern boundary of the South Unit of the Park, and the entrance is right in downtown Medora. Roosevelt spent time in this area following the death of his mother and first wife on the same day and eventually owned two cattle ranches near Medora.

On the advice of a local bookstore owner we made a last minute decision to drive the 36 mile loop road in the South Unit this evening. By the time we walked back to the campground and were ready to go it was after 6:00 PM, but our timing was good. The weather was clear and cool, while there was a possibility of rain for tomorrow, and we had the drama of the early evening sun dropping into the western sky and a better chance of seeing wildlife. We were not disappointed. The Park is worth the time to visit, and while we did not see a lot of wildlife, the wildlife we saw was special, and a first for us…wild horses, up close.

A prairie dog town in TRNP.

The campground by the river.

Our first time ever to see wild horses.

They watched us as much as we watched them.

Wild horses in a wild setting.

TRNP In the fading light of evening.

Tomorrow we plan to get an early start and visit the North Unit of TRNP.

2013_07_28 (Sun) Heading East

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What could have been an easier travel day for us started a bit earlier and got stretched out by our choice to put diesel fuel in the bus (twice) and our desire to stop in Billings, MT for a while to visit with Cherie and Chris of Technomadia. We pulled out of Green Creek Inn and RV Park just after 8 AM and immediately pulled into the adjacent gas station to the east and added 25 gallons of diesel fuel to the tank as insurance for the first leg of our trip.

We took US-14/16/20 from Wapiti back to Cody where we picked up US-14 Alternate going east. Yup, that’s the same US-14A we drove across the Bighorn Mountains (in our car) from Burgess Junction to Lovell with a stop at the Bighorn Medicine Wheel. The stretch from Cody to Garland, however, was in the valley and relatively flat. In Garland we picked up WY-114 to Deaver and then took US-310 into Montana and finally connected with I-90 eastbound.

We got on I-90 at exit 434 and got off at exit 452. Those numbers, of course, are miles from where I-90 enters the western edge of the state. Montana is a big place. Exit 452 is US-87 / Main St., the truck route through the east end of Billings (known as “the heights”), and the location of Interstate PowerSystems where Chris and Cherie have been since early June getting their 8V71 rebuilt after it developed a problem while traveling in the area east of there. But they are close to being back on the road, and we just caught them on the first leg of our return trip home. Although we had a six hour drive to get from Wapiti, WY to Miles City, MT the visit in Billings broke it nicely into two pieces.

Chris and Cherie of Technomadia, “camped” at Interstate PowerSystems.

We had a nice visit with Chris and Cherie. I have been following their blog and purchasing their iPad apps and e-books for some time. We had met them once before at the mid-August GLCC/CCO Back-To-The-Bricks Rally in Clio, Michigan. We use Verizon/Android cell phones, and they recently released their “State Lines” app for that market. Besides both having bus conversions, we have in common that we are both “re-doing” previously converted buses bit-by-bit and contributing articles about it to the recently rejuvenated Bus Conversions Magazine. Beyond that, they are full-timers (we are not), they are still actively working (we are not), and they are much younger than us (smile). We chatted for a couple of hours, but did not want to overstay our welcome as they are deep into several projects that need their time and attention and we still had to stop for fuel and make another 148 miles to get to Meadows RV Park in Miles City, MT.

We returned to I-90 eastbound and exited three miles later for the Pilot / Flying J truck stop. Our PFJ card saves us a few cents per gallon, but mostly we like the truck pumps; wide lanes, no overhead obstructions, fill from either side with large nozzles, and they sell a lot of diesel, so it doesn’t sit in their underground tanks for very long.

We had been cautioned back in June (in South Dakota) that RV sites might be hard come by in eastern Montana and western North Dakota, but that did not turn out to be the case. Meadows RV Park gave us a place to rest our heads and recharge our batteries (literally, the house batteries are not currently set up to charge from the Zena engine-mounted alternator while we are in transit, as described in a previous blog post).

Linda made a wonderful salad for dinner and incorporated some of the Kholrabi she bought at the Cody Farmers Market yesterday. I believe this is the first time either of has (knowingly) had this vegetable, described as a “German cabbage.” I didn’t find it particularly cabbage like, but it was very tasty.

Practicing the bagpipes are Meadows RV Park in Miles City, MT.

We were getting ready to go for an after dinner walk when we both noticed the faint sound of bagpipes. I went outside to investigate and sure enough, one row over from us was a gentleman practicing the bagpipes. That was a first.

2013_07_27 (Sat) Where We Go From Here

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We have had an intense but wonderful week in northwest Wyoming and the Green Creek Inn and RV Park has been just the right spot for us to base camp. The RV park is away from the hustle and bustle of Cody, yet close enough to be convenient for shopping and entertainment, and is close enough to Yellowstone N. P. and Grand Teton N. P. to make them accessible as day trips. And although it’s a small RV park with only nine sites, we had excellent full hookups, laundry facilities, a WiFi connection to the Internet, and free popcorn. Our 50 Amp site allowed us to run all three house air-conditioners all day while we were away to keep our cats safe and comfortable. We needed to do this because of daytime highs in the mid-80’s with bright sunshine and constant wind that prevented us from using our awnings to shade the passenger side of the coach.

Although $45 per night is more than we generally pay to stay in an RV park, it was a fair price given the location and facilities. The WiFi/Internet bandwidth was limited, but we were glad to have what we had as there was no useable Verizon 4G/LTE signal here, and even 3G EVDO was marginal for making phone calls. The WiFi connection was generally very strong thanks in part to or WiFi Ranger Mobile Titanium, which has been working very well for us since we bought it at the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY last month. Interestingly, the only OTA television signal we could pick up was Wyoming PBS from the general direction of Cody. (Smile)

This was a quieter day for us, but by no means an idle one, as we needed to prepare for our departure tomorrow morning. We noticed this morning that it was overcast, the first time since we arrived here a week ago. We did have clouds today, and a few drops of rain, but Jeff informed us that the haze we were seeing was from the various forest fires burning in the west.

Linda drove to Cody in the morning to do our shopping. The main attraction was the local Farmers Market, located, conveniently enough, in the parking lot of the Whole Foods Trading Company. She came back with quite a few bags of stuff!

While she was gone I drained the waste tanks, stowed the hose, and added our Pine Sol / water / Calgon solution to the tanks. I also drained the little bit of fresh water that was still in the tank, flushed it with a bit more, and then refilled it. I left the fresh water shore line connected so we could use if until we depart, conserving our onboard water for use on down the road. I also worked on getting our blog postings up-to-date.

When Linda got back she did the laundry. At our house in Michigan this is usually my chore, but for some reason she seems to take care of it on the road. Although we are trying to learn not to over-plan, we are not full-timers, and we have a house and family to which we have to return from time-to-time. We knew the route we wanted to take back to S. E. Michigan, but the timing and overnight waypoints were still undecided. We want to see the Theodore Roosevelt N. P. in western North Dakota, but the campgrounds there do not have any hookups and do not appear to be big rig friendly. Medora, ND is the closest town, but it is 410 miles driving distance from Wapiti. That is more than we care to do in one day, especially given our planned stop at Interstate Power Systems in Billings, MT to visit with Cherie and Chris of Technomadia. (http://www.technomadia.com).

Using the online Good Sam campground finder we located the Meadows RV Park in Miles City, MT, 280 miles away, and made a reservation for tomorrow night. That should give us a 5.5 -6.0 hour drive, leaving plenty of time to stop and visit in Billings.

I continued to work on our blog while Linda paid our bills and continued to research overnight stops. We decided we would try to stay two nights at an RV park in Medora if we could find an opening. And we did! We made a reservation at the Red Trail RV Park just off I-94. It is walking distance to downtown Medora and convenient to the Theodore Roosevelt N. P., which we will now have a day-and-a-half to explore.

Linda took time out to make wheat berry risotto with mushroom /garlic/onion /asparagus. She used some of the Argentinean Malbec wine we had on board, and served the rest with the meal. This was a fragrant, earthy dish with great “chew” that somehow fit the wildness of this past week. When she has the time to cook we eat very well indeed.

While the risotto was cooking we pulled the tray on the passenger side of the bus that houses the chassis battery disconnect switches and the Vanner equalizers (we have two as it turns out). We located the circuit breakers, and pushed them in to (possibly) reset them. (This refers back to the BAL light that came on while traveling from Sheridan to Wapiti on the 21^st of this month.)

Beyond Medora we hope to stay at a winery in Buffalo, ND about 30 miles west of Fargo. It was personally recommended to us by Harvest Host founders Don and Kim Greene. If they can accommodate us on the 31st, it will be our first use of our Harvest Hosts membership.

Along the same lines, we hope to stay the next night at the Forest Edge Winery in Laporte, Minnesota. Forest Edge is owned/operated by members of the FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter. Being a kind of “virtual” chapter in FMCA’s International Area (INTO) our members are spread out all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Rallies are difficult to organize and most of our interactions are by e-mail. We even hold our annul business meeting electronically. Thus any opportunity to meet in person is a treat. The fact that Forest Edge is also a Harvest Host business makes it easier and that much more special.

From Laporte we plan to head to Hibbing, MN to visit the Greyhound Bus Museum. Beyond that, we will make our way across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to St. Ignace. From there we cross the Straits of Mackinaw (Mackinac) on the Mackinaw Bridge and head straight south on I-75 where we vector off on US-23 southbound to M-59, and home. Depending on when we get there we will have been gone almost exactly two months.

2013_07_26 (Fri) Grand Teton N. P.

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We left the Green Creek Inn and RV Park at 7:30 AM and headed for the East Entrance of Yellowstone N. P. (YNP) for the third time in four days. The 32 mile drive is different each time based on sun angle, clouds, and direction. We see it differently, and have seen different things, each time. As before, we drove the 27 miles from the East Entrance to Fishing Bridge. We passed through and headed southwest along the lake on the Grand Loop towards West Thumb and Grant Village, 21 miles distant. We drove through Grant Village to have a look but did not stop.

The JDRJMP Visitor Center closed due to sequestration. Stupid Congress.

The road south from Grant Village leads to the South Entrance 22 miles away, which is the northern gateway to the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway (JDRJMP) and Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). We could see the Tetons by now, and they were almost unreal. We exited YNP and entered the JDRMP around 9:30 AM and stopped at the JDRMP Visitor Center. It was closed (due to sequestration cuts) but GTNP maps and information sheets were available.

A view of the Teton Range. The haze is smoke from western forest fires.

We continued down the JDRMP towards the north end of Jackson Lake and the Colter Bay area. We stamped our “Passport” at the Visitor Information Center and took in the view. Colter Bay is one of the developed areas in the park. There is a major RV campground is located here, and there were lots of people out and about.

Linda looking at the Tetons from Signal Mountain.

We continued on towards Jackson Lake Junction and drove in to the Jackson Lake Lodge area but did not go in. We drove the main loop in a counter-clockwise direction, traveling south along the east shore of Jackson Lake. We took the Signal Mountain Road to the top of Signal Mountain and were rewarded with wonderful views of the Tetons to the west and the Snake River Valley to the east.

Another view of the Tetons from Signal Mountain.

Grand Teton from the Jenny Lake Overlook.

At the North Jenny Lake Junction we took the side road that leads to Jenny Lake Lodge. This road afforded the best (closest, most intimate) view of Grand Teton and the surrounding peaks and valleys. From there we continued on south towards Moose Junction and the Moose Entrance and stopped at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, a newer building with fabulous architecture, views of the Tetons, and exhibits.

The Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center near Moose Junction.

From Moose Junction we headed south to the Gros Ventre Junction to drive the Gros Ventre Road to Kelly and the Antelope Flats Road back to the main road, which is US-26/89/191. The Gros Ventre Road runs along the northwestern edge of the Gros Ventre River which is the northwestern boundary of the National Elk Refuge. Although there are supposed to be about 15,000 Elk in the NER, we did not see any. We did see bison on Antelope Flats Road.

We rejoined the main road and headed north along the eastern edge of the Park through the Snake River Valley towards the Moran Junction Entrance. This drive affords more distant views of the Tetons, but we did not take many pictures. It was afternoon by then and the combination of slight backlighting and the thick smoke haze from western forest fires did not make for good photographs. From Moran Junction we returned to Jackson Lake Junction and the Jackson Lake Lodge. I called Steven, our intrepid co-leader from our recent Habitat For Humanity build in Sheridan, but I got his voice mail. Steven had been at Colter Bay Campground with his family for the last two weeks and we thought we might catch him. (As it turns out he was still in the park but had “gone fishin”.)

We had gone into several other Lodges along the way, but had not found the (old, famous) one I remembered from my visit here 50 years ago. We went into the Jackson Lodge this time, and there it was. From the lobby you walk up a flight of stairs to a sitting room with a west facing wall of tall windows that frame Mount Moran opposite Jackson Lake. This is one of the classic lodge views of the national park system. There is a restaurant adjacent to this lobby with windows facing the mountains. I remember fondly eating there on my childhood visit. The restaurant is pricey, but we would have gladly dined there if there had been anything on the menu we could eat. Alas, there was not.

Headed back to Wapiti on the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway.

We traveled about 250 miles in the car each of the last four days, 1000 miles total, 75% of it in federally managed areas. Today we were only outside federal property for the few miles between our RV park and the eastern edge of the Shoshone N. F. on westbound US-14/16/20. This stretch of US-14/16/20 is known as the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway, and is worthy of a visit in its own right.

The sign makes it official!

2013_07_25 (Thu) A Drive On Top Of The World

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Since we spent the last two days in Yellowstone N. P. we decided to visit Grand Teton N. P. on Friday as it will necessitate yet another trip to the East Entrance, through Fishing Bridge, and south (clockwise) to West Thumb–all roads we have previously traveled–before vectoring off to the South Entrance and on to GTNP.

This mountain NW of Cody is visible from many directions.

The start of the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.

Our adventure for today was to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway (Wyoming 296) from Wyoming 120 (north of Cody) to its northern terminus at the Beartooth Scenic Highway (US-212) and then take the Beartooth north to Red Lodge, Montana. From Red Lodge we headed east on MT-308 to Belfry, MT where we headed south on MT-72 towards Cody, WY. MT-72 becomes WY-120, completing the loop and returning us to Cody. We left Wapiti at 9:15 AM and got back to Cody at 3:15 PM, having driven 200 miles. I drove today to give Linda a brake as she has done most of the auto driving on the trip.

CJSB not recommended for large vehicles, but we saw them.

This was a new experience for both of us, and may well be the most spectacular drive I have ever been on. Over-used superlatives like “awesome”, “awe-inspiring”, “spectacular”, “fantastic”, etc. fail to capture what we saw and how it felt to be there. High and deep in the mountains, with higher deeper mountains beyond, photographs don’t quite do justice to the grandeur of this sweeping panorama; it has to be experienced.

View West from Dead Indian Point, CJSB.

Artwork honoring the Nez Perce.

The highest point on The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway is Dead Indian Point at 8,800 ft. ASL. The location is connected with the Nez Perce flight from the U.S. Cavalry, led by Chief Joseph. As is usually the case, there is a human history to the area as well as a natural one. And part of that history is the very existence of the roads we traveled, marvels of civil engineering.

Canyon near the end of the CJSB.

If The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway offers the grander views of glaciers and glacial valleys, the Beartooth presents the more challenging road; narrow, twisting, and climbing through alpine meadows to above the tree line, topping out at 10,947 ft. ASL. Most of the hairpin turns, and there are a lot of them, are marked 20 MPH. I spent much of the trip in 2nd gear at or below 35 MPH, and it was wonderful. The highway speed limit is 65 MPH (55 at night). I rate 45 = suicide.

The end of the CJSB.

Coming up, the Beartooth Highway.

View from the Beartooth Highway.

As the sign says…

Actually, it’s a C-Store and gas station. 🙂

Not quite to the 10,947 ft. pass yet, a mountain construction zone.

Above the tree line on the Beartooth Highway. Lots of small glaciers up here.

A lot of the road looks like this! These are switchbacks, so they also involve changes in altitude, not just direction.

As we descended the Beartooth we entered Montana and the road changed. Not to be outdone by Wyoming, the posted speed limit here is 70 MPH (60 at night), but you would have to have a death wish to try driving it that fast. The road descends around and down the side of the mountains towards the floor of a glacial valley like nothing I have ever driven. The road is wider, however, and the grade not quite as steep, so portions can be taken a little faster. Once down, I was able to drive 60 MPH comfortably.

Welcome to Montana! Linda’s first time in the state.

Red Lodge, Montana is a quaint, upscale western town, but we didn’t stop. The drive from there back to Cody was through the semi-arid valley paralleling the Beartooth Mountain Range to our west. Scenic enough in its own right, but our thoughts were on the soaring mountains that we had just driven through and over, literally putting us on top of this part of the word for a brief moment.

When we got back to Cody we tried to find a vegan friendly restaurant to have dinner, but ended up back at the Whole Foods Trading Company Deli where we had lunch on Monday. We then drove to the city park, got a convenient parking spot, and set up our chairs in the shade of a tree to wait for the concert.

The town of Cody presents free concerts in the city park every Thursday from 6 – 8 PM during July and August. This evening’s performers were Four Shillings Short, a Celtic folk/rock husband/wife duo. They are full-time minstrels who have been touring for the last 17 years in their Dodge Caravan. The music was varied, spirited, and skillfully done, with a good amount of explanation, and a wee bit of humor. Around 7:30 PM it started to rain very lightly and we saw a double rainbow to the east. We had the camera and my iPad2 with us, so we gathered up our chairs, returned to the car, and drove back to Wapiti.

Big Boy “Monument” on US-14/16/20 west of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

It’s always a bit amazing the things you see that you have not seen before when driving a particular road more than once. In this case we saw this (see photo) on our way back to Wapiti from Cody, a trip we had made at least a half dozen times before. It made us smile, and stop to take a picture, but I wonder what the “locals” think of this? A relocated Midwesterner, no doubt.

2013_07_24 (Wed) YNP Day 2

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We had a long day yesterday and decided to get an earlier start today. We left at 7:08 AM and headed for the East Entrance to Yellowstone N. P. We enjoyed the drive up to and into the Park as much as we had the day before. As with yesterday’s post, I can’t possibly describe and illustrate a day in YNP, so I will outline our itinerary, comment on a couple of things, and include a few photos.

Coming in from the East Entrance we again passed through Fishing Bridge, making a brief stop there to top off the tank, clean the windshield (yes, YNP has bugs, though not that many), and use the facilities. (Note: there are restrooms at every major feature in the Park with a parking lot.) After crossing the bridge we headed north up the west side of the Yellowstone River towards the Yellowstone Falls and The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Canyon Village beyond.

Bison crossing the Yellowstone River at Buffalo Ford.

On the way up we encountered Bison crossing the Yellowstone River. I had a nice chat with the fisherman they “chased” out of the river. He was fishing for Cutthroat Trout (catch and release only) at spot known as “Buffalo Ford” so it did come as any surprise to him when Buffalo showed up and forded the river.

Bison are common, which makes them all the more dangerous.

Bison are common in YNP. They are usually slow moving and docile looking, but look into their eye(s) and you are looking into a wild animal. Massive and prone to agitate for no apparent reason, they are much more dangerous than people seem to realize, and close encounters with people generally do not end well for the person.

There are pedestrian trails and boardwalks in this area. Note the bison upper right.

The area between Fishing Bridge and Tower-Roosevelt, along the Yellowstone River and into the massive upland wilderness to the east, is a prime spot in the park for large wildlife. Ravens are everywhere in the park, and other birds, including pelicans, are often seen. But this Yellowstone River area includes Trumpeter Swans, mule deer, blacktail deer, bison, elk, moose, coyotes, wolves, black bears, and the king of the wilderness, Grizzly bears. Seeing bison is guaranteed, and probably deer as well. Elk are a rarer sight, but catching even a glimpse of a wolf or bear is truly special. Before reaching the Falls we stopped at Mud Volcano, where bison were roaming through the geothermal landscape.

The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point on the south/east side of Yellowstone Canyon.

The Yellowstone Falls and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are iconic features of the park, and worth taking time to see. The falls face northeast, and the canyon runs that direction as well, so morning is the time to be there, and we were. We drove into both the south/east rim (Artist Point) and north/west rim roads (brink hikes) and drove to Inspiration Point. I will let the photographs do the talking.

Yellowstone Falls and Canyon from Artist Point.

Same view with Linda.

White Motors Yellowstone Bus No. 404 at Artist Point.

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River.

At the brink of the Upper Falls.

The mists of time in the canyon below the falls.

This is the best view you get of Elk, if you get one at all.

The brink of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.

Yellowstone Canyon below the Lower Falls.

The Canyon goes for 20 miles.

From the Falls/Canyon it is a short drive north to Canyon Village. The Canyon Village Visitor Information Center is Fabulous. We had a light lunch of salad and mandarin oranges at the lodge cafeteria before continuing on our tour of the northern half of the Grand Loop. We decided to do this loop clockwise, and headed over to Norris Geyser Basin. This is a large geothermal area and requires a lot of hiking to see all of the features. By this point it was getting hot and we were a bit tired, so we viewed what we could from platforms near the museum building. When you only have a couple of days to spend in YNP, there will come a point when you realize you can’t begin to see everything, and resolve to come back, perhaps many times. We reached that point at Norris.

Upper Terrace Drive, Mammoth Hot Springs.

As we left Norris and headed north towards Mammoth Hot Springs we paralleled the Gallatin Range to our west. We skipped most of the features until we got near Mammoth Hot Springs, and took the Upper Terrace Drive. This area is different from the other geothermal places in YNP, with travertine as the distinguishing visual element. It is much less active than it was when I was here 50 years ago, a result of the constant earthquakes that alter the geothermal activity all over the park.

Travertine in the Upper Terraces area. The travertine is white; the color comes from living organisms.

Mammoth Hot Springs from Upper Terrace Drive.

Mammoth Hot Springs is five miles from the North Entrance at the Montana border and the famous Roosevelt Arch, but we did not drive up on this trip; so much park, so little time. We drove through Mammoth Hot Springs and saw Old Fort Yellowstone from the car. Every developed area in YNP has a different look and feel, and MHS is a place we will spend more time the next time we are here.

We continued our clockwise journey going east towards Tower-Roosevelt. We took the Blacktail Plateau Drive, a 6-mile long, narrow, twisty dirt road with lots of steep up and down grade and significant elevation change, although 4-wheel drive is not required. We saw a pair of Blacktail Deer with good size antlers lying in the shade of a distant tree. And we did not see any other cars until we got near the end of the road. Most tourists do not venture onto these little side roads so they give you a very different experience of the park from the Grand Loop.

We returned to the Grand Loop Road and headed trough Tower-Roosevelt for Canyon Village. The Northeast Entrance road, which runs from Tower-Roosevelt to Silver Gate and Cooke City, is the longest and most remote in the park. When the road leaves YNP it becomes the Beartooth Highway (US-212), one of the highest and most remote highways in the lower 48 states. Our plans for tomorrow are to drive part of this highway in conjunction with the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.

As soon as we left Tower-Roosevelt we got caught in a construction stoppage that lasted 30 minutes. The road from Tower-Roosevelt back down to Canyon Village is a bit narrower and climbs past 10,243 ft Mount Washburn, the highest mountain in the Washburn Range, and over 8,859 ft. Dunraven pass. We had a nice drive as afternoon turned to early evening until we got south of Canyon Village, where once again, we encountered a massive traffic jam in the area of the broad river plain where the bison hang out. This time it wasn’t a bear sighting. The bison were in the road and the Park Rangers were using their vehicles and PA systems to herd them off. Some of them went reluctantly. Once past the traffic jam, we made our way to Fishing Bridge and from there out of the park by way of the East Entrance and back to Wapiti.

2013_07_23 (Tue) Yellowstone N. P.

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We were up a bit earlier today, anxious to be on our way to Yellowstone National Park (hereinafter YNP). I had been to YNP twice before today; once with my parents and sister in 1965 when I was 13, and again in 1989 with our son when he was about to turn 11. Today was my third visit, but what made it special was that it was Linda’s first.

US-14/16/20 on the way to the East Entrance of YNP.

Most of the 32 mile drive from Wapiti to the East Entrance of YNP is through the Shoshone National forest. The road (US-14/16/20) follows the Shoshone River up through a deep, rugged valley of the Absaroka Range, climbing from 5,700 ft. ASL in Wapiti to 6,951 ft. ASL at the East Entrance. The Shoshone N. F. begins just west of Wapitii and is designated the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway. It provides a spectacular scenic drive through the Absaroka Range. The road was very good and was easily drivable at the 50 MPH posted speed limit.

Sylvan Lake on the East Entrance road into YNP

After using Linda’s “Senior Access Pass” to gain entry to the park we continued on to the Fishing Bridge area 27 miles farther down the road, driving over 8,530 ft. ASL Sylvan Pass before the half way point. The road descends down to the northeastern shore of Yellowstone Lake and then runs along the edge to Fishing Bridge on the north shore of the lake.

Yellowstone Lake looking NW towards Fishing Bridge. ~7700’ ASL.

Fishing Bridge is one of the four “developed” villages in YNP, and we stopped to check it out. It has a Visitor Information Center, General Store, filling station with auto/RV service, and an RV campground. Nearby is a long E-W bridge that crosses over the Yellowstone River as it flows north out of the lake. In times past folks were allowed to fish from this bridge, hence the name of this area, but no more. The waters in this area are a prime spawning ground for native Cutthroat Trout. Bridge fishing was decimating their population, and was halted many years ago, along with a ban on fishing the first six miles of the Yellowstone River.

A vintage White Motors Yellowstone bus!

From Fishing Bridge we had access to the rest of the park. The road system in YNP consists of a large figure-8 in the center of the park, known as “The Grand Loop”, with entrance roads coming into it from the north, northeast, east, south, and west. For our first day in the park we decided to drive the lower half of the figure-8 in a clockwise direction. It is not possible in a blog post to describe everything we did, or include photos of everything we saw, in a single day in YNP, so I will simply outline our itinerary and include a few photos. Perhaps a Picasa web album will appear at some point in the future with a more compete visual record.

An MCI MC7(?) Yellowstone bus, one of six left in the fleet.

Traveling clockwise from Fishing Bridge we traveled southwest and then south along the west shore of the lake to the geothermal area just north of Grant Village. While here we saw a Yellowstone MCI MC7(?) park bus in the parking lot. The driver was a young lady and she told us that they had 30 of these buses at one time but only six are left and they are going to be sold next year. She thought they would sell for about $1,700 and she was saving up to buy one to convert to an RV! She thought they were going to replace them with MCI “D” models, but wasn’t sure if that meant 102D3s or something else.

An older Prevost H3-45 operated by Le Bus.

We saw a lot of 45′ tour buses in YNP. The vast majority were Prevost H3-45s, both 4- and 2-windshield vintage, although the 4-windshield coaches were newer than ours and almost certainly had DD Series 60 engines. We also saw a few Setra, VanHool, and MCI coaches.

A geyser at the edge of Yellowstone Lake in the West Thumb area. Even the lake is geothermally active.

Crossing the Continental Divide.

Continuing on from the Grant Village area we drove to the Old Faithful area, crossing the Continental Divide, which runs from the southeast corner of the park to the western boundary south of the West Entrance. The Old Faithful geyser is the centerpiece and namesake of a geothermal basin that contains over 50% of the geysers in the world. It is also the most developed place in YNP, and the most crowded. I don’t know the actual figures, but it felt like most of the people in the park were there.

The cabins at the Old Faithful Lodge. I stayed in one of these 50 years ago.

We had lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge cafeteria. The cabins I stayed in 50 years ago are still there, behind and to the left of the Lodge, and are still NPS brown. We strolled around the area, finally selected a vantage point, and waited for the eruption of Old Faithful, and it was worth the wait.

The Old Faithful geyser in action.

Patience is more than a virtue in YNP, it is an absolute necessity. We eventually extracted ourselves from the gridlock of people and vehicles at Old Faithful and continued on towards Madison. Just before getting to Madison we took a small one-way side road through Firehole Canyon. It was a “gorgeous” drive, in every sense of the word. We did not realize that towards the end of this road was the Firehole River Swimming area. Lots of people did, however, and it was mobbed with cars parked along the road such that it was barely passable.

Artists Paintpots from above.

We did not stop at Madison and continued on north towards Norris. We stopped at Artists Paintpots and hiked up onto a high hill for a view down on the geothermal features. Like the Old Faithful area, Norris is also an extensive geothermal area within YNP, but apparently lots of the folks who were not at Old Faithful were at Norris. In other words, there was no place to park. (This turns out to be a common problem throughout the park at this time of year and even though park regulations do not permit stopping/parking on the roads people park wherever they can and sometimes impede traffic as a result, especially if there is a wildlife sighting.) One of the downsides to not staying in the park overnight is that it takes a certain amount of time to get to and from the place; in our case approximately 90 minutes from Wapiti to Fishing Bridge, our point of access to everything else. Even if you leave early and return late, this limits your time in the park, and pretty much rules out being there at dawn or dusk, which are ideal times to see the park (good light) and wildlife (that’s when they are most active). Although the park is open 24/7, and people are out driving on the roads at night, it is not a good idea, and this is when most accidents occur.

Lone Bison on a hill south of Canyon Village.

Twelve miles east from Norris is Canyon Village, and this leg of the Grand Loop is the crossover of the figure-8. On the drive over we took the Virginia Cascade side road. These side roads are usually narrow, twisty, and one-way. They provide an opportunity to get off of the Grand Loop road, away from the traffic and crowds, and close to some special feature. In this sense they are a more intimate experience, though not on a par with backcountry hiking. Canyon Village is the developed area just north of the Yellowstone Falls and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. These are major features of the park and require a significant amount of time to see. They are also best seen in the morning, so we headed south towards Fishing Bridge.

The Bison go where they want, when they want; it’s their park, not ours.

The Grand Loop runs along the west side of the Yellowstone River through a prime wildlife area, and we finally encountered a sizable bison herd at a spot where there is a broad grassy area. We also encountered a major traffic jam. Bison are certainly something that people come to see, but it took us about 40 minutes to go a mile or so. When we got to one of (overcrowded) pullouts we saw lots of people with spotting scopes and cameras with telephoto lenses, all mounted on tripods. Glancing in their general direction we finally saw the focus of their attention; a Grizzly bear moving north along the high bank. Although Bison are large, wild, unpredictable animals, and potentially very dangerous, it’s the Grizzly bear and the wolf that most capture the essence of Yellowstone as a wild place. (BTW: YNP is a truly international destination. We heard plenty of people speaking languages other than English, and Asian tourists were numerous, or at least more obvious based on appearance. We also talked to some of the young folks working food service, and except for the cashiers, most did not appear to be native English speakers.)

Eventually we got back to Fishing Bridge where we topped off our tank. On the way back to the East Entrance we took a side road up to Lake Butte Lookout, which we missed driving in. From this vantage point we were able to see the Tetons 80 miles to the south. The drive back to Wapiti was in the gradually fading light of evening, and it was dusk by the time we got back to our coach around 8:15 PM.

2013_07_22 (Mon) A Day Of Rest (Mostly)

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After a 6-day work week and a hard day of driving, we were exhausted and needed a day to rest. We slept in and then indulged ourselves with a later-than-usual breakfast of vegan blueberry pancakes. Yummy!

Buffalo Bill Reservoir (Shoshone River).

Mid-morning we decided to drive into Cody, but we had no plans beyond getting there and looking around. We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir Visitor Center on the way in. The dam, reservoir, and associated facilities are run by the Bureau of Reclamation. As with all federal facilities, the visitor center does a nice job of telling the story of the dam’s construction and provides a context in terms of the natural and human history of the area. They also had a stamp unique to the site so we stamped our “passport.” We also bought a nice guide to Yellowstone N. P.

Buffalo Bill Dam & Visitor Center (upstream side).

On the drive in we talked about visiting the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, but decided against it. The Center consists of five museums and the $18 adult admission is a 2-day pass, which is probably needed to do justice to them. That sounded too intense for our day of rest. We decided instead to just stroll up and down Main Street and then find the two organic/health stores in town and pick up a few things. During our stroll we saw a poster for free concerts in the park. Thursday July 25 from 6 – 8 PM will be a Celtic group.

You Don’t See This In Michigan!

We went to Whole Foods Trading Company first. It was also a sandwich shop, so we each had a veggie Panini with vegan Cole slaw and a pickle. We bought some produce and then drove to the Mountain High Health Foods store where we picked up some kelp noodles and black bean “burgers.” We also discovered that Albertson’s was across the street, so we stopped there to pick up a few more things.

Our shopping and introductory tour of Cody completed, we drove back to Wapiti, by which time it was mid-afternoon. Linda spent the afternoon using our new Yellowstone N. P. guidebook to get some idea of routes, distances, and time for our visits to the park. I spent the afternoon responding to e-mail and working on our blog. Based on the Thursday concert we learned about, we decided to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway on Thursday as we end up in Cody anyway.

2013_07_21 (Sun) On The Road Again

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We slept in this morning. We needed the extra rest before heading out. Linda got the interior of the coach ready to travel while I prepped the exterior/systems. I dumped the black and gray waste tanks and added fresh water to bring us up to 2/3 from 1/2 tank. We try not to haul around the weight of waste water, but like to have enough fresh water on board that we could boondock unexpectedly for at least a few days if we the need arose.

Most of our Habitat For Humanity team planned to leave this morning, but none of them pulled out at sunrise (as many RVers are want to do). Folks were out and about and wanted to have one last conversation, and one more chance to say “see you down the road”, before leaving. There was talk of a reunion build next year, and I suggested that we all e-mail Steven and ask him to arrange that. Peter D stopped by and thanked us for staying with him while working with HFH. No matter how long the farewells, eventually there is nothing left to say or do except turn the key and drive away. We pulled out of our spot at Peter D’s just before 10 AM MDT.

I had scoped out the Exxon station at I-90 exit 25 yesterday in case we needed to add diesel fuel. They had just what we needed: convenient to the highway exit, a truck lane with easy access, dual large-nozzle pumps, and no overhead obstructions. We had somewhere between 5/8 and 3/4 of a tank of diesel fuel. I don’t like to get below 1/4 tank, so conservatively we had 3/8ths to 1/2 of a tank of useable fuel. We have a 235 gallon tank, but I treat it as a 200 gallon one, so I figure 25 gallons per 1/8th tank.

Past calculations have indicated that we get about 6 mpg, so I figure on 5 mpg, again being conservative, and especially today as we have never driven the bus through high mountains before. That works out to approximately 125 to 150 miles per 1/8th tank of fuel, or 375 to 450 miles based on what we currently had on board. Our trip from Sheridan to Wapiti was calculated at 240 miles, so we had enough fuel on board to make that distance and still have sufficient reserves for an emergency detour or layover. As we would be crossing the Bighorn Mountains, we did not want to carry unnecessary weight, so we decided we did not need to top off.

Perhaps it’s a holdover habit or frame of mind from when I used to fly airplanes 35 to 40 years ago, but I think such calculations are necessary when traveling in a vehicle that cannot just pull into the next filling station or convenience mart, assuming there even is one along the route, and fill up the fuel tank. Generally speaking, the bus likes to stop here the big trucks do. Not only is access good, but truck stops turn over their diesel fuel frequently, so it is generally fresh.

We got on I-90 at exit 23 and headed south to Buffalo where we picked up US-16 headed west over the Bighorn Mountains. As previously posted, we had been advised not to take US-14 from Sheridan to Lovell as the grades are a little steeper and there are more switchbacks and hairpin turns, and fewer turnouts, than on US-16. Having driven US-14 and US-14A in our car, we accepted the recommendation.

Going uphill into the Bighorns on US-16 west.

US-16 was a dramatically beautiful drive, but it was no walk in the park. The road was good pavement with wide lanes, good signage, and lots of pullouts, albeit not always exactly where I needed or wanted them. I had not driven the coach in mountains prior to this leg and US-16 started climbing as soon as we left Buffalo headed west. It took me a while to figure out what gear to put the Allison 755CR (ATEC) transmission in, what RPM to try to hold, and what exhaust manifold temperatures, engine coolant temperatures, and vehicle speed to expect from that combination. The engine got up to 210 degrees on this initial climb but I was able to find a pullout soon after and let it cool off. That is the upper temperature limit for the heads, and I did not let it get that hot again. The engine continued to run well all the way to our destination, so “no harm, no foul” (I hope).

Yes, that is snow on them thar hills.

With no prior mountain experience in this coach we really did not know what to expect from the Detroit Diesel 8V92TA engine. Now we do, and I admit I was disappointed, which is to say, I was hoping for more performance. It is, after all, a turbo-charged 450 HP 2-cycle diesel. That sounds like a lot of engine, and it runs well on flatter ground, but in all fairness it was pushing a 40,000+ pound bus that was pulling a 4,000 pound car from 3,600 ft. ASL to 9,600 ft. ASL in a relatively short distance on a somewhat warm day. On the plus side, it got us to Granite Pass at 9,630 ft. ASL, although I was in first gear turning 2,000 RPM and going about 20 MPH at that point. Still, it got us there.

The altimeter app on Linda’s Samsung Galaxy S III; very cool, and so was the outside temperature.

Going down the western side of the Bighorn Mountains on US-16, real slow.

What goes up must come down. I have attended enough seminars at RV rallies to know that “whatever gear you use to climb the hill is the gear you use to descend the hill.” I also knew the rule about braking on downgrades; “apply them hard to get your speed down quickly and then get off them to let them cool; do not ride your brakes or they will overheat and fail.” I followed both rules coming down the western side of the Bighorns. This stretch of US-16 has an 18 mile long section of frequent (perhaps continuous?) 6% grade.

Our engine has a two-stage transmission retarder instead of a Jacobs (Jake) Brake. I have never driven a vehicle equipped with a Jake Brake, so I don’t know well they perform, but I rate the transmission retarder on our Allison transmission marginally effective. At best it was not able to hold our downhill speed in check without the frequent application of the brakes. At one point we started to get a slight bunt smell and I pulled into the next turnout to let the brakes cool. I checked the passenger side front brake rotor with an infrared remote sensing temperature gun and got 750 degrees. The passenger side tag axle brake rotor was about 600 degrees. I couldn’t check the drive axle brakes because of the physical configuration of the dual wheels. At another turnout I was slightly nose down and the emergency/parking brakes would not quite hold the coach, so I had to sit with my foot on the brakes while they cooled.

As on the climb up, I was often in 3^rd or 2^nd gear going down, and on the steepest descents I was in 1st gear going 16 to 20 MPH. What I finally figured out was that I could let the RPMs get up to about 2,200, apply the brakes until the RPMs dropped to about 1,700, then let off the bakes and let the MPH and RPM creep back up, and then do it all over again, and again, and again. The DD 8V92TA redlines at about 2,350 RPM, so that is a figure not to be exceeded, and is generally best avoided.

I have to admit that this was a stressful drive, not made any easier by the fact that it was past noon with bright sunshine heating up the front of the coach and no ability to use the OTR bus AC as we already lacked power for the climb. Add to the mix that the chassis battery BAL (balance) light would flash on occasionally, indicating a possible problem the Vanner equalizer, and well…it was work. But it was still beautiful.

We made it over the Bighorn’s and rolled through Tensleep headed for Worland. We rolled through Worland too, but noticed what appeared to be a very nice museum. It had a large statue of a Mastodon out front, so we presume the museum was dedicated to the natural wonders of the Bighorn Valley. Apparently the Bighorn Valley has produced some world class dinosaur fossils. Alas, we were anxious to make time and get to our destination, so we Nick Russell’d the museum and said we would have to return some day to see it.

The Bighorn Valley looks like the desert southwest in places.

US-16 joins up with US-20 at Worland whence they head north to Greybull. This part of the drive was similar to the drive we did from Lovell to Greybull over a week ago. The landscape is desolate but stunning and the road goes up and down long, rolling hills. US-16/20 joins US-14 at Greybull and turns west towards Cody. This part of the drive was relatively flat and visually less interesting than what we had seen up to that point. It didn’t help that it was hot and I was tired, so I finally turned on the OTR bus AC.

We could see the Absaroka Range ahead of us, but it became more distinct as we neared Cody. US-14/16/20 goes right through the heart of Cody, so we got a good look at the town as we drove through at 25 MPH, one of many RVs passing through. Cody appeared to be a historic town with a modern vibe. We decided we would take one of our days and drive to town and check it out.

US-14/16/20 continues west out of Cody and follows the Shoshone (Shoshoni) River through the Shoshone Canyon/Valley 50 miles to the East Entrance of Yellowstone N. P., where all three highways reach their western terminus. Our destination, however, was the Green Creek Inn and RV Park in Wapiti, about 18 miles up the road from Cody. Cody sits at 5,000 ft. ASL and Wapiti is at 5,700 ft. ASL, so we were climbing gently the whole way.

The three tunnels of Buffalo Bill Dam (middle tunnel not visible).

Not far out of Cody we drove through three tunnels in quick succession and reached the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir. We made a note to stop at the Visitor Center on a trip back to Cody (in the car). The reservoir is large, with lovely water, surrounded by rock cliffs and dry, brown hillsides. The contrast was striking. There is a Wyoming state park along most of the north shore of the reservoir with two campgrounds, both of which were mostly empty.

Green Creek Inn & RV Park with Smith Mansion in the background.

Green Creek Inn & RV Park with Smith Mansion on the hill in the background.

Wapiti is more a dot on a map than an actual, distinct town, but it has a post office and one of the oldest continuously operating schools (currently K-5) in the nation. The Green Creek Inn and RV Park is on the far western edge of what is considered Wapiti, just past what claims to be the last filling station before reaching Yellowstone N. P. It also sits in the shadow of the Smith Mansion, a very recognizable landmark on this route.

Parked in our site. The Smith Mansion is right there!

We and another RV had to wait a short while to get into our sites while someone else finished unhooking and pulling out, but Jeff (the owner) got us both parked. We then went about our usual arrival/encampment routine. The Green Creek Inn and RV Park is a basic but nice place in a dramatic setting, and we have a 50A full-hookup site (one of two). Our rig won’t fit in the campgrounds at Yellowstone N. P., so we will be driving there in our car. Green Creek was the closest RV park to the East Entrance we could find.

The view to the north from our site.

The Smith Mansion was built by Lee Smith starting in 1973, and he worked on it until he fell to his death in 1992. It is a log structure, more imagined than designed, and presents a striking image up on its hilltop setting. Some of the timbers were harvested from nearby forests devastated by wild fires and it appears from a distance that other materials were probably salvaged. It has fallen into serious disrepair over the last 21 years, made worse by vandals. It is posted “private property” and is not open to the public at this time. There is a trailer parked on the property with a caretaker/guard. There is a foundation trying to raise funds to preserve, restore, and complete the house, as explained on their website. The foundation was started by Smith’s daughter and her husband, but there is no indication of who actually owns the house/property, or who else is involved in the foundation.

2013_07_20 (Sat) The Last Day (of building)

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Today was the last day of our 2-week HFH RV CAV / SKP BOF build. It was our 6th day in a row, and was scheduled as a half day. There was a mix of feelings at circle: satisfaction in what we had personally and collectively accomplished; disappointment that we had not accomplished more; excitement that we were almost done; a touch of sadness that we would soon be going our own separate ways. It was also clear that most of us had an accumulated tiredness. But we had one last half day to work, and we had things to finish. We had one last reminder about safety; don’t rush, be careful on/under ladders and roofs where teammates are working, and watch your energy level.

Installing roof trusses over the front porch.

One crew finished installing siding. Another crew built a truss-like top for the front wall to fill in for a truss that had to be moved due to the front porch being foot longer than planned. Lynn and Jack continued sheeting the roof. Brett, an HFH homeowner, showed up to work and helped Brian lift roof decking up to me so I could hand it to Lynn and Jack. When they were far enough along, I nailed off the roof sheets with the air nailer. The Lindas finished the bedroom closet, installed the living room closet, and removed diagonal cross-bracing from the interior.

The house as far as we were able to build it.

11:00 AM came quickly and we packed up the tools, stacked unused materials, and picked up the site. The house was not closed in as the windows had not yet arrived on site, the front and rear hip roofs still needed to be sheeted, and the roof shingles had yet to be installed. But it was clearly a house, and it was structurally sound.

After lunch, which included a very nice salad, we all made a final check of the site and then returned to our rigs. Linda and several others headed to the laundry room and most of us started readying our rigs for departure the next morning.

Matt and Julie.

At 4:30 PM we started gathering for our caravan to Dave and Karen’s house in Big Horn just south of Sheridan. Dave is a founding member of the Eastern Bighorn HFH affiliate and the current treasurer. They gave us a thank you dinner and a comfortable place to sit, relax, and be together as a group one last time. The meal included several vegetable dishes, including grilled beets from their garden. Matt, the executive director of the Eastern Bighorn HFH affiliate, and his wife Julie were also there.

Wherever/whenever Escapees gather there are hugs all around, and so it was tonight. It was a nice way to cap off our first HFH build.

The view looking south from Dave and Karen’s back yard.

2013_07_19 (Fri) The 2nd To Last Day

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Today was the last full day of our 2-week build. Everyone was aware it, but held feelings at bay knowing we still had a lot of work to do and would have time tomorrow to come to terms with the end of our time together. At circle we were reminded of Steve’s parting safety advice, that accidents on HFH builds are most likely on the last few days while working on a ladder.

Kent and I built and set two beams for the front porch using six 12 foot long 2x12s. We cut them for length, ripped them for depth, and then notched the upper surface of the house end to fit a “pocket” atop three jack studs. We then glued them, clamped them together, and nailed them together using the air nailer. Finally, we drilled a hole in the bottom of each beam to receive the rebar from the top of the post. Once assembled we set them over the rebar, into the pockets on the front wall, and secured them. This took us all morning.

The front porch beams being glued up.

Nailing the front porch beams together.

The front porch beams set in place on top of the posts.

Other work was going on at the same time of course. A female crew cut batten strips to cover the joints where the siding panels meet. Jack and Linda finished cutting the truss tails on the east wall and a crew continued sheeting the roof in 4’x8′ sheets of 5/8ths OSB. Once the sheeting was down I finished nailing it off using the nail gun.

An all female crew cutting batten strips on the table saw.

Lynn and Jack installing the roof decking.

We called it a day and were packed and out of there by 2:00 PM. We headed directly to the Black Tooth Brewing Company and were joined by Lynn and Linda for a beer and two hours of conversation. Former AT&T managers, they retired a bit younger than some folks and taught scuba diving and underwater photography in the Caribbean and Hawaii. They started RVing in 1998 and were full-timers until recently. They have been active in HFH for years and have done many builds, including overseas and previous visits to Sheridan. Linda also ran the RV Care-A-Vanner desk at HFH headquarters in Americus, Georgia for several years. And they are just one couple on this team. Everyone on this build has had fascinating experiences and brings with them a willingness to share.

We got back to Peter Ds in time for the 4:30 PM social hour. Rick and his wife joined us around 5:30 PM. Rick is the president of the local HFH Board of Directors. The group finally split up around 6:45 PM.

We went back to our rig, got cleaned up, and finally had a bite of dinner around 7:45 PM. We then went to watch Brian play slow pitch softball again.

2013_07_18 (Thu) Progress And Some Evening Fun

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We found out in conversation last night that, at age 61, I appear to be the youngest person on our HFH RV CAV / SKP BOF team, and Linda is probably the youngest woman. Two of the men are close to being tied for “most senior” at age 77. Regardless of age I have been impressed with our productivity, but more so given this new information. The experience that comes with age often matches or exceeds youthful energy and brute strength. Our team has been safety conscious to a person. Each of us is aware of our own limitations and limits, and has kept a watchful eye on each other. There hasn’t been any misplaced youthful competition, just patient, persistent, focused effort, guided by the advantage of being able to think ahead many steps in the project because of the ability to look back and remember.

We convened at 7:30 AM. After circle one of our first tasks was to remove, rearrange, and reset six roof trusses. Brian pulled the nails on the hurricane clips. Kent and I then went up in the trusses to remove the bracing, which I cut out with a Sawzall one truss at a time. In the process I dropped a short piece of 2×4 bracing on my head and decided to start wearing my hard hat. We were joined by Lynn, Linda, Linda (we have two), and Jack so we could hand each truss down, move it over, and put it back up. Once the six trusses were reset, Kent and I aligned and secured the peaks (again) and re-installed the metal braces.

While the truss work was going on, a crew, worked on cutting off the east and west wall truss tails plumb as preparation for the eventual installation of the soffit and fascia. Another crew started installing the 4’x8′ finish siding. After helping with the trusses, a third crew started sheeting the roof with 4’x8′ 5/8ths OSB and the two Lindas built and installed closet walls. The more they worked together the more fun they seemed to have, and could be heard laughing all over the build site.

We went to lunch at 11:30 AM, and ended up having an extended lunch break as we waited for a mystery guest to arrive. It turned out to be the Sheridan mayor, Dave Kinskey, who was joined by a Deacon and one of the priests of the local Catholic Church that is sponsoring this build. They expressed their gratitude for our work and the mayor explained the unique housing challenges in Sheridan. Housing here is unusually expensive yet 50% of the wage earners make $20,000 a year or less. Dave also invited us to come downtown for the 3rd Thursday street gathering and offered to get us coupons for free beer from the local Black Tooth Brewing Company (a microbrewery) and ice cream from Dairy Queen.

By the time we got back to the job site the temperature and sun were too much for most of us and we packed up for the day. Mayor Dave stopped by Peter D’s and dropped off the coupons, which Linda and I delivered to our fellow team members. We traded away our DQ coupons and ended up with four free beer cards.

Sheridan WY 3rd Thursday event.

Today was the 3rd Thursday of the month, and that meant five blocks of Main Street were closed from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM for the street event that ran from 5 to 9. We got down there a little after 5, parked a few blocks away and walked up to the event area. Black Tooth Brewing Company had a tent so we used two of our cards. Linda had their Saddle Bronc Brown (an English brown style) and I had a Wagon Box Wheat. Linda likes beer, me not so much, especially if it has a lot of hops, but I liked the wheat beer; it was cold, light, refreshing, and free. BTW: Did you notice that we were walking around Main Street with beers in our hands? That doesn’t happen “back home.”

We walked the event and stopped on our way into the farmers market spur to listen to the band. The music was nice, and there were chairs for those who wanted to sit and listen. We also stopped and chatted with a wilderness preservation group and a couple from the local Democratic party. Yes, they have a few Democrats here. This was the first night for the farmers market, but it was mostly crafts with some bakery and other food products. As we saw in Gillette, farmers markets don’t open around her until later in July, and local produce comes later than that.

We found our way to the actual Black Tooth Brewing Company building and used our remaining cards for a second round. This time I had their Bombshell Blonde, seasonal golden ale. Mmmm, another good one. Linda had another dark brew, also a seasonal item, but we can’t recall the name and it is not on their website. This time we received the full pint specified on our cards. Linda was pretty sure this was the first time in 45 years she saw me fully consume two beers relatively close together.

We were done with the 3rd Thursday event by 7:00 PM, so we drove to Sheridan College south of town to watch Brian’s community men’s’ league softball team. We were joined there by Jan and Kent. Jan and Linda rooted for Brian with great enthusiasm.

2013_07_17 (Wed) Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

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Mornings are lovely here this time of year with 5:00 AM temperatures typically in the mid-to-upper 50’s and clear-to-partly cloudy skies. And so it was again today. I know, because I was up at 5:00 AM working on our blog and watching the sun rise.

Linda L. holding the tape at the truss peak.

We gathered at the Works site at 7:30 AM, had our circle, and went to work. Kent and I were joined by Lynn and Linda (the other one) and worked to correct the spacing of the roof truss peaks. The spacing between the peaks had gradually increased from rear to front so that the ones by the front wall were leaning 3″ towards the front of the house.

Bruce and Lynn adjusting the truss peaks spacing.

Linda held the free end of the tape measure on a common reference point while Lynn and I worked our way along the trusses on either side of the ridge, alternately measuring, aligning, and then nailing 16 foot 2x4s to the center upright of each truss to hold the peak in place. Kent worked from below passing tools up/down and using a board as a push stick and/or lever to help push the trusses into position and hold them while we nailed. It was slow, careful work, but we got it done before lunch.

Linda L., Lynn, and Bruce, adjusting the truss peaks

Angel and her two children.

This house is being built for Angel and her two children. As part of her “sweat equity” in the house, Angel organized the preparation of our lunches and got the food to the church kitchen and arranged on the buffet table.

Ron nailing hurricane clips.

Ron nailed hurricane clips all day and most of the rest of the team painted siding panels. The Lindas installed another closet header and the worked with Lynn and Jack to cut and install extensions for the north trusses.

Front porch posts and beams (not)

Kent and I were originally going to start sheeting the roof, but that had to wait for the truss extensions to be installed. We switched off and worked on installing the front porch posts and side beams. These are massive rough milled western Douglas fir (8×8 posts and 4×10 beams) pinned at the top by rebar inserted into drilled holes. We cut the posts to length and notched the top surface of the house end of the beams using a circular saw and a Sawzall, and cut the rebar with a hack saw. We cut and installed jack studs to hold the house ends of the beams. When we finally lifted the west beam into place we discovered it was about a foot short. Sigh.

A flurry of activity followed for the next hour as Brian figured out that the porch portion of the concrete slab was a foot longer than it was supposed to be, which placed the base pads for the posts a foot farther from the house than they should be. Kent and I offered some suggestions for how to fix the problem beyond the obvious one of getting two new beams, but even that fix had the downside of a 3-week delay and another $300 in expense. Brian conferred with Matt and Sandy (the architect), both of whom came to the site. In the end they decided to go with a solution Kent and I had suggested of constructing beams out of 2×10’s sandwiched together. They decided to use 2×12’s and have us cut them down, but that would have to wait for Brian to get material on site tomorrow morning.

Linda F., Jack, and Lynn, extending and plumbing the north truss tails.

We had agreed several days ago to have a pot luck social this evening at 5:30 PM, with happy hour starting at 5:00 PM instead of our usual 4:30 PM. Brian came, as did the folks from Castle Rock CO. It was a warm evening (in more ways than one), and there were several dishes that Linda and I could eat. Linda made the garbanzo bean salad, which tastes remarkably like egg salad, and is a favorite dish of mine.

2013_07_16 (Tue) New Building Experiences

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I was up early as I wanted to post a couple more blog entries while there was less demand for the RV park’s WiFi/Internet connectivity. I also like to have at least some of my morning coffee well in advance of going to the HFH job site.

Linda L and John filling in the west foundation trench.

We arrived a little before the 7 AM start time agreed to yesterday and some team members wondered why we were starting so early? (Our team is very cohesive, but is clearly not of one mind when it comes to start times.) When we were done with circle many team members grabbed shovels and rakes and filled in the trenches around the foundation and smoothed out the soil.

The house wrapped in Tyvek.

All framed up plumb.

The NW corner of the roof is “hip”

I worked with Kent installing trusses for the hip roof at the north (rear) end of house. We got that done just before the lunch break, but it wasn’t easy, and was not something either of us had ever done before. With help from Lynn, we set the main double truss and then installed the two hip trusses that run out through the corners where the side walls meet the back wall. We then installed eight smaller half trusses to compete the roof and ceiling structure.

Bruce nailing hip trusses.

Hurricane clip.

The two Linda’s teamed up to start anchoring all the trusses to the east wall using hurricane clips. This was a difficult job because of the short nails that are used, the awkward angles at which they must be hammered, and the fact that all of the work must be done on ladders. They also built and installed a header for a closet opening which required the use of the circular saw.

An all female crew bending the foundation flashing.

Another all female crew painting the siding panels.

A crew of men was asked to go help Matt retrieve a variety of materials donated by Wells Fargo Bank, take them to the ReStore, and unload them. Some of this material had been moved the other day, but large, heavy items remained. Many of the other women team members finished wrapping the house with Tyvek and then put the first cost of a deep crimson red paint on the loose siding.

After lunch Kent and I worked on truing up the main trusses. We climbed up, in, around, and through a maze of trusses and spacer bars to un-nail, position, and re-nail bracing to hold the truss peaks plumb with uniform spacing. In spite of the pleasant temperature and continued cloudiness, by 2:00 PM everyone was ready to call it a day.

Looking back on the day, a lot was accomplished both on and off site, and a lot of it was done on ladders. I recalled that one of the last safety reminders we got from Steven before he left was that that biggest safety hazard on an HFH build is the use of a ladder. We did not have any accidents or injuries today, so that along made it a good day.

Back at the rig, Linda prepared a pot of her wonderful vegan chili while I made a phone call to the FMCA offices in Cincinnati, Ohio to complete our registration for the GLAMARAMA rally in Goshen, Indiana in September. FMCA was updating their servers last week when I tried to register online, and our transaction did not compete successfully.

We went to the social at 4:30 PM and stayed until 6:00 PM when most of us returned to our rigs to have dinner and settle in for the evening. As usual, we went for an evening stroll around the campground and enjoyed the cloudy, cool, breezy conditions.

2013_07_15 (Mon) HFH Week 2

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It was 66 degrees at 7:00 AM this morning. Very pleasant, but it is usually in the upper 50’s at that hour, so we knew we were in for another hot day. The forecast high was 93 degrees F.

View of Bighorn Mountains to the SW on our drive to the Works site from Peter D’s RV Park.

Although reduced in numbers, our team reconvened at 8:00 AM to continue working on the Works house. We were only scheduled to go until noon today, but we had significant tasks to try to accomplish. First was getting the walls plumb and square followed by setting the trusses and starting to wrap the house in Tyvek.

Trusses laid out and ready to lift into place.

We learned at “circle” that 4-6 more volunteers would be joining us for the morning. They turned out to be a group of four, but were an experienced group from Castle Rock Colorado, and they worked right in to the tasks at hand.

Trusses being nailed in place.

Linda and I nailed some wall bracing in place, but we quickly had more bodies than we had tasks or room to work, so I took up my semi-official photographer duties for a while. Posey , John, Linda and I then went in Brian’s HFH truck to the Poplar Grove site to fetch the 5/8″ OSB roof sheathing. It was a big stack and if took us two trips.

We learned that being idle on an HFH build is a minor “sin” unless you are “taking a break”, so Linda and I grabbed a couple of shovels and started back-filling the small trenches along the east edge of the slab. The sun was very hot, made worse by the reflection of light and diminution of breeze from the Tyvek, so we found a shady spot at the northwest corner of the house and moved dirt around until Jack whistled for the team to quit for the day.

We did not get lunch today as it was originally scheduled as a day off and no one expected Angel to arrange food on short notice. Brian worked with the new crew after lunch to finish setting most of the trusses. Tomorrow he is supposed to move them to the Woodland house to develop a final punch list and get it wrapped up. That house has been under construction for almost a year.

It ‘s starting to look like a house.

Although not our personally most productive day, the team accomplished most of what it set out to do. Tomorrow we will finish setting trusses and wrapping the house and should start sheeting the roof. There is still a lot work to do at the Poplar Grove site, but no indication that any of us are going to work there.

When we got back to our coach we had a light lunch. We were both surprisingly tired but opted for different solutions. I took a nap while Linda went for a four mile walk to downtown Sheridan and back.

Jan stopped by around 3:00 PM to see if I was available to work on their Internet connectivity. She and Kent have a WiFi Ranger X (WFR-X) and it has the same web browser control panel as our WiFi Ranger Mobile (WFR-M), so that was a plus for me. I suspected that the SSID and Password for the WFR-X followed the same pattern as the WFR-M, but we found the instruction sheet and confirmed that. They also had a Motorola cable modem (that they had used at a fixed location). It wasn’t hooked up correctly, but it didn’t matter as cable modems are generally of no use in a mobile lifestyle. I was able to connect their iPad mini to the WFR-X and reconfigure the password. We then got Jan’s iPhone and Mac connected to the WFR-X. Finally, we got the WFR-X connected to one of the public/open/free WiFi networks in the RV park and from there to the Internet.

I suspect that their setup is fairly typical of full-time and extended-time RVers, for whom connectivity has become a significant part of the lifestyle. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, even cameras, often two of each, create a complex arsenal of devices with multiple methods of connectivity, including cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Even if you have some understanding of this technology, this is a complex environment that requires active management by the user. Devices like the WiFi Ranger products (X, Go, Mobile, etc.) appear to add to this complexity initially, but properly configured and used, actually simplify the user experience.

After dinner we watched an hour-long presentation by Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. on the leading causes of death and the preventative and curative effects of a Whole-Food Plant-Based Diet. You can find it at http://nutritionfacts.org but if you are not interested in changing how you eat in order to be healthier, you probably shouldn’t watch it as it will just make you unhappy.

2013_07_14 (Sun) Housekeeping Chores

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We have had an exciting but fairly intense week, including our ‘grand auto tour’ of the northern Wyoming Bighorn Mountains, so we had decided in advance that today would be a low key, stay at home day for us. Besides, there are some things that living in an RV does not change. At the top of the list (for us at least) are grocery shopping, doing laundry, and paying bills. (Some RVers avoid grocery shopping by eating all of their meals out. They usually have the largest, fanciest kitchens.) Tank dumping is not to be overlooked, of course, and we tend to throw that into the mix on a chore day if we are stationary for a while, such as we are at the moment. Taking care of our website/blog has become a daily task, but does not rise to the level of a chore as it is in no way necessary.

We had two rigs and three members of our team leave this morning. Steve, our intrepid co-leader, told the team on day 1 that he had a long-standing family obligation the second week of the build and would be leaving us. Bruce and Pam also had to leave unexpectedly as they got a call on Friday that their daughter, who has Multiple Sclerosis, had taken a turn for the worse. Every member of a team quickly becomes a unique piece of a puzzle, and the premature departure of these three leaves a hole that is felt as a genuine loss. Steve had made us feel welcome in a group where we might not have automatically fit in and worked with both of us at the job site. I had the pleasure of working closely with Bruce on some trickier aspects of the build and appreciated his knowledge, skill, and patience. We had a chance to say our “so long for now”s to Steve last night, but we did not get a chance to say goodbye to Bruce and Pam.

Our driver-side neighbors, Marvin, Leo, and their families, pulled out mid-morning. They had helped us early last week deal with our awnings when the wind suddenly came up very strong. By early afternoon there were quite a few vacant sites. We went to get groceries, but took a few minutes to first find and drive through Kendrick Park. On our way to Albertson’s we passed the Safeway so we stopped there instead. The store was nice enough but smaller, and their selection was not as extensive as Albertson’s, which has become our preferred grocery store out here.

In the course of the afternoon new campers arrived including a RoadTrek Class B that pulled in to the site on our driver’s side. They had just come from Cody via US-14 and were heading on to Gillette and then Sundance and Devil’s Tower, the opposite of what we have done the last four weeks.

We had our 4:30 PM SKP social, although it started a little later and was a bit smaller, with just me, Linda, Jack, Shirley, Kent, and Jan. Kathy, Mara, and Leota returned from shopping and other adventures, and Kathy and Mara joined the social until we all went home to have dinner. We compared notes about our program selling efforts the previous evening at the Sheridan Wyo Rodeo. Linda and I sold $201 dollars but Kathy and Mara sold $500, so they covered the Rodeo’s donation to the local HFH affiliate all by themselves. Good job.

After dinner we turned the TV on for the first time since we arrived in Sheridan a week ago as Linda wanted to watch Masterpiece Theater. We scanned for OTA signals with the antenna pointed in three different directions and finally found the local Wyoming PBS station, and most of the others, on the 3rd try. I watched out of the corner of my eye while I worked on uploading blog posts.

2013_07_13 (Sat) The House Takes Shape

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Our SKP HFH BOF RV CAV team.

Our HFH team was back on the job this morning at 8:00 AM; our last day as a full team as three of our members would be leaving tomorrow. Three members went to work at the ReStore and most of the rest of the team worked on building the 76 foot long west wall. Linda and I worked with the air nailer to tie all of the partition walls together and to the east wall. Four of the partition walls were built 3/4 of an inch short (floor to ceiling) so we cut 1×4 fillers and nailed those to the top plates. We were able to stand the west wall up, tie it to the front and rear walls, and temporarily secure it with diagonal braces before lunch, a good morning’s work. But it was hotter and more humid than we expected, and the whole team was ready to get inside and have lunch in the air-conditioning.

Angel has been coordinating and staging our lunches at the Catholic Church that is a very short walk from the building site. Today was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and watermelon, as well as apple and cherry strudel. She brought two 6″ veggie subs for me and Linda.

After lunch everyone worked to start getting the walls plumb and square. We made some progress on this, but called it quits at 2:00 PM due to the heat and the fact that twelve of us had volunteered to sell programs at the Sheridan Wyo Rodeo starting at 5:00 PM. In return for our service the local HFH affiliate is receiving a $500 donation from the rodeo.

The temperature peaked around 90 degrees F in mid-afternoon, but by 5:00 PM clouds had moved in and a strong breeze was blowing. Linda and I worked at the Rodeo from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM selling programs and day sheets. We were stationed at the north end of the main grandstand and were able to view the opening ceremonies, either directly or on the jumbotron screen. We also got to see the finals of the Indian Relay Races, a wild event in which five riders at a time circle the track three times using a different horse each time and riding bareback. The horses are retired thoroughbreds, and just one step shy of being wild. As the main rodeo events began we returned our unsold programs, aprons, and cash. We walked the midway and then left the fairgrounds in search of French Fries as today was National French Fry Day. We ended up at MacDonald’s as we did not want to sample the local bar and grill scene on the last night of the Wyo Rodeo.

2013_07_12 (Fri) The Bighorn Mountains

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Our normal work schedule for HFH is Tuesday through Saturday. The schedule was changed due to the activities connected to the Sheridan Wyo Rodeo (pancake breakfast, bed races, parade, etc.) and we had today off in exchange for working next Monday. Angel was throwing a Bar-B-Que after the parade and our HFH team was invited for lunch. One of the challenges we face when doing group activities is that our food choices are often limited, and sometimes non-existent, unless we bring something. Such were the food offerings today.

The change in schedule was fortuitous for us as the closing on the sale of our old house was scheduled for 10:00 AM EDT today back in Michigan (8:00 AM MDT in Sheridan). Our daughter handled the signing of documents on our behalf, but we wanted to be available by phone or e-mail in case anything came up. Everything was arranged properly, and shortly after 9:00 AM (our local time) we got the “thumbs up” that the transaction was concluded.

Linda and I opted out of the Wyo Rodeo activities and went for an all-day drive through the northern Wyoming Bighorn Mountains. US-14 and US-14A are National Scenic Byways that we wanted to see, but we had been told, and read, that they were not friendly for large RVs and should be avoided by larger/heavier rigs in particular.

Coming into the Bighorn Mountains on US-14

US-14 connects Ranchester and Dayton, Wyoming on the east side of the Bighorn Mountains to Greybull, Wyoming on the west side. It has numerous switchbacks and some 7% and 8% grades, but is used by semis, as we saw today. We also saw four full-size Prevost buses (H3-45’s) during the day, so we know vehicles that size can use this route if they have enough power to go uphill and good enough brakes to come back down.

US-14A warning sign at Burgess Junction.

Part way across US-14, traveling east to west, is Burgess Junction. US-14A starts at Burgess Junction and goes north and then west to Lovell, Wyoming. It has numerous warnings at both ends and along its full length for semi’s, motorhomes, and any other vehicles pulling trailers. Like US-14, it has switchbacks and tight turns, but the road is good and seemed wide enough to be drivable. In fact we saw a couple of semi’s along the way (climbing eastbound and going real slow.) The major hazard is a 13 mile stretch on the west side of the range that features long stretches of 10% grade going downhill when traveling west. There are several mandatory brake check areas, and a couple of runaway truck stops, which always give one pause for thought.

Observation Point on US-14A.

The summit of this drive was Observation Point at 9430 feet ASL, between Burgess Junction and the turnoff to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark. The Observation Point turnout provides the first view of the Bighorn Valley that lies between the Bighorn Mountains and the Absaroka Range on the eastern edge of Yellowstone N. P. Clouds were blowing up the side of the mountains from below us, and it was refreshingly cool.

View SW from Observation Point.

Open range above 9000 feet!

Approaching the Medicine Wheel turnoff. FAA facility on top of mountain.

The car, with Linda at the wheel, handled the road just fine. Besides the scenery, which was great, one of the reasons we went this way was to see the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, an archeological site that is still in use by Native Americans today. To get to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel site, we took a steep, narrow, curvy, dirt road 1.5 miles to a U. S. Forest Service station. Four-wheel drive is not necessary, but four-wheel stop is.

USFS station at the Medicine Wheel.

From the station parking lot there are two gravel roads, one to the FAA facility on top of the mountain you see driving in, and another one that goes to the actual Medicine Wheel. The road to the Wheel is closed to all vehicles except those displaying handicapped tags, so we hiked the final 1.5 miles. The USFS station is at 9500 feet ASL and there is some up and down before reaching the Wheel at 9,956 feet ASL, which makes it the highest medicine wheel in North America. The sun was intense when not obscured by clouds and parts of the road were exposed to wind, which was strong. The air temperature was very cool, but we walked briskly and were comfortable.

A view from the road hiking to the Medicine Wheel.

The final climb to the Medicine Wheel.

Yup, we were pretty high up.

Note: We forgot to bring jackets. Rule number one about any mountains, always bring adequate clothing. Rule #2; wear adequate hiking boots or shoes. Rule #3; bring water. We missed on all three today, L but I was recalled having learned some years ago in wilderness survival training that most cases of hypothermia occur between 40 and 60 degrees F, particularly when people get wet (or sweaty) in a windy situation.

An aerial view of the Medicine Wheel (from a display board).

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel is an archeological site because its construction and initial use pre-dates any written record or oral history of the area. The best estimate is that it was constructed around 1200 C.E. by people who had subsequently disappeared from the region long before “modern” Indian tribes moved in. It is made of rocks placed on the ground in the shape of a wheel 80 feet in diameter with 28 spokes, making it the largest medicine wheel in North America. It has a rock cairn at the center hub, and six smaller cairns spaced around the perimeter. Its origin and purpose are unknown, but the nature of the site suggests that it served both astronomical and spiritual functions, and it is the later that continues today.

Approaching the Medicine Wheel.

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel is worth the trouble it takes to get there, but like many archeological sites, you might be underwhelmed if you don’t understand what you are going to see and appreciate when/where/how/why it was built.

The spokes and cairns of the Medicine Wheel.

The view to the west from the Medicine Wheel.

Besides the Wheel itself, we experienced being above the tree line and above the base of some clouds. The views were magnificent in all directions, and although it was hazy to the west, we could clearly see the Bighorn River valley spread out below, and the Absaroka mountains of the Yellowstone N. P. area on the other side of the valley over 100 miles away.

Bruce at Medicine Wheel.

As we backed out of our parking spot I heard a loud screech. I got out of the car and checked each wheel position as Linda moved the car backwards and forwards. The screech was coming from the passenger-side rear disc brakes. I tapped on the caliper with my hammer and gravel fell onto the inside of the wheel rim. I repeated this until I stopped getting gravel. Linda tested the brakes again, and they were fine, another example of a potential problem resolved. We pulled out and headed for Lovell, Wyoming, the western terminus of US-14A.

Brake check ahead on US-14A!

The drive from the Medicine Wheel turnoff going west is where US-14A becomes a challenging drive with a long stretch of 10% downhill grade. There are brake check turnouts, and runaway truck ramps, and just to make matters more interesting, as if the scenery weren’t distracting enough, it’s open range.

10% grade on US-14A!

More open range on US-14A!

As we came out of the mountains into the Bighorn River valley, we left the Bighorn National Forest and entered the Bighorn Recreation area. The river is obviously dammed somewhere and we crossed the reservoir and headed towards Lovell.

Bighorn River Recreation Area Reservoir.

Before we got to Lovell we stopped at the Bighorn Recreation Area Visitor Center, and made some follow-up phone calls pertaining to our house sale. By then it was almost 2:00 PM, so we found a Blimpies Sub Shop in Lovell and split a veggie sub. Wyoming 37 heads north out of Lovell along Bighorn Canyon, which we would have liked to see, but our return route to Sheridan was via US-14, so we took US-310 south to Greybull, Wyoming. Although not marked as a scenic drive, this stretch of US-310 was very interesting. Except along the Bighorn River and Shell Creek the valley is arid and reminded us of the dessert southwest; stark but beautiful in its own, otherworldly way.

Heading into Shell Canyon.

We headed east on US-14, and stopped in Greybull to change drivers as Linda’s right hip and leg were bothering her. (This tends to happen if she drives for too long.) We crossed the river and started climbing back up into the Bighorn Mountains. As we got into the mountains we found ourselves following Shell Creek along the floor of Shell Canyon. This stretch of the highway was very dramatic, and the roadway was somewhat narrower with tighter blind curves. Eventfully the road left the floor of the canyon and climbed up the sides of the mountains, getting more and more dramatic with each bend in the road, the canyon walls and mountain peaks still looming high above us.

Shell Canyon.

Shell Falls Visitor Center.

On both US-14 and US-14A we often had the road to ourselves, and even the scenic pullouts were often empty. Thus we were surprised when we came upon the Shell Falls Visitor Center. The large parking lot was almost full and the place was crawling with people. (So that’s where everybody was!). We pulled in anyway and watched a Trafalgar Tours Prevost H3-45 disgorge a large number of sightseers. (We saw four 45 foot tour buses on US-14, so large RVs can obviously do this route as long as they have the necessary power and braking.) We waited in line to get our “passport” stamped and then hiked around the site, which was actually quite stunning.

Nearing the top of Shell Canyon.

After leaving Shell Falls, the road continue to climb and the canyon eventually gave way to the broad mountain meadows that cover the top of this part of the Bighorn Mountains. The grade on US-14 reaches 7 – 8% in places, but takes more miles to change elevation than US-14A does.

On top of the Bighorn Mountains (almost).

We went through Granite Pass at 9033 feet ASL, and started our descent towards Burgess Junction, and eventually Dayton, Ranchester, and finally back to Sheridan. The whole trip was approximately 240 miles and took about 9 hours.

Although it was 6:00 PM when we got back to Peter D’s RV Park, four members of our HFH team were having an extended social hour so we poured a couple of glasses of wine and joined them. Dinner could wait.

2013_07_11 (Thu) We Finally Got To Use “Guns”

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The team receiving the daily building instructions from Brian at “circle.”

The forecast for today was partly cloudy with 60% humidity and a high of 100 degrees F. Most of the team was at the Works site and ready to go by 7:00 AM. The main task today was to set all of the interior partition walls, nail them to the (concrete) floor, and tie them together. Additional work included building the front wall and beginning to assemble the west side wall.

Assembled partition walls ready to be installed.

There was other work, of course. At 9:00 AM six of us went over to the other building site at Popular Grove to load the roof trusses for the Works house onto a 2-ton flatbed truck.

Retrieving roof trusses from the Poplar Grove building site.

The roof trusses.

When the truck got back to the Works site, everyone pitched in to unload and stack the trusses.

Unloading the roof trusses.

When it was time to install the partition walls, I volunteered to use the RAMSET to nail them to the floor. This tool is a gun that takes special hardened nails and drives them using a .22 caliber blank. This RAMSET was a single shot model that had a pump action for the firing chamber. With the chamber open, a nail is loaded into the barrel and then a .22 blank into the firing chamber. The pump slide is pulled back to close the firing chamber and cock the firing pin. The tip of the nail must be pressed into the wood to release the safety interlock. The trigger can then be pulled to drive the nail through the board and into the concrete floor. Sliding the pump forward opens the firing chamber and un-chambers the spent shell so it can be removed. We try to keep our worksite clean as we go, so I put the spent shells in a tool belt pouch rather than ejecting them onto the floor.

Installing the interior partition walls.

After lunch a couple of our team members went to work at the ReStore, and seven others went to help Matt load a trailer and pickup truck with donated materials from a closet organizer company that went out of business. That left half of our team at the Works site, some of whom (including Linda) continued working on the 76 foot long west wall which is being built in three sections.

Bruce connecting interior partition walls together.

The partition walls still needed to be pinned together, so John, Bruce (the other one) and I worked on that. Brian finally got the air-powered framing nailer and air compressor out for this task as we had to hold pieces in alignment and then nail them at awkward angles while standing on a ladder. I did the ladder work with the nail gun, so that was my second use of a “gun” today. Now I really feel like I am in the west!

Discussing the plans with Sandy, the architect.

Discussing the plans with Sandyy, the architect.

We wrapped up at the Works site by 2:00 PM as planned but were asked to join the rest of the team at the ReStore to help unload the donated material. That made for a longer day, and everyone was beat by the time we finished. But we accomplished a lot, and that felt good.

We did not go for a walk as we were very tired and I had to sanitize our fresh water system as the water in the fresh water tank had turned rather foul. We try to travel with fresh water “just in case” we need to boondock or pull of to the side of the road and use the on-board facilities. What we have discovered, however, is that the water can only be left in there for so long, especially with long, not days, before it goes bad. I started the sanitizing process around 3:00 PM.

Sanitizing a fresh water system on a RV involves the dumping, adding, and pumping of water along with the use of chlorine (household bleach) and the removal/replacement of carbon filters, which will be overwhelmed and ruined by running chlorine through them. The process takes time and uses (wastes?) water because the chlorine has to be diluted to the proper concentration (1/4 cup per 15 gallons tank capacity), flushed into the fresh water tank from an empty filter housing, circulated through all of the plumbing, and allowed to sit for hours before being rinsed out with fresh water. First I had to dump the old, gnarly water. It’s still considered fresh water, so it’s OK to dump it on the ground. We are lucky in that our 125 gallon fresh water tank has a 1.5″ RV dump valve installed near the bottom that discharges through the floor of the bay and can be used to drain the tank relatively quickly.

We do not have any way to pour chlorine directly into the tank, so I have to shut off the water, relieve the pressure, unscrew the inline filter housing, remove the carbon filter, pour the pre-determined amount of chlorine into the housing, screw the housing back onto its base, and start filling the tank by opening the diverter valve and adding water to the tank. I then have to use the house water pump to fill every inch of plumbing in the rig, and let the diluted chlorine solution sit for 3 to 4 hours and do its magic. I know I have chlorine in all of the plumbing when I can smell it coming out of all of the faucets.

By 4:30 PM most of us had recovered sufficiently from our long, hot work day to gather at Kathy’s motorhome for our SKP social. We were joined by Russell, a fellow SKP from Texas, as a SKP happy hour is always open to any SKPs who are around. We’ve met one other SKP on our evening walks, but he did not attend.

We had a light dinner of Masala Lentil Pilaf. By the time we were done it was 8 PM and still warm, so we skipped our evening walk. The chlorine solution had been in the plumbing for about four hours so I dumped the fresh tank (again) and refilled it with good water from the campground through our sediment filter, water softener, and carbon filter, which I had re-installed in the inline housing. The Shur-Flo pump was then used to flush all of the lines out with fresh water.

We finally took our showers and Linda headed off to bed while I replied to e-mails and worked on this blog post.

BTW: The Shur-Flo 4048 water pump is working very well, providing better pressure and flow than we get from the campground connection. Given that the pump is working well, it us our plan to start using the water from the tank to keep it from going bad and refill it as needed. There is also the issue of having water pressure applied to the coach when we are not here. Whether it’s the shore hose or the on-board pump, having the water system pressurized poses a risk of flooding and water damage if the system develops a leak. In general, the system should not be pressurized unless it is being used and can be monitored.

2013_07_10 (Wed) It Takes Studs To Frame A House

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It was all hammers on deck today. Because the afternoon high temperature was forecast to be in the 90’s, most of us started work at 7:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM so we could be done by 2:00 PM.

Part of our Sheridan HFH RV CAV team taking a break.

We split up into smaller crews. One of them covered the floor slab with Tyvek house wrap to protect it. Several crews then laid out and assembled the 76 foot long east wall of the house while other crews cut, laid out, and assembled interior partition walls.

Brian, our local HFH construction supervisor.

There’s another guy on our team named Bruce, who retired after 40 years as a builder, and I worked with him to lay sill seal and install metal foundation flashing. The team delayed going to lunch in order to raise and secure the east wall, which was something to see, with all but two of us involved (and those two were taking pictures).

Raising the 76′ long east wall.

After lunch we raised the rear wall and tied it to the east wall. The exterior walls sit on wood sill plates, so they were anchored using 16 penny nails nailed the old-fashioned way (with hammers) like all of our framing so far. By 2:00 PM we were ready to call it quits for the day, packed up, and returned to our rigs.

This is where the hats go during lunch.

Most of our team decided a couple of days ago to attend the Sheridan Wyo Rodeo this evening, so we did not have our usual 4:30 social. Linda and I did not attend the rodeo and had a quiet evening at home instead. Linda did a load of laundry while I continued to edit and post blog entries and discover new things about WordPress, which is what we use to create our website and blog.

2013_07_09 (Tue) Let’s Get To “Work”

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Today was the first day of our SKP team’s HFH RV Care-A-Vanner build–our reason for being in Sheridan–and our first day of our first HFH build ever! We were all eager to get started and convened at the project on Works street at 7:45AM, along with Brian (construction supervisor) and Matt (executive director) from the local HFH affiliate. “Circle” started promptly at 8:00 AM. This is a HFH tradition and protocol that includes announcements, safety reviews, project discussion, assignments, and a short devotional (participation optional).

Studying the blueprints.

We have a crew of 18 that includes a number of people with building and HFH experience, so teams were quickly assembled and working. The “Works” house is a 14 foot wide by 76 foot long “shotgun” house; one story on a very thick slab that includes a radiant heating system. The slab was already poured and cured with various pipes sticking out of it, and the lumber to frame and sheet the house was piled neatly at the back of the lot. Linda and I volunteered to work on grinding and polishing the slab, which will be the finished floor of the house once it is sealed.

Before we started working Nancy and Angel showed up. Nancy is the local HFH office/ReStore manager. Angel is the mother of two children, one with special needs, and they are the “partner family” for whom this house is being built. It was touching to hear her talk about how much this house will mean to her family. The property for the Works house was obtained from the local Catholic Church where Angel is a parishioner (I think). It is located on Works Street.

A group of eight young AmeriCorps volunteers has been doing HFH work in Sheridan the last couple of weeks, including work at this site. Today was their last day working on the Sheridan projects and they showed up around 9:00 AM to help and wrapped up just before lunch.

The building begins.

Linda and I worked all day grinding and polishing the concrete slab, with additional help towards the end. Armin, an AmeriCorps volunteer from St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands, worked with us in the morning. The rest of our crew split up into smaller teams and spent the day cutting wood and assembling walls.

Safety is foremost on a HFH build, and Steve frequently reminded us to be careful, take breaks, and stay hydrated. Lunch was provided and included lasagna, salad, bread, and cookies along with lemonade, iced tea, and vitamin water (donated by Coca-Cola). We had salad, and it was good.

By 3:00 PM it was getting warm and we were all getting tired, but it was a good tired, having been a productive day. We cleaned up the site and returned to our rigs, which are only a mile from where we are working.

After cleaning ourselves up, we gathered at 4:30 PM for our traditional SKP social hour. Everyone bought their own beverage of choice, and many brought snacks to share. By 6:00 PM the beverages and snacks were gone and we all returned to our RVs for dinner. By the time we finished eating it had cooled off outside, so we went for a walk as we do most evenings, weather permitting.

2013_07_08 (Mon) A Day To Get Ready

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The historic Sheridan Inn.

Our nominal HFH work schedule is Tuesday through Saturday, so we had today available to do whatever we wanted/needed to do. The Sheridan visitor center is close by so we went there early to get information and a walking tour map of downtown. Sheridan has more than 50 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, many from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

Buffalo Bill Cody hung out here and interviewed acts for his Wild West show on the porch.

Just coincidently, the Sheridan WYO Rodeo is taking place this week (it’s a big deal), so there is a lot of signage and commerce related to that. Accommodations are hard come by, and a bit pricier, in the area because of the rodeo. Fortunately our spots at Peter D’s were pre-arranged far in advance and at a slight discount. We were asked to contribute $20/day towards the $32 cost of our site, and the local HFH affiliate picked up the difference.

Our walking tour done, we found the local Albertson’s grocery store using the Point Of Interest feature on our Garmin 465T GPS. (This is the GPS we use in the car. We can use it as a handheld unit, but we rarely do. We have a DeLorme handheld GPS that we use for hiking and geocaching. We use a Rand-McNally RV GPS in the motorhome.)

The Mint Bar. “Meet me at the Mint” is what the locals say. Lots of bars in town, not too many wine stores.

Besides a few grocery items, we were looking for some wine. The Albertson’s in Gillette had a separate, attached store, but the one in Sheridan did not sell beer, wine, or liquor. In this county you can only buy alcoholic beverages at a “liquor store.” There was a small one a few doors down from Albertson’s, so we went there.

Back at the rig I continued working on my blog posts until it was time to go to the 4:30 PM social at Steven Gullette’s trailer. A glass of wine and finger snacks with our new(est) friends; RVing is a good life.

For dinner, Linda made a flatbread pizza with caramelized onions, peppers, olives, kale, mushrooms, garlic, and a touch of balsamic vinegar. There were severe storms in the area that we were tracking using several weather apps on our smartphones, but none that appeared to be a concern for us. Before she got the pizza in the oven, the wind came up very suddenly and flipped up the front arm on our large driver-side awning. We scrambled outside to retrieve the ladder and poles needed to stow the awnings, and were assisted by Marvin and Leo from the motorhome just to our west. Linda hung on to the patio awning strap (barely) while we got the driver-side awning straightened out and stowed. We then ganged up on the patio awning and got it stowed. I then stowed the two small awnings. The wind in Wyoming is constant and can get very strong very suddenly. Hot, bright sunshine notwithstanding, we may just leave our awnings up for the duration of our visit.

The potential crisis averted, Linda finished assembling the pizza and baked it using the convection bake feature of the microwave oven. She bought a flexible silicone baking disk at Escapade and has been using it to great success. The pizza was fabulous; another example of how she is developing the ability to improvise dishes based on ingredients (G-BOMBS) that are the staples of our way of eating (WFPB). (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds. We also let G stand for Grains.)

It was still light after dinner, so we went for a ride to locate the two build sites and see a bit more of Sheridan. We found the county fairgrounds where the Sheridan Wyo Rodeo will take place and saw a magnificent sunset from there. We also found Kendrick Park, which has a wild animal section with Bison and Elk, but couldn’t find the entrance. The Kendrick family was prominent in the founding and development of Sheridan, and a number of buildings in town bear the “K” which was their mark.

2013_07_07 (Sun) A Day Of Transition

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Today was our last day at the CAM-PLEX in Gillette, Wyoming. John & Cheryl pulled out at 6:15 AM, so we did not get to see them off. We had a leisurely morning prepping the rig for travel, and pulled out of the Boxelder RV Park around 10:15. Our destination was Peter D’s Campground in Sheridan, Wyoming, where would be joining nine other rigs (16 people) for a two week Habitat For Humanity RV Care-A-Vanner build coordinated through the HFH BOF of The Escapees RV Club.

The 103 mile drive was “high plains scenic”, and the first glimpse of the Bighorn Mountains was exciting. The terrain was rolling and some of the grades were steep, albeit not steep enough to require special signage. The last 30 miles of the trip one of the pyrometer gauges (Left) started exhibiting a new behavior. On downhill grades, both pyros drop to the bottom of the gauge (300 deg F) as the engine is using very little fuel and getting lots of cooling. As I started up the next grade, the “R” pyro would instantly start to rise as the engine burned more furl, but the “L” pyro would sit on 300 for 3 – 10 seconds and then jump up to and indicate a temperature close to the “R”. (Note: the left pyro has always indicated about 150 – 200 deg F less than the right one.)

We arrived at Peter D’s RV Park around 12:30 PM. Peter D’s is easily accessed from I-90. It is not a fancy place, but it is nice with clean restrooms/showers and laundry room. The sites are a bit narrow, but they are all pull-through with full hookups and 20/30/50 amp power. Out site was close to level and long enough for our bus and car.

I was a little concerned about the pyro readings, so I e-mailed my mobile mechanic and three fellow bus nuts, to see if they had any suggestions.

Before we left Gillette, Nick Russell gave us a bundle of latest issue of The Gypsy Journal to distribute during our travels, so we dropped off copies at the campground office.

Our HFH RV CAV / SKP HFH BOF team gathered at Jack & Shirley Krohn’s Airstream Sovereign trailer at 3:30 PM for the initial team orientation, led by Steven Gullette. We were joined by Matt, the Executive Director of the Sheridan HFH affiliate, and Brian, the construction supervisor for our builds. We learned that we would be working on two different houses, both within a mile of Peter D’s. We had a late addition to the team, so we will have 11 rigs and 18 people.

Our HFH RV CAV / SKP BOF team opening dinner.

We gathered at the Krohn’s again at 5:00 PM for the pot-luck welcome social. Matt brought a grill and the meat and team members brought side dishes. A bit to our surprise, there were several things we could eat (besides the dish we brought). We were barely finished eating when a thunderstorm blew in and we had to gather up our stuff, head back to our rigs, and secure them against the coming storm. At that point we hunkered down for the evening.

BTW: The Rescue Tape holding the two halves of the roof-mounted searchlight worked just fine at highway speeds.

2013_07_06 (Sat) Our Last Full Day In Gillette

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We went on a snipe hunt this morning. Nick Russell had mentioned a Gillette Farmers Market in his blog post, so Linda looked it up and got the address. Because of the way we eat, Farmers Markets are a real bonus for us when we can get to them. We skipped breakfast and drove to the location, and found … nothing. Nada. Not a farmer (or market) in sight. Surely Nick wouldn’t lead us astray? He and Terry said they were headed there themselves. Out came the smartphones (both of them) and we started Googling away. Ahhh, the market starts on July 20th. This was Just another example of the emotional roller coaster of extended/full-time RVing. But roller coasters are exciting, and the unexpectedness keeps you on your toes, presenting opportunities for problem-solving and unplanned discoveries.

One of our favorite statues in downtown Gillette, WY

We decided to drive to downtown Gillette and walk around. It was still early, and a holiday weekend, so the shops were not open yet and Main Street was deserted. Downtown Gillette has a nice collection of bronze statues that we enjoyed viewing as we strolled main street. We discovered the 311 Restaurant and studied the menu in the window. If we were going to dine out, this looked the place to go. We passed a bakery/coffee shop that was closed, although their signs suggested that they should be open. Someone else must have had the same impression, and more than once. A 3″ square sticky note was pasted on the window over the “hours of operation” sign that said “Is this place ever open when it says it will be?” Honest, I could not make that up.

When we got back to the bus we had a late breakfast. I continued working at my computer while Linda went for a walk. The sun was bright on the passenger side of the coach, so when Linda got back we deployed the awnings on that side. At some point John and Cheryl came over and we sat in the shade and had a nice long chat. I say “at some point” because I rarely know what time it is unless I look at clock or the shadow of our coach.

Being as it was our last night in Gillette, we decided to go to the 311 Restaurant for dinner. Thunderstorms were forecast for later, but the weather outside our window looked fine, so we left the awnings out and the windows and roof vents open. We started to back our car out of our site around 4:30 PM when Linda saw a large flash of cloud-to-ground lightning directly north of the RV Park. I opened The Weather Channel app on my smartphone and pulled up the current radar. There was a large cell to the north that appeared to be moving east and an even larger cell to the southwest that appeared to be moving northeast towards Gillette with strong winds and hail indicted. Rather than close everything up, we decided to cancel our dinner out plans and eat at home. This sort of flexibility is a necessary part of this lifestyle.

It was still early, so I resumed my photo organizing, and started selecting images to include with each blog post. Linda made the pasta salad that she is contributing to the HFH pot-luck welcome social tomorrow at the HFH affiliate ReStore in Sheridan. With that done, she started preparing African yam and kale soup, only to discover that the (organic) yam she bought was rotten to the core.

Plan B. Although not a whole-food, we keep a few prepared things on hand for just such situations, or when Linda doesn’t feel like cooking (it happens, but not often). The Amy’s brand has a particularly good selection of canned and frozen items, including soups, chili, and the best vegan pizza we have ever had. (The roasted vegetable, which has caramelized onions, but doesn’t even have vegan “cheese”. Vegan or not, this is a fabulous pizza.) They also have “fake” substitutes for traditional dishes. Other companies, such as Morningstar, Dr. Praeger’s, etc. produce similar products, and one of our favorites is “riblets” in Bar-B-Que sauce. The sauce is one of the best I’ve had (it’s sweet, naturally). The riblet has the texture of pork, and a reasonable facsimile of the taste, which I retain in memory to some degree. Riblets and Bush’s vegetarian baked beans; quick, easy, and tasty, with plenty of protein (for those of you who are concerned about the nutritional balance of our meals).

As we finished dinner the storms thickened and intensified all around us. We were treated to quite a lightning show for some time before the rain started. The rain began gently so we left the windows open to enjoy the sound and the cool air. (We have awning style windows that open out from the bottom, so they tolerate a certain amount of rain.) The rain gradually, but steadily, increased to the point we had to close up and turn on the air-conditioners.

Every time we have had a 30% chance of a storm in Gillette, we have gotten a storm. It appears that the 30% forecast means the storm will only be 30% as strong as the worst storm you can imagine.

We had fresh strawberries and sweet red wine and then turned in for the night.

2013_07_05 (Fri) The In-between Time

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We awoke to the reality that Escapade was done and life could return to “normal” for a couple of days before the next phase of our adventure. Just as in a fixed home, part of “normal” is maintenance. At 8:00 AM John from All Pro Water-Flow showed up to clean the waste tanks (black & gray). John normally summers in Monument, Colorado and spends winters in Yuma, Arizona. Business has been slow in Colorado this season because of the fires, and the trip to Gillette for the RV rallies had proved to be a good business move for him.

John cleaned the tanks using water at 2600 PSI fed through a small diameter high pressure hose to a special nozzle. The nozzle and hose go through a clear adapter inserted into the drain line where it attaches to the tank outlet pipe. The nozzle tends to pull itself into the tank and this arrangement allows him to control the high pressure line and see the effluent as it comes out and goes into the drain hose (which is obviously hooked to the sewer fitting). He was able to access the black tank fairly easily as it has a 3″ ID drain pipe with one 90 degree sweep that bends down to exit the bottom of the coach. The gray tank was an entirely different matter. The drain is no more than 1.5″ ID and Ts into the 3″ line. It makes a jog before a final 90 degree elbow (a sharp turn, not a sweeping one) where it’s attached to the tank. John tried several things and finally switched to a different nozzle with a spring on the end which allowed it to move through tight turns. The gray tank needed cleaning, but the black tank really needed of cleaning, and I was glad we had this done. We had not had the tanks cleaned in the four years we have owned the coach, and I can only wonder if/when any prior owners had it done.

Our tank level sensors worked a little better afterwards, but not perfectly. There could be lots of reasons for that, and getting them to work was not my primary objective as I plan to install the external See Level sensors anyway. John was patient, persistent, and took the time he needed to get the job done at no extra charge. This was another good vendor experience and another good learning experience for me. When I eventually redo the utility bay, I will make some modification to the waste plumbing that makes it much easier to clean the gray tank in the future.

We had noticed on the Escapade Extras newsletter for yesterday that the DOVES C-BOF had arranged for all day training at the American Red Cross office in Gillette. I called the contact person to see if we could get into their two training sessions, but the classes were full. We discussed future training opportunities that will be available following the 2014 Escapade, and I noted them in my calendar. I also sent her our contact information via e-mail.

While our next door neighbor Rick was preparing to leave, I e-mailed him our contact information. I left the patio awning rolled up so he wouldn’t have any clearance issues when pulling out. He left for Sundance late in the morning. By that time the sun had pulled around to the southeast so we put the patio awning back out. It was very warm and cloudy, and the humidity was up a bit, but we didn’t close up and use the ACs. There was a chance of thunderstorms, but none developed.

Linda did laundry and stopped at the grocery store while I worked on the membership and financial records for our FMCA Freethinkers chapter. I then returned my attention to the preparation of blog posts, and discovered that I had received a recommendation from Magnum that I had not yet implemented. A quick trip to the inverter bay and I had the maximum charge rate reset to 80%. The Magnum ME-ARC remote is a bit confusing at first, but the more I use it the easier it becomes. The manual, however, is absolutely essential, and I keep a PDF version on my iPad2 and laptop so I don’t have to dig out the paper versions.

I worked at my computer most of the afternoon and early evening. I’ve been capturing our daily activities using the Note app on my iPad2. I try to fill them in before bed each night, but they are rarely polished enough to upload to the blog. I e-mail them to myself and save them on my laptop where I can more easily do final editing and eventually upload them. I am about a month behind at this point, but I am catching up. I need to select a photograph or two for each post and then up they go!

We started to go for a walk after dinner but only got as far as VJ & Carol’s motorhome and invited them over for a drink and conversation. They had never been invited inside a Prevost conversion, so we wanted to unveil the mystery on behalf of all Prevost conversion owners everywhere and help them check that off their bucket list.

When VJ and Carol said their farewell for the evening it was still light enough for a stroll around the RV park. Many RVs had left during the day, but many were still here. New vehicles were also arriving, but not in Boxelder RV Park. Earlier in the day we had noticed lots of horse trailers arriving in the stables area immediately north of Boxelder RV Park. Linda checked the activities listing for the CAM-PLEX and discovered that a 3-day equestrian event was taking place. The horse trailers were using a road that comes into the stables from the east. The horse park and RV park are separated by fences with gates, which were closed and roped off to prevent animal, pedestrian, or vehicle traffic moving between them. This made good sense; the equestrians wouldn’t want us traipsing amongst their horses any more than we would want horses trotting through the campground. From our living room we could see them coming and going to the equestrian park, which is apparently due east of Boxelder RV Park.

We had fresh strawberries for a late dessert and turned in for the night.

2013_07_04 (Thu) The Nation’s Birthday

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We attended an excellent seminar on Amateur (Ham) Radio and RVing put on by Tom Abernathy, W3TOM. Tom is an assistant division director for the ARRL and the current leader of the SKP Ham Radio BOF, as well the SKP coordinator for The Row. We returned to our coach to work for a bit and make our brown bag lunches for the SKP HAM Radio BOF gathering at noon.

The SKP HAM BOF brown bag lunch was well attended. Tom, W3TOM, shared some information with the group. One factoid I found interesting was that at larger SKP rallies, such as the Escapades, hams usually make up 8-10% of the attendees. This is probably a higher percentage than in the membership at large, and much higher than in the U. S. population, which has about 750,000 licensed amateur radio operators out of more than 300 million people. Tom had quite a few books to give out as door prizes, along with ARRL pens and HAM bumper/window stickers. We got a book on transmission lines and one on emergency communications.

We returned to the coach after lunch and worked until it was time to go to dinner. It was another warm day, and the humidity was up a bit as thunderstorms were forecast for later. By mid-afternoon we had stowed the awnings, closed up the coach, and turned on the air-conditioners.

The 35^th birthday celebration dinner was underwritten by Paul Everts RV. Dinner was preceded by recognition of all the staff, volunteers, and presenters who made the Escapade possible. There was a look back at 1978, the year the Escapees RV Club was formed. The two grand prize recipients were also drawn (we did not win). The prizes were a 16-day Adventure Caravan for two and the Rose Parade HOP (Head Out Program), also for two. Dinner was buffet style, and they got everyone through the lines very efficiently. The only thing we could eat for sure was the dinner rolls, so we each took two. We had some of the corn, although it may have been prepared with butter. The lack of a green salad was a bit disappointing, but we expect that our food choices will be limited in group meal settings such as this. Still, with the number of older RVers who obviously have health issues, it saddens us to see what they are served to eat, and how they gobble it up. Dancing followed the meal, with live music by the Rivoli Review, but we didn’t stay. I don’t dance, and we had heard enough of the Rivoli’s the other night to last us for a while.

We were (understandably) a bit hungry when we got back to our coach, so we had popcorn. Not the healthiest choice, I know, but quick and easy (and yummy).

The City of Gillette fireworks were scheduled for 10 PM at the CAM-PLEX. By the time we got back to our coach, unofficial fireworks were being set off all around us. As Boxelder is on higher ground, we had a good view in all directions. By 8 PM it was obvious we had thunderstorms moving into the area, with an impressive lightning show to the west around through the south to the southeast. The SKP Photographers BOF met at 9 PM in the southwest corner of Boxelder RV Park to assist members interested in photographing the fireworks. By 9:30 PM light rain was starting to fall and I headed back to the coach. I got there just before it started to rain in earnest, and shortly thereafter the main fireworks show began. Either the announced time was wrong or they pulled it forward because of the weather. Fortunately, we were parked so that we were able to watch the show from our living room window. It lasted over 30 minutes, during which time the rain steadily increased, but they got it in. We left the air-conditioners on as storms were forecast to continue through the overnight hours.

2013_07_03 (Wed) Escapade Day 4, Winding Up, Winding Down

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Today was the 2nd to last day of the 53rd Escapade / 35th anniversary celebration of The Escapees RV Club, and the last day for the inside vendor booths. There were seminars scheduled all day, but we decided to stay at our rig and work. I edited draft blog posts and finally uploaded my first one. I also added a picture to our home page, although not exactly where I wanted it, so I removed it. Linda worked on our personal accounting and additional arrangements related to the sale of our old house. We were unable to find a charitable recipient for our Yamaha E-50 electronic organ, so our daughter is taking care of having it moved to the new house prior to the closing date for the old house.

We walked over to the Wyoming Center and signed up to have our black and grey tans hydro-cleaned by All Pro Water-Flow on Fri morning at 8 AM. We then went to The Row party to check on our ham radio BOF friends who were setting up a special event station and any other BOFs that were there.

Having exhausted those possibilities we went back to our rig, had a bite of lunch, and continued our computer and accounting work. It was warm this afternoon, with a forecasted high of 91 degrees F (which we hit), so we closed up the coach and turned on the air-conditioners.

We got a late start for the 4:30 PM HFH C-BOF business meeting and social, so we accepted a ride on one of the many golf carts that transport Escapade attendees between the various campgrounds and the activity buildings. The HFH C-BOF membership has fallen way below minimums and those present voted to de-certify and continue as a regular BOF until April 2015. A new treasurer was elected, so the funds will remain with the HFH BOF. The Bylaws and standing rules are technically no longer valid and will be re-vamped as standard operating procedures. It appeared that current President Steven Gullette will take care of that and continue as the “leader” of the BOF. There were 13 members present and they all stayed for the social. We managed to find enough snacks to get partially filled up, so we had a light dinner before going to our 7 PM Freethinker gathering.

It was still warm at 7 PM, so our Freethinkers group met inside VJ and Carol’s Fleetwood Bounder at Boxelder RV Park (which turned out to only be 7 RVs up from us). They had the air-conditioning turned on and it was very comfortable inside. Besides the hosts and us, Jerry Stauffer and Marc Matheson were there. It turned out that Mark is a ham (KD6KR) and Jerry is a former ham. Mark had to leave to watch a friend in the talent show, but we all enjoyed his company while he was there. Consistent with our prior experiences meeting up with Freethinker RVers, we had a wide-ranging, enjoyable conversation, fueled by some wine and snacks.

2013_07_02 (Tue) Escapade Day

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I attended two seminars in the morning on RV satellite TV systems, each presented by one of the two satellite TV vendors at the Escapade. Linda stayed at the coach and made phone calls related to the pending sale of our old house and insurance changes we made yesterday on our motorhome and towed car. She then attended a seminar on healthy living.

Although I have invested a fair amount of time in researching communications and entertainment technology options for our converted coach, I have not yet come to any conclusions regarding many of the systems, especially satellite TV. Thus, I continue to attend seminars and glean new insights from each one, and today was no exception.

Each of the seminars talked about both Other-The-Air (OTA) and satellite (SAT) antenna systems, as well as TV sets (monitors). The monitors and OTA antennas are a settled issue in our coach, as already discussed in previous blog posts. Still, the seminars confirmed our choice of 1080p monitors with digital tuners and rotatable antennas to capture the highly directional UHF digital TV (DTV) signals.

The big insights today had to do with SAT antennas and programming. As mentioned previously, Moto-Sat is no longer in business, which I had not heard prior to the FMCA rally. Former Moto-Sat employees created RF Mogul, which I had also not heard of prior to the FMCA rally, but whose SAT dishes were very much in evidence both at FMCA and at Escapade.

If /when we add SAT capability, we want to be able to watch different programs simultaneously on our two monitors, including a mix of standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) channels. There are only two ways to do that, and only one that involves a single SAT antenna (dish). An “obvious” solution is to use two SATs as each one can then fix on its own satellite, even if it is a single satellite dish. Any dome-type antenna could be used in this configuration as all domed antennas are one-satellite-at-a-time. That might be a solution, even with the added costs of duplicated hardware and programming, but we cannot mount any SAT dish on the roof, much less two of them, so this is not a solution for us. I learned that the only single SAT solution that meets our requirements is a 3-axis multi-satellite dish (multiple LNBs). These dishes come in manual models, like the ones used on fixed houses, and automatic ones, as seen on many RVs. In our case, we would have to mount the dish on a tripod or set it on the ground, and figure out where/how to store it when not in use. The manual dishes are not too heavy and not very expensive, but have to be aimed manually (duh). I have talked to folks who have manual dishes and it can be a time-consuming and far from certain process to get them lined up with properly. The automatic dishes find and lock on to all of the required satellites at the push of a button but are heavy at about 50 pounds. They are also large, which is why they capture signals well, but that poses a storage problem when not in use.

The two major sources of these open, fold-down, 3-axis dishes are Winegard and RF Mogul, each represented by one of the presenters. Although both dishes appear to work well, it appears there are differences, especially with respect to maintenance. The Winegard dish apparently has two controllers, one of which is in the motorized dish base, while the RF Mogul has only one that goes inside the RV. Also, it appears that the RF Mogul dish has field replaceable positioning motors, whereas the Winegard does not. What this comes down to is that it appears the RF Mogul dish can be repaired in-situ, while the Winegard dish must be returned to the factory. That’s a potential problem even if the dish is not mounted on a vehicle, and a bigger problem if it is.

With respect to programming services, both presenters seemed to favor Direct TV for various reasons from programming choices, to signal acquisition, to technical support. We were leaning towards Dish Network, but we are now reconsidering that choice. The issue of major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) remained unclear to me.

Basically, residential satellite TV customers typically get the local OTA channels (major networks) for their geographic market. The satellite companies do this by using “spot beam” technology where the satellite signals for a major market like Detroit are beamed (like a flashlight) to an area on the surface of the earth a couple of hundred miles in diameter. If you take your home receiver outside of that area, perhaps in an RV, you lose those local channels, and you do not get the local channels for whatever area you happen to be in. Both Direct TV and Dish Network appear to “solve” this problem by offering RV programming packages that include either the New York or Los Angeles local OTA stations, as these are transmitted to all of the continental US just like the rest of their channels.

The choice for us is bigger than just RVing. We do not have cable or U-verse at home, and are too far from the local OTA transmitters to receive them very well, so we have not had any form of TV since mid-April when we moved to our new house until we started RVing in June and got our OTA antennas working (sort of). If we get satellite TV at all, we are looking for something that will work at home and in the RV. We are also considering simply not having satellite TV.

After lunch we went to seminars on Full-Timing, presented by George Maylaben of the RV Driving School, and Windows 8, presented by Chris & Jim Guld of Geeks On Tour. George gave a thoughtful overview of the issues facing full-timers and those considering moving into this lifestyle. The Geeks did their usual excellent job of presenting an understandable and actionable overview of the topic, and Linda was able to go back and use some of what we learned on her laptop.

We spent some time in the Paul Everts outdoor RV display area and then went to the Tri-Chapter (6, 36, and 51) social at 4:30 PM. There was a small but friendly group present, and we got to chat with a full-timer couple from Michigan who are now residents of South Dakota. There weren’t any evening activities that interested us, so we had a quiet evening “at home” and watched a program on Wyoming PBS about Mt. Rushmore.

2013_07_01 (Mon) The 53rd Escapade, Day 2

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We attended two seminars this morning, both by Shawn Loring. One was on Investing For RVers and the other was on Domicile and Estate Planning issues. Shawn is an attorney licensed to practice in TX and CA, as well as a licensed financial planner. He resides in Livingston, Texas and is the corporate attorney for The Escapees RV Club. He is also a member of the CARE Board of Directors. Both presentations were standing room only and were excellent, providing good overviews of the topics with considerable depth at selected points.

I mentioned yesterday that we had picked up literature and an application form for the B. P. O. Elks because they are letting SKPs attending Escapade to join the local Gillette chapter. After reading through their Guidebook For Members last night, we decided that the Elks where not a good fit for us. Not having access to camping at Elk Lodges does not diminish our RVing experience in any way, and it seems to me that joining only for access to overnight RV parking is hardly in the spirit of the Elks organization.

We took a pass on the afternoon seminars and did some grocery shopping instead. When we got back we had a card in our door handle from Black Hills Pro Wash. We thought it was a reminder about our appointment at 8:00 AM tomorrow to have our rig washed. A bit later, however, I got a call from Trevin informing me that they would not be able to clean our rig, or anybody else’s, as the Escapade had given exclusive washing rights to All-Brite. In spite of Pro Wash having tried to register as a vendor, and being more than willing to pay the Escapade vendor fee, they were denied. There are multiple vendors here selling things like LED light bulbs, and there are more rigs here than one company could wash, so having an exclusive arrangement with one company only served to penalize attendees, especially if they did not want to use the sole source vendor. Limiting my choices does me a disservice as a member of the club.

We went over to the Wyoming Center at 7:00 PM for the nightly door prize drawing. The Escapade was successful in obtaining a lot of door prizes from rally vendors and local merchants, and the drawing went on for 45 minutes.

Ventriloquist Patty Davidson performed. She is very talented, but the acoustics of Spirit Hall in the Wyoming Center were not adequate for what she does and it was difficult to understand much of what she (and the dummies) said. She did the old Abbott & Costello “Who’s on first?” routine with two dummies, and it was impressive. She also had her brother-in-law, a singer/song-writer/guitarist, perform between sets. He was also very good, and better suited to the acoustics of the venue.

2013_06_30 (Sun) Happy Birthday

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Sunrise over Boxelder RV Park, CAM-PLEX, Gillette, WY

Sunrise over Boxelder RV Park, Gillette WY CAM-PLEX

Linda was up early this morning and went for a sunrise walk. Perhaps she was too excited to sleep because it was her birthday, but this is the 53^rd Escapade and the 35^th anniversary of the founding of the Escapees RV Club, so it could have been that. When she got back I brewed up some Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee (from Irene’s Beans in Milford, MI) and she opened her birthday present. Linda now has her first “cowgirl” shirt! She liked it so much that she made blueberry pancakes for breakfast with real, fresh blueberries and real Michigan maple syrup. (If you are thinking that I should have prepared breakfast for her, let me state that in the past I would have, and could have, done this but she is the resident WFPB culinary expert, and I have basically stayed out of the kitchen, and out of her way, since we started down this path two years ago.)

We got a call from our son who was checking on our house. Linda had asked him the day before to check our answering machine because it wouldn’t pick up when we called. It turned out that we didn’t have a dial tone, but our Internet connection appeared to be OK. He said there had been a lot of rain this past week, so that may be the reason. Our phone and data service come over the same wire, so I’m not sure that is the problem. We decided to wait a few days and see if it clears up. If not we will have to contact AT&T.

We had more coffee at 9 AM at the WiFi Cafe and more conversation with Charles Martin. We returned the defective Camco hose and got a replacement. Their analysis was that the metal sleeve had not been swaged properly which is why the barbed fitting did not stay in. While we were there we looked at the Camco Genturi genset exhaust stack. This is an auxiliary exhaust stack that fits on the end of the generator tailpipe and carries the generator exhaust up past the roof line of the RV. It’s made of 3” PVC in 4 foot sections, so it can be taken apart and stored. A tailpipe extension curves up into the base of the 3” pipe with room to draw in cooler air around it and creating a Venturi effect, thus the name of the product. This is a fairly easily duplicated design; the main reason to buy it is that you don’t have to source all the materials and make it yourself. The vertical pipe has to be supported somehow, and suction cups are one of the options. The vendor suggested getting large ones from Harbor Freight that are normally used for handling windshields and other large pieces of glass. If/when I build one of these, I would like to be able to hook it onto the gutter rail where the roof starts, but the large suction cups are an interesting idea, although I am not too keen on that idea with the new paint on the coach. Our Aqua-Hot exhaust exits out under the driver side of the coach right next to the generator exhaust, and I have considered building a double stack that hooks to both of these. In both cases, however, I have to be careful not to restrict the exhaust flow and create back pressure.

We walked through the vendor area again and talked to Sean at WiFi Ranger about the factory default reset we got when we turned the power off and back on. I also bought a roof mounting bracket for our WiFi Ranger Mobile. Linda bought a silicone cooking sheet for use in the microwave from RV SpaceSavers. We stopped and talked briefly to Nick & Terry Russell of The Gypsy Journal and gave Nick a copy of the February 2013 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. Until a few years ago, Nick and Terry lived in an MCI bus that Terry had converted. (Nick is famous for not knowing how to use tools.) We talked to a vendor who provides mobile black/grey tank cleaning service, but deferred signing up. We also chatted with a satellite TV vendor who felt strongly that Direct TV was a far superior choice to Dish Network, especially if we were also going to use it at home. She confirmed that Moto-Sat had gone out of business and that RF Mogul was started by former Moto-Sat employees. We discussed the possibility of using a fully-automatic open style multiple-satellite dish on a tripod or other mount rather than having it attached to the roof. She seemed skeptical, but did not see any fundamental reason that it wouldn’t work. (In fact we have seen a lot of open style satellite TV dishes mounted on tripods or sitting on the ground, although most of them are manual dishes, not automatic.)

After our jaunt through the vendor area, we visited “The Row” to get our “bingo” sheet filled in but ended up talking to many of the chapter and C-BOF representatives. We finally met Steven Gullette from the HFH BOF, with whom we had exchanged many e-mails in the last few months. He will be one of the co-leaders on the build in Sheridan in a couple of weeks. We chatted with Lou Petkus, K9LU, and signed up for the newly formed SKP Photographers BOF (no charge). We also talked to the Elks BOF and found out that we can join the Gillette lodge while attending Escapade, so we took some information and an application form. The initiation is Friday evening.

We got back to the coach around 12:45 PM and grabbed a quick lunch before running some errands. We went back to the Boot Barn to exchange Linda’s new shirt for a different size, and had to join their “loyalty program” in order to do the exchange. The manager had to approve the exchange and was a bit surly. We will not be shopping there ever again. We also mailed an anniversary card to our son & daughter-in-law. Linda received a birthday call from her sister and a video birthday greeting from our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. In many respects, RV life is just like regular life.

We attended the opening / welcome ceremony at 3 PM and were delighted to see and hear from Kay Peterson, SKP #1. Dinner was leftover risotto with the rest of the Lawrence Elk black currant wine from Prairie Berry Winery, and both were excellent. I was sorry that they were both gone, but there’s more where they came from.

We went over to the Wyoming Center at 7 PM for the Door prize drawings followed by the Rivoli Review for the evening entertainment. They do a good show, with lots of energy and humor, although the patriotism was laid on fairly thick, and there were moments that were just plain jingoistic and inappropriate. Although many of the attendees were enthusiastic about their show, there were plenty of folks sitting on their hands who were clearly not so pleased.

The Phase Place

Welcome to the next phase (hosted by QTH.com)

Category Archives: RV-Travel

2013_07_30 (Tue) TRNP-NU and Medora ND

2013_07_29 (Mon) A Short Drive to Another N. P.

2013_07_28 (Sun) Heading East

2013_07_27 (Sat) Where We Go From Here

2013_07_26 (Fri) Grand Teton N. P.

2013_07_25 (Thu) A Drive On Top Of The World

2013_07_24 (Wed) YNP Day 2

2013_07_23 (Tue) Yellowstone N. P.

2013_07_22 (Mon) A Day Of Rest (Mostly)

2013_07_21 (Sun) On The Road Again

2013_07_20 (Sat) The Last Day (of building)

2013_07_19 (Fri) The 2nd To Last Day

2013_07_18 (Thu) Progress And Some Evening Fun

2013_07_17 (Wed) Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

2013_07_16 (Tue) New Building Experiences

2013_07_15 (Mon) HFH Week 2

2013_07_14 (Sun) Housekeeping Chores

2013_07_13 (Sat) The House Takes Shape

2013_07_12 (Fri) The Bighorn Mountains

2013_07_11 (Thu) We Finally Got To Use “Guns”

2013_07_10 (Wed) It Takes Studs To Frame A House

2013_07_09 (Tue) Let’s Get To “Work”

2013_07_08 (Mon) A Day To Get Ready

2013_07_07 (Sun) A Day Of Transition

2013_07_06 (Sat) Our Last Full Day In Gillette

2013_07_05 (Fri) The In-between Time

2013_07_04 (Thu) The Nation’s Birthday

2013_07_03 (Wed) Escapade Day 4, Winding Up, Winding Down

2013_07_02 (Tue) Escapade Day

2013_07_01 (Mon) The 53rd Escapade, Day 2

2013_06_30 (Sun) Happy Birthday