Having mechanical delays, our trip started a day and a half late and required some catch up. Luckily, I was more daring this trip and had not made many reservations. We left at 5pm and Rog drove until 10:30pm.
NV UT WY
We spent the night in Elko, Nevada and then made up the rest of the time the next day, hitting Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming by 6:45. We had 2 minor catastrophes this second day. I had placed a hot frying pan on the back side of one of my homemade hot pads. It stuck and melted instantly. Rog spent an hour after we stopped and got it all scraped off. The second issue was the window on the driver’s side got stuck in the open position. We were too tired to work on that, so it will wait until tomorrow.
We were putting up with no A/C and the heat of the day, but then had a real test. The engine light came on again. Bummer! We stopped at an O’Reilly’s and had them do a diagnostic check. The code indicated something electrical with the fuel injector. The guy was super nice and tried to help us locate somebody who could look at it. Not just any Dodge or Mercedes Benz place works on Sprinters. We made an appt and hit the road. Rog had jiggled with the wires so we’ll give him the credit. Whatever, Tess ran fine so we cancelled the repair appt and headed to a Doniphan NE KOA. After a late lunch, I Googled window repairs and helped Rog fix his window with a MacGyver job. It worked great. We hit the pool, quite happy with having survived the trials of the first few days.
So today’s catastrophe had nothing to do with Tess. We had stopped in Wentzville, Missouri for an ice cream at Wendy’s an hour before our stop for the night. Not only did they no longer have their 50 cent ice cream special, but I left my purse in their dining room. Of course I didn’t realize it until we got to the KOA so we had to turn around and head back to get my purse. We finally got settled in by 7pm.
6/17 MI IL KY TN
Happy Father’s Day! The reunion starts this afternoon, just outside of Clarksville. We got to Clarksville about noon. We had lunch and then I called Melinda and got permission to get into the house early. We did the shopping for our dinner and for the breakfasts and then headed to the lodge. We texted everyone and told them they could come early. By 7pm, everyone had arrived and Peg and Cory helped us served the BBQ dinner.
What a great 4 days of fun and relaxation. Dinners were great; a Mexican night, and Italian pasta dinner, and an Irish night complete with games and prizes. We had a great time and the lodge was perfect. Everyone had their own room with a private bathroom. There were trips into Nashville, a brewery and a winery. Rog and I made a trip into Franklin to see Mercedes Benz about Tess. By this time, the engine light was off so they couldn’t do a diagnostic but they explained that the computer had to reset a number of times to “find” the new fuel injector. So she healed herself. We had very hot days and some rain, and folks were quite worried to take walks with the chiggers and ticks, but we had fun inside.
The lodge was cleaned up and everything packed away by 9am so we all got an early start. We made it to Baileyton, TN
We are getting lots of rain, but only while we are travelling or sleeping. We did a Costco run and then spent the night at Cabela’s in Gainesville.
6/23 VA MD PA NJ
Unfortunately, we are hitting New England on the weekend and nobody can sell us an EZ Pass. So we paid full price for lots of tolls. We made it to Atlantic City by lunchtime. We got a spot in the Birch Grove City Campground, had lunch and then headed to the boardwalk. First stop was at the Apple Store to drop off my phone for repair. We spent the next hour cruising a mile of the boardwalk down to the Hard Rock Cafe and back. It was overcast and foggy which helped with the heat. By the time we got back to Apple, the phone was fixed and we were off. We made a stop at the local Home Depot to get a plant for the Berubes and then it was back to tonight’s home.
We tried to stop in and see the world’s largest private model railroad display: Northlandz in Flemington NJ. We got into town early so filled up with diesel and wasted some time until the 10am opening. When we got back to the museum, there was a sign on the door that they were closed for repairs. We struggled through the traffic in NY and Connecticut (even on a Sunday!!). On to Tiverton to see Katie and Eddie Berube’s new house. It is gorgeous. Katie made a scrumptious chicken parmigiana and we had a super visit.
Got through the Boston traffic and hugged the coastline up to Maine. We stopped in Kennebunkport, ME for lunch and then on to Camden Hills State Park. We were able to visit the main highlights of the park before the rain hit.
We headed west for the first time in the trip. We drove through some gorgeous country and got to the border by 11:30 am. Unfortunately, we did not do our homework and were not able to get into Canada with a firearm. The Canadian officials confiscated the gun, locked it up and then walked it back to the US guards. They inspected it, our paperwork, and then all agreed that it was our firearm and gave it back to us. But now what to do? They were kind enough to call a local gun seller who agreed to mail it back to CA for us. So back to see Bob Cercena at Broken Arrow Lodge in Eustis. Long story short, Bob is a heck of a nice guy, but was not very computer literate and doesn’t think much of regulations. He spent 3 hours trudging through the CA requirements for sending the weapon and escorted us to the post office to make sure it got sent. Back to the border where they inspected our post office receipts and let us in. By 8pm, we finally made it to our Montreal KOA totally exhausted.
We followed the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario, through Toronto and onto Niagara Falls. After a short rest, we headed to the Falls using the WEGO bus pass. We spent 3 hours exploring the Falls, capped off with the Hornblower fireworks cruise.
The morning tour was guided by our GyPSy app. We worth every penny. It had lots of history, helped us see things we would have missed and had just the right amount of humor. The tour took us through Niagara at the Lake and then we headed north to Barrie. We had the whole afternoon to clean the van, do laundry, take showers and relax.
We passed the border just after noon from Sault Ste Marie, CAN to Sault Ste Marie,USA. Always nice to be back in the USA. We stayed in the Soo Locks Campground. Luckily they had a spot for us. Today is engineer’s Day; the one day of the year that they open the locks free to the public for tours. The whole town was one big festival. The campground was right on St. Mary’s River and we enjoyed watching the boats pass by.
We left early and saw the Mackinac Bridge from afar in the mist. We got to Green Bay on an unseasonably warm day for them. It was about 100 degrees and the town was deserted. We stayed in Cabela’s parking lot and they came out once to see if we were ok in the heat. We did part of the river walk and then cooled off in the library for an hour.
On to Milwaukee for a tour of the Pabst Mansion. I was unable to get tickets online, so we weren’t sure we could get in. Turns out with the time change, we were 2.5 hrs early for the 10am opening. Luckily, we did get in on the 10am tour and loved it. We had extra time this afternoon so we headed to New Glarus, a Swiss town outside of Madison. It was cute but it was no Solvang. We had planned to stay at Cracker Barrel in Madison but it did not allow overnight parking so we went on to Devil’s Lake State Park. What a nice place
Happy Birthday, Rog! We explored the shore of Devil’s Lake early before everyone arrived and ate breakfast there. Then on to Taliesin House, 45 minutes away. We got in on the 10am tour and had an excellent guide. It is a 2 hr tour of the grounds and house. Fascinating. Then on country roads through beautiful Wisconsin countryside and immaculate farms until we caught up with I 94 again. We “celebrated” Rog’s birthday at Carver’s for burgers and got a free waffle cone to boot! Then it was on to Rogers, MN where we had planned on spending the night at Cabela’s. There were so many truckers there we didn’t think we’d get much sleep so we headed back 10 minutes to a KOA.
Not much to see in North Dakota so we decided to forego the trip to Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and give ourselves more time in Deadwood. We got to the southwest corner of North Dakota and spent the night in a lion’s Campground in Bowman.
Happy Fourth! At 6:09am, Rog passed into his final state. He has now been in all 50 states. I still have Montana to do. We stopped in Bella Fourche to see the “center of the US”. Then on to Deadwood, famous for being the site of Bill Hickok’s murder. We took a trolley tour and visited Boot Hill. After a Starbuck’s break, it was on to Crazy Horse Memorial. Amazing place. The film in the visitor’s center is a must. Then we went to check out our campsite. A beautiful, quiet and secluded spot. I expected big crowds for the Fourth at Mt Rushmore so we headed over at 3pm. We toured the place for an hour, bought a Thomas Jefferson ice cream, took pics and watched the film. We planned to stay for the evening ceremony so we headed back to Tess top eat, nap, and relax. We headed back at sunrise to get seats in the amphitheater and chatted with folks from Utah. At the beginning of the show, they announced that they would not be doing fireworks. BUMMER! But the ceremony was really nice and very patriotic. We all sang the national anthem, they showed a film, and then they honored all of the vets in the audience with a flag ceremony. Not to mention the illumination of Mt. Rushmore.
We spent the day touring in and around Custer Park. Between our campground and Custer Park entrance, we came across our first buffalo. He was sauntering down the other lane, going in our direction. Rog passed him, going VERY SLOWLY. We continued our drive through the park enjoying the sights and the wildlife. We completed the Custer loop and the South Hills loop, stopping in the town of Custer for lunch. Then we did the Needles Highway and travelled on to Keystone to catch the 1880 train ride to Hill City and back. We got back to our campsite at 5:30 and were bushed. Our first day with no rain since the reunion.
Today was a day to see east of Custer. We drove into Wall to see the famous (and huge) Wall Drug. It takes up both sides of a block and seems absolutely endless. They sell a dime cup of coffee...if you can find it. From there, we took the loop through the Badlands National Park. Nature is a true artist. It was an easy drive into Wyoming where we took a chance and tried an RV park in Sundance that turned out to be fabulous. They were recovering from a hailstorm that had caused a lot of damage to their mobile as well as the park in general. Still a very clean and restful spot. We got all of our laundry done and showered.
On to Cody, founded by Buffalo Bill Cody. We had a lot of time to enjoy the town and relax before the big 6pm shootout in front of the Irma Hotel. Enjoyed a banana split at Annie’s Saloon and Rog found his first Starbucks in days. We spent the night in the WalMart parking lot.
We left Cody early to get into Yellowstone before the crowds. About 30 minutes out of Cody, we passed a cattle drive going down the highway. Amazing. We arrived at the park about 7am and made it to Old Faithful by 8:15. We had breakfast waiting for the next scheduled eruption, then headed out to watch. Pictures don’t do it justice. We walked around the visitors center and the lodge, then watched the film. At the end of the film, the ranger came in and told us that Beehive Geyser was going off in a few minutes. It only goes off once a day, so we hurried out to watch. It is even higher than Old Faithful. Ten minutes later, we got in a second eruption of Old Faithful. We spent the rest of the day exploring the southern loop of Yellowstone. Lots of geysers and hot springs. More than half of the entire world's’ geysers and hot springs are here in this park. We saw more wildlife as well. We stopped in the Village for moose track ice cream and then slowly made it past the large plain between there and Bridge Bay to our campground. Lots of moose near the road along this section. Too tired to make it to the ranger talk at 9pm.
We got going before sunrise so we could catch more wildlife. Our second day in Yellowstone we concentrated on the upper loop. We are using a GyPSy tour of the park and it is chock full of info. Saw some gorgeous falls and cliffs, more wildlife as well as Mammoth Hot Springs. More moose track ice cream before heading “home”.
We left Yellowstone and drove through Teton National Park on to Jackson. We enjoyed a bit of rain and cool weather. Doubt we will be cool again for quite a while. Rog got the bug to get home and drove all of the way to Reno before stopping for the night at Boomtown. He had planned to stop in Twin Falls, Idaho to see the Falls, but I googled it and found out that it dries up in the summer because they draw off so much for irrigation...and there is only one fall now. But we spent an hour in Twin Falls looking for the Starbucks and for ice cream. We got to Reno after dark, filled up with diesel and then moved on to Boomtown to park overnight.
We both woke up to freeway construction noise at 4am and decided to head home. It was nice to be home before it got too hot. We ate breakfast, emptied the van, and had everything cleaned and put away by noon. Took us days to recover.
No comments:
Post a Comment