New England

A couple of you posted asking where we are and what's going on since there hasn't been a new post since we arrived in Massachusetts about 10 days ago. Everything is well with all of us and we're busy enjoying the company of family and friends.

The weather since we arrived has been mostly uncooperative...thunderstorms almost every day and a few days of constant rain. Today it is beautiful and sunny with very low humidity and a temperature around 80 degrees. We'll be here at Kate's brother and sister-in-law's until Sunday when we head up to Hampton Beach, NH for a 5 day rest at the seashore.

The rig has been mostly fine since we arrived...but Kate's brother noticed a leak in the hydraulic leveling system when we parked on the driveway last week. We picked up some new hoses and refilled the system and it now works better than new. We slept in the house last night and will again tonight because the RV is at the shop having the new awning installed. I was supposed to get it back today but the hardware (arms) that shipped with the awning are about 4 inches too long so the dealer had to order new arms that will be delivered tomorrow. I'm supposed to be able to pick up the rig around 2pm on Tuesday. Hey, at least the insurance company is picking up nearly all the cost.

Other than that we've seen lots of family, a few friends, and hung around the homestead. We took a trip to Lenox, MA on Saturday and the three of us went for a ride on the Berkshire Scenic Railway to Stockbridge, MA. Apparently, former MA Governor Michael Dukakis was there and had ridden the train earlier in the day. Too bad we didn't meet...I could have given him a few tips on what NOT to do if he ever decided to run for president again (LOL!).

Today we went swimming at the D.A.R. State Forest lake for a few hours. It was Grace's first lake experience and after watching mommy run out into the water and dive in Grace thought it would be fun. She took off on a dead run for the water made about three huge leaps in the water and then fell face first into the lake. Daddy was right behind to pull the startled toddler back to the surface. After that she rode around on one of us for a half hour or so and then made mud pies in the shallow water for another half hour. Afterward we stopped at the world famous Goshen Snack Bar in Goshen, MA (actually a travel trailer on a dirt road near the middle of nowhere serving chinese food and burgers, which were quite good). The rest of the time I have been reading a biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullogh.

On Wednesday we plan to go to the Connecticut shore at Mystic Seaport for a few hours and maybe a quick stop at Foxwoods/MGM Grand casino and resort. We have dinner with another of Kate's former pastors on Thursday at a great italian restaurant in Northampton and then some other friends will be up on Saturday for my world famous lasagna! Then we're off to the beach.

Grace's 2nd birthday party is scheduled for August 9th back here at the homestead and we're scheduled to leave for Washington, DC sometime during the week of August 11th. I'll update again from the beach if we have internet access.


Cheers,

SDG


Rob

Chicago to Massachusetts

Chicago is rightly nicknamed the "windy city" and we felt the effects even though we never ventured closer than 30 miles to downtown. Our first evening in Chicago there was a sudden onslaught of thunder storms directly over our campground. Lightning was flashing around and it began to hail and dump huge quantities of water. By the time we realized what was happening it was too late to take our awning down. There was no way I was going to play with 8 foot metal rods in 50 mph winds with lightning striking the ground. Wouldn't have been prudent, not gonna do it. Well, the dawn came and the area was a mess. What was a nice campsite the previous evening was now a 2 foot deep lake! Remdawg stepped off the bus and waded into the water to retrieve her ball and nearly disappeared. The winds had sheared off the metal poles for the awning, bent the roller tube, and torn the canvas. Oh, what a mess. The campground staff came by around 8:30am and gave us the number to a mobile RV repair service. We called and he scheduled us for Sunday morning at 7:30.

The repairman arrived about an hour late on Sunday morning and spent nearly an hour trying to remove the awning from the unit. It was a total loss and cost $90 for his time and fee to haul away and dispose of the awning. Then he was off to work on several other unfortunate campers around the park.

We headed for church about 10:10. We attended the services at the church where Kate's former pastor in Northampton now preaches, Community Fellowship of West Chicago. The church is state of the art and the service was glorifying to God. We had visited with the pastor and his wife on Saturday evening and had some wonderful ribs. After church there was a whole church lunch in the basement of brats and chips and soft drinks so we hung around and met some church members as well as fellowshipped with the pastor.

We drove the rig to church because we decided to flee Chicago on Sunday just in case Mrs. O'Leary's cow had a descendant that felt the need to kick over a lantern! Actually, it was to avoid the commuter traffic on Monday morning. Traffic on a Sunday afternoon in Chicago is bad enough!!!

We arrived in Elkhart, Indiana around 6pm and settled in for the next two days. Elkhart is the RV capital of the world as most major manufacturers have their factories there. It is also the heart of Indiana's Amish Country. We decided to take the Heritage Trail on Monday and drive through many of the Amish towns. Horses and buggies were everywhere and they came out of side streets without warning. We stopped at several places, including Yoder's meat & cheese barn and picked up several pounds of delicious cheddar, some burger patties, and much more. Then we went to Amish Acres for lunch and bought a 4 pack of cinnamon rolls to prepare in the rig for breakfast. They were absolutely delightful. We wrapped up our stay in Amish Country with a visit to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. A spectacular campus filled with wonderful buildings and traditions. The next morning it was off to Niagara Falls via Port Huron, MI.

The drive to Port Huron was uneventful and the campground was pleasant, although much like a huge resort. We went for a much needed swim and had some dinner and ice cream and watched as much of the all-star game as we could handle (I shut it off at 12:30am after the 11th inning!). In the morning we headed for Niagara Falls via Canada.

The drive to Niagara Falls took about 4 hours and was relatively smooth. We arrived around 2pm and after enduring another thunderstorm headed down to the falls for dinner and a ride on the Maid of the Mist. The boat ride was nothing short of spectacular. For 30 very long minutes you head straight into Niagara Falls, getting to within a few hundred feet. The thundering cascade of the falls is deafening and the amount of water that ended up on us was incredible. Good thing the boat staff provided the plastic garbage bags (rain ponchos) for everyone, even Grace. Everyone visiting Niagara should take that ride.

Afterward we hung around at the Casino Niagara and then watched as the falls were lit up in beautiful color. Then we headed back to the campground for a good night's sleep before driving to Massachusetts the next morning.

We left around 9:00am for Massachusetts and a little over 10 hours and $40 in tolls on the NY State Thruway later we arrived at Kate's brother's house. We'll be here for a couple of weeks before going to Cape Cod or New Hampshire and spending a week at the beach. Then we'll head for Mississippi via Washington DC and Myrtle Beach, SC.

Pics to be posted later.


Cheers,


Rob

Mt. Rushmore to Chicago...Mechanical Problems

We pulled out of the campsite at Mt. Rushmore just before 10AM on Tuesday, destination the famous Wall Drug in Wall, SD. As soon as we hit the “Mass Pike” (I-90 east) the billboards for Wall Drug appeared. The store became famous in the late 1930’s after the owner and his wife decided to offer tired travelers free ice water on their way to Yellowstone National Park. People stopped in and usually bought something in addition to the free water. Today, the store has several cafeterias, an outdoor playland for the kids, and sells almost everything, including prescription and non-prescription medications. We spent about 1 ½ hours browsing and had a very good meal there for lunch. I also picked up a biography of Teddy Roosevelt by David McCullogh, a very talented historian.

The drive from Wall to Kennebec was uneventful and boring for the most part. We stopped for the evening around 4pm in a nice little campground just off the interstate. We set out the next morning for Albert Lea, MN around 9:30AM. Our first stop was for gas in Mitchell, SD. We also visited Cabela’s and drove through town to take a picture of the world famous Corn Palace. Every year the town comes up with a theme and decorates the outside of the building with corn kernels and husks. It takes about three months to take down the old murals and put up the new ones at a cost of about $100,000.

After Mitchell, we continued on to Jackson, MN where we (almost) decided to stop for the evening. We pulled in to the KOA there and hooked up, cooked dinner, took Grace to the play ground, then decided to keep going to Albert Lea, about 85 miles down the road. We arrived for the evening about 8:30pm.
The next morning, Thursday, is when things started to go south. First off, the car we have been towing, a 2008 Ford Edge, had a dead battery and we didn’t have any jumper cables. Kate went over to the office to see if they had any when a fellow camper offered to jump start the vehicle for us. It started up and we ran it for 15 minutes or so to try and charge the battery. Then we hooked up and headed for Clarksville, IA, to connect with some of Kate’s friends from Amherst who now live in Iowa.

After a wonderful lunch and some good fellowship we hit the road for Dyersville, IA, home of the Field of Dreams Movie Site. The field has been preserved pretty much as it was in the film and is open to the public from April to November. We arrived at about 4:30pm and headed out to run the bases with Grace. After some looking around and a visit to the souvenir stand we went back to the RV to head for Illinois. Uh-Oh…we managed to park in such a way as to make it impossible to make the turn out of the parking lot. We thought we could make it but the roof of the souvenir store was just too wide and we couldn’t back up with the car hooked up. It took nearly an hour in a pouring thunderstorm to get the car unhooked because of the angle. Finally, I rolled the car to the edge of the parking lot and backed the RV up to reconnect. Soaking wet, we headed for Galena at 6:10pm.

More trouble…we made a wrong turn just short of the campground in Galena and ended up on a dead end street not wide enough to turn the rig around. Once again we unhooked in the rain, moved the car manually (battery still dead) and maneuvered the RV around to reconnect. Just as I went to plug in the car tow lights, sparks flew and some fuses were fried on the RV. We had no turn signals and no dashboard lights. We towed the car to the campground and figured we’d call Good Sam and AAA in the morning.

Friday morning we called AAA…the mechanic arrived about 8:45am and jump started the car. He told me to drive it for a good hour or so at highway speed so I buckled Grace in the back and headed for Wisconsin. Kate remained with the RV to wait for the Good Sam tech. He arrived around 10am and checked all the fuses he could find…everything was fine. Still no turn signals and no dashboard lights. He left about 10:45am and didn’t charge us since he didn’t do anything. I returned around 11am and hooked up the car and we decided to go towards Chicago and maybe find an RV dealer there who could solve our problem. As we started out I realized that not only were the turn signals not blinking, I didn’t have a speedometer or odometer. Thankfully, our GPS has those functions and so we used it to monitor our speed as we looked for dealers. We found one in Rockford, IL who sent us to a repair shop a few miles away. After about an hour of checking fuses and searching the owner came out and said sometimes there is a fuse box INSIDE the instrument panel. Sure enough, there was a single button snap holding the instrument console down and when the snap was undone the entire panel lifted up and there was the fuse box we had been searching for. There was one blown fuse and the turn signal flasher was shot. The tech replaced those in about five minutes and everything was working fine. The bill came to $11 for parts, $111 for labor. Nevertheless, we were very thankful they could fix the problem quickly. We left about 4:30 and arrived at our campsite for the weekend around 5:30, relieved to finally be in the greater Chicago area. We’ll be here for three nights.

Mt. Rushmore

Last time I said we were going to drive from Cody, WY to Buffalo, WY, about 180 miles. When we woke up on the 5th we decided to try and make it all the way to Mt. Rushmore so we would have 3 solid days in one spot. The drive was a bit harrowing through a few steep mountain passes with lots of curves but we made it and pulled in to our campsite at about 6:15pm. Our site was nice with a small lawn area and a picnic table. We were a bit hungry after the long drive so we headed for the restaurant at the campground and had dinner. Prices were reasonable and the food was excellent.

The next morning we attended worship services at the campground. They are conducted by a group of college students who minister at camps around the country during the summer. The service was well done and all in attendance heard a good message from Matthew 5:9. Afterward we went for the pancake breakfast with bison sausage links (surprisingly good) and then went back to the RV for a bit of rest. It was pretty hot so we took Grace to the splash park at the campground and she played in the water for a while. After she tired we went back to the rig and changed so we could head for the famous western town of Deadwood (yeah, the Deadwood of the HBO series). We stopped at the site where Wild Bill Hickock was gunned dow while playing cards and where his assassin was captured.

We arrived in Deadwood about 1:00 and decided to have lunch at Mustang Sally's. The food was good and afterward we walked about the town and spent a little time in some of the 80 casinos. South Dakota has strange rules about kids and casinos. We walked into one casiono so I could spend $10 on one of my favorite games (The Twilight Zone) and nobody questioned us about Grace being there. We later found out that kids are allowed in the casinos as long as they stay 2 feet from the machines and don't handle the money. Oh yeah, I made $5 on my $10 investment...LOL.

We wandered about the town for another half hour or so as the rain started to fall. As we were making our way back to the car a gunfight broke out right on main street. By the time it was over three outlaws lay dead in the street and the marshall was strutting away. Sure was fun to watch!

That evening (Sunday the 6th) we decided to check out Mt. Rushmore. We had seen the monument from the road as we drove back from Deadwood but we had yet to go to the visitor center and see the evening program and lighting ceremony, scheduled for 9:00 pm. We arrived about 8:30 along with a throng of others and made our way to the amphitheatre. At precisely 9:00 a ranger announced that the program was cancelled due to dangerous thunderstorms in the area. We snapped a few quick pictures of the monument as the rain began to fall. Then the thunder boomed, lightning struck, and a downpour began. We ran for the car and drove back to the campground (5 miles away). The rain was still coming down as we scurried into the RV only to find we had left a roof vent open and rain was coming in. Fortunately it just wet the carpet area in the bathroom and I was able to dry it out overnight. The storms continued for most of the night but we awoke to a bright blue sky on Monday.

After a relaxing morning doing laundry, we headed out to have lunch in Keystone, the town featured in the film National Treasure 2 with Nicholas Cage. In the film Cage discovers the Lost City of Gold under Mt. Rushmore. In reality, there is gold there…several billion dollars worth. However, it is all down deep in many flooded mineshafts and the cost to unearth the gold is more than its present value. So it remains there for now.

We ended up having lunch at a small pizzeria on the boardwalk in Keystone. I ordered a calzone and while I was inside ordering Kate began talking to another family on vacation from Lincoln, NE. They were touring historic sites and had just finished lunch but had nearly half a pizza left untouched. When I came back out Kate had the pizza and was busy dishing it out for her and Grace. We still ended up taking two slices back to our RV with us and having it for dinner the next day! After lunch we explored the many gift shops and trinket stores, purchasing very little except for a few postcards and a leather money clip for me and a checkbook/travel wallet for us. We took Grace back to the RV about 2pm for her afternoon nap and chilled out until after dinner.

Around 8pm we decided to give the evening program at Rushmore another try. This time everything went without a hitch. The film was excellent and told about the contributions each of the four presidents featured on Rushmore had made to earn their spot. At the end of the film the mountain was illuminated and the weather was great for picture taking. We were very glad to have gone back.

The next morning it was time to head for the Windy City of Chicago, with overnight stops in Kennebec, SD, Albert Lea, MN, and Galena, IL. More on that next time.

Cody, Wyoming

Yesterday we left Yellowstone National Park for Cody, Wyoming. The route took us through the center of Yellowstone and across Sylvan Pass at about 9000 feet. We then began a long, slow (25 mph) descent to the east entrance of YNP. It was a great relief to finally be through the Rockies and we are thankful to have made it safely down the mountain. It is not easy to control a vehicle weighing around 10 tons down a grade of 8% for many miles. Probably burned up the brakes pretty well but we made it. The drive from there to Cody was relatively peaceful and scenic as the road paralleled a river (the Shoshone, I think) much of the way.

Cody is a small western town named after the wild west showman Buffalo Bill Cody. The permanent population is around 8850 but the tourist population is sure to double that during the summer months. The highlight of the summer is the Cody Stampede from July 1-4. We thought about going tonight but it is HOT and Grace would not do well in the grandstands for three or more hours. So we are just going to hang out at our campsite.

This morning we attended the Cody 4th of July Parade. We arrived at 8:30am to stake out a spot for our chairs downtown. The parade began about an hour later and was well worth the time. There were marching bands from across the state, rodeo outriders, politicans, and performers. Even the shriners made their customary appearance driving little turtle cars! Mom, dad, and Grace enjoyed a giant grape and red raspberry snow cone to cool off near the end of the parade.




Afterward, we headed back to camp and to pick up some much needed supplies at the local Wal-Mart. I think all 8850 residents were also there! Tonight we'll chill out and watch a movie before driving to Buffalo, Wyoming in the morning.


Cheers,


Rob

Yellowstone National Park!

We just wrapped up 3 days and 2 nights at Yellowstone National Park. What a sight to see! We pulled into our camp just before 5pm and decided to check out the town of West Yellowstone. Lots of shops and restaurants and plenty of other activity going on. We purchased the required amount of souvenirs before heading back for the evening amidst a few raindrops.

Wednesday we awoke to a glorious day in God's creation. We had decided last night to go to the 3 Bears Restaurant for breakfast and it was well worth the $25 we paid for the three of us. The food was delicious and the service prompt. We were in and out in less than an hour and on our way into Yellowstone Park.

Shortly after we crossed the park boundary we came to a screeching halt behind a long line of vehicles, some on the road and some off to the side. As we inched along wondering what was going on we finally found out when we came to a sign that said "No stopping, standing, or parking next 1/4 mile. Bald Eagle preservation in progress." Sure enough, right off to the side of the road in a tall lodgepole pine was a bald eagle nest and the eagle was home!

Our next destination was the painted pots geyser basin...some beautiful steam vents, boiling water pools, and a boiling mud pit! We walked for about a half-mile on the boardwalks that are elevated above the ground, which has a temperature in some spots of 160 degrees.


We continued on down the road from the boiling mud...our next destination was Old Faithful Geyser. We arrived at the Old Faithful Visitor Center about 11:40AM and were informed that the geyser would erupt between 12:24 and 12:48PM. Pretty good timing so we went to the General Store and picked up some lunch and water and headed over with the throng of visitors who, like us, had driven hundreds or thousands of miles to watch water boil. Old Faithful was sure not to disappoint. Around 12:30 the geyser started teasing the thousands of spectators gathered to watch the latest eruption. A few splashes of boiling water came over the lip of the geyser then subsided. At 12:40 the real show began. Initially, the geyser spouted about 20-30 feet in the air and then suddenly exploded with water and steam shooting 120 feet into the sky. The show lasted about 5 minutes and everyone seemed very pleased. It was a truly awesome spectacle to behold.

More to follow....

Kate here... Happy 4th of July! For those of you asking and praying, yes, Rob's back is doing much better. Now on to the travel blogging...

As Rob stated, Old Faithful was an amazing sight. No picture, HD movie, or description can do it justice - it is something that must be experienced in order to fully appreciate its wonder. If you haven't yet made that trek to Yellowstone, it is worth the trip from anywhere in the world, just to see this one incredible geyser.


In addition to the mudpots, geysers, and eagles, we also saw many bison and, on our way out, a herd of elk! We were not in the park at the right time of day to see wolves or bears - we were told that they like the cool mornings and evenings, and our tourism occurred during the heat of day.

That about sums up our Yellowstone experience. Next stop, Cody, WY!

Glacier National Park to Yellowstone National Park

After an exhilarating day at Glacier and a restful evening in Kalispell we began preparations for our two day journey to West Yellowstone for two fun filled days of geyser watching and being consumed by mosquitoes.

As we were preparing to leave Kalispell I managed to wrench my back and ended up on the ground in agony. Great timing...I still had to take down the awning, unhook all the connections, pack the rig, and drive about 185 miles. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes the pain was manageable, though I was unable to bend over or lift anything. Kate had to do much of the work.

The drive from Kalispell to Deer Lodge took just over 3 hours. The scenery was beautiful and reminded us of the film "A River Runs Through It" nearly all the way. We arrived in Deer Lodge, Montana, at about 1:30pm. Deer Lodge is a quaint old western town with the Old Prison Museum and an historic western town as the centrepiece. There is also a museum featuring over 150 classic automobiles.

We had reserved a campsite in town and had been offered an "upgrade" by the manager the previous weekend. When we got there I suspected the upgrade wasn't going to work as we needed a "pull-thru" site to accomodate our 35 ft Bounder plus the extra 15 feet for the toad. All of the upgraded sites are back-in sites, which we can only do if we unhook the toad. We (I) prefer to simply pull thru the site and park. After a bit of confusion we were assigned site #3 and managed to make a tight turn into it and get hooked up. Kate made pasta w/ meatsauce for our first official meal cooked in the RV and then we played Yahtzee outside for a bit before trying to get Grace down to bed and settling in ourselves.

We headed out early Tuesday w/ a brief stop for supplies at Wal-Mart in Butte, MT. Our destination today was West Yellowstone, MT. We traversed some very scenic highways and even crossed the Continental Divide on I-90 East just past Butte and before Bozeman. When we crossed I pointed it out to Kate and she said "where is it, I want to see it!" I told her there isn't really anything to see, per se, it is just the point where rivers on the west side flow to the Pacific and rivers on the east side flow to the Mississippi or Atlantic.

We continued on across the divide and found ourselves heading into a powerful thunderstorm. The wind and rain kicked up so hard I couldn't believe it could blow my 10 ton RV around like that. Side to side and up and down as I fought the storm, feeling at times like a rodeo rider on an untamed bronc, until finally we passed the storm and settled in for an enjoyable drive to West Yellowstone. We arrived at our campsite just before 5pm and Kate began to make a crock of Mac-n-cheese for dinner.

While dinner was cooking we decided to take Grace for a stroll and walked downtown to browse the gift shops. We picked up magnets for each of the states we have driven through so far and aligned them atop the stove. We plan to collect one for each state as we pass through. Tomorrow we're off to see the geysers of Yellowstone National Park!


Cheers,


Rob

And here are some Glacier pic's...

Lake McDonald
The Weeping Wall











Grace enjoying some glacial runoff