Category: Family

Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments

August 22

We spent the day exploring the KOA, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument.

I didn’t take any photos, but the KOA is not your normal Campground. It’s price should have given that away, but we all were in shock when we rolled into the resort and saw swimming pools, a water slide, a splash park, bouncing area, playground, 3 or 4 restaurants and horses!

Kids both took advantage of the water slide, and Addy spent extra time at the bounce area, pool and mini golf.

We headed into the mountains further to visit Mount Rushmore. Being closer to the rocky formations was even better than the previous days far away viewing!

When we made it around to the front side of the Monument, it was clear that this place was going to be way more awesome than originally expected. I caught these pictures just from the car!

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Trail to Rushmore

AUGUST 20-21

After a long night freaking out about going over Teton Pass with our rig, I awoke early to verify I had found a much better route that only added about 45 minutes to our drive.

Going south on 31 from Victor to the 26 took us through much lower grades (6% rather than the 10% Teton requires). Though the pass was not as steep, it was still beautiful.

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Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

AUGUST 19th

First off, let me say that if you even think you will have time to visit some National Parks, you must get the annual pass. It has paid for itself in three park visits alone! So basically the rest of our park visits are now free until June next year, which is pretty cool!

Now, we spent our last full day at Murray’s in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. A full day was not enough to see it all, and the abundance of tourists kept us focused on the less beaten paths, which we like better anyway!

We started in West Yellowstone again, but this time headed north around the upper part of the park after crossing back into Wyoming!

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Well after an almost flat tire and great save by Shawnda we were headed out to adventure once more.

Now you should know other than a very few destinations none of our wandering has been planned to even the day we are going to be somewhere or planned at all for that matter. There are of course places and people we want to visit but the in between is where adventure lies.

Now we were headed to the great Teton mountains but in doing so you have to go where no Gallup has gone before.

Continue reading “Little Green Men” →

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Enough With The “Bumps” In The Road!

We made it to Idaho! Woo Hoo!

Burns, Oregon was a booming metropolis, and the only thing we can figure is it is a central hub for travelers and commercial vehicles transiting from coast to coast or north to south. The campground was well laid out with large sites and beautiful grassy lawns with the sound of frogs in the background!

After our overnight stop in Burns, we moved our way further East through more rolling hills, farmland and ranches.

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Though I feel like we have been sitting for too long here in Klamath Falls, OR we have not really been idle.

We have been taking care of a few things we have planned to do for some time and others that have come up since starting our adventure.

We installed a fence at our house here in Klamath which was in our plans from the start. Of course we did not plan on 90 deg temps while doing it but ahh what’s a little heat.

The Klamath County fair has been going on the past week so that warranted a visit.

They had a great shuttle from the parking lot to the main entrance to the fair. To be honest it was only a few hundred feet to walk but who could turn down a ride on this bad boy.

Now you should all know that Shawnda is not much for carnival rides, the spinning kind any way. So in good form I went off to ride the Ferris wheel with Addy and Alex wrangled Shawnda into going to ride the Rampage

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Rivers, Streams and Lakes

The last couple of days have found us back in the interior, headed east through Oregon. We spent a night at this great hidden gem of a campground called Casey’s Riverside RV Park.

The park runs parallel to the Willamette River and is hidden behind a well kept Mobil home park. At first we weren’t too sure, but as we drove in we quickly realized how well kept the place was. The kids wanted to hit the pool right away after we checked in and got set up; which I can say is down to taking about 10 minutes flat. The pool was not cold (it was mid 80’s outside), and the water was clean with very little chemical smell to it. John even took a splash and I sat poolside and dipped my legs in. It was refreshing.

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When we finally got to leave our hotel in Washington, we quickly looked over our “plans” and said yup, they look good. Well looking good, and being good are two different things!

Apparently summer camping in the northwest is a very popular activity. Every place we planned was booked! So, to add to the stress of finally getting back on the road, we didn’t really have any idea where we are going.

The decision to skip the olympics was a little heartbreaking since we never got to the peninsula when we lived in Everett. Just always viewed those glorious mountains from afar.

So, lesson learned. We are going to have to start looking farther ahead than originally planned. We’ve been lucky finding places to stay up until now, and am sure there will be places that are easier to get into than others. But when it comes to the big items, we will just suck it up and book ahead, because as the nice park owner at Canyon Alpine told me “you’re awful brave just winging it with such a big rig”.

The other thing we haven’t done so well is the whole post card thing! We have a list of folks that we want to send post cards to as we move about the country. Well one thing I learned a while ago, is that post cards actually have to make it into the mail to get delivered! Imagine that!

Well, after missing post office boxes and mail opportunities for over 3 weeks (yep) about 3/4 of the post cards we have filled out actually made it to a post office. So some of our family will be getting a small handful of cards at once. Sorry, we will get better at this!

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Since we are stuck in a hotel awaiting our camper to get fixed, we are making lemonade so to speak!

First we got bikes, and this awesome bike rack for the truck. At first John said it looked dorky, but we both now agree it looks super cool! We are now bike nerds.

This has allowed us to get out and do some free activities. We visited a favorite walking spot when we lived in Everett, Langus Riverfront Park. It’s a cool little trek along the Snohomish River that is pretty pet friendly. Andie has been pushed harder than ever and has enjoyed a break from the 4 mile run she’s had two days in a row.

Yesterday we headed out to Whidbey island via the Ferry to visit our good friends Tim and Annamarie. Our two dogs, Andie and Gibbs got a chance to play together while we got caught up on life. The kids had a good time in the hot tub too!

Today we did some life stuff; laundry, oil change and shopping. Then we made reservations to see Jurassic World. These theatre seats are amaze-balls!

It’s not what we had planned, but it’s what we are making of it!

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