We wander, though we are not lost…
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
When planning to take a year long hiatus to hit the road with your family, you imagine fun family adventures such as hikes in beautiful rainforests or sunny walks on the beach. You also imagine every one of your plans falling into place! We have already figured out that that rarely happens when you don’t have reservations and are 60′ overall.
The latest thing we didn’t think about is weather and acts of god and how they could affect plans.
The forest fires in Northern California and Oregon are awful this year. When we left Alaska we didn’t think that by the time our route got us into Oregon, two of the major attractions would be full of smoke. If we had arrived two weeks ago it wouldn’t have been so bad, and maybe a few weeks from now the situation could be better. But because we are 60′ overall we aren’t as nimble about switching plans as we could be.
Below is a picture from Crater Lake where we visited yesterday:
And this one is from Klamath Falls, our current location.
Another thing we have had to adjust for is campsites that should fit us, but don’t!
Twice in three days our plans had to change because we pulled in to find the sites aren’t set up with enough turning room to back our behemoth of a rig into. So, we quickly rallied and located new places to stay. Once we were lucky and the site was awesome; the other doesn’t have the same warm fuzzy feeling so far. We could have had a much nicer spot if the county fair wasn’t this weekend (see more timing issues).
The lesson learned this past week: patience and resilience are required to stay sane on this journey!
~S
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.
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!
The last few days of our journey back onto US soil have been doused with amazing scenery and family time.
An easy AM breakfast on a day when we were out of water (3 days of camping in provincial parks) followed by vast farmlands and rolling mountainsides that reminded me of many trips through central California with my parents and sister to go camping.
Continue reading ““Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas any longer””
So there is this awesome video clip of a fake interview between two (presumably) British actors. It’s all about the front “bow” falling off of a ship at sea. At one point the interview gets serious and the guy says “of course it’s not typical…for the bow to fall off”.
Well coming from boats we always thought it was a super funny video, because really, how likely is it that the bow is really going to fall off? Not very. Well that’s how we felt about the suspension on our camper until two days ago!
So imagine you’re driving along, blissfully unaware that back behind you the 42 foot, 16000 pound house you are dragging behind you starts to wear away at some amazing (not) plastic bushings that were installed on your “heavy duty” suspension. The scenery is amazing, the wildlife is abundant and you are so excited to get to the next site which boasts a lake, swimming area, playground and all the privacy of a forest campground in a well maintained park.
Gallup Family Wanders 