6/29/09

Our first night sleeping in Yellowstone was good. I have switched over into camping time by going to bed just after dark around 10:30 pm and waking up around 8:00 am whereas Kat is still on party time going to bed around 1:30 am and waking around 10:00 am.
I sat around this morning reading and doing some of the fun activities in the travel books that Cara got us for our trip while waiting for Kat to get up. Once up we packed our backpacks with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, snacks, water, cameras, sunscreen, and most importantly, bug spray, put on our walking shoes and set out.
We had gone to the Visitor’s Center yesterday and got a map of the day hiking trails in this area. A few of them are closed this time of year due to “bear activity” so from the three that were left, we chose to do two of them today.
The first trailhead started 3 miles east of where we are staying and it was a somewhat sketchy walk to it as we had to walk along the highway to get there. We had fun though stopping often to take photos and enjoy the views. They haven’t seemed to get old at all yet though I can’t imagine they ever would.
We reached the Strom Point trailhead just as some big storm clouds were moving in which made me nervous as not only did we not bring jackets or even sweatshirts of any kind on the hike, we didn’t cover the hole in the roof of the Winnie from where the vent cover blew off. We crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t rain and set out on the trail.
About 10 minutes into the 2.8 mile loop we came across a bison drinking from a pond. Well, we decided it was a bison but now are wondering if it was a buffalo; we don’t know the difference and since we don’t have internet or cell service here we can’t Google it to find out.
Many photos of the big animal later we continued on. The trail swept through a large meadow, through a thick forest and came out on the cliffs above the lake. We sat and ate lunch on the edge of the cliff which was incredible. From there the trial followed the lake for a bit where we found a large rock with about 5 or 6 marmots playing. Now, if you know Kat well you know that she has a bit of an obsession with rodents for some reason. I honestly have never seen someone get so excited about seeing a squirrel, gopher, chipmunk, and now marmot. I am not even sure those are all in the rodent family but they should be. Anyways, we stopped for a good 10 min so Kat could fill up the memory card on her camera with Marmots in every angle possible and then some.
Continuing on we looped back around into the forest again then came back out into the meadow where the bison/buffalo was still hanging out and back onto the highway and headed back towards our camp.
A mile from our camp we hit our second trailhead called the Pelican Creek Trail. This was a much shorter trail, just 1.3 miles but was still just as beautiful through a forest where we saw a lark elk and a ton of the biggest ants I have seen and down to another beach where we sat and ate some snacks and I expressed to Kat the shock in the fact that I had just hiked 10 miles and was still ready for more.
Back onto the highway and back to our camp, 5 hours and 12 miles later, we sat around, uploaded pictures from our cameras to our computers, where, again, I had to hear about how “cute and cuddly” marmots are and how “don’t you just want to take one home and snuggle with it?” many times over.
We have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, watching Stand By Me and waiting for the hot water heater to heat up so we can take some much more than ever needed showers later. I also climbed up onto the roof and rigged a very temporary cover over the vent. It hasn’t rained yet but the clouds are still creeping in and I’d rather do it now than wake up to rain falling on me.
We are dirty, sore, hungry and having the best time ever. We are looking forward to heading to Montana tomorrow. Hopefully we will also find an RV shop that has a cover for us.

6/28/09

Wake up time came bright and early this morning parked in the TJ Maxx parking lot. Kat seemed to have slept quite well and I had weird dreams most of the night and didn’t sleep all that great. We looked amazing though. It is lovely to see what 14 hours of driving, no shower and a sleeping in a parking lot can do for a girl.

Somewhere either in our last hours in Nevada or our first few hours of Idaho last night we lost the cover on the roof vent over the bed which made for a nice view of the stars when going to sleep but with rain expected later in the week we spent the morning trying to find an RV place that was open so we could get a new one. We didn’t. We are keeping our fingers crossed that somewhere in Montana when we get there on Tuesday will have one.

The drive to Yellowstone was beautiful. The views were truly breath taking and almost hard to believe they were real. We both took lots of photos but none of them really could capture the full feel of it. We also spotted a few birds that looked to be mixes of a few things so we aptly named them ourselves. There was the bird that looked like a skunk which is the Skunkbird (obviously) and the bird we saw on the lake which we named the Peliswan; it looked just like a swan but with a pelican’s beak. We both missed our calling as bird watchers.

We pulled into the Yellowstone entrance around 1:30. I was kind of expecting the smell of sulfur to hit as we crossed through but it didn’t. We stopped many times at all the different geysers and, like the tourists we are, took many photos. The geysers and mud pools are where it is stinky; I think Kat actually likes the smell of it. We made it to Old Faithful and walked up to the look out just seconds before it erupted. We were impressed with our timing and acted as though we planned it that way, unlike the poor folks that had been there for the 78 minutes before us patiently waiting. Again, the views along the drive were absolutely incredible.

We are staying in Fishing Bridge RV Park. It doesn’t look so much like the photos online but it works. We had a good laugh hooking up the RV to all of the amenities for the first time and very grateful for the detailed notes we took during our lesson. I also don’t recall seeing any mosquitoes in any of the photos online which I am really impressed by. How the photographer managed to capture this place without them is besides me. We are looking out the window right now and it is hard to see past the billions of them on the screen fighting to get in here.

We went for a few small walks today and have our day planned out for tomorrow with some bigger hikes and hopefully no bears. At the store earlier we heard probably four different groups of people talking about the bears they had seen earlier today…agh. I wanted to buy a “bear whistle” at the store but Kat assured me that she can whistle louder than anything we could buy in a store; but, at the same time, she also thinks that they are too cute and cuddly looking to hurt us.

We just had a yummy RV cooked meal and are planning on spending the evening relaxing, watching some movies and hopefully showering at some point. Oh yeah, there is no cell service or wireless here…if you know either of us, which obviously you do if you are reading our blog, then you can only imagine how we feel about it. After the initial shock wore off we decided that we are kind of happy about it; it may not be our first choice to be out of contact completely with the outside world but this is why we are on this trip. To disconnect a bit from our current realities and figure out where we are in life.

What a day...

We got on the road just after 9:00 this morning. I was quite nervous
about driving the Winnie over 17 but it ended up being far more simple
than I thought it would be.
We decided our driving shifts would be swaped at fuel stops which
ended up being about every 3.5-4 hours.
My first shift was pretty mellow through California to Auburn where we
first stopped. Cute town, really warm and dry.
Kat's first shift was also her first time ever behind the wheel in a
Winnie. I was a bit nervous but she handled it like a champ and we
were soon cruising through Reno eating the sandwiches I fixed up while
moving. It reminded me of an I Love Lucy episode I saw when I was
younger where Lucy tries to make dinner in the RV while moving.
Long story short...all of Nevada looks exactly the same. Hours upon
hours of the same dirt and small bushes.
Our plan was to get to Elko and call it a day but when we rolled
through around 6 pm we decided we would keep on going.
The scenery finally changed when we started heading north towards
Idaho. Vast green rolling hills and wandering streams. So beautiful.
We lost an hour crossing into Idaho and into the mountain time zone.
We watched the most amazing sunset which, because of the time change,
was at 10 pm.
As I type we are still on the road, 14 hours later, well 15 if we are
including the time change. We are just under 20 miles from our new
planned destination for the night, a town called Pocatello.
We are quite excited that we are now only about 4 hours from
Yellowstone instead of the 8 or 9 we had planned.
We are hoping to wake early, go for a run before it gets too warm,
take care of a few Winnie fixes and head into Yellowstone.
I'm sending in this update from my phone so there aren't photos to go
with it but they will be added as soon as we find a wireless signal.
Much love to everyone, hugs and kisses, goodnight.

The Day Before...

Well, we leave tomorrow. Actually we leave in 22.5 hours from now....
Lots to do today but I thought I would do a quick update before I got too busy today.
Yesterday was a busy one for Kat and I; we loaded our stuff into the Winnie which was pretty exciting. It made this whole thing seem a bit more real. We also bought some essential gadgets and I spent part of the afternoon trying to figure out our GPS thingy. I think it is programed to get us where we need to go...guess we will find out tomorrow.
Today is another big day as Kat will be driving the Winnie for the first time. We are picking it up from my mom's and taking it to Trader Joe's to stock up on our food for the trip...lots of cereal is on my list of course. We are dragging our friend Gabriel along with us because he works for TJ and is kicking down his 10% discount for us (THANKS GABRIEL!). So I am a bit nervous to have Kat behind the wheel for the first time but it needs to happen so better now then never.
Other than getting last minute things together and seeing my nephew Davis today for his 12th birthday there isn't much left but to get on the road.
I am getting a bit homesick already but I know that this trip couldn't come at a better time for both of us. We both know what we are looking to get out of this trip and are excited about all of the possibilites that lay ahead in our lives.

A possible change in the route...

Well, we knew when we were planning this that our itinerary would have to keep it flexible as things would more than likely change along the way.
It seems things are changing before we even hit the road now.
Katharina's dad has thrown out an offer we can't really turn down. He told us that we should miss out on the 4 Corners (which apparently isn't really even in the right location) and stay in Colorado an extra day to go river rafting, his treat....um, YEAH!
So, we will see how that all works out but we are now looking into switching things around to do that. River rafting sounds way more appealing than being in the 4 corners.

Only 10 more days until we depart!

Itinerary...

Here goes the first post of our travel blog. We will be updating this blog as often as we can to keep our dear family and friends posted on our adventures.
We are leaving in less than two weeks from now and the plans seem to be falling into place. With the exception of Yellowstone (impossible to get through on the phone) our campsites have been booked and the route has been established.
We were recently given a 2 hour RV lesson on the good ol' Minnie Winnie that we will call home on our trip and have pages of notes on how to do everything from use the outside entertainment system (yeah!) to how to empty the sewer (eww!).
There isn't much left to do now but pack it up and get on the road.
Wish us luck and good weather...

Here is our tentative itinerary for our road trip...
June 27: Depart: Santa Cruz - Elko, NV - 566 miles, 8.5 hrs.
June 28: Elko, NV - Yellowstone NP - 466 7.5 hrs.
June 29: Play in Yellowstone NP
June 30: Yellowstone - Missoula, MT - Whitefish, MT - 448 miles, 7 hrs. (either stay in Missoula or continue on to Whitefish)
July 1 - July 3: Play in Montana!
July 4: Whitefish, MT - Ballings, MT - 453 miles, 7.5 hrs.
July 5: Billings, MT - Mnt. Rushmore (via Deadwood), SD - 339 miles, 5 hrs.
July 6: Mnt. Rushmore, SD - Lakewood, CO - 390 miles, 6hrs (early am drive to get to Lakewood for Dad's birthday!)
July 7: Play in Colorado
July 8: Lakewood, CO - Arches NP, UT - 345 miles, 5 hrs.
July 9: Arches NP, UT - 4 Corners - 151 miles, 2.5 hrs.
July 10: 4 Corners - Grand Canyon, AZ - 230 miles, 4 hrs.
July 11: Tour Grand Canyon
July 12: Grand Canyon, AZ - Las Vegas, NV - 277 miles, 4.5 hrs.
July 13: RISE AGAINST IN VEGAS!
July 14: Play in Vegas
July 15: Las Vegas, NV - Santa Cruz, CA - 532 miles, 8 hrs.