Yellowstone 2019

We spent a few days in Jackson Hole Wyoming, including 4th of July visiting Grand Teton National Park before heading to Yellowstone.

Managed to see a Grizzly bear between the National Parks and then managed to get a night in Yellowstone after a cancellation, fortunately we were able to get two more nights at one of the first come first serve campgrounds the next day (no sites were available anywhere else). We did the normal tourist thing and went to see Old Faithful and as a bonus the Beehive geyser went off at the same time. Beehive goes off 1-2 times a day whereas Old Faithful every 90 minutes, so that was cool if you’re into hot smelly water spraying into the air.

Left: Beehive, Right: Old Faithful
There’s a Black bear in the background
Grizzly #2 taking a bath
Grizzly #1
Traffic Jamb

After Yellowstone we pretty much headed up to Canada where we have been the last week. We crossed the border…twice…I had some firewood from USA that I had to take back to Montana, got a grilling from the US immigration after handing my Canadian passport while driving my Montana titled RV with my non-concordant NZ accent. So we threw the firewood out in Montana and drove back into Canada where it rained! So much that we have discovered some leaks, which is good, kind of. I have been doing some resealing of the leaking seals and have ripped up the carpet and vinyl which we were going to replace anyway. So basically we are living in an RV while renovating, just what Jo wanted! We have had some great lightning and even been on Tornado watch which was a little exciting. we are bound to get some more storms before we leave. The Kids are having a great time catching up with/meeting their Canadian cousins and all need a good sleep now! It’s also been nice to see Uncle Clark who’s over here. We’ll be heading out to see Grandma next week, hopefully I can get the new flooring down by then.

Colorado and other States

So we tried to get away from canyons but still managed a few more while travelling up through Colorado, now we are back in Utah or Wyoming (we’re not 100% sure) boondocking in Flaming Gorge Recreation area. Did the best Dam tour yesterday at the Flaming Gorge dam. We are parked about 10 metres, 30 feet (even the kids are talking in feet and miles now!) from the FG Reservoir. We had a Pronghorn eating at the lake edge while the kids played today.

We came through Vernal Utah a couple days ago and Jo noticed a sign for the County fair, so while shopping at Walmart we were online seeing what was happening and ended up going to a monster truck and demolition derby which was a nice change from canyons!

After the event we thought we would drive a little out of town for the night when someone alerted us to having no brake lights! Whoops! So back to Walmart where we were out trying to figure out what was going on. We found a blown fuse and funnily enough George had been carrying around the exact 10Amp fuse we needed which he had found a couple days earlier. So on the road again and we found a spot off road in the dark. It’s always exciting to see where exactly you are in the morning.

We’ve had a good few sightings of animals thus far, 3 days ago driving over a pass in Colorado we waited for a Doe and two fawns to cross the road and couple minutes later a black bear ran in front of us (our second bear) also found 3 snakes, Charlotte tried her best to grab one of them, not wanting to listen to her father it didn’t help that George was saying “it’s a Gopher snake , it’s non-venomous”! Considering it was Rattlesnake country I didn’t really want her touching anything until SHE knows the difference. Marmot, deer, a whole herd of moose as we entered Flaming Gorge, ok maybe five.

We are still figuring out a few things about the new house, I have got most things working but have found an issue with the slide out side which will require a little modification, when in Canada I will get that fixed when I have access to a welder. Otherwise it is all going well, we have removed the front entertainment unit and have been slowly burning it in our camp fires, funny how we always end up burning unnecessary bits of our houses. Another job for Canada when I can get tools to finish it off as a bunk. So much more room with it gone.

We have been fortunate to meet a number of young families both in the National Parks and while boon-docking in National forests which has been great for both us and the Kids, we now have places across the country to leave our RV! I’m already planning our next trip! We had a lovely time recently just out of Gunisson National Park with a family from Florida with 3 girls and a Family from Texas. We stared at the stars until after midnight (the Floridians and Texans don’t get to see the stars too often because of light pollution, things we take for granted), all the while the 7 kids played havoc in their trailer! Anyway, time to go, we’ll be heading towards Jackson Wyoming tomorrow where we plan on spending 4th July, around there anyway.

Canyons

Just wrote and lost a whole lot! heading off on our way to Canyonlands NP before Arches NP in the next couple days. Since Vegas we have been through: Hoover dam, Grand Canyon NP, Glen Canyon Dam, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Capitol Reef NP. The kids (and Jo) have have been doing as many Junior Ranger programs as possible sometimes two a day. Today we went to the Goblin Valley state park where we walked and played with the “Goblins”. Have to go.

Figuring it out!

So we bought this RV off a guy who’s health was going down hill and it was too big for him now. Normally in this situation the previous owner (Russ) would be able to help familiarize the new owner with how things work etc. us being complete newbies to this and all. Unfortunately this was not the case, not for lack of trying on his part though. The old owner in the not too distant past had a stroke. So although I had questions he rarely could answer them. When we picked up the RV he had had a new power cord made up because someone had stolen the old one. It was a bit bizarre as the cord had two male ends on it which at first sight I thought “this could kill someone”. It could plug into a socket on the RV and then in a Park outlet. But no power inside! He and his friend could not figure it out, at the same time we tried to get the generator going and when we did, still no power. After a few days of driving and some feeling around I found that the cord had been cut off (this couldn’t be seen) and was never supposed to be plugged in that way. Russ saw a plug outlet and assumed that’s how it worked. This was not a huge issue because we don’t stay in full service parks anyway, but I still needed to figure out what was going on. I rewired it as it should be using the only tool I had, a Snap-On multi-tool. That was nice but it still didn’t give us power when we turned on the generator. So still no power and the manuals were of no use. I was searching high and low for elusive circuit breakers and switches that were not to be found. When we had internet the other night I googled my problems (google was of no help-they are just too entrenched!) but I did find a video that might help with the generator issues. Sure enough in the morning I plugged the cord that I had rewired into the outlet and volia we had power! It all makes sense now but when Russ and the guy at the RV service place had both sent me in the wrong direction and I didn’t want to damage the genset I wasn’t going to plug things in willy nilly. So just in time because that morning we drove from east of Bakersfield into Death Valley and I wanted to have the knowledge that I could get the air con working if it was really hot. Funnily enough we drove right in to 190 feet below see level and 110 degrees Fahrenheit without using the vehicle or rv air con. It was getting a bit sweaty but the Bigfoot’s superior insulation and fantastic fans (I’ll have to do a video tour) mean’t it didn’t get that hot. However, we really felt like a swim! Death Valley was the 5th National Park we entered after Redwood, Yosemite,Sequoia, and Kings Canyon, after having to get to the camp office at 6:30am to get on a cancellation list with no guarantee of a spot in Yosemite it was quite a relief to get into a near vacant National Park, The summer is the off-season so the choice was ours! Peak season in the popular parks have to be reserved 5-6 months in advance. We still really wanted a swim! so we visited the Ranch next door to where we had planned to get a spot and Jo was told it would be $10/person including Charlotte, so nearly $100NZ for a dip! But wait, they had RV parks. So as it turned out we were able to stay at the Ranch (home of the worlds lowest golf course 214 feet below sea level) and have access to their swimming pool (and showers) for $24 only $8 more than it would have cost us next door. We managed a swim at 8am as well, a spring fed pool at a cool 30+ degrees plus, nice!

So a great trip through death Valley, didn’t have to use our new found source of POWER, although we did use the air con on the way out, and spent the night in Las Vegas behind Ballys after my navigator took me for a tour through down the strip in a 30 foot RV and a little impromptu circuit around the Flamingo Valet entrance, which is hilarious in retrospect knowing that I didn’t clip any cars or people with our 11 foot overhang (another story on that). Off for a stroll down the strip now, I’ll quickly grab some breakfast. We’ll head to the Hoover dam later.

Those be some tall trees: Day 2

Our first night of parking on the side of the road was all things considered pretty good, a little noisy but somehow 8am rolled around and we still didn’t have any children in bed with us! The view out the window this morning was pretty nice too.

Before heading out I noticed my right front tire was a little low (probably because I fiddled with it yesterday!), fortunately I had purchased an air hose for such an occasion. I just had to figure out how to use the on-board air to pump it up, a bit of fiddling and I got back up to 80psi, I think the labeling is wrong on the RV but I’ll fiddle again tomorrow as it will no doubt leak again tonight. We might get it checked out while we’re in a town with a tire shop.

We headed south around the Oregon coast which is a really nice drive and filled up with Gas (petrol) and Gas (propane) before crossing in to California where the prices jump up. Then headed into the Redwood National and State Parks. We had a walk in the trees and took a gondola ride through them.

Tonight we’re staying in a Kmart parking lot, there are another couple RV’s around so hopefully we’re all good. It’s a bit sparse in this neck of the woods for free camping but we’ll take what we can get. We saw some miniature Elk before leaving the Park.

Not Dead Yet! :Day 1 in RV

Taken a few days but we are finally updating this! Flights were all good having a night in LA where we managed to get our phones up and running and get our Costco membership! Flew out the next morning to Portland getting up at 3:15am to catch the early (cheap) flight. That got us into Portland early so we could get the rental car and drive 300 miles south to get to the elusive RV. We got in to Port Orford at 5pm on the 29th and ~6 months after paying for an RV we had our first night in it (it does exist!) We have a few things to figure out, our first day was spent back tracking an hour to drop off the rental car and I went to an RV service shop to ask a few questions. The guy we bought it off is good to talk to but he had a stroke some time back and can’t answer many of the questions I have for him! So we’ll have to figure it out as we go along. Did a big Walmart shop to get a few necessities like pots and pans and food etc. While there in Coos Bay we went into the Oregon Dune National Recreation Area. It was rather cool but didn’t stop the kids from all getting wet in the sea! Salt water and sand, just what we need!

Port Orford Oregon, we had hamburgers here before driving down the road and staying in a roadside pullout.
Our second night in the RV