September 16, 17, 18 and 19, 2015
This is the most beautiful country ever! We have decided the Tetons are our favorite park! We spent one night in Cody, WY at the KOA, had goofy problems with the leveling system in the morning, but finally got it working. We pulled to town and stocked up on groceries and headed to Yellowstone. We were met by snow flakes, rain and a big buffalo blocking the road...these big guys really cause a traffic/gawker slow down! These things are big animals, dangerous and not too bright. Already 5 people have been gored this year because their behavior is unpredictable...people and buffalo!
We pulled into our spot at Colter Bay Campground in the Teton National Park. This is about an hour North of Jackson, WY. No TV, no cell and no internet....it was so beautiful we didn't even miss the techie amenities. I must admit, I felt a little like I was going through withdrawal. We were parked 2 sites over from our friends, Ev and Kathleen from Gulf Waters. It was so great to see them! We had dinner with them at the local restaurant and caught up on the 6 months. These are very special people to us.
On the 17th, we headed out to see the sights of the Teton Park and were greeted by blazing sunshine against the beautiful Teton Mountains. It had snowed so the rugged, jagged mountains, were capted by snow again a perfectly blue sky. We acted like tourists and pulled out to snap pictures at nearly every turnout. We had dinner at the Lake Jackson Lodge with Ev and Kathleen. A huge 60 foot glass window faces the Grand Teton and an amazing sunset made for a great evening with our buddies. They celebrated my birthday early and it was a great night with special friends. We had some fun shopping and Kathleen and I ended up buying the same white jacket!
We visited the Jenny Lake Lodge and as we entered the door, two little birds were in the nest, pooping all over everyone who came through the door! We bought a new sign for our rig, Happy Trails. We are sure loving this new camper....it's go t all the comforts of home and we are feeling so blessed.
We couldn't get a reservation for the 19 or 20th at Colter Bay, so this morning, we hiked to the lake, toured the visitor center and were so in love with the beauty, we were 1/2 hour late leaving the park. We meandered down to Jackson, WY where we found lots of crowds and people. This is a small town, nestled and surrounded by magnificent mountains on every side.
We are staying at The Virginian RV park, located just West of town. It's an OK spot for a couple of nights and close to everything. We were going to take the tram at Jackson Hole, but it was $37.50 per person so we decided to take the chair lift at Snow Mountain in town instead. It was closed so we started hiking up the mountain with Willie. Wow, it will be a good thing if we can even get out of bed tomorrow. These are really steep mountains. The bad news was I got stung by a bee ----dang that hurts.
After our hike, we decided to head up to Jackson Hole to check out Teton Village ski area. It's really a beautiful area for the beautiful, spa going, and wealthy crowd. We walked around, and had a fun early supper at the Cowboy Bar.
Today is my last day to be in the 60's. It's the end of a decade as I collect my social security AND turn 70 tomorrow. I feel so lucky and blessed to have such a great life. While I don't really want anything, tomorrow we head to Jackson to walk around and perhaps do a little birthday shopping!
September 15, 2015
We packed the new and headed out from the lake around 8 a.m. We pulled a long day ending up in Miles City, MT...9 hours total. It was great we could get across boring North Dakota and enter into Montana in one day. The great news is the beeping from the truck that we experienced when we took Xochitl to Lake Superior in June, is gone, gone, GONE! After a day in the GMC dealership, they determined it was the camper brakes. So a trip to Warren's Auto fixed the intermittent break system and we were good to go. Everytime the seat belt alert goes off, we dread it may have happened again. Two days into this trip and we are good with no loud bonging! We're pretty sure it's permanently fixed so a big hooray!
We arrived at the KOA in Miles City around 4:00 p.m. and got set up and scarfed down nummy sloppy joes and fresh sweet corn. We went for a walk and discovered we are camped at the junction of the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers. It's clearly Big Sky country and the campground property was actually where Custer rallied with Lewis and Clark. Custer then headed two hours away after the meeting and that's where he died at 'Custer's Last Stand'. So much history here in this cowboy country.
Gil and I walked to the rivers and were surprised to meet up with some people with a tent, no car, and a lady hovering in the tent...seemed a little spooky so we headed back only to meet up with a guy who had a 78 pound red-nosed pit bull. This pup seemed only interested in chasing Willie. Scared me to death and we hurried home as the guy attempted to hold the strong pitbull at bay...nearly impossible!
This morning brought an issue with the connector on the fresh water tank. We wondered our way to Billings, MT following along side the Yellowstone River. What a great view!
We found the Metra RV Repair and lucky us....they worked on four things and fixed them all! Willie and I walked around the lot and I got my 10,000 steps so it was a great stop!
It's been a little weird organizing this new camper. Everything had it's place in our old rig, and honestly, we can't find s--- in this one! We are trying to get organized but it's going to take a while to find just the right spot for our stuff.
Today, while Gil was filling up the truck, I ran into Sam's to buy pots. I left all my cooking pots at the lake and while we were attempting to not triplicate, we needed to! So now we have 3 new pans for the rig and don't have to ever take them out!
We pulled another couple of hours to the KOA in Cody, WY. Spots are tight, but we're a one-night-stand so it doesn't matter. Tomorrow we head to Jackson Hole to meet up with our friends Ev and Kathleen.
This is my country....it's filled with lots of space, huge skies, mountains and most of all rocks everywhere and all shapes and sizes. I've been on a hunt for heart-shaped rocks. I found two heart-shaped ones today and then added several rocks to the collection to take to the lake for rock painting. The weather has been terrific and we've missed the rain that recently went through this area. A great day on the road!
June 13, 2015
Gil picked me up and we went back to the KOA to pack the rig for travel. The entire week in AR and MO, was hot, still and humid beyond belief! I'd forgotten how hot it can really get!
We traveled a good pull back to our park in Kansas City and then got an early start towards home.
We arrived home after 7 hours around 4:00 only to discover that the camper is just too big to pull into the driveway or yard. You can't leave it on the street so it was crazy getting some of the stuff unpacked so Gil could take it another 3 hours to the lake.
The super sad thing was the camper in trying to go over the curb, hit the back window of the brand new GMC 1 ton Denali truck and crushed it. We were sick...just sick. The good news is it can be fixed and Gil made it safely to the lake after an already long day.
Turns out the 'fix' is $1500 but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!
June 8 -13, 2015
What a fun-filled week with these special gals in my life! Roberta is the only one who remained in California, Carolyn lives in Leavenworth, WA and Joan lives in Ft. Smith, AR. We toured the Crystal Bridges Museum and Gallery in Bentonville --- totally free thanks to Walmart, entertained and cooked tons of hor's doerves to meet Joan's local friends, spent time touring Ft. Smith. We went from the convent at St. Scholastica to Miss Laura's brothel museum all in one day! One of the best things was holding Joan's 6 month old grand baby twins. A darling little boy and girl! You can imagine the joy this brought all these grandmas!
Roberta had recently been to visit her grands in Shanghai and shopped for all of us! From socks to amazing jewelry, we had a ball sifting through treasures. She even brought a darling Hello Kitty bag for Xochitl and a couple of 'most-loved' sparkle bracelets for her!
One day we took at road trip to Northeast Oklahoma to go to the Ingrid Gipson Gallery. This lady is amazing...she is a retired fashion designer and executive, who got tired of the NY life and basically fell off the grid, raising her own food and building her own house. She's got goats, chickens, rabbits, geese and turkey's. While her lifestyle is not to my likes, it was pretty amazing. She fixed us a delightful lunch and gave us a tour of her property. My heart melted as I held an 8 day old baby goat! Carolyn bought one of her artists paintings so all had a fun day filled with lots of new experiences!
We watched movies, ate, drank wine and talked forever! Friend Carolyn from Washington state, has a new beau she is going on a 4 week trip with so we helped outfit her at Victoria's Secret, which left us all having stomach aches from allt he giggles.
What a blessing these dear girls are to me. I am so lucky to have them in my life!
June 6, 2015
We found an amazing, owner owned park right on Table Rock Lake. It was probably the most luxurious park we've ever stayed at and almost empty! We parked and had 2 days to discover our new rig and get things set up! We walked, talked and loved the two air conditioners. It's super hot in the south and we were melting and missing our Minnesota summer June days that are dry and sunny.
On Monday, we pulled to Alma, AR where we settled Gil and Willie into the KOA and called my reunion buddies to come see our new home on wheels. The reunion girls are three women I worked with in Long Beach, CA some 47 years ago...am I that old already? We've met every two years for the last 5 years and this year, Joan hosted at her home in Ft. Smith, AR.
June 4, 2015
We packed the rig and headed South! We spent a night at one of our favorite stops in Kansas City at the World of Fun. We wondered if our camper would float as we had over 6 inches of rain and thunderstorms. The next morning, we headed to Linn Creek, MO to pick up our new rig. We are super excited but a little sad to leave our Premier Bullet in the trade-in lot but hopefully the new family will have the fun and love we did.
The day we arrived was 95 degrees with the humidity about the same and the dew point tropical. Unloading our camper was surreal....hot, hard work and found we had too much stuff in too many hiding spots! But we did it. We'd planned to go to Table Rock but at 6:30 p.m. we knew we'd never make it, so the RV park found us a spot just down the road for a one night stop. The king sized bed, felt pretty darn good that first night. We were exhausted!
On the road the next day, we were pleasantly surprised at how great the rig pulls with the truck and we had our first Chick-n-filet....nummy! We are very happy campers!
March 30, 2015
It's down to our last week and we've started packing, finishing up our Gulf Waters projects and saying goodbye to our old and new friends. It's really a hard week especially because the weather is so FABULOUS! How can we leave? Lots of tugs but family and a new kitchen and 3 new bathrooms are waiting for us at home. We'll head North on Friday.
Last night we had a fun trip down the beach for five miles in a golf card to eat at the Beach House with Seattle friends. We also attended the party of the season hosted by San Antonio row on Saturday. It was a fiesta progressive party. What an event!! Camper one hosted Margaretta's and a photo op, medals to commemorate the party and flower head bands for the ladies. Camper two hosted appetizers and camper three had tacos. Camper four was the finale with dessert! Wow! There must have been 150 people who were entertained by some of park talent, who made up a fun band playing lots of Mexican music.
Gil has finished up the sprinkler system, planted some new sod in bare areas and I got the concrete table painted. We're pretty much done with phase I for this year! Our neighbors across the pond are giving us a lot of grief for being retired and working so hard....they get tired just watching us! For us it really makes us feel great to make these improvements!
Tonight Gil grilled the best burgers and I gave Willie a couple of bites of the third uneaten burger. I ran outside to grab something and came back to an empty platter. Humm, I guess the third burger was for him after all!
Gil has caught a bad cold bug so is sniffling and coughing like crazy:-( Sad to cancel some dinners/lunches, but we need a strong driver for the pull North.
It's bittersweet walking the park as lots of the Winter Texans are packing up their rigs to head back home. I think the dogs are even in a funk!
As we say goodbye to friends, it's hard to say goodbye to the sea, amazing sunrises and sunsets. While the desert in bloom is pretty, we sure won't miss worrying about the rattlesnakes who are just waking up from their winter nap.
We're going to make the most of these last treasured days. We'll sure miss this happy place nestled in a piece of paradise. We feel so lucky to call this home for 3+ months in the winter. Happy Easter to our family and friends. We'll be celebrating 'on the road' this year.
