Drive stats: 340 miles MH, 8 hours on the road.
Day ONE of our summer road trip was not part of the original plan, but we were able to break up the long drive a bit more by leaving one day earlier, and Indulge the kids with their request to go back to Sam's Town. They remembered how fun the arcade there was from last time. We left home at 9:50am and got to the campground at 5:50pm, an 8 hour drive day.
Our first stretch break was at a playground/dog park for maybe 30 min. around noon to let kids and dogs stretch out and run before getting into the real heat of the day. We had met Susan & Bernie (and Daisy), and Mike, Katherine, Jacob, and Megan (and Ruby) on the road so we could travel together. Aside from filling up the gas tank in Las Vegas, that was our only stop.
The generator didn't last, as expected... we had both AC units on as long as we could until the generator overheated and shut off. At least we had dash AC on, even if it couldn't keep up with the heat and large MH space. The driver's seat was warm sandwiched between the sun on the side window and the engine's heat. Outside temperatures peaked at 120º at Baker, CA. When we arrived, we wasted no time plugging in at the campground and walking over to Sam's Town to cool off. We ate dinner there, watched the water & light show at 8pm, then played at the kids arcade til 9pm. It was still over 100º at 10pm.
The kids did well on the drive. We are getting used to MH trip rules and practicing courtesy in close quarters.
Addisyn slept at the dinette made into a bed--that was the first time we ever used it that way. Eager to make good time the next day, I was anticipating pulling the slide in even if the kids were sleeping, so Piper opted to sleep on the couch.
DAY 2--SAT 6/24/17 -- DRIVE DAY LV--& Idaho Falls (640 miles)
Drive stats: 640 miles MH, 13 hours on the road.
We left at 6:40am, and are SO glad we left right away to get through the desert heat in the morning. We set parameters for electronics time today--2hrs on ipods, and a movie after lunch. When shopping with the kids for packing a few days ago, we had picked out candy for our drive days--well, when I said we had to wait till 10 am, that came an hour earlier than I expected when we switched time zones in Utah--much to the kids pleasure ;-)
A few hours into the drive, Marissa said her tummy hurt. She said something similar yesterday and I didn't think much of it, but I'm wondering if she gets motion sickness too. She might have been fine, but I gave her a children's Dramamine and she napped in her seat for a long time. Next time I'll just give her half. Piper also didn't feel well, but we were well into the afternoon by that time. Addisyn was fine because we were preventative and had already given her a dose so she was fine--she did nap through two state lines in the morning, but I figure our schedules are off so it was fine.
Our campground is nice (part of the Sam's Club) and has a great big playground, making it our 3rd playground for the day--the other two were at gas stops. Relaxing at camp was nice, however I've got that "I spend a day on a boat" rocking/motion feeling when I'm sitting or standing still.
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| 3 motorhomes caravan |
DAY 3--SUN 6/25/17 -- DRIVE Idaho--Yellowstone
Drive Stats: 190 miles MH, 3.5 hours on the road
We entered Yellowstone National Park today, free, compliments of Addisyn's 4th grade pass which we redeemed at the gate today. (This is part of a national program granting free entry to all National parks for the 4th grade school-year to correlate with their social studies curriculum).
We enjoyed the scenery but did not stop until we settled in at our Campground. Fishing Bridge campground is the only campground at Yellowstone with full hookups. We were lucky to get reservations because we planned ahead, and got 2 more sites for family because Chris was persistent in calling regularly to see if there happened to be any cancellations.
We saw herds of Bison in the fields, and a few closer to the road we got a good look at them. There was even a Bison walking through the parking lot at our campground registration area.
of the lake.
DAY 4--MON 6/26/17 -- Yellowstone full day
Drive Stats: 100 miles in the Jeep
Ohhh, Ahhhh! We saw Old Faithful erupt two times! It is one of the largest geysers, and the most frequent and predictable. This Visitor Center also offered a "Young Scientist" patch so of course the girls wanted that too. We took a "hike" (walk) on the plank pathways built a foot off the ground to tour the geysers area. The girls made a hypothesis about if Geysers are alive, and then made observations as they followed their guidebooks. The coolest part was using a laser thermometer to measure the temperature of the various hot springs. They are so pretty and would be tempting to try to touch if we didn't know they were 150º! We all participated in the Jr. Ranger "Wildlife Olympics" too, comparing our skills at running, balance, breath-holding, and smell to that of various animals. They hustled through their Young Scientist workbooks to earn the patch so we could move on to the next area of the park.
Next stop: Grand Prismatic Lake--it looks like a rainbow! The various colors of this (and all of the) hot spring(s) is the minerals, primarily forms of iron oxides/sulfides/sulfates.
DAY 5--TUE 6/27/17 -- another Yellowstone full day
Drive Stats: 75 miles in the Jeep, __ hours on the road
Today we headed to the north part of Yellowstone. We saw the mudpots (which weren't as muddy as I expected), the "Green Dragon" (a steaming cave with wooshing water and green algae/moss growing on the rock walls), and the Yellowstone canyon waterfall. We saw our first bear today right before the anticipated rain came. The cousins had fun sharing umbrellas. We saw a black bear and a Marmot.
The kids made themselves at home again in the campground forest, building and playing with new friends. They made a fort with fallen tree logs, played teeter-totter, and walked them like balance beams.
Tonight we cleaned up are camp area, loaded up bikes, and then hung out with M&K family in their MH out of the rain and gave them their anniversary card before parting ways in the morning.
The mosquitoes were all over us here, even though we used bug spray. I won't miss them!
If we ever go back, I really want to go find that swimming hole!
DAY 6--WED 6/28/17 -- DRIVE DAY -- through Montana to Glacier NP
Drive Stats: 400 miles MH, 9.5 hours on the road
We were planning to head to Mammoth Hot Springs at the north entrance, but we skipped it because road construction traffic could make the drive extra long, and Since M&K family went there the day prior and said it wasn't much to see.
A bit of a bummer since we backtracked instead of covering new territory, but it didn't seem worth the chance of sitting in a line for 30min for the 1-way road construction traffic.
We parted ways with M&K family as we headed north and they headed south.
A rock hit the windshield at some point on the hwy, so we stopped in Helena, Montana and got it filled in a jiffy-- it was convenient, quick, and a great playground one block away so the kids played while it got done.
There was very little traffic today, just windy with vast open spaces and farms.
We finally arrived at our beautiful campground in the valley around 7:15pm. Our pull-through site was easy, but we had a few consecutive problems... First the microwave quit and I thought we lost all power, and so Chris went to get help in the rain. We couldn't figure out how to fix it and still had one child who's dinner wasn't cooked yet.
Then, Chris tried to come back in, and the door was stuck closed. He was locked outside. We were locked inside. He and I were on either side of the door trying to wiggle and push the lock to free it. We even tried raising the jacks and bringing the slide in in case the frame was tweaked, but it was no use. So Chris got the ladder out and climbed in the emergency exit window. We were trying to keep the kids out of the way in our narrow space and they were pretty good about passing tools and whatnot fwd/back since we couldn't pass each other very well. I almost sent them out the window to go visit grammy (who had just arrived and still wasn't settled in yet), but Chris had disassembled the lock by the time they got their shoes on and so we could let the kids out the door. The door has a 5" square hole now where the lock handle assembly should be, and we are at least 40 miles from the nearest town, in the opposite direction from where we want to go, and it's going to rain all night. We are so thankful for Chris' handy mechanical skills. He figured out a way to lock the door
with the deadbolt for the night. We brainstormed how to get the part without driving the MH too far and will make phone calls in the morning.
Dusk lasted till 10pm and we had let the kids play outside on the swings during the whole fiasco so by the time we went to bed, everyone fell asleep very quickly!
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DAY 7--THUR 6/29/17 -- Glacier National Park
Drive Stats: 155 miles in the Jeep (and an extra 52 miles for Chris in the Truck), 3+ hours on the road
We made phone calls to RV dealers to start the day.
Bernie & Chris took the truck and drove 70miles to the closest town to buy a lock from the RV dealer there--they are pretty sure they have one that fits, but he took our broken one with him to compare...we really don't want to make that drive more than once! Karen, Susan, and kids took our time packing up, and bungee/taping the MH door closed, then took the Jeep and met the men at the Glacier Visitor center.
Beautiful weather! We were expecting rain, but I ended up just wearing a tank top. We had a nice picnic lunch at the end of the lake at the West entrance. We were lucky to have started at the west entrance / Apgar Visitor area because there was so much more here than at the East where we ended. The girls picked up Jr. Ranger books and got a good start at the hands-on Nature center. We could have spent much more time there but we had limited time, so we began the drive through the park on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
We enjoyed our hike, which happened to be at the highest elevated accessible to the road on the west side of the park.
We were lucky in our arrival date, since the NP had just opened the day prior.
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