Craig's blog

Not (exactly) the last day we were hoping for

2008-07-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we made home today, but not quite as easily as planned. Things started off well. We got up and the girls were really excited to be going to Grandma Carol's house. We were off by 8:30 and at their house in Reno by 10:30. We transferred all their stuff for the week to the house and tried to be sure Carol knew what she was getting herself into. She (re)assured us that she did, and we eventually headed out around 11:30.

Earlier in the trip we found that the rear A/C no longer cooled, but the front still worked fine. This wasn't ideal, but now that it was just Patty and me, it was no longer an issue. We drove to Truckee for lunch. There was a bunch of road construction on I-80, so we were stop and go much of the way. Interestingly, the A/C really couldn't cool at all while we were idling. At the time it was about 85 outside. When we got to Truckee I heard a bad sounding tapping coming from the engine compartment. After a little experimenting I realized (with some relief) that it was "just" the A/C compressor. While this wasn't great news, it made me think we wouldn't get stranded on this last stretch of the trip because of engine problems.

We drove up over Donner Summit and then started our decent. About 30 miles down (a little before Colfax), there was sort of a band and then a loud pssshhh from the engine compartment. I stopped as soon as I could to get out and survey the damage. The good news was that the engine coolant looked fine. I believe the compressor blew and the freon went all over the place. I turned off the A/C and we drove on. The good news is that, sure enough, the engine was fine. The bad news is that it was 106 degrees outside when this happened.

We drove to Colfax where we stopped at a gas station where I rechecked everything and determined it was ok to drive, we filled up with gas and bought a bunch of water and ice to try to keep ourselves cool. We then proceeded to drive the rest of the way with the windows open. Until we got to San Francisco a couple of hours later, the temperature ranged from 106 to 111. It was HOT! Patty never does well when it gets hot, but she was a trooper today. We were glad we didn't have kids with us - that would have been really rough.

I was basically impressed (and I guess I still am) with the engine rebuild that Pearson did. The engine ran great and pulled hard the entire trip. Unfortunately, it consumed 2 1/2 quarts of oil during the trip as well as blowing up the A/C compressor (I think).

As promised, here are a couple of stats from the trip:

Total miles driven: 4669
Total miles with trailer: 3971
Longest driving day: 519 miles from Custer State Park, SD to Bozeman, MT
Total nights camping: 21
Number of states visited: 10 (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon)
Hottest daytime temperature while camping: 95 in Glacier National Park, MT
Coolest nighttime temperature while camping: 33 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Hottest temp while driving: 111 in California (with no A/C)
Highest elevation while driving: 9400' over Continental Divide in Colorado
Highest elevation while camping: 6600' in Steamboat Springs, CO
Total gas consumed: 470 gallons
Avg fuel economy: 9.9 mpg
Total cost of fuel: $1969
Avg cost of fuel: $4.19 / gal
Max cost of fuel: $4.58 in St. Mary, MT
Min cost of fuel: $3.98 in Gillette, WY

It's about over :(

2008-07-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we're almost home. Tonight we stopped at an RV park in Standish, CA (a city I didn't know existed) on 395. We're about 90 miles from Reno, where we'll drop the girls tomorrow so they can visit with Grandpa and Carol. The girls are really looking forward to it.

Then Patty and I will head home and do as much unpacking and cleaning as we can before I have to go to work tomorrow. It will be interesting to spend a week at home without the girls. It will be the first time we've been home alone in 11 years!

This trip has been fantastic - everything I had hoped and more with no bad surprises. If I get around to it, I'll put a quick summary up tomorrow night. The engineer side of me loves collecting data - maybe I'll put a few stats up from the trip.

The beautiful Metolius river

2008-07-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

This morning we packed up from the Sisters KOA and drove in to town to meet up with Diane & Jim. Diane and the girls stayed in town to go shopping while Jim and I got some groceries and then headed up to the Metolius river to look for a campsite. I’d read numerous accounts of the great campsites along this river just north of the town of Camp Sherman. We weren’t disappointed. There are a bunch of little campgrounds just beyond the town of Camp Sherman. There were a number of great sites right along the river. It’s basically the ideal campsite with a beautiful stream, great pines, a big campfire ring, etc. We setup camp and made lunch to enjoy by the river.

After lunch we drove into Camp Sherman (about 1 mile) so Jim could look for a cabin. We tried a few small places, and at the last place there was one cabin left. Apparently they’re all booked because the world-wide quilting convention will be in Sisters next weekend and the rooms are already all booked for the early comers.

Next we drove down to Sisters to pick up the girls and then back up to the campground, where we spent the afternoon catching up with Jim & Diane while the girls played in the Metolius. We all had a nice dinner and s'mores by the campfire. This is a beautiful spot and I wish we could stay here another day (or two). You can see a few shots of the area here.

However, tomorrow we have to get down to Susanville in preparation for dropping the girls in Reno on Tuesday and getting home so I can get to work Wednesday. Sadly, this is basically the last day and night at a “destination”. It’s just driving and sleeping from here on in…

Farragut to Sisters

2008-07-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

Friday (the fourth of July) we planned to go back down to Coeur d'Alene to see their fireworks over the lake. Over breakfast Patty had the great idea to take Mom & Dad's motorhome instead of our car. Everyone thought it was a great idea, so we did it. It certainly holds all 7 of us easily, and it worked as a great home base for the day. We arrived a little after 11:00 and the city's 4th of July parade had just started. This blocked our ability to get to the parking lot we had planned on going to, but I dropped everyone off (except Dad), and they watched the parade. As soon as the parade was over, I was able to get in to the lot.

We had lunch at an internet cafe where I uploaded my blog entries and pictures for the previous week.

Later in the afternoon, we rented a wave runner for an hour. The girls complained and complained that they wanted to go tubing again instead, to the point that I almost just cancelled the whole thing, but we went ahead and went out. They all had a total blast. I rent one of these about once every 3 years, and each time I'm amazed at how fun they are, and how much they've improved. This one was a really powerful 4-stroke. It had 110 hp, and could really accelerate, but was still pretty manueverable. It also heald three people comfortably.

We went back to the motorhome to change out of our bathing suits, and then went to find a restaurant. We ended up at Brix, which didn't have a wait, and was really nice. It was one of the nicest places the girls have been to and wasn't outlandishly expensive.

We then waited on the beach for the fireworks show. I had heard they would start at 9:30, and the kids had trouble waiting until then, but unfortunately, they didn't start until 10:00. By that time Jessica had fallen asleep in my lap. I woke here up for the show, and we all enjoyed it.

We walked back to the motorhome where the girls all went to sleep for the drive back to Farragut. We got them in bed in the trailer around midnight and Patty and I got everything ready for the morning by 1:00.

We got up this morning at 5:30 for another big drive. We were off at 7:00 and said goodbye to Mom & Dad. It was fun travelling with them for much of this trip. The girls really enjoy it. :)

We drove to Sisters, OR, (450 miles) where we had planned to meet our good friends, Jim & Diane Coward and camp at the Metolius river, which I've read is spectacular. It was a long enough day, and the tanks needed emptying, so we decided to stay tonight at the Sisters KOA, which is clean and KOA-like but certainly not spectacular.

We had dinner with Diane & Jim and made plans to meet them tomorrow morning. Jim and I will try to find a campsite on the Metolius for tomorrow night while the girls walk around Sisters and shop.

We also finished our plans for the rest of the trip. The girls have been campaigning to stay with Grandpa Lombardo and Carol for a few days, so we need to drop them in Reno on "the way" home. So instead of going down I-5, we're going to take 395. We'll leave this area on Monday, stop just short of Reno, and then on Tuesday (our planned last day) drop the girls with Grandma Carol and head home.

All good things must come to an end, although it will be nice to be at home in our own bed. :)

Farragut State Park

2008-07-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a great two days in the Pend Oreille, Coeur d’Alene area. Yesterday we drove down to Coeur d’Alene (about a 20 mile drive), which is a large resort town on Coeur d’Alene lake. We reserved a boat for the afternoon and then did a bunch of errands including getting the oil changed in the Suburban. It has burned 2 ½ quarts in 3,500 miles, which isn’t great. We also got our laundry done and had lunch. We went and got our boat and went out on the lake. It was a perfect afternoon, doing one of my favorite things. It was about 85 outside and the water was about 65 and calm. We went out to a cove that was recommended to us and started pulling the girls on a tube, which they absolutely love. We did that for about ½ an hour when Mom & Dad called because they had come back to the area. We boated back to the dock to pick them up and then back to the cove for more tubing. Each girl also tried skiing, but didn’t get up. Kelly got very close. Next time. It was an awesome day. Here are some pictures from the boat.

Today we had a leisurely morning, I went for a bike ride and then after lunch we walked to the beach on Lake Pend Oreille that’s about a mile away from our campground. It is a cool spot toward the end of the lake where the water spills out. The water is sort of flowing, but there is a natural barrier that forms a huge natural pool. The kids played for a couple of hours and I went for a swim to the opposite shore (probably only about 300 yards each way).

We came back and I made lasagna. Tomorrow we plan to spend the fourth at Coeur d’Alene.

Driving to the Idaho Panhandle

2008-07-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

It was incredibly warm the last night at Glacier. When I went to sleep at midnight it was still 80 degrees in the trailer (and 75 outside). At 4 AM we awoke to a pretty good thunderstorm. It wasn’t until after 5:00 that everyone (and the weather) had settled down and we went back to sleep. By morning it was nice enough to eat outside before we left. I have failed to mention the mosquitoes – they were out in force at Glacier, and given the fact that I’m the mosquito bait in our family, it was a real bummer. This morning after the rain they were especially impressive, and even my Dad said he got a bite.

After we ate and packed up we headed SW on Hwy 2 through Kalispell and then continued west on 2. It was a pretty drive. Instead of staying on 2 (which is the bigger and slightly shorter road to Coeur d’Alene), we took the scenic route and headed south at Troy on Hwy 54 and then west on 200 into Idaho. It was a great densely forested area and the roads were fine.
We arrived at our campsite in Farragut State Park near Lake Pend Oreille. It’s an absolutely huge lake nestled around a bunch of foothills. The campground in this park is beautiful, just as I had read. We’re really pleased.

Mom & Dad arrived a couple hours after we did because they stopped to visit some friends along the way. This evening I started a campfire to the sound of thunder. We sat around the campfire and watched and listened to the storm. In started to sprinkle, but we stayed outside in the 72 degree air and enjoyed the storm some more. Eventually we came in and it has now been pouring for the past hour and a half. We’re hoping it gets it out of its system so we can have fun on the lakes tomorrow.

Goodbye Glacier

2008-06-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was our last full day at Glacier. It’s been a great time here. The campground and campsite we’re in is fantastic. The scenery has been stunning, and the weather has been amazing too. Today it was actually too hot. We’d brought our down jackets as I had read that it could snow in June and would likely be very cold at least in the evenings. Today at 6:00 pm it was 94 degrees! I’m writing this at 10:40 pm, and it’s 75. I’m sitting out in the waning twilight because it’s still 80 in the trailer.

After another fun family breakfast, I went for a bike ride. I rode up and down Camas road. It was a great 25 mile ride. I was riding through a forest that burned in 2003. It’s impressive how much burned – everything was burned as far as I could see in every direction. There were lots of signs at pullouts along the road describing how good it was for the forest and the animals when there are forest fires.

After lunch we went on a park service run boat tour on Lake McDonald. It was quite unimpressive, and all of us would have been happy to spend our time doing something else (like playing on the lake ourselves).

After dinner we walked back to Apgar village (as we’ve done each night), but this time the girls wore their swim suits and they all jumped in the lake. It was great fun to watch their faces as they dealt with the shock of the cold water. I was kicking myself for not bringing a camera – especially the video camera. After their swim the girls had ice cream cones. Everything around here is about huckleberry, so there were a number of huckleberry cones. They were excellent. ☺

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Glacier and drive to Farragut State Park in Idaho where we plan to spend 4 nights.

East Glacier

2008-06-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning we had a leisurely breakfast for 7 at our campsite, cleaned up and got ourselves ready to leave for the east side of the park. We decided to stop in at the visitor’s center to make sure the Going to the Sun road was open. They have been plowing like crazy since the beginning of July and have it almost completely cleared, but there is a couple of mile stretch that still isn’t cleared. This means that you can’t drive over the park to the east side (and experience what I’ve heard is one of the most breathtaking roads in the country), but have to drive around the southern tip. It was about 100 miles each way, but we decided to go for it. We left around 11:30.
We made it to “Two Medicine” lake at 1:00 for lunch. The Suburban was a total pleasure with the 7 of us in it and no trailer to pull. It practically felt like a little sports car. ☺

Two Medicine lake was another spectacular spot. We ate our sandwiches, skipped rocks and took pictures.

Next we continued north to St. Mary lake and up to a viewing point on the east side of Going to the Sun road that has a view one of the few remaining glaciers. The sign at the overlook talks about how much the glacier has shrunk and that it is expected to be completely gone by 2030. We couldn’t really see the glacier as the entire side of the mountain is currently covered in snow, but it (the snow) is melting fast. It was 87 degrees at 5,000 feet when we were viewing the glacier.

We continued driving up Going to the Sun road until we got to the roadblock, just a few miles from our campground. We turned around and headed back for the 100 mile circumnavigation. Since we didn’t get back to the west side until 7:30, we decided to go out for dinner, which we rarely do. There were only a couple of diners in West Glacier, but we picked one and were pleasantly surprised. After a good meal, we headed back to camp and got the kids to bed.
Grandma and Grandpa have agreed to take one or two kids each night in their motorhome so that we’re not quite so cramped in our “turtled-up” trailer. However, it’s 10:50 pm and Kate & Kelly are still awake in here. ☹

Here are a few pictures from East Glacier.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to go for a bike ride and then we plan to spend some time on Lake McDonald.

Avalanche Lake

2008-06-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today we had a great breakfast cooked and eaten outdoors – my favorite way. The weather here has been fantastic. After cleaning up we walked over to the visitors center to learn about what we should do while we are here and to pick out some good hikes. We were about to take a short one before lunch when we saw Mom & Dad driving in in their motorhome. We got them setup in the campsite next to us and then had lunch.

After lunch we decided to take the Avalanche Lake hike. We drove to the trailhead just beyond the end of Lake McDonald. The ranger had told us the 2 mile each way and 500’ climb would be good for our kids but my be too much for grandparents. With hindsight, that was probably pretty good advice, but my parents persevered, and we eventually made it to the lake. The hike was absolutely spectacular all the way up, going along a beautiful, rushing stream part of the way, and then meandering up through a lush forest. The lake was even more impressive than the trail on the way up. It was surrounded by towering mountains with snow on them with waterfalls cascading down all over the place. I could have sat there all day, but it had taken us from 2:00 to 4:00 to get up there, so we thought we should head back down around 4:45. We eventually made it back to the car and headed back to camp to cook dinner.
It was a spectacular hike that really impressed us.

Here are some pictures from the lake.

Tomorrow we plan to drive around the park to the east side since we were told it is a “must see”.

Driving to Glacier National Park

2008-06-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today we drove from Big Sky (south of Bozeman) to Glacier National Park. It was another long driving day, but thankfully the last one for quite awhile. We plan to spend 3 days and 4 nights here, and then have a relatively short drive for another long stay. More on that when we get there...

We left around 8:30 and arrived around 5:00. We also managed not to spend too much time stopped, which was nice. We hadn’t reserved a campsite here (most of them aren’t reservable), but as expected, it wasn’t hard to find one. We’re staying in Apgar Campground, just inside the west entrance to the park. There are a couple of hundred campsites in this campground alone (and there are many other campgrounds in the park). We found two that are next to each other (Mom and Dad are arriving tomorrow) and set ourselves up.

Setting up for us is a little bit different here at Glacier than it is anywhere else. Bears are a real issue and there are particular rules here (that are quite different than Yosemite’s rules). Here in Glacier the basic rule is food must be stored in hard walled vehicles. It can’t be out, in tents or in tent trailers. Our problem is we have one of these relatively new hybrid trailers. It’s basically a hard walled trailer, but beds (in our case, three of them) fold out and are covered by tents when we arrive. Our trailer has worked out great in that it’s not too big (23 feet), but has relatively roomy space inside because the beds all are outside the 23 x 8 foot rectangle.

Given Glacier’s rules, we had two choices. Move all the food out of the trailer to the car (which would be a huge exercise), or stay “turtled-up” as hybrid owners call it, which means not folding out the beds. We decided to opt for the latter, with me cheerfully pointing out that it would be no worse than being in a medium size tent and it would be good for family bonding. The girls thought it sounded great (except for Patty), until it became time to set it up. Then they quickly realized how little space they’d each have and got quite miserable. They finally all went to sleep and Patty and I have just moved inside (it’s 10:30) on to our “bed”. It should be interesting to see how our whole family does sleeping in this relatively small space. Kelly is tossing and turning already.

Other than the sleeping arrangements, our first night here has been fantastic. The weather is much warmer than I expected. It was still 75 degrees at 9:00 pm. We had a great dinner, cleaned up and went to the Apgar village where we got the girls some ice cream and then stood out by Lake McDonald and skipped rocks. We came in at 10:20 because it was starting to get dark enough that it was getting a little harder to read!

I was reading the Glacier Guide that we were handed. All I could really figure out is that there is much more to do here than we have time to do. It should be great. I think tomorrow we’ll spend time near here (the Lake McDonald area) waiting for Mom & Dad to arrive, and then we’ll venture out on Sunday and Monday.

I was sorry to read that the park shuttle starts July 3, so we’ll just miss it. The Yosemite and Zion shuttles we’ve used have been so convenient.

Now we're camping!

2008-06-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day. Patty went grocery shopping in the morning while I made breakfast, cleaned up and packed up. Then we headed south out of Bozeman on Hwy 191. We stopped at the first national forest campground we came to, Greek Creek to see if they had any campsites. The second loop had only three sites and they were all available. They’re all along the Gallatin river which is raging very high. We took a site and at 10:00 at night are still the only ones in this area. It’s a picture book setting in the Montana wilderness along a raging river in a deep valley.

And the campsite isn’t the best of it. We had arranged for a white water rafting trip along the Gallatin river. As of yesterday we were planning on a “full-day” trip with rafting before lunch and after lunch. The top half of the run is supposed to be very mellow and good for sightseeing, and the bottom half is class III rapids. Yesterday we called the company (Montana Whitewater) to change to a 1/2 day trip because we felt we had been pushing too hard to get from place to place, and the extra 4 hours seemed like it would really help. They were fine with changing to an afternoon only, but they told us we could only do the top, sightseeing section because of our young kids. They said the lower section with the really high water was just too dangerous to run with young kids. We very reluctantly agreed to go anyway.

Today when we arrived at 1:00, they said they had talked about it and decided that they’d let us do the more challenging section and put us in a boat with their best guide. I’ve done a fair bit of rafting over the years and know that a good guide can make all the difference, so Patty and I talked it over and decided to go for it. We were both pretty worried that it would be too much for the kids and that one of them would fall in and have a miserable time.

Before we started Jessica was pretty nervous. We put her right in the middle of the boat with a rope to hold on to. Kate and Kelly were in the rear on either side just in front of the guide. Another man and myself were in the two front positions, and Patty and another woman were behind us. After we hit the first significant rapid, I turned back and checked on Jessie, worried that she would want to bail out. Instead she had a huge grin on her now drenched face. :) In summary, the ride was a huge success. It was an impressive stretch of river. We went 14 miles down in less than 2 hours. There were numerous class III rapids with big waves and one class IV. Compared to other rivers I’ve been on with class III-V rapids, this had less variety - no rocks to dodge, not many trees to avoid, almost no holes to swallow you up, but it had huge waves and our guide hit most of them head on. I was drenched, Jessie was drenched and we all had a blast.

Along the way we floated past our campsite where we returned after the ride was over. We had a beautiful evening with a bbq dinner and a nice fire. This is my idea of camping. Beautiful location, not many people, fun activity. I’m a happy camper. :) You can check out a couple of shots here.

Sadly, tomorrow morning we leave for Glacier National Park where we’ll meet up with my parents again.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to upload this...

Driving across Montana

2008-06-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

As expected, today was a long day of driving. We left Custer State Park at 6:30 this morning after we all showered, but without breakfast. We ate apples and then drove for 2 hours and stopped in Moorcroft, WY for breakfast as we had planned. The only place we could find was Donna’s Diner. As soon as we walked in, the girls looked at us as if to say, what’s with this place? The most striking thing was the smell and the fact that people were smoking in the restaurant. They couldn’t believe it. Other than that, it was our typical greasy spoon except for the fact that there were some fish tanks that entertained the kids while they waited for their food.

We drove on and stopped at the Little Bighorn battlefield memorial for a picnic lunch. We were surprised to find that it was the 132nd anniversary of the battle to the day and lots of festivities were planned. There were many Native Americans there to celebrate (it was the last significant victory by the Native Americans in defense of their land).

After lunch and a quick walk around the museum, we drove on across Montana. We didn’t get to Bozeman until 6:45 PM, which is very late for us. All the girls were beat and cranky. I managed to get the kids to the pool so they could burn off some energy.

Tomorrow is another relatively early morning. We’ve got some chores/errands to do and then we’ll drive south on Highway 191 to hopefully find a nice campground (instead of the KOA we’re in tonight) and to go white water rafting.

While I’ll keep writing entries over the next few days, they probably won’t get posted for quite awhile as we’re going to be doing more primitive camping. We plan to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in Glacier National Park and then some time in northern Idaho. We'll see when we can next connect...

South Dakota tourism

2008-06-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning we had eggs, toast and Casaba melon for breakfast and then headed off to explore the black hills of South Dakota. We started by driving the needles highway. It was a pretty drive with some interesting spires of granite that give it its name.

Next we headed east toward Mt. Rushmore. I visited Mt. Rushmore when I was a kid and in some ways it was exactly as I remembered, and in others, very different. When we drove up it was like driving in to Disneyland. Lots of lanes for folks to drive up and pay their money to park. It was $10 to park. Driving in to the parking lot was wild. There are two, multiple story parking garages in addition to the huge outdoor parking. Walking in again feels a little like walking in to an amusement park. There are food concessions, guided audio concessions, visitor center, amphitheater, gift shop, etc. Once you finally make it past all that stuff, Mt. Rushmore looks as I remember it. The one thing that seemed better than my memory (although I may remember incorrectly) is that there is a 1/2 mile path that you can walk along that gives you a number of views of the sculpture as well as the scraps of granite that fell down, the trail the workers climbed up, etc. All in all I found it an impressive sculpture wrapped up in an ugly very American package.

We then drove to the Crazy Horse sculpture nearby. I was also quite underwhelmed there. The basic story is that a man agreed to create a gigantic sculpture of Crazy Horse riding a horse out of granite. The scale of the effort appears to me to be at least 30x that of Mt. Rushmore. The guy started working about 50 years ago by himself. Since then more people have started working on it and he’s since died. However, his family has taken up the effort (and he had 10 kids). The plan is to carve Crazy Horse from the waste up and his horse from roughly the shoulders up. At this point they’ve done Crazy Horse’s face. I’d be surprised if they are 10% done.

The bulk of the place is dedicated to generating money so they can continue to make progress on the sculpture. If ever is completed it appears it might be quite awe inspiring, but man is there a long way to go.

We were pretty fried from these two events so we drove in to town (Custer) and got some ice cream and then drove back to camp. We had a relaxing couple of hours around camp and barbecued some chicken. We had some fun/excitement when a buffalo bull rambled in to the small campground after dinner. We all stood around and watched him eat grass on the outskirts of the campground. Then he decided to wander in to the middle of the camp and preceded to lie down next to the pop-up trailer in the site next to ours. A number of folks were rattled and while we went on about our business of cooking some-mores and packing up camp, we did it with a cautious eye on “Theodore H. Bison” as Kelly named him. H stands for huge. :)

Eventually the campground host called a ranger who came in and scared him away so he went lumbering away. I think he would have been happy to have slept there. He seemed very relaxed.

Here are some shots from the day.

Tomorrow we’ve got our longest drive ever (in miles) with the trailer - over 500 miles to Bozeman Montana.

South Dakota here we come

2008-06-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning we left Steamboat Springs at 7:30. We got up at 5:45 and baked some bran muffins to entice the girls up at 6:15.

As soon as we got out of town we began climbing. Steamboat is at 6600 feet and we climbed over 9400 feet as we passed over the rockies. The next 100 miles in Colorado and Wyoming were relatively flat but at an elevation around 8500 feet!

We had a long way to go to get to Custer State Park in South Dakota. We decided to take the most direct routes on minor highways instead of taking the longer, easier interstates. As is usually the case, this was an excellent choice. The roads were very scenic, there was very little traffic, the speed limit was almost always 65 (which is slightly faster than we drive anyway) and the roads were in very good shape. For the record, we took CO-40 to CO-14 to CO-127 to WY-230 to US-30 to WY-34 to I-25 to US-18 to SD-89 to US-385 to US-16.

When we got to the town of Custer we were clearly approaching some thunder storms. It was another 15 miles or so to our campground in Custer State Park. We’re in Grace Coolidge Campground which has 19 sites along the creek. It’s a pretty little area. Everything was dripping from a recent downpour, but it wasn’t raining as we set up camp. We decided to put out the awning so we could sit outside even if the rain started back up. Sure enough, the rain came just as we finished setting things up. The girls and I sat outside under the awning watching the lightning and rain and listening to the thunder (and the rain) while Patty made dinner. When the rain stopped we were just about to setup for dinner outside when two rangers drove by and said there was an extreme thunderstorm watch out for the next 10-15 minutes and to plan accordingly, so we decided to eat inside. Good thing - it absolutely poured throughout dinner. The girls kept being frustrated that the lightning strikes were 1-2 miles away and wanted them to be closer. After a pause, we saw some lightning and almost immediately a huge crash of thunder. Kelly practically heat the ceiling with a start.

We had to pass on what was going to be our first campfire of the trip because it was too wet, but we played a family game of Flinch and then Patty and I took a walk around the campground. We’re having a quiet evening of reading and plan for a fun day of sightseeing in the area that should include the needles highway, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

Goodbye Nehers

2008-06-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I made pancakes with nectarines for breakfast. We called Carol and made plans to go over to Greg’s place and meet up with folks and then drive over to the Alpine Slide. We stood in line and marveled at the intensity of the sun and noted that it probably doesn’t get much stronger than June 22 at noon at 6500 feet!

When we finally got to go on the ride (after going up a chairlift), it was sort of a flop because Jessie was pretty scared and went down really slowly. I went behind her and went slowly too, but much of our group (and the folks behind us) missed the opportunity to really have fun barelling around the corners.

We went back to Greg and Melissa’s place for lunch where Greg took the girls out to play some tennis which they loved. After lunch Patty and I went to Safeway to buy food to make dinner for everyone. We made Lombardo BBQ lemon chicken, Caesar salad, bread and watermelon for desert.

After dinner the girls and Callum went swimming and hot tubbing with Greg & Melissa. We all said our sad goodbyes and we headed back to the campground.

I haven’t mentioned that while Ski Town RV Park was basically ok, it was pretty awful from a noise perspective. Last night we had people around a campfire just outside our trailer yelling and laughing late into the night. At 1:45 Patty finally woke me up and made me go out and ask them to be quiet.

We were sad to say goodbye to the Nehers; as always we had a great time visiting with them.

P.S. - The last few updates have been delayed because we've finally been camping off the grid...

Clark's 70th Birthday

2008-06-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated Uncle Clark's 70th birthday. Actually, this party is the reason we're out in here in Colorado. We had a (very welcome) leisurely breakfast with Mom & Dad. Then we headed into town and checked out F.M. Light & Sons which is a store we started hearing about 200 miles west of here. There marketing is clearly excellent. The girls were each given a wooden nickel at the rodeo last night that could be redeemed at the store. It was a pretty fun store - basically a cowboy store with lots and lots of hats and boots and a bunch of other stuff real cowboys or pretend cowboys or cowgirls might want.

Then we headed over to Greg & Melissa's for brunch. We had a bunch of fun there from visiting with all the Nehers to eating a great meal to playing/experimenting with dry ice.

Later in the afternoon cousin Erick and I went for a mountain bike ride up a great trail along a creek. It was beautiful and fun. We got to cross a bunch of streams and ride among a bunch of great wildflowers.

Next we hastily got ready for the dinner and headed back to Greg & Melissa's where we met up with everyone again. We walked from their condo to the gondola and then rode up to Hazie's restaurant at the top. It was a beautiful location and we all had fun getting re-acquainted with each other over a lesiurely meal.

Our party consisted of Uncle Clark and Aunt Arlene, their sons Erick and Greg and their daughter, Carol. Greg's wife Melissa and their sons Callum and Sebastian. Carol's husband Brian and their daugther, Sienna. My parents, Bruce and Nancy, and the rest of our family. Clark's friend Vicky and Greg's friend Mike.

It was a great day in celebration of a great Uncle whom I've admired all my life. Happy Birthday Clark!

Here are a few photos from the evening.

Steamboat Springs

2008-06-20T22:21:00.001-07:00

Today we drove from Salt Lake City to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It was about 340 miles via highway 40. Google maps recommended taking I-80 NE and then south on Hwy 789. This would have been 410 miles, but much of it would have been on the interstate. I elected to take Hwy 40 instead since we don't go much faster on the interstate anyway. I'm glad we did. It was a pretty drive and we made good time.

We tried to leave at 7:00 and only missed by 20 minutes. The drive was relatively painless other than all the road construction on I-80 right in Salt Lake City. We arrived in Steamboat Springs at 3:00. We have a campsite right next to Mom & Dad.

This evening we drove into town to have dinner with the Nehers. It was great to see my cousins Erick, Greg and Carol whom I don't see nearly enough. Greg and Carol both have young kids that I haven't met, so it was fun to see them too. Tomorrow we will celebrate Uncle Clark's 70th birthday.

After dinner we went to the Friday night rodeo. None of us had ever been to a rodeo, and we all had a good time. Besides the events you'd expect to see, they had an opportunity for kids to all go out and chase a calf with a ribbon tied around its tail. There are about 50 kids chasing this calf trying to pull the ribbon off. All three girls gave it a shot (but never touched the calf). Then they have a bucking bull ride for the kids. All 3 of them tried that too.

It was great seeing the Nehers and catching a rodeo. We're looking forward to no driving the next couple of days and enjoying time with the family here in Steamboat Springs.

A few pictures from today can be seen here.

2008-06-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

We spent today seeing the sites in Salt Lake City. This morning we drove to Olympic Park in Park City where the 2002 Winter Olympic Games were held. They have a cool museum about the winter olympics, athletes training, and some fun rides. All 5 of us took zipline rides that were very cool. Mine went down parallel to the K 120 ski jumping hill which was incredibly impressive in real life.

For lunch we drove into old (sort of), downtown Park City. It has a fun Main Street and we had a good lunch at Zoom. On the way out of Park City we stopped at a new Whole Foods to stock up on fruits and vegetables.

Next we drove to Temple Square where we checked out the Temple, Tabernacle and the grounds of the square. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and didn't really remember it. The pipe organ in the Tabernacle was being played. It is really impressive. It has a great sound and has more than 11,000 pipes! The kids really enjoyed a tour of Brigham Young's home. We rode "The Trax" to a great Asian restaurant called Thaifoon for dinner. The Trax is local mass transit and was free and really convenient. :)

After dinner we rode back to Temple Square and went to hear the Morman Tabernacle Choir practice as they do every Thursday evening. During the summer too many people come to listen to the practices to fit in the Tabernacle (which must hold at least 1,000 people), so they hold the practices in the Conference Center which is another building on the campus. It's a huge building that also has a fantastic pipe organ. The choir was spectacular singing along with a full orchestra and the organ.

We could only stay for a little while, however, because we had promised Kelly she would get to visit The Great Salt Lake, and we hadn't gotten there (and she hadn't forgotten). So we drove out to Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina where we watched the sun set over the lake.

Finally, we drove home, too late for the kids' bedtime. I just went and filled up the car with gas (and a quart of oil :( ) and packed everything I could. Tomorrow we've got a long way to go to Steamboat Springs, Colorado where we're meeting my Mom's family for a reunion. We're going to try to leave by 7:00. We'll see how it goes as it isn't quick to get the kids going, eat breakfast, clean up, fold up the trailer and hitch it up, but we'll give it a try.

You can see some pictures of the first couple of days here.

We really enjoyed our day in Salt Lake City. Park City was particularly beautiful. :)

Another driving day

2008-06-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Today we drove from Winnemucca, Nevada to Salt Lake City, Utah. It's pretty much nothing but desert the whole way with a few hills in between. The girls marveled at the fact that there were very few cars on the road - just lots of trucks. After they mentioned it, I was surprised to notice they were right. :)

Our lunch stop was much better than yesterday. We stopped in West Wendover, which is the last town before leaving Nevada for Utah. It's chock full with casinos for that last second chance to blow all your money before you leave the state. We, however, found a great little park that was perfect. Big parking slots for RVs like at a rest area, a playground that Kate called "the best ever" and picnic tables in the shade of big trees that made it ideal. It was about 85 degrees, which was very comfortable in the shade with a strong breeze.

We arrived in Salt Lake City at 4:45 and are in an RV park (again). The kids headed for the playground and then the pool. After swimming, we barbequed some chicken and had a late dinner. Tomorrow we plan to explore Salt Lake City.

We're off

2008-06-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today was day 1 of our annual big camping trip. This year we’re doing a tour of the west: Colorado, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Oregon are the primary destinations.

I was a little concerned about today because of our Suburban’s recently rebuilt engine. I won’t go into the sad story of its demise here, but it was completely rebuilt (new pistons, rods, crankshaft, etc) last month. I carefully broke it in over the past couple of weeks, and today we hitched up and headed off into the Nevada desert. I’m happy to report that after 420 miles, climbing over Donner Summit and barreling (actually, we don't really barrel, it's more like pulling a parachute) through 95 degree heat, everything appears to be great. It ran as well as it ever has with absolutely no problems. Let’s hope that continues for the rest of the trip and another 100,000 miles after that. :)

Today was just about miles, or at least that was the plan. We were up at 5:30 and left at 8:00. We made excellent time to Truckee (for our family, which some days seems to spend as much time stopped as going), but then we slowed down. We drove around for awhile trying to find a place to park our not so short rig. Then we walked along downtown Truckee to find a restaurant. After we passed by the fourth closed restaurant I began to realize that they were all pretty dark inside. Sure enough, the power was out throughout downtown. We ended up going to the Truckee diner across the railroad tracks. While it’s not exactly our sort of place, we were hungry and we figured they had food. Unfortunately, they had more customers than food (or more accurately, cooks), so it turned into a 1.5 hour stop. :(

After a few more stops (gas, potty, coffee) we left Reno and hit the desert. We’re stopped at an RV park in Winnemucca, Nevada. We’re not really fans of RV parks, but when we’re just stopping for the night they’re pretty convenient. It's not really camping - just a place to stop to eat and sleep. The girls went swimming while Patty made dinner. There is good wi-fi access so I could do a little work and upload this blog entry.

Tomorrow we’re off to Salt Lake City where we’ll stay for a day to explore before heading for Steamboat Springs, CO for the Neher family reunion.

Soccer!

2007-09-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

After years of trying to convince the girls that soccer would be a fun sport, both Kate and Kelly decided to give it a try this fall. Both are having a blast, and the games are fun to watch. I hope they get into it enough to want to continue to play.

First day of school - 2007

2007-08-22T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here are the girls on the first day of school. I love the fact that they get so excited about the first day. I also like the fact that they like and support each other. :)

All good things...

2007-08-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

We spent today exploring Crater Lake. I drove around the rim to the north side at 6:30 to reserve spots on the boat tour of the lake. There were only 3 cruises for today and they’re pretty popular. I got us spots on the 3:00 cruise.

I came back to camp to find Patty making breakfast (an unusual occurrence) and Jessie looking white as a ghost. We weren’t sure what was wrong with her, but we just let her sit quietly for awhile, gave here some water and eventually she felt fine and started eating. An hour later she was good as new.

We packed some lunches, piled in the car and headed back up to the rim of the crater (or Caldera as the rangers call it). We decided to take the Watchman hike up to a little lookout that’s been around for almost a century. It’s purpose has been to watch the entire forest in all directions for fires. It was about ¾ of a mile up and about 400’ of climbing. The girls did pretty well.

We hiked back down, drove a little further around the rim and stopped at a picnic table and had lunch. Then we drove to the top of the boating area. You have to hike down 1.1 miles and 1,000’. It’s a really steep trail, and it’s the only one that goes to the water around the entire rim. The girls did quite well going down.

We took the two hour boat ride on what the rangers say is the clearest lake in the water. It sure is blue and it sure is clear (and it’s cold). The basic facts the rangers teach are: Mazama mountain erupted about 7700 years ago. It blew out about ¾ of the magna underneath it. This hollowed out the mountain and the top of the mountain dropped deep into the Caldera. This left a huge hole in the ground. Over the next 500 years rain and snow filled the hole and made the lake. There are no inlets (or outlets) to/from the lake. They get an average of 44’ of snow a year. The rain and snow account for 35 billion gallons of water falling into the lake every year. The lake froze over once in the last century (in 1949). It’s the deepest lake in the US at just under 2,000 feet. Like Tahoe the lake is cold and the temperature doesn’t change much once you get a little under the surface. Below 20’ it’s 38 degrees!

When we got back the girls rushed to the ranger at the amphitheater to get their junior ranger badges. We made dinner, took showers, gassed up the car and tomorrow we’ll leave early for our probably 11 hour journey home.

It’s been a great trip. With hindsight the only significant change I would make would be to bring kayaks on the roof instead of bikes. We could have used them many of the places we camped (and I would have loved it). I found I enjoyed the places we went more than I expected. I think Patty did too.

Deception Pass to Crater Lake

2007-08-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we took the ferry (which was 45 minutes late) to Anacortes and then drove 15 miles to Deception Pass State Park. It was another great park where we could have spent more time. There’s a lake (Cranberry Lake) that has a beach, but we didn’t go there. There also is plenty of beach along the coast. There’s basically a small inlet between Whidbey Island and the mainland (the whole layout of the earth in this area is really interesting) and there’s a great bridge that goes over it. Deception Pass is on both sides of the bridge and therefore has lots of coast line.

We walked to the coast and the girls spent a couple hours there while I went out and got gas and groceries.

Our campsite was great and we had a great evening.

Wednesday we changed our plans slightly and instead of heading directly south we went east a little to I-5 and then headed south. It was clear that this was going to be the quickest route and Patty had really wanted to see Seattle. So instead of it saving us time, it cost us some time as tourists in Seattle. We arrived at the space needle around 10:30 and spent about 15 minutes trying to find a parking space for our 45’ rig. After succeeding at that I walked to the nearest bank to get a bunch of quarters to feed the meters we were parked in front of. We went up the space needle (pretty neat, but didn’t do much for the kids), then took the monorail to downtown and walked to Pike Place market where we had lunch. We then walked back, took the monorail back, and piled back in and started our real drive for the day.

We ended up at an RV park in Salem, OR. We got there around 6:30. We made dinner while the kids rode bikes/scooters around the park. Kate has managed to catch a cold, so she’s dragging a little. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we all get it…

Today we left Salem and headed south again. We took a (planned) detour I’ve always wanted to take – to Crater Lake. It’s a gorgeous drive up Hwy 138 out of Roseburg. It meanders along the Umpqua river which is really beautiful and looks like it would be a blast to raft someday. Then it finally climbs with a vengeance until we reached the rim, which at least according to my GPS was at 7900 feet. The suburban did a great pulling the trailer with little effort even up at altitude. It was certainly much easier than it would have been with the old trailer. 

I’d never seen Crater Lake and I found it absolutely stunning. It’s gorgeous – incredibly blue and the area around it is prettier than I expected. We drove to the campground and got a nice site.

Tomorrow we plan to checkout Crater Lake in more detail and then Saturday we’re going to try to make it all the way home. If we do it will be our longest mileage day with the girls and trailer ever (by a long shot). We’ll see how it goes.

Vancouver and Orcas Island

2007-07-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

On the 28th we drove from Squamish to West Vancouver and parked in the Capilano RV Park – which was a parking lot as we expected. We parked, had a quick lunch and then drove in to Stanley Park. We had intentionally planned on being in Vancouver on the 28th because that was one of 4 days when they held the world fireworks competition. Saturday was Canada’s turn to compete. We spent the afternoon at the park – going to the aquarium, having a portrait done of the three girls and then playing by the water. Then we setup our chairs on the seawall and watched the fireworks over English Bay. It was an awesome display. Unfortunately we didn’t have a radio to listen to the music that accompanied the pyrotechnics, but it was great all the same. I had carefully scouted out our exit route back over the Lion’s gate bridge to the RV park (because there are supposedly 1 million viewers) and it worked like a charm. It only took 15 minutes!

Sunday (Patty’s birthday) we packed up and headed to Anacortes in Washington to catch the ferry to Orcas Island. We spent 1 hour waiting to cross into the United States through a poorly designed border crossing.

We managed to catch our ferry and had a great ride to the island.

We had been forced to make a reservation at an RV Park because Moran State Park (which many people had said was the prettiest in Washington) had been completely booked. When we got to the island I called Moran just to make sure they didn’t have any space, but they said they did have a few, so after checking out the RV park (and then going to the grocery store to stock up), we decided to head over to Moran.

The man at the check-in booth was really helpful and told me the sites that were available. One of them was site 1, which he said was one of the very best, but wasn’t really designed for a trailer our size. We checked it out first, and we fit in just fine.

It’s an awesome park and an awesome site. It’s right on Cascade Lake, and it’s like we’re really camping. There’s plenty of room, it’s quiet, there are no hookups and we’re happy as clams.

The first evening we just relaxed and Jessica fished from the side of the lake.

Today Patty went for a long, hilly run while I made breakfast and helped the girls fish. Then I rode my bike up to the top of the Island – Mt. Constitution. It was not for the faint of heart – tougher than the rides up to Skyline at home. It’s 2,000 feet up in exactly 6 miles (and the last mile is pretty flat, so it’s actually 5 miles). It was great to be out and feeling alive. The ride down was great too. The weather was perfect.

Patty and I have been kicking ourselves for not taking the kids on more hikes on this trip. After I got back and had lunch we went for a decent hike. First we went up to Cascade falls – a relatively tough mile and a half. Then Jessie and I headed back down to get the car while the rest of the girls continued up to Mountain Lake, which I’d been to earlier in the day on my bike. It’s a gorgeous spot. Jessie and I got the car, filled it with laundry and then headed up the road to pick up the girls. We got there exactly when they did.

Then we headed into town, started the laundry and went to the kayak rental spot at Crescent Beach. Kelly and I rented a 2 person kayak and went out for a 90 minute paddle during which Kelly counted 483 sea stars. I love kayaking and had hoped to do a bunch of it on this trip. At least I got one paddle in.

We really love Moran State Park. It’s stunning and there are tons of hikes. Also, Orcas Island seems awesome. We really didn’t check out much of it.

We came back to camp and had the latest dinner we’ve probably ever had with the girls – 8:30. They’re now asleep. Tomorrow we pack up, take the ferry back to Anacortes and then go to Deception Pass State Park (which isn’t far from where the ferry lands).