Back in Arizona

(Happy Birthday Jimmy!!!!!)

After a sleepless night in Provo, we were on the road. We found out that the train tracks ran alongside the Provo KOA. I never remember the train running through the day honking its horn!!! We were on the road at dawn. I think everyone that was there for the night was packing up to make some distance between that place.

We stayed on the Interstate and made good time. Then it was back on Highway 89, a two lane road that weaves through picturesque country and small towns. The road will take you to two National Parks, Bryce Canyon and Zion. We will return in October to these parks if California is still boycotting us.

On our way, we stopped for lunch at the Three Bears in Kanab, UT. The service was a little slow but you could smell the homemade bread baking . We had some really good sandwiches. Next time we will save room for their ice cream.

We stayed at the KOA in Flagstaff. It was a great place to stay. The park had an entrance for hiking on a mountain and felt very rural. Although, the mall was less than a block away! We were equally happy when we found out that the KOA had a liquor license. We had our drinks and Lexi had the park. The park had this round about. I haven't seen one in years, probably because they were deemed unsafe. As you can see from the picture it was the rage.

The next day we ordered breakfast from the KOA Kitchen and they delivered it to our trailer. We will definitely be back.

Wind Turbine Blades

I forgot to put these pictures on my blog. We saw all of these trucks in Idaho and Utah. The trucks were parked at various places along the road.

I had no idea what they were carrying but of course Gerald knew. They were each carrying one wind turbine blade. The trucks could only travel at night due to their size. It is hard to imagine how big they are when you see them working on the hills. The cabs of the semis look like Matchbox cars next to them.

Another Sunday in Utah!!

I thought we could go out for fireworks without dying of heat exhaustion. We were in Provo, Utah for the night. I had a difficult time getting a 1 night reservation for the holiday. We had to stop in Provo at the KOA. As we were leaving Yellowstone I noticed the price seemed awfully low for July 4th. I told Gerald, "I don't know about this place, $32 seems really cheap." Then I told Lexi how you get what you pay for. This lesson was going to be all too true!!!

The KOA was in downtown, which is the first scary revelation. A campground in the city? We took the wrong turn and went through the ghetto of Provo. It wouldn't be a wrong turn without 1 way streets, with cars parked on either side. We maneuvered our way back, because there wasn't a parking lot big enough for us to do a U-turn.

As we entered the KOA we saw a creek and a nice park surrounded by more ghetto. I went inside the office to check in. There were two older gentlemen sitting around, while the teenagers ran the desk. I have never been to a KOA where we weren't escorted to our spot. I figured it was to protect their grounds. Well, this was the tightest spot we had ever been in and we were on our own. These jokers never left the building except to smoke on the front porch.

We drove around the campground and parked. All I saw was scariness. As we were getting out of the truck I told Gerald, "do not unhitch, we are out of here at dawn". We started to notice that all of the trailers had permanent utility posts. That meant these people permanently lived at the KOA, in their trailer down by the river. (see top photo of meter, there were a lot of cobwebs underneath his trailer)

Gerald and Lexi took a walk to check out the park. After his walk around the park he said that this park adjoins to a really bad mobile home park. The laundry and pool are shared between the KOA and the park. He said he witnessed a drug deal transaction, and another family tent camping in their Sunday best, reading their bibles

I went to the office to see if we could find some fireworks and get out of the campsite of deliverance. The clerk, with his KOA uniform shirt unbuttoned downed to his belly button, said "this is Sunday in Utah, the fireworks were on Saturday, July 3rd". I then asked the only thing I could think of as he leaned in so close I could braid his grey chest hair, "where is the liquor store?" He chuckled and said, "again lady, this is Sunday in Utah."

We stayed in our trailer by the river, on another Sunday in Utah, rationing 4 ounces of red wine on July 4th without any organized fireworks. The other trailer people had their own versions of fireworks until after midnight.

Beginning the Long Drive Home

I checked at the ranger station for road closures before our long drive out. I was reading the board when the ranger came out. He said "can you believe it?" I was unsure of what he was talking about, and he explained that snow was on its way. Sure enough, I checked the weather and there was a chance of snow. The temperatures had dropped by 15 degrees from the previous day. I thought its a good time to get out of here as I was thinking of all of the required snow chain signs in the area.

We went back to the trailer to get ready for the next morning. We had done a good job conserving energy(we had no electric). The picture shows the solar panel which I guess wasn't big enough. Come to find out the heater fan works off of the battery. We checked the batteries and one was almost empty and the other was 1/3 full. The most important thing we need from the trailer battery is it runs the trailers brakes. It was going to be a cold night in the trailer. Thank goodness we carried all the blankets up to Yellowstone because we used them all.

We got on the road early. It was very cold and foggy. The heat vents made fantastic scenery. We were lucky that the road that is normally closed was opened for the holiday weekend. This saved us 14 miles of driving and a road that crossed the continental divide twice with elevations of over 8,000 feet. We felt lucky until we went through the road that was opened! You earned that 14 miles that was saved. It was a one land dirt road and luckily we were early enough that no other RV was coming the other way.

We travelled through a few states this day, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and ended up in Utah. We stopped at a Wal-mart and restocked. When I entered the trailer you could see the result of that one lane dirt road. My makeup was all over the place. It had fallen out of its drawer, and was close to the hole in the floor for the toilet hoses.

Ugggh!! I had put my jewelry in that drawer this morning! I had even had the thought "should I leave all my jewelry in that drawer?" Then I reasoned with myself that we were stopping at truck stops and it wasn't the best to be decked out with all my goods. I know everyone is thinking why would anyone bring all their jewelry to Yellowstone. Well I did, and wore it all until that day. After some serious panic and anguish I found all of my jewelry. Gerald seriously thought he was ripping that toilet out right there in the Wal-mart parking lot to find my jewelry. We all know that he had all the tools to do it.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone?

Yes, there is a Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The park ranger proudly touts this canyon as being carved in a short amount of time. Stating that the one in Arizona took millions of years. The heat of all of the geysers made the rhyolite rock erode easily which carved this canyon.


We started at the top of the falls and then drove around the falls to the lower basin. It was roaring at the bottom. We saw a crazy foreigner climbing the rocks, 5 feet above the railing, in flip flops for the perfect angle for her photograph. If people think that Americans take risks, they need to see foreigners risking their lives in Yellowstone for the optimum photo.

The Other Side of Yellowstone

Working At Yellowstone

As I was touring around Yellowstone I snapped a few pictures of the other side of Yellowstone. You have to always remind yourself that at Yellowstone it is another world. This place has been managed by the government for 138 years.

We saw the government workers in full action at 4p.m. They were painting the check in lanes of the campsite. The parking area is only for checking in and there are 400 sites. This is the prime time of check in. Yes, they had all morning to do this, but hey that would be too easy. The first thing they painted was the stop line. Then they had to re-route all of the RV's and trailers to one lane because the paint was wet. The photo we took was of the 3 people tackling this job with a paint roller and broom. The lady would sweep the spot that needed to be painted and then the man would roll the paint on. The guy in the middle is managing the project. We were waiting for our crazy bus trip and within 30 minutes there was a back up of 8 various trailers and RV's. Every time someone pulled up the guy with the roller would stop and tell them where to park.

This is the same day that the water pump went down in the park. The showers and laundry room were unavailable for 2 days. We sat and watched at least 50 dirty people carrying all of their shower supplies to find the dreaded sign on the door telling them no showers. I will have to say there was a lot of swearing and I thought one teenage girl was going to cry.

Men's Style

I have to say the in fashion for men is the overall. We saw so many men in overalls, I almost had to buy a pair for Gerald. Then he can look more like my favorite t.v. star Mike Holmes from Holmes on Holmes. When we were at a restaurant there was a whole booth of men in overalls. There cell phone conversations went like this, "I am eating, I can't solve the problem for you, just get the tractor and pull it out of the way!"

I had to capture this pair of overalls because they were whitewashed. I was unable to capture his footwear which was suede slippers. The amazing part is his wife was gorgeous and fit like an aerobics instructor!!!!! The next day we saw this couple again and he was sporting the shorts version of this outfit.

Limited Brain Use

In the distance, you see a ton of people who stopped their cars on the side of the road. They walked 100 feet off the road to view bears feeding on an elk. The warnings to stay in your car and have limited distance to the wildlife was all over the place. What were these people thinking.

At one point, we saw a bear cub and people were hanging out of their windows to take pictures . Of course, the car was still in the lane running and holding up 10 cars behind them. Again, what are these people thinking there was a man killed the previous week from a bear at Yellowstone.

Fishing in Yellowstone

Fishing


(Photo is of a fisherman in waders in the hypothermal water, we decided he deserved anything he caught)


I fished a lot in my lifetime and have never been very successful at it. When I was younger, I never caught anything so my parents took us to a trout farm. I remember the fish practically jumped out of the water. I think you paid by the pound and this lasted for 10 minutes because my parents were scared at the cost.


I was very excited to fish in Yellowstone because I knew we would be successful. The added excitement occurred when we heard our trailer neighbor come home at 7 a.m. with his quite manly Chevy Diesel Dually truck. I don't know when this guy left to fish. We never heard this truck start even though he was 3 feet from our bed through a 2 cm wall of fiberglass siding. He got out proudly and held this 20 inch trout that he caught. We marvelled at his catch knowing that Yellowstone was going to be the honey hole of fishing.


I was willing to shell out the license cost of $24 for a 3 day pass for the family. It would be worth the cost when we had fresh fish to eat. We even contemplated how we would store the fish for the drive home. The guy who issued our license said we could fish right behind the Visitor Center. He also said that his lures had brought luck to this other guy before us at Gulls Point. We went out and fished for a few hours. We never saw one fish!!!!!


An angler came up and told us that the Forest Ranger said they pulled 1,000 lbs of trout from Gulls Point. Now I was interested. I searched all the maps for this secret Gulls Point. Guess what, it was not on the map!!!! So I went to the activities desk and asked where this place was. At first the guy told me to just go behind the Visitor Center. I was not about to leave until I found out this secret place. I told him I heard the rumor about the 1,000 lbs of trout. He smiled, and said it was true. He knew I was more than this good looking lady, but I was a seriously hot angler. He whipped out the secret map and even drew his own map of how the road meandered through the forest.


I told the family we are fishing after dinner. I packed 2 bottles of Off(9$ at the store) and the personal Off fans.We found the road closed, but I was not deterred. We kept on questioning why would the park close a perfectly good road. We parked the truck on the side of the forest. We walked down the road, because I saw the wild animal warnings posted all over the place. Somehow, in my mind, the animals wouldn't take the road. There were others like us down at the secret place. We walked in over 3/4's of a mile to where the bank drops off 5 feet from the edge. The great thing about this lake is it is clear. There was minimal catching of our lines. The mosquitoes were out in full force landing on the top of the lake. It was the optimum fishing moment, other than the 8 year old freaking out at every bug that came close. The temperature must have dropped 10 degrees and it became very cold. We were the only ones left at the lake. Again, I saw no fish, not even a ripple from one coming from the surface. It was time to go.



We saw that most of the people took a path through the forest and we wondered where it came out. We were commenting at the scat(poop) by the path, which we attributed to a deer or a bear. We all agreed to take the path. We were in the forest on this path when I heard two branches break. My mind recalled the days events when I watched a very well fed 12 year old German girl jumping on a fallen tree trying to break the branches. She must have jumped for a full 5 minutes before she was successful at breaking one branch. That is all it took, we were out of that forest and fast. We took the road all the way out. After our all to near encounter with wildlife, we realized that perfectly good road was closed because of bear activity.

We can say that we saw one fish during the week. That fish was our trailer neighbors and we were wondering where he bought it.

July 1, Yellowstone Day 2

West Thumb

This was the longest day because we completed the caldera loop of Yellowstone. We saw more geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots that one can imagine. This loop is a round trip over 100 miles, so we started the day very early. We started off at the West Thumb Basin. These steam pools and vents are right off of Yellowstone Lake. The story is that fishermen would catch fish and cook them in these hot pools. They called it the "hook and cook". Can you imagine the sulphuric taste? This place smelled so bad.

Old Faithful

After West Thumb, we hopped in the car for another 17 miles to Old Faithful. The map for Yellowstone said that it takes 1 hour to go 17 miles. We immediately were stopped in animal jam traffic. We broke through the crazy tourists, to find a hilly ride all the way. We reached the Continental Divide twice on this road. It seemed we were the only ones on the road. Then we got to Old Faithful. It was like we went through the forest and walked through the gates of Disneyland. There were thousands of people.

I took a picture from the second story of the gift shop to show the madness.

We saw the geyser blow and then went on a bike ride to all of the geysers and vents that are behind Old Faithful. It was a 3 mile bike ride and a lot of people were walking this trail in flip flops!!!!!! I saw lots of jealous stares. It was about 6pm at this time, but is doesn't become dark until after 11 p.m. so we continued our journey.

Norris Basin

Even though this has been a National Park since 1872 ,there are a lot of surprises. We went to Norris Basin and entered the parking lot not knowing what it was all about. We walked down and the sign said 1.5 mile loop. Gerald and I were done with the exercise after our bike trip. Lexi kept us going and we were glad we did. It was a tour of thermal features. There was Steamboat geyser, that is actually the tallest geyser in the park. It can shoot 300 ft. high but the last time it did this was 2005. The Porkchop geyser actually exploded in 1989, throwing rocks 200 feet in the air at tourists. I would have called these "rocks" boulders. The earth is so hot that the trail has raised boardwalks. You can feel the heat off of the wood. It was a great day and we got back to the trailer around 9:30pm.

June 30, 2010 Arrive at Yellowstone

We left Montpelier really early in the morning and got to see some great wildlife on our way to Yellowstone. At one point there was an entire heard of cattle in the road meandering as if the road was their field.

We were very excited to get into the entrance of the park. We felt we were finally there. Yellowstone is enormous and has only two lane roads, with no passing lanes. We entered from the south entrance and still had 60 miles to get to our RV park.

We finally got to our park and had prepared ourselves that we were backing into a spot. Not only is it a back in, but it was created in 1960, for Cadillacs pulling Airstream trailers. The front of the truck was in the trees as we were trying to back, and of course we had another person waiting for us to get out of the way. Stressful!!!!

We decided to take a tour to get an idea of where things were located. We chose the Lamar Wildlife Evening tour. This was a 5 hour, 100 mile round trip tour, in a motor coach, led by a gruff man named Peaches. It sounded good until the bus came to pick us up. I was waiting for Gerald's comments as we were walking down the aisle of the hot bus. There was no air conditioning and the windows did not open. In addition, every thrifty parent had chosen this tour because their children were free up to age 7. Needless to say, we were next to an 8 month old that never took a nap. The bus was a 1970's standard transmission that lurched and squealed throughout the park as Peaches ground the gears to find them. It seemed to never end, as we were ready to get off at 3 hours into the tour. We did see the following animals: deer, bison, coyotes and a baby black bear. All of these stops caused "animal jams" where crazy humans jump out of their car in traffic to take pictures. We decided that our own tours were the way to go. Although, we got a really good chuckle when I told Gerald that we are just missing one person on this tour and that is Uncle Gary. We finished the evening walking back to the trailer through the forested area, in the rain with lightning, at 10pm at night. All I could think of is all of the signs saying hard sided trailers only due to bears.