April 29

After we finally made ourselves leave the Chico Hot springs pool we headed off to Bozeman, Montana. We planned on touring the Museumm of the Rockies. We didn't arrive until an hour before they closed. We went in to get the information about the hours, admission fees, etc. I told the gentleman at the desk that we wanted to see the Museum but since it was about to close we thought it would be better to come back in the morning so that we wouldn't be rushed through. I then asked if we could possibly spend the night parked at the end of their parking lot. He agreed so we settled in for the night. After the tension iin the morning with the conditions in Yellowstone, and the 2 hour soak at the Hot Springs, we found ourselves to be exhausted so we went to bed early.

This morning it was SNOWING. After breakfast we toured the Museum. It was fabulous. They are really into the finding and study of  Dinosaurs. I wish I could bring my grandsons here. When we left (did I say it was snowing) we decided to head for Missoula. We stopped at a truck stop outside of Bozeman and they told us the pass (6275 elev.) was passable so we continued. We crossed over the Continental  Divide. we had snow mosst of the way.  We are now at a McD using their wireless. We will move to a truck stop for the night and check out the weather tomorrow. If the storm is over we will head north to Coeur D'alene/Lake Pend Oreile in Idaho. If not then we can go a more Southerly  route into Idaho falls. Stay tuned.

Update from Missoula, Montana continued

We finally made it to Yellowstone and were able to secure a spot in the Mammoth campground. Due to being early in the season this is the only campsite open and it was on a first come, first serve bases. We were surprised at the number of campers there, most of them being tent campers. The weather forecast was iffy but we were determined to try and tough it out. The next morning the temp was in the high 20's and the wind was howling. We also had a dusting of snow on the camper and the snow was still coming down. After breakfast we took off to see what we could in the park. there were only a few roads open but the road down to Old Faithful was one of them. We stopped at the thermal Mammoth Hot Spring area to see the thermal pools. Then the plan was to continue 70 miles on through the park to reach that area. Along the way we saw more buffalo and elk. We were looking for some bears as we had been told that they had been spotted in the area. We got about 25 miles in along a tortuous winding, rising narrow road. The snow was really starting to fall as we were at an elevation of over 7000 feet. As we rounded a curve and were starting into a long descent through a pass in the mountains we were stopped by a park ranger who told us that 4 cars had skidded off the road and the road was temporarily closed as they were waiting for a wrecker to come in from Gardner which was about 40 miles away. the choices were to wait it out, which would be several hours, or to turn back. Did I mention that it was still snowing? Almost white out conditions at times. If we were driving the Subaru we might have toughed it out, but the camper was not meant to travel in snow and ice. So we made the prudent decision to turn around and leave the park. The prediction was for snow the next 2 days. Garry never got to see Old faithful. Another time maybe.

As we left the park and headed back north I mentioned to Garry that I had read about a hot springs we could visit called the Chico Hot Springs. At first Garry wasn't very interested as we had seen the thermal hot springs earlier in the day in Yellowstone. When I told him this was the kind we could soak in he was all for it. The drive in the park in the snow that morning had been very tense and stressful for both us. What a treat this was. When we arrived at the resort we went into the front desk to get the info. There was a $6.50 charge per person to use the pool. I whined a bit and told the lady at the desk about our aborted trip into Yellowstone , the projected weather forecast, our shot nerves, etc. and she gave me two FREE passes to use the pools. Great! We had lunch (I got a normal hamburger and Garry tried a buffalo,elk burger) and then off to the pool. The main pool was heated to 98 degrees. It was the first time we had been so completely warm in 2 days. It was still snowing as we soaked and soaked. ( 2 hours !!!) There was a smaller pool adjacent that was about 102 degrees. We moved into that one for a few minutes before we had to get out and dash into the dressing rooms to change back into our clothes.

Update from Missoula, Montana

April 29, 2010

Our last main post showed that gorgeous raiinbow from our campsite outside the badlands. Did we mention the MUD? There had been 3 inches of rain and everything was muddy. What a mess. However the next day we drove through the park seeing lots of wildlife on the way. We saw our first buffalo, bighorn sheep, elk,hundreds of prarie dogs and deer. The rock formations were incredible. It was a very stark and barren landscape but the colors of the rock were beautiful. It contained both rugged peaks and deep gorges. We were almost the only people in the park which was nice for Garry who was driving.

We then pushed on to Mt. Rushmore. We were very awed by it. I had always wanted to see this monument and I am so glad that we did. The N.P.S. maintains the monument and it is very tastefully done. We were driving up the mountain side when around a bend in the road you first see them. It was very majestic. Each face is 60 feet in length. The sheer magnitude of the task was mind boggling.

Then it was on to the Crazy Horse Monument. What to say - When completed it will be spectacular. However only the head is done at  this time and it is a little difficut to imagine the finished project. This is a private family endeavor that is being carried on by the children of the original sculptor.The family has built a large Indian museum, gift shop, restaurant etc. at the site and I feel it has gotten too interested in the commercial aspect and hasn't put the effort into completing the sculpture. That is just my opinion. It will be monstrous when done.The picture shows the sculptors model in the black - that shows the shape of what the mountain in the background will eventually look like.

We spent that night at a Flying J truck stop. The next day we pushed on to Yellowstone Park. We stopped at an information desk in Wyoming where we were able to post the quick update about the 100 mile detour we needed to take through Montana to get there. Montana is BIG. The hills are covered with scrub brush. We crossed the  Missouri river. Along this stretch we saw the small west coast deer everywhere. We also saw  our first wild antelope.

Enroute Yellowstone

We are ony 200 miles from Yellowstone and will be there for around 4 days. The forecast for the mountains is for snow, so standby for an update sometime this week. It was 37 when we got up this morning and the van had frost on it, Our elevation was 5,000 feet. We have seen snow on the Bighorn Mountains.We have seen deer
( hundreds), antelope and of course cattle and horses. Not many people live here and it is nearly 100 miles between fuel stops, so planning ahead is required. We are in a Sheridan,Wyoming rest area which has free WiFi and  they have let us use the computer to update. Photos will come later.
I have just checked at the information desk and have found that the East  entrance into Yellowstone is not yet open due to an impassable pass. So we will now have to head to Billings, MT ( I had wanted to go there anyway) and then West into Livingston, Mt and then South to come into Yellowstone at the Northwest entrance. One advantage to being early is very little traffic or tourists - however, as I was afraid of, the weather isn't summer time highs either. Right now however it is sunny and warm with the temperature in the high 60"s.

Sunset and Rainbow Badlands National Park, SD

April 25, 1750; Thought we would make one more update before we head off tomorow. Here was our sunset tonight, just a few minutes ago. What a sight.
The western skies look promising this evening, so we are looking forward to a great day tomorrow. We may be out of email and internet for a few days, but please be patient and you will be rewarded, hopefully with some wildlife photos tomorrow.

Garry and Carol

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

We are currently in the Badlands in South Dakota. It was over a 300 mile drive to get here today so we can spend time in the park tomorrow. But before we talk about the park, we are going to take you back to places we have been and were unable to get internet access, to update the blog. Also if you are scratching your heads in the "we are here" site, you will see us on Route 90 West about 30 miles from our campsite. This is a part of the country of little in the way of communications, no cell here and no ham radio sites to link our position reports from. So do not panic, we are secure in 6 inches of mud in a Good Sam RV park, with internet access and wireless at that. We will spend the next few hours, updating our travels for you to see what great things we have witnessed in the last few days and some of it is really something to see.

Milwaukee Art Museum and Discovery Museum

April 23  continued - After we sobered up with some food we headed back downtown to see  the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Discovery Museum. The  museum has movable "wings" which open out during the day as seen in the picture, and close down over the museum roof at night. Spectacular. The other picture shows the exquisite glass "chandelier' done by the Glassblower Chahuly (sp?).  We then explored the Discovery Museum which included a wonderful aquarium.  It got to be late afternoon so we headed back to the Woodards to join them for dinner. After dinner we headed west to spend the night in Madison, Wisconson. We got tickets to see the "Whad Ya Know Show" with Michael Feldman. The two hour show airs on NPR stations. When we arrived we were asked to fill out a card with our name and something about us and hand it to the producer. I said on my card that we were on our way to Alaska on an 11,000 mile trip and this was the second week out. Well we were interviewed on air for over 5 minutes. You can go to to the NPR website and the name of the show for this date and about a half an hour into the show, listen to the interview. It is really a HOOT!!! After the show  ended,and since the weather was really bad, we decided to start the loooong drive toward the Badlands of South Dakota. We crossed the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and how beautiful they are even this far north. The photos we took do not do justice, so they are not included in this site. We have now clocked over 2000 miles and at the 2000 mile mark we were at 2041 feet in South Dakota. The speed limit here is 75 MPH. We are doing 58MPG.
We are in a campground tonight just outside the entrance to the Badlands N.P. It has finally stopped raining and we are hoping to see a spectacular sunset over the craggy peaks just 2 miles away. We have WI-FI thus the updated blog. However we have not had  much  of a cell  signal since we  left Minnesota.  However the laundry is done and we have electric. Tomorrow we will dump and take on water before we explore the Badlands.

It's Miller Time !!!!!

April 22 we arrived at the home of our friends Dave and Lin Woodard. Dave got home early from work and gave us a tour of Milwaukee. We were very impressed. It seemed like a small big city.  Lin arrived home later and fixed a wonderful dinner. they are both still working (poor things) so we were left on our own. Milwaukee is beer country so we headed out to tour the Miller  Brewing Company. It is always "Miller Time." We did a lot of walking again. Interesting tour. Afterwords we  were taken to the Beer Garden where we were able to sample 3 of the beers that they manufacture. They make about 12 difeerent kinds. It was 11:30 in the morning - you can imagine our surprise when we were given 3 - 8oz glasses of beer! I had thought we would get little medicine cup sizes. Carol only drank a very small amount of each one. Garry drank the first and most of the second. He declined the third but was already feeling a buzz! Now we know why they had a Hot Dog stand outside of the museum!!!!

US Great Lakes Naval Training Center

April 21-22 We spent the night at this beautiful facility on the shores of Lake Michigan. When we say beautiful, the waters were a Caribbean blue along the shore line. The weather was 45 degrees with a 20-30 knot wind blowing off the 38 degree water making a wind chill of around 35 degrees. There goes the Caribbean atmosphere!

Subaru Factory - Lafayette, IN

April 21 -Up early for our tour at 9:00 AM. There were only 3 of us. The other person was a college student from Purdue. Thoroughly enjoyed it.  You know me,  I asked a lot of questions.This factory has zero waste to landfill. Everything is reused or recycled. They even made custom fitting plastic containers that are used to ship parts from Japan to the factory, and are then shipped back to be refilled. Even with the shipping it cut the costs significantly because they aren't always paying for new cardboard - nothing gets thrown out.  I was impressed by the fact that - 1. They can make a car from scratch in 36 hours. 2. They manufacture the Legacy, Outback and Tribeca all on the same line (7.5 miles long in one building) and also the TOYOTA CAMRY in the same facility. 3. With  all the cost savings, recycling and reusing that is an on going concern, they have actually LOWERED the price of a new car by $ 5,000.00 this year. This is a NON UNION facility with FREE health care and all benefits for all employees.

International Motor Speedway (IMS)

We left Columbus, IN this morning on the way to Lafayette, IN. We were going past Indianapolis and decided to stop and tour the Race Track. there was quite an impressive collection of retired race cars in the museum. The Speedway was 100 years old in 2009. During our stay and tour of the grounds we found out some tire manufacturers were testing tires on some cars, so we stayed around to have lunch and watch the test cars speed by at 140-150 MPH. Very impressive and LOUD!!!!! It was a great adventure.
In the morning (Wed) we have a tour of the Subaru factory and right now we are across the street from Purdue, University. We will be spending the evening somewhere close to the factory. We will be in Milwaukie, WI on Thursday.

We left Pittsburgh on Friday and headed to Columbus, Ohio. I reacquainted with a cousin , Ruth, (1st cousin twice removed) that I hadn't seen in 25 years although we have always sent Christmas cards. Her daughter Sally and grandson Kyle were also there so I met a lot more relatives. (Distant/kissing cousins?) Sally fixed a wonderful dinner for us and we had a wonderful visit. Garry and I stayed in the camper that night and left early the next morning. On our way to Columbus, IN we were told we should go visit the Wright-Patterson Air museum. We stopped there and loved it. We saw a PT39 like my Dad flew in the war.


In a hanger at the base they have several retired Presidential Planes. We toured the ones used by Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. That plane was the one that carried Kennedy to Dallas that fateful day and of course brought his body back on. Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on that plane.
Then we left for Columbus, Indiana. We will be here for a couple of days. We are visiting my Aunt Marie (she will be 90 in June) and my cousin Judy and her husband Bob. For those of you wondering we will be seeing Garry's cousins when we get out to Oregon. Aunt Marie has lots of old family pictures that she has been sharing with me. We had lunch out at a "bump in the road' called Story, IN. Population 600. An ecletcally decorated restaurant/inn. A very cute crossroad and restaurant. Garry is helping Bob get the pontoon boat ready to launch and we hope to go out for a boat ride tomorrow. He is also hoping to get out fishing later.

Wildlife seen so far: Cows, Horses, Goats, Sheep, Alpacas, and a wild Turkey. Who needs alaska?The weather has been good but a little cool today in the low 60"s.
We are getting some rest and enjoying the visit. We will be here until Tuesday.

Day 1

We started the day meeting family and friends at a restaurant in Bel Air for breakfast. Carol's friend Gail was taking pictures to commemorate the departure. ( Pictures will be posted later) After many tears shed by Carol and Sarah we finally got off about 10:30. We went up to North West to obtain propane and fuel. We arrived in Pittsburgh at 5:30 where Carol has spent a wonderful time visiting with with one of her high school friends, Ellen Goldbloom Kight, and her wonderful husband Steve. Garry and I were treated to a wonderful dinner and we are all now worn out from talking and laughing and are all heading to bed. We are off to Ohio tomorrow.

One Day Remaining

Well we are all packed, YRMOBIL is ready to go and so are we. We went to the range today and went thru a box of shells firing the 44MAg. Carol is now known as dead shot. She is good and dead on. the cars have been detailed out and are onw on their chargers. So at 0900 tomorrow we have breakfast with friends then we beging heading west, first stop Pittsburg for the evening with a school chum of Carols and Cleveland on Friday at the CG Tug Apalachee. Carol wants to see the ship I sailed on across the Great Lakes from Oswego NY to Cleveland, OH.
We will update tomorrow, the launching of our trip.

Garry ans Carol