(Nevada-Utah-Wyoming-Montana-Idaho-Washington-Oregon
Circuit)
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More Family Finds
Chris…
At 68-years-old, Chris ended up with a good excuse to visit
the state of Utah and explore surrounding states more. He wanted to meet a sister he never knew he
had until about 6 months ago. Through
some history searches done by his Arizona sister Dallas on Ancestry.com, the
connection blossomed into email correspondences between Chris and his “new
sister” Cheryl, and finally, this face-to-face opportunity. An amazing and awesome journey, all the way
around!
Monday, 5/25/15
Lots of prep-work and then we’re off—1st night at
Chicahominy Lake in Oregon (not much of a lake right now). We chose to leave on the last day of a 3-day
weekend, figuring we’d miss some traffic leaving town, and that turned out to
be the case. Traffic was horrible coming
back against us—we felt kind of like salmon trying to swim upstream!—and were
glad we were going the other way! Set
up, dinner, listened to our audio book and…zzzzzzz
Shoppie the Pointer Cat...
Tuesday, 5/26/15
We were woken up in the middle of the night by a
crashing/thumping raucous and discovered Shoppie after a mouse that had gotten
on board. We were amazed by the show but
she’s not much of a “closer” with this particular skill. We’ve decided that being her spoiled self,
she just doesn’t want to “put those nasty things” in her mouth, so she chases
them down, corners them, then points (“There it is, Dad!”) at which time, Chris
and Shoppie double-team to “complete the mission” shall we say!
After the excitement, we managed to sleep a little more,
then got up and continued to drive on—through Winnemucca, Nevada—to Elko and South
Fork Reservoir surrounded by the Ruby Mountains. A nice 2nd night to camp and we
took some time to stroll along the shore side before having dinner and getting
to bed.
Of Mice and Man/Woman/Cat…
More fun with a mouse tonight…and thunder/lightning/wind
storms---whew! Not much sleeping! Chris wants Shoppie to learn how to actually
catch mice, but I’m not so sure that’s in her future. She’s more of a sport-mouser. At any rate, no catching by any of us that
night, but we somehow managed to run the thing off (Chris thinks maybe Shoppie
jumping off the bed with all 14 pounds of her not-so-petite-self probably
scared the heck out of the critter (like Godzilla was after him) and perhaps
that was enough of a message. Good work,
Shoppie)!
Wednesday, 5/27/15
Our goal today was to find anything camp-worthy between Elko
and Salt Lake City. We were awed and
amazed by all of the salt flats but were equally amazed by the lack of services
at most exits and camp spots anywhere.
We ended up driving on into SLC pretty late and looking for something
other than town-camping places that would be close to Kaysville, where his
sister lives. Looking for a place around
a city pulling a trailer is its own scary kind of adventure, and things got
pretty hairy for us. We finally gave up
the good fight and rolled into Cherry Hill Park (a.k.a. “Disneyland”—complete
with water slides and noisy amusements)—so UN-like what we usually go for on
our trips, but we were glad to find anything at this point, as late as it was. And as it turned out, this spot was
absolutely perfect for our visiting goals, and the noise was at a minimum since
it was still early in the season. It
actually turned out to be a comfortable and pleasant place to stay.
We got set up just in time for another rip-roaring
thunderstorm which was fine with us since we were snug and warm in our
trailer. Pretty tired after our long day
and we didn’t last long after getting something to eat—sleeping well with the
Mother Nature show outside.
Thursday, 5/28/15
Still some occasional thunder storming outside but we slept
like babies (no mice excitement—whew!) and began the day. We had noticed where Bountiful was on the way
to Kaysville and decided to go ahead and visit Chris’ niece Liz and her family there
today instead of Sunday “on our way out of town” as originally planned
(Bountiful turned out to be in the opposite direction of where we wanted to
head out after the family events this weekend).
We realized how unreasonable that would have been as we drove from one
place to the other and were glad that Liz was able to accommodate our change in
plans so we could see them too.
We arrived in Bountiful a little early and Chris called
sister Cheryl, excited to set up the “meet” with her the following day. We were all so excited and nervous about
getting together, it was kind of cute.
Niece Liz made an excellent potato soup and we passed the
day catching up with her, husband Jered (Chris and Jered share the same passion
for woods, camping, fishing, hunting—lots to discuss!!) and adorable Beckham
who, at 3, was able to update us on any topic imaginable—not always sure what
he was saying exactly but he sure is an enthusiastic conversationalist
nonetheless! We made our way back to the
trailer and our campin’ cat, got showers and supper. Tomorrow we meet Cheryl and her husband
Ross—can’t wait!
Friday, 5/29/15
We slept until almost 7:00 and got cleaned up and ready for
our new family connection—exciting!
…AND…very satisfying to be sure—very easy-going, relaxing,
and informative! Cheryl and Ross were
perfect hosts for us—easy to be around and talk to. Breakfast was gourmet for us—a quiche-like
casserole and caramel-covered mini French toast—yummy! Cheryl called it a “simple” one—wow! She said her daughter Angela could out-do her
in a heartbeat. Our waistlines were
happy enough with “simple”.
We met her sons Devon and Brian and then talk continued as
did picture-sharing and memory-sharing.
The whole new family thing was made real when Brian casually told his
buddy who had come to pick him up, “Yeah, that’s my uncle from Oregon!” Sweeeeet!
Time flew by and dinner time was upon us before we knew
it. The 4 of us went to the Olive Garden
where the conversation never died and we had to practically peel ourselves out
of there. Chris and I did likewise after
our further yacking at their house after.
Cheryl does beautiful work with her genealogy books and shared some of
those with us. Cheryl noticed quite a
few similarities between Chris’ and their dad—a man Chris didn’t know. Quite the awesome stuff!
Saturday, 5/30/15
Cheryl and Ross took us to the Aerospace Museum with son
Brian before the BBQ which started around 3:30.
As Cheryl says, this might be the last time we see each other—who knows
what’s in the future?—and so we’re all trying to make every minute count. Chris was like a kid in a candy store,
looking at every plane and taking pictures of many of them. Lots to see—there were a larger number of
bigger planes than at our McMinnville, Oregon museum, and we took in the
well-placed/well-done educational kiosks as well.
Back at their home, we assisted in minor chores—they had
everything so organized and ready—and then Chris’ new nieces and their families
began showing up. Everyone was so nice
and welcoming and the families all so relaxed and easy to be around. I hope I don’t butcher spellings here: today, Chris gains more family and meets
daughters Laura, Angie, Cassie and their spouses, JD, Cody, and Brandon and the
grandkids number 11—this is where my remember-the-names test stops in the hopes
that I don’t butcher any further names.
So Chris figures he has met 19 more family members yesterday and
today—and that’s not counting sister Bonnie and brother Ray who couldn’t be
there. Wow.
The food was amazing, the conversations were fun and the day
was special indeed. It was hard to
part/say goodbye. They’re all
threatening to come visit us in Oregon and we’re hoping they hold to those
threats!
We got a bonus side trip to see Cassie and her family’s new
house—great piece of property! Finally,
we had to say goodbye to Cheryl and Ross back at their home. We pretty much poured into bed back at our
trailer and went into a deep sleep with smiles on our faces.
Sunday, 5/31/15
We slept in late (past 8:00—yipes!), got our breakfast and
are up and at the new adventure ahead.
Shoppie began a habit which she continued the rest of the trip: as soon as she realized we were readying the
trailer for travel, she hopped into her travel box as if to say, “Okay, I’m
packed! All ready to go!” She stayed there until I finished the inside
chores, then stayed quiet as I picked her up, put the door on her cage, and
took her to the truck for travelling.
She gets extra points for that, we think…might even help with her
non-mouser status!
We connected with family as we drove into the canyon and then
continued on into Wyoming to enjoy the view/scenery. Lots of beauty—painted hills and Tetons in
the distance. Chris got inspired to
climb on top of the painted hills place where we stopped and had me film
him. Pretty fun/funny!
We made our way to Pinedale and set up camp. Chris decided to throw together a stew of
sorts—plus we have yummy leftovers from yesterday’s BBQ. We still ain’t sufferin’! Audio book (more John Grisham)—sweet! And then…Chris had grabbed 2 movies while in
the office of this place and, because for some reason we just weren’t sleepy,
watched both Open Range and Dances With Wolves.
Tough life!
When Early Isn’t Early
Enough…
Monday, 6/1/15
It’s the beginning of a new week and a new month—we’re going
to start ours by checking out the Mountain Man Museum that Chris had heard
about. We slept late after our late
night movie-watching, and got breakfast/ready to go by around 9:30. The museum was outstanding—lots of
interesting history and beautiful artifacts, including lots of Native American
intricately-beaded bags, moccasins, shirts, everything!
After we finished oohing and ahhing our way through that, it
was time to head for Teton National Park.
What an incredible drive of amazing scenery! We tried to stop as much as we could to record
with film but it was challenging at times to get over with the trailer, so we
couldn’t capture everything pretty—and a lot of it was! More oohing and ahhing.
Then we went about the biz of finding a campsite which was
made challenging by the fact that it was “still early in the season” so the
more out-of-the-way campgrounds that we tend to prefer were closed. We managed to get a space in the furthest
north open campground, Colter Bay, and did just fine as “dry campers” there
since we had plenty of propane and fresh water on board (the full hookup spots
were all taken). Bet it’s quite the
overloaded (populated) place as the season progresses. We’re glad we’re early!
Distant thunder and cool breezes started in as we drifted to
sleep with our audio book.
Tuesday, 6/2/15
Today’s goal was to find a “base campsite” in/near
Yellowstone where we could park the trailer for a few days, unhitch the truck
and do our sight-seeing, hiking, fishing, from there. We spent a disappointing morning looking for
“just the right spot,” graduated to “any spot that’s available that looks okay”
to “ANY spot, period!” The fact that we
timed this vacation to include Tetons/Yellowstone early in their seasons meant
that we were early enough to see some lightning, thunder and hail, but not
early enough to avoid the kinds of crowds that normally make Chris and me
cringe. Amazing how many people swarm
this place this early—can’t imagine what it’s like during the peak—aghghghgh! Don’t want to find that out.
So the swarms make it hard to find a place but we managed to
snag the last spot in a far-from-wilderness campground, but have decided to let
go of our ideas of what camping is about as we enjoy the beauty that is
Yellowstone. Went ahead and committed to
3 nights here in “campground city” and got settled, unhitched and explored
parts of Yellowstone. Wow—the beauty is
absolutely breath-taking at times. We
had fun capturing some of what we saw on film.
Fight fire with fire:
when life gives you crowded campground lemons, make satellite-TV
lemonade! We decided to make do with our
situation by setting up the satellite dish, closing up the windows to pretend
we were somewhere else—and watched a nature documentary. Then we broke out the Scrabble game…fun.
During the game, I could tell Chris was troubled by the way
we had to position the trailer and truck in our spot. The space—being the last one available—was
actually too small for both and we had to go through quite the contortions to
back the truck in at an angle against the trailer in order to free up the road
for vehicles to pass. Also, the trailer,
being at a downward slope, was not as secure/stable as Chris wanted—he was fearing
that the trailer might drop and the truck would get damaged (he promised we
would live through such an event but was bothered by the possible threat of
property damage.
So, before it got dark, we decided to fortify the
trailer—went to the office and bought a box of firewood so that Chris could
pound in enough of it to stabilize things.
Satisfied that the trailer was now stabilized, we went about the biz of
backing the truck up out of the road and trying not to hit the trailer—a very
frustrating time! We ended up back at
the office, seeing if we could rent another space (we saw the space across from
us had been vacated earlier that afternoon) just to park the truck in. No luck—all spaces had been reserved by
late-comers. Our only option was to park
in overflow parking and hike the 10 minutes back to our trailer. Guess that’s what seeing the great places
costs sometimes!
Whew! Back to warm
up, finish our Scrabble game, drink coffee, and turn in.
Wednesday, 6/3/15
WOW! The frustration
we had finding a place to camp has paid off BIG time today—couldn’t keep the
truck going hardly at all before stopping again for wildlife or beautiful
scenery. Here’s a list of wildlife we
saw in order of their general appearance:
grizzly bear, bull elk on road,
bison, sheep, antelope, elk cows, wolves (5 of them working on a bison kill),
coyote, buffalo stampede on the main road, rocky mountain goats, mule deer,
black bear, 5 big bull elk in the grass
The whole drive through the northeast section was
exceptional—Lamar Valley our favorite, hands down—awesome views, vistas,
wildlife. No words can do it
justice—antelope and bison coexist in green lush surroundings everywhere.
After Lamar Valley, we decided to explore the rest of the
upper loop. The hot springs at Mammoth
were a big hit—couldn’t film enough of the intricate patterns and colors. Then the town of Mammoth was full of elk just
walking through the city, laying comfortably next to buildings—different!
After all of that awesomeness, we ran into a bad stretch of
road construction, complete with long delays—no need to return to this part of
the loop!
Our day was capped off by the surprise 5-pack of big bull
elk on the way back to camp which we filmed and watched for a while.
The weather was perfect all day—couldn’t ask or plan it any
better!
Thursday, 6/4/15
Be Bear Aware!
The signs are everywhere.
When Chris got his Park fishing permit, the guy there said he doesn’t go
fishing anywhere without bear spray. And
ever since our mama-grizzly-with-2-cubs-close-encounter in Alaska, I’ve been
very bear aware…like bear phobic almost…at least when it comes to walking in
grizzly bear woods without bear spray.
Chris doesn’t believe in bear spray (might partly be the $50
price tag but also stories of its ineffectiveness in Alaska), and is of the
philosophy “live a little—have some adventure…don’t come to Yellowstone and be
afraid to get out of the car.” He’s
fearless. And I’m a ‘fraidy cat, I
guess. That’s why this morning, he’s off
early (5:30 a.m.) into the 35 degree cold to fish and I’m back at base camp
sleeping in with the cat. Okay, so the
35 degree thing and the promise of lots of mosquitoes didn’t help either! I’m thinking “good trade”—except for the fact
that he’s enjoying some pristine solitude in nature and I’m surrounded by the
campground city.
Oh well—good chance for me to get caught up on trailer
cleaning chores (some badly needed), reading, writing.
Our plan is to explore the rest of the lower loop (Old
Faithful) except the part where the road is closed, and to check out permit
requirements and trailer parking possibilities for a Grebe Lake hike/fishing
for grayling adventure Chris wants to try before we leave the park tomorrow.
After cleaning up the place, I felt like a walk, so I took
off towards the marina. Had an excited
bit there where I saw the rental boats (the day is gorgeous again—perfect day
to be on the lake!) and inquired about them at the store. They do rent boats…just not until June 15th. Dang!
I told them I was enjoying my little escape from “campground city” and
they laughed, then told me about a pretty shoreline path that I really did
love. I saw Chris go over the bridge
while walking so I headed back to hear the fishing report…
…Not good…not even a bite.
We breakfasted up for our new adventure/trek today and wondered what we
would see.
Well, we SAW some cool things but probably the least
exciting thing we witnessed was Old Faithful.
IT was throbbing with people and touristy build-up and the actual
blast-off was rather anti-climactic. I’m
sure some people just can’t get enough of hot springs and crowds—Chris and I
CAN and DID. But we got some good photos
of the neat colors and various “fire holes” too.
We enjoyed driving and laughing at the weird stuff we like
to laugh at (I love it when Chris puts voices to animals we see—we have Gary
Larsonesque fantasies about animals taking smoke breaks and then taking turns
to pose and give the tourists photo ops—ha-ha!!) and then got treated to a fox
hunting in the woods on the way back.
Later, we had adventures around getting photos of signs we decided we
needed for our “movies”.
Back at camp, we showered and had dinner, then began
planning our next day as we travel to Cody.
It turns out that the direct route to Cody means skipping Grebe Lake and
Chris’ first grayling catch. He’s more
than willing to keep that on his bucket list in order to skip a lot of extra
travel hassles.
We took time to relax and head into our packing-up routine
tomorrow. I promised Shoppie we’d try to
get her a better view tomorrow. She
seems to be as tired as we are with “campground city”.
Friday, 6/5/15
Got all loaded up and chores done to get on the road towards
Cody. Got treated right away to a herd
of elk lounging off of the road and had to stop to film, naturally, then got to
see some Rocky Mountain Sheep on the hillside next to us, but they were in a bad
spot for us to stop and take a picture; we’ll just have to keep that as a
memory! Said goodbye to Yellowstone, headed
onto Cody, and enjoyed the beautiful drive.
We found a pretty little camp spot next to the Shoshone
River, unhooked the truck and headed into Cody.
Our plan was to just check on the hours of the Buffalo Bill
museum, and we ended up taking in the place on the spot. Entry is good for 2 days (they expect you to
take 2 days, and you do), so we got in a lot of great stuff today. There aren’t enough superlatives to do this
museum justice. We started in the Plains
Museum section and couldn’t ooh and aah enough—so many intricate bead works and
tools—wow. Then Chris focused on the
ammunition section and I focused on the art one. When we caught up with each other, we had
things to share and ended up appreciating it all. The exhibits are so well put-together—truly amazing. It would take weeks to fully absorb and take
in all this place has to offer, honestly.
After spending half a day in the museum, we stopped at
Cody’s Walmart and picked up some items needed grocery-wise and an RV part
needed. RV life involves various
necessary repairs and such: (1)
refrigerator—fixed now (had to get it cleaned out); (2) drainage of
tanks—couldn’t empty all the way out so we had to figure that one out; (3) The
cap broke on the drainage tank—Walmart had that part (yay)! There’s always something, and as long as the
fun and adventure outweigh those headaches, it’s worth it. So far…it is!
Shoppie greeted us when we returned and then dove under the
covers at the first thunderclap. Oh
well…she knows what she has to do! Ate a
light dinner (Chris and I had taken in Buffalo burgers at the museum so we
could last), and studied the map to see where we might end up tomorrow.
Camp neighbor Larry Roberts came over and introduced himself. He and his wife are from Salem (he actually
worked with and knew Chris’ dad, Bill Preuitt), retired to Wyoming and love it
here—more sun, fewer people, simpler. He
made it sound so attractive until he got to the grizzly bear danger part. His wife has been charged, his friend has
been mauled and he cited several instances of tent campers being eaten. He doesn’t go anywhere anymore without his 44
mangum. “These grizzlies here aren’t
anything to mess around with. Alaskan
Browns will leave you alone mostly, but these Wyoming grizzlies have a whole
‘nother temperament—they’re nasty, mean, and will come after you!”
Maybe just visiting here is just the thing after all.
Saturday, 6/6/15
Up and ready to go by about 9:00 this morning. Thinking we might stop again at the museum on
our way out of Cody, which we do—got some great shots of more things that we
had missed yesterday.
We decided to head toward Greybull on a road that looked
like it had better camping possibilities.
Got some shots of the beautiful scenery that is Wyoming and Shoppie
worked her way into her morning nap (she was asleep after she put herself in
her box this morning—what a crack-up!).
On past Greybull, the scenery got spectacular. The lighting wasn’t ideal for filming but we
kept taking pics because it was so awesome—painted hills, wonderful spectacular
rock formations and big mountains surrounding this gorgeous canyon. We crested the pass at 9,000-foot elevation
and then found a neat little campsite near a creek in the woods—quiet!! Got settled and into a game of Scrabble. Shoppie’s enjoying the view!
Sunday, 6/7/15
Started out early (just woke up early—partly due to Shoppie
who decided it was “up time” at 5:30 a.m.) and got treated right away to 2
moose sitings and filmed that—wow! Great
start! Then we went through some more
marvelous scenery and a harrowing road down (complete with signs at the
beginning of it—“9 crashes per year, 1 fatality—steep grade!”), especially a
bit of a nail-biter pulling a trailer! But we made it and even had a chance to film
some of it—whew!!
Once we were down the Big Horn Mountains, we made our way to
the Little Bighorn Battle site and we were awed by that. We drove the tour road and walked lots of the
battle sites. Chris is contagious with
his enthusiasm for history like this. I eat
up all of his stories and accounts.
After our exploration there, we began the happily
anticipated “fairly easy” task of finding a camp spot on the road we had chosen
towards Idaho. More beautiful scenery of
Montana—big skies, green lush valleys—gorgeous!
We were almost giddy at the camping possibilities that lay ahead for us!
Until…we drove and drove and drove—and we’re talking miles
and miles—without one camping indicator.
As it got later and later for finding such (6:00 p.m.) we finally
stopped for a potty break and lo’ and behold, Chris found some state recreation
spots right next to the pull off we chose…AND…it was right on a lake!! Best camping view of the whole vacation so
far—wow!! Shoppie, who like all of us
was tired from a long day of travelling, gave her approval by prancing around
the trailer and looking intently out each window for her new “kitty television”
views. Nice! Had showers, supper, plugged in a movie after
dark, then slept like babies.
Monday, 6/8/15
Slept until about 6:30 when Chris got up because the sun was
shining into his face. Took a walk and
took pics (Chris, like Otto Premenger, directing where the best shots would be
to capture our beautiful campsite—“We’re making memories!” He exclaims, “We’re filling up the
bank!”—love that guy!). Got back to the trailer,
had breakfast and then prepped to get on the road again, Shoppie hopping in her
box as if to say, “We’re on the road again!”
We appreciated more amazing scenery—first the endless green
hills, then mountains, blue, blue sky, trees, nice creeks/rivers—absolutely
perfect.
Gassed up in Townsend, and then headed north for Helene then
Missoula. Enjoyed beautiful Montana
until Missoula where we had to find our way to 12 East into Idaho…wow. These folks need better signage there, as we
twisted our way around streets and almost missed some turns because signs were
obscured behind trees. Breathed a sigh
of relief after we got out of that mess, and the beautiful Clearwater highway
over the Lolo Pass was every bit as awesome as we remembered it from 10 years
before when we went to Glacier National Park—100 miles of no traffic, the beautiful
Lochsa River, and beautiful “aahs” around every corner! We took a nice nap/snack break at one of the
fishing pullouts along the way, then drove into Powell campground and set up
early enough to play Scrabble and relax in the woods as the beautiful day wound
down—even a little too warm—whew! Went
to sleep to the wonderful Lochsa River roaring nearby.
…And woke up to assist Shoppie the Chaser/Pointer cat once
more to take care of yet another mouse that had sneaked on board. Got back to sleep and she continued to
patrol. Quite the excitement for her!
Tuesday, 6/9/15
Another gorgeous day and our drive is very pleasant. Chris thinks Shoppie’s wondering what the
mice are like in Washington...but that will have to wait until another time, as
it turned out.
Today’s drive through the rest of the Clearwater Mountains,
all along the Lochsa River, was voted best 100-mile drive ever—best
book-listening road EVER. It was so
great, we were feeling like we just couldn’t top that and decided to head
closer to home for tonight. We drove all
the way to an Oregon gorge camp spot on a reservoir, and had a last night of
relaxation. Headed home the next day and
we ended up timing it well…we just missed a big traffic jam mess with a forest
fire in the area. Way to go, gang!
Can’t wait to see what other excuses we come up with to see
more stuff! New family, new places…can’t
beat that!
