Coolest thing ever

Ok, I know we already sent a post tonight, but we just witnessed the coolest thing ever to be seen in a campground. As we were sitting at the table finishing up dinner, a herd of about 30-40 buffalo including babies came walking right through the campground. Of course, we grabbed our cameras and went and took video and pictures. I think Miles is one of very few 4 year olds who can say he was only yards away from a real buffalo.
Just seeing that sight, has made the heat worth it. Boy I am glad we opted to camp in a National Park instead of in town somewhere.
Seeing the buffalo up close sure beats the two deer that walked through our campsite last year when we were in Wyoming.
We will look at the pics tomorrow and if there are some good ones, we will post them tomorrow night.
Happy Trails.
P.S. I was just informed tonight I made a mistake on our Crater Lake post. I typed that it was the biggest lake in the US when actually it is the deepest lake, not the biggest, I think those would be the great lakes. I think all this hot weather is melting what left I have for brain cells.

Oh, the heat...

You know, the entire point of taking the Northern route was to enjoy some cool, non-california weather. Apparently the weather gods ignored us, and we have an incredible heat wave following us across the country. We actually got 10 drops of rain yesterday (I counted). It is 10 degrees warmer here in North Dakota than it is in my hometown in Southern California. Someday it will rain! Notice the green line (our route) follows the path of maximum heat.

We have also tried rough-camping it a couple nights in state and national parks, ones not known for amenities such as 50-amp electrical service. The motorhome is behaving perfectly, the batteries and solar panels let us live in comfort comparable to the tent campers next door. But I have this big air conditioner on the roof that is useless. Tomorrow we will spend the extra bucks for a full-hookup campground and luxuriate in cold AC and hot water. Tonight we dine on grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches and cold beer ( the fridge works). Oh, wait, we're out of beer. Guess it has to be cold Martinis tonight.

We drove through Miles City, Montana today. A huge build-up to a huge dissapointment. Miles slept through most of his namesake town. We stopped for the unique wal-mart (only 10,000 of them in the country). We discovered that Miles City, Montana is where the locals deport all the old, senile drivers to. Yup, if you don't know how to drive, or love to drive on city streets at 5 mph while weaving from lane to lane, Miles City is your town. I am not kidding, I almost hit the same rear-spring sagging, ciggarette-smoke belching, no-one-under-80-allowed-inside Caddilac three times in 5 blocks. This will NOT be our retirement town.

Now we are in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Since he established the NP system, I guess they felt they had to give him a park. The great ones were taken, so he got the leftover. But it's a pretty damn good leftover, with lots of bison (not buffalo, as Kendra/Kassandra/Ka-teenybopper working for the park service explained to Miles).

Still in Montana

Well, did you miss us? Made it in to Montana yesterday, still in Montana today, Probably still be here tomorrow. Montana is a looong state. Decided on a whim to take detour to Lewis and Clark State Caverns, a large cave system that was NOT discovered by Lewis and Clark.
This is a really cool cave system that has not been entirely sissified. You have to climb a mountainside 300 feet to reach the entrance. Fortunately, once there it is 300 feet down through the caverns, and a horizontal trail back home. Unfortunately, Montana is in the middle of a heat wave and it was 97 degrees on that mountain. The constant 50 degrees inside the caverns helped. Ominously, automatic defibrillators are prominently displayed throughout.
The cave was beautiful, Miles was very good, and now we are all sore.
Tomorrow Starts the mad dash for New York. No more fun side trips, we Must make it back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Freeway blast, here we come.

Still traveling north

Crater Lake in Oregon

Well, we left Oregon today but not before seeing the great Crater Lake. This lake is the biggest in the U.S. , and it is so beautiful. Take a look at these pictures. No, that is not the sky you are looking at that is the true blue color of Crater Lake. This will be a place we visit again in the future.
After seeing the very beautiful Crater Lake, we continued to head north on 97 through the rest of Oregon, and we ended our day in Mary Hill Washington. Tomorrow we will start heading for Montana. Join us then for more adventures and sites.

We are finally out of California!

Man, this state is Looong!

So we spent last night in a small marina rv park right on the shore of the main Stockton shipping channel. It's the furthest inland deep sea port on the west coast. (still nothing compared to the Saint Lawrence seaway). Still, the prospect of huge ocean-going ships cruising by your back door does sound cool.

Well, after the entrance excitement, we settled in to a quiet dinner and a good night. Met a retired Stockton City fire captain and swapped stories and beer. Turns out the big ships don't come in every day, so we missed the one entry. But this morning we saw fishing boats, rowing teams, and even a couple scruffy tugboats. And, Miles got to throw half the gravel pad back into the channel.

As we were buckling Miles in for departure, our neighbor came over and said, "Hey, a big ship is coming. It sure was.

Now we are in Oregon, think we will make Washington tomorrow. Except I forgot that Oregon is 55 mph everywhere, for everybody. AND THEY ALL FOLLOW THE RULES!

Maybe we'll make it...

Interesting Times...

"May you live in interesting times" is supposedly an old Chinese curse. If so, who cursed us?

Last year our trip started with a bang (literally) when the turbo resonator blew up less than 60 miles from home. Fortunately we knew about this problem and had planned ahead, with a spare ready to go.

This year has started much more ominously. The two adult partners on the trip started out with a major difference of opinion about "sense of urgency" and "get the lead out" and on the other side, "quit your bitching and help pack this damn thing". Once solved (reduced to mumbles), we were on the road. After a stop to fill with propane, then we were on the road. Then a stop for fuel, THEN we were on the road.

In other words, we didn't make it too far the first day. We are in Stockton, camped on the banks of the big river. Supposedly tomorrow morning ocean-going ships might travel by less than 100 feet from our campsite.

What else could go wrong today? As we were pulling in to the marina / rv park, one of us smacked the motorhome into the guard shack. The guard shack lost, but the motorhome sustained some damage too. The XM radio antenna was guillotined, so we are back to CDs until we can get a replacement.

Then later another one of us wiggled the tablet PC the wrong way and shattered the screen. It still works, but looking at the screen is like a scene from "Harry Potter" where he peers through a dark mirror. It's now on to the backup, so navigation is now going to be quite spotty, if it works at all.

Last year's trip only got better from the poor start. Let's hope this one gets better, or ...

Another Road Trip Excursion

Tomorrow 7/23/07 we are off again on another driving adventure. This time we will be heading all the way back to Watertown New York. Follow us on this year's journey to see where the Wandering View will end up next.

It is done

5,846 miles. 16 states. Untold numbers of cows. And we don't want it to end. Maybe if I don't answer the phone? I'll be "stuck in Bakersfield" or something. Nope, won't work, my boss reads the blog. Besides, the smoke column on the mountain behind the house is making me itch. Gotta get to work.

The geek squad was upset with me for not providing enough technical tidbits, so here goes:

5,846 total miles
29 days
16 states
Average MPG for entire trip: 16.2
Best tankful: 18.2 Eastbound across Wyoming
Worst tankful: 13.2 Westbound across Kansas
Most we paid for diesel: $3.64 gal in Logan, Utah
Least we paid for diesel: #2.33 gal some truckstop in Missouri
On average, we filled up every 253 miles.
The most we ever put in was 24.0 gallons. The warning light came on just as we pulled in to the station.
Total fuel costs were $1,111.72
Total campsite costs were $832.33
Most we paid for a campsite: $40 (a mistake on our part as to picking a park)
Least we paid for a campsite: $16 (not counting free nights)
Interestingly enough, the $40 night was the first night of the trip, $16 the last night. Both campgrounds were within 10 miles of each other. See what you learn over the trip?

The positives are too numerous to mention. Memories have been generated that will last a lifetime. Sara can confidently whip that beast around the country. She even did the sleet driving. Tom has confidence that this motorhome won't leak. The parts that broke are fixable.

We have trip plans for the next 3 years.

The final cap? That which sums it up the best? Just now, as I'm typing this, Miles is in the living room playing with toys he hasn't seen in a month. He just looked up at me and said, "Daddy, can we sleep in the motorhome tonight?"

Well, we took the "safe" route. Still saw some sleet on the drive. Went from 32 degrees at lunch to 80 degrees at the end of day.

The trip is almost over, and we don't want it to end. Life is already intruding, the Day fire just won't go out. Tom knows where he'll be Monday.

This picture was supposed to be in the other day, but since I was borrowing a wifi connection, I left it out.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the natural beauty has

been marred by graffiti.

When the hiking was done, we were all a bit tired.

Now we are at another decision point. Do we race back down to the

lowlands and freeway, or try another 10,000 foot steep twisty

mountain road with no guardrails that would take us to Bryce and

Zion NPs. It rained here in the valley last night, probably snow

up high. And high winds. If you don't hear from us, we might just

have dropped off the edge of the world. (Just kidding, Dad!)

So we went to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, instead. This

is another absolutely beautiful park with stunning scenery. Trust

me, Sara shot over a gig of pics on the trip in alone!

e left Thursday morning after the last stop on our whirlwind

friends-N-family tour (did you get a t-shirt?) and headed West.

Our original plan was to go South, through Durango and Silverton

to the 4 corners area. But the weather was threatening snow, and

we don't have chains.

Now we are in Rifle, Colorado, visiting Sara's best friend Stephanie and family. Miles has been running, jumping, screaming, and generally having a blast. He even played dress-up with Sarah (not Sara) and I now have wonderful blackmail pictures of him as a fairy princess, complete with high heels. Just WAIT untill his first date! Time to try to put him to sleep...

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Nobturbo problems today. The little engine chugged right over and through the mountains. Just in time to see the colors starting to change.

We stopped in Denver at the Glauser Mercedes-Benz dealership. Unfortunately, a) the are not related and b) they don't work on Sprinters.

Denver

I'm blogging while trying to convince a super-tired Miles to go to sleep, so these will be short entries.

Last night we stayed just east of Denver, and visited with Sara's sister Cathy and her Levon. Today Miles saw bunnies in the campground, then we were off.

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Okay, blogger is having problems right now. Stand by for better posts later.

Ah Kansas. Good old flat Kansas. (The locals prefer "level") The funny thing is, most of Colorado is worse than Kansas. Colorado just doesn't show 2/3 of their state in their ads. The great excitement of the drive this afternoon was when they put a curve in the road...exactly at the same spot as an overpass! Wow! Usually they space them out a couple miles apart.

We recorded our worst fuel mileage of the trip yesterday, we got 13.4 mpg. We had a constant headwind the whole day, and kept the cruise set at 70. Totalled up all our gas receipts for the trip so far. We're still averaging 16.4 mpg for the trip. Since this is almost exactly double my old motorhomes mileage, we feel lucky.

This was the last day of boring travel for a bit. Tonight we drop in unexpectedly on more family members(we're getting good at that), tomorrow an old friend of Sara's.

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The firefighter memorial in Missouri was very nice, an unexpected find.