Wednesday, July 14, 2010

I apologize again for my lack of skills in writing, grammar and spelling, and the fact that I haven't been proofreading my work while writing this blog. Sammy gets a laugh when I can't even get the correct month in the title. He tries to get my back, but I think I am wearing him out.

This morning we made another quick visit to the Wall Drug. The night before, just as they were closing, Jake spied a cheap bugle on the wall of one of the stores. We wanted to check it out, but the elderly lady, or old woman if you prefer, told us it didn't play very well and come back in the morning and one of the men would get one down for us to try. Then she shut the door and locked it before we could ask her any more questions. We did just that, we went back. The gentleman handed the bugle to Jake and said they hadn't had anybody have any luck actually playing the thing. Jake surprised him with the sound he was able produce. The man told Jake he needed to come back every couple hours and belt out some tunes as advertisement. Jake just smiled. We have a new rule now, No playing bugle in the camper. We left and were back on the road by 10:00. We had planned to eat breakfast at Wall, but it was too expensive. We decided we would stop by McDonalds instead, we never did. We fueled up before hitting the interstate and just bought a box of doughnuts. Someone at the gas station asked Sammy where he was from and he told them. The South Dakotian then said they knew he wasn't from around there. Then they told him they liked his accent. He told me he said, "I don't have an accent, you do", but he didn't. Headed east on I-90 until we came to Mitchell, South Dakota. We were told we should stop at the Corn Palace there. We did, with the hopes of finding a good meal while there. The corn palace is decorated with corn, that is it's draw. The only place inside to eat had corn dogs, hot dogs, sloppy joes or nachos. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and we hadn't had a decent meal all day. Most of us had the sloppy joe combo. Now we can say we've been to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Topped off the gas tank and hit the road. Our goal is to make it out of South Dakota today. We start searching through our campground books trying to decide how far to travel and where to stay. We also had to wait for the ever elusive cell phone signal. Apparently at&t doesn't have many cell towers along the upper states. Normally what happens is when we get close to a city everybody's phones start chirping indicating messages. By the time we read them, the signal has disappeared. I can tell we are getting closer east because the roadkill has turned back to racoon, the humidity is back in the air and the musk-eaters are happy to see you. As we travel through South Dakota, the landscape changes from grasslands to corn fields. That is all. Did you know we have National Grasslands? I didn't until today. National Parks, National Monuments and also National Grasslands. The wind was blowing from the northwest while we headed east the whole length of the state. Sammy called it wind, the South Dakotians called it a breeze. We did notice at least two campers cruising the opposite direction of us that had pulled over because the awning on their camper had blown loose. The direction they were going put the awning on the side the wind was blowing. We concluded that was the reason for their misfortune. We also realized that Sammy had been driving in the wind since New Mexico, however, in the lower states, the wind was blowing from the south. Traveling west, this put the wind on the opposite side of the awning, also. Everytime we see another RV or camper pulled to the side of the road, my heart breaks for them. We have to get home soon, we haven't had any livermush in three weeks and we have had to ration the Duke's mayonnaise. When we were at the Devils Tower KOA, we had buffalo burgers and the mayonnaise-type substance they gave us, well, I'm sorry, I can't talk about it. We stopped in Onawa, Iowa. Sammy plans to hit the road early morning while we sleep. The coffee pot is sitting on go and his cup next to it. Good Night!

Spotted this in a field along I-90 in South Dakota. Craig managed to catch a photo. My explanation is a bored farmer with too much time on his, or her, hands

Had to take a picture of these clouds that were filling the sky at dusk. I don't remember seeing anything like it before.

This was the sunset from our campsite in the OnUrWa campground in Onawa, Iowa

We had to dodge the prairie dog mine field to shoot this video. The prairie dog leader shrieked as Jake and Craig bolted towards it's haven and we didn't see another creature until we were back in the vehicle ready to depart.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

This picture is a view from our campsite of the Devils Tower

We started the day with our trip to the Devils Tower National Park. The park isn't very big so there seemed to be a lot of people there, but actually wasn't. Even though we knew we had a big day ahead of us, we decided to take the 1.3 mile hike around the tower. It had been a while since we had been in a part of the United States where humidity exists, so we all started the day hot and sweaty. We all thought that was the longest 1.3 miles we had ever seen. The trail around the mountain was filled with people at the beginning, but as you keep going, the crowd disappeared and we had a pleasant hike.

Devils Tower

I had to include this picture because Sammy had mentioned the fact that there wasn't an apostrophe in Devils. I overheard him ask Addie, "Addie, why isn't there an apostrophe in Devils? Does that mean there is more than one devil?" I never heard her reply, which could have meant she was trying to ignore him, or she just didn't know how to answer him.


The white cloth tied to this tree is just one of many prayer clothes found along the perimeter of the mountain. This tower is sacred to many Indian tribes and these prayer clothes are from their prayer rituals. There is a sign at the beginning of the path asking that these clothes not be disturbed, and, believe it or not, I didn't witness one person even pretending like they were going to disturb them. The different tribes seem to each have their own legend about the mountain, but most of them describe the marks on the tower as the claw marks from a huge bear. If I remember correctly, some tribes still hold ceremonies at the Devils Tower.

The fields flanking the road near the entrance of the park were filled with prairie dogs. They were obviously very acclimated to humans. There were signs everywhere asking that we don't feed the prairie dogs. We didn't. Addie asked if we could bring them home. We didn't see a sign that said we couldn't. Addie couldn't catch any of them, though. Next time we will have to remember to pack our traps. It's really cute how the alpha dog will sound the warning squeal, when someone gets too close, and even the baby dogs return to their home. If this is any indication of how tame these wild dogs are, they even let Hoke get close enough to snap a few pictures.

Mt. Rushmore

We left Devils Tower and went to Mt. Rushmore about 130 miles away. Basically, all we cared to do while there was take the pictures, watch the film, and get back on the road. We heard rumors that there was a trail somewhere, but not one of us cared to embark on this mission. Notice that Craig has his arm around Hoke in this picture? It isn't because he likes his little brother, it is only to make sure Hoke stands still in the picture. I had forgotten that the monument was never finished. The figures were originally supposed to have a portion of their torso included and in the original sculpture you could see more of Abraham's head. One of the original mountain carvers was is the bookstore/gift shop the afternoon we were there. We didn't get to talk to him, wish we had. The road leading to the monument was crowded with tons of touristy shops and, in my opinion, took away some of the nostalgia associated with Mt. Rushmore. As we near the interstate highway, Sammy turns at an intersection, and guess what? The RV cuts off. Don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but we had just bounced a little and I still wonder if we shook something loose. Sammy was somehow able to steer into an adjacent parking lot and out of the road. After putting it in park and trying to get the engine to turn over, he pops the hood and gets out to investigate. I immediately retrieve one of the 30 amp fuses from the supply we laid in back in Utah and make my place by his side. Sammy already has his arm in the engine compartment in an effort to remove, what we hope is the culprit, a 30 amp fuse. Effortlessly, he pulls his arm from within and reveals the prize, a seemingly perfect fuse. While we stand in this parking lot, underneath a small tree on a sunny afternoon, we momentarily study this fuse and silently think, "surely, this isn't what is wrong". Regardless, we open a fresh fuse and give it a try. We held our breath as we wait for the key to turn. It cranked. Sammy replaces the fuse cover, which is a darn aggravating task, and we climb back in, lock the doors and skeedaddle. The harshest words to cross his lips from this ordeal were, "If this fuel pump gets us home, it is coming out!". We leave the Rapid City, South Dakota area traveling west on I-90.

Wall Drug Store, Wall, South Dakota

We stop for the night in Wall, South Dakota to make sure we visit the famous Wall Drug. The campground we chose just happened to be across the street from the attraction. We walked over to the store about 9:00 that night, having been told the place closes at 10:00. At 9:30, they were turning out the lights on us, but not before I could get this picture of Craig. Three things off our list in one day, whew!

We have to be home this weekend, so there is no time to rest and take a break. The next few days we are going to have to put some miles behind us.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Another travel day, made our way from Cody Wyoming to Devils Tower KOA campground. I just read the earlier post about Yellowstone and it sounded as if there wasn't anything to enjoy. There was plenty to see and enjoy and make you think. The place was huge so we didn't drive the whole park. There is so much more to the park than Old Faithful. Everywhere we drove there were basins with steam escaping through the earth's surface. I will post pictures, but they really don't display the beauty. The basins we stopped at all had wooden walkways above the ground and warned all to stay on these walkways. You look around and wonder what is going on underneath me right now and I hope I am not here when this thing decides to blow. One sign even read that if that particular sight happened erupt, they would not be able to predict. Jake and Craig's response to that was, "cool". If I remember correctly, the steam is from water that is being heated beneath by magma. Isn't magma that red flowy stuff that comes out of volcanoes? Is volcanoes supposed to have the letter e in it? While the rest of us went back to the RV to escape the rain, Craig and Jake walked around a little more, I suppose to see if they could get caught in an eruption. You could literally spend days in Yellowstone and not see everything you would want to see, but we only had the one. The crowds and the rain kinda put a damper on our fun that day. As we rode, we observed plenty of evidence left of a forest fire from the 1980's that had burned 800,000 (we think) acres and had started with a discarded cigarette. Idiots!! Apparently, there have been several major forest fires in this park. It really is a beautiful place and we are pleased we didn't skip it. The bison sighting that day, just before we left the park, was the highlight. We entered the park through the west entrance and left through the east on our way to Devils Tower KOA. The drive from Yellowstone to Devils Tower was outstanding. Having to climb the hills and maneuver the RV through the pass wasn't that great, according to Sammy, but the landscape was gorgeous. Sammy says that Wyoming is his favorite state, besides North Carolina, of course. I agree with him, this time. YellowstoneYellowstone

Yellowstone

Yellowstone

Wyoming

Wyoming

Old Faithful

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Yellowstone National Park, finally. Yellowstone is obviously your typical tourist attraction because there were fifty eleven million nits. The term nits is used by Sammy to describe the fact that there are too many people in this particular location. This word was used quite often on our trip to Yellowstone. It was impossible to park at the basins on the way into the park because of the tons of nits. We gave up and set our course directly for Old Faithful. When we reached the viewing platform for the Old Geyser we only had to wait 15 minutes. We lucked out. We, along with at least a thousand other nits, waited patiently for the faithful eruption. Let me rephrase that, Hoke wasn't very patient. Let me see if I can recall his quote while waiting. He stands beside me with a lethargic stance, leaning against me as if he couldn't hold himself up and says, "This is the most boring thing, ever". Don't worry, I didn't pinch his head off, or not yet, anyway. After the eruption, we made our obligatory trip to the gift shop/junk cavern to scope out any hidden treasures/dust collectors that some might call souvenirs. Back at the RV, we plotted our course through this park and set sail. When we entered the park, the ranger gave each child a paper to check off any animals they might happen to spot while on their visit. I have no doubt they thought this was a good idea, thinking perhaps the children would quietly keep their eyes peeled for wildlife. It worked for about 159 seconds, then the children that came with us decided to disagree on what animal that had just seen and argue thusly. One would check off an animal on their list and another would exclaim, "that wasn't a so-and-so" and "why did you check that one, that wasn't a such-and-such?, "yes, it is", "no it's not". After about thirty minutes of constant bickering, I really wanted to take the papers back to the ranger and explain to him what havoc he had caused (what was really going through my mind was wadding each paper up in a ball and throwing them at the unsuspecting fellow), but Sammy wouldn't turn around. The ones we are pretty sure we spotted were bison, mule deer, deer, swan, pelican, duck, raven, geese, magpie and maybe a wolf.

If you enlarge this picture and zoom into the center you will see what we think might be a wolf at the edge of the cliff


Sammy got his wish of seeing a bison up close. We sat in the vehicle while this one made it's way our direction. As it passed us, it crossed the road almost causing a Harley-Bison accident. The bison made the huge motorcycle look small. Poor girl driving it had to have wet her pants.

There was steam coming from some so many places in the park. Look at the distant shore and there is a bison on the left.

View from our campsite at West Yellowstone KOA

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Another driving day. Spokane, Washington to West Yellowstone. Everyone except Sammy slept through Idaho. At least I assume Sammy was awake since he was driving. The view from our campsite was awesome. We even had a swing to sit and enjoy the view. We would have too had there not been approximately twelve million mosquitos just on our site. We sprayed a sticky layer of bug repellent and pulled out the citronella candle just in time for a storm to roll in. The funny, or not so funny depending on who you are and your sense of humor, was that Jake, Addie and Hoke were caught in the rain on a rented bicycle contraption. This blue bicycle thing could hold six people at one time. There was a huge indoor swimming pool and, according to the three that went swimming, smelled like pee and chlorine and very crowded. Thus, their swimming excursion was very short. The propane stopped heating the water and Addie took a cold shower. Hoke, much to his liking, was allowed to skip the shower tonight. We turned on the electric water heater for the first on this trip.

I need help. Everytime, and when I say everytime I mean everytime, I ask Hoke to brush his teeth or take a shower, I get the answer, "Why?". I have used up all my good replies and need some fresh ones. Anybody have any fresh ideas, I would appreciate it. So far I have used everything from sarcasm to being sweet, yet I still hear "Why?". Staring at him blankly doesn't work, either. Please, help me.

Friday, July 9, 2010

We did nothing but travel today so there aren't any new pictures, just leftover ones. Before we left Seattle, we needed to get groceries, get the oil changed in the RV and return the rental car. We were able to do that and get on the road by noon. Sammy planned to drive no longer than just through the Cascades and only went as far as Spokane, WA. The drive wasn't as bad as Sammy thought. He stopped along the way at a little town called Cle Elum just to take us to a little bakery he heard about. He didn't tell the kids why he was stopping, only that they had to get their shoes on and get out. The whining and moaning ceased when they realized they were in for a treat. Along with our goodies, Sammy found and bought some raspberry honey cream. It was fit to eat. I am going to have to figure out to make that. Anybody have any ideas? Arrived at the campground and spent the evening washing clothes for the last time while away from home. I would have never thought I would be happy to see my own washer and dryer. At least that way, I know what has been washed in it. Public washing machines never seem to get clothes as clean and sometimes they seem to get stained while washing. The weather was nice and cool, but still doesn't make me change my mind about coming home.

Most of these pictures are from Mt. Rainier and the snowball fight.

This is what happens to an unopened bag of potato chips when you carry them to higher altitudes

My raven puppet Sammy bought me in Canyonlands. While we were stopped at one of the trails, a raven decided to land on our RV while I inside by myself. It sounded like something larger than a bird bouncing across the roof. When I went to check it out, it flew to the front where I opened the door, then away.

Reflecting lake at Mt. Rainier

Thursday, July 8, 2010

This is to be our last day in Seattle and Nina is able to take the day and spend with us. We decide to take a trip to nearby Mt. Ranier National Park, pronounced "rain-ear". Since we were taking our rented vehicle and not the RV, I had to actually pack food and drinks. There are some advantages to hauling this thing around this country. Our departure started about an hour later than we had planned, however, our attitude of not being on any schedule prevailed. Nina's plan was to make sure we saw a part of the park called Paradise. Sammy drove for quite some time before realizing we were halfway around the mountain on the opposite side of Paradise. He was quietly aggravated and just kept driving. The closer we got to the mountain and the higher the elevation, we were delighting in the fact that the outside temperature crept lower and lower. Before climbing to the cooler temperatures, we stopped and took a short hike and it was hot and uncomfortable. We could see the snow and were anxious to get there. Finally, we arrived in Paradise. We pulled out all our picnic paraphernalia and tried to enjoy. They made fun of the fact that I brought a table cloth until they saw the table, then they shut up. Pfffllttt!! That is the sound of me sticking out my tongue and, well, you know. The first thing we noticed was a sharp-beaked bird loitering around the picnic area. Nina HAD to mention that a bird of the same species was quite aggressive in an previous encounter. So now Addie is worried about this bird trying to get her food. The altitude here was so high, the unopened potato chip bags had expanded, as if someone filled them with air. While we were eating, and keeping our eyes out for attack birds, Addie kept complaining about bugs on her and her food. After about the third time of hearing, "there are microscopic ants crawling into the crevices of my bread", we checked it out. Sure enough, there were tiny ants all over her food. We quickly terminated our meal and checkout out the visitors center. The hill behind the visitors, the one covered in snow, was our ultimate goal while here. Nina hiked up the hill with the kids and Sammy and I practiced being old and stayed towards the bottom. The snow was melting rapidly and, while trudging the mountain, you could actually hear the water running underneath the snow. The snowmelt did make for beautiful waterfalls and rushing mountain streams. We would have pictures if we could have gotten Sammy to stop. By the time we left the park, we all had cold wet feet and loved it. We knew we were headed back to the heat and tried to soak up as much cold as possible. It amazes me that there is still snow in July. After spending the day in a rented vehicle, you can't imagine how thankful I am we are in an RV, even if it is a small RV. My biggest laugh of the day came when I tried to remove the headrest off Nina's carseat. She caught me and then we both started laughing, snorting and snotting. The kids stop fighting just long enough to quietly wonder what was so funny about that. When Nina and I were little and our family on vacation, we had to find ways of entertaining ourselves on the long car rides. We didn't have electronic devices so we invented our own version of fun. One thing we did, and let me apologize to Mama now, is remove the headrest from Mama's seat. It was a team effort and we were quite stealth in our manuevers. Once we had the headrest removed, we would almost burst waiting for Mama to try and lay her head back to rest. The second she made her move we got the laugh we had worked so hard for. We did it several times before she wised up and checked to make sure there was a headrest there before trying to lean back. Our poor mama, I think she might still love us anyway. Back to our day on Mt. Rainier, we left the park and Sammy got caught behind the slowest driver in Washington. I took a nap rather than have to listen to him rant. I was just sleepy, so I would have taken a nap, regardless. That driver did need to pull over and have some respect. Nina stayed and had supper with us at the campground and we said our goodbyes. It was good to see my sister in her neck of the woods.

Wild animals on the path or, as some might say, idiots

They were playing a game of "see-how-long-you-can-hold-your-hand-in-ice-water-before-crying". Nina's arthritis started kicking in so she gave up. The rest agreed to quit simultaneously.

Purple mountains majestic

Sammy had to have his feet in the snow on this record-breaking hot day

This was taken of one of the fallen trees in the park

Space Needle as seen from a Kenmore Air charter plane

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Still in Seattle. Of course, they are having a heat wave. Record breaking temperatures, if you will. Nina had to work today and we took our time getting out to check out the city. Nina gave us some passes for the zoo and a couple of other attractions, but we didn't use any of them. Instead, Sammy took us into a historic section of town called Ballard. Wonder why he picked this part of town. We found a video store and bought the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". I wanted the kids to see the Devil's Tower mountain featured in this movie since we might try and stop there on the way home. We stopped to eat at a Thai restuarant that Sammy had been to when he visited here in February. Hoke had trouble finding anything on the menu he wanted. He had noodles. Another strange phenomenon, the area around us seemed to clear not long after our presence was made, odd. Our waitress poured us each a glass of water and, thankfully, never asked if we wanted anything else to drink. That saved us an extra fifteen dollars. Can you tell we are tightening up a little? While we were delighting in our meal, Nina called and asked if we had gotten her message from earlier. We hadn't. She had scheduled a charter flight from Kenmore Air, the place Nina works, for us at 6:30 that evening. My first thought was, "How is Thai food and flying gonna mix?". I chose not to focus on that and looked forward to this flight that Sammy had insisted we would enjoy. We weren't prepared for the flight, as in, we didn't have all of our photography paraphenalia. We made do with what we had. We arrived a little early for our flight and after verifying we were parked in a legitimate parking space, we were told we could walk next door to Starbucks, if we chose, to kill time. Once again, rather than worry about how what we were about to consume and air travel would combine, we partook. Hoke and Addie were very nervous and practically demanded they sit next to their daddy. Hoke started to get a little motion sickness, but maintained and loved the ride. The pilot, Sammy now refers to as "touch-n-go Anna", did an excellent job. Not sure about the rest of the group, but I didn't realize that she had planned to take-off then descend to skirt the water and take-off again. As far as I was concerned, I was hoping there would be other survivors to row that puppy to shore when we crashed. There were so many boats out on this sunny day, we had to circle the lake several times before the water cleared enough for Anna to bring us in, but we didn't mind. Craig called shotgun, so he snagged the best view. Most of the kids first time flying and my first time in a true puddle-jumper on an unusually clear Seattle day, not bad. Thanks Sammy for this treat. We ended the night with supper at Nina's place and watched our new movie. No parking ticket tonight, what a bummer. I suppose the money spent at Starbucks while waiting our turn to fly was about the same. For those of you who don't already know this, Starbucks coffee was invented (I know that isn't the right word to use in this sentence, but I'm using it anyway) in Seattle. I started trying to take a picture of each Starbucks we came across during this visit, but my camera card only holds 400+ pictures. Next time I will have to get a card with more memory. Did I mention the traffic in Seattle is wonderful? If you didn't detect a heavy note of sarcasm in that sentence, let me promise you, it's there. Hoke, in his observation, mentioned that the hobo walking the street was going faster than we were. Hobo was the actual word he used. He was right, of course, about this hobo being faster than traffic.

Didn't realize the name of the plane until I saw this picture

Ain't he cute?

I realize this picture is blurry but had to show the look on Hoke's face. This is either before he got over his fright or he was fighting motion sickness.

More pictures from our air tour

Enjoying the sunset over the Olympic mountains

Tuesday, June 6, 2010

We're in Seattle

We were a little slow getting started today since we didn't get to bed until about 4 A.M. We rented a car and went to see Nina for the first time since arriving. We ordered pizza from down the street and walked there to pick it up. After supper, we drove to a park to enjoy the sunset of the Olympic mountains. The sun was out along with thousands of Seattle's residents. Hoke, having just discovered a new playstation game at Nina's apartment, was antsy to get back to it. He kept himself occupied by throwing rocks and playing in the green, slimy seaweed along the shore. As the sun crept behind the mountains, the crowd clapped as if to thank it for showing it's face. We made our way back to the car, all the while, being entertained by the diversity of the Seattle crowd. Little did we know we had parked illegally, along with about a hundred other park goers, and had a lovely little parking ticket to welcome us to Seattle. That made Sammy real happy. We left the park and meandered through the streets of Seattle, visited the Fremont troll, caught a glimpse of the suicide bridge, then returned to Nina's apartment. After a little more time with the playstation and dessert, we left her to enjoy the peace.

The babies with their Aunt Nina

Good thing Hoke decided to duck

Playing on the Fremont Troll