TRIP - DAY 17

First full day in Rocky Mountain NP. The first thing I did was wash some clothes with my manual washer. 

It was a bit snowy in the higher elevations. It always makes it challenging to drive a 20' van. 

I saw deer and pronghorns. I saw beautiful scenery.

The fan in the van is suddenly not working when the van is turned off. I'm having a second tech come out to try and fix it. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 16

I woke up this morning and was out of the campground at 8:15am. I had a long drive ahead of me. I went from Black Hills SD to the Rocky Mountains CO. 

On my way out of town, I did a detour and drove to Wind Cave NP SD. I knew the caves were closed but it was nice to see the caves and get my t-shirt, postcards, sticker and stamp. I got to drive through most of the park on my out. It was beautiful. 

I made it into Colorado and to my campsite. It was a long day and I was late to my campsite again.  The road had lots of twists and turns. 

I was happy to get to the campsite. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 15

The cousins and I got up early to get on the road to go see Jewel Cave National Park. I've been excited about going into a cave since planning this trip. I was hoping to go into Wind Cave National Park which is the better of the two cave tours, but Wind Cave is closed for the summer to install a new elevator. Jewel Cave is where we went. 

To do the cave tour you have to ride down in an elevator, walk down many steps and be okay being underground. It didn't bother any of the three of us. The cave was very interesting and I got to be the caboose. The caboose is the last person in the line that is supposed to not leave the area until everyone else is in front of me. I took my caboose job very seriously. 

From there we went to the Badlands again. This time the weather was much nicer no strong winds to blow you over. It was such a nice day that we decided to do a hike. The hike included climbing up and down this ladder made out of branches and chords. 

You can see the ladder in two of the photos. But neither one shows you how steep the ladder is.

It was a fabulous hike and I enjoyed myself very much. The cousins were so much fun to go in the cave with and then to go to Badlands National Park with. 

After the park, the RV tech was supposed to come back and install a new fan. We were running late and he realized he got the wrong fan so everything was canceled. But now it was late so the cousins and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. It turns out that Olive Garden has absolutely nothing I can eat except salad and special breadsticks that do not have garlic. Because said they enjoyed their dinner. 

When we got back to the RVs around 8:30 at night it was time to say goodbye. I was leaving very early the next morning. Off to The Rocky Mountains National Park. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 14

It's been 2 weeks and I've been traveling in this van and I absolutely love it. I could see myself doing this regularly. 

Let's talk about last night. The wind was so bad that the van was shaking side to side. At one point the wind actually picked the van up. It was about 1:00 in the morning after I had laid here listening to the wind, that I decided to throw in the towel. Sunny and I packed up and moved into the bathroom building and I slept on the shower bench. Sunny spent the night in his carrying backpack set up on a little table. That wind howled all night long. I heard later on that in an 18-wheeler was blown over on the highway. 

This morning despite not having much sleep, I packed up and went to Wall Drug. This is a very unique place with a restaurant, gift shop, pharmacy, cafe, art gallery, 80 ft (24 m) brontosaurus sculpture and various other stores. It is complete madness and a roadside attraction. 

Then I drove to the Badlands National Park. When I tell you it was windy at the park, you're probably thinking of a light breeze. It was anything but a light breeze I literally could have done the Michael Jackson lean and not falling over if I did it into the wind. I got to see some of the park before it was time to go back to the campground. 

Now, the van has been beeping for a few days. I thought it was the smoke alarm but it wasn't. Also the fan in the back of the van will only work when the van is running. I contacted the van place and they sent out a tech. That is why I had to hurry at Badlands National Park. 

I had to meet The RV tech Guy at 4:00 at my campsite. He looked over the van and after an hour he decided that the fan was broken and it needed to be replaced. Meanwhile to look at all the little nooks and crannies, I had to remove most everything from the van. He left and decided that he needed to buy a new fan to replace the broken one. I contacted indiecampers to let them know. 

Meanwhile my second cousin arrived with his husband in their RV. After the van guy left we went into town to have dinner at an adorable little restaurant. We were all hoping there would be no wind tonight. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 13

Today is cold but sunny day. I scheduled going to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. 

I puttered around doing errands like mailing postcards, filling the water, going to the supermarket, and dumping the toilet canister. 

I drove to Mount Rushmore. It is an impressive entrance. It is a lovely place to see the carved presidents and learn the history. 

After the tour and museum, I did the Presidents Trail which is a hike around the grounds giving you different views of the presidents. 

After this I wanted to go on a hike so I went to the Black Hills National Park and hiked Hippie Hole South. It seemed like an easy hike but boy was I wrong. The hike started out easy but very quickly started to descend for very sharply down to a stream. I passed some girls on the way down and they said it's all good until you have to come back. Well they were right. It was very strenuous and difficult to hike back up the rocky hill. I didn't go the entire way because I looked down and saw a tick on my pant leg. That was all I needed. 

Later that evening I was watching TV on my iPad when I looked down and there was a tick on my iPad screen. I quickly removed the tick and put him outside. I then became very paranoid that there were other ticks in the bed. I have done a very thorough search and took a shower when I got home from the hike so I was surprised to see the tick. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 12

This morning I woke up and left Sheridan WY to drive to Hill City, SD to go to the Black Hills National Park. Black Hills NP is near Mount Rushmore, Jewel Cave, Wind Cave and the Badlands. 

It was a long drive and I arrived to the park late once again. Along the way I visited Devils Tower. It is a national monument. It was a short detour but so amazing. 

The difference between a national park and national monument is that a national monument is intended to preserve at least one nationally significant resource and a national park contains a variety of resources and encompasses large land or water areas to help provide adequate protection of the resources. 

After my quick stop at Devils Tower, I made it to my destination. 

The campground was nice and had the best bathrooms so far. What makes a great bathroom, you ask? This bathroom is decorated in a lovely peach color and is more like a spa restroom. There are miniature soaps, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, makeup wipes, q-tips, cotton balls, and in the shower there are two large bottles of shampoo and body wash (adhered to the wall) in the restroom. There are bathroom and shower stalls. Each shower stall has a large bench and hooks. The shower curtain was fabric instead of those clear or white plastic shower curtain. It even had decorative shower rings. Plus, and most importantly, it was clean.

It was a long day. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 11

I woke up early and drove to Sheridan WY. 

Okay, something happened today. I was driving and the signs were saying welcome to Wyoming. I thought I was already in WY. It turns out that Yellowstone is in Wyoming but the campground I stayed in was just over the boarder to Montana. I would drive each day from MT to WY. I find that funny. Even more funny, I didn't realize it until today when the sign said welcome to Wyoming. 

The drive was fairly uneventful. There weren't many cars along the roads I took. I made a few rest breaks and saw the best rest area/restroom so far. It was spotless, easy parking, and a beautiful view. Plus it had a seat on the wall with seatbelt for a parent to sit the baby in when the parents goes to the bathroom, so the infant can come with the parent. Those seats should be in every public bathroom. There were mens, women's and family rooms.  Then to make it better there outlets everywhere. I really wanted a cup of tea to wake me up but I had no electricity. I took my teapot into the rest area building (which was huge) and boiled some water for tea. I thought this was a great rest area. 

I made it to the campground (if you can call it that) and found a spot. This campground is an area behind a business with a gravel. Every few feet there is an electric and water hook up. I am right next to my neighbor. I feel like I need to put on headphones to watch TV. It is right next to the highway and I can hear the cars speeding by. 

It is only for one night and you don't get much for $50 these days. There is no bathroom and my gray tank is almost full. So no shower for me. Not even a camp shower. 😩

I didn't want to stick around this depressing place so we went to the Brinton Museum nearby. It was a museum of Native American artifacts and some local art. This is my favorite piece of art

I thought it was hysterical. I don't know why it made me laugh. 

Then we went back and I cooked Vegan Drunken Noodles for dinner. It was so good. I have plenty of leftovers. 

Sunny bird was watching me and then looked outside and was singing. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 10

I tried to wake up early and get out of the campsite early. Well I was out by 9:15 a.m. 

First I went to get gas, then I went to the post office to mail some postcards, then I headed out east toward Tower Roosevelt. Because the road is closed off due to weather, there weren't that many people on the road and it was much more rural. I saw waterfall and the petrified tree. After I was done with that section I drove back down towards Old Faithful, so I could go to the grand prismatic spring and also upper geyser. I'm glad I drove all the way down there to just see those few things because the grand prasmatic spring really really beautiful. 

When I was trying to leave on the boardwalk, two bison walked onto the boardwalk. This meant they cannot walk back to the van. I had to wait for these two bison to change their mind and walk in a different direction. It took over 15 minutes. Meanwhile I was just standing there probably 20 ft from two bison. Bison are really huge and quite intimidating. They tend to stand there stare at you snort which makes you kind of afraid. So here I was with this other guy standing there and the bison kept coming closer and closer to us. Just staring us down snorting but not in an aggressive way. They were just being bison. 

And two more times while I was driving back to the campsite bison came up to the car. 

Once I got back to the camp, a sweet lady gave me some tablets for the toilet canister.

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 9

I got a sort of late start. Seems to be a theme. There is just so much to do: shower/wipe off, feed me, feed the bird, detach the water and electricity, put everything away, and follow my checklist.  Then I can drive away.  It takes time especially since I don't have a rhythm just yet. 

I drove all the way down hwy 89 hitting just about every pull out, geyser, overlook and animal spot. I went from the North entrance to Old Faithful. I did skip the last geysers prior to Old Faithful. I read that there would be a showing at Old Faithful at 3:45. I didn't want to miss it. I hit the gift shop while I was waiting. I bought a T-shirt, socks, postcards and sticker. Then I went to the information center and got my stamp and sticker for my passport. 

I saw Old Faithful. I don't mean to be a spoiler but it was not as impressive as I anticipated. I thought the thermal pools were more impressive. 

And if course there were bison. I think I am a bison magnet. 

It was a full day of driving and jumping in and out of the van. I saw some amazing things. 

Until tomorrow...

TRIP - DAY 8

It was a long day. I got up and after running some errands we got on the road. Unfortunately I miscalculated how long it would take to get to Yellowstone. I did not take into consideration road closures so it took closer to 5 hours to drive to Yellowstone. 

When I woke up there was snow on the ground and then it started snowing. That was a bit of a shock. I knew there was snow on the ground from before but I was surprised that it snowed last night. 

I packed up and we took the van over for the guys to help me dump for the first time and I dumped the cassette in the toilet. The only thing I was missing was water but because it's snowed the water was turned off. 

From there we went to the gas station to get liquid propane gas. While I was there I also got gas in the van. Then we went to the post office to mail a couple of cards, whole foods for food and Target for odds and ends. 

By that time it was lunch time and I realized that there were road closures and I was going to have to go the long way to get to Yellowstone. The truck over the mountain range / pass was a little treacherous because it started raining and snowing. I made it fine but there were a few minutes of knuckle clenching. 

Hours later we arrived in Yellowstone and I had one and a half hours of driving through the park to get to the campground. now if you've ever driven through a national park you know that the speed limit is basically 45 miles an hour at the most and sometimes 25 miles an hour. That meant driving slowly to get to my destination. 

All of this was complicated by the fact that I came in contact with three different herds of bison while trying to drive to the campsite. I didn't know if I was allowed to pass them or what the rules are and because there's no internet I couldn't look it up. So I sat there until they cleared out of the way. I now know that you can sort of nudge them out of your way with your car. Not touching them but just sort of moving closer and they'll back off and move away. Although I do have to say that the way they stare at you and hold their ground really makes them look very scary. 

I finally got cell service and called the campground. They were super nice and held the registration for me. 

The spot is nice, up on a hill. 

Well I drove through the park I didn't just see bison I also had a whitetail deer run across the road in front of me, a coyote run across the road in front of me and some interesting tan and white deer-ish looking things (pronghirn) eating in a field. 

My list of animals so far this trip:

Bison 

Coyote 

White tailed deer

Elk (at both parks)

Squirrel 

Marmot

Mountain Bluebirds

Robin 

Pronghorn

I'm still looking for a moose. 

Until tomorrow...