Month: August 2019

Hello Again! Writing you from the Glenwood Springs, Colorado area, we leave in the morning for Priest Gulch campground in southwest Colorado. Just had to fill you in on our adventures the last few days! You may be wondering what do bears, vapor caves and diesel have in common? Not much! Other than it’s what we’ve been doing. Grab a cup of tea and I’ll fill you in!

First – the vapor caves – what an experience! We booked a day of indulgence for ourselves at Yampah Hot Springs and Spa. They have these caves (real caves, not man made) that are full of hot steam and water. I didn’t research it to get all the technical geological stuff about it. But, it’s about 125 degrees in these caves. The Ute Indians discovered them hundreds of years ago and used them for healing. It’s been operating as a hot springs spa since the late 1800’s. You descend the stairs into very dark, hot, steamy caves that have stone benches. There’s a garden hose in the middle of the caves you can turn on for cold water, and small buckets to fill to take cold water to your spot with you. Smells very sulfur-y everywhere. And so you sit and/or lay on the stone benches and sweat. And try not to panic about being underground, in the dark, in 125 degrees of hot steamy air. Yes, people, including us, pay money for this torture! Actually, we really enjoyed it. And then we got a mineral bath (same hot water from below in tubs, so hot you have to work up to getting into it), and then massages. Very nice day of pampering!

We did a great hike the other day, taking the advice of the US Forest Service lady we talked to and went to a trail that wasn’t on my trail app. This is where the bears come in. But first, some background. We ran into a very sweet older lady on the early part of the trail. She was coming down from the hike, we were going up. Stopped to chat with her and she shared a story of 4 years ago, she and her husband, who is now passed away, hiked this trail and ran into a bear on the trail. She turned and ran, he stayed and got some pictures then made movements and noise and the bear ran away. She told us about where it was on the trail, near some old discarded mining equipment. (She also told us about her daughter’s restaurant in a near by little town which we visited that night and was one of the best meals we’ve had out in a long time). Anyhow, we go on with our hike, get to the old mining equipment and stop to look at it. We’re hiking deep in a canyon, with tall canyon walls on each side of us, the trail runs along a beautiful stream in the bottom of the canyon. I look up the side of the canyon to see if there’s remnants of the old mine, and instead see Mama Bear and her 2 Cubs! Mama is a very big brown bear, and the cubs are one brown and one black. She saw us, looked us over for a minute and moved on her way with the cubs following.

There’s not a lot of “flat” ground when you’re in a canyon – so the bear was heading right towards where our trail was going. We turned around and headed out! Not chancing a closer encounter with Mama and Cubs! Steve tried to get a couple of pictures, but didn’t get them. He ended up with the trees above the bears (he didn’t have time to put on his glasses and he couldn’t see very well). Steve says if anyone asks, the bears were 50 feet away. Just kidding! He guesses they were 200 yards. Close enough to be fun to see, but wouldn’t want them any closer! If we hadn’t talked with the nice lady at the beginning of the trail, I don’t think we would have stopped to look at the mining equipment and look up to see the bears. The trail was very rocky and we had to watch our feet every step, so we weren’t looking up at all until right then. Here’s a link to a few pictures of the canyon and stream: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZHAyespgMkN49J117

So now for the diesel part – since we’re leaving in the morning for a more remote area, Steve went to get the oil changed in the truck and fill up the tanks with diesel. We like to start our trips with both the truck fuel tank and our reserve tank full. We have an auxiliary fuel tank in the bed of our truck, that is connected to the truck fuel tank. So we can carry about 40 gallons more of fuel. There’s a switch in the cab of the truck he turns on when the tank needs fuel, and it will flow from the auxiliary tank into the truck tank. Amazing the things we know now that we had never heard of before this RV adventure began!

Anyhow, I’m cleaning the RV, mopping floors, when he comes home and looks very distraught. “I’ve made a big mistake, Anita”. Oh crap! He looks so sad! What could be wrong?? He pulled up at the gas station, was distracted, didn’t pay enough attention, and accidentally put Ethanol into the reserve fuel tank instead of diesel. Diesel pumps always have green handles. Guess what – so do Ethanol pumps evidently! He caught his mistake and only put a gallon or two in. But – what to do? So he called two diesel truck service places and got conflicting advise. First one said, if you run that Ethanol through your diesel engine you’ll ruin the engine. Oh dear that’s not good! But it’s Friday before Labor Day weekend and he can’t get us in until Tuesday. Really not good. Then there’s the second guy who says, it’s no big deal, fill up the rest of the auxiliary tank with diesel, it will dilute the Ethanol enough it won’t hurt anything. At least he didn’t think it probably, most likely wouldn’t. Hmm…and he was closing for the day and could take us on Tuesday if we wanted. Great.

So….we called our friend Rob back home. If you have been reading my blog, you’ll remember Rob is the super nice guy Steve met at a gas station (are you picking up on this coincidence like I am right now???) before we left for Alaska on our first RV trip. I don’t think we would have made it out of Ohio without his help back then. He taught us how to operate our new RV, made improvements to our truck to support the towing of the heavy RV, installed the hitch for us, and so much more. He gave us lessons on how to hitch and unhitch. He showed us how to operate the leveling jacks. I called him from the road on our “maiden voyage” so many times and he walked me through electrical issues, bent shocks, you name it! He suggested draining the auxiliary tank and not risking running Ethanol through the engine. He gave Steve instructions about how to unhook the fuel line to drain the tank. But, we got to looking at it and were afraid we’d mess something up. So, Steve went to Walmart and got a siphon and pulled all the Ethanol/diesel fuel out of the tank. If you know Steve, you know this was a Big Deal. He bought the right thing, put it together, figured out how to use it, and got the job done. We have come a long way! Thank you again, Rob!!

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Now we’re all caught up. Enjoy the long weekend and I’ll have more reports from our next spot!

Howdy! I think I’m picking up on the western/cowboy lingo around here! People really do say Howdy around here a lot! Anyhow, we enjoyed our visit to Cody and surrounding area very much. We stayed right in the town of Cody, the RV park was okay, not one of the best. But the location was good. We didn’t go to Yellowstone, even though it was only about 45 minutes away. We were there some years ago, with the kids, and didn’t feel the need to go back and fight the crowds. Everyone we talked to who had been to the park talked about the crowds. We didn’t do any hiking in the Cody area either. Steve hurt his knee while we were hiking the week before, and it needed a rest.

We had to take Gerry to the vet also – a persistent cough that we had checked out while in Minnesota too. He gets a very congested cough and sounds like he’s gagging. Then it goes away for a few days then it comes back. Anyhow, he got a cortisone shot and another round of antibiotics. Hoping it will take care of it.

So enough of the boring stuff! We did drive the Chief Joseph Highway, and also the Beartooth Highway. Both are beautiful mountain drives. The Beartooth crosses into Montana, and ends in the cute little town of Red Lodge. We had lunch at the top of the Beartooth pass, which is about 10,900 feet. There were small areas of snow still, but most is gone for the summer. It’s one beautiful view after another. We had done the Beartooth Highway years ago on a trip with the kids – it was nice to see it again and remember being there with the kids. Both of these mountain passes are definitely to be done in the truck only – way too steep and hairpin curves for the RV.

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We found a great fruit stand in Cody also. A very nice guy who grew everything on his property in Paradise, Utah and came to Cody for a few days to sell it. Some of the best tasting berries ever. We bought tons and I froze a lot of it. I’m pretty sure we were his best customer of the week!

The highlight of our time in Cody was a trip to visit good friends Don and Patty in Nye, Montanta. Nye is about 2 hours from Cody so we packed up Gerry and our hiking shoes and off we went for an overnight visit. We’ve visited Don and Patty at their Montana home several times in the past and always love it. (They also live in Columbus some of the time). We have taken the kids there a few times and they have fond memories of camping, horseback riding and hiking there. Gerry made friends with the Yellow Labs Kody and Hunter and they were nice enough to share their home with us all. We hiked one of our very favorite hikes, the Sioux Charley. It’s a beautiful hike along a rushing river. The next morning we hiked their property, another favorite. We climbed to the high point on their property, which is about an 1,100 foot elevation gain. Simply spectacular there, meadows, forests, mountains, big sky! It doesn’t get any better.

And, Gerry decided to roll in cow manure while we were hiking!! Got himself a pretty good coating of nice fresh cow crap! So he got an outside bath with the hose and some soap. 🙄

A wonderful visit and so nice to see them again. Gerry had a blast and promptly crashed in the truck and was asleep before we were half a mile down the road!

We left Cody yesterday, and drove to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Very long day of driving, about 10 hours. We’re here for a few days and then will move on to Priest Gulch campground, in southwest Colorado, which will be our home for the month of September. Glenwood Springs is about 3 hours west of Denver, just west of all the ski areas of Aspen, Breckenridge, etc. I’ll let you know what we find here. We did try to hike today, but had to turn back…too hot for Gerry. He just can’t take the heat. It was high 80s, maybe 90. And we’re at about 6,000 feet elevation. It was a very dry, desert-y (is that a word?) kind of trail too – our least favorite. I recall saying before, the 5,000 – 7,000 elevation can be the miserable zone – foothills, not mountains, and hot and dry! Anyhow, that’s what we found today, and Gerry was not liking it at all. Not sure if his heat intolerance is related to the coughing issue, but he really can’t take the heat. So 1/2 mile in, we turned around and came back home to the air conditioning. We went to a local farmer’s market and stopped in at the US Forest Service office and got some recommendations for better hikes, more in the mountains and with water along the trail. So we’re hoping for a better hike in the next day or two.

In the meantime, enjoy pictures below and enjoy the end of summer. Can’t believe it is almost the end of August already!

Sioux Charley Hike https://photos.app.goo.gl/KE8nHAVVizkV9TFZ6

Don and Patty’s: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PRn38nJqjUTuyK4g8

Chief Joseph Highway and Beartooth Pass: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zWtsoQrh3QAVhZDx5

Hello! It’s been awhile, I know! Sorry! I’ll give you a quick wrap up of where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing so we’re all caught up….. 🙂

After we got home late fall last year from our second season of RV living, we enjoyed holidays at home in Ohio with family and friends. Always great to see everyone and the RV went to indoor storage. I have learned it’s very hard to find indoor storage for RVs, but that’s another story.

We had planned to return to Port Saint Joe, FL (in the panhandle) again for January and February in the RV, but, they had a big hurricane in the area and were still recovering. So we decided to go the other direction and instead booked a house in the mountains of New Hampshire. We left the RV in storage and drove to Littleton, NH and stayed in a winter wonderland. Lots of snow, and we did all kinds of winter activities: snowshoes, skiing, cross country skiing, hiking with spikes on our boots. Gerry even got his own set of boots and a special winter coat – the snow was deeper than him most of the time and he really didn’t enjoy the cold all that much! Guy and Katelyn and Samantha came for a visit too – we drove through a snow storm in the mountains to get to the airport to pick them up. And then our car wouldn’t make it up the steep driveway at 3:00 am when we got home, so all the kids had to push the car in the snow. That was an exciting way to kick off their visit! But lots of fun in the snowy mountains including snowmobiles while they were there.

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We spent all spring in Ohio, and the RV went to the dealership for routine maintenance and repair of a few little things. I have to say (and I hope I’m not jinxing us!) the RV has been just great, and very few issues, and nothing major. We got a new truck in the meantime, exact same as the first one – Ram 3500 diesel, dually. Steve felt it was best to be sure we didn’t have any problems down the road so we got the 2019 version of what we already had.

We did take the RV out for a short trip to North Carolina in late May – early June. About 3 weeks in the mountains of North Carolina. We got out for several hikes and our friends Dave and Jeannie came for a stay with their dog Roscoe too!

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Our official 3rd RV season got underway on July 21, 2019! A little later than we’d like, but Steve needed to be in Ohio for work. This season we’ll be out until about mid-November, and are going west again – after visiting with Guy in MN and Samantha in CO, we’ll spend time in Wyoming, Montana, the San Juan mountains in Colorado, and northern New Mexico. We’ll be visiting some new places and also going back to some favorites in the San Juan mountains and New Mexico.

So we headed straight to Minnesota to see Guy and Katelyn (who are engaged!!!!) We closed on the second house for Aspire Sober Living. You may recall we launched Aspire Sober Living last summer with Guy, and the one house we have is operating smoothly and we wanted to expand. After months of looking, Guy found the perfect house and we were able to be there for the closing and spent about a week helping out with projects to get the house ready for occupancy. City of Saint Paul licensing should be approved in a few weeks and he’ll be off and running with house number 2. So happy and proud of him, and we had a great visit with Katelyn.

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Then it was off to Denver to see Samantha. She moved to a new apartment in June, started a new job in April, and bought a new car in June…lots to catch up on with her! We spent a lovely week with her, and took in a few spectacular sunsets at her apartment – she has a great view of the mountains and the sunsets are amazing. We also made it to Rocky Mountain National Park and a short hike near her office in Boulder with Gerry.

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We arrived here in Dubois, Wyoming after a 2 day drive from Denver. A nice little town about 45 minutes outside Grand Tetons NP. We’ll be here for a total of 9 days, then we’re off to Cody, WY. We’re visiting Grand Tetons National Park and enjoying mountain hiking again! It feels like it’s been a really long time since we’ve been in the RV and in the mountains. We love it! And yes, the campground internet is still crappy everywhere and makes doing things like this blog difficult. But, hey, if that’s all we have to complain about, then life is good indeed! The RV feels like home and we are so happy in the mountains. We love the big sky and the air is clear. Lots of wildflowers here too, which is a nice surprise. We saw a mama grizzly with her cub along the road the other day, and inside Grand Tetons National Park we saw a moose and an eagle.

Here’s some pictures of this year’s adventure so far, hope you enjoy! I’ll keep you updated as our trip moves along…I’m sure there’s plenty of hikes and adventures to be had!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ak1eTP4fLEAM7kMt7