January 30 2018
There is a great lunar eclipse about to happen but here in So. Oregon the sky is clouded over so the view will be a non event here.
Our trailer gets a little closer to being on the road everyday. Still a good deal of packing and cleaning to do and departure date gets closer and closer. Yesterday I cleaned out the trailer garage. Took most of the day but way easier than attempting to clean the garage attached to the house. 😄 Finished it up by fogging for bugs in the garage this morning. Now we will start to pack it up.
We planned this trip to Texas during our winter, thought it would be warmer there. Not so sure since we are having a much milder winter than usual. Our crocus is blooming already and the daffodils are not far behind them.
I have always wanted to go to Big Bend National Park in Texas. It is right on the Mexican border in West Texas. My dad was a 4th generation Texan. His family was mightily pissed when he allowed his daughter to be born in Montana rather than Texas. Additional motivation was provided by making great friends with Dick and Karen who worked with us in Yellowstone last year. We are hoping they will be able to meet up with us for a few days.
We are going to be joined on this road adventure by our traveling buddies Greg and Pat. This will be their first trip in their new fabulous 5th wheel. We have traveled many wonderful miles with them and are looking forward to this trip.
We start off with a visit to Joshua Tree National Park for 3 days. Then we head down through Quartzsite, Az then turn south through Oregon Pipe National Monument. Hopefully we will then have an easy trip into Sonora, Mexico to Puerto Penasco where we can gorge on seafood, great Mexican food, sun, and sea. We will be camped on the beach on the Sea of Cortez. Should be wonderful. Then we will head back Stateside and journey to Big Bend. We will end up in San Antonio, Texas. That will be our turn around point and then we will head north to Acoma, New Mexico. A stop in Monument Valley on the Navajo reservation then onto Mesa Verde National Park. Our final stop hopefully will be Arches National Park and then we will begin to make our way home to Medford.
So check in on this Blog. Hopefully I will have the energy to keep this updated.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Friday, January 5, 2018
Highlights from a season in Yellowstone
April 20,2017 we leave Medford for our season in Yellowstone, Several things stand out as I look back on that adventure; weather, people, learning, and living in a most unique place on earth.
Our weather was fine until we reached Ft Hall, Idaho. Up to that point the roads had all been dry as we were following a spring storm. Ft. Hall is a reservation and they have a casino, truck stop and an RV park. I knew some of the folk I would be working with in Yellowstone were camped there before they headed into the Park. The RV park had lots of standing water. Once settled in we contacted our coworkers via email and met them for a drink. These folks were going to be just fine to work with. They were all headed into the park day after tomorrow. We took the next day as an opportunity to drive into the park and check it out. We understood that there was a lot of snow and ice in our RV spots. If you were following me on Facebook you would have seen many posts of our struggles with snow and ice. Once we found the RV park our eyes were really big since you couldn't tell much as they were only dug out enough to back our rig in and hook up to utilities. Had to get the tape measure out and make sure we were going to fit!! Width was okay but length was likely to be a problem. We got to meet Terry who is the boss for the Central District and one other couple who had gone in the day before, Sue and Dave. Luckily Terry had gotten a Bobcat up there to dig out the 5 feet of snow. We would continue to shovel snow and ice to clear our site until mid June. We had the usual afternoon thunderstorms but only one of them was a gully washer (heavy rains, strong winds, and lots of big thunder and lightening. We were so very fortunate not to have any wildfires in the park this summer. We did get some small amounts of smoke from fires in Montana. It did snow 11 inches 2 days before we were set to leave. Made us a little nervous. We worked until October 9th and got out about noon on October 10. We drove out to West Yellowstone and spent a couple of nights just doing tourist things.
We were so blessed to work everyday with people who loved the park as much as we did. Even though there were dog and cat people everyone got along and were just fine honoring the differences. We laughed, bitched, and shook our heads at some of the remarkable actions we witnessed by the tou-rons (combination of tourist and morons) In all fairness I doubt they were morons. Probably just a different country with confusing signs, money and customs. We did decide we would unlikely ever buy a car that had been in a rental fleet. My guess is 60% of the cars in Yellowstone are rentals. We had some great evening campfires and got to know our neighbors.
We watched the snow melt and the rivers rise and furiously send melted snow on it's journey from the mountains to the sea. The rivers and streams of Yellowstone are wonderful. Then there is Yellowstone Lake. I wish I had more time to spend on the lake. My little inflatable just doesn't let us get very far from shore or journey many miles. We learned real quick that you really don't go any where in the park without your bear spray.
This year the bears were everywhere. We had a very close encounter with a young Grizzly. We had been watching the bear from Fishing Bridge down on the Lake shore. He took off up the hill. I figured he was headed up toward the road and there was a pull out right where I thought he should come out. We head up there and got pulled over. There was no sign of the bear so I decided I would walk over to the edge to see if I could spot him. The edge was maybe 10 yards from where we were parked. Bobbi said she would stay with the pups in the car. I took two steps toward the edge and my foot sank into muck and yuck from the high water table. Know this if you stop at a pull out and move away from your car there will be plenty of people who stop to see what you are seeing. As I was pulling my foot out of the muck a guy walked up behind me with his camera and a lens that gave me lens envy. When I looked back toward the edge, about 8 yards from me the Grizz had just topped the ridge. Believe me from that distance that bear was HUGE. My new friend and I started walking backward slowly toward the car. The bear just kept strolling along not really paying too much attention to us. We kept backing up and he kept walking toward us. We finally reached the car. The dogs were going crazy, Bobbi was working on getting the windows up. I thought the bear would veer off to the left and go around us as there were no other cars that way and it was a clear path to cross the road. Bear at 5 yards. Photo guy and I said it was time to get in the car. Photo guy was about 6 ft 3 in tall and our back seats were laying down so Lucy could run around. He dove in drug his legs and HUGE camera lens in and was trying to continue to take pictures. The bear decided to walk down the passenger side of the car. As he walked by his backbone was even with the top of the car. Thankfully he just kept walking, crossed the road and hopped a fence and continued on his merry way. It took us a few minutes to catch our breath. I was so grateful for the car and this bear not wanting any of our chips.
We watch baby bison being born, Great Horned owls fledge their young, Osprey raise babies, Great Gray Herons come and go from a rookery with 8 nests, saw wolves, heard wolves, almost as cool as seeing them, had antelope run right in from of us maybe 20 feet when we were walking the dogs, watched mature bull elk rest behind our RV and chew their cud, got to see a long and plentiful wildflower bloom, watched river otters play in the river, beaver build a lodge in the river, saw some really big coyote, saw more Moose then we had ever seen before. Animals and people taught us so much about themselves and ourselves.
I hope to be able to do it again someday.
Our weather was fine until we reached Ft Hall, Idaho. Up to that point the roads had all been dry as we were following a spring storm. Ft. Hall is a reservation and they have a casino, truck stop and an RV park. I knew some of the folk I would be working with in Yellowstone were camped there before they headed into the Park. The RV park had lots of standing water. Once settled in we contacted our coworkers via email and met them for a drink. These folks were going to be just fine to work with. They were all headed into the park day after tomorrow. We took the next day as an opportunity to drive into the park and check it out. We understood that there was a lot of snow and ice in our RV spots. If you were following me on Facebook you would have seen many posts of our struggles with snow and ice. Once we found the RV park our eyes were really big since you couldn't tell much as they were only dug out enough to back our rig in and hook up to utilities. Had to get the tape measure out and make sure we were going to fit!! Width was okay but length was likely to be a problem. We got to meet Terry who is the boss for the Central District and one other couple who had gone in the day before, Sue and Dave. Luckily Terry had gotten a Bobcat up there to dig out the 5 feet of snow. We would continue to shovel snow and ice to clear our site until mid June. We had the usual afternoon thunderstorms but only one of them was a gully washer (heavy rains, strong winds, and lots of big thunder and lightening. We were so very fortunate not to have any wildfires in the park this summer. We did get some small amounts of smoke from fires in Montana. It did snow 11 inches 2 days before we were set to leave. Made us a little nervous. We worked until October 9th and got out about noon on October 10. We drove out to West Yellowstone and spent a couple of nights just doing tourist things.
We were so blessed to work everyday with people who loved the park as much as we did. Even though there were dog and cat people everyone got along and were just fine honoring the differences. We laughed, bitched, and shook our heads at some of the remarkable actions we witnessed by the tou-rons (combination of tourist and morons) In all fairness I doubt they were morons. Probably just a different country with confusing signs, money and customs. We did decide we would unlikely ever buy a car that had been in a rental fleet. My guess is 60% of the cars in Yellowstone are rentals. We had some great evening campfires and got to know our neighbors.
We watched the snow melt and the rivers rise and furiously send melted snow on it's journey from the mountains to the sea. The rivers and streams of Yellowstone are wonderful. Then there is Yellowstone Lake. I wish I had more time to spend on the lake. My little inflatable just doesn't let us get very far from shore or journey many miles. We learned real quick that you really don't go any where in the park without your bear spray.
This year the bears were everywhere. We had a very close encounter with a young Grizzly. We had been watching the bear from Fishing Bridge down on the Lake shore. He took off up the hill. I figured he was headed up toward the road and there was a pull out right where I thought he should come out. We head up there and got pulled over. There was no sign of the bear so I decided I would walk over to the edge to see if I could spot him. The edge was maybe 10 yards from where we were parked. Bobbi said she would stay with the pups in the car. I took two steps toward the edge and my foot sank into muck and yuck from the high water table. Know this if you stop at a pull out and move away from your car there will be plenty of people who stop to see what you are seeing. As I was pulling my foot out of the muck a guy walked up behind me with his camera and a lens that gave me lens envy. When I looked back toward the edge, about 8 yards from me the Grizz had just topped the ridge. Believe me from that distance that bear was HUGE. My new friend and I started walking backward slowly toward the car. The bear just kept strolling along not really paying too much attention to us. We kept backing up and he kept walking toward us. We finally reached the car. The dogs were going crazy, Bobbi was working on getting the windows up. I thought the bear would veer off to the left and go around us as there were no other cars that way and it was a clear path to cross the road. Bear at 5 yards. Photo guy and I said it was time to get in the car. Photo guy was about 6 ft 3 in tall and our back seats were laying down so Lucy could run around. He dove in drug his legs and HUGE camera lens in and was trying to continue to take pictures. The bear decided to walk down the passenger side of the car. As he walked by his backbone was even with the top of the car. Thankfully he just kept walking, crossed the road and hopped a fence and continued on his merry way. It took us a few minutes to catch our breath. I was so grateful for the car and this bear not wanting any of our chips.
We watch baby bison being born, Great Horned owls fledge their young, Osprey raise babies, Great Gray Herons come and go from a rookery with 8 nests, saw wolves, heard wolves, almost as cool as seeing them, had antelope run right in from of us maybe 20 feet when we were walking the dogs, watched mature bull elk rest behind our RV and chew their cud, got to see a long and plentiful wildflower bloom, watched river otters play in the river, beaver build a lodge in the river, saw some really big coyote, saw more Moose then we had ever seen before. Animals and people taught us so much about themselves and ourselves.
I hope to be able to do it again someday.
First Post and it's a year after Retirement
One year ago I was rapidly approaching Retirement. Bobbi and I were seriously discussing what our future would look like. Anyone who had ever heard me talk about Retirement knew my dream was to travel the country working in National Parks and marveling at this majestic country.
Yellowstone National Park had stolen my heart the first time I was there in 1960. On my bucket list was being able to work a full season in the Park. I didn't hold out much hope of getting Bobbi to stay for a winter season but spring, summer and fall sounded pretty good. We had taken a winter trip to Yellowstone several years ago and it was fantastic.
I figured there were 4 high probability companies to work for. Now I was not looking to make much money I only wanted an RV spot and a small income to cover gas as we toured the park. My options were to try to get on with the concessionaire contractors, Xanterra or Delaware North, the National Park Service as a volunteer or seasonal employee, or to work for the private non profit Yellowstone Forever which ran the bookstores in the Park. I started by trying Xanterra and Delaware North. I waded through Xanterra's online application and submitted it. All I ever heard from them was an auto reply that acknowledged that they had received it. I really didn't want to work retail so I didn't apply there. My big break came while I was shopping on the Yellowstone Forever website. There was a tab I found about jobs. Several were posted. I applied for Park Store Associate. Simple straightforward online application. Sent it off and left for a two week trip to King's Canyon, Sequoia, and Joshua Tree National Park.
Imagine my surprise when in Joshua Tree I got an email response that said my application interested them to please contact them and gave me a phone number. When I called the person I needed to talk to was on vacation. We had been home about one week when I got a call back.
After several phone interviews I finally got to speak to the person who would be my direct supervisor. I guess he was pretty desperate because after a couple of phone calls he offered me a position at the Canyon VEC (Visitor Education Center)Park store. It was not my first choice I thought it would be way to busy since it is a major stop for every tour bus that enters the park. I did decide to bite the bullet and take the job. Bobbi had decided that she did not want to work as it looked like she would need to make a couple of trips back home to tend to business we had already scheduled and required one of us to be here.
OMG we were out of time!! It was the last week in March when we knew that we were going to be able to complete an item on my bucket list. Bobbi doesn't have one since she is going to live forever. :) We needed to be in Yellowstone May 1. Immediately discussions began on whether or not our little travel trailer would be adequate for 5 months of daily living with 2 dogs. Bobbi became clear almost immediately that it would not work. So we began to look at motor homes and 5th wheels. Since I already had a truck the 5th wheel became the obvious choice. The big requirements for me in a 5th wheel was that it not be over 30 feet and not too heavy to be towed by my truck. Bobbi had a few more requirements that she wanted checked off. The second week of April we finally found a fifth wheel that Bobbi liked but that I would have to cave on my length restriction. Bobbi kindly pointed out that on the side of the trailer it stated that it was model number 30RLS meaning it was 30 feet long. Not true it is actually 34.5 feet from bumper to King Pin. We had our home for the next 5 plus months. Now we had to pack it and make the journey to Yellowstone. A 906 mile journey.
Yellowstone National Park had stolen my heart the first time I was there in 1960. On my bucket list was being able to work a full season in the Park. I didn't hold out much hope of getting Bobbi to stay for a winter season but spring, summer and fall sounded pretty good. We had taken a winter trip to Yellowstone several years ago and it was fantastic.
I figured there were 4 high probability companies to work for. Now I was not looking to make much money I only wanted an RV spot and a small income to cover gas as we toured the park. My options were to try to get on with the concessionaire contractors, Xanterra or Delaware North, the National Park Service as a volunteer or seasonal employee, or to work for the private non profit Yellowstone Forever which ran the bookstores in the Park. I started by trying Xanterra and Delaware North. I waded through Xanterra's online application and submitted it. All I ever heard from them was an auto reply that acknowledged that they had received it. I really didn't want to work retail so I didn't apply there. My big break came while I was shopping on the Yellowstone Forever website. There was a tab I found about jobs. Several were posted. I applied for Park Store Associate. Simple straightforward online application. Sent it off and left for a two week trip to King's Canyon, Sequoia, and Joshua Tree National Park.
Imagine my surprise when in Joshua Tree I got an email response that said my application interested them to please contact them and gave me a phone number. When I called the person I needed to talk to was on vacation. We had been home about one week when I got a call back.
After several phone interviews I finally got to speak to the person who would be my direct supervisor. I guess he was pretty desperate because after a couple of phone calls he offered me a position at the Canyon VEC (Visitor Education Center)Park store. It was not my first choice I thought it would be way to busy since it is a major stop for every tour bus that enters the park. I did decide to bite the bullet and take the job. Bobbi had decided that she did not want to work as it looked like she would need to make a couple of trips back home to tend to business we had already scheduled and required one of us to be here.
OMG we were out of time!! It was the last week in March when we knew that we were going to be able to complete an item on my bucket list. Bobbi doesn't have one since she is going to live forever. :) We needed to be in Yellowstone May 1. Immediately discussions began on whether or not our little travel trailer would be adequate for 5 months of daily living with 2 dogs. Bobbi became clear almost immediately that it would not work. So we began to look at motor homes and 5th wheels. Since I already had a truck the 5th wheel became the obvious choice. The big requirements for me in a 5th wheel was that it not be over 30 feet and not too heavy to be towed by my truck. Bobbi had a few more requirements that she wanted checked off. The second week of April we finally found a fifth wheel that Bobbi liked but that I would have to cave on my length restriction. Bobbi kindly pointed out that on the side of the trailer it stated that it was model number 30RLS meaning it was 30 feet long. Not true it is actually 34.5 feet from bumper to King Pin. We had our home for the next 5 plus months. Now we had to pack it and make the journey to Yellowstone. A 906 mile journey.
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