Author Archives: Ann & Ben (co-authors)

No northern lights for us on Sunday evening, as storms moved in a the sky clouded up and obscured any subtle aurora from showing, so we called it a night.

The next morning, we ran a few last minute errands and said goodbye to our new friends that we would never speak to again, and headed west and north towards Helena, our one night stop on the way to Glacier National Park.

Within minutes of exiting the bustling town of West Yellowstone (population 1200), we were back in the forests, rolling hills, and streams that make up most if not all of the topography in these parts. It felt like we were still driving through the national park, with the exception of far off homesteads, farmhouses, and some light commercial businesses to support them, scattering the landscape. Every 30-50 miles, these far off homesteads and small local businesses would start to get closer and closer together, the speed limit would start to drop and bloop, there was a town. No sooner did we see a town name and a bar/diner pass by, then the speed limit would ramp back up, the town would thin out to the point that the last thing we passed by was either a saw mill or a garbage dude, or a propane business, and we would be back out in the rolling country.

We passed through a short leg of Montana before we crossed in to Idaho for a stretch, and then back in to Montana. It was a pretty day for a drive, despite being on the cooler side of chilly.

As we went through these small towns, Ben was absolutely beside himself with all of the old trucks that had been parked in yards for likely decades. Old Ford, Chevy, and Dodge pickups from the 40’s up through the 80’s sat quietly, rusting in peace, and if Ben had his way, he would have stopped to at least get a couple of pics of some of these old workhorses. But Ben had the discipline, restraint, and of course, the wisdom to know that it was at best impractical to stop, and at worst, dangerous.

Also, I plain just wouldn’t let him stop. What are we going to do, put it in the airstream? Thankfully we hadn’t had any cell service all day or Ben would have been on Facebook Marketplace.

So, on we drove, watching the landscape continuously evolve, and listening to Ben call out years and models of the old trucks we cruised by, on our way north.

There were no “incidents” today, we are pleased to report. One quick rest stop as we changed two lane highways, using the airstream for its portable facilities, and we were back on our way in to Helena.

Once in town, we stopped at the local Wally World, aka Walmart, where we stocked up on groceries and Ann bought, among other things, a couple of birthday cards. Upon checking out, the cashier paused after scanning the cards to open them and read them, laugh, and then continued checking Ann out. We love small towns haha.

While Ann was in the Walmart, Ben was out guarding the camper. When we pulled in, it was apparent that this was one of the Walmarts where it was ok to camp in the parking lot. We saw four or five campers in the back few rows, with at least one fully on its way to squatter status. We thought it best for Ben to hang out with the camper so we didn’t pick up any hitchhikers.

Loaded up with fresh supplies, we towed the airstream over to the KOA on the north side of town and got everything set up. By now, the temps had dropped a bit more and the wind had really picked up. So we decided to go hit a local hot springs, about 20 minutes away.

Let me tell you, after three weeks on the road, that big hot springs pool felt amazing. Ben was in and out of the steam room, the sauna, the cold plunge (45 degree water!), and the hot springs tub while I just watched him and I soaked up the heat. We spent about an hour there and it really helped. Finally warm(ish) again, we headed back to the camper.

I forgot to mention a neat friend we made! The very moment we had pulled in to the campground, no sooner had we pulled in to our spot, had not even started leveling the airstream yet, a truck pulled up right next to us. An older gentleman got out and introduced himself and said “I saw you drive by the gas station up the road and I thought I’d pop over to welcome you to our town”

Turns out, he was a Helena native and an airstream owner as well! Hardy, weathered, and with a whipcord build that suggested a life of hard, active work, he visited with us for a few minutes and gave us some ideas for what to do while in town. It was really neat to just see people reaching out and being neighborly. I wish we had gotten a picture, but we did not, so here is a quick sketch I made of him (not really, we just googled an image and this is pretty close, as far as you know at least)

On to laundry and then settling in for a quick dinner of frozen pizza which was honestly, one of the best frozen, and even better than some take out, pizzas we have had. DiGiorno Rising Crust Three Meat pizza, if you’re interested. This post was not sponsored by DiGiornio. Although it could be…(call me, DiGiorno).

Another thing about three weeks on the road in a pretty small camper, you start really looking at what has not been used or touched, because if we haven’t done either by now, what would change going forward that we would suddenly need that fourth serving spoon, or that third coffee cup, or this appliance or that camping gear? So, there was a bit of a purge this evening.

We opened up a lot of space, and all of the gear, extra plates, etc are going in to the back of the truck, where they will still be in reach if we made a mistake.

But I don’t think we made a mistake..

When space is this tight, everything gets washed almost immediately after using it. There is no counter space to leave things laying around to be washed, there is no dishwasher to act as a staging area for dirty dishes until the next wash cycle. When you stand up after dinner, you never even set the plate and utensils down, you start washing and rinsing right then. Dry everything off, because, again, no counter space to let things dry, put everything away, and repeat for every meal. We pretty much have it split up pretty well, since there is really only room for one person to cook or otherwise prepare meals, Ann pretty much does all of the cooking. And Ben does all of the dishes.

So extra stuff just doesn’t make sense when it just doesn’t get used. Off it goes! Good to get some stuff cleared out!

We take off for Glacier National Park in the morning and we are staying in the little city at the West Gate, called West Glacier (population 212), hence the reason why we are stocking up on groceries while we still have stores!

P.S. We are missing the dogs of course, and Ben’s folks are having a blast with them down in Arkansas. Here is a pic of Charlie and Baxter just doing dog stuff together…

Bailey is ok too. She’s off napping lol

Like, it is really really big.

Our objective today was to head over to Lamar Valley to check out the many places to watch for wildlife. It was to be a low key day as Ann was not having a great day, so a chance to see some more of the park and to stop at some overlooks to see if mooses and meeses and wolves and of course bears might be out and about sounded perfect.

We knew we had to plan accordingly, as Lamar Valley is close to the northeast corner of the national park, and we are camped on the western entrance, so GPS called it a two hour drive. That does not take in to account bison jams. So we loaded up the cooler with water and lunch, used the at home facilities one more time, and headed out, knowing it could easily be a three hour drive.

Almost instantly, we realized we had made a mistake…

This was our view as we entered the park. We were a-crawling. The logistics of this place are such that even going 5 mph through the park is still much faster than going around the park. As I mentioned, it’s a very big place. So our options were to turn around and just not go to Yellowstone today, or buckle up and get through it, hoping it was either a bison-jam, or at least knowing that people would spread out a bit more as they poured in to the park. Paths diverge wildly once inside the park, with Old Faithful and farty rock land far to the south, canyon land toward the center, Lamar Valley to the far northeast, etc. So, for the next 30 minutes, we advanced about 5 miles, and we tried subconsciously to convince all of those in front of us that Old Faithful is just awesome.

“Turn south”

”Go see it, you know you want to!”

”It doesn’t smell THAT bad down in geyser land”

“The chalky, watery, stained ground is really pretty actually, especially in the nice light today”

”I bet Old Faithful farts up extra high today,” and so on for five miles.

As we approached the first large intersection, our efforts paid off and most of the cars in front us felt the inexplicable need to turn south, towards Old Faithful, while we happily whipped a left and turned north towards our destination.

It was smooth sailing from that point on, and we really started getting immersed in the natural setting again. We curved around low wide prairies with ever present rivers snarling through them, we saw herds of bison both off in the distance and close to the road side again, and eventually, we started climbing up the steep mountains that had been silently approaching as we motored forward. As we climbed, our tires clung to the sides of the mountains on narrow two lane roads with no guardrails between our truck and steep drop offs to the valleys far below. We were trying to figure out why we couldn’t hear each other whimper when we noticed that we were nearing 9,000 feet and our ears had yet to adjust to the altitude.

After descending from the peaks back down to the prairies below, we pulled off at a few of the turnouts or pullouts positioned frequently and thoughtfully along the side of the road. Knowing that this was the recommended approach for viewing wildlife at a distance, we had purchased a pair of cheap binoculars downtown the night prior. Let me tell you, if we had not had the foresight to pick up those little binoculars, we would have been in pretty much the same position. They sucked. Here is a shot of us using them, and what you cannot hear in a photo is us saying, “Wow! These binoculars suck”

But we pressed on. We just used our eyes since they worked a bit better.

We eventually made it to the center of Lamar Valley, which by the way has THOUSANDS of rocks that litter the ground and, from the right distance, look just like sleeping bears and sleeping moose.

We eventually picked a random gravel side road that indicated there was a hiking trail at the end of its 3 mile length. So we dropped the old Ford into 4×4, engaged rock crawl mode, and started down the washboarded, pothole littered, narrow dusty gravel track. Almost immediately, out careened an old Honda Civic, bouncing joyfully down the road towards us, having just completed the 3 mile each way drive with no ill effect other than being coated in a thick layer of dust and dirt. The Honda hit the paved road behind us, made a right, and peeled away quickly. Ben quietly disengaged four wheel drive and put the transmission back in to highway mode, and down the gravel road we bounced.

Not two miles down the road, we encountered the tell tale signs of wildlife present. A herd of brightly colored, loosely organized, well equipped tourists with all manner of cameras, telescopes, real binoculars, tripods, had gathered on the side of the road, cars parked haphazardly with doors hanging open. Additionally, there were a few haggard park rangers trying their level best to keep these tourists from getting to close to said wildlife and causing a more serious incident. Other than the rangers, all eyes were trained on the valley just below.

We decided to see what was going on.

We parked the truck next to yet another Honda Civic (sigh), hopped out with our shitty binoculars and our cell phones, and headed toward the direction the camera-people were pointing.

Just over in the woods we saw two bear cubs in the tallish grass, playing and wrestling with each other, while BIG mama bear (grizzly? I didn’t get close enough to ask) grazed nearby, never straying too far away from the cubs, but also giving herself a little space because even bears get sick of the kids every now and again.

We watched them through the shitty binoculars and Ben caught a couple videos on the cell phone, and it looked like nothing else was happening, so we headed back to the truck, where we ALMOST HAD YET ANOTHER INCIDENT!!!

This time, it would be a near miss with a low lying, hard to see, prairie pizza. Ann just bought those shoes!

Crisis averted, we started on the long trek back towards the campsite. We were more prepared this time for the steep drop offs, and we even pulled in to one or two just to check out the view.

As we were cruising around a winding mountain road, we came across a bison in a very unlikely place, parked between the side of the road and the steep rocky face, just munching away on thin, exhaust scented grass, without a care in the world.

We reached the valley floor again and decided to stop and check out the fast moving, shallow river winding along the side of the road. Ann found a spot to do a little grounding and Ben decided to see how cold the water was. The answer, pretty cold, but it was a therapeutic stop for both of us.

We wrapped up and headed back to the truck and on to the campsite, where we are hunkering down as yet another line of thunderstorms passes through and we are hopeful that the skies clear up a bit before the aurora comes through later tonight (writing this on Sunday, June 1).

Regardless of the weather, we pull up stakes in the morning and head to our in between stop at Helena, MT where we will once again stock up on groceries, take care of laundry, hit a hot springs for a little heat therapy, and the next day we are on to Glacier National Park!

As we settled in for the evening, the very first day we arrived at Yellowstone, and specifically our little campground in West Yellowstone, just outside of the west entrance to the absolutely ginormous park, we noticed that it was starting to get a little chilly. A quick look at the forecast for the evening and Ann was headed to the thermostat to crank up the heat, put on seven more layers of clothes and she even put the two extra down comforters on the bed. The temp dropped to 34 degrees over night, which of course started to wreak havoc on Ann’s body, so we hunkered down, kept the furnace cranking, and hit the hay.

Suffice it to say, we thought that perhaps sleeping in a bit and letting the temps warm up before we left for the hike would be appropriate. And since it was Ann’s birthday, that is exactly what we did. It was a nice slow morning, and by the time we left, it had started to warm up outside and it was just crystal clear and sunny. A perfect day ahead!

One thing we learned quickly; this is a big national park. We had a 80 minute drive to the Canyon Village, where we planned to get a map and then head to the trail head for the day’s hike. Before we left however, we knew that we wanted to give a certain someone every opportunity we could to take care of possible trail side incidents. So we gave ourselves time, let the temperature warm up, and then hopped in the truck and started our 80 minute drive toward the canyon area. Today was going to be an incident free day!

One thing we had heard about in advance about Yellowstone was that you need to plan for drives to take a bit longer than normal, both due to the heavy traffic with all of the visitors coming to enjoy the park, but primarily for the wildlife that mostly ignored road signs and designated crossing areas and just did whatever they wanted. They call these unpredictable delays “Bison jams.”

As long as you know this is going to happen, and drive cautiously, especially around corners, it’s just part of the experience.

We still have not seen any awake bears , living moose or wolves, but the baby bison were pretty cute!

We were blown away today but just how beautiful the park is, even on the main roads headed toward the center of the region. Slow, wide, winding rivers curved and meandered through lush green prairies, with steep hillsides and jagged mountains lining the sides of the valleys. We would see fly fishermen in waist high waders on the edge of the river, slowly working their flies over the water, hoping to land the elusive native cutthroat trout. Actually, I don’t know how elusive they are, but there was a picture of one on the Yellowstone map, so I’ll just assume they are elusive. I think people who fish like elusive fish. What fun would it be if they just kind of hopped into the bucket? 🪣 🐠

After a pretty drive with only two or three bison jams, we made it to the visitor center for Canyon Village. By the way, we have yet to see a building in this park that is anything less than well designed, well staffed, clean, organized, with easy parking. They did a great job designing the infrastructure and support buildings and they’ve done a great job keeping everything up. Very impressed.

Ann decided to inspect the bathrooms one more time just to make sure we would have an incident free day. We got a little advice from one of the helpful rangers, picked our hike, and motored a few miles down the road to the trailhead for the hike from Artist’s Point to the end of the trail at Point Sublime. As usual, the map showing the red starting point and the blue ending point is shown below.

Since it is Ann’s birthday, we will let the map speak for itself today as to whether or not it was incident free.

What was really neat about this hike was that it followed the south rim of the absolutely beautiful, but frighteningly deep canyon for about 2 miles. At the very bottom of the canyon was a raging and frothing river, swollen with snow melt and just roaring through the canyon 1000+ feet below our narrow ledge. The trail wound along the edge of the canyon, with most of the trail only a few feet from the very steep descent to the canyon floor far below.

Needless to say, we both stayed as far away from the edge as we could, as neither of us like heights very much. More accurately stated, we are terrified of heights. As long as we did not have to make direct eye contact with the drop off, we were just fine thank you very much. It was a pretty setting and a challenging hike, with very few other people on the trail. It felt like it was just us alone out there for most of the two hours it took us to hike the whole four miles.

By far, our favorite part of the hike was a little side loop recommended by the ranger, which took us about a third of a mile away from the canyon (thankfully) and down to a quiet little lake, where we took a couple pics and then headed back the way we came. It was on this little side loop that a curious little squirrel took an interest in Ann and came in very close to check us out, like he’d never seen a human before. Ann named him “Pepper The Yellowstone Squirrel.” He followed us along the path, hopping from dead tree to dead tree, so we stopped walking to see what he would do. When we stopped, he really laser focused on Ann and came within about a foot of us before the hikers coming up behind us scared him off. We got a couple of really cute shots of him posing for us before he scrambled away. This was Ann’s favorite part of the day. She also swears Pepper The Dog just keeps reincarnating into other critters, to keep up with Ann. 😍

We made it back to the trail head, where there were no facilities of course, and decided to go back to the visitor center to test the facilities again, and then we made the long trek back towards our campground in West Yellowstone.

Along the way, we whipped off the road to a little parking/stopping area and went down to the meandering creek. It felt like “A River Runs Through It” as we listened to the river murmur across long ago worn down granite rocks, churning little whirlpools around sunken logs, and looked over the stony shore of the Yellowstone river bed, looking for nuggets of gold or flint arrowheads. We also watched the other side of the river for large wildlife coming down to get a cool drink, but we must have caught them on break.

Back in the truck, we headed back down to town, where we picked up a cheap pair of binoculars (likely guaranteeing that we would not see anything at a distance, thus we would not need them), and a few grocery items. Back to the camper for a steak dinner, made by Ann for Ann’s birthday, although Ben did turn on the grill!

While grilling, Ben ended up talking to another airstream dude a few doors down. A younger guy with his 10 year old son along for the trip. From Nashville, the were going take it out on a father son three day weekend in east TN, but the son, a few days before they were to leave, said, “Dad, lets go to Yellowstone!”

So, they did.

Two weeks after leaving TN, they were here in Yellowstone, same day we arrived. Mom is flying in tomorrow, and they are continuing on to Bamff, British Columbia, then to the Pacific and down the California coast.

That’s pretty neat that they did that!

While Ben was talking to the dad, Ben noticed some trim hanging down. He just can’t help himself, even on an almost 10,000 mile road-trip he’s still looking for a project. Ben tried to contain himself and tried just giving him some advice as to how to fix it, and it was about then that the dad leapt up out of his chair and excitedly said “Do you know how to do some of maintenance on these? Come inside!” Before you could count to three, Ben was back at our Airstream grabbing his toolbox, rivet gun and our little Dyson stick vacuum. The itch to do a small project was scratched by replacing a handful of rivets that had popped out and fixing a piece of exterior trim with adhesive that had failed as well as a few more exterior rivets, a few fuses were blown, a latch had come unscrewed. The guy was ready to trade it in on a new airstream because he just had no idea what to do. Thanks to Ben, now this guy knows how to fix things.

Ann took the opportunity to check out their airstream, mostly because we are kind of nosy about them, and also because there are just so many configurations, trim levels, and features, and ultimately, we still know very little about these trailers, as we have only had two and they were fifty years apart in technology, so when we have the opportunity to nose around a bit, we do so with gusto!

Knowing this guy’s wife was coming in the morning, Ann showed the guy how to work a Dyson stick and at least vacuum all the crumbs off the floor. Ann and I then took the opportunity to bow out and head back to our home on wheels, where we had an outstanding steak dinner for Ann’s birthday and we called it a night.

The plans for tomorrow are to hit another completely different section of the park, about a 2 to 2.5 hour drive from here, so we already know it is going to be a 4-5 hour driving day, however, without a trailer on the back, and in freaking Yellowstone, we already know it is going to be such a pretty drive with lots of pull offs, that the drive itself will be an adventure, let alone Lamar Valley, home of the large wildlife ranges. Excited!

Oh, we just got the word a few hours ago about conditions being right for us to see the aurora borealis tonight, and since we are out in the middle of nowhere and pretty far north, we have a shot at seeing them tonight and tomorrow night! Will report back if we are able to see them tonight!

We decided to take another shot at the sunrise photo shoot this morning! After a few taps of the old snooze button, we got up, grabbed some coffee, the bear spray, and warm coats, and we stepped out in to the chilly, still, pre-dawn morning. Diesel trucks do not heat up very quickly, so Ann’s seat heater was immediately jammed all the way to the max position, while Ben ran the heat on high to get the frost off of the windshield. The days have been very pleasant here and we are very fortunate, but the overnight and this early morning cold stuff is absolutely BS!

We headed out in to the park for the 25 minute drive to Antelope Flats and Mormon Row, as always, alert for wildlife that may be up and about.

This is a good time to pause and to raise a point of concern that has bothered us all of this last few days.

Honestly, we are frustrated with lack of wildlife around here. We spent the last few months getting mentally psyched up for all of the wildlife we would be surely encountering up here. We were loaded up with bear spray, we have practiced self defense “tall/big” postures to appear as large as possible when facing predators, and we were honestly excited to have an opportunity to see bear with young cubs (at a distance) or moose wandering the side of a serene lake, or even elk, wolves, polecats, whatever, just give us some nature man!

Not sure what the heck kind of a show they are running around here, but all we have seen are ravens, cows, horses, one great blue heron (lost?) and a few caribou that are on the sauce, running down the road all wonky, unable to make a decision. Even the bison or buffalo herds were so far away on the horizon that they may very well have been cows.

So, while still on the miffed side, we were somewhat mollified when we did see a couple of caribou on the way to our photo spot, including crazy aunt Gertrude above and this majestic fuzzy horned buck below. Fun fact, caribou are the same thing as reindeer. We still want to see some bears and moose though!

We got to Mormon Row in time to get set up by the T.A. Moulton barn for the light to brighten and hit the face of the barn as well as the mountains just behind it. By getting set up, I mean Ann waited in the truck that was now nice and warm, and Ben wandered over to where all of the other people were standing around waiting. Many had their professional gear all on tripods and others had expensive DSLR’s in hand with an array of filters mounted and ready, but most of us just had iPhones, which, let’s be honest, have gotten pretty darn good at being cameras.

Once we snagged the barn photo, we headed back to the camper to get ready to pack up and head out.

Destination, Yellowstone National Park!

Another neat thing about this particular area, Yellowstone is due north of Grand Teton, so it was just a right turn in to Grand Teton, and a drive up the beautiful Jackson Hole valley and up to the continental divide again and back down. It was a beautiful, slowish drive all the way up and before you know it, we crossed in to Yellowstone!

We decided to stop at the West Thumb Geyser Basin and check ‘em out!

We parked the airstream in the last open RV spot in the parking lot, hopped out of the truck, and almost immediately nearly bumped a big mama elk, just grazing right there at the edge of the blacktop. The rangers were doing their best to close off walkways and keep the dumb tourists way from the big ole elk, but most of the tourists outsmarted the ranger by foolishly ignoring him and just walking in to get a pic. Dummies.

Here is my pic.

After the elk excitement passed by a few seconds later, we walked down toward the boardwalks built to contain visitors while also guiding them around and through the area, which had many natural hot springs, geysers, and thermal vents, burping jets of steam, water, or just bubbling and simmering along. We hung out in one to warm up a bit but now we just smelled a bit farty and we were warmer but also a bit moist-er, so we took one last glance around the area, saw this it was more of the same everywhere and decided that we were good.

So we left.

Next stop, Old Faithful, which was on the way to our campground in West Yellowstone, just outside of the west entrance to the park.

We pulled in to the massive parking lot area, which had a large section at the back for RV’s and busses, imagine that. Yellowstone gets between 4 – 5 million visitors per year, and most of them stop to see Old Faithful. Figure the park is only accessible half the year, and that’s nearly 30,000 people per day. The place was built for volume.

We parked the airstream just a few spots down from another airstreamer who was also just pulling in, and no sooner did we say hello to them, another one pulled in beside us both. One was a retired couple from Vermont who were full time in their 25’ camper with their two large dogs. I don’t think they ever stopped smiling the whole time we were talking to them. The other was a young couple from Omaha with three or maybe four young girls, all jammed in to a 27’ trailer like ours. They looked happy but exhausted, and we couldn’t blame them!

After leaving off from our new friends that we would never see again, we headed toward the obvious center of the park and the star of the show, Old Faithful!

We traversed wide wide wide sidewalks coming from all directions and all angling toward the bround semi-circle ring of three rows of hard, low seats all arranged around a pile of dirt and rock 100 feet away with a little steam farting out of it steadily.

We paused and stood behind the last row of low seats, as every single seat in the semi circle was taken. Just as many people stood behind these seated folks, with at least 500-600 people arranged around the farting dirt pile. Maybe closer to 1000.

We stood there for maybe two minutes before Ben kind of looked around a bit, took a deep breath and leaned over to me and said, “This is kinda cool, but it mostly sucks, let’s go check out the timber lodge.” And I just started laughing and said “I knew you wouldn’t make it long” and so we wandered around the semi circle towards the edge closest to the lodge. Just as we were slowly backing away from the steaming steamer, it did its eruption thing. The crowd loved it, and we’ll admit, it was pretty neat. Water and steam billowed out and kept squirting higher while steam billowed out in a fan behind it and drifted downwind. Would be really neat to see in the middle of winter, where it would really make a big cloud!

But it just kept going and going, so we decided to beat the rush and we turned around and headed over to the lodge, the largest log structure in the world. It was four floors of awesome rough logs and timbers and it was really well done and very cool. We checked it out for a bit, then swam upstream against the incoming flood of of our fellow Old Faithful observers that we had recently left behind, to exit near the boardwalk leading to a few other geysers. We decided to take a stroll out to see them since we were in the middle of Old Faithful land already.

The boardwalks built by the park service really are top notch. We are talking well anchored, solid 3×10 planks of mostly pine, that are built to withstand a lot of shuffling people. And it was doing its job today. The boardwalks were crammed with tourists, again, just like us, pointing cameras at bubbling and farting water, elbowing each other for either good views or to nudge you out of the way so they can go to the next view, or wrangling tired or rambunctious kids, who have probably been trapped in a bus or a car or a minivan for the last week and have energy to burn, all moving in opposite directions while also trying the get a look at the many thermal features along the boardwalk and railing.

It was nuts.

We decided to get the heck out of there, so we quickly adjourned to the rapidly filling parking lot, where we had a quick lunch in the airstream and then headed to our campsite, about an hour away to the west.

As we departed the Old Faithful area, we passed through many more geyser areas.

I don’t want to be irreverent when it comes to our national parks. Believe me, this is such a unique part of the park, with its geothermal vents and bubbling springs, but I mean, it looks like the inside of a water heater. Kind of chalky, calcium-y, stained, dripping, inhospitable, and smelly.

It doesn’t all have to be tall pine trees and deep ravines with winding rivers and creeks, all watched over sternly by craggy mountaintops, but at the same time, we can appreciate the unique geothermal landscape by leaving it alone to let it fart out its pressure in peace and quiet, not with 30,000 people standing around and oohing and ahhing.

To each their own. For us, we amended our plans for Yellowstone and rather than planning hikes through the geyser basins, we are going to focus on the wildlife in Lamar Valley and the hiking trails by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. With only two full days to explore this massive park, that will give us the opportunity to get a taste of the variety this national park has to offer!

Even on the short, 30 mile drive from Old Faithful to our campsite in West Yellowstone, we encountered three bison jams, with these huge creatures meandering next to and across the narrow road leading through the park, either grazing on the side of the road, slowly meandering through, or even leading their young along the same path.

We made it to the campground, got all set up, grabbed some not so low priced groceries at the local grocery store, and called it a night. Off to explore the park in the morning, on Ann’s 51st birthday, which she insists we don’t celebrate. I think I’ll ask her to make a cake for herself as well just to make her feel special.

Yes. There was another incident.

Before we get to that however, we made a number of promises over the last few days about early morning sunrise pics. We are happy to report that after yesterday’s hike wore us out, we hit the sack early and were able to get up at 4:45 am and head out to Schwabacher Landing for an absolutely beautiful sunrise. It was not quite 40° out, but Ann put a winter coat over her jammies and off we went. We arrived at the spot about ten minutes before sunrise and we were not surprised to see a few hundred of our fellow travelers already in position, waiting for the sun to light up the face of the mountains. What was really neat was how quiet and hushed everyone was. This opportunity to see and photograph a gorgeous sunrise being reflected off majestic mountains above a serene stream was definitely being treated with respect and reverence.

Definitely worth getting up early!

We returned to the Airstream for breakfast and Ann got a bit more rest while Ben caught up on a little bit of board work. At the crack of 10:30 am, we set out for a slightly less ambitious hike, this time, we targeted the Taggart Lake Trail! Trail maps indicated it was a short 3 mile hike with about 400 feet of elevation change. After our big hike the day prior, that seemed about perfect!

We set out with our walking sticks, our camelbaks loaded with water and protein bars, and we were quickly immersed in nature, once again without many people around. We felt like we had the trail to ourselves, once we ditched all the non-hiking tourists at the visitors center. But before we ditched those tourists, we made sure to make fools of ourselves, or at least one of us did. LOL

So, the map below shows the trail we planned to take.

Oh, forgot to show you where we started. See the artfully created red dot on the map below…we left the trailhead and went north, which would ultimately take us on a counter clockwise path, touching Taggert Lake at the Northwest corner of the route. Now supposedly (we say supposedly because so far we haven’t seen an active bear nor a moose in any form except a statue), this hike territory is supposed to be littered with scary animals. The signs all warn us of death or worse (pooping our pants) if we encounter one of these scary critters.

Since you read the title of this post, and you have picked up on the fact that one of us has some occasional tummy issues, you would be correct in assuming that there was yet another incident. And let’s just face facts, one of us will always have a lousy broken pancreas, therefore there will ALWAYS be incidents. Also, one of us is horrified about these issues and one of us laughs hysterically and loves going into detail about the other’s GI challenges. SIGH!

If you’re familiar with the maps that “Mr. TaterTot” has been posting, to mark these incidents, you’ll be able to discern roughly where the incident took place. Yeah, that’s only 1/2 mile in to the hike. Newsflash…Ann has always been a panic pooper, meaning as soon as she’s leaving civilization, her bowels panic and decide that they must empty, one last time. Happens on airplanes and boats too. Okay, it happens in any situation where we’re told we can’t use the bathroom or when there are none. But because we’re a pretty awesome couple and team, we’re both becoming experts in finding suitable spots, enough off the trail and free from dangerous fauna that might be curious or from flora that might be tickley. The National Park Services really should be handing out awards to those that can pull off these incidents flawlessly and with care and concern for nature. If anyone from the NPS is seeing this post, we’d be happy to help with a fitting acronym for the award. We”ll be working diligently on this until we hear from you.

Shew, that was a big tangent. Anyway, we found suitable location was quickly found that met the criteria, although minimally at best, but in a time of crisis, beggars cannot be choosers. In keeping with long established tradition, one of us kept watch, while the other took care of business.

For those of you old enough to remember K-Mart, and specifically the Blue Light Special, you’ll recall that no matter where you were in the store, if that blue light special cart got wheeled to a location in the store and the blue light started slowly spinning, you hustled over to see what the deal was. It drew people in from wherever they happened to be, like moths to the flame, for a chance at 20% off of ladies bloomers, or 30% off toothpaste, or 25% off boy’s Schwinn bikes.

Stay with us for a bit longer. The K-Mart bit is only a half tangent. The connection is that we’re starting to suspect that naughty forest floor poopers activate some kind of beacon or alarm, similar to the “Blue Light Special.” Whatever they’re activating, it’s very effective at attracting hikers. No sooner did Ann, I mean, no sooner did the unnamed pooper get committed to the business at hand, it seemed like the signal went out to every family, group, and wandering solo hiker that happened to be in the area. They appeared out of nowhere, meandering up and down the trail to converge at roughly our location. Talking, hollering at their kids who had run ahead, “Hey! Get back here Tommy! Sally! Let’s set out the blanket and eat lunch here!”

Horrified, we froze, like the prey in the face of the apex predator. We dared not move from our respective guard position and guarded position, lest attention be directed toward us. One family just wouldn’t leave the path in front of our spot. UGH! We finally had to casually wander back toward the trail, not 30 feet away, and become more and more animated as we got closer to the trail, talking about “We thought we saw a rare bitter-toothed, black billed duckmungeon, but alas, it was just a stick. Dang. Oh well, y’all have a nice picnic!” And we headed on our way to less pooped up parts of the trail.

Once the urgent business was out of the way, the balance of the hike was just absolutely beautiful. We went through an area that had burned several years before, and the hush that settled over the trail was both calming and a bit unnerving. No birds, squirrels, or other small animals had ventured back in to the leafless and mostly branchless, densely packed trees.

Now after seeing the pics, don’t you think that if all these crazy scary animals existed here, shouldn’t they be in this setting? But there wasn’t a scary animal that we saw and honestly the only other wildlife we saw were the horseflies swarming around us. After two hours, and four miles, we “pooped” out of the wilderness, and headed back toward the campground to take care of laundry and to get a nap. It was a long day with a very early start.

Tomorrow morning, we pack up and head out towards Yellowstone!

According to Google, at least, but our research hasn’t been very thorough. We think we found proof of this theory in one of the local gift shops though. Ann gets to pick most of the stickers for our Airstream door collection and the Moose sticker is her pick but Ben saw the “I Love Big Tetons” and he just had to have it to prove the boob theory (🙄).

Now, on to regular business and our agenda for the day. As promised, we planned for a 4:45 wake up and sunrise pics of the Mouton barn at Mormon Row!

Didn’t happen lol. We didn’t wake up until almost 6 am, after probably the best night of sleep in a week! No tornados, no thunderstorms, no highways, just dead quiet. There’s a mild threat of bears in our location, but we didn’t even hear them. We slept like the dead and it was fantastic!

After a leisurely breakfast and a little more writing, and let’s be honest, after allowing the temperature outside to at least at reach 50° (which is still highly questionable in terms of appropriateness for exiting the cozy airstream), we suited up in layers, boots, sunscreen, and armed ourselves with water, energy snacks, folded up rain jacket, and of course, bear spray and headed in to the park for a big day of fresh air and incredible scenery!

We did, however, leave our infamous wiener dog, Pepper, to guard the Airstream. She sadly passed away this past March, but as she was in the process of crossing the rainbow bridge, I promised her she’d be coming along with us, in one form or another, as she has on every prior trip. She’s just a little ashy this time.

Our destination, the Jenny Lake Loop, a moderate 7.1 mile hike leading all the way around Jenny Lake. The little dashed line is the trail route. The goal is to start at the visitor center and hike around the whole dang thing. If you’re a big fat cheater, there’s a little pontoon boat ferry that will cut the hike to 2 or 2.5 miles, but we’re neither cheaters or wimps. We planned to hit the whole thing!

We started at the red dot (picture below), expertly photoshopped in as you can tell. Didn’t even use AI!

And went all the way around the lake, back to the red dot.

We saw some interesting critters on our journey. There’s a tie for the two cutest. This is the first time we’ve attempted video in the blog, so we’ll see how we do but it’s so much better in video format.

Critter number one that we saw…

And then shortly after cute critter number one, we ran into a cousin of our dear Pepper, may her soul rest in peace (even though we’re convinced she’s searching HARD for Ann in any animal form she think will get Ann’s attention).

Despite being distracted by cute wildlife, in keeping with tradition, there was an incident. Luckily the incident was FAR from the bear!

We’ll note the location of the incident on the map below:

If you’ll notice, the incident took place as far away from modern facilities and from where we parked, as was possible. Ann was pretty proud to make it this far, but it occurred with little warning, as is common with these types of incidents. At the time, we were hiking on a very steep hillside, with only a narrow path to walk, and steep, heavily vegetated hillsides above and below. There was no stepping off the path, let alone stepping off the path and squatting. A Walmart bag shoved down her pants was a solution Ann seriously considered, but she held on and we pressed on for about 1/4 mile more.

Of course, just as we find a semi-suitable spot, that’s when the isolated trail suddenly became more popular than a drive thru line at Chick-Fil-A. Ben was running interference and holding everything, while Ann quickly and discretely explored some of the local flora just off the trail, and mischief was officially managed. Luckily we didn’t have any observant 5 year olds pointing and asking “Mom, why is that lady sitting in the bushes? Can I go sit in the bushes too?”

With the pressure relieved, we were definitely quick to abandon that area and move on around the lake, which seemed to never end! What was laid out as a 7.1 mile hike, ended up racking up just over 9 miles and it took just under 5 hours to complete the loop. 21,000 steps according to the old Apple Watch. Way more than we intended for a couple of Florida flatlanders on their first hike with real elevation change in at least a year, and we are now two exhausted campers, with zero plans for the rest of the night!

We are still on the quest for an awake-ish bear (no need to be totally awake) and a moose (we’d accept a sleeping moose too), but for now, this bronze moose at the visitor center will have to suffice.

Maybe tomorrow will be the sunrise pics, since we are likely going to be asleep by 8 pm tonight!

About an hour after setting up in Rawlins, supporting the local economy via Walmart, and hogging the laundry facilities (I would do it again in a heartbeat), Ben was checking on the next few steps of the trip, and had an “oh s**t” moment. He realized that he never made a reservation for the RV park at Grand Teton. During the winter months, this area is pretty well closed down, and Ben had emailed and called while they were in hibernation mode, so the reservation was never set.

In a light panic, Ben quickly called the campground. Thankfully, the campground just opened last Friday and they were still slow, so they were able to accommodate us for our original dates.

With a reservation secured, and an FAQ on the website that said in no uncertain terms do not show up before 2 pm, we had a relaxing morning before setting out on the four hour trek.

It was another gorgeous drive from Rawlins to Moran, WY, just outside of Grand Teton National Park. We crossed the continental divide three times somehow? Cell service dropped from 5G to LTE to 3G and then just a bunch of little dots. Good thing there aren’t many turns out here.

We were chased by the weather again today, but it was a halfhearted chase at best. Dark skies, a light sprinkle here and there, and we were through to sunny weather.

At the overlook heading down towards Teton, we stopped off to stretch our legs a bit and get edumacated on some history. Ok, well Ann actually read all the signs someone had carefully created for the rest stop, explaining the history of the area and who explored there. She knows me well and only gave me the ADHD summary and basically told me that people “like” Grizzly Adams settled the area. Turns out, the guy in the picture might have looked like Grizzly Adams, but this is NOT where Grizzly Adams stomped around (I so had Ben convinced of this LOL. If he’d actually taken the time to read the info at the rest area, he would have known who actually stomped around this area but now I’m not gonna tell him). It was not until I was writing this and questioned Ann, that she started giggling uncontrollably, so I did a little googling and found out that Grizzly Adams was a California dude.

This was also the first time in about 8 years that Ann had the opportunity to stand in the snow (I kinda hope it’s my last time and I only did because it was 70°!).

As we got to our campsite, the laws of supply and demand were quite apparent. At the only gas station and convenience store for about 30 miles in either direction, as well as the owner/operator for our little campground, the prices for fuel (diesel at $4.99) and ice ($4 per bag) were shocking but given our lack of options, understandable. But we sure are glad we stocked up back at the old Walmart!

After we got set up, we decided to grab a park map and head in to Glacier for a teaser before the first full day there. We worked our way down to Antelope Flats and Mormon Row, hoping to arrive before sunset. We were late by about a half hour! Next we’ll try to time it for sunrise, but since sunrise is at 5:45 am here, it’s a bit of a long shot (Ugh, Ben is going to kill me with this sunrise crap!).

On our first evening, we saw a huge herd of bison grazing on the far edge of the valley and a great blue heron, effortlessly cruising above a winding river bed, but we did not see the moose and bear that Ann is really seeking (without getting to close, of course)!

On the way back out, we turned the truck around to go back to a bridge crossing a wide, shallow creek. I was able to catch the sunset boiling behind the mountain range and I also grabbed the black and white of the Mormon Row barn (both pics are at the beginning of this post).

Headed back to the airstream for a low key evening and a fresh start at 4:45 am to go catch some sunrise photos (this is Ann laughing).

While we had a beautiful day with David and Katie and Peter, the day before, in Denver and then a quiet late afternoon up in the hills, we knew a fairly major storm front was moving through the area. Of course it was. Cold air temps, non stop drizzling rain, periodic hard rain, and as the temps dipped into the 30’s that evening, stuff that looked suspiciously like sleet, hail, and snow. With weather like that coming down on us, Ann was in for some rough sailing on our final day in Denver. So, it was with limited other options that Sunday was declared an inside day at the Central City campground. Ben fiddled around with indoor maintenance projects that are just an accepted part of traveling across miles of highway in a thin metal tube. Ann ventured outside of the camper exactly once, and then, like Punxsutawny Phil, saw the weather conditions, felt the 40 degree air, and quickly retreated back inside the cozy Airstream with a mildly reproachful glare directed at Ben.  

The nice thing about being in a camper is that if you don’t like the weather around you, you can just pick up and move somewhere else, and that is exactly what we did the next morning. 

The next day dawned with clearer skies but very brisk temps, with 34 degrees showing on the weather app. After an expedited teardown, a brief conversation with Nosey Nora, as Chuck ran through his own teardown procedures next door, we stopped to refill the depleted propane tanks, and headed out towards Rawlins, WY.

We almost made it all the way out of the campground before someone’s tummy signaled distress. So, once again, we stopped, turned on the onboard water pump, and made use of the bathroom that we take with us wherever we go. Not mentioning names of course. Keeping it classy and discrete. As a side note, Ann is loving the grey puffer coat she borrowed from the Noni.

Mission accomplished, we headed back on to I-70 and started the journey north!

We crossed the continental divide at Berthoud Pass at 11,306′. Ann was able to be coaxed out of the warm truck for a photo, and then it was back in for the trek through Colorado by way of Fraser (Winter Park, where Ben and David have skied for years), Granby, and up Colorado 125 through the Arapahoe National Forest. Actually, I just found out that we did the entire 125, from its southern start just outside of Granby, all the way to its northern end, just after it crosses the Wyoming state line.

I told Ann, “Hey this is pretty neat!”

She said “ok”, clearly not impressed.

To which I replied, “Well, how many highways have we driven end to end? It’s not that common. Have you driven I-80 end to end? Noooo. I-40? Noooo. Have you driven I-75 end to end? Noooactuallyyeeeeeesssss. Yes, I guess we did”

I guess it is not as rare as I thought, but I still think its neat.

Anyway, the road was absolutely beautiful, with pine covered rolling hills with surprises around every corner. Unique houses, farm animals, old barns, new barns, and next to us for most of the way, the very rivers and streams that carved the canyon through which we were driving.

And there was nobody on it.

We had no one pressing on us from the back. We weren’t stuck behind Ma and Pa from Kansas going 20 under either. It was just wide open and the only thing that kept taking us to the side of the road was Ann’s gastrointestinal woes. Probably more like WHOAS, if you ask me. But since she’s still in recovery mode from the Denver area, I’ll let it go, for now. Trust me, there will be many more times to make fun of her GI issues, when she finally thaws out.

The most exciting folks we encountered weren’t people at all, but rather it was two mountain goats standing on the white line on the inside of a sharpish curve. We just barely missed them and still stayed in our lane, but it was close. We think they were mid-mountain-goat-coitus and we definitely interrupted the mood. They were just as surprised to see us as we were them.

As we popped out of the top of 125, we headed just about 20 miles east to our home for the evening, Rawlins, WY. Population 8000. Had a very convenient Walmart right close by, so we grabbed a refill on groceries and topped off the fuel, as we knew were soon headed in the National Park land, where things are way more spread out and far more expensive.

Since we got into the campground right at check in time, we were pretty much the first to even be settled in, but we knew many more were coming. We decided to get ahead of the crowd and get started on laundry. Things were getting a bit funky in our little camper, so we were due. We gathered everything up, including the very Duluth Trading gear we had been wearing since we bought it, and we were very reluctantly removing it so we could wear it again later, and hauled it down to the little laundry room.

To be fair, for a little campground, this place had four newish SpeedQueen washers and four newish dryers. It was a nice little setup. After a very intense but also very brief internal debate, Ann bought every quarter the campground had on hand and decided to load three out of the four machines. Just as she got them coined up, started, and tried to sneak out for the 25 minutes the loads would take, in walked Mary from Indiana with an equally large armload. Mary glanced at the three machines in operation, then down at her double armload of wrinkled bloomers, inside-out socks, and wadded up t-shirts, and then finally back up at Ann. AWKWARD! If you’re ever at a campground laundry with Ann, watch your back. And if you’re a sweet little lady from the Midwest, especially watch out. She’ll get you every time and she’s learned how to smile while she’s doing it!

So,

Once laundry was wrapped up, however awkwardly, dinner was done, and we had a few hours before hitting the sack. So, we opened up the windows and turned on the fans, and really hammered some fresh air through the airstream, as it had been mostly closed up since we left Florida due to outside temps and lots of rain. The fresh air, pleasant temps, and very sunny afternoon was great after the complete lock down the day prior.

While the weather was almost perfect that afternoon, we did have a bit of a noisy evening as our specific campsite was situated as legally close to I-80 as it could get. So, when the big semis would roll by headed west into the setting sun, the wind from the fast moving trucks would ruffle our hair. Our site was also directly adjacent to the end of a major drag through town that let people get on to I-80 from there. We are fairly certain that each and every one of the 8000 residents of Rawlins took a turn right next to our campsite that evening, each with varying volumes of stereo systems and taste in music, engine horsepower, deferred brake maintenance, power-steering leaks, and quite a few ineffective or absent exhaust systems. At some point that night, we heard and felt every one of them.

Thankfully, the airstream has a really good fan system and it does a great job drowning out most outside noises. So with that kicked on, we called it a night. On to Grand Teton in the morning!

Our last day in Central City was a disaster for Ann. We woke up shivering to a brisk 34 degree morning. Predictably, Ann disappeared back under the covers as soon as she heard the sleet hitting the Airstream. There were also snowflakes falling, which I didn’t mention because I didn’t feel the need to make matters worse. GAME OVER for Ann today. That leaves me with a decision about what to do with my day. While I was deciding whether to settle into a book or have another cup of coffee (most likely both), I noticed some commotion behind us. Directly behind us, down the hill slightly, is a tent site, which was empty last night. Suddenly I wasn’t bored anymore, because I was intrigued with the poor father setting up the tent there . 

The tent sites at this campground are extremely nice. Generously sized, compacted, smooth, level pads with a single weatherproof outlet close by, a firepit, and a picnic table. They are a short walk from the parking area for tent campers. David and Peter set up camp when we were here a few years ago and the sites were perfect. Close to the bathrooms, sheltered from the wind, and they offer some privacy. 

However, this morning, there was not nearly enough privacy to hide the spectacle of this unfortunate father’s project. 

The morning started with the not so gentle slamming of car doors in the near distance, just out of sight through the dense pine trees. The first up the little hill was Mom and Dad, dragging expensive hard-cased suitcases through the pea gravel trail to the site. The young family, with two daughters and one son, all appearing to be under the edge of ten, lugged all of the suitcases and several large new-looking weatherproof bags to the edge of the tent site. 

The kids immediately split off in different directions, with the girls picking their favorite suitcases upon which to sit and scroll through their phones, plugged in to the single outdoor outlet like umbilical cords, while the boy donned what must have been Dad’s also new-looking large raincoat and proceeded to find good sticks with which to swat objects in the nearby trees and to engage in swordplay with imaginary foes in epic battles. 

Mom must have had tummy issues as she disappeared quickly to the local facilities to take care of business. We can certainly relate. 

This left Dad on his own to set up camp. 

Over the next hour, Ann and I were captivated. 

The unfolding alone was a fairly massive undertaking. Dad poured the contents of the largest bag out on the ground and approximately 200 cubic yards of lightweight blue and grey material slowly and with the faintest of light whispers, slumped out on to the center of the tent site. 

Dad picked what looked like it might be a corner (it was not) and proceeded to drag it toward the edge of the site. The whole wad followed, effectively shifting the position, but not the shape, of the lump of tent towards the edge. 

This was repeated several times, as Dad desperately sought out a side, any side, to start actually unfolding this mess. 

He finally found one side and was able to repeat the process four times, revealing the potential of seeing what the final size of the tent might be. And it was huge. At least 12ftx12ft. 

And it was upside down. 

Flipping it over proved to be easier than the original unfolding, but not by much. With two people, each could have grabbed a corner and walked it backwards toward the other side, then repeated the process with the two other corners. By himself, he had to pick a single corner to drag backwards, and we watched as the tent did not gently and calmly fold back upon itself, rather, it simply revealed yet unseen layers of thin blue and gray material, with no apparent marking or seams to indicate if a true corner was present or if we were looking at a door or a side. Additionally, the opposite corner also pulled along, with the result being a roughly tent shaped pile of material with no defined corners any longer. 

15 laps around the tent pile later, and dad was able to get the corners in the right spots, the right side up, and the door facing the right direction.  

Success! 

But, it was still a two dimensional tent, and tents really need to be three dimensional to be comfortable. 

Out came another bag. This one made odd rattles and muted clanks as he worked to untie the little knot at the top. Once untied, he turned the bag over to dump it in the ground, and while a few tent poles started to slide out, they were all effectively one unit joined by elastic strings down the middle and caught up in each other. After much bag shaking and muttering under his breath, the bag puked out a thick bundle of loosely but at the same time doggedly connected fiberglass sticks. 

The separation of piles of sticks in to smaller piles of sticks, while dad knelt on his knees in the apparently moist gravel by the pad, took another 15 minutes. All it required was a single loop of stubborn elastic to foil the separation attempts, and unwinding the connected 3’ long sticks sometimes ended up re-winding previously separated components. I felt dad’s pain. 

I should mention that at many times throughout this entire ordeal, dad looked over to the kids or to see if mom was back, in order to ask for help with the other end of something, but alas, he was on his own. 

Now that the tent poles were segregated into individual piles, which dad wisely spaced very far apart to avoid a spontaneous re-entanglement, he began the process of identifying the little loops, hooks, Velcro straps, and tunnels in the wispy, square shaped, tent fabric pile. 

He selected a pile of tent poles and began fitting them to one other to form a very long and wobbly single pole. As he carefully threaded one end of the pole in to the selected loop, tunnel, or hook in the tent pile, the forward, inch-worming motion of the beginning of the pole often left the rest of the pole lagging behind, causing separation and no end of reversing course to let the laggard pole sections catch up. 

There were four, tent-width spanning poles to be deployed. Two different lengths. Poor Dad got each one in the wrong place on the tent, leading to a slow motion removal of the poles, which caused the same separation issues as before, but this time, the separated ends were shrouded in tent material loops, forcing dad to try to manipulate the pole sections back together without pinching tent material in between. He was mostly unsuccessful in this approach, but at this point, determination and sheer willpower propelled him forward. 

Finally, after much shifting, re-routing, adjusting, bending, and not a little bit of quiet cursing, the tent stood, proud, strong, and almost ready for its inhabitants. 

Ann observed that they had better get working on the rain fly, as clouds were moving in. 

Sure enough, the first drops started to fall about that time. Mind you, it had been overcast all morning and while not windy, the temperature stood at about 45°. It was not ideal conditions for tent erection. 

As it turns out, the rain fly also had two bags, and also employed dad’s favorite style of tent stakes. So, while the rain misted down and the rest of the family waited in the car, dad wrestled through the same process for the rain fly. With the practice from phase one, you would be justified in thinking that the rain fly would go much faster. You would be incorrect. While simpler in construction, the rain fly had the added complication of needing to be installed on top of the tent, which stood 6-7’ off the ground and spanned about a 14’ square. As dad got one side prepared, we would watch as the partially assembly rain fly would slowly but surely slide off the opposite side of the tent while dad was bending down to assemble posts. He would stand back up to see the fly assembly canted down across the back of the tent, and his shoulders would slump. He would set down the pole or rope or whatever was in his hands, take a deep breath, look skyward for a moment, and then proceed to slide the fly back up in to position so he could finish. 

At long last, the tent was assembled, and magically, the rest of the family appeared and piled in to the tent with the aforementioned suitcases, bags of gear, food, and trailed an extension cord from the tree mounted electrical outlet in to the grand palace of a tent. 

Dad went for a long walk. 

Update: About four hours later, the rain had really picked up, and midday, dad was back out again, this time stretching a separate tarp across the top of the tent, as apparently, the rain fly was not doing its job. I watched this poor fella drag the tarp across one side, just to have it come all the way across and fall to the ground. He finally got it in place and tied it off to a couple of the aspens you see close by, only to see him clothesline himself on a final lap around the tent. At this point, I am ready to invite them all in to the camper to warm up for a bit, except I am pretty sure I just heard the car drive away.

We’ve arrived in the Denver area and it finally feels like we’re starting our scenic adventure. It also felt like one of us had to go potty (this time it was ME, Ann). Pressure changes and all. Ugh. Anyway, we were meeting up with Ben’s brother and our nephew at one of those ginormous park and ride spots to say a quick “hi” as we rolled into town. They hadn’t arrived yet, so I took the opportunity to have a scenic twosie back in the Airstream. As the mission was complete and I was walking back out of the Airstream , a white SUV pulled up and the window went down. The couple in the vehicle identified themselves as a reporter team from the local Denver channel 7 news. Oh geez. Do they know I was pooping not even 45 seconds ago? The weirdest things seem to happen when we pull over for me to poop because next thing we know Ben is being suited up with a mic and the news camera pops out of the backseat of the SUV. Somehow me having a scenic poop got us live on the five o’clock news to talk about traveling through Denver for the Memorial Day holiday. I wanted to tell them the roads, particularly I-70 coming into Denver is poopy, but I kept quiet. I let Ben do all the talking because all I could do was stand there, nervously wondering if they knew I had pooped or if they knew that was my banana peel in the grass, by the passenger side of their vehicle. Ben and I are now in a tie for embarrassing bathroom stories, on this journey.

Once we left the park and ride spot, we kept rolling up into the mountains to Central City, CO. One of us had a slightly wagging tail when we first spotted the snowcapped peaks and one of us did NOT. It can’t seriously be that bad. It’s May, nearly summer, so our expectations are high for decent weather. Of course, what constitutes decent weather is different for both of us. But here were the current weather facts when we arrrived at the campground high above Denver, approaching the continental divide, 20% humidity, 9000 feet of elevation, and 60° temps, dropping down to 43° overnight ((WHAT?)). It didn’t take long to notice that all the SW Florida moisture had been robbed from our bodies, starting with hands and lips. When you’ve lived in Florida for a while, you forget that chapstick is a thing. As you can see, despite feeling a bit dried out, we seem warm and happy on our mountaintop.

This is our campsite at the Denver West KOA campground. We’ve now been here twice, both times in the same spot. It’s a really a high class campground. So classy that if you dial up the front office, they’ll bring you fresh propane tanks, firewood and pizza right to the camper! Lickity-split!

However, one particular issue we didn’t encounter here on our initial visit was a super chatty Chuck or a super nosy Nora from Someplace, Colorado who told you everything about themselves, their kids, their grandkids and every pet they’ve ever owned in the first three minutes of their arrival. It all came out of Nora’s mouth so fast that I didn’t catch anything but their names and for all I know, those are the wrong dang names. Either way, we were so very happy to see whatever their names were tottle into their RV and shut the door, after our initial round of introductions. Finally, we were able to relax a little once they disappeared. We opened the windows in the Airstream to air out the different travel aromas, kicked on some tunes and we started to make dinner. Out of freaking nowhere, Nora’s head pops under the raised glass of our Airstream dining room window and apparently she wasn’t done chatting because we got the “Howdy neighbors” greeting through the screen. Ugh, obviously all campground etiquette is out the window with this woman. One of us likes to cook in just a t-shirt and underwear and this is when things got a little weird. But oh no, it wasn’t weird for Nora. Every trick in the book was tried with this woman, including full out ignoring her, but nothing kept her from finishing her life story. We ended up liking Chuck a lot more than Nora because he came and pulled her away. Thankfully, we were safe for the rest of the evening. The trick is to avoid eye contact haha

Once dinner was cleaned up and additional hyper-local social obligations were avoided, we decided to venture five minutes down the road into Central City. While Central City and neighbor Black Hawk were originally the site of the first gold strike in the region back in 1859, leading to the point where the area was known as the richest square mile on earth, the eventual bust hit the area hard. We quickly learned that there are two main types of businesses in Central City. Weed shops and casinos. Now, yes, on the surface that seems truly exciting, but it was actually depressing. It’s a horrible feeling when you’re a lover of classic slot games with three rolling wheels and all that can be found are slot machines from hell with a bazillion lines, overwhelming electronic beeping and booping, and more buttons in front of you than were mounted in the space shuttle…I swear you need a graphing calculator and an abacus to calculate how much you’re spending per spin. With $100 gone in under five minutes, it wasn’t long before we were back at the campground sneaking back into the Airstream for the evening.

Our first morning was a bit chilly, but manageable as long as we were wearing every piece of warm clothing that we brought, plus the two extra down comforters we had stashed away “in case.” We cooked up some gluten free pancakes and were ready for a day in Denver with family. First we had a quick little detour to Duluth Trading because one of us nearly froze to death last night. A mere $400 later “we” felt we had the necessary gear to make it through the blustery 40° temperatures. Plus we felt we had done our part to stimulate the local economy.

The rest of our day was spent having fun while visiting with David, Katie and Super Toothless Peter. They always have great restaurants to introduce us to and different projects we can have fun with. As a result, Ben got a sweet origami samurai hat that fit nothing on his body lol. Always fun visiting family along our journeys!