HELLO AGAIN! October 21, 2018 I have had so many difficulties with no functioning WIFI, no strong internet or phone connections, and a serious problem making my pictures stay in the blog that I am woefully behind. You can see from the picture, if it shows up, that we have just been to Crater Lake and are alive and well somewhere in Oregon.I hope to resolve some of these problems in the near future and share some of our adventures. Sometimes it seems the choice is either take a break from the adventures and try to post or enjoy the adventures as they come.So here’s to adventures first, post later!! I see the picture did not appear. Rats!!!

DAY 5, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

It was a cloudy morning after the storm yesterday.  Mark made us his famous biscuits and gravy, and then the guys dropped me off at McDonald’s for an hour so I could try to post.  I am not incredibly tech savvy—-about average or better for a person of my maturity and hair color!!  I had a dickens of a time trying to post photographs on the page.  After inflicting my woes upon our son Cameron who is an IT guru, I decided I will take him up on his offer to help me with the the photo insertions.  If there is a blank spot in the middle or end of a post, Cameron will be able to fill it in, I hope.

We did in fact move some items out of Mark’s trailer and then left at 3:15 to go out to the “Slippery Ann” site in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge to watch the elk bugling.  The refuge lies north and east of Lewistown, and it took about an hour and a half to reach there.  There is no traffic at all on this stretch of Big Sky Montana and even ranch houses are few and far between.  The sun was still out; the landscape consisted of plains, fields, ranches, streams, and occasional buttes.  The wildlife refuge is located in the “Missouri Breaks” area of the state where the Missouri River meanders through small valleys and plains, and the landscape changes to reflect the presence of water:  willows. and other deciduous trees lining the riverbanks with splashes of autumn color. I had asked Mark if we would be walking far, but he said no walking at all.  We rounded a bend in the dirt road and saw signs for “Slippery Ann” and “No Hunting Viewing Only.” By the way, we had not spotted a single elk up to this point on our way in (It turns out that elks have learned to read—-who knew?). As we approached the viewing area, the road was lined bumper to bumper with cars and pickups——People with lawn chairs and drinks.  On the small hill above were campers of all kinds and the smell of barbecuing was everywhere. Out in the middle of nowhere is this hotbed of activity. People were respectful toward other viewers and the elk,and spoke in hushed tones.

                                

And then we saw all the elk.  We estimated there were 15 to 20 bulls tending to their harems of cows and the calves.  There were possibly ten more bulls in the trees beyond bugling most ferociously, but not bold enough to fight the older and larger bulls. In the late afternoon autumn their coats looked especially rich and they were all really good looking. The closest groups were about 100 feet away between the road and the trees and the farthest way were up to 500 feet and hidden for the most part in the trees. 

The bulls paced back and forth bugling and whistling as a warning to other bulls not to encroach on their cows. They also rounded up any cows who might have wandered out of their protection area. 

The bugling was loud and intense a few times, but no actual contact occurred. There was quite a bit of posturing and bullying going on.  The sound of an elk bugling is a very distinct noise—-loud and sometimes prolonged.  JL thinks the sound of elk bugling and the sound of a loon on a lake at night are the most dramatic because they not only express emotion but elicit a response from those who listen.  We enjoyed every minute of this experience and felt blessed to have been so close to this impressive animals

DAY 4. SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

     We stayed in Cody last night without doing any sightseeing;  we just needed a place to stay with full hookups since we didn’t know what awaited us in Montana. First thing we noticed as we enter the state is that there are casinos in every little town.  Bridger, for example, is a very small town but has three casinos including Honest Tom’s which is an inviting name if gambling seems like a rigged deal! However, do not think of Harrah’s, or Isle of Capri—-no, no, these are mostly hole in the wall places attached to a cafe or convenience store and having a few slot machines and maybe KENO or something.

     After driving in pouring rain for a few hours, we arrived at our friend Mark’s place in Lewistown, Montana, at about 4p.m.  He recently (last week) bought a property with a modular unit on it plus another peculiar structure that had been moved onto the property many years ago. He is hoping JL will come next spring and help him build a new small home where the modular now stands.  We parked on his two acre lot and have electricity at least.  He has no WIFI, but the McDonalds does, of course.  Lewistown has about 6,000 inhabitants and is the geographical center of Montana. This part of the country is big on Lewis and Clark and their trials and tribulations as they sought the Northwest passage. The town has one Albertson’s, one Shopko, and a golf course among other enterprises. It also has a brewery where we had dinner: Big Springs Brewery. No matter how far a community is from the beaten path, it seems always to have a brewery and we like to show our appreciation for that!! We have known Mark since university days, and indeed, he was best man at our wedding some 45 years ago. It was good to catch up.

     

DAY 3, SEPTEMBER 23,2018

We rose early and moved truck to nearby hill (previously used by skeet shooters) to photograph sunrise on the Grand Tetons—-a quintessential picture to be sure.  Sunrise for Jackson was reportedly at 7:10 a.m. but Jackson sits deep in a valley so when sunrise will hit the Tetons is a debatable issue.  At any rate, smoke and clouds denied us a great photo, but we were able to commune with nature and the chilly fall air for about an hour.

We breezed through Jackson and continued up into Bridger-Teton National Park where traffic was still tolerable, but increasing.

The entrance to Yellowstone National Park is directly after the exit to Bridger-Teton, so travelers are hit with 2 $35 passes in the same day (unless someone in the vehicle is old enough to have the Senior Pass!)  Yellowstone——-the land of geysers, mountains, bears, bison, moose, elk, and a stream of traffic that is unbelievable accompanied by road construction! We managed to drive straight through with only one “almost-got-killed” incident.  Drivers just cannot look at geysers, mountains, bears, bison, moose, elk, and oncoming traffic at the same time!  We have been to both Parks before, so driving through was no problem.

On our way out of Yellowstone, we were rewarded with the sight of three grizzly bears on the opposite side of the river that ran parallel to the road, appearing one at a time from behind the trees!!

                                                   

All in all, we saw geysers, mountains,elk, bears and traffic—five out of seven works for me.

DAY 2, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018

It was unexpectedly chilly this morning at 33 degrees.  Another blue sky day awaited us though it was actually still dark when we started readying to leave.  I heard JL carrying on a one-sided (from my hearing) conversation outside while he was unhooking the water.  When he came back in he told he encountered the camp cat who had jumped up on his back to see what JL was bent over doing.  I must say his measured tone of voice with the cat was much, much less restrained than I would have had the cat come over my shoulder!

About 8:30 we entered Wyoming where the landscape changed from flat prairie to cliffs (also known as escarpments) and mesas. I mention escarpments because cliffs are called that in several countries we have visited, and it’s so much more intriguing than “cliff!” We crossed the Contintental Divide which we will do a few more times I imagine.  Antelope everywhere, alive, dead on roadside, dithering on side road wanting to cross at any unexpected moment.  JL remarked, “After we see 4,328 antelope, it becomes less and less interesting!” We also saw a badger on the highway—-alive at the moment, but after we passed he became like Schroedinger’s cat:  Is he alive, is he dead?

Miles and miles of prairie—-prairie punctuated with sagebrush, antelope, and oil storage tanks. I saw this sign that said that there are 17 kinds of sagebrush in Wyoming!  Who knew! Sagebrush is vital to the antelope and other mammals of the desert prairie as a marker informed me.

We  were on the Overland trail as it turns out,and it made me think about how travel has changed between my generation and  past generations.  I am traveling with an IPhone which has instant reception and internet access frequently(if there is a signal!) and an Ipad.  I have everything in my self-contained little camper and Siri to tell me when  and where to turn to reach my destination.  My mother-in-law traveled from Missouri to Colorado in the 1930s or so in a covered wagon type vehicle.  Now in the 1930s there were telephones, cars, gas stations, and other modern conveniences.  However, my mother-in-law’s brother had been killed in a car accident, and her father had had decided(mandated) they would not travel by car anymore. (I know, you are thinking take a train, but that is expensive, and a family cannot move its belongings that way.) So they crossed the Great American Prairie in a wagon——I cannot even imagine the patience, fortitude, and foresight that called for.  No way to check on those left behind and to tell them the progress made, no way to have speedy access to health or transportation problems, and no way to escape the weather conditions that might beset you.  I often wish I had talked to her about that trip, but it never seemed to fit into the conversation.  She was a strong woman with many talents and I wonder if that trip as a teenager didn’t mold her in part.

Back in Wyoming, forest fires were breaking out along our route and we saw more helicopters with waters buckets flying over.  Smoke began filling the air even in the truck and we saw plumes from three separate locations.

 The smoke dissipated a bit as we drove through Jackson WY, and on to our campsite at Curtis Canyon Campground (National Forest Service Campground with no hookups), but a fantastic view of the Grand Tetons just a few steps from our campsite.

                                                            

                                        
      Our elderly camp host had quite a black eye when she opened her camper door and seemed to be confused most of the time, but other than that the afternoon and evening were quite calm aside from the 10 year old boy in the next campsite continuously blowing his elk bugle and the skeet shooters on the nearby hilltop!

NOTE:  We did not hear anymore about the fire since leaving Wyoming.

DAY 1, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Off we go at 9:20a.m., ready or not!  We planned just a five hour trip to Craig, Colorado, over the mountain from our hometown of Loveland.  The week was exhausting and filled with unexpected complications, and so a shorter drive is great.  Cloudless blue skies with occasional views of forest fire smoke were with us all day.We crossed two mountain passes: Cameron Pass over 10,000 feet and Rabbit Ears Pass at 9,426 feet. The autumn colors changed dramatically as we reached higher elevations.  Aspen trees came in such beautiful shades of golden yellow, orange, and red and are framed by tall evergreens on every side. At mile marker 51 my first crippling charlie horse hit my right leg; it was so painful JL had to pullover so I could walk it off on the side of the mountain road.  Sometimes the human body has no mercy on its aging occupant. Twenty miles up the road and the left leg was not to be outdone.  Fortunately, we were stopping the Moose Center anyway so that worked out.  We never see moose there but they usually have bird feeders out, and we see Steller jays, pine siskins, pine grosbeaks, and hummingbirds. Today we were later in the day and really saw very little.

Colorado mountain passes have dramatic climbs up and down and sometimes take out-of-staters by surprise.  Imagine one is trying to descend without burning up the brakes and this large sign appears on the right and then again and again with decreasing  distance.  

The yellow lights flash ominously, and driver and passengers wonder if the term “truck” includes pickup trucks with heavy campers. Finally the dreaded(or lifesaving) ramp appears. 

                                 

The truck occupants exhale a great sigh of relief at having avoided such a calamity, and just as the driver tries to pry his locked fingers from the steering wheel, the entire  sign process starts again!

     At the top of one of the passes a Chinook helicopter flies over carrying a huge bucket of water headed for a fire nearby.  So many fires this year and so little rain in some the places.

At the bottom of Rabbit Ears pass we are met with beautiful ranch country as we head into Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  Steamboat is a resort town with great outdoor activities in every season from skiing to river rafting, hiking, and biking as well as a hot springs.  It used to be quaint and nestled in the foothills in the valley.  Now it is sprawling everywhere like so much of Colorado.  Skiing and the hot springs brought this little town from a hidden treasure to a commercial hotspot. We arrive in Craig for an overnight at the KOA Journey campground which had full hookups, meaning electric, water and sewer.  Just a bit of comfort before continuing.

  HOW IT ALL BEGAN

  Sept 20, 2018

     My husband JL and I are starting a great overland adventure.  When asked this week where he was taking our cabover camper pickup, he told the young clerk at the propane dealer, “The United States of America.”  I sure she saw him as an old guy who probably shouldn’t be driving this rig around town, much less traveling. He then gave a more expanded answer that we would be traveling across the country over several periods of time trying to see most, if not all, the states.

     So to back up a bit:

     In the beginning JL thought it would be grand  to take a 365 day trip all around the country in our camper.  Now a cabover camper is a self-contained camper that fits in the bed of a pickup (in our case a pickup with a long bed) with an extension over the cab for the bed.  In its compactness it contains a gas range,a small refrigerator/freezer, a microwave, a bathroom with shower and toilet, a queen bed, air conditioning and heating unit, and one slide out for dining!  That is quite an engineering and design accomplishment and would be considered “glamping” by those used to tenting.

                                       
 Back to the beginning again:

   

As a mother and “Granna” who has done quite a bit of Grannacare over the past nine years and with the the youngest grandchild at the adorable (most of the time) age of 3, I did not immediately take to the idea of leaving for a year.  So I offered him a compromise: Make the trip in 4-5 two to three month loops over the next 18-24 months.  It would still be the magic number of 365 days, but we could come home for a month or two between legs .  So began our adventure.

     One would think that a year would be more than enough time to research and plan such a set of trips; life, however, has a way of interrupting planning, and the tyranny of the urgent almost always triumphs.  We set general goals, but our planning became more “flexible.” Factoring in birding migration seasons, anticipated weather conditions, forest fires in the Northwest and California, and national and state parks and wildlife refuges, we planned the first leg through the Northwest and California Redwoods for September 21-November 19 (+/-). Family and volunteer commitments shifted the dates back and forward with almost windlike randomness, so we decided to be more free-spirited and are leaving with only one KOA reservation for the first night and two stays on properties of friends.  We have ideas of campgrounds, but we are unfettered, as it were, and maybe at the mercy of strangers and the ubiquitous Wal-Mart parking lots. 

     I tried writing a blog few years ago about birding adventures, but I quit after three posts. I’ll try to do better this time, but internet access will be quite spotty since we will be in the woods much of the time.  Postings will not be regular, but do not panic if a few days pass between posts.