Beartooth Scenic Byway Adventure

We have been in the same place just south of Red Lodge, MT for four days.  The weather has been reasonable but not great.  We have had afternoon thunderstorms a couple days, but yesterday was pretty nice.  We have spent the past two afternoons at the historical society in town, digging through genealogy information.   Dianna's great grandfather, Alfred E Flager moved to Red Lodge in about 1889 and opened the Carbon County Mercantile in 1895.  In 1902 he built what was described as one of the finest mansions in Red Lodge.  That house is still there and is now on the National Historic Register.  We went to see it and take photos, and were lucky enough to meet the current owner.  She gave us a full tour of the place.  Dianna was in 7th heaven.

We planned to leave for Billings tomorrow and spend our last day here taking a motorcycle ride over the Beartooth Scenic Byway from Red Lodge to the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park, only about 70 miles away.  The highway has been described as one of the most beautiful routes in the country.

It was about 60 degrees when we started out, but although that is cool we were wearing our cold weather gear since we expected it to get a lot colder.  The West Summit Pass is just a little below 11,000 feet.  There were high clouds that made for hazy sun when we left.  As we headed up the mountains the clouds thickened and it got a lot colder.  By the time we reached the vista point at 9,200 feet it was cold and the sky was threatening.  We figured it was less than 2,000 feet more to the summit so we pushed on.  Soon it began spitting snow, then snowing heavier, and finally it turned to an all out blizzard.  Visibility dropped to only 100 feet or so in places as we crested the summit and started down.  It continued to snow heavily and even began to accumulate on the colder bare spots of ground, although fortunately it did not stick to the road.  If it had we would have stopped immediately since riding on snow or ice is not something to do on a motorcycle.  At times were were riding through tunnels of snow banks higher than a car that reminded me of some of the roads we used to see in Western New York when I was a child.

We finally came to the Top of the World store at about the 9,000 foot level.  We stopped and had some lunch and got something hot to drink.  The thermometer on the post on the porch read 32 degrees.  We talked to the locals and they told us of another route back to Red Lodge.  Dianna did not want to go back over the summit.  Although it was about 60 miles farther, it was much lower.  Rather than continue on to Yellowstone we turned off when we came to the intersection with the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway and took that route back home.  By then the snow had stopped and although it was still cold until we got back down to lower elevations, it was much more comfortable and somewhere along the way the scooter odometer turned 30,000 miles.  On the way we stopped at a bakery and had pie and something hot to drink.

All in all it was quite an adventure, although I think Dianna would probably describe it as an ordeal.  Here is a photo of her when we stopped at the Top of the World store.  Due to the weather conditions we did not take nearly as many photos as we planned, but the rest of the photos we did take are in the gallery.

 

Montana

We visited Big Hole National Battlefield in MT and arrived in Dillon this past Monday afternoon under beautiful, clear skies. It turns out it was the only nice weather we had the entire time we were there.

We scooted to Judy and John's that evening for supper. They truly "killed the fatted calf" for us. They have milk/meat cattle - the ones that look like Oreo cookies!

We had planned to go to Bannock St. Pk. the next day but it rained that day and the next. Bannock is a ghost town but Bannock Days are held there every July and the Vaccaros are quite involved in that event. It would have been a lot of fun to see.

We had the Vaccaros over for a spaghetti dinner the evening before we left. It's a good thing all six children aren't home any longer or we never would have fit! It was great seeing their beautiful log home and visiting with them. It's only the second time since they left CA over 15 years ago that we've seen them.

Arrived in Bozeman Thursday, set up camp and headed to town to begin my genealogy research. My great grandfather, Zachary Taylor Widener, moved his family there in 1903. The Historical Society is right next door to the County Recorder's office so I was able to find out where my ancestors lived and worked and went to school. We then ate at a terrific BBQ restaurant, Famous Dave's, that evening.

Yesterday we moved south of town and camped alongside beautiful Hyalite Creek in Hyalite Canyon. We went back into town where I found more information at the library, Historical Society and Co. Recorder. We took pictures of the three homes the Wideners lived in as well as two commercial buildings my great grandfather had his insurance, real estate and loan company in.

At one of the homes a young man was out front so I asked him if he owned it. He said he was just a boarder but invited us in to see his fourth floor loft. It was so amazing to be in the home my great grandparents and grandparents lived in!!

We also found my dad's birth announcement in the newspaper and my grandfather's picture in the college yearbook. All in all it was a wonderful adventure and I'm so glad I convinced Richard to go the southern route instead of the northern one here in MT.

Today we moved to south of Red Lodge and are camped beside another gorgeous creek, Rock Creek. We will be here a few days as I want to do some research on my grandma Widener. She went to college and taught here. I can't figure out how my grandparents met as they lived 150 miles from each other! It's another of those questions I really wish I had thought to ask when family was still alive.

Next we will travel to Billings, where my grandparents got married, on to Little Big Horn National Battlefield and eventually to Miles City where my grandmother's family lived for awhile before moving to Red Lodge. It's been so meaningful to me to see the places my ancestors lived and worked I can't wait to continue the search.

Nevada and Idaho

Time to catch everyone up on where we have been the past two weeks.  We left California behind after our visit to the Bristle Cone Pine Forest and took the turnoff from US 395 onto US 6 in Bishop, CA.  A sign shortly after the turn notified us that we were on the longest US highway in the country.  The other end of US 6 ends in Cape Cod, MA.

We stopped at Walker Lake and spent two days there.  Walker Lake is a remnant of a lake that once covered much of the Great Basin.  We did some geocaching and visited a museum in nearby Hawthorne.  Hawthorne has the distinction of having the largest Army ammunition depot in the world.  The museum was mostly about the different kinds of bombs and ammunition the Army uses.  Interesting and free.

We then moved on to Winnemucca, NV.  We found a BLM campground in a canyon above town called Water Canyon.  There was a nice stream just behind our trailer and it was a nice place.  Again we did some geocaching, including being the "First to Find" for one cache that had been planted in the area just a few days earlier.  That is our first FTF.  We spent two days there.

Then we moved up to Nampa, ID, a suburb of Boise, and rented a spot in an RV park for the first time since leaving Frazier Park.  We need to do that about once a week so we can do laundry, etc.  We had a nice visit with Robin and Ken both nights we were there.  The second night they took us out to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant with an outdoor patio that overlooked a woodland by the river.  It was very nice.

We then headed north from Boise into the mountains.  We followed the Boise River into the wilderness and climbed up and over, down and around.   The country was beautiful but the going was slow.  We stopped just south of Stanley, ID along the Salmon River where we spent two nights in a forest service campground.  The river was just a few feet from our rig.  It was cold and rainy for the two days we were there, but we enjoyed the stay anyway.

The Salmon River is also known as The River of No Return.  It is a very fast flowing river as it cuts its way down out of the Sawtooth Mountain range.  We followed it to a spot just south of the town of Salmon, ID where we found a large parking area by a boat launch and spent the past three nights.  Saturday we drove into town and visited the Sacajawea Interpretive Center.  Salmon is located where the Lemhi River joins the Salmon river, and Sacajawea was born here in the Lemhi Valley.  She was captured by another tribe when she was 11 or so, and taken to live with them in North Dakota where she was married off to a French trapper.  The following year Lewis and Clark hired the trapper and her to guide them west.  She returned to her village here along the Lemhi as they moved west, and then on to the Pacific Coast, returning with the party to North Dakota.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of information about Lewis and Clark  in the area.  Yesterday we took the scooter and followed the Lemhi River to its headwaters near Gilmore Summit about 60 miles southeast of here.  The valley runs along the foot of the Bitteroot mountains which are still snow capped and beautiful.  We had a great ride, stopping to read all the information signs along the way, and climbing from 3,000 feet to over 7,000 at the summit.

Today we will leave Idaho and move into Montana.  We plan to spend a day or so visiting Dianna's cousin Judy in Dillon, then we will explore more of the areas in Montana we have not seen before.  We still have a month until we pick up Dom in Minneapolis, so we have plenty of time to see things along the way.

Bristlecone Pine Forest

We are on the road again.  We left Frazier Park yesterday and headed up Highway 395 along the back side (east side) of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.  This side is very different from the west side as the mountains rise sharply and it is very dry here.

We stopped in Big Pine and found a campsite in an Inyo County campground.  We have no hookups so we had to run the generator and air conditioner to cool off.  The temperatures are in the high 80's to low 90's so we are finally able to thaw out from our experience in Frazier Park.

Today we drove up to see the Bristlecone Pine forest near the 10,000 foot summit of the White Mountains.  The road was very steep, narrow, twisty and not the best place for a truck like ours, but we made it.  We were concerned that it would be too cold on top for the motorcycle because the road only opened two weeks ago, but it would have been no problem.  There are only a few small patches of snow left.

The Bristlecone Pines were very interesting.  The are the oldest living things on earth and only found in a few remote places in this area.  The trees we saw on our short hike were about 4,000 years old.  The hike to the area where the oldest trees, about 5,000 years old, was still covered with snow according to the sign.  I suspect I would have a difficult time telling the difference.

We took some pictures so if you are interested you can follow the link to Bristle Cone Pine Forest.

Hanging out in Frazier Park

After getting our power and phone situation taken care of we have settled into a routine.  Dianna has spent some time with her folks, taking them to Dr. appointments, etc, but they are now past the latest issues and seem to be settling back down to normal.  We plan to go down there again this weekend to spend Mother's Day.

When the weather has cooperated we have done some hiking and scooting.  Just a couple days ago we hiked up the McGill trail on Mt. Pinos.  We started at 6,200 feet and finally turned back at about the 7,100 foot level when the snow banks became too deep to cross.  It was good exercise and we found a couple geocaches along the way.   We have had three separate overnight snowfalls since arriving here, but they have all melted off the following day, even though the temperatures sometimes did not get out of the 30's.  Other than costing a lot for propane and electric, this has not been a bad place to stay.

We usually travel to Bakersfield to do our shopping.  There is a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Costco on the south end of town, so it is only about 40 miles.  The road is much better than the road south.  We have taken the scooter on those days when the weather is nice.  One day while Dianna was staying overnight at her parents, I rode the scooter down the back way to Ojai.  The roads were all twisty and over a few mountains.  They were perfect scooter roads, and I saw far more motorcycles than cars.

The other thing I wanted to get done before traveling this summer was some repair work on the truck.  It's hard to believe we have already put almost 70,000 miles on it.  It now has 650,000 miles on the odometer.  When we originally purchased it, the ABS system was disabled during the removal of the third axle.  I have also been experiencing some issues with the Jake brake system, so I took it to a Cummins dealer in Bakersfield for the Jake repair, and then up to Fresno to a Volvo dealer for the ABS repair.   I left the truck in Fresno and rode the scooter back, a trip of about 180 miles down highway 99.  We were notified yesterday that it was ready so we drove up to get it.  Dianna called her cousin Carrie and we arranged to meet her in Fresno for dinner.  The girls were very glad to have an opportunity to see each other.  We got home about 9:30 last night.

That's about it.  It's hard to blog when there really isn't much going on.  On cold days we often don't leave the trailer, but we have plenty to keep us busy with internet access, TV and Dianna's crafts.

Our tentative plans are still to leave here about the first of June and head north and east.  Dominic will probably fly to Minneapolis around the first of July to meet us.  We will explore the area around Lake Superior and the UP of Michigan as we make our way toward Boston for Patricia's wedding on August 8.  After that we may head up into Maine, but who knows for sure.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

We made the move to Southern California a little earlier than planned so Dianna could be here when her Dad has some more surgery for skin cancer.  The original plan was to be here the first of April, but we made the move on the 19th of March instead so she could help with pre-op appointments.  Finding a reasonably priced place to stay in Southern California is always a challenge, and since are not spending the summer volunteering at San Onofre this year we had to find a different place.  Our plan is to stay around here until early June, then begin our trip toward the east coast.

After considerable searching we found a mobile home park that looked like it would be a good choice.  It is located in Frazier Park, a mountain community about 45 miles north of Dianna's parents.  It is half as far to her folks house as we were in San Onofre, and the price on a monthly basis is quite reasonable.  The mobile home park itself is located at 5,200 feet in a pretty valley.   We arrived during the early afternoon and finally found a site that had a 50 amp power plug, which our rig requires if we are going to use our heat pumps for heating.  Heat pumps are about three to four times as efficient as using propane or resistance type electric heaters, and we knew we were going to need heat.  What we didn't know is how much.

The mobile home park is actually located between Frazier Park and the little community of Lake of the Woods.  It is only about two miles up the road and 600 feet higher than Frazier Park (whose weather we had been watching and using for planning) but it turns out that because of the bowl it is located in, the night time temperatures are about 10 degrees colder.  The very first night the temperature dropped to 24 and it has been well below freezing every night since!  Daytime temperatures have rarely exceeded 60.

Freezing temperatures cause several issues.   First of all, I can't leave the water line hooked up, so we are having to fill the tank on the trailer and use our own pump.  That's not a big issue, but just a hassle.  Second, our heat pumps only work down to about 34 degrees.  This means that we will have to use a lot of propane to keep warm.  Propane here costs $3.75 a gallon compared to $2.50 a gallon in Yuma and Quartzsite, and we will burn  at least $35 dollars worth a week when the heat pumps can't be used.  Then there's the hassle and cost of taking propane bottles several miles down the road to be filled every few days.  The less often we have to do that, the better.

After plugging the trailer in and firing up the heat pumps, we immediately discovered we had another issue.  The power in our site is very poor.  We have a power monitoring system installed in our rig to check for things like high and low voltage, and for wiring problems.  It immediately became apparent that we had a low voltage problem.  In fact, the voltage was so low that the monitoring system cut the power off so we would not cause damage to our heat pumps.  We had the park electrician check it out, and he did find some problems that improved the power a bit, but not enough.  I think the park is just too old and has wiring that was not sized for today's RV's.

I felt I had no choice but to purchase a special transformer that monitors for low voltage, and automatically steps it up.  These transformers are used by many full time RV'ers because this problem is not that uncommon.  In fact, I already have such a transformer and have used it previously, but it is only a 30 amp model.  We need a 50 amp model for the amount of power we will be using here.  I found one on sale on line, and ordered it Thursday morning.  FedEx delivered it Friday afternoon.  I installed it and problem solved.  Unfortunately, these things are not cheap.  $550 is a lot of money, but still much cheaper than replacing a heat pump with a burned out motor.

Meanwhile, as soon as we arrived we discovered that cell phone service here is almost non-existent.  We were able to connect very briefly at times, and soon found that only those of us on the highest row in the park were even able to do that.  We have had spotty cell service in other locations where we stay, so we decided it was time to do something about it.

I checked with several other RV'ers and learned about external cell phone antenna's and amplifiers.  Sometimes only an external antenna is needed, but usually an amplifier is also required.  And, only certain cell phones have the RF port where an external antenna can be plugged in.  I ordered the best antenna I could find, along with the adapter to attach it to our Motorola RAZR phones.  Fortunately our phones were on the list of those with RF ports.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the RF port is the most delicate and poorly designed of any phone out there.  It is really more of a test port used during manufacture.  After playing with the phone and antenna adapter for several hours it was apparent that it was not going to work, and even when it was attached the signal strength was no better.  After consulting with some experts I came to the conclusion that the only option was to order an amplifier and get different phones.

Yesterday we made the trip to Bakersfield, a little closer than the LA area, and a whole lot easier drive.  It is only about 45 minutes to a shopping area with all the stores we care about, including a Super Wal-Mart and a Costco.  We went to the Verizon store to find new phones.  We were eligible for our "free every two years" phones, but finding phones that met our needs was not easy.  Although we have thought about getting fancy phones, like a Droid, we just can't justify them.  Not only do they cost a lot more to purchase, they also would require us to add data services and increase our monthly cost as well.  While they would be a fun toy, it just does not make sense in our situation, especially when none of them will meet the external antenna support requirement we have.  So, we purchased (got for free) new Samsung flip phones that essentially do nothing different from our RAZR's.  In fact, they are even less capable in some ways.  For example, they do not take videos like our RAZR's did.  Of course, that's something neither of us ever did, but it is a little discouraging getting a new phone that is no better than the one you are replacing.  Also, they will also need new car chargers and Dianna will want a new carrying case.  Oh well, they will meet our needs for communications, and that is the important issue.

So, here we are, sitting in a place where the temperatures will require us to spend far more on heating than we anticipated, where it is too cold to be outside much of the time doing things like geocaching, where we have had to spend $550 for equipment to clean up their electricity, where we have had to replace our cell phones and spend over $350 to make them work, and where when I checked the weather forecast this morning, I discovered we have a winter storm warning for the last half of next week.  Six inches or more of snow is predicted for here!  What have we gotten ourselves into?

Mid Winter Update

There is not a lot going on, but it seems people still want to hear about it.  Surprisingly, time passes quickly here in the desert, and we manage to keep busy.  We have been doing a fair amount of Geocaching, which is fun and good exercise.  We logged 12 caches one day and 11 another.  I think we have over 70 caches now.

We went to Lake Havasu City for my birthday and Valentines Day.  We spent the night in a hotel there and had a nice dinner in a restaurant overlooking London Bridge.  While there we stocked up on groceries at the Super Wal-Mart, and we checked out a boondocking area in a narrow valley just north of town.  It might be a good place to spend a little time, except that the valley is so narrow that our solar panels would not get as much sun as in more open places.  Still, it might work.

Daryl, Gisele and Angela stopped by for a quick visit the afternoon we returned from Lake Havasu City.  We are always happy to have guests, especially when they come bearing gifts of kettle corn!

This past Monday we moved from the desert near Quartzsite to the desert near Imperial Dam.  We are located along the Colorado River about 29 miles north of Yuma and next to the Yuma Proving Ground Army base.  It is nice being closer to a larger city because shopping is definitely more convenient. We also enjoy the ride into town on the scooter since it travels through agricultural fields and date orchards.  Unfortunately, the roads here in this remote section of California have been allowed to decay terribly, and they are all potholed and quite rough.  It does make riding the scooter a lot less enjoyable.  I think we are going to start taking the long way around through Arizona (8 miles further) just to avoid the bad roads.

Yesterday we made our semi-annual trek to Algadones, Mexico to have our dental checkups and cleanings.  We have been to the same dentist three times now, and are pleased with her work.  Cleanings are $25, and that is all each of us required this visit.  If everyone had access to Mexican dentists, dental insurance in the US would cease to exist.

That's about it.  A weekly routine of exploring on the scooter, geocaching, hauling water and waste on laundry day, TV, Internet surfing, hiking and enjoying the temperatures in the low 70's.  We still plan to be here until about the first of April when we will move to the mountains between Los Angeles and Bakersfield.  Probably.