June 2019 Read more
  • 49footprints
  • 1countries
  • 17days
  • 177photos
  • 10videos
  • 5.2kmiles
  • Day 8

    Time for laundry

    June 17, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Unfortunately, one of the realities of travel, especially long term travel, is you gotta do laundry.

    Laundromats are the best for quick laundry. The dryers are hot and the washers wash a cycle in 20 minutes. All the clothes are finished at the same time and there's a big table for folding.

    We shouldn't have to do laundry again until we get home.
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  • Day 8

    Huntley City Park

    June 17, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Originally we were supposed to stay at a free campsite called wild horse meadows. Huntley City Park was before the meadows so we turned in to see what it looked like. This campsite was directly on the Rogue River with sites on the river bank itself.

    It was only $15 so we decided to stay there instead. There were showers and a bathhouse plus picnic tables and fire rings. It was very quiet and we enjoyed our time there very much.

    We saw a pair of ospreys as they fished, we saw a bald Eagle, we saw an otter swimming in the river. It seemed to be inhabited by quite a bit of wildlife.

    Dinner was brisket burgers and a bagged salad. The next morning I made coffee, bacon, and scrambled eggs while Redd talked to our camping neighbor about their cross country trip from PA in a small car and a tent.
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  • Day 9

    Bandon, Oregon

    June 18, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    Staying at Bullards Beach tonight. We have a late check in,, so why not eat Dungeness crab and tour the town.

    Tony's Crab Shack has it going on. You walk up to the counter and order. Then you try to find a place to sit. Luckily we snagged a table in the sun. The wind was blowing, but the table was protected behind another counter.

    After lunch we walked around, did some souvenir shopping, stopped into a rum distillery for some tastings and just looked around. Cute little fishing village.

    Most ironic thing? The hot sauce of Tony's is Slap Yo Mama made in Ville Platte lol.

    We took the dogs down to the beach where we got sand blasted due to high winds. Redd went into a cave that would be filled during high tide. Saw some star fish and sea anemones in the tidal pools.

    Checked into Bullards Beach campground in the early afternoon. This is a pretty big campground. I'm talking 100s of spaces. They do have free showers, but you only get 90 seconds at a time to soap up. You have to keep pressing a button to make the water come out.
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  • Day 10

    Traveling again

    June 19, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Decided to leave the OR coast a few days early and skirt Mt. Hood enroute to....YELLOWSTONE! We felt like since were going to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands, it didn't make sense not to at least drive thru YSNP.

    So over IPAs and cranberry/pineapple cider last night, we readjusted our travel route. Thankfully there was some free wifi to take care of business as not only were we travel planning, we were also getting an ac repairman arranged for today. Of course our old ass AC would go out when were on vacation. Stupid home ownership lol. Shout out to my dad who went and met the guys to make the repairs!
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  • Day 10

    Spring Campground

    June 19, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    Since our spur of the moment change of plans required a new campground on our new route, I had to scour all my camping apps to find something good. This campsite is only 5 miles off of I-84 but the paved road is sliding into the Snake River. I don't really want to be Evil Kenevil and jump the river but I might have to.

    We switched back to the mountain time zone about 5 minutes before the exit so it was about 8:30pm when we pulled in. It's a developed campground on BLM land. It has a pit toilet that is really clean, water at the site, a picnic table, and fire pit. All for only $5.00. Plus I had internet for a while.

    Speaking of having internet, I was able to secure a reservation at Canyon Campground in Yellowstone for Friday night. I have no idea how this happened. It's a Friday, in the summer, in YSNP. It was meant to be! Maybe because it's still cold? This morning's temp in Canyon was 31. Good thing we stopped at walmart and bought redd some pants...some skinny pants, I might add. 4 sizes down and slim fit. 😁.

    Idaho tomorrow to a campsite about an hour from the West Gate of Yellowstone.
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  • Day 11

    Idaho, yet another never ending state

    June 20, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    It's very pretty up here. Very agricultural, some feed lots 💩, and that's about it. We've seen plenty of massacre memorial sites. I'm so bored, we've taken to recreating the massacre in dialogue lol.

  • Day 11

    Close...

    June 20, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    Picked this National Forest camping spot about 30 minutes from Yellowstone. Have a mule deer as our neighbor.

    We had a pretty relaxed afternoon at this campsite. No amenities at all and quite a few people camping nearby but not so close they would bother us. Sadly another bag of trash was picked up by me from people trying to burn plastic and leaving their food wrappings all over. Don't people realize that calls bears to the campsite?

    Took a little hike down the NF road. Saw a few more mule deer but Redd was getting nervous because it was starting to look like it was going to snow. We had heard a radio report out of Boise that it was projected to snow that night, but I thought, "How can this be true? The temps are in the 40s". I guess that air temp doesn't matter when you live in high elevation.

    Redd cooked the most delicious dinner on the Blackstone griddle of french green beans and chicken breasts. We had just finished cleaning up when it began to snow. Big, thick, wet flakes of snow. I think it snowed for about an hour. Even stayed on the ground for a while.

    It really was so cold that night. I ended up sleeping in my coat and adding a blanket to the bed. I felt sorry for Chico and let him sleep with us in the bed that night.
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  • Day 12

    West Yellowstone

    June 21, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 34 °F

    I so badly want to open a diner that has great coffee and breakfast here in W. Yellowstone.

    Heading into the park for the day. Cant wait to see the baby bisons!

  • Day 12

    Yellowstone Sidetrip

    June 21, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 36 °F

    After breakfast and coffe in West Yellowstone and getting ice, we pulled into the Yellowstone gate. We decided to buy the annual pass as we thought we'd use it in The Badlands. It was snowing again as we drive into the park. The snow lends a different element to things. It makes it look like a Christmas village.

    There was literally no one on the road. I'm not sure if it was because of cold weather or because it was not yet 9am. It was so glorious.

    We drive up to Old Faithful to check on eruption times. I wanted to try and hyperlapse the eruption at sunset. Sadly either we miscalculated or Old Faithful ran slow or both. As you can see in the photo of us standing at the OF sign, there is no one there. Last year you couldn't even see the sign due to how many people were there.

    As we were leaving OF we saw another cargo trailer conversion. We stopped to talk to the people who were from Lake Tahoe and we toured their rig. Omg it was so nice. The guy was a carpenter by trade so it was professional looking.

    We decided to try to check into Canyon. We were stuck in traffic for at least 2 hours. Not sure why. So we decided to turn around and make a loop of the park and go the back way to Canyon. Got stuck for 1.5 hours in the Geiser Basin. Finally made it out of traffic. We were rewarded with 3 separate bear sightings that afternoon!

    Went down to Slough Creek to see if the golden eagle was on her nest but it looked empty and destroyed. We did see the osprey sitting in her nest in same place as last year plus hundreds of chimney swifts in mud nests behind a thermal feature

    The bison seemed to be up high in Hayden and Lamar. I think the Yellowstone is too high for the babies to cross. I saw only a few few cinnies.

    Heading back to Canyon it began snowing again. We decided to eat at the lodge rather than cook. After dinner we drive an hour to Old Faithful but never saw the eruption. It was 30 degrees and I lost the light to film. But there was absolutely no one there which is a glorious thing.

    Our side trip to Yellowstone was seriously a highlight of this trip. Even though it was cold, I loved the fact that snowed on us for 3 days. I loved how different the park looked and how it kept the crowds down.
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