Sunday, June 28, 2020

Yellowstone or Bust!

Big horn mountains
 I love the mountains.  The way the air smells, the trees, the roads and all the wildlife that you can see.  The Bog Horn mountains hit the mark with beautiful scenery and unpredictable weather.

Abel chilling in the back playing his switch while we drive 

The boys spreading out while we drive 
 The RV really did make the driving part of the road trip easy.  We still had little fights (I mean come on- they are siblings) but compared to any other car trip we have been on, the RV is amazing.  The boys each slept away a good chunk of our road days.  I was able to get them snacks and food when needed, everyone could go the potty when needed- it was great!

 The tunnel- right before Yellowstone National Park! 
We got to the park entrance and it was snowing! 

 On Wednesday morning we arrived at the entrance to Yellowstone.  It was snowing and snowing hard!  We were at an elevation of 10,000 feet!  We were all excited that we finally made it to Yellowstone, but the entrance was closed! The ranger at the entrance said it could be snowing until Saturday.  They were not sure when the entrances would be open?! What?!!!  Now what do we do?  We thought about finding a place close to stay and try again in the morning- but what if its still snowing and we are still in the mountains?  So we decided to head back closer to home- head back to South Dakota.
Boo- we can't get in. 

 Well,  life had another plan for us :)  We started heading back to S.D.  We were about 3 hours East of the Yellowstone entrance- Grey Bull WY, and a check engine light came on!  What the...?  It was a solid engine light.  My dad always said these are the ones to worry about.  We had 1900 miles on the RV.  We attempted to find some one in Grey bull to look at the light- no one would.  We ended up calling roadside assistance.  We had to get towed back to Cody- where someone would look at it.  Cody was a little over an hour back the way we just came!  Aaahh....  we all had to ride in the RV while we got towed.  Scary- the boys thought it was fun.  The tow truck guy drove us right to the KOA in Cody.  The RV was still driving fine but why is the light on?  We didn't want to chance it and drive that distance in-case things got worse.  So back to Cody we go!  I really like Wyoming but I don't think we will ever got out of this state!
 The boys weren't phased by the tow.  They thought the KOA was a nice camp site.  It had full hookups and had  fun kid area at the site.  It had a big play ground, this bouncy thing, a hot tub and pool.  (No we did not go to the pool or hot tub)  Once again I was a little nervous on crowds.  I let the boys play in the bouncy thing and playground.  (trying to not be panicky when I counted more the 6 heads)  They also thought it was great that we got to order a pizza for dinner!  I just couldn't deal with grilling or cooking something this night.  Thank you Hungry Bear Pizza for saving me from cooking.   It was about 6 pm when we arrived at our site.  What a day.  We were on the road for about 4 hours (not including the wait time for the tow truck) and ended up right where we had begun that day!  Man, I couldn't wait to fall asleep that night.  Is there a restart button?

Luckily the next morning we were about to have someone look at it.  It was just a sensor that needed to "be relearned."  He re-set it and we were back on the road by 9 am.  Since we were only 40 minutes away from the entrance we decided to give it another try.  So we headed back on the road towards Yellowstone!  When I posted Yellowstone or bust- I didn't really mean the bust part!  Fingers crossed that the snow has lightened up.  One more time- Yellowstone here we come!

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Strugis, S.D and Cody, Wy

Strugis RV park 
 We went here the night after checking out Mount Rushmore.  It was right downtown Strugis.  The site was clean and easy to find.  I love when we have full hook ups.  Everyone can take a shower and we used the A/C.
Full hook ups are SO nice!  

The boys had to climb up the hill to the sign 


Jenga 
 It was fun to bust out some of our board games.  I love board games but never have time.  RV life :)  gives us time to play games with the boys.
Chess
B and Axel working hard at beating each other 

Went to the Cody Wild Bill museum - it had like 4 museums in one


So many cool guns! 




Ansel loved the belt buckle gun 

The smallest gun! 

Testing stuff out 



Camp site in Cody, Wy
Nice place with full hook up- they even had cable!
We spent two nights in Cody.  It was nice to hang at the campsite, make a big breakfast and explore the town a little

Park at the camp ground 

Got to walk to D.Q. 

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Mount Rushmore

Breakfast in the RV
 Next stop on our road trip was Mount Rushmore.  The roads were crazy curvy and we climbed up and down mountains all the back to Mount Rushmore.  B did a great job driving the RV!  I would not have been daring enough to drive it up and down some of those roads.  I really liked Keystone, a little town on the way.  Some day I'd like to go back and explore the town.  It was way to crowded for my comfort- COVID and all.  We again were asked by someone if we wanted them to take our picture.  Again we stated "No thanks- COVID."  South Dakota didn't seem stressed about the virus or wearing masks.  It was easy to get away from the crowds at Mount Rushmore- we followed trails to the back side of the monument.  The black hills area was super pretty.  The trees and mountains- LOVE!  I would come back to that area and camp. 
Mount Rushmore!



More rock climbing