Daily Journal 2017
We stayed parked in Bill & Julie's back yard for a couple of months while I did some work on the trailer. Bill worked on Jack Culp's old trailer, which he is planning on giving to Lisa when completed. In February we traveled to Brooksville, Florida to attend the Tin Can Tourists Rally at Sertoma Youth Ranch.
From there we slowly made our way north, heading to West Yellowstone, Montana as we were taking a job at a retail store there. We did some sightseeing along the way, our first stop being in northern Alabama. We went to see Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport, and the Crooked Creek Civil War Museum in VInemont. One of the things I found very interesting about the Crooked Creek Museum was the evidence of ghosts that still haunted the grounds, as it was a battle field during the civil war. We also visited the Ava Maria Grotto which is known as Jerusalem in Miniature. Brother Joseph Zoetl, a Monk of the Abbey for almost 70 years, is the Monk responsible for constructing the Grotto. We found another fascinating place in western Alabama called Dismal's Canyon. It is designated a National Natural Landmark because of its uncommon, wild rugged character, largely the result of its geological history.
From Alabama, we drove to Branson, Missouri. We are not into the shows or anything, but since there is an OCP Park there, we wanted to check that out. We went to see the Ralph Foster Museum located at the College of the Ozarks.
We made it to the infamous Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought Wall Drug Store in 1931. When they moved here there were 326 people in Wall ~ very poor people, most of them farmers who had been wiped out either by the Depression or drought. We visited Minute Missile National Historic Site and Badlands National Park, and other sights in Rapid City, South Dakota. On our way to Badlands, we drove past the Prairie Homestead, which is the home to white prairie dogs.
There was a lot to see in Rapid City, South Dakota, from Our Founding Fathers exhibit, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Custer State Park. One of our friends who we met while workcamping for Amazon in 2014 we met Linda Clayton. She also made it to Yogi Bear Jellystone in Waller, Texas when we worked there and she was working with us in the Activities Department. It's such a small world to meet up with her in both of these places. She was working in the area and had a pass to the state park, so she was our tour guide on our visit there.
We arrived in West Yellowstone in the middle of May in a bad snowstorm. We could not figure out what campground we were going to be staying in, and ended up going to the Cradleboard to get the manager who took us around to another place for us to stay. We ended up in a great lot next to some cabins. We were the only ones there, FHU with a nice yard. There was no cable or OTA TV stations, but good internet service.
We worked at the Cradleboard for a few weeks and they transferred us to the Moose, which their son ran. We worked until the middle of June when they decided that there was not enough guests coming in and said they did not need us anymore, so they fired us. Oh well. We decided not to look for another job in the area, and ended up traveling through Montana, Washington, Oregon and back to Texas for the rest of the year.
After leaving Sundance RV Park in Coram, Montana we headed to Woodland RV Park in Libby Montana. We did a few things around Libby; the Kootenai Dam and did a tour. Also went to see Kootenai Falls and an old growth cedar forest. Found a high school to let the dogs run loose which also had a paved walkway around the track and into the woods.
From Cheney, we went to Vantage Riverstone in Vantage, Washington. We were right on the river for a few days from July 10-13, 2017. Arrived in Rockport, Washington at Glacier Peak Resort & Eatery. Got a very nice place in the forest section with trees and brush all around us, especially between the sites. Very private and spacious. There is a trail along the Skagit River and a few trails around the back of the park through the woods.
We went to visit North Cascades National Park the other day; Hwy 20 goes right through the park and we drove over 58 miles one way to Washington Pass Overlook and then turned around and came home. Not very impressed with the park; it is just like Glacier National Park – mountains and snow. The river running through it was a beautiful green/blue and cold. There were some beautiful valleys and ravines.
We drove to Westport, a small town on the southern peninsula from Aberdeen. We visited the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, said to be the tallest in Washington. I walked to the top, but Jim did not. I think he could have made it OK, it was not that bad. There were two workampers at the top that told about the lighthouse. Had lunch at Bennett’s Fish Shack – it was good but pretty expensive.
We drove down to the Pacific Ocean and walked there for a short time. Let the dogs loose and Lucy had a great time running up and down the beach. It was very windy and chilly so we did not stay long. I got another picture of us with the ocean in the background.
Changed our Thursday destination from Randle to Castle Rock, which is closer to Mt. St. Helens. The smoke from the fires in Canada have been low and causing a lot of air quality problems for the past week. We left Diamond Point on August 3 and it followed us down to Castle Rock. We went to visit Mt. St. Helens on Friday and could not even see the volcano due to the smoke filling up the canyons. The smoke is supposed to clear out in the next few days, but the air quality is supposed to stay bad through Tuesday.
From Castle Rock, Washington we drove to White Salmon, Washington to Bridge RV Park because I wanted to visit the Columbia Gorge area, which is supposed to be really beautiful. The drive on I-84 was OK until we got to the Hood River Bridge. They were doing work on it and the traffic was backed up something awful. We turned right from the off ramp and then turned around to cross the bridge. We made it almost half way on the bridge and came to a complete stop. The bridge was very narrow and we were not over quite close enough to the guard rail and we watched the traffic coming from the other way. Jim pulled in his mirror and we heard one Class C scrape its side on the guard rail as it went by us. It was very harrowing and horrible. Needless to say we are not taking this way back.
While in Oregon we drove up to Munson Creek Falls, a small park where we had to walk to the falls. We took the dogs (on leashes) and while up there a couple came walking up with their two dogs loose. Jim mentioned to them to keep their dogs away from us since they were loose. They got an attitude and accused us of being in the wrong. Crazy. There were other couples walking with us who agreed with us.
The Oregon coast is very different than what I expected; from huge sand dunes to a rocky coast. I wanted to see Thor’s Well, as I had heard so much about it. We missed the actual spout, but I did get some great pictures of it. We also took a dune buggy ride from a company next door to the campground. That was so much fun; we had a blast.
Burns RV Park was kind of small and there was no place to let the dogs run loose. We only stayed one night because we were still trying to get away from the smoke. I walked the dogs into town of Burns, Oregon and we just walked around town to get our exercise. From Burns we went to Snake River RV Park in Homedale, Idaho, which was west of Boise. We stayed there for a few days to search out the CCC of Arrowrock Dam where Jim’s Dad worked with the CCC in the 1930s. We did not find anything out but did get a few people interested in learning about. We met with a lady who is doing research on the CCC from the Basque Museum. Jim also talked with a lady with the Department of Reclamation who was very interested in Dad’s trunk. We went to the Idaho State Historical Society and looked through a few boxes trying to get some information. I took some pictures of some information, but I don’t think any of it will be worthwhile.
While in Ogden we drove up to Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the first railroads met coming from the east and west. It is in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing around the site. After that we drove down to Antelope Island SP to see the Great Salt Lake. We drove down to see a ranch that used to raise sheep. The ranch just hosts tours now and all over Antelope Island are herds of bison.
In Utah we visited Pipe Springs National Monument, which was a ranch and refuse for the Mormon People.
We stayed in Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah at the Best Western RV Park for a week to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. The park was very nice, backed in with a small creek below where the dogs loved to play. Loved visiting the National Parks, and would like to go back because we did not take the shuttle into Zion, and I would like to see more of Bryce. We decided to go a few miles south to Kanab in order to get some WiFi and be closer to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the Escalante Staircase NM.
On our way out of Kanab we made a quick stop at horseshoe bend in the Snake River. This is a very popular stop and was quite crowded. We pulled in but could not find a place to park and then drove out and were going to just leave, but Jim pulled over onto the side of the road and I walked to the river. It was about a 1 mile walk down there, but I was glad to get some pictures.
January - March 2017
April - June 2017
July - September 2017
October - December 2017
We stayed parked in Bill & Julie's back yard for a couple of months while I did some work on the trailer. Bill worked on Jack Culp's old trailer, which he is planning on giving to Lisa when completed. In February we traveled to Brooksville, Florida to attend the Tin Can Tourists Rally at Sertoma Youth Ranch.
From there we slowly made our way north, heading to West Yellowstone, Montana as we were taking a job at a retail store there. We did some sightseeing along the way, our first stop being in northern Alabama. We went to see Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport, and the Crooked Creek Civil War Museum in VInemont. One of the things I found very interesting about the Crooked Creek Museum was the evidence of ghosts that still haunted the grounds, as it was a battle field during the civil war. We also visited the Ava Maria Grotto which is known as Jerusalem in Miniature. Brother Joseph Zoetl, a Monk of the Abbey for almost 70 years, is the Monk responsible for constructing the Grotto. We found another fascinating place in western Alabama called Dismal's Canyon. It is designated a National Natural Landmark because of its uncommon, wild rugged character, largely the result of its geological history.
From Alabama, we drove to Branson, Missouri. We are not into the shows or anything, but since there is an OCP Park there, we wanted to check that out. We went to see the Ralph Foster Museum located at the College of the Ozarks.
We made it to the infamous Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought Wall Drug Store in 1931. When they moved here there were 326 people in Wall ~ very poor people, most of them farmers who had been wiped out either by the Depression or drought. We visited Minute Missile National Historic Site and Badlands National Park, and other sights in Rapid City, South Dakota. On our way to Badlands, we drove past the Prairie Homestead, which is the home to white prairie dogs.
There was a lot to see in Rapid City, South Dakota, from Our Founding Fathers exhibit, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Custer State Park. One of our friends who we met while workcamping for Amazon in 2014 we met Linda Clayton. She also made it to Yogi Bear Jellystone in Waller, Texas when we worked there and she was working with us in the Activities Department. It's such a small world to meet up with her in both of these places. She was working in the area and had a pass to the state park, so she was our tour guide on our visit there.
We arrived in West Yellowstone in the middle of May in a bad snowstorm. We could not figure out what campground we were going to be staying in, and ended up going to the Cradleboard to get the manager who took us around to another place for us to stay. We ended up in a great lot next to some cabins. We were the only ones there, FHU with a nice yard. There was no cable or OTA TV stations, but good internet service.
We worked at the Cradleboard for a few weeks and they transferred us to the Moose, which their son ran. We worked until the middle of June when they decided that there was not enough guests coming in and said they did not need us anymore, so they fired us. Oh well. We decided not to look for another job in the area, and ended up traveling through Montana, Washington, Oregon and back to Texas for the rest of the year.
After leaving Sundance RV Park in Coram, Montana we headed to Woodland RV Park in Libby Montana. We did a few things around Libby; the Kootenai Dam and did a tour. Also went to see Kootenai Falls and an old growth cedar forest. Found a high school to let the dogs run loose which also had a paved walkway around the track and into the woods.
From Cheney, we went to Vantage Riverstone in Vantage, Washington. We were right on the river for a few days from July 10-13, 2017. Arrived in Rockport, Washington at Glacier Peak Resort & Eatery. Got a very nice place in the forest section with trees and brush all around us, especially between the sites. Very private and spacious. There is a trail along the Skagit River and a few trails around the back of the park through the woods.
We went to visit North Cascades National Park the other day; Hwy 20 goes right through the park and we drove over 58 miles one way to Washington Pass Overlook and then turned around and came home. Not very impressed with the park; it is just like Glacier National Park – mountains and snow. The river running through it was a beautiful green/blue and cold. There were some beautiful valleys and ravines.
We drove to Westport, a small town on the southern peninsula from Aberdeen. We visited the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, said to be the tallest in Washington. I walked to the top, but Jim did not. I think he could have made it OK, it was not that bad. There were two workampers at the top that told about the lighthouse. Had lunch at Bennett’s Fish Shack – it was good but pretty expensive.
We drove down to the Pacific Ocean and walked there for a short time. Let the dogs loose and Lucy had a great time running up and down the beach. It was very windy and chilly so we did not stay long. I got another picture of us with the ocean in the background.
Changed our Thursday destination from Randle to Castle Rock, which is closer to Mt. St. Helens. The smoke from the fires in Canada have been low and causing a lot of air quality problems for the past week. We left Diamond Point on August 3 and it followed us down to Castle Rock. We went to visit Mt. St. Helens on Friday and could not even see the volcano due to the smoke filling up the canyons. The smoke is supposed to clear out in the next few days, but the air quality is supposed to stay bad through Tuesday.
From Castle Rock, Washington we drove to White Salmon, Washington to Bridge RV Park because I wanted to visit the Columbia Gorge area, which is supposed to be really beautiful. The drive on I-84 was OK until we got to the Hood River Bridge. They were doing work on it and the traffic was backed up something awful. We turned right from the off ramp and then turned around to cross the bridge. We made it almost half way on the bridge and came to a complete stop. The bridge was very narrow and we were not over quite close enough to the guard rail and we watched the traffic coming from the other way. Jim pulled in his mirror and we heard one Class C scrape its side on the guard rail as it went by us. It was very harrowing and horrible. Needless to say we are not taking this way back.
While in Oregon we drove up to Munson Creek Falls, a small park where we had to walk to the falls. We took the dogs (on leashes) and while up there a couple came walking up with their two dogs loose. Jim mentioned to them to keep their dogs away from us since they were loose. They got an attitude and accused us of being in the wrong. Crazy. There were other couples walking with us who agreed with us.
The Oregon coast is very different than what I expected; from huge sand dunes to a rocky coast. I wanted to see Thor’s Well, as I had heard so much about it. We missed the actual spout, but I did get some great pictures of it. We also took a dune buggy ride from a company next door to the campground. That was so much fun; we had a blast.
Burns RV Park was kind of small and there was no place to let the dogs run loose. We only stayed one night because we were still trying to get away from the smoke. I walked the dogs into town of Burns, Oregon and we just walked around town to get our exercise. From Burns we went to Snake River RV Park in Homedale, Idaho, which was west of Boise. We stayed there for a few days to search out the CCC of Arrowrock Dam where Jim’s Dad worked with the CCC in the 1930s. We did not find anything out but did get a few people interested in learning about. We met with a lady who is doing research on the CCC from the Basque Museum. Jim also talked with a lady with the Department of Reclamation who was very interested in Dad’s trunk. We went to the Idaho State Historical Society and looked through a few boxes trying to get some information. I took some pictures of some information, but I don’t think any of it will be worthwhile.
While in Ogden we drove up to Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the first railroads met coming from the east and west. It is in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing around the site. After that we drove down to Antelope Island SP to see the Great Salt Lake. We drove down to see a ranch that used to raise sheep. The ranch just hosts tours now and all over Antelope Island are herds of bison.
In Utah we visited Pipe Springs National Monument, which was a ranch and refuse for the Mormon People.
We stayed in Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah at the Best Western RV Park for a week to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. The park was very nice, backed in with a small creek below where the dogs loved to play. Loved visiting the National Parks, and would like to go back because we did not take the shuttle into Zion, and I would like to see more of Bryce. We decided to go a few miles south to Kanab in order to get some WiFi and be closer to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the Escalante Staircase NM.
On our way out of Kanab we made a quick stop at horseshoe bend in the Snake River. This is a very popular stop and was quite crowded. We pulled in but could not find a place to park and then drove out and were going to just leave, but Jim pulled over onto the side of the road and I walked to the river. It was about a 1 mile walk down there, but I was glad to get some pictures.
January - March 2017
April - June 2017
July - September 2017
October - December 2017