6/02/2018 – What we learned. (home)
We lost a Tilley hat, an earring, a towel, my sunglasses were driven over, repaired the alternator.. twice. Spent all but one night sleeping in the van amid dog food, dogs, cameras and birds. Put about 10k miles on the van. Burned through almost 12G of phone data – Going on airplane mode for the rest of the month. Only one dog got ill. (Though that was enough.) The birds seemed pretty happy to be riding along and come down and beg for chicken or egg. (That doesn’t really seem right.)
The dog watering dish was a real plus, the dogs only knocked it over once. The humans at least twice and only stuffed one thing in there over the 30 days. The packing blanket over the bed worked really well too. It was mostly fluff proof, in that the dogs couldn’t dig under it to find our bedding, esp if there were suitcases and bags holding it down. Next time we are upgrading the radio, I had found a list of all the NPR stations, that was pretty cool. I had bought a Bluetooth Cassette adapter, it worked but had little volume, didn’t last very long on a charge and not very good sound quality. Creating a coffee ready container meant I could get one box out with out disturbing Uwe and all the dogs. Never once did we lock the van over night. I guess we thought that there would be a lot of racket if someone tried to open the door. The dogs are extraordinarily happy to be off the leash and out of the harness running in our woods.
5/ 5 / 2018 – The start of that long journey, Milton dam campground.
It took a bit a longer then the initial plan, but we are on the way. California here we come!
Our first night, we are in TN Milton Hill Dam campground. It drizzled a tiny bit on us and we have gone to hide in the van. There isn’t any electricy but we aren’t ready to use our big battery yet. Camp ground was labeled “green”. Had hydroelectric power, solar and wind fueling the lights.
5/07/2018 Murfreesboro TN.
Sitting in the shade at the camp site while Uwe bakes in the heat of the mine. It is be supposed to be 89 today. Much too hot to leave the dogs in the car even in the shade. Even the birds are outside. But there is a breeze so it is ok. Yesterday we drove though Nashville
then down through Memphis. We couldn’t wait on the BBQ and got ours early. While it was warm during the day the night was pleasant.
There is a boat marina feel to the RV world watching them come into their “slip” is as entertaining as watching boats catch a mooring. Last time we were here there were mostly young families, this time there are mostly retirees. And they seem to want some sort of camaraderie. It will be a whole new learning curve.
5/09/2018 South Llano River State Park
We spent last night at South Llano River State Park. An excellent place to do birding. (And a dark sky site.) There are several hundred species that migrate through and home to a large flock of turkeys. Uwe saw his first Painted Buntings and a super rare Painted Bunting/Varied Bunting hybrid. I saw a Caracara driving in. The dogs were excited to see their first armadillo. There were multiples of them snuffling around, digging little holes, immune to the humans, but can run pretty fast when a dog takes an interest. (And rattlesnakes, but we didn’t see the one others saw.)
We had wanted to see the Texas Hill country, avoid some of the heat and the big flat area by the pan handle.
TX Hill Country
It had rolling hills covered in scrub bushes, little flowers, blanket flowers, large ranches but was one big Verizon dead zone. Good thing the GPS on the phone worked, last paper map I had ended up being decoupaged.
Today we are driving to a park near Santa Fe. We found that big flat we had wanted to avoid. We drove past areas full of large clusters of windmills that were in the same area as the little oil pumps.
We figure that van life is getting us prepped for boat life. Every thing had to be well placed and thought out like a big Tetris puzzle. Our improvements have been, taking out the center seats, adding a little built in table. Though the table is currently the bird cage stand. ( You know, nobody had come and asked about them. First bird enthusiast gets them, cage and be all) We found a snapware dish that can open half the top, and fits in the side door well. Great for multiple dogs and has only been knocked over outside. The aluminized bubble-pack insulation on the front windows are great for blocking light. We have all the coffee equipment in one tub. I took the insides out of one of the tin perculators and use it to warm the water for my aeropress espresso maker. We switched back to the Coleman single burner propane stove. We had tried to use the Origo alcohol heater, that didn’t get hot enough. Now if I can find a spot for those rock screens.
05/09/2018 – Villanueva NM state Park Swallows by the river.
Drove from the park in TX to a park in New Mexico just south of Santa Fe. It was down in a canyon by the Pecos River. There were Cliff Dwelling Swallows there. When we got there the evening before they were swarming over the river like bats. They were flying in and out of just hanging in the niches of the cliff face. With binoculars you could see their pottery like mud nests that looked like little water pots. There was also evidence of beaver activity. Various trees with the telltale chewed cones. Since the river was not fast moving and beavers carry Giardia, the dogs didn’t get to swim in the river. The skies were really dark, I saw the milky way and a shooting star.
5/10/2018 Lake Abiquiu From Santa Fe
In the morning, at Villanueva park,
We walked along one of the trails with the dogs. Uwe tried to take pictures, we both tried not to get pulled off the edge. Uwe did get pictures of various warblers and swallows. We tried to walk on the trail on the other side of the river, but it rose quickly and the day was getting hot. Maybe not great for walking dogs. We drove from there to Santa Fe, it was only a little ways away. We found a great little Korean/Taco food truck. They looked beautiful. They tasted pretty good too, maybe a little too hot. Found 2 little thrift stores. One had nothing and the second was way over priced. But I didn’t want anything. So we went to REI and picked up some more fuel containers. We also picked up some climbing carabiners and line. We have been tying the dogs on a line to various things. We found that we could put a bowline on each end of the line, slip it through itself and put the carabiner on the dog leash. Makes a quick undo and attach. After we left REI, we got about 2 miles out of town and Uwe said that the van battery light was on. We were right at an exit so we got off. Restarted the car to see if it would reset the light. (been around computers too long.) It didn’t. We started calling around. We actually found a really good place that had the part and fixed it in less than 2 hours. I asked the mechanic if he fixed the squawk behind the drivers seat. He didn’t. The people in the office were really nice and let us bring the dogs into the air conditioning. They were wondering about the squawking coming from the garage. We only went a short way up the road to a camp ground by a reservoir near Abiquiu. The sunset was beautiful.
There were a couple there that had trailered their O’Day sailboat from Michigan. They were going to go sailing the next day (though thinking that with 20-30 mph wind with gusts to 40… they didn’t). We left and drove on up into Colorado. Uwe was concerned that we might not find a space for over the weekend so we drove to Mesa Verde. It is a national park and we bought our year park pass there. It is very high altitude of about 8000 feet. Apparently they are in a drought and the area is really dusty. The wind is blowing hard. We found a pull in with water close by. We used the sun to charge the Renogy house battery so we could heat the birds. They sat out on the table awhile. In the east no one ever asked what that noise was. The further west they are asking and looking around. In the evening Addie saw a deer (?) she made sure everyone knew. That same deer was standing behind our camp – there was explosive barking. :/ The deer left. Kind of a big deer. But not an elk. The dogs hate the leashes and lines since at home in the country they run free. The birds hate being inside the cage. It is an act of contortion sometimes to move around. Everything gets shifted around so we can sleep. BUT the packing blanket from Northern Tool protects our bedding from the really dusty dogs.
05/12/2018 Mesa Verde CO
We spent two nights at the Mesa Verde campground. According to the weather report it was supposed to be really cold there. But that may have been at the top of the mesa. Uwe bought the tour for the balcony house, while he went down into that I waited in the van and watched the critters. We then drove around to the various over looks and saw that the cliff dwelling people, Puebloeans, had made many structures in the cliffs. I had visited there in the 60’s but hadn’t seen that they had built dwellings and walls in all sorts of crevices. It was really interesting to hunt out where they all were in the steep cliffs. There is no surfacee water in the area but in the cliffs there are clay layers that catch ground water and it seeps out. The Puebloeans captured the seeping water so had indoor water supplies! At the camp site, we did see a visiting Mule Deer. The dogs were pretty excited about that!
I got to walk up one of the close trails and take pictures of the camp, and apparently had to get help from passing tourists to find where the down went so I could make it back in time before dark!
05/13/2018 Glen Canyon by Navajo bridge, Marble Canyon
We think it would be really cool to see a CA condor. The raptor guy said they have been spotted by the North end of the grand canyon. So we drove from Mesa Verde through Monument Valley
to a campground just up the hill from the Colorado River. There was a steep wall on one side and an accessible beach on the other. For the first time since the start of the trip the dogs were free to run and swim in the water!
We passed over or went back to the bridge but didn’t see any condors. Very few birds there. I did spot some black vultures.
05/15/2018 – Flagstaff AZ Pine Flats Campground.
Driving on the authentic route 66 in the middle of nowhere desert California North of Needles. We had been on 40 but diverted to a rockshop. It was closed. :/ We stayed last night in Pine flats camp ground in between Flagstaff and Sonoma. It was cool there we were down now in a valley by a stream. There was a natural spring. There was a stone and cement structure with water flowing out of twin pipes 3′ up. There was a continual stream of people stopping to fill vessels with water. Some 5 gallon some cups. It was interesting to see the variety. We could see rough red cliffs through the ponderosa pines. The spring fed into a creek at the bottom of be the hill. There were lupines in the field beyond the creek. Iapetus isn’t feeling well and felt better standing in it. The 12:30 am trip was interesting when she drug me under a bush when I was trying to follow her.
05/16/2018 – San Clemente
The good news is an that Iapetus is acting better. She is eating and drinking again. Must have been that whatever she snarfed up at the pull off at Monument valley.
05/17/2018 – San Clemente
Iapetus is back to being yap-at-us. Everyone loves the chicken and rice she got to eat. Nice views here and the weather is incredibly mild with the coastal breeze. Met Kristen and Patrick for lunch in Oceanside. Then they came out to the campsite for pizza. Patrick had a grand time exploring the tent we brought. Dogs are not allowed most places here, beaches trails, etc. On the 18th we met Kristen and Patrick at the Oceanside Farmers market. A fun little block of local things. We bought some fresh fish, local beef, vegetables and a lemon (For Patrick, who loves them.) Will, Kristen and Patrick came out for a campfire and dinner. We had stayed at San Clemente state beach campground. The first night we stayed near the entrance with a view of the ocean. Lots of dog traffic and a skunk. Lucky Uwe saw it before it had the opportunity to spray the barking dogs. The next night we were further in, nothing exciting, but by the restroom. Flat dusty and small. We moved the next night to the tent area where they had covered picnic tables lots of space, a view of the ocean and close to the restroom. It would have been perfect except for the 50+ 11 year olds on a field trip.
05/18-20/2018 – Morning Oakland (20th Oakland)
We left San Clemente and headed to Oakland on Friday the 18th. The LA traffic was horrible, maybe their typical day traffic, but we made up for it by going up 101 for a ways. Andrew had secured us a camp site at Anthony Cabot park for one night. Prime area for the invasive eucalyptus trees, with not a koala in sight. Andrew and Alicia came out for dinner, Mexican vegetarian leftovers and beer.
On the morning of the 19th we woke up to wild turkeys roaming around the campground. We didn’t let the dogs play. There were about 10 of them. We met Andrew, Alicia and Ramona at a hiking trail, at the Moongate. All the dogs played well together. Though they all wanted to be front, made it interesting to the human that was holding on to them, to keep from face-planting on the trail. After the hike we met at Andrews place in the city. We walked to am Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. Pretty cool, they make a fermented yeast crepe type bread to use to pickup the food. We had left the dogs and birds at Andrews’. They were very happy to see us come back. Andrew tried to let Ramona out to play with Addie. Ramona is bigger than Addie by 10 pounds and several inches. Addie got one play hop and sniff in before Ramona snarled and snapped, then King got involved. Play time was over.
We had been able to get a second spot for the night, we went back to the campground and got out of the wind.
Lost Coast. North of Arcata. 5/21/2018
We are at Patrick’s Point in the best camp site. A drive up to a tiny bridge over a tiny stream, nestled under huge trees. Mammoth cedar trees trying to be redwoods.
Huge fallen trees make a fun place for dogs to play. In a state that generally prohibits dogs anywhere it is a leash free day. They got to run on my favorite beach, Mad River, full of wonderful rocks and be not too many local hippies. Then this campground. Being isolated by trees and the bridge.
Last night we stayed in a RV park. It wasn’t horrible, just very normal. But not the ability to adjust the water temperature and the length of time was a perk too many take for granted.
Our drive yesterday was beautiful. We stopped for the third time in Miranda for grass fed burgers and spent too much time and money at a rockshop by Ferndale.
Today before we got to Patrick’s Point, we shopped a few favorites in Arcata. Limited I went to the Holly Yashi, the hospice thrift and the co-op. We had hit up Wildberries the night before. We also got to play at Mad River Beach, our favorite rock collecting beach.
5/22/2018 – Patrick’s Point to Junction City.
The drive up the coast is always really pretty. We stopped in Port Orford at the Crazy Norwegian for really great fish and chips. Then we walked down to the beach to look for agates. So when we finally found the rock shop, our pockets were already full of rocks. Petrified wood, agates, and jasper.
We will spend several days in Junction City visiting Mom and Bradley’s family.
5/23-26/2018 Junction City OR
Most of the time has been spent visiting relatives. My mom and my brother and his family are here. Went into Eugene a couple of times, checked out the usual thrift stores. This is RV meca here so we looked at some class B’s, none of them would hold a set of sails and seemed really crowded. Kind of like our already paid for van.
We did go to a trail close to the coast, Sweet Creek Falls, took all the dogs. The trail had a lovely stream and waterfalls all the way up the trail.
The Bradley’s enjoyed having dogs for a few days and spoiled them.
5/27/2018 Leaving Portland
Spent the night in Portland with Ruth and Tom. The birds got attention and so did the dogs. We are driving towards Montana.
5/28/2018 Campground Cascade Creek in MT
Primitive camp next to a swollen river. It had a great trail up the side of the hill where there in were wild ladies slipper orchids blooming. It had been a “road” to an ore mine. The “road” was a pretty rough trail for them to move that type of load. We had driven through Idaho and up through Spokane. The gorge was really pretty, we didn’t stop at any of the falls, the parking lots said they were full.
5/27/2018 Devil’s Elbow Helena MT
We had left the campground by Paradise MT and wandered up into Glacier national Park. The main road was still closed due to snow. The lake was beautiful and the streams were flooded due to snow melt. It was beautiful, but there were lots of tourists!!
We stopped outside the park at an overlook for mountain goats. Didn’t see any. Did see a moose and Iapetus got to play in the snow.
5/29/2018 KOA High Timber,MT
Trying a KOA – haven’t been in one of those in years. There are trees and grass and a little stream. Nestled right between two major roads and a train track. But there are showers with adjustable water. Needs become less.
We drove around part of Yellowstone today. There were lots of tourists there, but they had more spots to spread out to. We came in and left out of the North entrance. I had planned to go out the North East entrance, bear teeth pass, but there was one small spot that was closed. The park needs to be explored for several days not several hours. The hot springs are really cool and there are many falls and trails we didn’t stop to see. We did see bison, elk, mule deer and a bear. The vistas were really spectacular.
There was a really great burger shop in the town before Yellowstone. We split a bison burger. Corral Drive in.
We started today by walking up the trails at the camp site to entertain the dogs then going to a mine/rock shop to buy some bags of gravel that might have sapphires in it. There was a big dog there that entertained the dogs (When we got home we screened the gravel and found several pretty gem grade stones!).
5/30/2018 in to North Dakota
The day next has been spent mostly driving East. North Dakota was one of the last of the states we needed to tick off for our 50. There is the Roosevelt National Park which is a mix of badlands and grass lands.
We stopped at a burger place in Miles City, but their burger wasn’t nearly as good as the one by Yellowstone. Paco really loved eating. The birds have been pretty easy going and like to sit on their cage and beg for food.
5/31/2018 Bismarck to Wisconsin.
Spent the night at Bismarck at the General Sibley Park. We stayed in the tent sites. Sort of a general free for all in picking a spot. There were lots of cottonwood trees and nice green grass. So nothing exciting. But the minimal mosquitoes was nice.
Going on today to somewhere in WI.
6/01/2018 Racing out of Wisconsin
I have heard that the state bird of Wisconsin is the mosquito. They decend upon you like fog. We stayed at Black River. We hid in the van. We didn’t eat a real dinner. We fed the dogs inside. The poor short haired dogs were attacked unmercifully. The long haired one just brought hoards in. I have heard it said that the downfall of humanity will be from mosquitoes.
We left as soon as we woke up, taking time to only pull the window screens down. We stopped at a McDonald’s then again at a rest area. The mosquitoes were thick there too!!!
Not stopping again till we get out of the state.
6/02/2018 – The Last day –
Our last night of camping was in the edge of the Appalachian foothills in Ohio at the Tar Hollow State Forest. Out of the way in a wooded area with a stream and a “lake” with a swimming beach. We didn’t have a reservation, but there was plenty of space. After being assigned a space we looked around and asked for a different space. We ended up with one that had “just opened up”. It was by itself next to the stream and by the swimming beach on the lake. Iapetus had a grand time laying in the stream. It did end up drizzling a little bit so we ended up eating a sandwich from the car instead of grilling bratwurst. Anyway, by this point we had gotten pretty tired and not very much inclined to cook.
