May 22, 2010 by steve.

First things, we have a reader. Yay! There are very few comments left on the blog, so we often wander if anyone is reading the darn thing. But yesterday we actually got a comment, so thanks.

On the road again, yes we are. After a two week stop in Salt Lake City so that Mr. CurbCrusher could go home and earn some gas money, we headed from SLC up to West Yellowstone, MT. West Yellowstone is located right outside Yellowstone National Park, and is our stop over before venturing the last 60 miles or so to Fishing Bridge campground located inside the park.

The trip was about a 330 mile trip, and was fairly easy driving for most of the day. We started by stopping by a Walmart in Layton, UT to fill up on groceries and try and get the oil changed in the motorhome. We got the groceries, but they did not have the right oil filter, so we’re still running old oil.

We headed up I-15, exited Utah and entered Idaho. As we approached Pocatello, it got a bit snowy. The outside temperature dropped to about 34 and we were driving in the white stuff. This continued for about thirty or forty miles. Little CurbCrusher was fascinated looking at the snow building up on either side of the wipers, and sat in the front seat watching the ice build up and then fall off the windshield. At Idaho Falls, we broke off the interstate, and took US-20 north to West Yellowstone. The last pass before West Yellowstone, Targhee Pass at 7072 feet, was full of snow also. The west side of the pass, there was no snow sticking, and the road was just wet, but on the east side of the pass, the snow was sticking to the road. Cars and trucks were making tracks through the snow. As we came off the pass, there was an upside down Explorer on the westbound side of the road, with a number of people stopped. As we headed further east, we were passed by rescue vehicles responding to the accident.

The driving was surprisingly easy, even with the weather. We just took it easy on the climbs, and the there weren’t really any downhills. I think we are continually climbing up, as Fishing Bridge I believe is another 1000 feet above where we are now. I don’t think we get the challenging downhills until we exit Yellowstone to the east towards Cody. For now, with the current weather forecast, I think just driving to Fishing Bridge is going to be challenging enough, as will trying to drive around and visit stuff in the park if the silly snow keeps on coming down.

We are now camped at the Grizzly RV Park. It is a very nice park with good sized pull-thrus and full hookups. However, we have to disconnect the water at night because of the cold temperatures. A lot of people camp here, and the drive into Yellowstone each day. We’ve decided that we want to be at Fishing Bridge, which is smack in the middle of Yellowstone. That will reduce the driving, but I can see how staying at the Grizzly is attractive. In addition to full hook up, there is cable, and the town of West Yellowstone provides you with a nice place to walk around and visit shop, eat and pass the time. Given my druthers, I think I might would stay here and trek in to the park each day.

Posted in RV Stuff, Travel Review | No Comments »

May 22, 2010 by LadyCC.

CC and I get up early and have breakfast and finish up the preparation for leaving. We are going to stop at the Flying J for more propane and then drive to the Walmart in Layton for an oil change. It is 39 degrees outside. It rained all night and snowed in the mountains. You can’t see the tops of them because the fog/cloud cover is so thick. It will not be a sunny day for a drive, that’s for sure.

We have no problem at the Flying J getting the propane so we mosey on to I-15 to go to Walmart. We get there and park and then go in to tell them we called about an oil change. They had to roll the doors all the way up to get us inside. We go to do our shopping and return to find out that they couldn’t do the oil change after all. They did not have the filter necessary for our RV. So all we can do is hookup and leave after loading our groceries. CC also bought a pool noodle hoping that it will help insulate our water line in Yellowstone at Fishing Bridge.

We get on our way and it does look ugly ahead of us. There are very dark clouds hanging over the mountains and the road is still wet from the rain, but at least it is not raining right now. We make it into Idaho and they actually do have a visitor center in this state. But we pass it up because we have just started on journey. About 20 miles into Idaho we hit sleet. Not what we want to see right now. It is piling up on the front window. PTCC wants to sit in the front so she can see it. It piles up so much from the wipers pushing it and then it falls off the windshield. CC told me it is 36 degrees outside. Yuck.

We go for another hour and then stop at a rest stop to have lunch.

All through Idaho we encounter snow showers and they continue into Montana. Even with them we are making good time so we should be in West Yellowstone around 3 pm.

We are in West Yellowstone now. We gassed up before finding the RV Park. CC had a surveyor ask him a lot of questions while he was gassing up the RV. All about what we planned to do while in town and how long we will be staying. After he is through we head to Yellowstone Grizzly RV and check in. It looks like a nice park with lots of green space. Our site is directly across from the playground like we asked for so PTCC could play if she wants. It is still snowing though so I think it is a little too cold to hang around outside. We set up and then head into town to get gas for the car. It is hard to fuel both the car and RV at the same time because the car has the gas fill on the passengers side which makes it hard to reach with the gas hose. So we check out the town while driving around. We stop at the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center and look through a few gift shops. We then decide we are hungry and eat at a Mexican restaurant. Then we find the Visitors Center that also has a National Park desk for info. The gentleman there said we could pick up PTCC’s Jr Ranger book in the morning before heading into the park. We asked about road closures since it’s been snowing and he gave us a number to call in the morning for the latest closures. We then went to get our gas and come back to the RV park. On the way we saw a bison grazing in town. That makes 2 animal sightings today. I saw a moose eating a tree in the Targhee Forest on the way in but could not get a good picture because of our speed and the snow. Hopefully tomorrow we will see many animals and lots of geysers on our way to our campsite. We finally got our Mi-Fi working so as long as we have Verizon hopefully I will be able to post.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 22, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today is the day that CC comes back to SLC. I check his flight data when I get up and see that his plane left on time to Denver. He said he would call when he gets in there. PTCC sleeps until 9:15 am and then gets up to have breakfast. We finish up some last minute clean up stuff and around 10:45 am CC calls to tell us that he made it to Denver. His plane will land in SLC around 1 pm. We make plans on where to meet and then hang up. PTCC starts working on finishing up her 1^st semester module in Spanish. She takes her mid term and now has only a collaboration to do. She posts that and needs to wait for someone to answer her and then she will be finished. I do some more research on Yellowstone but the wi-fi is acting up again. This has been a nice RV park except for 2 things: how close the RV’s are parked to each other and the crazy wi-fi. It seems to work fine either real late or real early but is very iffy in between.

CC has called to tell us to pick him up and we head to the airport. They only have 2 terminals in SLC so it is very easy to navigate. We get him and make him drive us back to the park. PTCC is already jumping up and down and wanting to swim. So after a quick lunch we all head out to the pool. CC and PTCC jump right in and CC finds out he needs to stay in the deep end because if you pop your head up it is cold outside. The pool temperature is about 90 degrees but the outside air is only in the low 60’s. They play for awhile and then I leave to go back and take a nap. I’m glad PTCC finally has her dad to play with her in the pool. I know it was getting boring being in it by herself.

The weather is going to get worse soon so when they come back we start racking the bikes and picking up the inside so we can go early in the morning. PTCC helps CC make dinner and then we watch some TV and CC goes to bed. He is still on East coast time.I’m so glad we’re going to move tomorrow. SLC is nice but too cold for me, but I know Yellowstone will be colder.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 20, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today is the day to clean the RV thoroughly before we begin the 2^nd half of our trip. PTCC slept until 9:15 am this morning, so we waited until breakfast was finished then got to work. I got to work vacuuming and she got to Windex everything in sight. After changing sheets and towels and cleaning the bath and kitchen. We head to the office so PTCC can work on her WebKinz video that she is creating. Then she swims for awhile. I think she will miss this nice warm pool when we hit Yellowstone this weekend. The weather will be ugly, they are expecting snow showers almost everyday while we will be there.

I really wanted to see Yellowstone in the spring, we have been there before in the winter before PTCC was born.

When watching the news tonight I saw where a girl had fallen off the trail at Timpanagos Cave yesterday (she’s in serious condition) and a ranger was killed today when he slipped off the trail while riding his scooter to the top. It seems we have been there just hours before a lot of news this week. The same day we went to Antelope Island State park several bison were released there because they could not make it to Idaho because of the snow. I’m wondering if those were the ones we saw because when I talked to the people from Panama City they said they did not see any wildlife when they visited. We have traveled through several areas that later that day or the next were on the news. When we went to This Is The Place, the March of Dimes were having a walk that day that was later on the news. Luckily for us we were off I-15 before a huge accident took place where a mid size car ended up under an 18 wheeler when the FedEx driver was cut off and another truck hit the FedEx truck and tipped over. I hope it stays like this for our future travels, I know we don’t need any problems.

The rest of the day was uneventful for us and we finished up the laundry and had dinner, then settled in for the night. CC will be here tomorrow so we will all be together again.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

May 19, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today we shop. PTCC wants to find a tote bag to carry her things in. (I call it a purse but that’s too girly for her). So we go to the Layton Mall to shop at JCP. We don’t find the one she saw online but we look around for other stuff. Eventually we walk into the mall to continue our search. This is a smaller mall about the size of the original Fashion Square in Orlando. We go from store to store looking at whatever she wants. This was probably the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had shopping with her. Usually I get nothing but an attitude when we shop together, something like I’m so out of touch with what’s cool. Eventually she finds some cool tennis shoes, a tote bag and we have lunch at Chick-Fil-A which she has been missing since we left home.

Then we go to Dollar Tree to look for some signs and stuff we’ve run out of, then over to the Walmart that we will have our oil changed at on Saturday before our trek to Yellowstone.

We are both missing CC and can’t wait for him to come back. It’s been weird sitting in one place for so long after traveling 3000 miles in 2 weeks. We have kept busy but I want to move on.

We met a nice couple from Panama City tonight while walking around the park. They full time 8 months of the year and have been here the same amount of time as we have. We talked for awhile about where we are going and doing and what we should see. They’ve been the first people we have talked to except for the managers because no one is around during the day. It seems weird with all these RV’s here and no one is ever home.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 18, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today is all about doing nothing. And we did it well. We got up very late and made pancakes and bacon. Then sat around in our pjs until lunch. The weather was not the greatest since a low was coming through Utah bringing rain showers. PTCC went to the clubhouse to log on WebKinz and print some work for me. Then she came back and spent the rest of the day working on Spanish and watching TV and connecting with her friends. My day was spent reading, napping, and looking up info on Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. Can’t wait to get going again but this day of rest was nice after walking up to Timpanagos Cave yesterday. We spent the evening watching movies and catching up on personal things.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 17, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today is LCC’s birthday and she is going to spend it in a cave.

I got breakfast in bed from PTCC. Only it’s not what you think. She was supposed to set her I-Pod to wake her up but she turned the volume down so when I woke up at 6 am she was still asleep. When I woke her up she got up and brought back some OJ in a bottle and a homemade concoction of granola bars and cereals in a bowl. Then she jumped back into bed and pulled the covers over her head. So I got up and made the coffee and some orange rolls and saw what she had worked on last night. She had strung red mini lights and Happy Birthday banners all over the RV. The table had all my Wildlife WebKinz and gifts from her, CC, and the G’s on it. I opened everything and then ate breakfast. CC called to wish me a Happy Birthday before we left.

By 8:20 am we are on I-15 going to Timpanogos Cave when the G’s call. I can’t talk because traffic is moving so swiftly and I don’t know where I’m going so we will talk to them later. We make it to the cave by 9 am and buy tickets for a cave tour at 10:30am. The brochure says it can take most people about 1.5 hrs to walk the 1.5 miles uphill on the path to the cave. We start out and it immediately becomes a tough uphill walk. The path is paved there are no stairs but it is tough. The trail is marked with ¼, ½ ¾, and end markers. It seems forever till we get to the ¼ mile mark. There is lots of snow on the rocks above the trail. PTCC had snow on her birthday in April and now I get it on mine in May. Will we ever get to warm weather? We stop a few times to take pictures and read the signs on the way. If I knew at the beginning they had a cell phone tour I would have called in to hear what it said but we didn’t notice it until about ½ way up the trail. We finally make it to the top in about 40 minutes and use the last chance bathroom before our tour. We are sweating and will now go into a cave that is 45 degrees. After everyone makes it to the top I notice the Ranger who will lead us. She looks very familiar to me. When I heard her speak I knew I had seen her before. I asked if she taught skiing at Snowbird and she said yes. I asked if her name was Nancy and she said it was. I told her she taught PTCC to ski 7 years ago when we stayed at Snowbird. A very small world it is.

Our tour starts and we get to go inside. We are paired up with a family of 3 generations that were in town for a wedding, a group of about 12 people plus us. The tour is very interesting but I don’t think CC would have liked it because of his size. There were many narrow cuts and low ceilings to get around. The cave runs beneath a fault line so it runs north to south. There were many formations that were beautiful to see. The main attraction is a large stalactite called the heart. They have lit it up with white and then red lights. Back in the 70’s they used to let people touch certain parts of the cave but no more since they have studied what it does to the formations. We finish our tour and get back out in the heat (70 degrees) to thaw out. The walk down is harder on the balls of the feet and my knees. None of the path is level you are always sloping toward the bottom of the valley. We make it to the bottom in 30 minutes and go into the Visitors center so PTCC can finish her Jr Ranger book and get her badge. We watched the movie and looked around in the bookstore. Then we got the picnic stuff from the car and walked a nature trail to the swinging bridge picnic area. This was a really nice lunch area. The American Fork River was gurgling nearby while we ate. It was nice and shady with the walls of the canyon above us and the river below. Miss Nancy had told us that this river had once flowed through the caves. It had to be a really long time ago because the distance between the two are so great now. We walk back to the car after eating and my phone dings signaling a message. I actually have 2-one from my brother and one from my dad, both wishing me happy birthday. I wait to call them back until I get out of traffic. We make it back around 3 pm and PTCC can’t wait to go swimming again. So we pack up and head for the pool where I call everyone back. After talking to my brother, father and the G’s, CC is calling to find out how our day has gone. I told him his package for me had arrived in good condition. He knows what I like. Inside the package was some dark Ghiradelli Chocolate as well as the Duke NCAA Champion T shirt and some new movies to watch.

PTCC is making dinner tonight. She worked up a menu on the computer that was completely in different foreign languages. I got to chose what I wanted to eat from appetizers to entree to 2 separate desserts. I think this has been a great birthday except CC wasn’t able to spend it with us.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 16, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today I let PTCC sleep as late as she wants, so she does until 9am. Yesterday we were considering the idea of going snow skiing at Snowbird. They are open Fri, Sat, Sun until Memorial Day. But after we looked at the price of a ticket ($69) and the cost of boots, skis, and poles. It didn’t add up when I found out they would only be open to 2pm and ½ the mountain was inaccessible. PTCC also thought it might be too icy for her. But it would have been cool to say I skied for my birthday this year.

So instead we decided to go to the Bingham Canyon Mine which is the largest copper mine in the world. It can be seen from outer space.They also mine other minerals but copper is the largest. We get going but Nuvi doesn’t put me on the interstate, instead I’m driving down Redwood Rd which is very industrial and doesn’t feel too good to me. It keeps routing me on these small roads and I wonder if we’ll ever get there. It didn’t help that Nuvi wouldn’t accept the Mine address so I put a generic one in. Well we get to a cross road and I still can’t get the Mine to come up so I call CC to have him Google it for me. He has to call me back since he was actually doing chores. At least I know everything is being taken care of back home. So CC tries to help us get to the Mine and PTCC says he has to say everything just like the Nuvi does. He helps us get to a very desolate looking area that we determine is the mine because the mountain is orange instead of brown. A guard greets us with “$5 per car” instead of “hello”. We have to drive 4 miles straight up the mountain to get to the visitors center. We finally get there and see the big pit. We go into the visitors center and check out the displays. I didn’t know that Kennecott had their hand in so many things in our homes and lives. Almost everything you use on a daily basis has passed through this company somewhere. They also made the Olympic Medals for the 2002 Winter Games. We finish looking at the displays inside and then walk outside to the pit overview. This area used to be a very large mountain. Now it is a mountain in reverse down into the ground. There are people working even on a Sunday. I think I read that it is in operation 24/7 whenever weather permits.

We then go to the gift shop and look around. It was tight because a tour bus had gotten to the Mine just before us so the shop was crowded. We looked around and got a small charm and a copper postcard.

We then had lunch in our car as there was no place to picnic and started back down the mountain. We had let CC go earlier so I was hopeful we could find our way back since we had a definite address to go to. Once again we were routed through odd places on the way back. But we did make it finally.

After putting everything back in the RV we are going to Walmart to pick up our pics from last Monday and get my birthday cheesecake. After shopping I tried Nuvi again and it wanted me to go on a side street when I knew the I-15 would be faster. Then I remembered that I had set it on bicycle yesterday when we went to see the capitol and then walked to Temple Square. So I changed it back to car and it reset and took me on the interstate finally. That’s good because tomorrow we are going to a cave down south and I want to take I-15 South so hopefully this has fixed it.

PTCC goes to the computer area when we get back and I fix some meals for the future and then go to the clubhouse as well. We print my reviews so I can put them in our camping book for future reference. Then PTCC changes and we go out to the pool. As I’m sitting there CC calls for his nightly check in. He tells me that our Sunday School class wanted to call me early this morning and sing “Happy Birthday” to me. Little do they know I planned to be away on purpose so they wouldn’t this year (ha, ha). PTCC has to share the pool with 2 others today. It felt very nice outside even though it was only 72 degrees. The sun felt hot and the water was warm. We enjoyed it until 5:45 pm when the managers tell us the pool closes at 6 pm. So we pack it in and PTCC goes to get her shower while I prepare dinner for us. It will probably be a quiet evening tonight because tomorrow’s my birthday and I’m sure we’ll party all night long.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 15, 2010 by LadyCC.

Today we head out for the Utah State Capitol situated a a very high hill. This is the most beautiful building I have seen in a good long while. The entire building inside and out is marble. It was designed after the US Capitol. After seeing the FL state capitol in TLH this one puts it to shame. The entire building is open to visitors without having to go through security lines to ruin the look. There are wonderful murals of the Mormons moving West painted on the walls and ceiling. Even the elevator was made of marble and glass. After looking around to our fill we depart for the Temple Square. The walk down was nice because it was going down the hill. After 3 blocks we come to a beautiful block with the Temple as its centerpiece and various buildings around the square. The flowers are in bloom, water is running in the fountains, all is right in the world. We look around and go into the South Visitors center and take in how the temple was built. The Mormons put in a lot of backbreaking labor to get it done. We walk across the square and get stopped by some female missionaries that want to tell us all about their religion and the different buildings in the square. We talk for awhile and then move on to the Assembly Hall and then the Tabernacle where the choir sings with an organ that has 11,683 pipes. We move on to the North Visitor center which tells the story of Mormonism through vignettes and statues as well as 2 one hour films. We play around with the family history computers by looking up my mom and my older brother both who died within the last 2 years. They were both in there as well as millions of others going back about 100 years or more. After that we decide we are hungry so we head back to the car which we left at the state capitol. We have to walk at about a 45 degree angle up 3 blocks to get there. Utah is no place for a flatlander like me to drive. We must have gone over at least 4 blind hills today.

I tell PTCC that we will eat when we get to the Olympic Park. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and they were doing road construction so where the GPS wanted me to turn there was no way to do it. So after 3 tries of finding it we gave up and headed to This Is the Place.

It is a state park where it details the journey of the Mormons and the community they built once they were here. We visited several of the buildings that had interpretive speakers in them. We visited a family cabin, shave shop, mercantile, hotel, stable, blacksmith and the schoolhouse. They were having a big March of Dimes event so we were lucky we didn’t get there early because it looked like parking would have been a problem, since cars were parked all over the curbs. We talked to the young lady who was in the schoolhouse for awhile about the settlement and how they grew crops.

After that we decided to give the Olympic Park one more try. PTCC finally saw the cauldron we were looking for. It was just a matter of getting there. After one more go around we finally make it into a parking lot. It looks like the former Olympic Stadium now belongs to University of Utah. The flame stand was there but there was no flame or water running down it. And the Olympic Arch looked kind of sad as well when it’s not turned on. Hopefully the University lights them up for their games in the stadium. PTCC and I went into the building and saw a short movie about the 2002 Winter Olympics and then walked around and looked at the displays in the lobby. After that we decided we’d had enough for today and went home. Our Nuvi took us down this very industrial path to get us back to Redwood Rd. I really thought we were being lead down a wrong path but it worked out in the end. Stopped in the office to check to see if my birthday package had arrived, but not yet. I will have to wait until Monday it seems.

PTCC couldn’t wait to get to the office to play on the computers so LCC took a short nap and then went to the office to see if PTCC wanted to swim. The temperature is still around the mid 60’s but the sun is shining so it seems hot if you are out of the wind. So I sat near the pool while PTCC swum and then we came back to fix dinner and end our evening.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

May 14, 2010 by LadyCC.

Well after a slow start to our morning LCC gets ready to bike part of the nature trail next to the park. Her mistake was telling PTCC that the trail was 14 miles long. Now she doesn’t want to go because she thinks we are doing the whole thing. I can’t convince her otherwise. So she stays behind and does her Spanish work and I get my bike ready. In all the conversation I forgot my helmet which I rarely go without after having a bike accident in my high school years. CC and PTCC also have had bike accidents with PTCC’s being the worst since she lost her front teeth. I mention this because everyone I saw on the path had their helmet on. In FL you do not see adults wearing helmets. Most of the time CC and I get weird looks when we are out biking as a family, because everyone knows the kids have to wear them but why would you as an adult??

The bike path was nice and paved once you leave the park property. It does have some inclines and fronts the interstates but is a nice path overall. At mile 1 there is a parking area to access the trail and every ½ mile and mile is marked by signs. I only went about 2 miles out because I did not want to leave PTCC alone too long so I turned around and went back. Good thing I did because about 20 minutes after getting back thunderstorms rolled in with lightning.

So we spent most of the day on the computer and reading about Yellowstone so we know what to do when we get there.

At 4 pm PTCC wants to go swimming so we head to the clubhouse and she goes in. I tried to sit outside but it was windy and cool so I watched her inside the laundry room that has a nice big window overlooking the pool. The pool is heated and salt water so she stays in about 45 minutes, but gets cold when she gets out.

We head back to the RV and LCC takes a nap while PTCC goes back to the clubhouse to use the computers there. In the afternoon the wi-fi seems to get real slow and it’s hit or miss if you can get on or not. So I make sure she does her schoolwork in the mornings when the reception is better.

CC calls and tells us about his day and we do the same. It feels like he went on a business trip and is away for awhile (but it’s really us that are gone-seems strange).

Tomorrow we will head downtown Salt Lake City and see what’s there.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »