Category: XCRV

It’s Thursday morning and we’re in Starved Rock State Park in the fine state of Illinois.

The park is beautiful. It rose up surprisingly from the flat fertile land around I80, or rather was cut from it by the Illinois river. Our campsite is decidedly wooded, abosultely thick with quaking aspen and black oak (OK so you got me – learning how to identify tree types is one of those “I should know how to do this” things for me). I picked this place for the simple reason that it was a State Park near the interstate and got lucky. I also scheduled a “zero day” here; a day of no-driving, exploring, napping, and did I mention no driving? The plan is to spend our free-day doing some nice light hiking around the river canyons and bluff areas. Currently, however, the family-except-for-me has decided to go back to sleep and catch some extra Zs on the day. This is fine with me, actually; it’s what these days are for.

In fact it may be needed for Cohen. Poor little guy, for the past two days he’s been running and off-and-on fever of around 100°. Sharaun and I have both attributed this to teething, as he’s got the telltale runny nose and ear-pulling to boot. He’s also got no other cold symptoms, no cough no congestion no anything. Just yesterday, though, he didn’t seem to want to take his afternoon nap and he became pretty irritable.  This morning he woke up early with tears and then wanted to go back down almost right after breakfast.  Like I said, this is more than OK with me… I’m enjoying the solitude and quiet time to write and do nothing, but, man, I hope little-guy isn’t getting sick.

Sharaun, again, reassures me – if Cohen does appear to be sick we just stop by a walk-in clinic in whatever state we might be in that day and get him checked out.  We’re in America, after all, where the healthcare system is internationally lauded, right?  But yes she’s right; even a little sickness wouldn’t do much to stop this rig from rolling right along (unless, of course, the lord-captain and commander were to come down with a case of the breakbone or some other such malady… this vessel would surely founder absent his stern but fair leadership).  So this extra early nap is gravy in my mind.  Let the boy sleep and regain some stamina points; with luck he’ll be up for the bike riding and easy-hiking we have in mind for later today.

Well, as long as these clouds clear, of course.  I mean, it wouldn’t be a day-off on our trip if the forecast didn’t call for cloudy skies and scattered thunderstorms.  Yesterday: sunny; tomorrow: sunny; today: rain.  It’s fitting, I suppose.  I still believe the clouds will lift and we’ll have some nice weather to checkout the surroundings.

Until later then.  Peace out.

Writing from a Sunday night in Black Hills of South Dakota.  Our motor coach is nestled comfy amongst pine needles and grass in the Black Hills of South Dakota, near Hill City.

Today was the first time on this trip I’ve caught myself becoming discouraged and maybe a bit homesick.  We had planned to tour the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore, both in the Black Hills.  Of course, the stupid rain which has been dogging us the entire trip parked it self above us and paced us right along at our 75MPH clip from Wyoming into Sioux country.  There hasn’t been a day yet on this trip where we haven’t been wet; rain and snow and even some hail in Yellowstone – we’ve seen every flavor of the precipitation part of the water cycle.  As we crested the foothills and got into mountain-carving land the rain became a fine mist and the visibility in general dropped off to maybe a mile.

Crazy Horse was only a blurry sketch of what it should’ve been, shrouded by gray and cloud and watery from the distance.  We spent most of our time inside at the museum and welcome center.  It was there that the weather momentarily bested me.  Staring at the people milling around, all of us I’m sure praying that we’d move from one window to the next and find the clouds somehow miraculously parted and the skies blue and inviting, a malaise washed over me.  “A wasted day,” I thought; “Stupid rain; when is it going to let up?,” I challenged no one.  I should’ve taken a cue from the family – Keaton was enjoying the museum exhibits and taking pictures of her own, Cohen was being the same amazingly well-behaved baby he always is, and Sharaun, no doubt having picked up on my mood, was reassuring and encouraging.  Family’s always got your back, y’know?

Since Crazy Horse was (maybe only to me) largely a bust, we decided that conditions for Mt. Rushmore would be no better and we might as well push that until tomorrow morning in hopes of clearer conditions.  The forecast says it won’t happen, but who knows.  In fact, looking at forecasts for the next few cities we’re in I see rain, rain and more rain.  I’m not sure we’ll escape it.  When am I going to cook these tasty burgers or juicy ribeyes for my family?  See… this is what came over me all at once at Crazy Horse – and it’s pointless.  Sharaun, ever my muse and lighthouse, helped me to see that once we got to camp.  A gorgeous wooded area in the middle of the Custer National Forest, I’m happier now just for her pointing out the obvious: rain and snow and hail and all – this trip is downright amazing.

She’s right.  As she is most of the time when it comes to stuff like this.  I am having such an awesome time.  I spent an hour just tonight rolling around on the bed with Cohen; rain ain’t got nothing on that.  And so with my family to remind me that the best laid plans of mice and men of go awry, and with so much other good times to make up for something not the postcard-perfect vision I had in my head – I’m set.  So don’t worry for me, and don’t let me bring you down.  I’ll be the guy with the smile behind the wheel of the advert-clad 30ft rented RV barreling through the rain and snow and hail on his way to God knows where.

Until later, take care from the road!

When I saw the snow falling around 6pm last night I guessed we might have issues.

When I woke up at 2am, then 3am, then again at 4:30am, each time hearing the soft pit-pat of snow hitting the RV roof above us – I was pretty certain we’d have issues.

We were scheduled to leave Yellowstone yesterday morning from the “east entrance.”  I’d planned four days in the park; the first two nights “dry camping” at different spots and the last two nights at the only place within park boundaries that has full hookups.  The sites were chosen for the different “sides” of the park they’d let us see and explore, and the double-night stay before departure was closest to the eastern exit I’d planned us to use on our way to Mt. Rushmore.

For the most part the plan worked well.  We traversed every not-closed-because-of-snow road in the park, and stopped at all the touristy hot-spots along the way.  We did almost 200mi of driving just within the park.  The only hitch was the weather. I’d expected and planned for some snow.  Maybe some hold-over snow from colder weeks prior, I mean… it’s almost June, right?  But I hadn’t planned for the almost 6″ of fresh powder we got the night before last while snug in our furnace-heated RV.

The east exit I’d banked on using was closed.  “Plan B,” made hastily that same morning, was the northeast exit, but there was a rockslide that same night which closed it off from the southern part of the park.  “Plan C,” then, was the only viable alternative – leaving via the northernmost exit through Gardiner, Montana and then back into Wyoming via Interstate 90.  In a worst-case scenario, this detour would’ve thrown us several hours off our route and would’ve ruined the arrival time at our intended campsite in the Bighorn National Forest.

It just so happens, though, that I’d got a call a week prior saying that Bighorn National Forest campground was closed (due to snow, perhaps a sigul of sorts in hindsight) and they’d refunded my money.  Rather than booking another site I’d chosen to be spontaneous and plan something “on the road” instead.  And, since we had no reservation that night anyway – the unplanned re-route through Montana went by without any problem at all.  We ended up staying at a great little place in Sheridan, Wyoming – a sunny little mom-and-pop RV park where everyone was friendly and there was no rain or snow.  As soon as we pulled into our “slip” (I have no idea what they’re called, the marine terminology seemed appropriate) I was relaxed.  I pulled off the jeans and long-johns and layered shirts and switched to shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops.

Plans schmans.

Lastly, Since Keaton’s videos have been covering the journey quite nicely, let’s talk some more about the “grown-up” aspects of the trip (and no, I don’t mean the, “If this RV’s rockin’…” kinda grown-up aspects…).  I’m talking, rather, about the stuff that goes through my mind as I’m thinking about what I’d write about the day-to-day of “RV stuff.”  Maybe about driving?

So far I’ve been the sole driver.  This isn’t some chauvenistic, alpha-male thing; Sharaun could’ve driven at any time.  It’s just that I took the first few days to attune myself to the way the vehicle handled on the road, learning the lines and lane-alignment and particulars of the steering, etc.  Meaning I wanted to drive those days, wanted to take some time and learn the vehicle.  After that we were in Yellowstone and it was raining and snowing and the roads were twisty and turny and had steep dropoffs and no shoulders and all other manner of “oh my word are we going to make it?!” sort of mental barriers.  So, I handled the driving then too – just because I’d already figured it out.  I do anticipate that – as we move out of Yellowstone in the next day or so and head of toward Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, and the greater northeast – Sharaun will get her time behind the wheel as well.  After a day under her belt she’ll be as “accomplished” as I and we’ll have a true husband-and-wife team at the wheel.

I think Keaton’s next video will come after the Badlands/Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Devil’s Tower day… so in a day or two.  In the meantime, I’ll post if the mood strikes.

And with that, goodnight from Wyoming.

Letting Keaton do the posting today; too much work to write and create videos.

Check it out over here @ her blog.