Blogging on the Road.

Well, you can't actually do it very easily. Writing the blog takes time away from living the experience. And finding WiFi while barreling across the prairies of Montana and South Dakota is tough. So, here's our blog of RVing to Iowa, all posted on the same day in early July, a week after the trip is over.

If you're new to blogs, the best way to read the blog from start to finish is to click on the entries listed to the right on your screen, starting at the bottom. And, to see the photos in a larger size, just click on the photos. Comments are encouraged! Enjoy the ride. --Tom

BLOGGING WOES

The trouble with blogging, of course, is that when you are blogging, you are not living your life. And when you are living your life, you are not blogging. So, while we were on the trip, it was impossible for me to add entries to the blog. I could sort of take notes during the day but internet access at a typical KOA is not easy to come by. And in Yosemite, I mean Yellowstone, not only was there no internet, there was no cell phone service either! Very strange feeling these days to be three days without my blackberry. And it has taken me this week to get all the notes and thoughts organized. So even tho I'm posting them all today, if you start from the bottom and read up, you will get a sense of the trip. Happy reading! Terry

APPLE HILL FARM

June 25-27
And so we finish our road trip at Apple Hill Farm. Tom’s entire family lives there on 80 acres of bucolic wonder. His parents, Maury and Evedna, have commandeered the high ground, overlooking the rolling hills and a fishing pond full of snapping turtles and assorted fish. His sister Vincy and her husband, Bill are just off the highway which makes it handy for fish & game officers who bring Vincy orphaned deer, raccoons and assorted injured creatures to nurse back to health.

In addition to the wildlife, they also raise cows, sheep, goats, a miniature bull, horses, a mule, chickens, ducks and some pet skunks. Maybe some others but that’s a pretty good list. Oh man. Up the hill from Vincy and Bill’s and on the left, Vincy’s daughter Shelly and her husband Paul live with their two daughters and son. Further on, on the right, live Vincy’s other daughter Pepper, her husband Tim, daughter and son.

And on every square inch of the 80 acres there are either crops or animals. Did I mention the cats? Many cats? Everyone has a kitchen garden and there is corn, hay and I don’t know what else growing everywhere. Trucks, tractors, hay bailers, other mysterious contraptions are everywhere. And everyone works hard. I don’t know if it was the original intent but at this point the family grows or raises almost everything they need. It’s a beautiful place populated by hard-working people who treasure their family ties and live in support of each other.
William (Pepper and Tim's son) steals the show.

ALBERT LEA, MN and IOWA THOUGHTS

June 25
We stayed overnight at a KOA in Albert Lea, Minnesota, my birthplace. My parents drove up and gave us a tour of the town, pointing out all the houses I lived in until we moved to Southern California when I was 5. We stopped at the lot where once stood the one-room house where my Mom grew up with her two sisters and their mom, during the depression. The house was really a shack, with no running water, no electricity and no heat except the coal burning stove. The lot is next to the railroad tracks, so the girls would pick up coal that fell off the trains. Hobos routinely knocked on the door asking for food, which my grandmother would provide. --Tom

So Iowa, as we have all heard, has corn. Lots of corn. Also soybeans. Also cows. All of this is on lots of farms, very tidy, with red barns, kitchen gardens, silos, white fences. Wide open spaces punctuated by low rolling hills. Green everywhere this time of year and much activity with hay mowing, moving cows around and other farm stuff I have no comprehension of.

TOM THREINEN SQUARED

June 23
Before driving to Duluth to see some Threinens, we visited with some other Threinens: uncle Jim, aunt Betty and cousin Kurt at their summer condo in Minneapolis.
We got a tour of the place, checked some web sites on Kurt's computer, looked at some of Betty's wonderful watercolor paintings, and told stories. And they finally got to meet Terry, after years of near misses in Phoenix, Laughlin, Las Vegas, and San Diego. They served us a healthful lunch to send us on our way. --Tom

June 23-24
You would think that if your name was Thomas William Michael Threinen, it would be next to impossible to find someone with your same name. But on Tuesday evening, we pulled into the long driveway of Thomas (no William) Michael Threinen and his wife Carol in Duluth, MN.

These Toms are some kind of cousins in an impossible-to-describe way but from the first time the four of us met each other in San Diego a few months ago, we have all felt closely related.
Two Toms in Ocean Beach, San Diego.


Duluth is, of course, famous for its unending winter and extremely cold, stormy, windy and generally inclement and terrible weather. But for the two days we were there looking around, it was come-on-down weather. Low 80’s, just a little muggier than a typical San Diego July day, and perfectly clear skies.

We saw rivers, hiked to waterfalls, lunched lake-side and then toured the Duluth Harbor.
Tom Threinen taking a photo of the other Tom Threinen taking a photo of Tom Threinen.


After waiting for and watching an enormous freighter travel under the lift-bridge and into the harbor from Lake Superior, it was time for a beer.

So we found a harbor view place and watched a sailboat race get underway. Then more touring, including great views of the vast amount of commerce that happens in this harbor. Duluth Harbor is the sorting out location and gateway for all the coal, gypsum, grains and some other things that I have forgotten that go to the Midwest.

Then back to the Threinen’s gorgeous home to learn a card game that I’m sure they were making up as we went along. A marvelous time was had by all and we made many plans to get together again. How about in a place with great weather. Such as San Diego!
* * *

As a Waterman, I know about waves and surfing spots all over the world. Duluth has great surf sometimes, usually in the winter, as this photo I found on the internet proves. But THIS Waterman is going to pass on surfing Lake Superior--too much snow on the beach! --Tom

SHARKS IN MINNESOTA

June 22
There is a world-famous aquarium in the middle of the world-infamous Mall of America south of Minneapolis. Ken Gardner has a for-fun job there so he gave us the behind-the-scenes tour. Huge sharks, sea turtles, rays, puffer fish and other sea creatures live next-tank from the fresh water creatures including several extremely ugly sturgeon. There is even a whole room of sea horse tanks. It’s an impressive operation with all the fishes’ food prepared in stainless steel kitchens and dispensed with hospital precision.
After the tour, Ken’s beautiful and brilliant wife Diane joined us for Italian food.

ROADTRIP LESSON

June 21
The plan after leaving Badlands, and you know we had a plan, was to drive a long day to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and stay in a Flying J truck stop there. We had been seeing them along the highways, and thought it would be interesting to park with all the 18-wheelers, possibly fun. But, as we got within three hours to Sioux Falls, a huge “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” project had been undertaken, reducing a four-lane highway to two narrow lanes with no shoulder for 50 miles.

(It was Sunday, so there were no workers working on this "stimulus project". But there was little evidence of construction equipment, so I wondered how many guys were put to work fixing this 50-mile stretch of highway. --Tom)

We were both wide awake for this one, it was pretty tense! I looked over at Tom and his lips were white, not to mention his knuckles. So I googled a KOA in Mitchell, South Dakota and we got off the highway right after the construction. We had planned to eat dinner in the truck stop so we had sardines, crackers, walnuts and raisins and a salad of olives and canned tomatoes. Plenty of ice, vodka and a Scrabble game so we made it through the night.

DISSAPOINTING BADLANDS

Going to the Badlands has not exactly been on my list, but as a means of seeing Dino prints, I always figured this might be the place. For me, Badlands = Fossils and Fossils = Dinosaurs. Well, I guess that’s a common misconception because as you walk into the visitors’ center, there is a huge mural with the headline “Why No Dinosaurs?” This area was all under water during dino time, and was populated by mammals, fish-like creatures and birdlike creatures. So there are plenty of fossils but none are dinosaurs and there are no dino foot prints.

BAD BADLANDS

Evening, June 20
We started our visit to the Badlands by pulling into our KOA "kampground" at about 11:00 pm. We were beat, but in just a few minutes we were set up for the night, and then we were sitting and looking up, right into outer space. The zillions of stars were brilliant in the perfectly black moonless sky. The next morning, we discovered we had a nice little camp.

We hit the road in the morning, setting out to visit the Information Center, and then drive through the best part of the Badlands National Park. Terry has something to say about our experience at the info center.
Once we were touring again, we were excited to be in "The Badlands", but we were soon underwhelmed. Having spent our lifetimes in the arid West, the Badlands really wasn't such a big deal at all. It was very interesting, and certainly unique, but I see worse badlands every day in Henderson, Nevada.

The wildflowers, however, were world class! Just beautiful. --Tom
* * *
The badlands wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the people. Maybe I’m too much California but really, the further East we go, the more oblivious, careless and obnoxious people have been. Every national park and tourist place has rules. In Yellowstone, everybody seemed fine with that. Of course there are good and obvious reasons for staying on the paths and wooden walkways. You could get boiled alive. But by the time we got to Mount Rushmore, people were doing just about anything but following the rules and they were encouraging their kids that that was ok. Good thing that place is mostly concrete. One family was letting their four little kids run around playing games in the restaurant. Outside, no one was staying on the paths; they were climbing walls for photo-ops, using the steps for workout equipment. It was just boring and upsetting. At the Visitor’s Center at the Badlands National Park, we just had to get out of there. People were yelling, reading all the signs in their loudest vices, letting their babies cry. It was worse outside. There again, there were paths and wooden walkways, designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas. Signs everywhere saying “Stay on the paths” and “Watch for rattlesnakes.” But people were scrambling all over the hills, tramping on what few plants there were, climbing the cliffs. Maybe the damn relentless wind here makes people more independent, more incorrigible, less interested in following rules. Or maybe I’m getting old and crabby.

CRAZY, CRAZY HORSE MONUMENT

June 20
Nothing prepared me. Even though I have seen discovery channel specials about this project, I never caught the magic. I didn’t have a sense of the power or the size of this venture.

A few years after the completion of Mount Rushmore, Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear announced that he and the other American Indian chiefs “would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes too.” They approached Korczak Ziolowski, a Czech sculptor, and convinced him to dedicate the rest of his life to the creation of an IMMENSE likeness of the Native American hero Crazy Horse.
(They have a loooooooooong way to go!)

Here’s what IMMENSE is – when finished, the sculpture will be 641 feet wide and 563 feet high. The head alone is 87 feet high. For comparison, the heads on Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet high.

In 1946, the site was chosen and in 1949 Ziolowski started blasting away at the mountain. After he died, his body totally used up at the age of 74, his wife Ruth and seven of their ten kids continued the mission of getting the statue finished. It was Ruth who made the decision to finish sculpting the face of Crazy Horse before finishing the roughing out of the entire sculpture. It was a great decision. Seeing the face brings humanity to the site and gives life to the dream.
Terry spotted a pile of rocks in the gift shop. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be actual rocks blasted from the mountain during the daily dynamite-carving of the monument. The price was 2 bucks a rock--a real deal! We bought one. Turns out it weighs a ton, and so did my suitcase when we flew home from Iowa. But the rock lives in Nevada now, a state with rocks coming out its ears, but it's the only rock from the cast-off trimmings of the Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota. --Tom

SITES WE ARE SORRY WE DIDN’T SEE

June 19-21

OIL WELL DUG BY HAND! Somewhere in Wyoming, on highway 90, there was a dilapidated billboard with this screaming headline. It promised an underground tour (sign me up!) We passed the actual tourist attraction a few miles later and it had apparently been closed for quite a long, long time. The buildings, derricks and various wheels, belts and pulleys were melting into the earth. Only the converted oil storage “Gift Tank” was still standing.

RUSHMORE CAVES! They must be really something as the selling feature on the billboard said, “Closest Cave to Mt Rushmore!”

Billboard advertisement: STATE OF THE ART SHOWER HEADS! Almost enough to make us abandon the RV and check into that motel…

BUFFALO BLOCKADE

Buffalo have the right of way in YS, and they seem to know it. A buffalo decided to use the road to go about whatever business he was on. And of course he wasn’t in any hurry. Just sauntering along with a line of 30 cars piled up behind him. In this RV, we have gotten used to watching the rear-view monitor for the pile-up behind us and pulling off when we need to. The buffalo didn’t have a camera on his behind but finally he got a clue and stepped off the road to the shoulder. As we went by, we got this shot. We did see lots of wildlife, in addition to hundreds of buffalo; we saw a field full of elk, huge pelicans, ducks, an eagle, an osprey and one bear. The bear was exactly far enough away – about a mile away across the river from us.

We saw the magnificent Yellowstone Falls, first from the rim of "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone", then from the brink of the falls. The hike down to the brink was along a long, narrow, harrowing path with a sequence of switchbacks as far as the eye could see. The view of the falls from the platform on the brink was even worth the struggle back up to the parking lot. --Tom



The day we left Yellowstone, we drove 11 hours through Billings Idaho to Sheridan Wyoming. And three of those hours were in Yellowstone itself! That place is huge.

YELLOWSTONE

Definitely lifetime experience. Beautiful, magical, every sightline gorgeous, every smell intoxicating, the air feels like thin well-worn velvet.
We arrived at the Bay Bridge Campsite inside the park just at dusk, having stopped in Idaho Falls to pick up a rental car. Nissan Versa, nice little car but the AC is so loud you can’t think.
The people who work at Yellowstone seem to feel the power of the place and know how privileged they are to work there. Everyone was nice, professional and knowledgeable. Sort of alarming to see Signs posted in at the campsite warning against approaching buffalo or other wildlife and there was a long list of rules designed to prevent bears from trying to get into our RV. Pretty real, there.

The next morning we headed straight to Old Faithful where, to our surprise, there is a little tourist village set up. Huge gift shops, miles of parking, information centers, event tents, I don’t know what else. Sort of circus-y. Don’t know what I expected, but not that. Nevertheless, we were just in time to have a ringside seat for the eruption of the great old geyser. And a ranger talk about how geysers work, first theorized by a Professor von Bunsen of Bunsen burner fame.

We toured the great geyser basin and got back just in time to see Old Faithful spout off again. Pretty nice.


I was fascinated by all the bubbling pools of water, everywhere you go in the park. Old Faithful isn't the only geyser, either. Most of Yellowstone is over a volcanic "hotspot". Hot, molten mantle rock is just below the surface, keeping Yellowstone cooking. --Tom

THEN ON TO YELLOWSTONE

June 16-19
If you come from a place like Southern California and you want a tree in your yard, you go to the nursery, bring it home, dig a hole, plant it and water it and hope it lives. Here in Yellowstone, weed-trees spring up everywhere.

YOU SAY YELLOWSTONE, I SAY YOSEMITE,

LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF!
We have been planning this trip for two months. Researching routes, things to see, KOA’s along the route. Neither of us had been to Yellowstone so naturally that was first on the agenda. The trouble is, I have never once said Yellowstone – I have fairly consistently told people we were going to Yosemite. Even the file I started for the trip says “Yosemite, June 2009” I tried tricking my self, remembering Yogi and Booboo in Jellystone, but it didn’t work. Yosemite is stuck in my head so firmly that I was even saying it while we were there! So if I offer to show you the pics of my trip to Yosemite, walk away.

The rain in Yellowstone stopped for 30 minutes one day, enough time for a picnic!

Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda...

June 15
One thing is true – this is a huge country! I thought I was going to die on the way from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. We started off on 15 and eight hours later, we were still on the same freeway!

The stress of getting ready for the trip, combined with the cabin noise that made it impossible for me and Tom to talk, combined with the road vibration that made it impossible to read, combined with the sheer tedium of seeing the freeway go by put me to sleep every time Tom turned the key in the motor. But, we had a great visit with my sister Penny and her husband Steve. Her son Michael, daughters Leesa and Christine and Christine’s husband were there. Nice to see all doing so well.

RV LESSON #3

RV travel is not the cheap way to go. Filling up this guy takes about $150 and that lasts about three days at about 8 mpg.
KOA’s cost $40. We can prepare meals but unexpected trouble with the fridge made that plan not work all that well. So driving a 30mpg car and staying in motels is cheaper, but not the same experience. It’s fun seeing the landscape go by from over the heads of the other vehicles. All the gas stations, rest stops and even restaurants along the way have bus and RV parking. And when you stop for the night, no unpacking, everything is yours, it’s easy to settle in and start cocktail hour.

…---…/…---…/…---… SOS,SOS,SOS

So we’re heading south from the dino tracks and still have half the day to scrub off so that we don’t end up in Las Vegas during rush hour traffic. We decide to look for the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum in St George. I googled the directions on my blackberry and read the directions to Tom. It gets us off the freeway, into town and then onto more and more narrow residential streets. Now keep in mind that we are driving a vehicle as big as an entire neighborhood. I’m getting the instructions off the phone, yelling them to Tom and we are both getting pretty excited. He’s sweating, I’m freaking out and suddenly there is a roundabout in front of us! By a divine miracle (more on that in a few minutes) there is a huge parking space just in front of us. It’s marked “Busses Only” but we are in no mood. We sit there for a few seconds, taking inventory of our senses and suddenly a lovely man with a beatific smile appears at the side door. He’s holding a book in his hand. My first guess, Jehovah’s Witness. Better guess since we are in Utah, he’s the caretaker of the Brigham Young museum which we have just parked in front of. So he gave us a tour and let us keep the parking space. We learned many things. When the Mormons first came to this area, it was during the civil war which interrupted the flow of cotton to the west. So Young and his buds marked off plots of home sites in the little new town, gave a plot to every man who wanted to come and set everyone to work planting cotton, growing mulberry trees for silk worms and planting vineyards for wine. And I know what you’re thinking. Mormons don’t drink wine. But, as Brother James carefully explained, that was before. Now is after. Ahhh… Anyhoo, the cotton explains why every third business in St George has the word Dixie in it.

Interesting detail, Young was St George’s first snowbird, taking refuge from Salt Lake City’s winter in the place where “the sun spends the winter.” Not only that, he was the possibly the world’s first telecommuter. Because of the telegraph lines that finally made their way from Salt Lake to St George, he didn’t have to be in freezing Salt Lake for the winter. And he could be far more productive and look after his 55 or so wives in a more comfortable setting.

MY LIST

I’ve had a “list” for quite a long time. Long before it was called a bucket list. Inspired by my friend Diana King, I started one in 1983. And the first thing on the list is to see Dinosaur Footprints. I hadn’t even heard of them until a trip to Lake Powell. I saw them on a map but didn’t get to see them. So they started my list which by now is a pretty long list. As we checked out of the KOA in Cedar City, I asked about things to do in the area. And that’s how I learned that there were dino prints right there in southern Utah.
Discovered in 2000, this site, is “going to be the most important in the world for the researchers working on early Jurassic footprints.” --Gerard Gierlinski, Polish Geological Institute, Warsaw, Poland

The back story is that a retired eye doctor wanted to level his roadside property so that he could put in a 7-11 or something like that. As he bulldozed, he noticed that the sandstone was coming off in big blocks, like caked mud, which at first he sold to his neighbors for patio paving and such. Finally, he realized that there was something interesting, very interesting, on the surface of the pieces he was excavating. Why, they looked like footprints of some huge birds!

This is photo of a remarkable thing to see: The actual dinosaur footprint next to a positive cast of the print. Both slabs of stone are nearly 200 million years old. The dinosaur made the original tracks in the wet mud on the shore of a prehistoric lake, then sand blew onto the tracks, and later more mud flowed over the tracks. Then time and pressure fossilized this sandwich. In 2000 AD the positive cast block was lifted off the negative original footprint. And here they both sit, for us all to gape at. --Tom

Luckily for us, his stepson was a paleontologist at the local university who immediately identified them and today you can see thousands of these Early Jurassic period dino prints from 195-198 million years ago. The site is covered by a huge building and it costs just $7 to visit. ($10 for a year pass) I would have paid $70!

This is the original footprint of a small dinosaur, still in the ground where it was made millions of years ago!

Imagine the muddy edge of a lake. Lots of creatures of various sizes are frolicking or fighting or fishing in the mud there. Something sudden happens, they all leave and the area is covered with sand, more mud, then thirty feet of mountain over the next 190 million years. All the foot prints, tail prints, swimming traces, even raindrops are there, preserving a moment in time. Swim tracks of a dinosaur! (The positive cast)

In one area, you can actually see how a creature, about 6 feet tall at the shoulder, came down to the water, sat down in the mud, put his hands down at his sides, got up and walked to higher ground, dragging his tail. You can actually see fifteen of his steps, in a straight line.

Awesome, tears in eyes. So dinosaurs are really true. And this creature actually existed! www.dinotrax.com

RV LESSON #2

Remember lesson #1 (Ouch dammit!)

RV LESSON #1

Stand out of the way of the electric steps when you are opening the door.

FIRST, TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS

The RV is a 34 ft Fleetwood Discovery. The two cup holders that are provided not only hold your drink but keep it cold or hot, at your pleasure, at the push of a clever rocker switch. Inside is very spacious with a slide out kitchen/living room section that gives you just enough floor space to make it all feel quite roomy. Then there is a bathroom with an enclosed shower and beyond that the bedroom with a double bed and cubbyholes everywhere for clothes, etc. In fact, there are nooks and crannies of storage everywhere, making a huge project out of finding things. (I know I packed the garlic press!) The kitchen is nice with an ice-maker fridge, convection/microwave oven, lots of storage and a built-in dining area.
There is a rear-view camera with a monitor on the dash, giving it an airplane-cockpit look. Outside there are various inlets for water, electricity, diesel, propane, etc. There are also outlets for water (grey and black) which has to be dealt with from time to time by someone besides me. There is also lots of storage under the coach, just like a bus. The engine is in the back, which makes the floor space good all the way up to the driver and passenger seats. It also keeps the noise of the diesel engine in the back.

TRIAL TRIP

We planned a two-week RV trip from Las Vegas to Iowa, though Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, the Badlands and Minnesota. The original purpose of the trip was to deliver the RV to Tom’s dad in Iowa so that they could use it for the summer. Up until this time, we had driven the RV by ourselves exactly four hours. Two trips to Searchlight, an hour South of Las Vegas. So, at Tom’s dad’s suggestion, we decided to try a shakedown trip. And we are so glad we did! We booked a night at a KOA in Cedar City Utah, about four hours north of Las Vegas.
The actual travel went well, aside from getting used to the sheer size of this vehicle which I don’t think there is any getting used to. Not only is it long, but it’s also wide, seeming to take up the entire lane. It’s difficult to know where you are in the lane when it seems you are taking up two. We did some trial cooking, showers, etc and made even more lists of things we needed.

pre-trip preparations

Today is Saturday, and Terry and I are finishing business tasks and starting the final preparations for driving the RV to Iowa. My parents, Maury and Evedna, are happily waiting to get their RV delivered to the Iowa farm so they can use it this summer.

It sits in front of our house in Henderson right now.



Our test drive to Cedar City, Utah, gave us a chance to try out all the systems and sample the RV life. Typical of us, we made a list of things to bring, and stuff that needed fixing, and we are now busy crossing items off the list and getting excited to leave.

Terry will write about our Cedar City shakedown after we get going on Monday. It's not every day you get to see dinosaur footprints!

Here's a summary of our Iowa trip:
Monday (6-15) to Salt Lake City to visit Terry's sister.
Tuesday (6-16)to Yellowstone. We'll stay there three days.
Saturday (6-20), arrive in the Badlands, South Dakota
Monday evening (6-22) we will be in Minneapolis to visit friends and family.
Tuesday evening (6-23) we will be in Duluth to visit family, and stay there all day Wednesday.
Thursday (6-25) we will drive to Derby, Iowa, with a stop in Albert Lea, my birth place.

Getting started today. Checked out the RV this morning down at the airpark. While we were there saw a coyote! Just trotting by as if he was going someplace specific.