Reflections of two years on the road

Posted on July 27, 2015 by liv2rv

2 years ago I left my steady, stable job as a CT Technologist at a hospital and Dan left his 27 year teaching career for a complete unknown. Reflecting back, we continue to have no regrets about making the change. As much as we have experienced in the past 2 years, it seems as if we have only scratched the surface on what our great country has to offer.

Mt Rushmore from Hwy 244

Sometimes I feel we are traveling at a snail’s pace, especially when I read others blogs and they seem to be all over the country. But then I remind myself that we, hopefully, have so much time ahead of us to continue going at our own pace. Eventually we will “get there”. It truly is the journey, and not the destination, that is important.

The past two summers, working in gift stores in major tourist areas, I have encountered many people who learn of our lifestyle, and then say “but you are so young”. Sometimes I wonder if we should have kept on working, and saving more money, but that thought quickly passes! After 2 years on the road, we are able to do just fine with our work camping jobs. It certainly helps not having to pay a mortgage, gas, electric, water, sewer and property taxes. And we make sure to find jobs where we are paid for all hours worked, as well as having our site paid for.

I really enjoy living in a small space. I still have too many clothes and other things, so another trip to Goodwill is in order. If it has not been used in 2 years, it is time to let someone else have it collect dust in their house!

Our current location, West Yellowstone, has dozens of hotels/motels/cabins. Watching people load and unload their luggage makes me appreciate the fact we have everything we need with us at all times when we travel in our 5^th wheel.

THINGS THAT I MISS

A “real” oven. After our first year, I have stopped using our propane oven. Even though it is very small in size, it takes about 30 minutes to heat up, and significantly longer to cook anything. A small batch of cookies takes about 30 minutes. It just became too frustrating to use. In the past year, I have been using our convection/microwave oven, with slightly better results. An electric home oven has 220 volt power, versus 110 volt power in a recreational vehicle. As such, it still takes longer to cook, but I can do a batch of cookies in about 20 minutes, with better results. And things brown better than in a propane oven. Some people use a stand-alone toaster oven for their baking, and have better results. If we ever purchase another RV, it would not have a propane oven.
DVR. We do not have satellite, and we certainly do not miss the big bill! We rely on over-the-air television, which can be hit or miss. We have discovered a lot of excellent shows on the PBS channels, which usually come in when nothing else does. But I do miss the ability to record television shows when we are working. We have thought about going “old school” and getting a VCR! (that’s a video cassette recorder for you young folks!)
Washer/dryer. We opted not to spend an additional $1100 for a stackable unit when we purchased our 5^th wheel. Although we do not mind going to laundromats, we have several t-shirts that are now “tye-died” as a result of using public washers!
Unlimited and fast internet connections
Family and friends events. We have missed some big events due to having to work in the summer. But there were also times with our regular jobs that we could not make it to certain things. We do try to get back to Wisconsin to visit with family and friends, so this does help.

REGRETS?

Zip, zero, nada!!!!

BEST PART OF OUR JOURNEY?

The people that we have met along the road, have been the number one benefit of this lifestyle. As an introverted person, this has truly been a blessing for me. It is very easy to live in a house and not get to know your neighbors. It is almost impossible to walk around a campground and not strike up conversations with others. Work camping is also a wonderful way to meet others, share experiences, and make life-long friends.

Cedar Key 1/14

lunch with friends

Tom, Jack, Ruth Ann, me, Dan and Ellen

We have had some wonderful experiences.

snorkeling with manatees

Crazy Horse Memorial

Disney after Dark

And driven through some beautiful parts of the country!

no problem!

Encountering wildlife.

Big Daddy

And trying new experiences

a small waterfall behind us

Looking back through our photos over the past two years make us realize how much we have experienced. And we have only scratched the surface! Some of you have followed along on our journey from the beginning, and we thank you for that! Others have joined along the way. We are humbled that people follow along with us.

Quote for the day: “The less routine the more life.” – Amos Bronson Alcott

Two Sundays in the Park

Posted on July 21, 2015 by liv2rv

The past two Sundays, we have ventured down to Grand Teton National Park, about 2 hours South of West Yellowstone, MT. The 40 mile long Teton Range was formed over 10 million years ago, during a series of earthquakes along the Teton fault line. The western side of the line rose up, creating the mountain range, and the eastern side sunk down, creating the valley referred to as Jackson Hole. Over two million years ago, glaciers were present, carving out the mountains, and creating Jackson Lake, which is over 400 feet deep. The lake is very popular for boating, canoeing and kayaking.

Jackson Lake

Our first visit to the park, was mainly social. We met up with friends, old and new, for lunch at the Signal Mountain Lodge in the park. It was great getting caught up on everyone’s summer jobs, and we have some great opportunities to think about for future work camping positions. Karen and Al are working at Luton’s Teton Cabins. Steve and Joan, along with Maxine and Dave, are working for a company that maps out BLM land.

lunch with friends

After lunch, instead of driving on the heavily populated main roads, Al led the pack in an off-road adventure on the Snake River. It was a great way to view the park and wildlife, without fighting all the tourists. July is the busiest month for both the Tetons and Yellowstone.

Snake River overlook

herd of Pronghorns

Once we completed our off-road adventure, we headed back to Karen and Al’s fifth wheel, to visit for an hour or so, before saying our goodbyes, as we all had two-hour drives back ‘home’. On our way back, we did stop at the sign in Yellowstone where the Continental Divide passes through the park (I like to take pictures of signs)! The Continental Divide, in case you are wondering, is the line that divides the flow of water between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Every continent except Antarctica has their own continental divide.

I stop for signs

While we were stopped at the pull-out, this gentleman pulled up with a very cool RV set-up. A Ford Falcon (year unknown) towing a T@B trailer.

a cool RV set-up

This past Sunday (July 19), we drove back down to the park to do a little more exploring, and met up again with Karen and Al. They were running a little behind, so Dan and I stopped in to check out the Jackson Lake Lodge. While we were looking at the scenery out back, a women came up to the man next to me and said ‘did you see the moose’? He shook his head and she said to follow her. I quickly followed her as well! She pointed to an area of tall brush, and we waited and were quickly rewarded with this quick view of a moose!

Moose!!!

I have never seen a moose before (Dan has while fishing in northern Minnesota with his college roommate Mike) so this was very exciting for me. And then there was more movement in the brush, and we saw a brief glimpse of a baby moose!

Mama and baby

That just made my day right there! They both went out of sight, and we waited a while, but then continued on to meet up with our friends. We headed up to the top of Signal Mountain, which overlooks the valley.

Signal Mountain View

If you look at the photo above, you will notice a uniquely shaped lake. We discussed various names, and Al came up with “Viagra Lake”. We will leave it up to you to decide what object you think it resembles! We headed back down and continued along the Teton Park Road, stopping at various overlooks. The first one overlooked Mount Moran (elevation 12,605 feet). We had low-lying clouds in the morning.

Mount Moran

We stopped in at String Lake, which is a very popular swimming and kayaking area. It is also where many of the backcountry hiking trails begin. We saw a number of very tired, but happy guys that were just completing a multi-day hike.

String Lake

We continued on down the road, and we were going to stop by Jenny Lake and the Jenny Lake Visitors Center, but they were overflowing with cars and people. We headed down towards Moose Junction to do some hiking in the Rockerfeller Preserve and noticed a lot of cars pulled over with a Park Ranger nearby trying to clear the traffic jam. We were briefly able to see another moose, fairly close to the road! This is when I am glad we have a sunroof in our truck, as I can pop up and take pictures while Dan continues driving. Now we just need to see a Bull Moose with a big rack.

Another Moose!

Unfortunately, when we arrived in the parking lot at the Preserve, it was all backed up and the Park Ranger told us there were eight cars ahead of us waiting for a parking spot. We talked it over with Karen and Al, and decided to just head out to lunch. We will plan on a hike later in August, when the park is less crowded. This is certainly a huge advantage to work camping, in that you can pick and choose when to do the things you want. Gone are the days of cramming in everything in one exhausting week of vacation. We see many people at night in the gift store that have “hit the wall” and are just exhausted from battling the crowds all day.

We had a nice late lunch at Dornan’s, which has an upper viewing deck overlooking the Tetons.

our lunch view

After lunch, we headed over to Lower Schwabacher area to view the Grand Tetons, before heading back home. The Grand Teton, at 13,770 feet, is the tallest peak in the range, with the Middle Teton and South Teton beside it. Since the clouds had finally lifted, it was a beautiful view with a nice reflection in the Snake River..

view of Grand Tetons

Life is Good

We had another great day, with friends, in the park. There are still many more things to do, and we will plan another visit in August. We also plan on spending some time in the city of Jackson, just south of the park. Most people refer to the city as Jackson Hole, but that is the name of the valley region, not the city. And we do plan on coming down through Idaho next time, so we can view the western half of the Teton Range.

Quote for the day: “The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir

YNP – Mammoth Hot Springs

Posted on July 10, 2015 by liv2rv

Mammoth Hot Springs is in the Northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, near the city of Gardiner, Montana. Previously, we discussed how Yellowstone contains the largest hydrothermal features in the world. This area, as the name implies, contains hot springs. There are no geysers in the area. With hot springs, hot water travels underground through limestone, and dissolves carbonate materials. Water can easily flow to the surface where the heat escapes from runoff or evaporation. The water coats the surface with the carbonate materials, which hardens into travertine rock. Travertine is too soft to create enough pressure to form a geyser.

The drive up to the area is very pretty, and gives you an idea of how expansive this park is.

Yellowstone National Park

As you get closer to the area, you can see how the landscape changes, as a result of the hydrothermal features. The white colored rock is from the limestone deposits.

limestone hills

The park service has put in extensive board walks around the travertine terraces in the area, so you can spend an hour or two taking a leisurely stroll to admire the beauty of these features. The colors in the springs are from thermophiles, an organism (think bacteria) that can survive extremely high temperatures. The hot springs area is constantly changing, as it is a living, breathing eco-system.

Liberty Cap, a hot spring cone, where the “plumbing” system remained open in one place for a long time, allowing mineral deposits to build up to a height of 37 feet.

Liberty Cap

Palette Springs is a beautiful display of the hydrothermal features of this area, created over thousands of years.

Palette Springs

Hot Springs can have a life cycle as this example of Jupiter Terrace demonstrates. In 1923, it was documented that water was flowing extensively in the area. The calcium carbonate materials choked off the roots of the trees, and they died off. Since 1998, this area has been dormant. If it continues to remain dormant, new trees and grass will start to grow in the area. As you can see by this picture, a small amount of vegetation has grown over the past few years.

Jupiter Terrace

grass starting to grow

Minerva Terrace is an area that alternates between abundant water flow, and minimal flow. This changes over several years. The area of color, is where the water was flowing when we were visiting.

Minerva Terrace

Here are some additional views along our walk

New Blue Springs

Cleopatra Terrace

This is an overview of the Mammoth Hot Springs visitors center, shops and hotels.

view down to “city”

The original entrance to the park, in Gardiner, has the Theodore Roosevelt arch, which was constructed in 1903. President Roosevelt himself placed the cornerstone during construction of the arch by the U.S. Army which was stationed in the park. Dan and I remembered driving through this arch in 2004 on our brief visit to the park, and since we were so close, we decided to drive through it again. Only to discover it currently looks like this:

Roosevelt Arch

slogan on top of arch

The park service and the town of Gardiner are re-doing the entrance into the park and making the road through the arch one-way, with pedestrian access as well. There is a doorway in the arch, and people will be permitted to walk through the door. The town is also putting a bypass around the arch, to improve traffic flow. This construction should be completed later this year.

After a brief stop in the town of Gardiner, we headed back into the park, and down towards home, with a brief stop to check out the Golden Gate Canyon bridge and waterfall. The first bridge in this area was built in 1885 after blasting out 14,000 cubic yards of rock, and hauling them off via horse and wagons. By 1900, the bridge was too unstable and stagecoaches were falling off. The bridge has been rebuilt 3 times since, most recently in 1977.

Golden Gate Canyon

A highlight of our trip today was a brief visit with Christine and Herb, who were busy working at the Mammoth Hot Springs gift store. We worked with them last year at Crazy Horse. It was great catching up with them, and we hope to try to get together this summer, although our off days do not coincide with theirs.

Quote for the day: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

I hate fireworks!

Posted on July 6, 2015 by liv2rv

Hello everyone, it’s me again! And now that everything has quieted down, I thought I would give you a little update from the dog’s point of view.

Keeping my peeps informed!

The last few days have been super noisy here in West Yellowstone. Apparently there are no laws regarding who can shoot off fireworks in Montana, and it seems everyone in town had a pretty good supply of noisemakers. Saturday was the worst. My parents had to work, so I was left alone with all the noise for most of the night. People were shooting off fireworks and firecrackers all over town. It takes awhile before it gets dark, so the town-sponsored fireworks did not start until 10:30pm, so my parents were home by then. They took me out to try to get me to go potty, but as you can see by the photo below, I was so scared from all the prior noise that my tail was stuck between my legs!

I want in!!!

What made this night extra scary for me is that we were parked right in the “blast zone!” The launch area for the fireworks was about 100 yards from our RV, right across from the US Forest Service land that I like to take my walks on. We walked past to check out the area on my early morning walk on the 4th.

the launch site

Here is a closer view of all the shells…way too many for my taste!

a lot of shells

To put this in perspective, here is a view of our RV from the launch site.

our place from launch site

Too close for comfort, in my opinion! But I did get some visitors, which briefly made me happy! My parents co-workers, Tom and Ellen came by to watch. Diane and Jerry, another work camping couple that my parents met, also stopped by later, to join in the “VIP viewing section”. That’s what they called it…..I called it the scary, frightening section! Notice how no one else is around on the sidewalk? The entire street was blocked off, so only the few people living here could be in this area.

Dan, Ellen & Tom

My mom took a lot of photos of the fireworks. One misfired and landed about 75 feet away, which scared her. She went into “fire marshal” detail to make sure the burning embers were out. They said the show was quite spectacular, especially considering this is a town of 1200 people (during the off-season). I will have to take their word for it, as I refused to come out of the RV until after 1:00am. That’s how long it took before everyone in the area stopped shooting off more fireworks after the town’s show ended.

Enjoy the photos!

the beginning

red, white & blue

the finale

Thanks for following along everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, and less scary, 4th of July! Until next time!

Quote for the day: “The United States is the only country with a known birthday.” – James G Blaine

Whitewater Rafting and Big Sky Country

Posted on July 1, 2015 by liv2rv

We decided to take advantage of a few freebies with our coupon book before they expired, and headed up to Big Sky, Montana (about 40 miles north) for a full day of playing tourist. Our pass for Montana Whitewater offered two options: a zipline tour, or whitewater rafting. When I first mentioned to Dan that I would like to try Whitewater Rafting, he was very surprised, as I do not swim. However, I knew I would feel a lot safer in a boat, with multiple people, a helmet and life jacket than zipping over trees held on by nothing more than small cable. The company offers several different tours , and we opted for the less challenging 1/2 day on the Gallatin River with Class 2-3 rapids.

If you want to go whitewater rafter, the earlier in the season, the better the water will be, in terms of water level and speed of the water. After mid-June, you will not really encounter much “rapids”, and the company will offer river tubing tours. So the earlier you can go, the more challenging it will be. Of course, the earlier you go, the colder the water temperature is! In our case, it was a brisk 40 degrees, so every splash was a bit refreshing!

There were three rafts in our group. The guides give a lot of safety instructions, and you practice your strokes as a group. Then each raft is on its own with a guide, going down the river, for the next 90 minutes or so.

the calm before the rocks

We bounced off a few rocks, and our guide Nicole, informed us she is an ‘equal opportunity splasher’, and she would turn the boat in different directions so we all got wet. Fortunately, this tour company provided free wetsuits and neoprene boots, which helped, but it was still chilly.

There were areas of calm water, followed by rocky, fast-moving water, which made for a fun morning. Enjoy our little sequence where we all got wet!

Our group

The Gallatin River runs along Highway 191, and the scenery is very beautiful.

a small waterfall behind us

watch out for the rocks!

We had a great time with Montana Whitewater, and would definitely recommend this company. The cost for a 1/2 day tour is $55.00 per person, and does include wetsuits. There are other tour companies, but they charge you extra for the suits. If you go early in the year, you definitely want to have them. We had free passes, but this was definitely something we would pay for with this company.

We stopped along the river for a quick picnic lunch, then headed into the city of Big Sky. On our drive in, we saw a sign for Lone Peak Brewery, so we decided to stop in and sample some of their local brews. Our 5 sampler came on a mini ski!

snow ski sampler!

Of the beers that we sampled, we liked two, Hippy Highway Oatmeal Stout, and a bourbon beer that was finished off for several weeks in a used bourbon barrel. Unfortunately, they do not can or bottle either of these two flavors. So if you want to try them, you will have to come to the brewery!

We continued on to the Big Sky Resort, for our complimentary scenic ski lift ride ($16/adults) from Mountain Village (7500 feet) to Swift Peak (8800 feet). There is an additional tram that will take you to the top of Lone Peak (11,000 feet), but we did not have time for that tour. The lift was very quiet, and took about 15 minutes to get to the top. I found that staring at my feet helped with the heights!

don’t look down!

Lone Peak 11000 feet

In the summer, the trails open up for hiking and cycling, and they have special lifts to take the bikes to the top.

bicycle chair lift

Even though we did not go to the top, it was still a beautiful view of the mountains.

Lone Peak double diamond trails

You can see the city of Big Sky down below.

Big Sky country

A view of the resort area coming down on the chair lift.

closer look at the resort area

For those that love skiing, there are many trails for all abilities.

After our quick tour, we headed over to 320 Guest Ranch for our complimentary Pig Roast which they have on Mondays in the summer. For $15, you get a pulled pork sandwich, coleslaw, potato salad, beans and a cookie. While the ranch itself is very nice, we were happy that we did not have to pay for the meal. This went into our “glad it was free” category.

We enjoyed our time Big Sky. It is a wonderful, and growing city.

Quote for the day: “When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come.” – Leonardo DaVinci

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Monthly Archives: July 2015