Changes

So, after a stop in Denver so that Thomas could attend a programming conference, we decided some changes were in order.

In short - we decided to stop RVing and head home.

There were 3 main reasons (and one lesser one) why we decided to do this

Death-Wobbles 

No, we didn't crash or overturn the trailer....but back in Texas, we got a damn scary ride.

Travel trailers are known to have trouble with "Trailer Sway"...usually from poorly loading the trailer or having an under-powered tow vehicle.  Extreme "Trailer Sway" is frequently termed a "Death-Wobble". While this video is not of our rig, and we were able to pull out of it before having the horrifying ending that this one had, we included it to illustrate what an extreme case of trailer sway can do.

Normally one activates the trailer brakes to stop the wobble.  But, in our case, the driver was fighting to keep control (with both hands on the steering wheel) - they couldn't reach down to activate the trailer brakes. We easily got to the 12 second mark in the video.  Luckily the driver was excellent: they reduced speed, kept control and drove out of the Death-wobble.

So no crash or overturned trailer....but one nightmarish ride.  We also broke most of our dishes and caused one heck of mess that required cleaning.  

We can attest to the fact that Death-Wobbles are not always caused by poorly loaded trailers or an under-powered tow vehicle.

No, our Death-Wobble came from an attempt at being proactive.  We bought new tires for Watson, our tow vehicle.  We were in Texas and noticed the tread on the tires were getting worn. We wanted to be safe, so we put on new tires with lots of tread.

Unfortunately, even though we specified that we were full-timing (pulling an RV) we might've gotten the wrong tires.  These tires had a lot of tread on them, so much so that the truck could move with the tread staying in place - something called Tread Squirm - and that's before we were pulling a trailer and dealing with wind, passing tractor-trailers and other fun things.

How do we know it was the tires?  We got this great mechanic to look at the truck for suspension issues, wheel alignment.  In short, to look for anything that could be wrong.  He checked it out (no charge) and found nothing wrong.  He did mention that the newly installed tires could be the problem.

So we went to an affiliated tire shop of the place were we bought our tires.  (We were over 500 miles from where we bought the tires and the original store chain wasn't in this state).  They agreed that we were seeing some tread squirm with the new tires.  They assured us that it would probably go away after a bit, but could not give us a timeline of when the problem would go away (and we had already traveled over 500 miles on these tires.)

They did point out a set of Michelin tires that would fix the problem (for an increased cost).  We had no problems paying to fix the problem - and we never had trouble with Death-Wobbles again.

But our confidence in towing was totally shattered.

Altitude

We visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (awesome!).  This is roughly 9000 ft above sea level, which is way higher than Floridians are used to (average height roughly 50 ft).  If you're in great shape, this probably isn't a problem.

However, if you have what your doctor calls moderate-to-severe asthma - being that high up (and staying for a week or so) may cause nausea and head-aches (but it's worth it to see the Grand Canyon and bison!).

Of course, after we left the Grand Canyon - we traveled north through Nevada, staying at a number of small campgrounds that were also above 5000 ft.  Sometimes we stayed several days at these campgrounds.  

Eventually, we ended up in West Wendover, NM (right next door to the Bonneville Salt Flats).  It's not at 5000 ft but it is above 4000 ft.  And if you have ignored your body's warning signs of headaches and nausea because you've stayed at high altitudes for several weeks - your body decides to get serious in showing its displeasure.

In Shanon's case; her Blood Pressure decided to go up.  It went to a nice 180/90.  

No, no, that can't be right.  Take it again.  185/90.

Did we mention how small West Wendover is?  (Population 4,410).  It doesn't have a hospital.  It was past 5:00 pm (and we weren't sure it had an emergency clinic.)  Besides, the batteries in the blood pressure cuff could be bad.  

The local grocery store did have a pharmacist and a blood pressure machine there on site to verify our cheap wrist unit.

Their machine read 190/95.

We talked to the pharmacist who recommended waiting a bit and if it was still high; calling paramedics.  We waited, continued testing and yes, called the paramedics.  Their reading was 200/100.

The nearest hospital is in Salt Lake City and is over two hours away.  Not fun, but with BP climbing it seemed to be the safest option.  Ultimately they gave Shanon some oxygen and got her BP under control and doctors pointed out that this was due to altitude sickness.

The cure?  Don't go so high.

Shanon reorganized the rest of the trip so we could avoid altitudes above 4000 ft.  

It worked, but we missed out on seeing some things we really wanted to see and generally put a dampener on the trip and RVing in general

Family

So while we're enjoying our chance to see the world and discover that "next-door" in New Mexico is like a 50 mile drive, we were keeping in touch with our family back home, often on a daily basis.

Shanon is a certified Medical Assistant.  She reads through the doctor reports and generally keeps an eye on the health of her family members.

So, as we were traveling, some members our family back home developed some temporary medical issues. Shanon tried to keep on top of what was happening; but even with daily phone calls and instant messaging, trying to discern medical issues remotely is difficult.

Not being able to offer in-person assistance is worse.  It's frustrating when you're not able to be there for your loved ones.  

Publix

Okay, we'll admit that Wegman's is awesome.  And there's a restaurant near Mt. Rushmore named Wooly's that offers fantastic steaks.

But that all said - there is frustration when you can't get known creature comforts - even if it is just a Publix sub.

Not to mention the struggle of locating a good grocery store in each  new place, then taking a long time to shop and ultimately forgetting things that you need because you don't know where anything is.

Now, a supermarket isn't a reason to stop RVing....but it (and the other things we knew and loved around Orlando) is a nice benefit.

So what next?

So we decided to stop RVing and return home to Florida.  But we still had over a month of planned stops we wanted to do: people and places to see.  Check out our next post to see the details!

Montana, ND, SD, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois

So we left Canada to head back to Montana.  Border crossing was easy and we stayed in three separate places in Montana as we crossed the state from west to east.  (Yes, it's that big)  Some of these campgrounds were fairly small and doubled as farms. 

Burros?  Mules?  They were part of our campground

As were ducks, chicken and geese.

Not that everyone stayed where they were supposed to

So if I've delayed posting a bit - it's because it was fairly uneventful.   As we spent our last night in Montana, a neighbor asked where we headed next.  We mentioned North Dakota.  He replied "I'm sorry."

We did see lots of oil wells in North Dakota (mostly from the flames of the burning gasses).  We didn't take many photos.

From North Dakota, we headed to South Dakota.  Uneventful except we got to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead.  (This is great if you are into Laura Ingalls Wilder...or have a partner who is)  It's  interesting to note all of the references and descendants. 

Also in South Dakota, we headed out to see Mount Rushmore and got to see the Dignity Statue along the way.

Dignity Statue

Mount Rushmore is at a bit of elevation, so to prevent altitude sickness - we parked Moriarty (the Arctic Fox) and traveled over in Watson (the truck) to see it.  It was a 4 hour drive from the campground. 

But Mount Rushmore is worth seeing.  They do a night-time ceremony where they honor the servicemen and light-up the mountain side with spotlights.  Late in the evening - if you watch closely, you can see bats flying in and out of the spotlights.

Mount Rushmore - at night

After South Dakota, we passed through Minnesota, Wisconsin and into Illinois to get close to Chicago.  We had planned to visit a bit of Chicago but weather unforuately made this difficult.

We are currently planning on travelling west again - through Iowa, Nebraska and eventually to Colorado to get Thomas to a conference in Denver. 

Oh Canada!

So this post is going to highlight our adventures in Canada.

The first thing you have to remember when you're going into Canada is that you're crossing a country border, which means you are going to go through Customs.  Just for the record - it's better to remember this BEFORE you go shopping for the week - as some foodstuffs are not allowed through the border.

If you happen to forget - you can do as we did and return a large shopping basket of items to the grocery store.   This gives you the karma that you need to meet a nice Canada Customs Official that basically waives your through (great - but now we needed to go shopping again.  Sigh.)

But in all seriousness - the Canadian Customs Official was great and we had heard of much rougher border crossings.

We drove from Idaho into Cranbrook, British Columbia where they were building a brand new KOA at St. Eugene's Casino.  The park is absolutely beautiful and I don't think the photos can do it justice.

Look at those mountains

Watson and Moriarty

And a casino/hotel

And this was the river that ran along the park

St. Eugene's is a beautiful park.

It's also a new park.

We lost power the first night.  Actually everyone lost power the first night.  Apparently an 800 amp fuse blew somewhere and they had to track down a spare at 5:00 pm (it was still light outside).  For RVers in 70 degree weather - this isn't huge hardship but it is annoying.  They did get it back up and running before midnight.

We did mention that they use metric up there, right?   So all the road signs, etc. were in kilometer's per hour.  We changed our GPS to metric and could follow along perfectly.

But the hardest problem we had - was that our internet solutions we use in the States simply did not work in Canada.  Worse, our phones are normally our backup plans but Thomas had only limited calling capacity (and no internet) and Shanon's phone was providing only spotty internet.  Suddenly we were trying to depend on RV parks for internet...(Or Tim Horton's....or wherever)...and all of those solutions seemed to be spotty at best.

Frankly none of these solutions were satisfactory.   It's one of the reasons why this blog has been delayed.

From British Columbia we traveled to Calgary, Alberta - home of the Calgary Stampede.  We actually choose to travel there the week AFTER the stampede to avoid the crowds.  We don't have pictures of the campground oddly called Mountain View - because while British Columbia had lots of mountains - Calgary is flat (and we didn't see any mountains).  Thomas hoped that the RV park in Calgary would have better internet.

Nope.  Actually they were even worse.

We did some sight-seeing in Calgary though: travelling to both a dinosaur museum (sorry, no pictures of the museum but we did see a prairie dog) and and overnight stay at Banff.  Thomas thought he had remembered seeing Banff from a Boy Scout World Jamboree - but it was 30 years ago and some of his memories didn't align.

Prairie Dog at Museum
"I know the sign says not to feed me...but have you got any food?"

Banff is very pretty.  It's a small mountain town with tight roads and limited parking.  We didn't take Moriarty (Arctic Fox) with us and were glad we didn't.

On the way to Banff

Mountain view in Banff

View from Sulphur Mountain (after taking a gondola ride to top)

Banff was beautiful...but high up in the mountains.  Altitude had affected both Thomas and Shanon back at the Grand Canyon - so we wanted to keep this trip short.

After all of that - we were ready for a return to the states (and internet)...Montana - our next post!

Idaho and Oregon!

Heading north from Salt Lake City, we traveled to Glenn's Ferry, Idaho.  A small town with a famous 3 island crossing for the Oregon Trail.  (Comments can be made on how Thomas died).  It includes a small museum covering the settlers that traveled the trail and the natives that actually often helped them cross.  The settlers had to decide if they were willing to risk of crossing the river here, trying a longer route or stay put for the winter.

Snake River - and 3 Island Crossing

The undercarriage - including the springs - is surprisingly complex

We stayed a combination winery / RV park.  The winery was okay and the park was relatively empty and very nice.  Everything was great...

Everything was great...until Friday (we left the next day) when our tempting idea of staying at a winery showed it's true colors.  Apparently the park was fairly quiet Monday-Thursday, but a number of people decided to camp at the winery over the weekend.  They also tried their wares and not everyone succeeded their Constitution checks. A few shouting voices in the evening and we were glad to leave the next day.

We shuffled our way between Idaho and Oregon heading north to Canada.  Some notable stops include The World Center for Birds of Prey.  (Home of the Peregrine Falcon Fund)   They had a number of birds on display.

Swainson's Hawk

A Gyrfalcon - "Leave me alone, I'm eating!"

A Harpy Eagle - look at those talons!

"I said - LOOK AT MY TALONS!"

An Eagle-Owl
"Who?"

We also stopped by a small quiet tranquil Japanese Garden. - wonderful for calming nerves (particularly good for memories of winery guests)

But we really wanted to visit Canada - that's our next post!

Ely, NM, Wendover, NM, and Salt Lake City, Utah

So after the Grand Canyon our trip got a bit quieter.

Ely, NM is a quiet, peaceful campground in north NM.  It's cooler than Las Vegas but that's partly due to it's elevation.  There wasn't much there to do or see.

Wendover, NM is only about 2 hours from Salt Lake City, Utah.  (But still Nevada...so lots of Casinos and other sinful stuff).

The cool part of Wendover is that it's (practically) home to the Bonneville Salt Flats  (yeah, Utah claims to be home...but I think Wendover has them beat.)

But if it's not speed week at Wendover - it turns into a quiet little town.  (We couldn't arrange to be there when they were doing speed runs).

Salt Flats directly ahead

Salt Flats

You can go out on the flats - but it's at your own risk.   We thought about taking Watson and Moriarty and seeing how fast we could go....but....decided not to.

Salt Lake City, Utah  We actually stayed in Draper (just south of Salt Lake City).  But you can definitely visit and see the Great Salt Lake.  I didn't get any photos and we didn't visit long.  

People have talked about swimming in Great Salt Lake.  Some have.  Apparently it's known for the salt reminding you of very single cut/scrape you have ever gotten.  We decided NOT to swim.

But we did briefly visit....and the other thing Great Salt Lake is known for is it's black flies.  We can attest to their presence - we stopped for a total of 15 minutes, tops.  There were no flies to start...and we were fighting them before we left.   They didn't seem to bite (which was good)...but they were everywhere.

Draper at least allowed us to get more civilization; we could easily shop and get supplies and wasn't as terribly as hot as Las Vegas.  However we still were higher up than we liked (4500') and still wanted to head north.   Next town is Glenn's Ferry, Idaho.  It's lower and we're hoping it's cooler.

Grand Canyon - North Rim

Our trip has had some trials and tribulations.  Some things have gone well...others, not so much.

Today, in my opinion, this trip became worth it all.

First - let me state that our campground is a little higher than we estimated.  The local town, Fredonia, is approximately at 3500' elevation.

Our campground, Kaibab Camper Village is approximately 7500' elevation.

The North Rim elevation is 8297' (according to google) and we actually had to go up to 8820' on the way there.  The route is a bit...er...interesting.

We were just driving along...

and suddenly we're in a mountain pass

Eventually you feel on top of the world

Second - I strongly recommend a National Park Pass.  To get into the park it costs like $35. National Park Pass - and there was no cost.  (Between Carlsbad Cavern and Grand Canyon - this pass has paid for itself)

Would you believe the park ranger was from Daytona Beach (40 years)?

Third: Buffalo.

It's amazing (to me) that there were so many huge meadows up near the Grand Canyon.  So I figured there was probably cattle.

I did not expect Buffalo.  2 herds of buffalo to be exact.

And yes, I'm not crazy enough to get out of the car

And calves

Finally: The Canyon.  Photos just don't do it justice.

BTW: If you ever go to the Grand Canyon - I cannot recommend the North Rim enough.  According to our sources, it's cooler, less crowded and has more rainfall (for more trees and vegetation).

From here we're headed up to northern Nevada and eventually to Salt Lake City, Utah to try and find some cooler weather.

Leaving Las Vegas

So our travels took us to Las Vegas.  Our goals were to see the Hoover Dam and prepare for a trip to the Grand Canyon.  (Believe it or not - we didn't have any interest in casinos or "the strip".  We are weird tourists)

We did NOT drive over see Hoover Dam.

Why?

Well, to start with - Las Vegas is HOT.  106 degrees F.  (Friends recorded - after we left - a temperature of 114 degrees F).  Our campground had a pool which we looked at.  The pool desperately needed cleaning and was full of kids, thus, we did not use it. (Thomas went for a short swim - once.)

So, what did we do?

Thomas went flying.  Trike flying....and saw Hoover Dam from the air.

A trike is a powered-hang-glider.  Rather than sitting in a harness, you sit in a small carriage on three wheels.  It offers greater visibility than say a helicopter or airplane as you can lean over and look STRAIGHT DOWN. Here are some of the views:

A "created" lake for high-end homes

The drone-car facility was also on this lake (barely visible)

It feeds down to Las Vegas Bay (and into Hoover Dam)

Water levels are very low.

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam (different angle)

So after some flying and a lot of heat; we're headed offer to see the Grand Canyon - North Rim.  Stay tuned.