Yakima - Haze is Lifting

Arrived in Yakima yesterday. During most of the drive, the haze was so thick you couldn't see the mountains. Visibility was less than a mile.

This morning, while the smell of smoke is in the air, the haze seems to be dissipating. I can see the face of the moon and clouds.

During the drive, a rock chipped the truck's front window. Was able to go online with my smartphone, schedule an appointment with Safelite, and have the claim approved by Farmers Insurance before we arrived at our campsite. Twenty years ago, this would have taken weeks. Actually, I probably wouldn't make the claim because of the hassle factor. Technology can make your life easier. Take that Ted Kaczynski..

Status Update - Boise

Since a few people have asked about the fires.

Currently, we are in Boise. It is pretty smoky here. Worse than it was in Canmore, AB. The haze has held the temperatures down below 90. The sun and moon are dim orange balls. There is a front with rain coming through the next couple of days which should help fight the fires.

When we left Utah, it was pretty clear. There were only two fires, both north of Salt Lake City.

Our plan is to go to Seattle, then turn south to follow the coast. We'll make a decision as to whether to change our route while in Yakima.

Hurricane Harvey Volunteer Opportunities

The following is a list of various organizations around the Houston area seeking volunteers to help with the Hurricane Harvey recovery.

• Volunteer Houston has a  Virtual Volunteer Reception Center that matches volunteers with agencies providing disaster relief.
• National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters has created a website to sign up to volunteer 
• Volunteer Louisiana has created a webpage for volunteer opportunities and for making cash donations. 
• The Houston Food Bank needs food, water and supplies.
• Help Houston has created a webpage of shelters that need volunteers (some shelters have reached capacity, so call ahead to check).
• A Hurricane Harvey 2017 Facebook page has been created to coordinate and correspond with other volunteers. There are over 125,000 members
• A group of volunteers has created the Hurricane Harvey Relief and Volunteer Opportunities Map to find volunteer opportunities, shelters, resource drop-off locations, medical aid and other relief efforts.
• Call 281-656-1533, a hotline for Volunteer Houston, to find volunteer opportunities

How to Help Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts

Being from Houston, I am pained by the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Looking to help, I began gathering a list of organizations focused on the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Because I have seen numerous posts from people seeking similar information, I decided to post this list and share with anyone interested.

I will be updating this list over time. Currently, it focuses on the Houston metropolitan area. I plan to expand it to include the Rockport area, Beaumont/Orange area, and western Louisiana. Click on the underlined name to go to the related site.

While organizations like the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army are dong great work helping the victims of Hurricane Harvey, I have tried to focus on organizations based in the area. If you know of any groups in the area I have not listed, message me. 

Cash

It is counter intuitive, but cash donations may provide the greatest leverage for helping people. The reason is relief organizations can purchase goods in bulk at a discount. In addition, a nonprofit does not have to pay sales tax on items it purchases. There are many fine organizations working to assist with the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The following is a brief list of some of these organizations. 

• Houston Food Bank
• Galveston County Food Bank
• Corpus Christi Food Bank
• Coastal Bend Recover Group - Regional nonprofit that addresses the unmet needs of Coastal Bend area residents affected by disaster
• Texas Diaper Bank - Federal relief does not include diapers
• Greater Houston Community Foundation - Established by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for Houston area victims affected by the floods
• United Way of Greater Houston - 100% of donations goes to help victims in the Greater Houston Area. You can designate the county in which the funds are spent.
• Coalition for the Homeless - Houston area organization helps homeless people get back into housing.

Amazon Wish Lists

If you're like me, you prefer giving goods to specific organizations to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. These are some of the Amazon wish lists I have identified:

• Austin Pets Alive
• SPCA of Texas
• Animal Defense League of Texas
• Refugee Services of Texas
• Texas Diaper Bank
• Pughearts of Houston - Full Disclosure - Deb and I are active with this group, and fostered several pugs through the group before we went full time. The goods are being collected to help volunteers and the pugs they are fostering who are victims of Hurricane Harvey.
• Wolfe Elementary - School located in Katy, Texas providing shelter for displaced individuals
• Abundant Life Christian Center - LaMarque area church providing relief efforts to the area.
• George R Brown Convention Center - One of the largest shelters on the Houston area
• Port Aransas Hurricane Relief - A crowdfunding relief effort organized by Nathan Clark, a Port Aransaas resident and business owner

Disaster Averted. I WAS WRONG

Yesterday, while driving from Salt Lake City to Mountain View, Idaho to watch the eclipse, Deb noticed the 5^th wheel was leaning far to the driver side. I thought it wasn’t a big deal; she did. I was wrong. Let me repeat that – I WAS WRONG. One of the leaf springs had broken off the suspension.

We were only 2 miles away from the RV dealer/repair shop next to the RV park we had camped in, and we were able to get there before anything else happened. Further inspection found that a bracket on one of the leaf springs had broken and the leaf spring had twisted. That surprised me because we had replaced the leaf springs the week before. From talking to the person who replaced the springs and the head of the repair shop at the RV dealer, I realized our suspension was not strong enough for our trailer. The trailer weighs around 18,500 pounds, and the suspension was designed for a maximum of 14,000 pounds. That explained why we had had so much trouble with parts of the suspension breaking.

We have to replace the suspension. It will take about two weeks for the parts to get here. We are upgrading to 20,000 pound independent suspension. During that time we will remain in SLC. Have had to cancel our stops fpr the next couple of weeks. I t looks like we will not make it to British Columbia this trip.

We are fortunate on many fronts. (1) We could move the trailer to the RV park next door by replacing the leaf spring. (2) The RV park worked with us to find a space for our trailer for two week, so we can stay in our trailer while we waited for the part. (3) We didn’t break down in the middle of the nowhere, and are safe. (4) We can afford the cost to replace the suspension.

Trying to figure out if we can get up to Idaho to see the eclipse. It looks like hotel prices have started to come down. And we have a parking pass in Smiths Ferry to watch the eclipse. We may drive up to Boise on Sunday, then to Smiths Ferry the next day. Won’t decide until later today.

Island Falls, Idaho to Mossleigh, Alberta (7/3 – 7/9)

Driving from Yellowstone to Alberta, we would have preferred to stop once at Great Falls, MT before crossing the border. We had to leave the park near Yellowstone on July 3 because it was fully booked beginning that day. Unfortunately, none of the parks near Great Falls were available until July 4. I was able to find a spot in Bozeman, MT which is about halfway between Yellowstone and Great Falls. While staying in Bozeman was unintended, it worked out for the best as we were able to have dinner with and catch up Aaron Howard, a 2014 New Finalist who had camped with us, and his girlfriend Sarah.

We liked Bozeman. Although about the size of Kerrville (population of around 38,000), the city is thriving with many of the amenities you would expect in a much larger community. Specifically surprising to me – a Costco. According to Aaron and Sarah, the presence of major information companies like Google and Facebook is a major factor for Bozeman’s growth. Montana State University is there, which has several renowned science related programs

Since the drive from Island Falls to Bozeman was relatively short, less than 1.5 hours, I had time in Bozeman to take the Beast to the Ford dealership to have its 60,000 mile oil change. Incredible to think that during the less than two years we have owned the truck we have travelled that much.

The next day, July 4, we drove to Great Falls to stay for three days to stock up on goods and supplies which were less expensive in the States. While slightly larger than Bozeman, Great Falls felt very different. It is a mining and refinery town, as evidenced by the main street being named Smelter Avenue. Surprisingly, the town had very little 4^th of July activities going on.

Friday, July 7 we headed to Lethbridge, Alberta for the night. Crossing the border into Canada was less eventful than the first time. No questions about “Where are your guns? Where did you store them?” Instead just some perfunctory questions about the reasons for visiting, length of our stay, and how did Deb end up in the States.

Why Lethbridge you ask? To see John Wort Hannam perform. John was a New Folk contestant and winner in 2007. He claims he would not have won except for us. At the time, John was living in Fort Macleod, Alberta, smaller than the average attendance of the Festival. When he walked into the Mixmaster, the entrance to the Festival campgrounds, John was overwhelmed by the number of people and activity. He sat down on his luggage, called his wife, and told her he couldn’t do the contest and had to return home. She told him that was fine but he had to go down to our camp to tell us he would not be staying with us. Being a good husband, John did as he was told. When he appeared at our camp, I greeted him with a welcome hug and asked if he needed a beer. That apparently was enough to convince him to stay around for a while.

We were excited to be able to see John perform. We hadn’t seen him in over 6 years, just before the birth of his son, Charlie. We thought the show was to be a concert with John as the headliner – we were wrong. It was a musical theater revue with a salute to Canada’s 150^th anniversary as the theme with John as the musical guest. They asked for a show of hands as to who was not from Canada. Of the three, I was the only native born U.S. citizen. They were surprised we were from Texas, and more so when we said the reason we were there was to watch John perform, and for cooler weather which they had failed miserably at since it was a high of 101 that day. John performed two songs during each of the two acts, but only one was an original. The others, at the request of the revue, were covers of Canadian artists. As one of the songs was Four Strong Winds by Ian Tyson, Deb’s dad’s favorite song, they were forgiven. At intermission, we found someone to tell John we were in the audience. He came bounding out like a puppy for a snack. He told us he had heard some people from Texas were in the audience but never in his wildest imagination did he think it would be us. We talked to him during intermission and after the show, and set up breakfast the next morning to meet his wife and son.

Breakfast the next day was outstanding. Catching up with John and getting to know his wife and son was a great joy. For those of you who are John Wort Hannam fans, he is planning to record a new album later this year. Also, the Italian sausage breakfast sandwich I had was incredible, putting a Whataburger Breakfast on a Bun to shame. After breakfast, we returned to the trailer, packed up and drove to Mossleigh, Alberta. More about that in the next post.

Custer to Yellowstone (6/25 – 7/3)

The time to drive directly from Custer to Yellowstone is around 10 hours. As we prefer our drives to be between 3 to 5 hours with a maximum of 8 hours, we decided to break the drive into three parts.

The first stop was Devil’s Tower, WY. Devil’s Tower National Monument was the first declared National Monument. You may remember it as a key plot feature in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (For fans, in September, the movie will be re-released for its 40th anniversary http://io9.gizmodo.com/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-is-flying-back-into-1796651191

Our campground (the KOA Devils' Tower) was next to the gate to the monument. After setting up the 5th wheel, we visited the monument and walked around it. Devil’s Tower is a sacred site to several Indian tribes. During our walk we saw numerous prayer bundles, which represent a person making an offering, a request, or simply in remembrance of a person or place. Climbing is a very popular activity at Devil’s Tower. As June is a culturally significant time to the tribes for which the butte is sacred, the National Park Service asks visitors to voluntarily refrain from climbing Devil’s Tower during the month.

We left Devil’s Tower the next day to stop in Billings and stock up before driving to Yellowstone. Billings is the fastest growing city in Montana, and the only city in the state with over 100,000 people. William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped in Billings in 1806. Since we were only there for a night, we didn’t get to see much of the city. However, I can see visiting in the future to see sites like Pompey Pillar and Pictograph Cave.

From Billings, we drove to Valley View RV Park in Island Park, ID, which is about 30 minutes west of Yellowstone National Park. It was the nearest place we could find that close to the 4^th of July holiday weekend. Because specific sites had been booked at different times halfway through our stay we had to move to a different site. That move led to a slight hiccup to our plans to be at Yellowstone by 9.

We were able to raise the stabilizers hook up to the truck, move 50 yards to the new spot, lower the stabilizers, and unhook. Then the challenge arrived. After Deb pressed the autostabilizer button, the front stabilizers lowered Beauty (the nickname of our 5^th wheel), stopped, then began making a loud clicking sound. As you can imagine, that is not supposed to happen. Checking the control panel, I saw a “low voltage” error message. I did a Google search for “LCI electronic leveling low voltage” and found that the culprit could possibly be a shorted out control panel or a loose wire in the system. Neither of those problems were ones I could repair. Talked to the park manager, who gave me the card of a mobile RV repair technician.

Called and left a message for Randy. His greeting noted that he often was in places with no cell coverage and it might be a while until he returned the call. While waiting for Randy to call back, we tried several different things to no avail. After 30 minutes, Randy called back to say he could fit us in but would have to charge a premium since it was a Saturday and he was trying to get home. Considering living in an unlevel 5^th wheel is no fun, I told him I understood and would happily pay. He told me he would probably be at our spot in two hours.

Relief that a possible solution was found apparently opened my mind to thinking. After ending the call, I went to the trailer’s battery storage area and inspected the cables. I found that one of the connections had become loose. I tightened the connection by hand, then tried the autostabilizer. It worked. Can I get a Hallelujah and an Amen. Relief swept over me. Deb was much happier. I immediately called Randy to tell him I found a solution. Again, reached his greeting. He called back ten minutes later and was very gracious. Before hanging up he asked me to thank the Valley View managers for him. I told him I had already done so, and that they loved him.

As for Yellowstone National Park, what an amazing place. After visiting I can easily understand why Theodore Roosevelt worked so hard make it the United States’ first National Park. The variety of topology and the vistas are majestic.

Yellowstone has the largest population (approximately 5,500) of free range Bison in the United States. It is the only place where Bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. Bison are very quick and agile animals. The Park Service tells visitors to stay at least 25 yards away when viewing a Bison. However, many Yellowstone Bison don’t know this rule.

It appears that Bison have become so used to people in the park that they pretty much understand that they have the right of way.

During our visit, we saw all the required highlights:

Old Faithful

Waterfalls

Mud Volcanoes

Crossed the Continental Divide twice

That is a little bit of a taste of our trip. Next week, we will be on the road to Canada.

Happy Independence Day

While 4th of July is celebrated as Independence Day, it is also Independence Day for me and Deb. As the country celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence at the Second Continental Congress by 12 of the 13 colonies by blowing things up, drinking beer, grilling hot dogs, and eating apple pie, Deb and I are celebrating our own freedom from tyranny - the tyranny of things, of work, of of living a life controlled by others. Two years ago today, we decided to get rid of our stuff, buy a RV, and travel the country. It was both a difficult and easy decision, and has been one of the best things we have ever done. While you are watching firecrackers and eating hot dogs, Deb and I will be toasting the freedom of the past two years, and the adventures to come - on the road.

Transit and the South Dakota Black Hills (6/18 - 6/26)

The first half of this week was spent preparing for our trip and making the transit from Houston to Custer, SD. Preparing means stocking up at Costco and HEB.

The Transit to Custer took almost 20 hours over 3 days. Stops included Oklahoma City and Ogallala, NE. The trip was fairly uneventful except for temperatures reaching 104 degrees on the drive through Nebraska.

In Custer, we are staying at Broken Arrow Horse Camp and RV Park. About half the campers here are horse owners who have brought their horses to ride in the country. This is the first time Pancho and Lefty have met horses. They seem to think horses are just larger dogs.

Friday was my birthday. Many of you wished me to have a great day, and I did. We started the day with a hearty breakfast at Skogen Kitchen, a fairly new restaurant. We then drove to Mount Rushmore National Monument. As most of you know, Mount Rushmore is comprised of four 60 foot busts of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Gutzon Borglum designed the monument and oversaw its construction, which started in 1927 and was completed in 1941. The Lincon Borglum Visitor Center houses a museum with exhibits that tell the story of Gutzon Borglum, the creation of Mount Rushmore and the workers who helped. Outside the Visitor Center is a terrace with a view of the monument. The Visitor Center is the start and end of the Presidential Trail, a .6 mile loop that takes you closer to the monument.

Following Mount Rushmore, we drove back towards Custer to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. The Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's largest mountain carving n progress. When completed, it will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. Crazy Horse's face, which was completed in 1998, is 87.5 feet high. For reference, each of the heads on Mount Rushmore is 60 feet high. If you don't know, Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota war leader who defeated General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. In 1939, Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota Elder, wrote Korczak Ziolkowski, who was working on the Mount Rushmore memorial under Gutzon Borglum, inviting him to create a mountain tribute to North American Indians after reading that he had won first prize for his Carrara marble portrait, “PADEREWSKI, Study of an Immortal,” at the New York World’s Fair  It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization, and receives no federal or state funding. In addition to the mountain carving, the memorial master plan includes an Indian University of North America, an Indian Museum of North America, and a Native American Cultural Center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota.

This a link to an album of photos from Mount Rushmore and the Cray Horse Memorial

We ended my birthday by walking around downtown Custer and eating dinner at Black Hills Burger and Bun. Throughout downtown Custer is a series of painted Buffalo statues which were installed as  part of the Custer Stampede Buffalo Art Auction. Here is a link to pictures of some of the statues. AS for the burger, it was outstanding (one of the best I have ever had), a good way to end my birthday.

On Saturday, Deb and I visited the Jewel Cave National Monument. With 181.89 miles (292.72 kilometers) of mapped passageways, Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world, after Mammoth Cave System in Kentucky and Sistema Sac Actun at the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico). It is estimated the discovered areas in the cave account for only about 3 to 5% of the estimated total air volume of the cave. The cave volume is estimated by measuring the amount of air that the cave "exhales" when the outside air pressure drops and "inhales" when the outside air pressure rises.

Jewel Cave is a popular tourist attraction. When we arrived at 9, the earliest available tour was 11:40. We opted for a 1:00 pm tour and went off to traverse the Wildlife Loop at Custer State Park. Before leaving, we had to have our shoes disinfected for white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease that affects North American Bats, since we had been to a cave infected with the disease within the past year.

The Custer State Park Wildlife loop is an 18 mile paved trail through pine-covered hills, rolling prairies and red-walled canyons where you can see a variety of plains animals including bison, prairie dogs, pronghorn, white tail deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and burros. That day, the drive was pretty uneventful as we saw only pronghorn deer, prairie dogs, and burros - no bison. The burros are descendants of a pack that used to lead rides through the park. The burros are very docile, and while you are not supposed to feed them we did.

At Jewel Cave, we took  the Scenic Tour, a half-mile loop including 723 stair steps that showcase some of the best features of the cave. 95% of the known cave walls is covered calcite crystals. One of the highlights of the tour is a 10 foot strip of cave bacon, a form of flowstone, which is the longest in the world. 

An album with photos from Saturday can be found at this link.

Sunday, we visited Wind Cave National Park. Established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the seventh national park, and the first cave designated a national park anywhere. Wind Cave is currently the sixth-longest cave in the world with 140.47 miles (226.06 km) of explored cave passageways. Like Jewel Cave, it is estimated less than 5% of the cave has been explored. Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed-grass prairie in the United States.

Wind Cave was the first cave where boxwork, intersecting paper-thin calcite fins which form open chambers and protrude from the surrounding bedrock by amounts ranging from 1-1/2 to 3 feet, was found. 95% of all boxwork is located in Wind Cave.  To the Lakota Indians, Wind Cave is sacred as the place where they emerged from the spirit world to the natural world. 

The following link is an album of pictures from our visit to Wind Cave.

Today was a slow day for us. After a breakfast of fried eggs and green chili, Deb and I drove to Trout Haven Ranch, a rainbow trout farm that offers a pay for what you catch fishing hole. Deb had never been fishing before, so it seemed like fun. Using a cane pole, we caught 6 fish over an hour. While the hosts cleaned them we took a tour of the trout farm. 

On the return drive, we drove through Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park. This time we were lucky as we were able to observe a herd of bison along the park road.

The following link is an album of pictures from our visit to Trout Haven Ranch, drive through Custer State Park, and our rainbow trout dinner.

Overall, Deb and I are glad we came to the Black Hills. It is beautiful country with many things to do. To be honest, I was surprised as to how much there was to do, and we just barely scratched the surface.

Does anyone want a postcard from Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse Memorial? Leave a comment to the blog post as to which one you want, and I will randomly select people to send one to.

Finally, I received a call today that I have squamous cell skin cancer. It is the second most common form of cancer and very treatable I will be flying to Houston in two weeks to have it removed. While a slight hiccup to the travel, we will keep plugging.

Tomorrow, we leave for Yellowstone National Park.

Until next time, like Charles Kuralt, we will see you on the road.

Season Four (Summer/Fall 2017)

Deb and I are preparing to start our fourth season of our U.S. road trip. For Summer/Fall 2017, we will be traveling around the Western Plains States, Northwest U.S., and Western Canada. Our first stop - Custer, SD to see Mount Rushmore. Then we start roaming.

To help plan our trip, I have some questions for you:

• If we can go to only one Canadian Folk Music Festival, which one should we attend?
• Rodeo – Calgary Stampede or Cheyenne Frontier Days
• Should we visit Saskatchewan?

I describe this adventure as “I have seen places I have always wanted to see and places I did not know I wanted to see.” What are the unique and offbeat places in this region that I do not know that I want to see?

The number of people who tell me they have enjoyed the posts of our travels and are living vicariously through us surprises me. I am flattered that you are interested enough to take a few minutes out of your day to check on us while we have the time of our lives. Thank you.

To paraphrase Charles Kuralt – We hope to see you on the road