Still going

04 July 2018
The one important date of the whole trip has arrived. July 5th has been on the calendar for months and our trip so far has been determined by the need to get to Jackson, Wyoming on 5th July. Tonight at 2035 the girls should arrive after an arduous 22 hour trip from London via Dallas. They are due to spend 3 weeks with us in our tiny van heading north through the Tetons and Yellowstone to Glacier National Park on the Canadian border before heading west to Seattle. I’m well excited.

The availability of quality WiFi is still an issue with keeping up to date with the blogs so this time I have reduced the size of the pics and am sitting in the local library using their WiFi while Deb rearranges the RV to squeeze another couple of bodies in.

And so to the photos. There seems to be a lot of animals this time. We’ve got Buffalo/Bison, Pronghorns, Long Horn Sheep, Marmots, Moose, and osprey and a silly eejit sitting on a (I think) a Jackaroo

Oh and there was also a snake but I didn’t hang around to get a better picture.

We’ve had our first malted milkshake in a genuine proper old-fashioned diner/shop in the most deserted little town.

Deb is becoming an expert in finding great places to park and some of them are free

The scenery continues to impress

I’ve managed to keep running and have finally, I think, adapted to the altitude and don’t puff and wheeze as much. I don’t listen to my iPod because there’s often the risk of bears, But I do take my camera and…

Deb made us do a detour to Deadwood to tread in the footsteps of Calamity Jane but left disappointed when it turns out that she wasn’t the sweet young thing like in the film.

One little detour took us to a preserved city from the goldmining days. We’ve found that a lot of historical buildings have been torn down to make way for progress so to find something like this was worth diving down a dirt road

Of course, we couldn’t miss Mt Rushmore

And to bring it all up to date, the 4th July celebrations in Jackson were a blast.

Sorry about the brevity but something is better than nothing.

Oh, and come on England. We’ve not seen any footie since we’ve been here but I might try and find somewhere to watch the Sweden game.

Whoooosh.

26 July 2018
Three weeks have gone in a flash and the girls will soon be on a plane heading east to spend two weeks with the US family. As our current camping spot is on the flight path for Seattle Airport the girls’ plane will pass right overhead; I hope the pilot does a loop-the-loop for us.

It’s been a fabulous three weeks we travelled north from the Tetons through the other-worldly Yellowstone to Glacier National Park up near the Canadian border before coming down to Seattle. We’ve seen bears – Black and Grizzly -, loads of Bison, Elk by the dozen, but not a single Moose. Where are they all hiding?

I’m slowly getting used to some of the differences of life over here. I am now fully aware that you’re never far from a church. Or a storage facilty. The drivers are, generally, patient and considerate which takes a lot of stress out of driving a big unit through unfamiliar towns.

One thing that baffles me is the variation in fuel prices. You can have two gas stations next to each other with a 30 cent difference. When you’re pumping 40 gallons that difference really counts. I’ve not been recording how many miles we are getting to the gallon; that would probably scare me into staying put for the rest of our time here.

Deb and I have perfected the art of having a shower with about a cupful of water. We can now hook and unhook the tow car with the efficiency of an F1 team. We find it helps to have a routine that we stick to so everything gets done and nothing is left to chance. We haven’t lost the tow car yet.

Next on the agenda looks like a trip up north to Cascades National Park and then down through Washington via one or two more parks that have been recommended before continuing south through Oregon. It will be a bit strange to be travelling without an agenda – u to now we always had in the back of our mind that we had to be in Wyoming to collect the girls and Seattle to drop them off again – now we can blow in the breeze (although my OCD will still need a plan). And of course we really need a visa for the second 6 months.

Here’s the piccies

First, the Tetons and our gentle trip down the river.

Yellowstone was more fabulous than I could have imagined. The colours, the strangeness of bubbling stuff, the steaming geysers, the animals causing roadblocks.

Different, but still stunning was Glacier. We took a wrong turning on one hike and had to cross a chilly glacial stream.

And then Seattle and Mount Rainier (my new favourite mountain)

The hills were alive

There was running, of course

And there were strange vans on the freeway

Still going good xxx

North West Passage

20 August 2018

And here we are in a library in Oregon. We are camping in a little hamlet called Sunset Beach. Although to be precise it should be called Misty Bay twinned with No Chance of A Sunset.

I’ve just tallied up that we’ve been away for 19 weeks now and have done 15,672 miles in total; 8,612 in the RV and 7,058 in the car. Touch wood, the RV and car have been brilliant; we’ve had just one puncture and had to replace the RV’s leisure batteries, but everything else is running like clockwork.

I’ve just about got used to driving on the right and going the wrong way around the roundabouts (Oregon and Washington seem to have gone roundabout crazy) but I still try and get into the car on the wrong side but I pretend I am going round to open the door for Deb – a true gent.

We’ve spent the last 3 weeks in the North West, mainly in the North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park and the Washington and Oregon coasts. Once again, the scenery and scale has been breathtaking – from the rain forests of Olympic to the battered Oregon coast, from the San Juan Islands to the beaches and dunes of Oregon.

We have applied for our visa extension and had acknowledgment that it is in process but it could be another 3 weeks before we hear. We are still planning our route on the assumption that they will say “yes”; Deb is in another part of the library trying to fix a schedule and campgrounds for heading further south through California taking in Crater Lake in Oregon and Tahoe Lake in California.

Hopefully there will be plenty of micro-breweries on the way. This is an aspect of US life that we’ve fully embraced – beer tasting with a big bowl of fries and a good view is as good a way to get to know a town as we’ve found. On the negative side is the complete lack of tea rooms and ice cream vans. All the hikes we have done would have been enhanced by a a cake and a cuppa. I did find a bakery that sold “British” Scones and was all excited until I had to hand over $4 for just one medium sized scone. It did taste good.

Enough baked goods chat, here’s the pics

This is apparently the most photographed point in the North West – Deception Pass which seperates the mainland from Whidbey Island. It was a bit misty but the clouds parted just enough to get a snap or two.

If you’re stuck for what to buy me for my birthday, this little cutie in Anacortes Harbor caught my eye. I think it was $25k so maybe birthday and Christmas combined?