November - December 2014 Washington DC and Seneca SC



Kayakers at Great Falls , Virginia

Washington Monument

When the campground in Rhode Island closed for the season we drove back to Fairfax, Virginia where we began this trip 4 months ago.  We are here because John is failing retirement, having too much fun working on his war gaming and SSG history projects.  Debra is also consulting for her prior employer and is very much enjoying spending time with friends, Jack and her cousin Bruce who now lives in the area.  We stayed at Fairfax Lake Campground enjoying hiking and fishing.  

Roadside Shenandoah National Park

Jack lives in DC (working as an Account Manager for public relations firm Environics, Inc.) near the Nationals Ball Park and loves hiking with us on the weekends  around Great Falls, Shenandoah National Park and Mason Neck Wildlife Refuge on the Potomac in Lorton.  At Mason Neck, there were thousands of geese, swans, and ducks and even a couple of eagles keeping watch.  The cacophony of bird calls was truly impressive. 

Jack Fishing on Lake Keowee, South Carolina

We drove the RV down to Debra's brother's in Seneca, South Carolina where Jack and all Debra's family gathered for a week of Thanksgiving feasting.  We had fried turkey, baked turkey, smoked turkey and a dozen trimmings.  Dennis's girlfriend Linda's fried okra is actually really good!  We camped nearby on Lake Keowee which has 300 miles of shoreline.  Everyone came over for a day of campfire cooking, fishing and lots of rides in the kayak. 

Christmas Day Williamsburg, Virginia

After Thanksgiving, we returned to Fairfax, put the RV in storage and house sat for friend Jane who was away for the holidays.  Zoe joins us for the holidays and we spend a few days in a cute cottage at Cheetham Annex on the York River in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Loved exploring Yorktown and Jamestown in 72 degree pouring rain and experiencing Christmas day in the historic town of Williamsburg.  If you have any interest in the history of our nation, you must visit this wonderfully preserved period in time.  We all learned lots!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  Hope to see you in 2015.

10/31/2014 Newport and Westerly, Rhode Island

August 20 through October 30, 2014 - Great to be back in the Newport, Rhode Island area where we lived for 13 years and where the kids were born.  It's been 2 months into our journey and we have traveled close to 9,000 miles.  We knew the first two months were going to be a push and we greatly appreciate being in

Sunset at Campground

one place for a while.    Most of our Newport stay was spent at Melville Ponds Campground in Portsmouth about 20 minutes north of downtown Newport.   This small woodsy campground was sparsely populated and our site was quiet and private.  John spent much of the time working at the Naval War College, doing research for his Stategic Studies Group project

Cliff Walk, Newport Rhode Island

where he was Deputy Director for 17 years in the 1980's and 1990's.  We checked out our old house at 127 Rhode Island Avenue, Newport Hospital where the kids were born and Debra caught up with old friends, family and Baxter S., a fellow financial advisor at her old Ameriprise Financial Services office on Broadway in Newport.   

Debra and Marcia

 An hour away is Westerly, RI where construction of our condo will hopefully begin soon!  Framing of the first building is about done (our condo will be in the second building) and it was exciting to walk around in the unit with our floor plan and see our ocean view. Hoping for Spring 2016 occupancy. (Update as of 12/22/14 the foundation for our building and the club house is finally underway!)  We chose Westerly to settle for several reasons. Primarily to be closer to Debra's family and live in a beach community with walking or biking access to kayaking, hiking, clamming, fishing, restaurants and small town cultural events.  As retired Navy people, being half way between Groton Submarine Base and Newport Naval Base facilities is also a bonus.   Debra and Virginia friend Marcia enjoy lunch on Misquamicut Beach on a grey but warm fall day. When you come to visit, hope you like long walks on the beach!



Misquamicut Beach, Westerly RI 

                           

10/17/14 Seattle and Methow Valley, Washington with Zoe

Seattle Space Needle

John's work with the War College requires him to interview people associated with the early Strategic Studies groups and several of them were in the Seattle area so off we flew for the week of 6 October.  Zoe met up with us and we spent several days touring Seattle and the Puget Sound shoreline.  Loved the view from the Space Needle, the first Starbuck's coffee shop at Pike's waterfront market, and the utterly fantastic Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. 

Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum

        Driving east through the Cascade Mountains, we stay at her Forest Service house in the Methow Valley where she spends the summer/fall doing research.  Seven days a week, she and another grad student take turns driving a pickup 8 or more hours a day through these beautiful


Diablo Lake in the Cascade Mountains

mountains on somewhat hazardous forest service roads tracking the movement of wolves and cattle.  Riding with Zoe in a car is adventure enough but riding on these primitive narrow roads on one of her daily rounds was about the scariest thing I have ever done, and believe you me, you better not be a back seat driver or you will end up walking ;) We meet up with another truck (hunting season), on a road hanging off the side of the mountain NOT wide enough for two vehicles of any size.  THANK GOD we were on the inside! We ever so slowly squeezed by each other, pulling in mirrors to create just enough space.  Zoe had warned me I might not want to come with her and her Dad and  NEXT TIME I WILL LISTEN!  We thoroughly enjoyed watching her work with one of the producers herds removing ear tags.

Zoe Removing Radio Tags from Calf's Ear

Wolves are always on the move, and after they leave an area, Zoe hikes in to see where they bedded down to determine what they are eating.  Good news, so far the Lookout Pack is eating moose and deer, not livestock.  This research project is a highly inflammatory issue throughout the northwest since most hunters and ranchers want all wolf packs killed off.  You can learn more from this recent  New York Times article "Study Faults Efforts at Wolf Management".

Billboard by Washington Residents Against Wolves

Two articles about Zoe and her research appear in the Methow Valley News at http://methowvalleynews.com/2014/09/18/methow-cattle-ranchers-take-part-in-wsu-wolf-study/ and http://methowvalleynews.com/2014/06/12/collared-gray-wolf-will-help-statewide-study/.

8/19/2014 Nova Scotia, Canada

Lunenburg

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia is a designated World Heritage Site for being the best example of planned British colonial settlement in Canada.  If you put dirt on the roads, remove the cars and 1960's style telephone poles, it would look much like it did 200 years ago.  Debra's ancestors were one of Lunenburg's founding families in the mid 1700's. Christoph Harnish emigrated aboard the boat GALE in 1751, aged 50, a brewer from "Ganda" (Goetha, Germany) with wife Cathrina Hoffman. They begat Johann Gottlieb, who begat Johann George, who begat Elizabeth Margaret Harnish, whose first marriage to a Mansfield begat Deb's mother's line and whose second marriage to a Wamboldt begat Deb's fathers line.  Ya see, Deb's parents are related 5th generation on one side and 6th generation on the other. Aw jeez, doesn't that explain a lot of kooky family behavior!  



Caledonia

 A one hour drive West from Lunenburg takes us to Caledonia in central Nova Scotia were the majority of Debra's Canadian family has lived for generations.  Caledonia is the major village in the area known as North Queens, which has a radius of approximately 20 miles and a population of approximately 1500.  It was so wonderful to trade stories with cousins from Debra's mother and father's side of the family. Life is pleasantly simpler and slower paced and the people are wonderful and are always ready to help each other out.  We went to a community supper at the fire house and cousin Erma looked around and said "yep, you are related to most of the people in this room in one way or another".  Erma said if you throw a stone anywhere in town you will surely hit a relative.  If you want to see what life was like in the United States in the 1950's, come visit Caledonia.  The main roads were paved once in 1952, the phone system was upgraded in the 1970's from the old crank phones with switchboard, and cousin Judy was excited to qualify for home mail delivery a couple years ago when a third house was built on the dirt road within a mile of hers.  With Debra's passion for black and white movies, she feels right at home here.

Replaced in 1970

Steve, Norma, Erma, Judy, Deb and Eric

On a visit here last year, while talking to cousin Judy (French side) and husband Eric about genealogy, Deb described her family tree whereupon Eric said, "who did you say your mothers's grandmother was?"  Sure enough, that was his father's grandmother too! So I am related to Eric on the Smith side, and their late in life marriage makes them "kissin cousins".  Aw Jeez.







8/12/2014 Maine, Moose Accident, Canadian Border Crossing

Mount Katahdin Background

Uncle Bill's Log Cabin

Aug. 10 and 11 - We left Connecticut and headed on 95N to Bangor, Maine then followed Route 152 West to the small town of Ripley. We visited Debra's Uncle Bill and wife Gayle at their beautiful log cabin located on a hill top off a dirt road.  Their porch view is of Mount Katahdin which is the highest mountain in Maine.  Uncle and Gayle will meet up with us again shortly in Nova Scotia.


A few days before we arrived in Maine, my cousin was driving near Bangor and came upon an accident.  At first she thought she was seeing things.  A car hit a moose, and as often happens the moose ends up in/on the car and both moose and passengers perish.  In this case the driver miraculously lived!!!!  Moose weigh almost twice as much as a horse and caution signs are everywhere on the highways in Maine and Canada.



 Aug. 12 - Route 95 takes us to Canada and the Trans Canada Highway.  Last year when we made this trip in the RV (with 24 other rigs from our Excel RV Club) we were waved through at the boarder with no problem.  This time I knew it was going to be interesting when their first question was "where do you live" - in the RV, "what address do you use" - South Dakota. Seeing that the truck and RV are registered in Montana (for tax benefits); we were pulled over and both truck and RV were searched.  Can't really blame them, our lifestyle is a bit sketchy.  They were very nice about it and upon finding no contraband we proceeded to Nova Scotia.



                                                        

8/9/2014 OH, PA, NY, MA, CT 7,000 MILES

7/26 - On Route 90 we drive across OH to Route 80 in Pennsylvania where the landscape has changed dramatically as we reach the Appalachian Mountains.  From the high desert to grassy plains, only corn fields and cows; then rolling green hills and now forests and big hills.  Really they are mountains, but after being in the Rockies it is hard to see the Appalachian's as  mountains.  Found a lovely campground in Loganton PA called Holiday Pines and it was just what we needed.  Wooded, small, and quiet!

7/28 - We take Route 84 in PA  to 87 in NY and back to 90 in the corner of Massachusetts and camp on the Otis Reservoir in Tolland Forest State Park.  A beautiful tranquil place in deep forest.  A tornado hit near this area a few days ago and we can see tree damage.  Not many sites are big enough for our rig but John was able to maneuver into one and made it look easy!

This part of our journey ends at 7,000 MILES  IN  A  MONTH !!!

Won't do this again, glad it is done, had a great time, loved seeing family, friends and this wonderful country but next time at a more leisurely pace :)



Deb With Her Sisters and Brothers 

7/29 thru 8/9 - A short drive on Rt 90E then south to Rt 95 to Mystic CT where John will drop Debra off for about 10 days to visit her family.  It feels so good to be back along the Connecticut shoreline where Debra spent many years of childhood while her father was stationed at Submarine Base, Groton.  Debra's 4 siblings, nieces, nephews, aunt and cousin gathered for good fun, food and sorting through thousands of photographs that Deb's mom had accumulated through the years.  John takes the train to DC to continue work on his contracts and have some badly needed R & R while he stays with Jack. 

7/26/2014 6,000 MILES Nekoosa, Wisconsin then IL, IN, OH

7/25 - We are on our way to visit John's last of 4 siblings in Nekoosa, Wisconsin.  After leaving the Minneapolis area, we travel south on Route 94 and skip across on Route 54E (plod is more like it, we are on back roads in this rural area), to visit sister Judy (and Bill) who live in a lovely lake community in a cute A-frame cabin.  We relax for a while in Bill's boat then take a cool ride in his 1968 cherry red Camaro convertible to have dinner by the lake.  Many more trees and less open land in Wisconsin than we have seen for the majority of our trip and the crop around here is cranberry.  Acres and acres of bogs, farmed for Ocean Spray.  Don't see many cows along our route but they must be somewhere since Wisconsin is known for its cheese!

7/26 - A long day of travel from WI, IL, IN to OH.  It's 4 weeks today since we left Virginia; as we pass Chicago we have gone 6,000 MILES.  Our minds and body are getting numb.  Thank goodness we are nearing the end of this push.  Went for 8 hours (which is long for us) today to try and get as much road behind us as possible.  On Route 90, Ohio rest areas have RV parking so we stayed there to save driving off the route to a campground.  This was fine as a last resort, but the 24 rest area was buzzing with cars and trucks all night long so "rest" was not so good.

As you can imagine, at 11 MPG we stop for gas a lot but it doesn't always align with our (my) need for a rest room.  We stopped at a rest area under construction which said "no truck parking" but I HAD to go.  Well, John stopped to let me out while he stayed in the truck trying to find a place to pull over.  There was none!  When I came out he was no where to be seen. I followed the road through the rest area and see him creeping onto the highway entrance ramp backing up a LONG line of traffic behind him.  I take off running and catch up right before he is on the highway.  Oh my, oh my, oh my! We cracked up laughing.

7/24/2014 5,000 MILES Palisades Park , South Dakota and Buffalo, Minnesota

Palisades Park, South Dakota

5,000 miles on the truck since we  started this trek!
July 21 - Route 90 takes us all the way across South Dakota to Palisades Park Campground on the Split River Creek on the Minnesota border.    These 50 foot canyon walls are lined with 1.2 Billion year old Sioux Quartzite rocks that are just magnificent.  The picture does not show it well but these beautiful rocks are all a dark pinky red!

July 22 - On to the Minneapolis area following Route 23 North through a township called "Hanley Falls".  It consists of a grain elevator at a train stop, a ball field, farm equipment museum and a few houses; population 1884 was 300, population now is about the same.  Didn't see any falls.  The town was named after a railroad officer, when they were establishing the grain elevator/train stops every so many

Hanley Falls, Minnesota

miles.  Not sure if John is related but fun looking up the town history.  Most of the mid-west landscape we have seen this trip is corn, soy beans or cows. For folks used to living on the coasts, it is hard to imagine how much land is under production in the middle of our country and how few people populate these states.  We see a few small family owned farms but mainly huge corporate lands under production.

John, Aunt Joanne, sister Barbara

July 22-24 - It was great visiting John's Aunt Joanne, sister Barbara and many nieces, nephews and grand-nephews in Buffalo, Minnesota.  We had a fun cookout and did lots of catching up on each others lives.  We stayed on one of the more than 11,000 thousand lakes in Minnesota called Lake Independence at the Baker Park Campground. 

John's dad (Jack) was an officer in the Navy Civil Engineer Corp and after retiring the family moved to be near Jack's parents in Minnetonka, MN.  We visited the house John's family lived in when he was in high school and what was left of the horse farm his family moved to when he went off to Dartmouth College.  John invited Debra to Minnesota to meet the family the first Christmas after we met.  Debra said no but then changed her mind, bought a ticket on the same flights he was on and surprised him with her packed suitcase, at the airport when he thought she was dropping him off.  He called his mom from the New York stopover to tell her to plan for one more.  His parents and family were delighted to have her and she had a fantastic time once she agreed to get out of the car.  You see, greeting our arrival was their MASSIVE German shepherd named Simon.  Deb heard this bark which sounded like an angry bear, saw him in the window and said she wasn't going in.  After some persuasion, she came in and by the next morning she was having coffee at the kitchen table with John's dad while Simon rested his head on her lap.  



7/21/14 Zoe and Jack Update

Wolf in Motion Camera Photo

ZOE UPDATE -  Zoe visited her living and study area a few days ago and was terribly disturbed by the devastation of burned down homes, buildings, and the forest.  Her house in Mazama was not touched and she was able to collect her belongings and move her equipment to the nearest Ranger Station for safekeeping until the study can resume.   Another storm went through the area with penny size hail and 50 miles an hour winds but also lots of rain which helped reduce the size of the fire which is still burning.  The fire is 60% contained but many roads are still closed so she can't get to her study area.  Still no electricity or gas.  She watched a plane skimming a lake picking up water to drop on the fire.  It went right over her head dripping water on her.  Good  news is that the wolves and cows with tracking collars are moving around so they are okay.  (She later finds out that one of the wolf pups was killed in the fire.) For the time being, she is enjoying working with another team in the southern Cascade mountain area where there is a lot more wolf activity.


JACK UPDATE - another big promotion and raise at work in less than 3 months!!  Environics Communications has lost several higher level people since Jack has been there which is good for him because he has taken over their duties and is performing them very well.  In less than two years, he is an Account Manager which usually takes 7 to 10 years.  He has been traveling to Florida to meet with clients and is working the 

Jack at Great Falls Virginia

 
long crazy DC hours on top of an almost 3 hour a day round trip commute.  He and a college buddy are looking for apartments in the downtown DC to be closer to the action and cut down the commute.  His men's league baseball team went into the finals in first place but was eliminated in the playoffs :(  Will be seeing lots of Nat's games in August until his baseball league resumes in September.  About a year ago, Jack totally surprised us when we got back from a 2 month RV trip with his decision to join the Navy.  NEVER having expressed any interest in the military, we were shocked; but very proud that he would be following the Naval tradition of his father, both grandfathers and a great-great grandfather on John's side.  The Navy's Surface Ship Warfare Board should be meeting in August which will determine if Jack will be attending Officer Training School in the Fall.  If not, at least he is well situated in his current career.

7/21/14 Mt. Rushmore and Badlands, South Dakota

July 19 - Three weeks on the road and loving it -

From Devils Tower on the north eastern boarder of Wyoming, we continued on Route 90 to Hill City, South Dakota where we visit again with John's sister Joan and husband, Craig; we had a cookout with their wonderful (and colorful)

neighbors, Deb and Craig took another ATV trip to an old mine and found a large piece of rock which was mainly rose quartz. John wouldn't let her take it with us (memories of the Lucy and Desi Honeymoon RV Movie  The Long, Long Trailer where Lucy secretly collected LOTS of rocks in their RV....) so Craig said he would hold on to it till we had space.

Speaking of having space, we just found out that our condo building at Champlin Woods in Westerly Rhode Island is the next building to be built!!!!  So we could have a place next fall to move to if we decide by then to get off the road for a while.  We'll see.  At the rate these guys are building, we are planning more on Summer 2016.

There is so much to do and see in the Black Hills.  We went kayaking on one of the many lakes near where gold was first found in the Black Hills.  That brought Custer with a massive scientific survey team to check it out.  We toured Mt. Rushmore which is only 15 minutes from our

campground in Keystone.  It is impressive!  Like Devils Tower you can't really comprehend how large it is without something to scale it by.  It took Gutzon Borglum and a crew of about 500, 14 years to carve these 4 presidents faces.  I am reading a very good historical novel called "Black Hills" by Dan Simmons about a Lakota  Indian's life from living free with his tribe as a boy during Custer's last stand,  to setting up the reservations, the Chicago World's Fair and finally to the last 14 years of his life as a powder-man building Mt. Rushmore.  The protagonist is fiction but it appears most of the rest of it pretty accurate.

Here is John at our Keystone Kemp Campground one morning communing with nature.  This deer is clearly used to being fed.

Badlands, South Dakota

July 21 - We leave today heading for more of John's family in Minnesota.  Continuing east from Rapid City on Route 90 we are quickly in the Badlands where the temperature is 103.  With miles of canyons that dead end, you can see why people went here to hide but I don't know how they found their way out!

7/19/14 Zoe Fire Evacuation

On July 12, the day we left Washington after visiting Zoe, she sends this picture with a note describing what is going on near her study area in the Methow Valley of the Cascade Mountains.   "It's fire season!  There are 4 or 5 small blazes in this frame.  Doesn't help that the high today is 104."    She said although the air was hazy, it was not affecting the wolves and livestock in her study.  But 2 days later another thunder storm touched off even more blazes and now her study area is burned out.  Several homes have been destroyed, towns evacuated, no power, no gas, etc.  You can read more about these fires at    www.cascadeloop.com/index.php?Page_id=217.         

She and her tech have evacuated their living quarters and are working with another team in another part of the state until it is safe to return.  She had been tracking wolves in a den in the area and says the cubs were hopefully old enough to be safely moved by the pack.  Time will tell.  She was getting calls from the local ranchers whose cows she had also been tracking as they wanted to find out where their cows were.  It appears the cows escaped to safety; at least the ones that were tagged.  With no water or electricity in the area due to lines and power stations burned down; until her area becomes habitable, she has joined another group of researchers in a different part of the state.   Zoe hopes to go back Monday and check things out. 

 This is one of so many stories in her life as a wildlife biologist.    We have tried to tell her to write this down and publish a book someday but she says its not really that interesting as that is the life of all wildlife biologists........

7/17/2014 Togwotee Pass, Continental Divide, Devils Tower, Wyoming



Togwotee Pass, Continental Divide Wyoming

July 16 we left the northwest corner of Wyoming and the Teton's heading southeast on Rt 26 towards Casper.  First have to get through Togwotee Pass and the Continental Divide again at an elevation of 9,594 feet.  Of course what goes up must come down, so we spent the next 9 miles between 2 and 6 percent grade.  7% is the steepest grade allowed on US Interstate highways and we have seen plenty of that in these Rockies.  Thank goodness the truck has a feature called "tow haul" which uses the engine to slow down on steep downhills otherwise we would burn up the brakes pretty quickly.

When the kids were in high school we took a ski vacation to Jackson Hole and came to Togwotee Pass to dogsled.  Zoe was driving the sled that Jack was riding in.  Long story short, in the middle of the wilderness, Zoe let go of the sled while trying to untie it and the dogs took off bat-outta-hell.  Zoe falls off and Jack realizing he was about to die, leaped over the back of the sled, landed on the rails and stopped it before it flipped over and dragged him to who knows where.  The guide driving our sled, saw this stunt and was ready to hire him on the spot!   Jack then instructed Zoe to get in the sled and he drove it the rest of the way. 



Gassing up in Dubois, WY - 4,000 mile mark on the trip

After seeing a black bear in Togwotee Pass, we stopped for gas in the small town of Dubois, WY.  The geology changes dramatically in these parts as you can see by the beautiful red hills behind the gas station.  A big group of families was also here when we arrived and many were dressed like early settlers.  They said they were on their way to a "pioneer experience" where they were going to live like they did in the 1800's .  When John got back from the restroom I told him this and he said "really, if they really wanted to experience living like a pioneer, then why did they clobber the line to the bathroom." 

We camped in the middle of nowhere (which much of Wyoming is) in the oil fields of Wright, Wyoming.  Camp area was called Sage Brush RV which sounds nice but it was a very sketchy.  Very small with lots of run down trailers and campers.  Looked like workers from the oil fields lived there.  However, when we go to the park owner's home/office to sign in, we see a shiny Mercedes and Cadillac in his garage.
 

Devil's Tower 5 miles away

July 17 - after heading north from Casper yesterday up Route 387, we head to 90 east and stop at Devils Tower in the northeast corner of  Wyoming.  Remember the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"?  This is it!  But it's not hollow, that was movie magic.  The exposed part of this ancient volcano core stands almost 1,000 feet high and 1,000 feet in diameter at it's base.   To get an idea of how huge this really is look at the close up photo and note that those Ponderosa Pines growing ON THE ROCK are 100 feet tall!  We saw climbers on a ledge which in the close up picture is the dark spot on the left side about 2/3's from the bottom and 1/4 in from the left.  The American Indians called this place Bear Lodge.

7/15/14 Jackon Hole Flora and Fauna

Buffalo on Ridge in Front of Grand Teton Mountains

We were greeted by a herd of Buffalo on our arrival and again on our departure.  Camping on the Gros Ventre River lent to a short walk to fishing and close range viewing of Moose along the river.  Photo below is of a teenage moose and we also saw a cow and calf Moose the next morning. 

Teenage Moose Gros Ventre River

A photo of a grizzly was taken in our campground  two weeks before we got there.  You have to keep your eyes peeled for bears and moose at all times and make noise walking near the river so as not to startle them and provoke a charge.  As we walked I banged two rocks together for noise and John said, you throw those rocks at a bear and you'll really get eaten.

Got Me Some Bear Spray

Signs everywhere tell you what to do if attacked - basically don't run as that excites them and they can outrun you.  Lay on your belly with hands behind your neck.  It's harder for them to eat you when the most bony part of you is presented.  How reassuring.  John is reading the book, "Lord Grizzly" about the Mountain Man in 1823 who got mauled by a grizzly and left for dead by his army unit. With no weapons for defense or to get food, he crawled 200 miles surviving initially on grubs. Incredible true story of human tenacity. 

As a result of an unusual amount of rain this year, the western prairie and mountains are still covered with red, orange, purple and yellow flowers and sage bushes.  People say they have never seen flowers like this so late into summer.  The delicate sweet smell of sage (not the spice variety) is wonderfully intoxicating.







7/15/14 3,500 MILES Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Teton Mountains from the Gros Ventre

From Glenns Ferry,  Rt. 84, we headed north on Rt 15, to Rt 26 through Idaho Falls to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Not the shortest route but the least windy, steep, scary route through this part of the Rockies especially for a RV.  Emphasis on "least"!  Just south of Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming has to have one of the most breathtaking mountain views on earth.  It is called Jackson "Hole" because it is a valley surrounded by mountain ranges. The park is about 7,000 feet above sea level and the top of Grand Teton Mountain is about 14,000 feet.

2010 Family Reunion

We had great fun kayaking, hiking and fishing (not catching).  John took me up to a place in the Gros Ventre Mountains called Red Rocks where he fished as a kid.  In 2010, we held a family reunion here and celebrated 50 years

2010 Family Reunion

since their last camping trip by staying in Signal Mountain with Aunt Joanne, Phil, Kevin, Megan, Barb, Mike, Joan and families.   Had great times touring Yellowstone where the cousins got to get reacquainted again.

John Fly Fishing Gros Ventre

The rivers are very full this year due to abnormally high snow/rain and are moving too fast for the fish to even see a hook.  At least that is why John says we are not catching anything:)  He has to be very careful walking in the rivers while fly fishing because slippery rocks and the speed of the water can easily wash him downstream.  

Jackson Lake 2015

We knew this part of our journey; a cross country trip (Washington DC to Washington State to Connecticut and back to Washington DC with many great stops along the way) was going to be a push over a 31 day period but we had certain timelines to meet to get Zoe's household goods to her while she had a few days out of the field and then get John back to Washington DC for meetings on his consulting contracts.  We have gone about 3,500 miles in two weeks and are feeling the strain; mainly of the driving.  We switch drivers about every hour and a half to stay fresh.  So far the RV lifestyle is great, being in the camper very little with all of our activities. 

Red Rocks Area Gros Ventre Mountains