September 2017, Our drive from Wyoming to Florida

flooding at Lambs

The flooded dock walkway 

September 11, we decided to head directly back to Florida  but not do anything crazy like driving straight through. We drove till dusk and then stopped @ Eagle RV Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming.  A cute little park.

The next day was Doug's birthday & we drove 700 miles to Nebraska & stayed in Double Nickel RV Resort right off the highway.  We stopped for lunch @ Olive Garden to celebrate Doug's birthday with a free dessert.

our dock during the storm

Our third night on the road, we stopped at Hinton RV Park in Sikeston Missouri.  This park was a bit rough.  We heard from Roger, the guy we had hired to watch our boat.  Roger had finally gotten to Lamb's to check on Day Dreams. He sent a pic and told us the boat was unharmed inside & out-good to hear.

The next day, we crossed the Mississippi River between Missouri & Tennessee. We then crossed the Tennessee River after driving into Tennessee. We stayed outside Chattanooga at the Holiday Travel Park, once settled, we took a long walk around the big park to stretch our legs.

Five days & 2200 miles later on September 15, we landed in Jacksonville, Florida and slept in our favorite bed onboard Day Dreams.

Doug's beautiful teak cap rail

The rest of September, we stayed at Lambs Yacht Center. Doug worked on refinishing the teak cap rail and I unloaded the RV and cleaned it.  We visited with our niece & fam: Wendi, Tadd & Samantha.  Doug had to have a tooth pulled, so here we go with medical issues once more.

Aftermath in Marathon from Hurricane Irma

Sept 5-11, 2017 Yellowstone NP, Wyoming

Amber waves of grain, came to mind while driving through the rest of Montana on our way to Yellowstone. We headed south just in time, our temperature went down to 34 degrees last night-brrr. Our propane water heater stopped working but luckily our propane furnace worked great.

We stopped for the night at a private RV park outside Yellowstone, south of Livingston Montana on the Yellowstone River. Yellowstone Edge Park was very nice with immaculate bathrooms. The Yellowstone River is the largest & last free flowing river in the Continental United States. Doug had picked up a new control board for our hot water heater from an RV store on our way but they gave him the wrong one.  So the next day, Doug dropped me off at the local Livingston library so I could catch up on FB & my blog while he drove halfway to meet the tech to give him the correct part. Now our water tank makes hot water again.

On September 7, we drove to Yellowstone NP.  Wow, this is a huge park. Yellowstone holds the honor of being the World's first National Park (1872) & encompasses more than 2 million acres of forests, lakes, waterfalls, geysers & hot springs. Elevations range from 5,282 feet to 11,358 feet at it's highest summit. We entered through the North entrance which is one of 5 entrances. This entrance is still in Montana, the rest of the park entrances are located in Wyoming.  The first thing we saw as we entered the park is the Roosevelt Arch which was constructed by the US Army. The cornerstone was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903. Our first night campsite was located in Mammoth Hot Springs area which is just over the Wyoming border, 5 miles into the park. Our first day, we saw Pronghorn Sheep & a big buck Elk with a large rack.

The Mammoth Hot Springs area is where Fort Yellowstone used to be and now all the beautiful stone & brick buildings have become the Park Headquarters. We walked to the Visitor Center and the Hotel.  The Hotel has recently been remodeled & is beautiful.  We found the perfect lamp for Day Dreams in the gift shop. We walked all around the hot springs, which are great examples of hydrothermal activity. Thousands of gallons of mineral laden hot water from deep beneath the Earth's crust finds it way to the surface and builds tier upon tier of cascading, terraced travertine. The water is so hot it steams.

The next day we moved to the Canyon Campgrounds and on our way we drove to the 132 foot Tower Waterfalls and then hiked up to Mt Washburn.  It was a strenuous hike starting @ 8,800 ft & ending up @ 10,2000 ft elevation 5.2 miles later. On our drive, we saw many Elk wandering around the Park Headquarter grounds, some pronghorn sheep and then 2 huge Bison walking right towards us on the road.

Yellowstone NP has their own Grand Canyon. The Yellowstone River winds 20 miles through the Canyon and tumbles over the lava cliffs of both the Upper & Lower Canyon waterfalls. We enjoyed all the hiking to the look-outs.

It is hurricane season back in the east & Hurricane Irma is in the spotlight at the moment.  She is strong & headed towards Florida. We have limited cellular & wifi reception so we have been checking the news whenever we are able.

Our next morning, September 11, started out very foggy as we drove toward Yellowstone Lake. We spotted herds of Buffalo through the fog, grazing along the Yellowstone River. Along the way we stopped to see the Mud Volcano area filled with mud pots, fumeroles, mineral springs and the Dragon spring which spouts steam out of an opening resembling a dragon. The sulfur fragrance was quite strong.

Yellowstone Lake is North America's largest high altitude lake.  A portion of the lake sits within a large caldera (crater) that was formed by a volcano & then filled by glaciers some 14,000 years ago. We hiked up the 4 mile Elephant Back trail for a spectacular view of Yellowstone Lake.  We took a few minutes to enjoy the view until I checked the news because we were high enough up that I had a signal.  What we read was bad news: Jacksonville was taking a pounding from a local nor'easter & now Tropical Storm Irma was bearing down on them too.  The city & rivers were experiencing major flooding & wind damage. We felt we needed to leave & head back to check on Day Dreams.  So we hiked down the Mountain, hopped in Summer Dreams and headed east. We left Yellowstone through the East Exit where we saw a huge amount of dead trees, not sure what had killed them, fire or something else? Our drive out of the park & beyond was very scenic, too bad we were too worried to enjoy all of it.

Don't worry be Happy

Jumping for JOY

A few hours later, by late afternoon, we did hear from Matt, the dock master @ Lamb's Yacht Center where Day Dreams was docked; he let us know that Day Dreams was A-OK with no apparent damage.  Yahoo-what a relief! Thank you Matt for easing our mind!

Nothing says I love you better than a heart shaped mud pot!

August 31-Sept 4, 2017 Idaho, Glacier NP, Montana

Northern Idaho has a narrow strip of land (panhandle) that lies between Washington & Montana and that is where we found Farragut State Park. The park lies along the 43 mile long Lake Pend Oreille and it used to be the 2nd largest naval training station in the world as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack. During WWII the station trained more than 300,000 naval sailors. In 1945, it was also used as a prisoner of war camp for german soldiers.  It was decommissioned in 1946. In the 1960-70's the park hosted Boy & Girl Scout functions such as the World & National Jamborees.  The Brig Museum is still located at the Park & houses bootcamp, naval and war memorabilia & historic prison cells.  We enjoyed the trails, biking and the super clean restrooms & showers.

This bronze sculpture surface is engraved with images of the sculpture  

The next day on our drive while still in Idaho, we stopped & hiked to beautiful Kootenai Waterfalls & Swinging Bridge. We saw many pretty rivers & inland lakes in Idaho, who knew!

Once we entered Montana, we continued to pass pretty inland lakes. We stayed @ Spruce River RV Park just as a stop over on our way to Glacier National Park.

Our drive as we neared Glacier was not an easy one. First the road was narrow & curvy, then due to major construction of the road, it was total gravel and bumpy. As we got close to the National Park, the sky took on a dense haze and the smell of smoke became strong. A major wild fire had been burning here for a few weeks on the west end of the park near McDonald Lake. Luckily our reservations were for St Mary's Campground on the east end of the park. The very next day, the park officials ended up closing off the main road to the west end & evacuating the campgrounds there.  The fire burned down one of their chalets.

very hazy from the fires

Waterton-Glacier National Park is unique due to the Canadian/U.S. location along the international boundary so they became the world's first International Peace Park, combining the 2 parks into one. The park was once home to 150 glaciers and only 26 remain. Glacier NP straddles the continental divide & covers 1,583 square miles. This park has shuttle buses, which makes it so much easier to get around.  We took the bus to Logan Pass, as far as we could on the Road to the Sun. The Road to the Sun wasn't going to the sun because half of it was closed due to the wildfires. We hiked to St Mary's Falls.  The smoke was bothering my cold and made me cough more. The mountains here are part of the Rocky Mountain Range.

The famous Red Bus Tour

The next day we hopped on a shuttle from the Visitors Center and went to tour Many Glacier. This is a very picturesque area with a lovely lodge, lakes, mountains and glaciers. We took a boat ride across Swift Current Lake then picked up a second boat that took us across Josephine Lake and from there we hiked to Grinnell Lake where we could see Grinnell glacier.  Doug spotted a Moose hiding in the dense woods. Luckily the smoke was not noticeable in this area but we didn't hike up to the Glacier due to my ongoing cough & cold. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the dining room at the Lodge with a stunning view of the Lakes & Mountains. We feel sad that this beautiful place is being damaged by fire and hope that the Grizzlies, Moose, Wolves, Bison and all the rest of the diverse wildlife are soon free to roam once more.

Just stunning!