Buffalo, or bison?

8:02 am - Tuesday - June 23rd - Buffalo, WY - 63° F, 55% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the north.....clear, blue, warm skies today with a forecast high of 79° F......what a change of fortunes....what's not to like about Buffalo, Wyoming? Our view this morning.....↴

 Lake de Smet near Buffalo, WY

What's that up in the sky?  A bird, a plane?  No, it's ultra lite!

Sleeping in a big box store parking lot is not optimal, and the older I get the less I look forward to  it, but when you are moving across country it makes a lot of sense.....it is free, after all, right?  And the  convenience being near restaurants, and grocery stores is quite handy.  All that being said, I slept pretty well in the shadow of the Cabela's big box store Sunday night.  There was, however, the semi tractor/trailer rig a few sites over which had its refrigerated unit run about 10 minutes every half hour, the sound of the I-90 traffic 2 blocks away, and the usual noises of vehicles ingressing, and egressing the parking lot at all hours.  When you have been used to pretty much NO sound at night as we have these past few weeks, the sudden, jarring sound of a city while seeming benign to those who reside there is not benign to those of us who get used to the lack of night time sound in the often very rural areas we seek out as we move across the northern latitudes of our great country.  I went to bed around 9 pm Sunday evening, and was up by 6:30 am typing my blog.  Around 7:30 am I received a text message from Claude asking if we wished to dine out for breakfast to which I replied in the affirmative, and suggested we haul anchor and head over to the local Cracker Barrel just one exit back west off I-90, so that is what we did at 8 am.

We were there, and parked within 10 minutes to find a sparsely populated dining room.....this is a national chain, and they are practicing social distancing, with all employees wearing face masks.  Hmmmm......in Yellowstone County there have been 3 deaths, and 125 cases in over 4 months.  I asked our server about wearing a mask for 6-8 hours and she said it's not too bad once you get used to it, but it is difficult for her patrons to understand what she is saying....yeah, I would be in total agreement with that.

As is always the case at a Cracker Barrel the breakfast was consistent, and very good, which is what I like about them.....the food is consistent across the country.  By 9:30 we were on our way eastward on I-90 once again heading for Sheridan, WY where TLE and I would spend about an hour a the local Walmart Super Center shopping, and getting lunch (got some of their 'Orange Chicken at their deli.....love it!)......  

 Rain....

Stopped raining about a mile from exit #25

......by noon we were back on the Interstate heading for our destination of the day.......Lake de Smet just outside Buffalo, WY.  It rained on and off for the last 20 miles, but quit just as we reached the lovely county campground on the shores of this large reservoir......Mikesell-Potts County Campground (located in Johnson County....15 cases, 1 death).  I found this hidden gem on 'The Days End Directory' which is available to members of Escapees.  It has been an amazing resource over the years for free to very inexpensive places to stay.  For instance Mikesell-Potts offers 50 amp electrical service (no water, sewer, or dump) for $15/night right on the shores of the lake....this place definitely has the 'IT' factor.....

....we decided to pull into our site as opposed to the traditional back in....easier to get into, and get out of when we leave....as you can see the trailer is already angled for a quick getaway.....all I have to do is start backing and the trailer will track perfectly as we exit.  Claude and Gail spent time in Sheridan at a local saddlery museum, and finally arrived here around 4:30 pm.  They took the site directly across from the front of our rig.  Each site is surrounded by bushes which provide privacy....something we have not had a lot of lately....

......privacy has not been a big issue, however, it's nice not to have to worry about closing the curtains when it gets dark, and we still have the lights on in the Newell.....yeah, you get the picture.......the problem is we don't want anyone else to 'get the picture'.....lol.

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Ever eastward.....

6:34 am - Monday - June 22nd - Billings, MT - 53° F, 78% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear, blue skies this morning with a forecast high today of 83° F.  The view this morning.......↴

After four glorious days dry camping at LaDuke Springs Campground on the Yellowstone River we bade farewell around 8:40 am and began rolling our wheels north back to Livingston and I-90 eastbound.  The 43 miles on US-89 were mostly flat and slightly downhill.  As we came into Livingston we decided to make a quick stop at the CONOCO fuel station to take on 30 gallons of diesel.  My fuel gauge showed about 1/8 of a tank left....it gets terribly inaccurate when it is below 1/4 and we had put on almost 1,000 miles since we last paid the rent in Grand Junction.  Once I put in the 30 gallons the gauge jumped from 1/8 to over 1/3 full, so we did have plenty of fuel after all to make it to Laurel, MT where we could use our fuel card at a Travel Center of America fuel station to get 22¢  off a gallon, or $1.97/gallon.  I took on 126 gallons saving almost $28 off the pump price of $2.19/gallon.  This is the second time I have paid under $2/gallon for diesel since we left Wittmann, AZ almost 2 months ago.  In all we covered 1,046 miles from Grand Junction, CO to Laurel, MT on 156 gallons (the 30 gallons we took on in Livingston, and the 126 gallons we added in Laurel) for a rough average of 6.6 miles per gallon....not too bad considering the number of grinding climbs and descents we made over that time.

The distance from Livingston to Laurel was just over 100 miles of mostly flat driving along the banks of the mighty Yellowstone River which I-90 follows, and from there it was another 12 miles to the Cabela's in Billings, MT where we planned to overnight.  This Cabela's has about 10 RV lanes, a well as a free dump station, which we plan to utilize Monday morning before we depart Billings for our next destination......

.....the drive was effortless.....just set the cruise control, and hang onto the steering wheel.....we were parked in our overnight sites by 1 pm, and enjoying the balmy breezes associated with the 3,400' elevation of Billings compared to LaDuke where we sat at 5,500' elevation.  The high temp in Billings was 82° F Sunday, and it was nice to begin to feel summer like temperatures again.  After a brief rest TLE and I went inside Cabela's to do some shopping.  We needed a grease splatter screen for when we are cooking bacon inside, or outside and wanted to check out their small, cast iron Dutch ovens.  We found both items at very fair prices. Of course, TLE also found a new, short sleeved hiking shirt without which she could not live.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, but around 5 pm decided to walk over to the local Pop Eye's Chicken place to eat dinner.  Upon our arrival by foot we found that ONLY the drive through lanes were open for service.....no in store ordering, or dining.....doh!  We ended up walking back a block to Burger King.....a very poor second choice, but certainly serviceable.  We were back home a little after 6 pm and continued our reading endeavors.  I finished the two book Western series by Elmer Kelton (Sons of Texas), and began another Western by William W. Johnston, recommended to me by Claude.  By 9 pm I was ready for the rack and bid adieu to TLE who is more of a 'night person', and continued to read into the night.....

.....of course the sun does not set in these northern latitudes until after 9 pm, and I was able to get these pictures before hitting the aforementioned rack for the night....

.....we are once again in travel mode, and will be moving pretty much every day until we arrive in Keyston, SD on Thursday, or Friday for a two week stay.

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It was all TLE's idea......I swear!

6:50 am - Monday - September 17th - Portland, ME - 62º F, 100% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the south......foggy with a forecast high today of 77º F.

It is much more humid here in Portland than it was in Southwest Harbor when we left.  We've been living in somewhat humid conditions most of the summer, so we've gotten used to it to the extent we don't complain about it anymore.  Thankfully it has only been in the 70's the first two days, and we haven't had to resort to using the A/C.  We just sit outside in the afternoon in the shade cast by the Newell and it is not bad at all.

So, what to do on a Sunday in Portland, ME?  TLE had a good idea.....in fact a couple of good ideas.....maybe even three......she found two Goodwills in the area, and the Allagash Brewing Company on Industrial in Portland!  Okay, so she had a fourth good idea.......hit up the local Trader Joe's!

We left home around 10:30 am heading for the first Goodwill.  It was only a couple of miles away, and pretty soon we were wading through the racks looking for t-shirts, shorts, etc.  TLE managed to find one pair of shorts, and I found a 'Ball' jar.....I use them for mixed drinks.  Then it was on to the next Goodwill where we both found a few more things we could not live without.  I found a whole new set of golfing irons (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, PW) and a new putter for $2 each, as well as an almost new pair of Bass flip flops for $4 ($25 new).   I've been unhappy with the original set of irons I purchased at the Goodwill in Carson City a few years ago, and have been looking for another matched set.  I know, I don't play a lot of golf, but one of the things holding me back all this time was I didn't like my unmatched set of irons at all, and I wasn't in love with my putter either.  So now I have a new set, and will donate the current set back to Goodwill.

It was now just after 12 pm, and time for lunch so we drove a few miles further to the aforementioned Allagash Brewing Company for some lunch and brews.  First we started with a 'flight' of four of their brews.....$5.......

Allagash Brewing Company

 'Flight' of brews

.....once we had both decided on what we wanted we ordered them (Allagash Black for me, and TLE their Curieux)....then we headed over to the food trailer to order our lunch.....

.....a lobster roll for TLE.....

.....and a lobster BLT for moi.....

.....there is nothing.....I repeat, nothing better than really good beer paired with really good food, and that is what we got at Allagash Brewing Company on Sunday.  After eating we hung out sitting in their beer barrel Adirondack chairs (made from beer barrel staves) for another hour enjoying the cooling weather, and lower humidity....

.....we finished off our stay at Allagash with a couple of Allagash Whites.....still my favorite Belgium White Wheat Ale ever!

......soon my watch told me it was after 2 pm and time to begin our trek over to Trader Joe's.....we haven't seen a Trader Joe's in over 4 months.....oh how we have missed you, Trader Joe's!  This Portland Trader Joe's is, by far, the largest TJ's we have ever seen.  We managed to find a bottle of the same Argentinian Malbec (Catena) that we had with our anniversary dinner at Red Sky a couple of weeks ago......$15 at TJ's, and $41 at Red Sky.....

.....we were done shopping and back in the Beetle for the drive home before 3 pm.  I sat outside for the rest of the afternoon enjoying the cool breezes, and napping in one of our beach chairs, while TLE stayed inside (allergies)......

......caught a picture of the sun setting over Cabela's.

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Southbound and down........

7:10 am - Sunday - September 16th - Portland, ME - 62º F, 92% humidity, wind - CALM - clear with a forecast high today of 77º F.

We awoke to fog Saturday morning......not heavy, I can't see 10 feet kind of fog, but the kind of fog you wouldn't want to drive through for any length of time.....

.....see what I mean?  We discussed just staying in Ellsworth another day and then heading south for several reasons.  Reason #1 was the fog which hung around until after 11 am, and reason #2 was that we were kind of hemmed in where we were parked.  If you look at the picture above you can see a black SUV parked just in front of the Class A motorhome, right?  Well, that was how I was going to exit my parking spot.....I was blocked to the front, and just to the right you can see one of those shopping cart return stations.  We didn't know if that SUV belonged to a Walmart employee (it was not there when we went to bed), or what.  If 'he' didn't move we were stuck.  The people in the Class A had taken their car out of their trailer and took off to go sightseeing, so they weren't moving.

While all this was playing out TLE made me one of my favorite breakfasts of all time.  Why 'all time'?  Well this was the first breakfast she made me after we were married.    So, a little background.  We spent our wedding night at the Pasadena Hilton in, of course, Pasadena, California......Sunday, August 29th, 1971.  The next morning, Monday, we had breakfast in a restaurant, and then began our drive to South Lake Tahoe where we had rented a cabin for a week.  We arrived in SLT just before sundown Monday evening, and before we checked into our cabin TLE had me stop at a local supermarket called 'Bijou Market' (still there) so she could buy a few food items.  The next morning, Tuesday, August 31st, she made me this exact breakfast......two English muffins, two slices of cheddar cheese, 6 slices (3 for each English muffin) of Buddig Beef, topped with two sunny side up eggs.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  She hadn't made it for me in a long time, and I had mentioned my interest in having this dish for breakfast in the near future, so she made it happen!  I love you TLE!

About 10:30 am I noticed some movement in the black SUV......someone  was sleeping in it, and had just awakened.  Within 20 minutes they had driven off and our exit lane was  wide open!  I turned over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92, pulled through the gap and repositioned the coach facing the exit of the parking lot with no obstructions in front of us.  Now if the fog would just dissipate!  About 11:15 am the sun had come out and the fog had lifted.  We decided to hit the road south to Portland, and were on our way by 11:30 am

On our way north 4 months ago we had stopped off overnight at the Cabela's in Scarborough, just south of Portland.  They have excellent RV parking, and a dump station, which we will need to use when we leave Portland on Monday.

The drive south was completely uneventful......just like we like it.....and after one 20 minute stop at a Rest Area we arrived in Portland around 2:45 pm.  The Newell ran like a charm as we seemed to be floating down Interstate 95 on a cushion of air.  The temp had gotten close to 80º F in Portland Saturday, and it was noticeably humid as we found a good parking spot and set up for two nights. While we drove we began to notice the leaves are beginning to get a little color as Fall approaches.....

Picture courtesy - TLE

.....not a lot of color....just enough to let you know Fall is just around the corner.

About 5:30 we decided to walk into Cabela's to do a little window shopping.....TLE does want to buy another pair of shorts, and perhaps a new pair of shoes for Amazon, but she didn't find anything that fit her that was on sale......she is so thrifty!  I love all the props and displays they have inside the store......

 Just a sample of a few of the exhibits

We spent the evening reading.........I had a College football game on in the background....and were in bed by 10:30 pm.  It is good to be back on the road, isn't it?

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Exploring........

7:48 am - Monday - May 14th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 47º F, 92% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the south by southwest.....heavy cloud cover with a forecast high for today of 53º F.  Looks like a 60% chance of rain on Tuesday.

We were up and at them just before 7 am on our first full day in Southwest Harbor.  We wanted to take a walk around the campground to get a feel for it, and get oriented, then walk into town to explore our home town for the next 5.5 months.....

Site Map of Smuggler's Den

.....there are 125 individual sites with 55 of them being full hookup, but only 3 pull through sites.  The rest range from water/electric only for tenters, or popup tent trailers to dry camping sites.  They have around 13 cabins, or park models as some call them.  It is much larger than I originally thought......our walk around the perimeter of the park was close to one mile in length.  They have a large group area with a number of RV sites which have water/electric and many others for dry camping only.....

 Cabins/Park Models

.....everything appears to be well maintained without any apparent deferred maintenance.....every single picnic table we saw had a fresh coat of paint, and had no structural issues....

....there is a family cemetery on site with graves dating back to the 1700's....I'm going to have to find out more about that.  

Once we had completed our tour of Smuggler's Den we headed into town.  According to the owners the local supermarket is about 1/2 mile from the campground (it is), and downtown Southwest Harbor about 1.5 miles from the park (it is).  Initially the highway plunges downhill for about 1/2 mile before it begins to level out....right at that point is where Food Mart IGA is located....

......we spent quite a bit of time checking the store out as this is where we will do most of our grocery shopping for the next 5.5 months.  Their prices are reasonable for a resort town, they have a very nice selection, and the employees are very friendly and helpful.

Next we walked another mile into town where we found most of the small shops, and eateries still closed, but getting ready to open over the next 2 weeks......

.......in all, including our 1 mile walk around the campground, we walked about 4.6 miles on our walking tour.  We did not get all the way to the harbor as we just ran out of gas, and knew we had the 1/2 mile hill to climb on our way back.  We were back home by 1 pm....I spent the rest of the afternoon with the Tournament Players Championship on in the background while I worked to set up our living environment for the next 5.5 months. Tiger started the day at 8 under par, but 11 strokes behind the leader (Webb Simpson) who was at 19 under par.......at one point Tiger got to 14 under par with a share of 2nd place, and only 4 strokes back of the leader before he faltered, finishing 7 strokes back.  A good day for Tiger in his attempt to comeback and win again on the PGA Tour.

In the interim I got my bike stand set up, three of our bikes assembled (the tandem will have to wait), all my tools out, and the Sea-B-Que ready for use....I grilled some carne asada around 6:30 for use in TLE's famous street tacos.

After 6 plus years of travel we find ourselves in a place where our Verizon phones do not work well......we get about 4 bars of 1x (the dreaded 'extended service'), which is not adequate for anything beyond phone calls, texting, and e-mail.  Fortunately, along with my job title of Ranger, I get unlimited use of the Ranger Iphone which is an AT&T phone, and has unlimited data.  When home we just turn on its hotspot so we can access the internet on our phones and laptop, so problem solved.  

For our first two days here the temps have been quite pleasant during the middle of the day, and I can be outside in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, but after 3 pm it begins to get quite cool and I must add layers of clothing, plus put on shoes.  No complaints here.....we would rather be cold than hot, so it's all good!

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Three thousand three hundred eighty-nine.....

6:53 am - Sunday - May 13th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 45º F, 93% humidity, wind wind 1 mph out of the southwest....partly cloudy with a forecast high today of 55º F......my view from our site for the next 5 months.......it's going to be a beautiful day in Southwest Harbor......

We were up a little after 6 am Saturday.  Our intent had been to sleep in and leave Portland around 10 am, but let's face it......we were excited to be at the end of our 3,389 mile journey and almost 4 weeks of continuous travel and site seeing.  Over the last two plus years we have spent more time stationary than moving....by far.

It was particularly cold overnight and when we awoke the bedroom temperature was around 53º F.....the first time it has been below 60º F on our journey to the northeast.  Needless to say, we had all three gas furnaces rocking to take the chill off the Newell interior as quickly as possible!

By 8 am we were ready to roll, but I wanted to top off our 180 gallon diesel tank so it would be near full when we arrived in Southwest Harbor where we will be parked for close to 5.5 months before we roll our wheels again.  A full diesel tank reduces the chances of condensation building up in the tank over a long period of time, especially if you are living in an area prone to higher humidity.  We took on 50 gallons at $3.29/gallon and were on our way northbound on I-95 once again.

The northbound Interstates are toll roads here in Maine.  Unlike New York where you pay for exactly what you use after you have used it, here in Maine every time you enter the Interstate you pay.  On this day we paid $3.50 to enter I-95 south of Portland, then another $3.50 when we switched to I-295 for about 40 miles, then another final $3.50 when we came close to Augusta and rejoined I-95......so $10.50 in tolls for the day.  It's only $1 for cars, so when we do travel south to Portland in the future it will cost us $3 each way.

The drive north was unremarkable except for the noticeable lack of Rest Areas.  Usually, first thing in the day, we pull into a Rest Area to brush our teeth, take a walk, etc. after 40-50 miles, but on this day the first Rest Area was almost 90 miles into our 183 mile day.  Otherwise, the roads were in excellent condition.

We knew the elevation of Southwest Harbor was around 52', but we spent most of our day alternating between 200' and 500' elevation until the very end as we made the gentle descent into Southwest Harbor and our home for the summer......Smuggler's Den Campground.

 Getting close!

Because of our very early start we arrived at our final destination around 12:30 pm and were met by Todd and Rain Holbrook who own, and run this seasonal campground (opens May 25th, and closes October 22nd).  We had really enjoyed our interview with Rain and her mother back in August when we were still at Yellowstone, and were pleasantly pleased to find both Todd and Rain just as we expected.....welcoming, low key, helpful, patient, and understanding.  I think we are about to have a great summer!

We will be the only Workampers at Smuggler's Den this year.....all other workers are locals who love working at this family owned park every summer.  We feel blessed to be chosen as their only onsite workers.  Todd showed us to our site, and one can immediately see why this is a worker site as you can only get into it when the sites across the road are empty.  I had to pull into the site directly across from ours and then back the trailer as far into the back of the site as I could before we unhooked it, and then spent about an hour maneuvering it into the corner of the site using the Trailer Valet.......I am so glad I bought it!  We don't use it often, but when we do it makes things so much easier!

Once the trailer was positioned TLE helped me back the Newell into the site.....there is a wooden deck (in very nice condition....painted baby blue) that Todd will help us move into position once the Newell is parked.......

By the time we finished getting the Newell hooked up, and our quite full black and gray tanks dumped it was after 2 pm.  As soon as I saw the site I knew using my rooftop crank up Winegard satellite dish would be fruitless, but I tried nonetheless for about 20 minutes without success, so it was time to deploy our Winegard Carryout dish, which we bought a few years ago when we were in Cape Blanco with a similar problem.  We have only had to use it a few times in the intervening years, but are so glad, once again, that we bought it.  Within minutes after I had it set up and connected to the Newell we had DirecTV.........

Winegard Carryout dish at the back of our site

....by the time I was done putting things away it was after 3:30 pm and time to sit down and relax, and maybe catch a quick nap.  

The temps here in Southwest Harbor have been averaging in the mid 50's the past couple of weeks, and there is a hint of warming over the next two weeks into the low 60's.....Spring has been slow in arriving here in northeast Maine.  Thankfully, the overnight temps are in the low 40's, so not a big temperature swing.

For those who are interested in where we are in Maine, and our proximity to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, here is a Google map for your reference.....

We are on Mount Desert Island

......there is a lot to explore, and we have over 5 months to do so.....time to get started!

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