Jiggling Jello.......

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6:55 am - Saturday - October 14th - Ririe, ID - 31º F, humidity 80%, wind 7 mph out of the northwest.......there is NO wind whatsoever, but it is has been, and is currently snowing.....about 5" of snow on the ground as I write......

Looks to be about 5" and still accumulating

What a difference a night makes

......wait, what?  There was nothing in last night's forecast about snow......but, come on.....how cool is it to awake to a winter wonderland?!  And, then, of course, there were the Jello plans we had to move further south today......and then the Jello jiggled.  Just another reminder that we need to move south a little more quickly.

So, back to Friday's shenanigans......originally we had talked about driving into Idaho Falls Friday to do a little 'junking', possibly see a movie, and then have an early dinner at a local micro brewery we have frequented in the past, but as the morning wore on we decided to just stay home and enjoy not doing anything, or imposing any kind of a schedule upon our persons.  Another compelling reason for not going anywhere was the relentless winds which were in the mid to high 20 mph all day long with gusts into the 30's on a regular basis.  And, finally, there were about 10-15 recorded shows in our DVR queue (NCIS, NCIS L.A., Blacklist, Designated Survivor, Survior, Gold Rush, Last Ship, NCIS New Orleans, etc.) which we needed to whittle down a tad.

Of course, there also had to be a walk around the campground, and around 3 pm we did just that.......

 Yup, it is cold!

.....it was still in the low 40's, and adding in the windchill factor I would say it felt like the mid 30's, so we bundled up against the cold and walked for about 40 minutes taking a few pictures to memorialize our visit before retreating to the heated comfort of the Newell.

There was another very good MLB ALCS playoff game pitting the hated New York Yankees against the Houston Astros......it was a well pitched game with Houston prevailing 2-1 in a game which could have gone either way.

Back to the present (7:41 am, Saturday), waking up to 5" of snow on the ground reminds me of how well built Newells are......well insulated, heated water bay, electric heaters, gas heaters, chassis heaters.....they are definitely 4 season coaches.  We have plenty of propane, we have 50 amp electric service (really 100 amps), and we have no schedule to keep.  We may, or may not roll our wheels today.  Oh, and one more thing.....it has stopped snowing, so we've got that going for us!

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The 'IT' factor......

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8:34 am - Friday - October 13 - Ririe, ID - 34º F, humidity 53%, wind 9 mph out of the south by southeast.......when you see windmills on the hill near your camp there is no way it is not going to be windy, right?

We awoke, finally, to a windless environment Friday morning.  I haven't talked a lot about the the wind, but over time wind kind of wears me down.   Any day I wake up without the ubiquitous sound of the wind makes me happy.  Our original Jello plan was to continue south from Dillon, MT on I-15 to Idaho Falls which is always a natural stop off point for us when traveling the I-15 corridor.  Sometimes we have stayed at a local in town RV park, or in the local Walmart parking lot.  As I was thinking Thursday night about where we might stay my mind kept rejecting these familiar options so I began to look outside of town for someplace new to stay for a couple of days.  I checked Freecampsites.net and found numerous free boondocking options, of which there are many in this area, but knowing the overnight lows would be in the very low 20's I began to look to places where we could at least have access to electricity.  Initially I thought we might stay at the local Elks Lodge, but they only offer 20 amp service with no water, or sewer, or dump station.  The price, $10/night, was attractive, but I really didn't want to be back in a situation where we had to think about what electric appliances we could use.....we did that all summer and, frankly, I'm over that.  I just want to plug in and not have to manage our electrical consumption, especially with the cold temps being forecast.  I checked Passport America, but none of the parks nearby had that 'IT' factor, even at a 50% discounted rate.  Finally I checked RV Park reviews dot com and found this cool out of the way Bonneville County Park which overlooks Ririe Dam/Reservoir.  This park seemed to have the 'IT' factor, so that is where we headed about mid morning.

We had one big pass, Monida (6,870' elevation), which stood between us and the Idaho border.  Fortunately the grade heading up to the pass is quite gentle and I was able to keep the Newell in cruise control the entire time.....that is rare......95% of the time I have to shift down to 2nd, or 3rd gear to get over most passes, or summits.  Our total driving distance for the day was modest......just 146 miles.  Normally I would take time before we leave a location to clean the windshield, but it was soooo cold I decided to put it off until we got down the road aways.  About 45 miles into our day I spotted a rest stop near Lima, MT which we had stopped at previously, so we pulled in and I spent the next 15 minutes cleaning the windshield and side windows......it was still quite cold!

We exited I-15 about 10 miles shy of Idaho Falls and took a few country roads over to US-26 which took us the final 6 miles to Juniper Campground, which is aptly named as there are juniper bushes everywhere.......

.......as we entered the park around 2 pm it was obvious that we would be the only ones there.....we essentially have the entire park to ourselves!  Most of the sites are long pull throughs so it was just a matter of finding one with the 'IT' factor, and then settling in for two days.  Since the overnight temps are getting below freezing most nights the water has been turned off.....that's cool as we had over 100 gallons of fresh water still left in our tank.....more than enough for two days.  At least we have access to the sewer to dump our gray tank water, and we have 50 amp service!

Around 7 pm we noticed we were getting a great sunset.......unfortunately, my meager photographic skills did not capture its true grandeur, and beauty......

.....we spent most of the evening watching the MLB game five between the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals.....the game lasted over 4.5 hours and was ultimately won by Chicago 9-8.....the Nationals just made too many errors in a game they should have won handily.

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A new mindset.......

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8:25 am - Thursday - October 12th - 29º F, humidity 78%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southwest......looks, feels, and appears to be CALM right now.  Forecast highs along our travel route will be in the mid to high 40's......

Our view in Dillon Thursday morning

We took our time getting ready to leave Livingston Wednesday.....we only had about 176 miles to drive to Dillon, MT.  It only got down to 40 something Tuesday night, which was part of the two day 'heatwave' in the area.  Before we could merge on to I-90 westbound we had two tasks to accomplish.....first top off our 60 gallon propane tank, and secondly 'pay the rent', or in other words, put 115 gallons of diesel into our 180 gallon tank.  The last time we filled our propane tank was June 14th on our way into Yellowstone, and the last time we 'paid the rent' was June 10th in Dayton, NV.  We took on 35 gallons of propane at $3.25/gallon, and the aforementioned 115 gallons of diesel at $2.83/gallon.....all told we parted with about $440 before we covered one mile of the 176 miles to Dillon.  We shouldn't have to fill the propane tank again until we leave the Grand Canyon.....we may top it off just prior to our arrival there....we'll see.  We will have to fill our diesel tank again somewhere along our route south as it is 1,200+ from Livngston to the Grand Canyon.

We were finally on I-90 traveling westbound by 11:15 am.......the route was mostly flat for long stretches with a few big climbs and the attendant big descents, but generally we just cruised at 60 mph via our cruise control.  My task was to hang on to the steering wheel, and remain focused on the road ahead.  Usually we stop every 60+ miles at a rest stop for a break, but this day we didn't stop for a break until we had covered 135 miles......my friend Tom, would be proud of me!

Since it was going to be down in the 20's Wednesday night we opted to stay at a local RV park (Countryside RV Park) in Dillon where we would have 50 amp service, and be able to run as many heaters we might wish. This park is just off I-90 about .5 miles, and has mostly long pull through sites......perfect for us....easy off, easy on.

It took me about an hour to get into my traveling groove, but once I arrived there my mind began to transition from 'sitting in one place for months' mode, to 'rolling the wheels' mode.  It is a totally different mindset, and thought process.  A good example of where my mind was first thing in the morning:  In preparation for taking on propane I turn off the gas to the coach, which is a safety issue.  The problem was I forgot to turn it back on after the attendant disconnected his propane hose......I cannot remember ever forgetting that.  While we are under way the Dometic refrigerator runs off propane......I didn't realize the gas was still 'OFF' until we parked in Dillon....I went to light the water heather and the pilot light would not light.....DOH!  It was then I finally remembered I had forgotten to turn on the gas.  Amazingly, the Dometic was only a little over 40º F.....no harm, no foul.  Another thing I forgot to do was to turn 'OFF' the leveling system enabling the coach to return to 'RIDE HEIGHT'......I didn't realize this mistake until we rolled over some railroad tracks and I heard this loud thump meaning the suspension had bottomed out......double 'DOH!'.

Once we were on the Interstate, and the cruise control was set I began to focus on the various gauges on my dash......the temperature of the coolant is very important....it settled quickly at 182º F.....just where it should be.  In fact, all of the Newell systems worked as they should......good air pressure, good oil pressure, good running temperatures on the coolant, oil and tranny, cruise control keeping us at a steady 60 mph......can't ask for much more.....well, I guess I could ask for more, but that would just be bad form, no?

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Light the fires!

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7:55 am - Wednesday - October 11th - 42º F, humidity 41%, wind 13 mph out of the southwest......partly cloudy.....forecast high for today in Livingston, MT is 65º F........I have no idea where we will be later today, but wherever that may be it will be a nice day, except for the wind.

When we last left off we had gone to bed Tuesday morning around 2:15 am.  It seemed like just a few minutes later the sun was casting unwanted light inside the Newell.  I made a valiant effort to keep sleeping, but by 8:30 am I surrendered and got up (TLE had no such struggle.....she continued sleeping for another hour).  So, just 6 hours of sleep, which only served to reconfirm our decision to add a day to our stay in Livingston, and take the entire day Tuesday to leisurely straighten up the trailer interior in preparation for VW insertion, as well as indulge in a couple of well deserved naps.

The weather forecast indicated winds in the 20+ mph range out of the southwest, and that is what we got all day long (still blowing as I write).  While I toiled in the trailer TLE went to the local Town & Country Market to restock our increasingly bare cupboards.  By the time she returned I was well on my way to finishing my work in the trailer.  Even though I have done this more times than I care to count I always wonder if I will be able to get the VW inside once again.  I think it is time to begin to thin out what we carry with us.

Eventually, around 4:30 pm, I opened up the rear door of the trailer so TLE could drive the VW Beetle inside.....it was a tight fit, which only reconfirms my feeling that it is time to go through everything we carry and start making those difficult decisions.  So, the car is in the trailer, it is time to disconnect our umbilical cords........we are ready to light the fires, and roll our wheels 1,200 miles southward to the Grand Canyon!

As I sit here writing I feel a little anxious about moving day after day once again after being mostly stationary for almost 6 months.  With the lone exception of moving from SLT up to YNP over a 5 day period we have been stationary 99% of the time.  Our plan is to take a little over 3 weeks to reach the east end of the Grand Canyon.....the adventurous side of me is looking forward to that drive and that time spent moving slowly southward, but there is this other side of me that enjoys the continuity which comes from being stationary.  Ironically, whenever we have been changing our view on a regular basis the exact opposite feelings come to the surface......I resist staying in any place longer than a week, or two, and  I am always thinking about the next adventure.

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