And then there were three.......

8 am - Wednesday - June 3rd - The Big Eddie, ID - 53° F, 57% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the southeast....southeast seems to be the prevailing wind at The Big Eddie....feels CALM to me......the view this morning......↴

 Our own vintage coach rally....left to right: 1984.5 Bluebird Wanderlodge PT-36, 1984 Newell Classic 35' and 1984 Newell Classic 36'

We began our Tuesday with two vintage coaches, and ended it with 3.....more on that later.  After setting up our camp for the next 10 days TLE and I drove the VW into Driggs to see what was what.  We needed to visit the local ACE hardware store, do some shopping, some banking, and visit the Post Office.....what do you know?  All of that is in one shopping center....we just parked the car and took care of all of our business in one place.  

The local grocery store is Broulim's, which is an Idaho chain of 12 stores, and it is amazing.  It reminds me of the chain of stores Von's opened back in the 80's called Pavillions.  Our friend Linda told us we would love Broulim's and she was right....we do.

We were expecting the imminent arrival of our friend of 40 years, Claude Banker and his friend Gail in his 1984.5 Bluebird Wanderlodge between 3 and 4 pm, so we got headed back home by 2 pm.  Just around 3:30 pm I saw the Wanderlodge rumbling down the dirt road into camp.......

......we had them set up right behind Glenn and Laurren's 1984 Newel facing south....they also have a solar system installed recently by A.M. Solar so need the north/south orientation, just as we do.....

.....so now our trio of vagabonds is complete, and we will travel for a while together.  Claude and I have embarked upon many adventures over the years including long distance bike tours on both bicycles, and Tadpole Recumbent Trikes.  I wrote about those adventures and published them on a cool site called 'Crazy Guy On A Bike'.....you can find my journals under chockwald, or try this link.....

Claude had a Greenspeed recumbent tadpole trike and I a Terratrike tadpole recumbent.....a great way to tour!

......our coolest trip was from his home in Indio, CA up through Mojave National Preserve, Baker, Shoshone, Death Valley, and over the Panamint Mountains to Lone Pine, CA.....about 500 miles over 9 days....the journal about this ride is called 'Mystical Mojave Wanderings'....check it out.......

.....I took some time to walk around The Big Eddie' to get myself, and my audience oriented as to what is here.  Of course, there is the Teton River which is running just below flood stage right now......

......there is a sign which tells you what you can, and cannot do here....mostly what you CANNOT do, which is cool......you can stay here for up to 10 days free of charge.....

.....they provide 'loaner' life jackets if you forgot your own, and they have 'his and hers' pit toilets, which do get cleaned on a regular basis....I saw the ranger during the day cleaning and sanitizing them.....

 The things you 'CANNOT' do

.....after Claude and Gail's arrival we spent a lot of time talking and catching up on each other's lives......Claude pretty much know about my life, because he reads the blog on a regular basis.  We had a lovely sunset, followed by a campfire.....the first we have had since Goosenecks......

 My very good friend of  40 years....back on the road again in his 1984 Bluebird Wanderlodge

Courtesy Glenn Parker with his cool Google Pixel phone 

camera....takes great low light pictures!

.....the party broke up shortly after 10 pm....a great first full day at 'The Big Eddie'.....thanks for stopping by!

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The 10 percent.......

7:10 am - Tuesday - June 2nd - The Big Eddie, ID - 54° F, 58% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the southeast......cloudy today with a forecast high of 70° F.....the view this morning......↴

 The Grand Tetons in the background.....one of the most 

amazing boondocking sites ever.

We did not sleep well Sunday night.  We're not used to being in the middle of a busy business district in an Interstate town after all of the remote places we have spent the lsat month.  We're used to it being pitch dark, and very little sound at night other than wind, or birds....you know, the natural stuff.  Anyway, as a result we were up just after 6 am, and on the road to our ultimate destination for the day by 8:30 am.....Glenn and Laureen, as is their custom, followed a couple of hours later.

Out of Rock Springs we drove a couple of miles east on I-80 picking up US-191 again and continued our trek northwest to Driggs, ID.  Compared to Monday's drive into and through Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area which was a lot of steep climbs, and big descents, the first 180 miles on US-191 Monday was easy peasy.....just set the cruise control and hang on to the steering wheel.  It was the kind of day you dream of.....giant views, and straight roads......

 The snow capped Rockies coming into view

.....after passing through the small town of Pinedale, WY we began to trace the path of the Hoback River through this beautiful mountain river valley.....

 Along the Hoback River 

  .....eventually we began the long descent into Jackson, WY and the countryside began to get much greener, and lusher......

.....just outside of Jackson we hit a big construction zone, but traffic continued to move along, and the snow capped mountains loomed ever closer.....

.....in Jackson we would leave US-191 for Wyoming 22 and directly west towards the Idaho state line....what we did not know was that get there we had to climb up and over Teton Pass, which took us from around 6,400' in Jackson to over 8,400' in just a few short miles consisting of 10% grades as far as the eye could see......11.2 miles to be exact to the summit.......

.....we ground along at 14-15 mph all the way to the top with a couple of stops to let the big Detroit Diesel cool down a tad, but eventually we topped out and began the descent to the Idaho border and ultimately our destination near Driggs, ID.......

At the Idaho border Wyoming 22 becomes Idaho 33

......back in 2016 I read a blog post by Linda Gray Davey (The Chouters) about this amazing boondocking site they had found about 6 miles west of Driggs, ID right on the Teton River with a view of the backside of the Grand Tetons (she also wrote about this place here).  Ever since then I have wanted to come and stay at that amazing place, and Monday that dream became reality......

 Minutes after arriving at The Big Eddie

......in Driggs we were instructed to turn left on Bates, then drive about 5.5 miles out of town to W. 6000, or Parson Road, a very well maintained dirt road for 2 miles, then turn right onto W. 2000, or toward Rainey Bridge.  From there it is .9 miles to the campground, and is that drive ever worth it.....

......everywhere you look is beautiful....especially the view of the Grand Tetons.....

.....the sign says you can camp here free for up to 10 days, and I think that is just what TLE and I will do.  It's time to be still for a while, and not change our view for at least the next 10 days....what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

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US-191......WOW!

6:45 am - Monday - June 1st - Rock Springs, WY - 58° F, 51% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the southeast.......high clouds today with a forecast high in Rock Springs, WY of 84° F.....the view this morning.......↴

Walmart RV park in Rock Springs, WY

Our Sunday destination was a modest 120 miles from Jensen, UT....Rock Springs, WY.  We last set foot in Wyoming back in October of 2017 when we departed our summer job at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store in Yellowstone.  Wyoming has always been one of our favorite states to reside in, and travel through.  TLE and I hauled our anchor around 9:30 am and were on our way westward on US-40 into Vernal, UT where we merged onto US-191 northbound....this is a new secondary road for us, and I had no idea what to expect........

.....it wasn't long before we began our first long climb of the day.....all the way from 5,000' in Jensen, UT to over 8,400' at Daggett Pass......

......over the course of 120 miles we surpassed 8,000' in elevation 3 times.....

.......the views we encountered were stunning, and unforgettable.........

 Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area

Taking a 30 minute break at the Flaming Gorge Dam parking lot/visitor's center

 (Picture courtesy Glenn Parker)

 (Picture courtesy Glenn Parker)

(Picture courtesy Glenn Parker)

 I don't remember driving across a dam in the Newell before, but there's always a first time for everything

.......we pulled into turnouts on numerous occasions to soak in the beauty, and snap a few pictures to memorialize the experience.....

.....as we were making our last descent of the day to I-80, and Rock Springs, TLE caught this great picture of the sun lighting up the distant mountains......it was stormy, and we saw numerous lightning flashes in the distance.

We arrived at the Walmart in Rock Springs around 1 pm after a 3.5 hour drive along one of the most amazing highways we have traversed in some time.  We've overnighted at this Walmart on 3 prior occasions over the 8+ years we have been on the road.  In that 8+ years we have logged over 67,000 miles touring this amazing country, and we have still only just scratched the surface of what there is to see.

Glenn and Laureen arrived around 2:45 pm, and found a spot to park overnight about 100 yards in front of us......you can see their 1984 Newell in the center of the picture below.....

....TLE and I quickly walked across the street to the local Starbucks to purchase our favorite blended ice drinks....mocha frappuccino for moi, and a vanilla bean frappuccino for TLE....it is one of the perks of staying overnight at this Walmart.

After winding down with our individual frappuccino selections we walked into Walmart to do our customary shopping, which we always do as a 'Thank You!' to them for allowing us to use their facilities.

Later in the evening Glenn and Laureen came over bearing the gift of ice cream......ice cream will always get you in our door.....always.....lol!  We spent time talking about the boondocking site near Driggs, ID, and the surrounding area before bidding our adieus for the evening.

We'll be rolling our wheels within 2 hours ever northward to Driggs, ID where we will boondock for 7-10 days right on the banks of the Teton River.....at least that is our Jello plan.  The boondock site is a first come, first served area, but we are relatively confident we will be able to secure a couple of sites....fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

They were giants......

7:08 am - Sunday - May 31st - Jensen, UT - 59° F, 72% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the northwest.......high cloudiness today with a forecast high here in Jensen of 87° F, but we will not be here to experience that.....we roll our wheels in two hours northward to Rock Springs, WY.  On this day in 2014 I was riding the 'Flume Trail' with  Michelle and Mark Douglas......

View of Sand Harbor from the 'Flume Trail'

Back in September of 2012 we spent a few days camping at Flaming Gorge in Wyoming.  I saw on our map that Dinosaur National Monument was about 70 miles south of our position, and wanted to see it, but we were headed east on I-80 at the time to work at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY for the first time and a round trip drive of over 150 miles was not in the cards, so we said to ourselves 'next time' we are in the area we'll see it......next time did not come for 7.5 years.  A couple of weeks ago I saw our travel path would take us by this national monument again, so we decided to make it happen.

We are staying at Outlaw Trail RV Park, which is across the street from the road which takes you to the western entrance of this very large park.  When we go sightseeing with Glenn and Laureen we almost always ride in their Honda Element, mostly because the ingress and egress from their vehicle is easier on our aging bodies than the VW.  We left in their Element just before 10 am to enter the park......

....as is the case with all the National Parks, and Monuments we have visited thus far on our summer travels the visitor center was closed at Dinosaur National Monument, along with its main attraction, Quarry Exhibit Hall, where you are able to view many fossilized dinosaur bones still embedded in the rock quarry where they were originally found......

.....nevertheless, we decided to take the hike up to Quarry Hall to attempt to view some of the fossilized bones through the tinted windows.  Along this 1.5 mile long trail you can view some petroglyphs......

.......the temp was in the high 80's Saturday making hiking in the intense direct sunlight interesting to say the least.  After about 30 minutes we reached Quarry Hall and attempted to take some photographs through the darkly tinted windows where others have been attempting to do the same thing prior to our arrival....the windows were full of hand prints, and smudges making it difficult, but we did the best we could.....

 Quarry Exhibit Hall

.....between TLE and I we managed to get a few fuzzy pictures.  I wish we could have gone inside.....

 

 
.....the view from Quarry Hall was spectacular, and we spent about 20 minutes resting in the shade before beginning the walk back to the Honda via the paved road, which is currently gated to keep people from making the drive up the hill.....

 'Elephant Toes'

 The trail up to Quarry Hall

 TLE got this picture of a large fossilized dinosaur bone near the hiking path to Quarry Hall

.....once back at the car we continued our tour of Dinosaur National Monument finding more petroglyphs just a short walk from the road....

....about 8 miles into our drive we came to the end of the road at Miss Josie's homestead cabin.....

Miss Josie's homestead cabin

....signage told us that Miss Josie homesteaded this property in 1914 at the age of 40 and lived there 50 years.....no electricity, no plumbing, dirt floors.  A very solitary, basic existence....she must have loved it....

.....we availed ourselves of a picnic table located on Miss Josie's property to eat lunches prepared by TLE and Laureen.  About this time it began to cloud over, the air began to cool noticeably, and by the time we finished it had begun to rain.......it was time to seek the shelter of the Element once again.

We arrived home around 1:30 pm....time for a nap, right?  We had a fun time touring Dinosaur National Monument, but were disappointed in not being able to enter Quarry Exhibit Hall.....that is the main attraction at Dinosaur National Monument, so perhaps a return visit at some time in the future is warranted.  All that being said we had fun with Glenn and Laureen talking and laughing, and just hanging out together.  As the saying goes "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time...."

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!