Motor Home clean up

Seeing that I will be here for two weeks, I have decided to clean out some of the junk I carry around but do not use.  Today I filled up half of a black trash bag of junk... will do more each morning until it is time to move down to the next camp site.. Currently dry/dispersed/ boon-docking , next camp will do a week with full hookups. Have reserved a site at Blue-water Lake starting July 27th to Aug 3rd..


Using solar power to cook lunch today..

Solar panel set up in lower right.

Battery, controller, and cooker

Hot dogs inside cooker.. Same type used when driving trucks.

Hot dogs are a cooking

Walked Spencer down to the main camp looking for a ranger or camp host, wanted a map of this park.. No luck could not find a ranger or a host..  Spencer did have to take breaks, temp at 80F at 10:30... Will relax and read for remainder of day..

Several photos of the lake.. it is too big to fit one photo..

Spencer likes to take breaks in the shade on long walks. Being black I guess he get hot fast..

Looking for the next shady place to take a break..  

Spencer's Ride did good

What a day!!!!!  Started at 0600 thinking I could do 360 miles in about 8 hours without any problems. Guess what??? I was wrong, it took me over 10 hours. First I had to deal with just about every road being repaired or improved... Then I hit a mountain pass that you could not get over 25MPH ( speed limit ) due to the curves and steepness.  The pass was so bad that my MPG dropped from an AVG of 9.87 to 7.20 for the day.  Also did not help that my GPS went crazy on me three times and had me going the wrong why, had to make corrections on my own and find my why back on route. Then to top things off they are no signs for Navajo Lake until you arrive, makes for a fun drive when you are not sure if you are on the right road or not.

Backup number one, single lane road due to resurfacing  half of it at a time. Had to wait 30 min, before our side could go.

Slowdown due to shoulder work, speed set to 25mpg.

Delay #2 this time road was torn up and only a single lane of dirt was open. Waited 45 min this time.. Made myself a cup of coffee.. LOL...

Oncoming traffic waiting for us to clear..

The dirt road we had too use..

Did stop a few times to get photos and had to walk Spencer...

Taken just below the summit. Red Mountain..

Once I made it to the lake I drove in looking for a visitor center or at least a camp host. Could not find a center, did find the sites for two host, but nobody was around at either site. So drove around got lost, found a map on a board, drove around some more and found a camp site. So far have not seen anyone else, just lots of campers and boats..

Set up camp and just going to chill for the night.. My hanging garden did not travel very well, hope it recovers...

Solar is set up, now to see if it works.

Plants look sad... did not travel well.

Flowers do not look like they will make it..

Long drive through Wy.

Only planed on doing 200 to 250 miles today, problem was that when I reached 180 miles I could not find a place to pull over for the night. Passed several old RV parks that had closed and a State Park that had the road to the campground closed. Just had to keep going and going until I found a place in Craig Co. no discounts but after 410 miles I just wanted to stop.  Good news I have cable so can watch television, big deal.

  I took photos during the morning, but by afternoon I did not want to stop to take photos.  As things worked out I started at 06:15 this morning, stopped at 15:30 this evening. Might try to make New Mexico tomorrow depending on how I feel, still 360 miles to go before I get to Navajo Lake...

Parked at the river, once again I had the place to myself. 

Wish I could recall the name of the river, it is on a reservation.  

Not exactly a modern tunnel system.. 

Right side tunnel is for the trains, yes it is still in use.

Had to stop for this one, a Dad and his two sons doing it the old fashion way..

If you can read the sign in back it says, See America Slowly. 

Yellowstone Park Third time around..

Today makes three times I have been through Yellowstone Park. I have to say each time was better then the last. First time I did not really enjoy it very much, too many people and did not see but one Bison. Second time was much better not as many people and got to see some nice sights along with a few Bison.

This time I hit the park at 06:30 AM and had it all to myself until around 10AM when other people started showing up. Large numbers of folk did not arrive until after 11AM, then it was time for me to get away.

Took me just over eight hours to drive 180 miles today, so you know I did a lot of stopping. The following photos are a handful of what I took.

Gibbons Falls

Parking lot for Gibbons Falls. I had the first three place I stopped all to myself. 

Can just see the trail through the stream from hot springs.

I only did a small fraction of the trail

Run Off..  River is still in flood 

Runoff

Looks more like a forest fire the a hot spring.. 

Herds of Bison in the North part of the park.

Back on the road after the 4th

After a nice sendoff from friends in Iona Idaho, I am once again on the road. This time it is just me and my sidekick Spencer. Kay is staying over in Iona for a little longer, not sure when we will hook up again.  My current plans are to see the upper part of the Yellowstone including old fort Mammoth. After that I will just head to New Mexico and hang out, maybe do some fishing..

  Tonight I stopped about 13 miles from Yellowstone, hope to get an early start tomorrow and beat the rush into the park. Can it be done??? Let you know tomorrow. Tonight will be laundry night and a movie, after walking Spencer one last time..

Good laundry room. but park not worth the price. 

WOW... I filled up in Ammon Idaho for $3.36... THAT is 57 cents less then it is here.. Why????

Not much to look at here, a movie is in order for the night..

RV Garden

Started a garden here in Iona Idaho. Used a Topsy Turvy thing I have seen on TV to start some tomatoes and herbs. Also a small pot with what I hope will be flowers some day. I have always loved to grow things whenever I could so this will be interesting to see what happens. If it survives the trip from here to New Mexico next week then I just might get a second and plant some other things..

Topsy Turvy with tomatoes and herbs. Will ride in the shower when going down the road.

Small pot on left has flowers, maybe. Rides just inside passenger  door on floor.  

Cave Falls

 Forth of July was spent hiking around Cave Falls. With all the melting of snow, the run off is keeping the rivers and creeks not just full, but overflowing. The river in the photos is normally shallow enough to wade across, and fly fish from without and problems. Now it is running so fast and full I do not believe a person could get two steps in without being swept down stream.

The hike to the meadow would have been a lot more fun without the misquotes that tried to eat us alive, even after soaking ourselves in "off bug spray ".

 After the hike we drove to another river site to eat lunch, wanted to eat not be eaten..