We’re Ready for Alaska Adventures 2013

I mentioned on FaceBook last week that I had visited the ‘Old Geezer’s Coffee Hour’ at the Masonic Temple last Saturday morning.  The three Lodges that meet in this fine building all work in harmony as shown by the Saturday and Tuesday morning coffee hours which are open to all Old Geezers. Euclid Lodge #58 has a most impressive electronic Trestle Board that you may enjoy viewing. 

I was lucky enough to meet Worshipful Brother Chester Rogers who sat in the east of San Diego Lodge #35 in 1969.  His 98 years don’t seem to slow him down too much.  He was very pleased when I presented him with M.W.B. Simon Laplace’s pin.

 

Anne-Marie has been busy stocking up the trailer as she is concerned that we will starve of the great north west that we will traveling in.  During our 5:00 attitude adjustment period we have been assured that we will touch civilization every several days.

Last item on my ToDo list was to fix my rear clearance & tail lights.  This was caused by a hot wire that was open somewhere in the bowels of the trailer.  I bypassed the pesky thing and all is well now.  We will top the tank up with $3.81 diesel juice, I’m sure that is the cheapest we will see for the next 6,000 miles.

Anne-Marie enjoys the tax free shopping and no bottle deposit in Montana.  I am not as excited that it’s Bourbon prices at about double those in New Hampshire and Arizona.

We received the good news that The Calgary Stampede has recovered from the flooding of 3 weeks ago and will go on as promised. Although neither of us are rodeo buffs, we have been assured that this event is a great piece of showmanship that we will long remember.  Bring it on!

Fixing Glitches in Great Falls 2013

Sometimes all this fun turns into work.  I’ve scheduled wheel bearing repack for the trailer this afternoon.  That means the we will be Tearing down and resetting today.  The Yankee in me really hates to pay $250 to do a service that will use about $50 worth of parts.  I just cannot carry all the tools with me to do this stuff.  Things got better here, Dick’s Campground had a 25% off coupon for this service.

Our trailer tail lights and rear (only) clearance lights are on vacation.  Most surely a bad ground wire, I‘ll look into that today.

Alaska at this time of year is cold enough to need some heat at night.  I’ve removed our space heater in the interest of more room, it is stored in Georgetown, TX of course so our furnace wouldn’t fire yesterday.  This is usually caused by a bad ‘sail switch’ which serves to check for airflow before introducing gas to the party.  The Wing Nuts that installed the furnace did not use a plug-in for the wires, they saved 37 cents and wired it direct.  I had to cut the wire harness to remove and extend it a foot so I could reinstall.  P.I.A. working on the floor in tight quarters.

I took the Dodge to a local dealer for routine maintenance .  I wasn’t too surprised that after 80kmi, she needed front brakes.  I was surprised that it had a front pinion leak and an issue with the EGR system.  They also reflashed the computer and changed a tie rod component which was a recall item.

Anne-Marie had maintenance done on her feet.  Her expenditure was way lower that mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not all work here, we did have time to visit the C.M. Russell Museum. A very good stop which was sweetened when Anne-Marie score a beautiful wool jacket at huge discount as it had a broken zipper.

We are leaving for Canada & Alaska on Monday.  We will be turning off all of our data sources (I-net & smart phones) until September 1st or so depending when we come back into the states.  I will have intermittent Wi-Fi so I will be able to download text mail {please do not send files} and our blog updates.  Our phones will be on, the coverage is very poor.

Great Falls 2013

We arrived at Great Falls MT after a 130 mile ride which tested us.  Our drive took us over some very steep grades as we went thru the Lewis and Clark Forest .  This ride was not for snivelers!  About 20 miles of 30mph with wide open throttle going up, 2nd gear coming down with the engine brake on all the way.  To add to the excitement on this slow curvy mountain pass, at about 8,000’ we encountered freezing rain. The co-pilot becomes very agitated when this happens to say the least.

We were greeted by this BisonFish on our arrival to Great Fall.  They must think us flatlanders are a new kind of stupid.

 

We seem to have been attacked by one of the Bison, he bit off the cover for our hot water heater!  My wife's Boy Toy was able to replace it at a cost of $47.00

We were pleased to find a Big R store here.  This is like a Tractor Supply on steroids.  You can purchase all types of high quality ‘Manly Man”  stuff here such as bulk hardware, ammunition (Not Returnable?), Udder Ointment, Screening to cover your grill guard (used as stone protection) and of course Gallon Jugs of WD-40.

Great Falls is located on the Missouri river at the point where there are 5 water falls the Lewis & Clark were forced to portage on the exploration north.   It is nicknamed The Electric City.  They have 5 hydroelectric dams, the first built at the turn of the century. The folks did all this and maintained a great park setting on the banks of the river.

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R&R in Livingston, MT 2013

I recently bought Microsoft’s  Street & Trips and I’m learning to use it.  There are a lot of features and add-ons.  This is a 1st attempt at posting a map.  this one shows our progress on the Texas - Alaska trip to date.

Out trip on Wednesday was pleasant.  We moved from Southern Yellowstone to Livingston, MT.  We’ve parked at The Livingston Golf Club & Fairground.  Near town and on the  Yellowstone river it has hook-up and was a great spot to rest for 2 days.  We bought supplies and bought needed stuff on Amazon.

We treated our selves to a monster lunch at Montana Rib & Chop House.  Easily the best chicken fried steak (cut w/fork). garlic mashed and chicken/sausage gumbo I’ve ever dreamed of.   Anne-Marie declared her fried cat fish (topped with a shrimp sauce was over the top.

Our other lunch stop was at this stand.  They made fresh burgers and fries.  Great quality has been keeping them in business for 59 years.  No seating, I suspect they are closed during -20° winters here.

 

We found a rather enchanting museum housed in the town’s 1907 schoolhouse.  I 2 story brick a fair, they retained most of the original floor plan and wood work. The detailing on this column was wonderful.  This town was seeped in railroad history.  They still have a 135’ round house.

 

this is a monument to Bozman,  a dog that rode one of the switch engines for 7 years, dated 1929.

This is a picture of my Mother’s worst nightmares according to my Father.  This iron lung was in the local hospital in 1952, it was never needed thanks to Dr. Salk.

 

 

Turn of the century Wagon used for Yellowstone Park tours.  A recreated turn of the century one room school house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are moving to the Moose Lodge in Great Falls this afternoon.  See you there….

Goodbye Yellowstone 2013

We are leaving Yellowstone a day early as rain is forecast and we would like to reenter civilization and get on with preparations for Alaska.  Our destination is a fair ground in Livingston, MT.  I found them in our DaysEnd catalog supplied by The Escapees.   This inexpensive e-book is updated by members as they find free or inexpensive camping site around the country.  It is delivered as a PDF sorted by States and Cities.  If you are on the road, it’s another reason to join The Escapees.

 

On a visit to Old Faithful we saw the German Touring bus again.

 

 

A ten point buck was near the roadway, he refused to pose while grazing.  A much larger one was back in the woods, out of camera range.  You can get up close to the critters out here.  Our campground is covered with ‘Bison Pies’ as proof of that!

The Old Faithful area has several large lodges and multi purpose service area all rough hewn and appearing to be very old, which some of them are. 

 

 

 

Being the Star of the show, Old Faithful draws a huge crowd every 90 minutes.  I’d questimate 3000 folks here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we leave, it is fitting that our last memory will be of Old Faithfull doing what it has been doing for centuries.

 One final disclaimer. I’ve written the past 5 Blogs without I-net support.  That means I have no was to add hyperlinks or proof read on line.  Tuff it out, you get what you pay for!

 

As usual, comments are welcome…

 

 

Yellowstone and I’m BUSTED! 2013

I fought the law and the law won!

The Park Rangers and Host Campers {hard working volunteers} are very serious here about keeping campers and critters happy, meaning separated.  Part of this is that 2 legged life forms must not feed or encourage the 4 legged beasties to search for food.  I’m guilty as charged of leaving our gas grill and small 6 pack cooler out on the picnic table while we were on a road trip.  These items were confiscated and placed in a ‘Food Box’ near our site.  A ‘food box’ is about 3’ lock box made from 1/8” steel plate.

These folks are typical of a crowd that a bear siting causes.  The grizzly in this case is about 200 ‘ off the road grazing in the greenery.  There are about 10 rangers here who are guarding the bear from being molested.  That bear is able to sprint at 30mph, not a great idea to get out of your car as you may appear to be lunch.

Do you have someone on your Christmas list who was born in the late 40’s?  He/She would love this to hang in their den.  Claimed to be original shirt, tie and comic book it was priced at about $2,500.

A local mini brewery is capitalizing on the large congestion caused by herds of bison crossing the roads.  Me thinks that this idea can easily be moved east to Cape Cod: Route 6 Buzz Juice.

 

 

 

Our life is not all peaches and cream here.  due to the 5% slope on our site I was forced to put the front of our rig so low that the rear door went up about 4 feet.  Further evidence of my hardships are shown that my beverage this afternoon is Budweiser.

A tip for our RV friends:  Our ovens do not bake well, they are too small and do not have enough mass to hold the temperature even.  Last year Anne-Marie put 4 tiles in our, I do not think she has had cause to remove them.  Try them, you’ll like them!

 

Our future plans (I’m writing this on 6/18/2013) are to leave Yellowstone on 6/20 and move about 85 miles North to Livingston, Montana where we will boondock in their fair grounds.   Hopefully we will do laundry, food shopping and I will find an internet source so I can post these blogs.  We will than move about 150 miles North to Great Falls Montana which is our stepping off spot for our Alaskan Adventure.

Yellowstone–Father’s Day 2013

 

This Bull Elk (the first we have seen) seems to be enjoying his Father’s Day taking a nap in the mid noon sun.  Life is good when its not hunting season!  In our drive today, we traced the Yellowstone river for about 30 miles. 

We came upon a  large area of Mud Caldrons, at first glimpse they appear to be boiling  areas of mud.  They in fact are at about 150°, the boiling effect is from the fact they are venting a large amount of subterranean gases.  This type area is surrounded with dead trees, the geothermal activity is active and ongoing, the ground heat kills the trees.  several earthquakes in the late 1970’s opened up fissures that have varying degrees of activity from day to day.

To access them we had to traverse a strenuous (8,000’ X Compromised Breathing) walkway in the form of a loop.  By the photos you can see that it had a moderate grade (insert Huff & Puff sound here).  I’m thinking Medicare will pay for this as my stress test for this year.

 

 

Back on the road, we had another traffic jam brought to us by Bison Bill and his singing group.  I am amazed at the number of Class ‘C’ rental motorhomes that are used in this area.  In our campground, about 25% of the sites are filled with them every evening. 

There was a small side road signed, “Artist’s Point” which seemed to be a dead end.  Well, it wasn’t!  We were taken to spectacular over looks at The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Here is my attempt at a panoramic view of this area.

Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon

 

 

 

 

Boiling Sulfa Pots were a few miles away.  The largest on the right could swallow a Volkswagen.  The area of the park with this type activeity is about 40 miles in diameter.  I can’t help to think that there will be a big bang here some time in the future.

On returning to camp, we found this unusual rig located near us.  We’ve seen the one on the Discovery Channel and one at The Grand Canyon.  This one is being used by a French Couple who are touring the world.  Built on an IVECO chassis, it is about 25’ long and weighs about 20,000 pounds.  note the huge tyres and the fact that you need a ladder to get in.  Build to military specifications (used as UN command centers) it has 4wd and is completely self contained, including a laundry.

While sharing Adult Beverages, they were quite amazed to hear the story of our Dutch friends who were duplicating their route in a 1905 Model T.