Boise to Bozeman - A two week update

We continued through Eastern Washington and Oregon with Shelli driving the van behind the RV. The scenery was really neat with big wheat fields I didn't know they had that far in the West. The temperatures rose with each mile as we worked our way into the high desert. We arrived in Boise on Kelli's birthday, so Shelli picked up a cake on the way in and we made grilled halibut and salmon for dinner that night.

We surprised Abby again and showed up with a cake for Aunt Kelli's birthday

We are so fortunate to have Kelli, Vince, and Abby in Boise, and for them to allow us to base our operations out of there periodically. This time we adjusted what gear we were carrying and repaired the van for towing. As usual with most customer service issues these days, the parts were ordered late and we were delayed four extra days. I told the parts rep at Camping World we needed the tow bar to continue our trip, and I wanted the order to go in that morning. She said she would place the order and call me with a tracking number that afternoon. What that really meant was she would simply push the paper to the desk beside her and take the next day off.

Luckily we have gracious hosts, and more family time memories were built by Michal and John with Abby. The food is always good at the Chodor household and we do neat activities the kids really enjoy. While we waited for the van parts to arrive, we made good use of the time.

(Shelli- Boise seems to be a favorite for the kids. They have made friends and love spending time with Abby, Aunt Kelli and Uncle Vince. Instantly, Maui felt right at home, but I don’t think the three cats had mutual feelings! Abby was still on her summer break, so most nights were late ones watching movies and all three of the kids sleeping on the couch for a cousin slumber party. Some of the highlights were frog catching (huge ones), Jump Time, the strenuous hike up to Table Rock with neighborhood friends, the pool in the afternoons with Uncle Vince, washing the RV with Dad, going to the Boise State scrimmage game, the much anticipated Boise river float boat trip, and ........having bowls of ice cream every evening after dinner.

I actually really like Boise as well. It has a friendly small town feel with neighborhood schools. Boise is the capital of Idaho, so the city has anything you need as long as you want to drive into the city. Kelli and Vince live in a nice quiet area removed from the busyness of the city with beautiful mountain views and walking/running trails just down the street. The trails go for miles and miles throughout the entire city along the Boise River. Biking and running are very popular here and I actually went running almost every day with a neighbor friend of Kelli’s that I met. She and another running mom met every morning at 7:45 so I tagged along, holding them up a little as I was trying to acclimate to running at a higher altitude AND HILLS (not to mention how lazy I have been lately and how little running I have done since March)! These were much harder runs but the scenery made it all worth it! Boise is around 3,000 feet, Colorado Springs is around 6,000 so I have lots of acclimating to do!)

Making Vince's Grandpa Rocco's spaghetti and meatballs - John

We used the flashlights to stun the frogs so another person could grab the frog with a net - John

He would have made some good eatin - John

How come I'm the only person making a funny face? - John

We washed the RV from top to bottom and removed tons of grime, which exposed quite a few nicks in the paint from the flying gravel along the rough road stretches. The temperature was in the 100's and it was a big contrast to what we had been experiencing. The soapy water dried about as fast as we could rinse it. To recover from the heat we floated down the Boise River in the really cool water.

The purpose of this whole adventure was to maximize the time we spend together as a family before the pressures of modern day living and second careers take over so much of our time. We are sticking with this plan and realize "family" includes our extended family. We are altering plans to enable time for important family events like Shelli's father's retirement in October in Alabama, Thanksgiving and Christmas with parents in Alabama, and more activities to share as a family during the winter in the Southeast. We have become quite comfortable in our rolling home and aren't ready to call it quits so soon.

After the van was finally ready with the new tow bar, we pulled out of Boise on Wednesday and headed towards Yellowstone. It was another super hot day and we had to run the generator to power the air conditioners all day. We stopped in Pocatello for dinner and drove into the night to make it to a campground on Hebgen Lake in West Yellowstone, Montana.

(John - Made it to Montana, state number 47 and counting. We have three more to go! When we drove into Montana, it was night and the sky was filled with so many stars! When we got to the RV park Dad and I took Maui out for a walk and to look at the night sky. As we were letting our eyes adjust to the darkness, we heard coyotes and dogs howling.)

The next morning I prepared to unhook the van for a day trip into Yellowstone National Park. I noticed the tire valve stem cover was missing from the front right tire on the van. When I looked closer I could see it had melted away and the rim was discolored. Sometime on the trip in the caliper must have stuck and the hot brakes had probably been completely glowing red. We were lucky it didn't result in a fire that could have spread to the RV. We would have probably just barely had time to grab the marshmallows and graham crackers to make smores as our rolling home burned to the ground under the Milky Way (which was as bright as I have ever seen).

A place that serves as a Yellowstone tour service and auto shop was able to check out the van that afternoon, so I unhooked the RV from the campground and pulled the van on into town. I didn't chance driving the van by itself  because I would have probably had a bison or a bear lumber onto the road and might not have been able to stop. The last thing I'd need after smashing up the van would be for a big angry animal to come take revenge on the guy that didn't brake for them.

(Michael - We have been having big afternoon thunderstorms every evening while we have been in Montana. The first night, we had a huge hail storm, it went on and on forever and did some damage to the top of the RV. However, Maui loved it and was playing with the hail balls. He was running around like crazy chasing all of the balls falling from the sky. The storm got worse so we brought him in and we all watched it from inside the RV. It lasted a very long time.)

Hail was everywhere! (Michael)

The front A/C cover took the brunt of the damage. Some holes were about two inches wide and up to about seven inches long.

Some duct tape provides a temporary fix until I can get new covers. I used paper plates to help bridge the really big gaps.

In spite of the thunderstorms, the mornings were nice each day and we were able to explore Yellowstone National Park.  The drive in from the West entrance down to Old Faithful was really nice with a river running alongside the road.  We stopped at several of the geothermal sites and arrived with pretty good timing to see Old Faithful erupt. It goes on about a 90 minute cycle and we only had to wait about 10 minutes. We looped through the park and went to viewing areas for the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone river. We saw elk, a lot of bison in several herds, and a coyote.

See the family resemblance? - John

Just goofing off for energy release - Shelli

This is the Grand Prismatic Spring. The water temp is about 160 degrees here.

Watching Old Faithful (Michael)

The Yellowstone River is at the bottom of this canyon. The falls are to the left of this area.

(Michael - When we went into Yellowstone, we entered Wyoming and got our 48th state! We saw tons of buffalo and a few different herds. This was cool because this was the one thing that I had been wanting to see in Wyoming. The coolest thing that happened was when we drove around a corner to see a herd next to the road and several of the big ones were head butting one another and fighting right in the road. Traffic was stopped in all directions just to watch. The buffalo were huge! Some of them stopped right in front of some cars and just starred them down while scratching their hoof down on the road like they were ready to go. As some of the buffalo finally crossed the road and cleared a path, mom started driving slowly away. Then, a buffalo decided he wanted to cross and began to run (charge) alongside the road just toward our van. Mom sorta panicked and did nothing, she just stopped to see if the buffalo wanted to cross in front of us. I think it was actually charging at Dad and he got REALLY close to us with a REALLY mean look in his eyes. Dad was taking pictures outside of the window with it rolled down. Dad told mom to go and quickly rolled up the window and brought the camera in but Mom was still sorta panicked and didn’t move, so the buffalo continued down the side of our car trying to decide whether to give Dad a head butt or not. Seriously, I think Dad could have touched him and the buffalo maybe even left some fur on the side mirror. It was a close call!)

Shelli was driving and I was taking pictures and video taping, so I was in the passenger seat. There was nothing I could do as the mad bison closed in - except...roll up my window. That's right, a two thousand pound bison with big horns was bearing down on me and all I could do was roll up the window.  Unfortunately I didn't get any of it on tape. When I was switching hands to get the window up,  I must have hit the button and stopped recording. I really wish I had it on tape just to hear the audio. John said I told Shelli to go five times. 

Found the bison I was wanting to see (Michael)

Move it or be trampled. - John

The bison were as big as some of the cars (Michael).

(John - Today, I got to do the thing that I have been waiting a very long time for; horse back riding on trails in Montana. We went to the Diamond P Ranch (kinda funny since our favorite place in Alaska was The Diamond M Ranch). We all four, along with about 8 other people, rode on a trail up into the mountains. We all got on our horses and followed the guide up into the mountains. We crossed streams and meadows and went up and down lots of hills with rocks and roots on them. We noticed that the  horse in front of Michael was extremely gassy and bad for us....we were all behind him! Sometimes the horses would go slow and then trot or gallop to catch up, that was fun! I can’t believe I finally got to ride a horse like a real cowboy out in the Montana Mountains!)

The start of the ride. - John

It was actually fun riding the horses through the woods (Michael).

Look, no hands!

The horses were trained so well I could take my hands off the reins and they would turn for you. - John

The ride had some really pretty scenry (Shelli)

As the horses turned for home, they picked up the pace (Shelli).

Resting at the top! (Shelli)

Happy Trails! It was a good day and a good thing for the four of us to experience together (Shelli).

We are leaving Yellowstone Sunday and heading up to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument to let Custer's last stand be our first stop for the next week.