Roses 1.0 Van Life

It’s been over 20 years but we are finally making a return trip to CR. June 26 (2024) we hit the road mid afternoon with our carry on bags, loads of dog stuff, and of course our dog. Slept in the van at a Cracker Barrel in Barbourville W Va, then on to Kevin and Jackie’s. We ate at Duran’s on the outskirts of Charlottesville, left Sammy with them, and drove on to Richmond. After showers and 5 hrs of hotel room sleep we went to the Richmond airport and began the flights to CR, arrived at the Holiday Inn express by the San Jose airport at about 4:00 PM, 6/28. We ate at Pescaria da Limonta that night, just ok, then rented an SUV at Vamos rent-a-car Saturday AM. We were at the airport to greet Don and Anne and co. when they arrived at 1:15. The only major obstacle for us was getting through customs at the airport. When we came to the enormous room with a line snaking around it, we stopped and gawked at the ordeal we faced. Suddenly a thin tall man in some kind of uniform stepped in front of us, pulled back tape creating an opening to an empty space and nodded to us to proceed. We did! Apparently this was the handicapped line. One group was at the customs agent, one was waiting and then us!!! Five minutes tops and we were through. Texted Anne and Don about it, same thing happened to them. Still have no idea why.

Took them to city mall to eat lunch, then we drove to Hotel Altura, which is very near our first site to visit, Poas Volcano. At a mile across, it’s the largest active volcano crater in the world (or so they said). Occasionally the pressure from below exceeds the weight of the water above and it “spews” ash and rock as much as 800 ft, but since the crater pool is 1,200 ft down you’re pretty safe. We were all required to wear a hard hat. There are gas vapor monitors at the crater edge and the smell of sulphur hovers all around. A guest at Hotel Altura told us they had pebbles fall on their heads (Luna 10yo) and one woman (Luna’s great aunt) said the sulphur smell was too much for her, she had to leave immediately. You are only allowed to stay there 20 minutes.

We made the check out time of 11AM and drove down the volcano a couple of miles to Freddo Fresas, a restaurant. (fresas is Spanish for strawberries). The food was excellent. This region of CR is known for its strawberries and its cheese. After visiting an art gallery next door and talking with the owner, Gustavo, for quite a while, we headed for Peace Lodge (next entry).

Noel had a soccer game in Memphis, the Venables were going to be in New Orleans right afterwards, so we decided to make a trip out of it.

Friday 02/16 we drove to Memphis and met Colleen and Noel at the Germantown Commissary for supper.

That’s a huge slab of ribs with two small loaves of bread in front of them. It was good, and we were early enough to beat the crowd. Will and Anne Kash drove separately and arrived at their hotel around 10PM. Saturday morning Peggy and I went to Beale street, a place we had never seen before, nor had we seen downtown Memphis. After the afternoon soccer game, a 4 – 4 tie, played at the Mike Rose soccer complex, Will and Colleen went there while we stayed with the girls. Here’s a prank we tried to play on Peggy when she got back to the hotel, supposed to think there’s a strange person in the room, almost worked.

We went on to New Orleans Sunday morning but stopped at a roadfood.com recommended place, the Dinner Bell in McComb Mississippi. 16 people can sit around a table which has an enormous lazy suzan in the middle. We sat with three guys who had been on a quail hunt that morning (at a game farm) and an older couple with their adult daughter. The food was typical southern food, very good and plentiful, basically an all you can eat deal.

We stayed Sunday night at a brewery, Fauberg, an ambitious attempt to create a craft beer business on the grounds of the hurricane-Katrina-ruined Dixie brewery. The building is very nice, the grounds impressive, with walking trails, frisbee golf course, bocce ball courts, lots of chairs and tables. The only thing missing was customers. Empty. We stayed there again Tuesday night before heading home on Wednesday and we may have been the only people to buy a beer that day. It’s very difficult to get to and although nice inside of it’s fenced in area, not in a good part of town.

Monday AM we met Don and Anne and family at Court of Two Sisters for a jazz-breakfast buffet, great food and good live music. We walked around the quarter, then took the St Charles street car to Camelia grill for lunch. I met them with Sammy in Audubon park. Later that evening we stayed with Margaret and Thomas while Don and Anne went to eat at Cane and Table (top 5 meal lifetime they said). Peggy and I checked into the Kimpton hotel on Poydras across from Mother’s, dog friendly, we want to remember it for next trip. Tuesday was the aquarium in the morning, lunch on Decatur street (the Gazebo) and then City Park sculpture garden in the afternoon.

Aquarium, Jackson Square, and two picture of the Sculpture Garden in City Park.

Finally Margaret and Thomas cruising on down the river.

Wednesday morning as the Venables boarded the ship we checked out Bayou Segnette SP and found it to be very nice, 25 minutes from CBD NOLA. We will probably stay there at some point in the future. Then I had a Po Boy at Parasol’s, Peggy had a Irish Sundae (beef gravy on top of potato salad, she liked it), we gassed up at Costco and hit the road. Uneventful return trip, arrived home 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

Left on the afternoon of Thursday 01/11/2024 for our regular Ft Myers beach trip despite some reservations, many had assured us it was back from the destruction of hurricane Ian in fall 2022. Well not exactly. I’d estimate only about 30% of the buildings were restored and usable. Our condo was running on a generator, the elevator wasn’t reliable, and getting in and out required navigating an obstacle course of construction equipment and paraphernalia. No businesses were open, no restaurants, and no pool for Peggy to exercise in each morning, as is her Florida routine. Many buildings are being fixed, but many are in ruins and will be torn down. Here’s a picture of the Wyndham resort just two blocks from where we stay….

We stopped to see Mike and Vicki’s new home on Saturday before going on to our rental in Ft. Myers Beach, stayed the night with them Friday 01/16 and stopped by briefly on our way home. Their house is lovely, on a peaceful street with a view of a state park out back. Here’s the view you see as you walk in the front door

There’s no development behind their house, just park. They both are very happy there. Played golf with Mike on Saturday then we all went out to eat. On Friday before the visit Peggy and I drove to Jack’s London Grill for the Robert Burns day celebration only to discover I had read the ad wrong, it was to be on Saturday. We returned to Ft Myers on Sunday.

I played tennis each morning, we went out to eat daily and took our regular walks until 01/26 when I came down with covid, about 36 hrs later Peggy did too. We quarantined essentially until it was time to come back home.

Before covid we were able to attend a lecture on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict at FGCU and an excellent concert by Seraphic Fire but we had to cancel plans for other events we had tickets to. Other noteworthy things: we came in fifth at trivia at Landsdowne Street pub, just the two of us. There were 20+ teams, fifth place wins a reserved table for next week (we brought 4 people with us a week later and didn’t so well the second time), I finally saw a Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Babcock-Webb WMA, birding being a great covid quarantine activity. Got home Sunday evening 02/03/24.

July 1. Peggy, Anne Kash and I drove east from Yellowstone, through Cody, Wy. then the Bighorn mountains with impressive views, including a siting of an antlered moose, to Eatons’ Ranch, with a stop at McGraws Paws in Sheridan. Eatons’ is the oldest continually operating dude ranch and the only one that allows you to ride without a wrangler (we didn’t). At 7,000 acres it sits on the east slope of the Bighorn mountains. After nearly two weeks of camping – setting up, taking down, cooking, cleaning, etc. we could use a few days of everything done for us. There were 3 good meals in the dining hall each day. Lots of kids, lots to do, lots of fun. Rides were every morning, every evening and occasional days offered an all day ride or a breakfast ride. Anne Kash’s horse was Weasley, Noel’s was Call, Colleen’s Oreo, Will’s Bob and mine Jeff. The views on the rides were spectacular, wild flowers abounding. The weather was a little cold and wet, but it hardly mattered. They have a “heated” pool (not that warm), a hot tub, a stream with trout (small), a stocked pond (we caught two bass) and you can do trap shooting if you can find the time. Peggy enjoyed Sheridan while we rode.

We spent 4 carefree days there, while Peggy planned our route home and got new front brakes put on the Volvo, in Billings, Mt. I should mention a few people we met: AK made fast friends with Lizzie from Tennessee almost immediately, and we had a wonderful, Eaton experienced couple at our table who patiently answered our many questions, Sam and Faith….

Finally, so we can remember it some day in the distant future we stayed in Pike 9, Will’s family in Stoner, and here are some pictures of the grounds….

We left Wednesday July 5, and took 4 more days to get home. That’s 5 total, it was 6 days to get to Yellowstone. First night a Rapid City Holiday Inn, second night Sioux City Holiday Inn (after the obligatory stop at Wall Drugs, and a stop by W, C and AK at the corn palace), third night Davenport, Iowa Holiday Inn where we met a 76 yo former marine who was out walking two English setters, a French spaniel and a bischon friese. He told us a story about shooting a pit bull which was attacking his four dogs (he’s always armed) and another about walking the north-south length of Yellowstone, last year! From Davenport we made it to Bloomington by late afternoon on Saturday, July 8.

June 30, 2023. We realized the night before we had seen just about everything we wanted to, so this would be a free day. Will, Colleen and Noel wanted to ride bikes, they hadn’t yet, and do some hikes. Anne Kash wanted to go out on the lake, I wanted to do some bird watching, Yellowstone’s only disappointment was the lack of birds (get up a dawn at home and there are 15 different species singing, dawn in Yellowstone is nearly silent!). Peggy, AK and I went to the museum across from Fishing Bridge, small but very cool, went for a short hike, then Peggy took AK on a cruise on the lake: nice views, some history and interesting stories, AK fell asleep. I walked to natural bridge, met W, C and N who were biking there. On the way home I found the whole crew sitting in a patch of woods between our campground and the marina watching a black bear that had climbed 50 ft up a skinny pine tree. We sat there until it came down and wandered away from the crowd toward the marina. It was sited a few more times later in the evening around the campground. Everyone got to check off a black bear. P, AK and I left early the next morning for Eatons’ Ranch, W, C and N left later and stopped in Cody where there is internet access. It was a wonderful trip. Yellowstone is unique, everyone should see it sometime in their life. Some campground pictures to look at as we say goodbye to Yellowstone…..

Noel and Anne Kash eating woofams.

This was the day I picked for us to move to a different campground, just to see a different place, and to have electricity. We looked forward to the latter so that the space heater could be run in Rosie, it was in the low 40’s to the low ’30’s at night, pretty tough sleeping when you don’t have heat. But there was a glitch. I didn’t catch that Fishing Bridge RV campsite didn’t allow canvas RV’s, because of bears, only hard sided RV’s. After the breakfast buffet at Grant Village, we arrived at Fishing Bridge and were turned down. The park staff helped us to find two campsites together at Bridge Bay, just by the lake’s marina. These sites were even more primitive than Grant, but each had a bear box and there were more children. Noel and AK played soccer and some other games with kids nearby. The move and cooking occupied most of the day (Peggy made salmon patties with potato salad and heated up canned corn).

Thursday 6/29 we got up early and went to Lamar valley. I made fried egg sandwiches the night before and we all ate in the car as we drove. The 5:30 AM start paid off as we came upon a group with binocs and spotting scopes watching wolves eat a recently downed elk while they simultaneously fended off several bison who occasionally charged them. Yes, wolves prey on bison but the two species are mortal enemies and the nearby bison herd just couldn’t tolerate the presence of wolves, even at risk of their own lives. The wolf watchers were very generous with the spotting scopes and we all got to look through them although our binoculars gave adequate views. I saw three grays and two black wolves but others saw seven. Will saw one wolf run up the hill out of sight carrying a chunck of elk meat. The Lamar valley is wider than Hayden and has many more bison. We also saw antelope and another mother grizzly with two cubs, again at quite a distance. A slow moving sort of disheveled, skinny coyote meandered across the road at one point. After lunch we went to the falls of Yellowstone river and Tower falls. Here are some pictures …..

At this point we had seen all the major sites and checked off most of the wildlife we wanted to see. Peggy nor I had seen a black bear and Colleen hadn’t seen a moose.

*When several foreign countries had created reliable covid test kits and a lab at U of Washington in Seattle had created a reliable in house kit for their own use, CDC insisted we should only use a kit they would soon issue, and FDA agreed. After a week or so it was obvious the CDC kits they had distributed didn’t work, every result was negative. Fauci explained it away by saying “there was a glitch”. The usually rabid wolfpack-like media just accepted that explanation and moved on, so I thought why not use it to explain how I messed up the campsite reservation.

It’s difficult to over state the magnificence of this park: snow patched mountains, beautiful views, waterfalls, wild life, a picturesque mountain lake, historic lodges one of which had a daily string quartet playing in the lobby, and of course the thermal features….hot springs, geysers, mud pots and fumaroles. We spent 6/25, 26 and 27 seeing the unique features of the park….

6/25 Buiscut basin, excelsior geyser, grand prismatic springs, fountain paint pot, Fairy falls vs grand prismatic overlook, Peggy and I went to the the former, Will and co. to the latter (miscommunication).

6/26 We went to Mammoth hot springs, a long drive. Yellowstone is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware put together. Grant Village CG is slightly south of Yellowstone’s center and Mammoth Hot Springs is at the north edge, the drive is 2 hrs. – when you don’t stop along the way. Will, Colleen and Noel went through Hayden Valley, we went with Anne Kash along the Gibbon river, the western route. We met up at Mammoth HS which is just 4 miles from the Gardiner, Montana. After walking around Mammoth we gave AK to W and C and they set out for the chuck wagon cookout at Roosevelt Corral, we headed for restaurants in Gardiner, had a good meal at Wonderland Cafe, then loaded up some groceries and headed back. The chuck wagon ride was about a mile in a wagon pulled by horses while the “shotgun” told stories about the old west. They ate steaks outside and listened to a fiddler play, then returned to the corral and started the long drive back, arrived at camp about 9:30. We had just gotten back from Gardiner minutes ahead of them.

6/27 Went to Thumb, a spot right beside Yellowstone with more thermal features. Next we all drove through Hayden valley, which perhaps should be called Yellowstone river valley, saw a grizzly bear mother with two cubs, at a safe distance, and lots of bison, it’s a beautiful drive. Here are some of the things we saw on those days….

The only hard driving day so far. It was a beautiful drive especially through the Big Horn mountains. There was quite a bit of difficulty navigating w/o internet. Arrived at Yellowstone around 3 PM, set up, Will left to get Colleen at the Jackson Hole airport. We took the kids to see Old Faithful, had PBJ sandwiches for our supper, next morning 6/25 we ate at a breakfast buffet in Grant Village. It felt like cheating but worth it after cooking over a campfire, but felt no guilt. Will and Colleen arrived in the early afternoon, gave Will his b’day present, a Fong’s Restaurant T-shirt. Went to Old Faithful again so W and C could see it. Anne Kash eventually would go there 4 times (writing this over a week later).

About a 4 hr drive from Mt. Rushmore, we picked this site in the Big Horn mountains simply because it was on the way to Yellowstone. There’s a beautiful stream behind the van and Rosie in this picture….

You can see the Volvo in the next campsite and our dog run on the left. The problem here was the weather, cold and rain. We spent two nights here. Will and the girls scrambled up rocks above to get a view of snow capped mountains late in the afternoon we arrived. We spent the next day hiking up Cloud Peak wilderness. But not before we helped a family of tourist from Japan navigate their way out of the national forest dirt road. They were in a rented RV and had ventured up this road and eventually found themselves unable to turn around. Finally they got stuck in a low, muddy spot. After some campers with a pickup pulled them out they sat there unsure what to do next. We offered to help direct them out using a small pull out. The husband was driving and obviously had never driven an RV before, maybe not a car before from his performance. He also spoke only broken English. His wife in the seat beside him had a look of utter terror on her face.

The hike, once we eventually got going, was our first encounter with snow, and tons of mosquitoes….

Will spotted a moose about 60 or 70 yards from the trail. Our stopping to look made her nervous, as she stood to walk away we saw she had a calf laying with her. Walked out in a hail/sleet/rain storm.

Saw two Barrow’s Goldeneyes on a high mountain lake, and earlier in the day I heard two other life birds which I didn’t record because I didn’t see them, Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers. Packed up on 6/23 and headed for Yellowstone.

After 3 nights at Horsethief lake we drove a mere 2 hours to Belle Fourche campground at the base of Devil’s Tower on June 21. A first come first serve campground we were worried about getting a spot but there were two or three open. Devil’s Tower is hard to believe. A massive column of igneous rock that juts up vertically from the surrounding countryside, it looks other worldly. Indeed it has been featured in movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’m told the KOA down the road shows it every night. It was another cold, wet day but the rain held off until we were done hiking around it. The prairie dog town next to the campground was almost as fun. Here are some pictures…

This campground had a yellow warbler singing from almost every tree. Western Kingbirds and meadowlarks were frequent here as well. I saw a Bullock’s Oriole, a bird I had seen before but never recorded in eBird, so a life bird. On to Middle fork in the Bighorn mountains in the AM.