A few post-trip thoughts

Once I finally got home, it took about three days or so to unpack and reset from the trip. I still have gear laying about the house waiting to be put in its rightful place. I like living amongst the gear but I really need to put some of this stuff away!

On the trip I stashed the gas receipts and finally got around to looking at them. Care to guess how much gas I used on the trip? 509.8 gallons. It doesn't sound like much, but that represents 26 fill ups for a grand total cost, in gas alone, of $1899.07!

I could have saved a whole bunch and flown out there, but you can make up your own opinion on whether it was worth it. I look at the pictures and the stories and it's obvious that I think it was well worth it.

If you contemplate such a trip, I might recommend a more fuel efficient vehicle, but it was always a given that I was going to take some version of a Rover. Speaking of, I put a working Vehicle Speed Sensor in so my odometer/speedometer finally works again. Because it crapped out on me in Montana on the trip back, I only have 3933.2 miles recorded for the whole length of the trip. Extrapolating the numbers it looks like I drove somewhere north of 6500 miles, possibly more than 7000!

Over that distance I learned a few things. Bring a bottle of Windex. The windshield squeegees at the gas stations are hit or miss and it's amazing the difference a clean windshield makes. When in doubt, Subway makes a good stop for lunch. They are everywhere, even in the smallest of towns. And in Canada.
Old fashioned FM radio is still alive and well. Sure, bring the iPod, but don't miss tuning in to the local stations along the way. Use Yelp, ask the locals, whatever, but find the good local joints for breakfast and dinner. Lunchtime usually found me on the road, but it really starts the day off right when you begin with a hearty breakfast. Similarly, cap the day's drive with a nice dinner and you have the makings of a great trip. Oh, and take pictures of your food. Dad always had an eye for presentation, so I come by it honestly. Also, people will hardly believe your descriptions without the photographic proof.  Take some time, a lot of time, to get out of the truck and see some of the sights off the beaten path. Use your truck (you did take a 4 wheel drive truck didn't you?) to get off the paved road and then use your bike or own two feet to get to the high points. Nothing beats looking at the surrounding countryside from a peak. If you're trying to maximize your adventure, as I was, do your research ahead of time or alternatively, make use of your smart phone or the interwebs. Google was really my friend in finding places to eat and stay. I found it very helpful to have a small, digital tape recorder in the truck. I would use it to record place names, people and stories I discovered along the way to research or blog about later. Better than writing it down while driving and much more effective than my memory. Take half the stuff with you. Those that have traveled with me or even seen the inside of my truck know that I live out of it and often it looks like I live in it. I brought a lot of stuff for "just in case". Be realistic and leave the stuff you won't use. I was prepared to go canyoneering, climbing, mountain biking, even out on the fireline. I only did one of those activities. I think it was a little stressful to have all that stuff in the truck. I was always organizing it and moving it around. For those firefighters out there, bring extra patches or shirts to trade along the way.

The last bit of lessons learned from this trip is, go. Simply go. If you have the opportunity, don't wait, go on a trip like this. Get eyes on new parts of the country. It'll open you to new experiences, people and places in addition to deepening your appreciation for everything you have back home. Go. Do it.


I'm thinking I might keep this blog going. I like the format and the ability to share stories and pictures from the adventures I encounter. So, it may not be once a day, once a week or even once a month, but I'll keep this going to share whenever I go OnManeuvers. Until next time.

Wine, women and song

And Rovers......and fire stuff. Some particular favorite highlights of the trip:

First, the wine. At NOtaBLE in Calgary I had a pinot noir from the Okanagan region of British Columbia. It was really, really good, so I'll have to investigate further this region and their wines. I recommend you consider doing the same. After the New Zealand trip I came away a beginning wine enthusiast and I frequently pick a NZ sauvignon blanc when out at a restaurant, but now maybe I can add another wine to the old stand by list.

As for the women, well a gentleman never tells everything. I can say that I met many wonderful people on the trip, some of which also happened to be lovely young women. Must be that good clean living up there in the mountains. I think only a few of you dear readers are single guys, but if you are, and you're in to the outdoorsy, athletic type, leave now and head to Montana.

Song(s). Well, sadly I didn't get much live music other than Mestizo in Boulder, but I made it through the old fashioned way, good 'ole FM radio. Interestingly enough, all the way across the country and back I forgot to get the iPod out! Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem" was frequently on the play list at many stations across the country, but I have to single one radio station out. That would be 102.9, KMTN, The Mountain, Jackson, Driggs, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. All throughout the trip, it was like someone was controlling the playlists according to my mood or what was going on around me at the time. Going down Rt. 40, through the Kanansakis Country, I was really looking forward to getting home. The radio was on scan constantly, no radio stations around. It was beautiful driving through the mountains, but I was homesick something bad. I broke out of the mountains on to the rolling foothills and all of the sudden the radio stopped its scan and slightly staticky, the Boss belted out "Born in the USA". Simply perfect.

KMTN seemed to play a lot of appropriate for the mood music but with completely new to me songs and artists. Many of you may be more in tune to the new and hip artists out there, but not me. If I don't hear it on the radio, I'm pretty clueless about lesser known musicians. The Mountain played some really great stuff. Check them out online. All good road trips have a sound track and mine surely did. Too bad I can't remember most of them!

Rovers, well that was a bit of a let down honestly. I saw a few LR3s and Range Rovers, mainly in the cities, but as far as Defenders, a big goose egg. I did see two Disco 1s, both of which I saw in Livingston. One was a near copy of mine, even down to the color. The second was kitted out like he was on an adventure with a canoe on the roof, as it should be. I think I saw two Series trucks outside of Billings or Bozeman, I can't remember. Of course, I did stop at The Rover Shop in Calgary, but outside of that, I really didn't see many Rovers out there on the road. You think that would clue me in, wouldn't you? I did see a Classic towing a pop up camper in to Yellowstone. I actually got a return wave from that driver, nothing from the LR3s. Poor form. Oh, I did confirm that the FC101 I saw in Athens, OH several years ago is still there and looks restore-able.

My Disco did pretty well, all things considered. The shocks got fixed, but the headliner is really sagging down now, it'll overheat if you idle for more than a minute and the Vehicle Speed Sensor went out somewhere near Clyde Park, MT so I don't have an accurate count of the mileage after that. Even with all of those issues and the abuse I put it through (the Beartooths and Big Horns) it never let me down and got me back in one piece.

I didn't run across any incidents of note, but I did get in to a couple of firehouses along the way. Each time I met someone at the firehouse, they were more than happy to show me around and tell me about their Department. I've mentioned some of the places I stopped in such as Greenough-Potomac VFD and Great Falls FD Station 1, but I think I glossed over the Babb/St. Mary VFD. Located about ten miles south of the border crossing at Piegan it is a small (26 members) department that serves a very large area, 400 miles. It is encouraging to know that out in a remote, isolated part of the country, fire houses are pretty much the same everywhere. This Department is progressive about their training and sends their members to training events around the country, especially the DHS offerings in Alabama and New Mexico.

I passed a good number of fire houses along the way and managed to take pictures of a few, but I'll save those for a separate post.

Next: a few final thoughts.

Des Moines to Cincy and finally Home

 A nice morning in Des Moines, another granola bar and water breakfast, quickly striking camp and I was on the road early. Good thing as I had a long drive ahead of me. I had the rest of Iowse, Illinois, Indiana and finally Ohio to go this day. Iowa went by quickly although I think it might have been there that I saw one of the two radar traps of the entire trip. In Indiana I stopped for gas and fuel (Subway of course) where I saw the local FD respond to a medical emergency while I was fueling up. They sounded close by and yep, the went to the Subway for a fainting person. They must have obtained a refusal because they cleared shortly after I got my Ham and Turkey. I passed around Indianapolis and ran in to a bit of rain before finally making it in to Cincy. I wasn't done with wildlife when a neighbor surprised me while I was rummaging around in my truck to point out the deer and her fawn munching on the shrubs not far away. 

Frank and I caught up and reminisced about the wedding before heading out to Newport on the Levee (Kentucky on the other side of the Ohio River) to a really good restaurant, Mitchell's Fish Market. Shockingly I know, I had the wedge salad and cedar plank salmon. It was all very, very good and the dessert, triple chocolate mousse cake, came with a side of the fireworks that the city of Cincinnati set off right in front of the restaurant. We didn't plan it that way, but it worked out well.

 

Brought back memories of my deployment to Mississippi for Hurricane Katrina.

Crawfordsville FD on a medical local.

It was awfully thoughtful of Cincy to set off the fireworks right in front of our table!

I had another wonderful night's rest in the cave. So good in fact that I overslept by several hours! I finally got my stuff together and routed my way up to Columbus and east from there to south of Pittsburg, down to Morgantown and east through Western Maryland before crossing at Point of Rocks and then home.

A cool old school building in Cincy.

Couldn't figure out that the Autofocus switch was off. Oops.

Kind of the same, but not really.

The last of many, many fill ups.

Home at last.

Someone was happy to see me.

Of course, I make it halfway across the country and back and where do I run in to the first traffic jam (not wildlife caused)? In Sterling. I could see it happening a ways in front of me and the truck was trying its level best to overheat. After some cooling techniques (high idling and shutting off the engine at stops) I routed around the jam and finally got back home. I am really glad that I was able to safely complete my trip, but I was really glad to finally be home again. I'm mostly done with the pictures, but I'm not done posting. I'm thinking of a few posts on lessons learned and any stories that I've forgotten, so stay tuned.

Sturgis, Mount Rushmore and Des Moines

I woke up very well rested and thankful I didn't have to put up the tent in the dark last night! I cleaned up and said goodbye to Ed before heading east on I90. I debated just heading on east, but I decided to take a detour a little south to see Mt. Rushmore, a little more man made national park.

I'm glad I did. It was pretty cool, especially after seeing the exhibits on what it took to carve the statues. I'll have to save Crazy Horse for the next trip though. Mt. Rushmore was full of families on road trips. One brother and sister waiting for Dad to take the picture reminded me of Ashley and I. She screamed like she'd been shot and yelled "HE'S HITTING ME!" Of course no one really reacted to it and Dad threatened to send her back to the car. Ah, America.

After Rushmore, I made my way back to the Interstate and barreled through the South Dakota plains. The monotony was broken up by a stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. All you folks who recommended I stop there, well, you were right. I could only take small doses of it, so after a milkshake and a breeze through of the different shops I turned east once again.On the way east I kept seeing these billboards with fire trucks on the other side advertising Firehouse Brewing Company back in Rapid City. Wish I had seen it, but I'll be sure to visit on the next trip. If you get there before I do, please let me know how it is.

At Sioux Falls, I turned south on I29 to catch I80 near Omaha. I had heard rumors of flooding closing the Interstates in the area and the closer I got to Sioux City, the more signs of flooding I saw. Parts of the Interstate were lined with rock filled sandbags to keep the roads dry. See the pics below.

I motored east again on I680/80 and yet again with the help of a smart phone and someone back home on the web, I found a spot at Timberline RV park just west of Des Moines. Lots of nice families were having Sunday parties before the Fourth and the park was really nice. I quickly set up my tent as I heard about a nearby fireworks show when I checked in. Just about three miles away is Jordan Creek Town Center, which wound up being very similar to any town center back here in Fairfax or Loudoun. I set up with a few thousand of my closest Des Moinans (?) and waited for the fireworks to begin. They began late and I made my daily donation of blood to the mosquito population, but they were pretty good! Unfortunately all of the local restaurants were closed by the time the show was over and I was finally able to get out of the parking lot. I had to settle for a Burger King sandwich and fries. Luckily tomorrow's dinner was a few steps above.

My cozy little abode at Rush-no-more. JD, this would be perfect for the property!

The beer garden/office.

Wall Drug, pure Americana.

One of the many billboards with a fire truck advertising Firehouse Brewing in Rapid City.

Main Street America, this time in White Lake, SD.

In the heat, the Pub looked inviting.

Through the bug splattered windshield you can just make out the flooded exit off the I29.

This is a YMCA along the river surrounded by sandbags and floodwaters.

Some sort of Washington Monument type thingy in Sioux City.

The sand bag lined Interstate.

Sunset over Iowa.

Next up, blasting through Middle American to Cincy.

Leaving Yellowstone, the Beartooth Highway and the Bighorns

After another chilly night, I awoke reasonably early and tried to warm up and dry out the tent by standing in the sun. After packing everything up, grabbing a granola bar and water breakfast, I hit the road bound for the Northeast Entrance to the Park. Along the way I saw more bison and traveled through the famed Lamar Valley which has been described as the Serengeti of the US. It really was, but unfortunately I didn't see any wolves or anyone out looking for wolves, the "wolf watchers" as they are known. I did see a group of people at one pulloff and after glassing the mountain, all we saw were mountain goats or sheep.

I left the Park and headed up the Beartooth Highway. I had debated about taking this route as it would put me a ways out of the way of my intended route home, but after several people from BCDS said I must do it, I caved. I'm really glad I did. If I had skis with me, it'd been crazy. There was still a lot of snow as you can see from the pics below. After heading down the other side in to Red Lodge, I nearly flattened a juvenile black bear who ran out in the road in front of me. After turning east at Red Lodge, I made my way through a maze of secondary roads in Montana finally back in to Wyoming. It was then I was presented with another route choice, head down towards Cody and catch the 14 east to Sheridan and then Gillette or take the 14A (for alternate) across the Big Horn Mountains National Forest to I90 and then down to Sheridan, etc. Which one do you think I chose? Yep, those mountains were some of the steepest climbs of the whole trip. I had to gear down to first to make any appreciable progress at one point. Again, there was snow up on top, but as with the Beartooth, I was glad I did it. It is a really pretty area and worth exploring again. I fueled up with gas and Subway again in Sheridan where the Sandwich Artist told me it wasn't good to stay in Gillette, according to him it's the meth capital of the West. Duly noted.

Again, thanks to smart phones and the Interwebs (help from back home) I found a place to stay in Sturgis, SD. I was really motivated to get out of Wyoming, even if it meant setting up the tent in the dark. That was how I came to find the Rush-no-more RV park and campground, just outside of Sturgis. Ed Miller, the owner, took pity on a fireman from back East and put me up in one of the cabins for the night. Before bedding down, I hit the beer garden on premises and got to hear Ed's story. Ed was a DC lawyer/lobbyist for the real estate lobby for almost 25 years when he decided to change things. He looked at 30-40 different campgrounds before finding Rush-no-more, which he bought in December. It really was a nice campground and can't recommend it enough to anyone who may be out in the Sturgis/Black Hills area. And Ed is a really nice guy, too.

Before leaving the campground, I walked down to the lake shore and caught this early morning group paddling back to Grant.

Sweet fireplace surround in the Grant Visitor's Center.

They also have a really good exhibit on fire in the Park and the fires of '88.

On the way north, I stopped to see the Mud Volcano.

And the Black Dragon's Hole.

The Hayden Valley bison.

This big guy stopped for a drink.

Baby bison laying about.

Looking for wolves, but only found sheep.

Oh, I'll be back.

Cool snowblower, still needed for the road, even in July.

Sweet Oshie 4WD.

This one was staged a little farther up the road nearer to the pass.

I ran out of ice in the cooler, so yep, snow will do just fine.

If you look really close, you can barely make out the road snaking its way all the way back down to Top of the World, the last gas/convenience stop until Red Lodge.

The old girl is still going strong! Even at almost 11,000 feet.

Yes, that is a road sign sticking out of the snowbank on the left.

Just to give you a sense of scale.

The top of Beartooth Pass Ski Area, with its lift just steps from the road. The facilities at the top were a couple of Airstreams linked together!

Two guys about to drop in while one trudges up from the bottom. Check out this account of summer skiing in the Beartooths.

Looking back towards Beartooth Pass.

Skiing in T-shirts must be some kind of crazy.

Back in to Montana for a little bit.

These steel mesh rock fall capture fences didn't give me much comfort.

He certainly wasn't in a mood to stick around.

The abandoned ruins of the Smith Mine near Bearcreek, MT. Check out these accounts of the 1943 disaster that killed 73 men, here, here, here and this video.

And back in to Wyoming.

A radar dome atop the Bighorn Mountains along 14A. A little ways down the road, Bear Lodge looks interesting.

I made it out of Wyoming, finally! I've got a love/hate relationship with that state. Parts of it are breathtakingly beautiful, but others are torturous in their desolation. I did see Devil's Tower off to the north as I passed by Sundance, Wyoming, but that will have to wait until next time.