Monday, April 28

We knew we needed to get moving this morning, although we did take the time for a big breakfast before we hit the road. This way we used up a bunch of things that we wouldn’t have to take in the house, and we didn’t have to stop for lunch later. We made a quick gas stop in Fargo, and a quick Creative Memories pick up in St. Cloud, but otherwise came straight home. We threw a movie in (Cars again) to keep Aidan (and the drivers) entertained. We could see evidence of recent snow in northern MN. I hear they had 15” the other day! Probably the same storm that hit us at Yellowstone. It was an uneventful trip home. Archie met us when we pulled in, we brought stuff in the house quickly and went out to Al Baker’s for dinner. There’s still a lot of unpacking to do, but we’re mostly settled back in. We’ll finish cleaning out the RV tomorrow, and will take it back to Can Am. For the rest of tonight we’ll catch up on some mail and just relax.

Sunday, April 27

Aidan fell out of bed for the second time this trip, at about 6 am. Naturally I’d stolen the pillow that was on the floor under him to block the cold air coming through the windows by our bed. He went back to bed pretty well, though. We then heard some knocking on the RV, and saw a woodpecker land right on the roof window above our bed and start pecking. That was pretty funny. We finally got up and on the road to Dave’s grandma’s house. We pulled in there a little after noon, and Dave went to pick up some KFC for lunch while Aidan explored Great-Grandma’s house. She was very excited to see him, and all of us. We haven’t been there in two years, so Aidan was just a few months old the last time. Agnes was looking good. She’s moving around just about as well as the last time we were there, and aside from not being able to hear without her hearing aid, seems pretty well overall. After visiting for a couple of hours we had to hit the road and make some progress toward home. We finally pulled in to the Wagon Wheel Inn and RV Park in Valley City, ND. It’s a nice little place, with access to an indoor pool. Too bad we’ve got to hit the road right away in the morning to make it home before rush hour. We’ll have to remember this place next time we go to Grandma’s.

Saturday, April 26

Today was mainly driving. We made a stop for gas and had lunch at a rest stop. The snow stopped, but we did drive through some rain. The scenery changed quite a bit as we left the mountains behind and went through some rocky plateaus. We followed the Yellowstone river almost the whole day. We pulled in to Glendive, MT. We checked out a state park, but there were no hook-ups so we searched for an RV park. The GPS led us to nothing on the first try, but the second was good. We’re at Glendive RV Park. Aidan and Dave went over to the playground for a bit, we had some dinner, and settled in to watch The Princess Bride.

Friday, April 25

We were happy to be in Mountain time again as Aidan woke us up at 8:00 instead of 7:00. We lounged a bit but knew we had to get on the road to Yellowstone. Once we were up, we realized that we’d never set our alarm clock with the time change, and it was in fact 9:00. So our day got off to a later start that we’d planned. We got to West Yellowstone with just enough time to have lunch before the first IMAX showing of Yellowstone. We were the only ones in the theater until the movie started, when one more couple joined us. Aidan liked it, although some parts were scary for him. He kept talking about the bear that broke a table afterward. We then headed in to the park itself. We basically just had time to drive through, but that was OK because we know we’ll come back sometime during the prime season. About half the roads were still closed, and a few that were open had been opened days before, including one we drove. As we entered the park, we could see evidence of the fire in 1988. There were big patches of just small trees, and a few burned remains of bigger ones. It did make it easy to spot wildlife. We saw buffalo and elk almost as soon as we entered the park. There was a crowd gathered at a pull off to watch a group of crows and a bald eagle scavenging off a dead buffalo. Aidan fell asleep almost as soon as we were in the park, so he missed a lot. We drove along some roads through the hills, and it started snowing fairly hard. We were amazed at how much snow was still on the ground there, too. They were expecting several inches by tomorrow morning. We stopped briefly at the visitor center at Mammoth Springs, at the north entrance. On the way in, we saw a buffalo and a few elk grazing in the yard, right in front of the buildings. Aidan enjoyed the animals on display, and the ranger there gave him a Junior Ranger button. We decided we’d better hit the road before the snow got any worse so we could find a place to stay for the night. We looked in the first main town, and didn’t have any luck, so we pushed on to Big Springs, where we knew there were a few parks. There weren’t any signs there, so we just took the 2nd exit, where we finally saw a little trailer sign. We followed the roads winding through the town, and nearly turned back a couple of times. We got a bit out of town, and there was a sign that just said “Camp 1 mile” so we decided to go a bit more before giving up. Eventually we came across Spring Creek park, which looks like the big draw is trout fishing. It was a great park, with campfire rings (though it was too cold to be outside) and plenty of space between spots. We settled in for the night,

Thursday, April 24

We got up and moving fairly quickly today, in order to get to our destination a little earlier than dinnertime for once. It had snowed overnight, and some actually was sticking to the ground. It started snowing on us as we headed out, and was hailing by the time we stopped for gas and propane. It let up for the drive, but we could see storms all around. We ate lunch at a truck stop, and let Aidan run around a bit, then were on our way again. Both boys slept almost all the way to Idaho Falls. It started snowing about 45 minutes before we got there. We found an RV park called Snake River (on the Snake River, oddly). It’s a nice place, with fire rings, a great pool and hot tub, and a playground…too bad it’s snowing! We went out for dinner at a pizza and sub place, and went to the local mall to get out of the RV for a bit. There was a little play area that Aidan spent about an hour in while Dave and I took turns walking the mall a bit. Then back home to wind down for bed, and do some research on what is actually open at Yellowstone for tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 23

Aidan came and woke us up with his usual greeting of “Mama, Dada, up! Pink Os!” (Strawberry Cheerios). We lounged for a few more minutes while he started getting the blankets off his bed and bringing them back to ours, and trying to turn his bed back into the table. He’s getting pretty good at his part of the routine, and seems to know he’ll get breakfast faster if he helps things along. We made a big breakfast, since we knew we had a pretty short driving day. We eventually got our oil changed and got on the road. It was a pretty uneventful day of driving. There were some pretty big dust storms along the route to watch, but that’s about it. We had a snacky lunch since we had eaten a big breakfast. We stopped in Elko to buy groceries, and ended up getting dinner from the deli there, which we ate in the parking lot. Then it was on to Wells, NV, and the Angel Lake RV Park. The owner here is great. He was waiting for us, even though we didn’t get here until after 7:00. He even came to see if we needed quarters for laundry before he took off for the night. The facilities are great, since the park is only a couple of years old. There’s not much in the way of amenities, but it’s a little too cool to use them anyway.

Tuesday, April 22

We took our time getting going this morning. We didn’t have to leave until noon, so we enjoyed a leisurely morning with our ocean views. When we finally did leave, we headed up to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. Aidan was just starting to fall asleep as we got to the bridge, so we tried keeping him awake for the experience…not that he’d get much out of it, but we knew we were going to have lunch as soon as we got to the other side. We pulled off into the overlook area, checked out the views and statues, said good-bye to the ocean, and made some lunch. We had planned to head to the Oakland side of the bay for the rest of the day, and catch the Twins playing there tonight, but the weather changed our minds. The forecast was for 50s and a 70% chance of rain. We figured that either the game would be rained out, or we would be cold and miserable the whole time. It would have been fun to see the game, but our time was better spent getting on the road and trying to shorten some of the 6+ hour driving days we have coming up. Driving up around the north end of the bay reminded us a lot of the Great Salt Lake. There was water surrounding the road. The bay was really marshy in many spots, and didn’t even look like water. That area gave way to rolling hills and a lot of cities, then finally the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The mountain pass itself was much easier to navigate than the one leading south from Reno to Yosemite, but it was actually snowing at the top! It was fairly foggy as well, which made for some interesting driving. We eventually made it in to Reno, and are staying at the Rivers Edge RV Park again. That’s the one with the airport nearby. I did some laundry, we had some dinner, and it’s almost bed time. Oh, and it turned out the ball game did go on, and the Twins won 5-4. Looks like it was a pretty good game, but it was only 55 degrees and overcast, so I’m still OK with our decision to skip it. With an attendance of only 10,267 I guess most of Oakland decided to skip it, too.