Katy Trail

As a newly retired person, I have been wanting to take a very "spur of the moment" trip, just because I can.  Well, it happened!

Wednesday, October 21: Phillip and I were drinking our coffee, discussing our schedule for the day.  We wanted to vote for President Trump around 10 to miss the morning and lunch crowds, but other than that we really had nothing planned.  However, it was a pretty day and I wanted to ride my bike.  I had just done a 15 mile ride, so I wanted to do a 20.  Suddenly, I thought about the Katy Trail.  I had not thought about the trail for some time, but probably 10 years ago I did some research on the trail.  However, I never could make the trip work since it is pretty far from Arkadelphia.

Things started happening quickly (1) Prettiest section of the trail? Rocheport to Jefferson City (2) what is the weather in that area tomorrow? Beautiful, sunny, high of 80 degrees (3) Can we find a campground nearby? Booneville, sites available (4) how quickly can we pack the RV? It stays packed with the basics, so we have to hook-up, load bikes, food, and clothes and we'll be ready.  (5) Can we do this? YES!

We were on the road by noon and in Booneville in time for a nice dinner in the RV.

Thursday, the weather is perfect!  We headed south east about 6.5 miles on the trail then turned around. This put us back in Rocheport in time for lunch at the cute little outdoor cafe next to the trail.  

After lunch we headed southwest on the trail which took us through this tunnel and about 3.5 miles out. By the time we turned around and went back to the truck we had our 20 miles (whew).

On this ride, 4 black snakes crossed the path in front of us.  I saw an eagle fly off from one of the cliffs.

Retired life

 I find myself a bit restless these days - just adjusting to retired life.  I love having time to do the things I enjoy doing.  I love being outside, so I have been riding my bike:

The water has gotten pretty cool at the lake so I didn't Kayak this past week.  However, I am thinking that I will get out and Kayak even though it is cold.  I may have to purchase some additional equipment, but I will work on it. 

I continue to walk on our country road, but I also enjoy a good "hike" for the different changes that it presents - steep hills, uneven terrain, as well as beautiful views.  Phillip and I hiked the Yellowtail Trail at Devil's Den State Park this last weekend:

Traveling to visit the Johnsons!

It has been about 4 months since we have seen Avery and about three months since we last saw Miranda - and that is too long!  Since Avery had a four-day weekend and Miranda took off as well, Phillip and I hit the road on Wednesday, October 7 for Greensboro.  

We left early and stayed at the KOA in Crossville, TN (nice place) and arrived in Greensboro around 5 pm on Thursday. 

We are wearing masks, keeping the recommended 6 foot distance, and staying outside as much as possible.  Thankfully the Johnsons have a nice covered back porch.  Friday we visited a nearby arboretum and got some good exercise.  We spent most of the afternoon at the house, playing games, playing on the swings, and playing soccer.  In the evening we enjoyed a great meal around the fire pit and later relaxed in the hot tub.

Saturday was rainy so we hit the road to the NC Zoo.  Thankfully it was not raining there and we enjoyed walking through the entire Zoo.  Sunday was a total washout!  It rained all day, but we had some good time with the Johnsons.  

Monday is another travel day.  We made it as far as the KOA in Lebanon, TN.  The fall colors were beautiful today.  It is amazing what a difference a couple of days made.  Tuesday morning we left around 7 am to avoid the rush-hour traffic.  We stopped in Carlisle and picked up BarBQ from Nicks and made it home by 4:30.  

It was great to see my North Carolina girls!!

Animals on the Yellowstone 2020 trip

 Yellowstone 2020 Overview

Our route for this trip:

Animals seen on this trip:

Wild turkeys (10+) in Missouri 

Antelope (10+) in South Dakota

Mule deer in Montana

Elk (herd of 50+) in Montana

Bison in Yellowstone. 

Elk in Yellowstone

Mule deer in Yellowstone 

Wild turkey in Yellowstone

Trout in Yellowstone

Bear in Colorado on the Highway of Legends

There is a small bear in this picture running back up the hill.  He ran into the road right in front of us, saw us, and ran back up the hill:

This big guy was by himself on a side road:

This was a group of young Bison "playing" in the mud:

Homeward Bound....

 

Wednesday, September 16.  We begin our day enjoying our coffee with a view and then head to the highway of legends.  There is no fall color, but it is still a pretty drive.   We are taking the opposite direction – going Walsenburg to Trinidad.  This is the stretch of road where we saw the bear run down a hill to our right, stop in the street and look at us, turned around and headed back up the hill.  Since we love this area of Colorado, we noted several camping places to check out before we go again.  Of course we like the state parks in Trinidad and Walsenburg - we have stayed at both multiple times.  Bear lake campground and Blue lake campground look to be either state or NFS campgrounds.  We also noticed Monument Lake Resort which is only open from mid May until mid September.  It is an Independent campground with a small lodge, some adobe cabins and full-service RV camping. 

Today, we got as far as Fort Supply in Oklahoma.  We have stayed at this state park before and it is a pretty spot, I get half price so it only costs us $12 to stay here.

 

Thursday, September 17.  We got up and hit the road, stopping at a McDonalds that was 14 miles down the road.  We got on the road at 9:00 am and arrived home at 3:00.  We had time to say hi to Mom, Melissa came by, we showered, and headed to Evans football game.

It is time to head south...

 Monday, September 14, 2020

We pack up and head out, going east then south on grand loop and then turn towards the Tetons.  The smoke is so much worse today.  It has really affected the visibility during our drive.  As we drive into the Teton National Park, you can’t even see the “Tetons” in the distance like we normally can.  We cut off on Hwy 287 just south of the park entrance and plan to get to Rawlins, Wyoming  tonight.  We are surprised at how long the smoke is hanging around – almost all the way to Rawlins.  We are staying at the KOA in Rawlins tonight.

 

Tuesday, September 15, 2020.  We are headed to Colorado, hoping to see some fall color.  Today is a travel day and we are listening to our audible book.  We arrive in Walsenburg, Colorado around 5:30.  

More Yellowstone and a lot more fishing!

 

We really haven’t gotten an early start any morning, but we got off a little earlier today and the line was still long to get into the park.  We plan on fishing a little more today. We made the entire Grand Loop heading south on the loop first.  We fished on the Firehole River and the Yellowstone River.  Phillip caught a trout on the Firehole River.  I got pretty good at fly fishing. J.  We had a nice lunch with a view of the thermal features that are a little North of Old Faithful.  We did some exploring around Yellowstone Lake and found several pretty spots on side roads.  

The traffic this trip has been so bad!  It was more crowded than we have ever seen.  Today we did not get out and walk around any of the thermal features, etc.  It is just too crowded and half the people are not wearing masks (we are).  I just decided it was too much exposure.  

There is a fire just south of Old Faithful (named the Lone Star Fire) and we notice the smoke today on the southern part of the grand loop.  We got back to the camp ground and noticed that it was still smoky in West Yellowstone.  Our eyes are burning, we are sneezing and coughing….we feel like we are getting a cold, but it is the smoke.  We decided that we should probably head out tomorrow to get away from the smoke.

Our route for this day:

Today and yesterday, Phillip fished on the Madison, Gibbons, Firehole and Yellowstone Rivers.  I fished on the Firehole and Yellowstone today.

More Yellowstone and a little fishing!

 

We checked out of our hotel and headed to West Yellowstone through the park.  We arrived at our KOA on the west side of town around 10:30 and dropped our camper since it was too early to check in.  We stopped at the fly shop in West Yellowstone, purchased our fishing licenses, and Phillip bought some flies.  We headed into the park (long line to get into the park) and continued to check out the side drives. Phillip did some fishing on the Madison River.  I was sitting in a chair watching Phillip fish and then we walked to the truck to each lunch.  I looked up and the “trail” that ran along the river had a Bison walking by and he was just a yard behind where Phillip was sitting eating his sandwich.  

We visited some of the thermal features in the Norris Geyser Basin, drove across to the point where the road was closed at Canyon Village.  Phillip fished on the Madison and the Gibbons Rivers today.  So we went east, north and then east again and turned around and went back to the campsite.  We still had to set up at the KOA since we had not checked in yet.  We stayed at this campground with Kyler.  The weather is pleasantly cool and we sat out by our camp fire tonight.

Our route on this day:

Yellowstone is still busy in September!

We are in a line of traffic to get into Yellowstone National Park.  We have been to Yellowstone in the fall before - when we lived in Billings.  However, it was not crowded at all at that time.  We were surprised by the crowds which included young families with children.  I am continually surprised by changes caused by the pandemic that I did not anticipate.  

Since we couldn’t get a campground for Friday night we are staying at the Absaroka Lodge and we left the camper in their parking lot during the day while we go into the park.  We line up to get in the park around 9.  Although there is a line, it moves quickly.  We decide to check out the side drives this time around and we plan to see Lamar valley today.  

Lamar Valley is teaming with Bison herds and we stop and look at those.  We take a side drive to Slough Creek trailhead and saw some Bison along the creek as well as Pronghorn.  We decided it was a pretty spot for lunch so unpacked our chairs and picnic and sat and enjoyed the scenery.

 

Afternoon we hike part of the Lamar River Trail (see picture).  Phillip found petrified wood in the river!  Before going back to the hotel, we visit Mammoth Hot Springs.  It has changed so much since we first started coming to Yellowstone.  It is so disappointing since it has basically dried up.

 It is a wonderful evening, sun shining, pleasantly cool temps.  There are Elk wondering all around our hotel which is on the river. We walked over to the Cowboy café for dinner since we are staying in a hotel.  We got our order "to go" and sat outside on a picnic table.

Our route for this day:

Back to Montana (happy place for us!)

 

I got up early and walked around the campground in Broadus to get a little exercise.  We had breakfast in the camper (pandemic!).  We arrived in Billings at noon so we made a stop at a Starbucks on King Street.  I went inside Starbucks to get our food.  Phillip was walking around the camper checking everything and an Indian woman came by and asked if that was his rig – he said, "Yep."  Then she said are you married? And he said, "Yep and my wife is walking up now."   She said, "OK. have a good day" and walked away!  So funny - I'm going to have to keep an eye on Phillip.  

We headed to Gardiner via Hwy 89.  We stopped at a rest area and saw a herd of elk heading up the mountain – so cool.  We are checking out a few campgrounds along the way – all full.  We had already tried to get a reservation but since not all campgrounds were listed on my app, we thought we might be able to get in a campground.  We ended up going to the Eagles Nest campground on NFS land which was our plan if we could not find anything else. The campground was full so we continued up the mountain another 1.5 miles to the boondocking area.  We found a spot on the side of the road (they were all like that).  This was a one-lane, gravel road, but somehow Phillip got the RV turned around so that we were facing down. This camping spot is so scary for me!  However, Phillip had chocks and wood blocks on 4 wheels and had the emergency break on.  

We had chili dogs for dinner and sat outside.  Phillip went in and got ready for bed.  I went outside after dark and SAW THE MILKY WAY!  IT WAS AWESOME and on my vacation "to do" list (no picture).  No hookups, but we did fine.  Although it got down to 30 degrees during the night, we both stayed toasty.  I planned for boondocking and brought instant coffee and a pot for the stove top.  After blueberry pancakes we headed down to Gardnier.  We still couldn't find a campground for Saturday Friday night, so we made a reservation at the Absoraka Lodge.  They agreed to let us drop the trailer in their parking lot while we explored the park.  This big guy was checking us out when we pulled into the lot:

 

Broadus, Montana

We hit the road this morning around 9 am.  We are headed to a campground in Broadus, MT.  The advertisement said that this is a working farm and to expect animals roaming around the campground.  

We are staying at the Wayside RV campground.  It is very small - about 10 spots.  Apparently they get a lot of hunters here.  The owners live on site and have chickens, ducks and turkeys.  This big bird - Mr. Tom - will be on their Thanksgiving table.  They eat the eggs from both the chickens and ducks, IF the snakes don't get them first.  

This was a very long travel day for us, but tomorrow we will arrive in Gardiner around 2 pm.  We will probably have time to set up camp (we are staying here for 4 days) and drive into the park for a bit.  We got out of the rain around noon today and it has been beautiful weather.  High of 66 degrees and perfectly clear Montana "BIG sky."

Yellowstone or Bust

 The last time we were in Yellowstone in the fall was 2002.  I had just accepted a job at Montana State University in Billings.  Phillip had moved what little furniture we had in the apartment and gone back to Arkadelphia to finish up some work at Daily Lumber Company.  Although I had been in Billings since mid August,  Phillip arrived on September 12, 2002 and our adventure began.  We absolutely loved the area in the fall and have wanted to go back in the fall since then.  However, when you teach you can't take vacations during a semester.  We have waited for 18 years to go to Yellowstone in the fall and we are so excited!

We left Farmington, AR at 8 am today. It was 80 degrees, but we knew the temperature would drop throughout the day because the high in Sioux City, Iowa was 46.  By the time we got to Kansas City at noon, the temperature had already dropped to 56 degrees!  The temperature went down steadily thereafter. It also started raining in the afternoon and continued through the night.  We arrived in South Sioux City around 5:30 pm at the Scenic Park RV Campground.  The campground was easy to get to, well maintained, and right on the bank of the Missouri River (Nebraska side).