Yellowstone

Leave a Comment / Story / By / 2022-09-03

We dedicated a fair amount of time to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, with three separate camping locations planned ahead(!) of time. Firstly, we stayed in the town of West Yellowstone, in Montana. This is an extremely touristy town, where nary an item is sold without the word Yellowstone emblazened across it. Still, a nice place, with some very nice features: great proximity to Yellowstone, and a pretty cool Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.

Our first stop in Yellowstone was predictable: Old Faithful. We got Tyler his Junior Ranger book, and then went off to see some water shoot into the sky. We weren’t disappointed; she blew, on schedule. I’m happy to say though, Old Faithful was probably one of the less interesting facets of the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone. We marched along the boardwalk, taking in the many amazing geothermic features, and testing out the Aidan carrier. He approved, and even enjoyed himself a little nap when he was done with it all. We didn’t quite make it all the way to the Morning Glory Pool, but turned off just before it.

We also enjoyed the many scenic drives through the park; we were ever on the lookout for wildlife, and got very excited after spotting our first buffalo far away at a squint. Once we got back in the car, not five minutes later, we got a bit of a closer view; the first of four such buffalo-crossing events we witnessed as the first vehicle in the lineup. It didn’t become any less majestic after so many times.

Our favorite site in the park however was the Grand Prismatic Spring. We hiked up to the Overlook, and despite some grumblings of protest, we found the view we were looking for.

Oh, and Tyler had his first movie-going experience! The campgrounds we stayed at, Buffalo Crossing RV Park, also happens to run an IMAX theater. They switched to the new Minions: Rise of Gru movie the day after we arrived, and Tyler was very excited to see it. Eric & Tyler went together for a father-son experience, and the little man was more than excited; it may also have been all of the sugar from the requisite movie candies.

The aforementioned Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center was also a great stop, as they had the most important thing that our RV park was missing: the playground. Though, I was more fond of the otters, wolves, and grizzlies! We didn’t spot any of these within the park, so it was nice to see them and learn. The Discovery Center is apparently also used to certify bear-proofness of various equipment: they place meat inside the item (cooler, wheelie-bin, or locker), and let the bears loose. It qualifies as “bear-proof” if it survives for at least 90 minutes.

We hitched up, and left West Yellowstone… by hauling our full rig through Yellowstone itself, to head down to Headwaters campground, in between Yellowstone and the Tetons, with a nice little stop along Lewis Lake for a quick splash and lunch along the way.

Heading to Yellowstone

Leave a Comment / Story / By / 2022-08-20

Mountain Home RV Park was our 5 night stop over. This is a very nice park, with large spots, and best of all they have a play ground and a pool. Tyler let us know that he wants to learn how to swim, and was dragging me over for ‘lessons’ every chance we had, he is getting close.

Aunt Kristina got Tyler and Aidan a reciprocal membership for museums and zoo’s. This means that we can go to many places for free or a nice discount. The Boise Zoo is one of these places, and for only a dollar fifty we all got to go explore and see the animals.

Leaving the RV park we planned a nice lunch stop at Shoshone Falls Park. It was quite a winding road getting down, and opposing traffic had to be blocked for us to get our rig down, but it was definitely worth the effort. Shoshone Falls is on Snake river, a river that I had never heard of but that we had been, and would be following for quite some time. It is 1,078 miles (1,735 km) long, and is a major tributary of the Columbia River. It starts in Washington, and snakes its way through Idaho into Wyoming, basically following the same route we are.

When a drive is going to be more than 4 hours we check harvest hosts for a one night stay. This time we found a convenient spot at the Idaho Potato Museum, a museum dedicated to potato growing, harvesting, cooking, baking etc etc. It was a fun little place and we learned a bit about the history of potato farming and how to select the best potatoes. We picked up some baked potatoes and brought them to a nearby lake so that thew boys could play in the sand and have a bit of a swim. On travel days you need to find a way to stretch your legs!

Now it’s 2 over 2

Leave a Comment / Story / By / 2022-08-08

After Seattle we planned to stay at Mineral Lake Lion’s Den. We had no expectations, this was boondocking (so no hookups), and we planned 2 nights. But for whatever reason we really loved this place and ended up staying for 5 nights. We were right on the lake, and had just found a great deal on an inflatable 2 person kayak, so Eric and I took turns taking the kids out on to the water. We also explored Mount Rainer National park and even had a snow fight and built a snow man, dressed in shorts!

Up next was Hood Park, Grande Hot Springs, and then a stay at my aunts at her ranch in Idaho. The hot springs were a great idea in theory. The weather in Washington had been nice and cool, but we arrived on the day a heatwave hit. Hot springs when it is close to 40 Celcius, maybe not the best plan… Onwards to my aunts ranch, where we got to relax, and the boys got to be ranch hands. We even got to see a rodeo.

Also the 2 mayor events of the year took place. First Tyler turned 4, and it was amazing to see his excitement as his birthday approached. He told us he was turning 5 for the day before, just to go back to 4 the next day. We also had to explain that he didn’t need to send his wish list to Santa Clause. Tyler is such an amazing little boy, curious about everything, and learning his numbers and letters. He has such enthusiasm, and most of the time just runs circles around us, while asking never ending questions. We love him so much!

And then Aidan turned 2. He had no idea what was happening really, but loved the attention. This little guy is getting so big. He has started talking, and knows how to assert his will. He will put up his hand and very seriously tell you ‘stop’, or ‘you go’. He loves building with magnet tiles, or even the small Lego’s, and can sit there and concentrate till he gets it just like he wants it. And don’t even bother trying to help, because you will never do it right anyways. He still has the best smile, and heads still turn when he walks past.

Exploring Oregon and Washington

Leave a Comment / Story / By / 2022-08-19

We had some awesome experiences exploring both Oregon and Washington. We had a 2 night stay at Thousand Trails South Jetty, where we met up with another family and got to explore the beach.

Then onwards to Thousand Trails Pacific City in Cloverdale for a Fulltime Families Oregon trail meet-up. There were many families there and the kids got to meet old and new friends. There was a fathers night out, a mothers night out, which is great because it gives you an evening without kids. And then there was a hike, clamming, exploring the tide pools, and just plain hanging out on the beach again.

For those of you that know the movie Twilight, Forks, WA might sound familiar. The movie was set there because this is a place that is hardly ever sunny, and has the most rainfall than really any other place in the United States. Lucky us, hardly a cloud in the sky, but not too hot either. We stayed at a wonderful little campground called Forks 101 and were able to explore a large part of the Olympic peninsula. I really wanted to see the Hall of Mosses, I had seen a picture posted on Facebook, of this magical forest of moss covered trees and I was not disappointed. This place is absolutely beautiful, just make sure you get there early and you will have this tourist trap all to yourself. Not a bad place to turn 40!

Washington had a lot more to show us. If the weather was as great as we had it for the rest of the year, I would consider living here. Unfortunately everyone assured us we were super lucky and were experiencing those few magical summer weeks. I am just going to post a bunch of pictures, and let them talk for themselves.

And then we got to visit the city of Seattle and meet some great friends we had known back in Zurich. Seattle seems to be a great place to live in (if only it rained less….), it has an awesome vibe, great breweries (always a plus) and a children’s museum, which according to Tyler 2 months later still is the best place he has visited. Especially the machine that sucks in silk scarfs and spits them out at the other end…go figure.

Exploring California

Leave a Comment / Story / By / 2022-07-20

We are horrible at updating our blog posts, but I do seem try to post to instagram more frequently, so if you haven’t yet follow there for more frequent updates on our adventures!

Some of you may remember Yogi Bear, and it seemed like a fun theme park to take the kids. What we did not realize was that neither of them had ever watched the show, so to prep them we had them watch two episodes. Anyways, when Yogi Bear came out we thought they would want to meet him, instead they both ran really fast the other way! Tyler finally felt a little better when we answered his question: “Is there a human in there?”. This kid has never seen these dressed up stuffies, but he immediately realized there had to be a person inside, so proud of my little man!

Lawson’s Landing was a tip from my cousin, it’s a no frills campground just north of San Francisco. We got to park our rig right on the sea wall, with basically our patio hanging over the water. How awesome is that! We went on a walk along the beach and a sea lion followed us all the way, calling out to the kids and showing off. Went on a little hike in Samuel P Taylor State Park and got immersed in some redwoods. But mainly we sat on the beach and did some digging, driving monster trucks and watch other people dig for clams. We had never seen any clam digging before, but it was not going to be the last time.

Thousand Trails, the time share for RV’ers. When we bought our rig we received a year included. In Arizona in winter most of the parks are 55+ and we just never bothered, but we suddenly noticed there were a few parks on the map. Online never worked, so I finally called and booked us a week at Russian River. There is no nightly cost, this is payed as a yearly membership, so for us this basically means free camping with (partial) hookups! It’s a wonderful little campground, with some tight corners, and I am super proud of Eric for getting us into our spot. That was a tight fit.

There was a nice little river where the kids got to float and toss rocks. We also got to see the wonder that is Old Faithful Geyser of California, one of only three geysers in the world coined with the name, ”Old Faithful.” The kids had a lot of fun feeding the goats, and Tyler learned a lot about earthquakes and tsunami’s.

Then Tyler had the request to go to an aquarium. Never one to deny requests that don’t need a screen, we pulled out our phones and looked for the nearest aquarium –> Aquarium of the Bay at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco! How were we ever going to get our dually truck into those narrow streets and find a parking spot. A little searching found plenty of parking on the other side of the bay, in Sausalito, and then we even got to have a ferry ride into the city, right past Alcatraz and the Bay bridge.

I wanted to be back at Elk Grove for the Sacramento County Fair to see my cousins kids show their animals, so back to Tudesko Construction. But planning is not my best skill unfortunately, so we got there on the weekend after, sorry guys! We did get to explore the Sacramento County Fair, and Ty got to go on a couple of rides with his cousins, and we got to see a demolition derby!

Last but not least before heading up into Oregon, we stayed at Lakeshore Inn & RV in Lake Shasta. We ended up in a nice spot next to the pool with a view over the valley. The lake was so low, it really made an impact, realizing the lack of water and the impact that is having on the landscape, and further down on agriculture.

We came here to visit Lake Shasta Caverns, we took a boat trip across the lake and then had a wonderful tour inside the cave. We saw some great formations and even spotted a few bats.

Escaping Arizona

1 Comment / Family, Story / By / 2022-05-31

I know we have been promising updates on our projects, but we have also been traveling so wanted to talk a bit about all our adventures.

After boondocking at Joshua Tree we went for some simple full hookup camping at Rice Ranch in Quartzsite. The season was over, the stores were closing and the town was emptying out. For reference, Quartzsite has an official population of less than 4000, however in winter this number can rise to 750,000. People from all over come here to camp and boondock, escape winter and enjoy the good weather. In March though things go quiet, and at times it felt like we had the place all to ourselves. We found a racetrack to race our RC car and there was a small festival going on where the kids got to play games from the 1800’s and dance a bit to the local band. We also got to take unlimited showers, which after a week of camping in very fine sand did not feel like a luxury but more like a necessity.

When your kids get this dirty, they definitely need many showers

Our next stop was Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood Arizona. It was a very nice campground with a playground nearby. We mostly stayed close to home, but got to check out the town and Montezuma’s castle. It was just a small paved loop, but Aidan dressed up as a little explorer and looked the part.

Eric had to leave for a day to go pick up our solar panels in Flagstaff, man were we nervous. It seems so long ago now, but at the time it really was a daunting project. He came back with the truck all loaded up, all we had to do now was tie them down in the RV and drive them up to my families place to get them installed. Fingers crossed nothing happened to them on the way.

So off we went, almost 13 Google hours of driving. “Google hours” is the time Google tells you it is going to take, however when pulling a 45ft fifth wheel with two toddlers in the back seat we generally assume it is going to take a ‘little’ longer. Our plan was to take advantage of our Harvest Host membership. Harvest host lets you stay at farms, wineries, breweries, and distilleries for free, with the expectation that you purchase some of their products. Our first stop was The Desert Diamond Distillery. This turned out to be a pretty cool place with restored Pullman train cars where we got to eat our lunch.

The next day we made it to Peggy Sue’s diner, where we stayed in their parking lot, but got to check out their garden with dinosaurs and even a giant (masked) King Kong, and to the delight of Tyler many turtles in the pond. And then we did our longest drive yet. We were supposed to stay at a berry farm, but things did not line up, so after over an hour of waiting around we decided to just pull through and head straight out to Elk Grove where we would be able to stay with family. It was our longest travel day yet, with 8 hours of driving plus some stops, 8 am till 6.45 pm!!

Finally here, moochdocking at Tudesko Construction. We stayed for about 6 weeks. Eric worked on our solar, installed our washer and dryer and we did many more smaller projects. The kids had a large area to play in; there were animals, there was mud, there were vehicles to explore, there were a few huge dirt piles, and then there were cousins. These kids are great hanging out with my little boys and showing them all around.

And then there was date night. For the first time in a very long time Eric and I got to head out together. And we had the perfect place to start thanks to my cousin… Axe throwing. I love my husband, he takes me on the best dates!

Adding a washer/dryer

1 Comment / Family / By / 2022-05-23

We finally did it. We added a Splendide washer and dryer in the front bedroom closet. Our rig comes with washer dryer prep so you would assume you just slide them in and hook them up. Unfortunately that is not the case.

uneven floor in the front closet

The first issue Eric encountered was that the floor in the front closet was not level. It was not even made out of one piece! A piece of plywood did the trick and a stable base was created.

Up next was the scariest part, in order to install a vented dryer you need to drill a 10 cm hole through the side. And no, you do not do this where the arrow points, if only it was this easy. Instead, you remove the back wall, the insulation and then try to measure and figure out where you will end up on the outside so you can put tape there and not cause a whole lot of splintering. I wasn’t there, so I can’t really tell you how this part went, but it looked great finished.

With the vent in place and the floor reinforced we Eric was able to install a tray that should in theory contain any leaks. He also installed the duct for the dryer, and we dangled it on the ceiling for the time being.

And then the moment of truth, bringing in the washer. We removed the door to the front bedroom and the door to the closet and the handle bar in the hallway and drove the washer up the ramp through the garage and living room and into the bedroom. It took a bit of manoeuvring, but in the end she slid right in.

The dryer is a lot lighter, so getting it to the bedroom was a breeze. But installing the duct to the back while it was in the closet not so much. I was contemplating just taking out the side wall. But in the end we succeeded, and we are now the proud owners of our own washer and dryer!!

Spring Cleaning? No, Upgrades!

Leave a Comment / Story / By / 2022-04-12
Joshua Tree, dry lake bed, BLM land
Tyler at Joshua Tree National Park
…aka, “Boulder” National Park, according to Tyler.

We’ve been radio-silent for a little while now, but we’ve been super busy! In a bit of a roundabout trip, we were down in Tucson for the Xscapers convergence, and then we headed to Joshua Tree National Park for a week of boondocking with friends we met back in Switzerland, and then we had to go pick up our solar system components from Flagstaff!

6x REC 400w solar panels

Once we picked up the components, we raced 800 miles up to Elk Grove, California, where we set up shop at a family ranch, our first “moochdocking” experience. We came with a laundry-list of projects to complete:

  • Solar panel installation
  • Inverter + charger upgrade
  • Battery capacity expansion
  • Washer/dryer installation
  • Starlink setup

…and that’s just the big ticket items. We’ll post more details on each project in the days to come!

Peggy Sue’s Diner, outside Barstow

A month of travel and adventure

Leave a Comment / Family, Story / By / 2022-03-03

So much has happened since we left Buckeye. We spent a wonderful week with the Ruprecht family first at Shadow Ridge RV resort and then exploring BLM land in Ajo, AZ. Camping is more fun with friends! The best moment for me came when Tyler asked Eric for his helmet, and then looked on in amazement when Tyler rode off, pedalling on his bike. I had not realised Eric had not seen him ride before. 

We continued boondocking in Marana near Tucson. We met with a few other families we met through Fulltime Families, and had some nice evenings around the campgrounds hearing stories from much more experienced nomads. We even got our knives sharpened by a very entrepreneurial 14 year old girl, “Dull is Dangerous” is her motto. She is going places!

Then off to Buckskin Mountain State Park along the Colorado River. After a lot of desert, the kids had some good times playing in the river. But best of all was meeting up with my friend Annie. I knew Annie back in Amsterdam in my late teens. It was the strangest thing to realize it had been almost 20 years since I last saw her. She visited with her 2 dogs and we were able to rig up an ez-up tent from our back patio to create another room. 

From Buckskin we returned to the SARA Park Rodeo grounds at Lake Havasu for the Escapees Winter Blast Hangout. This promised to be a lot of fun, with firework shows almost every night. We found that the best show was actually on Sunday, when they were determined to let off all their fireworks in one grand display, so that they could avoid the pit of despair that awaited all unused fireworks at the end of the show.

Weather had been beautiful and we felt super fortunate to snag a few nights at Lake Havasu State Park right at the lake. Unfortunately winds picked up again and temperatures dropped, so the peaceful time at the beach was more reminiscent of a stroll along the beach at Scheveningen.

Then off to Quartzsite. This place is a boondockers paradise in winter, with a lot of long term options. Most places allow you to stay max 14 days, but here you can buy a permit for the whole winter season, and many people take advantage of this. We gathered here for a Grand Design rally. It was somewhat surrealistic to see all these same luxury RV’s parked together in the middle of the desert. We met some very nice people, and were amazed by the solar setup done by Joshua of Rooted Off Grid, they have solar panels on slide-out racks, which look like wings on their modified-3-axle Solitude 390RK, which gives them 6kWh of power, allowing them to run their RV like it has full electric hookups.

After Quartzsite, we had a few days to kill before heading to the Xscapers Convergence in Tucson. I had heard many good things about Lake Mittry near Yuma and wanted to check it out. And though it is pretty amazing, it just was not for us. The water was unreachable for the kids and we encountered plenty of mosquitos. Now if you have kayaks or want to spend your time fishing from one of the many jetties jutting out into the lake, this would be the place to go. Anyhow, I decided it was time for full hookups before our next 8 day stretch boondocking, so we booked at a random RV park half way. We are at Sonoran RV Park in Gila Bend, there is not much here, but the park is super nice. We drove in and a friendly gentleman led us right to our spot. The kids and I got ready for the 90 degree pool giving Eric time to set up our site. After spending a few weeks in the desert a large body of water is such an amazing thing. Tyler took a minute, but with some help from a friendly surrogate grandmother quickly found his confidence again swimming around. Aidan was not really sure what to do with so much water, but after almost an hour of clinging to me found that the top step was awesome to lay on and semi crawl and scoot back and forth. By the end of our pool visit he was jumping into my arms from the side. 

On the project side of things, we’ve expanded our battery capacity to 12v 600Ah, giving us ample power for longer boondocking stays, though we still need to expand our solar array to match it. We also made wooden slats for our bed, which are a lot prettier than the plywood we used before!

Lake Havasu Balloon Festival and Skyline Regional Park

2 Comments / Family, Story / By / 2022-02-02

We had bought tickets for the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival while we were still in Switzerland. It sounded like it would be a lot of fun, it was in the area we wanted to be in, and it would give us a chance to practise some more dry camping. We just needed to fill one night between leaving the bash and our reservation at Lake Havasu State Park. Driving through Quartzsite, and up into Havasu we had seen a lot of camping on BLM land. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management, they manage a lot of land in the United States, and often it is allowed to camp free of charge for a certain period of time. We drove out of the Rodeo grounds and turned left, not sure where we were heading. About 15 minutes on we came to a left turn that looked promising. We got off the road and found ourselves a nice camping spot.

The kids went to bed and Eric turned in early. I grabbed my hammock chair and blanket and sat out on the back patio. There were many other campers around us, but all a nice distance away. I could hear some chimes ringing and saw some fires in the distance, but mostly it was just me and by book and a drink, and a giant full moon.

The next day we had breakfast, pulled in the slides and hitched up. I was determined to be one of the first ones in so we could snag a nice spot right on the beach. We drove in at 9 AM, and they told us we could pick just about any spot we wanted. The kids loved our new back yard and we spent a lot of time just exploring.

We did have some scary nights with heavy winds. The slide toppers that protect our slides were slapping in the wind making it all sound a lot worse. The biggest gusts even made the RV shake, and although you know you are on solid ground and nothing is going to happen, you sleep with one eye open.

We got to witness one mass balloon ascension, and it was magical. It was early in the morning and we saw our first balloon through the window. We quickly walked out and towards the shore line, and could see the balloons taking off one at a time filling the sky. Aidan and Tyler were mesmerised, until the sand was more interesting again.

The wind however meant that the balloons could not take off on any of the subsequent days. We visited the festival grounds and Tyler had a lot of fun at the carnival going on the various rides. Aidan was a little jealous he wasn’t allowed yet, and was not accepting our explanation that he was just too short. He will stand on his toes trying to prove you wrong.

Parking on pavement also meant we finally got to put on our SnapPads. They are big rubber covers that go onto our jacks and give us much better grip when we are parked. All it took was a good cleaning, a spray of FlexSeal (spray-on liquid rubber) and then very carefully lowering the jacks onto the pads. Much easier to do when the kids are locked into their car seats.

Before leaving Lake Havasu we also got to pick up our bed frame. We had wanted to change our bed to sleep along the length of our RV so that we didn’t have to crawl over each other to get in and out, and we wanted it mounted on the lower braces (it’s technical, but it just makes it easier to move). Neither of us are welders, so we had to find someone to build the frame for us. Now logistics while traveling are a thing to get used to; you can’t start calling ones you’ve settled into town, by the time they can help you, you are three stops further. This time though we got lucky, we were around long enough and started calling early. We found a great group of welders, Mansell Welding, and they were able to take on our project. I sent them a sketch of what I wanted and somehow they managed to turn it into the real deal. We pulled the RV up to their shop and it fit like a glove. We still need to do the finishing touches, like putting in some nice boards and night stands, but it is functional and super awesome!

Our next stop was Skyline Regional Park in Buckeye, close to Phoenix. We needed to be back in Phoenix for me to finally get my Arizona drivers license. I had passed the written test but was anxious about doing the driving test. Also it turns out 3 point turns, really one of the only requirements for getting your license here, are impossible in a long bed crew cab dually (within their cones). So to make things easier, we hired a driving school and I am now a fully licensed driver and am actually allowed to tow our 45 foot fifth wheel. I know I will need to at one point, but for now I am just getting used to driving a giant truck!

And on the topic of driving, it was at Skyline that Tyler decided he was ready to get on his bike and peddle. We got his bike out, and for the next 45 minutes or so he kept at it. My little boy can ride a bike now! Pretty amazing. Go Tyler!!!

Skyline was also where Eric got to use his tools extensively for the first time. I had picked up a bunkbed for the boys, but it was 9 inches too long to fit into the slide and needed to be shortened. Eric did an absolutely amazing job, shortening all the pieces and drilling all the holes so we could reinstall the hardware. It all fit together perfectly and the boys have a great new bed to sleep in and loads of floor space to play on.

Doing these kind of renovations while you are actually living in your rig can be somewhat stressful and it needs a lot of planning. But I love it when a plan comes together!

Next up camping with full hookups in Ajo, AZ and meeting up with a wonderful family we met at the Bash.