Mountains, Canyons, and Sunsets in Wyoming and Idaho

WOW!  I just kept saying that all day as Jim drove the motorhome thru the Wind River Canyon, then over the Continental Divide to where we got a glimpse of the Grand Tetons.  The weather was pretty dark and cloudy so we didn’t get the vistas I would have liked, but we still saw plenty.  Every time we turned a corner, we both said, “Wow!”



And then came the most scenic mountains of all … the Grand Tetons.  It was the sight of these mountains in our first year of travels that literally brought tears to my eyes.  They are exquisite.  They are the charm school graduates of mountain ranges.  This is why we travel – you just don’t see sights like this in normal city life!  The cloudy skies made for less than brilliant pictures, but being in the presence of the Grand Tetons was still a humbling experience.

WE even caught a glimpse of some Buffalo … err, Bison.

We managed to spare a few minutes to stop and the National Park Visitor Center and get our Nat’l Park Passport book stamped.  The visitor center building was quite an experience in itself.  Huge windows to fit the view!

The sun even peaked out for a few minutes.

And, we weren’t done yet!  After leaving the Tetons, we took the road that followed the Snake river – it was a beautiful canyon itself.

I was starting to get tired by this point … and I wasn’t even driving!  We didn’t have any reservations for the night since we had no idea how far we would make it.  It looked like we could get into Idaho Falls before dark, so I looked at our Allstays app on my smartphone and saw that there was an Elks Lodge in Idaho Falls.  Unfortunately, when I called them, I was told that they already had 2 RVs parked there, and that’s all they had room for.  So, we just found a rest area and pulled over.  OMG … I can’t imagine a better spot to rest!  It was overlooking the Snake river, and we happened to be there right at sunset time.


As if that wasn’t enough!  Would you believe that we had 5 bars of 4G on our smartphones?!  So we were able to zip along on the work we had to do before bedtime.
Here’s the picture we took of our parking spot the next morning.

Recipe for Relaxation

First of all, we were exhausted … exhilarated, but exhausted … after 5 rallies in a row, 20+ seminars and one 2-day hands on class.  We left Gillette mid-day on July 4.  July 4 is our anniversary and we wanted to repeat our first anniversary during our full-time RVing life.  In 2004 we discovered a fabulous hot springs in Thermopolis, WY and that’s where we spent our anniversary.  What a gorgeous drive it was over the Powder River Pass thru the Bighorn mountains and south to Thermopolis.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the Fountain of Youth RV park about 5 o’clock, already feeling relaxed and renewed.  Filled with the beauty of the Wyoming mountains.  After we got parked, we quickly changed into bathing suits and went straight to the hot springs.

 

 

They’ve added a new barrier in the pool since we were here last.  Now you have the choice to stay in the north third of the pool which is about 100 degrees, or climb into the middle section at 102-104.  The third, southernmost section is too hot for people … sane people anyway.  The little volcano at the southern end is where the hot springs is coming into the pool at about 128 degrees.

 

 

After our first soak, we went back to the RV and made a home cooked meal for what seems like the first time in weeks.  We even set the dining room table and ate like civilized folks rather than at our computers!  There’s little or no Verizon signal here, and the free Wi-Fi is in and out.  There’s also no TV.  OMG, we were forced to look at each other and talk!  All we could talk about is how lucky we are and what a wonderful life we have.  What a great thing we did 15 years ago by getting married!   Then we went back at night to soak some more, wait for the fireworks, and listen to live music by the park owner.  Here’s a little video:

 

The next day we started with another soak.

Then we went into town and had breakfast at the Thermopolis Café, then visited the Dinosaur Museum.

Once we were in the tourist mode, we just kept on going.  We had seen a sign back up the road a ways for tours at the Wyoming Whiskey distillery.  Umm … OK!  Hey!  It said Stop … so we did.

By the time we got back home, it was NAP time!    No phone, no Internet.  Started the day with a hot springs soak, then played tourist, tasted Wyoming Whiskey, had lunch at a great hamburger place.  Now THAT’s a recipe for relaxation.  We napped for the rest of the afternoon, then repeated the night before of soaking, swimming, and listening to music. 

Escapee’s Rally–The Escapade

Another great rally!  We went back to Gillette, WY for this one.  And here’s the schedule of seminars we gave:

 

The Windows 8 seminar was a first for us, and the Movie Maker seminar is one we’ve only given once and the computer didn’t work so well.  This time we used a different computer for the Movie Maker and we made sure to practice the Windows 8 seminar – so they both went well.  If you attended a seminar when we ran out of handouts, or you weren’t able to attend, all of our seminar handouts can be downloaded from our website. 

We LOVE doing this!  So many people came up to us to say thank you!  Some said they felt SO smart now because they learned so much from our seminars.  Others told us they needed some down time because their brains were overflowing with all the information we presented.

The most popular class was the smartphone overview.  WoW.  The only picture I snapped was this panorama with my Droid phone.  I apparently didn’t hold the camera well cuz it’s a bit blurry, but you get the idea – it was a packed house!  Teaching smartphones is just sooo much fun, the main comment we hear as people leave is, “I had no idea they could do so much!”  We especially like showing Google Translate.  As long as you have your phone, and an internet connection, you will be able to speak the language of whatever country you’re visiting – or your phone will at least.  And, it’s free!  Just unbelievable. We also show a video clip from NBCNews that explains the amazing medical uses of smartphones.

Our Windows 8 seminar had a respectable turnout also:

And Jim got to show off his Windows 8 Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet/computer.  We met a couple other people at the rally who had the Surface Pro and they loved theirs just as much!

When we weren’t teaching a seminar we were at our booth in the exhibit hall.  It was great getting to see our friend Phil May, of TechnoRV – our booths were right next to each other so we took down the barriers to make a TechnoGeek booth!

 

The Verizon booth was nearby and I think I recognized most of the people buying phones because they attended our smartphone class – then had to buy one!  Too bad we don’t make any commission eh?  Just kidding, we don’t want any commission.  That’s why people trust our information so much – we don’t make anything from it.  Our sole source of income is from our members who learn from us.

It was a busy, busy week, but we still found time for some fun as well.  Here’s our parking space, and we were right next to Nick and Terry Russell of Gypsy Journal fame.  We spent a couple of evenings just swapping tales – it was nice to catch up with them, although my sides did hurt afterwards from laughing at Nick’s stories!

On Tuesday night, Jim was told his presence was requested at the evening entertainment.  ???? Uh-Oh, we were also told it involved him wearing a wig!  It was a hoot, here’s a little video that I put together using Movie Maker:

We also found time to get together for dinner with new friends, Don and Kim from HarvestHosts.com.  They have this cool business where they find Wineries, Farms, and other unique places where the owners agree to let RVs park overnight, then they promote those locations to people who pay a small fee to become members of Harvest Hosts.  There is no fee for the stay, just buy some wine!  We can do that .  We joined their membership recently and look forward to staying at a couple of wineries as we travel thru Idaho and Oregon.  But, we really enjoyed spending some time with them.  I thought we were well-traveled, but they put us to shame!  They’ve RVd thru Europe, Africa, Central and South America, and I think New Zealand and Australia too.  Talking to them added way too many things to my own bucket list!

We look forward to meeting up with you again Don and Kim!

 

There’s still one more day of the rally – they’ve planned a banquet, birthday party, and fireworks display.  We’d love to attend, but today is a very special day for us – our 15th Anniversary – and we are so close to Thermopolis, which is a wonderful hot springs where we spent our first anniversary on the road!  We gotta go!

Have a great Birthday bash Escapade!

 

Thank You to Bob and Molly Pinner – the directors of the Escapade, and Cathie Carr – the President of Escapees.  We had a great time!

Full Moon, Safaris, and Mount Rushmore

There’s been a lot going on in this Western South Dakota / Eastern Wyoming area if you’re an RVer.  The biggest rally was the FMCA, but then after a week break, comes the Escapade.  What to do with the week in between?  How about another rally!  We used to own a Safari RV, so we were invited to attend the Safari 25th anniversary rally in Rapid City.  That’s right where we were before coming to Gillette!  We have now driven those 140 miles between Rapid City and Gillette 3 times now in the last few weeks.  Actually, it’s a beautiful stretch of highway.  I loved it.

Because we waited till the ground dried out a bit at the end of the FMCA rally, we ended up driving as it turned dark.  The moon may not have been exactly full, but since this was a super moon, it was quite impressive as it peeked up over the hills.

 

The Safari rally didn’t start till the next day, so we just pulled into a Rest area to sleep for the night.  And, what a nice rest area it was.  In the morning, Jim went inside the building as I walked around and took pictures.  I thought for sure he’d be back in the coach by the time I finished, but he wasn’t there.  I had just started to wonder what he could be doing, when he showed up with a smile on his face talking about his new girlfriends!  Apparently the South Dakota Welcome center was staffed by a couple of very friendly women who loved hearing Jim tell his tales!

 

What a nice place to wake up in!

 

Coffee service with a smile!

 

 

Then it was on to the Safari rally.  Here is just a sampling of the murals painted on these classic motorhomes.  See more info on these paintings in our 2008 blog post about the Safari rally.

 

We taught a Picasa seminar at this rally, and the collage above was done in class, then uploaded to a Web Album to demonstrate sharing pictures.

 

But, mostly, we had fun at the Safari rally.  We had a party on board the bus that took us to see Mount Rushmore at night.  Here’s our friends Al and Sue Wilson who we’ve known from way back in Datastorm rally days.  Everybody’s making sure their cameras are in working order for taking pictures of the giants on the mountain.

 

We remembered to take the big lens with us so we could get some closeups!

 

 

 

 

There’s a really nice trail you can walk and get different angles on the mountain.  It’s called the Presidents trail.  We didn’t walk this last time we were here.  I even wonder if it’s been built since then.

 

 

We were there to see the lights come on.  You sit in an open air amphitheatre and listen to a presentation by a park ranger, watch a movie about the 4 presidents carved on the mountain, George Washington for being the father of our country, Thomas Jefferson for expanding our country thru the west, Teddy Roosevelt for protecting the wild and beautiful national parks, and of course, Abraham Lincoln for preserving the nation.  Then we watched the lights come on and shine on those four faces.

 

 

 

What a beautiful night!

Now we’re back in Gillette and ready to teach our hands-on class called Camp Reboot.  People bring their laptops and spend two days with us teaching the things we think they would have learned in High School, IF there had been computers when they went to High School!

FMCA Rally in Gillette, Wyoming

FMCA is the Family MotorCoach Association.  We’ve been giving seminars at their rallies since 2005.  We plan our travels around the national rallies, which is why we’re in Wyoming this summer.

It was perfectly gorgeous weather for the majority of the week, BUT, it just takes one nasty thunderstorm on the last day to leave an impression!  The ground was wet and lots of RVs got stuck on the departure day.  I think these guys with jeeps and winches actually enjoyed getting to put their vehicles to the test.  They did successfully get this big RV out of its rut, and it drove away to raucous applause!

During the week, we presented 8 seminars:

• Technology For Travelers
• Movie Maker
• Every RVer Needs A Blog
• Smartphone Overview
• Smartphone Photography Workshop
• Picasa & Picasa Web Albums
• Google Maps
• Destinations

The smartphone topic was the most popular.  Standing room only.  We needed to take a panorama shot to get them all in!

Picasa was still pretty popular as well.

We were in a different room for almost every seminar, so we had to get good at carrying all our stuff around.  Here’s Jim getting ready to go to work.

And, Thank You Connie Bradish! for helping us out with people coming to our table to become Geeks on Tour members. We weren’t there very often.  that means it’s partly Connie’s efforts that allow us to welcome 93 new and renewing members to Geeks on Tour this week!

As soon as the ground dried out a bit, we pulled out and hit the road, on our way back east to Rapid City and the Safari Rally.