When we left Leigh we went through Thermapolis and thought about stopping and taking a white water river raft, but our RV wouldnot fit under a bridge so we went on but only after making we thought reservations at a KOA in Dubois, Wyoming to do laundry and rest one night. When we got there they didn't have our reservations, their internet had been out. No Private RV campground had any sites, we should have figured something was up 60 miles from Yellowstone. A terrible storm came up just as we left heading west. Pat had to stop off the road as soon as it let up we went on. It was getting late and still raining although the wind had died down. We should be in Bridger-Teton National Forest now and so there should be a place we can stop. And there before us a little campground called Falls. What LUCK! We pulled in found a sweet site and had probably the best 18 hours of the trip. They don't take reservations at Falls. Read on.
Pat as we entered the Tetons.
So I am reading three books simultaneously: 1) Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods 1998
Quotes: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/613469-a-walk-in-the-woods
This is a re-read for me.
Once upon a time, Ben Scott-Killian said “Hey Mom why not in the summer
I graduate from high school, why don’t we-meaning him and me (don’t correct my
English, please, my mouth is still hanging open) walk the Appalachian
Trail (Well, this was after our many
camping trips-when he was in Jr. High at Gelinas-what 13 years old? I said
sure. Then as he got older, it was meet me and my friends as we hike it at certain points along
the trail, you and Dad can drive the then Class C RV**-so we can take showers
and get a good meal. Then when he
finally took his road trip in college and did walk part of the trail we got sent photos
with no requests for met ups). There are so many scenes in the Walk in the
Woods, while Bill is walking the Appalachian trail that just make you laugh so
hard you think you might wet your pants.
But so many things have happened similar to us in all journeys. (Like the
time we were chased by a buffalo.) One of the funniest paragraphs in the book is
about what he would do if bears showed up in his campground. I won’t spoil it
for you but it starts out that he would just shit himself to death. I may have told this story before, but it is a great repeat. Back in 1996,
when Pat and 9 year old Ben were playing golf near Glacier NP, a group of Black Foot
Native Americans were also playing golf and he overheard a conversation between
two older white women and the men playing golf.
The women were told by the National Park Rangers to make themselves look
small and crouch down and cover their heads if they met a bear. “Of course, We Indians”, said one
of the Black Foot in a slightly sarcastic voice, “don’t know anything about Grizzlies, but if we see a bear
we make ourselves look at big as possible and make a lot of noise”. Here is the
latest sage advice: make yourself look as big as possible, make a lot of noise
walking trails -one way is to wear bells on your shoe laces or old fashioned bell
bracelets or have noisy children with you-because then bears won’t be surprise at you coming up on them, bring
bear pepper spray- which we still have a can of from 1996-I wonder if it is
still good?.. Keep your eyes open, back away slowly if you see a bear before he/she
sees you, never run, play dead only if they catch up with you if throwing things
at them doesn't work. Bill Bryson has the same
advice, but he says what the heck, run because you only have probably no more
than seven seconds to live anyway or they chew off an arm or leg. One
T-shirt in Jackson reads: “It is
important to be always aware and if you see fresh bear scat (poop) walk in another
direction. (which way did the bear go?) ID a Black Bear’s scat vs. a Grizzlie
because Black Bears aren’t as aggressive. If it’s a Black Bear there will be
berries in the poop, if it’s a Grizzlies’ scat there will be bells in the scat
and it will smell like pepper.” Lots of Luck.
(**PS the Class C died on EXT 52of LIE 495 after moving Toby sometime
after his last year at Geneseo?? We got it
hauled away to Ronkonkoma where they said it would cost $5000 to fix the
transmission or something?-well it was at that time only worth about $5000 and
so we put it on Free Cycle and some guy came and picked it up. He called us later and said it wasn’t a
transmission but something else and he and his cousin fixed it for about
$1000. He and his wife were thrilled,
but it needed a lot of work, new refrigerator, etc…
We are now looking at the Proud Mary and it
is 10 years old and we have ridden it hard, many little things need fixing but
it still runs great and it cost less to live in an RV and energy and water wise we use less in a month than we do in a week in a house. There is a boom in RV sales.We met a guy at the State campground we were staying at
when we were at UU GA in Columbus 2016 who refurbishes RVs and sells them. He
gets them for nothing and then sells them for triple what he puts into
them. His wife decorates them. There is an entire tv show about fixing up
vintage RVs. Why, a tv show and a new career as an rv decorator, well more and
more people are choosing nature adventures as vacations and who wants to stay
in an hotel at $200 a night when you can stay in a National Forest-National
Park for around $7.50 like Falls (no perks, but you might get lucky and have Internet
service so you can hot-spot with your phone) to $40 (no perks to electricity
and maybe water, with a dump to get rid of your sewage and maybe and maybe not
internet). The camp host at Falls said many of the people were staying there and driving 60 miles each way each day because Yellowstone and the Tetons were too crowded and it was cheaper. Read the next blogg. We made it to the Tetons as you can see, but didn't know if there would be any room in the INN since our reservations at Flagg Ranch did not start for two days.
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