McGaffs On The Fly

Joanie’s blog…in her words. Sorry, no pictures.

1. The PB “Cozy Pom Pom Sherpa Throw” Kate & Blaine gifted me at Christmas. It seriously saved me from freezing to death some nights! It’s the softest thing ever. We had temps of high 30’s-40’s on many nights!

2. Small Airstream – 19’ Little Al seems small and yes, the bed is a double size so that did take some getting used to, but I just loved coming home to it every day. I got used to sleeping close to the space hog guy that I love. 

3. Flatbread at Custer’s Battlefield Trading Post – I listened to a podcast that described this Indian Flatbread at the Trading Post and I just had to try it.  It lived up to its expectations!  It’s similar to a chalupa but instead of a crunchy tortilla shell, it’s on flatbread that tastes so dang good!

4. Rand McNally Map of 50 states.  Best ever when WiFi is so spotty for research. Thank you Karen!

5. Cleanliness!! – I hate trash and the states we traveled to were so clean! The sides of the road did not look like Texas roads. How sad for Texas…”Don’t Mess With Texas” definitely needs a new slogan like “Don’t Mess An Opportunity To Throw Their Trash Out in Texas”. Come on Texas, we are better than that!

https://www.facebook.com/TennesseeValleyMustangClub/videos/10222238559971508/?extid=ZM1gsxpbiKC0Ujvz&d=n

Finally we get Joan’s side, here we go…in Joan’s words:

Me?, Moi? A Guest Blogger he asks? Sure, I’ll take a shot at it although I don’t have the humor ol’ Marco does.

My Top 5 are a little different than Marc’s top 5.

1. South Dakota is number one on my list and it took me by surprise! I had always pictured SD as flat prairie lands with cattle grazing, but it’s so much more. It was my favorite state with a mix of beautiful grasses, Black Hill mountains, cool weather, Badlands National Park and quaint towns of Custer and Hot Springs. We stayed in a nice little campground in Custer, but next time (??) will stay in Hot Springs where The Mammoth Site is an active paleontological dig site, and boasts the largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world! I’ve got to see those mammoth bones and I know Marc will be 100% as excited as me, not…

2. Jenny Lake boat shuttle and hike to Inspiration Point for awesome panoramic views. Jenny Lake is part of the Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming and is absolutely beautiful. I had a few friends recommend the lake and now I know why. The boat shuttle was fun and hiking to the top, which we HAD to do so I could check it off my list was breathtaking.

3. Pagosa Springs, CO – We’ve been there a few times, so it was a favorite stop to visit our friends. The first weekend was spent with me celebrating 2 friends turning the big 60. The big laugh was deciding on a hike. “Which way do we go, which way do we go?” Well, we ended up going opposite of where we were supposed to, but that didn’t stop us from having a nice little picnic at the Continental Divide near Beaver Creek, and seeing a pretty little waterfall on a short hike. It was a fun girls weekend with lots of excitement, some of it was games and alcohol related, and some was firetruck and ER related! I love those Texas girls! Later I shifted and joined Marc at another friend’s home and we hiked and played our new fav game, pickleball. Marc was idolized by a new friend Jeff with his beginner pickleball skills. I’ve got to give a shout out to Brenda and KayLane whose wonderful dinners have inspired me to try a little harder at cooking! PS is a cool community of fun people and I love that place.

4. Mt Rushmore – No need to describe this very much, but it was pretty awesome driving in the mountains of South Dakota to get there. You keep looking and looking for those faces and finally, there they are! This was on my bucket list and did not disappoint. It was really like, “Wow, how did they do that in the 1930’s?” They have set this National Memorial up very well with a nice little museum that has facts and video clips of the progress. Check!

5. Campground in Grand Tetons National Park – This was the only National Park that we could get a reservation at. Everyone is wanting to get out during this pandemic and since we didn’t have an exact travel plan, we weren’t able to reserve other parks. We stayed in the Colter Bay campground which was on the lake and was so pretty. It had a great camp store and even a restaurant for takeout which we did one night. The pine trees were so beautiful surrounding our Little Al. We would walk up to the picnic area and have our coffee while Marc would blog so he could get a WiFi signal. It was just a lovely campground except for staff scaring you to death about those damn bears!

While waiting on guest blogger Joanie…

In no particular order.

1. The Window Incident. Without placing any blame, let’s just say that “it could happen to anyone”. I would say, “I love my Joanie but sometimes she can be a little aggressive”. And on day 1!

2. Montana. Really, you couldn’t just have one road sign like all the other cool kid states?!

3. The Bear Spray. If only I could have sprayed one bear it could have been in the top 5. But since I now have a $49.99 can of worthless spray…

4. The Pandemic. Believe it or not, the media is not killing all of these people…there is something real in the air. Closures at just about everywhere we went left us wondering, what if…

5. The End. The worst part of starting a trip is…the end. We had so much fun, saw so much of our beautiful country, were able to visit friends while still social distancing and all of this with my best friend. Can’t wait for the next one.

Just a couple of days left before we get home and I’ve come up with my “top 5” from our first trip in Little Al. Hopefully I can get Joan to do the same tomorrow.

In no particular order.

1. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Great start to the trip; the city is clean, crisp weather and at this point not too overflowing with tourist. We liked the RV Park (adults only) and had a great time in the city.

2. Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Great times with great friends always makes a difference but Pagosa is pretty great all by itself. We were busy the whole time with pickleball, hikes, dinners and golf.

3. Grand Tetons. The best part of this segment was being able to camp inside the park. We saw plenty of wildlife but the highlight was the large fox running through the park with a rodent in its mouth. Also got to purchase that bear spray, made me very aware of my surroundings.

4. The Badlands. We only took a one day trip there but it was memorable, it’s hard to believe a place like this exist so close to us…seems like we would need a space ship to get there.

5. Yellowstone. The beauty of the land is only surpassed by the abundant nature inside of it. We were able to see bison, elk, a bear, sheep and plenty of other wildlife. Best part, we were not in any news story about stupid Texans getting too close to animals…I had to keep an eye on Joanie but we did stay in the car.

Update. Two days late…got to figure out Wifi hotspot for next trip?!

Today we just…drove.

Heading back to Texas; nothing against Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma but really couldn’t find anything interesting to see along the way we haven’t already seen…so we just drove.

With over 2,000+ miles already on our trip, I was pretty happy with the fuel consumption I’ve been getting…a very reasonable 12.3 mpg. And when you figured all of the mountains we climbed up and down that’s pretty darn good. That was until we met the monster winds (20+mph) in KS and OK…down to less than 10 mpg through this stretch.

I bet you’re asking, “hey Grandpa Jones, are you seriously talking about mpg, what has become of you”? …all we did was drive today!!!

Just stopped at the Windstar RV Park across the OK border before heading to Dallas in the am. The casino is packed, think we’ll pass.

Heading to Dallas to see baby Fi…

On the way out of Custer what would we come across but another National Park. And guess who wants to go see it…right, my trusty sidekick?! This one happens to be the 7th longest cave system in the world, Wind Cave National Park. Again we were unable to visit the cave because of that nasty virus sweeping the nation, but, Joanie was able to get her book stamped adding to her collection. She has collected quite a few stamps along the way even forgetting to ask at many places, and in a short time is winning the nerd competition in our two person race.

We did drive for about 8 hours today and find ourselves in a great little RV Park near York, Nebraska. Plan is to see what we want along the way and arrive in Dallas on Sunday.

When Al Gore invented the internet it would have been nice if he notified South Dakota so they could have signed up, the slow service here is starting to cramp our style. All of my backgammon rivals are complaining too, they have no one else to help run up their score.

Today we made the 2 hour trip to The Badlands to check out what that was all about. Along the route we had to stop at the Wall Drug Store, apparently if you are a true tourist then this is a “must see”…and the million dollars in billboards also demands your presence. If you are looking for free water, 5 cent coffee, big cake donuts, and lots of c r a p to take home with you…look here, they got it.

The Badlands turned out to be a big surprise that we were not expecting. This place is off the charts with a crazy type of geographical surface somewhere between Big Bend and Mars. If I were an old outlaw this is where I would have gone to hide…until I saw the sign about rattle snakes. We took the loop around the entire national park and enjoyed every turn…now at Mount Rushmore Brewing Company, that drive made us really thirsty.

As we continue to experience the RV life, Joan and I are more than happy with our travels and our 19’ world. We have, however, started to question the rating system on some of the RV parks that we have chosen. In most cases we didn’t have a lot of choices, but it always seems we should have picked the one across the street. At this point we have received all of our money back (in discounts) for the KOA membership card…may be time to try another. Live and learn, I’m sure we never will.

Today we drove the 3 + hours to our next destination of Custer SD, most of the way on highway but the last 10 through the mountains. We made a stop at the Jewel Cave National Monument along the way but unfortunately it was closed. Fortunately for me though, as the third longest cave in the world with over 200+ miles of tunnels I know that Joanie would have picked this as Marc’s last stand. Not on purpose, I’m sure, but her desire to not miss one square inch of the caves would have been my demise.

This evening we made the trip to Mt Rushmore. While most of the parks we have visited so far have closed around 5pm, this wonderful American treasure doesn’t close until 9pm. Although not as big as I had envisioned, it was even more stupendous than I could have imagined. And to think that it was started in 1927, wow! I can’t even draw a stick figure where people would recognize what it is, these geniuses did most of this work with dynamite…I lose again.

Sitting at the Custer KOA drinking a red beer in 67 temp…life is good.

Today it happened. Joan and I were hiking on a remote trail, should have been around more people, when we came upon some sort of carcass recently killed. Although we knew better, we walked up close to it when IT happened. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a big black hairy beast rambling our way at breakneck speed. With the grace and dexterity of a Wild West gunslinger, I pulled the bear spray from my holster and aimed at the great beast…

Just kidding but we did see a bear!

Today we spent the early morning visiting the city of Mammoth and going to the hot springs to the south of the city. They have done a great job installing a boardwalk around the springs which allows close up viewing…and smelling if you know what I mean. Pretty interesting views, not like old faithful but still cool.

The rest of the day we spent in North Yellowstone which was recommended to us by a Ranger, he correctly described it as the “Serengeti of Yellowstone”. Although remote in location, the visitors that were there would stop their car whenever a sighting occurred…no matter where or who was behind them. And of course we did the same running from our car to watch for elk, wolves, bear or any other wild animal that would walk by. You’ve seen those pictures on USAToday where someone is getting way to close, well we didn’t but we did see many that were. No mauling, bites or goring today…just our luck, we go to a bullfight and the matador wins again.

Best of the day; thousand of bison on the river bank, multiple pronghorn sheep, and our first bear sighting. He was actually close to the road feasting on a dead animal, couldn’t get close enough to see what it was but I know someone could have told us.

Great day, tomorrow to Bozeman, MT. Heading to town now to get a bison burger…you know, just to remind them who’s in charge.

PS…I’m taking bids on my bear spray, starts at $19.99.