Northwest America 2019

Sometime during the next few days, I will depart from Florida and head out west for the summer. This is my fifth long RV trip. The journey is not a vacation or a road trip. The coach is now my summer home. This summer home is different from most summer homes because this home moves around to different places.

Wyoming and Montana are my destinations. The drive is about 2500 miles. I figure the drive out there will take 2-4 weeks depending on the weather. I’ve made this drive before, and sometimes you just have to hunker down and wait out strong storms while they pass. Driving the RV in winds about 20 mph is difficult and is dangerous. 

The first destination is Jackson Hole Wyoming and the Grand Teton National Park where I have reservations for 17 days. The Grand Teton Range is perhaps the most beautiful mountain range in America. Teton National Park is also very large, which making getting away from the hoards of people easy. Recently I learned the name Grand Tetons is not correct. There is one mountain named the Grand Teton (elevation 13,776), so referring to the place as the Grand Tetons is incorrect. I’ve been here six times before, and now just learned the proper name for the place. The Grand Teton Range is spectacular because the range is only 7,000,0000 years old. The mountains have not been worn down by wind and erosion. The range rises up dramatically one mile above the Jackson Valley floor.

I’ve seen all these places several times before, but only for a few days at a time as I cycled through them on bike tours. When I retired, I always planned to go back to these places and stay for a much longer time. Now there is no rush. I can take my time and just soak in the atmosphere, enjoying the cool crisp air and the wonderful aroma of the forests.

After 17 days in Grand Teton National Park, I will head north 50 miles to Yellowstone National Park. Getting reservations in Yellowstone is just about impossible, and I was very fortunate to get 10 nights in West Yellowstone, one mile to the west of the park. Yellowstone is one of the most interesting and fascinating places on earth. Yellowstone is also overwhelmed my millions of tourists, and I mean millions, over 3,000,000 visit each year. 

Next I will head 300 miles north to Glacier National Park, perhaps the most beautiful of the national parks in America. Called the Crown Jewel of the Continent, Glacier National Park has that name for good reason. Home to more than one million acres, the beauty with glacier-carved terrain that encompasses wild meadows, glistening clear rivers, stunning 400-foot waterfalls, striking rock faces and dramatic mountain peaks, it’s truly unlike any place on earth.

I will be staying on the eastern side of the park. The eastern side is much less crowded than the west side. The west side is more crowded because the towns of Kalispell, Whitefish, and the airports are on that side. The St Mary location on the east side is perfect, a tiny town with a breakfast place and small grocery store, one mile from the entrance to Going to the Sun Road, as well as just a few miles from Many Glacier Hotel. There are several hikes I have always wanted to do there. St Marys is also close to Glacier Park Lodge at the East Glacier entrance to the park. Thousand of lupines of many colors line the road leading up to Glacier Park Lodge. The entrance to the lodge between the lupines is prettiest entrance to any of the national park lodges I have ever seen.

Getting the coach repaired and checked before a long trip is very important. Fixing problems in St Pete is a lot better than trying to get problems fixed in the middle of Kansas. Fluids and filters are cheap insurance. This year should go much smoother than last year. Last years experiences and another three years of experience in the first RV will help make this trip better. The first year in a RV tends more about the RV than the places you go. I see this trend all the time in online RV forums including myself. Then the second the year, the RV becomes more of a means to go experience beautiful and wonderful places. And best of all, the cats come with me.

A lot of work has gone into preparing for this trip. The RV was in various service bays at LZDays for a month. Repairing all the warranty items and completing the annual maintenance is essential before a long trip. Finishing the body and paint work was difficult and stressful. I’m hoping not to run over any stop signs this year. The first place that repaired the body and paint damage screwed up the detail work. They used a high-speed buffer which put in swirl marks that were visible in bright sun. I almost cried when I saw the swirls in the paint. I had the coach detailed again at LZDays and they got out most of the swirl marks, and the coach looks almost new again. I think I am the only one who will notice some of the remaining swirl marks.

For now I have May 19th through the end of June booked in the Grand Teton, West Yellowstone, and Glacier in four different campgrounds. I learned last year that with these big rigs, its best to stay in one place for a while and do less driving. One of the thoughts I had when I retired, was that I wasn’t limited to just one week to 10 days in these places while on vacation. Now I can go back to places I loved, and stay for weeks at a time, relaxing, not feeling like I have to take it all in so quickly. If I wake up in the morning and just want to drink coffee and relax, staring up at the mountains, I can, because I are not on someone else’s schedule.

After Glacier National Park I don’t know where I am going. I may head north into British Columbia, or west into Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Or perhaps I will get home sick and start my way home. All my previous trips ended up this way. At some point, I suddenly become homesick and decide to come home. I am hoping to last at least through July and part of August until that happens, but I don’t really know.

Wild Montana Skies