Blogging My Way Across The USA

The People On The Bus Need Sunglasses

Man, the sun is bright here! We've been lucky that it hasn't rained AT ALL since we got to the coast. Today we cruised on down the coast another 120 miles to our next stop in Gold Beach, Oregon. Along the way, we spotted this lighthouse:

 

I've got lots of photos of the coastline today. The best word I can come up with to describe my surroundings is majestic. Its where the ocean meets the mountains. Amazing.

 

 

 

Just look at these pristine beaches:

 

Once we got to our campground, we took the kids for a walk down the Rogue River, where we are parked for the night. The river feeds directly into the ocean, so by walking down the shore about 1/2 mile, we connected up with the beach at the ocean. Here is Brian and Shelby digging for quartz on the shore of the river:

 

The name of the campground we're at is Turtle Rock Campground. Aptly named, I would say. This is Jim and Danielle in front of Turtle Rock. He's kinda cute - the rock I mean.

 

Brian up on one of the rocks on the beach. The kids were having a blast climbing them.

 

 

Sand and mountains

 

 

Good night all! Tomorrow we go 80 miles up the Rogue River on a jet boat tour! Should be lots of cool photos from that! Stay tuned!!!

HUGS!!!

The people on the bus have a day of rest...

It feels good to stop. Every two days at this point, we move on to a different campground in a new area of this beautiful coast. In a few days, we'll park at Lake Shasta for 4 days. But for now, we're still being gypsies, and roaming this great land.

Our first stop of the day yesterday was the Tillamook cheese factory. We got to tour the factory itself and see how cheese is made. It was pretty cool.

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Hey Lisa, I picked you up a nice 2 pound brick of sharp cheddar. YUM!

After leaving the cheese factory with our arms full of cheese, we got to run over a curb and blow out the back tire on The Turd. The guys aren't letting him live this one down for a long time.

 

The pit crew was on the case:

 

The beautiful Pacific coast of southern Oregon:

 

 

 

Sea Lions sunbathing on the coast:

 

We're parked for two nights on Lake Silcoos Lake in Florence, OR. After a LONGGGGGG, twisty trip down the coast, its nice to rest our tires beside a warm fire.

 

We're parked right next to the lake, from left to right: Mark & Sandra & Danielle & Shelby, Me & Jim and the boys, and Dan & Val.

 

Dan and Danielle out fishing.

 

 

That's all folks! HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Go Stop Stop Stop

Yeah, I know, I've missed a day or two of posting. It was time to park this pig for a couple of days and camp, and I was enjoying not doing anything for a while.

So, we were welcomed to Oregon:

 

And crossed the Columbia River again:

 

Stopped at an overlook at Cannon Beach. This is Haystack Rock. This area of the coast has many of these rocks right up near the shore of the Pacific. To say the views are amazing doesn't even begin to describe the scenery.

 

 

 

After seeing all the beautiful sites we pulled into camp at Nehalem State Park in Oregon. See the beach in the photo above? That was our beach, where we hung out for two days.

 

Our beach. If not for the high winds and chilly temperatures, it would be perfect.

The Awning On The Bus Goes Bounce Bounce Bounce

After leaving Moses Lake, WA and heading back through the desert of northwest Washington, we ran into a little trouble with the awning on The Turd. The winds were whipping down the edge of the mountains at 100 mph, and as we passed another large vehicle, it sucked our awning in and unrolled it. So now, our awning is a giant kite on the side of The Turd. To Jim's credit, he kept it together very well! He pulled over and we hooked it back up and went underway again, thinking all was well. Unfortunately, it was not, as the awning blew off again! This time it completely broke the metal side rails, and it was toast. My awning is now sitting on the side of the highway somewhere in northwest Washington. I'm gonna miss it.

So after the awning debacle, we got to climb some more hills. But first we had to cross the Columbia River:

 

 

The Cascades, covered in clouds. These were some HUGE, amazing, awe-inspiring mountains. I've never seen such beauty:

 

 

Very cool view from my windshield:

 

After several hours of up and down through the mountains, we arrived in Tacoma, WA. Finally, we made it! The Pacific Ocean:

 

Brian at the Pacific Ocean. He informed me that he needs to take his swim goggles from home (they are in the RV), when we go swimming in the Pacific. That way they will have been to the Pacific as well as the Atlantic oceans!

 

We hooked up with a photographer friend of mine - Audra, and her husband Ron for dinner at The Ram in Tacoma, which is located right on the oceanfront. Audra has been an online and phone friend for a number of years, and this is the first time we've ever met. It was great to meet you Audra! Funny, she was waving at me from across the parking lot like we've known each other forever. After staring at each other's photography forum picture icons for years, and talking on the phone for years, I feel we've known each other forever. I hope we can get together again on our way back through the area in a couple of weeks.

 

 

And now I leave you with this lovely piece of art, donated to The Rolling Turd Foundation by Jim "Click" Knudson up in Minnesota. He sent along this photo on www.camaros.net for us. Thanks Click!

 

HUGS!

The Ears On The Bus Go Pop Pop Pop

We got up really early, at 6:00, ready to hit the road at the crack of dawn out of our camp at Bozeman, MT. Somehow, after showering, breaking camp, feeding The Turd and ourselves it was almost 10:00 by the time we pointed The Turd west again:

 

We were in some serious mountains now with a really wicked climb between Bozeman and Butte, this included a hard second gear 4000 plus RPM pull up the mountain. We all breathed a sigh of relief as The Turd topped the crest at a mere 40 miles per hour.

Rocks

 

One of the mountains we had to climb. It was really tall:

 

This photo of Brian and the mountain was taken half way up the climb. We needed to stop and give The Turd a rest, not to mention Jim's nerves.

 

Once out of the mountains and back into the valley, we stopped for a while in beautiful Missoula, MT to stretch our legs and find some lunch. We had lunch at a cute little cafe downtown. It was totally chick food. I loved it, Dann and Brian did not. Oh well, they ate anyways. We walked around the riverwalk, watched some kayakers surfing in the swirl of whitewater in the river and walked back to The Turd. Once on the road again, we were shortly welcomed to Idaho:

 

Northern Idaho gave us a couple more long hard climbs, along with beautiful views of mountain valleys and fast running streams. Thankfully the Montana road construction was left in the rearview mirror. Idaho is really short up north, so it only took about 1-1/2 hours before we were greeted by Lake Cour D'Alene on the other side.

 

Finally! We are in our destination state!

 

After leaving Spokane in the rearview mirror, we entered the wasteland of eastern Washington. Mile after mile after mile of desert looking terrain, endlessly flat. The highway as straight as it was in South Dakota. No houses, no farms - nothing as far as the eye can see, for mile upon mile.

As we approached our destination, Moses Lake, we saw more civilization including farms, houses, irrigated fields, crops of potatos. After a 15 mile drive off the highway, we reached our destination for the night - Moses Lake.

 

I'm off to bed. Its 10:20 local time, which means its after midnight where I come from.

HUGS!

The Bugs On The Bus Go Squish Squish Squish

Let me start out this post by apologizing for all the photos of my bug-splatted windshield. We are in such an amazing part of our country, and I have to take the photos, even if we're rolling down the highway at 65 while bugs are splattering their guts all over The Turd.

Anyway, last night we camped in western South Dakota. As we're leaving the area, the lay of the land really begins to change and become more mountainous:

 

Before long, Wyoming welcomed me! I love Wyoming. God's country - fresh air, mountains, trees. We even saw some antelope hanging out on the side of the road.

 

Off in the distance, we could see the Bighorn Mountain Range, the first really tall, snow capped mountains to greet us. I am in awe...

 

The path that we took only kept us in Wyoming a short time, before Montana welcomed us:

 

Jim had to stop and use the potty AGAIN. I've got him figured out now: every 2 Propel Water's equals one potty stop. So I jumped out of The Turd and photographed this little creek and the mountain in the distance:

 

 

We're now in camp for the night in Bozeman, Montana, where the views are spectacular! Finally, some photos without bug splats - ENJOY!

 

 

 

That's all I got for tonight folks!

HUGS!

The People On The Bus Go Up And Down

After a good night's sleep in a wonderful campground (remind me to stick to state parks - more on that later), we had a good breakfast. And then it was time to take care of The Turd. The Turd requires lots of care and maintenance. Here we are dumping yesterday's meals:

 

After dumping yesterday's meals (which I truly do not wish to discuss any further), we had to feed it with some more gas, more fresh water and check the propane. Then it was time to roll on!

A couple of hours later, we actually started to see some more interesting scenery. Before this it was all grass baby! Nothing but grass on the left and grass on the right. And the occasional cow eating - wait. for. it. - GRASS.

This is the Missouri River:

Right after the river, the world starts to become more hilly. So we were going up and down hills all day (I'm so clever when I name my posts, aren't I?) 

Then it was on to Wall, SD, and a visit to Wall Drug. Its the biggest gift shop in the world! Brian, who LOVES gift shops, had the best time going through every room and looking for just the perfect junk to waste our money on. Our take: a bag of rocks, an excavation kit, a giant jawbreaker, a jackalope bobble head, and some fudge. Here's Brian on the giant jackalope:

 

Not too many photos tonight. We're parked in an RV park just outside Rapid City, SD and the internet connection is painfully slow. Every time I download a photo, it takes about 10 minutes to save. The RV park is nothing to write home about. We're packed in here like sardines, one RV on top of the next. I don't like it. To its credit tho, we have full hookups right next to our site, so I'm doing a couple loads of laundry and not worrying about running out of water, which is kinda nice. More tomorrow.

HUGS!

The Wipers On The Bus Go Swish Swish Swish

It rained most of the way across southern Minnesota, but we are camped for the night just over the border in South Dakota.

The Mississippi River. Note the clouds and rain:

 

After we crossed the Mississippi, Minnesota welcomed me. Thank you Minnesota. You're welcome to come by me anytime too.

 

Jim had to stop on the side of the road to use the bathroom, so I took a photo of some cows while waiting.

 

The folks here in southern Minnesota are really into windmills. Its on my list to Google why there are so many of them around here. There were tornado warnings breaking through the radio just to the south of us. I'd like to see what these windmills do when a tornado comes through. Do they go really fast?

 

After a few hours of driving through the rain and tornados, we eventually got to South Dakota, which was also kind enough to welcome me. All these states are soooooo nice!

 

After checking out the Woodalls (that's the campground catalog - its gigantic, and has EVERY campground in America in it), we settled on Palisades State Park in Garretson, South Dakota, not knowing at the time that it involved a dirt road. Although, I must say, their dirt road was smoother than the roads in Illinois. Not surprising.

 

And here's Brian, with his super cheesy smile on, and the drawing he made. He's quite the little artist (I guess he gets it from his Mom - LOL). Please note the T-shirt. Yeah, his dad doesn't need directions. But only because he's got a GPS. We're high tech here!

 

So we parked the bus in just the perfect little campsite. The music is going on the outdoor speakers, the chicken is cooking on the grill, the margarita is mixed, and all is well with the world.

 

Last photo for now. Jim in front of The Turd. Brian's bike is down - he's ridden the whole campground. The BBQ is cooking my chicken as I sit at the picnic table you see here writing this post. Its a perfect evening. We outran the rain, its about 75 perfect degrees. I do need to speak to these mosquitos though. They're starting on my legs. More tomorrow!

HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round

Welcome to the Blogging My Way Across The USA blog, cronicling the adventures of our vacation as we head west in The Big Rolling Turd. Just ignore those other posts down below about Jim's Camaro - I'll be deleting them soon, but I wanted to get the blog started in the meantime. Yep, that's The Big Rolling Turd up there on our blog header, and the map represents our trail - from Chicago to Seattle, where we hook up with Jim's BFF Mark and his wife Sandra and their 2 girls (HI DANIELLE AND SHELBY!) From there we're heading down the coast into northern California, and then inland to other awesome locations involving mountains, lakes and really big trees. Stay tuned and travel along with us!

So today is our very first day - Sunday, June 21, 2009. We were up early and out late. You know how that goes - everything always takes way longer than anticipated to get accomplished before you can walk out the door!

We finally left our crib at 9:12 AM and pointed The Turd west. These are my two boys - Brian and Dann - the video game junkies. They had the game rolling long before the bus started.

 

And here's our fearless leader and Turd driver (cuz the rest of us are too scared to drive the thing - its HUGE!).

 

So here we are rolling down the highway (yaaaaaaaaaaawn). Not much to see other than corn on the left, beans on the right and sometimes a gas station sign.

 

Although most of the time the ride looks something like this. The Turd is kinda bouncy (especially on our lovely Illinois roads).

 

"Please Pay Toll" Yep, we must be in Illinois still!

 

Wisconsin welcomes me! I feel soooooooooo special! Thanks Wisconsin!

 

Since we left home with only 1/4 tank of gas, we soon had to stop and fill up. YIKES!!!! The Turd holds 80 gallons, so this was us:

 

The charge card topped out at $100, so this was us again:

 

Yes folks, that's $192.54 to feed The Turd. SCARY!!!!!

And one more thing, the best lesson learned so far:

As we're rolling down the highway, the toilet paper will unroll itself all over the floor. Take it off the holder and stow it.         More later................