Day 10: 10 Things to love about the Tetons

I (David) wasn't actually planning on making a list of things about the Tetons that we enjoyed today, but we saw enough to probably make just that.

Our morning started a bit slow (we are on vacation after all), partly due to a bit of recurrent trouble with the roof leaking. It was temporarily fixed until I could get to it better later (thank The Lord I bought extra caulk). After a lengthy and entertaining conversation with our kind next RV neighbors, we headed out to a scenic chapel called the Chapel of the Transfiguration for some photos, (this was the same place Jennifer's mom had taken a picture when she was in high school) followed by a nearby junction called Moose Junction.

There we hoped to see, you guessed it: moose (thanks for the tip Jerry and Jenna!). The rangers at the visitor center informed us a moose had recently been spotted in the area but had ducked under a bridge and may or may not be visible. We tried our luck and saw our first moose of the day. Some other tourists nearby informed us this one was a mother and her little calf was nearby, although we never did get a chance to see it.
 

(a little difficult to see the detail, since this was taken with Jennifer's phone, but it will do until we can get our camera pictures loaded.)

 

Another passerby informed us of another location where they had recently spotted a bull moose, so we scraped our hike for the morning and headed on down the road. Sure enough, we saw our second moose of the day. (This was a male moose. The antlers were not near as massive as what I, Jennifer, had anticipated, but it was still SWEET!) All thats left is to see some bears...
 

I had had enough by that point (admittedly I've been a bit cranky with my gimpy back), so we headed on home for some home-cooked dinner before heading right back out for a place called Pilgrim Flats, another location given to us by our neighbors. At the end of the road, we found a crowd and a single female grizzly making her way down a ridge. We were ecstatic to finally get some good shots of a bear. Blonde (the female grizzly) was soon followed by a larger male, and for the ensuing hour or so they chased after each other. This was plenty fantastic, until the female managed to take down an Elk calf. (I had heard this loud whining sound and later found out that was the momma crying for her baby calf :'( )The larger male grizzly then stole the kill from Blonde and ate it. All of this happened from 100ft to less than 30ft from where we were nervously standing beside our car. Needless to say, we got quite a few pictures (all on Jen's SLR) and are very sad we can't yet upload those to show you.
 

Yet again, not a great shot, but this was with my (Jennifer's) phone. Here is the male bear eating the calf that Blonde caught.

We were SOOOOO close!! People had their bear spray in tow. This is definitely under the distance the park rangers say is safe. It was crazy to see some of the lenses that the people around us were using, 2-3 feet long and with a 8inch or so circumference, crazy! We were so excited to be able to see this on our first bear watch! More to come tomorrow evening, or morning (if we can get up that early, Ha).

The day is now winding down, so we are sitting in Jackson Lodge again watching the sun set behind the Tetons through 30ft high windows. Awesome.

By the way, feel free to leave comments on this website or on Facebook, we really enjoy reading them.

Day 9: The Beautiful Grand Tetons!

May 30,2013

The weather has improved! Thank you Jesus. There were still intermittent light showers but it was joined with some pretty blue skies and sunshine, which we had not seen for a few days. Due to a late night and sleeping on the couch, we got going pretty slow this morning. We traveled a few miles down the road to the Jackson lake Lodge where they have Wi-Fi.  We wanted to post our last few blogs and book our next set of RV parks as well as book our flights for our dear friends Drew and Ashleigh's wedding in July!

View from the Grand Tetons Lodge. This picture doesn't come anywhere close to doing the view justice.

After getting some business done, we had lunch and set out to go on a hike to heron and swan lake. Of course, about a half mile into our hike it started to rain. We were covered by trees a majority of the time so we stayed dry.  The trail info said this is a common place for moose, which we were hoping to see, but I (Jennifer) am sure the rain kept them hidden. None the less, it was good to get out and walking. 

 

The last few days, David's back has caused him some debilitating pain. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for there to be healing or at least ease of pain!! For that very reason, we had a pretty relaxed evening and came to the lodge once again. We read, updated Facebook, emailed, and soaked in the view from these 30 plus feet skyscraper windows. 

 

Last night was the night it really sunk in for me, Jennifer, that we are not returning to Colorado. Looking back at pictures of friends and family that we have been so blessed by while there, just reminded me of how blessed we were to live in such a loving, lively, encouraging, and God loving community.  

 

We love you all, you know who you are :)

Day 8: To Tetons

May 29, 2013

It would seem the most exciting parts of our vacation are not the places we visit, but the actual travel to get there.

We awoke this morning to even more rain and a forecast, according to the staff at the park, of nothing but cold rain and snow for the next three days ( the entirety of our stay in Yellowstone). We decided it best to end our stay in Yellowstone early and head on down to the Tetons. Fortunately the park simply refunds our unused days, so we finished laundry and got ready to leave (more accurately, Jennifer got the RV settled while I waited with the laundry, then we switched so I could get everything unhooked, gassed up, and ready to tow). Jennifer's end of the deal went quite smoothly,

she is a real life Tetris champion.

More of Reno's charm
My end of the deal was stalled rather early with Reno's complete and total refusal to start. Lights work, wipers work, gas goes into the carb, but not even a hint of a turn. Problem solving begins. Unfortunately, I am a bit inept when it comes to electrical stuff, but I managed to trace the lines from the starter and see if anything was loose (they weren't). So, it has to be something with the ignition system, and I know almost nothing about it. (By this time, I, Jennifer,  was walking back with laundry in tow and found David frazzled. He then informed me that Reno would not start, Surprise!)

After much prayer from both Jen and myself, I find, something, some kind of black box that is the only break in a continuous wire between the battery and the starter. Clearly this must be the issue. I figure If I can bridge the two wires and bypass whatever this box is, It should start.
(This is when I, Jennifer, really REALLY began praying. David told me he would need a glove and a fire extinguisher... Hmmm, that doesn't sound good! He needed a glove so he wouldn't electrocute himself and a fire extinguisher in case something caught fire... I did not like the sound of this!)

Well, the only conductive anything I have that could handle that much current without melting is a 6" socket extension. So, Jen pumps the gas and I effectively weld a 6" socket extension to two wire terminals and Reno springs to life. After some thought with a clearer head, I figure I was dealing with a sticky starter switch (?).
Learn something new every day.
After that first incident, however, Reno starts right up. ( This was truly God and only God. He is so good to His children. He provided David the guidance to know what to fix! We were talking about the whole incident after and David had never even seen that Black thing before, but I truly believe that God provided David with ability to get Reno going! THANK YOU JESUS!!... and no one died or caught fire. HA)

Back to the journey

We arrived in the Tetons a few hours later after an uneventful trip. Both of us are glad we left early; it's a solid 6 or 7 degrees warmer (and sunnier here too). The scenery here truly puts Yellowstone to shame. The mountains views directly adjacent to Teton lake are nothing short of spectacular, even with a bit of cloud cover. We very much look forward to a few days of unobstructed views.

Oh, one more issue of the night. As it got dark we got a pretty strong rain storm, which created a nice leak in the back passenger side corner (right where our bed is!). Fortunately the couch folds out to a bed. I'll be dealing with the leak once it's light and dry out.
 

Thanks again to everyone reading this. In just a few short days we will be adding one to our company (no not a baby); Noah will be flying in to Salt Lake City to join us for what we hope is some fun adventure.

Can't wait! But for now, we hope to find us a moose!

Day 6 and 7: Rain rain and more rain

May 27 & 28, 2013

Good morning everyone.

Well, the last few days have been kind of slow. The weather has been chilly and with bouts of rain. We have been able to do a little sight seeing either in the rain or between downpours.  Yesterday we went up to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I think by far our favorite hike/sight was from Uncle Tom's Trail. The trail leads to a view of the lower falls. To get down to this breathtaking view though, you have to hike down a couple hundred stairs, which means you will also have to hike back UP them! None the less, it was so worth it. The falls were so powerful and majestic. Occasionally the sun would peak through which would create this glistening rainbow through the mist of the waterfall.

After soaking in the view, we headed back up the trail, two by two (David's idea, my calves still are sore), and headed down to Artist point to get another view of the same waterfall.  Apparently this is one of the most photographed points in Yellowstone.  This view was also quite stunning. You could see the whole view of the waterfall and the river it flowed into with steep canyon walls on either side. We also saw the artist paint pots and Virginia cascade. 

David & Jennifer

Although we did not get to go any many more hikes, we were able to spend some quality time with each other. I think it is cool to see how God has such bigger and sweeter plans for us than we could ever plan. So far, I, Jennifer, have realized that you don't need a lot of stuff to be happy/satisfied. Here we are down to the bare necessities and I think that we have had more fun and learned more about each other and the God we serve in this last week than the last year combined. We were reminded that our God really does care about our needs and takes care of us so well.

He is not a distant God, He is so close, all we have to do is ask for Him.  

I am learning to be more selfless and patient. We have both realized how much we really love each others companionship. We know we are best friends and love birds as well :).  We have laughed so hard and had such a great time just hanging out. 

All these were much needed reminders!

Well, enough of my ramblings. We think about you all often and miss you all!

Blessings.

Not a great picture, but this is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I think this was at inspiration point.

 

Day 5: Lazy Sunday

A quick message to our viewers
We were informed that the term "home-going" is often used to describe a celebration of one's life once they have passed away. Well, that was not quite what we were going for, and we certainly hope there will be no "home-going" celebration needed for our little adventure. The thought process here was simply that we aren't going home, but rather our home is going places. At least I (David) thought that was clever.

The "Reno"vation process

Today was rather slow, although we had the best of intentions for hiking and seeing places, we decided to take a nice Sunday off and make good food, nap, play guitar and sing. So instead of our usual update, we thought we would give a few details about our RV and its "reno"vation process. We hope you will enjoy the pictures!

Here is our first photo of good ol' Reno, immediately after we bought it. Nick and I (David) drove it back to Golden where it was parked and awaited some much needed TLC.

 

Here we have Reno parked outside of our old apartment in Golden.

 

This is what Reno looked like before the renovation began; fully outfitted with red shag carpet, floral wallpaper (even in the shower!), and plenty of nice dark wood paneling, not to mention the extra special, custom wood rot in front and back (and found elsewhere later...).

 

Here we have the back of the RV in progress (being totally ripped out) and after with new paneling and paint.

 

Here we have the shower in progress and then what it looks like now. Not too bad, eh?

Kitchen area after paint

 

We are so thankful for our awesome friends. Truly, without their help, I would have no hair left.

 

Here we are, essentially as it is today. All that stuff packed so high had me a bit worried as far as having a too high center of gravity going down the highway, but it ended up being alright.

 

Day 4: Bison, Elk and Bear Oh MY

May 25, 2013

We have Wi-Fi!
Therefore, we are going to overwhelm you all with 3 days worth of stories! :) We drove to Montana, the west entrance of Yellowstone in search of WiFi. It was a beautiful drive and we are so glad we made the trek. We saw numerous Buffalo, 3 bears and a herd of elk! Seeing the 3 bears was by far the coolest. We were glad that we were in our car and not on foot. I, Jennifer, tried to snap a picture really quick, but I had my focus all messed up.

We began our day with a nice 3.5 mile hike, mostly uphill, on Elephant Back Trail. It brought us to a beautiful vista overlooking Yellowstone Lake and surrounding mountains. The beginning of the hike we were a bit skittish because of the threat of bears coming out of hibernation. The hike we originally wanted to make this morning was closed due to numerous bear sighting.

We were sad, but would rather be safe than eaten.
 

After our brief nature adventure and typical American burgers/fries/milk shake lunch, Jennifer passed out on the couch while I (David has the keyboard now) passed time playing a game on the iPad. We decided to head north of the RV park for a first to see the Mud volcanos, which, other than the awful sulphur smell, was well worth the short trip. It's hard to pass up places called "Sulphur Caldron" or "Black Dragon Caldron."

The crowds have increased significantly, likely due to Memorial Day traffic, which in a way makes it easier to spot wildlife due to the hordes of camera wielding people hastily parked on the side of the road, likely risking as much danger getting hit by a car as to getting too close to wild critters. All that's left for the day is to relax, watch a movie, and play some guitar. Pretty fair day by our book. Maybe we'll get to see a bear or two on the drive back...

Thanks again to everyone taking the time to keep up with what we are doing. We wanted to take a moment today to especially thank the Makuh family for how generous they have been with us. We were thinking of you today and you are always an encouragement to our lives and our marriage. We love you guys! We will try to get more pictures. Most were taken on Jen's SLR and we don't, at the moment, have a way to get them onto the iPad without another computer. Any ideas to that end would be great.

For now, here is a picture of our drive out of Yellowstone towards Montana. We won't have access to internet for the coming days again, but will continue to write posts as they happen and upload once we have a connection. With that, we will be back in a few days!  

Day 3: Old Faithful

May 24, 2013

Good Morning!

So far we are liking our little Reno. We have made delicious egg McMuffins and tuna fish casserole.  Although the kitchen is small, it works quite well. The sinks are a little tricky when washing bigger pots or pans, but I am sure I will figure out a system.  The shower works, but takes about 2 minutes for me to just get my hair wet... by that time the water starts getting a little cool. (Apparently, I did not let the water heat up long enough)  Everything else is finding its place rather nicely.
 

We headed off to Old Faithful. It was quite spectacular.  As we were waiting in the viistor center to get more information on hiking trails, we saw "bumblebee" go off. That is a geyeser right next to Old Faithful. After walking around the information center for awhile, we went and took our seat around the geyser. We met 2 interesting women who were very knowledgeable about Yellowstone. They informed us that Old Faithful is named that way not because of the frequency that it goes off, but the height it reaches.
 

Due to chilly winds, we decided to hold off on our hiking for the day and drove around to sites that were not as far. Most of the sites were other geysers. Since there was so much wind, there was a lot of steam making it difficult to see the majestic colors of some of the pools. None the less, we still were in awe all day of how majestic and creative our God truly is! We are so thankful that He decided to share it with us.

Oh, also in the previous post, we forgot to mention that on our drive into Yellowstone we saw Hundreds (not an exaggeration) of white tailed deer and 2 huge Bison grazing along the side of the road! 

Blessings!

Day 2: Yellowstone arrival

Putting the breaks on our home
As I type (which will likely be very different from the time this is actually published due to lack of an internet connection), Jennifer and I are sitting in Reno, our RV, in the Fishing Bridge RV Park inside of Yellowstone. Everything is put away, sewer, water, and electricity are all hooked up, and hot water is ready. Feels pretty good.

The road to Yellowstone
Our day started in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Casper, WY. The previous night went well but for the bright parking lot lights and the ridiculous wind (imagine being on a boat... the rocking wasn't quite that severe but it was close). The wind was actually strong enough to tear off a piece of the A/C cowling up on the roof, but we didn't find that out until much later in the day.

We stopped by Wal-Mart to justify our using their parking lot: we purchased some fruit for breakfast and then spent a chunk of time publishing yesterday's post at a nearby Starbucks. There we had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Knobbles (hope I spelled your name right!) and enjoyed some great conversation. Best wishes to you Jerry, we could both tell how much you love The Lord and you definitely brightened our day.
 

The rest of the day went by much faster than the previous it seemed; Jennifer read aloud Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, a gift from my stepmother Lori (Thanks!).  I've gotten a bit more confident in driving the beast around as of late, but about 50mi outside of Cody, Jennifer laid down in back to take a nap while I continued driving through some especially heavy winds. I do believe a few unfortunate souls riding too close behind us caught a few pieces of the remaining plastic a/c shroud. For over an hour, the winds pushed us all over the road and kept us from getting anywhere over 45mph. That's enough to thin out my confidence a bit. Eventually, however, we made it to Cody for a quick grocery run before heading into Yellowstone.

Our trip past Cody was relatively uneventful but for the beautiful views (pictures to come soon) and some rain. Only hiccup was the threat from the front desk that we could have lost our whole 10 day reservation for showing up a day late, fortunately it is slow enough they let that one slide by. That might have changed the trip a bit.

Oh and the stabilizing jacks I bought don't fit... Not a big deal. 

That's it for today, thanks to all those friends and family alike who take the time to keep up with what we are up to. Pray we don't have any trouble with bears, I'm pretty sure my 30-30 would be like a pellet gun to them.

We love you all.
 

The adventure begins

May 22, 2013.            

The adventure with Reno begins! 

We have decided to keep a blog to both document our adventures and memories as well as keep our friends and family updated on this crazy adventure that we have begun! I never would have thought that I would have an RV, let alone live in one! However, I did know that marrying David I would live a life full of adventure and fun!
 

For those who may not know, Reno became a part of our family towards the end of March.  David really wanted to have some sort of project and decided that he would look at RVs... don't ask me why.  After looking at a couple different ones, we found Reno and decided to go for it. Reno is a 30 year old RV and rather Retro looking with its red shag carpet and dark brown paneling.  We got him home and decided it would be fun to fix up a FEW things and use it to take a little longer road trip on our way out to California.
 

Two weeks later, David came to me and asked what I thought of getting rid of most all of our stuff and live in Reno! I sat there silent for a few minutes and then said, sure, why not! Very quickly our quick fixer upper turned into a bigger task. There were ups and definitely downs, but through it all Reno got a face lift and we have a nice cozy: home, uhaul, and automobile! ha 

So, here we are today, leaving the beautiful Golden Colorado on a journey further westward. As I write, we are driving through the rolling greens hills of Wyoming with a backdrop of beautiful blue skies and large, fluffy, white clouds.  Everything seems rather peaceful right now, which I am quite grateful for.

Not all according to plan...
The first hour of our trip, I thought we might have to scratch this whole adventure thing, call our friends and have them pick us up on the side of the road. Before we left, we went to fill up our gas tanks, an easy task right? HA David realized that one of the two tanks was leaking a good amount of fuel. WE prayed for God to do a miracle and stop the leak. After maybe 30 minutes of driving, we decided to check the leak and make sure the tow dolly was holding the tires properly.  As we were pulling into the gas station we heard this awful screeching sound. We looked at each other with the same expression of

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?"

 

We got out and realized the Rv was smoking and sparking. Oh crap! Apparently the compressor to the AC was shot, shucks. The smoking ceased and the gas tank stopped leaking, and the tires did not move an inch, THANK YOU Jesus! We continued on. 20 more miles down the road I heard a metal clinking sound, looked out my side mirror and saw some metal framing bent and flapping in the wind, crap. David pulled to the side of the road and I pulled the framing off, fortunately, that was only a cosmetic piece of metal.  And we continue on. We have now made if 3 hours stress free! The Lord is good!
 

David's note: (Of course stress free is a relative term. The old dog Reno is doing great, but is still commonly a white knuckle drive every time a semi, a pickup, or even an especially large bird comes by. The whole train, with our Honda in tow, is by far the longest setup I have ever driven. Hopefully by the end of he trip I will have a good handle on it.) 

On our way!

Sorry that was a rather long post, but now everyone is up to date on the story of our adventure.

We are so excited to see what the next chapter of our life looks like. Although we are going to greatly miss Golden and especially our friends and family we had near by, we are expectant that The Lord has just as great of things for the future! 

Thanks for reading!