Pullin' Chocks

Dreaming once again about the open road....

It soon will be that time to lift jacks, pull chocks and head for cooler more temperate climes.  The last week in Yuma has seen the low and mid 90s, but it's a dry heat!  Next week we are expecting cooler temperatures in the 70s and 80s... we will see.  That would be great because next week we begin moving preparations.  Our general process includes: clean and lubricate jack and slide hydraulic rams, clean and lightly oil slide racks and gears, torque all wheel lugs on truck and trailer, clean and lubricate slide gaskets, grease trailer and truck suspension and grease the trailer pin and hitch while we have the grease out, and connect the tire monitor system and check tire pressures.  Then comes the careful packing of bicycles, grills, chairs and outdoor tables.  Check the truck fluids and fill her with fuel and we are ready to once again restart our wandering ways.

We have a rough draft of an itinerary for our wanderings northward to escape the summer heat and chase the sometimes elusive 72.5° F  below is an excerpt of the draft in graphical form.

Some of our destination goals for this traveling season include the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and the Rainbow Arch (largest arch in the world?) accessible only by a boat trip; up the road Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah's first, for ancient ruins and more arches, then Moab's Arches National Park; up the road again in central Utah a stop and a drive up 9-Mile Canyon near Wellington, UT which is promoted as "the world’s longest art gallery", the canyon is known for its extensive rock art, shelters, and granaries left behind by the Fremont culture and the Ute people.

Rainbow Arch one of the objects of our destination... photo courtesy of Google.

From there we will pretty much head to Cody, Wyoming for a month long stay west of town on the North Fork of the Shoshone River 30 miles outside of the eastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  After Cody we believe we will wander farther north into Montana west of Glacier National Park.  We have found an RV park on a nice looking lake up there about 30 miles west of Kalispell, Montana and Flathead Lake, and think we will try that spot for a month.

After Yellowstone we believe that we will continue north through Idaho and into Washington State.  We want to stay near the Coulee Dam for a week then onto Yakima, our third or fourth home.  We may wander farther north in Washington to the North Cascades National Park.  We learned that over 300 glaciers are found in this little traveled park which is about 1/3 of all glaciers found in the lower 48 states!  Glacier National Park by comparison has only 25 glaciers!  Crowds are another thing, Glacier National entertains 2 million visitors annually, while North Cascades has only 25 thousand visitors each year.  Big difference, really big.

If any of this works out it should by now be about time to turn south again to rinse and repeat the process.  This year will be the first that we have not returned to South Dakota's Black Hills.  We shall miss that wonderful spot, but look forward to new adventures and all its' surprises along the way.  We will be getting back to you as we make progress or not on the results on this years plan...