57 Days & 5,733 Miles

We made our way through New Mexico and across Arizona to arrive at our sticks and stucco in the Verde Valley.  We’ve been on the road 57 days and logged 5,733 miles!  We’ve experienced wonderful adventures, seen beautiful places, spent valuable time with family, and were blessed with safe travels!  We’ve paid as much as $4.39 a gallon for diesel in Torrey but the average seemed to be about $3.85 a gallon.  We visited 2 national parks, 3 national monuments, 5 state parks.  We visited Northwestern Ontario as well! 

As we prepare for the upcoming school year, which starts the first of August in Arizona, we look forward to weekends in the forest camping with friends, traveling a week in October, two weeks at Christmas, and a week in March. 

Life is good!

Traveling South- Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico

Our pace is quickening and we are making travel day after travel day.  We’ve hit the heat of the summer and our time is wrapping up.  We left the Black Hills and traveled through Wyoming.

We made our way along the US Highways before hitting the Interstate.

We made our way into Colorado for an overnight at Boyd Lake State Park near Loveland.  It was hot!  The AC was cranking and although we’ve enjoyed many Colorado State Parks, this was not one of them.  We pushed on today through Colorado.

We crossed into New Mexico to stay near Raton at the NRA Whittington Center.

We cranked up the AC again and waited for the sun to tuck behind some clouds before venturing outside.   We are aimed towards Arizona and have a few travel days ahead of us before arriving at our sticks and stucco.  School will be starting soon in Arizona.

Spearfish, South Dakota

The Elk at the Wylie Park zoo were cooling off in the pond, preparing for the hot weather!  When we arrived and unhooked at Wylie, our landing gear wasn’t sounding too good.  We replaced the motor a few years back, but it was sounding bad again.  So I researched the problem, and we found out that you need to grease the inside of the gears…so off to Tractor Supply to buy some 90W oil.  But we were too late and the gears failed…so off to Tractor Supply to buy some bottle jacks!

After a few calls to dealers with no parts in stock, we called Venture, the gear manufacturer, and had the parts sent overnight to our next stop in Spearfish.  With the bottle jacks in place, we got the trailer jacked up and onto the truck.  We were ready for our drive across South Dakota.  We  crossed back over US Highway 12, which we crossed a few weeks ago, but this time the “build-up” was a muddy mess!

This area of the road was completely flooded and they built it up with a gravel surface.  We crossed it a few weeks ago when it was dry and in much better shape!  This single track, rutted, mud track is one to avoid.  Although it is posted 20 mph, we were only able to go about 10-15!  After safely crossing, the fog eventually burned off and we traveled west to get to the northern Black Hills.  We arrived at Chris’ Camp in Spearfish about 20 minutes ahead of our part.  Good timing!

Thankfully Chris is gifted mechanically and was able to fix our landing gear!  (Make sure you check your system and grease it periodically, if it’s a Montana it’s not a sealed system. )  The Spearfish Arts Festival is this weekend and we decided to take in some of the local flavor.  The campground has a small petting farm with daily feedings for the kids to enjoy!

With the mercury rising, we also checked out the Spearfish Aquatic center and are becoming connoisseurs of local water parks!  A trip to the art festival on Saturday led to some red faces and we retreated back to the air conditioning.  Summer has arrived in the Black Hills with temps in the mid 90’s.  Perhaps a drive through the canyon with the meandering creek will cool us off!

Canadian Wildlife & Stateside

We enjoyed two weeks in Northwestern Ontario visiting family, fishing, swimming, watching wildlife, & relaxing by the lake.That is not a dog, that is a Wolf pup!  He is feasting on some fish guts left on the rock.  We have been hearing them howl and Caleb has definitely seen the most!  He saw the adult climb out of the lake and while fishing saw two adults with their two pups along the shore, plus this pup!  His wolf count is at 6!  Chris and I saw an adult trotting along the road into our campground on our way home one evening and watched it pass through the meadow behind our site!  It was definitely the year for wolf sightings!

Caleb counted the number of fish species he has caught this summer…6 again… Rainbow Trout (in Custer State Park, SD), Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Walleye, Rock Bass, and Smallmouth Bass.

He spent time swimming in the lake with his cousins and we thought he might grow gills and become a fish himself!

When not submerged in the water, he was up on skis!

Our two weeks passed by very quickly and it was time to pack up and head back to the U.S.  We had an easy border crossing at Baudette, MN and altered our “usual” driving route.  The MN government is shut-down and that means the State Parks are closed!  We ended up driving and driving when our stopping plans were foiled.  We stopped at the Dakota Magic Casino at Exit 1 on I29 in North Dakota.  They have an RV “park” but the sites are very short, so we found a nice spot in the parking lot for the night.  The extra driving made for a short trip into Aberdeen, South Dakota for another stay at the Wylie Park Campground for Caleb’s 11th birthday!  After lunch, we made our way to the Aberdeen Aquatic Center for Caleb to plunge down the waterslides, tube around the lazy river and dive off the high dive! 

We are headed south and west…I think a stop in the northern Black Hills is next!

Lake of the Woods- Sioux Narrows, Ontario

We’ve been having so much fun that I haven’t had a chance to put together a blog post! 

Fishing for bass, pike, lake trout and walleye…

Playing in the chilly lake water…

Watching the bald eagles soar high above…

Listening to the wolves yip and howl, and although we don’t have a picture, Caleb spotted one swimming while on a jet ski ride and was able to watch it climb out of the water.  He also has been learning to water ski! (Pictures soon to follow.)

Spending time with family…

Eating birthday cake…

Relaxing by the lake…

Hanging out on Lake of the Woods in Sioux Narrows, Ontario… for a few more days.