Author: hmmartino6249

Days 10-12: Glacier National Park MT

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If you’re from the East Coast and have never driven across the western states, I cannot fully express how vast and relatively uninhabited the state of Montana is, particularly on the northernmost route. There is lovely farmland that stretches for miles southward and north into Canada, as far as the eye can see. There are also badlands that just appear out of nowhere. Most of the towns are small and have just a few businesses and restaurants. For two kids and a mom who does most of the driving, it can get a tad repetitive. Still…it’s far different than what I’m accustomed to and that makes it feel rather remarkable.

Another notable difference for this East Coaster is the timing of sunsets in the far west of Montana. It had to be close to eleven at night before the sky finally darkened. The upside to this is that the kids could still hit the pool after they ate dinner. The downside is that it totally screws with your circadian rhythms. Although, when you have the view that we did from our camper, you can’t complain.

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of news about how all the National Parks are swamped and it’s too crowded to enjoy yourself. I’d expect that to be the case in Yellowstone, because they have a serious road- and foot-crowding issue. We were crowded out of one of the major attractions at Yellowstone a few years ago and we were bummed to never make it in on other days. That’s not a new thing, though, and we knew going in that it would kind of suck to miss some of the popular areas, but we rolled with it. However, as far as Glacier was concerned, we didn’t find crowds to be an issue at all. As I mentioned, they have a timed entry system that – although quite the nail-biting experience when acquiring a ticket – really helped to mitigate the issue of not getting to see high-demand sights due to parking issues. I think there was one visitors center that was too full to visit as we travelled west on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, but it was perfectly easy to get in coming east.

One of the driving factors behind my desire to take the family to Glacier was the rate of glacial melt here and elsewhere due to rapid climate change. I wanted them to see the glaciers before there weren’t any left to see. So, although every moment we spent hiking and taking photos was awe-filled and exciting, there was a bittersweetness to the whole experience. In fact, it was in the nineties the day we drove through the park. Thank goodness for the natural cooling waters and air off of the glaciers!

Days 7-10: Makoshika State Park MT

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Here’s something important to know about me: I loooooove fossils. I mean, I was very nearly a paleontologist. So, when I discovered there was this park in Montana – Makoshika – that had a ton of fossils you could see on the grounds, I plopped us down there for a few days.

The RV park we were at in Glendive was very inexpensive, but was clean and had all the utilities. It was essentially in the industrial part of town, but only a few blocks from the park, and very near a laundromat and a car wash (which was also a must at this point as MN was BUGGY). The morning that laundry had to be done, Chris was at virtual work, so the task fell to me. Now I sat in that laundromat for a good two hours and saw only men coming and going. Towards the end of my stay, a woman came in and I told her she was the first woman I’d seen in hours. I asked her if perhaps Glendive was a town where the woman all got their men to do laundry. She laughed and said that no, in fact, the railroaders come off the train and do all their laundry on certain mornings and then they’re off again. She said that most days it was women in there. Ah well, my fantasy bubble was burst.

The next day, we had our first scheduled activity. For ten bucks a head, we were given a behind the scenes tour of Makoshika’s paleontological lab and were taken on a hike by the on-staff paleontologist and park ranger. It was so incredible to see all the fossils they had pulled from this park, and we even get to see some hadrosaur bones in the ground along our hike.

A bizarre, yet fun, feature of this park that we were unaware of was that it was home to a disc golf range. It’s like frisbee into metal nets on poles far away. It’s played like, well, like golfing with a frisbee-disc. Matthew bought one and tried his hand at a few holes. Baskets? Nets? Anyway. He enjoyed it.

In other news, the noxious gas detector went haywire in the middle of the night, scaring us and the dog (see picture for where we found her when it all went down). There were no gasses leaking anywhere. This is something that was supposedly fixed before we left but obviously it was not. So, I did a little on the spot electrical wire removal to yank that thing out of the wall and then I was able to order a new plug in model from a local hardware store over the internet. At midnight. I was able to pick it up the next day. Ahhh modern convenience.

Days 5-7: Tipsinah Mounds MN

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Spacing out our travel into manageable chunks, I wound up sticking a metaphorical pin in central-west Minnesota. I can safely say I’d never been to this part of Minnesota, so I had no idea what to expect. Turns out there are a lot of rolling hills and farmland, with small towns centered around railways that move grain out of omnipresent silos and grain elevators.

Our campsite was called Tipsinah Mounds. When we arrived, we were given an RV site out in the middle of a grassy field with tons of space next to the volleyball court and bathrooms. Very few people were there, so we felt like we had it all to ourselves. Our day there felt like a real downshift for us. We were able to just relax on the on-site beach (for Chris, that meant doing work lake-side), hike the trails, play volleyball, and hit up the adorable little town of Elbow Lake for provisions. It was a nice little break from the high-pace of interstate travel and city visits.

Days 3-5: Chicago IL

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Our next stop on the journey was Chicago. In truth, we stayed at a campsite fifty miles northwest of Chicago, which was in an area nearly as rural as where I grew up. The KOA we were at was the polar opposite of Erie. There were a ton of Covid restrictions in place and everyone was socially distanced. The store was closed and you needed appointments for the laundry room (which we actually needed.) You’d think that this would be a hinderance but it actually made us feel calm and safe.

The heatwave that was sweeping the country hadn’t reached where we were by this point. Of course, it was still in the 80s and humid. A dip in the pool was definitely called for before we went out exploring. But it could have been worse.

As far as our day out in Chicago, picture the most touristy, over-visited places; that’s where we went. We had never been to Millennium Park, so that was first on our list. Next, we took the kids down the Magnificent Mile and discovered the biggest Starbucks in existence. Five stories, with different offerings on each floor. There was even a bar. We chose some ice-cream and coffee blended beverages. (I think it was floor three?) We are still using those cups they gave us the drinks in, because each one cost over ten bucks and I’ll be damned if I throw away very real reminders of how Starbucks reamed me.

After a few more shopping stops, we sought out some deep-dish pizza. This involved a lot of handwringing, seeing as we hadn’t eaten inside a restaurant like this since Covid hit. However, in the end, our stomach thanked us. We got a million suggestions but went with Lou Malnetti’s. I think any place would have been great, but this one was up our alley and we loved it. We certainly slept with over-full bellies that night.

In closing, I want to swerve into a bit of logistics talk. When you imagine us on the road moving from place to place, understand that I am nearly always the driver. Literally ninety percent of our travel time, the boys and the dog are in the back seat. I adore driving. Beyond what is probably normal. Maybe it’s because I grew up somewhere where you weren’t getting anywhere unless you had a car. So it could be a freedom thing. Maybe it’s a control thing. (Definitely, it’s a control thing.) Chris is a bit of a narcoleptic driver. Not to mention, he has been doing work on his laptop from the backseat, so it’s all good.

Days 1-3: Erie PA

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We arrived in Erie at a KOA for what wound up being a very eventful first stay in the RV.

Our campsite had the kind of amenities that really pique a kids’ interest – pool, bounce pad, rec room and a camp store packed with loads of expensive, useless junk. In Covid-times, our big question mark was where and when we felt safe in different public spaces if we chose to enter, whether or not we masked up. It was clear at this campsite that there wouldn’t be a heck of a lot of social distancing or masking happening on other people’s parts. Although three of us are fully vaxxed (sadly, our son is too young), our feeling was that we didn’t want to become a vector for other people as we travelled across multiple states.

Most of our journey, we planned at least one full day per stop. In Erie, Chris decided he’d do work at the RV during that day, while I took the kids out to Presque Isle to get some Vitamin D and swimming. We found a lovely spot at a nice beach with changing rooms and spent the day there. On the way home, we picked up some filets as a surprise for Father’s Day dinner. I took out the first of many frequent shopper cards in Giant Eagle in order to get all the “deals” and decided that I’d make a hobby of collecting these. (It’s the little things.) When we ate yummy nosh that night, we called my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day and sing Happy Birthday to Mom.

In the middle of the second night, we were awakened at 2 in the morning by a loud thwapping sound. Turns out we had left the awning out and a major thunderstorm rolled through in the night. One arm holding the awning in place had lost a screw and we had to wrangle the whole thing in, pop the awing back in, and retract it in the dark, in our pajamas and in the driving rain. Not long after that, the hail started. Small blessings: at least we missed getting nailed by massive ice balls as we worked.

A nice employee of the KOA “heard we had some problems in the night” and hooked us up with a screw and zip ties to make extra sure the awning would stay put as we drove. As he walked away, we thought all would be well, but I discovered I had lost the cotter pin for the hitch. So we spent a good thirty minutes looking for that. I finally saw it stuck to a magnetic-ball-on-an-extendable-thing that we used to line up the car and RV for hitching. This staved off any impending curse-word-laiden conversations and we were able to hit the road feeling like we’d tackled a Herculean feat.

Surely nothing from there on out would be nearly as frustrating, we thought (said the naive travelers).

Getting on the road

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All smiles. Some trepidation. Lots of patience.

Nearly half a year of planning meant we were pretty chill as we rolled on out of my parents’ driveway in Central Mass on June 19th. Our trip would take us from coast to coast and back in six weeks, with a dog, two kids and a husband working on the road.

The summer after quarantine, the huge issue was finding campground space to fill every single day well before we left. If you know me, you know that my MO is to have no accommodations set in advance – barring places that are in high demand – and spend time during the mornings I want to depart a locale seeking out desirable campsites/hotels in a driveable radius. Well, when I went to book the high demand campsites for this trip, in February-ish, it became clear quickly that everybody in America got the same idea around the same time.

My two main goals were to see Glacier and to see my family in the Seattle area. I looked for an RV spot at a place that a) took reservations and b) was full-hookup (or close to it) near Glacier first. For the whole summer there was only one spot that met that description, from 6/28-6/30. So, we took that spot and then I looked for campsites near our family in Washington for the Fourth of July weekend. That was where it got tricky. Long story short, we had to divert to Hells Canyon, ID, then take a spot at a random state park in mid-Washington, before arriving in Kitsap. After that, the rest of the trip fell into place. 

Important to know, folks: If you are going to Glacier, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, or any other popular National Parks, you must pay attention whether or not there is a timed entry system. And you must do this months in advance. You cannot get into Glacier after 6 am or before 5 pm without a timed entry ticket. I missed the window for the first 75% of tickets and had to get up at 8 am Mountain Time two days before and keep trying for one of the remaining timed entry tickets over and over in a pop up window until (thankfully) we got one. I read that not everyone is quite so lucky.

We were so blessed to have loving and trusting parents who loaned us both their truck and RV, so our up-front cost was taking care of all the pre-trip service a month before-hand to make sure we were safe on the road. As far as clothes, food, and RV gear, I won’t bore you. The main thing we kept in mind was how to keep the RV as light and as clean as possible while four humans and a dog shared the space. 

Leading up to the journey, there was a lot of apprehension about how to drive and maneuver this 26-foot trailer, so there were practice sessions in parking lots and on the road. They went well, but we did have a lot of worries about getting into an accident beforehand. Spoiler alert (I’m writing this nearly two weeks in) it is not scary at all. You just really have to think in advance about where you will be eating and getting gas or supplies.

Another thing of note: we prefer having a truck towing a trailer versus a straight up motorhome, because there are certain sceninc roads that a standard RV would be prohibited from traversing. It’s also nice to have just the truck to take into towns and cities for sight seeing. Detaching and re-attaching the trailer from the truck every couple of days as we go is not particularly cumbersome; we have the whole thing down to an art. Also, the business of hooking up a sewage line and removing it, isn’t nearly as gross as it could be. 

Most of my posts from here on out will be a combination of life on the road and the sights we see along the way. The good, the bad and the somewhat ugly. Here’s hoping it’s mostly good…

 

About me

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Currently waist-deep in the waters of my life. When I turn back towards the shore, I’m not quite sure how I got here. Some days it feels like I’m just treading water, while other days I’m floating along happily.

Just like when I was young, I still throw myself into new things on a daily basis, putting my foot in the door before I’m sure what I’m walking into. That probably makes me optimistic to a fault. Just because you’ve never done it before, doesn’t mean you can’t do it, right?

One thing I can’t do is figure out is the right label for me. If you can pin that down, let me know. (Unless it’s going to make me cry, then maybe keep it to yourself.) Any given day you’ll find me doing completely different things from the day before. That’s how I like it. Ordered chaos floats my boat. Despite having a half-dozen projects in the air at any given time, my most important project of all is raising two kids to be loving, kind humans. 

This blog is beginning as a travel-log of life on the road with a family of four (and a dog). The six-week tour via RV will be our break-away from the claustrophobic, insanity-inducing tedium of life during Covid-19. After that… a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I’ll keep you posted. Literally.