7/14/07

Well, we're by the Tetons in Wyoming. Things are going OK, Lukas has been grumbling a little about the lack of TV and Internet, but Scott has been working on keeping his spirits up.

We're just a ways from the Tetons at an expensive! campground, and tomorrow we're going to Yellowstone Park to a no-services campground.

Tomorrow we're going to head back up the road to a place where a grizzly bear and her cubs have been spotted over the last month and a half, and no, we won't get too close, and the kids will be staying in the RV.

Kids sleeping with Pip

7/11/07

Well, it didn't get markedly better after we got over the mountains. The front end started shaking and shimmying after we got over the mountains. We got to Grand Junction Sunday evening, and Monday morning I started calling around to try to get it in to get it checked. I called the Chev dealer who was advertising under recreational vehicle service and repair in the yellow pages, only to be told they don't work on RVs, they referred me to a RV repair place who said he was backed up until next week, but when I explained what was going on, he said it sounded like the tires, so he referred me to a commercial tire place. Called them, they said they don't do tires, but referred me to another place. Called them, told them what I had and what was happening, they said to come in Tuesday at 3 p.m. So Monday night my sister, neice, nephews and kids went out to supper.

Tuesday we went over to the Goodyear, saw it didn't even have a bay big enough to get the RV into, and then when they looked at the tires & said it needed new tires and an alignment, but they couldn't do the alignment & the tires would have to be special ordered, that just took the cake. They referred me to an alignment place, we went there, but they didn't do tires and wouldn't be able to do an alignment until Friday, but he called another place that said they could do the tires the next morning. So we went there the next morning and they got the new tires on, but their alignment guy was off, so they couldn't do an alignment. They strongly suggested getting one as soon as we could and not wait until we got home, so when we get closer to Montana, we're going to call a place in Billings and get it done.

Needless to say, I haven't been taking very many pictures. Grand Junction is very warm and there's been a heat wave going through too. 100s is NOT my kind of weather. So as soon as the tires were on and Scott, Mark & the kids got back from sightseeing up on the mesa, we gassed up & headed north. Right now were at a KOA in Craig, in northern Colorado. It's just about perfect, about 75° with a nice breeze. Tomorrow we're going to go to Dinosaur National Monument and then north along Flaming Gorge, then into Wyoming.

The following are photos from the Rocky Mountain National Park. Elaine, that IS your youngest sitting up on the rocks shooting pictures.

7/7/07

We got going early this morning and headed to Wyoming, and then went down the eastern part of Wyoming and then into Colorado. We saw quite a few pronghorn antelope along the way. It was still pretty warm all day, but the radiator worked just fine. Now if the refrigerator, air conditioning and satellite worked as well.

I decided that the lead pronghorn in the babysitter. She has 4 little ones following her.

We're now in the Rocky Mountains, in a overpriced, overrated campground in Estes Park, Colorado. Tomorrow we're going into the Rocky Mountain National Park. It's not bad now, there's a thunderstorm going on, and it's down to the 60s, and we're watching Everyone Loves Raymond, 1st of 8 seasons.

7/6/07

Well, we're in the Black Hills. This morning the guys got the thermostat replaced. It helped a little tiny bit, but that's all. We stopped at Wall Drug, but it was way too hot to go into the badlands. We got to Rapid City & the boys stopped & picked up a new radiator cap. We went over to Walmart to wait for it to cool off. I went in to pick up a cooler & some ice because the refrigerator still doesn't work. They waited until it cooled off & put on the new radiator cap, and then came in. When they came back out, it had leaked radiator fluid all over because the overflow tank had burst! Go figure.

So they juryrigged up a plastic milk carton and we went to a RV repair place on the freeway. They told us we had to go to a Gulfstream dealer at Whitewood, about 35 miles away. We got there & they said they don't service RVs, they just sell them. They sent us back to Rapid City to a auto repair place. We got there & the guy said we need a new radiator, $1000-$1200. I asked if they could just flush it or do something so we could at least get us to Grand Junction. So he got us in, the mechanic pulled the tranny radiator out and blew & washed the radiator. The mechanic said there was a lot of junk in there & that it would help a lot, and he also replaced the overfill tank. $124.

So we went south to Custer to a campground & stayed there overnight. The guy there said they were in a record breaking heat wave. It had started out at 49° that morning, and was up to 93° by the afternoon.