The final segment of our summer trip was spent with 5 of our grandkids: Denae, Beau, Akston, Reayen, and Elynn. Our son Topher volunteered to fly out with the kids from San Antonio, TX to Salt Lake City, UT where we planned to meet up. So we needed to get to Salt Lake City. When we left Apgar Campground in Glacier NP on August 7th we headed to Helena, MT where we stayed at the Sam's Club for the night. The next day we drove to Idaho Falls, ID and once again stayed at Sam's Club. On our way out of Idaho Falls the next morning we stopped at the South Tourist Park located along the Snake River. This is a very lovely park with camping facilities and a wonderful bike path that follows the river into Idaho Falls. We got out the bikes and took the trail all the way to the Idaho Falls LDS Temple.
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| Scene along the Idaho Falls Greenbelt Bike Trail |
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| LDS Temple behind the falls |
We continued our journey to Salt Lake City to meet up with the grandkids. We decided to rendezvous at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Layton, UT which is just north of SLC. Topher flew in with the kids, rented a car at the airport and drove up to meet us (very brave thing to do...one adult flying with 5 kids). On their way to meet us they stopped to buy a birthday cake....it was my birthday...August 9. After the birthday celebration, we all bedded down in the RV for the night and next morning we all headed north to Bear Lake. We stopped at a beach on the lake for a while and drove into Garden City, UT to eat at Zipz where we had burgers and raspberry shakes. Then we drove on to Allred Flats Campground in Wyoming where we spent the night.
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Topher getting ready to fly with
Denae, Elynn, Beau, Akston, & Reayen |
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| Sleeping in the RV |
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| Traveling in the RV |
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| A stop at Zollinger Park in Providence, UT |
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| On the beach at Bear Lake |
On August 11th we got up early and took a hike up Little White Creek which flows through the Allred Flat Campground. It's flows through a beautiful little valley with numerous beaver dams and the grandkids found wild raspberries. When we got back to camp Topher and Beau had to leave to get back to SLC to fly home. We continued with the other 4 grandkids heading for Tetons NP. We had a reservation at Signal Mountain Campground for that night. This campground is small and our motorhome is at the upper limit of what it can accommodate. We were not able to put out our slides or use the generator in the campground so we were in very tight quarters for the night. Signal Mountain Campground is on the shores of Jackson Lake so we hiked down to enjoy the beach. However, the beach was quite inaccessible. We decided that Colter Bay is a much better campground for our needs.
On August 12 we broke camp and drove into Yellowstone National Park. We visited some geyser basins, stopped to swim in the Firehole River, and saw Old Faithful geyser erupt. The grandkids liked the geyser, but their favorite thing by far was getting a souvenir at the Old Faithful gift shop. That night we stayed in the Grand Village Campground on Yellowstone Lake.
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| Lewis River driving into Yellowstone |
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Arriving at Yellowstone
Denae, Reayen, Akston, Elynn, Liz, Lee |
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| Visiting a geyser basin |
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| Wading in the Firehole River |
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| Akston crossing the Firehole River |
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| Walking through a geyser basin |
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| Akston skipping rocks on Yellowstone Lake |
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Souvenirs that the grandkids bought
at the Old Faithful gift shop |
The next day we were packed up and ready to leave when once again the transmission problem we had at the farm showed up. This time, when we tried to leave the campsite, the RV transmission wouldn't engage. Once again I checked the fluid level and once again it was very low. I still had some transmission fluid left from before so I added it and we were able to drive to the gas station at Grant Village. There we bought some more fluid. We obviously had a transmission leak but at this point I was hoping to be able to get home by just adding more fluid as required. With that done we headed out of Yellowstone Park to Ashton, ID where we spent the night at the Clarks house.
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| Backyard of the Clarks house |
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| Talking in the kitchen |
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| Kids playing on the back deck |
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| Family portrait |
The afternoon of our arrival at the Clarks, they took us on a river float down the Henry's Fork River. Along the river is a water slide that has been made on a steep slope near the river. We stopped at the slide to let the grandkids try it out and they loved it. On the way back to their home in Ashton, Frank stopped by a field of potatoes and had the kids dig out a potato to let them see what potatoes look like coming out of the ground.
On August 14th we left Ashton and headed to Liz childhood home and farm in Spring Dale, ID Her youngest brother Thales now owns and runs the farm. The grandkids got to have some real farm experiences including picking corn and feeding the cattle. Their favorite farm animals by far were the cats.
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| Grandkids picking corn |
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| Riding out to the next job |
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| Grandkids feeding the cattle |
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Dinner time!
Thales standing by Elizabeth
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On August 16th we packed up and left for the Salt Lake City airport where the grandkids had a flight back home. As we got near the airport, I took the wrong exit and ended up in an industrial park. As we drove through the park to get back on the right road, we suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the rear of the RV. I immediately thought it must be the transmission again. We were quite close to the airport and needed to get the grandkids to their flight on time, so we decided to continue driving and worry about the sound once we got the grandkids on their way. Since the grandkids were flying unaccompanied, Liz needed to be with them during the whole check-in procedure until the plane actually took off. So I dropped Liz off with the grandkids and found a place to park until Liz was ready for pickup. One possibility for the noise in the rear was a flat tire, so I checked the tires and they all seemed to be OK. Now I started thinking this noise might be related to the transmission problem and I was becoming worried that we might not make it home so I began to call around to find out about repairs. I discovered that there is only one place in the entire state of Utah that does transmission repairs on Class A RVs and that place had a 3 month backlog.
So after I picked up Liz, we decided we would just have to continue driving and hope for the best. That night we made it to Provo, UT and stayed at the Sam's Club. There we found an Autozone and stocked up on transmission fluid for the rest of the trip home. The next morning, we drove to Price, UT and continued to hear the noise from the back. We stopped to gas up at Smith's Food King and as Liz went into the grocery store to shop she suggested that I check the tires again just in case. This time I got out my hammer like I had seen truck drivers do and pounded on the rear tires (these tires are so rigid that when one of the duals is flat you can't tell). Sure enough, the right inside dual was flat. The outside dual was holding up the weight so I didn't notice the difference in driving.
Now we had to find a place that could repair/replace Class A RV tires. Amazingly I found the perfect place right there in Price.....Les Schwab Tire Center. They handle the tire needs for all the heavy coal mining equipment in the area and they had no trouble handling a Class A RV. They got right to work and discovered a puncture that could be patched. Within an hour we were back on the road with no more noise coming from the rear.
We stopped by the Englebrights (Anna Maria & Jim) in Moab to drop of some fresh picked corn from the farm and then drove to the Farmington, NM Sam's Club that night. We stayed at the Sam's Club in Albuquerque on August 18th. The next morning we drove south to the Quarai Mission, an early Catholic mission that is part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The mission was built to teach and convert the local Indians to Christianity. The setting is beautiful and definitely worth the visit.
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Dropping off corn in Moab
Anna Maria & Jim |
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Quarai Mission
Chapel ruins |
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| Living quarters for the priests & monks |
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| Chapel courtyard |
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| Beautiful flowers around the property |
That night we stayed at the Roswell, NM Sam's Club. The next day we drove to Haskell, TX and stayed in their RV park. We arrived home on August 21st. We had a wonderful trip but it was great to be home!
We still had a surprise and some unfinished business awaiting us. At home when we walked into the master bedroom, there was water dripping from the ceiling onto the carpet below. Running upstairs we discovered that the water was coming from an upstairs toilet that was overflowing it's tank because the refill mechanism wasn't shutting completely off. I had shut off all the toilet fill valves at the wall when we left on the trip but this particular wall shut off valve wasn't working either. Water was trickling out over the tile floor of the bathroom and seeping into the carpet of the bedrooms on either side of the bathroom. From there it was leaking through the master bedroom ceiling.
After I replaced the toilet fixtures so we could shut it off, we rolled back the carpets so everything could dry out. Fortunately, the sheetrock was all OK so once we dried everything out I refinished and repainted the affected sheetrock and it all looks as good as new.
The other unfinished business was the RV transmission. I was concerned we were looking at a major repair but I got under the RV and discovered that the fluid leak was not in the transmission itself but in one of the cooling lines. Looking online I found some youTube videos that explained how to fix them so after getting the proper equipment I was able to do the repairs myself. So far everything seems to be good.
So our amazing summer trip came to a happy end but it took awhile after we got home for things to return to normal.
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