Westbound

[Tweiland]

To DJ
I am glad we are living what you have done!! This trip has been a great adventure and wonderful together time with my family.

[Tweiland]

6.11
Day 7
The Grand Teton
This would be the 3rd time going to the Yellowstone National Park and we certainly got our money worth on the annual pass ($80). The admission fee now is $30/per car and $50/per large vehicle. Our destination today was to visit the Grand Teton.
After raining bears and buffalo last night, we woke up to a not-so-friendly camp ground. We didn’t have any dry towels for one, and the mud pools around our RV were getting on our nerves. We had our breakfast before we left. The route that was connecting with the Teton was closed yesterday but should be open today – so we were told. This would cut our traveling time by about 1.25 hours which was a good news. Our children, Lori and Sean, had not complained about being road weary but I think I was approaching my limits. Truth to be told, my idea of camping was to park in an area and enjoyed what the camp ground has to offer. I know this trip was a special one and I did not clamor any displeasure, but being in a moving vehicle since last Friday began to show its flaws.
As we left the Yellowstone Park and entering the Grand Teton John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, our senses were again invigorated by what we saw. On the both sides of the road, pine trees were standing tall with full green leaves. The sun was properly anchored so we were not blinded by its glorious rays. These pine trees looked like soldiers on guard in their impeccable uniform, saluting for our entrance into meeting the king. We felt like the royals!! Parading delightfully and watching these utmost green soldiers respectfully erected for our traveling through this route was really something!! We saw the usual wild lives, buffalo and some elks along the way but they were so far away that we could only spotted them by their obvious shapes.
Once we past the Lizard Creek, one very blue/green large body of water appeared. Jackson Lake was also notorious known for its boating activities. We stopped at the visitor center and took some pictures along the lake. We could almost make out the size of the mountain behind the water and how far it should have stretched beyond our sight.
We were perfectly wrong!!
As we came to the end of the Jackson Lake and partially by the Snake River, holy mother…. Here appeared the Teton!! Teton is one of the Dakota Indian tribes that currently were afforded the historical and cultural preservation in various stop points along the way. But this Teton needed nothing but solemn respect and piety!! Told you we were meeting the king – but we didn’t expect to meet a “king” with this magnitude, in size and scale. The entire mountain placated between the expansive green plain and heaven, and it was almost endless how far it stretched. I had the mental picture of the most handsome Perry Mason sitting there with his massive presence and smart knowledge sipping into the morning air. We hopped out of the car in one of the pull-outs area and snapped as many photos as we possibly could. We were even able to capture an eagle flying above us – it portrayed a wonderful solitude that we could usually saw in the book stores in the city.
I take it back about what I said earlier of just wanting to hang around the camp site…we couldn’t possibly see such grand sight by sitting around by our RV.
I had to take the allergy pill Zertec to prevent my eyes from watering and non-stop sneezing earlier. The pill started to work, unfortunately, it was not the non-drowsy type. My mind and eye sight began to become quite blurry and felt like I was floating when we took off again continuing our journey. We reached the city, Jackson, and had our lunch in a local Mexican food restaurant. I ended up taking a nap in the car and sort of remembering the surrounding – it was a cute little town with tourists milling around and there was a park, kind of like the town square gathering place……
On our way back to the camp site, Zertec was slowly wearing off. The part of the mountains we saw appearing to look like the Chinese paper fan – the more you unfold, the more surprising pictures you would see. You would see the whole pictures and the stories behind the pictures, or able to interpret the pictures, after you have unfolded the entire fan. My mind was like a bowl of deliciously mushed butternut squash soup – we would just leave the stories of what I thought I saw a mystery!!
We were looking forward to the Karaoke the camp site had to offer tonight. When we returned to the place, we were told the Karaoke was cancelled due to lack of customers. We were quite disappointed since everyone of my family members loved to be on the spot light singing except me (trust me, you don’t want me to either…). We returned to our RV and watched the marathon of Modern Family reruns until almost after midnight, I know physically we would be sorry because we would be driving to Richfield, Utah for the night which was close to 700 miles away. But heck, being with my family in one place to laugh so hard until our abdomen ached was not always possible.


We pressed on!!

[Tweiland]

6.12
Day 8 – On our way to Richfield, Utah

We lingered in bed until 7am – the goal was to leave Yellowstone Valley Inn by 7am. Well, we didn’t get up until 7am – good thing we packed up most of our things last night while watching the drunken episodes of Modern Family.

The drive was planned to drive from our camp site through the Yellowstone National Park through Idaho, then Utah. The total mileage was 721`miles. We were informed that we had to pay $30 for the car I was driving although we had the park pass. If we were towing the car, then we could use the park pass for both vehicles… umm…

Driving through Idaho wasn’t exactly exciting – we still yet to marvel the “Potato” state – perhaps we were spoiled from the last 3 days of being in one of the most beautiful parks in the country. Our senses were a bit over-stimulated…maybe? Both Lori and Sean were still sleeping in the RV when we drove off; hubby and I decided we would stop to grab a bite when they awoke. We drove for a long time (about 5 hours) and didn’t see any familiar nation-wide eating places such as Burger King, McDonald…we were beginning to wonder if people in the great state of Idaho didn’t believe in fast food?

We finally stopped over a highway restaurant called Big Jud’s – it was a famous place all right!! If you are a foodie and watching Man vs. Food, Adam Richman had been here for one of his traveling food scouting shows.

We were hungry and we were very pleased to be fed with some really down home Idaho cooking.

After almost 10 hours of driving, we reached Richfield, Utah. We stayed at a KOA camp – it was a last minute decision. We realized that we would not “suffer” while vacationing to spend the night at any big chain retailer’s parking lot. The camp was well-maintained and there were plentiful campers on site already. We settled in for the night.

We all felt like in the zombie zone!!

[Tweiland]

6.13
Day 9
Munds Park, AZ

We uprooted from KOA camp in Utah around 8am and heading for our final destination, Munds Park, Arizona. We grabbed a quick bite at McDonald’s, filled up gas in our car/RV, on our way!!

As we were on the outskirt of Arizona, the landscape began to change. From lush greenery to stoic-looking rocks that occupied the entire land. As we entered Kelly Canyon, we came upon rocks that are chiseled by wind and rain, they looked like ancient Greek Temples stood there for centuries with proud standing. I think God was absolutely having one of His creative mood – the red coloring shaded these rocks look like someone used a red paint brush dipping into a pool of water and created a funnel that have hundreds shades of red and orange plastering on these giant rock formation. What a beautiful country this is!!

We refilled our gas tanks in the middle of no-where!! I left before my husband and for some reasons, my GPS directed me toward a different route. By the time we talked on the phones and realized we were going in two different directions, we were almost 50 miles apart. This wasn’t the first time it happened on this trip but I almost panicked because the landscape here was so raw and unforgiving for traveling errors, for the love of God, we were in the dessert!! I turned around until I reached where my husband was waiting!! Well, one good thing, I finished my second book on tape “Power Trips” – 9 CDs – 20 hours.

We reached Munds Park, AZ around 5 and realized we were in a different time zone again. The Munds Park RV Resort looked grand – the entrance was nicely structured. We were situated under the shade – we were told the temperature during the days can reach up to 100 degrees and 40 degrees at night. Okay!

After extensive discussion with hubby, we would be pulling a brake on our power vacation. We would be staying in the camp site and just enjoyed the amenities it offered. Kids were delighted - so was this tired mom!!

Yes!!

[Tweiland]

6.14.15

Day 10 – Munds Park



We had to crank up the heat because the temperature droppeddown to 40’s last night.



We were road exhausting to say the least.



Sean made fast friends as soon as we settled our rig andgotten everything situated. There were alot of kids in the playground as well as the pool. The RV Park itself was expansive aswell. Early in the morning, after myquiet morning coffee I took a walk to explore the camp ground. The park has an ample laundry facility,Fitness center, Library/Party hall and several sections where permanent housefixtures resided. On the edge of thepark laid the hiking trails.



Hubby and I wentthrough the trails, sweating and panting and felt the muscle aching from ourlong-drive. We didn’t see either of ourchildren until dawn when the dinner was on the grill. My son went swimming twice with his new-foundfriends and my daughter explored the area with her camera trying to capture hernew world. The temperature never climbedbeyond 85 and since it was dry heat, we enjoyed the warmth. We could hear several radios playing varietyof music but mostly country melodies from campers all around. While we were strolling around the camp site,we noticed there were many retired folks from Tucson, AZ coming up here to stayfor the summer to avoid deathly heat. One lady told me that the heat could go up 120+ during the day time inTucson. Wow!! Not sure what to think of that!! In Ohio, if the temperature ever goes up to90’s, you would hear the moans of hundreds and thousands …..it was hard toimage how anyone could live in the trip-digit temperature environment.



There was a band playing tonight but we didn’t go – we hadto shop for grocery. The closestWal-Mart was about 30 minutes away – another difference from our Metropolitanlife style where all things convenient within 5 minutes of car ride.



We enjoyed this little resting day to say the least.

[Tweiland]

6.15.15



Day 11



The Grand Canyon – Detour – Las Vegas



Our intention was to go to the Canyon Skywalk and then TheGrand Canyon today. After all, this wasthis whole trip about – to see the largest hole in the ground and marvel thepower of the nature.



While we were on the road to the Canyon Skywalk, thetemperature went from 60’s to 90’s in less than 15 minutes. We thought perhaps there was something wrongwith our car. We stopped to get gas andrealized, uh, nope, it was mighty heating up out there. Well, we punched in the Skywalk location inour GPS and realized the Hoover Dem was on the way so a quick decision was madeto see another American modern marvel.



Hoover Dem was built between Arizona and Nevada so wecrossed the state line to the entry of the Dem. The temperature by then was about 110 and we could see people turningred as we parked on the top deck where no shelter was available. Coming down the stairs wasn’t a big dealsince we also enjoyed the very warm breeze coming from the lake. The structure was massive and there were abundantvisitors snapping photos at every turn. We walked on the bridge from Nevada side to Arizona side and back, itwas so hot that we actually dived into a men’s room lobby for some cooling aireven though there were a lot of people in there already. Still, we figured if we could get a slightrelief from all this heat, we were grateful.



The elevators that rise up in the parking garage were fullof people even in the lobby area. Wedecided to just take the stairs. BadChoice!! By the time we reached the 2ndfloor elevator lobby, I felt my internal organs were in shock as if they werebeing cooked, medium rare, with blood dripping. I actually had to put my head down between my knees to avoid vomiting. After a short recess, I looked around andfelt quite embarrassed, several people were doing the same thing and a coupleof smaller children actually purged their stomach. Trust me, it wasn’t a pretty sight but I knewexactly how they felt.



Well, we decided to pay one of my daughter’s friends a visitwho lives in the Vegas. My daughter,Lori and her friend, Kate, have been “online” friends for 10 years – they startedout as animation buddy via “Go Super Model” website – a virtual site wheremembers can act as one of their models – they have never met but kept in closecontact with each other. From Go SuperModel to FaceBook to Twitter and whatever other social medias they can tapinto. They both were so excited and dida heaven-hell and back girl screaming – we took some pictures of them togetherand thank goodness that Kate’s mom didn’t think us too weird to receivingus. Another detour was that one of mychildhood best friends, Remy, also lives in Vegas. Remy owns a business and usually travelsaround the world. The luck would haveit, she was actually in her Vegas office. We reunited after our last reunion in Taiwan which was 17 yearsago. It was a bittersweet and we spentapprx 1 hour there catching up a bit. Remy needed to meet deadline and as much as we love to accept herinvitation to stay with her, our schedule was also very tight. We promised each other to make efforts tomeet more.



We canceled the idea of going to Canyon Skywalk but headingout to the Grand Canyon. We did stop ata “Del Taco” in Vegas for lunch – the gentleman at the front end ran after uswhen we were about to leave and asking for my husband’s permission to get Lori’scontact information. Well, it made Lori’sday!! By the time we got back to Arizonaside and the Grand Canyon was about 3 hours away, we figured we could be therefor their “Star Party”. We were hopingto catch a glimpse of the Canyon while there was daylight – not happening. We reached the Canyon Gate and the dusk hadenveloped us. We were able to make outthe shapes of some animals lying around in clusters but it was really hard tosee what they were. One good thing was,there weren’t any bears here.



The Star Party began around 9pm when all the sun light wasextinguished. We could barely see anything except the flash light and areamarkers illuminated by the park staff. There were armature astronomists with their own telescopes showing visitorsto see the planets. We were able to seethe amazing Jupiter, Mars and Venus and the moons around them. The highlight had to be when the milky waysappeared in the velvet dark sky where we could see millions of lights blendedtogether flow like mega diamond belts. What a beauty!!



We returned to the RV Park past midnight.

[Tweiland]

6.16.15



Day 12

The Grand Canyon & Sedona



The road back to the Grand Canyon this morning wasretried. After our light breakfast, weheaded out and embraced a new day even though we didn’t make it to bed untilafter 1am in the morning.



Since the drive was about 2.5 hours the kids made up theirsleep in the car. The AC was in fullblown the entire trip since we were fortunate enough to have another brightsunny day! As we were getting closer tothe gate, we spotted a large moose with its antlers waving back and forth whileit snapped greens out of the ground. Thetraffic now came to a standstill for at least 10 minutes. After we parked our car, we decided to haveour lunch. It was quite windy and hot,we still enjoyed sitting in one of the pavilions and having our lunchtogether. The crowd was thick and wewalked about 10 minutes to see the infamous The Grand Canyon!!



WOW!!



So this is what everyone was raving about!! An incredible large big hole that withdetails of trails, rocks, river, holes, trees, bushes, all properly organizedtogether. It looks like a mural thatdisplayed the most incredible colors that sang silently. It also looked like 3D stereogram plasteringover the blue sky!! Our kids tried totake some “risky” pictures by standing at the edge of the Canyon – it made mystomach churned with sickness since I am not a fan of any height and the windcould play some dangerous game during the photo shoot. Well, we didn’t stay much longer after thatand got on the road to Sedona.



Sedona was a beautiful red-rock city – the various shades ofred on these monumental rock formation were something to behold. The temperature remained at 115 untildusk. We drove around the entry intoSedona State park – unfortunately, the park closed at 5pm so we had to forsakethe opportunity – we didn’t get there until almost 5 and the gate was alreadyhalf-closed without caution sign. Wewere able to drive around the area and be wowed by the scenery. There were several tourist-based shops at thefoot of the rocks and actually there was another city on the opposite side ofthe Sedona City. Several celebritieslived, or once lived here – Nick Cage for one, tried to build a house somewherein Sedona but his application was denied.



We dined at this restaurant “Cowboy Club” – the food wassuperb!! The crème blue was so big thatwe actually didn’t mind sharingJ)


There wasn’t enough time to see the Meteor Cradlesince the night had fallen. Our trip hadto come to a close and we were quite delighted to be able

[Tweiland]

6.17.15 - 6.20.15
Going Home

Saying goodbye was never easy especially deep down, we didn't know when we would ever come back here again.

We rolled out our home-bound path early 6/17 around 6am although we didn't actually drive on the I40WB until 7:30am. We wanted to reach Amerillo, TX for the night and took my niece out to dinner.

There was a painful delay while passing New Mexico - someone attempted to kill himself by jumping off the highway bridge. We had to detour to another exit - Thank goodness for GPS and truckers along the way. While we tried to nevigate through the inner city traffic, the local temperature was another unbearable 100+ - the motorists added to the frustration of congestion. I knew that we would have a hard time getting back to our normal daily life after driving on such wide open roads these past 2 weeks. After a little over an hour of being stuck in the traffic, we resumed our trip back home.

We stayed over in the KOA camp in Amerillo, TX - the camp was fairly decent with modest landscape along with various campers. No firewood was allowed - come to think of it, we didn't burn much fire wood on this trip either. We had a few hours of reunion with my niece in a Japanese Hibachi restaurant nearby - I think we were all a little edgy and our behaviors of poking fun at each other gotten a little out of hand - it was rather animated, to say the least. The chef messed up the orders didn't really help. I wish we had more time to chat but it was a Wednesday night and I know how we abided by civilization calender and what the calendar tells us to do. They sort of excluding vacationers.....

We moved on the next day and drove to Richfield, MO and settled there for two nights. The tropical storm circulated our path and from the edge of Texas through Oklohoma to Missouri, we drove in pouring rain. It became quite a frightening thriller to see only 10 feet away while doing 60/mph. We stayed in another KOA camp in Richfield - the camp wasn't like the other KOA camp grounds we stayed - it was minimalistic!! The check-in office smelled like it was soaked in water for decades. At this point, we didn't really care that much even though the camp was about 200 yards from a railroad track.

Kids went into the pool for a bit and we packed it in for the night.

The following day was another dreary day with constant rain. It might as well be - we didn't could muster too much energy to deal with any other activities.

Saturday morning we rose to prep for take off. Two campers had joined us on the either side of our camper. We got to talk to a retired man who was traveling with his wife in their 32' class A. His name was "Butch" and we learned some great things from him. It gave us some hopes - as newbie RV owners, we haven't done too badly as far as distance traveling and trying to figure things out.

By 5pm Saturday 6/20, as we entered our familiar high way I71North in outskirt of Columbus, Ohio, my heart was never so happy to see the city, even the signs overhanging as we drove passed them. My husband and my daughter in the RV slowed their pace to 60-65/mph to gauge the fuel efficiency. (so instead of 5.5/mpg now we were getting close to 10/mpg).

The fregarance of summer greenry and flower bushes in our neighborhood were carried into our tired senses and tantelizing with the sight of our house.

Home - always the best place to be.