Doug:
Saturday 6/Jul/2012:
Grand plans for the day! The plan "was" to head up to Clear Creek up in Cascade (Red Vine Mt) to try and get a good camp in while here in Boise. Off we go round noon and loaded up with 8 people, 3 dogs and more gear. Cruised through the valley and started up the low grade mt roads.

Stopped off at Horseshoe Bend to empty the holding tanks and top off with fuel. Wouln't ya know it, the hose clamp let loose and the nasty followed. Lucky it was mostly through and I saved a big mess but non-the-less, it was nasty. Finished up there, hosed it down all good. (Still need to tighten that clamp!).

Beautiful drive following the river. Little over half way there we got hot and pulled over for bout an hour. Pulled out the camp stove, made some hot dogs and chili. Got back in and continued on. Made it about another 10miles-ish.. and hot again... Ok, turn around and bag it. Duke just isn't going to play nice.

Headin back down the mt and going smooth, pulled off again at Horseshoe Bend to let Duke cool off and get some milkshakes. Just about out of all the hills except the last one. Gave him 1 more good push and 3/4 of the way up we had to stop. So frustrating. Cop stopped to check on us, as it was registering 103 in his car, had a quick chat and he was on his way. Another 15 min and we made it out of the mt's. 20min later we were back to the house. Oh yea, the stupid genny was intermittent this whole time also so not much cooling.

Taco's for dinner and watched Tucker & Dale vs Evil. Pretty good movie. 

The plan is to take it into a shop on Mon or Tues and get the stupid cooling system checked. I fully believe its the thermostat but we will see.

All the vacation excitement is gone...not sure what the next move is yet.
(Highlight of the day: There is AC at the house)

Doug:
Friday 6/Jul/2012:
Rolled in round 1am.... slept in... did nothing all day. Had french dips, a few drinks, sat outside with the heat lightening and watched the kids do some left over fireworks.
(Highlight of the day: no stress)

Doug:
Thursday 5/Jul/2012:
All up at 8, went down for cont brekky, girls swam for bout an hour, packed up, checked the tire pressure and hit the road round 11......
Montana is way to big of a state! We went from Billings to Boise. 13hrs! Not much to report, however we stopped in Jerome Id around 10:30 to fill up and get some Wendys. They just shut their interior lights off so we went through drive through! Yup, first time they saw an RV come through drive through! Good stuff!

That's about it for now...
D.
(Hightlight of the day: Getting out of Montana)

Doug:
Wednesday 4/Jul/2012:
Posted our travel map thus far and the little dot's are the places we stopped for fuel. 

Hung around Billings today, didn't really do anything exciting. Slept in, girls went swimming and then we went to the mall.  Coming out of the mall however, a guy struck up a conversation with me, good guy, cleft lip, crushed teeth, but all in all a good guy. Started talkin about the old truck and stuff and gave me all sorts of tips for overheating. Seemed like he just needed someone to talk to and I'm a magnet for that. Angel was like, "we are headed to the truck", but dude just kept going and it was a good conversation. He even came over to look at my radiator cap, what a good guy! Anyway, he left and so did we. 

Back to the Ho-Jo and then me and the girls went for swim. They have an indoor waterslide, pretty fun. Finished up with that, hung out in the room for a bit, chattin, then went out to Duke to have dinner. Haha, I know, we pulled up in an RV, staying in a hotel and eating dinner in our RV. Great dinner however, home-made chicken noodle!! About to head out to the roof top to see if there are any fireworks to see and we have a little box of pop-its. Should be good.

Nope, couldn't see anything, kids didn't even open the pop-its... oh well...


At this point we are going to head out tomorrow and back towards Bosie through Idaho Falls. We'll hang out there for a little bit and figure out what we want to do next. Likely get Duke into the shop and checked out again. We are going to have a vacation I tell you!!

Happy 4th to everyone!
(Highlight of the day: Red Neck conversation)

Doug:

Tuesday 3/Jul/2012:

Wow, what a day and in the end a unfortunate turning point…

Got moving a little after 8ish, filled up and the aim was to get through Montana and through the Enchanted Hwy in Dickinson ND… well, we  started heating up again and pulled off in Huntley. The fuel smell was back, the RV was runnin super hot and had to fill up.  We gassed up, and pulled into some shade next to the town park for about an hour, letting him try to cool off in 100deg heat. Yea, no cooling off for him… frustration ensued once again and the enchanted Hwy was cut from the itinerary.

Mt. Rushmore was now the only goal, since that’s the only place we booked in advance for this adventure. We turned around, went back to the junc  of I-94 & I-90. Back-tracked only about 8miles and off the road to I-90, running hot! Made it about 8miles going this way and had to pull off due to heat and the bloody inclines. Stopped for about 15 and wanted to get back on the road to at least find some kinda shade. Another 10 miles and we found an exit that had an underpass. Parked in the shade for about an hour, a very very hot hour. Why didn’t ya just run the genny/air cond you say, haha, good freekin question! I did of course and wouldn’t ya know it she wouldn’t run. What the cuss! Oh yea, I forgot to mention that the last 45min or so we did our best to try and keep it from boiling over and had the heater on! Yup, heat on high in 100deg weather. Cussin beautiful!.

Anyway, the only thing I can think of with the non-running of the genny is that I bought the cheap gas not really thinking about it, but it’s octane rating is 85.5 instead of our 87. I don’t know if that’s really it or not, but that’s what I’m blaming it on… so back to the story.

Decided to push just 1 more time, another 9miles to Fly Creek Rd Rest Area. Sat around another hour and it was decided we were done! Turned around, barley made it back to the underpass a second time… yup another hour… called AAA, “we can get you a tow but can only take 2 passengers, but we can also assist with getting you a rental”. What the? 

By this time Angel has hit her temp limit and now has a full on headache and puking. Fk it, lets go……pushed as hard as we could with heat a blastin and got back to Billings to pull in at the HoJo. Booked 2 nights, took the kids to the pool, ate dinner  and had a couple beers. I don’t know that there will be any posts from the rest of the family or myself at this point. 

D

(Highight of the day: I may have lost some water weight due to dehydration)

Doug:
Monday 2/Jul/2012:

Woke up at 7, left the KOA a little after 8, found a shop around 9 that could check out the charging system. Yup, bad alternator. Ok, do it…. Small shop not around much in Butte. Walked over to Walmart and dink’d around for about an hour-ish. Went to subway and got some sammies, took em over and had a pik-nik next to 3 small (5’) fir trees putting out a tad bit of shade behind said Walmart. If we weren’t in Montana, it’d probably look a little strange (haha). Ate up our sammies (very good, BMT for me) then laid back, hands behind my head and looked at clouds for about ½ hr. That was actually pretty good stuff and made some of the frustration go away. Then walked in and back out of the dollar store (just a bit dodgy) and proceeded back to the trees for about another 45min, just chillin. Went back to the shop hung out for about another ½ hr and $270 later we were on the road yet again…. and charging! We pushed hard and got into Yellowstone in time to see Old Faithful pop off at 8:37pm +/- 10min. Kasey thought it was pretty cool, but Den & Ri were like, hmmm, I remember it being cooler last timer, (figures). Did see some buffalo crossing the road and everyone thought that was cool. Back out the park (very dark, very slow) and heading towards a place to stop for the night. Nothing exciting there, just slept.
(Highlight of the day: Lookin up at the clouds)

Angel:

Sunday July 1

Last night there was some crazy thunder and lightning. I totally felt like I was asking to get hit by lightning sitting in my tin can parked next to a bunch of trees. Thanks for sparing us mother nature ;).

Went down the road a few miles and toured 50,000 silver$ gift shop/bar/restraunt/etc.. I got a mocha and it was crappy as hell. I had to add heaps of sugar and some hot cocoa mix when we got back in duke. I’m not a coffee person but I am now willing to admit I like caramel mochas. I should just buy a mix.

We didn’t make it very far today. Duke won’t hold a charge or something. Idk. I just want to keep on trucking and see America. I don’t want to miss out on anything but I’m afraid some stuff is going to have to take a back seat and possibly become another trip all together.

Tonight we are at a KOA in Butte, MT. and btw that’s not pronounced Butt.
(Highlight of the day: didn't have one today)

Doug:

Sunday 1/Jul/2012:

Woke up, ate a bowl of sugary goodness (coco pebbles) and fired up the hot h20 heater. Had a great shower! (h2o on, get wet, h2o off, soap up, h2o on, rinse, repeat x3) but was a great shower! Ready for the day. Pack up the stove/chairs and start putting the bike rack to proper position… Snap!!…stupid straps break on the last position of the rack…………..gdmfa!!! A small tantrum ensued. Walked it off, set it up, locked it down, good enough! Lets go! On the road, put on the pwr inverter to start the crockpot and hit the gas! Hmm, why is this truck running so hot… better keep an eye on it. “Hey Doug”, crockpot’s off…. Hmm.. K,  gotta pull over and check it out… not enough batt power.. Why isn't the batt getting charged? 2hrs later after crawling around in the gravel tracing wires and not gaining much gound… forget it I said…well something like that was said. Swapped the inverter over to the main batt. Seems to be working again, but still running hot. Not comfortable with inverter or heat issues…hmm, better call it a frustrated day. Only 200miles today and KOA. Tomorrow morning gonna stop by the RV mechanic and check on the cooling & voltage regulator.  I hope they are easy on me. Kids watchin Princess Bride!

(Highlight of the day: My shower!)

Dennon:

Survivor Log: Day 2

Another long day of Intense Heat causing a  terrible headache,  causing an intense amount of hallucinations while I slept, Technical difficulties with the camera mans van had me on edge of wits and survival skills. Between these difficulties and the morning heat I stopped by a small broken down shack in the middle of a ghost town and bought a small hand knife and two bottles of beer for me and my camera man Craig. We had to stop due to our broken down van, but luckily we stopped in an area of complete wilderness and are going to camp through out the night. Another huge thunderstorm is among us.

(Highlight of the day: naa)

Riley:

We went to this super cool store! I got a thimble that says Montana on it and got my friend Ally a lucky rabbit foot that’s yellow. Other then that duke just like broke down or something like that so were staying at a KOA. The awesomesuace thing is it has a pool!!! Yaaaa that’s what I'm doing tomorrow!!!

(Highlight of the day: nothin)

Kasey:

We are still in Montana. I took a shower and the shower was really hot and nice in duke. In Montana there is a gift shop and I bought something and there wasn’t anything piggy except for a stuffed animal and the rules for souvies is that it has to say Montana so I got a bottle with silver stuff and it says Montana so mom bought it. Our car, dad kinda got mad at the car for not working very well and we are staying somewhere and a neighbor came over and talked to dad. We took tucker on a walk and  my dad stepped into a pile of skeeters. Riley was kinda surprised and pointed it out and dad still walked thru it like naa-na-naa-na-naa. Tonight we are watching a movie and for lunch we had top ramen and for dinner we had chicken-n-rice.
(Highlight of the day: touched the St. Regis river water & found a diamond shaped rock!)

Angel:

June 30- Saturday

My goal was to leave by noon and we actually left the house around 11:36 so that made me happy. However, we stopped to fill the propane and actually left Big ‘ol Fed town at 12:12. Close enough.

The fridge wasn’t working Friday when we packed. Crap. However, Dug was super stressed about it which made me laugh, no worries. We could just get some dry ice every few days  to keep things cool. It started working while we were driving, I think its because Duke wasn’t level. Whatever, It works now.

I drove for a tank of gas-ish. When I’m driving 55 I’m right as rain but 65-70 and I’m a pin ball swerving all over the road. We aren’t going to get very far with me driving 55 and for some reason the old fogies passing me were flipping me off! Dug didn’t like my driving either.

I took heaps of pictures but I’’ll have to pick and choose the best to post.
(Highlight of the day: The fridge started working!)

Doug:

Saturday 30/Jun/2012:

Wanted to leave by 10ish, but was more like noonish…..mostly me (laundry) but ok though, on the road! Got cruizin over the pass and Angel said, “the  fridge is getting cold “, whoo hoo, I said! It’s gonna be a good day! The rest of the day fairly uneventful, got up to 70mph a couple times, filled up twice and decided to boondock on the St. Regis river in St. Regis Montana. Pulled up, set up the camp chairs, camp stove and had what all good people from Montana have, burritos! Yum! Cranked up the genny, watched about ½ hr of the tv (with a beer). Good day 

(Highlight of the day: The fridge started working!)
 
Dennon:

Survivor Log: Day 1

A Long day of driving, but none the less an adventure among the greatest.

Nothing yet in  this world alone could bring struggle to this wild adventurer except a stingray to the chest or the struggles of hallucination. The crazy struggle of a heat stroke was forced on upon me on that day, but I digress. Sleeping in the bare wilderness was a huge struggle, through a giant thunderstorm and Lightning shower kept this wild adventurer keen and on top of all of his senses.

And that concludes  the survivor log for day 1.
(Highlight of the day: nope)

Riley:

Yesterday all we did was drive mostly, we got out a couple times but at least were in Montana right? Well I hope that today will be more exiting but until then goodbye

(Highlight of the day: Didn't have one)

Kasey:

Yesterday my  family  went  to Montana win  we got there  we saw a river and we had dinner  outside and we watched tv and had 2 cookies. When my mom was washing dishes she said the goal tomorrow was yellowstone.

(Highlight of the day: ate dinner outside)

Doug:

Friday 29/Jun/2012:

Twas the afternoon before cowcation2012. My chore was to get the bikes loaded up and put my clothes in Duke… simple eh…. Sigh#1…I decided that the hitch combo (2” to 1.25” & 1.25” to 2”) I rigged up was good but not good enough. I decided to take em back and get the extension with the bit that raised the height up 4”. Got back and whoops the bloody thing hit the bumper .25” short…sigh#2. Ok, back to Harbor Frieght again… and today they had a regular 12” extension, very similar to my 1st attemp. Got it installed, put the rack on…sigh#3….too loose… to the cow-cave. Used the Dremel and cut some shims to fill the gap. Side shim, perfect, top shim had to pound it in… hope it comes out when I get back. Bikes on, check….. (yes, you now got to live it also).

“Hey Doug”, I hear…, “the fridge isn’t getting cold”…. “grunt” I say… well, more like just made the sound. Plugged it into AC for a while, nothing, LP for a while, nothing, generator for a while… yup, nothing…. grunt#2… dug out the fridge manual and says cant be on too much of  a tilt…k, easy enough. Fixed tilt, tried all three possibilities again over the next hour… nothing. My heart rate has been risen for a few hours now, ?wonder if this counts towards my steps? Ok, forget it, on to something I can control, laundry, but waited till the morning.

Stayed up till 1am watching tv while venting.
(Highlight of the day: It'll be better tomorrow)