5 week cross country trip

DbltreeBelgians · June 05, 2023, 11:19:57 PM

@Machinebuilder
I'm not to good at typing this stuff up. Constantly correcting and making revisions. Hopefully I get my point across and don't bore y'all.
Not much to report today as it was break down camp and travel from Moab to Heyburn Idaho. Other than idiot drivers on I-15 in Salt Lake City pretty much uneventful. We are set up on the Snake river in a city owed and operated RV park. Nice place.
Tomorrow we'll head out bright and early (yeah right) :D for Twin Falls then Boise and finally Grangeville . We'll probably set up at my aunts place for a few days. We'll be about 1-1/2 hours from Lewiston so Jill would like to catch Oregon and Washington if at all possible. Yellowstone has my interest. Then it's eastbound to Billings Montana. We'll see what happens. Like I said earlier, "No Agenda"

Brent

barbender · June 06, 2023, 12:25:40 AM

The Tetons and Yellowstone are definitely worth the time spent, if you have enough available. The last couple of times we were out there was during Covid. Although the Parks and most campgrounds were packed, everyone was pretty pleasant and it seemed like everyone was just happy to be out enjoying nature. With Covid, there weren't really any foreign tourists. That may be different now. In my experience, they are the ones doing a lot of the stupid stuff and being rude.

DbltreeBelgians · June 11, 2023, 02:18:22 PM

Got to Grangeville Idaho and set up the camper at my aunt's place. Quite the challenge getting a 44' 5th wheel up her drive but all went well. My cousin showed up from Coeur d'Alene to visit with us. He is a "LEO" for the US Forest Service and had business to tend to in Grangeville with the Sheriff and Undersheriff for a couple days so timing was perfect. He knows these mountains like the back of his hand so he took us on a fantastic journey. Wildlife was on Jill's hit list and he didn't disappoint. We saw moose, deer, elk, turkey and more. Never saw a bear or cougar though.
Here is one of the best scenes we could of asked for. A cow elk and her calf.

It's a little blurry due to zooming in with the phone but so awesome to see a calf nursing.
Then we went to an old Ranger's station. The corral's are still in use as is the old barn but the Ranger's station and bunkhouse are not anymore but it was a great sight to see.

We left on Friday headed for Miles City Montana up over Lolo pass. Beautiful drive through the canyons and along the rivers. The road was very winding and a bit snug in places but all went well and we decided to just catch some shuteye in a Walmart parking lot in Miles City. Only got a few hours of sleep as this seemed to be the local place for kids to hang out and blow off some steam at night. Lots of yelling and burnouts in cars and Harley's. Woke at 05:30 and hit the road not sure where we were headed but ended up in Nevis Minnesota. My son-in-law stayed at this place on a beautiful lake when he was working pipeline so I called my daughter and knowing she was good friends with the couple that own the resort (Starlight Bay Resort) they made us a spot in the woods right on the lake. How great is that!! Dale and Britney are fantastic people.

We'll stay here for a few days and rides some trails then head for "Yooper" land then our final destination Wolverine Michigan before heading south back to Ohio and home.
More to come later,

Brent

Walnut Beast · June 11, 2023, 02:40:35 PM

Looks like a great trip. Did you rent that Polaris General or is your fifth a toy hauler and it's with you?

barbender · June 11, 2023, 02:57:55 PM

Those 5th wheel toy haulers are pretty serious pieces of equipment to tug behind you, especially out west. What does yours weigh, Brent?

Nevis is about 60 miles from my place.

DbltreeBelgians · June 11, 2023, 06:25:54 PM

The General is mine. I tote the it all over the country. Let's say it's my happy place. Wherever it'll take me I'm happy.
As for the trailer it's a Keystone Fuzion 419 toy hauler. Empty the trailer specs out at 15,300 lbs. and loaded I'm well over 18,000. My F-350 has no issues tugging it through the mountains. The 6.7 Stroke has all the "Cojones" needed and does a fine job. And I absolutely love the engine brake. Rare to touch the brakes coming down a mountain pass. But the mileage sucks hind end. And the DEF usage is lousy at best. Not impressed with that at all. It's all based off of the mileage I'm getting. The more fuel poured in the cylinders the more DEF it consumes. IMHO it's all a bunch of BS but that's just my opinion. I guess my dad summed it up well when he told me "if ya wanna dance ya gotta pay the band"!! My choice and I'll live with it. Is what it is!!

Brent

Walnut Beast · June 11, 2023, 07:47:19 PM

Very nice setup!! Yes indeed having the General to explore and run around is absolutely the ticket.

The nice thing about the Toyhaulers is the the garage room when the toys are out it's like having one big extra room. You probably have the electric chain system with extra storage and seating in the garage and electric fuel station outside

DbltreeBelgians · June 11, 2023, 08:26:05 PM

Yes sir, it has a 15' garage with 1/2 bath and the ramp doubles as a patio

Duke approved ;D

Brent

Ron Scott · June 12, 2023, 06:13:33 PM

Very nice unit!

DbltreeBelgians · June 22, 2023, 10:24:16 PM

Well our 5 week 15 state journey has come to a conclusion. After leaving Nevis Minnesota we made it as far as Marquette Michigan and it was getting late and parked at a Walmart there as it was too late to find a campground for the night. Left the next morning and went to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Jill had never been there but I had years ago while snowmobiling in Munising. The fog was so thick we could see anything so no pics of that. Headed for Grand Marais and yep, fog so thick you could cut it with a knife. Headed south and set up camp in Newberry for the night. Had all great intentions of taking a detour to
De Tour Village to visit Jeff at the cabin. He told me there was no way I'd get my 5th wheel into his place and nowhere to pull off so over the Mighty Mac we went and set up camp in Wolverine.
Well I just had to see that Case 580 extenda hoe so I headed back across the bridge and look what I found

Jeff gave me a grand tour of the property and I will say it was grand. I see why he likes it so much.

Jeff leading the way down many trails. He let me ride the big 4 wheeler.

One of many deer stands he has for him and his sister.

Spotted this critter on a trail. No quills for us luckily.

Made it to the pond and spotted this predator snacking on a frog. Left it alone, walked around the pond and came back to the snake but the frog was gone. Did notice the snake was kinda bulging in the mid section. It decided to take its meal and swim across the pond to the other side. Jeff got video of that I think.

The sunflower was looking good. Nice fresh blades!!

The grand entrance and of course the cool mailbox post.

We finished off our trip with a memorial ride for my son-in-laws dad on Father's Day weekend to the cemetery. Never seen a more beautiful cemetery and you wouldn't know it was there just driving by high on a hill nestled in the pines overlooking the road between Wolverine and Indian River.
All in all it was a great trip other than a broken windshield in Price Utah and the nasty pothole on I-70 in Denver that took out an ABS cable on my truck. Made it home to Ohio Monday even and got unloaded and a new windshield today.
That's all she wrote folks. Thanks for coming along.

Brent

barbender · June 22, 2023, 10:59:12 PM

I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch you when you came through Minnesota, Brent. I had some stuff going in the timeframe you were coming through. Glad you had a great trip!

DbltreeBelgians · June 22, 2023, 11:59:23 PM

@barbender , it's all good. Would've loved to meet up but there will be another time. Had a great time trail riding in Minnesota. I'd like to come back and ride more.

Brent