Joined 16 June 2022 · 30 posts
Full time travel, music, misc. Follow along...
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@drjenk
Eagle Haven Winery, Sedro Wolley WA This is a harvest host we stayed at one night in between moving called Eagle Haven winery in Sedro-Wooley. We had just picked up our new trailer about a week earlier, this was the first time boondocking with it. The wine was tasty and we had a great private spot on their property.
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North Cascades Highway with our Daughters We took a nice day trip to North Cascades National Park with the girls. It is these experiences with my family that I remember the most and will always cherish.
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Blaine Summer For our summer, we wanted to head back to Washington and spend some time with our daughters in Bellingham. We like spending time with them, and we missed them. Covid caused us to change our plans a bit and head to Ft. Stevens a little earlier than we wanted, instead of heading north to Bellingham first, as the news had convinced us that armageddon had come to the Seattle area. In hindsight we bought in to the fear mongering, but nonetheless it caused us to see less of them than we planned. We missed our oldest daughters birthday celebration in May as well, so we wanted to make up for this also and take her out to for a belated birthday meal. While we were there, Amanda convinced us that hair coloring was something we wanted to do. The dye is called Henna, it comes from a plant and is all natural. I tried it too but my hair is so dark it did not have much effect.
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Harvest Hosts, Dakota Territory Air Museum Continuing on, we stopped at a Harvest Host in Wolf Point Montana called the Wolf Point Area Museum. They were actually closed during our stay but gave us permission anyway to stay on their site over night. This was nice but we’d sure have loved to see this museum. https://ci.wolf-point.mt.us/community/page/wolf-point-museum Then next day our destination was Minot ND, to stay at the Dakota Territory Air Museum. Wow. This was fantastic. We arrived early enough to take our time and see both hangars. It was actually a pretty immense collection of old aircraft, and since we were the only ones there at the time, an employee obviously very passionate about planes, and very friendly, gave us a private tour of one of the hangars. Another example of a great harvest host stay.
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White Sulfer Springs, Montana We then continued on to an RPI park in White Sulfer Springs MT called Conestoga. It was run by a very nice older couple. They told a story of how they were much like we were, setting out to see and do what they wanted to, and came across this RV park for sale in a nice little Montana town. It seemed right for them, so they bought it, and manage it while living in a home a stones throw away. I thought it made a lot of sense for them, and what a nice story relayed through my wife. And what a nice little town. We stayed here for about a week before setting off for the final push to Ada, MN.
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Glacier National Park After about a week here, we continued on our journey with plans to stay somewhere near Glacier National Park. We ended up at Mountain Meadow RV Park, about 10 miles from the west entrance of the park. We stayed there a couple nights, knowing we’d need one full day for the tour of the park. We’d been there once before with our daughters, and stayed at the Glacier Park Lodge. We took a guided tour by bus then, but this time we were to drive it ourselves. We took the Going to the Sun highway early and took the whole day touring this beautiful park. You’ll see some haze in the photos, this is from the wildfires in Washington and Oregon that had made it all this way.
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Thousand Trails, Newport WA We continued on to arrive at Newport Thousand Trails. This turned out to be a wonderful stay, right near a lake with a nice hike around the perimeter, one which we did probably 5-7 times during our stay. The dog loved it as well.
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Sherman Pass, WA As we continued on, we decided to stop at the top of Sherman pass for some lunch. We broke out the free cantaloupe we got from a farmer at smallwood farms. I had stepped out of my door in the morning while staying at smallwood farms harvest host, and came across a nice fellow. While we were chatting, he offered a free fresh picked cantaloupe, with nothing wrong with it but a small blemish that they consequently could not sell. I heartily accepted this offer, and this thing was beyond delicious. At this picnic spot, there was also a nice paved trail to some viewpoints. It was a nice rest and lunch for the journey.
@drjenk
Republic, WA We then continued the next day on towards our goal, a stay for a while at a Thousand Trails in Newport WA. On our way was a beautiful drive through the mountains of northeaster WA, one which we’d never done in our entire lives of living in WA. We passed through the town of Republic:
@drjenk
Smallwood Farms Harvest Host The Start of the Trip East to the Sugarbeet Harvest We had decided early in our decision that we were going to try and be purposeful in our RV journey. The virus outbreak kind of put a damper on that, as options became very limited, but we continued with our commitment we made in January to try this sugar beet harvest. If they were going to continue, our reasoning went, then we’ll be there. Besides, it’s near a bunch of relatives we haven’t seen in over 40 years, and it would be fun to re-connect if timing were on our side. Our plan was to do this trip over the span of about a month, to give us plenty of time to experience the sights along the way (of which there were many), and to travel via Highway 2, instead of I-5. We’d never been hwy 2 heading east for this long of a trip before, and were very excited about this idea. We set out late August for an arrival in Ada, MN around 9/28. On day one, after traveling through North Cascades NP, we set our travel goals that day on a harvest host called Smallwood Farms in Okanogan. We had a great stay there.
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The Sugar Beet Harvest Experience in Ada, Minnesota Arrival in Ada We arrived late afternoon in Ada on 9/23/2020, to be greeted by Don at the Norman County Fairgrounds. I was looking forward to this stay, as my Mom grew up in Ada, and my grandparents are buried here. I have childhood memories of walking these streets with my cousins, but not much more recollection than that. So we pull in, greet Don, and begin to chat. He asks “So where you guys from and what brings you here for the beet harvest?”. I begin to relate our travel story, where we’re from, and share that my Mom actually grew up in Ada. He says “oh ya? What’s her name?”. I say Sandra Gullekson. He says, “Do you know Merle?”. “Well yes, he’s my uncle.” I say. “Well get this” he says, “You know his wife Sal?”. (I vaguely recall my uncle getting married to Sal some time after my Aunt Bev died of cancer many years ago, but I hadn’t seen him in 40+ years so that was an old detail I had to dust off.) I tell him yes, he says “Well I’m married to Sals sister!”. Ha! So in effect, he is my Uncles brother-in-law by marriage. Well I’ll be. I joke “Well I guess that makes us related in some weird way.”. He chuckles, and says “Well that isn’t all, get this. It’s even weirder. You see that area over there?”. He points to a cabana and a bunch of tables set up just across the road where we pulled in our RV. “You know Merles 3 adopted daughters? Well one of them is having a bridal shower right over there, this Saturday!”. Holy smokes. What a coincidence? How does that even happen! So I’m excited, as I’d been told we don’t actually start our work shifts until 10/1. I’m thinking I’m going to be able to see at least one cousin, if not more, and make it kind of a surprise. Well it wasn’t to happen, as we started the next day with what is called “pre-harvest”, and worked that Saturday until 5pm. Oh well, I would subsequently contact my cousin Lori as the beet harvest ended to arrange a meet up, later in this post. Exploring Ada We did get a chance to ride around Ada in the following couple days. The first place I wanted to see was the local cemetery where my grandparents are buried, and pay my respects. We stopped by a local flower shop right across the street. Good location for a flower shop. We didn’t get much time until later to actually ride around the town of Ada, but had a couple nice evenings walking around the fairgrounds. I imagined my Mom would have walked around those grounds plenty of times as she grew up there. I walked around reminiscing of her and wondering when she went there and who she went with in those days, imagining some fun family times on the very grounds where I was strolling. Mocha had a great time running off the leash on the huge grassy areas where I imagine all the rides and booths go when it is in full swing. And we observed some busses on the edge of the grounds, near a race track. Start of Work Soon work was in full swing. We were given the 8pm to 8am night shift. We were prepared for this possibility, and actually thought it likely as returning workers were given shift priority. Newbies usually got the night shift. We were ok with it, we’d both worked graveyard for extended periods of time in our work history, and I’m kind of a night owl so I took to it quickly, as did Kathy. We had a “Let’s do this” attitude that served us well throughout the harvest. We came prepared, the clothing and shoes/socks we brought worked out great, as it allowed for layers. A couple of times the temp dipped to 30F, but keeping active kept us warm. We also lucked out a got on a great team. One guy, Eliud, was a great guy to work with and a good teacher. He taught me operation of the piler itself, which is the huge machine you see pictured above. Basically, dump trucks roll in, and your responsibility is to guide them to the right spot by means of signal lights you control, operate the hydraulics to the huge plates to actuate to the position to catch the beets as they are dumped by the trucks, operate the conveyor at the proper times to ferry the beets up to the boom, and then guide the trucks off the ramp, and operate the hydraulics such that that lane is ready to receive the next truck. This seems simple and straightforward, but when two lanes are going (it is capable of accepting two trucks at once), it can be a bit of a mental juggle and does require practice and experience to get the timing and positioning right. It took me a good few shifts to feel totally comfortable to be on my own up in the box. But before long I was very comfortable and was able to be on my own for sustained periods of time with confidence. There are many other aspects of this job that we were able to learn, and overall it was a fun experience that we would actually do again at some point in the future, if other plans do not eclipse this possibility. I can see us taking on another harvest in advance of skeedaddling down to Florida immediately afterward for a Disneyworld experience, as the money we make here I calculate would make for an essentially free Disneyworld stay, and then some. So that may be in our future. A parting shot of our crew very near the end of harvest: More Riding Around Ada The coming days would allow for some time to see Ada on our bikes, a fun time. And we got our first absentee ballots from our new home state, South Dakota. We rode down to the Ada post office to drop them off. Then we took a bike ride around this nice quiet town on an absolutely beautiful day. We headed out of town on 10/12. It was the shortest harvest they’d had in over 20 years we’re told, as the fabulous weather allowed the farmers to get the beets out of the ground very efficiently. There were also no cold weather stoppages, although the day crew did get their shift cut short a couple times due to the warm temperatures. The previous year, they didn’t even get all the beets out of the ground by early November, and had to take a loss. So everyone was very happy with this years results. And so we were off on the trip east to WA. We heard rumblings of snow forecast the following few days, so we were eager to start trucking, but not before taking some time to see a few relatives…
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Long Lost Relatives Harvest Hosts Our first stop out of the beet harvest was a place to stay near Fargo, where we had a dinner date seeing cousins and relatives we have not see in 40+ years. We decided on 4e winery just east of Fargo, in a town called Mapleton ND. As always this Harvest Host winery was scenic and tasty, and we have not been disappointed yet. Dinner at Boston Pizza My last memory of most of my cousins was when we were little kids, visiting Fargo/Moorhead and Ada MN. Lori had actually come to visit the Pacific NW a couple years before, and we had a nice although short time with her and her husband. The prospect of touching base with all of them, plus whomever else they invited made me excited, and admittedly a little anxious. But I could not leave the area without reaching out. We arrived at a restaurant that I cannot remember the name of, and waited about 2 minutes in the lobby. Then suddenly behind me I hear “that looks like a Jenkinson!”, and turn to see my cousin Debbie! I hadn’t expected that. We hugged, and admittedly it took me a second to figure out who this was. I said “Debbie?”. “YES!”. What a blast. Soon the rest filed in and much warm greetings around. My cousin James brought me a very thoughtful gift, a small canister of spices in a mini canning jar. As you can see writing this a few months later, I’ve put it to good use. The dinner was very fun, talking about what we’ve been up to. My cousin Debbie and her husband were so gracious to pay for everyone. It was great chatting with her husband too as I’d never met him. We unfortunately did not think to take a pic before they left. I really regret that one. We had dinner without Doug as he got hung up somewhere somehow, I can’t remember why, but he showed up just as we were leaving, and it was better late than never. We did get to snap a pic at the end of dinner in the parking lot. James’ Massive Pepper Factory In our conversation at dinner Lori wanted us to come to James house and see his pepper operation. I was very intrigued because I had tried growing peppers and had various levels of successes and failures myself over the years, and canning some of them as well. However James growing skills are in another league entirely. I was quite impressed. Lori said she was chipping in on the canning operation. What a great family endeavor. He gave me a few jars upon our departure which was so generous and gracious. He mentioned everybody gets together bowling and eats peppers on chips weekly. I thought that was nice. The Pepper Tasting His hospitality was so great, as he set us up with a pepper tasting. I was about to learn where my pepper pain threshold was, which I thought going into this was pretty high. I was mistaken. Fresh peppers on chips, with the right peppers, will blow your socks off, I don’t care where your threshold is. James was gracious to have every beverage imaginable to stop the burn. I took Jame advice, and used the beer to sooth the pain. The beer disappeared pretty quickly. I actually had to stop due to some gastrointestinal distress, and Kathy got quite the kick out of that. It felt like something was going to explode in my belly for about 10 minutes, kind of like on the movie Alien. I was ok after about 10 minutes, but it was touch and go there for a bit. James then invited me to his basement so I could check out his drum set and bass guitar setup. It was cool he has this space downstairs, I imagine being underground dampens the drums a lot. He plays for his local church which I thought was inspirational. Perhaps some day I’ll strum guitar for the local church wherever we end up buying property again. Our time at James house wound down, we went to dinner at Applebees, which happened to be right across the street from the Harvest Host we had moved to that night, called The Fargo Air Museum. Due to prior commitments James understandably could not make it to dinner, but Doug and his wife were there, along with Lori, and we had a great time catching up. Was a great time in Fargo. Next, on down the road towards Washington, with a snow storm approaching…
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Oregon High Desert Scenic Drive Our adventure this day took us around a roughly 200 mile loop, a 6 hour journey that was well worth the time and fuel. The jaw dropping beauty of this area is something I really hadn’t expected. A map with names just doesn’t do justice. Our first encounter was to be some wild horses, just a few miles in from the south entrance to Sheen loop road. We got a tip from the host of Hines Pine Mill House in Hines Oregon, where we stayed for a night, that these horses tend to hang around there. What a great tip? Our course took us south towards the city of Fields, OR. The view was stunning on the way down to Fields. We stopped at the Fields station for a pit stop then headed north to be greeted with a panoramic view of the Alvord desert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvord_Desert It turns out there is access to the lake, and we saw a few cars out there, along with someone camping in an Rpod. So we took the access road, and drove probably a mile on to the lake bed, and got out to check it out! It was a great day of travel.
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Shaniko Oregon Ghost Town When we left the Coast where we stayed most of the winter, our destination was going to eventually be Bend to stay for a few weeks. We did not want to cross the pass in March due to the unpredictable snowfall, so we headed north to cross the mountains by driving along the Columbia along I-84, where the elevation stays pretty low. This plan turned out to be a good one. We had our eye on a couple of locations near the Columbia using the campendium app, but they were not working out due to not being open in March. So we started scanning campendium again and see this location, Shaniko, that people had commented about staying in that city. It is a mostly abandoned town, I think the population is 25, but there are some really old buildings, and an abandoned hotel that has a very interesting story behind it. There is a museum that charges on the honor system, open 24/7, with a little donation receptacle. There seems to be a documentary in the works at https://www.shaniko.org/ There is a teeny general store, where we stopped when we first arrived to get some general information about the place. There was a gentleman at the counter. When we walked in he gave us the kind of cold look you’d see in a dirty Harry movie. I asked “I understand you guys are amenable to staying over night in the town?”, as the app campendium indicated. “I don’t know ‘nuthin about that.” We said “thank you”, about faced, and scurried out before we got shot. A rather dry fellow. It was odd there was a store at all, as we didn’t really see anyone around. Kind of a spooky deal. Here’s the wiki on the place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaniko,_Oregon. The hotel was most recently owned by a couple in the early 2000’s, one of them died and the other did not stay. Looking through the window, it looks in rather fine shape, as they had did a complete renovation after they bought it. It may be in fact a decent investment opportunity for the right people. We talked about it, only about 2/3 joking. hmmmm.
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Airshow of the Cascades, Madras Oregon Airshow of the Cascades, Madras Oregon We bought our tickets for this show before traveling east to Wyoming, and were very excited. I’ve always loved air shows and can’t get enough of them, so when I happened across an ad for this yearly event earlier in the year, and the fact that there is camping for the event, we were sold. https://www.cascadeairshow.com/ Arrival We made our way over from Joseph and pulled in to the big field reserved for campers. The field was huge. The man guiding us in spread us out nicely to give ample room. We immediately noticed there was an Arctic Fox of exactly the same model as ours, and we struck up a conversation with these folks and had a nice visit with them. It turns out they are actually going to have a restored model-T in the show, which is very cool. The Car Show We didn’t know there was a bonus car show to the deal until we arrived. We were actually able to arrive a day early on Thursday, which was nice to give us a chance to settle in. We went to first look at the cars, wow. You can really see the love and passion these people put into restoring them The airshow portions had classic B-17s, stunt planes, a jet which the name escapes me now (that one was the highlight IMO), parachute teams etc etc. The show itself was 2 days long, events scattered throughout. It was extremely entertaining and I would recommend this yearly event. Movie: B-17 Madras Air Show https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/b-17-madras-air-show-6184ddb691bd862727230d69
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Joseph, Oregon We have been wanting to see this area for some time and we finally booked a few days. It turns out a few days was not enough. We plan to return. There is a yearly event called “Chief Joseph Days” in town that we wanted to do previously but the timing interfered with the Escapees Escapade that we had already booked. But what a nice quiet very scenic little town. My wife and I enjoyed the walk up and down the main street just sightseeing. 5 Peaks RV Park We stayed in a nice, small rv park next to the town, and within walking distance of main street. I give this place 5 stars. Full hookups and clean. Not much more you can ask for, and directly out the back there was a Mexican restaurant, which was very average, a 3 of 5 stars, but nice tables in the grass where you can sit outside while you dine. Our spot had a direct passage out the back right to this restaurant, or if you went straight or right, direct access to main street. We went to a couple of restaurants while there. One of them was Embers Brewhouse which boasted a large selection of beer, my kind of place. I’d give it 4 stars out of 5. It was good but not great, only because of the average food, good, but not great. I’d return though, due to the large selection of beer. Off to Bend…
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The Oregon Trail, Baker City The Oregon Trail, Baker City Our trip west towards Joseph, Oregon brought us through historic Baker City. We had some time so we took a detour to the Oregon Trail Historical National Monument. What a great decision. As we walked up to the visitor center we noticed there was a presentation happening involving what appeared to be people of native American decent. Our timing was perfect for a weekly presentation they had just started. The visitor center itself was closed as the state had just shut everything down once again due to the China virus, but the stop was still worthwhile. We got a personal tour from one of the rangers there. The Oregon Trail We were quite thrilled to learn from the ranger there that if we stopped by a pullout on the way out towards Baker City, you can still see the wagon ruts from the actual Oregon trail, and in fact walk it if you desire! We weren’t going to bypass that opportunity to see such American history. What a great stop and a great day.
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The Museum of Clean Harvest Host Our trip back west from Rock Springs took us to a harvest host in Pocatello Idaho called “The Museum of Clean”. It’s one of those places that seems so strange you just have to see it. Arrival The parking lot was very level and clean, with a very nice grassy area that Mocha could romp around in, and for use to use a picnic area for dinner that evening. It was rather warm so it was nice sitting in the cool grass. The Tour We entered the next morning and the nice gentleman manning the counter gave us our AAA discount, and the rundown of the place. He clued us in that the owner was in that day, none other than the famous Don Aslett, who we found out has been on many well know talk shows over the decades. He was talking to a group of people so we joined in. We figured what better source of information than the man himself. He went through many of the artifacts and explained their origin and use, quizzing the crowd a couple times to see if we could guess what the article was and what it did. The Book Signing He then invited anyone to join him in his office and he’ll give us a book! Kathy asked if he could sign it, he seemed genuinely delighted about being asked. We told him one of our daughters really takes her books seriously, wearing gloves to preserve them and really enjoys collecting them. He signed her name to the book. We wanted to pay back somehow so we got another book, which we went to pay for and after returning, he signed that one for our other daughter as well! It was great chatting with this fellow, a very nice gentleman, and was delighted to hear our daughters still enjoy physical books and were avid readers growing up. He’s a big fan of old fashioned values as are we, and was happy to hear about our daughters (of whom we are very happy with ourselves). The Museum There were lots of interesting things to see: It was an interesting museum, we recommend if you’re passing through and need a night to stay. We’ve noticed just in the last year harvest hosts seem to book up sooner. It seems like we used to be able to call a couple days in advance and get a spot at random places. The harvest host website has started to put calendars on to self reserve, rather than call or text the hosts, so maybe the convenience has contributed to the demand. But we’re finding you probably need to contact hosts a week or more in advance for the more popular ones, depending on what day of the week you’re wanting to stay.
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Grand Teton Drone Footage Here’s some drone footage I forgot I had, I edited and cobbled together some footage with some of my original music from long ago. Posting these drone footages has inspired me to write more music related to scenery and landscapes to attach to the future drone footages. Stay tuned. Grand Teton Boondocking https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/grand-teton-boondocking-61271c1678bdf3ba7c6b972e
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Big Sandy Recreation Area, Wyoming Big Sandy Recreation Area, Wyoming We would have headed west out of the Tetons had it not been for the fact that Kathy had some minor skin surgery done in Rock Springs during our stay at the Escapees Escapade, and rather than pay extra for the stitches to be removed somewhere else at the 2 week window, we decided to head back south towards Rock Springs to be semi-near, so that she could head out for her stitch removal appointment. Besides she really liked this dermatologist as well so that is worth something. It turned out that this was a really great decision as we lucked out on the boondocking again. Big Sandy Recreation Area, Wyoming https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/big-sandy-recreation-area-wyoming-61258c16af60cfd01f2d9a18 A Beautiful View The Campendium app has been gold for us in finding dry camping locations and this was no exception. We got a choice spot right in front of the reservoir, a view of the mountains in the distance (although a bit hazy from smoke), and lots of walking and exploring of the surrounding desert to be done. Mocha loves these kind of places because there is nobody for many hundreds of feet all around, so she’s pretty much leash free the entire time. She loves to explore just as much as we do. The Perseids Meteor Shower By pure luck we happened to pull in 1 day before the 2 night peak of the annual Perseids meteor shower, and the forecast was for clear skies! We were nowhere near any light pollution whatsoever, so this was a first in our lives for us. We had never witnessed a meteor shower so remote before, and able to watch for hours into the morning if we so chose. The sky was clear from horizon to horizon. Kathy lasted about 20 minutes, and we saw quite a few. I stayed out for about another hour, as well as the next night. I did see quite a few of varying sizes, some very faint. There were a few doozies. But mostly I watched in awe of space and really soaking in the beauty of the universe. I’ll never forget that experience and this place the rest of my days. Some Desert Exploring We set out one day on a walk that ended up being a bit longer than we planned, due to seeing some interesting features in the desert landscape that drew us in to investigate. The features looked more man made, kind of a un-natural disturbing of the landscape although not completely obvious. Upon investigating these anomalies we did find a lot of evidence of past human occupation, with some interesting debris. One clear area looked like it may have been the remnant of a homestead, as it also had faint signs of parallel auto tracks that ended there. There was no structure left, but the terrain sure did look like there was habitation at some time in the distant past. Our curiosity was piqued and we began wandering off the trail into the surrounding desert on kind of an archeology expedition, searching for un-natural features in the landscape. It was a fun couple of hours imagining who it could be and what they could have been doing out there so remote. There were a couple of beautiful sunsets, and some great scenery, and it was very peaceful and quiet. We stayed for about a week, with plans to stop in Rock Springs on our way out to empty our tanks, fill the fresh tank, stop at the UPS store for my delivery from Instyconnect, and head on to our harvest host on our way back west. Some parting photos: https://href.li/?https://instyconnect.com/
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Queensryche in Wyoming! What a treat to find out that during our stay at the Sweetwater Events Complex in Wyoming, Queensryche is playing on 8/4/2021! You just need a fair ticket. What a great venue, great sound, and so fun to hear them play some old and new. We walked around and watched the preparation, energy building. At least mine was. The venue was right next to one of the large exhibition tents, and was lined with beer vendors. Ok I’ll have a couple, twist my leg. I captured a couple full length songs, I hope you enjoy 🤘 Queensryche in Rock Springs Wyoming https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/queensryche-in-rock-springs-wyoming-610dd4ed513b64a59bde21bd Queensryche in Rock Springs Wyoming https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/queensryche-in-rock-springs-wyoming-610dd31008520fa71ff22b26
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@drjenk
Red Desert Roundup Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming The Escapees were offering a “stay and play” package that included an extra 10 days to stay at the Sweetwater Event Complex after the escapade and experience the events they had scheduled. We jumped at it, as on the docket was a rodeo, and a few concerts that looked good, one in particular Queensryche! This is a band that got very popular during the early 90’s, and was formed in the Bellevue WA area in the 80’s. You’ve likely heard a song or two at some time in your life. So discovering this treat was quite exciting to say the least. That will be a subject of a post all by itself. But to the rodeo. Now, I can’t remember ever attending a rodeo in my life. Kathy says I may have attended the Ellensburg WA rodeo when we were dating and visiting her family there. I do remember walking to the fairgrounds but I thought we left that afternoon and did not attend. Regardless, the prospect of seeing a real rootin’ tooton’ Wyoming rodeo was very exciting. Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 1 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-1-610dc4842f9b5da988020dac Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 2 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-2-610dc5eec367eea7211d8f07 The rodeo started off with something called “Mutton Bustin'”, a strange custom whereby small children are strapped to large sheep and released into a large arena, sheep running as fast as sheeply possible, until the child is ejected from said sheep into the dirt at high speed. I thought this a strange ritual but entertaining nonetheless. I don’t believe any muttons were busted. I’m trying to think back to my childhood and imagine what I would have done if adults that I trusted strapped me to sheep in this manner and released me in to an arena as many people cheer my ejection from this animal. I think I might have trust issues, and perhaps sheep issues. All kidding aside, these kids took it like champs, smiles and waves as they were the stars of the rodeo for that portion of the show. The winner, a girl of perhaps 7 years old, rode that wooly mammoth nearly the entire length of the arena, quite impressive I thought. I regret not having a video of that. But here’s a few more of other events. Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 3 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-3-610dc68eae7c4f9d33006990 Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 4 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-4-610dc6d3d13e0e9d3158e3d9 Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 5 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-5-610dc734563266994281dda6 Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 6 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-6-610dc78cc367eea7211d8f87 Red Desert Roundup Rodeo 7 https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/red-desert-roundup-rodeo-7-610dc7e3ae7c4f9d330069f6 There was calf ropin’, bull ridin’, horse ridin’, barrel racin’, all manner of entertainment cowboy and cowgirl style. It got me thinking maybe I get a real cowboy hat. I observed many many styles and shapes. I went to a booth at the fair that had all kinds, but all of them “made in China”. No thanks. Ya they were affordable but a cowboy hat from China is sacrilege. Made in America for me thank you, even if more $. I’m sure there are of course shops somewhere here in Rock Springs that have the real deal, but I’ll wait. Perhaps when we’re in AZ, NM or Texas later. It was a great time and night out with my wife.
@drjenk
A Look at our Trailer When we first set out on the road in 3/2020, we owned an Escape 5.0TA. We had purchased this trailer just prior to realizing full time travel could be a reality. After some research, we did see that people do live full time in their Escapes, so we decided to give it a try. In December 2019, we had the trailer pretty much fully loaded with what we knew we were going to take with us, and went to the scales to have it weighed. We were somewhat dismayed that we were already overweight for its designed GVWR. So we had to make a decision. We went to the RV show in the Tacoma Dome in January of 2020, and put down some money on an Arctic Fox 27-5L. It seemed the perfect size, a lot of amenities but not too huge, and had a pretty big cargo capacity. After some pondering later in the year, we decided we wanted a washer/dryer combo and upped our purchase to the next model up, a 29-5T. We are so glad we did, it’s been excellent and perfect for our lifestyle. Our Arctic Fox 29-5T https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/our-arctic-fox-29-5t-610477b17eeb835822acab0d I’ve migrated our other videos from YouTube to GabTV. I think Gab is a great platform and trying to help out in establishing its presence where possible. Take a look at some other videos on our channel. https://href.li/?https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah
@drjenk
Escapees Escapade 2021, Rock Springs Wyoming Well after our journey from Oregon we have arrived in Rock Springs Wyoming. The check in process was pretty smooth, we are boondocking in an area adjacent to the indoor arena on a big parking lot. We’ve already met a couple of people who were actually at the harvest host bowling alley we stayed out the night before, and didn’t see them there. We got here a day early on the 17th, and immediately had to head into town to Les Schwabb to attempt to fix the left front tire on the truck. It’s had a slow leak for about a week, losing about 20 psi per day. It took them about an hour and a half, but Kathy and I went to Subway and had lunch while waiting. We get back and a nice gal there says she fixed it, a patch, and it’s free! That’s what I call service. We then had to run to Home Depot to get some plumbing for the sink, long story but they did a bit of a hack job at the factory and it was failing repeatedly, dumping water into our canned goods a couple times, so I had to go get some plumbing to do it right. The job is a success, it’s solid now. The plumbing is the exact same as a house so I’m well versed there. We also had a critter in here, evidenced by some food that had been broken into in our dry food drawer. So we picked up a couple small mouse traps, with some pepperoni, and viola by the next morning we had our perpetrator. So an eventful arrival day, but successful. Here is some pictures of our spot and setup. We opted for boondocking, it ended up in what is basically a parking lot. But we’re good, we’ve got a full tank of water, 82 gallons, and empty gray/black tanks. I set up our chairs and bbq and we’re good to go for the next 5 days of the event: We lucked out as we’re right near all of the events. This place is huge and there is huge number of RVs quite far away. But they do have ample golf carts ferrying people to and from events. Sunday July 18 Today, the 18th, is actually the official start of the rally. We went in to see some of the exhibits and vendors. Escapees also had an exhibit for their HOPS, chapters etc., and got a few really good tips from a few people there relating to where to camp and other such things. So far we’ve met quite a few people and everybody is really nice and helpful. In the opening ceremony, we actually all stood and sang the national anthem. That was a pleasant surprise considering all that it’s been going on with the country. I sang pretty loud. The person in front of us didn’t seem so proud of the country so I sang louder. We then went back to the trailer to take the dog out for a little bit. We then went back for the first-timer social, and door prize drawing. Kathy had already won some jewelry just for signing her name at a chapters desk, and she lucked out again. In a room of 400 people she won one of about 10 prizes, a bag of adventure body wipes and a Wyoming flag. Woohoo! So we headed back for dinner, and came right back for the door prizes at 7pm. After that followed a comedy/magic show, by a gal from Canada who hadn’t performed in 507 days due to Covid. We had a bit of trouble hearing due to the audio set up, but it was still fun and she did a great job I thought. Then Kathy and I headed back to the trailer, had a couple drinks, discussed our experience, and hit the hay. First seminar is at 830am. Monday July 19 The highlights for us today were a demonstration of a product called Wi-Fi rangers in the morning. This device will connect to all your sources of data, of which Kathy and I have three, and will allow them to be accessed through the single router. That seems like a pretty cool deal because we’re always switching our connections between our phones and our MiFi device from Verizon. So we may in fact be leaving here with one of those, I’m not sure yet. The next highlight was a 4 PM happy hour put on by RV country. And yes, free drinks, wine, margaritas, beer, seltzer drinks. We chatted with our neighbors for quite a while, and met a really nice lady Kathleen who we chatted with for a while, really nice people here. All of this was followed by a really great country concert at 7:30 PM by a group that really knows how to play. I really enjoyed listening to them. I wish I’d have remembered to take a picture. July 20-23 I kind of let the time get away from me a bit, the rest is an update on the remainder of the event. Suffice to say, we learned a lot. It was a challenge organizing all of the notes from all of the seminars. We walked away with a ton of information. One bit of information that particularly stands out, and one that is going to probably be a game changer for our data, is called the instyconnect. And it wasn’t even one of the seminars, nor even a vendor there, just a random conversation. A Data Revelation We were walking down what they call the ROW, where there are displays for all the different Escapee chapters, SKP coop parks, BOF groups and such, and I got into a conversation with a nice gentleman at the San Diego Coop park booth. We somehow got on the subject of data solutions, and he related what he was using, something called a Mofi. He and his wife love it, and she proclaimed so quite profusely when asked by her husband. They can get unlimited data with a standard data plan, due to how they can configure the modem to look like a phone, thus unlimited. I have since educated myself on this unit, and it turns out to be a rather interesting option as they are coming out with a brand new 5G model as of late. But he said what he’d do if he were getting one today, is get something called an Instyconnect. This gadget has an antenna on the roof, with the cellular modem (with SIM installed) right inside the antenna, thus almost zero cable loss. The modem coverts the RF into data, that data cable goes down inside the RV to the inside router, thus zero signal loss from roof to interior. Genius. This is contrasted with the Mofi option, which requires a pretty hefty RF cable to the roof, one which may need a new hole. I may be able to get away with using an existing hole, the solar panel cables, with the instyconnect data cable, which is small. My solution right now is to use a cellular booster, which works ok, but has about 35ft of RF cable, the loss of which negates the whole point of boosting. So I’m rather obsessed with the thought of obtaining this unit and will probably give in and buy one. https://href.li/?https://mofinetwork.com/ https://href.li/?https://instyconnect.com/ Those Pesky Critters The next most significant revelation we walked away with was how many methods there were to keep critters out of your RV home. As we’d had our first home mouse invasion a mere days before, we were rapt with attention on this subject, which came up in the “boondockers panel” seminar. So many methods shared, that are quite simple. From my notes: Mint Oil Moth balls Irish Spring Soap Rodent deterrent on jacks Solar lights underneath trailer and truck Cover any holes The solar lights option seems to be the most simple and effective, as I’ve had some conversations with folks here after this class, and our neighbor a couple units down in particular has used this method. Who knew, rodents just will not go where there is light, they are repelled. So we’re going to the local harbor freight here in town to pick a couple of these up, and put them underneath the trailer and truck at night. Also the cover the holes option is definitely on our list, as we can see where they can get in underneath our kitchen drawers. The factory had a couple oversize ones where they routed some cable. Going to get some of that foam expandy stuff from the home store and fix that problem. Volunteering Also up on the top of our list was information we gathered from a SOWERS seminar. They also had a booth in the ROW and I chatted with the guy about it. I think this is in our future. https://href.li/?https://sowerministry.org/ This is the End So this and many many more points were taken away, too many to write about really, at least for me. I would definitely recommend the escapade at least once, a massive learning experience. So many knowledgable people. We met some really nice people while here, a couple of which were our neighbors, Ray and Karen, that were very nice and we enjoyed our conversations with them at the happy hours. We exchanged some information, who knows maybe our paths will cross. Final Entertainment The closing ceremony was followed by another happy hour at the RV country motor home exhibit. Kathy and I went and got a couple drinks, me double fisting (hey they’re free :b), and strolled around the motor homes that were open. Wow. Some of these are gigantic. They then had a farewell concert at 6pm by a band we saw a couple nights before called the Status Crowes. They were good. So Kathy and I grabbed a table with our drinks around 545pm: So Kathleen came back over to sit at our table, which was quite a treat as we really enjoyed her company. Then comes along a couple, asking if these seats are occupied. “Nope! Hi I’m David and this is Kathy”. I begin to have a fascinating conversation that lasted 3 hours with this ex-law enforcement man, his wife was a cop as well. I wanted to pick his brain about many things, as I’ve always had respect for my elders, and always love to have conversations with them, but 10x with law enforcement. I have so much respect, and they have a ton of knowledge and insight that it is not every day you get to talk with one and have 100% attention. I took full advantage and asked about all things self-protection, preferred weapons, the state of gun rights violation in California, advice on shooting etc etc etc. It went on and on and I was fascinated. His hame was Ray, he volunteered to exchange information, and said if I’m ever down in the Las Vegas area (which I think we may be in January), to contact him and we can go to the Clark County shooting range fire off a few! That would be an honor and I think I might actually take him up on that, depending on circumstances. We decided to take advantage of the “stay and play” option, where they will have a rodeo and fair at these fairgrounds in the near future. We’re moving to a full hookup site for this. We’re very excited. There will be a week of downtime between now and then so we’re going to use a couple days to see some local attractions, one may be Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. Stay tuned. In the meantime we’ve got most of this particular boondocking area to ourselves. Those that aren’t staying for the rodeo and fair, which is most, have left. So we’re being a little more lenient with the leash rules, which Mocha doesn’t mind at all. There’s nobody around. So what a great time. We’ll probably do it again.
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@drjenk
Uinta Lanes Harvest Host Our second harvest host on our trip to Wyoming for the Escape escapade RV rally was Uinta Lanes in Evanston Wyoming. This location put us in a good position for the final leg the next day to Rock Springs. The Arrival It was very large parking lot to easily maneuver backing up the fifth wheel. We were having a couple of minor issues along the way. I went to put out the bedroom slide and it was hung up on the upper left corner. It took a few tries to figure out what the problem was, a trim screw had walked out enough to snag on the trim on the trailer when the slide was on its way out. So I got a screwdriver and tighten them all up, problem solved. We also have a slow leak in the left front tire, about 20psi per day. What save the day with this awesome portable Dewalt generator that runs on their 20V batteries. This thing is the most awesome tire inflator I think I have ever seen. It enabled us to continue down the road and continue on our journey well planning a tire visit at our destination, which will be Rock Springs. If it wasn’t for this thing I don’t know what I would’ve done. We picked it up in Lapine Oregon last March when we were at the Thousand Trails. What a great buy. So a bit of a rocky arrival, less than ideal, but relatively minor issues. Bowling Kathy and I have not been bowling in probably 20 years or more. We actually used to have our own ball and shoes before purging pre-travel. So we got our funky bowling shoes on, did the hunt for the perfect house ball, and hit the lanes. We played 2 games, had some pizza, and I had a couple beers. Little did I know we were camping next door to some people we would come across later at the Escapade. So it was a great time.
@drjenk
Cold Springs Winery Harvest Host Arrival On our journey over to Wyoming we scored this fantastic harvest host, Coldsprings Winery. Upon pulling up we met this nice older gentleman, who says he is the dad of the owner, and we have a nice conversation out in front of where we parked. His daughter-in-law took off for some errands and left him in charge, and he proceeded to treat us to tasting after tasting after tasting, what a nice man and very generous. https://membership.harvesthosts.com/member/host/profile/coldsprings-winery The Tasting While we tasted wine, another couple came in and we had a very nice conversation, they were very knowledgeable about Florida and the keys, and they have us very excited about our future wintering there. The host served several different types of wine, we chose a few for purchase. We then took a little stroll around the vineyard, was a very nice evening, it was cooling off nicely. It was a very enjoyable stay, off to the next harvest host.
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@drjenk
Spring Creek Oregon Boondocking We’re staying a couple days at elevation on our journey over to Wyoming, to try and escape the heat for a bit. Searching on our campedium app yielded this place in the Umatilla National Forest just outside of LaGrande. It is nice and quiet, and we actually debated staying and skipping the event in Wyoming. But we decided it looked like too much fun and so we’re headed out tomorrow. Maybe we’ll be back here some day.
@drjenk
Tucannon River RV Park As our first leg of our trip to Wyoming for the national RV rally in Rocksprings, we decided we wanted to see Southeast Washington. We became very curious about it a few months ago when we were briefly looking for a property. There was a piece of land for sale just outside of Pomeroy Washington, and we began reading about the area, and began to think this may be one of the destinations on our list if and when we ever buy any property or property with a house. We want to live somewhere more remote, and away from big cities, but close enough to a larger one to benefit from its amenities. This area is fairly near Walla Walla to the south, and Clarkston to the east. These cities have all the shopping amenities, doctors, hospitals, dentists etc that one would want or need. The RV park itself is really nice, we’ve really been enjoying ourselves. The host are really friendly, and the park has all the features one would want or need. Five stars. The way the hosts came to be caretakers of the park is an interesting story. Somewhat similar to us, they have kids in Western Washington, and wanted to be somewhat close to them without living right on top of them. That’s kind of the balance we are going to try and strike if we ever buy into some property. We don’t want to be lording over them, but still want to be able to hop in the car and see them (and possibly future grandchildren) fairly conveniently once in a while. We do also want less rain, in a little bit different weather pattern as we have both lived in Western Washington our entire lives. We just want something different. So Southeast Washington, and eastern Washington in general, check a lot of boxes for us. We’re not limiting ourselves to Southeast, we also enjoyed the Quincy area, and maybe even perhaps the Ellensburg Kittitas area. They all are worthy of our interest. A lot is going to depend on what we can get for our money, all else being equal. Other states are still not off our list as well, we’re going to use the coming years to determine exactly where we want to live by spending a decent amount of time in different places. So we’ve been doing a bit of driving around, going to Dayton, passing through Waitsburg, heading down to Walla Walla etc. so far they are wonderful little towns, and we can see why people live here. Such clean little quiet towns. They look very healthy and alive. We discovered the Seneca Food plant is in Dayton. Interesting. We also took off for Palouse falls one day, wow what a view. We took off one day to go see Clarkston and had a nice picnic by the Snake River. We’re taking off next for the Escapees national rally in Rock Springs Wyoming, followed by some time north near the Grand Tetons. We have a Seahawks game booked with my wife’s aunt Polly in Yakima on September 19 so we’re going to start heading back to the general area late August. We’re going to go over to her house and watch the game with her. She’s a huge Seahawks fan and we’ve been thinking of this idea for quite a while and it’s finally going to happen. She sounds very thrilled about the idea as well. It will be fun.
@drjenk
Ayer Boat Basin Boondocking What a fantastic place to spend a couple nights. We had a couple days with no plans leaving the races in Monroe. We’ve had pretty good luck with last-minute boon-docking plans, the compendium app has been a fantastic tool to find great locations that are free and beautiful. We really lucked out this time, almost nobody was in the campground when we arrived and there’s a prime spot on the water that was vacant, all free. The only downside is it was a blazing 98°, but it cools off nicely at night and we had a great time. Very peaceful here. I fired up the drone and got some shots. https://tv.gab.com/channel/jeconiah/view/ayer-boat-basin-boondocking-610db2ac4bda649d2fbf9ecf Our views were spectacular, very beautiful place. Some shots of our site and from it…
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@drjenk
The Dirt Cup, Skagit Speedway My wife and I went to the Skagit Raceway dirt cup the other night. It happened to be one of the hottest nights I’ve ever experienced in the Pacific Northwest. The race officials did postpone the start of the race from 7 PM to 8:30 PM, but we didn’t get word of that before we entered at about 645, nor did we get word of it until about 7:30pm. So we sat sweltering kind of needlessly. We didn’t die, we had plenty of beverages including water, I had a couple of beers. It was fun hanging out watching the cleaning crew prepare etc. We always love going to the races and this was no exception. We’re also going to the Monroe race on the Fourth of July with my brother-in-law‘s, which is always fun. It’s going to be a fun couple of days and we’re really looking forward to it.
