Saturday, August 30, 2008

The first couple days

A little about our first couple days of vacation...

We left early in the morning, so we had travelled well into Utah by the time it was time to stop for the day. We wanted to travel as far as possible that first day, because traveling through the deserts of California isn't fun when the AC doesn't work well. When driving through Las Vegas, we saw a large homeless tent city alongside the freeway. After seeing that, we stopped complaining about how warm it was in the RV.

Our favorite billboard in Nevada


The first night, we stayed in a campground that was filled with ATV's and dirtbikes. We didn't bring ours along this time, so it was just a tease. There was a nice little pool for the kiddos, and they enjoyed it after the sweaty ride through the desert. I warmed chili over the campfire and sat at the picnic table. Walking by the table, my ankles became entangled with the dog leashes. I was like a calf roped and tied at the rodeo. My feet came to a halt, but my upper body continued... I fell straight down onto the side of the picnic table, hitting E2's head with my head as I fell. Her face slammed against the table top and I saw that her mouth was full of blood. I thought that I had surely knocked out some teeth. I grabbed her and ran into the RV for ice and a towel, limping as I went because I had hit HARD. Thankfully, all her teeth were still in place, but she had bitten her tongue in two places. An otter pop relieved the pain, and she was fine the next day. The giant bruises on my thigh and knee are still healing. I didn't wear shorts most of the trip because it looked as if I had been beaten with a baseball bat. I was afraid that this was a bad sign of what was to come during the trip, luckily, that was not the case.


The next morning we were on the road again. We stopped for gas in Filmore, UT and saw that gas was cheaper across the street, plus, they had this sign:
So, we drove across the street and gave them our business.

We decided to drive to the Grand Tetons for our second night. We took a wrong turn along the way, but we enjoyed the drive. We took the "road less travelled" and only saw 15 cars in several hours, but countless cows.

We pulled into the RV park in Grand Teton National Park well after dark. It was straight to bed, but up early for a beautiful morning in the woods. Because of bear warnings we took turns walking to the lake with the kids. Dogs needed to stay near the campers and off the trails because we were told that they tend to attract bears. great.

The kids practiced skipping rocks into the lake. E1 and E2 were able to skip rocks, and E3 was happy as can be tossing rock after rock into the water.


Later that morning, we headed north to Yellowstone.

5 comments:

Butterfly Wife said...

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the fall and injuries. But the rest sounds like fun.

Buck said...

The kids practiced skipping rocks into the lake.

How VERY strange... I spent quite a bit of time skipping rocks on the very same lake during my visit to the Tetons! Maybe it's coz there are just so many perfect skipping rocks on the shore, eh?

And, wow. Your fall sounds pretty bad, Susan. I'm glad it wasn't a harbinger of things to come.

Susan said...

It's something about that lake that invites rock skipping. E3 didn't want to stop until he was "finished", which I think he meant "when all of the rocks are gone".
People came and went while we were there, and I think everyone tossed at least one rock into the lake.

ABW said...

Looks like fun! I love road trips with the kids, and what beautiful places you got to see and memories to make!

Guard Wife said...

What a great travel log! LOVE the photos of the kiddos. :) So glad you had such a wonderful time.