RVing – Wandering Dawgs

Terri’s latest Sunday Stills challenge is Storm. She titled her post “Riders on the #Storm” and took us along on a some of her stormy road trips.

Terri’s challenge reminded me of a cross country RV trip we took towing our 5th wheel trailer. We left home in early April, 2007. Our plan was to drive north to Wisconsin and then travel west on I-90, visit Olympic National Park and then drive south along the coast on Highway 101 to see the Pacific coast in Washington, Oregon and California. What we didn’t plan on was driving through snow during the first part of our journey.

We started seeing snow flurries in Illinois. When we got to a campground in Wisconsin the snow was really coming down. The featured image is of our dog Blondie in the snow for the first time.

We left Wisconsin and started west on the interstate. We ran into a huge snow storm in Minnesota. The road was icy and driving on it was terrifying. We decided not to try to go any further when we saw a sign for a motel at the next exit. We parked in the motel parking lot hoping they would let us stay for the night with our dog Blondie. The desk clerk was very kind and let us have a room near the parking lot exit so we could take Blondie in and out without disturbing the other guests. Luckily they had a restaurant and we were able to have a hot dinner. We kept our eye on the weather and the road conditions all night. The next morning the roads were predicted to reopen later in the morning. The hotel staff was very helpful and let us have a late check out while we waited for the roads to open.

Snow covered trees beside the interstate in Minnesota

A farm in the snow beside the interstate in Minnesota

When the roads were opened back up we hit the road and continued west. We arrived safely at a state park.The rangers checked us in and since we were the only campers there and we could have any site we wanted. The water was frozen but there was electricity so we were good. We had quite an adventure camping in the snow in this beautiful park.

We had the park to ourselves at Blue Mounds State Park in Luverne, Minnesota

The next day we continued our westward trek. The weather was clear the next few days as we wandered around South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana without any problems. Our final stop in Montana was another snowy adventure. Everything was fine when we went to sleep that night. The next day we woke up to several inches of snow. We were headed west with more snow moving towards us from the east so we got out of there as fast as we could and arrived safely at our next destination in Washington.

We woke up to snow in the campground Garrison, Montana

We were grateful to have survived the storms and were able to enjoy nice traveling weather for the next two months as we continued our west coast adventures.

Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge Riders on the #Storm

Every Day is a Gift

John has a fun challenge for us this week – On the Move. He asks “How do you travel? Where do you go?”

I started my blog in 2013 as a way for our friends and family to follow us along on our four month RV journey to Alaska and back. The featured image is of our truck and fifth wheel in our campsite in Denali National Park in Alaska.

From 2006 to 2019 we spent many days on the move as we wandered around the United States and Canada in our trusty Chevy Silverado towing our home on wheels. We traveled from campground to campground, state to state, and through a few Canadian provinces. Sometimes we would be away from home for a week or two, other times for a month or more.

We towed our fifth wheel on interstates and back roads and sometimes took it on a ferry to get where we needed to go. I captured the first image in the following gallery as we waited our turn to board the small ferry to cross the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon. We also towed our camper on the Alaskan ferry from Skagway to Haines and on a Texas ferry on the way to Galveston.

We watched this truck and trailer board the ferry to cross the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon

During our RV travels we would often take excursions on different types of transportation. In Alaska we took a ride on the Alaska Railroad, rode a bus in Denali National Park, took wildlife cruises from Haines and from Seward, and landed on a glacier in a small plane.

Our driver with the bus he drove on the road through the Denali Wilderness in Denali National Park, Alaska

In 2019 we made the decision to park the RV and take different kinds of trips. We went on our first ever ocean cruise 2022. We were hooked.

The Viking Sea was our home for two weeks as we sailed around the Caribbean on our first cruise.

We had some fun modes of transportation in some of the ports. We rode on a Wacky Roller bus in Dominica, an open-air Safari bus in Tortola, Henry drove us around St. Martin in a Talon 4-wheeler, and the Monster Bus in Costa Rica took us into the rain forest.

Henry drove is around St. Martin in one of these Talons

No matter how we move from place to place we always enjoy seeing new places, meeting people, and enjoying the scenery along the way.

Thanks to Egidio for taking us back to challenge #31: Landscapes last week. Your responses took us around the world with your wonderful landscapes of mountains, valleys, oceans, and so much more.

I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to John’s post Lens-Artists #374 – On the Move!.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, November 22 at noon eastern time when Patti will be hosting the challenge.

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift