Confusion and, conclusion?

I'm confused.

 

Not about what we're doing, but about how to reflect it all here in this blog.

 

There's so much to catch up on going way back to November, there's what we've been doing lately to report on and then there are other events, unrelated to our specific travels, that have deeply touched our lives.

 

I think what I might try to do right now is catch you up on what is happening right now and then as time goes by, go back and report on our adventures that got us to this point in time.

 

We are officially home again.  Well, in Boulder County, Colorado anyway.  As of yesterday afternoon, we have officially come full circle!  I can't believe it.  I remember wondering as we were driving out last year how fast this upcoming year of adventure would actually go by.  Well, I'm here to tell you that it has gone by in a flash!  A very fast moving slideshow of events, people and places.  It's absolutely shocking to think we've made it a full year and here we are right back where we started again.  Geographically speaking that is.  In every other aspect we are so so very far removed from where we started......It's amazing what a year on the road, with all its unpredictability, will do for your own personal human growth and development as well as that of your family.

 

Geographically, we've experienced:  Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, NY - state and city, New England - Maine mostly, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California!

 

I skipped the 'in between' states in this list since we just drove through them so I can't really claim we've experienced them.  Looking at the list it kind of amazes me that that's 'all' we've done.  It's been a year after all, but we did spend over a month and even two in some of those states, so I guess that explains things somewhat.

 

So yes, we're home now.  Or like I said, in our home county at least.  We're not yet quite sure what the upcoming year holds for us.  We have rented out our house for an additional year so we have plenty of flexibility and some decision making to do as to what we want to happen.  One big lesson we learned this year is to wait and see.  We've learned that the answers comes when you ask the right questions and when you just let things happen, or flow, if you like.  We learned that not every step in life, even the big ones, needs planning weeks, months or even years in advance.  We've learned to trust.  We've learned to listen. And we've learned to act on what we hear, see and feel.  We've learned a lot and like I said, we've grown tremendously.

 

So where does that leave us?  I don't have an answer to that.  Yet.

 

What I do know is that we'll hang around here for the next month enjoying friends and our old stomping grounds, and then?  Who knows.  We have options and we are letting them digest and process.  Who knows what may come along down the road or around the corner......

 

Whatever happens though, we'll keep you posted!

 

In the meantime I'll be going back in time to fill you in on all we've done between November and now and try to stick to the chronological order of events to the best of my ability.  The purpose of the blog was, after all, to be our travel journal that we share with all of those who are interested.  Thank goodness I take a million pictures that guide me in the blog writing process!  I also have a couple of other topics, unrelated to our travels, that need reporting on and I'll likely start with those.

 

See you in the next post!

 

:-)

These are a few of my favorite things.....

Are you singing yet?  ;-)  Why is it my brain always has as song in it??

But really, someone asked me recently if there was anything I wish I had taken with me in the RV that I didn't, and, was there anything I wish I hadn't taken with me.  Surprisingly, the answers were easy as pie.

There was only one thing I wish I had brought with me from our stick house that I didn't:  My 4 cup measuring cup.  Yup, really.  That's the only thing I found myself missing on a regular basis.  Easily remedied luckily, and it was.

As to the second question, well, that one was easy too.  A lot of what we took I wish we hadn't.  That includes, toys, books, activity type books for the kids, games, plastic containers (tupperwareish stuff that is), 'school' stuff, and certain clothes.  Yes, we need some from each category mentioned, but not nearly as much as I took....And I thought I was cutting way way back on all that stuff too.

These questions however got me thinking about what I find I can't live without in the RV.  In other words, what did I take that I'm *really* grateful for?

Here are my top ten (in no particular order, except for the first maybe):

1. The Blendtec.  Of course.  We couldn't have breakfast on most days without it.

2. A salad spinner.  Yes.  How else can one efficiently and quickly dry mounds of lettuces and greens?

3. All my beloved plastic baskets, bins and containers!  I am finally actually using every single one! I am the queen of bins, baskets and containers.  Just ask S......I have every single bin and container that filled our 4000sqft house in this 36ft RV!  Really.  Everything needs its own home when you're dealing with such a small space.  And a home that will literally contain those things when it's moving to boot.

4. Two sheet sets per child.  Do I really need to explain?  Suffice it to say that when one child is sick the others, typically, follow suit.  I don't want to be worrying about doing laundry when I'm busy trying to keep a vomiting child aiming for a container, or at least away from the carpet (stinky carpets are not thrilling in a small closed space).  Not to mention other things that could happen to said sheets....

5. A computer.  Duh.

6. A comfortable couch.  When we bought the RV we quickly realized the couch was not going to cut it comfort wise.  It was just not conducive to curling up on let alone sitting comfortably on.  It was quickly replaced and I am oh so very grateful for that!  Our new couch has the added bonus of providing us with some great under couch storage space the original didn't.  And yes, it is a sleeper sofa as well.  Sleepover anyone?

7. Good coolers and ice packs.  Have to keep all that produce somewhere, it just won't all fit in the fridge for a few days after we shop.

8. Lots and lots of blankets.  Lots of them.  From heavy comforters to Gramma's many quilts and afghans to lightweight throws.  Every single one has come in handy, especially on frigid nights when each child is tucked under at least 4 covers.  On top of their super warm PJs.

9. Several ice trays.  Most RV freezers do not come equipped with ice makers and you can't make a decent smoothie without ice.

10. Homemade, all natural, all purpose cleaning liquid.  Thank you J in Boulder!!  Noxious odors (from regular cleaning products) become a whole lot more noxious in tight closed spaces....


So, all you RVers out there, what am I missing from this list?  Though I really don't have that much room in here for a heck of a lot more....  :-)

Home, home on the range.....

If home is where you park it, we're home baby!

It's been a wonderful, eventful and well, just full six (eeik!) weeks of staying with friends and family, literally in their houses.  But now, we're home again.  Not far from said friends and family, but we're in our very own abode.

Time spent with others is rewarding and enjoyable of course and everyone was so gracious, generous, welcoming, and just fun to be with.  But come on, how long can you go without being in your own space and being master of your own domain? (OK all you Seinfeldians, settle down now, I'm using the true definition here!)

As Analyzer put it when we walked in "Ahhh! It's so good to be home.  And I can hear the crickets again!".  That's my nature girl :-).

And speaking of nature, it simply satisfies the soul to be in it again.  Not just for a quick visit, but to live in.  To settle in, in.  Just to be clear, we're not in some far off national park or something.  Nor are we enjoying any spectacular natural phenomenon (sorry Texans...).  We're just north of Austin on Lake Travis at a plain ol' RV park.  We're not even on the water, can't even see it from here.  Nonetheless, we're outside, we're more relaxed and we're more in touch, with each other and ourselves.

For example, today we spent 8.5 hours driving from here to there in Austin, running this errand and that, as well as doing some martial arts (ok. some people got to actually have fun).   We spent some lovely chunks of time in I-35 traffic, going both directions (worse than DC if you ask me!).  We did manage to have some enjoyable snacks and smoothies at the Daily Juice (a mostly raw all vegan Austin tradition) so that was fun, yummy and fulfilling.  So not all was a pain you see.  The iphone died just as I was taking a picture so I'm bummed I can't show it to you.

My point here is that once we finally, FINALLY, arrived back at the campsite, we all took a long deep breath and said/felt:  Hallelujah!  All was peaceful, all was calm and all was just chill (can you use that as an adjective??). The kids, including S with the recycling, immediately hopped on their bikes and road off. The unloading and putting away of stuff was painless and refreshing for me.  Once that was done, the lounge chairs beckoned and out I went to sit with my trusty computer to throw together this entry.  This atmosphere, as opposed to the daily suburban life vibe we've been experiencing for so long, summons up my expressive juices I guess.

That's gotta be a seriously good sign.  Don't you think?

Our first AAA call.....

All we wanted was to see the Erie Canal.  That's it.  Not a big deal.  As we were driving east from Buffalo, I didn't think that was too much to ask for.  Really.  Another chance at a great history lesson for us all.

Examining the map as we were driving down the road I spotted the Old Erie Canal State Park, just east of Syracuse, NY.  Perfect I thought, what could be better?  I set the GPS and off the highway we went.  So far so good.

Driving driving driving, we get to the park.  Humm, there's a fork in the road and no indication as to what the difference might be.  OK, so we choose the one on the right and off we go to wherever it might lead us, hopefully right up to the canal itself since we didn't want to spend too much time there.  Our goal was to get to the western edge of the Adirondacks that evening.

We round a curve and see just a head of us, the parking lot.  The rather small parking lot with two cars parked in it, one on either side.  Uh oh.  There's no way we were fitting in there and certainly no way we were turning around in there.  If the cars weren't there then maybe, just maybe, we'd have a chance, but not as things stood we didn't.  With plenty of room and grass on either side of us though, we decided to turn around then and there and head back down.  No problem, we've done it before.

We've done it before yes, on dry grass and less muddy conditions.  Apparently, here the grass was wet.  The ground was wet.  It had been raining the past few days after all.  Hello?!?!

Too late.

S started making the turn.  So far so good.

Got half way turned when, oops, the truck wasn't moving.....one of the tires was spinning.  Then another.  Then all four were spinning.....S emptied our fresh water tank hoping it would lighten the load.  Nope. No luck.  S tried many other ideas and maneuvers with no luck.  Finally, he called uncle and told me to call AAA.  Guess we weren't going anywhere for a while.....

So here we were, completely blocking the road and not able to move an inch.  Cars were not coming in and cars were not getting out.  Thankfully we're not talking about the busy season here, but still.  We had already made friends with those now stuck in the parking lot.  Two older gentlemen who were happy to chat, offer advice and wished they could help.  For two people who were stuck because of us they were really nice!  Well, truth is S offered to detach and move the truck so they could pass, but they declined.  After all, this was quite a show!  And as S put it, this is going to be a live episode of  "Modern Marvels".



OK, so given that we were gonna be here now for a while, we let the kids out and took food over to the picnic tables to have a late lunch.  If we had to be stuck, at least it was in a beautiful place with gorgeous fall foliage!

The kids being kids though immediately set about playing utilizing every tree, stump and guardrail.

It was a Kung Fu Panda moment -



Yes there's a child up in that tree



Soon after we sat down to eat, a police officer drove up.....

S immediately went over and explained the situation.  He came back with a serious face and explained how the officer HAS to report the incident and give us a BIG ticket.  He totally had me, we were not in trouble. The officer was courteous and very business like.  He was satisfied that S had it all under control, by calling AAA that is, and off he went saying he will keep an eye on us.  So far so good, again.

Having eaten I took the kids on a short hike down to the Erie Canal.  Remember, that's why we were there in the first place!

Well, it's basically a river.  No, I didn't expect much more, but it is basically a river.  We talked about the history a bit and enjoyed watching the ducks swimming by.  While down there we chatted with another family fishing off the bridge.  They asked us if we had come down from up above.  I said why yes we had. They asked what's going on up there?  I asked what do you mean?  They said there was a police officer parked blocking the road going up......I said oh, I guess that would be because we're stuck in the mud up there and no one can get through. They laughed.  I deserved it.  It was funny!



After that little exchange we headed back up to the scene of the crime, leaves crunching beneath our feet



AAA had arrived!  Huge truck!!  It was a semitrailer mover!!!



But unfortunately it was the wrong truck nonetheless......Yes, that huge red thing was not enough to pull us out.  Actually, it had the wrong attachment if I'm not mistaken.

Ya know, you tell the operator EXACTLY what it is you have.  I mean EXACTLY.  You tell her that we need a tow truck to attach to the 5th wheel (providing the exact specifications of course) since we can separate the truck from the RV and get the truck out without assistance.  It's the RV that needs to be pulled out of the muck.  No use.  They send the wrong one anyway....

So off we go to climb more trees.



Finally, reinforcements for the reinforcements arrive.  Along with 3 other guys.  First a puny Chevy Silverado.  I mean come on!

Then the big guns show up.  Woohoo!  Now we're talking.

Here you see us, the new arrival, the initial arrival, the pick up truck belonging to the 4th tow guy AND the police car, who has now come up to watch the show.



Let the games begin!

Gettin' the correct attachment set up on the tow truck.  They also got their tools out and followed S's directions to remove our kingpin attachment (have NO idea what that is btw...) so it would fit properly.

Nice wording on the side, no?  Wait, it gets worse.  To try and give them the benefit of the doubt though, they could be using the rugby definition of the word.  Look it up, as my Dad would say.  Either way, there's a grammatical error at hand here.  But who am I to talk....



Back it up boys, nice and slow....

The four shadows you see in the peanut gallery are mine, one of the stuck gentlemen, S, and the police officer.  It was quite a show.  Everyone was riveted.  Not kidding!

The kids by now were safely in the truck watching a movie.  The mosquitos had come out in full force, not to mention big tow trucks backing up, and a movie was the perfect solution.



Oops, dropped all the bits from the toolbox out on the wet grass....



Rearranging things on our hitch and theirs.  Messin' around with stuff.

S praying, please don't break my hitch, please don't break my hitch.....



Aay yaa yay we're tilting.....and the pants are dropping.....Come on, haven't we got enough to deal with?  Do we have to have a peep show as well??



Yup!  He lost 'um.....I hope the kids were well engrossed (no pun intended) in the movie....



At this point S turned to the police officer, who up 'till now was polite though very official and all business, and with a straight face said: "Boy, that guy sure is in the wrong profession!".  Well, that brought the formality barrier crashing down and the officer and S had a good laugh :-)

More wiggling and playing with the attachments....

More praying,  p-l-e-a-s-e   d-o-n-'t   b-r-e-a-k   m-y   h-i-t-c-h!!




One last adjustment and......



Out she comes!



Whew!!

There were a few precarious moments there when the RV was so tilted I was really worried it would completely fall over.  Those moments were pretty quick though which is why I have no photos of them. The whole fiddling, attaching and pulling out time was probably about 45 minutes or so.

These are the marks we left in the grass.  Kind of hard to tell, but we were pretty sunk in there.....



Finally, we were back on solid ground and could separate from the tow truck.  All devices and hitches were in one piece I'm happy to report.



Finally everyone could leave, pants and all.  Thankfully.



Seriously though, those guys were so so nice and really knew what they were doing.  THANK YOU where ever you are!!  The officer jumped in his car the minute we were free of the mud and sped off.  I have a feeling he was hanging around past his shift just to see how it all turned out :-).

Needless to say we didn't make it to the Adirondacks that evening.  Instead of camping in a beautiful location we again ended up at the nearest Walmart, East Syracuse this time.  Funnily enough the signs said 'no overnight parking' but management said it was ok to do so and there were other RVs doing the same, so we joined them.



And so ends our day of the Erie Canal.  Remember, that's what it WAS all about to begin with....

A house vs. a home

Yes, the dog was introduced to you yesterday, before the people.  If you know our cousins P&A, you won't even question that order of events. Dogs are royalty in this house!

 

Having our behemoth parked in their driveway was quite a curiosity to all who live and drive by there I'm sure.  It's not your 'typical' RVing neighborhood (if there is such a thing)....

 

 

Here we are enjoying a wonderful dinner at a fancy location.  No jeans allowed.  We had to dig out our, relatively, dressy clothes for this one.  I said relatively.  Everything's relative....

 

 

Needless to say those clothes haven't gotten much use on our trip.  We brought them along specifically for these kinds of occasions.  I did not however bring along fancy dress shoes for the boys. So, that meant their everyday beat up sneakers went along with their button down shirts and clean, hole-less, pants :-). Analyzer was the one most decked out with her dressy shoes and velvety dress.

 

While in Buffalo, we stayed inside my cousin's actual house, not in the RV as we had originally planned.  This was the first time since leaving our own house that we stayed within 'real' walls.  We had two bedrooms at our disposal, one large bathroom all to ourselves plus an extra one in the house.  We had excellent water pressure and endless hot water.  We had consistent heating and cooling.  We had a large fridge to accommodate all our fresh produce and such, as well as a large kitchen to use.  We had in-house laundry facilities and of course, plenty of room to maneuver.



 

 

Given all those luxuries, you would think we would have had a hard time going back to our small, 'limited' house on wheels.

 

Well, I'm here to tell you that that wasn't the case AT ALL.  Nope, not one bit!  We loved being with my relatives of course are are so grateful for their wonderful hospitality, but missed our home.  We missed being among our things and our surroundings.  As comfortable as our beds were in the house, and they were, we missed our own beds.  Like most people know I would assume, it's not easy packing up your stuff to take with you when you're traveling.  Especially when kids are involved.  And boy is it a great feeling coming home again, even if your time away was terrific.  It's home.  And that's exactly what we'd experienced.  We had left home for several days and then came back.  Yes, we had a fantastic time with my wonderful cousins and enjoyed them and their house, but it was good to be home again when it was all over.

 

I'm getting ahead of myself though.  We did plenty in Buffalo before we left, but I'll save that for next time.

 

RV there yet???

HA HA! I know.....We actually saw it on another RV's bumper.  When you're driving for hours and days on end, humor becomes a necessity.  Even if it's bad humor :-).

It was the day of three states.  We started in Illinois, drove across into


and ended up in



It was also the day of a world record, for us.  We left by 10AM!!  Rv and all!  That is totally unheard of the way we've been rolling. Yes, it's exciting, especially since we were looking at another long day of driving. Not to worry, the excitement was short lived since we made a little detour to try and find a memorial and then we hit construction.  That early start got us nowhere fast.  Oh well.

We did however come across this peculiarly named location....It pretty much suited its surroundings.....Again, pardon our humor at this point in time...



Then there was this



Sunsets on broad open skies are really something else.  Especially when they're reflected in your side view mirrors....

I have to say, those long days of driving were getting old.  Driving with a long distance destination in mind AND a certain date to be there by is just not fun.  Yes, we can stop and seek out interesting places to see and things to do.  But, like I said, we had a timetable to follow now.  External circumstances were influencing our decisions and that's ok.  The payoff will be great, it's just not fun driving and driving and driving.....and parking in Walmart after Walmart across the country.....It really is easier to just pull into one of those for the night rather than drive around looking for a state park or such.  Not to mention cheap.

On this night though we ended up parked at a truck stop.  Yikes! Talk about noisy!!  Not to mention we could only find a spot along the edge to park and therefore decided to sleep with all the slides in so they wouldn't be torn off by a truck driving by in the middle of the night.....



Sleeping with the slides in isn't bad at all, it really makes little difference.  We just had to pick the chairs up so the kids wouldn't walk into them in the middle of the night while heading to the bathroom.  Minor adjustments like that and we were good to go.  The kids liked sleeping in *very* close quarters (as if the quarters weren't close enough!).  Basically the boy's bunk bed ends up being pretty much right under Analyzer's bed, with a little room to walk in between.  Real cozy is what it was!

The new experiences never cease.....



The black hills are indeed pretty black. When you're driving through them at 10PM.....

OK.  This post went up by accident a couple days ago, but since it only had a sentence in it, obviously it was not ready to be published.  My apologies!  So here we go -

This, on the off chance you haven't experienced it for yourself, is what "I'm tired, I'm pissy and leave me alone" looks like, at 10 o'clock at night and nowhere near a place to settle down....



So what happened?  Well, like I said yesterday, we had a plan.  Our mistake was trying to stick to it like glue.  Bad bad idea.

By the time we left Devils Tower it was almost dark.  Stupid.  Every time I think about it feel like smacking my forehead.  I'll try to get over it so I can through this post without repeating myself a million times.  Luckily tummies were full, so that wasn't an issue at least.  The drive out of northeastern WY is a beautiful one.  You know the pictures you see of the Sundance film festival?  Well, it's pure ranch land beauty.  Unfortunately, our view of it was short lived since it got dark fast.  No more view.  Good reason number one why not to travel at night.  Reason number two, as we crossed into South Dakota I couldn't get a picture of the welcome sign.  OK, not a terrible event in itself, but a bummer for our collection.

So, here we are, heading towards Deadwood, SD.  We were told there was a casino there we could spend the night in (the parking lot that is) and then the next day we were going to do some sightseeing, including a great free museum a friend highly recommended.  Deadwood BTW was a wild gold mining town frequented by Wild Bill Hickock, Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane, etc.

Driving, driving, driving, we finally made it to the town.  It was somewhere around 9PM already.

We located the casino but did not see anywhere one could park an RV.  After driving around the small town for a while, trying to figure out which end is up, S situated us in a public lot across the street from the casino and went in search of some info.  We waited in the car, parked along what I assume was a beautiful gulch and river.  All I could make of it was that there was a gulch there of some sort, but like I said, it was dark.  Returning to the car, S informed us that indeed there was free RV parking, but it was full.  And no, there was nowhere else in town to boondock (the term for dry camping, in this case free too) other than a large lot on the outskirts of town that we had ruled out already since it was fairly creepy.

What to do?!  by this point it was 9:30PM.  Another decision needed to be made.  We googled and found several campgrounds in the area, some close by some further out.  So, off we went in search of them.  The ones closer in were full.  As we proceeded south getting further and further away from Deadwood, we came across various campgrounds that were closed for the season already.  We also managed to cruise right by some that we didn't see in time to actually stop.  At some point we got so far away from Deadwood that we made the executive decision to not go back the next day and simply head on to Rapid City where we knew there was a Walmart waiting for us.  We were now looking at another 45 minutes of driving.....Some of the natives of the backseat had zonked out.  Some were trying but not succeeding and were therefore spending quite a bit of time whining and complaining....

All this driving, from WY to Rapid City, took us through the Black Hills.  A beautiful mountainous and heavily forested area.  I can say that now, after I've actually seen it in the daylight.  During our initial drive through them though we could not see a thing.  And they were indeed truly BLACK.  Reiterating reason number one for not driving at night.....

So.  Finally made it to Rapid City!  Hallelujah!  Yikes.........A big city in all it's glory (OK, relatively speaking!).  Noisy, crowded, dirty.  People people everywhere....This is not a criticism of Rapid City, just of big cities period.  We are not fans in case you didn't know.  We were extra thankful for our Walmart that night though, even if it was one of the more restless nights we've had to date.  Having the sweeper come through in the wee hours of the morning is not fun.

The drama of the evening was over and now that the next day had dawned we had some things we needed to accomplish.  And deal with.

To wrap up here though, we learned five valuable lessons from all this:

1.  Don't insist on sticking to a plan just because you made it.  That's just plain silly.
2.  If it's late in the afternoon or even evening already, for heaven's sake find a place and STOP!
3.  Avoid driving at night if you want to enjoy the view......DUH!
4.  Kids will eventually beg to crawl into their beds cause they're so gosh darn tired.
5.  Said kids whine a lot when it's late and they're tired.  Another DUH!

Rain, books and oatmeal, oh my!

As I alluded to in yesterday's post, thanks to the rain and wind we ended up staying put instead of making our way to Devils Tower.  No biggie, that simply meant we had a nice restful day.  We kept busy making oatmeal volcanos and calderas -



And having further discussions about Native Americans and the history of this country thanks to a cute little activity wheel we picked up at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody -





We also visited the library and spent several hours there reading, playing, surfing and even buying some books at the used book sale they happen to be having.  We do try and pick books up for us and the kids that way since we can't keep every book we read and don't want to dump a new expensive book either!  We've found library sales, book swaps in coffee shops and just book drop off locations, where you can take what you want whether or not you've got one to leave.  It kind of forces us all to expand our horizons and read things we might not have picked up otherwise.  Good for the soul.

As the next day rolled around, the sun came out and off we went.

But first, we needed to make one important stop.  Well, two, if you count the dumping station.  Again.

We came to Gillette so S could shave, remember?  Well, that never happened since we were low on water, but we did make sure we got our photo op in as you saw yesterday. Now he can shave at some point down the road knowing he's got his picture! :-)

On our way out we got one last reminder that this indeed is quite more than a sleepy little town, it's one of the most important locations on this continent energy wise!  The power plant was RIGHT across the street!  They basically collect the coal and transform it right then and there, no commuting necessary!



And on the subject of large heavy equipment, as that's what Gillette ended up being all about for us, I was urged by the boys to take and share this photo with you -



That's our RV on the right.  It's big.  Really.  But that big ol' yellow thing, well, it appears to be bigger.  And apparently it isn't even the biggest they've got!  I learned this from chatting with the big yellow thing's 'wide load' escort while taking the pictures.  It's basically a scoop, that's it.   A massively large and massively expensive one, but a scoop none the less.  We ended up heading the same direction and ended up being stuck behind it for a while, but eventually we parted ways......Thankfully.

I don't know about you, but I've about had my fill of heavy equipment....shhhh, don't tell the boys (including the big one) I said that.

The wild west of Cody! Alternatively, the wild west of...Walmart?!

Pulling into Cody, the town founded, among others, by the famous Buffalo Bill Cody, we stopped at the visitor's center, per usual. Hoping to camp out by the lake at the state park, S went in asking for info and directions and such. Thinking we were on our way to a beautiful campsite yet again, come to find out we were apparently heading to the Walmart parking lot down the street......Turns out the winds in this area of the world are fairly fierce, especially down by the water.  Soooo, the kind man at the visitor center recommended we stay in a more secure location, the local Walmart!

Now, we already knew RVs can spend nights and days free of charge at most Walmarts (and Sam's clubs), depending on city ordinances, but we had yet to actually do it.

We pulled into the parking lot, settled into a nice spot on the far end right by the grass, along with many other RVs and their inhabitants. We were not the only ones there, by far.

Well, given all the things we ended up doing in Cody, combined with our nice 'campsite' and it's lovely neighbors, we ended up staying there 5 nights!  5 nights in a Walmart parking lot! How funny!  To us anyway :-)

Our new neighbors were, yet again, a lovely retired couple that we visited with frequently.  S helped them work out some major computer problems and they gave us advise on other free places to stay and most importantly, on how they heat their RV without using the heating system!  I.e. a large propane heater.  This has changed our life, but more on that later.

Our stay in Cody involved ice skating, almost daily -





Library visiting (I was still frozen from the ice rink, hence the heavy jacket! That rink has got to be the ccoollddeesstt rink I've ever been in!)



Workin' on her blog,



RV lego building - actually, that's pretty much a constant around here, not Cody related necessarily.  I've been asked to note that the RV includes a bathroom, couch, beds and slideouts!



This RV has two slideouts too, as you can observe :-)



This next event is definitely Cody specific, though I'm sure other wild west towns have something similar:  The Buffalo Bill street gun fight show! This one included Buffalo Bill (of course), Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, WIld Bill Hickok, the obligatory drunk jail keeper, and some well known outlaws, apparently.

The show began with the National Anthem, recognition and appreciation of all active and retired military personnel, a mention of the charities they raise money for by selling posters of the show, and of course, thanking their long list of sponsors. On a side note here, a nice couple in the audience had 'Buffalo Bill' give the kids a poster that they had paid for.  Wasn't that sweet?


In anticipation of gun shots by the outlaws, Inventor has prepared his ears.....



Those shots were REALLY loud....


The show included plenty of funny action scenes -



But the funniest part of the show was watching a tourist, who obviously didn't understand the whole gun fight show phenomenon, peer into the horse trough at the 'dead' man laying in it!  I wish I had gotten a shot of her actually peering in there, but the puzzled look on her face was priceless!



After the show the kids were excited to have their picture taken with the cast -



Jokin' 'round with the outlaws -



The girls, Calamity Jane and Analyzer -



The gun was a rubber one, not one of the real ones, not to worry!



My thought was maybe to leave them all in jail..... ;-)



The whole skit was very cute and entertaining with great adult humor that, mostly, went right over kid's heads.  Though the whisky joke apparently was well comprehended..... :-).  The guns were real but the bullets were blanks.  We soon learned though that even blanks can destroy a coke can if shot from close range......so watch out!

I have to tell you, I didn't expect much from the show, but it was really fun! I love being pleasantly surprised like that.

After the show we walked around the Irma hotel (Where the gun fight took place).  This is the original hotel built by Buffalo Bill and named for his daughter and where many famous characters stayed, including Annie Oakley!



Once home from the show all were excited to 'work' in their own way:  Analyzer sat down to report the evening's events on her blog.  Inventor kept repeating, about 14,000 times, "That gun fight was sooo cool!" and "I loved that gun fight!".  Followed by "Who invented the first gun? I know it wasn't Benjamin Franklin!"  Since I had no answer, I guess we're about to embark on a history lesson on guns.  Whirlwind came up with a little project of his own.  He set off to write CODY on his self made name tag that he then hung on his bed.  It's become his password so he says.

Tomorrow, The Buffalo Bill Historical Center!