Yellowstone Trip

We took the RV to Yellowstone National Park a few weeks ago. This RV adventure or RV trip or whatever you want to call it was great.

After some expensive repairs we headed out.

Before leaving on the trip I took the RV to a tire shop at least three and I think four different times for out of balance tires. They replaced the front tires and balanced the back tires at least twice.

This did not stop the out of balance bouncing but I did not have time to take it back to them again before we left.

It rained Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The rain was of little consequence except that it showed me where all of the leaks in the RV are. In that aspect the rain was a good thing.

Other than the cost for fuel the RV was the perfect vehicle for this trip. We didn't have time to stop and explore very long so it was great to be able to pile out of the RV to go look at something and then pile back in again. We were even able to bring the dog.

The kids loved playing games while we're on the road and a few times in the campground.

We stayed two nights in Idaho State Parks, one night in a Walmart parking lot, one night in a scary Wyoming campground, and two nights at the Salt Lake City KOA.

We bounced all the way from home and through Yellowstone and to Park City Utah. Just North of Park city the bouncing was getting worse and driving me crazy. I stopped to take a bathroom break and visually checked the tires. I could see the threads coming through part of the tire. Fortunately, a tire shop and Park city was able to get us in quickly and get us back on the road in about an hour with two new back tires. 

This is what it looked like when we arrived at the tire store. The camera was too close so the quality is poor but you get the idea.

Yellowstone is one of those places that everyone should see in their life. There is no place like it anywhere else in the world. The geysers, fumerols, and mud pots are unique. We saw these along with Bison, elk, and a prong horn. We hiked down to the waterfall on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Yellowstone is not a kid or pet friendly place. Dogs and wildlife don't mix very well. Kids and boiling water don't mix so well either. I knew this going in but my wife has a problem that could cause her to loose her vision and I was not willing to wait on this trip.

The last day in Yellowstone I planned to stay in Jackson, WY that night but the KOA was $128 for one night and another private campground was just as much.

Jackson had so many people on the street it reminded me of Las Vegas. 

We used the All Stays Camp and RV iPhone app to find a campground south of Jackson. When we arrived it was raining, foggy, and dark. The campground was in a wooded area off of the road. We pulled into a spot and went to sleep. We could see nothing and the dark the campground was an isolated and scary place. The dog would not even go pee when I took her out.

I woke up at about 5:00 am and drove on.

The campground would probably not have been scary in the daylight but it definitely was at night. I kept expecting a guy in a hockey mask to show up. 

In that campground I think our big RV was better than a GMC Motorhome would have been due to a bit of a steep grade to the highway. I think a GMC might have scraped on the low clearance bottom. One thing that is nice about our RV is that you can go underneath it and change the oil or inspect something without jacking it up.

Our oldest son is obsessed with video games so we have banned all video games or any other screen entertainment for a time. That meant no electronic entertainment on the trip. He had a hard time with this as we had just started the ban. Things were a little more rowdy than they would have been with videos and video games but the kids saw more and interacted more.

Once we got home the dog ran around the yard like she was insane. She didn't get to run off leash the whole time we were gone so she was going a little nuts. 

What worked well:

• Having a bathroom with us at all times
• I was able to stop the leaks in our fresh water hose by using pipe tape on the connections.
• Being able to stop wherever we were and sleep then go when we wanted to.
• Having our dog with us without having to worry about finding somewhere she could stay or paying to board her. Boarding is expensive for us and very stressful for her. 
• Free camping at a Walmart and at a local park. 
• Discovering leaks in the RV
• Google Maps on the iPhone
• All Stays Camp and RV App for the iPhone
• Rubber band guns we bought at a gas station on the trip
• Bison, elk, and antelope
• Seeing a really strange and beautiful place

What did not work well:

• The last time that we went camping several months ago I neglected to empty the freshwater tank. The water smelled awful and I filled and I drained the freshwater tank several times on the trip to get the smell out. We do not drink the water from the freshwater tank but we do use it to wash.
• 7-10 miles per gallon
• Nearly having a blow out
• The cigarette lighter in the RV does not work and our iPhones have to be almost constantly charging. This meant that we lost at least one mile per gallon from running the generator just to charge our phones.
• Due to an insanely busy schedule we were not prepared to leave and lost a full day of vacation just getting ready to go.
• My son had awful allergies. Benadryl helped but he was miserable much of the time.
• The children think that since it's an RV they can get up and run around while in motion at anytime they feel like it. For the next trip there will be some strict rules regarding when they can get up.
• Leaks in the RV will mean time and money.
• A $60 meal at Yellowstone Lodge and a $45 meal at KFC blew our food budget.
• Staying two nights at the KOA in Salt Lake City made us exceed our budget for campground fees.
• The two new tires blew the overall budget by several hundred dollars.
• The hot water heater would not ignite. This meant that any showers had to be taken at a campground.
• We did not allow computer games on this trip and our teenage son tends to think there's nothing to do if it does not involve screen. He complained much of the trip but then this is to be expected from a 15-year-old.
• For all of the world renowned sites that we saw and places that we went the place that are 10 and 11-year-olds liked the best was the playground at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.
• My Garman GPS is several years old and gave directions that sometimes were exactly opposite of what Google Maps was telling me.
• Google maps on the iPhone does not work when there is no cell service.
• Apple's maps application did not work nearly as well as Google Maps.