WE REMEMBER AND PAY TRIBUTE TO ALL WHO LOST THEIR LIVES WHEN OUR COUNTRY WAS ATTACKED ON SEPTEMBER 11TH & WE WILL NEVER FORGET THOSE HEROS WHO RESPONDED.
Cody, Wyoming–
We overnighted in Cody, Wy. Walmart after leaving our boondock site near Yellowstone. Spent the day doing laundry, buying food, and buying gas ($3.59/gal. reg). Also used the free RV dump site near the airport in Cody and weighed the motor home at the abandoned truck scale near the airport. You just have to peek in the window to read the scale. The truck scale is perfect for weighing the entire motor home, each wheel separately and each side separately. This is important to be sure that the motor home is not over the gross vehicle weight rating and that the weight is reasonably well-balanced front to back and side to side. Too much weight effects breaking ability, gas mileage, tire wear, etc. and thus plays an important role in safety. Happily, our motor home weights were under the safe limits and is well-balanced. That was good news for us because after two years of full timing, it is so easy to start overloading the motor home with “important stuff”.
Wind River Canyon, Wyoming–
Our route to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area from Cody, Wy. took us through the Wind River Indian Reservation, through Wind River Canyon and along part of the Wind River. Wow, this area is starkly beautiful! Western Wyoming has wonderful geologic features. We stopped repeatedly to take pictures of the area and couldn’t stop exclaiming about the beauty we were seeing.
We find that one of the hardest part of posting a blog about beautiful areas we visit is to choose just a few example pictures of the many pictures we have taken.
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area—
Went to the Flaming Gorge Dam, Reservoir and Visitor Center and took the free guided tour of the dam which took us down into the power plant works. Having toured the Glenn Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam, we realized this was a smaller dam. The tour guide was animated making the building of the dam and the functioning of the dam interesting and well worth the time it took for the full tour. We had read there had been a couple of river otters seen at the bottom of the dam recently but we weren’t lucky enough to see them. We also looked carefully along the Green River but saw no river otters.
Drove part of the Flaming Gorge-Uintas National Scenic Byway seeing the west in all its geologic glory with so many spectacular views as it likely was seen by the earliest visitors to this area.
Boondocking–
When we left the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area we headed to Dinosaur National Monument. It was getting late in the day and since we hate to drive in the dark, we pulled of the road in an unmarked gravel/dirt pull off and boondocked there. We were only a few hundred feet from the road but this is a lightly traveled road (191) and hardly traveled at all at night. Our boondock site turned out to be quite and peaceful with the gift of a fabulous sunrise that lit up the sky and some of the areas geologic features.
Internet–
Despite the fact we appeared to be in the middle of “Nowhere” at our boondock site, we had excellent internet connectivity with our Millenicom Hotspot without needing to use the Wilson Antenna to boost the connection. We did buy a Wilson Antenna ($299.00) to boost our reception of cell signal and Internet signal. Used it in Cody, Wy. and did see a slight improvement in speed of our internet connection and our cell phone signal was stronger. The antenna was placed on the roof and attached it to one of our solar panel metal frames and left it there even when driving. The antenna seems to ride on the roof just fine and does not appear to be in any danger of falling off.
I have followed your Blog since July. We were behind you in Alaska and Just left Hyder on Sunday. What is a Millicom? We have a verizon Hotspot by Samsung. 3G/4G with the ability to connect two devices. Have you ever considered joining Days End? (affiliated with the Escapees). It is 638 pages of free Boondocking sites. dumps and water. It costs $10 and is good for a year. Access it through the Escapees web site. I think it would be right up your alley. We stayed in sites near your suggestions in Portage Glacier and Valdez. Appreciate your blog, pictures and GPS on the B/D sites. We travel 3 to 5 months a year in our RV but spend the rest of the time working in Florida. We’ll be back to work in 4 to 5 weeks and probably will not be a regular watching your Blog till next years travels.
Hi Jim McManus SKP 105499,
First, thank you for the Days End suggestion. We are members and are paid up for the next five years but must admit, we rarely use them as when we are ready to stop, the sites they mention are not usually near our location. Will have to give them a better look.
Millenicom, http://www.millenicom.com/ , is also Verizon but gives us a total of 20 G of time/month on the internet which we need as Jerry is an Options (stock) trader of our own portfolio. Also, the Millenicom did not require us to enter into a contract. It, too, is a Samsung Hotspot. It just increases our ability to stay on line and download more freely. We also used a verizon hotspot as you have but it it is limited to 3 G and we need more gigs than this for a reasonable price. We will soon be getting rid of our Verizon hotspot when our contract comes due in the middle of this month.
The Millenicom just works best for our needs and now that we added a Wilson Anennna booster it is even better.
Be well and enjoy Florida! Glad you had a great time in Alaska, such a beautiful place! Safe travels, Ann and Jerry SKP 70593
Regarding the Millenicom: Thanks for the info. I had never heard the term other than your blog. We have only exceeded our 5G once. But we only travel 3 to 5 months a year. The rest of the time we have unlimited wired internet at the office.
Regarding the Wilson Antena: I have thought about this several times. For $299 it always seemed pricey. Then when I couldn’t get a connection it always seemed like a great idea. I really beleive that it will be right for you in the long run and if we were full timers, I would not hesitate to acquire one.
Regarding Day’s End: I think the concept is great. It doesn’t work every time but it has saved us at least once or twice a month. This trip to Alaska has allowed us to make many many contributions. We have also been able to update, correct and add GPS to many locations. It is a great way to give back to the RVing community and the Escapees organization. We have Escapees freinds who have never stayed without hookups and we have met people like you who seldom if ever, need to be connected to the grid and are in a campground only because of NPS rules. We are probably 80% boondockers and 20% plugin. We do not have solar on this rig. So you can get something from Day’s End but you can also get something else by giving back to the RVing community if you contribute.
We will be following you for another 3 to 4 weeks and then go back to our day job and stick (cement Block) house until next summer. Please keep enjoying this glorious country and thank you for sharing with your interested community. Jim& Gail McManus SKP #106499.
Thank you Jim and Gail for the good wishes. We are pleased, thus far, with the Millenicom and the Wilson Antenna but we know the technology can change quickly. We’re aware that what we are using now could be outdated anytime. Eleven years ago, we were using a large satellite dish (Direct PC) that we had to set up every time we stopped if we wanted to be assured of a connection. We needed then, and still need, a fairly reliable connection if Jerry is going to be able to trade stock options and do so in a timely manner. Yes, like you, we do like the concept of Days End and that is why we joined and paid a few years in advance. We are pretty fearless about just stopping and overnighting when we are tired and don’t always stay in “official” boondock sites. We probably could send information to Days End about places to stay but would surely have to add a caveat that the places we were describing were not necessarily ones with “official” sanction. Be well and safe travels, Ann and Jerry