June 7th - Snow in Yellowstone

6/7 Saturday - SNOW!!!

After checking the web and talking to the campground folk, we decided to not go on the Chief Joseph Highway to Yellowstone but to take Route 14 through Wapiti which is a lower route. Much to our suprise, this road was posted closed 50 miles ahead at Yellowstone. Called the Wyoming DOT and was told the CJH was dry and clear. Go figure ! This was one of the roads we wanted to drive the most on our trip so we lucked out.



It was astonishingly beautiful with very high mountain peaks, deep valleys, vast plains filled with cattle, elk and many hawks. This is a true corkscrew road and thankfully tow haul handled it well. Almost no traffic and what there was, we were able to let by us as we were going slow and enjoying the views. This road crosses over into Cooke City, MT and then dives back down into WY. There were many snowmobiles being used in MT as the snow is still deep. Looked like they were the prime way for some people to get into town.

We passed back into Wyoming and into Yellowstone at the northeast gate. One of the best birthday presents I ever gave Joe was his senior pass into national parks. Nice payback to get into these parks for $00 but he paid his due in the armed services. We had planned on taking the Grand Loop Road at Tower Junction and head down to cross the park at the Norris Canyon road. Wrong! About three miles in, the road was
closed due to snow and heavy ice. Back we went to the Grand Loop Road and on to Mammoth Hot Springs. Walked the wooded walkways up into the hot springs but it was very crowded and we didn't go far.



We continued down 89 to the Norris Geyser Basin and Museum after stopping along the way to see many buffalo, elk, mule deer and big fat squirrels who seemed to want to wait to cross until you got right next to them. Fortunately, nothing went squish. At Norris Geyser there was no one else walking the boardwalks and we had a super time talking with the ranger and learning a lot about hot springs. No geyser went off while we were there and the ranger said they were getting more and more erratic since the last earthquake. We stopped at several other hot pots and thermal vents some of which had strong sulfur vapor clouds. We stopped at Gibbon Falls but didn't walk down to the bottom of the canyon because it would have been a very long way back up!

Had a great suprise when we arrived at the campground. Who was parked next to our space but Flyfisher Dave! He is on his way to Alaska and caught up with us. We shared our supper and picked his knowledge of places not to miss in Yellowstone. He's been here many times and fishes a lot of the way back country. Tomorrow we'll tour, he'll fish and we'll get together in the evening. We'll go to the Lodge, Old
Faithful, yellowstone Lake, the mud volcano and several places up in Canyon Village Dave said not to miss.

Cody, WY and Buffalo Bill Historical Center

June 6, 2008 - Cody, Wyoming

Last night we had a great time chatting and trading places to see with two other TCs camped behind us. The couple from Alberta lives in the middle of nowhere and has to travel over 50 miles to get groceries. When they travel, they go to busy places instead of the solitude most of us seek. Fun to talk to others and see why they travel and where they go.

We spent 8 hours today at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, which is a complex of 5 museums. It was the highlight of the trip so far for indoor places. It really presents lessons in the ecology and geology of this part of Wyoming plus the story of the Plains Indians, Buffalo Bill and early ranching. There is also a museum of firearms. The place is immense and the galleries wind around floor to floor through art galleries, Remington bronze sculptures and paintings, actual photos from the 1800s and exhibits of Indian women's needlecraft. The $15 per person ticket is good for two days and we are tempted to go back tomorrow AM and re-view the natural history museum. I'm sure we missed a lot the first time through.





We got a great laugh out of the photo of the four sheep wagons parked on the plains serving as living quarters for the shepherds. They looked like four TCs at a rally.



Tomorrow we head off to Yellowstone. We hope to see elk, bear and wolves but know we will have to be lucky to do so. Of course we forgot the binoculars. We've put the TC back on the camper tonight as there is a fierce wind. Rather have it tied back down to the truck then drift off the legs. It was rocking hard in this wind and 43F temperature makes it feel like a snow storm is coming. Enough with the snow!

June 5 - Buffalo, WY to Cody, WY

June 5th - Buffalo, WY to Cody, WY via Thermopolis

It SNOWED hard today, enough to be glad for tow haul and a very empty road. At one point we got passed by a snowplow with the blade down moving right along. Nice to follow in a plowed path.






We were on the Powder River Pass Scenic Byway in Big Horn National Forest, . Route 16 from Buffalo,WY to Worland, WY. This route up and over the mountain is a true picture of what this country must have looked like prior to any human living there. There are a few small ranches within the borders of the forest but mostly wilderness with abundant deer and antelope. At the base of the mountain there was a lake which still had ice covering about half of it. Winter dies hard in Wyoming!

The land turned spectacular again around Ten Sleep, WY with layers on layers of ever changing rock layers. It was like having a geology lesson. The size of some of the boulders beside the road was a bit scary as some were bigger than the truck and TC.





We took a short hike down into one of the canyons to see the river, railroad bed and to look back at the rather daunting climb back up. Hiking at 6,000 feet is a bit different then at sea level which we are used to. Great to have the TC to come back to for a cold drink and a hot lunch. A lot of cold rain today but no big thunderstorms.

Our goal today was to go to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. Small, well laid out museum that walked you from microbe to T-Rex with examples of each.



I rarely read all the info panels at each exhibit but did at this one. Almost ran over two rabbits sitting by the wheels when we left. Looked around the dirt parking area and counted about 20 large rabbits. Wonder why?

From Thermopolis, we headed down to Wind River Canyon just to see the layers of rock as you descend deeper and deeper into a canyon that runs 20+ miles.



We turned around at Boysen Reservoir and headed for Cody, driving through vast stretches of empty land. I keep wondering where are all the cattle? The land is empty of ranches, people, any sign of our so called modern life, just mile after mile of sagebrush with the occasional small oil pump rig.

We are staying two nights at the Ponderosa Campground in Cody. We will be able to walk to the Buffalo Bill Museum complex in the morning. All the folks camping around us say it takes a full two days to get through the five museums. We are back to back with a 20 year old excellent shape Vanguard TC from Alberta, Canada and a brand new
SnowRiver TC from Spokane, WA. We had a great time trading places to go and see. Seeing a TC is so unusual, you just have to talk to them!

Some unusual things we have noted in Wyoming:
There are drive in liquor stores just like a drive in fast food place.
Real cowboys don't lose their hats in the wind. Dudes do.
Pickups out number cars probably two to one.
Do not stop with your window rolled down next to a cattle feed lot.

Custer South Dakota to Buffalo Wyoming

June 4th - Custer State Park to Buffalo, Wyoming

We left Custer State Park early this morning headed west - of course. Early morning is a great time to see the wildlife and we counted many more buffalo and pronghorn antelope as we drove along. Leaving the park at Custer, SD, we crossed into Wyoming near Newcastle on Route 16. In the east we can see the western forest fires and sort of understand the destruction but you cannot imagine how vast the areas are that burn. Mountain after mountain had huge patches of trees gone, black spars and broken trunks. However, in some areas there was already new growth and timber companies are now allowed to harvest many of the trees.

The country really begins to open up into vast horizons and we stayed amazed at how far you could see. The ranches are very far apart and we kept thinking how many hours a day children must spend riding school buses. We also don't understand why there is so little livestock on those huge expanses.



We reached Devil's Tower, Wyoming about noon on a cool day with part sun. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is one of my favorite science fiction movies and the tower was well represented in the movie. It rises up out of a relatively flat plain and has many colors and layers in the rock. An Indian legend says the deep scar
like columns down the tower are bear claw marks trying to reach Indian maidens on the top of the tower. We walked the 1-1/2 mile perimeter path and the tower has different faces depending on how it faces the weather. Once again our old codger pass as Joe calls it (National Park Senior Pass) got us in free. We parked beside yet another pop up truck camper but never saw the people. A quick lunch in the camper, a change out of wet clothing from the walk and off we went.



Moorcroft, WY was an interesting small town and did not have the hype of a tourist trap like so much of what we have seen. I know small towns have a limited time/way of capturing tourist dollars but some sure do it better than others!

We hopped on I-90 to start over to Thermopolis, WY, our next destination. Finally in the distance we could see a BIG mountain range. Bighorn National Forest is just the other side of Buffalo, WY. A pretty cold rain started as we were approaching Buffalo and we decided to stop for the night, get a dinner out, catch up on internet
mail and not push it. A delightful older lady at the town tourist information center told us where to go to dinner to get good beef. She was right! We are hoping that the rain at this 4,500 feet doesn't translate into snow on the mountain passes at 9,500 feet. We'll see tomorrow!

Sioux City, Iowa to Buffalo, Wyoming

Tonight is June 4th and we are in Buffalo, Wyoming. Decided to stay at a KOA campground overnight to catch up on internet, laundry and to get off the road a bit earlier than we usually do. There is a cold, driving rain and we are hopeing that this rain at 4,500 feet elevation is not snow at the 9,000 feet elevation we will be tomorrow. Here's a catch up on where we've been.

June 1st
What a truly amazing country the USA is. Neither of us has ever traveled west and it is quite the journey. Today we left Iowa and took Route 20 from Sioux City over into Nebraska. Talk about the heartland of farming - mile after mile of huge farms, cornfields, and cattle feed lots which you could smell a long time after you passed them.

North we then went on I-81 to 18 to 281 to finally I-90. In Chamberlain, IA we stopped at an Iowa Information Center which also was an interpretive center for part of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Good artifacts and a lot of decorative panels added to the interest.



All along I-90 there are places where the earth just drops away in the distance and all you see is a curve with sky and a thin line where the land just stops. We'd never been in a place that you couldn't see something in the distance. We're very curious as to where all the cattle are that should be grazing the pastures. Yes there are a lot of beef cattle but the land is so vast there surely could be more.

The weather radio sounded an alert just as we were getting a bit anxious of a huge thunderstorm ahead of us as we neared the Badlands. Did we feel it could be a tornado? No but what do we know! NOAA put out an alert for a severe ail/thunderstorm but fortunately it passed to our south.



and gave us a rainbow over the Badlands



We kept thinking of the pioneers walking across this land and coming upon the Badlands as a barrier to progress. Fortunately the Badlands don't go as far north/south as a big mountain range but the sinking feeling seeing that range must have been a real downer. We walked out on three separate trails in the Badlands, each quite different in geological features. Many rabbits and ground squirrels but fortunately no rattlesnakes though there were many warning signs. It is a lot
hotter than our normal New England and this is still the cool side of a western summer.



Tonight we are in a Badlands campground near Interior, SD so we can catch up on laundry, internet and a rest time. Tomorrow we go up to Rapid City to several museums and then to find a camp spot inside of Custer State Park.

June 2



Thunderstorms all night with big boomers and lightning but the TC is snug and dry. Sure glad we took the time before we left to recaulk a few questionable seams. Looks like rain for the next week but so what!

We saw pheasant, quail, what I think were partridge, rabbits, coyotes and one lone buffalo on the trip through SD so far. Gonna have a bison burger. We're headed off for an oil change and museums in Rapid City.

June 2
Sitting in the parking lot of a hotel in Hill City, SD using internet.

Oh what a day! Today made the entire trip worth every gallon of diesel. We'd stayed overnight in Interior, SD and slept through a big thunderstorm with lighting and some hail. Little blobs of hail still on the ground in the morning but the day turned into bright sun and 70+ temps. There is almost always a wind in the west but it keeps the bugs down. As we only got through a small edge of the Badlands
yesterday, we wanted to drive through more. Leaving Interior on Rte. 44 we found a one lane dirt road that cut back up to the Badlands at Conata. With the rainstorm last night, this was one slick, red mud road.



Why there is a town name I don't know as there is nothing there but an intersection. We drove over cattle grates and started towards the Badlands in the distance. Along the way there were pronghorn antelope,



herds of cattle, many hawks, prairie dogs and beautiful flowers. This 20 mile drive was one of the reasons for coming west, to see what it must have looked like before suburbia descended. We'd hoped to find such a road into scenic wonders and this was a gem.

The truck and TC however need a major bath. We stopped after reaching pavement and scrapped off pounds of red, heavy mud but need a power washer to get it back to semi-clean.



On to Rapid City to the Ford dealer for an oil change. We'd called ahead and they graciously worked us in and did the work quickly. From there we went to the Journey Museum which had geology, paleontology, early plains settler and Lakota Sioux exhibits. We spent a good deal of time here as the exhibits were well documented and interesting.



After lunch at a bodega with spicy chili and fry bread, we headed for Mt Rushmore. The drive takes you from 3,200 feet elevation in Rapid City to 5,500 feet at Mt.Rushmore. The climb is long, slow and done in tow haul for the most part. Sorry South Dakotans but your state allows billboard advertising and they got pretty thick and ugly. The tiny town of Keystone is just prior to Rushmore and is one solid tourist trap with screaming billboards. There is no way to easily avoid
Keystone unfortunately.



I was oddly moved by the rock sculpture at Mt. Rushmore. I had expected just tourist hype but it was a very patriotic display especially as you walk through a gallery of all the state flags to the main view point. We'd thought of skipping it but glad we didn't. Plus there were a total of five TCs in the parking area !!

We'd called Custer State Park to be sure the Iron Mountain Road, a portion of Rte 16 we wanted to take from Rushmore to a Park campground would take the TC. We are under 12' barely but count ourselves as 12' tall. There were three tunnels on that road, all over 12' but just barely.



The road snakes and twists back on itself in hairpin turns. FUN road to drive. We're tonight in the Game Lodge campground and have taken the Host off the truck.



Tomorrow we will drive more of the Custer State Park roads including going through the tunnels that won't take the TC. One is only 8'4" wide and the man camped next to us tonight scraped one of his dually fenders going through. Wonder if we have a steadier hand? We're most interested in driving the Wildlife Loop to see buffalo, mountain sheep and wild horses.

NY to Iowa

Thursday, May 29, 2008
Left Dick and Elizabeth's at 8:30AM after a wonderful coffee cake and tea breakfast. Beautiful weather, clear and sunny with not a lot of traffic. I wish we could look back to see their TC following along with us but alas not this trip. Here's Dicks toy shed and part of Elizabeth's gardens.



Took Route 90 over to Buffalo and then alone Lake Erie to Erie, PA. Miles and miles of grape vines for wineries but didn't stop to stock up on a case or two. Not much of a wine drinker and still trying to keep the weight down in the TC for diesel mileage. Decided to try to get to the other side of Cleveland, OH to a Cracker Barrel in Sandusky, OH for overnight. Went through Cleveland at 5PM rush hour. It was pretty busy but not like the Long Island Expressway. Sorry Long Islanders but once a TC has survived that drive there isn't much else that can seem bad to drive in. Had supper there but decided the parking was too tight to be comfortable so headed on.

Next went past Toledo on I-80 and now are in a rest area on the Ohio Turnpike. Asked permission and parked in a corner under a shade tree. Why shade tree I don't know since it is 10PM! It is sort of like "Planes, Trains and 18 Wheelers" with the noise but bet we sleep well plus I have earplugs if needed. Tomorrow we skirt the bottom of Gary and Chicago,IL and head for Amana,Iowa which is the start of our west trip. We know we blew through a lot of good parts of many states but the goal was to see parts of the country we haven't gotten into yet.

Friday, May 30th

We're now parked behind the Amana Woolen Mill for the evening. Shame neither of us dance polka since tonight Barefoot Becky and the Ivanhoe Dutchmen are putting on a show. This little town is full of folks from all over the Midwest in their polka dancing clothes. 80F but the camper is nice and cool parked under a tree with all the windows open. This is a very interesting town, one of the Amana Colonies settled by a group of German imagrees. Tomorrow we'll walk the town and probably buy a pound of bratwurst at the farmer's market before heading off. We plan on following Iowa's Loess Hills National Scenic Byway up to Sioux City and from there over to Rapid City. From now on we plan on small TC roads.

Some thoughts while we traveled. I'd never really known what "amber waves of grain" meant until I saw a field of winter wheat waving in the wind. It undulated just like the ocean but in green rather than blue. Also, we don't appreciate what the farmers do to raise their crops. We saw many out on tractors after dark working in the fields. More and more of the big farms are going into housing but there are still huge tracts of land being farmed. The vineyards are hand care and those stretched for miles. We saw a cow who had somehow gotten over the pasture fence and was on the interstate side of the field grazing. Wonder what will happen to her and the loss of an animal to the farmer? MidWesterners go out of their way to be polite and helpful. Anywhere we stopped, folks came up having seen the Maine plate and wanted to know if we needed help. That happens also in the Northeast but not to such an extent.

Diesel has ranged from $5.08 in New York to $4.73 in Ohio. The mileage has been horrible since we have been fighting a head wind since we left Elizabeth's. Good thing we have saved for years for this trip. So far $542.59 for 111.4 gallons of diesel for an average mpg of 11.2, way under our usual 12.5. Still happy we are doing this trip and really looking forward tomorrow to the Loess Hills loop where we can get back on some of the real back roads with the TC. Photos next time we get to wireless.

Saturday, May 31st



Picture perfect day with blue, blue sky and bright white clouds drifting along like puff balls. No storms in sight but the fields were flooded in many places with tiny corn plants under water. The work the farmers do to plant every square inch available is amazing. What cannot be planted is left in cover for the field creatures and to act as erosion control.



We spent most of the day in Amana, Iowa walking around a town with no commercial blight, clean, friendly, lots of perennial gardens in bloom. We visited the butcher, baker and the candle stick maker plus the quilt shop, the woolen mill, the micro brewery, the general store and a couple of barns. This is one of four colonies founded by the Germans in the 1800s. The buildings are mostly made from sandstone and hand planed wood beams. I'd recommend a visit to this town as long as you aren't looking for a theme park experience.



Instead of heading north from Amana up to Route 20 and across Iowa to Sioux Falls and then over to Rapid City, SD, we cut over on I-80 to the Loess Hills Scenic Byway which parallels I-29 south to north. Loess is the remnants of the ice age rock debris that has been ground into gravel and sand and pushed into hills by the Missouri River. The flood plain of the river is many miles wide and ends at the pushed up hills which look like sand covered with some vegetation.



We're camped for the night at the Preparation Canyon State Park which is sort of near Moorhead, Iowa. I'm uploading this thanks to a camper with an air card. We don't get far from our technology do we? 80F at 8:30PM Central time. Doesn't get this hot in Maine on July noon.

Tomorrow we head up to Sioux City to catch Route 20, not an interstate but a country road through Nebraska and then north to Murdo, South Dakota where we will get on I-90 over to Rapid City. Looking forward to the Journey Museum and the Sioux Indian Museum. We'll then go to Mount Rushmore and camp after in Custer State Park. I want to wake up and look out the window at buffalo!

On The Road to the West

After many years of planning, we are finally on the road to the western part of the USA. First 350 miles was just turnpike driving over to Elizabeth and Dick's house in NY. These are TC friends met several times now at rallies. Great dinner and hours of chatting and a super night in the TC.



They live on big acreage with lots of room for toys like TC, tractor, boat, gardens, perennial and vegetable gardens. Today we are headed west through PA headed for Ashtabula, OH and the Maaritime and Coast Guard Museum.

Spring Rally in Andover, VT

What a great time we had in Andover, VT at the North-East Truck Camping Jamboree last weekend. We've finally gotten the truck camper all cleaned up inside and out, reprovisioned and the extra stuff taken to VT taken out. We're planning a long summer trip and are trying to lighten the load to haul along.

We went from an empty field to a total of 31 truck campers with over 65 people!


Part of the crowd



We had classes on propane compartment leaks, refrigerator maintenance, fly fishing, DeLorme mapping for route planning and seam caulking/maintenance. We played "Fishy" a form of Bingo, held a 50/50 raffle and raffled off a multitude of great door prizes. Here's Mike T talking about refrig maintenance.



The Friday night hot dog roast was a smashing success with only a dozen dogs left over! We had drink/snack gatherings, pot luck supper, and the traditional men cook the breakfast morning.



We had great weather with only one gully washer rain storm but that was when we were in the rec hall having pot luck. Lots of old friends seen again and lots of new friends met. We're so glad we started truck camping.

Front basket added to the TC

Well we had to keep up with the Assateauge TC folks we met at the Tall Pines Campground rally. Many had these beautiful front carry baskets. However, we had to do it with a New England flavor, without the fishing gear pole holders and the coolers since we don't have too many of those wide, warm beaches we can get out on.



The front receiver is a Drawtite front hitch. Glad we had it installed rather than trying to do it ourselves as the bumper had to come off, fog lights out, and the frame drilled in two places. Even with an air powered drill, it took quite a bit to get through the front frame piece. Guy at the hitch place really knew what he was
doing but it still took him an hour total install with the right tools.



The receiver has a swivel so that the platform basket can be raised up 90 degrees and travels flat against the truck grill. We wanted the ability to carry extra though we won't be doing it a lot - thus the basket that can get out of the way. Doesn't stick out far. Basket is more a platform with a 4" lip, not a deep basket like Mike T and others in our North East Truck Camper group have.



Total weight added was 90 pounds (prior to loading it). Here we are trying to get lighter and we added. We'll try it out going to Andover for the North East spring rally next week by carting along some firewood in those plastic milk crates.

Spring Truck Camping Jamboree Info.

North-East Truck Camping Spring Jamboree
May 15, 16, 17 & 18, 2008



Horseshoe Acres Campground
1978 Weston-Andover Rd.
Andover, VT 05143
Tel: 802-875-2960

$25.00 a night, water, electric, dump station, cable available
No cell phone or wireless service available

N43° 17.02 W72° 42.52

Andover Wagon Masters:
Anne and Joe
TwoMaineiacs2@Yahoo.com

Events Schedule
Register at the big white tent and sign up for events. Seminars will all start at the tent. Coffee, tea, and hot chocolate will be available at the tent each morning.

Thursday, May 15th
Arrive, set up your rig and enjoy an evening by the fire, meeting new friends and seeing what old friends have been up to. Gather by the campfire late afternoon with each person bringing their own drinks and an appetizer to share.

Friday, May 16th
During the day, Cathie will be taking photos of you and your TC. She will print a copy for you and keep one copy (with your permission) for a group photo album.

9:30 -10:30AM Mike will perform a gas leak check in your TC propane compartment and provide a new 9V battery for your TC Smoke Alarm.

11:00AM Joe and Anne will show Delorme GPS mapping for road trips

1PM Dave will demonstrate fly fishing. Farctic Ox will show how to carry and use bear spray.

6PMish Our traditional hot dog roast! Those good old red snapper hot dogs will be provided along with regular hot dogs, all the condiments, cole slaw, potato salad and baked beans.
Gather by the campfire afterwards. Farctic Ox, Mike and Larry will talk about setting up solar power for TCs and what kind of system and battery bank works best.

Saturday, May 17th
Sign up to show off your TC if you wish. Prizes will be given for the most customized, the oldest and the one from farthest away.

Fartic Ox will hand out a scavenger hunt list in the morning. Turn it in by 2PM. The winner will be announced at pot luck.

10-11AM Mike will show hands on the best way to keep your refrigerator equipment clean and running well.

1:30PM Rob will install TorkLift Stable Load spring pads on a truck

3-4PM Cathie will lead us in games with prizes in the recreation hall.

6PMish Potluck dinner in the rec hall. After dinner we’ll draw the 50/50 and raffle a great group of door prizes. The fall Jamboree Wagon Masters will talk about the next two events and we will sketch in plans for 2009.

Sunday, May 18th

8AM – Community breakfast in the rec hall. It’s traditional for the men to cook and clean up!

9:30AM Farctic Ox will demonstrate his DUH system for easy loading and unloading his TC.

*************
Upcoming Jamborees
In 2008
September 18,19,20 & 21
Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park
Paradise Pines Resort
North Hudson, NY

Contact:
Dick and Elizabeth
barvan@frontier.net
************************
October 16, 17, 18 & 19
Winter Island
Salem, MA

Contact:
Mike Tassinari
tassiebb@comcast.net

Tall Pines and Assateague

We are home after a great truck camper RV rally at Tall Pines Harbor Campground in Sanford, VA. We ended up with ten rigs from New England attending. We all sure did enjoy not having any snow for a change. What a joy not to be buried in parkas, mittens, hats with ear flaps, and heavy boots. There was enough yellow pine pollen to look like snow but it didn’t need plowing and wasn't freezing. There were over 130truck campers attending plus the rigs the dealers brought to show. It was truly an amazing sight.

Here's Joe just after setting up our rig on arrival. We were between two other New Englanders with friends from Nova Scotia to Florida all around us.



Our group started off Thursday night with a feast of prime rib and fresh haddock cooked by Mike T under a 10x20’ open sided tent he’d brought in his front basket carrier. Fun to catch up with friends and hearing about JerBear and Paula’s winter TCing in Mexico.



It was fun going through all the new TCs the vendors brought and seeing what new products were available. We picked up a set of Torklift bump stops from East End Campers.

At the end of the rally, six of us convoyed over to Assateague Island National Seashore Park and camped by the dunes. Ponies and tiny Sitka elk were all around the TCs. The photo looks like the ponies are fenced in but they are wild and free.



Mike set up a wind shelter off his awning as the wind was howling. Long walks on the beach watching for the wild ponies and tiny Sitka elk, followed by a huge night time thunderstorm were the perfect end to a great trip. It was worth every hour of driving and each gallon of diesel. We’ll be going back to Tall Pines next year.

This fellow watched us drive off.

Loaded up!

Host Truck Camper is loaded up and ready for whatever adventures come in 2008. We're finding lots more places for storage than we knew of last fall. Since we traded so late in the year, we didn't have a lot of time to discover the best way to pack it up.



Over on RV.NET, Pete asked everyone to post their Bucket List of places to go before you cannot go anymore. Ours was pretty long - Oregon/Washington coastline, Glacier National Park, Alaska, British Columbia, Natchez Trace, the road through Colorado National Monument near Fruita, CO, Beartooth Highway, 296 from Cody to Yellowstone, all of Yellowstone, the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Omaha Zoo, Devil's Tower, Cody, Wyoming. And then there is all of Nova Scotia and most of New Brunswick!

North-East TC Rally May 15-18, 2008

With all this snow/sleet/rain/freezing mess lately in the North-East,it's energizing to look forward to the Spring North-East Truck Camper Jamboree coming up May 15,16,17 & 18, 2008 (Thursday to Sunday) in Andover, VT.






Come join us and see lots of rigs, meet folks who are really into TCing and who are willing to share both their technical knowledge and information on trips they've enjoyed. This is a social gathering without vendors of equipment. If you haven't attended a rally, this is a great way to meet fellow TCers.

Here's our PLANNED schedule of events but PLEASE let us know if there is something you'd like to discuss or do. Some of our events are dictated by weather but we have a very large, dry wooden building right on the safari field for our use. This building also has bathrooms with showers.

EVENTS SCHEDULE
Thursday, May 15th
Arrival, set up your rig and enjoy an evening by the fire meeting new folk and seeing what your fellow TC buddies have been up to. It's pretty traditional to bring your own drinks and appetizers and share them at this meet and greet.

We'll set up a table for giving away TC related items that are good but you don't want or use anymore. If it's such a great item you want some $$ back, you can price it to see if anyone wants to purchase.

Friday, May 16th
Mikeee and Cathie have agreed to keep their big coffee maker full each morning so early risers will have a place to gather. Those of us already there will get to watch the arriving TCs ford the entry stream. Socialize during the day, perhaps visit either of the nearby Vermont Country Stores or hike in the Green Mountains surrounding the campground. Chester, VT is nearby and is a picture perfect New England town with book stores, a quilt shop, antique stores, and small local restaurants and cafes. It's a nice place to walk and visit.

Mikeee will help you inspect your TC to see if you need to re-caulk and we'll discuss the best products and methods of doing so. Joe and I will be available during the day to show anyone interested how DeLorme Street Atlas software can be used with a small GPS unit to both plan trips and to track yourself while on the road.

6PM-ish we will have a hot dog roast on Mikeee's special swords, ah skewers. Those good old red snapper hot dogs (and the regular ones) will be provided along with all the fixings. We'll gather by the fire afterwards. Farctic Ox and Mikeee have agreed to talk to us about olar power for TCs.

Saturday, May 17th
Today we will do tours of the different TCs in attendance (only if you wish to put yours on tour). Many of us have not seen different types of TCs and enjoy seeing the variety of floor plans and equipment.

Trapper Dick will demonstrate ham radio and how he uses it while TCing. Farctic Ox will lead a scavenger hunt. Mikeee will provide new 9 volt batteries for your detectors.

Two of our attendees will be planning games for the kids who are coming. Perhaps we can persuade Farctic Ox to once again show his DUH system of easily loading your TC onto the truck. We'll have a contest with prizes for the most customized TC, the one coming the furthest away, and the oldest.

Cathie has again volunteered to be the Saturday afternoon Activities Director. We'll gather in the meeting hall around 3PM prior to drinks/appetizers and evening activities and potluck. This meeting could include a Sudoku challenge and Bingo unless all us TCers eat the Necco Wafer used as markers again.

Our potluck dinner will be 6PMish in the community building. After inner, we'll have a 50/50 drawing and then raffle off some really superior door prizes.

Sunday, May 18th
Meeting time to be decided on the traditional community breakfast in the meeting building but probably around 8AM. We'll all provide the items to cook and share. Farewell - and see you at the fall jamboree September 18-21, 2008 at Jellystone Park Camp Resort/Paradise Pines in North Hudson NY.

As we get closer to time, we'll list things that we'd appreciate people bringing. You can reach us at TwoMaineiacs2@yahoo.com if you have a question you don't want in public. If you have a friend who isn't a TCer but has another type of RV, they will be warmly welcomed.

Anne and Joe

Host in the snow - waiting for spring

March 4, 2008 and somewhere there is spring - but not in Maine. Another snow and ice storm coming in tonight. All we can do is just periodically check the camper and longingly look at it out our front door. That grey lump in the distance past those mountains of snow is the Host - waiting to be liberated and back on the road.

Why aren't we on the road at the moment? Sure wish we were but we're home right now and shovelling an awful lot of snow. Dug a path to the TC today and opened up the rear zipper door on the ADCO cover. Not a sign of a leak, mice, or any problems that were visible. Sure wish the Host was on the truck and headed south. Couple more months and off we'll go again.

Host ADCO cover

This lump looks like one more boulder in the rock pile but it is the Host under ADCO cover until spring. Makes us really sad every time we look out the windows. We'll be anticipating an early spring rally at Tall Pines Harbor in Sandford, VA in April.