Wigtons Go West Day 8 FINAL DAY!!!

Today (6/6/2014), we finished the long drive from Dover, Ohio to Salem, Oregon.  It was beautiful.

 A little ways into Oregon, Ben announced that we had just surpassed 3000 miles since he changed the oil one week before we left Ohio.  He said he had just checked the oil and it looked just as good as it did when he changed it! It's amazing how much start and stop driving affects your oil levels.  

After checking into our hotel and getting some amazing Greek food for dinner, we cruised around town checking out our new hometown.

This is Garmin International, Salem (notice the basketball and tennis courts in front!).

 Ben will mainly be in the hangar in the back though (the little white part on the far right).

Then we visited our new rental home.  It's WAY smaller than what we're used to, but it's very nice and we love the light traffic on our street.

The backyard is gorgeous and the best part is landscaping/lawn care is included in the rent!

What we have gained:

Nothing seems as far as it used to.  It's 100 miles to get somewhere?  No problem!  That's nothing.  The kids have learned to be flexible in their foods, sleeping arrangements, people they are around, and have learned to entertain themselves in the car for hours.  The time change went almost unnoticed as we were able to gain the three hours slowly over one week...though they are melting down a little easier as the excitement has worn off and the fatigue is kicking in.  And to think, we almost flew!

Summary for Global Thinkers Pained by Excessive Detail:

Hours logged on the road total: 56.5 (including rest stops)

Total Miles for the entire trip: 2811

States we were in "today":  ID and OR

Total number of states visited on this trip: 10

Sanity Status:  I would have been better had I felt better, but was wishing I could curl up in bed rather than in a car all day.  

Mood: Absolutely beside ourselves to be in Oregon!!  

Major Incidents: 0 - Praise God, we made it with no major incidents!  

Brief summary of the day:  After a lovely breakfast with my great aunt and uncle, we booked it to Oregon, unsure whether we'd feel like driving that far in one day, but we did it!  We got a hotel, found some dinner in downtown Salem, visited our new rental home and played in the pool at the hotel.  We are exhausted and can't think about driving anywhere for a while.  We are in disbelief that we just drove across the country with three kids!

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6/14/2015
We are off to do some more exploring around Salem, but plan to write up a brief summary of our first week here later today (after most of our Eastern Standard time friends and family have gone to bed).  Thanks for journeying along with us on this memorable trip!  

Wigtons Go West Day 7

Today, we left our beloved Yellowstone National Park and made our way to Hailey, Idaho, where my great uncle and aunt live.  

We met interesting people at the rest stops at times.  This guy had a Newfoundland Water dog who was a giant drippy mess of love.  Newfoundlands can pull eight people in the water, he said.  We were right next to EBR-1, Atomic Museum of which Ben's step-cousin is the curator*!

A little down the road, after we passed Butte City, we stopped in Arco for lunch at Mountain View RV Park's restaurant.

The first thing you notice when you go in is the ceiling. The owner/cook/waitress explained that the original owner's kids wanted to start this project and began it while their parents were gone one day.  Customers love to come back and find their dollar bill, she said.  Each one was signed by customers.

While we were waiting, she let the kids go play putt-putt and horse shoes outside.  The food was very good.  Three out of five of us had pulled pork sandwiches.  They are famous for their smoked potatoes and I can vouch for the smoked potato salad. 

I stapled our dollar near some foreign money so we'll be sure to find it again some day.

By dinner time we made it to my great aunt and uncle's.  They have a beautiful ranch home in Hailey that they have made their own.  They may be far from family, but they have clearly established roots in their area.  They are very close with their neighbors and my uncle was even the grand marshall of the local parade one year.  Raymond (my maternal grandma's brother) is a retired principal and Sharon a retired speech therapist.  His mom is my 102 year old Great Grandma Grosvenor (who just moved back to IA, btw).

They had funny signs here and there that made me laugh.  This one says, "Dull women have immaculate houses."  Uncle Raymond said Aunt Sharon is the "sharpest woman I know." :-)   Below is Jake, he was there for a doggie slumber party and belongs to the neighbor.

My Aunt Sharon likes hats (and shoes, cowgirls, miniatures, Lewis and Clark and other things as well).  I love her hats! 

The kids had a ball playing with their dog, Mozelle, and Jake.

We enjoyed dinner and breakfast with them, soaking up as much family time as possible.

  

Aunt Sharon's Fairy Garden (she also has two Gnome gardens)

There were interesting things to look at every turn.

Proof that rock collecting runs in my family (these are Raymond's).  I get it honestly from both sides.  Two weeks ago, when we moved, the packer said, "Hey look, a box of rocks." Yup.

We have found kindred spirits and are so thankful to be within driving distance of them!

*  Ben's Aunt Lisa and her family live in Idaho Falls, which we drove through, and we tried very hard to work out a visit with them, but it was not meant to be on this trip.  We are looking forward to seeing them and catching up soon!

Summary for Global Thinkers Pained by Excessive Detail:

Hours logged on the road thus far: 47.5

Miles so far: 2198

States we were in "today": WY and ID

Running total of states: 9

Sanity Status:  The kids struggled with not being able to do activities in the car due to winding roads again and I was achey from a virus I came down with that day.  Yellowstone wiped us out!  We were all so thankful to have some comfort and fun at the Grosvenor's.  

Mood: Overwhelmed with love for my family and eager-pants...let's get to OREGON!!!

Major Incidents: 0 

Brief summary of the day: 277 miles in 9 hours means lots of beautiful mountains and winding roads.  Though much of it was desert, we also passed Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve that had miles of volcanic rock on either side of the road and other points of interest.  We had a great time with my family in Hailey, ID.  

Wigtons Go West Day 6

Our second day at Yellowstone was enchanting, perhaps even more than the first day, if that's possible.  On this day we only traveled from Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful, both within Yellowstone Park, but it was 51 miles and took us four and a half hours.

Pictures like the one below graced the halls of our hotel.  I just loved them!

Sheepeater Cliff

 We think this was Obsidian Cliff, which looked super cool, but had some road work going on in front of it, so we couldn't' stop and check it out.

There were people fly fishing in parts of the beautiful Firehole River.

Norris Geyser Basin

"Green microorganisms, Mommy!"  :-)

One must lean in solidarity with Steamboat geyser.

Paint Pots below!  A visitor's dog got lose one year and jumped into a boiling hot paint pot and the man jumped in after him.  They both died, here's the gory details.  Maybe don't take your dog to Yellowstone.

The bison count for today was a mere 22, but each one had us captivated.

This was on the way to prismatic basin.

The Grand Prismatic Basin

The crowd awaiting Old Faithful's eruption.  It was surprisingly on time, like to the minute...not sure why we were so surprised as it's name is "OLD FAITHFUL".

 Each and every eruption is unique.  We witnessed four total.

It erupts every 91 minutes give or take 10 minutes.

This is a bluebird sitting in front of Old Faithful on some bison poo.  

Old Faithful Inn - When we left there was a bison in that grassy bit between us and the hotel.

Summary for Global Thinkers Pained by Excessive Detail:

Hours logged on the road thus far: 38.5

Miles so far: 1921

States we were in "today": WY 

Running total of states: 8

Sanity Status:  Completely and utterly exhausted on every level.  Can't even think about sanity levels.  Kids did better today, but I think we are done here.

Mood: I am full and ready to look forward to what's ahead.  I am ready to get to Oregon.  I think we all are.  

Major Incidents: 0 

Brief summary of the day: Just when we didn't think Yellowstone could get any better, it went over the top in it's amazingness.  We saw Google screen savers only in real life!  The entire day seemed to take place on the set of the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth.  It was surreal.  They say you need a week at Yellowstone.  We were unsure of the quality of visit we would have in just two days, but it turns out, two days is absolutely perfect for a family with three kids aged 8, 6 and 3.  We could spend another half day according to the trip plan, but no, we are off first thing in the morning and not even stopping at the tempting geysers we missed  (just a couple).

Prismatic Basin, an aerial view - like the screen saver pictures.

Wigtons Go West Day 5

WARNING: THIS POST AND THE NEXT CONTAIN AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF PHOTOS. 

The drive from Cody, WY to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming was beautiful.

 It went from bare rock mountains to mountains covered in conifers...

...to this.  

We learned that these special Lodgepole pines have pine cones that are naturally glued shut and need exposure to high temperatures, such as in forest fires to open and release their seeds.  These make up 80% of Yellowstone's land, so there are a lot of necessary forest fires at Yellowstone.  Yellowstone is quite a dangerous place, we found out (not first hand, we're fine).

About an hour from Cody was Yellowstone National Park.  It was breathtaking.  At every curve in the road we passed waterfalls.   Below is Yellowstone Lake.  It is the mouth of the giant active volcano that comprises most of Yellowstone.  It was hauntingly beautiful.

For those who have never been to Yellowstone, you drive super slow mainly around a ring road and stop every few miles to see something of interest on the map.  There are a few hubs where you can stop, get fuel, food and go to the bathroom.  Otherwise, you are on your own with the wild animals, active geysers, fumaroles, cauldrons and waterfalls that you drive and walk to.

We were so stinking excited about seeing everything we were going at full throttle, stopping to see everything. 

We were beside ourselves when we had our first bison sighting.  We ended up with a bison tally of 46 today and every time we couldn't believe how close we got to see one, we saw another one closer yet.   

"It's gorgest," says Phoebe, age 3 1/2

Tower Falls

This is a fox we spotted on the side of the road.  We also saw a baby black bear but didn't have a chance to take a picture as we had to help traffic keep moving.

We finally made it to Mammoth Hot Springs which is very Northwest.  Thanks to the sweet Libyan lady who offered to take our picture.  I got to return the favor by taking several shots of their family of nine with multiple cameras (JACKPOT!).

We finished the day with a five minute trip to Montana for dinner.  

We ate at a cowboy place and it was really good.  I haven't mentioned how much BBQ pulled pork and beef I've eaten on this trip, but wow.  I think we've all had enough to last a lifetime.  

Outside our hotel were tons of elk just laying around.  At first we thought they were mule deer, but no. They are elk for sure.  We couldn't have counted the elk, they really were everywhere at Hot Springs.

                                 

This tree was outside our cabin's window and at one point Phoebe and I were going out the back door to the car and there was an elk eating the leaves off of it!  We waited until she left (they were all soon to be mommas outside our hotel), then snuck out.  It was so neat!

Summary for Global Thinkers Pained by Excessive Detail:

Hours logged on the road thus far: 35.5

Miles so far: 1870 

States we were in "today": WY and MT

Running total of states: 8

Sanity Status: More alive than ever!  What an awe inspiring place!!!  

Mood: The kids hit rock bottom today.  I think they are overtired.  We were all smitten with Yellowstone though.

Major Incidents: 0 (praise God, no one was mauled by a bison!)

Brief summary of the day: AMAZING in every way and we are not easy to impress!!!  We would come back happily when the kids are old enough to not need carried on the long walks.  I would recommend staying on the park premises for sake of ease and next time we will know to bring or buy sandwiches for lunch as it would have been nice to just stop in between hubs to eat when we were hungry rather than have to get to one for food.  

Funny kid quote: "EVERYBODY BE QUIET!!!" shouted Juni as we passed Avalanche Peak.  

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Note:

I have lots of notes and pictures that I have kept over the past week, stay tuned for the rest of the trip.  Day 5 was actually Wednesday, June 3rd.  Today is June 7th, we arrived at our destination last night and I now have consistent WiFi, unlike at Yellowstone.  We plan to continue the family blog even after the trip journal (maybe not every day, but frequently) to stay connected to friends and family afar.   Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading!