Day 3- Car, Custer, and Colonial House

It was a lovely morning in Billings, Montana! We were up and at 'em early, got milk for the Cubs breakfast of cereal, and then set off to figure out what was going on with our transmission....

We started off at a local chain called MasterLube. They couldn't do anything with the transmission, but directed us to Browns Transmission. A very nice guy named Brandon came out and checked things out but said he was too busy to fit us in. He sent us somewhere else, but we couldn't find the place. In this time, we figured out we just needed fluid, and that it can only be filled from under the car. 

We decided to get coffee from Starbucks and look for the other quick lube place we saw. We drove through Starbucks and talked to a lively older man barista who told us he RODE AN EFFING BICYCLE through the Fellowship of the Ring pass we drove through yesterday!!! It was 10 years ago, but DAMN!! WOWZA! I can't wait to post the pass pics so you can get an idea of how nutty that is..... 

Coffee in hand, we drove across the street to Rimrock Express Lube. I'm mentioning their name because  of the amazing customer service we got there. We pulled into the bay, told the manager what was up, and he sent us to the waiting room. 

A few minutes later he comes in and says there is a drip leak in the second pan, and said "come look"! HE TOOK PADRE BEAR INTO THE PIT TO SHOW HIM! Who does that?! Feeling confident that the drip was a minor deal, and we will just need to add fluid every time it starts to slip until we get home, they put a quart and a half of ATF in, and we were good to go. Now the even more epic part... AT NO CHARGE!!! I'm going to tell my story on every online review site I can find... They were so outstanding. If you're in Billings and need car service... RIMROCK  EXPRESS LUBE!!! 

Car all good, we zoomed back to the hotel to pack up and get back on the road.

We drove to Little Bighorn Battlefield and showed the boys a piece of Native American and US history. Walked through Custer National Cemetary, and drove the auto tour. They're doing road work, so we talked to a nice flagger on our 15 minute wait for the pilot car, and just outside the memorial got waters from a store and threw together some sandwiches for lunch. We then set course for Rapid City. We opted to skip Devils Tower... And I'm cool with that! Great thing about road trips is flexibility!!

We arrived at the hotel about 8 pm. This was a nice Motel 6... Much better than last nights. Having online searched for the best Chicken Fried Steak (Giant Cub's fave food) in Rapid City, we found excellent reviews for Colonial House. We headed on over and had a fantastic dinner at a locally owned business :) Totally worth it!! There was free wifi so the cubs were happily plugged in for free... I tried to sneak a pic of the cubs, but they caught me...

Back to the hotel. I reviewed our route for tomorrow to ensure an appropriately timed day, with no mountain surprises... Then I showered the inch of sunscreen and road grime off me, and have now blogged to you fine folks!! 

Me and my map :) Google is great, but nothing shows details like a good 'ol road atlas.... We should be good.... Lol. 

Earlier day tomorrow than we've had, so we get to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, then roll on to Colorado Springs! 

Goodnight y'all!

Mama Bear

PS.... As an EPIC side note, at the end of Day 2 we had 39 license plates already? And 6 provinces! We got 4 more today, so we're down to 7 left.... In only 3 days!! Crazy!!! :)

Whew- Day 2!

Well, Mama Bears are the first to rise and the last to bed, and so it goes today as well. However, it's my penance today... I'll explain why in a minute. :)

Started off as planned... I was awake while everyone else slept, so I showered and combed out my tangled hair from yesterday. I went to the nearby truck stop and got coffee, new sunglasses, milk for cereal, and gassed the car. Came back and woke everyone up, and they ate and we packed up. We left Butte headed toward Yellowstone about 11 am. It was a beautiful drive to the West Yellowstone entrance... Top down, great temp, LOTS OF SUNSCREEN!! 

We got our annual park pass, and headed toward Old Faithful... But actually had more fun and better views at Lower Geyser Basin! Not as crowded and a variety of things to see. The Fountain Paint Pot was cool... When I get to my computer, I'll upload some videos to my YouTube channel.

 Anyhoo, we left there and headed to Old Faithful. We had AMAZING ice cream at the store and went and hung out by the geyser for a bit, but no luck for us today. 

It was 30 minutes, we couldn't really wait anymore (which turned out to be the right call... Again, later...), and it wasn't going to go for at least another 30 minutes. Eh... It's cool. So we headed back to the car and continued our drive. 

We looped around to drive alongside Yellowstone Lake... WHICH IS FREAKING HUGE... Annnnnnd that's when we figured out the random tranny slip we felt earlier was getting worse. No bueno. We saw a few bison, and then stopped by a service station for transmission fluid. And THEN realized we couldn't get the cap off to fill it :/ So, we're dealing with it tomorrow morning. 

On the rest of the drive out of the park (to the Northeast entrance) we got stopped TWICE in the Lamar River Valley so a HERD OF BISON could cross the road. Got it on video... The commentary is fantastic! But here is a pic to hold you over... 

We saw deer, antelope, bison, a rabbit, and MORE BISON. They're everywhere! Time flies, and it was 8 pm as we were heading out of the park. That's when the bad planning on my part came in. You seeeeeee, I planned the trip on google maps. This is great, but I didn't look at topography. Between Cooke City and Red Lodge is AN EFFING MOUNTAIN. 

Allow me to give you a visual.... Remember the scene in the first Lord of the Rings where the fellowship has to go over that crazy mountain pass and almost dies? The Pass of Lemloch or some other such shit??! Yes. That is what this felt like. It would have been stunning if we had A) expected it, B) didn't have a tranny that is acting an ass, and C) DIDN'T REQUIRE DRIVING AT 20 Mph... Oh yeah, and it was 40 degrees. When I started investigating this.... Turns out it was a little pass at almost 11,000 feet above sea level. Snow on the ground... Lots... Frozen alpine lakes. It was stressful, I thought Padre Bear was gonna strangle me, but we let the cubs play their games, so they were troopers, and we finally got to Red Lodge. At 10:30. Whooooooooo, was Padre Bear grumpy!!! We had starving cubs, and finally got to the hotel in Billings about 11 pm. WAAAAAAAAAY later and harder on the car than we planned :(

Cubs showered while I ran to get everyone some food, which ended up being BK. Pickings are slim for drive thru in Billings at 11:30 pm on a Monday!  

Everyone is asleep, I think I'm forgiven, so now I'm going to bed so I can check the topo for the rest of the trip over morning coffee! Lol... See y'all tomorrow!

TTFN, 

Mama Bear :)

Day 1 Wrap up :)

  WELL.... Let me start with a tip...

TIP #1- always practice pack before the morning you're leaving!! 

We got a late start because we got everything down to the car and, in the words of Padre Bear, "grossly overestimated the amount of space in the car." Oh, I have a correction from the first post on that subject- it's a convertible COUPE not sedan as stated. That should help explain our dilemma this AM... So it was critical decision time. Leave the food basket or the cooler, because they both wouldn't fit. Even without BAGS in there, they wouldn't both fit! So after some thought, we surrendered the cooler and opted for a soft-sided thermal grocery bag. We played some Tetris with the stuff, and departed about an hour and a half later than planned. THEN got gas and coffees.... 

TIP #2- gas up the night before so it's coffees and freeway ;)

Finally on the road, with the starting seating arrangement... Bears in front, cubs in back. 

Traffic was good, there was the normal rest stop and the gas stop.., which we extended a bit to enjoy the air conditioning in the grocery store. Itwas HOT. It was 92 degrees at this time of day. After our cool down, we had lunch in the shade at a rest area, and let Giant Cub have a turn in the front seat. This is where I learned how windy it is at 70 mph on the interstate in the back seat of a convertible!!! Not unbareable, but windy and loud. Much cooler back there with the wind though. Headphones are a blessing in this situation :)

TIP #3- if you have a child who can be a little overstimulated with too much sensory action going on, bust out the noise canceling headphones! This kept the wind out of Youngest Cub's ears and calmed him significantly. 

TIP #4- be prepared for the bitchiness that accompanies the kids being unplugged from their game machines. We allowed headphones and music, but no screens. This made for a rough first half of the day, but they adjust. And it's good for them... Just keep reminding yourself of that during the cranky spells!!!

After a few more hours of driving, we rearranged again and gave Youngest Cub his turn in the front seat. Equipped with new gas station sunglasses since his first ones broke and headphones AND less wind, he was a calmer camper :) We made it through the Idaho passes, and entered Montana to cooler weather (only 88 and shade!!) for a pleasant and beautiful evening drive. Even sang a family version of Bohemian Rhapsody, started by Giant Cub! 

Since today is my birthday, I got to pick the dinner spot in Missoula. We had the made the time zone change we had sorta forgotten about, so it was 9:20.... I chose Fuddruckers for burgers. Yum! Giant Cub was starving, so he ordered the ONE POUND BURGER... Holy moley!! Check it out... And he has HUGE hands! 

Yes... Big! But yummy dinner. Cool place. So, we left the top up since it was dark now for the last leg of the day to Butte... Rearranged again for my turn driving. Oh, yeah... CRAZY AMOUNT OF BUGS AT DUSK. I totally should have cleaned the windshield... Bummer and hard to see. 

We finally arrived at our hotel in Butte about midnight. Nothing fancy, but it had ice to put in our cooler bag, beds and showers, and isn't scary! Right off the freeway too. 

Well, today's tally was 608 miles and 19 states for license plates! Tomorrow is Yellowstone :) I'm off to bed. 

Ciao....

Mama Bear

Overview of our EPIC ROAD TRIP!

Since I am sure at the end of each day I will NEED to recap the day, I figured it's a good opportunity to share the spirit of the Great American Road Trip with the internet world!

Most people think I am crazy when I tell them our plans, but I can assure you, I am not. :) Let me explain...

This was the same stuff I heard back in 2008 when I did a similar style road trip with Girl Cub, and it was an awesome experience! She was the age then that Youngest Cub is now, and I am sure he will be just as excited from the experience as she was. That trip was 8 states (Washington twice, Oregon twice, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California twice) in 10 days, and was done at the high point of gas prices in a small SUV (with bad brakes, by the way! Added to the adventure!). We did hotels on Priceline to plan our itinerary, and did the whole trip for under $2,500. Let's face it- for a 10 day vacation, $250 a day is pretty good when you factor in lodging, food, transportation and activities.

Well, our state tally is higher this time (13!), and our budget is lower... and it is happening in a convertible sedan with four people- Myself, Padre Bear, Giant Cub (who is 17) and Youngest Cub (who is 13). Boys instead of the one girl, and much more difficult to plan. You see, with Priceline you can bid and you get a room with only one bed. That was just fine with Girl Cub and myself, but not so much with the boys. This time I turned to Booking.com and found rooms that were within our budget but had 2 beds and preferably Wi-Fi... (most have a pool, and some have a hot tub, which Padre Bear and I will looooooove after a day in the car!) Let me tell you, this has made a difference in our hotel budget! Last trip was $500 and we were able to stay in mostly two-star chain hotels... this time, they are one-star chains and some local places. I guess this is the new version of the "adventure" word I used earlier! I set the planning budget at $600, and after all taxes it finalized at $658. We are planning about $500 for gas, since the prices get lower after we get out of our home state, and we are getting a National Parks Pass for $80, which we can also use for the rest of the year after we return. I chose hotels with breakfast if I could, and when we can't, it will be cereal and fruit in the room before we head out. We are only going to do one meal in a restaurant per day, the other will be things like chips and sandwiches (with bring-along snacks in the car), so I am setting a food goal of about $600 for the whole trip. There are some places we will have to pay entrance fees, and I am sure there will be some souvenirs, but I think we will still come in under the first trip with 2 additional people.

I have made a bound (cheap to have done at Staples!) tour book for Youngest Cub with a copy of the maps of the each days drive and details of the places we are stopping, in the hopes that will minimize the "Are We There Yet" questions and help him better appreciate the places we are visiting. Each Cub has a state list for marking off license plates they see, and electronics like game devices and phones are limited to only when the captain (aka ME) says electronic devices are OK. I want them to SEE the road trip, not just ride along!!

The point of this blog is to hopefully inspire others to plan their own epic road trip... it can still be done, albeit a lost art in our hectic and rushed world. This is Giant Cub's last summer before he runs off to college, and the gift of time and memories with the kids is priceless.

Now, without further ado, here is an overview of our itinerary... Home is Tacoma, Washington :)

DAY 1-  HOME TO BUTTE, MONTANA

DAY 2-  BUTTE, MT. TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK TO BILLINGS,

MONTANA

DAY 3-  BILLINGS, MT. TO CUSTER’S BATTLEFIELD THEN DEVILS

TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT TO RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA

DAY 4-  RAPID CITY, SD. TO MOUNT RUSHMORE & CRAZY HORSE

MONUMENT TO COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO

DAY 5-  COLORADO SPRINGS, CO. TO FOUR CORNERS MONUMENT TO

GALLUP, NEW MEXICO

DAY 6-  GALLUP, NM. TO METEOR CRATER & GRAND CANYON TO

WILLIAMS, ARIZONA

DAY 7-  WILLIAMS, AZ. TO HOOVER DAM TO LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

DAY 8-  LAS VEGAS, NV. TO CAMP PENDLETON TO ANAHEIM,

CALIFORNIA (Get to see Marine Cub that day!)

DAY 9-  ANAHEIM, CA. TO SANTA MONICA PIER TO SACRAMENTO,

CALIFORNIA

DAY 10-  SACRAMENTO, CA. TO HOME

The Great American Road Trip is alive and well....... 35 hours until departure...... See you at the end of DAY 1!!!

Until next time.... Mama Bear