Life of Riley: July 2019

July 24th we started towards home. We left Powell, WY on Hwy 14 into Yellowstone National Park. Then South along Hwy 89 through Teton National Park. Then we took Hwy 26 to Ririe, Idaho (Idaho Falls area). It was a very long day of driving (12 hrs).

We started our day in Cody, WY, with a quick tour trhrough William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Center of the Wild West Museum. There were 5 actual Museums located on the property. We went through the 5 main museums in 4 hours. Like I said it was a quick tour. The 5 museums included Buffalo Bill's Gun Museum, the Western Artwork Museum, the Plains Indians Museum, the William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody Museum and the Center of the Wild West Natural Museum. It amazes me what people of the past accomplished in life with what they had.

Then we drove through Yellowstone, mainly as a way to get to The Grand Teton National Park. We had gone through Yellowstone when we drove to Indiana with our girls in 2005. Since we had our RV we tried to stay away from the big tourist attractions and just drove through with the thought if we saw a moose or a Bear, we would stop to take pictures if it was possible. They were doing so much road work, the traffic was slowed down quite a bit, With two areas with one lane and controlled traffic.
Did you read my post on Facebook about the 9 year old girl that was tossed into the air by the Bison near Observation Trail near Old Faithful on Monday? That was crazy!

Our true ultimate goal was to reach the Grand Teton NP by late afternoon. We had never been through there and we wanted to see the mountains. French Fur Trappers in the early 1800s named this mountain range. They called it "Les Tres Tetons,", translated "The Three Breasts." Maybe they were lonely men because that wasn't the first thing that I thought of.
The Tetons were just Gorgeous and So rugged. As we came into the park, we passed the Teton Lake and we got our first glimpse of the Mountain Range. It was impressive but I was hoping for a better view. We stopped at the next lake but we couldn't walk down the path from the overlook because of Grizzly activity. Glad they let us know though. Wouldn't want to be a snack.
We found out the best view of the Tetons wasn't actually in the park at all. It was from the Highway between the park and Jackson (Jackson Hole), Wyoming. We seemed closer and the view was unobstructed.

We wanted to stay the night in Jackson, but every RV Park the could fit us in was full. So, at 5 PM we were looking at another 2 hours of travel to Idaho Falls. We stopped at a pullover and ate sandwiches for dinner. That is showing the good and the bad about having such a long 5th wheel. If we didn't have such a big RV or none at all we could have had dinner in Jackson; but since we had an RV we were able to stop and eat dinner by the side of the Road.

I finally found us an RV Park in Ririe (Rye-r-ee) ID. just north of Idaho Falls. It was a long day. We got there about 8 PM. We were happy to find something and didn't have to sleep in a Walmart parking lot. As we travelled we saw these huge fields of what we thought was Rye grass. It had a real sweet, grainy smell to it. It went on for about 10 miles. Mike said it was close to 600,000 square acres. We couldn't figure why someone would be growing so much rye.
When we got to our RV Park, I asked the lady why so much Rye was being grown. She told me that it wasn't rye, but Barley that is being grown for Budweiser.
The RV Park was Mountain Ranch RV Park. Sometimes we battle to control so much in our life, causing us frustration and anxiety. We just need to let go, and see what God has planned for us. This park was the best surprise at the end of a very long day. It was once a working Ranch. We almost had the park to ourselves. I think there was only 2 other RVs on the side of the park that we were on. There looked like there were 2 or 3 sections and one for RV Storage. God surely had His hand in us finding that park because it wasn't right on the road; there were no signs or anything. It just happened to pop up right before we went through the Canyon along Hwy 26 and lost all cell service.
This RV Park has cabins to rent (even one along the trout pond), a tipi and a covered wagon with a queen bed to rent. It was very cool. The camp hosts were so nice. They have a dog that is a corgi/yellow lab cross. Too cute! He had the body of a corgi with lab coloring . He was very muscular. He almost pulled Sue across the park to see Zoey. I was glad though because I got to visit a bit with Sue and she gave me some wonderful reference apps for RVers.

I am so glad that you are joining us on this trip. At the bottom of the page you can click on 'follow' and when I post something, you will get a notification. Also, when you follow me, you can post comments, which I would greatly like to see because you may have questions that I didn't answer. I am trying to keep the blog interesting and fun.