Family Vacation: RV'ing Turned ATV'ing

RV on Swett Ranch Loop Road - our new homestead

Notice fine print "road NOT maintained for low clearance vehicles"

Swett Ranch Loop Road - 8 miles!

Clara driving the boat on Flaming Gorge

Family vacations are great. They create such memories, and sometimes even family legends that your kids will tell to their kids someday.

We like to travel in our RV. This past week we made a trek to Flaming Gorge, Utah for five days. It was Joy, Clara and myself. Clara's two older brothers are off doing their "thing" so it was just her stuck with her parents in an RV for five days and no internet connection. And, she lost her phone a day before we left so no texting her friends!

But this is the making for a family legend.

We have been in some tight and precarious spots with our RV. I was a novice with an RV when we bought the rig in 2006 and still am only slightly better than a novice now. If you have watched the Robin Williams film RV, that is us. Well, maybe not exactly and to the extent that was depicted in the movie, but close!

I have gone around corners only to have dishes fly out of the cupboards. I even had a jar of spaghetti sauce come sailing out of the cupboard and the spicy red sauce shatter all over the inside of the rig. That took hours to clean up.

I have gotten pretty adept at hooking up the water, sewer and electrical. Normally I can do it in 12 minutes flat. However, once while flushing the "poop" tank, I got distracted and filled the tank to the point it overflowed out the toilet inside the rig. That took hours to clean up.

I came close to high-centering and low-centering the rig on a narrow road in the Smokey Mountains National Park on the 11 mile loop road to Cades Cove. I drove down a road in Tennessee that was so narrow with a rocky cliff on my left and a 30' drop down to the Nolichucky River on my right that one of the dual wheels on the rear was hanging over the edge. In the dark. And we had no choice but to continue because there was absolutely no place to turn around and there was no way I was going to backup the rig on this road for 5 miles....in the dark!

This week in Flaming Gorge we had another "RV story" but this one really tops the others.

I had it under high recommendation from a friend to visit the Swett Ranch while we where at the gorge. We took a drive on our second day to circle around the south end of the gorge, visit the Swett Ranch and go over the Flaming Gorge Dam.

Along the way we found the turnoff for the Swett Ranch. It was a dusty, gravel road but in good shape to accommodate an RV. We drove for about a mile and got to a closed gate with a sign posted "No RV's Beyond this Point." The Swett Ranch was closed for the day.

Since visiting the ranch was not an option, we decided to continue past the ranch road and proceeded along the gravel road knowing that it circled back to the highway. Joy kept insisting the road was paved. I told her to look out the window. The road wasn't paved. So much for her navigation and map reading skills.

As we progressed along, the road got worse. As I said, I have been in a few precarious spots in the RV but this was getting bad. I thought for sure I was going to high-center the rig or rip the top off from the tree branches any moment. If I didn't do one of those things, I certainly was going to break an axle or blow a tire on the spiky rocks below. We would be stuck and I would just have to homestead the property and live out our days there because no one was going to find us.

I was hunched white-knuckled over the steering wheel while Joy and Clara were in the back trying to catch things that were sailing out of the cupboards. Clara heard me swear for the first time in her life as I yelled "oh shit!" while we dipped down into a gully and up the other side. I inched the rig slowly over big boulders, up steep slate-rocked hills and washed out gully beds to finally reach the end of the road and the paved highway.

Once we got out into the parking lot, I got out to the read the signs leading into the road we just came out of. "ATVs and high clearance vehicles only." I pulled up the route we had just taken on my GPS and we traveled 8 miles on this rocky round trip route past Swett Ranch that we never got to visit.

But we made it out unscathed. The Rolling Bounder got us through another circumstance of our own stupidity without a scratch.

But it also created another family legend that will be told around campfires, family reunions and Thanksgiving dinners for years to come. And that makes it all worthwhile!

Cheers,

Dale

Follow You Anywhere

"End of a Tough Day's Ride"

Last week was my wedding anniversary. Joy and I have been married 25 years. Ironically, our wedding anniversary date was also my final paid day at Intel. I was laid off and am officially unemployed for the first time in my working life. It feels good.

To celebrate, our anniversary that is, we visited Seattle where we met and were married. We also took a side trip to Whidbey Island and a tour through the San Juan Islands. No kids, just Joy and I with our bikes and the RV.

Up until this trip, Joy and I have cycled together exactly three times in twenty five years. The second time was very uneventful, however the first and the third were both quite an adventure.

As I mentioned, Joy and I met and were married in Seattle. We lived there in the early years of our marriage. We had been married less than a year when we decided to go on a small cycling day trip. At the time, neither of us were big cyclists but we were young and thought it would be a good spring afternoon activity to do. However, one minor point that I cannot fail to mention was the fact that Joy was three month's pregnant at the time.

Be that as it may, we were still newlyweds so it didn't matter. Our plan was to drive to the Edmonds - Kingston ferry, ride the ferry with our bikes, cycle to the Hood Canal Bridge, and then return to the ferry and back home. An easy, pleasant afternoon ride.

However, to make this long story a bit shorter, I insisted Joy just "follow me" to take this "shortcut" to find some friends at their condo and ultimately get a ride back to Seattle with them. I thought it was a cool, spontaneous addition to our trip. The two flaws in this plan, well, maybe three flaws, was that it was no shortcut, the route was full of undulating hills, and our friends were not home at their condo. Many, many miles, hills, and a long ride much further than we intended, we ultimately made our way back to Seattle.

Joy has never let me forgot this ride. We never cycled again until a few years ago in Salt Lake City. And I am no slow learner, I made sure the second ride was on flat ground and short.....and that Joy was not pregnant at the time!

Fast forward to last week. We were staying in a little RV park on the north tip of Whidbey Island WA, just south of Deception Pass Bridge that leads north to Anacortes WA. We took our bikes in hopes of taking short cycling trips around the towns and ferries in the San Juan Islands. I googled a short little trip from our departure point to Anacortes and pointed out to Joy it was "just" 7.2 miles via this "shortcut." Joy has learned over the years to never trust what I say. Normally Joy would follow with a brief interrogation challenging my judgement and ability to plan a simple trip but this time quickly acquiesced in agreement and said "that's great."

Off we went. And quickly we took a wrong turn making 7.2 miles into something much further through undulating hills and a Northwest misting rain. I knew I was starting to get into trouble when we were more than half way to Anacortes and Joy informed me she didn't think she would be able to make it back. I reassured her that we needed to make it to town at this point and perhaps we could find a taxi back to the RV. I would have paid anyone any sum just to make sure we would make it back.

But God was looking over us with favor that day. We finally made our way into town (but still 4+ miles from to the center of town) and stopped at a park and ride. Upon studying the bus schedules, we realized there was a bus going into the center of town as well as one that goes directly back to Whidbey Island and our RV park! All for the cost of two dollars.

But here is the total redeeming part. Joy and I took the bus into old town Anacortes. It is a quaint little town with many beautiful shops, galleries and restaurants. After wandering around a bit and feeling relieved we had a plan to get back to the RV without having to ride the entire 12+ miles back, we found this delightful cafe bakery to sit down and have a cup of coffee before going back to the bus stop.

I walked in and thought we just landed in heaven. In the bakery case were the most gigantic cinnamon rolls I had ever seen. Without looking at the menu, I just knew this place served "comfort food" and it had to be good. I asked the waitress for some coffee for Joy and I and then my eyes drooled over the most wonderful-looking Key Lime and Coconut Cream pies I had ever seen. Both of these pies happen to be favorites of ours.

I ordered one slice of each pie along with our coffee. The Key Lime and Coconut Cream pies were the best we ever tasted, they simply were to die for!

I was redeemed! A bus ride back to the RV park, a nice little visit through quaint Anacortes WA, and the best pies we ever tasted!

By the way, if you are ever in Anacortes, La Conner, or Mt. Vernon WA, you have to go have some pie at the Calico Cupboard Cafe & Bakery. Later in our trip we ate lunch at their La Conner location and it was delightful. And a big thank you to the waitresses in both locations as they are so friendly.

You can find the Calico Cupboard Cafe & Bakery on the web at www.calicocupboardcafe.com. Check them out, they are terrific!

Since this day's adventure, Joy has continued to cycle with me. But I follow her rather than vice versa!

Cheers,
Dale