Crossing the Continental Divide

After a clean bill of health on Zephyr’s engine rebuild in Billings, we headed westward. We weren’t quite sure yet if we were taking the north or south route into Oregon, and had been coordinating with our friend’s Forrest & Mary to rendezvous after their time up in Glacier National Park.

Bozeman would be our turning point, so that’s where we headed as our next stop.

Bozeman

After several nights of blacktop camping at the diesel shop in Billings with several days off-grid at Teddy Roosevelt NP before that, we were actually craving something with full hookups. Our tanks were getting close to needing dumping and filling.

We called ahead to several parks on the way into Bozeman and in the town itself – and all were completely full up. So, we aimed for the Walmart for another night of blacktop boondocking.

During our night there, we counted over 20 fellow RVers camped overnight. Clearly, a town with a need for another park. We’re just thankful the parking is abundant at this location, and it was actually quite scenic with mountain views, lots of grassy fields and even picnic areas scattered about.

Of course, as is normal for a retail shop stopover, the camping is hardly free. This particular location stocks a lot of organics and gluten free items so we loaded up.

The Conoco fuel station across the street even has a dump – free with fill up, or just $3 without. So we dumped our tanks there, making ourselves lightweight for some mountain driving.

Rigby, ID

Consulting weather maps, and comparing notes with Forrest and Mary – we all collectively agreed on the southern route which would take us through Boise and Bend on our way out to the Oregon coast.  We selected the Idaho Falls area as our rendezvous point.

We still had a couple solid days of finalizing The Mobile Internet Handbook, so we sought out our camping options ahead. I pulled up potentials in the Allstays app and compared reviews on RVParkReviews.com.

The first one we called – Jefferson County Lake Campground in Rigby, ID – just had a cancellation for a weekend waterfront spot for just $15/night.  We said – SCORE – and headed that way.

We took the very scenic Highway 191 out of Bozeman following the Gallatin River, which dipped into the very western edge of Yellowstone National Park. That made for a wonderful lunch break and photography spot. The drive over the Continental Divide was glorious and officially we were finally WEST.

Even with weekend crowds, the county park was a delight.  Our waterfront spot was ample in space, and we could swim right from our own beach. They also provide 50 amp power and water – not a bad deal for $15/night.

Forrest and Mary joined us Sunday evening, and we all agreed to stick around a couple days. The park emptied out quite nicely, and we pretty much had the campground to ourselves.
Our mission was finishing the book, which we did on Monday evening.

Forrest was the first to receive it to test out the delivery, and then we started distributing it first to our Mobile Internet Aficionados and Indiegogo Crowdunding Supporters.

It was a huge relief to finish the book, and so excellent to have friends to celebrate with.  It also left us time to explore some of Rigby, including the TV and Pioneer museum. The town’s big claim to fame is being the hometown of Philo Farnsworth, a major contributor to the invention of the television.

Arco, ID

Now caravanning with friends, we mutually decided the next stop should definitely be Craters of the Moon on our westward track. Just a short 88 mile drive.

Along the way, we had scouted out the EBR-1 museum, the site of the very first nuclear power plant. It was an absolutely fantastic tour, and we highly recommend stopping there if you’re ever in the area.

With a 35′ length limit at Crater of the Moon’s campground, we made reservations at Mountain View RV Park (our review) in Arco instead.  While we would have likely been able to find a spot, Forrest & Mary’s RV is alas a 40 footer.

After a wonderful day of exploring and driving we arrived to a bit of a rain shower, followed by a wonderful double rainbow.

A perfect way to start the next adventures…  more to come!

 

Follow us on Instagram and/or Facebook!

If you’re enjoying the photo collages shown in our recent travelogue posts, we’re actually creating those on a daily basis using the Moldiv app and posting to both Instagram and our Facebook Page at the end of each day. We’re finding it a fun way to summarize our daily adventures!

 

Invitation: Bend, OR – Meet-n-Greet and Q&A Session

Sunday, August 24 @ 3pm

We’ve been invited to stay with blog readers Cliff & Chris while we’re passing through Bend later this week, and they’ve graciously offered to host a meet-n-greet and Q&A session for anyone else in the area who would like to come on out and meet-up.

So if you’re in the area.. come join us on Sunday, August 24.

Starting at 3pm we’ll have a Q&A session for anyone who has questions about hitting the road (and our friend’s Forrest and Mary will be there too, to offer the retirement perspective). Starting around 4pm, we’ll have a general meet-n-greet. Our bus Zephyr will be parked on site, and available for tours. And of course, Kiki will be available for worshipping.

To protect the privacy of our hosts, only those who RSVP will be given the address.  You can RSVP in any of these ways:

• On our Facebook Event Page
• On our RVillage Get Together Page
• Or by E-mailing Us