October 06, 2015 at 02:56PM by advodna_dave

Yesterday afternoon, we headed up Hwy 16 as it climbed steeply into the Bighorn National Forest. The last time we checked, we were at 8,500 ft and still had several miles to go before reaching Powder River pass at the ominous elevation of 9,666 ft, so we pulled into the first National Forest CG we saw. "Closed for the Season" with a locked gate. Fortunately, the next one we tried was was just "Closed for the Season" without a gate so we made ourselves at home! Some solar/generator notes: The last several days have been pretty overcast and cold, a bad recipe for solar and power usage. We've found that if we tweak the Max Charge Rate on our charge controller (our 50 amp inverter/charger, not the solar one) to limit itself to requesting only 38 amps, we can run our 1000W generator without overloading it and still get a decent charge rate. On average, we've been finding time to run it about 90 mins a day, yielding something like 60 amp hours. That's a little less than we use in cold/rainy weather, particularly when we're inside a lot, so yesterday morning found ourselves down 118 amp hours, close to our 50% mark and voltage at 11.9. Not a good way to start the day, tho we were seeing a little bit of sun peaking thru. While driving, we usually see about 8 amps coming in from the tow vehicle and that day, we were actually moving about 3 hours (24 ah collected). But when we arrived, our monitor showed us only down 46 ah, meaning we'd gathered another 48 ah in our 7 hrs on the road (lunch, naps, potty breaks, etc). Another big benefit to having roof mounted solar... #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #solar #rvsolar #wyoming #bighornnationalforest

October 06, 2015 at 10:26AM by advodna_dave

"Whoa, look at those!" I said, swerving the trailer into a pullout in Thermopolis, Wyoming that overlooked large pools of water with mineral deposits dripping down their sides like candle wax. "Those are the largest mineral hot springs in the world," Ann added, impressing me thoroughly with her on-call knowledge of geothermal trivia... until I noticed that it was spelled out in huge white rocks on the mountainside directly in front of us. #unlessyouasksomeonefromglenwoodspringscolorado #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #wyoming #thermopolis

October 05, 2015 at 10:49AM by advodna_dave

Sometimes (okay, very rarely), Mae wakes up just at the right time for us to stop at something interesting we've seen advertised on billboards for miles. Very impressive displays at this working archeology center. #roadschool #childhoodunplugged #familytravel #fulltimefamilies #wyoming #dinomite!

October 05, 2015 at 09:46AM by advodna_dave

The drive out of Lander this morning took us past Indian reservations and junk-filled yards (that I wanted to pick thru) with handwritten "Hillary for Prison 2016" signs and up through the stunning Wind River Canyon. Passing immediately through three small tunnels carved into the canyon walls, the landscape reminded us of our train ride up into Mexico's Barranca del Cobre or "Copper Canyon" (link to the blog post temporarily in profile). We're officially heading East! Boston here we come! #justgiveusthreeweekstogetthere #windriver #windrivercanyon #coppercanyon

October 04, 2015 at 06:08PM by advodna_dave

We ended up having a nice stay in Lander. Of course, the city park camping is great and the "beer cheese burger" with bacon and an IPA at Cowfish (as recommended by @jmccartie) were delish. This morning, Wynne and I had brunch at The Middle Fork and walked through the adjoining door directly into Gannett Peak Sports for some free advice on how to keep our bikes in shape despite constant exposure to the elements on the back of the trailer. The advice was so good, I grabbed a Chain Pig and some cleaner as a start. Oh and some new rainbow tassels for Wynne's Strider. In the next block, we peeked into Lander Bake Shop at the tables each manned by a single person dressed head to toe in Patagonia and Prana convincingly clicking away at sticker-encrusted MacBooks. Despite these being "my people," I was too wired from the third coffee refill at brunch (and full from Wynne's cinnamon roll that I finished) to need anything. Last stop was Wild Iris Mountain Sports to shop for an outfit suitable of my next visit to the Bake Shop. Great store with friendly staff. The good and bad part of this lifestyle is that I rarely need anything at these places but still love to browse. Thanks to folks who tossed out suggestions for our visit. Unfortunately, the Children's Museum is closed on Sundays and hikes will have to wait another week on Ann's ankle. We came around to the place and look forward to the next visit. #lander #landerwy #landerwyoming #travelwithkids

October 04, 2015 at 05:26PM by advodna_dave

@advodna_ann got a little crafty with a Fall display for the kids. I made some additions... #airstreamwithkids #fulltimefamilies #roadschool #pumpkinspicelatte

October 04, 2015 at 10:08AM by advodna_dave

Okay, let's take this huge tree *not* falling over on us in the night as a good omen and give this another shot. While the post-Labor Day clear out of campgrounds is greeted with relief by some, for us it means a lot fewer kids around. So, rather than heading for a remote National Forest campground on the Wyoming/South Dakota border, it makes a lot more sense for us to hang out in a cool little town and figure out what parents do with their kids on a rainy Sunday. With the way we plan, it'll mean stealing a day (out of a few planned) from one of the wide open grassland boondocking spots we've been drooling over on other people's feeds. I always find it interesting how the perfect campsite varies between people and each person's perfect campsite varies depending on the day or mood. #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamwithkids

October 03, 2015 at 06:36PM by advodna_dave

We'd heard good things about Lander, Wyoming, but so far it's come in fits and starts. Of course, there's no complaining about free camping in a town park, but we got the heebee-geebees when, while I was walking Wynne to the awesome playground which bafflingly had zero kids on it at 2 pm on a Saturday, Ann woke up from a nap with Mae feeling like she heard someone trying to open the trailer door as Gorilla barked 23 lbs of fury at them. In all likelihood, Gorilla was just barking at a passing jogger and the click from the door was just the frame and body settling into the slight angle we'd parked on, but it weirded us out. We then drove the 0.6 miles into town (remember, we only have seven functioning ankles between the four of us) and followed two parties with kids (a good sign) into Cowfish, the restaurant attached to the Lander Brewing Co. right at 5:00 pm. Unfortunately, the hostess informed us, without reservations, we couldn't be accommodated until 7:30, a non-starter for kids our ages. I peeked my head around the corner into a nearly empty restaurant and gave her a "Really?" look. She confirmed that she had reservations until then. After staring at a few other uninteresting options on Yelp, I decided to give it one more try. "Hi again, so... like... when do you have all these reservations for? I mean, if you sat us now, we'd be out the door in 45 minutes. Hell, if you could get us and the kids fed and out the door in 30, that would be even better!" "Oh well, then I can seat you now." Sigh. Okay Lander, we see the potential and might just be in a whiny mood, but help us out here! #yeahimjustbeingwhiny #hardtoleavethetetons #wynneswingspan #standoverthereandputyourarmsout