On the Move, Again

After drying out from our drowned rat days in NOVA, we headed out to Mammoth Cave National Park. Our first night in the park was a bit more crowded than we were anticipating for a Sunday evening in October. Columbus Day holiday. Oh, and Kentucky schools get a fall break. But a lot of folks cleared out Monday afternoon, and by Tuesday, we were running pretty free and clear, with just a few other campers. By this weekend, though, we're back to a full campground. Thank goodness most of our fellow campers are headed back to their non-camping lives tomorrow.

Domes and Dripstones Tour

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out which tour to take. There's a wide range of tours offered, so we read up on all of them and then checked with a ranger. NPS' website says to get a ticket the day before, and most of the tours sell out. Even with that warning, we ran into people who came in the visitor's center in the afternoon looking for a tour for that day. Upsetting for them, to say the least, especially since it was their only day in the park. At any rate, we decided upon the Domes and Dripstones Tour. Turns out, I can't go with a crowd. This is a HUGE tour, with about 118 people allowed to go along with the rangers, bringing the total to 120. I had to bust through the crowd and exit the cave and chill out with Ranger John for a few minutes. After gathering myself, we went back in, and as long as I hung back and didn't rush into the cramped spaces, I was cool. But, my oh my, those cramped spots are CRAMPED. Such a good tour, and I'm glad I forced myself back into the cave. It did take us about 10 minutes to get down the windy and cramped stairs entrance. Ranger John told me the guys who discovered the cave came down on ropes and it took them 10 days to get to the big room. I don't think my destiny is to be a caver.

Mammoth Passages

We were fortunate enough to work in a second tour, Mammoth Passages. The entrance to this one is much larger, never having a cramped and winding entrance. Thank goodness. After two days of climbing and walking a couple miles, I was feeling my heretofore lack of exercise. It was good for me. I need to get my butt in gear and exercise more. After the tour, we continued down the trail to the River Styx stream. NB and I then went to Echo River stream and then to the campsite. He and I ended up hiking about three miles that afternoon. We were HOT when we returned to camp.

Cool Roots

NB and I got to see some truly cool roots. We also got to see a small entrance into the cave. Did NOT go through the creek into the cave. But we did talk to a gentleman who moved to the area 24 years ago to explore the cave, and he sounded like he has used the creek to enter the cave.

Preventing the Rain

Turns out interior raining whilst camping is somewhat preventable.  Yes, we're in a humid area.  Yes, it's been raining.  But it need not rain INSIDE our tent.  Bill did a little research, and if you simply vent your tent, no interior raining.  Lovely!!!!  So now we unzip the windows a bit, and all our breathing humidity joins the other humidity outside the tent, and we're just left with the regular humidity level surrounding us (about 60%).

Now, if only we could prevent the regular rain that occurs naturally in weather.  It rained pretty hard Monday night, and for whatever reason, we got a river that led right to my feet.  And soaked the sleeping bags I was using.  So terribly sad.  And it's supposed to rain more Wednesday night.  Not looking forward to it all....

NOVA Camping

The inside of my tent is raining.  I've got puddles being created as we speak.  The humidity here sucks.  Massively.  Living in this area, I was quite aware that the humidity was horrible.  I hated it when we here, but I never slept outside in it.  Now that we're in it all the time, I appreciate how horrible it truly is.  I sleep damp, I wake up damper, and I walk through damp air all day.  The day we arrived it was close to 100, but the temps have gone down.  And the weather channel says the humidity should go down soon, too.

And so now I leave you with the video that Bill's sister-in-law showed us.  Good times.

Keeping Clean on the Go

Keeping clean while extended camping has certainly been challenging.  Our tent smells bad.  Our van smells bad.  I'm ignoring that we smell bad.  While in Seattle, I did purchase some Mr. Clean so that we could periodically clean the van.  Not just clean it out, but clean it.  It is amazing how worth it that one purchase was.  We've washed it out several times, though I have to admit that Kings Canyon did me in.  It's just so dusty there, I gave up on it.  I promised myself that when we got to our next location that I would give it a good scrubbing, but I haven't.  It has rained several times, so the outside is less yucky than it could be, but it still needs a good scrubbing.

Bill has been a strong proponent for campgrounds with showers.  That hasn't always happened, but we have a foot washing tub and a shampooing tub, so we can take care of those two things when we're not near a shower.  But in Flagstaff, we celebrated NS's birthday with a trip to the local fitness center (swimming pool), followed by a shower.  Such bliss.  Now, it had only been a few days since our hotel stay, but we were feeling the grime.  Our next campground is an Army Corps of Engineers site, and they have showers, so that will help my parents open their door to us.  I hope.

Camping in July

Turns out, I'm not so excited to tent camp in July in Utah.  I love Dinosaur National Monument, don't get me wrong.  But my body absolutely hates the thought of 100+ degree days.   Bill found a misting fan that I pooh-poohed at first, but it's beginning to sound like something I would really want.  On our walk last night, Bill was checking out the weather for our various campsites on his phone.  This week the first few ones are all hitting the 90s to the 100s.  Blech.  At least we'll be near water at all of them.  Bill's big plan for Dinosaur is to go to the visitor's center and just hang out.  I also want to go to the box canyon and check out the homestead again.

I also found a fish hatchery in the area that would be cool to visit.  We have a wildlife refuge around here that we like to visit.  It's home to a bison herd and also has black footed ferrets.  The Ouray National Wildlife Refuge is home to waterfowl, and it also hosts the fish hatchery.  I think we'll have a great time exploring places outside the park, seeing what else is in the area.

Reservations

Me oh my.  Things have gotten real.  This morning I made two reservations.  Neither of them being for our first, second, or even third location.  I should get on that.  BUT, I have just committed us to being international travelers.  Of the North America variety.  Late July will find us in Banff, Canada!  We haven't been out of the country since our honeymoon, so it's pretty exciting.  

We applied for our passports in late April and we got them in such a hurry!  We have friends who live in Northern VA, and they had to make appointments to get their passports applied/turned in.  We walked in, no appointment, no other people in line, had all the paperwork filled out and such, so we walked out within 20 minutes.  About two weeks later, they showed up at my parents' house (we had them sent there in case they showed up after we moved).  That was simply amazing!  And so now we get to put those bad boys to good use before we pick up our trailer in the fall.  Yeah!!!!  

The other reservations I made this morning are for Silver Falls in OR.  I got National Geographic's Guide to State Parks of the United States for research. NS did one of his reports on Silver Falls, telling us about the waterfalls and such.  When I looked at their campground for reservations, the tent pads were all kinda small.  Bill called them up, though, and the ranger he spoke with said our tent should fit.  It'll be snug, but it'll fit.  So I hopped right on it, since there were only two sites.  We're in!  

Now I just need to get on the rest of the trip.

Weather

In the Denver area, it's been raining.  A long time now, it seems.  My garden is totally digging it, but it makes me wonder about this trip.  Our first five or so months of this journey are in a tent.  We've had a lot of adventures in our tent, seen some grand sites, enjoyed our fair share of awesome weather.  But we've also camped out in bad weather.  We've had wind storms that threaten to take our tent, wind storms that took our tent when we weren't holding it down from inside, hail storms, rain storms, below freezing, and boiling hot.  I have to admit to hating being outside in rain.

I love our tent.  It's done such an amazing job over the last four years and 16 or so campgrounds.  The older boys' troop loves it because it's huge and fast to set up (compared to their gigantic troop tent).  I know it will all be fine once we're out doing it, but I'm sitting at home watching the dreary drizzle come down, and it concerns me for what lies ahead.  I need to read more of those stories of the women who crossed the country, gave birth, tore up their wagons and rode the rapids with a boat built from the wood.  Those women would scorn me.  Time to toughen up!