Good News and Bad News

First the good news! We recovered from Covid mid-June and were able to get all of our RV service appointments completed while near the Winnebago factory. The bad news is I cracked a tooth, but the good news is we found a dentist who could squeeze me in for a crown. Oh joy! We are actually pretty lucky that we had so much time in Iowa so we could deal with these unexpected challenges.

We were happy for a change of scenery and moved Max up to the south side of Minneapolis for a week around July 4th and were thrilled to find that -- good news! --the casino RV park we booked had a great free concert and fireworks! The weather was nice too, so bonus good news! While there we also visited the Minnesota Zoo and, though it had no giraffe, it had a number of species we don't see often such as Takin. A tiger actively swimming and playing with his ball is pretty cool too!

This is MY ball!

Takin bull

Our next stop was Rochester to visit Jeffrey's aunts, Margaret and Louise. We were able to help them with a project or two but our time there flew by too fast. We also visited Minnesota State Veteran's  Cemetery where uncle Merlyn's grave is located.

Visiting uncle Merlyn's grave with Margaret

Back to Iowa we went for Winnebago's annual Grand National Rally -- basically a week of fun social and educational events for RVers. We generally try to attend "GNR" every few years and this was our third. There were over 600 rigs of all shapes and sizes. The smaller van-type RVs have gotten very very popular!

Just a partial aerial picture of the Grand National Rally grounds (we are the blue arrow)

Going north once again, we paused a few days on the north side of Minneapolis so I could visit the COMO Park Zoo. They had giraffe, but we could only view them from a distance, so no feeding.

The COMO giraffe

COMO gorilla

A short stop in Fargo as we continued north gave us a chance to see the famous woodchipper featured in the "Fargo" movie. As the picture below suggests, it wasn't used to chip wood!

Jeffrey and the chipper

Turning west, we spent several days in Medora, ND -- first to revisit the Pitchfork Fondue and Medora Musical that we enjoyed on our RV caravan last year, then to visit the "north unit" of  Roosevelt National Park which we'd had to skip a year ago. In addition to the gorgeous views, we got to see a small herd of bison on the move.

Bison at Roosevelt National Park

Our next goal was to get Max to Deer Lodge, Montana, so we could park him and drive the car to Yellowstone for a week with stepmom, Sheila at a local resort. Having never been there, it was an amazing experience! It was a vast park and we could have spent weeks exploring. Between the geysers, mudpots, hot springs, mineral pools, wildlife, etc., it is an amazing place and somewhat alien compared to the rest of the continental U.S. We were busy seeing the sights almost every day, most in the park itself plus a day in West Yellowstone and another to nearby Earthquake Lake. Worth Googling this place. Basically an earthquake in 1959 devastated the area during the height of camping season.

Old Montana State prison in Deer Lodge

Bison who almost ran into our car

Dragon's Mouth dry geyser

Grand Prismatic pool

One of Yellowstone's amazing falls

After dropping Sheila back at the Bozeman airport, we went back to Max and turned him south to Idaho Falls for a quick stop at the Idaho Falls Zoo. My favorite animal there was the Fennec Fox, which barely stood still long enough for Jeffrey to get a picture. 

Fennec Fox

Shy Tiger (this is really zoomed in)

Regal lion

A big stop on our path south was Ogden, Utah, just north of Salt Lake City. We didn't get a chance to be tourists on this visit at all, instead getting the car to Ford for an upgraded battery, getting Jeffrey to an appointment for allergy shots, and getting me to my first root canal. The good news is we found a great endodontist who could see me quickly -- the bad news is that cracked (and newly crowned) tooth had the crack extend into a tooth root, which is BAD NEWS. It is unlikely the tooth can be saved with this condition, but hopefully a root canal will give me some time (and pain relief) to get back to our regular dentist in Texas on Oct 2nd. Oh joy (again).

As I write this, we have just arrived in Virgin, Utah, to begin our 34-day Western National Parks RV caravan. This will be a real treat as we haven't visited anything in this area. It will be extra special to enjoy it with 40+ other RVers (23 rigs). 

So actually the fact that we even made it here after a very challenging 2022 -- and numerous situations where we didn't think it would actually happen -- is good news!