Yum Family Reporting for Duty

So we fell into a pretty sweet camp hosting deal at a State Park in California. For those of you who are not familiar with camp hosting it’s basically a person who sells firewood, collects camping fees and helps campers get settled in. We also help fill in gaps for the rangers who patrol these parks by being a set of ears and eyes at the park. We had applied to work at this park and a bunch of others before we hit the road and never really got anywhere. Then, a couple weeks ago we got a call saying their current hosts had resigned and they were in a pinch. We agreed on an arrival date and it was a done deal.  We were just making our way out of the Hoh rainforest when we got the call. We headed back to our campsite near Seattle and discussed a game plan. We had seen MOST of what we wanted to see in the area so we packed it in the next morning and headed to Portland to kill a few days.

Burnside Skate Park - Portland, OR

Nice park on the north side of Portland. 

Portland is a REALLY cool town. The show Portlandia is an exaggerated yet mostly accurate depiction of what the place is like. There is a really famous donut shop downtown that has a line around the building ALL DAY. No Oregonian has been able to explain to me WHY this place is so busy. The boys and I went there one afternoon and gave up waiting after 5 minutes. They also have a ton of food carts. I am not just talking about a guy with an umbrella selling hot dogs on the corner either. There are entire corner lots filled with carts selling everything from Korean and Indian food to trucks selling crepes and corn dogs. Portland is a foodie’s paradise.

We have been eating a LOT of pizza. 

I went out the the bar one night. I met up with Dominick, a quasi-cousin of mine that I have known my whole life. He met me at a craft beer bar with some co-workers of his and we proceeded to tie one on. The bar closed early and we retreated to a karaoke bar full of locals called ‘Chopsticks’. Luckily, I took a taxi downtown because eventually my companions left and I stayed behind and the night ended with me screaming Pearl Jam songs into a microphone. I kept saying random things to hype up the crowd “My friends left me. I’m from Detroit and this is my only night in this town. Let’s party Portland!” to which the equally inebriated crowd responded with howls and cheers. By the end of the song, there were about 10 other dudes with arms around me screaming along ”OOOOOOOOH IIIIIIIIIII BUUUUUUUUUUUT I’M STILL ALIVE YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH.”

(L to R) Me, Alex, Dominick, Dave and dude whose name I forget but easily the most 'Portland' guy in our posse. 

While we were in Portland I spent a lot of time with just me and the kids. Jessica was in a really bad place because of her Ulcerative Colitis (UC). UC is an intestinal disease that is similar to Crohn’s Disease. The immune system attacks the cells in the intestinal track and causes bleeding, excruciating pain, fatigue and an overall miserable existence. These attacks can be controlled with immune blocking medication and a slightly modified diet. Unfortunately, it had been so long since Jessica had had a flare up, she had stopped taking the medication all together. This presented us with a HUGE problem because she would have to see a doctor to get a prescription. I called our insurance company and learned that our HMO doesn’t cover us anywhere except Michigan (with the exception of E.R. visits).  So, she was lying in bed in a horrible state and our options were few. I had honestly considered driving back to Michigan and calling it quits.

Fortunately, I am a resourceful and persuasive guy so I put my skills to the test. First, I called the GI in Michigan and said we needed a refill. I said her symptoms were really bad and that it was urgent. They had just started going into their speech about how she needed an appointment when I said that I was working in another state and we wouldn’t be home for a few months. After a little bit of arm twisting, I got them to call in a prescription to a local WalMart. Problem solved…or so we thought.

The total cost for a 30 day supply of these meds was $500 because it is an excluded medicine on our insurance. So, now we had an option to pay $500 and hopefully get the symptoms under control within a month but if she needed to continue these meds, we would not be able to sustain this on a monthly basis. So, I asked if there was a generic, the pharmacist said no. She said there were similar drugs but we would have to get another prescription from the doctor. Great, I just called them and sweet talked this deal and now I have to flip the script. This was going to be a test of my persuasive abilities. Before going through all the trouble of calling the GI again, I had the pharmacist make a list of all the drugs that my crappy insurance DOES cover.

I tried to call the doctor, on a Friday evening, temporarily forgetting about the 3 hour time difference and I got a recording. It gave an emergency number that I knew would be an answering service. So now, I had to sweet talk an answering service into paging a doctor who I could hopefully convince to call in a prescription for a patient he had never seen on the other side of the country on a weekend. You got all of that?

I won’t go into detail but I strung together one hell of a con to make it happen and after two phone calls and a lot of sad stories I was on the phone with a doctor. He had called me from his cell phone and he was NOT happy with me. He smelled right through all of my bullshit but, in the end, I somehow convinced him to write her for a 5 month prescription of a drug that our insurance covers. He had me text him her info and the pharmacy number and within a few hours, WE HAD MEDICINE! I am happy to report that she responded to them and is looking and feeling MUCH better.

FUN FACTS: 1. Oregon does not charge sales tax on anything. 2. All of the gas stations in Oregon are full service.  

We left Portland and headed to California, our new place of work. This state is so effing big that we had to stop and camp TWICE just to get to our state park which is still considered to be in Northern California. We drove through San Francisco and down the Pacific Coast Hwy to our new jobs at Butano State Park (pronounced byoot in oh).

San Francisco from the Bay Bridge (with random skeleton reflection)

FUN FACT: It costs $20 to cross the Oakland/Bay Bridge with a two axle trailer.

 We were told to just find the host site and setup camp. The main perk of being a host is you get to camp for free on a full hookup site while the campers around you are roughing it. So we hooked everything up carefully and got the trailer leveled real nice and just hung out. We went into town for pizza and when we returned we met Ranger Tiffany. She was super friendly and was grateful to us for coming on short notice. She met the kids and the dog and kept telling us to just relax and have a good time. We went back to our camper for the night and did just that.

Learning the ropes

The next morning Ranger Carrie, our immediate supervisor, came over and introduced herself. She was very pleasant as well. She said she would be back in an hour or so to do an orientation so we relaxed outside and drank coffee. The campers directly beside us had three kids. One was about 10 and he was extremely polite. I found out after talking to them that he was actually the uncle of the two other kids, a girl that was Noah’s age and a boy that was Sam’s age. The youngest boy was named Wyatt and he was adorable. He carried around a stuffed dog that he called ‘dog dog’ that his sister explained was his special friend. I brought out my dog and let the kids pet her and was having a great time entertaining these kids.

You may have noticed that I only remember the name of the smallest boy. Normally I am good with names but Wyatt stands out so much to me I can barely remember the faces of the other people. When Wyatt’s sister was telling me about ‘dog dog’ the mother came over and mentioned that his stuffed puppy had gotten him through some tough times recently. She then covered the little girl’s ears and whispered to me, “Wyatt has terminal cancer.”

She then went on to explain that they had just camped in this park a few months ago and the reason they came back was for Wyatt. My immediate reaction was one of true sadness. At that moment I had just lost a dear, sweet friend. I wanted to ask why and how and I wanted to hug them, all of them. Suddenly I could feel the sadness this family was harboring and I wanted to console them but I could also sense what they were trying to do. This was a camping trip and it was one of their last happy moments with their dying son. After processing all of these emotions for a moment, I said something like, “Oh no…” and gave a solemn look to the mother. After a brief pause I went on talking about dogs and Legos with the kids and tried to enjoy my last few moments with them…and Wyatt.

Eventually, Ranger Carrie came back and inundated me with information; books, papers, keys and things. Things like a walkie talkie, my cool new jacket, keys to all of the buildings, a chainsaw and a badass John Deere Gator. She showed me how to check in campers and explained the procedures and specifics of the job. Lots of info but easily the coolest job I have ever had. I relayed everything I had learned to my co-host, Jessica. We gave some small jobs to the junior hosts, Noah and Sam, and they are visibly excited about this new responsibility of ours.

Our Home!

When I returned our site, Wyatt and his family had left. Looking at their empty campsite left me with a feeling of hopelessness. I keep trying to tell myself that I misheard her and she was talking about someone else with terminal cancer, someone older, not this special adorable boy who runs around the woods with a stuffed puppy.  I wondered if maybe they call it terminal when the odds are really bad but there is still a chance. After realizing I was just going through stages of grief, I started wondering how much time he had left. Was it 1 year? 6 months? Had they just found out?

The forest gets dark around 4pm when you are in the middle of a redwood stand near the Pacific coast. As the last few beams of sunlight sprayed through the forest canopy I sat in front of the camper waiting for customers to sell wood to while cooking our dinner over the campfire. I could hear the boys giving their mother hell inside of the camper and instead of getting up and yelling at them, I just smiled and thought about how fortunate we are to be here, with them, in this place where people spend their final days together.

Every Day Is a New Adventure

At the end of each day, after we read stories together, we tell the kids, “Get into your beds and choose who you want to be tucked in by.”

It’s really just a trick that we use to get them into their beds without a struggle. It works like a charm though. They select their parent (they always pick a different parent from each other), we walk over and cover them up. Within five minutes both kids are asleep, and I am not talking about a light sleep. We turn on lights and the TV and talk at a normal volume while they are crashed out just feet away. They stay in dreamland all night and around 7 or 8 o’clock they wake up, batteries charged, and it’s time to start another day of exploring. Seeing and learning new things together, as a family.

Hoh Rain Forest - Olympic National Park

Let me catch you up:

A couple weeks ago we backpacked in the prairie lands of Yellowstone National Park. We learned that the wildlife owns the night in Yellowstone and I wrote a blog post about it that I am dubbing The Halloween Special.

After that, we spent 4 nights in the Idahoan panhandle at Farragut State Park. It’s a really cool park just north of Coeur D’Alene that used to be a huge Navy training camp during the second world war. A lot of trainees returned to the area after WW2 and still live in the small town of Bayview, which is basically surrounded by the state park. The town offers a breathtaking view of Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced PONDER AYE) where the Navy still does underwater acoustic research. This mountain lake is almost 1200 feet deep (deeper than all of the great lakes with the exception of Superior) and there are navy submarines creeping around down there. This was a special town, no doubt.

This is the Navy installment in town. It's blurry because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be photographing it. 

The pinnacle of the town is a place called Ralph’s. It is a coffee shop that sells beer, offers a full menu and has a ton of historic photos and newspaper clippings plastered all over the walls. They are hung in decorative frames but you can tell these items are an accumulation that happened over time. Ralph looks after the Laundromat that is attached to his place and the two businesses seem to blend into one. A wifi offering, coffee/beer serving, Laundromat in the middle of a charming, mountain town…perfect.

They also have Ice Cream at Ralph's so the boys enjoyed it just as much as I did. 

On my first visit to Ralph’s I ordered a coffee, put on my headphones and proceeded to go to work on my computer. Within 20 minutes the small table I was sitting at became full of older townsfolk who were conversing around me as if I weren’t there. I took off my headphones and they immediately started including me in the conversation. It was that wholesome chatting that you hear old people doing at coffee shops but I got to be included in the chatter. As this conversation is happening, people are going in and out for smoke breaks while Ralph, the owner, sits at a nearby desk and chimes in occasionally. I came later that same day with the whole family and some laundry and they were all still there. They welcomed me back and we spent the evening doing laundry and getting to know a rotating cast of awesome locals.

Me working. Across from me are two ladies and behind me there is Ralph at his desk. 

The guy standing up is Ralph. He is a mountain of knowledge. 

After Idaho, we headed to Poulsbo, WA where we setup the RV in Kitsap Memorial State Park. It’s a kinda pricey, sorta conveniently located campground on the northern kitsap peninsula. You can drive 5 minutes and get amazing groceries from a fantastic grocer called Central Market. If you have ever been to Nino Salvaggio’s, imagine that and then add more of everything (they had 7 different kinds of kimchi). I think this place got our business 3 different times in 8 days.

Everyone that works here is like a food expert. They know where EVERYTHING is and they love chatting. 

One of the days we drove 30 minutes to the ferry dock on Bainbridge Island and took the boat to Seattle. Jessica made it a field trip for the boys and showed them the famous fish market and took them to the Children’s museum. I found a well-polished coworking space to do work from. I brought my bike and got to ride around town after work and eventually met up with the rest of my family for pizza.

Their field trip. You can see more photos on Instagram by following us at @YumFam

Messenger bag, pant leg rolled up, tight t shirt, trendy city and attempt at facial hair. I was a Seattle hipster for a day. Great bike town! 

As night fell we boarded the ferry back to our side of Puget Sound. The Seahawks were on Monday Night Football and the game was playing on the boat. I have mentioned before that I am fascinated with public transit and the Washington State Ferry system is no exception. These boats hold 200+ cars and have giant passenger cabins. They look like airports on the inside and you can’t even tell they’re moving.

The night skyline from inside the ferry. 

One afternoon we went and checked out Hurricane Ridge in Olympic Nat’l Park. We took a short hike around the ridge and got into some stuff at the visitor center. Noah started his third junior ranger program and we grabbed some postcards. We also grabbed a backcountry map and talked to the rangers about backpacking the rain forest. The park is so huge and has so few roads that it takes you 2 hours to drive from the visitor center in Port Angeles to the Rain forest, on the western edge of the park.

On the morning of our trip we got on the road early and headed off to do some trekking. The rain forest was cold and wet and the ground was littered with snakes and insects. You could hear baboons, mountain lions and the faint sound of tribal drums roaring somewhere off in the distance. We learned the hard way why they call it a rain forest too. Torrential downpours the whole time…

If you have read any of my previous entries about what happens when we go backpacking, you might be expecting a description such as the one I just gave. I am sorry to disappoint but VERY HAPPY to report that we had a super awesome and hassle-free camping trip in the rain forest. Aside from the flock of ravens that ate my sandwich off the hood of the truck while we were gearing up, we didn’t have any animal encounters. The weather was perfect, the forest was beautiful and we all had a great time connecting with each other and nature.

A video of us hiking to our campsite.

A video of the kids running around camp after dinner. 

A video of the forest in the early morning. 

 It’s easy to appreciate the comforts of our little camper after spending a night in nature. Not just because you are ‘rouging it’ in the extreme wilderness either. You get to connect with nature which has a way of helping you prioritize things in life. That connection is also one of the foundations of our family. We really dig the outdoors.

The night after our camping trip we read some chapters from James and the Giant Peach together and the boys went off to their beds to make their tuck-in selection. They only choose me because I do this bit where I talk with a Mexican accent and tell them how to wrap a burrito. They are the ingredients and the blanket is the tortilla. They choose Jessica because, well, she is the mom and everyone likes to get tucked in by mom sometimes.  Noah took the burrito and Sam opted for mommy. Within a few minutes they were asleep. 

Close Encounters in Yellowstone

Last week we stopped for a few days in Gallatin National Forest, just outside of the West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park in Montana. This is an excellent, well maintained campground and the price is right at $22 a night (electricity included). We chose to come here because we wanted to scratch Yellowstone off of our bucketlists. So, off we went to explore this world famous park. (fun fact: Recent online rumors state that roads were melting in Yellowstone due to volcanic activity. These rumors are false. They have closed some roads but the closures are due to bridge upgrades.)

We decided to start at the visitor center and then make our way to Old Faithful. Along the way people were stopping and causing traffic back-ups whenever they saw an animal. Bison are the main attraction and people act like typical tourists when they see one on the side of the road. They stop, get excited, then hold their iPad out the window and get their photos. It got annoying really fast.

Moose!

Then we walked along a boardwalk that took us through some geothermal stuff. Hot springs, geysers, and stuff you would expect to see in the Yellowstone lowlands. The boardwalk was covered with tourists, fighting for position in front of the geysers in an effort to get their cheesy photos. There are also a LOT of Asian tourists in Yellowstone and the stereotype about Asians and cameras is alive and well. If you think I am being racially insensitive, let me remind you that I am half Korean so deal with it.

Number of Pizza joints in West Yellowstone = 1. Number of Chinese restaurants = 4. I didn't research camera shops but I bet there was one or two. 

We got to Old Faithful and waited for the eruption while eating our bag lunches. It was pretty cool but, again, tourists. This time, sitting on benches and holding their iPads in the air. I was quickly starting to feel unimpressed with Yellowstone. This place is so well marketed that they killed themselves by attracting tons of annoying car tourists who all want to get the best seat, best picture and best campsite. It’s a rat race. (fun fact: Old Faithful is NOT the tallest geyser in Yellowstone NOR is it the only on that can be predicted on a reliable schedule)

Old Faithful

We went inside of the Old Faithful Visitors Center and inquired about some day hikes. They were all carefully drawn out hikes with pamphlets and boardwalks. Pedestrian hikes. I started thinking about all of the iPads and I decided we weren’t going hiking. I was convinced that this place was a tourist trap and the only way to get a decent look at the nature here was to take it to the backcountry for a night. This would prove to be a SERIOUS underestimation...

We went to the backcountry office and registered. We picked out site #OD4. A large site on the prairie lands in the shadow of the Twin Buttes. A short 4 mile hike in and a 3 mile hike out. After we registered we were required to watch an 18 minute, backcountry safety video. I imagined all of the old ladies in straw hats who stumbled into this office with their iPads in hand saying, “Oooooh, backpacking, won’t this be FUN?!” This video was clearly made to deter them.

The first 15 minutes of the video talked about how to handle an encounter with a bear, the last 3 minutes talked about the basics. The video kept repeating the phrase, “Your safety is NOT guaranteed.”

Ha, they really try hard to scare the tourists out of backpacking. Good, hopefully we can find some seclusion and enjoy ourselves.

The next morning we loaded up the truck with our backpacking gear and headed to the trail head. When we arrived, we ate some sandwiches, lifted our packs onto our shoulders and headed off to see if Yellowstone could redeem itself.

The trail was interesting. First we walked past some cool geothermal features. These ones didn’t have a boardwalk or warning signs. These ones were undisturbed in their natural setting and we didn’t have to share them with anyone.

Our trail turned to the west and we hiked through bison rich prairie lands. These were OUR bison. We didn’t have to share them with people in rented RVs. They pretty much just eat grass and shit all day but hey, it’s not every day that you get to walk amongst massive herds of buffalo.

 

Prairie Hiking

We arrived at our campsite just before dinner time. There were two buffalo grazing in the area designated as our site so we waited for them to move. They weren’t in a hurry to get out of our way so we just setup camp in some trees nearby. This is the backcountry. You gotta improvise.

We had supper and then sat around the fire enjoying the beautiful scenery. This was more like it. A Jack London-esque backdrop in a totally secluded prairie. Just us, our two buffalo and some tents. Yellowstone was really starting to impress me.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Noah started crying. The boys sleep in a different tent just outside the front zipper of our tent. The whole camp is covered with a tarp and we keep our gear between the two tents. The boys LOVE sleeping together and it gives us a break from them. Anyhow, Noah is crying that he is cold. Jessica heads ‘across the hall’ to their tent and helps him get bundled into his sleeping bag. She slides back into our tent and lays her head down and this is the PRECISE MOMENT when shit got crazy. All of the fears we keep in the back of our minds about camping came RUSHING to the forefront and sleep was suddenly out of the question.

We heard a noise, immediately outside of our tents that sounded like growling and heavy breathing. I grabbed my bear spray, removed the safety and clutched it as I quivered with fear. Jessica heard it too and assumed the same thing, grizzly bear. She kept whispering, “Mikey? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?”

I thought the best course of action would be to blame it on the Bison. I acted cool and said, “Don’t worry. It’s a Bison. Go to bed.” She eventually calmed down, the noise stopped and after explaining why I thought it was a Bison (I said I heard hooves) she was comfortable enough to fall asleep. I was still clutching the bear spray but I was calming down. I started to nod off.

Suddenly, out from the east, I heard a LARGE pack of wolves. I could tell it was large because wolves always howl in different pitches to make themselves sound like a bigger pack. If you listen close, you can pick out the different pitches and count them. I stopped counting at 7. I wish I could say these howls were off in the distance but I could hear them howling, playing and, at one point, I heard them fighting over something…probably another cocky backpacker.

The howls got closer and closer and I was getting worked up again. I kept telling myself, “calm down. Wolves avoid people. Wolves are afraid of you. They know you’re here and they don’t want anything to do with you.”

As they made their way into the hills I started to feel calm again. Then I heard simultaneous grizzly and coyote activity. I was having an anxiety attack. I just wanted it to be morning so I could hike to my car, grab my iPad and go see stuff from the safety of a boardwalk. Then, on the opposite side of my tent, I heard a lone wolf. Howling, then walking, then stopping and growling, then walking. HE WAS CLOSE. My stomach was in my throat. Let me be clear, I DO NOT scare easily in the wild. But this, this was different, Yellowstone comes to life at night and the animals are in charge.

I sat, wide eyed, as the sun came up. I wanted to go outside, start a huge fire and stand guard with my pocket knife and bear spray but early morning is a common time for bears to go looking for food. Everyone else was asleep so I sat and waited. The boys managed to sleep through the whole thing. Ah, to be a kid.

At 7:30 I decided to go outside. I grabbed my knife and bear spray, put on my shoes and walked over to a rock and relieved myself. Then, I put my foot on a log and proceeded to tie my shoes. Just as I finished lacing up my last shoe an animal walked out of the trees 30 feet from me and stopped in his tracks. A gray wolf. The lone wolf. This is his territory. I caught him off guard. Catching a wild animal off guard is the beginning of every animal attack story out there. So there we were. I was crapping my pants and the wolf was staring directly at me. Sizing me up? Checking to see if I was a threat? Scared of me? I don’t know. All I know is that my initial reaction was to go back inside of my tent and disappear.

I crouched under the tarp, between the tents and whispered to Jessica, “Hunny, there is a wolf out here and I need to come back insi….”

Suddenly a wolf’s face appeared. This time is was 15-20 feet from me. He was positioned in such a way that all I could see in the space between the top of the tent and the bottom of the tarp was WOLF. He had his front-right leg slightly off the ground with his paw curled back. The way a domestic dog does when he is fully engaged in stalking something. That something was ME!

So, with a weak and shaky voice I said, “Never mind hunny. I have to draw him away from these tents.”

Every ounce of my physical being was telling me to stay there between the tents and curl into a ball. Meanwhile, my paternal instincts kicked in and I felt the safety coming off the bear spray and the blade was being flipped out on my pocket knife. Then, with a wolf just feet from me, I stepped into the open prairie. Just him and me with nowhere to go. Him with his jaws that are 100x stronger than mine and me, dual wielding pepper spray and a 2” blade.

My first priority was to draw him away from the tents. So, I slowly and deliberately started moving toward the fire pit. I thought I might be able to find some sticks and coals that I could use in my fight. I kept hearing in my head: YOUR SAFETY IS NOT GUARANTEED…YOUR SAFETY IS NOT GUARANTEED. Stupid video. 15 minutes on how to handle a bear encounter, ZERO advice on how to handle a wolf encounter. You know why? Because people don’t encounter wolves. It is SO RARE that Yellowstone doesn’t even cover it in their backcountry safety video.

Ah, but I DO KNOW what to do. Thanks to Ranger Britney at Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan, I know a lot about wolves. She never covered what to do in an encounter but she explained how their minds work. This wolf DOES NOT want to fight me. I caught it off guard and it is determining IF it needs to defend itself. So, look non-threatening. Avoid eye contact, don’t turn your back to him. Show him that you made a mistake and now you are moving on.

He continued his stare and was still just FEET from the place where my family was sleeping. As I walked toward the fire pit I kicked up some dirt and gravel and he took a good 15 steps away from me. It surprised him but he was not attacking. I started making more noises. Throwing sticks in the fire pit, kicking dirt. Each time he took a few more steps and then stopped to stare at me. He got to the edge of the field and stood staring at me for a while. I walked back to the tents and woke everyone up. I said, “Hey guys, if you slowly come outside, you can see a wolf off in the distance.”

It’s almost as if he heard me say this because right after he finally turned and ran off into the hills. My heart was pumping. I decided we would skip coffee and hot breakfast and eat some cereal bars and break camp. Every 30 seconds I found myself scanning the horizon for animals. I was scarred.

I feel like the ‘lone wolf encounter’ was natures test to me. I was being neurotic and paranoid all night and I was truly scared. Then, as I left my tent in the morning, mother nature said, “Here, face your fear.”

Something inside of me switched on. It was like one of those situations where nature takes over and you do what you are programmed to do. I don’t know what I was planning to do with that tiny knife and that pepper spray but I was prepared to do it until one of us was dead. So, as much as I want to say I HATED my experience camping in the Yellowstone backcountry, I was able to sharpen my skills as a fatherly protector and when you live in an RV and you’re traveling the country, that’s a valuable experience.

 

Fairy Falls

We hiked back and the whole time I kept thinking about what I did right and wrong. I managed to get the GoPro to turn on for 20 seconds while I stole some photos in front of an amazing waterfall. We made it back to the car and there were other cars all around us. Asians, iPads, old ladies in straw hats, it was good to see them again. On the road out there was a big traffic jam, people stopping to photograph an animal. You can tell by the size of the traffic jam how rare of an animal it is. This was a big one. I saw the park ranger walking back to his car with his bear spray out and we saw a black bear running into the woods. The car tourists were all having a moment. They got to see a black bear in Yellowstone. 

Ha! Black bears. How tame.

The Great American West

Wow! The landscape sure changes fast when you get across the Mississippi river. We have been heading west along I-90 for the last week and we got to experience South Dakota for the first time. It's like a barren land full of billboards for the first 3/4 of the state. Then, with less than 100 miles to go, you are inundated with sights and attractions. If I ever land a job with the South Dakota department of tourism I am going to coin the slogan, "Your adventure west begins in South Dakota."

Minnesota's largest candy store. They specialize in candy, jigsaw puzzles, smoked meats, soda pop, farm fresh produce and bacon. 

Our adventure west began with a trip to Badlands National Park. We made it to the Badlands around lunch and had a picnic followed by a hike. We do a lot of hiking but we have never seen trails like this before. They have numbered posts hammered into the rocks and you just make your way from one post to the next. Eventually, the posts stop and you are on your own. I wouldn't suggest wandering off after that point without a compass and topographical map. Even before the trail markers ended I found myself getting disoriented. Despite the warnings, intimidating landscape and the name of the park, lots of hikers get lost and need rescuing here.

Sammy + Bench

This is a trail?!?!

We left the park in the mid afternoon and treated ourselves to some fun and snacks at the iconic roadside attraction known as Wall Drug. This place started as a Drug store in the early 1900s and was on the brink of failure. The town of Wall was referred to as a god forsaken place with no hope. One day, the owners of the store had the brilliant idea to offer FREE ICE WATER to all of the passing motorists. They put billboards along the road and BAM! business exploded. Today they still offer free ice water and they have coffee for 5 cents a cup. They also have an arcade, splash pad, old west town, two restaurants, ice cream shop and you can get just about anything you need from their 20+ retail departments. The town of Wall is no longer a god forsaken place. In fact, Wall Drug put this place on the map. Oh, and they DOMINATE the billboard advertising game along I-90. You can't NOT stop after reading their ads all day.

After Jessica took this picture, we had a conversation in the car that ended in her googling 'jackalopes' to see if they were real. 

The minute you cross the state line you will see these billboards. I really started to appreciate the artist's work after looking at these all day. 

On the drive into our campground we stopped and saw Mt. Rushmore. My wife and I have mixed feelings about this place. On the one hand, this place isn't just presidential faces. It is the face of the american road trip. On the other hand, it also represents the audacity of our culture. The american government stole that land from the Sioux and then turned the hills into a trophy. I know I sound like buzz kill right now but I just can't pretend that supporting this place is an innocent act of the curious traveler. Still, we are guilty. We paid the $11 and checked it off our bucket lists. You can see the monuments from two different spots along the road if you want to save money and avoid supporting this place.

It was getting late and we still had to set-up camp so we had to rush-more. 

We got camp set-up just as the sun was setting. We took up residence at the Sylvan Lake campground in Custer State Park for 4 nights and we made the most of our short stay. In the mornings I headed to town for work and to get some maintenance done on the car and Jessica did school time with the boys. In the afternoons we did hiking, swimming and exploring. The Black Hills are right up our alley and I hope to make it back there someday.

These are the fellas who worked on my car. The other guy was just a local, hanging out. I like chatting with locals. 

Despite the FREEZING cold water, the boys really enjoyed themselves. 

Jessica swam out to this rock and had some alone time. 

A video of us climbing to the summit of Harney Peak. 

We said goodbye to South Dakota and drove 300 miles to Sheridan, WY to resupply. We spent two nights at a KOA right off the expressway. Jessica gets depressed when we stay at such places but it brings me comfort to plug into the grid. Sheridan has a really cool downtown area that I visited twice. Once to sit at a coffee shop and work and another time to take the family out for Mexican food. Both places kicked ass.

They got a new five and dime downtown Sheridan. 

We have the GPS set for Bozeman, MT. This will put us just north of Yellowstone's north entrance. It is also a fork in the road for us. We can head south to Yellowstone, north to Glacier, west to Olympic or any combination of the three. Which route we choose will depend on when the parks start shutting down and the weather. I am also going to be paying close attention to the difficulty of the routes. Steep grades and sharp curves can be difficult while towing. They also cause our gas mileage to plummet. Whatever we decide to do, one thing is certain, we are a long way from home.

10,000 Lakes and One Huge Mall

Greetings from the Twin Cities!

Ok, so we aren't IN the twin cities. We are in a suburb, Northwest of Minneapolis, called Maple Grove. Our immediate surroundings are helpful. We have things like Walmart, Cub Foods and REI. I think it is fair to say we earned these modern conveniences after spending a month in the U.P. We also have a place called 'LEANN CHIN'. We drove past it several times and made chin jokes. We felt it was poor branding to associate yourself with a body part that nobody wants MORE of. It's like that Chinese place in the mall that hands out free samples but classier looking. Anyhow, our curiosity grabbed us and we went in. The food was fantastic. So, I have concluded that eating LEANN CHIN will, in fact, give you more chins but the food is SO good, you won't care. 

In addition to acquiring more chins, we have done some sightseeing. We went into Minneapolis and bummed around downtown for a day. We ditched the car at a parking structure and rode on the light rail. It's a very simple, yet very effective system. You got one train that connects Minneapolis to Mall of America and another train that connects St Paul to Minneapolis. I am fascinated by public transit. Every time I visit a new city I am determined to conquer their transportation grid and act like a local. When in Rome...

Taking a trip on the Blue Line

Giant Slices at Pizza La Vista

Twins vs Tigers at Target Field. Tigers won 8-6 but Phil Coke almost ruined everything...again. 

Speaking of Mall of America, we did that whole thing. It's ridiculous. I mean, I've always heard about it and thought it sounded decent. I pictured a giant mall with a roller-coaster inside of it. It felt like something that was maybe past its prime. (Didn't gimmick malls peak in the early 90s?) Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised at this place. It is a monstrosity with an amusement park in the middle of it. They are planning to double in size soon and add a Great Wolf Lodge and connect to an existing IKEA. This, in addition to the tons of shops, restaurants, night clubs and department stores. Imagine a mall with a Best Buy inside of it. Let that roll around in your head for a minute. Only at the Mall of America.

This is just a portion of the amusement park inside the mall. We had a BLAST here.

The food court was awesome. We went with Chipotle because it is a staple of our marriage. It is the one constant in dining that supersedes all other options. Don't ask me why, it's just our mutual go-to when eating out. We ate our burritos, scored some sale items and had a fun day of acting like typical tourists. Fun Facts: 1) There is NO SALES TAX on clothes in Minnesota 2) Despite being in the Midwest, the Mall of America is not heated.

This girl has a shopping addiction. 

Minneapolis has a lot of great parks right outside of the downtown area. We spent an afternoon at one of them and enjoyed some recreation and family bonding. Minnehaha Park is right in town but it doesn't feel like it. The Minnehaha Creek drops 40 feet over the Minnehaha Falls and pours out into the Mississippi River. Along the way there are 5 bridges for you to walk across while you explore historic markers with a tour you can take using your mobile phone. The park also features restaurants, bike rentals, picnic areas, playgrounds, disc golf and photographers flock to this place. Good for watching people and nature.

These pedal cars are really popular at Minnehaha Park. They look fun and relaxing but you can definitely feel the burn. 

Noah at Minnehaha Falls

Kickin' it on the bridge. 

As much as we want to go out and see the sights in this great town, there is a certain degree of 'settling down' that has been taking place. We have been at this for over a month now and summer is coming to an end. Yes, we get to live on the road but the boys need to have their time for learning and I have a business to run. So, Jessica has incorporated school time just about every morning and she has done a beautiful job with it. She just takes off her mommy hat and puts on her teacher hat and the boys respond wonderfully. I occasionally stick my head in there and try to help when one of the boys is struggling with concentration. Mostly I just step back and keep quiet. We are truly fortunate to have a mom like Jessica. She takes education seriously and inspires wonder in our children.

Morning Circle. It is how they begin the school day. 

Noah doing color bead stair. 

Our stove during school time. The couch, camper stairs, picnic table and cabinet all have works in them too. 

Oh, If you read my last blog you might be expecting me to tell you about the Apostle Islands. Before we came to Minnesota, we spent 2 nights in Northern Wisconsin. The area is apparently the place to be in the summer but when we got there it was mostly shut-down. I got a yuppie vibe from the place. Sailboats and boutique shops lining the shore of a town that is pretending to be forgotten by time. The park we stayed at was really nice though and I met a nice couple from St. Cloud that I chatted with on a few occasions. There was also a really nice coffee shop in town with lightning fast WiFi (if you haven't learned by now, I am a connection junkie. Keep me connected and make it fast).

The islands themselves are hard to get to (hence the sailboats, hence the yuppies). We looked at a lot of pictures and it looked awe inspiring. We loved the idea of taking our backpacks and staying on a remote island in Lake Superior for a couple days but, alas, we are RVers and the Apostle Islands are an attraction built for a different kind of explorer. For that reason, we checked out of town early and devoted our full attention to Minnesota.

Noah getting pampered at the haircut place. 

With Minnesota in our rear view mirrors, we are heading out on a two week trip that will span from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. We plan to stop at FOUR national parks along the way (Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier and Olympic) and we have all of our backpacking gear ready to go at a moments notice. This, of course, is all contingent on the weather behaving. South Dakota and Wyoming apparently got freakish amounts of snowfall last week. In the event of an approaching snowstorm, our plan is to change course and head to New Mexico and then continue west on a more southern latitude. Whatever the route, we are all geared up and ready for more travel thanks to this gem of a Midwest town. 

Happy Trails and Not-So-Happy Weather

Our final days in Michigan were among the most exciting we have had. The Trails Festival came to Copper Harbor for Labor Day weekend and the town really came to life. The festival is a series of mountain bike races and competitions. One of the competitions is a memorial dock jumping contest for a guy named Dan Wissman (they also named one of the trails, Danimal, after him). Watching mountain bikers jump a huge ramp into the icy waters of Lake Superior is good clean fun and I recommend it to anyone of any age. As the event was going on, the Isle Royale Queen IV pulled into port and honked her horn while the waitresses at the Harbor Haus did the Can-Can on the back deck. It was like a backwoods variety show of epic proportions.

Notice the judges sitting in the row boat. 

On the final night of the festival (sponsored by Bells Beer) they had a party in the park complete with a fine selection of rare beers and bluegrass music performed by the Henhouse Prowlers. I am a big fan of bluegrass. As soon as these dudes took the stage you could tell they were pros. They are a well oiled machine that is designed to entertain a crowd. So we stayed out late with the kids, had a few ales and did some dancing. The boys were REALLY into the music, especially Noah.

After the excitement of the holiday weekend subsided, we took a trip back to the Porcupine Mountains to meet up with some family. We ended up at a Township park in Ontonagon that was awesome. We set up camp right on the beach and started cracking beers with Uncle Don and Young Andrew. They are a father/son duo that, along with being our family, are part of the core group of bicyclists that we roll with (fellow ragers). They came to the area to do a 4-day bike tour of Gogebic and Ontonagon counties. I was jealous of their plans but we had some interesting plans of our own.

The next day we woke up, loaded up our backpacks and headed to the Porkies for an overnight hike with the boys. The original plan was to hike in 5 miles to Mirror Lake, camp, then hike out the next day. The weather reports basically guaranteed overnight storms, so we brought a tarp to hang over our camp and hiked into the backcountry.

About halfway into our hike we came to a river crossing that stopped us dead in our tracks. The week before we showed up, the area had gotten about 6" of rain so the streams were unusually high. I waded across the river and scouted it out and determined that we wouldn't be able to bring the whole family and all of our gear across safely. We decided the best course of action would be to go to a different campground that was about 3 miles from us but only about a mile from the car. This would prove to be a key move later on.

The trail we were on was really muddy. At times, it looked like a creek. We got to a technical section that was slippery and Jessica had to pick up Sam and carry him. Carrying our son and our biggest pack took its toll and she fell into a large puddle of muck and dropped Sammy in the process. The mosquitos were biting me like crazy and Noah was whining a lot. Morale was definitely getting low but we arrived at our campground around dinner, setup camp and made ourselves at home. After some relaxation time by the fire, we crawled into our tents for the night.

At about 1am the storms arrived. Heavy downpours, lightning and loud thunder. The boys slept through the whole thing and all of our gear stayed dry!

The next morning we woke up to the sounds of chirping birds and the rushing waters of the creek. The conditions looked promising and everyone was relaxed. We knew we only had a 1 mile hike to the car so we could just take our time and head out when we were ready. I started breakfast and coffee and suddenly things got really dark. It wasn't just overcast either. It looked like midnight. I grabbed the weather radio, turned it on, and these were the first words I heard, "Wind gusts of 80 miles per hour. Baseball sized hail. Expect significant damage to roofs and mobile homes. Find a sturdy structure to take shelter in. Possible life threatening situation."

I am not exaggerating here at all. One minute I was fantasizing about coffee in the woods, the next minute I was frantically trying to cram all of our shit into backpacks. I was trying to convey the sense of urgency to Jessica while staying calm for the sake of Noah and Sam but everyone could tell I was anxious. Jessica stopped for a moment and presented the idea of trying to wait-out the storm. That's when I explained to her exactly what I heard on the weather radio and, without hesitation, she kicked it into high gear with me.

Within 15 minutes we had our packs on our backs and Jessica told the boys that we were playing a hiking game where the object is to hike really fast and try to beat the storm. Keep in mind, these trails were muddy when we hiked in and they got poured on all night. So, with 1 mile of fast, messy hiking in front of us, we high-tailed it back to the safety of our car.

We made it back in record time (20 minutes) and beat the storm. The family was safe. We had our main priority covered. We breathed a short sigh of relief and then sped off to our home-on-wheels, which was also in the path of the storm. If we could make it there in time, we planned to hook-up, pull it off the lake, and try to find a car wash/garage to park in until the storm passed. We kept our eyes on the weather radar as we were driving and it looked like the worst of the storm was turning south. I thought we might get some heavy winds so I tied down the camper real quick and we went into town to ride the storm out at a restaurant/bar where we could get some much needed FOOD!

The town we were in got hit by the edge of the storm but the worst of it hit south of us. The area where we had been camping got hit pretty good. I won't ever know the extent of it but the radar told us that we made the right decision getting out of there like we did. We headed back to the camper and the sun came out, right on cue. We spent the remainder of the day swimming and hanging on the beach, something that was easy to appreciate after the crazy morning we had.

For the rest of the weekend we chilled with family. Uncle Don, Young Andrew and his younger brothers, Ray and Robert, joined us for a couple days. Aunt Luann was in the house too. She made us some AMAZING steaks on the grill that we coupled with some of my fresh caught perch for our last meal together. After finishing our amazing surf-n-turf dinner, we were treated to an unforgettable sunset and a huge camp fire. The mood was good, we were all feeling grateful, so we did what all sensible people do in that situation. We got drunk.

A day hike at Lake of the Clouds complete with a lunch/beer stop. 

Copper Peak. One of the largest ski jumps in the world...right in the middle of nowhereland, MI. It's really bizarre to stumble across this thing. 

Our last sunset in Michigan. 

Our final campfire in Michigan. 

With the Michigan chapter of our trip closed, we headed to the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin with no particular plan in mind. We just rolled up, found a campground, and started gathering information. This area looks really nice and I am sure it's a blast in July but, it looks like things are starting to shut down for the season. We are making the best of it but last week was so great and we are feeling slightly homesick.

Noah enjoyed the ferry boat ride to the Apostle Islands. 

In a few days we are heading to Minneapolis for a bit. We are going to resupply, enjoy some modern conveniences and maybe even do some shopping at a certain mall in that area. We are gonna head west pretty quick after that in an attempt to beat the snow to the mountains. Until then, there's gonna be a whole lot of ferry rides and cheese curds in our life.

After an action packed, send-off  from our home state, we are off to see the rest of the country. Michigan, you are gonna be a tough act to follow. Until next summer, old friend.

- We love blogging about our adventure and we will update our blog as often as possible. For an up-to-the-minute view of our trip, follow us on Instagram @yumfam.