Washington to Ohio — Travel Diary Day 2

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Disclaimer — I wrote about our travels in June 2022 as we drove to Ohio from the state of Washington in the old Winnebago Sightseer RV. As I read through it, I thought it was a great documentation of the ups and downs, trials and successes of daily traveling in an RV full-time. I hope you enjoy it.

Tuesday, 6/14/22

Woke up at 6 am to rain. We are so sick of the rain. We thought we heard a moose in the woods at the rest area. Rich said he thought he saw moose tracks when he took the dogs out this morning. We left the rest area at 6:45 am. On I-90 East through Montana.

Montana is beautiful, even in the rain. One mountainous hill after another. The trees are different here though, not pine. The bark is a darker brown. More spruce and fir maybe, but not sure.

I noticed some of the ponds look dark brown and it looks like they still have a sheet of thin ice on them. Why are they so brown? Clark Fork is the name of the long river we keep crossing and it looks brown too.

Stopped at Exit 96 and got gas at Love’s. Price $5.04 and he only had to put in $100.00. Only!

7:40 am — The rain has finally stopped. For breakfast we just had some of those little chocolate and white powder donuts and orange juice to drink. Left the Love’s at 8 am. We never seem to eat much when we travel.

Called mom and told her that the Yellowstone Television Show Dutton Ranch is a real ranch in Darby, Montana. We are just one hour north of it. She asked if we were going to go see it and I told her no, we don’t want to take that long of a detour. I would like to do that sometime though.

Construction slowed us down to 35 mph for a while. I saw a large blue heron on the water. Rich saw a black and white magpie bird, and we saw a bald eagle. We have also seen quite a few deer today. One was even standing in the middle of the road. Rich slowed down as much as he could and hollered, “Don’t do it!” as he passed by it.

Man, there is a lot of construction today. Always so much construction on the highways.

Pulled off in a truck parking area at 9:15 am. Both of us had to pee. Back on the road at 9:30 am. It’s only 9:30!

The high altitude is bothering me again. I can tell when I start feeling heavy in the chest and I start struggling to breathe. I can’t take deep breaths. Just checked my altitude app. Yep, we are at 6,000 feet. I can always tell when we get over 5,000 feet. As soon as we go back down I can take deep breaths again. I hate having to use my inhaler.

Pulled into an Exxon gas station at Whitehall. Gas is only $4.88 now. That will help. Had to put in $114.00 though to fill it up.

11 am — We finally have sunshine! We hit 287 South to Yellowstone at 11:25 am. 287 South from I-90 is an amazing drive. It is beautiful. I just saw two of those black and white magpies, and a chipmunk. Hey, there are three antelope! I am excited to get there.

Oh crap, the awning just came loose again. We pulled over and Rich is up on the roof trying to fix it and roll it back up. We are stopped at the Bozeman Trail sign. It is beautiful here.

Oh my gosh, the wind is so strong. It sounds ferocious. I hope he doesn’t fall of the roof. Lord, please don’t let him fall or get hurt.

It is 1:00 pm already. I wanted to be at the campground by now. We have gone slower because of the wind and rain than I thought we would. It is so frustrating when so many things go wrong.

We have two nights reserved at the West Yellowstone Holiday RV Campground. It’s a back in site with full hookup. $165.00 for two nights. That’s more than I usually spend. I hope it is worth it.

Oh my gosh, what else could possibly go wrong. It is 1:50 pm and we just got a flat tire on the tow dolly and Rich said the rim is destroyed. Tried to call roadside assistance only to find out that our insurance doesn’t cover the tow dolly.

Well, I talked him into taking the car off the dolly and let’s leave it here for now and get to the campground. I just want to get to the campground. Then we can come back for the dolly later. We are only about 20 minutes from the campground.

I drove the car and he followed me in the RV.

Got all set up and Rich said he was going to leave the tow dolly sit until tomorrow. He is too tired to mess with it. He will have to drive back there and see for sure what he needs and call to find out where we can get it fixed.

It is beautiful here. The view out the front window is awesome.

If you would like to read Day 1 you can find it here…

And if you are interested in reading some of our other travel articles you can find a list of them here.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to clap and comment to let me know you were here.

Stay tuned for Day 3.