National Park Wonders

We’ve been enjoying some National Parks lately! We spent a very nice 5 days in Yellowstone. The climb into the park on our first day made the truck heat up a bit, but we took our time and made it to the campground safely. We toured all over the park seeing the sights: geysers, mud volcanoes, and other hydrothermal features; wildlife including buffalo, elk, pelicans, etc.; and the amazing landscapes which you can see from the photos.

Yesterday we trucked out of Yellowstone southward into Grand Teton National Park. We were surprised and amazed by the towering Teton Mountains! We relaxed at a beach right on Jackson Lake, with a direct view of the Tetons. The water was a bit chilly but worth it. Then today we headed out of the Tetons and made it into Idaho, where we hit some windy weather so we found a nearby campground (we don’t like chancing the winds with the house). Tomorrow it’s on the road again, and just a few days from reaching our destination of Eugene, Oregon!

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Windy Wyoming

Greetings from Wyoming! It sure is windy here today, we’re a few hours from Yellowstone (in the town of Sheridan) waiting until tomorrow to drive on to the park once the winds die down.

Since our last post, we’ve been to quite a few places. We left the Upper Peninsula and enjoyed driving along Lake Michigan. Once in Wisconsin we saw lots of big fields of corn and soy, and stopped at the lovely Necedah Wildlife Refuge to see birds, butterflies, etc. Then on to Minnesota, which had more corn and soy as well as some large fields of wind turbines. We checked out the wind project in the small town of Grand Meadow, Minnesota. The turbines were pretty ominous when we stood right under them, I was scared! We had lunch in town at the local diner which was packed, and had the pleasure of sharing a table with a local 101-year-old woman and her niece.

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Next came South Dakota, and our first national park of the trip. We made it to Badlands National Park one afternoon, just in time to snag a site at the park campground. We set up house with a view of the amazing rock formations, and enjoyed an evening program presented by park rangers. Next morning we visited the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, and toured inside a missile launch center that was manned during the Cold War. Thankfully no missiles were ever launched! We then visited the nearby and famous Wall Drug for doughnuts, coffee, ice water, and postcards. We continued our day trip towards Rapid City, SD and noticed that we had a flat tire- luckily we didn’t have the house in tow and we made it safely to a tire shop. A couple hours later we were on our way with 7 new tires…! We visited Crazy Horse Memorial, which is quite an amazing and huge sculpture project honoring the native people that have been killed and displaced from their homelands. Definitely worth a visit. Then we drove by Mount Rushmore, and called it a day.

The next morning we left the Badlands via a beautiful loop drive through the park, with great views of the rocks and some cute prairie dogs. Like the windy day that we entered South Dakota, the forecast was windy once we got into Wyoming. We pushed on to Sheridan, WY and hunkered down for a blustery night. This morning we visited a local dealership and had them do some work on the truck, since hill climbs were heating the truck up yesterday. Hopefully we’ll be in good shape to cross the Bighorn and Rocky Mountains! Now we’re just waiting out the winds, and looking forward to spending some time in Yellowstone soon.

We continue to meet lots of interesting folks along the way, especially with the tiny house as a conversation starter. We even met some folks in Badlands who are considering their own tiny house and had visited our blog before- shoutout to Britney and family! We’ve also had lots of folks snap photos of the house, and we’re hoping that someday we’ll see some of those pics… send them to us via this blog if you’ve seen us on the road!

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Rollin’

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Our cross-country honeymoon adventure has begun! We are a week into the trip. So far it’s been very smooth sailing with the tiny house (knock on wood!) and we’re having a great time. A week ago we headed out of Keene, New Hampshire to Craftsbury Common, Vermont to visit our alma mater, Sterling College. It was lovely to see friends there, and we did a ‘tiny’ open house. Next we headed north to Canada, towards Ottawa. At the border we got extra questions, and the agents searched some of our stuff. However after going through a couple boxes they were satisfied, and didn’t even look inside the house. More trouble came a couple hours later when the Quebec Provincial Police pulled us over on the Canadian interstate. Two officers spent a while measuring the house, and then we had to take off our heater chimney and a couple jacks so that we’d be within the width limits. We lucked out in that we weren’t impounded, but not a great first experience with Canadians on the trip! Stayed at a campground outside of Ottawa that night, and then experienced the capital city for a day. We saw the outside of Parliament, visited the Canadian History Museum, took a water taxi, and had a yummy Indian buffet. Next day we drove just a few hours west to a nice campground in Stonecliffe, Ontario. The folks there were real friendly, and we had a dip in the lake. The next morning we packed up and got on the road west, but after a few hours a nasty storm rolled in so we took a break in a Walmart parking lot. After the storm left we drove and drove some more, and by 9:30pm we rolled into another Walmart for the night- in Sault St. Marie, Ontario right by the U.S. border.

That brings us to today, whew! We made it through the border easily, and the customs agent was very excited to see a tiny house. She looked inside but only confiscated some raw eggs from Canada. Then we headed to Munising, Michigan by Lake Superior, and found a campground to set up shop. We just took a glass bottomed shipwreck boat tour, pretty cool!

That’s it in a nutshell so far. We get lots of strange looks, waves, thumbs ups, and questions with the house. Jeremy has been doing really well with driving the house and truck, and we’ve been very lucky so far that the rollin’ is going smoothly! Going to relax and enjoy the honeymoon now, until next time.