Yellowstone Trip Day 2

 Wednesday Sept 8

I left Missouri at 8:15 and headed west on 70 and then north on 29.   This was pretty much another drive day although I stopped in Sioux City Iowa to see the Sargent Floyd Monument. For those of you not familiar with Sargent Floyd, he was a member of the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery expedition of 1804-1806.  President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase and establish a cross country water route to the Pacific Ocean. Sargent Floyd died of appendicitis at the beginning of the journey - the only person to die the entire time. The Captains chose a fitting spot to lay Sargent Floyd to rest on a bluff overlooking the river.

If you want to read more about this fascinating expedition I highly recommend "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose. The book goes into detail about their journey across half the continent and the trials and tribulations this rugged group of men endured to accomplish their mission.

(photo from Amazon)

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70's and good for travel.   Leaving Sioux Falls I headed west on 90 towards my 2nd nights campground. I stopped at a very nice rest area in South Dakota and grabbed a geocache.   I noticed that a lot of the rest areas in South Dakota had very cool tepee statues at them.   

I pulled into the Mitchell KOA Journey Campground a little after 3 pm.  It was a nice quiet campground and had some very nice showers.    I set up camp and piped some Neil Diamond songs thru my Bluetooth speakers while I fixed Kung Lao chicken wraps for dinner.  The campground was rather empty and there were no other tent campers that night.  Another camper from a couple of sites down walked over and asked me to turn up the music because he and his wife were huge Neil Diamond fans.  That's my kind of people!!

After dinner I took a shower. - I really liked the fancy sinks at this campground...

Finally I sat down and looked over brochures and my itinerary for the next day. After today I would start seeing and stopping at a lot of fun places and I was extremely excited about all that. The first 2 days were mostly driving days but from here on out I had a pretty loaded schedule.

   

Yellowstone Trip Day 1

Tuesday Sept. 7

Going to Yellowstone has been a lifelong dream and I finally did it!!   I travelled by myself from Kentucky to Yellowstone, logging in almost 4000 miles on my journey.   I left on Tuesday September 7th, the day after Labor Day, and returned on Monday September 20th.  I did a combination of tent and car camping, using my 2019 Dodge Durango, with a roof cargo carrier for extra storage.  

Here's the bed of my car - It has 2 rows of back seats that I fold down.   The set of plastic 3 shelf drawers holds my clothes, vitamins, and miscellaneous other items.  I use a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat for a night time toilet.  I keep it in a milk crate so it doesn't tip over.  The bag inside the toilet has a layer of kitty litter on the bottom to cut any smells..

I love my CuteQueen trunk organizers.  I have 2 - one in the back as you see here and I also use one on the front passenger seat.  The one in back holds my toiletries, a plastic container with all my USB chargers and my 2 lanterns, toilet paper, paper towels, some water and a small lap blanket...

The bottom layer of my bed is a mattress from my Coleman Cot, a top mattress made of memory foam, a sleeping bag and then my red quilt on top of that.  If you haven't seen my video on how to make Reflectix window coverings, check this out.

The front passenger seat holds my other trunk organizer and it's filled with easy to grab snacks while driving, a hat, all my maps and campground information, a book, and my camera...

The floor space on the passenger side holds 2 boxes - one with my JetBoil and the other with my kitchen supplies...

My Coleman cookstove sits next to the organizer...

Here's another view of the back.  I use my vintage Red Coleman cooler as a pantry.  It holds all my dry goods as well as a plastic insert where I keep frozen jugs of iced tea and water.  As they slowly melt, I drink the contents....

I also take along my SetPower refrigerator/freezer..

On the floor behind the drivers seat I keep my shower bag, my ALL bottle filled with fresh water to wash my hands and clean my dishes, and a couple more gallons of water...

My seat organizer comes in handy for all kinds of items - disinfectant wipes, masks, plastic gloves, an umbrella, hand sanitizer and kleenex...

In front I also had a very handy item - my IPad mount.  I love this thing.  I attach my IPad to it and I use it for navigation and to access my music play lists.   I also have a cork board that sits on top of the organizer.  This helps hide the contents of the organizer and I attach my paper maps and daily itinerary on top..

My JEGS Rooftop carrier is a life saver for storage.  In it I keep my plastic container with my tent, another container with my winter jacket, hat, and rain suit.  Also my Sportneer table and a canvas chair.  I still have a little room for more stuff. 

The tent I use is a DeerFamy tent.  It's easy to set up and is a perfect size for me...

My trip was planned out over a 6 month period of research using the RoadTrippers App for assistance and I pre-booked all of my camping locations in advance except for one night.  I like the RoadTrippers app alot and I use my IPad for navigation purposes since my car doesn't have an in dash navigation system.  I'm going to break down my posts by day as well as by different locations since I have so much to share with you.  So it looks like I'll be posting almost daily for the next 3 weeks.  I ended up taking almost 2000 photos between my camera and my cell phone.  But don't worry, I pared them down and I won't be posting all of them .  LOL.     So grab a cup of coffee or a coke and join me for a recap of my trip....

I was up and out of the house by 8 o’clock in the morning. First I dropped my dogs off at the vet and then stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast and I was on the road by 8:45. I like to take my time because for me, the journey is just as important as the destination. I usually drive around 6 hours a day with frequent stops for gas, rest areas, geocaching and sight seeing.

I was able to get five geocaches the first day. One was at Danville Female Academy in Missouri. Danville was one of the countries first female collages located west of the Mississippi. The school was the site of some Civil War activity and you can read more about it here.

Another geocache was at a Firefighters memorial that pays tribute to all the Missouri firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty....

I pulled up at the campground just before 4 o’clock.  It was a beautiful day and extremely warm at 90°. I was trying to decide if I wanted to put my tent up and sleep in the tent or if I just want to sleep in the back of my car. I really like to get up and out early in the morning and sometimes it's just quicker and easier if I don't have to mess with my tent.  Sleeping in the car won the coin toss!

Dinner was a barbeque brisket sandwich made with barbeque that I had precooked at home and had frozen in an individual size freezer bag. I just heat up the meat in a skillet and dinner is ready...

I pre-make and freeze a large majority of my dinner meals in advance. I usually make Kung Pao Chicken and Beef, sloppy joes, and barbeque brisket. I also take along frozen hot dogs, bratwurst and hamburgers....

This Kansas City East KOA campground in Oak Grove Missouri is very nice - it’s quiet and it’s located right off the expressway with easy on easy off access. The only thing I didn’t care for is that the tent sites are right on top of each other and they really could use a few more showers. Fortunately there was only one other tent camper that evening and they were camped at the other end of the tent sites.

I ate dinner, took a shower and sat outside reading until dark. Then I crawled in the back of my car and watched a movie for awhile. I think I was sound asleep before 10:00 pm. All in all it was a very good first day.