Alaska 2. Road Warriors July 11

I know everyone is on the edge of their seats, so I won’t keep you hanging. The white bikini was not fated to be. The camper got done right on time and we were off and on our way before Megs and the girls got to town. I know that will be a big disappointment to the bride, but the Warriors must roll on…

Backing up to where I left off, there was one incident of note on the way to Coalville that I would be remiss not to chronicle. It’s going to tax my atrophied brain in regard to how to post video on a WordPress site, but I’m going to give it my all — because this must be seen to be believed — and a picture will not suffice. If there is no video below, you will know I failed. And IF that happens, I MIGHT consider posting it on instagram… however, I’m still reeling from the backlash I got from posting pics of my cluster canker sores last year and THIS may rival THAT in terms of grossness. (Fwiw, I stand by my canker sores post, Emily. I’m all about keeping it real.)

So THAT footage is of swarms of MORMON CRICKETS crossing the road. It went on for probably 10 miles. It was truly the grossest thing I have seen in a very long time. We didn’t know what they were at first so I googled “giant cricket-like insects near Rangely, CO”… and I read all about the yearly plague of the cricket invasion. It’s both sad and DIGUSTING to drive over millions of giant crickets. (See pic below for scale) The road was RED. It STUNK. And there were cricket guts all over the car and camper. 

And now I will stop talking about it because it still makes me feel sick. But feel free to google it yourself for more ick factor if that’s your thing.

We arrived into Salt Lake City area and washed the guts off the car and camper so we wouldn’t stink up Escapod any more than the neighboring mink farm does already. Despite our trials with the camper suspension, we really do love the team there (and the camper) and are really hoping this is our last visit for a few years! Fingers crossed.

We schlepped around Park City for the afternoon in the heat wave. Had some drinks, some Thai, and then some more drinks. Stayed at a very “meh” Airbnb in a great location. Went to bed.

Did a hike up above Deer Valley in the morning. Had some breakfast. Headed back to Coalville. We were OFFICIALLY on the road by 12:45. 

This stinking heat wave gripping the west is LEGIT. Our first stop was going to be around Boise but the temp was forecasted to be 106. Jennie don’t do no 106 degrees camping. Period. EVER. And, in a rare show of compliance, Dave doesn’t either. So we just kept driving, assuming it would cool off as the night wore on. In so doing, we officially broke our very FIRST AGREEMENT of the trip on the very FIRST DAY. (Agreement #1: We WILL NOT drive more than 7 hours in a day.).

I’m not sorry.

We drove 9 hours to just beyond Le Grande, Oregon where the temperature at 9pm was a nice cool 84 degrees. (That is sarcasm, for those of you who are either new here or simply rusty since it’s been about 10 years since I last wrote one of these.). We simply pulled in, brushed our teeth, put the screens on the camper and went to bed. Everything was hot from the long, baking drive (mattress, pillows, sheets) but as it started to cool off we finally drifted off…

…And woke up around 3 am freezing our asses off because we were butt-naked (see link if you are interested in correct terminology: www.merriam-Webster.com/buck-naked-or-butt-naked) under meager covers and it was a brisk 45 degrees. 

It’s a short-ish drive to the Hood River area where we hope to connect with a good friend/gymnastics teammate of Dave’s for dinner and camp someplace nice-ish — or at least nice-ER than the the dirt turnout we camped in last night.

After that, we plan to get to the coast and drive up to Olympia National Park, maybe taking an extra day… Actually, we HAVE to take an extra day because, after a WHOLE LOT of rigmarole, Dave had two packages sent to Escapod that he needed for the trip that couldn’t be delivered to Eagle in time. When tracking showed delivery had failed, we learned he sent it to the wrong address. So we had to call the local post office to figure it out… blah blah blah. Like I said, a whole lot of rigmarole. It was great news when we confirmed the packages had been delivered the day we arrived in Coalville.

And then we forgot to pick them up. 

So now, we are re-shipping them to an Amazon locker in Washington. But they won’t get there until the 14th. So we have a little recreation on the agenda. Not sure we’ll even know what to do with ourselves. We shall see.