Smokejumping

Just outside of Missoula is the country’s largest smokejumping base. Smoke jumpers are the guys that go to a wild fire first off if its in a remote area. This is after the forest service has decided that they want to contain the fire. So they fly out to the fire and jump out of the plane with all their gear and basically dig trenches to keep the fire from spreading. Crazy work!

I was nervous Suzy wouldn't like it so I didn't plan to stay long, but we had tons of fun and even got to take a tour of everything.

This is a model of one of the fire watch towers located way out in the forest. We want to volunteer to work at one!

Smokejumpers are way more hardcore than we imagined. They are like the Seal team of firefighters. Also, they sew all their own gear and clothing!

Untangling and packing parachutes:

Missoula Surf

Suzy’s friend Laurel kindly gave us a ride from the Hospital in Idaho Falls back to our RV in Dubois an hour away.

Jordan was feeling better by then so we started driving North again.

While in Dillon Montana we came across the coolest elementary school we’ve ever seen. A slide to get from the 3^rd story to the playground! So cool.

Another town in rural Montana with an old one room schoolhouse that was in operation from the 1800s all the way until 1967!

We finally rolled into Missoula, Montana, a place we have been looking forward to for a while. However, it is so far the most difficult town we have been to for traveling. It's not RV friendly at all, we were told this is because it has “become a popular town for the riff-raff types of travelers”. I like to think we aren't riff-raff but fall somewhere between them and the 6-figure RV types, but we are probably closer to riff-raff than we would like to admit and Jordan certainly looks the part. We were told to park our RV in a small lot in downtown, near the river. It sounded nice, but we decided against it once we got there.

Since Wal-Mart lets people camp in their parking lot there for one night, it was quite the campground by nightfall.

Besides being difficult to park and camp in, it has also been probably our favorite town to visit so far. There are a lot of people our age for some reason with a lot of our similar interests and it’s kind of an artsy open-minded town stuck in the rural Montana mountainscape. We spent our first day shopping in stores we haven’t seen in a while, to stalk up, and walking around downtown. Jordan was excited to visit the headquarters of the Adventure Cycling Association.

We spent the rest of our time hanging out at the river. The spot we swam at had a standing wave popular with kayakers and surfers. Yes, surfing in Montana.

It turned out to have a surfing competition while we were there so we stuck around for that.

Monkey Rocks and Kidney Stones

After Jordan returned from Texas, he joined me in Twin Falls for a few days to see family and relax, but mostly to play with the animals. 

Feeding the baby cows:

Playing with the goats:

"Balanced Rock": I think it looks like a head, do you see it?

Please note Suzy's tractor driving face:

Jordan training the goats:

We then got a ride back to Rexburg to hop back in our little home and hit the road again. While in Rexburg we stayed with our wonderful hosts Bubba and Claire before taking off northward bound. On our way out of town we stopped at Monkey Rock again to swim in the waterfall and jump off the bridge. We couldn't resist it in that heat, plus our friends were doing it. 

The falls:

Underneath the falls:

The bridge:

A bathing beauty:

We didn't make it far, maybe 50 miles. The next day we headed straight back to Idaho Falls only this time in an ambulance instead of an RV. We’re ok, but if you want to read more about it, check out our post for details: Q and the Beard: Unexpected Travel

Texas?

We left Yellowstone for the distant town of West Yellowstone, Montana; right outside the park. I got bored while Suzy was reading so I decided to go on a scooter ride. Somehow I ended up in the forest south of town on some real fun trails and ended up riding several miles of the border of Yellowstone National Park. The trail was fun and it was cool to be riding the perimeter in the middle of nowhere. I had so much fun I went back to get Suzy to ride with me.

The next day was Suzy's birthday. We had breakfast at a popular bakery, walked around the shops downtown, went out for dinner, then went to the only showing of the only movie playing at the only theater in town… “The Fault in Our Stars.” 

Jordan had to go to Cameron, Texas on a business trip. So we headed down to Rexburg Idaho (see our previous post) so he could fly out of Idaho Falls. He took a shuttle early in the morning to the Idaho Falls Airport. He was nervous that he would miss his flight because the shuttle was late. When he arrived at the airport he found out why the shuttle driver was in no hurry to get him there… Jordan was the only passenger at the airport!

On his flight from Denver to Houston he noticed someone on his plane that looked familiar. It was Mondo from Project Runway!

Jordan said he had fun while in Texas, even though he worked crazy hours (overtime by Tuesday!) He was very excited to have seen an armadillo.

 

While he was there Suzy took a bus to Twin Falls Idaho to see her family. Jordan’s last 48 hours traveling back were a bit crazy: Dinner at Texas A&M in College Station TX, sleep and breakfast in Cameron TX (an hour away), business lunch in Houston (3 hours away), delayed flight out of Houston Airport for 7 hours, connecting flight out of Denver missed, dinner sleep and breakfast in Denver CO waiting for the next available flight to Idaho, lunch in Idaho Falls (Eastern Idaho), dinner in Twin Falls (Southern Idaho), fireworks in Jackpot NV, back to Twin Falls for bed... all after working over 100 hours that week.

Yellowstone Part Two

Day three Mama and Rick joined all of us! Wish Coley, Toby, and Gabby could have been there too.  We went to see Old Faithful and drove around the West side of the park. That night back in the RV was really fun - high school sleepover style. There may or may not have been an attempt to light a fart on fire [the attempt was unsuccessful]. 

At this particular continental divide there is a little pond. One side of the pond flows to the East and one side flows out to the West. It was pretty cool.

Viv and Jensen forgot the carrier for Dunken. Jordan and I didn't mind. We just took all the chances we could to hold the little bean. 

This geyser is called Beehive Geyser. It's one of the more rare geysers in the park and it was erupting the same time as Old Faithful. I think it took away some of Old Faithful's steam (both figuratively and literally). 

Of course we saw a lot of hydrothermals. They really are amazing. We kept talking about what it must have been like for the first people to ever come to this part of the United States. I mean you're just walking along the same old forest and BAM! A geyser erupts or you come across these beautiful pools of hot water. 

Viv and Jensen left in the morning of our fourth day to head to Canada so we spent the rest of the day with Mama and Rick. If you find yourself in Yellowstone, take the time to drive around at dusk. We left Mama and Rick's campground to head back to ours just as the sun was setting and there were so many citters out! We saw another bear and so many bison. The RV was surrounded by them!

Day five we did a bit more sight seeing on our own and then met Mama and Rick in West Yellowstone for lunch. They went back to Twin Falls and Jordan and I stayed in West Yellowstone for the night.


The old lodges in the park were incredible. I know I keep saying that, but they really were. The Old Faithful Inn was built in 1904 out of logs and limbs.

One of the lodges overlooks Yellowstone Lake. Jordan would have gone there every evening to relax if he could have.

I think Jordan was a little disappointed at what the campground looked like. We stayed at different camp sites located on either side of the park. The first campground was definitely a bit crowded. Here's what it looks like coming back with everyone's fires burning. We stayed at our second campground just for one night and it was much better. 

Until next time, Yellowstone! 

...One last bison picture for good measure....