Oregon Coast to New Jersey

[audisnapr]

Originally Posted by carringb

For camping along I-84, I think Farewell Bend state park is pretty nice. Good space between sites, hookups available, some historical stuff there, and a little closer than Caldwell:
http://www.oregonstateparks.org/inde...kPage&parkId=4

that was my first choice as well, but we are trying to get down the road as far as possible so that we have more daylight in YS when we arrive. Unfortunately, we'll have to limit our stay to one night in YS after all.

Right now we are looking at our options up over Bighorn. Should we take 310 to 14-Alt or continue on 310 down towards Graybull to US-14 then up through Shell? By looking at Google, both 14-Alt and 14 looks steep. Should I be concerned as far as pushing the can up the hill?

We are looking for our midway camp site between YS and Rapid City.

[shenrie]

Originally Posted by audisnapr

Shenrie - once we get our act together on this end, I'll be sure to post up our "schedule" so that we can meet up along the way. Look forward to it.

sounds good and likewise! if i can be of any assistance, just let me know.

too bad it isnt a little later in the month. were putting on a race up our local skihill road that i know youd enjoy seeing

[carringb]

Originally Posted by audisnapr

Right now we are looking at our options up over Bighorn. Should we take 310 to 14-Alt or continue on 310 down towards Graybull to US-14 then up through Shell? By looking at Google, both 14-Alt and 14 looks steep. Should I be concerned as far as pushing the can up the hill?

Looks like its only 10%. You should be fine, just keep on eye on those engine temps. That's about the same steepness I drove your van on last weekend, and it had power to spare, and holds speed downhill just fine when dropped into "3".

http://www.aaroads.com/west/us-014alt_wy.html

[audisnapr]

Originally Posted by carringb

Looks like its only 10%. You should be fine, just keep on eye on those engine temps. That's about the same steepness I drove your van on last weekend, and it had power to spare, and holds speed downhill just fine when dropped into "3".

Thanks, Brian. Appreciate the feedback.

Anyone have a suggestion for a stopping point between Sioux Falls and Chicago?

[audisnapr]

Originally Posted by shenrie

sounds good and likewise! if i can be of any assistance, just let me know.

too bad it isnt a little later in the month. were putting on a race up our local skihill road that i know youd enjoy seeing

Shenrie and anyone else along the way, here's our tentative schedule for those in the area.

[audisnapr]

We are home! I will post up our trip report and photos soon, but wanted to share a few iPhone snap shots from along the way as teaser pics. Thanks again to cyclesomatic for the patience, hospitality and the extra mile(s) he went to make this deal happen.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to connect with anyone in route - our trip was quite rushed and just didn't play out in a way to hang out much. Thanks to everyone who shared their travel advise - it was much appreciated and in fact used to help make some decisions in planning and along the way.

Here's the new whip complete with new shoes.

[audisnapr]

Feels like forever-ago that we made this epic-to-us trip across the US, but I wanted to share some of the images we took along the way since the cell phone pics above, really don’t do the scenery justice.

Day 2: Here’s a good one of the travelers. This was day two of our trip – day one didn’t go as planned so we had to stop back at the seller’s house to finalize the deal. Eric, the seller was kind enough to snap a few photos of us before we drove off into the sunset with his… our new van.
IMG_8237 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8246 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 1 (Aug 3): Jumping back to day one, part of the original plan was to stay our first night in a motel in Newport OR since we weren’t too familiar with the van and so that we could get a good night's rest prior to our trek back to NJ. We wanted to visit the local aquarium and the Rogue brewery before we set off.
IMG_8150 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8170 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8183 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8227 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 2: Back to day two – after we left the seller’s house we were desperate to make good time to our first campsite, but after making a few scheduled supply stops and passing through Vancouver WA to pick up our Fiamma awning we couldn’t pass up a sunset like this.
IMG_8274 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8287 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8297 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 3: Arriving in Yellowstone after only a few hours of sleep at the Caldwell Campground. Unfortunately, our first day in Yellowstone was a wet, overcast day.
IMG_8304 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8373 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8402 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8407 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8427 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 4 (Aug 6): Brought much nicer weather and an opportunity to explorer
IMG_8463 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8476 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8489 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8513 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8566 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8571 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8596 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8605 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8615 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Anytime I saw a dirt road I salivated thinking of how cool it would be to finally be able to explore off-road with our new van. The rookie off-roader, must stay on schedule guy, and father in me always brought me back to reality, however, there was this one time…
IMG_8634 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8636 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8641 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

On our way up and over…
IMG_8679 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8684 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8711 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Approaching Bald Mountain… still Day 4, mind you. We arrived at our campsite while it was dark so we weren’t quite sure where we had landed…
IMG_8727 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8733 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8749 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

… until the next day. And it was amazing. Day 5. Not a sole within a few hundred feet of us. It was great. I believe this was our first real camp-cooked meal as well.
IMG_8754 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8756 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8770 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8778 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Sightseeing at the Bighorn Medicine Wheel
IMG_8787 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8793 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8802 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Devil’s Tower
IMG_8842 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8847 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 6: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and The Badlands
IMG_8869 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8870 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8877 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8888 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8889 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8896 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Epic storm a’brew’n at the Badlands
IMG_8925 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8954 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8982 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8991 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_8998 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9002 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9011 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9023 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9037 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 7: After arriving in the middle of the night, again, day 7 was a chance to take the kids somewhere other than beautiful sightseeing (Wild Water West Waterpark)
IMG_9040 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9060 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9101 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9107 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

Day 8 (Aug 11): After camping at the Great River State park, we headed directly to the Chicago area to stay with my dad’s cousin, AKA Uncle Al.
IMG_9119 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9122 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9135 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9158 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9175 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr
IMG_9192 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

The weary travelers. This was actually one of the last photos we took. From here we headed straight to our motel in PA, arriving around 4am, only to get up and leave by 6am so that I could get dropped off at work by 10am.
IMG_9197 by Joseph Stampfl, on Flickr

[twogone]

Nice trip report!

[daveb]

What a journey. Lots of beautiful pics you have there. Some of them bring back memories and others
are places I'd like to see. That jellyfish picture is breathtaking.

[Scalf77]

Very Nice, Thanks for sharing