Lil Devil's Geocaching Pages

Because we lost so much time back in Montana due to our truck breaking down, now we have to make up time. Today is Monday and we want to be in Nashville by Thursday afternoon. It's only about 1,100 miles total, but we decided to do 512 miles today because a) there is nothing really to see in South Dakota and Nebraska, and b) we wanted to get to one of our club campgrounds where it's basically free. Well, already paid for anyways

I did manage to find three caches during this long day, though, so all is good in the universe

We got up today and headed straight for Mount Rushmore, just a few miles from camp. I was here about 20 years ago and I remembered a small, weathered visitor center and wooden viewing platform. Today there is a huge elaborate granite visitors center, parking garage, and a paved viewing trail that takes you right to the base of the carvings.

As we approached the visitors center, we spotted a sign advertising self-paced audio tours. Angel went to check that out while I snapped some pictures. Surprisingly there were no virtual caches there

After what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time, she returned. Turns out the audio tours were a brand-new feature and she was the very first customer! They do need to work on their procedures, though, because it took almost a half hour at the counter and she practically had to sign her first born away

We had a lot to do today so we got an early start and were on the road by 9am. That's early for us

Our first couple of stops were for geocaches along the road. Our third stop was more exciting: Devil's Tower in Wyoming. I love any place with the word "devil" or some variation in the name. I even have a waymarking category to collect them. We took a walk all the way around the tower and found a virtual cache along the way.

Then we were off to our next stop: Mount Rushmore. By the time we got in the area it was almost 5pm so we just headed to the Rushmore Shadows campground and rested for the evening.

We woke up and had breakfast, and just as I was looking for the phone number of the muffler shop, the phone rang. It was the muffler shop. The truck is done. It was actually done late last night, but he didn't want to call at almost midnight

There was some complications, but it got done anyways. It turns out that one of the special aspects of this being a California truck, is that it has what Kirk called "pre-cats" before the main catalytics. These pre-cats are barely larger than the header pipe itself. Apparently one of them had literally disintegrated and plugged up the main cat behind it. Thus the out-of-range readings by the computer and the resultant rough running engine. It couldn't exhale!

It's been three days now since our truck broke down. Three days since I've found a geocache. I'm having withdrawal symptoms. Bad.

After my morning routine, I called the dealership to see if they figured anything out on the truck yet. I was told a mechanic was looking at it now and she would call me back soon. An hour later I got impatient and called back

Well they decided it was the camshaft position sensor after all, but they didn't have one. The good news was that it was only about $100. The bad news was that the nearest part was about 30 miles away in the town of Bozeman, and they wouldn't be able to send someone to get it until late in the day or even tomorrow. Ummm, that's not good enough, I said. How about if I rent a car and pick it up myself? Yeah, that will work.

I got up, showered, ate breakfast, and read the newspaper online. I really prefer an actual paper newspaper, but when travelling, I have to make do with the online version. I need to grow a 2nd right hand. It's hard to hold the cereal spoon and move the mouse at the same time.

After I was done with all that, I walked over to The Tire Iron to see how things were going with the truck. They said they tried a couple of things which didn't work, so they were throwing in the towel and sending the truck to the GMC dealership in Livingston, an hour away. I told them I also wanted to get our rig towed there so it would be easier for me to work with the dealership. Arrangements were made to get each vehicle towed, all on AAA's dime.

The guys at The Tire Iron worked on our truck today. They first noticed a nasty squealing belt sound so they ordered, waited for, and replaced the belt. That fixed the squeal, but the engine still ran rough. Then they hooked up a scanner to the truck's computer, and got several codes. One said there is bad readings from the camshaft position sensor. One said misfire. Another couple of them said sensors around the catalytic converters are out of range.

When they looked up instructions for diagnosing these problems, one said that if you have such-and-such code, diagnose that one first. When they looked at how to diagnose that one first, it turns around and said to diagnose the first code first. I got dizzy

We got up around 8:30 this morning, which for us is early. Usually it seems to be 9:30 or 10am by the time we get moving. We packed up the rig for another day of driving, and were on the road by 9:40. The plan was to drive around the northern loop of the Yellowstone figure eight, then leave the park at the northeast exit and drive through Wyoming and possibly up to Montana before stopping for the night. It's good to have a plan, but too bad plans don't always work out.

We were trying to decide whether to go the long way around the northern loop, to see more of the park, or the short way, to get going faster.

We got up early today and packed up the trailer and drove a few miles up to Yellowstone National Park. We headed straight to the campground and set up camp, which didn't take long. We're getting good at this. Then we went for a drive...

The roads in Yellowstone are in basically a figure eight. The RV campground is to the east of the center, and Old Faithful is to the west. We started at the campground and drove south and west around the bottom of the loop. We stopped for several virtual caches and saw lots of elk and buffalo. Then we got to Old Faithful. It was really cold and a wind was blowing so we bundled up and walked over to where a crowd was gathering. We stopped to read a sign that said, on average the geyser blasts off every hour to hour-and-a-half. The intensity of each blast dictates how long it will be until the next blast.

There's few things more beautiful than the sight of fresh snow in the morning. About a half inch fell over night.

Unfortunately it was all gone by noon. :sniff:

We decided to spend the day driving around the Grand Teton National Park finding virtual caches and just having fun exploring. This meant staying another night. Darn.

Woo hoo we're moving again!

After a peaceful night's sleep in Wedco Muffler & Fabrication's parking lot, we woke up to the sounds of industry. Back-up beepers. Compressors. Air wrenches. You name it. I had breakfast then "borrowed" some other business's WiFi to check up on email and other things geocaching. At around 11am I went into the office to check on the schedule. The guy that was going to work on my rig is almost done with the other project.

I go back out to the trailer and relax for a little while. At around 1pm Angel and I are getting anxious. We know that if our rig doesn't get done today, we're going to be stuck here all weekend. I go back in to check with the manager. He says our tech finished the other project and went to lunch. Lunch. Now there's a good idea. I tell him we're going to do the same, and they can feel free to move our rig and get started.

After several uneventful days driving through Nevada and Idaho, we arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We were planning on spending the next couple of days in the Grand Tetons National Park, but just as we were coming into Jackson Hole, some guy pulled next to us and pointed at our trailer then made an urgent spinning motion with his hands. We pulled over to the side of the road, and I walked back to inspect the trailer. Because of his signs, I checked out the tires first. Nope, none were flat. But when I walked around the rear, I smelled burning rubber. I then looked closer at the tires and noticed the two on the driver side were rubbing against each other. Hmmm. That could be a problem

As I was getting the GPS ready for the day's journey, I noticed a cache nearby called No Swimming Pools, No Movie Stars. It was a couple miles back the way we came, but it sounded interesting. So after we hitched up, we went and found it. It was just a virtual cache, but the object was quite surprising and got a good chuckle out of both of us.

After that we headed north on highway 93 towards Yellowstone National Park. We stopped at the Nevada-Idaho border town of Jackpot to have lunch. There was a nice little rest area that even included electrical hookups. First time I've seen that! And the best part: there was a geocache right there

Not much to write about today. We got a late start and only got a couple hundred miles to Wells, Nevada. Found a few caches along the way.

We were headed to one of our club campgrounds. As we pulled into town, there was a beautiful, brand-new campground right at the first exit. But the GPS led us further. When we got to the club campground, are jaws dropped. It was basically a dirt lot that backed up the the railroad, with a few electrical and water hookups. We turned around and headed back to the brand-new place on the edge of town. Sometimes it's worth paying full price just to be in a ni

I got up this morning, and after taking care of normal morning business, I got on the phone looking for a place to get the cat bathed after yesterdays adventures. I really didn't know where to look, so I just called the big places like Petsmart and Pet Co. They could help if I had a dog, but not the cat.

I shrugged it off and figured we'd find a place later during our trip. I went off to fill up the gas tank on the truck. It's much easier to do this without the trailer. Along the way, I got lucky and spotted a little dog and cat grooming place in a strip mall. Their phone number was on the sign, so I called as I was getting gas. A nice lady listened to my dilemma, then said to hold on. I could hear her yell, "Mom, do you want to bathe a cat this morning?" She said bring her on down.

After a week-long delay, we finally left California. First we're heading to Tennessee, then we plan on exploring New England.

We've got about 3 weeks to get to an event in Tennessee, so we're going to take a northerly route through Yellowstone, across the northern states to Upper Michigan, then south to Tennessee. Yeah, it's a lot of extra miles vs. a direct route, but we've never seen some of these northern states and it sounds like fun.

The first night we made it to Sparks, Nevada. There's a KOA next to one of the hotels that we have stayed at before. This evening was extra exciting because when we got to the campground, as soon as we opened the trailer door, our cat, Kira, jumped out and ran off. Normally Kira is pretty good when we travel. When she gets out, she usually stays close, and she comes back when she gets hungry. This time she jumped out when we were at the front of the campground, checking in. We couldn't stay there and wait for her, and the camp space we were assigned was a good quarter mile away.