California

From Portland, Oregon we hit the road and headed for the Oregon coast. We traveled down the notorious Pacific Coast Highway (101) and rode right along the Pacific Ocean coastline all the way into California. We stopped in Newport, Oregon and had lunch at Mo’s, which was another great Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives gem in the rough. We ate what the locals suggested, which was shrimp melt sandwiches with a side of clam chowder and it was very good. We checked out the local fishing village and then headed towards the small town of Florence, Oregon. Florence is home to the Sea Lion caves, which were a highly recommended visit from the locals. The Sea Lion Caves is the world's largest cave habitat for wild sea lions. The cave is about 200 feet below ground and consists of a two acre naturally formed rock cave that provides shelter from the often harsh Pacific Ocean. That evening we made it to the California state line and set up shop in a very shady campground in Crescent City. The night was very interesting. Our neighbors were not fellow campers, they lived there full time and were very colorful people. The campground was also conveniently located directly across from a port. This particular port featured an obnoxiously loud fog horn that no joke sounded every 10 seconds throughout our entire stay. It was literally like someone was hiding under the camper with an air horn that sounded 6 times per minute!

The next day we fled the Meth Inn RV Park like two bats out of hell and headed into the Redwood Forest. Our first stop in the Redwoods was at the Trees of Mystery. This park consists of a one mile loop that features the largest and most unique trees in the park. The largest tree was 19 feet in diameter and some of them towered over 300 feet tall. The park also had a skytrail gondola ride that went thru the redwood canopy to an observation deck at the top of the Klamath back country. After leaving the Trees of Mystery we toured thru the rest of the park and made a last minute decision to head towards Yosemite National Park. We didn’t really realize how far away Yosemite was, but 14 hours and 60 gallons of diesel later we arrived at the campground. We made another one of our famous middle of the night appearances and woke half the campground up as we blindly finagled the rig into its new home for the next 36 hrs.

We caught a few hours sleep and the next morning headed into Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is basically a park of granite rock. Most of the park was carved out by glaciers many years ago and now features rock formations from 2000 foot vertical shear cliffs to spires, domes, and massive piles of boulders. The most interesting part of our Yosemite adventure was a hike we embarked upon to Mirror Lake. At the trail head we learned a massive rock avalanche had wiped out the top .3 mile of the trail. We decided to forge ahead and just turn around once we reached that point. We hiked an hour or so and reached the barricade prohibiting entering the destruction of the avalanche. We also learned smaller avalanches have continued to occur frequently after the major one back in March. Being two young bachelors with nothing to lose, we decided to slip around the barricade and see what this avalanche business was all about. It was absolutely amazing. Massive amounts of rock, ranging from bucket sized to the size of a dump truck, had fallen from 1800 feet up and totally wiped out a forest of giant pine trees. We crawled around the wreckage and it literally looked like someone had dumped a box of snapped off toothpicks, only the toothpicks were 100’ tall 3-6 foot diameter pine and sequoia trees.

Today we are back in the rig and headed to the wonderful city of Las Vegas! Since we departed Idaho 5 days ago we have spent 48 hrs. in the cab of the truck, covered 2200 miles of ground, and dumped 190 gallons of diesel fuel into this beast! To say the least we are very much ready to stay put for a few days and give the road a brief break. Stay tuned for our tales in Vegas!

-Cheggy

Pacific Northwest

(BE SURE TO CHECK BIG NASTY HILL CLIMB POST BELOW THIS POST)

We left New Plymouth, ID Sunday afternoon and headed 390 miles north-west to Portland, Oregon. It was a very scenic ride during the daylight as we traveled thru the eastern prairies and then along the Columbia River, which divides Oregon from Washington State. However, we had a little surprise in store as we were passing thru the town of Biggs. As we were traveling down the interstate, the driver side rear axle tire on the trailer blew out. Thankfully we were very close to an exit ramp and were able to limp the rig to a truck stop and slap on the spare tire. We finally arrived in Portland around 10:30 PM and set up in the Jantzen Beach RV Park, which is located on an island in the middle of the Columbia River.

On our first day we decided to travel into Washington and see what The Evergreen State was all about. Our first destination was 145 miles due north to Tacoma. Tacoma is a major port city and is located on the southernmost end of the Puget Sound. The Puget Sound is comprised of all the inland waterways in NW Washington that lead to the Pacific Ocean. We discovered a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant located in downtown Tacoma called Southern Kitchen. Earlier this year the Southern Kitchen was featured on the Food Network show called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The show rated the place well and claimed it served authentic southern style foods. We were both feeling long overdue for some sweet tea, fried chicken, cornbread, and home-style mac and cheese so we decided to give the place a try. The food was delicious and we got absolutely stuffed on the food we have grown to miss so such.

After visiting Tacoma, we traveled 35 miles north to Seattle. Seattle is larger than Tacoma and is also a vital port city located on the Puget Sound. Our first stop in Seattle was at the Space Needle, which is a 520 foot tall observation tower that provides a 360 degree view of Seattle. Aside from the incredible views, the Space Needle also provides some of the finest and most puzzling people watching in the country! We next checked out downtown Seattle and then set off south east for Mount Rainier.

Mount Rainier is the 5th highest mountain range in the US and towers at around 14,500 feet. The mountain range was formed by several massive volcanoes and is now dormant and capped with 27 major glaciers. After traveling thru the park we set off for the 3 hr ride back to Portland. We wrapped up our Portland adventure with the excitement of getting a new spare tire and doing laundry at the campground!

-Cheggy

Big Nasty Hillclimb!

We prepared ourselves for a journey out west leaving Fishtail and heading to Idaho for a motorcycle hillclimb event called the Big Nasty Hillclimb. We had left Fishtail after lunch and planned to split the drive to Boise with a stop in Pocatello, Idaho. But upon arriving to the campground late Thursday evening in Pocatello we discovered our campsite was blocked by other members of the campground. Being the true road warriors we are we decided to continue through the night/morning and drive all the way to Boise! We had makeshift campground of the Wal-Mart parking lot upon our arrival to Boise and got a few hours of sleep to ready for the crazy weekend.


I think it's best I give our audience a little background information on what the Big Nasty exactly is. The Big Nasty Hillclimb is a weekend long "motorcycle fest" with the main attraction of climbing dirt hills with a variety of dirtbikes/motorcycles! There was also concerts, freestyle motorcross with riders doing all kinds of crazy stunts, and of course what redneck event would be complete without pumpkin shooting, where pumpkins are blasted from a compressed air cannon at 800 mph!!!


Hillclimbing is performed on a course marked with markers up the side of the mountain and the objective is to make it up the hill and unto flat land in as fast a time as possible. There were several classes ranging from completely stock dirtbikes to alcohol-powered "superdirtbikes" climbing three hills, the 250 foot qualifiying hill, "Little Nasty" the 280-foot hill, and the 600-foot BIG NASTY! The weekend consisted of hours of hillclimbing during the day and night, which was a really cool site! No doubt the riders of this event were crazy but not near as crazy as the guys who did the freestyle motorcross! Mike "The Godfather of Freestyle" Metzger, Keith Sayers and Justin Homan were the riders who performed throughout the weekend. They did several shows each day pulling off crazy tricks that included backflips!

The crowd at this event was also a sight to see! I could definitely compare to a NASCAR race with us camping out all weekend in someone's cow pasture! We meet some great people including our next door neighbors Pam and Bonnie who were sisters that were from a nearby town and put up with us for the weekend! It was a great new redneck experience that was a ton of fun!

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Fishtail, Montana

We pulled out of Bozeman yesterday morning ( BE SURE TO READ THE BOZEMAN POST BELOW!) and headed back east to Fishtail, Montana. Before leaving Bozeman we decided to try checking out the Montana scenery via four wheelers. We found an outfitter in Fishtail called Benbow ATV Rentals, which is actually located inside the Custer National Forest. We found a makeshift campsite on the side of a dirt road in a cattle field about a mile past the rental place and set up headquarters for our ATV adventure. We went back to the rental place, dropped off the truck and picked up our machines and headed into the forest with a very shady map.

The part of the forest where we set out for our adventure was actually an old chromium mining operation. As we traveled thru the woods we found the abandoned sub structure for the mill, several old mine shafts, the head frame that processed the raw mineral, and several other old buildings that supported the operation. On the first day we made our way 4000 feet up to the top of the mountain range and then rode 15 miles all the way into a valley and into a platinum mining operation that was active. Despite the signage advising us otherwise, we traveled into the territory of the active mining operation and checked out an active mine shaft and found a neat trail leading us all the way to the river at the bottom of the valley. As darkness was approaching we turned around to head back and get closer to the camper. We got pretty turned around a few times, but somehow managed to make it back to the camper in the dark. We explored a few more trails in the dark and ventured into the small town of Dean before heading back to the camper.

We fired up the generator and kicked on the water pump and got cleaned for the night and cooked up some good ole bachelor grub. Around 12:00 we decided to hit the rack and get some rest so we could be up at daylight to get the most out of our rental. After laying down for a few minutes, I yelled to Potts that I heard something scurrying around on the floor of the camper. We searched the camper and found nothing and laid back down. About 10 minutes later I felt something crawl across the back of my pillow and jump off the bed. I jumped up, turned on the lights, and saw a glimpse of a field mouse scurrying under the recliner! It was official; it was the revenge of the varmints! It was pay back for the slaughter we executed on the prairie dogs!
Potts rushed out to my aid and upon going back to his room to gear up saw the little fool scurry under his bed. Upon further examination of the camper, we found ample evidence that the critter had made himself at home for the whole day. We named the little mouse Ralph, got geared up with stomping boots and weapons, and then declared war upon his soul. We turned the camper upside down looking for Ralph and could not find him to save our lives. We reached a consensus Ralph had escaped however he got in and decided to go back to sleep. About 15 minutes later Potts yelled to me that Ralph was still present in the camper! Ralph somehow hid himself in Potts quarters, waited for us to turn the lights back off, and then got in the bed with Potts and ran across his chest and down his arm. Once again we were back at war. We turned the camper upside down once again and were totally at a loss. Here you have two full grown men in their boxers wearing slip on boots, one holding a broom stick and the other brandishing a stool, and we were totally dominated by this little mouse named Ralph. We were at a total loss feeling violated and totally helpless. We decided that our rest was more important because we had so much money already tied up in the rentals we needed to be on at sunrise. With our heads hung low, Potts and I settled in for the night with our new guest Ralph the mouse. Ralph taunted us off and on thru the night scurrying on the floor, but nothing too serious.

The next morning we did one last search and still couldn’t find Ralph the mouse. We said forget it and suited up for another day of four wheeling. We headed up the other side of the mountain and went thru some very rough terrain. After being beaten to death up the mountain by loose rocks and steep grades, we finally reached the top again. We rode a few more trails and ended up putting 115 miles on the machines! We turned the machines back in, grabbed the truck, and went back to the camper to get cleaned up. As we were breaking down the camper I saw Ralph scurry under my bed. I yelled for Potts and we finally had Ralph the mouse cornered. I got under the bed and flushed him out and he ran out to meet his death of Potts and a broom stick!
Fishtail was an awesome once in a lifetime experience. We saw some awesome scenery and got to ride four wheelers until we were beaten to pieces. Unfortunately this was our last stop in Montana, which we have grown to love very much. I honestly believe this is the most beautiful place God created and can’t wait to return to this state.

-Cheggy

Bozeman, Montana

We left Darby and headed back southeast to Bozeman, Montana to check out what the town had to offer two rambling nomads. We set up shop at the Bear Canyon Campground, which is located about 5 miles from downtown Bozeman. We spent our first day in Bozeman checking out the downtown scene and catching up on a few errands. That night we headed to Belgrade and went to the dirt track to catch some good ole racing action. The racing was very good and the small town track put on a good show.

On our second day we went to check out Montana State University and went to the football game where they played, and beat, Dixie State. After the game we decided to check out the downtown party scene in hopes of finding a friendlier crowd than we experienced in Missoula. We were delighted to find some good people in Bozeman and had a good time mingling with the locals. Later in the evening, we were greeted with a great surprise! By a pure stroke of luck, we were reunited with our friends from the bachelorette party we met in Cody, Wyoming, who had actually just come from the wedding reception. We ended up hanging out with Jamie, Breann, and their friends for awhile and then headed back to the campground.

The next day we had a lunch date with Ms. Lynn Meyers, who used to work for The Potts Company and now lives in Bozeman. Ms. Lynn is another one of those people who totally has things figured out. About 5 years ago she decided Montana had so much more to offer than Atlanta and packed up everything she had and moved to Bozeman. After a wonderful lunch with Ms. Lynn, we headed back to the campground to plan our next move. We decided to stay put in Bozeman for the next couple days and commute about 80 miles north to hunt on the ranchlands surrounding Bozeman. That evening we decided to take a little drive and headed about 70 miles south down highway 89. We went all the way to Gardiner, MT, which is right on the Montana/Wyoming state line at the head of the north gate into Yellowstone. We found a cool little steak house where we grabbed some dinner and then headed back to Bozeman to get some sleep before our early morning hunt the next day.

I must make a confession to my wonderful blog audience. I (Cheggy) had made prior plans for Sunday night’s activities, but blew them off to go on the little trip to Gardiner with my good bud Potts. I was supposed to take Breann on a date in Bozeman to prove to her that not all boys from Georgia are bad people. Yeah, guess I kind of further proved her point about her stereotype of GA boys! Oops, another one bites the dust for Cheggy, story of my life!

The next day we woke up early and headed north on highway 89, which is where the locals told us to go for good Coyote hunting. This part of Montana consists of huge ranches and the ranchers are anxious for hunters to help them control the predator species on their land. We spotted a ranch house in Ringling, MT and drove up the rancher’s house and knocked on the door to ask if we could hunt his land. He was very receptive and told us that Higgins Ranch had 8500 acres we were welcome to hunt. He showed us a map of the property and we were off. We found a ranch access road a little south of his house and decided to set up in a prairie and try our hand at calling in some coyotes. We tried for a couple hours at several locations and soon became distracted by the vast population of prairie dogs, which are another arch nemesis of the ranchers. We quickly re-focused our efforts to prairie dog extermination and had the time of our lives. They were everywhere. We were able to shoot them from 2 yds away all the way to 175 yds away! After executing genocide on the prairie dog population, we packed it up and headed back to Bozeman on some little dirt road we stumbled across. On the drive back we saw a black bear, a huge bull elk, several bald eagles, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and several white tail deer. The ride took several hours, but was totally worth the detour.

We got back to the camper and later that night I was greeted with a message from Breann, who totally called me out and thanked me for the wonderful date I neglected to take her on! She was totally in the right on this one. I stood her up and I will admit it was wrong of me to do this. Thankfully she agreed to give me another chance and we made plans for a “make up” date the next night.

The next morning we headed back up 89 and stopped at another ranch to try our luck at our new found passion of prairie dog hunting. We had little success and decided to go back north to Higgins Ranch. We had another good day of prairie dog hunting there and managed to impress ourselves with a few long range shots. We wrapped things up a little early and headed back to Bozeman to get Potts some dinner and for me to get cleaned up for my date! Breann and I met up for dinner that night and I had a great time with her. She is a very sweet girl and graciously allowed me to redeem myself for standing her up.

Bozeman was a great town and definitely one of our favorite stops along the trip thus far. We had a great time traveling thru the city and the surrounding outskirts. This is definitely a place we hope to return someday in the future.

-Cheggy