Epic RVing with the Gradys - Day 2 - Harvee, meet wind

Sleeping in a rest stop has its perks. It’s free… It’s close to the bathrooms… And that’s about it. It also has its drawbacks. It’s bright (which could be a perk considering some of the other drawbacks), it’s loud, and there are a lot of people coming in and out all the time. We were able to fall asleep more or less OK, although it was hot, and we had a hard time configuring Harvee for optimal sleeping without jutting out our bed in the back, which can only be done in camping mode. Once we did fall asleep, however, there was a somewhat regular stream of car alarms and horns while people get out of their cars and forget their keys inside.

I was up a few times, and also up somewhat early, so I went for a little walk, took in the sights, and made some new friends. Most notably this cute bunny among hundreds of others that looked just like him, and a guy that looked like what I would imagine Joe Dirt’s dad would look like.

After I got back from my walk, Mireille and I took Zaz for a walk and took our first of many Fat Zaz pictures. Modeled after the Flat Stanley craze from elementary school days, we plan on taking a picture of Zaz doing vacationy things throughout this trip. Look for those pictures in this blog for the upcoming weeks!

After we re-situated Harvee, we headed to downtown Sheridan and found a little stand selling donuts and breakfast burritos, so we got some of each while chatting with one of the owners. We found out that there was a motorcycle rally in town for the week, which explained the massive number of motorcycles we saw all evening and morning! While I was on my morning walk at 6:45, I saw a big guy on a motorcycle get off the freeway about 400 yards away from me, blasting Claptan’s Layla as loud as imaginable…

After breakfast we headed north, destination Billings, Montana. Like the day earlier, the driving was pretty easy, until it wasn’t any more. Almost coincidental with getting in to Montana, the wind picked up, and Harvee started to sail all over the road! At one point I was getting passed by a semi on the left when a huge gust of wind slapped Harvee at the top and one of the warning lights illuminated on the dash! The next 2 hours were a very white-knuckled experience.

We arrived in Billings, stopped at Wal-Mart to get some cold groceries, then stopped to get our rental car at the Billings International Airport. We have rented vehicles at all of our stops as we really want to see all of the sights, but we don’t want to drive the RV all over the place! Going to the Billings International Airport was pretty fun as there were a grand total of about 5 people walking around there!

Jenny grabbed the rental while the kids and I took off on Harvee, headed to Livingston, MT where we would be staying at the KOA on the Yellowstone River. About 45 minutes into the trip, Jenny finally caught up with us, then had to drive slow behind us while we finished the last part of the first part of our journey and arrived at the KOA Livingston!

The campground is really nice. We have an electrical hookup, water, and septic, and a nice shaded site where we can park Harvee for the next 4 days while we explore Yellowstone. We did next to nothing for the rest of this day. We did a little hike, I suppose, and Quinton and I played a bit of basketball. The kids are watching a movie now while I have been drinking about 64 ounces of water - I had no idea how dehydrated I’ve become! Tomorrow, we head to Yellowstone!