Epic RVing with the Gradys - Day 4 - Whitewater Rafting

Quinton may well be a blood relative of Tom Tibbett. Certainly he has a lot of traits in common with him, as well as his Grandpa and Grandma Grady. While the rest of us are happy to exist on our own, nodding to friendly folks but nothing more, Quinton is curious and likes to engage people in conversation.

We started more “Grady style” this morning. No alarm was set and we woke when the spirit moved us, which was around 7:30. It felt good to rest after putting about 22,000 steps on yesterday (probably closer to 30,000 for Mireille!) I was excited to try my new griddle and camp stove this morning. We had all the fixin’s, so I spent way too long getting things setup, and then basically made bacon and eggs. But they were made on a camp stove on a griddle!!! Honestly, it was pretty great, I’m not going to lie, though I am constantly surprised at how effective companies are at separating me from my money. We could have done the same thing in the RV in half the time with regular pans… One nifty trick we did - Jenny gave me the teapot from the RV to heat up on the stove. After about 30 seconds, though, the plastic cover melted off and now we don’t have a teapot! Oops! I guess the camp stove is too strong…

Once we finally coerced Quinton out of bed and got him to eat, the rest of us cleaned while he went down to the basketball court like he has been whenever stationary at this campground. I’m definitely not complaining! After a few minutes, we noticed him talking to one of the neighbors, then a minute after that, we saw him going into the neighbor’s RV! Quinton has been somewhat obsessed with RVs since before this trip, and is becoming more so as the days pass. This guy had a “Class A RV” which is a bit different from our “Class C RV.” The thing he was most interested about was that it self-levels. Like I said, quite a bit like Tom, or my mom and dad…

After breakfast, we didn’t have anywhere to be until 1:00, so we decided to go into town and check things out. Downtown Livingston is pretty “cute,” Jenny would say, though it seems a bit “hipster” for a rough Montana town. Lots of ironic antique stores and art shops. We found a coffee shop near the theater that was actually pretty great. They had this thing called a “velvet chai” which had white chocolate in it. I’m guessing we’ll get this at least one more time before we got!

After chais and getting a table apron for the picnic table, we headed down south to our rafting destination which was just outside of Yellowstone in Gardiner, about an hour south of Livingston. We hastily ate some sandwiches and chips and headed over to Montana Whitewater where we had booked a private boat at 1:00 on the Yellowstone River.

The kids were a bit on the lethargic side - it’s already been quite a few days of vacation and outside of their routine - so it took them a bit to get going. Once we got all our gear and loaded on the boat, they started to get a bit more excited. We traveled to the north end of town and got in our 6 seater boat with our guide, Claire. Claire was great! It was sort of like having the whole family together again. Throughout our trip we found out that she was 20 and attending the University of Utah where she was studying to ultimately be a PA. She was very friendly and knowledgeable of rafting, and was sort of like having Ethan on the boat with us (except she also knew how to raft).

The rafting was pretty great! We didn’t see anything more challenging than a Class 3 rapids, but that was plenty! As soon as we took on our first water wall, Mireille and Quinton started giggling and having a much better time than when we were sitting on dry land! All told we were on the river for a little more than 2 hours before coming ashore and riding the bus back into town.

We were done rafting by a little after 4:00, but we didn’t have it in us to do any more national park today, so we headed back towards “home,” stopping at the Old Saloon about half way there where we had our first sit down meal where somebody brought us our food in what seems like forever!!!

After dinner, we headed back to Livingston where we were determined to have a beer at a brewery, which we did. The Katabatic Brewing Company in town had a decent menu and a lively atmosphere. We clearly stood out as “not from around here,” but this town seemed to thrive on that. One old man came up to our table and did about 5 minutes worth of magic tricks to the kids’ delight! Now they keep asking me to do magic tricks… I guess I should have prepared better!

Now we sit back at the campsite once again. Mireille and Jenny grabbed a quick shower and Quinton went up to play basketball once again. He wasn’t there for more than a few minutes before I found him talking with one of the new arrivals at camp. Quinton asked me to come over and help, so I did. That’s where we met Laine, an older gentleman who had no idea how to setup his tent! Luckily I got him squared away in fairly short order, but he just couldn’t say enough about Quinton.

It was nice to have somewhat of a “down day.” Tomorrow we are back at it early, early! Back down to Yellowstone where more wonders (and lots of people) await us!