1996 Trip Journal and Photos
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My trip starts on Thursday September 26, 1996. This journal is kept on a day to day basis. I leave home in a 1995 Dodge Ram pick-up with an eleven foot 1976 Amerigo truck camper on the back. I have just finished refurbishing the camper and this is to be it’s first extended trip. I am excited to see how it works out. The length of the trip is to be determined by how well things go the first few days, but if all goes well I am hoping to go to Montana, to check out some property, and back. We’ll see! You can read the complete journal starting below or go to the Index to pick a particular day or area.

9-26-96 Thursday (day 1) I leave home and drive up the northeast extension of the PA. turnpike to route #209 and up into the Pocono mountains. Nice drive up route #209 as the fall colors are just starting to turn in this area. Not a lot of color but a little bit here and there. Spend the night at the River Beach Campground in Matamoras, PA. A very nice campground on the Delaware river. I have a nice level site by a small stream that flows into the Delaware river. The bathhouse is very clean and the site has water and electric hook-ups for $19.00. There is one problem with this campground, and that comes from the fact that it is located next to a major highway and at the bottom of a long hill on that highway. All night long the truck traffic coming off the hill uses their jake brakes and make a racket that makes sleeping almost impossible.

9-27-96 Friday (day 2) Get up after a bad night’s sleep, have breakfast, then drive over to Child’s State Park for some hiking along the river. This is a nice park that has three major waterfalls in about a mile of river. These falls are about 50 feet tall. A trail follows each side of the river with a bridge every so often to connect these trails. A very scenic area! Drive up along the Delaware river on route #97 on the New York side with a stop at Skinner Falls to walk along the river and view the rapids. Drive on up through Hancock, NY., then take route #17 west through Binghamton and Elmira. Spend the night in a KOA campground just outside Watkins Glen, NY. The campground has clean, but not very modern bathrooms. Site is nice and level with water and electric, and they even have a video rental, which I take advantage of by renting a video to watch this evening. Cost of $24.00 is a little high for the site, but I find this is typical of most KOA campgrounds. Was chilly and breezy out today.

9-28-96 Saturday (day 3) After breakfast I drive up to Watkins Glen on Seneca lake, which is one of the finger lakes and hike through the Gorge. This is an area of many waterfalls, sheer cliffs, stone walkways and a whole lot of steps. You actually get to walk under a waterfall and look out through it. At night they light all this up with many lights. I really enjoy this very beautiful and scenic area. Head over to the dock in town and take a narrated boat ride on Seneca lake. I then drive over to “Taughannock Falls State Park” near Cayuga Lake and get a campsite for the night with electric hook-up for $16.00. Go out to dinner tonight and have a nice salmon dinner at a place just south of the campground. A light rainy mist fell most of the day today.

9-29-96 Sunday (day 4) Awake this morning and see a camper just like mine a few sites down from me, so I just have to go over and talk with them. Not that many 20 year old Amerigo truck campers still around. It turns out that their camper is not in as good of condition as mine, but then I have just redone mine before leaving on this trip. Drive to an overlook in the park and look at the falls which are a 215 foot vertical drop. Am told that there is a trail to the base of the falls, so I drive down to a parking area below the park and hike the trail to the bottom of the falls which gives you a completely different perspective of things. They look even taller from down here. The trail is about a mile or a mile and a half each way and very scenic as it follows the river up to the base of the falls. There is another trail up to the top of the falls, but it looks to be much steeper and much longer so I opt not to try it. Drive over to Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca and view the falls there. This is a cascading type of falls and looks to be a nice, day use only park, right in town. Pick up route #6 in PA. and head west. Around noon I am passing through a small town and notice a sign for a home cooked meal at the fire house, so I stop. It turns out to be a dinner and quilt show with a $5.00 charge to get in which includes your meal. Enjoy a nice home cooked meal, check out a few quilts and am on my way again. Route #6 is shown to be a scenic highway on the map and is a pleasant drive. Spend the night in a road side stop, which is not the safest place but the price is right, it was getting late, and I don’t like driving at night. The weather today was a little nicer than yesterday as there was some sunshine and the temperature was mild.

9-30-96 Monday (day 5) Was undecided until this morning just how far this trip was going to take me, but have decided to head west on an extended trip to see the country and check out some retirement property. The camper is working out pretty well as everything works and it is quite comfortable to live in. Drive down routes #6, #66, and #80 to the Ohio turnpike and get on it. Want to make some time across Ohio as there is nothing I wish to see here. Make Cleveland by dusk and stop at an overnight rest stop on the turnpike (mile marker #140). Park in the back side of the parking area, as far from the highway as possible. Some traffic noise but not bad. In the night a refer truck pulls in along side of me and I find out a neat trick. If you park next to a refer truck, the noise of the compressor will drown out most of the highway noise and lull you to sleep, sort of like an air conditioner or fan in the summer. Temperature today was 75 and tonight is going down to 50. Weather was dry and sunny.

10-1-96 Tuesday (day 6) Awake at four this morning, grab a quick breakfast, clean the windshield and get on the road by five thirty. Notice a small chip in the lower right corner of the windshield as I am cleaning it. Oh well, part of highway travel. Reach the Indiana line by 8:00 AM. Toll for the Ohio turnpike is $9.50. Starting to see a lot of double and triple tractor trailers. Indiana toll $4.15. Temperature is 75 degrees again today. Toll booths are spaced every so often along the highway, $.50, $2.00 and five $.40 stops. It seems like you just get rolling and it’s time to stop again. I pass under two Mc Donald restaurants built over top of the highway. Go through Chicago at 11:15 AM, stay on route #90 and reach the Wisconsin state line by 1:20 PM, but have crossed a time zone so it is only 12:20 PM here. Drive twenty miles off the highway to check out Perrot State Park as a possible overnight stop. It is $20.00 and no showers, which is a little high priced for a state park, so I pass on it. Drive across into Minnesota and head north on route #74 at St. Charles. Stay at the “Lazy D campground”, eight and a half miles off route I-90. A site cost $14.50 + .94 tax or $15.44 with water and electric. Bathhouse is not well lit and is dirty, but the site is level. Campground is OK for the night, but not a place I’d come back to. Beautiful sunny day today in southern Minnesota with 75 degrees out. The sky has a zillion stars tonight. There really is nothing to compare with a western sky. Drove 700 miles today. Put in a long day as I was on the road for 13 hours.

10-2-96 Wednesday (day 7) Wake at 5:30 AM and the weather has changed overnight. It is 50 degrees out this morning, the winds are blowing at 25-30 MPH and the wind chill is 27 degrees. Today’s weather is predicted to be a high of only 50 degrees, cloudy with record lows of about 20 degrees tonight. The temperature is going back up into the 70’s by the weekend though. Get back on route I-90 headed west. There is a strong cross wind blowing out of the northwest. That coupled with a bumpy cement road makes for difficult driving, so I have to keep my speed down to 50 MPH. Am 73 miles away from the South Dakota state line when I see my first sign for “Walls Drug Store”. The road has changed to blacktop so I can get my speed up to 60 MPH now. It’s noontime and the wind chill has climbed all the way up to 36 degrees, but the wind is still blowing hard. There is very little traffic on the road today as I pass by mostly fields of corn and wheat. Get to the South Dakota line by 1:00 PM and the speed limit is 75 MPH now, but there’s no way I can go that fast with the camper. The road has changed back to cement now, making for a bumpy ride again. The clouds have cleared and the sky is clear blue now. Pass an exit for Gateway computer company (I have one of those at home) and an exit (#350) for “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Home”. Stop to gas up at Mitchell, SD. and the attendant says they are predicting their first frost of the season for tonight. Stop at a Wal-mart and buy 3 kodak throw away cameras, as I forgot to bring my camera with me. By 4:30 PM I reach the Missouri River and take my first picture from an overlook above the river. After crossing the river, the road gets a lot better and I can do 60 MPH again. Cross another time zone at 6:10 PM and turn the clock back to 5:10 PM. Pass exit #170 for a 1888 western town. I had stopped there on my last trip out this way and it is an interesting place. They have collected old buildings from all over South Dakota and assembled a small town here. This is where they filmed the movie “Dances With Wolves”. I get off at the Kadoka exit and go a half mile south on route #73, then a quarter mile west on route #90 to “Dirks Campground”. Get a site for $10.70 with electric hook-up (the water has been turned off for the season). The site is level and the bathhouse is clean, heated, and well lit. A small park, but nice for the money. They have no pay phone though, and you have to go down the road to use one at a service station, but what do you want for $10? Have driven 500 miles today, with 11 hours on the road. Another long day of high winds, rough roads, and a slow speed of 50 MPH for most of the day really wore me out. Turn up the heat, slip into my winter PJ’s, throw 2 covers on the bed and go to sleep.
 

10-3-96 Thursday (day 8) Awake to 34 degrees this morning, but they are calling for 70 by this afternoon and 70 to 80 on Friday and Saturday. Not bad at all for this time of the year. I’m just outside of the “Badlands” and “The Black Hills” of South Dakota. Think I’ll wander some of the back roads and scenic sights today. Gas up the truck and have breakfast at the "Texaco Cafe" next to the campground. Good food -- ham, eggs, hash browns, whole wheat toast and hot chocolate for $6.00. Drive to the Badlands and get a Golden Eagle Pass which lets you in all the national parks for one year -- cost $25.00. Stop at a visitor center, watch a video of the Badlands, buy some post cards and a map. It’s 10:00 AM now and the temperature is up to 51 degrees and sunny, but it’s still windy. Hike a trail up to an area called the notch which takes about 45 minutes. One of the hills is so steep you have to climb a ladder to get up it, then the trail follows along the edge of some steep drop offs, but the view at the end of the trail is worth the climb. Take the back road out of the park on route #44. Nice smooth road and a scenic drive. Get back on to route I-90 and head west. Decide to take a side trip up route #14A to Deadwood, Lead, Cheyenne Crossing and then back down the “Spearfish Canyon”.

10-8-96 Tuesday (day 13) I awake to a chilly 33 degrees in Yellowstone this morning. Two sites down from me are the people that were camping next to me in Cody, WY. They are from Texas and are driving a Ford dually with an older pick-up camper on it. He told me he gets 13 MPG from his diesel truck. I don’t feel too bad, as I’m getting 12.5 MPG out of my Dodge V-10 gas engine. Fix me a good breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, toast and tea. Pack up, then go to dump the holding tanks. I need to remember to do that in the afternoon when it’s warmer out next time, as it is really cold on the hands working with water when it’s 33 degrees outside. Head west out of the park along the river toward the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. Have to slow down a few times for herds of elk along the edge of the road. I notice that quite a few of these elk are wearing radio transmitter collars. Take a side trip along riverside drive and see buffalo, ducks and geese. The road from Madison to West Yellowstone is real nice and smooth. Stop at the West Yellowstone information center to gather more information on the area. Meet some people here who have seen the movie on Yellowstone at the I-Max theater next door. They recommend it highly as a “got to see” movie. The shows are every hour on the hour from 9:00 AM till 9:00 PM and it is 9:15 AM, so I decide to wait till ten o’clock and check it out. Bought a ticket for $6.50 and went to the movies. It really was a great show. I had never seen an I-Max movie before and they are really something on that 60 foot high screen. Top row center is the place to sit at these shows, as you get the full effect of the movie and feel as though you are in the middle of the action. Stop at the bear and wolf preserve next door, which is $6.50 also, but opt not to go in as the animals are rotated on a hourly basis and there are not that many on display at any one time. Speak with a woman working in the gift shop and she tells me she has moved here from Florida. She said that the winters aren’t as bad as she had expected. Although it does go down to 30 degrees below zero sometimes, it doesn’t stay there for very long. She said they have a lot of snow, but not a lot of high winds, and that snowmobiles are a big thing in this area, as that is the only way to get around the park in the winter. Drive through West Yellowstone and then head out of town on route #287 north to #191 north. This road followed the Gallatin river north through the “Gallatin River National Forest”. Drive past “Red Cliff National Forest Campground” at mile marker #41, “Moose Creek Flats” at #56, “Swan Creek” at #57, and “Greek Creek” at #58 and #65. A small town called Big Sky is a real nice area. See a house for sale, and stop to check it out. No one is home except for a large friendly dog, so I get a phone number off the sign and call the realtor. Turns out it is $495,000 and has a half acre of ground. There is a vacant half acre lot next to it for ONLY $120,000!! It really is a nice home with a beautiful setting right on the Gallatin river, but that is too much money. Stop for gas in the town of Gallatin Gateway at 3:15 PM and the temperature us up to 75 degrees. Get back on route I-90 headed north. The road seems to alternate between smooth blacktop and rough cement every ten miles or so, a little too rough for my liking, so I get off onto route #287 north toward Helena. Drive across the Missouri river, through Townsend, over the Missouri river again, then around the outskirts of Helena. Get onto route #12 west and go over Mc Donalds Pass at 6,320 feet, then take routes #141 to #200 to #83 north passing mostly ranch land and rolling hills. Stop at “Harper’s Lake fishing access”, which has nice campsites nestled in among some tall ponderosa pine trees. Cost is $4.00 for a site, with a picnic table and a fire ring, near the lake. I have the whole place to myself as no one else is here. This is one of those honor system campgrounds, where you put your money in a envelope and drop it in a box. I only drove 190 miles today. The weather today was beautiful, warm, and sunny. My kind of day!

10-9-96 Wednesday (day 14) Awoke once during the night, and got up and opened the sky light above the bed to look outside at the sky. It really was a breathtaking sight to behold, an ink black sky with zillions of stars and not a light for miles around. You don’t get skies like this back east. I spent quite a while just sitting there looking up at it, taking in the beauty of it all, then finally went back to sleep. I was woke up at 5:30 AM by the howling of the local coyotes. It is 31 degrees out this morning. Grab some breakfast, put my $4.00 in the box for the campground fee, and head north on route #83 toward the town of Big Fork, Montana. Drive past Salmon Lake on my left. Pass a beautiful large home on an island on a lake, with a garage on the shore line. This looks like a real nice setup to me. Drive through the town of Seeley Lake, then pass Lake Inez, Lake Alva and Summit lake. Go through the Flathead National Forest and see many deer all along the edge of the road. Pass many logging trucks and three log home builders. Drive through the town of Condon, through the “Swan River State Forest”, and into the town of Swan Lake. It is 9:30 AM and the temperature has reached 38 degrees outside. Swan lake is a really nice little town situated on the shore of a mountain lake with the same name. See a "for sale" sign on a house on the lakefront, so I stop to check it out. Speak with a woman, who actually has two homes side by side on the lakefront for sale. They are asking $215,000 for one and $270,000 for the other. A beautiful setting on the lake, but the homes aren’t much for such a high price. The woman is very friendly, and tells me that they live here full time in a home across the street from these two homes. She says that this is a real nice little town and she really likes it here, but then of course, she is trying to sell me a house. Drive on to Big Fork and stop at a realtor’s office to check on a lot that was for sale on Swan Lake. Turns out that it is only a half acre and they are asking $290,000. Too much for me. Drive 25 miles down Flathead Lake to look at a home on Finley Point, on the southeast corner of the lake. This home is $263,000 and has a beautiful setting, but needs a lot of work. No thank you! Head north on route #35 back to Big Fork, then take routes #82 to #93 north into Kalispell. Stop here at the ranger station to buy some forest service maps of the Northfork, Libby and Troy areas. Get 2 maps at $4.00 each. Start talking with a telephone company worker that was born in Cody, WY. and now lives in Kallispell. He says that normally Sept. and Oct. and also April and May are their rainy months, then from the end of Oct. till April is snowy. He says June is spring time and July and August are summer. He also tells me that this is hunting season up here, so be careful while in the backwoods areas. Drive through Kallispell and head out route #2 to Libby. When I get to Libby, I drive up route #37 and get a campsite at the “Libby Dam RV Park”. Cost is $10.00 for full hook-ups, but they have no bathhouse or telephone. There are only about three campers in the park this time of year. The site is right on the Kootenai river and has a beautiful view across the river. I really find myself using the word "beautiful" a lot, but I can’t help it because there is no other way to describe most of what I am seeing. I really enjoy traveling this time of year, as the summer vacationers are off the roads and the crowds have really disappeared. Hook up the camper and settle back for a relaxing evening meal and a good night's rest.