Specularius

And Option 2 looks a lot more expensive than Option 1!

Actually, Option two is cheaper. Only because the truck was a company truck that had earned its cost many times over and the true cost of it was only having the conversion done on it, which was less than the cost of the Dually in option one.

And option two gets better fuel mileage than option one by almost two miles per gallon.

Holy Smokes!  No backing up with the first setup eh? Your a brave man!  How long were you in the first picture and second?  We have to get through IL (60' combined) and Georgia (60' combined) and we will be 68'.  We get stopped and have to drop trailer we will have to use our golf cart to haul it home.

:clint:

First picture is 72 feet....2 feet over legal in Louisiana. Second picture is 61 feet.

It is legal in Louisiana. I do it from time to time. Here is a picture from this past May.

I have done it twice to the Fort with the golf cart. I was nervous the whole time in Florida as I understand it is not legal in Florida. Due to that I prefer to go to the Fort with this:

According to my computer, TCD posted 20 minutes ago and Mo 19 minutes ago. That places TCD ahead by 1 minute.

UM Nurse Minnie.......They live there.......

So this will be a  "Doom Bag" !!!!

From Seattle Washington to Orlando area. Took 4 days.

3100+ miles in 4 days....That's almost 800 miles a day. I guess you were in a hurry to get to Snow Bird land.

I think Shardi is starting to get in the mood. She started carving pumpkins yesterday. Foam pumpkins that is.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Enjoyed every minute of it. 

Sorry BFM. But I did say "if I remember correctly". Obviously my memory is not completely correct.

I believe that the roof will be raised by several feet. This means new rafters, and decking. 

If I remember correctly, BFF stated that due to Animal Kingdom being a credited Zoo, that all animals on Disney property fall under Zoo rules. I also remember BFF stating the whole roof had to be redesigned, raising the roof line, in order to meet the ventilation requirements. This has to be performed in a certain time frame or Disney could lose it's accreditation or be fined. I believe when they are finished the barn will not look the same. 

why can't someone get us some current pictures? Hint Hint!

Yes family was allowed in but after the lesson was over everyone was escorted out of the park and as stated only the surfer was allowed in the water.

I took our DD June of 2010. She is not very athletic but she loved it. My biggest complaint is the distance from where they hit the shore to where they have to pack the surf boards back to. It is a long way. I think DD got to try over 20 waves on her morning. I packed the board most of those tries. She did make one good ride before she got to tired to get up. She had a small group in her class, one of which was a reporter for a travel magazine that was doing research for an article. There is a photo pass photog on site and they get some very good shots. It was a very good event and DD loved it. It is very early for people from the western time zones. For us it was like getting up at 4am to make it on time. I would recommend that anyone attending be able to pack a surf board up a hill for 100 yards over and over, again and again. 

I here! looking forward to living a cruise through your eyes.

I believe the docks were built while Bay lake was drained and before Seven Seas Lagoon was flooded.

Go ahead with the hijack all you want. 

Yes, we have been to Yosemite. Only spent one day there. Don't know that I want to go back. I liked Yellowstone so much more.

In looking through my old pictures I found this one from 2005 at the East entrance:

As compared to 8 years later at the South Entrance:

A one installment TR!?  Wow! Great job! Sorry about the camper woes but glad you still had a great time. 

Yep, I am a quiet person so I got this report out of the way quickly. It is also a result of leaving the good SLR camera at home so the pictures to choose from are limited. There was a lot more to the trip but I would rather not bore everyone with the small details. 

Jody,

Shawn can feel your camper pain. Our months in the west were plagued with plumbing problems.

Shardi,

I knew by the tone of Shawn's voice In the morning if the floor was flooded.... The curse words that followed confirmed it.

However I see that you were blessed with rainbows too!

More Grand and Beautiful in person!

I am thinking I would be stressing and cussing if that happened to us.  Level headed and even keel does not describe what happens when those kind of issues come up.  Sorry about the short trip.  Hope the next one is better.

It wasn't too short, it was about all we could endure. It is a lot of walking to see the sites at Yellowstone.

if you go there around labor day you will see the elk moving their herds.  they also go out into the road and let the others get across.  but, what was neat with them is that they go back around the herd to make sure they are all across.  it is really neat to see and the bugling is so cool to fall asleep to.  love the tr and very sorry about all your troubles.  it happens to the best of us.  glad you stuck it out and dealt with it as best you could.  

 

yellowstone is just one of the many national parks we are able to enjoy and everyone should take the time to visit them.  great tr!

I agree, everyone should be fortunate enough to visit at least once in a lifetime!

WHOA!  Double Rainbow!

 

Double Rainbow!

 

That is an awesome TR!

 

The pictures are gorgeous so it must have been a sight to see in person!

You owe it to yourself and your family to go at least once. If you ever do go though, be prepared to return.

Sorry to hear you had issues with he camper; but, it also sounds like you made lots of memories.

Thanks and I would leave tomorrow to do it again if I could and I could talk the family into it.

Sounds like the makings of a sequel....RV 2. 

Thankfully there were ZERO Black tank issues!!!!!

I love Yellowstone. It is my dream to make a camping trip out there.

You have to go!!!!! Just Do It!

There is nothing else like it in the entire world.

Exactly!

Beautiful pictures!!!!!

Beautiful pictures.  So sorry to hear about your problems.

It is too easy to take Beautiful pictures when you are taking them of Mother Natures Pallet!

YEA I am the first one in!!!!! Can't wait to read more, knew you had some trouble due to a text from Shardi, but what memories you have made.

Sorry, this is all to report.

Great job!

 

A double rainbow!  What does it mean?

 

Sorry about the slide and the dropped sandwich. But, at least you weren't bored.

 

TCD

Double Bow was COOL.

Wow. You had your fill of issues!

And then some!

He left out ALOT of cuss words.

Shush!!!!!

Take one over sized truck camper, four people, two dogs, confine them together for 9 days and what do you get? A LOT of Grief, a lot of FUN, Some Beautiful sites, some damage, short tempers, and overall a momentous trip. 

This trip was two years in the planning. It was supposed to take place last summer but just at the start of Summer dear daughter messed up her knee requiring surgery and 6 months of physical therapy. I am glad to report that other than the scars, she is in great health now. I want to stress that I may be stretching the truth on the planning part. There was zero planning other than the fact that we were going to Yellowstone. We loaded up the truck camper (affectionately called the TIN CAN by Shardi) and headed out on the 4th of July. We drove to Childress, Tx that day and spent the night in Wal-Mart parking lot. It even has signs posted for all RV's to park in a certain area of the parking lot. The 5th we made it to Cheyenne, WY and spent the night at the KOA there. By noon on the 6th, We made it to the south entrance to Yellowstone.

I had hopes of getting a camp site at one of the first come first serve campgrounds but the sign at the South entrance had all campgrounds posted as FULL. This started the first of many disagreements. I was not concerned but other members of the family were. We wound up in West Yellowstone, MT at the KOA. First night problem solved. That afternoon a rain shower moved through and left us with this beautiful site.

That night using the WiFi at the KOA, I made reservations for the next two nights inside the park. That worked to quell the growing anger in the TIN CAN for a couple of days. The next morning we made our way to the park and had the complete fortune to witness a very rare event. We got to see the Morning Geyser and Fountain Geyser erupt at the same time.

From here we made our way to Grand Prismatic Pool. 

Then it was on the a place that was the inspiration for a place dear to many Fiends.Old Faithful Lodge!

On our way to our first night of camping INSIDE the park, We encountered one of several Yellowstone Traffic Jams. We sat for close to an hour to find this:

Walking down the center line of the highway. They passed right by us.

We finally made it to our campsite.

The next morning we made our way over to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Shardi was sporting her Fiends gear!

Around this time is when the first disaster struck. We made it to our campsite at Canyon Campground and I start setting up the camper. I get the truck all leveled up and got put the side slide out but all I get is a grinding noise. I think the truck is not level so off the blocks I go and try again to get even more level. Still grinding. So I start taking off the access panel to see what is going on with the slide motor. First site is the housing for the gear drive is cracked. Well shoot. So I take out a wrench and start to manually move the slide out. We need a place to sleep for the night and I had it there so all I needed was a little manual work to be able to use it. Well the first pull to move the slide out dislodges the motor and BANG, right on the fender making a dent and scratching the paint. I was very upset at this point and things got very quiet at our campsite for a couple of hours. Here is a couple of pictures of the drive motor and gear housing.

So after a nice cold beer and a few hours relaxing around the camp fire that night we started the next day with a new outlook. I manually moved the slide in and we took off for more site seeing. Some family members wanted to head home but I refused. I said we traveled this far not to allow something like this to put an end to the trip. Well the trip almost ended shortly after that anyway.... But fortunately, it didn't. A word of Advice for everyone. When there is no motor on the slide mechanism, there is NO Brake to hold the slide in the closed position. It is not a good feeling to look in the mirror and see the slide sticking out with traffic coming at you. about this time someone points... BEAR!!!!

So while everyone else in the family is enjoying watching the BEAR, I worked on the slide to lock it into position. 

From here we made our way to the north entrance and the Arch.

Next we see Mountain Goats.

I guess you need help with this one. Try this:

They are hard to see!!!

From here we made our way back to a campsite for the night.

The next morning we headed out of Yellowstone and over to South Dakota. First Stop was Crazy Horse Monument.

Here is where our second disaster struck. This one really got my nerves boiling. It was hot and I was hungry. I start making a sandwich in the TIN CAN and the counter extension decided to collapse and dump my sandwich on the floor along with a can of Dr. Pepper that acted like a grenade going off spitting soft drink all over the inside of the truck camper. I was very upset and this upset the rest of the family. After calming down we made the drive over to Mt. Rushmore.

We left there and made our way back home via the KOA at Cheyenne and the Wal-Mart at Childress. Total trip was 9 days and 3981 miles. Now to see if I can find the parts to repair the TIN CAN and then decide on weather or not to keep it or sell it.

Hope you enjoyed this short but long distance trip report.

Shoe Tree is the first thing that popped into my mind after seeing the above picture!

The rail that you are seeing in the top left photo is the retaining wall for the walkway going over from Castle Couture to Liberty Square.