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Our Vermont Experience-Spring/Summer 2018l
We left southeast Florida April 1, 2018 for a slow ascent up to Vermont.
Our volunteer assignment at Emerald Lake State Park did not start till May 15, so we had six weeks to travel at a leisurely pace.
Once again we stopped at our friends Craig and Jan’s in Hiawassee, GA for both a visit and to drop off our precious Bentley while we flew to Ireland. They are dog people, so our biggest concern was when we returned from Ireland was going to be custody going forward along with a visitation agreement. All that got worked out going forward.
Ireland has always been on Mona’s bucket list so to celebrate her 60th, we did a bus tour of Ireland. This was our first Bus Tour and it was a great way to explore a new country and to learn about its history, customs, and in Irelands’ case, it’s politics, and meet new people.
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Continue reading “Our Vermont Experience-Spring/Summer 2018l”
Florida Keys 1-2018
On the way to Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo (9-23-17 to 11-1-17)
Custer State Park, South Dakota
Although we don’t have a formal “Bucket List”, occasionally we find there are things we want to do or see if and when possible. Going to the annual Buffalo Roundup was possible because we made it fit into our timetable and travel schedule.
All the many years  we’ve been visiting Custer State Park, in South Dakota, we’ve heard about the annual Buffalo Roundup and thought it would be exciting to watch.
Custer State Park maintains over 1,000 Buffalo, and in order to manage, inoculate, brand the new calves and inventory the entire herd, the park annually rounds up most of the park’s buffalo. This has become a huge public event.  You might say it is the “Super Bowl” of roundups.
The Buffalo Roundup starts around 10:30 AM, but to get a good spot along the fence, we needed to leave our campsite at 5:45 AM. The actual “Gate” opens up at 6:30am.
The park also has a “Pancake Breakfast” for those interested. I mention this because an interesting thing happened while standing in line for the breakfast. (Keep in mind that there were thousands of people also in line). Mona was sitting in our seats holding down the fort, while I was in this very organized, but long line to get my breakfast.  I overheard the folks behind me talking about a trucking company named “Schuster Trucking”. Well its hard to mind my own business when they continued talking about the Schuster’s. It turned out the couple behind me, from Nebraska, were also named the Schuster’s and in fact the lady Schuster’s first name was Barb….the same as my mother. Well all of a sudden I was like kin to these folks. ….What are the chances?
On with the Buffalo Roundup…I’m glad we went, but probably wouldn’t go back for this event. The park folks kept the buffalo at least 200 yards from the fence where the public lined up. Which meant that we didn’t feel the rumble coming from the heard. Didn’t have the dust blow in our faces from the running hooves.  Didn’t feel the emotion from the cowboys/cowgirls. There is normally plenty of excitement and nervousness when driving near the Buffalo in the park on any given day. But on this day, none. Oh well…
Minnesota Visit
After being gone from our former hometown since January 23, we decide to come back to Minnesota for two-weeks  to visit friends & family, doctors, dentists, beauty salons, financial folks, truck service, etc. It was a very hectic period and unfortunately did not have enough time to see everyone. Below are some pics from a few of our get-togethers.
Scherber’s beautiful cabin
Mona’s Wood Shack
Howe, Indiana
After we left Minnesota, we were headed to Howe, Indiana, home to the DRV Factory and the Moryde Factory.  DRV is the manufacture of our Fifth Wheel RV. Moryde is the manufacture of our pin box hitch on the front of the RV as well as the independent suspension, wheels, brakes, etc.
Both factories have campsites at their service centers to accommodate their visitor customers who are there to have their rig serviced. In July, our black tank (sewer) cable valve broke. The closest DRV dealer in Boise, Idaho was honest with us about their lack of interest and capability to repair and replace this cable. The entire underbelly must be removed in order to re-route a new cable. This was a job for the factory. SO DRV had to be added to our travel plan.
As long as we are going back to the RV factory, Moryde offers an inspection regarding the wheel alignment and other related safety issues. We ended up paying to have the wheel alignment done and brake cables re-routed to better protect them.
At precisely 6:00 am, the assigned tech comes outside to discuss the issues with the RV owner, and then the rig is pulled into the service center with a new John Deere tractor. For us, the tech at DRV spent about six-hours along with materials to repair and replace our Black Tank cable. In addition, he did a variety of other minor fixes and adjustments. At the end of the day, DRVs service manager, waived all charges. WOW! I’m still impressed considering we are two years out of warranty.
Nashville, TN
Back when we began this journey last January, our first campground (not motel) was at the Nashville, KOA. Prior to that, it was too cold to begin to use water so we moteled it for two days until we arrived in Nashville.
During our first visit to Nashville, Mona and I took the Back Stage Tour at the Grand Ole Opry Building. Mona is a lover of country music. I am not quite there yet, however, we were both so impressed with the tour and its story, we vowed we must come back and go to a show. Mona made that happen and bought tickets in August for a show in October. When you order tickets in advance, you don’t know who will be playing, but if you don’t order tickets well in advance, you won’t get seats.
Outside of the Grand Ole Opry
The stage of the Grand Ole Opry
Another great tourist attraction in Nashville, is to visit the Hermitage. The Hermitage is the estate/home of President Andrew Jackson. I am struggling with the name  “Hermitage”. One definition of Hermitage is the home of a hermit. But than Wiktionary lists numerous places and locations that are mostly prestigious places as Hermitage.
Anyway, we both found this to be an amazing place that is beautifully preserved.
Hiawassee, GA
We made a stop on the way to Florida to see our good buddies, Craig & Jan who are also former Minnesotans, who just built a beautiful new home in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia. They live in a beautiful region of Georgia, at 2000′ elevation keeps weather relatively moderate all year. Who new that Georgia had such lovely mountainous lake regions!
Orlando
On the way down to the Keys, we stopped near Orlando to have dinner with our nephew, Robert. Also stayed in a very lovely KOA called Orlando-Lake Whipporwill. As you can see by the photo of our campsite, very spacious and beautifully manicured. The park is on a very large fishing and boating lake.
Arrived at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park-November 1
After driving & towing our rig nearly 4,000 miles since we left Thousand Springs State Park in southern Idaho, we have arrived safely in Key Largo at Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and are happy to put down roots again for a few months. We will be volunteering till December 30. After that we will go down the road to stay at Fiesta Key RV Resort and Marina in Long Key till January 15.
For the folks interested, the park has just reopened for both day-use and camping. The campground has already filled up. The park folks have worked amazingly hard to bring the park back to the current condition, which to me all considering, looks great! Below are a few photos from the park and the area.
On our way back to Minneapolis. September 5-17
Monday September 4th was our last working day at Thousand Springs State Park. Our plan was to leave the park on Tuesday, heading to Farragut State Park-30 miles from Coeur d’Alene, ID in northern Idaho. After saying good bye to the good folks at the park we began our drive.
We stopped for the night about half way to Farragut at Wildhorse Resort and Casino, about 5 miles from Pendleton, Oregon. At the time, there were numerous fires in the upper northwest, including a large one in Oregon that shut down interstate 84 to Portland. The smoke was so thick from the fires that it seemed to change the weather around us. The RV park was rather large, pretty much at capacity, and had plenty of amenities you’d expect at a casino resort. The casino was a typical reservation casino, with a variety of dining options. We aren’t gamblers, so we didn’t invest any money at the machines or tables.
Farragut State Park, Athol, ID
As planned we arrived at Farragut State Park on Wednesday September 6th. Because we were a volunteer at another Idaho park, and because we were staying 6 nights, and they had space, we were assigned a campsite in the volunteer section of the park, known as volunteer row. The volunteer area has full hook-ups as well as a laundry area. The volunteers and employees were extremely welcoming to us during our visit. Because of the fires in the Northwest, for the first three days, we didn’t see much or get a feel for the park. The smoke was like living in a dense fog giving us limited visibility of the park.
On Saturday the upper atmosphere winds changed, the skies cleared up, and we finally saw the magic of the park. This state park is Idaho’s largest and may be one of the most beautiful parks in the USA. The park is located on Lake Pend Oreille, which is listed as the 38th largest lake in the US and one of the deepest. This lake is 43 miles long and 1,150′ deep. In fact, prior to this becoming a state park, it was a US Navy training base. The park maintains a museum that describes the history of the park including the story of the Navy Base (Farragut Naval Training Station-decommissioned in 1946 ). Outside of the park, but in the closest town, Bayview; still remains the US Navy Acoustic underwater submarine research center. Large scale models of Navy submarines undergo sound and efficiency testing on this lake. The park and entire region is surrounded by mountains and national forests. (Imagine fishing in a small boat and having a 100′ submarine pop up next to you…what a fish story that would be!)
Farragut State Park is only 30 miles away from Coeur d’Alene, a large town of 50,000 people. The town is located on beautiful Lake Coeur d Alene, a 25 mile lake in length and also surrounded by mountains. The downtown is loaded with shops, bars and restaurants. Coeur d’Alene is near two major ski resorts; Silver Mountain and Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort.
Two things we both felt about our very short experience both in town and at the park. 1) This is a park we definitely would want to come back at and experience the area as a volunteer. 2) We could envision living in the Coeur d’ Alene area.
This region has everything we enjoy. Having said that, we are too early in our adventure to commit. Perhaps down the road if and when we volunteer at this park, would we actually look at property.
Yellowstone National Park & West Yellowstone
A visit to Yellowstone was never part of this years’ travel plan. Our plan for travel was to include Glacier National Park. 7-10 days prior to our arrival in Glacier, we read and were told about the fires within Glacier.
“GLACIER NATIONAL PARK – The pre-evacuation warning that had been in place for the Apgar area in Glacier National Park due to the Sprague fire has been lifted. However, the evacuation order remains in effect between the foot of Lake McDonald and Logan Pass.”
So if we pursued going to Glacier, we would be dealing with fire smoke, with limited visibility as well as important access roads being closed. So you know what they say about best laid plans….So Yellowstone was in the direction that we needed to go to in order to stay within our travel timetable.
About half way from Farragut to Yellowstone is a small community called Deer Lodge, MT. We stayed at a very small KOA in Deer Lodge (not recommended but served its purpose for 1 night).
The highlight of the town was a museum that use to be the Montana State Prison. Today, the building also houses an amazing car collection. I did the tour of both and when asked how or why have a car collection & the Prison Museum, apparently the car museum came prior to the prison becoming a museum. So when the prison facility was closed and later it became a museum, the smart folks put the two together.
![OldMTPrisonT7CB1[1]](https://schustersgonerving.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/oldmtprisont7cb11.jpg?w=685)
We arrived at Yellowstone Park/Mountainside KOA on the afternoon of Wednesday September 13th. This park is about 7 miles from the west entrance of Yellowstone.
On September 14th, it rained all day and turned to snow. Keep in mind on or around labor day, we still were living in 100 degree days at Thousand Springs and hadn’t experienced rain for a very long time. The folks in this part of the world were very excited to see rain as they were in a drought situation with many fires in and around the state of Montana.
Being from Minnesota, I thought we were prepared for this kind of weather. In fact within my arsenal of stuff, I had A $100 electric heated water hose, which when connected to the RV, won’t freeze. Well on Saturday morning, while I was sitting on the potty, Mona yells at me, “We have no water!”
Well the sun did come out, and allowed us to take a beautiful drive through the park. The following photos were from our drive to the Lamar Valley and to Old Faithful.
Christopher Clough
2017 Summer is ending at Thousand Springs State Park….time to continue on with our adventure….
As I am writing this last blog regarding our 2017 summer at Thousand Springs State Park, Hagerman, Idaho, we have less than two-weeks of this volunteer assignment. While it will be exciting to move on to our next adventure, it will also be bitter sweet to leave. This was a great first volunteer experience. We learned a lot about being a volunteer. We also met and worked with some great folks…whom we will miss.
Plowing the field at Ritter Island State Park
Planting Oats At Ritter Island State Park
Annual Ice Cream Social including Vintage Tractors Plowing and Horse/Mules sowing at Ritter Island
Volunteer-Richard Sturgeone Fishing
Volunteers Nancy and Richard-our park neighbors
This summers heat grew on us with at least 6-weeks of daytime temperatures ranging between 97 and 107. The temps typically peaked around 6pm. All four of the park’s volunteers; Richard Barnhart, Nancy Robinson, Mona and myself all felt like we were living as cave dwellers. We would come home from our jobs or our daily errands and go inside, shut the blinds, lower the ac temps, and just veg. One day, Mona and I had enough of living in the cave…so around 5:00 pm one day, we walked outside and moved our chairs to the back side of our RV which at that time of the day was the shady side, which happens to be next to Richard’s RV. In the shade, the temps must have been 15 degrees cooler. Mona and I had brought out adult beverages. Richard observed this and joined us. Nancy got the word…and also joined us. The cocktail hour led to two or three hours which led to a daily occurrence. Even the two dogs, Max and Bentley looked forward to the cocktail hour.
In July, our old friend William Shiang came for a long weekend visit. He wanted to investigate what retirement might look like for him and his wife. We hiked Box Canyon, we kayaked around Ritter Island, went white water rafting on the Snake River. Our time with William went very fast.
In late August, our two boys Jesse and Jonathan came for a week. Jesse is a budding rock star in LA. He plays base guitar in a number of bands including the Caroline Smith band as well as producing music. onathan came from Long Island New York, where he is working on a PhD program at Stony Brook University in their Linguistics Department.
 Sturgeon fishing on the Snake River
Jesse with a 6 1/2′ sturgeon
Mona and Jack-Boise-Visit
We went to Boise at the end of July to have work done on our RV at Dennis Dillon Marine and RV (DDRV.com). We added 4 slide-out covers. Slide-out covers help keep debris off the roof-slideouts which can get inside the slide out cavity.  The slide-out covers also keeps the sun directly off the slide-outs, which helps cool the RV, and also keeps the rain off the slide outs as well which may also prevent water from leaking inside the RV. DDRV was also running a special on repacking the wheels on our RV. So for $189, we had all four wheels repacked. We previously purchased from DRV, the fancy and shiny wheel covers which were also installed after the wheel bearings were repacked.
We stayed at the Riverside Hotel in Boise, which is on the Boise River. Boise has a great walking/bike trail system which is also next to this hotel. Within a few blocks of the hotel on the trail, I found a group of people surfing on the down side of a water falls. Amazing!
Mona and I attended an outdoor play at the Shakespeare Theatre in Boise. “Wait Until Dark” was playing during this visit. This is a wonderful outdoor theatre. While they have a large concession, we found it amazing that they encouraged guests to bring their own food and beverages into the theatre. In fact, they offered red wagons to help carry large coolers of food. The only negative to the theatre was that at the start of the show (8:00 PM) it was still 95 degrees.
Schuster’s Future
On a separate blog page, please find our itinerary for the remainder of this year and for part of 2018.
We accepted another volunteer spot for November and December of this year at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, Florida. (http://pennekamppark.com/). Mona will work for the Park Services Specialist as an office assistant. I will work as a Field/Shop Volunteer. Which means I will assist the ranger in whatever various duties he needs help with (did I say grunt?).
Established in 1963, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park was the first undersea park in the United States.  John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, and the adjacent Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, cover approximately 178 nautical square miles of coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangrove swamps. The park extends three-miles into the Atlantic Ocean and is approximately 25-miles in length. These areas were established to protect and preserve a portion of the only living coral reef in the continental United States. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1972.
We also accepted a volunteer spot at Emerald Lake State Park beginning approximately May 15 through September 2018. ( https://www.vtstateparks.com/emerald.html). Located conveniently between Manchester and Rutland, Vermont, the park is popular for its wooded hillside campground, beach and swimming area, and nearby attractions and tourist destinations. The park surrounds the 20-acre Emerald Lake, named for the emerald green color of its waters when viewed from above. Restricted to non-motorized watercraft, the lake is ideal for swimming and paddling. The lake also offers anglers an opportunity to catch yellow perch, small mouth bass, northern pike and other warm-water species. The park is a favorite destination of hikers, with the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail nearby, and trails on Dorset Mountain. Mona and I will be camp hosts, which means we help campers with finding their campsite, make certain they’ve paid, answer any questions, and clean up after the campers depart.
2017-2018 Schuster’s Travel Itinerary
Below is our travel itinerary. This will change as our travel plans change. However we will do our best to keep this page updated.
- August-September 4-Thousand Springs State Park, Hagerman, Idaho
- September 5-Wildhorse Resort & Casino, Pendleton, Oregon
- September 6-12-Farragut State Park, Athol, ID
- Â September 13-Deer Lodge,MT (Deer Lodge KOA-not recommended)
- September 14-18- West Yellowstone (Mountainside KOA)
- September 18-23-Hardin, MT (Hardin KOA)
- September 24-30-Custer State Park, Custer, SD (Beaver Lake Campground)
- September 30- Sioux Falls, SD
- October 1-14-Minneapolis, MN (Maple Grove KOA)
- October 14-Rockford, IL
- October 15-19-Howe,IN (DRV and Moryde Factories)
- October 19-Columbus,IN
- October 20-22-Nashville, TN
- October 23-25-Hiawassee, GA
- October 25-27-Adel, GA
- October 27-29-Orlando, Fl
- October 29-Nov-1 Venice-Ft. Myers, FLÂ Area
- November 1-December 30 John Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo, FL
2018
- December 30-January 15 2018Â Fiesta Key RV Resort, Long Key, FL
- January 15- March 31 2018 Easterlin County Park, Pompano Beach Florida
- April 6-16 IrelandÂ
- May 15-September- Emerald Lake State Park, Manchester, VT
Thousand Springs State Park-Ritter Island-Wendell, Idaho June 24, 2017
We are about at the half-way mark for our current volunteer positions at Thousand Springs State Park. So with that, I’d like to describe our current roles, how we go about finding volunteer jobs at state or national parks, along with a few touristy things we’ve done since our last blog.
Thousand Springs State Park & Ritter Island
Thousand Springs State Park is located in Hagerman, Idaho (Southern Idaho). Thousand Springs State Park has five state park units that are managed and maintained by the management of Thousand Springs State Park. Mona and I mostly do our volunteer work at Malad Gorge (the location of our camper) and Ritter Island.
For this blog I will describe Ritter Island and provide a little history of the farm.
Ritter Island State Park is a day use park and consists of a historical dairy farm on an island of 66-acres surrounded by the Snake River. The park owns land adjacent to the island which totals over 300-acres. There are walking trails on the island as well as around the island. People swim, kayak, canoe, and fish all around the island. Across from the island beautiful  waterfalls flow that are fed from natural springs from the side of the surrounding canyons.
The recorded history of the area began with French Trappers in the 1800s as pioneers began traveling the Oregon Trail. In the 1840s entrepreneurs settled in the area to provide services, including a ferry that crossed the snake river at the south end of the property.
The property was purchased in 1918 by a Salt Lake City businesswoman, Minnie Miller who turned the property into a state-of-the-art dairy farm. The primary purpose of the dairy farm was to produce breeding cattle rather than commercial milk.
Included in the farm are several barns, building, houses, and for the farm’s manager, she built a 4-bedroom rock house.
The park service, Mona and I are involved with restoring the stone house. The park intends to rent the house as a get-away property for families Hopefully the restoration will be complete this summer in time to have renters enjoy the property and the house this year.
As volunteers, most of our time has been spent doing remodel work in the kitchen; sanding and repainting the kitchen cabinets, doors, and windows. We are also re-installing baseboards throughout the main floor. As a volunteer couple, we work a total of about 40 hours/week from Friday-Monday, having Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off to do our own exploring. In return for the hours of volunteer work, we are given a spot for our RV along with water, sewer hook-ups, electricity, and free Wi-Fi.
Finding Volunteer Jobs at State or National Parks
To find volunteer jobs, we first identify the region or states we want to explore. We then go to the federal governments website; http://www.Volunteer.gov. This website is used by  a variety of federal agencies to find volunteers; agencies include Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, National Park Service and many We search the data based to see what is available and if something is available that interests us, we both submit an application followed by a phone all to the appropriate park rangers, managers or coordinator who is seeking volunteers. This website also provides a source of volunteers for some of the states and their state parks, especially those where the national parks are supported by state park rangers.
Each state also has a web site for their state parks. We go directly to the states websites we are interested in exploring and complete an on-line application. We’ve downloaded specific states apps for our iPad which helps us identify specific parks we’d like to work in. All state applications require you to list three-parks you want to work in. Again, if you really want consideration, we make the phone call to the appropriate park volunteer coordinator or park manager for an informal phone interview.
While we have not been doing this long, this seems to be the best method for finding volunteer jobs.
Exploring Idaho
Since our last blog, on some of our free time, we’ve travelled to Boise, Sun Valley Ski Area, Craters of the Moon National Monument/Park, and Pocatello.
We really got excited when we went up to the Sun Valley area. Two towns we can envision buying a home down the road are Ketchum and Hailey. Ketchum is the center of the ski resort area of Sun Valley, but Hailey is only 12-miles away, it feels is like Mayberry. We spent almost the entire afternoon driving around neighborhoods in Hailey.
On our way home from Sun Valley, we stopped at one of the world’s greatest fly fishing destinations for trout fishing; Silver Creek Preserve…Like most of Idaho, huge canyons and crystal clear streams and rivers. Unfortunately we didn’t have time or the experience to fly fish. We keep discussing getting a guide and going back past the Sun Valley region to the Salmon River area to go salmon and or trout fishing. (We’ll see!)
We drove to Boise and spent a night there in June. Boise, as well as most of the state, was dealing with and managing major flood conditions which was a result of a winter with huge snowfall. The Boise river was nearly overflowing its banks when we visited.
One of the popular attractions in Boise is to visit University Of Idaho’s Albertson’s Stadium-home of the Broncos football team. So we did. I’m not sure if there is another major college with blue turf.
Our recent journey was to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This is an area of 750,000 acres, much of it resemble how we think the moon would look. Well in fact it is a series of hardened lava flows. It is hard to explain, but is quite scenic.
I’ve been told that Twin Falls, and the Perrine Bridge is the only legal location in the entire USA to allow and promote base jumping. Base jumping is simply jumping off a bridge with a small parachute. The jumper can land on land at a target or in the water. Base jumping goes on 24-7-365. Recently, there was a base jumper that was attempting to beat a record of 61 jumps within a 24-hour period.
I followed two base jumpers, interviewed them as well as videoed their jump. It was an amazing experience for them as well as for me.  Our blog site won’t allow me to post videos, but I have previously posted the video on my Facebook site.
Travel Itinerary-Estimate
September 5, 2017-Depart Thousand Springs State Park
September 6-12 Farragut State Park, (near) Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
September 12-17 Glacier National Park
September 17-21 Bozeman, MT
September 24-30 Custer State Park
October 3-15 Maple Grove, MN
December 19-January 15, 2018Â Long Key, Florida
January 15-March 31, 2018 Pompano Beach, Florida
May 15, 2018-September New England (State park TBD)
Shonshone Falls, ID (near Thousand Springs State Park in Twin Falls). May 10, 2017 (10,791 miles covered thus far)
Way back last winter when we still were living in our apartment in Eden Prairie, MN, we accepted our first volunteer positions and planned to arrive on May 1st. Well after driving our truck and rig well over 10,000 miles from Minnesota to Florida to Arizona and then heading north through Utah.  On May day 2017, we found our new summer home at Malad Gorge State Park near Hagerman, ID. All I can say is wow!  We have never traveled through Idaho prior to this, especially southern Idaho, and Malad Gorge State Park is one you should put on your ‘To Do List”.
Malad Gorge State Park is one of 5-parks that make up Thousand Springs State Park. All five-parks are under the responsibility of our boss, Park Ranger Eric and the Park Manager Dave.  Our RV is based at Malad Gorge next to the park headquarters.
This park is bordered by the gorge and Malad River and cattle farms. Next to our RV is a small lake. Daily Bentley goes for a swim in the lake or basks in one of the small streams within the park. The park has over 5-miles of paved roads that run parallel to the gorge and the Malad River.  Before our daily responsibilities begin, Bentley and I walk 2-3 miles along side the gorge pictured below. After we complete our daily responsibilities, Bentley loves the pond next to our campsite…she loves the water!!
We’ve worked five-days as of this posting, so our work activities have been limited to mowing the various lawns, helping set up one of the irrigation systems, and working at the park entrance at the kiosk collecting park fees as well as providing park information to visitors. We are here to learn about other parks; as a result, our tasks can expand over the summer. Our current work schedule is Friday-Monday, allowing us 3-days/week to investigate Idaho’s treasures, as well as take care of our own business such as cleaning and laundry (and updating our blog). Our supervisor, Park Ranger Eric, (pictured below) has been working at this park for 11-years and is extremely knowledgeable about the park, its eco system, its history, as well as the mechanics of maintaining the park itself.
Wildlife in and around the park:
So far, on our days off, we’ve been to City of Rocks National Park, Three Island Crossing State Park, Bruneau Dunes State Park and the town of Twin Falls, ID.
Below are some of the pictures from these travels (we found a small patch of snow for Bentley to play in…she loved it):
Shoeshone Falls, Twin Falls
Shoeshone Falls, Twin Falls
April 28, 2017 Zion & Provo, Ut.
Mt. Carmel & Zion
Due to Truck issues in the Sedona area, instead of our usual 9:00 am start, we left Cottonwood and the car dealership at 3:00 PM on Friday April 21. As a result, we broke Jack’s number 1 rule….NEVER DRIVE AT NIGHT! especially in the mountains. STUPID!
We arrived at Hi-Road Campground (formerly Zion RV & Campground) at 10:00 pm, after the campground closed. Our GPS quit about 12 miles prior to arrival, but we had cell service and fortunately, they answered the phone, to give us our final directions and information regarding our campsite.
Schusters rig at the Hi-Road Campground
Elevation is 5,700′
When daylight broke and I went outside, I thought this was the most spectacular campgrounds we have stayed at thus far. This campground, was mostly for tenters rather than RVs, but they had one road set up exclusively with full hook-ups to serve the big rigs. As the photos show, there is plenty of space between our rig and the surrounding RVs. Having said that, they have minimal amenities. There is no cell service. If you need to use the phone, drive 13 miles back to the actual town of Mt. Carmel. There is WIFI, but you must go into the campground office-store. There is no TV service provided and none available with an antennae or satellite.
ZION National Park Pictures
On Sunday April 23, we had two issues going on with us; 1) we thought we were having problems with our water system. We went from having great water pressure in our rig to almost nothing, I disconnected the intake hose from the RV parks water to verify that they were still dispensing water, and at the time I checked they were. Mona was not feeling well. Between her allergies and the altitude, she was having breathing and heart racing  issues. So we made the decision to leave on Monday as was planned but instead of going up to Bryce Canyon (elevation 7,700′), we decided to go directly to Provo, Utah.
Provo, UT
We arrived at Lakeside RV Campground on Monday April 24 in Provo, UT. Provo is a suburb of St. Lake City. Our campground is a short walk to  Utah Lake and Utah Lake State Park.  The views of the lake with the mountains in the background are just stunning. My morning walks with Bentley are some of the most beautiful walks, I have taken thus far.
From January 31 through Monday, April 24, the weather has been warm to hot which means I wore exclusively shorts this entire time. However, here in Provo, the weather has been windy, damp, and the highs have been in the mid-40s to mid-50s. The weather really didn’t impact our plans. This week we just planned on getting things done before we begin our volunteer job on May 1st.
- Bentley went to the vet for her annual check-up and shots.
- We purchased and installed 6-tires for the truck.
- We had an area rug made for our living room.
- We went grocery shopping.
- Mona had her nails done.
- We fixed our two garage doors. The screws from the factory were not strong enough to hold the pneumatic bracket, so we engineered a new method to hold the brackets.
- It turned out our water system was fine in Zion. The park lost water pressure. Water was coming out of their pipe, but not enough PSI to work in our rig.
- Had dinner with a local friend, Bruce Anderson, a former business associate.
- Mona is feeling much better at this lower elevation and began to take her allergy drops.
Mona, Bruce Anderson, Jack 
SCHUSTER'S Gone RVing 