Heatwave

Saturday July 13 Makoshika State Park, Montana

Tripometer - 7596

Wow it’s been two weeks since I’ve written.  Everything has been relaxed and yet at the same time a blur…hmmm, a relaxed blur…

We left lovely Fernie BC on July 3 and drove to Wapanum State Park in Vantage, Washington.  It’s a lovely spot on the shores of the Columbia River and Wapanum Reservoir.  It is however subject to strong winds in the evenings and our first night there we watched several would be tent campers fail at trying to set up camp, breaking poles, ripping fabric,  and eventually leaving - most likely in search of an available hotel room in town.  The winds approached 30 mph.  It’s a nice park aside from the wind, and we enjoyed swimming and paddle boarding at their beach on the cold and refreshing Columbia River.

July 4-6 

We camped backstage at The Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA where ODESZA were performing the 3 final shows of The Last Goodbye Tour.  We baked in the heatwave, enjoyed the creature comforts of air conditioned backstage dressing rooms, LOVED the shows each night, reconnected with so many friends and loved ones, spent the weekend with our California cousins, went back to Wapanum State Park for more swimming and paddle boarding, went tubing on the Icicle and Wenatchee Rivers, and generally wore ourselves out having fun, spending too much time in the heat, and not getting near enough sleep.  

The amazing ODESZA live photos are re-posted from ODESZA's social media and taken by Julian Bajsel

July 7 

We drove to the Idaho/Montana border and stayed on BLM land for a night at Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation area.  It was a lovely spot in the woods and near a creek.

July 8-11 

Our next stop was Bozeman MT where we parked in town in front of our dear friend’s home and had a chill week of good friends, good food, local trails, and lots of ice cream. We also had the opportunity to watch a little bit of Wimbledon, the UEFA Championships, and Copa América.  Eloise had a blast with her new doggie friends.

July 12

We’ve so far been pillars of health on this trip but that ended when I woke up with a sore throat and a cold.  Though we had a relaxing week in Bozeman, I don’t think I ever quite recovered from the long weekend at the Gorge.  Heidi made the long drive from Bozeman to Makoshika in eastern Montana while I tried my best to sleep/rest in the passenger seat.  When we arrived around 6pm the temperature outside was still 101 Fahrenheit.  And this leads us to a look at the heatwave we’ve been traveling through.

The last 10 days since leaving Fernie have been HOT, unseasonably hot, a heat wave. KOKO, our 1965 Airstream, has various ways to manage the heat, but we have no air conditioning.  What we’ve learned is that finding some partial natural shade in which to park the camper is key, and we can manage the heat up to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If it goes consistently above that for days on end, it becomes difficult to keep the interior of the Airstream from baking in the afternoon until an hour or two after sunset.

Our tools for managing the heat:

• pick a camp site that gets natural shade part of the day. 

• 9 screened windows

• blackout curtains to use on the side where the sun is shining.

• 3 screened ceiling hatches

• 1 Awning

• 1 Screen door

• 3 small but high powered fans mounted inside the camper

Here’s one story: The day we went tubing on the Icicle and Wenatchee Rivers in Leavenworth, WA the cold river waters were a welcome relief on a day it reached over 100 degrees.  Our campsite at the Gorge was a backstage gravel lot with amazing views but zero shade.  In case of any unforeseen weather or wind we buttoned up the camper before leaving that morning for the river….all windows  and hatches closed, awning put away.  When we got back in the late afternoon to open in all up again it was…wait for it…117 degrees inside the camper.  We did what we could but it didn’t really get down to a manageable temperature indoors until hours later, well after dark.

Here’s another story:  Apparently a number of different types of glue don’t manage to remain gluey once the temperatures get well above 100.  In the last 24 hours we’ve had two magnets come unglued that serve as our utensil drawer latch.  In addition, a piece of wooden framing that holds our freshwater tank in place came unglued and fell off at nearly the same time.

The camp hosts at our Makoshika camp are from Nevada and they were like "Oh that's nothing, we come here to Montana to cool off in the summer. At home right now it's 117 degrees and we've seen tail lights and stoplights melt in the Nevada heat".

We’re taking a “pass” on the heat today to reset ourselves.  Eloise and Heidi are enjoying the luxury of a swimming pool at the Holiday Inn where we’ve checked in for the night and I am convalescing in the air conditioned hotel room to try to more quickly shed this summertime sore throat/bug I seem to have picked up.

Next up, we head to South Dakota where we should see temperatures in the 80’s, and we’ve switched up our campground plan to one that has a pool.  Easy Breezy.