The Road to Darby

When last we left off, I regaled you with the tale of every night the“music”was too loud.(Do I sound like my parents?) On the last night of the event, there was a huge party planned. So we decided to leave Driggs, Idaho a day early. If anyone asks, it was because of the massive thunderstorm that was headed towards Driggs (and would have made it difficult to get out of the fair grounds we were camping in). It had nothing to do with the music that would keep us up until all hours of the night. Nope, we just wanted to be prepared citizens and ensure that we could get to our next destination with our AARP cards in tact. 

One of the best things we did in Driggs was going up on a ski lift in the hopes of seeing the Grand Tetons one last time. The smoke ended up being too thick still, but we did get an amazing view (please see our YouTube Video). Going up on a ski lift whilst not skiing was silly. 

In our haste to leave (because of the horrific storm obviously), we didn’t have a place to stay. One of our neighbors who was equally as weather concerned as us left a bit before and headed to a town about an hour away called Rexburg. Their plan was to park at a Walmart parking lot (fun fact: Walmart allows you to stay in their parking lot for free with your RV). Turns out, we weren’t the only ones who thought of this and with the size of our RV, there was no space. 

So I went on my trusty app AllStays https://www.allstays.com/ This app is really nifty. It shows you all the places you can stay with an RV for free.  After a few phone calls, we ended up in an Autozone parking lot for one night. It was an odd experience for a few reasons. First, as we were only staying one night, we didn’t unhook the truck and therefore couldn’t pull our slides out. We were quite cramped and just spent the night in our cramped bedroom. Thank goodness for hotspots and lithium batteries. Second, it was our first time not in a real campground. We were in a parking lot along a busy street and it was just a bit weird and vulnerable. But we needn’t have worried because that big storm I was teasing actually did show up! The thunder was so loud, we were surprised that the RV didn’t get hit by lightning. 

We survived the night with probably the same amount of sleep we would have gotten had we not left the biggest party of the RV summer. We slowly made our way to our next destination, Darby, Montana. Through driving before the sun came up, scaring a McDonald’s morning crew half to death by knocking on the drive through window (our rig definitely can’t fit through a drive through), a nap at a rest stop, and breakfast in a very small town where people thought we were out of town murderers, we were ready for the final leg of our journey.

A point I would like to make here is that, as mentioned, RV’s do not fit everywhere. They are heavy and wide and difficult to drive. We use a GPS app called https://rvlife.com/

This app gives us routes that are specific to RV’s. Some roads don’t allow vehicles over a certain weight. Some tunnels are too low or narrow for an RV. This app takes all of these into consideration and finds the best and safest route. (RIP Google Maps. You were a gem). Also, RV Life is part of https://www.rvtripwizard.com/ which is an amazing app we use to plan all of our trips. 

Ok back to the last leg of our journey. We got to Highway 93 (after a harrowing experience with a construction zone and larger than life construction “holes” which they called “bumps” with the smallest warning signs EVER) and it was all downhill from there. Literally. It was a 26 mile road with a downhill grade of 7-10%. It was the longest, most winding, and scariest road trip of my life. Just imagine a giant elephant on roller skates going downhill. We had a bit more control than that, but only a bit. I think I wore a hole in the passenger footwell from all the times I stomped on the imaginary brake. 

Jerry came out the real hero here. He stayed calm under pressure and my rising blood pressure and got us to the beautiful town of Darby, Montana safe and sound. We will be staying in Darby for a month and will be seeing friends, enjoying the sights, and hopefully getting a peak at Kevin Costner as he shoots the show Yellowstone in Darby. A girl can dream. I mean, I love you Jerry. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from Darby! 

Just One More… Cocktail. My god we needed one (or multiple ones) after that road trip.