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Our next stop was Zadar, our first town in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and a very pleasant 4 hr ferry ride from Pula. Our apartment was a 15 minute walk from the old town. Zadar was heavily damaged in WWII (and again in the ‘homeland’ war in the 1990s), and is an odd mix of old and new, where new is mostly really ugly/basic buildings from the 50s/60s.

Speaking of the ‘homeland’ war: that’s the current politically correct term for that war that occurred here in the 1990s, according to one of our tour guides. Previously known as the “War of Independence”, it’s all pretty confusing to the outside world. I also asked many of our various tour guides what Croatians think about Tito, and all seemed to like him, but also said ‘it’s complicated’, and it depends on what region you are from. It sounds like he did a lot of good things for Yugoslavia, and some bad things too.

Besides wandering around the old town, activities in Zadar included a great sunset sail, a bike ride around Ugljan island (a short ferry ride from Zadar), and Christine making an amazing dinner with the fresh truffles we bought in Istria.

One of the ‘must do’ places to go in Croatia is Plitvice Lakes National Park. I agree it’s pretty special, but it was REALLY crowded. Just like many national parks in the USA, August is the wrong time of the year to go. But what can you do. We should have spent the night outside the park and gone early in the morning before all the tour groups arrive.

Next stop is was Šibenik, normally a 1.5 hour bus ride from Zadar, but 2.5 hours due to peak season traffic. Šibenik was the most picturesque town so far, and we had the best AirBNB of the trip (so far). We loved being right in the heart of a 500 year old city.

Other activities in Šibenik included a fantastic 60km guided eBike ride all around the region, and we took a ferry to Zlarin island to swim/snorkel. Speaking of snorkeling: there are no reefs in Croatia, so the snorkeling is not great, but the water is so amazingly clear that you can see everything there is to see very well. We saw tons of sea cucumbers, urchins, and lots of small fish at Zlarin.

Full set of photos is here. Next stop: 2hr bus ride to Split.

After our time in Zagreb we took a bus to Pula, the largest town in the Istria region of Croatia. Istria has a lot of Italian influences, especially in the food, and everyone must study Italian in school.

We stayed 1 block from Pula’s 2000 year old Roman Arena. It was really cool to walk past it every day. They even do gladiator shows there twice a week. We had a number of great meals in Istria, the best being at a tiny place called Backyard, which is literally the chefs backyard, and has about 7 small tables.

We rented a car for two days to explore the rest of Istria, and visited the coastal towns of Rovinj and Porec, the medieval towns of Groznjan and Motovun, and the ruins of Pietrapelosa Castle and Dvigrad. The rental car was a bright orange Renault Clio, a great little car, but crazy expensive ($215/day) this summer due to the COVID-induced rental car shortages.

We went truffle hunting in Buzet with the cutest truffle dogs (no one uses pigs here), and only found 1 truffle. It has been a very dry August, so not a great season for truffles.

While Christine did a pasta making class, I did a mountain bike tour of the area, and it turned out my tour guide is one of the gladiators! He swears that the fights are not rigged, and that they do sometimes get hurt. Here is a clip from YouTube. We also did a kayaking trip to a nearby island that is part of Brijuni National Park.

Full set of photos are here.

Next stop, Zadar.

We decided to book a trip to Croatia to escape California fire season. Unfortunately we booked it 3 days too late, as 3 days before we were scheduled to fly out a 2000 acre fire broke out about 5 miles from our house, and we almost had to evacuate. Also, the Dixie fire, the largest fire in California history, is about 90 miles north of our place, and will likely be smoking out most of northern California for the next couple months.

Our first week in Croatia was spent in a nice AirBNB ten minute walk east of the city center ($55/night). (Map). As Croatia has only 4 million people (about the same as the state of Oklahoma), they do not expect anyone to speak their language, and its easy to get around with English (or German).

My biggest surprise about Zagreb was that there was a big earthquake here in 2020, and many historic buildings and museums are still closed and under construction. We had no clue! The earthquake happened 3 days after the world went into COVID lockdown, and only 1 person died, so maybe its not surprising that that it did not get much news coverage in the US. But unfortunately several of the top sites like the main cathedral, art gallery, and opera house are all still closed for repairs.

Zagreb must be one of the cleanest capital cities in the world. Absolutely no trash or homeless anywhere to be seen (at least in the city center). Quite a bit of graffiti, but thats all. Fantastic, cheap, clean public transit that goes everywhere, and very little noise or traffic (at least in August, when apparently much of the city heads for the coast). The city is also very green, with tons of well maintained flower beds everywhere, including a nice city maintained rose garden right in front of our apartment building,

Zagreb has an amazing cafe culture, and it seems like there is a cafe on almost every block. They are mostly open from 7am till 11pm, and serve mainly coffee in the morning, and mainly beer from 11am till 11pm, tho all types of beverages/spirits are available. Local beers typically cost $2.50-$3 dollars for a .5 liter bottle. My favorite local beer is Karlovačko, a Czech style Pilsner. Most cafes do not sell any food at all (not even pastries!), as apparently that requires a special license that most cafes do not have.

It was quite hot while we were here, with a high of 90-96F everyday. Our AirBNB had AC, but none of the museums, cafes, or restaurants did. But the restaurants and cafes all have 90% of their tables outside in the summer anyway (true before COVID too), so AC would not matter. There were very few tourists here, though it was not clear to me if that was due to COVID, or due to people avoid Zagreb in August due to the heat.

Due to the heat and jet lag, we had a slow, relaxed first week. I typically did a bit of exploring in the morning, hung around the apartment and read/napped in the afternoon, and then went out in the evening for a hot, sweaty dinner.

My favorite museums included the Museum of Broken Relationships, The Croatian Museum of Naive Art, and the Modern Gallery. Our favorite Restaurant was Restoran Uspinjaca at the foot of the world’s shortest funicular (only 66 meters long). The best bar we found was called Alcatraz, an actual dive bar on the inside (but inside of bars are still closed).

Speaking of COVID, luckily there is no Delta variant spike here (yet), so the spike of COVID stress at home is not here. But they are also still more locked down than in most of the US. Indoor bars / nightclubs are still closed, and no indoor gatherings of more than 50 people are allowed. Masks are still required indoors and on public transit, and I’d say about 80% of the locals seem to be following the rules in Zagreb. But, every local we talked to claimed the government was lying to them and that they did not need the mitigation measures.

Our favorite AirBNB experience was a food tour with Luka. We were able to try the local specialty, Strukli, which is a phyllo-like pastry stuffed with creamy cheese and sweet or savory fillings. We also did a day trip to a couple castles and wine tasting with ‘Ned’ which was so-so, but Ned introduced us to a wide variety of 70’s-80s Croatia Rock on the drive back.

Typical Zagreb street scenes are below. You can see the streets were pretty empty.

Full Set of photos are here. Next taking a bus to Pula.

While not the 5 month Alaska adventure we had hoped for this summer, we had a great trip. And it was way better than staying home and being frustrated about everything being closed or cancelled.

We ended up driving 5200 miles, across parts of California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Oregon. We stayed in the following places over a total of 72 nights:

• National Forest free dispersed camping: 51
• AirBNB: 8 (6 in ID, 2 in WA)
• RV parks: 7
• BLM dispersed camping / wide spot in road: 3
• City Parks with free camping: 1
• Public parking lots that allow overnight: 1
• Truck Stops: 1

Our goal was to mostly avoid any town of more than 10,000 people, and stay in an RV park or AirBNB about every 10 days to do laundry and get a proper shower (rather than quick showers in back of the van or bathing in lakes / creeks). We mostly cooked all our own meals, but did eat at restaurants with outdoor seating about 10 times over the 10 week trip.

My favorite spot of the trip was the Sawtooth Wilderness near Stanley, ID. Some summer I’d love to go back there for a month. But everywhere we went was great.

If you are feeling cooped up from staying home due to COVID-19, I highly recommend buying or renting a camper van or small RV and hitting the road for a few weeks. There are tons of great free places to camp, and gas is cheap at the moment. If you are lucky you can buy a camper and sell it next year for about the same price you paid for it.

One of the most interesting aspects of traveling around this part of the country at the time was observing the huge differences in the response to COVID. Wyoming and South Dakota had few people wearing masks, and few signs asking people to wear them. Montana had signs on the door to every business declaring a mandate by the governor to wear a mask, but outside of Bozeman, many people ignored this. Idaho varied a lot from county to county, and several places were still holding outdoor events like rodeos and county fairs. Restaurants were open with reduced seating in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Idaho. Washington was very strict, with no indoor dining anywhere. South Dakota was the most open, to the point of holding the Sturgis motorcycle rally, which around 440,000 people attended, and is being called a ‘super spreader’ event that is already linked to at least 1 COVID death as of Sept 1.

What next? We plan to avoid air travel until there is a vaccine that seems trustworthy and readily available. Will this happen in time for next summer? Who knows? We still want to go to Alaska, but maybe not until 2022?

In the meantime I’m going to go back to work at LBL for 10 hrs/week for 6 months. I figure working will help avoid the frustration of not being able to do the things I planned during retirement.

Here is a google map link to the full route.

Favorite photos from the entire trip will eventually be here.

We decided we were ready to leave Idaho and start working our way back home. The plan was to spend one night in Prosser, WA on the way to Oregon. But it was forecast to be 106 that day, which is way to hot for #vanlife, so we booked an air conditioned AirBNB for two nights. I’m glad we did, as we got a chance to explore Yakima Valley a bit.

This part of Washington seemed to be 1/3 apples, 1/3 grapes, and 1/3 hops. Huge farms everywhere. We were pretty unimpressed by the wines at the two wineries we went to in Prosser, but liked the beers at Snipes Mountain Brewery.

We got to check out “Gravity Hill”, which was fun. It really works (well, the illusion does). We also stopped at the Stonehenge WWI memorial on the Columbia river, which was surprisingly interesting.

One of our favorite spots from our trip to Oregon in 2024 was Crane Prairie Reservoir, about 1 hour from Bend. It was basically our route home, so we decided to spend a week there next. We stayed in the same camping area we did then, and even had the same bald eagle in camp as we did then (we think). We also met up with some friends from Eugene on Lava Lake.

Next stop: home!

Full set of photos are here.

After 7 weeks of #vanlife, we felt it was time to rent a cabin and spread out for a few days. It was also time to give the van a good cleaning, so I found a great cabin on AirBNB near the Canadian border north of Bonner’s Ferry, ID. We spent 6 nights there. No nearby neighbors, no cell coverage, no internet. The cabin was straight out of mountain cabin decor magazine: taxidermy wildlife everywhere, and moose/bear/elk motif on everything, including sheets, towels, placemats, shower curtains, shower curtain hooks, drawer handles, door handles, gas grill, etc. Super cute. We loved it. We had an Elk in the yard one morning, and tons of turkeys and geese. Still no bear sightings on this trip yet. I find it interesting that I see WAY more bear scat on our road at home than anywhere I’ve been on this trip, yet I alway hike with pepper spray here, but not at home. I guess it might have something to do with the possibility of Grizzly Bears here….

Next on to Priest Lake, ID, stopping in Sandpoint for lunch on the way. Sandpoint is a very cute touristy town with some great galleries and restaurants, but as we were still avoiding towns, we only stayed a couple hours.

We really liked Priest Lake when we did our Idaho trip in 2012, so we decided to come back, and stay on the east side of the lake. (We stayed on the west side last time). We found a great spot along a creek 2 miles from the lake. Like many lakes, there is no dispersed camping along the lake: only very full campgrounds and private homes. But it was a quick bike ride or drive to a state park on the lake.

Full set of photos are here.

After leaving the Bitterroot Mountains, we first drove to see the Garden of 1000 Buddha’s, and then drove up to check out the historic town of Wallace ID, which is worth a couple hours if you are in the area. Don’t miss the mummified mermaid at the North Idaho Trading Company. Then we continued on to the town of Thompson Falls, which is nice enough to let folks overnight in their parking lot.

Then on to the ‘town’ of Yaak, MT, with a stop at Kootenai Falls along the way. The falls are quite impressive, and definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

Since our original plan was to be in Alaska exploring small quirky towns all summer, we decided to check out Yaak, MT, a town of about 30 people and 2 bars. We stayed at very friendly ‘Hipcamp’ site, a 2 minute walk to both bars, and with a great swimming hole on the Yaak River. We had some really interesting conversations at the bar (outside patio, of course). The barmaid said it was their busiest summer ever (which was not really all that busy when we were there). Unfortunately we just missed their summer music festival.

This part of the world is definitely Trump country, but we just avoided talking politics, and found everyone very friendly. I would definitely come back.

Full set of photos are here.

Next stop was the Bitterroot Range on the Idaho/Montana border, famous for Lolo Pass, which tormented Lewis and Clark. Tons of great hiking, and tons of huckleberries everywhere!!!

On the advice of a ranger at the Darby Ranger Station, we found an amazing campsite right on the creek along Lost Horse Rd. This road has a number of nice campsites along a 15 mile stretch of gravel road, but I think we got one of the best sites. We liked this spot so much we decided to stay for 9 nights. There were several trailheads within a 15 mile drive, so most days I rode my eBike to a trail, hiked 6-8 miles, and road back. Did I mention how much I love traveling with an eBike? My brother drove up from Idaho Falls to join us for a couple nights.

Part of most days included picking huckleberries. Christine made homemade huckleberry jalapeño jam. Yum!

Next heading north to Yaak, MT, in the middle of nowhere.

Full set of photos are here.

On week 5 of the trip we started working our way back west.

Our first stop was Devils Tower National Monument, made famous by the movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. We downloaded and watched the movie in our campsite, where we could see Devils Tower in one direction, and the NEOWISE comet in the other direction. Devils Tower is really cool! Definitely check it out if you are in the area. The movie was not as good as I remembered it. We did have some fun sculpting mash potatoes tho.

We next went over the pass in Bighorn National Forest to check out the Native American Medicine Wheel, and spent one night at a wide spot in the road with an incredible view. (See photo below).

From there we worked our way to Custer Gallatin National Forest near Red Lodge, MT. We found a nice camping spot along Rock Creek, very near the trailhead for Basin Creek Lake. On the last morning there we woke up to find a moose in our campsite!

The highlight of this part of the trip was a drive up over Beartooth pass, and a hike out past Island Lake. Wow! Amazing scenery. This road is very popular with motorcyclists, and there were probably more motorcycles than cars.

I also recommend the Red Lodge Ales brew pub in Red Lodge. 😉

Then on to Bozeman for a dinner with my Aunt and Uncle. Bozeman seems to be booming, with lots of construction everywhere. Then on to Darby, MT.

Full set of photos are here.

The Black Hills area, home to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Deadwood, Sturgis, and more, was by far the most touristy stop on this trip. Its a really pretty area with lots to see in a relatively small area, so I can see why it is popular. Normally it would be packed with tour buses, so this was probably a good year to go. The hiking and biking is excellent, and I’m told the rock climbing is exceptional.

There are a huge number of RV parks in the Black Hills region, and most looked to be full. We saw license plates from everywhere, including all the COVID hot spots (Florida, Texas, Arizona, etc.) In general everywhere we went employees were wearing masks, and customers were not. But most everything is outdoors, none of the indoor places we went were crowded, and in general the small towns felt quite empty.

There are several cute, historical towns in the badlands, each of which is competing for tourists. The town of Deadwood is like Tombstone, AZ meets Reno, NV. Lots of historical buildings turned into casinos. They also do reenactments of gunfights, as this is the town where “Wild Bill” Hickok was killed. We only spent about 2 hours in Deadwood.

We also went to Sturgis, SD, home of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle rally. The town is pretty unremarkable, and really loud, with the sound of Harley and Indian bikes everywhere. There is a really great motorcycle museum, if you are into that sort of thing. I had no idea Sears sold that many types of small motorcycles. We went to the local brew pub, which was mostly empty (great beer, terrible pizza). We also got some take out Chinese food, which had to be the worst Chinese food I’ve had in 30+ years.

This August will be the 80th anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which typically attracts about 500,000 people. They currently plan to hold the event, despite the COVID risk. WTF?!?! This years event includes concerts by Night Ranger, Great White, and 38 Special. Aren’t all of those guys in the ‘high risk group’ for COVID? (The original concert lineup included ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Willie Nelson, and REO Speedwagon, all of whom were all smart enough to cancel). Check out this photo from a few years ago. I suspect this event will end up in the news in a few weeks as a super spreader, and the people of Sturgis will regret letting this go forward. Again, WTF? I’ll be interested to see this year’s attendance numbers.

Trump is VERY popular in this part of the world. Trump hats, shirts, bumper stickers, etc were for sale everywhere, and we saw a lot of Trump flags on houses and trucks. It seemed best to avoid talking politics with anyone.

Overall western South Dakota reminds me of what it was like living in Iowa in the early 1980s. Crappy food. Crappy beer. Friendly people. Being here feels like I’ve travelled back in time 40 years, which I guess in some ways was better then, but overall, not so much. I spent some time in Sioux Falls in the 1990s, and it felt way more modern in terms of food and beverages than this area seems today. But maybe I’m going to the wrong places.

For camping in this area, we did 2 nights at a very nice, new, RV park in Custer, then Christine found an AirBNB in Sturgis for 5 nights for some alone time. I found a nice dispersed camp site outside of Lead near Spearfish Canyon. While we were in Custer a Tornado hit Spearfish Canyon, taking out 1000’s of trees. Glad we missed that.