Roving Cooks

May 1: Heber City, UT to West Yellowstone, MT. 363 miles, 5.5 hours. Wiggle break at a Pocatello, ID playground.

“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” – Fred Rogers

I love this quote from Mister Rogers. Like so many of his lessons, it’s simple and cyclical, in a sometimes you give, sometimes you get kind of way. It’s one that has come up a few times on this adventure. On some occasions, we’ve looked and found helpers: like Randall, the extra informative and advisory RV expert in Arkansas who gave me so many tips I couldn’t type fast enough and let Grayson hold tools; Krystal, the RV park manager in Carlsbad who gave Madelyn a small doggie toy just to be nice; the older man at the grocery store who took off his hat and told Grayson that if he didn’t “mind his mama” that he’d go bald. The last, while appreciated at the time, hilariously resulted in a few incidents of Grayson and Madelyn pointing out random bald men and sharing in semi-hushed tones that “that man didn’t listen to his mom”. Of course, there are countless others we’ve met in short encounters who have given a kind word or smile.

On other occasions, we get to BE the helpers. In Kanab, we came across a truck stuck in sand and pulled them out (well, our truck did the actual work…but I still felt like a superhero). In Utah, we gave a bandaid to a small boy who scraped his knee on the trail. And on May 1, as we pulled into the Buffalo Crossing RV Park of West Yellowstone after a smooth day of driving, I hit a step 40 feet from our site and blew out the RV tire, thus inspiring the campground staff to install a big orange cone for all those coming after us. You’re all welcome.

Note: other than my bruised ego and completely ruined tire, this was all fine and could have been much worse (like if it happened 30 miles sooner). We found that the spare fit well, had plenty of time in Yellowstone to get a new tire, Greg confirmed that he knew the location of the jack, socket wrenches, torque tools, etc.