Notes From the Road Part two

[4X4Dodger]

Well after leaving Minot in our dust and glad to do so and a nice stay in Theodore Roosevelt National Park we headed on to Spearfish SD to get our new drivers licenses. Easy and quick with no hassle from the traveling "road show" department of licensing ladies who were efficient friendly and fast.

Spearfish is a very nice small city but possibly it's best feature is the Spearfish City Campground. A beautiful RV park right in town and alongside a river. Generous spaces, very clean showers and bathrooms and large shade trees everywhere. Dont bother with the Commercial RV parks while here. This was the second City park we have stayed in while on the road. We had also stayed in the General Sibley RV park in Bismarck, ND another fine park.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton were our destinations this time and both parks were nearly full to capacity even after the holiday. Yellowstones roads were very busy and most of the campgrounds full by early am.

Grand Teton is a sight to behold and even though this was not my first visit I am still stunned by the sheer magnificent beauty of the mountains and lakes.

One thing was clear very early in our visits tot the National Parks. The park service is not prepared for the influx of visitors from the Peoples Republic of China.(PRC) Groups of Chinese and individuals were outnumbering almost all other visitors. And it seems to me that the very few signs that were in Chinese were in the wrong script. Chinese has two kinds of characters, an old fashioned type that is only used now in Taiwan (our ally and thus I believe the reason the park service uses it) and the modern characters, those used in the PRC and Hong Kong. Now while the Chinese speak many different languages and dialects and may not be able to understand each other from different parts of the country, they all read the same characters. The vast majority of them read only the modern characters and not the Taiwanese. This leads to some funny and tragic mistakes on the part of our Chinese guests who may not understand the warnings and rules.

China has MORE middle class citizens with the money to travel overseas than there are total number of Americans. The Chinese LOVE to travel and do so in great numbers in their own country visiting the many natural and man made wonders there. Asia is nearly over-run with Chinese tourists and they are increasingly setting their sights on the USA as a favored destination. The Park Service is NOT ready for this.

Another interesting trend I noticed is the huge numbers of Europeans, Asians and others who are visiting the US and coming here, renting large RV's and setting out on the iconic American Road Trip.

How many of you I wonder would have the courage to fly off to a foreign land where you might not speak the language so well, drive on the other side of the road (in some cases)Rent a vehicle larger than ANYTHING available or legal to drive in your home country, and set off on the road? So many of you spend endless time here on this site obsessing over the minutia of RV'ing and all it's problems while our fellow global citizens are just packing up and doing it.

I really noted very few problems with these folks in either driving or dealing with all the intricacies of the camping experience in the US. And I can say that when talking to these folks they all expressed how much fun they were having.

This travel by citizens of other countries is good for the world, good for the US and good for our economy. We should make sure we are ready with multilingual signs where necessary, like in our parks, and a friendly and welcoming attitude.

We are now in Phoenix Az where I am visiting my High School Sweetheart (well more than that she was actually)and enjoying the warm weather. But to get here we passed through Capitol Reef National Park and Monument Valley and route 89a up and through Jerome AZ, one of the great drives in this country. That story next time.

[Old-Biscuit]

When we went to get our SD licenses we were in Deadwood,,,,,,missed the 'mobile' DMV so had to check their travel schedule. Ended up in Spearfish couple days later at the Fire Dept. where they were set up.
In/Out in about 15 mins for both of us with NEW DLs in hand. Fast, efficient, friendly and they travel around to 5 different towns.

DMVs in fixed locations (and many other customer service business) should benchmark their operations.

We traveled FT and met many folks from all over the world out RVng.
Fun to interact with them. They were so enthusiastic about 'camping'.
Reminded me of how I was when as a young man I was 'visiting' various Asia towns.
Treat folks with courtesy and respect .....get it back 10 fold

89A is a great scenic road......tough towing THRU Jerome especially that first turn coming into town from west side.

Enjoy!