The Dale's Trails

Falls Colors and Pumpkins

2010-10-07T22:24:00.000-04:00

Wow the colors in the leaves are starting to pop. It’s been noticeable through Kentucky and even more so as we enter West Virginia.

When we crossed into West Virginia this morning, we stopped at a visitor center and once again we stumbled into something fun. In Milton, WVA there is a huge pumpkin festival starting…today! This is a huge festival with lots of crafts, food, pumpkin this and pumpkin that, a lots of homemade apple butter and pumpkin butter being made right before our eyes in big copper kettles. Oh I am in heaven! It smells so good cooking. Another thing that was cooking was Sorghum cane (sore-gum). I haven’t heard of it either. We saw fields of this growing and didn’t know what it was. It looked like corn with a different kind of tassels on top. But we knew it wasn’t corn and now we know it’s Sorghum. So, they take this cane and put it through a press to squeeze the juice out of it. Then they take the juice and put it in a long rectangle vat. In this vat is a maze like structure that is required in the cooking process. They start the cooking process on low heat at one end of the vat. The heat is progressively increased as the juice makes it way through the maze. The juice is stirred slowly and pushed through the maze as it thickens. Any foam or residue is skimmed off the the top. When the cooking process of the cane juice is finished, taking about 2 1/2 hours, you have a type of molasses called Sorghum molasses. It’s so good and it’s used like any other molasses or honey. Yes another new thing learned. Speaking of learning. I was taught how to use a draw knife to plane down wood, angle the wood, and fit the pieces of wood together to make a bucket. Back in the early days if you made items like this you would be a Cooper. I have never heard that term. So much time and hard work goes into making something like this. It would take about a full day to make one bucket. Fun to learn how to use these old tools. It makes you appreciate the craftsmanship and the hard work that went into making anything back then. A blacksmith was also there. I turned down the chance to try my hand at this and opted to watch this craftsman. Wow they can make it look easy. Soap making was also there. How did our forefathers even figure out that lard, lye, and water, if cooked long enough, would make soap? Ok we are at the Pumpkin Festival and there were plenty of pumpkins including these giant ones. This Big Boy is over 900 pounds! The farmer was disappointed in the pumpkin sizes this year. Last year, the largest was just under 1200 lbs! I say – that will make one heck of a big pie for Thanksgiving.

Fun day and pretty day in Milton, West Virginia.

We Will Soon Have A Half Dozen

2010-10-06T23:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, we will have an even half dozen soon. We already have five. What will we have six of? Another grandbaby is on the way. Due in April. Kevin, Tommy’s 33 year old son who is a career marine and stationed in North Carolina, and his girlfriend Melinda will be parents in the Spring on 2011. Congratulations!!!!

All For The Hall Event

2010-10-05T23:47:00.001-04:00

The Grand Ole Opry was our first stop of the day. The Opry just reopened just reopened this past week after the clean up and renovations from the floods that devastated Nashville back in May. I will have to say that it is remarkable that in only five short months, Nashville has recovered from this. It goes to show that if you band together you can accomplish so much. Nashville did not wait for the government to come in an rescue them, they pulled together as a community and got it done. There is little left unfinished, at least to an outsiders eye. Well done Nashville!

The Ryman was next up. Did you know the Ryman Auditorium has the second best acoustics in the country? They are second to the Mormon Tabernacle. The Ryman was originally a church in the 1800’s. The preacher had a congregation of over 6000 and the only way to get his message out was to build a church with great acoustics since there was no method of amplification back then. The Ryman was also the first home of the Grand Ole Opry and, still today, performers love to play in that venue because of the acoustics. Nashville loves Minnie Pearl and this bronze statue sits center of the hallway coming in. We then walked over to the Country Music Hall of Fame. You need several hours to tour this and we really needed more time. This museum is interactive with audio snippets and video clips that brought you through the beginnings of country music to present day. The new display is a tribute to Tammy Wynette. I thought this was interesting. Tammy Wynette picked this cotton from her grandfathers field and kept it as a reminder of her roots.

Gold and platinum albums lined many walls. Hank Williams Jr Monday Night Football coat. Now these are some well worn boots! They are Hank Williams Jr son’s, Hank III, and he worn them for every stage performance until he couldn’t any longer. Keith Urban’s guitar, Carrie Underwood’s black dress and Taylor Swifts cream and gold gown. The actual Hall of Fame was built in a circular design so that when the Hall of Fame members plaques are displayed, all have equal importance. The plaques are also hung randomly to appear like musical notes on paper. Excellent idea.

Ok now for the cherry on top. This trip has been a delicious ice cream sundae, with all of our most favorite toppings, piled high with the sweetest whipped cream you can imagine, and tonight we did have a cherry on top experience. Yesterday we were talking to some people from New Jersey that we met and they told us about tonights event. We were so fortunate to be able to get tickets to the “All For The Hall” charity concert at the Bridgestone Arena to benefit the Country Music Hall of Fame. What a line up! Keith Urban, Vince Gill, Billy Covington, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Charlie Pride, Allen Jackson, Dolly Parton, John Mayer, and Allison Krause. Now that was an All Star Event! Oh yeah we had two cherries on this ice cream sundae. The first was just being able to get tickets. The second cherry was a really really sweet one. We were center stage, 6th row back from the stage. Could these $35 tickets get any better? I think not. And did they ever bring the house down! Phenomenal show. Absolutely phenomenal!

All For The Hall Event

2010-10-05T23:47:00.000-04:00

Nashville

2010-10-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

We set up camp here in Lebanon, TN just outside of Nashville on Sunday and spent the day watching football game after football game. First Tennessee/Denver, then Eagles/Redskins, and finally Giants/Bears. The only game that really mattered, I’m sure you all will agree, was Eagles/Redskins. OMG what a heart breaker. Did the Eagles have to loose to McNabb? They didn’t loose to the Redskins, they lost to McNabb. Heads are hanging low.

That was yesterday – today is another day and we are going to Music City. The ATT building is known around here as the Batman Building. It does look like Batman doesn’t it? Bicentennial Park is a lovely park. The history of Tennessee is etched all along the granite walls. Quite pretty. Next to the park is a huge Farmers Market. The mums and pumpkins were plentiful as well as all of the fruits and veggies you could ask for. Across the road and up on the hill is the Capital Building. In place of a dome is a structure that was built to look like a lantern. Do you know how much the city paid for the property the Capital sits on? Any guess? They bought it for one milk cow. The people who sold the property was poor and needed a milk cow. They thought the property was worthless being up on a hill with plenty of rock. So they were very happy with a milk cow. What a deal.

Nashville has a free bus system to get you around center city, so we jumped on the blue line and headed uptown to music row. In other cities we have taken a bus tour to get more details about the town and today we took the trolley tour. The tour took us all over town, up music row, over to the writing and recording area, and then to Parthenon. It was a good tour, gave us our baring for the city. When we were buying a tickets for the tour, Tommy saw a guy wearing a Phillies hat. Being the quiet shy guy that he is, he started a conversation. They told us that they had tickets to a Keith Urban, Allan Jackson, Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, and John Mayer concert for tomorrow night (10/5) at Bridgestone Arena. Wow what a line up! Since the concert hall was just a few blocks away and we had 1/2 hour before the tour, we scooted right up there. We did not expect tickets to be available. Well… Woot Woot! We have tickets! I usually don’t like floor seats but when they said the 6th row center, I said sold! A concert in Nashville!

After the tour we walked around music row and the music was spilling out and onto the streets. Honky Tonk after honky tonk the music filled the air. We had to go into Legends and Tootsies. Lots of history in those buildings and lots of people got their start on those stages. The band playing in Legends was sooo good. There were plenty of musicians playing on the street as well. Tommy had to get into the act…. I wonder if he has a chance of being discovered? He doesn’t sing or play the guitar but he looks really good! Fun day in Nashville. And guess what … we get to do some more of the same tomorrow!

Windshield Replaced and On The Road Again

2010-10-02T23:45:00.000-04:00

Yes the windshield was finally delivered and installed by 2 pm yesterday. We had to sit still for 2 1/2 hours after installation until the glue was set. Then on up the road. We drove until dark and pulled into another Camp Walmart. We will have a couple of log driving days until our next main destination.

We have taken so many pictures of farmlands and ranches. We have seen dairy farms, cattle ranches, corn fields, soy bean fields, and today it looked like it snowed. Field after field of snowy white cotton. Some fields were in the process of being picked and all along the roadside were balls of cotton. Of course I’m saying “pull over pull over. I need the raw cotton to show the grandkids.” And to take some pictures too. We have all seen hay bales but have you seen bales of cotton? Big bales, baby bales, and Big daddy bales. We were lucky to see the cotton picking machine. Before long we were passing through Kennett, MO, hometown of Sheryl Crow. I wonder if she ever picked any cotton, I know she can pick a guitar.

We had to pull off the side of the road and watch this crop duster. He was an acrobat, making tight turns, then diving toward the field, and pulling up just before the electric lines. It looked like he would land on top of the cars. Fun to watch.

We knew we would have a long drive day but we didn’t thinks we would go 447 miles! Doesn’t sound bad when driving in a car but an RV is a whole different animal. That’s pretty far but I’ll tell ya, if we hadn’t driven that far we might not have gotten this. What a sunset just outside of Nashville, TN.

A Few Days in Branson

2010-09-30T23:08:00.000-04:00

We left my brothers on Tuesday 9/28 and headed closer to Springfield, MO to get our cracked windshield replaced. “They”, the insurance company, said on Thursday that the windshield would be here on this Tuesday or Wednesday. That was bad info, we called on Wednesday 9/29 and was told that the earliest will be Friday. The campground we are in has room for us until Friday. We will either be getting our windshield fixed on Friday and then be moving up the road towards home or, if the windshield doesn’t come in, we will move back to Branson and barge in on my brother or find another campground in the area.

For today we went to see the original and largest Bass Pro Shops. The aquariums and waterscapes were phenomenal. Look at this pretty duck, he has a blue bill, and it’s home in a pond with a water wheel. These ducks had the prettiest faces. The store has waterfalls, fish, turtles, and even an alligator! Loved the lighting and wouldn’t you love to curl up on a comfy couch during a snow storm with a cup of hot chocolate in front of this fireplace. Beautiful. To go through this store actually took a couple of hours. Forget about looking at the merchandise, the displays of stuffed animals, the waterscapes, and the multiple aquariums kept you there. Tommy loved to look at the vintage guns. At a mere $82,000, I think everyone should have one or two. LOL

Yesterday, we washed to RV and Hooptie. They haven’t had a bath since Tok, Alaska in August. We have put a lot of miles on and seen a lot of places since then. You could almost hear Hooptie saying Ahhhh when we were washing her. The rest of the day we hung out at the RV park and had one of those restful – do nothing days,.

Today we went back into Branson and saw the Jim Stafford show. Do you remember the tongue in cheek song he made in the 1970’s “Spiders and snakes”? The main line goes something like this… “I don’t like spiders and snakes and that ain’t what it takes to love me, the way I want to be loved by you”. Yeah that guy. Dave was able to get us tickets, so off to a matinee. Cute show, lots of music and cheesy comedy. I will say he can really play that guitar and banjo! After the show, we went back to Daves for dinner and Wii games with the kids. We said our good byes not knowing if it would be for a day, months, or years before we would see each other again. I really have such a good guy for a brother. He is so easy going and would do anything for you and he married an equally nice woman. They compliment each other so nicely. Until we see each other again, remember…I love ya.

Inspiration Tower

2010-09-26T23:06:00.000-04:00

It was a slow start for everyone this Sunday morning. More jewelry was made and I am a pretty fashionable lady with my new necklace that Cameron made for me. And wasn’t Aly stunning after she put her make up on? After we all got a move on, it was over to Inspiration Tower where we all went up to see a great view of Branson. This lake is Table Rock Lake that we were out on the boat yesterday. The lake is big I could not get it all in this picture. I am not sure why I was so surprised to see that there was so many trees here, almost forests, but I was. Inspiration Tower is also home to a Zipline company and Tommy needed to take a ride.

We stopped to enjoy some of the scenery on the way to Todd’s cabin. After I saw this cabin I said I am home. This rustic cabin, on eleven wooded acres with a stream running in the backyard, is gorgeous. This cabin is for rent if you ever come to Branson and don’t want to stay in the usual places. Wouldn’t it be fun to stay in what feels to be so far out of the way but really so close from Branson?

We went down to the strip to see where most of the happenings are. Pretty cool sights. Dave said that if you were here for one month, saw four shows a day, you still would not have seen them all.

Back to Daves for a chili dinner, karaoke, and games on the Wii with the kids.

We have a reservation at a campground for tomorrow night closer to Springfield. We need to get our windshield replaced but we are going to cancel that reservation and stay here another day. We are enjoying our time here so much.

The Royal Treatment

2010-09-25T23:42:00.000-04:00

Dave and Jackie made us breakfast this morning and it was a breakfast fit for a King. Cheesey eggs, hash browns, sausage, cantaloupe, and toast. We never take the time to make breakfasts like that so it was extra delish. The kids sure did love the cheesey eggs. After breakfast the kids were anxious for us to string beads to make beautiful jewelry. Aly’s bracelet was so pretty, I wanted one just like hers. Time was passing by so quickly, we had to pack up the jewelry making because Dave had made arrangements with his work to use one of the resorts pontoon boats to take us out on Table Rock Lake for the afternoon. Do you think Aly likes the camera? Does this face say ornery or what?

Today was a really nice day outside with a break from the recent heat. Tommy and I love the water and even though we are on our trip of our lifetime, we did miss being out on our boats in the water this summer. So this was an extra special treat and surprise for us. What a gorgeous lake. This lake was created by the building of the Table Rock Dam and blocking the White River. When the dam was built it was anticipated that it would take 10 years for the lake to reach its engineered water level but it only took two. While we were riding, Dave would tell us the depths of the water. At times we were in 160 – 200 feet of water. Incredible. Dave and Jackie has a dear friend named Todd who lives on the lake. We drove over to pick him up and bring him out on the water with us for awhile. He showed us a rock ridge that had Tarzan ropes hanging from trees and Cameron was chomping at the bit to swing. Aly was a bit more timid at first but that quickly faded when she saw her brother swing and splash down into the water. Todd and Dave got into the action too. Oh how Jackie, Tommy, and I wished we had our swim suits on. It was fun watching the kids, big and little, swing like monkeys! The showboat, the Branson Belle, a gorgeous stern wheeler that travels the lake throughout the summer was an elegant touch on the water to this already wonderful day. We rode around the lake for a couple of hours and I can tell you that the breeze, the sun, and the rocking of the water well, ahhh it felt sooo good to be out on that boat. This is a sure sign that a good time was had by all. Dinner time was fast approaching. We dropped the boat off at the dock and walked up the hill to the resorts restaurant. We all stuffed ourselves with great food and was introduced to several of Dave's co-workers. I guess you have ascertained by now that my brother works for a resort here in Branson. This resort was first built to house the cast and crew of the old TV show the Beverly Hillbilly’s. This part of the hotel is the original section that housed the cast and crew. The resort has grown to include restaurants, condos, a marina, and time shares. After dinner it was off to a show and a beautiful sunset was in the making over Branson. I loved the line on the billboard to the right of center. “You have a great past ahead of you”, a reminder to live it up and make great memories. We are all going to the Dick Clark Theater to see the show Legends in Concert. We saw the Temptations, Marilyn Monroe, George Straight, The Blues Brothers, and Elvis. Fun show!

What a day!!! Dave and Jackie went all out to make our visit here wonderful. It was more than we could have ever asked for. Thanks sooo much!

Hello Family

2010-09-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

We made it to Branson late this afternoon and Wow! is it good to see my baby brother and his family. The kids, Aly and Cameron, are growing up so fast and they have just started kindergarten. We hung around, talked, got caught up on this and that, played with the kids, who colored us pictures, and boy oh boy did they have lots and lots to tell us.

We have never heard of Tijuana Willies and Dave described it as a “Mexican Subway”. You pick the items you want on a flour tortilla like chicken, lettuce, beans, olives, rice, cheese, peppers etc and you build you own burrito. Yum! Great place to bring kids for a relaxed family dinner. After dinner, Dave and Jackie brought us over to show us a house they are thinking of buying later this year. I hope the deal goes their way. Good school system here in Branson. I was surprised that here it is on a Friday evening in a tourist town and hardly any traffic. Apparently most of the traffic is on one main road, “the strip”, and the locals get to live in peace. Back for more visiting and then to bed, we have a big day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Bill

2010-09-24T10:33:00.001-04:00

A big Happy Birthday to one of our dearest friends in the world. Bill, we wish you all of the happiness life can offer!

Rolling On Through

2010-09-23T23:56:00.000-04:00

Alright, we left Indiana, blew through Illinois, and are in Missouri. Ahh I see it. Way in the distance. Closer. Closer yet. The arch in St. Louis. We hope to come back to see it up close and personal after we leave Branson.

Change of Plans

2010-09-22T22:39:00.000-04:00

Wow did we have storms last night! Thanks goodness the campground we were in had a large burm around the one side of the campground that the wind was coming from. I really thought a tornado was coming. The RV was just a rocking from the wind. I do like lightening storms. I like to watch the sky light up and follow the strike. But this was a bit too much. In the morning you would never have know how much rain came. The pond, that was directly in front of us, was so still & reflecting the sky. Pretty.

Tommy and I were talking and both felt like Forrest Gump when he was running and running. One day he just stopped and said he was going home. That is kind of how we felt. We have been gone for over six months and move quite frequently. We realized we are tired and either needed to stay put in one area for several days or head home. So the reasonable thing to do was drive another 600 miles to Branson, MO to see my brother! What’s another 600? We will be there for a bit and that will recharge our internal batteries. We were going to go there on our trip out, but in March the weather was still cold, so we dropped more south for warmth. It will be a couple of long driving days but they will be worth it to see my little brother Dave, his wife Jackie, and twins Aly and Cameron.

On our way southwest we saw more tractor trailers carrying wind mills parts. The amount of our support vehicles needed for transporting the gigantic things are unbelievable. There were at least six. There was a police vehicle, two trucks, one if front and back, carrying the wide load signs, one vehicle to raise the electric wires if needed, and two others to block traffic if the truck needed to turn. What an operation.

We have been watching the harvesting of the crops in these huge farms. Wonder what they do with all of this corn? They drop some of it in piles. We saw what looked like the biggest circus tent ever and as we got closer we saw it covered these huge piles of corn. Out here they make lots and lots of ethanol. I wonder if this corn will find its way into our gas tanks soon.

Welcome Fall

2010-09-21T23:19:00.000-04:00

It’s fall as of today but it doesn’t feel like fall at all. Yesterday and today we experienced the hottest temperatures since last summer, 93 degrees. And humidity! Oh it has been unbelievably wonderful not to have had the humidity all summer long. I can tell you I did not miss it, and yesterday in particular, reminded me of how fortunate we were to have escaped that hell for one year. When we were setting up in the campground today, I went straight to opening all of the windows. I was taken aback when I saw this little guy huddling into the corner of the window above my side of the bed. A bat! I tried to get him to fly away but realized he would when dusk came. To my delight, he did fly away.

Going through Iowa and Illinois we were still amazed by the size of the farmlands. I have written before about the acres and acres of farmlands but I need to change it to miles and miles. It is so big and wide open that I think instead of selling property by the acre they sell it by the mile! In Iowa and Illinois you expect fields of corn and soy bean, but here in Illinois the also grow these. Wind farms. As far and wide as your eye could see were these wind mills turning and turning. We saw the parts being trucked in on tractor trailers. I know these windmills are big but when you see the size of the sections close up, you cannot believe how big the really are. I think they are pretty. I guess because we are not used to seeing them. When the one fan blade points straight down and the other two are out to the side, they look like angels to me. I think the artist is Steven Lavaggi who designs angels that look like that. I wonder if this is where he got his inspiration for them. Tommy and I figure that outside the few pockets of population dotted throughout the center of the US, most of the people are jammed in on the coasts leaving the rest of the US open for farmlands, ranches, and good living.

Dubuque

2010-09-20T23:19:00.000-04:00

It’s Dubuque, Iowa for todays offering. Dubuque sits on the mighty Mississippi and, as many towns and cites along the water have done, has an active revitalization program in progress. In the Port of Dubuque the river walk offers a nice place to take a lunch time stroll with sculptures to add some interest along the way. The Star Brewery is now home to several businesses including Stone Cliff Winery where Tommy went for a wine tasting. Tommy is definitely a beer kind of guy, but every once in awhile he tries a wine. He found one here that he liked enough to bring home. The courthouse is on the National Register of Historic places. The 190 ft high central tower is a focal point in the city. During WWI several pewter statues were taken down and melted to aid in the war effort. Shot Tower, now a historical land mark, was the George W. Rogers Co that produced lead shot until 1861, then it was a lookout tower until 1911 when it caught fire and was completely gutted. The town clock was erected in 1873 and moved to the downtown mall in 1971. But the neatest place we saw in Dubuque was the Fenelon Place Elevator, also known as the 4th Street Elevator.

This is the worlds shortest, steepest scenic railway. It is 296 ft long and rises 186 ft from 4th Street to Fenelon Place. Oh the views of 3 states, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa from the top were fantastic. The railway was built in 1882 by a banker who lived up on the hill but worked down in the town. He had an hour and a half for lunch and it would take a half hour to get home and a half hour to get back to work by horse and buggy. The banker liked to have a half hour lunch and a half hour nap before returning to work. So, to solve his dilemma, he built this railway. The cars have burned down on a couple of occasions but were always rebuilt. The railway is not only a tourist attraction but is actually used by the towns people for everyday life.

We read about this apple orchard that offers 23 varieties of apples and apple anything is Tommy's favorite. So a quick trip there was in order. I saw they had Honey Crisp apples and you can’t find them everywhere so I was happy. Well I thought Tommy was going to have a heart attack when we gave the woman a $20 bill and she gave him back $3 for change. Ouch! $17 for a small bag that held maybe 8 apples and one of them was really little. They better be the best apples I have ever eaten!

Cheesey Days

2010-09-19T23:25:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed ourselves so much last night in Monroe, WI at their Cheesey Days celebration that we decided to stay here another day and go again. Unfortunately it is raining this morning. We hope it stops for the parade.

We tasted more excellent cheese today. I cannot tell you how good these specialty cheeses are. They are something special.

The rain, for the most part, held off for the parade today and this parade was one of the biggest parades I have ever seen. Cows, of course, are celebrated here as well as the Swiss heritage. We listened to Yodelers. How do they do that with their voices? So terrific and fun to hear.

We tasted a beer today called The Spotted Cow and found out the brewery was only 15 miles away in New Glarus. So off we went. We took the self guided tour around this beautiful brewery and had a tasting. Oh our diets over the last 2 days. Cheese and beer! Life is good!

The House on the Rock & Cheesey Days

2010-09-18T23:14:00.000-04:00

On to a new place in Wisconsin. We are going to Spring Green, WI to see The House on the Rock. This house, this very unusual house was the wild creation of Alex Jordon. He would go and picnic on this tower of a rock and gave the owner of the land $20 to lease the right to picnic on it. Later, he purchased the land and started to build and build and build and collect. I mean collect. He collected everything and lots and lots of the things he collected. He didn’t just have a gun collection for example, he had a collection a museum would want. He had the largest carousel in the world. In fact he took all of the horses off and had unusual animals put on. There are 269 hand crafted animals and 20,000 lights on this carousel. All of the horses were put up on several walls. The carousel is now valued at $4.8 million! In one “section” of the house there was a whole 1800’s village complete with a doctors office, a barber shop, and a photographer. And the music boxes! Not just boxes but automated music machines - orchestras and pipe organs. Hundreds of them. There was a sea section, doll section, circus section, airplane section, train section, puppet section, oriental section, British Royalty section, ivory carving section, suits of armor section…get the picture. There was so much that after 4 hours we were walking fast just to get through it all. We were overwhelmed. But the one thing that stands out is the magnificent Infinity Room that extends 218 feet into space and is 156 feet above ground and the views! Wow! He incorporated the rock into his building. So at times you would have walls and then jutting in from the walls were boulders. He also had many waterfalls inside and gardens outside. This house is a work of art and truly amazing to see. And the weirdest thing is, other than a few covered walkways, you cannot even see the house. The way it is designed and built, you would never know it’s there. How can that be?

We left the House on the Rock and were going to a town called Monroe (camp Walmart is there). Since it was only 6 pm we unhooked Hooptie to go check out the town. We saw a sign saying “Welcome to Cheesey Days”. Of course we needed to find out what “Cheesey Days” were. Wow! We are so lucky! This is a really big deal here and it occurs every other year to celebrate the Swiss and cheese making heritage. The town closes off several city blocks to traffic and it is an all out party! Bands are playing, crafters are selling their creations, foodies are buying all types of food from Brats, to what else would they have at Cheesey Days, but grilled cheese sandwiches. You know you have to have desserts. I had the best Italian water ice ever. It was not icey or slushy, it was creamy, almost like ice cream. Mango. Yum! Now we are at Cheesey Days in Wisconsin so of course they had cheese and lots of it to taste and buy. Award winning cheeses too! The Havarti from Edelweiss Creamery won the World Championship. They are also the only maker of traditional Swiss swiss cheese. There were several cheese makers here and the Baby Swiss, the Cheddars – some aged 12 years, and the Butterkase were to die for. Here is a new one for me, frying cheese. Yes frying cheese. This cheese is designed to be served warm and it doesn’t melt all over the place but it kept disappearing in my mouth! I had to keep trying it. Sooo good!

A Cheese Factory

2010-09-17T21:50:00.000-04:00

We thought that since we were in Wisconsin, we had to take a cheese factory tour and taste fresh cheese. I found a cheese factory in the tourism booklet that was kind of in the direction we were going. We drove and drove along winding roads through some of the prettiest farmlands.

It is very different here in Wisconsin than it is in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. In Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota there are ranches with lots of horses, cowboy hats, and boots. Here there are green farmlands which are very different and not so many boots and hats. Just a completely different feel, even though the states are so close to each other. Roads here are lettered or numbered. We drove on county road G, then F, then D, and DD. We made so many left turns we thought we were going in circles. So many beautiful farms on rolling hills. They grow corn in sections and in between the corn there are sections of bright green, I think it is winter wheat but I am not sure. I just know it is so pretty. Anyway back to the cheese factory. We finally find this farm and factory and they are NOT making cheese today. What? You are a cheese factory and you are not making cheese? Grrrr! Oh well, maybe the next town.

We found this county park with camping and it has electric. Beautiful place with a lake. This will be home for at least tonight. We will see what we are in the mood for tomorrow.

The Corn Palace and the Mall of America

2010-09-16T17:45:00.000-04:00

A few rainy days left us with little sightseeing and lots of driving. We did not leave the campground in the Badlands on 9/14 until almost 2 pm. We sat and talked with a couple who has been fulltime RVing it for the last 7 years. They were giving us tips and tricks and were very interesting to listen to.

Sept 15 was a long day of driving out of South Dakota and into Minnesota. We did stop in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace…. Yes it’s corny but really pretty at the same time. This building, the “Palace”, is covered with different colors of corn and wheat to create murals both inside and out. It takes thousands of ears of corn to do these “works of art”. I watched a group of workers staple the cut in half dried corn to the building creating a mural of an eagle. You can see in the upper left corner where the mural is not completed. Every year they take down all of the old corn, design new murals, and replace the corn with new. Below you will see the sketch of the next mural to be completed. This was really something to see and from a distance you would never know it was corn and not a painting. Strange and interesting things you see alone the way. The pictures below are just a few of the murals inside the auditorium.

We saw fields and fields of sunflowers that were beginning to dry now. I bet a week or so ago those fields looked like sunshine, bright yellow and happy. There were also miles and miles of corn fields. I expected this in Iowa but it’s here in Minnesota too. Hey we passed through another town with a name I am familiar with.

We had some of the heaviest rain storms I have seen since last summer. In these wide open spaces there isn’t anything to cut the wind and did it ever blow. We made it to Bloomington, MN and thanks again to a Walmart, we called it home for the night.

Today, Sept 16 we went to the Mall of America, the largest mall in North America. Living in the Delaware/Maryland area means we are close to Philly, Baltimore, and New York and I have been to some large malls in my day. But I have never seen anything like this place. I knew it was big, but Whoa! Four stories high, an amusement park in the the center, 520 stores, and 50 restaurants! The amusement park has a log flume ride, roller coasters, a skateboard that swings you back and forth 180 degrees, a Ferris wheel, and kiddie rides. Pretty crazy! On shop employee told us that people fly in from other countries, shop, and fly out. The airport is right across the highway from the mall. Oh the convenience! She said about 40% of their business comes from foreign travelers. That’s amazing to me as well. Fly in, shop, fly home. Oh the lifestyles some people have.

Another oil change was done in Walmart’s parking lot today. Tommy really keeps this RV in shape. This is the 5th oil change he has done since we have been on the road. He does them every 3000 miles… do the math. Tomorrow will mark the sixth month we have been gone. We have traveled 15,000 miles since we left on March 17! Will we do another before we get home? I hope so!

Wall Drug and Badlands

2010-09-13T23:08:00.000-04:00

Yes, it’s another gorgeous day here in South Dakota. Oh these grasslands. The miles and miles, and miles of grasslands. Some are golden, some are still green from the extra rain here this year. These grasslands will lead us to Wall drug. Wall drug is now a well known stop but not always. The abbreviated story goes something like this…Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought a drug store on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands in a town named Wall. They felt that the town was a good town, with a population of 326, and it had a Catholic church, which was very important to them. But it was in the middle of “nowhere”. They decided they would give the business 5 years to see if it would make it and that dead line was fast approaching. The business was just barely holding on. One day Dorothy put their children down for a nap and wanted to take one too but the sounds of cars passing by on the nearby route 16A kept her awake. She had an idea. She knew the travelers visiting the new monument, Mt Rushmore, were hot and tired on their journey and would love to have a drink of water. Cold water. Ice cold water! She thought they should put up signs modeling them after the Burma Shave Hwy signs announcing free ice water at their store. The signs were made and they began to post them. Even before all of the signs were in, customers started coming for free ice water and they have been coming ever since. And they still give away free ice water. Now, on a good summer day, 20,000 people visit Wall drug. The store has grown to include a restaurant, a donut shop, a candy store, and toys for kids. This just mentions a few of the numerous sections. Pretty neat place to see with a really great history.

After wall drug it was only a blink of an eye and we were in the Badlands. Now I know why they call them the Badlands. I felt again like I was on another planet. I felt that way in Yellowstone watching the boiling, steaming pools of water and the spewing geysers. Here the grasslands stop abruptly and these unusual rock formations begin. It almost looked like some of the grasslands ground dropped away, leaving these odd formations behind. The grasslands clung to some of the plateaus and other areas were barren and dry. We stayed in a campground in the park and had a wonderful sunset. There was a program in the amphitheater on astronomy. The ranger showed us many stars and told us stories behind their names. We were then able to look through telescopes and saw Jupiter and four of its moons. A sight to behold! Pretty night here in the badlands!

Rapid City

2010-09-12T23:51:00.000-04:00

Rapid City must be a very special place because Presidents come here and they come here as ordinary citizens. In fact we saw many of our former Presidents just standing on the street corners, waving to passer bys, getting a newspaper, stopping to collect their thoughts and jotting them down. Yes Presidents come here by way of bronze statues and they are beautifully done. It was fun driving around Rapid City trying to find them.

Another thing we found was the Stavkirk Church, The Chapel in the Hills. This church is a replica of an 850 year old church in Borgund, Norway. It has such intricate wood carvings, ornate dragon heads, and shingle work. Seeing this all wood chapel that sits atop a hill over looking a valley surrounded by tall pines and flowers was a lovely way to end our evening sightseeing.

Quilts in the Wind

2010-09-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

This was an unexpected stop. Driving toward Rapid City, SD we saw all of these quilts hanging up on clothes lines on the side of a Christmas store called the Mistletoe Ranch. Pull over! Pull over! I said to Tommy. It’s not quite that easy to just pull over a 36 foot motor home towing Hooptie, but he did a fine job. We walked back up the hill to see these colorful quilts blowing in the wind. Well it was the prettiest sight. Although all of these quilts were beautiful, some were absolutely amazing. So many little pieces of material pieced together to create the designs. Then all of the quilting had to be done. A true labor of love. And speaking of love, over 200 other quilts were also made (not shown) and they are being sent to the relief effort for Haiti.

Wind Cave

2010-09-11T23:20:00.000-04:00

To start our day we drove through Custer State park. The plains and rolling hills are lovely. Buffalo and Pronghorn Antelope roam free in the golden grasses. We thought it would be fun to go to Wind Cave, the 4th longest cave in the world with 132 miles of passage way. Caves are very different from one cave to the next. This cave has Box work, Frost work, and Popcorn crystals. I have been in a few caves before, Crystal Cave and Luray Caverns, and each cave is very different. This cave did not have the stalagmites and stalactites that you learned about in school. This cave has delicate Box Work and was named this because it reminded the early explorers of the post office mail boxes. This is one of the most elaborate caves in the world and this is the only natural outside opening to this cave. A cowboy had could barely fit in the hole.

After dinner we drove up the Crazy Horse Monument. This monument is a work in progress and, at the rate that the work is being done, it will not be completed in my lifetime. I am sure it will be magnificent when it is completed.

Mt Rushmore

2010-09-10T23:58:00.000-04:00

We pulled out of Sturgis going in the direction of Mt Rushmore. Yes these back roads are pretty drives. We needed to get gas and saw this unique gas station called Boondocks. It had a huge selection of mint condition Studebakers both outside and inside a showroom for you to look at. They also had a very large selection of Hollywood memorabilia, an old time gas station, and a soda shop. There was even rides for the kids. I think it’s funny to say this gas station was really a blast!

Just a short while later we rounded another corner and you know what we say… every hill we go over and every corner we turn, something more beautiful comes our way. This corner brought us a glimpse of Mt Rushmore! Totally unexpected. I thought we would have to go into the park to be able to see it. What a special treat. After we got the RV set up we drove back to Mt Rushmore at dusk. Another treat was there for us. A mountain goat on the side of the road. Hooptie said these creators are really pretty. He posed for me for quite sometime. I could have stayed to watch him but we needed to get in the park to see the rangers program and the lighting ceremony.

The Presidents sit high up on the mountain as you walk through pillars that hold each of our State Flags. At dusk, in the amphitheatre, the Ranger talked about the importance of our heritage and recited a couple of wonderful poems. A short movie played that spoke about each of the four Presidents and their accomplishments. The movie also talked about how the monument was constructed over 14 years. After the movie the Ranger called up to the stage all that served in the military. Tommy went up after some encouraging from me. Vets from Vietnam were asked to assist in the lowering and folding of the Flag. The lights came up gradually and softly illuminated the monument with a golden glow against the black nighttime sky. The program was so well done and the Ranger was very well spoken. The National Anthem played and the audience sang. Beautiful!

Deadwood

2010-09-09T22:49:00.000-04:00

A fifteen mile drive from Sturgis, where we have our RV, and we were in Deadwood. We found the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok was laid to rest after being shot in the back of the head at a card game. Calamity Jane’s dying wish was to be buried next to Wild Bill even though they were not married or ever in a relationship. Her wish was granted since he died first and had no say. The cemetery’s overlook gave a great view of the town.

Kevin Costner made the movie “Dancing With Wolves” in Deadwood and he now owns a hotel/casino and a tour bus company here. Tommy and I took his tour, a one hour bus ride around town, which gave an overview of the towns history. After the tour we strolled through some of the old hotels, including the one owned by Kevin Costner. Tommy couldn’t resist trying the slots for a bit. Wow he hit it big! 160! That’s right, he won $1 and 60 cents on the nickel machine on his $1 investment. We are living large! At 3pm we went to the Saloon #10, where Wild Bill was shot, for a reenactment of the event. Prior to the show, Wild Bill gathered some members of the audience to help with the show, four in total. A riverboat captain, a saloon owner, a barkeep, and Charlie Rich, Wild Bills friend. Oh Yes, Tommy was Charlie Rich. The volunteer actors played cards while Wild Bill answered the audiences questions. This guy was so good. He took the questions that were asked and turned it into a one man play. He kept our attention as he spoke to the crowd as Wild Bill for an hour, giving very detailed answers to the questions. Wow he was so good, I wished the show lasted another hour. When that portion of the show was over, the reenactment of the slaying took place. Wild Bill came into Saloon #10 for a drink and a card game. The only chair in the game that was open was the chair that would put his back to the door. Not liking this chair he tried to get the others to change chairs. Since it was bad luck to switch seats in the middle of the game, no one would change and Wild Bill was forced to take the seat leaving his back to the door. A drunken man, Jack McCall, came into the Saloon and for an unknown reason he pulled his gun and shot Wild Bill in the back of the head. Wild Bill, former scout and friend of General Custer, former US Marshall and sheriff, was dead at age 39.

After the show Wild Bill took time to have pictures taken with the audience. What a great show. We really enjoyed ourselves. We tooled around town for a bit longer until a storm came up bringing us back to the RV. The storm brought us a really pretty sky.

Devils Tower

2010-09-08T22:33:00.001-04:00

Today we are on our way to Devils Tower which is the nations first National Monument. Legend has it that little girls were being chased by a bear and they ran to a low rock and prayed for help. Their prayers were answered when the rock raised up and lifted them upward to safety. The bear clawed at the rock leaving the scratch marks, forming columns, deep in the rock wall. The rock grew so high that the girls were transformed into the constellation known as Pleiades. Here in the visitor center is a painting depicting the Indian legend.

There were rock climbers high up on Devils Tower making their way back down. Look in the center of the picture for the climbers to give you an idea of the size of the monument.

On the way out of the park I had to stop and take a couple of pictures of the prairie dogs.

The town of Hulett looked a real old time Western town and I had to snap a few shots. The red rock just added a little more to the beautiful scenery. We had to stop at Aladdin Tipple. What’s a tipple you ask? Oh I thought you would never ask. Let me tell you. A tipple is used for sorting coal into various sizes for transport by railcar. The coal would be loaded into the top, with gravity and the help of a coalminer with a long pole, the coal would fall through the shoot. In the shoot is a grate that would allow the coal to be sorted into nut, egg, and lump sizes. This is the last remaining coal tipple in the West and the state recently helped shore up the foundation with concrete since the wood was rotting away. When this tipple falls, it will be the end of an era.

From there we had to endure more gorgeous scenery through Wyoming and into South Dakota where we got a campsite in Sturgis. We will be here for a couple of days. As soon as we set up, we had guests.

So Long Cody

2010-09-07T23:04:00.000-04:00

I have enjoyed my time immensely here in Cody and I do believe Cody will hold a piece of my heart for a long time to come. Thank you Cody and Meeteeste for your hospitality.

Today will be a long drive day but I think it will be a scenic drive never to forget. We decided to take Route 16 through the Big Horn National Forest.

Wow, Whew, OMG, Oh My, Ahh, Whoa were just some of the words we muttered in between picking our jaw up off the floor. The colors of red, orange, gold, and purple in the rolling hills, the canyons, the mountains of rock were all amazing. And the sky. I still cannot believe the color. Sometimes it is so blue it doesn’t look real when I am looking at it. The town of Tensleep was breathtaking as was the Big Horn National Forest. We climbed to nearly 10,000 feet and at the top of the mountain, what a surprise, a huge lake. I would loved to take a dip, but at this elevation the temp was only in the 40s. It still is amazing to me, after all that we have seen, that the terrain can change so drastically in just a short distance and that there is all of this open space. Just less than one hour after being in the Big Horn National Forest and having canyons and mountains, we are now out in the open in the high plains. Once again we can see forever. Where we live, the Maryland/Delaware area, at times it feels like people are stacked on top of each other, so this openness is absolutely wonderful to me.

Yee Haw – A Rodeo Is Coming To Town

2010-09-06T22:30:00.000-04:00

We are going to a neighboring town of Cody called Meeteetse, population 351, to see a parade and Rodeo. Oh this is a cute little town with wooden sidewalks and a homey feel. Fun parade with horses, antique tractors and cars, , unicycles, the turtle patrol, and candy being thrown to the kids. Some of the kids had bags to collect all of the candy. That was almost as good as Halloween for them. After the parade we headed down to the local park for a Western BBQ where the Cow Bells (a ladies auxiliary) really put on a spread. Let me tell you, I had the best baked beans ever! Excellent beef BBQ too! At 1:00 the Rodeo started. I was looking forward to a real rodeo, and here in Meeteetse at their 98th Annual Labor Day Rodeo, I knew we were in for a treat.

Before I go on about the Rodeo I have to tell you about a couple we met in the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum a few days ago and we kept running into them. Suzy and Lawrie are here for vacation from Australia. Sometimes you meet people and immediately feel their warmth and positive energy. I call them “feel good people”. They make you feel good just to be around them. This is Suzy and Lawrie. Having spent time with them made our stay in Cody and Meeteetse just that much sweeter and I already love this area. We sat with Suzy and Lawrie on the front row of the bleachers and had a great view of the arena and the kids. I had as much fun watching the kids play as I did watching the rodeo. This little guy looked so grown up with his hat, boots, spurs, belt, and watch. He even had his John Wayne walk down. I think he might have been four. The children were allowed some freedom to roam around, the parents were not far away but not under foot. The boys twirled their lassos, they lassoed a cooler and each other, they danced, they climbed fences, and helped each other out. We watched children play in the sweetest, purest way today. No crying, fussing, or fighting. Just good fun and wow did they have a good time. This made my heart melt. When it was time to say a prayer and sing the National Anthem before the rodeo began, those kids stopped, stood, the boys took their cowboy hats off and placed them over their hearts. They were not told to do this, they knew to do this. These kids were 4 to 8 years old! A beautiful thing to see.

Now for the Rodeo. There was roping, bronco riding, bare back riding, barrel racing, wild horse racing, and bull riding. This bull did not want to be there and he was getting out. There were all ages from juniors to seniors. This youngster was really little, about 4 or 5 years old, on a big horse. Mom needed to come out and give a little helping hand, but Hey, whatever it takes to get the job done and build the kids confidence and skills. The wild horse racing – Holy Smokes – I have never seen anything like this before. They let several wild horses go in the arena. The team needed to catch the horse, saddle it up, and ride the horse all in under four minutes. Well that sounded easy enough. OH NOOOOO! These were wild horses and they wanted no part of it. They bucked, kicked, and ran. Several cowboys got hurt on this event, more than on the bull riding event. Really something to see.

What a fantastic day here in Wyoming. Being outside in the cool dry air, warm sun, crystal clear skies, with good people watching one of the West’s most valued traditions. Yes, it was a great day.

A Lazy Day with Buffalo Bill

2010-09-05T22:08:00.001-04:00

A low key day was in store for us today. We had a lazy start this morning and when we got moving we went to a coffee shop to get caught up on Email and of course update blog posts. After that we headed to the Buffalo Bill Cody museum for day 2 of this huge and wonderful museum. Today was the gun exhibit. It took up half of the museum. Two floors! There were riffles, pistols, machine guns, big guns, small guns, tini tiny guns, & guns that didn’t look like guns. You name it, they had it. Some of the guns dated back to the 1400s! Some were so ornate they looked like they were a work of art, and I guess they really are. There were many mounts in the exhibit as well and guns were used to get them. LOL Even though Tommy is not a big gun kind of guy, he does love looking at them, seeing how they have evolved through the years and the different type of guns there are. We met an Australian couple, Suzy and Lawrie, she was on the hunt for Clint Eastwood’s “make my day” gun. Funny how an American movie is known all over the world and how some lines stay etched in our minds.

We were going to have a fish fry tonight, with the Halibut we caught in Alaska, and a campfire but when we came out of the museum this evening the wind was blowing and it was 25 degrees colder than when we went in. Plan change – we will have fish tomorrow night after the rodeo.

Shows, Shows, and More Shows

2010-09-04T23:47:00.000-04:00

I do love this town Cody. Tommy and I went uptown, walked through the shops. The custom saddle shops with hand tooled leather saddles, belts, and boots were my favorites stores. The buckles with heavily etched sliver, yes sterling sliver, were to die for. The $7000 pair of boots weren’t shabby either! Hey Cowgirls need to look good!

The Buffalo Bill Historical Museum was next. The museum gives you a 2 day admission because it takes at least 4 days to go through. It’s huge and very well done. The museum is not all about Buffalo Bill. One portion was on nature and animals and then on to the section of Buffalo Bill. I am not sure what other sections are there since we only made it through those two. Buffalo Bill was something else. Just with the gifts he received from nobility he needed a warehouse the size of the museum to keep his things. A very interesting character and, at the time, the most famous person in the world. The above pic is of the cast of the Wild Bill Show.

After the museum we padded down to the Irma Hotel for dinner and to see a gunfight on the street. These volunteer actors gather 6 nights a week to perform a cute little skit with guns a blazing. The crowd were booing the bad guys and cheering for the good. The money they collect all goes to charity. What a nice thing to do. I told you I love this town. I have to show you this gorgeous original cherry bar that is in the Irma Hotel. Beautiful!

After dinner and the gunfight we ran across the street for Dan Miller’s Cowboy Music Revue. What a nice show. Dan Miller was funny, Wendy, his back up singer and bass player, well, she should have a record deal with a voice like that. His guitar and mandolin player Tim –whoa- he was good. Dan brought his daughter up to play the fiddle for a few songs. Oh yeah she has a career ahead of her and she’s only just starting the 7th grade.

What a great day here in Cody.

Heading to Cody

2010-09-03T23:50:00.000-04:00

Left Billings, MT and are back tracking to Cody,WY. When we left Yellowstone to go to Billings to have our generator fixed, we were bummed we didn’t go to Cody. So, we said what the heck, we have no solid plans, let’s turn around. Our kids don’t think we are ever coming home anyway, so let's go back West. The drive was so cool. We were fantasying about the old Wild Wild West days where the cowboys were roaming the West in search of the bad guys. The bad guys would try, that’s right try, to take the good guys out. We saw the hills and rocks they would hide behind to take cover, waiting for the right time to attack. We saw where they would make camp for the night in the low areas next to a lonely tree near a stream. In the distance, dust flying in the air, Indians! Indians were on the way. Luckily, they were friendly warriors. The Cowboys and the Indians smoked a peace pipe and together they would go forth in search of the bad men who would try to hurt this land of ours. They knew it would be a long hard ride to the East, to Washington, DC. But they knew the just would concur over the unjust. For this is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, governed for the People by the People, and Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness would forever reign!

Oh Yeah – Cody. We quickly got set up at the Buffalo Bill State Park directly on the Buffalo Bill Reservoir where we are surrounded by mountains. Oh this place is gorgeous – mountains, water, a town near by, dry air, and open spaces. This is one of only a few places on this trip that I thought I could live. I felt that immediately up arrival to the area. A few houses nestled in at the base of a mountain overlooking the water. I could see my house there. A campfire was in order when the sun was setting. This was a beautiful night. The stars, oh the stars and the Milky Way! It is so dark here. Not like dark at home where there are street lights burning and lights shinning through windows of homes. No, dark, real dark. Where the only light is from the moon. The stars shined and twinkled, down to the horizon, filling the sky with light. Truly filling the sky. I never saw as many stars as I did on this clear, cool September night in Wyoming.

Little Big Horn – Custer’s Last Stand

2010-09-02T22:10:00.000-04:00

I thought yesterday would be my last stand, I was so sick. But I am rallying back and going to the Little Big Horn Battlefield where Custer had his last stand.

We walked the National Cemetery and looked at the dates on the tombstones. Many buried here were from WW II and some were recipients of the Medal of Honor. Rangers gave talks about the Battle of Little Big Horn and we saw the marker where Custer fell to his death. Custer is actually buried back East at West Point. The large marker is the mass grave of his soldiers but the small markers are where they actually fell during the battle. Nice day and the sky was so pretty.

We decided to go back to Billings, MT and head to Cody in the am. We stayed at Cabela’s parking lot and only out here in the West will you see this. A corral to put your horses in while you shop!

What Hit Me

2010-09-01T22:03:00.000-04:00

I don’t know what hit me but a tractor trailer would have been better. Wake up with a headache so bad that you pray you’d just die and get it over with. Then the double “P”s. I’m down and out for the day.

Good Bye Yellowstone

2010-08-31T22:10:00.000-04:00

Yellowstone you are a mystical, magical, wonder. I have so enjoyed your golden and green meadows, stately mountains, clear and raging rivers, crooked trees, mineral terraces, and wildlife. Most of all I loved your bubbling, steaming, spouting, colorful pools of mysterious waters. You were everything I could have hoped for and much more. So much more. It took me a long time to get to see you and you were worth the wait. I only wish everyone could experience your wondrous beauty.

Upon waking this morning we noticed we had a small amount of snow. Look at these tiny, perfectly formed, snowflakes. These were not frost crystals but were snow flakes and they looked like flowers to me. What a pretty way to leave such a magnificent place. But before we could leave Tommy had to take a bucket of hot water to the roof of our RV. He had to pour hot water on the slide outs awning since it had a half inch of ice on it from yesterdays rain and would not retract.

We are on our way to Billing, Montana, a 5 hours –200 mile trip back north to have our generators fuel leak repaired. A little change in our loose travel plans.

I have to give a big thank you to Rocky Mountain Cummins in Billings, MT who got us in as soon as we arrived. Our fuel leak was repaired in less than a half an hour and we were on our way. Plus we were NOT “taken to the cleaners” on the bill. $35 for the part and $50 for labor. We are smiling.

Yellowstone Day 5

2010-08-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone were breathtaking with the green water flowing to the falls. This was the appetizer to the view of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. There was seating here so you could sit back and relax and take it in.

Whoa! the view from the overlook at Inspiration Point was Whoa! See the reds and yellows in the canyons walls and see the falls in the distance jut to the left of center in the above picture. I never tire of seeing waterfalls and those upper falls were lovely.

Mule Deer, still with velvet on their antlers, are trying to fatten up for the winter. A different view of the falls from Artist Point.

In Hayden Valley the soil permits little tree growth but abundant grass and shrub growth is used by the animals for grazing.

Sulfur Caldron looked like a vat of witches brew.

Dragons Mouth Spring – the name is perfect for this feature. It growled, hissed, puffed smoke, and spewed water out of it’s mouth causing waves of caustic water to roll over rock.

West Thumb Geyser basin – Yup you guessed it, it has more hot springs and geysers. The Abyss and Black Pool hot springs were phenomenal.

We may have to leave Yellowstone a day or two earlier than expected. We found a fuel leak in the generator and need to get that fixed. After that it’s on to Grand Teton National Park.

Yellowstone Day 4

2010-08-28T19:06:00.000-04:00

The weatherman got it right today. We woke to sunny skies but black clouds quickly rolled in and rain poured down off and on, more one than off. So off we went with rain coats in tow.

White Done Geyser had just erupted when we pulled up and was still letting off steam.

With the cooler temps and rain Firehole Lake lived up to it’s name. We couldn’t see the lake for the steam.

We haven’t had phone or internet service for several days and we heard it was available at the Snow Lodge in the Old Faithful section of Yellowstone. Since it was pouring rain we thought today was a good day to make phone calls to family and friends, catch up on email, and upload the last several days of blog post.

After we finished there we went to see the new $27 million Old Faithful Visitor Education Center that just opened 8/25/10. Beautiful building. Exhibits that explained about the geysers and hot springs. We watched a movie on Yellowstone in which the cinematographers should get an award for – stunning! We wanted to see Old Faithful erupt again since the rain stopped. We weren’t paying attention to the time, Tommy told me to look out the window and we caught the eruption though the visitor centers huge windows.

Not a busy day but the rain finally ended making it a great day!

Yellowstone Day 3

2010-08-27T22:50:00.000-04:00

We decided to change campgrounds today to a midway point in Yellowstone. This will bring us about 25 miles deeper into the park and it will make seeing the rest of the park easier. We scoped out the new campground last night and the site that we wanted would be vacated today. We stopped and talked with the people that were in the site to see when they would be leaving. So I got up this morning and took Hooptie up to secure the spot while Tommy took the RV into the closest town, Gardner, to get water and dump our tanks. What a plan! and best of all, it worked. Now we are at the Norris Campground, we found we like it even better than Mammoth. This campground is wooded and more private. We plan to make it a shorter day of sightseeing so we can go back to camp and look for the Elk and Grizzly bear that has been coming around the camp area in the evening. Last night when we were checking out the new campground, we saw these two Elk resting in a nearby meadow. This one guy is huge and has a perfect rack (antlers). They are almost a mirror image. These boys were gorgeous. People started to gather to take pictures, and by then the Elk wanted to leave the area. They had to cross the road to get to another meadow. We watched as the Elk approached the people and most of the people did not even move. They are crazy. If that Elk got spooked and felt like he needed to defend himself, well… those antlers are sharp. Anyway, what a beautiful treat and hopefully they will be back and bring their friend the Grizzly.

The Artists Paint Pots were interesting pools of thermal water. Each one was colored differently due the minerals that were present in the pool. Mud pots were also there making plopping and burping noises to get your attention. This one was as white as snow.

Beryl Spring is the color of the most desired aquamarine gem stone. I could have stayed there for hours watching it boil and seeing all of the steam come from the vent. The heat and smell of sulfur wasn’t too bad today with the help of the strong breeze.

Terrace spring brought us a few more thermal pools. It is so strange to walk up to a pond of water and see it in a full raging boil.

Firehole Canyon ….gorgeous! This drive had it all, water falls, a gigantic canyon, a swimming hole, and of course, the beauty. Tommy found himself on top of the world here in the canyon, even if it were only for a few minutes. We will be sure to bring our bathing suits tomorrow cause I’m going in if the weather holds up. We just heard that we might have rain, hail, and possibly snow over the next few days. Yes I did write snow. It was 90 degrees yesterday, but with low humidity, it felt great and it was in low 80’s today. They, the rangers, said the weather can change quickly here.

Nothing says Yellowstone like Old Faithful. She is the heart of Yellowstone. She did not disappoint. As predicted she steamed and smoked to keep the crowds attention until she spouted water high into the sky for several minutes. She truly is the original fountain display. What a show she did put on and will do encores every 90 minutes.

Dinner at the lodge was enjoyable and it allowed us the time to hike a trail to see the Opalescent pool. These pools are everywhere and some look really deep. After another short trail, then hike up the side of a mountain, to get a good vantage point, we were able to see one of the prettiest natural formations I have ever seen - the Grand Prismatic Spring. The colors of this fantastic spring were changing right in front of our eyes. More blues then it morphed into greens with yellows on the edges and red fingers. Now this really was an awesome sight. I think I will have to go back to see this again.

What was to be a short day of sightseeing turned into not getting back to the RV until 8:30 pm. That is a sign of a great day. Yellowstone you are a marvel!

Happy Birthday Baby Brother

2010-08-27T10:24:00.000-04:00

A quick shout out to my baby brother Dave to say Happy Birthday!!! May every wish you wish for come true. So happy you are able to spend this birthday with Mom there in Missouri with you.

Yellowstone – Day 2

2010-08-26T22:05:00.000-04:00

What a great morning, sun is shining, cool air, and we are going to finish the 1st loop in Yellowstone that we started yesterday.

We took a 6 mile gravel road up to Blacktail Plateau. There was a big forest fire there back in 1988 and remnants of the fire still here today, but lots of new growth has reemerged and has come from the natural reseeding process.

A lone petrified tree still stands after 50 million years. There were two others but souvenir seekers chipped away at them till there wasn’t anything left. This is why a fence was erected to save the last one.

Male Buffalo sometimes travel alone and we saw several singles at different places. We were wondering where the ladies were and then found a heard in the Lamar Valley. See the black dots in the valley, it’s the heard. We are trying to figure out what this critter is. Seems to big for a fox, looks too small for a wolf, we think it must be a coyote.

More buffalo were causing traffic back ups just west of Soda Butte which was formed more than a century ago by a hot spring. Now only a small amount of hydrogen sulfide gas and hydrothermal water flow from this formation now.

We detoured and took the Beartooth Byway out of Yellowstone and found Clarks Fork over look – Wow! what a view. It was worth the drive.

We saw a dirt road, of course we had to take Hooptie baha-ing. This road kept climbing and climbing and we saw a lone cloud in this big blue magnificent sky. This twisting turning road led us to this wonderful lake. We think the lake is called Lily Lake. There were a few campers way back in here and it is free camping if you dare go up there with a camper or RV.

We got a glimpse of some Antelopes. This must be the girls day out since there were no boys at this party.

Calcite Springs overlook brought us to the cliffs edge to see the bleached white cliffs and clear green water of the Yellowstone River.

Near by Tower Falls were pretty, the water from Tower Creek will meet up with the Yellowstone River.

Can anyone say BIG? This is the view from 10,243 feet atop Mt Washburn. Awesome! Welcome to Wyoming and welcome to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Here We Come

2010-08-25T23:39:00.000-04:00

Yellowstone here we come. I have said forever, since I was a preteen, that I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, Alaska, and Yellowstone, always in that order. And that is the order in which I have been able to see them. It wasn’t fully planned that way, but it is how our trip worked out. Funny how things work out just they way they are suppose to. I cannot explain to you how excited I am to see Yellowstone but I am busting at the seems excited. We will be here about a week and over the next several days I hope there will be some good photos for you to see.

When you go into Yellowstone you cross under this huge arch that welcomes you. What a great start.

Mammoth Hot Springs was our first stop after we got the camp set up. When I first heard of Mammoth Hot Spring I thought of pools of hot mineral water to soak in. Nope, these are not like that at all. This is an area where boiling water comes up from under ground, constantly laying new material, adding to the terraced formations. Some of the new sediment looked like dripping candle wax and others looked like layers and layers of lace. The colors ranged from gold to crisp white to varying shades of gray. This is Liberty Cap, a dormant hot spring cone. And yes the sky really is this blue. Low humidity leaves the sky haze free.

Fascinating to me how we were in an area of these hot springs and, in almost a blink of an eye, be in a place where there are these gigantic boulders the size of houses and then come up on forested areas, then open fields where Elk were roaming and Buffalo were taking a rest. All of these changes were in just a few miles. Oh Yellowstone is so beautiful and we are only at the beginning!

Roaring Mountain looked like a concrete mountain but is the microscopic organisms hard at work breaking down the volcanic rock, turning it into clay, accelerating erosion. These are organisms, thermophiles, thrive in these caustic conditions, consuming hydrogen sulfide gas converting it into sulfuric acid. The fumaroles, or steam vents, are the hottest hydrothermal features in the park.

We pulled over to take a look at the South Twin Lake and what is it the pull out? A Buffalo. I took a picture with the car door in it to show how close he was. We said a quick hello and we were out of there.

Nymph Lake was so inviting but it was surrounded by thermal channels so it’s only pretty to look at. Some of the pools of water we came up on were actually boiling and the smell of sulfuric acid was so strong I could only stay long enough to click off 2 shots.

We took the 1.5 mile trail around the Norris Geyser Basin which is on the edge of the Yellowstone Volcano, one of the largest volcanoes on earth. This was such a strange place. It made you feel like you were on another planet with terrain that I have never seen before. There were areas that were stark and white as snow, areas that had some trees , and other areas had plenty of shade. The ground looked like ash from a campfire to me. I had no idea there were so many geysers. I always heard of Old Faithful but have you heard of Pork Chop, Pearl, Monarch , and Green Dragon geysers and springs? These are just a few of the many that are here. At times the steam that came up from the fumaroles would blow in your direction and would take your breath away. Not only from the smell but from the heat. And there were so many colors – greens, blues, reds. After we finished the trail, we decided to head back to the RV for dinner and a campfire. A buffalo decided to create a traffic back up, so it took a bit longer than we thought to get back to the RV. He would not leave the road. Slowly people started to go around him, but he wanted to be a road hog. See our side view mirror – that’s how close we were passing him.

Yellowstone is very big and we did not even finish the first loop today. So much to see and we are fortunate enough, and blessed, to have the time to see it.

Good Bye Great Falls, But We Have New Friends

2010-08-24T22:31:00.000-04:00

It has been a very low key week here in Great Falls, MT but a much needed rest from all of the go, go, go.

Joy and DeWayne were a delight to meet and I can see connecting with them again in the future on their full timing RV travels. They will be coming East to Georgia in the beginning of 2011. Hopefully their rig will turn in our direction and we can show them what the Chesapeake Bay is all about. If it’s warm weather, a weekend on the water in our boat, The Hole, should be a good time.

We are heading toward Yellowstone and passed through a town named Tracy. If you blinked your eyes you were through it, but is was still fun seeing a town “named after” me.

The drive toward Wyoming is beautiful. I am in love with the West. Mountains, rolling hills, dry air, and lakes. This is me and I love it.

Dams, Falls, and A Car Show

2010-08-21T23:42:00.000-04:00

We were off in the morning setting out to see a few more of the Great Falls of the Missouri River after going to the local farmers market. The market was bustling with farmers, musicians, and artisans. We even tasted a vegetable called a kohlrabi. It’s a root veggy, like a turnip, with a bite. Just peel it, slice some off, and Yum.

There are 6 Falls, one of them however is submerged now, and 5 dams in this area of the Missouri River. Lewis, of Lewis and Clark, discovered the falls in 1805 and described the view as “the grandest sight I had ever beheld”. We had to cross a suspension bridge to get the the Ryan Dam and did that bridge ever sway even when you tried not to. While building these dams, steps were taken to keep the falls just as they were when Lewis and Clark discovered them. The total output from the 5 dams is 220,000 KW. Lots of electricity.

After the finding the dams and falls, we stopped to see an antique car show. Beautiful cars. There was even a motorcycle from Delaware, my true home state. Tried to find the owner but no luck. The band, playing oldies was really good. Fun day. The weather here is great- warm sun, low humidity, and it’s cool in the shade.

There is a weekly concert series the local library is having with various local bands. Tommy and I went there to catch the show. As I looked around, it hit me that this was the picture of America’s heartland. Everyone sitting around on the lawn, smiling, enjoying the summer and entertainment. It gave me such a warm feeling inside. Such a simple evening with a great impact. The band was a group of older people who were good pickers and fiddlers and they even had a yodeler. They got so much pleasure for performing for the crowd.

A beautiful sunset to top off the day! I do love this country of mine.

Hanging Out In Great Falls

2010-08-20T18:21:00.000-04:00

Tommy and I went to the Paris Gibson Museum, what a nice treat when we were told that State Farm Insurance paid for every ones admission this year. This museum is a contemporary arts museum and the art was lovely. But what I loved most was the building itself. This building was originally Great Falls first high school built in 1895. The door ways are so thick with solid wooden doors. The wainscoting is quite different than what we see today. This is at least 3/4” thick wood with deep carving into it. The radiators, heavily imprinted with its own art. The hard wood floors are a focal point, heavily waxed to a mirror finish. These floors looked like the old gymnasium floors that we had as a kid. The old water fountain looked like a sculpture to me. A gorgeous building that was saved from being demolished not that long ago.

The next museum was the History Museum. Look at how many arrow heads that were found. This is only a portion of them. I never realized how many types of barbed wire there is. Would I not love to have this old medical exam table in my house as a table! See what is looking back at you in the drawer? Can you imagine this tractor costs $950 back in 1924. That was a lot of money.

We walked over to a multicultural day, along with Joy and DeWayne, that the AFB was having. Food was plentiful as were demonstrations of cultural dance and information booths. The weather here is spectacular. Warm sun, cool breeze. Could you ask for anything more? How about dinner tonight with new friends? We will meet Joy and DeWayne for Mexican at 7pm.

What A Nice Visit

2010-08-19T23:09:00.000-04:00

What a nice visit we had with Joy and DeWayne. They came over this morning and we chatted for several hours. We covered every topic from RVing, Alaska, how they met and got married, kids, politics. You name it, we talked briefly about it. Great people, easy to talk with. We made some loose plans to get together for dinner or sightseeing soon. You may want to check out their blog The Breeze at http://joyndewayne.blogspot.com.

Tommy and I went to pick up our pictures that I spent forever in Walgreens yesterday picking out ones I wanted printed and had CDs made of all the pictures. When I went there the prints were done but the CDs could not be done. Apparently I had so many pictures that I filled their memory and jammed up the machine. So I go and get the SD cards to have the CDs made. Well the photo machine starts to scream and eventually shuts down. We had already paid for all of the pictures and CDs and I asked if I could go to another Walgreens to have the CDs done with a note from them saying it would be at no charge. They agreed and we drove across town to the only other Walgreens. We proceeded to inform this store of what happened and presented them a note from the other store. We load the SD cards in and start the process of getting the CDs. We get an estimated time that the CDs would be ready.

We go for a walk to see some waterfalls on the Missouri River. The falls are so pretty and are at the base of a dam. We followed this narrow trail up further and found a horseshoe shaped grouping of falls. We counted 8 different falls in the horseshoe. After a couple of hours we go back to get the CDs. Not done. We leave again and return at 9pm. Finally after two days and hours of running back and forth, I get my photos and CDs. Just one of those days, but luckily, we have had very few of those type of days on this trip.

It Is A Small World

2010-08-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

OK, I get an email from my friend, and fellow blogger, Snookie, of the Quinn’s Awesome Journey, to say that one of our readers is also here in Great Falls at the same military base. Alrighty then, I have to go on a hunt right now. Snookie calls me, describes the rig that Joy and DeWayne, from The Breeze, is in. I’m on patrol of the Fam Camp, all the while talking with Snookie on the phone. I find a 5th wheel with a black truck with Oklahoma tags. Could this be them? I keep Snookie on the phone as I knocked on the door as she has to experience the fun if this them. I knock, Joy opens the door and says “Tracy?!”. Laughter erupts. She also was receiving emails from Snookie and was going to look for us, in fact she was looking out of her window and saw me walking down the road, phone in hand, and thought that it was me on the phone with Snookie. This is a photo of Joy and DeWayne I grabbed from their blog.

We had a quick visit before a storm rolled in and ended it prematurely. Joy is such a nice person and I can see a new friendship on my horizon. I did not get to meet DeWayne tonight but we plan to visit with them tomorrow and get more acquainted. How fun this is to meet a someone who has been following along with my blog and I have read some of hers too. It is a small world.

The last 2 days have been work days. I needed to get pictures developed and get my hair ~~ruined~~ cut. Tommy wanted to scrub the RV and Hooptie since they were filthy. There are times you have to take care of the everyday life things like laundry, grocery shopping, working on the RV etc. Plus we haven’t had TV in a long time and it was great to veg out for a bit. We will be out sightseeing trips soon enough.

Back In The USA

2010-08-16T22:38:00.000-04:00

We left the fabulous Waterton Nat’l Peace Park last evening and crossed back into the US at the Chief Mountain Boarder Crossing in Montana at 6:46 pm. We’ll miss Canada but it’s always good to be “home”. Now on to see more of the lower 48. It wasn’t a mile after crossing the boarder that we had guests on the road. Open ranges again. I would think it would terribly difficult to round up the cattle in all of these trees. We found a nice location to pull off and spend the night on the roadside. The sunset was not over the top but so soft and pretty over that lake .

Today we are going to Glacier Nat’l Park, the sister to Waterton Nat’l Peace Park in Canada. We decided to utilize the parks shuttle system to ride the Going-To-The-Sun road through the park. This is a 52 mile drive on a winding, narrow road. It also was nice that we didn’t have to drive and could just sit back and enjoy the scenery. As expected, the scenery was breathtaking, creeks, streams, lakes, mountains, valleys, and animals were plentiful. The Going-To-The-Sun road is a narrow road that was cut into the mountain side along a cliffs edge. There was no room for error when driving. This road is being repaved so it made for several long delays. Due to these delays we did not get back from the round trip until after 5 pm and were unable to take the hikes we wanted to take. The first part of the drive, from the East to the West, was more scenic than the second half. Had we known, we would have made the turn around at the halfway point, headed back East and taken a couple of the 2.5 to 3 mile hikes. Oh Well, next time?!

Waterton International Peace Park

2010-08-15T22:34:00.000-04:00

Waterton was made a peace park in honor of the long term friendly relationship between Canada and the USA. The other half of the park, on the USA side, is Glacier National Park. This is some kind of park. I know I talk about, almost daily, how beautiful the places are that we have been seeing. But they are. Each place has its own special something. I have said in the past, every hill we go over, every corner we turn, another beautiful sight is placed before us. And today did not disappoint. In fact it was off the charts. A show stopper. To begin with the weather could not have been better. Perfect temp, clear shy, no haze, no humidity. Just one of those days that don’t come often.

First up, Cameron Lake. Do I hear any ewwws and ahhhs? Look on the bottom right, you can see the bottom of the lake A short hike brought us to Lost Horse Creek, so relaxing there with the water making lovely music. The Prince of Wales Hotel wasn’t too shabby. The view of the hotel up from the lake was beautiful and the view of the lake from the hotel – Well Now! OK we almost had a safari today. Two black bear sightings. Deer everywhere just hanging out in the town. Loved the three babies with their Mommy. And a moose. I had the opportunity to pick Saskatoon berries and were they ever delish! Makes you want to ride a horse doesn’t it? Our last day in Canada could not have been more spectacular. We have fallen in love with Canada and her people. I don’t know how I am going to go back to civilization. All of this open land, clean air, clean water, blue water, and animals. Makes you feel so good.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

2010-08-14T22:08:00.000-04:00

Today we are going to the best preserved buffalo jump in North America. Long before the Europeans brought horses to North America, the native Indians hunted buffalo by foot. They studied and watched the behaviors of buffalo and devised a way to hunt many buffalo at one time. In the fall, when the buffalo were fattened up for the winter, selected members of the tribe would go off to the hunting grounds. See the Prairie dog looking at the hunting grounds in the center. They gathered rocks and branches and would bundle the rocks together using them as a stand for the branches to form a lane. The lane would be wide at one end narrowing to a cliffs edge. Some of the hunters would wear wolf skins and come up from behind the heard making the heard uneasy, slowly driving the heard in the direction they wanted them to go. Another hunter would wear a buffalo hide and act as a calf in distress. If a calf was in distress, the heard would rally around the calf to protect it from danger. When the time was right, the hunters in wolf skins would run toward the heard, starting a stampede. The hunter in the buffalo skin would run a head of the heard leading them toward the cliff. Just before the cliffs edge the hunter would jump out of the way. Since the buffalo had poor eye sight they would think the branches and rock, that were lined up in a row on either side of them, was a wall. They would continue down the carin, a shoot if you will, until they ran off the cliff. This is the cliff the buffalo ran off of.

The Indians would process the meat, and if the hunt was good, it would feed the tribe for the whole winter. According to one of the Blackfoot oral traditions, a young boy wanted to witness the plunge of the buffalo as they were driven off the cliff. He stood under the cliffs ledge and watched the animals fall. It was an unusually good hunt that day and the boy became trapped. When his people came to do the butchering they found the boy with his skull smashed by the weight of the carcasses. Hence the name Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

Southern Alberta

2010-08-13T22:44:00.000-04:00

Can anyone say rolling hills? How about what looks like golf courses on steroids? How about farmland and ranches? How about Alberta beef? Texans think they have ranches, oh no! Canadians, now they have ranches. Grasslands so vast it indescribable. We just left an area that has the most turquoise waters and mountains that touch the sky. Now we are seeing green grass, the color of springtime grass and rolling hills that go beyond the horizon. The green is different than the forest green that we have been in. The colors range from sunflower yellow, to yellow-green to a moss green to sage so lush it calls to you to lay and roll in it. On one side of the road the hills rolls on forever, and on the other, they roll until they meet the mountains. This is beef and feed country and it appears they feed their beef well. This is Southern Alberta.

We drove for a few hours in the beautiful green valley of rolling hills. We we wondering where we would stay for the night since there really hasn’t been to many safe pull offs on the road. We have passed a few small towns but still we were wondering where and Tommy was getting tired. It looked like we were coming to another town because we were seeing a few road signs showing gas and food was available. I caught another showing other services and what do I see on that sign? Walmart 2 km away! Who’d ever think we would stumble on a town large enough for a Walmart from where we have been driving. There has got to be a lot happening around this area and tomorrow we are going to find it. Tonight offered us a spectacular sunset at 9pm.

Lakes Louise and Moraine

2010-08-12T22:46:00.000-04:00

I have no words to describe the magnificence of Lake Louise, Lake Moraine, and this whole area from Jasper to Banff. I can say that this, by far, has been the most beautiful, picturesque area I have ever seen. Even on a mostly cloudy day with off and on rain, it is stunning here. Mountains soaring, glaciers to numerous to count, abundant forests, babbling brooks and creeks, canyons, and of course, the most stunning and uniquely colored lakes and rivers. This area has it all.

Lake Louise, mountains wrapping around her with a glacier as her back drop, and the hotel standing guard next to her. I only wish the color of the water showed. It was cloudy, with occasional patches of blue skies. We needed to dodge rain showers, so the water is not vibrant.

The neon turquoise water of Lake Moraine were being enjoyed by kayakers and fisherman alike. Having dinner here overlooking the lake is very romantic. Does it get any better than this? God just keeps on giving gifts.

Columbia Glacier

2010-08-11T13:20:00.000-04:00

Gorgeous morning, mountains penetrating up through the fog. Sun is shining brightly. Today is a great day already. First stop Sunwapta Falls. This glacier fed river splits around the small island and returns at the head of the Falls. The rocks are worn away by years of rushing water. Strange how this one rock jutting up in the head of the falls is still there. I wonder how big it once was. The water flows through a narrow opening in the rock creating another hole where the water spins like a whirlpool. What away to start the day and it’s only 9 am.

MT Kitchener, still thick with a couple of hundred feet of snow on top, rolls right into a massive glacier and another glacier is just forward of Sunwapta Canyon. These glaciers that we are seeing are fingers of the Columbia Ice field which covers 241 sq miles. Today we will be able to take a trip onto Athabasca Glacier. These huge vehicles, Ice Explorers, will transport us up to the head wall of the glacier. Now just a little info on these vehicles. There are only 23 of these in the world. 22 of them are here at Brewster Columbia Ice field Glacier Experience and the USA has one for arctic exploration. All the wheels are connected to the transmission and will not free wheel which will allows for travel on extremely steep inclines or declines. We traveled on a 34 % grade to bring us to the glacier.

The water that is flowing is from melt off from snow that is at least 150 years old and is the purest natural water known. We had to fill up a bottle to have a taste and to bring some home for the grandkids. It really did taste clean and pure.

Last night treat was a rainbow, tonight's treat, bear. Two of them, and they were fast.

Jasper

2010-08-10T23:07:00.000-04:00

Jasper National Park is a Mountain Park. We thought that sounded odd until we drove in. This National Park is 4200 sq miles and is Canada's largest mountain park. These Northern Rockies are enormous. Glacier fed lakes were plentiful. This one at Mt Edith Cavell at the foot of Angell Glacier was spectacular. Glacial melt waters are full of rock debris. Heavier pieces sink quickly but the finest particles, called rock flour, stay suspended reflecting sunlight making for interesting colors. The more sun that shined on the lake the brighter it became. The Angel Glacier’s wings are increasing in size the but the gown is receding. (how could this be? Do I see two angels in one picture?)This glacier, Ghost Glacier, is mysterious. They don’t know how it continues to hang onto the side of the mountain. Maligne Canon continues to grow deeper as the water rushes through it. Maligne Lake was calling us to sit for a spell. No restaurant could offer a better setting for lunch. Medicine Lake is drained by one of the largest underground river systems in North America and doesn’t the view take your breath away? Athabasca Falls, with its carved canyon walls and water holes, where water gets trapped and spins round and round finally shooting out down river, was our next stop. A coyote kept our attention for a while as did this Elk. We had such a beautiful day and to top it off, a rainbow, this side of a mountain, it hung in there for nearly 10 minutes. We kept driving down the road and saw it at different angles . It looked like we would drive right up to it. What a day.

How Different This Drive Is

2010-08-09T12:53:00.000-04:00

How different this drive is going from Dawson Creek towards Edmonton in comparison to the Cassiar Hwy. This drive is through farm lands with wide open spaces using trees as either wind breaks or property division lines. We even saw a Caribou farm. Beautiful too, just very different from mountainous terrain we came from. More towns are present with less miles between them. Can you tell what this town is called?Yes, we had to stop in Beaver, just for a quick shot of the towns mascot.

Talk about how different things are, we are driving due south now and we can really see the difference in the daylight. Not only have we gone through one time zone change just leaving Alaska but another will come today. It will get dark about 9:30. EEEK! Yuk! Ooey! 24 hours of daylight was to much, but I don’t want dark at 8pm either. Sure would be nice if it got dark at 10 or 11 pm and light again at 5 or 6 am. It will hit us hard when we get home in October when it is dark at 6pm. When it is dark, I am tired. I like the energy of the light. With it getting dark earlier I can now remove all of the aluminum foil off the bedrooms windows and skylights. That was so helpful to block all the light when it was light all night.

Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of Alaskan Hwy

2010-08-08T20:20:00.000-04:00

Dawson Creek is the stop for the day. I have to give an abbreviated history lesson on this tremendous engineering feat called the Alaskan Highway or the Alcan Highway. I gathered this info from the book the Milepost:

The USA needed a road from the lower 48 to Alaska and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor it became a military necessity. President Roosevelt authorized the construction on 2/11/42. The USA secured right-of-way through Canada in March. The agreement between the USA and Canada stipulated the US pay for construction and would turn over the Canadian portion of the road after the war was over. In turn, Canada furnished the right-of-way, waived import duties, taxes, immigration regulations, and provided construction materials along this route. A massive mobilization of troops from Company A, 648th Topographic Battalion occurred in March, and by June, 10,000 American troops were in the Canadian North. The general Alcan route, determined by the War Department, was along the line of existing air fields from Edmonton, AB to Fairbanks, AK known as the Northwest Staging Route. Recon parties depended on local guides to help locate the actual routes. The troops worked 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, and endured mosquitoes and black flies in the summer and below 0 temps in the winter. Food was in short supply and the menu consisted of 3 pancakes, thin farina, and coffee for breakfast, Lunch, if there was lunch, was 2 quarter size hard biscuits, and dinner was fish and potatoes…and no cigarettes. By October vehicles could travel the entire length of the Highway. This road was built in 8 months 12 days!!! Truly amazing. And even more amazing after driving this road, seeing the dense forest, towering mountains, boulders, cliffs, and rivers that had to be conquered. One can only imagine how terrible it was to build this 1520 mile road. This road has 133 major bridges and 3000 culverts, all built in 8 months 12 days! That is staggering! That World War II generation never ceases to amaze me and does deserve the title that Tom Brokaw gave… “The Greatest Generation”.

Swollen Eye, Buffalo, Hot springs,

2010-08-06T22:50:00.000-04:00

My eye, well take a look. I was hoping it would be a bit better today. You know my mind is going in ten thousand directions like I hope it wasn’t one of those spiders that the bite will eat the flesh, make the tissue necrotic, and I loose half of my face. Then I will have to employ that doctor who in the movie with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, Face Off (I think) swapped their faces. Did a good job too. So now in my travels instead of just looking for bear and eagles, I will have to look for faces.

Now meanwhile back on the trip: Hooptie is covered with ash, the skies are hazy with smoke, and the smell, well, it’s not good like a camp fire.

We are going to Laird Hot Spring today and look what was wondering up the road alone. A buffalo. I was surprised to see him all alone. But not for long. About two miles up the road we came upon a whole heard. Lots of babies too! Look how close they are. I opened the RV door and a baby came to visit. I quickly closed the door, don’t want to stir up a Mama Buffalo. The size of these guys are incredible. If that Buffalo decided to have a seat, the little car didn’t stand a chance. They are very docile creators, just moseying along eating grass and flowers. That was exciting to see.

On to Laird Hot Springs for the afternoon. We followed a boardwalk path through a forest and then wetlands that support so many boreal forest plants. Some of these plants only survive here because of the hot springs. Berry bushes are loaded with unripe fruit and wild flowers brightened up the walkway that led to the lower hot spring pool. The upper pool was closed off due to recent bear activity. The hot spring temperature ranges from 108 to 126 degrees. The waterfall was a wonderful masseuse especially when your muscles were warmed up from the steaming water. So relaxing. Now, if I could just get carried back to the RV for a nap.

The roadside was camp again for us and I don’t think we could have found a better spot. The mountains, the Northern Rockies, in front of us looked like pyramids and the creek, named 115 mile creek, was so peaceful. The beavers were busy building. With it getting dark at about 11pm, sunsets are a nightly event now.

Spider Bites, Cinnamon Buns, and Wild Fires

2010-08-05T23:42:00.000-04:00

Tommy had our flat tire repaired in Whitehorse with a plug and a patch. We left the repaired tire as our spare. Stayed at Camp Walmart again in Whitehorse, but this time, Walmart only had a fraction or the travelers there compared to when we were going to Alaska. It was so full on the way up that the parking lot didn’t hardly have room for shoppers.

We met such a nice couple, Don and Sue, from Ontario. Sometimes you meet people and can’t find things to talk about and other times you just hit it off. We did. So many similarities between Sue and I. Geez I wish we lived closer to each other. Sue would be such a great girlfriend, you can tell. I can definitely see us keeping in contact. I gave her a lesson on setting up a blog, like Snookie did for me. Do we have a new blogger on our hands?

I woke up to a weird feeling around my eye. I thought I slept with my face squished into the pillow and thought I had deep pillow wrinkles on the side of my face. When I finally got around to look at my eye, I was shocked. A spider or something bit me. I didn’t think of taking a picture of it until 7:30 at night. See the red dot of the bite. Looks better now than it did this morning.

We passed Johnsons Crossing and had to stop back in for a cinnamon bun like we did on the way up. Yum! A few extra found their way into the freezer again.

Tommy and I were just discussing how lucky we have been with both vehicles, only one flat tire and CRACK! A tractor trailer kicked up a rock and of course put a nice three armed crack in the passenger window. Tire yesterday, windshield today. Too bad it’s not the round chip that stays a chip. Oh no, this is one will run in 3 directions. We will see if we can get it repaired. If not, I can see a new windshield in my future.

We are hearing of terrible wild fires in British Columbia. The Cassiar Hwy, that we took up through BC from Seattle to Alaska, is now closed to all traffic and has been for a few days. We are going to take the Alcan Hwy down to Jasper and Lake Louise and just heard that road may be closing as well. There are only two roads you can take, the Cassiar or the Alcan, that’s it. We are 9 miles away from Watson Lake, where the Sign Post Forest is, the air is thick with the smell of smoke and you can see the darker smoke wafting in, covering the puffy white clouds and blue sky. (look back up to the picture of the crack, look in the distance in the photo, see the smoke coming in) The sky now looks like a thunderstorm is coming but it is the smoke. Further down the road, just after 9pm with the sun sinking, the sky was a glow from all of the smoke in the air. That sky is high up on the wow factor scale.

Uh Oh

2010-08-04T16:30:00.000-04:00

(I just got caught up on some posts from 8/1 to 8/4 so be sure to go back and catch up.)

What a nice night last night. I am so glad we stayed at Kluane Lake. Cool night just perfect for sleeping.

Uh Oh! What did Tommy find when he went out to get Hooptie ready to go? A flat right front tire. Damn, no cell service to call for repair. He got out our 12 volt tire inflator and let it pump up for a couple of hours. Maybe we could get somewhere for repair. Tommy then saw the problem. An Allen Wrench stuck in deep. No chance of getting somewhere on that tire. Tommy had a hard time of it getting those lug nuts loosened but after talking to it appropriately for awhile (@#%?!), he finally got them loose, got the spare out, and changed the tire. Good Job Tommy! Good bye Kluane Lake, I am sure glad we stayed with you last night. Now on to Whitehorse to either get that tire repaired or to buy a new one. Hey if we were to have a flat tire, we couldn’t have had it in a better place than in front of Kluane Lake in a large pull out, out of the way of other vehicles, with plenty of space to make the changing of the tire a bit easier. Luck or Angels on our side again.