On the Road

August 31st: Wrap up of our Great Adventure

So, this is what our trip looked like. From Mi Wuk Village pretty much straight east across the country to Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  And then a bit of zig zag across the northern states back to Mi Wuk.  We left on August 2nd and returned home on August 31st.  Saw and experienced a lot. 

Be sure to click on the map for a better look.

Would we do it again?

Russ: no        Blythe: you bet!

Best highway?

Russ: the one with the 75 mph sign on it      

Blythe: Hwy 70 from Utah to Denver

Are we glad to be home?

Both: yes

And here's our new backyard game:

This is quoits.  And next year we're going to at least look like we've played before and beat someone at the reunion!  Russ's goal is to beat Bruce (his brother).

I guess this pretty much wraps up our trip.  We've learned that next time we'll bite off a smaller destination and do it justice by spending more days in one place.  We'll drive more 'blue' roads, or 'wee' roads, take more time.  We were quite aggressive in trying to do so much.  BUT, we had an initial destination clear across the country a week after we left home.  And then we chose to at least drive home via a different route. We saw many places we'd never seen before and now know where we'd like to go back to for further exploration.  Like North and South Dakota and Yellowstone/Wyoming/Montana.  Our country is so varied that you could hardly make a mistake no matter where you choose to travel. 

We hope you've enjoyed traveling along with us.  If you want to take a trip and do a blog, go for it.  It's really been a lot of fun.

Hugs to you all,

~Russ and Blythe

August 30th: Sanctuary, Mi Wuk Village, CA. Home again.

Saturday's Mileage: 287.4

Total trip mileage: 7805.3

For a nice map of today's trip, go to Googlemaps

    Click on 'Get Directions'
    Insert Redding California in the "A" box and
    Insert Mi Wuk Village California in the "B" box.
You'll see a nice view of Northern California complete with vegetation and mountains.  It's a great overview.  Pay absolutely no attention to the directions themselves.  They're lousy and you probably don't need them anyway!

Well, this is it! The last day of our great adventure.  Today's pictures are kind of an overview of northern California from Highway 5 as we left Redding, to our 'front door'.

South of Redding, in the Corning area, are many olive tree groves.


Nearer to Sacramento are the rice paddies:


Our tummy's got to us as we neared Sacramento (California state capital) so we stopped for lunch in Stockton at this Panera Bakery/Restaurant.  Exit at 8 Mile Rd. and it's on the west side of the freeway.


From Panera, we headed on Hwys. 5 South, 4 East, 99 South, and then the backroads of the farming country heading towards our mountains, the Sierra Nevada.  This is somewhere 'behind' the Manteca area.  F-L-A-T.


We pass local corn fields.....


....and vineyards.......


.....and almond orchards......


.....and power lines.........


Finally we get to Oakdale, get gas, and get right back on the road.


About 15 miles beyond Oakdale we pass our favorite memorial for "Cricket", the swayback white horse.  Cricket watched passing cars from behind this fence for years and years.  He finally died about 15 years ago.  There were articles in the newpapers about him.  People who tooted their horns to him over the years left flowers, carrots, wreaths, etc. to remember him.  Someone made a sign that says "Cricket" with the metal figure of a horse above.  We toot our horn whenever we pass, especially today.


What a statement to honor an old swaybacked horse!


Now we're hitting the beginning of the foothills.  You can see the tabletop hills on the right, and the change in vegetation in general.


Highway 120 splits off just around the bend and heads to Yosemite National Park, about 2 hours from this point.
 

Just a few more miles and you can see the mountains where we live.


Look!  Someone put up a Welcome Home sign for us!  How sweet is that?


25 more minutes and we're 3 miles from home!



Now we're on Lama-Hisum Road, just a short distance from our home.  The gal we met at the Information Center in Wyoming  lived just around the corner from this point.



Aha, we're home, forgot to take a picture of the house as we drove up the driveway, the car is almost empty.  The only things left are the quoits boards (about 50 pounds each) and the hanging clothes.  See those clothes?  Those UNUSED clothes?  From those 12 hangers, some layered, only 1 shirt was worn---at the Klipple Family Reunion on August 9th.  Lesson learned: take them along anyway just in case.  They really didn't get in the way.



And the quoits.  Once we got them out of the car, placed the metal peg in the middle, and got the rubber quoits out of their box, we actually took a time out and played 4 or 5 games.
 
Tomorrow when Russ is refreshed, we'll have a run-down on the trip for you all.  That should be entertaining!!!  See you then.........

August 29th: Redding, CALIFORNIA!

Mileage:  425.2  From Pam and Jon's in northern Oregon to Redding, California.

 

At 6:15 this morning, Mt. Hood showed herself without clouds.  Softly Subtle* and beautiful.  *I'm revving up for getting back to my stampin' life!

After a yummy breakfast of Dutch Babies, blueberry jam and fresh blackberries, we finished packing our 'stuff' which had been added to with some wine, wine glasses, and my fleece vest.  We went outside to tell all the livestock good-bye.

The alpacas:

Antigua, getting the hug and pet, her cria (baby) Bubbles, and Chocolate, who was due on last Monday and still hasn't produced her cria.

How could anyone resist this face???


The llamas:

I'm not good with their names but they were most interested in us this morning.

A last minute inside tour of Pam and Jon's spacious 40 ft. motor home. There's a washer/dryer, shower, toilet, cupboards, and queen sized bed + drawers and closets that are unseen.


After our good-byes we were on the road, heading down Highway 5 for California.
 

Wide open spaces turned into forests:
 

Giant piles of sawdust:
 

Lunch at the dirtiest rest stop of the entire trip.  We did enjoy our leftover pizza from last night which we had warmed on the engine while we were driving down the road.


Welcome to California!  I couldn't get the darned sign so here's the corner of it.  This could be classified as one of the worst photos and one that I really wanted.


Just inside California.
 

Below. In the distance, Mount Shasta, a non-dormant volcano located in northern CA.  We had only seen it from the southern side prior to today.
 

Driving right next to Mt. Shasta.  Really awesome and beautiful.

But, look at Mr. Shasta Reservoir!  We went house boating here 25 years ago with Pam and Jon and the kids.  Click on the photo for a larger view.  The water level is so far down is almost unbelievable.  We had been seeing dry, cracked land along the left and right sides of the highway and it is exposed land that is normally covered with water.  The recreation industry must really be hurting in the area.

 

You know you're almost home when.......San Francisco is only 270 miles away.  This line is another one I just can't get rid of.  Enjoy!!

Wowsers!  We hadn't been watching the car thermometer for outside temperatures.  Last we saw was something like 93 degrees.

 

It's rather hot where we are stopping for the night.  Redding, California.  We are in a very nice Best Western.  The attached restaurant, it seems, is quite popular with the local residents and we not only had a super waitress, but were invited to share the ice cream birthday cake of the people at the next table.  The fact that there were 5 kids under the age of 7 who were all over the place (they were cute) had nothing to do with it I'm sure.

So, tomorrow will be the last leg of our trip.  Amazing.  I've been gone from home since July 26th.  Stampin' Up!'s convention was July 30th-August 2nd.  Russ picked me up in Salt Lake City on the 3rd and we were "on the road" from then on.  We've had some fabulous experiences and seen many places and people that are dear to us.  What fun it's been.  See you tomorrow.  And that'll be a real shock when I have to return to a dial up connection for my computer.  I'm spoiled and have loved it.

August 28th: From Vineyard View--Pam and Jon MacLellan's farm

Mileage: ZERO on our car!  Although we did go out and do some local wine tasting.

How nice it is to kind of laze around, enjoying the smells and views of the country side.  As promised yesterday, I have some llama and alpaca photos to share:

These are, left to right:  Oreo, Tranquility, Cicily, Mocha

And then we have Antigua, the alpaca mama (of Bubbles)

Pam is still working for Lockheed Martin, so she spent the morning at her job, and rearranging some meetings so she could have the afternoon off, while Jon showed me around the property and pointed out some good photo ops.  

The house:

 

Wise woman that Pam is, she's posted her Obama support sign in the front.  Jon, unfortunately, will probably be canceling her vote.

A little bit further down the street we come to their sign:

 

The people who built their house we German.  The man was a professor at a local college; he was also an amateur astronomer.  That's why you see the small observatory in the back right. Pretty darned cool! Pam and Jon plan to remove the trees from around where I'm standing and put in a small vineyard of maybe 3 rows.  It'll look great!

And here is the 'vineyard view':

 

From the top right corner of the property, this is what you see:

 

The barn, the pastures, and the house in the far distance.

Jack and Lucy:

Pam was done working and we took off to go wine tasting!  Had a ball.  First we went to WillaKenzie.

A little of my favorite lavender:

Then we stopped in Carlton and enjoyed a super lunch at The Horse Radish.

 

Then we walked down the street to ScottPaul Wine Tasting room:

 

And finally, to the winery where Pam works on weekends, Penner-Ash Wine Cellars:

 

This is the view from the winery.  Not bad eh?

 

We happened to be there on the days they were bottling their signature wine, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.  A sub-contractor comes to the winery with his truck and they do the bottling behind the winery.

Filling the bottles:

 

 

Their label:

 

We had a great time there.  In fact, in a few days this is what they'll be doing:

 

We purchased some lovely wine glasses at Penner-Ash, as well as a fleece vest (for Blythe) and a few bottles of their special Rosé, not something I would usually buy.

Returning home in the late afternoon, we had some time to play with the llamas and alpacas a bit.  Well, not play, but feed actually.

Check out Oreo, on the floor, "cushing"---resting comfortable while staking his claim on the lower area of the feed trough.

This is Antigua (you saw her face only up above), the alpaca mama.  Her cria (baby) is Dom Perignon, aka "Bubbles".

This guy below, Macho de Duranzo, aka Peach Fuzz (his mama's name is Peaches), is about 2 years old and is well into his teenage-hood, especially when it comes to the "girls".  He's had to be put in his own pen to keep him off of the girls (if you know what I mean!).  And the boys!  Ooops.  They will probably start breeding him in the spring.

Done feeding and playing with the livestock, we headed for the far side of Portland, to the Hawthorne area, where Brian and Kim's pizza restaurant is located. Apizza Scholls.  This place is POPULAR!  Brian makes 100 pizza skins a day and when those are gone, or 9.30 arrives, the day is done.

Here's BRIAN!  He's the pizziola--the guys who monitors the baking.

 

Obvious.....tossing the pizza skin.

I used to babysit for Brian!

 

 

We ordered two pizzas: Margharita pizza and an onion/sausage/pepper pizza.  The flavor was beyond AWESOME. And Brian's Caesar Salad:  oh---my---gosh!  I can't wait to serve something as close as possible to his salad.  (Yes, I have the dressing recipe!)  We'll be getting to have some pizza on our drive south today.  Yum yum.

How about this for a pizza?

Finally, here is Isaac, the 5 year old who had his first haircut on Wednesday evening.

Before:

 

After:

 

Tomorrow (Friday) we begin our final leg homeward.  We'll probably stop overnight in Redding CA and then zoom (??) on home from there on Saturday.

August 27th: We're in Oregon!

Mileage:  273.3  Walla Walla Washington to southwest of Portland Oregon

Russ has been to Oregon once.  I've never been to Oregon prior to today even though I've been in California for a long, long time.  We entered the state in the north east and followed the Columbia River all the way to Portland, scooted around the city from northeast to southwest and now we're in Hillsboro, at the farm of my girlfriend, Pam and her husband Jon.  It's an alpaca farm.  Alpaca photos will be on tomorrow's edition.

Here's our first encounter with the Columbia River.  The route we're on is part of the Oregon Passage as well as the Lewis & Clark expedition.  Can you imagine encountering this river, no roads yet (obviously), as you're pushing west???


We migrated from Indiana to California in 1957.  It took until 2008 to get to Oregon, a mere 250-300 miles from home.  Oh well.  Now I can say I've been there.


It was quite windy along the road.  Apparently the wind comes off the Pacific Ocean and roars up the river.  And that river is really wide!

We were really awestruck by the width of the Columbia River.  The cliffs along the route surprised us too.  Hence the name Columbia Gorge.

 

We got a glimpse of Mt. Hood wa-a-a-a-y out there in the distance as we were driving along-----you guessed it-----the Columbia River/Hwy 84.

 

We decided to take a jog off of the interstate and take a scenic by-way that highlights several waterfalls.

 

This next two photos are Multnomah Falls which is why we took this by-way.  My sister, Janet, suggested that we be sure to make this stop. As it turns out, so did a lot of other people.  Heck, I'd never even heard of it before.

 

 

From here we drove through Portland to Pam and Jon MacLellan's farm where they raise (and sell) Alpaca's.  They also have 4 llamas who 'guard' the place and keep it free of marauding wildlife like coyotes.  The property is called Vineyard View Alpacas.  If you want to check out more than I can show on the blog, check out http://www.vineyardviewalpacas.com.

Here Jon and Russ are getting acquainted.  They are like two peas in a pod!
I've known Jon since the early '80s, when he and Pam were first together.  Pam and I met in the mid '70s when we met on Valpico Drive in San Jose.  That was the beginning of our very long friendship.

Pam works at Lockheed, telecommuting, on the farm, and also as a certificated sommelier.  So, when she selects a wine for dinner she really knows what she's looking for.  I thought we had a large wine storage area.  Hmm.  Not at all.  They have one in the kitchen, one just outside of the kitchen and a third downstairs.  Nice!!!

 

Russ guarded the table as we finished the dinner preparations:  corn picked this morning, green beans and tomatoes from the garden, cucumber salad, and teriyaki marinated flank steak.  Grilled on the deck.  And wine.  Yum yum would be the word.

 

I sliced the bread while Jon carved the meat.

 

While we were preparing dinner, and by previous arrangement, a Jewish acquaintance of Jon's had a gathering of his family and friends, in the barn, to witness the first haircut of his five year old son.  The little guy, Isaac, looked like a darling little girl, with bouncing, shining light brown curls when he arrived.  When they left he looked like a handsome little boy that he is.  The photos are on Pam's camera.  I'll trying to download a few when possible.

Tomorrow night we'll be going to the Pizza Restaurant (name yet unknown) that Pam's son, Brian, owns.  It's in an area that's like Berkeley or perhaps Los Gatos or Santana Row.  The restaurant is VERY popular.  Brian and his family used to live on the property next to Pam and Jon's, but with the new location of the restaurant, in Portland, they have moved to the other side of Portland.  I look forward to seeing him then.  Brian's about a year older than my son Jason.

See you tomorrow. :) 

August 26th: Greetings from Walla Walla, Washington!

Mileage: 312.0   Spokane WA to Orofino ID to Walla Walla WA

We decided this morning, in one of our DUH moments, to call Russ's work (UAL) and fishing buddy, Bud Curry, in Orofino, Idaho, to see if he'd be available for a quick drop-by visit. Idaho is only a few miles from Spokane.  Woohoo, he was home and available.  I thought Orofino was an hour or so away from Spokane.  Hmmmmm.  Try 3 hours.  It was a beautiful ride on my favorite wee roads, 2 lane roads rather than interstate highways.
 
But, before we get on the road, let's say good-bye to Ray and Lana in Spokane.  We had a wonderful time with them.  Too short but---we'll go back as soon as we can.  They live in a very interesting and different type neighborhood.  The house sits 'normally' facing the street. 

But it's the back yard that's different.  Check out these houses right across the street from them:

It's their backyards.  Bottom line: between two streets is only one house, front yard facing one street, back yard facing the next.  The back yards are about 80% useless.  Landscape them and then let your 'behind the house neighbor' enjoy it.  Most people have decks on the back of their house which is where they enjoy the outside. 

And now it's time to say good-bye to Ray and Lana.  We're off for Idaho now.  Russ is coming with me!  Or I'm going with him.

 

Once we got through the fields and fields and fields of wheat......

we drove past this interesting fence.  Old wagon wheels.

Then we drove along the Clearwater River for about 15 lovely miles.

First we saw it wa-a-a-a-y down below and then we were driving alongside it.

 

Russ's friend Bud told us his road wasn't easily found with a navigator.  He was almost right.  You could find the road but there's no way you'd know to climb way up a hill just depending upon the navigator.  Off the pavement, onto a gravel road, past the A-1 Body Shop, up the hill, past the shack sort of place, up up up the hill, to the end of the road and Bud and Greta's house.  She has lived way up there for over 35 years.  We had a great lunch with many foods from their garden:  various kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, awesome salsa, lettuce.  The bread, salami, and cheese weren't from the garden.  After our lunch we played WILDERNESS GOLF!  They have a driving range just beyond the garden:

Every couple of weeks they take their quad bikes down the hill and collect as many balls as they can find.  It was fun and nice to swing my arms.  I hit some great drives, but then being way up on top of a hill makes everything (almost) look really super great.

How about this!?  I'd never driven anything like a motorcycle or quad bike before but when Bud asked if I'd like to drive his quad how could I possibly say no.  With Greta as my guide on her bike, and a brief lesson, we drove down the driveway and into the forest.  What fun!!!!!!  I could really like this kind of toy. I did have to really concentrate.  :)

It was time to leave Bud and Greta and get on the road towards Oregon.  (I've never been to Oregon.) Bye Guys and thanks for a WONDERFUL few hours!

 

The deer wanted to say good-bye to us too---they took off as our car approached:

We reversed our route along the Clearwater River, which is part of the Lewis & Clark trail.

Off we drove, eventually into the sunset.  At first we thought our goal would be Pendleton, Oregon but an 8.30 arrival time lost out to Walla Walla, Washington with a 7.30 arrival. 

 

 

Tomorrow night........Oregon!  Until then, good night.  (Russ is already sleeping soundly.)

August 25th: Spokane, Washington: a day of rest

Mileage:  9.5

We had the unexpected pleasure of a gently rainy day today.  Started early and lasted 4-5 hours.  It stopped by late afternoon and then the sky was full of beautiful clouds.  I was so busy relaxing that I never even thought of taking a picture!

This morning, after posting my Sudsol (stampin' business) updates, I went about one of my goals of the day which was to find a knitting shop to find a pattern for my new grandson's (currently known as "Spud") Christmas stocking.  He's due to arrive in early October.  I found a shop in the phone book, called, and found out that they have some Christmas stocking kits, lots of yarn, and do most of their business on the web.  Paradise Fibers: Everything for Spinning, Knitting and Weaving.  Located in the industrial area of Spokane.  The guy on the phone, Travis, told me they were located in a 'Bermuda Triangle' and not very find-able by GPS Navigators so he gave me the address of a music store in front of their store for my Garmin Nuvi navigator and the landmark of an Adult Bookstore next to the music store.  Just drive around in back and there would be the knit shop. Got there perfectly.  And bonus of bonuses, they had some of the same company's kits for stockings that I had purchased 4 years earlier for Austin's stocking. Of course I purchased it! No, I can't describe the stocking until it's finished.  Here's the unsuspecting looking shop:


Now, just before leaving for the shop I checked my email one more time and I had an email from a fellow stamper who lives in Spokane.  She had read my Stampin' Up! update and noticed that my signature announced that I was in Spokane, Washington  She was wondering if I'd have time to meet her.  So I called her right away and we planned on lunch.  Awesome huh? 

I did my knitting shopping and then met Nancy at Ambrosia's, right on my path back to the Sammons' home and on a street I knew so I wouldn't get lost, Garmin or no Garmin.  We had a great lunch and gab fest.  How neat is that!?  I have met more people through my rubber stamping business and then the Sudsol business email list.


I got back to the Sammons' in plenty of time to meet their old friends, June and Ken, who were here from Yuma AZ, en route to a meeting.  They had a 3 hour window here in Spokane.  Nice visit even if we didn't know them beforehand.

A few hours later we all enjoyed a yummy chicken, 'rice soup', and peas dinner followed by lots of great conversation.  This has been such a fun and relaxing visit.

And now it's bedtime.  We're on the road again tomorrow.  Heading for Oregon.  So, until tomorrow night.......bye. 

August 24th: from Gardiner, Montana to Spokane, Washington

Miles traveled: 473.3   Beautiful scenery!

We safely arrived at Ray and Lana's home about 3.45 Sunday afternoon.  That includes a time change, going back one hour.  So we're now back on our 'regular' time and won't be changing again unless and until we take another jaunt away from home, over a time zone.  I discovered this morning that Ray and Lana (or a neighbor) have wireless internet, so I am good to go on my own computer and don't have to figure out how to connect cable DSL or anything else to be able to work on our blog.  This is great! Let's get started.

Gardiner MT is right outside the north entrance, Mammoth Hot Springs, of Yellowstone.  That puts us right outside of Wyoming, just into Montana.  I've tried to get the signs going into each state and....well....the one going into Montana just slipped right by me.  It was a tiny sign, about 1 foot off the ground, inside Yellowstone Park, looking like a park camp ground sign that said simply: ENTERING MONTANA.  It was a narrow road at that point and my driver had absolutely no interest in turning around so I could capture it for the sake of 'good journalism'.  In fact, I knew not to even dare ask.

We started out from the very edge of town and off into the BIG SKY COUNTRY of MONTANA.  

This is the view walking out of our motel room:

And here's the motel, Yellowstone Village Inn, last one in town----or, if you're arriving from the north, it's the first one in town!  We didn't make a reservation ahead of time so there was no room at the Best Western.  We stopped at another motel that had only a smoking room available---I checked it out, it reeked---but the clerk kindly phoned to see if the place we ended up staying in had a room, which they did.  Very pleasant and totally satisfactory!

 

We got on the road about 7.30-8.00 a.m., highway 89 for 50 miles, headed to Livingston  MT.  There was a beautiful stream that hugged the road most of this ride (not shown).

 

I know, taking photos from inside the car isn't always a good idea.  Just please look through the windshield glare!  Once we got to Livingston, it was a left turn, heading west on Hwy 90 for the next 4 hours.

It seemed as if every 10 minutes the topography changed:

  

 

Above is a telephoto shot of the large mine in Butte MT.  Over 2 billion dollars in copper, gold, silver and zinc has been mined over the years from this town.  There are still over 4000 miles of underground shafts from where some mining is still lucrative.

 

Above: this stream, CLARK FORK (named most likely for William Clark, partner of Merriwether Lewis---not for the Clark Fork up Hwy 108 from our house, where we camp every July) followed along the road for miles and it meandered from one side of the road to the other.  We figured we went over the stream, on bridges of course, at least 10 times.  Every time it was just beautiful and inviting.  We did not travel with fishing gear!

Above:  this hillside cut was very purple.  Hard to tell from the photo.

Below: sort of lousy example of one of the many similar road construction sites we traveled through throughout the country.  Your state's tax dollars at work.

Below: Speed limit sign.  In California the highest speed we have is 65.  In South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, the (legal) highway speed was 75.  Occasionally it went down to 70, or, god forbid, occasionally 65.  Construction zones were 45, 50, or 55. And they often went on for miles and miles.

Below: Welcome to Idaho.  Not much difference from Montana.  We drove across the panhandle of Idaho:  73 miles.  Sure is a nice difference from going  400-700 miles to get across a state!

Below: Run-away truck safety ramp.  When coming down a long grade that could require a lot of brake use, you'll come across a ramp with about a foot of gravel that will quickly slow down a 'big-rig' truck whose brakes have overheated.

 

Below: Welcome to Washington.  Although we were watching for the Washington State Line, it snuck up on us, on the left rather than the usual right.

   

And now, here we are, with our friends Ray and Lana Sammons.  Lana's twin sister, Lynn, and her husband Bob, and their parents, Leroy and Vera came over to see Russ, who they hadn't seen for many years, and for cocktails.  Nice and relaxing time on the back deck.

Left - right: Bob, Leroy, Lana, Lynn, Vera

left to right:  Lana, Vera, and Russ who's making a point.

His honor:  Ray  :)

  

Tomorrow will be another peaceful, relaxing day.  I'll be showing you the unusual layout of the home in their neighborhood.  And who knows what else!  See you then.

AUGUST 23rd: Yellowstone--AWESOME!

Miles traveled: 216  Hours treveled: 12

Oh my gosh!  If you ever wonder if you should visit Yellowstone Naitonal Park, think no more.  You should!  It's spectacular.  Such varied scenery!  You'll only be getting a few highlights right now since I couldn't get the motel internet to work well last night.  This will be a photo journal.  And I'm going to try something new this time:  an album on a separate page.  We took so many pictures!  And if you've seen one bison you haven't seen them all--hece many pictures of bison.  And elk, and geysers, and and and......

As we left Cody Wyoming we passed this,ahm, this motor home.  Wonder how far he got?

There are two active fires in and around Yellowstone right now: one outside the park that they are controlling as they let it burn (eradicating a pesky beetle as I mentioned yesterday) and another inside the park in the southwest area.  You can see the smoke in this photo.  We feared it was going to be hanging over the entire park but, fortunately that was not the case.

 

Ahhh, the entry to the park:

 

Then the 'pay point' entry.  With the Senior Passport I had purchased at our Ranger Station in Mi Wuk for $10, our entry into the park was free.  Nice perk of seniority!

 

Here our some of the day's highlights.  More details and scenery will come tonight. 

Yellowstone Lake (141 miles only of shoreline) which is huge.  Heck, I never even know it existed!  The bison knew it was there.

We arrived at the Geyser area of the park about 10 minutes before Old Faithful 'went off'.  Quite exciting!

 

Then we had an Old Faithful/Bison lunch:  Bison chili and Old Faithful Ale, produced in Montana.  It was good!!!

Grand Prismatic Spring:  This is one of many springs in the Geyser area.  This one is technically called a Fumerole. (I need to double check that spelling.)  The type of hot and cooler water it expels allows for the growth of certain algae, hence the deep crystal blue in the center and the yellow and orange algae growths on the edges.

Here's an overhead view.  If you check the new page/album that I'm going to add, you'll see more of the fascinating detail for this prismatic spring.

 

 

8-24, Sunday: And now we are leaving Gardiner, Montana, our overnight lodging after visiting Yellowstone most of yesterday.  I have much more to say but it will have to wait till tonight.  When you see REVISED/UPDATED (or something similar) in the title of the entry for the 23rd, you'll know that the day has been completed.  We now have 7 hours of driving to get to Spokane Washington to visit Russ's former UAL buddy and his wife.  Ray and Lana.  Can't wait to be in a real home again! Until later........

August 22nd: Cody, Wyoming

Mileage:  ZERO!  Well, actually about 9.5  Russ says it was a very good day!

Guess what?  We're staying put today.  The only driving will be into the town of Cody since our motel is on the outside fringe of town.  We're taking some mental and physical relaxation which, we realize, we really need.  We have two full loads of laundry already in the machines.  The clean clothing will last us the rest of the way home.

This is the first fairly chilly morning.  It was in the 50s when we got up and a sweater would still be a good idea for a wuss like me.

After laundry we had several small goals today:  post office and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  But first, a little walk through town to see what's there.  This is the first unusual thing we ran into:

This guy came around the corner walking his bull.  No clue why.  No clue anything. 

Then, walking along the other side of the street, we came upon this bear:

He's one of many along the sidewalks of Cody right now.  The bears have each been decorated by 'someone' and are going to be auctioned off next week, with the proceeds going to the local F.A.A., Future Farmers of America.  

In case you're wondering, I can't get rid of the underlining in the previous paragraph.  I'll keep trying.   (Later---no luck)

We had a light lunch at Taco John's, or something like that, and then went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  Awesome museum.  And we didn't get to cover all of it by any means.  It's divided into 5 sub-museums:

Buffalo Bill Museum-fascinating and full of artifacts
Draper Museum of Natural History: where I will start next time!
Cody firearms Museum:  hmmmmmm.....guess who started with this one?
Whitney Gallery of Western Art:  another time
Plains Indian Museum: where I spent nearly an hour and could have spent the entire day.

Since we didn't see any bison along our drive I took these photos inside the museum:

In Buffalo Bill's rooms there was a plaque with important words of W.F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody:

"As early as 1878, Cody was quoted as saying, "Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."  When asked for his solution to the Indian "problem" he replied, "never make a single promise to the Indians that is not fulfilled."

Perhaps we could learn from that quote today.

Back in our room we thought we would take a little nap before going out to dinner.  No nap. Just tidying up.  We went to dinner at a place guaranteed to have the best and truest 'cowboy' food. It was hopping.  We had been advised in the afternoon, when checking their menu, to make a reservation for dinner which we did.  While we were sitting at our table, party after party of hungry folks were turned away.  We offered the other side of our table (seated 4, we were only 2) to the waitress but for well over half an hour she didn't offer it to anyone....just turned them away or told them to come back in 45 minutes.  A couple came back in after the their 45 minutes had passed and were about to be turned away when we said "Hey, you're welcome to sit here--as long as we aren't expected to pay for your dinner!"  They sat down and we had the best time with them.  They had come to Cody, via Mt. Rushmore, Custer Park, Spearfish, Deadwood, Lead, and all those other hot attractions in the Black Hills.  On a motorcycle.  From Ohio.  He's an insurance broker, his wife of 8 years is from China.

 

And here's their bike.

We'll probably be seeing them in California in a few years.  It was a fun evening.

And tomorrow?  We're off to Yellowstone, about 50 miles away, early in the morning.