Autumn Wishes

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Palo Duro Canyon and TEXAS!

We'll we've left the cool! We drove to Palo Duro Canyon from Chama, a very long trip. When we got to canyon, we discovered they had just put down tar and rocks on all the roads in the park. It was quite a mess. We stayed in a campground that we had never stayed in before. It allowed us to walk to the play. We enjoyed the play especially the special effects that really surprised us the first night we were camped there. There was a huge explosion (the scene where lightning strikes the canyon) and it shook our trailer. We attended our meeting in Canyon and headed home. It's good to be back.

Cool Chama

We have spent the last few days at Rio Chama RV park just down the tracks from the Cumbres-Toltec RR. It has been nice and cool. We've not had to run the air conditioner at all. We just rested and walked the dogs. I crafted with some of the ladies who spend the summer here and it was fun. I think we will really enjoy spending the summer here. Bound to be cooler than Texas. The WIFI has been a little spotty so I've been slow getting this uploaded. When we get to Palo Duro Canyon we will not have any WIFI at all. We will be home on Sunday. It has been fun.

Traveling with the "Boys"

Last time we went on a vacation like this, it was with kids. I would never have believed that we would take along 2 large dogs on a 12 week trip of over 7000 miles....and enjoy it. The dogs have been exceptionally good travelers. They have the backseat which is covered with a canvas "hammock" that gives them more room since it covers the foot well. They usually doze as we travel the highway but let us slow down and up pop 2 heads to check out the change of scenery. Autie, of course, sits quite calmly watching the scenery. Ulysses sometimes get restless and tries to take his half out of the middle. Autie just rests his head on Ulysses when he takes up too much room. But we have yet to have any barking or fighting in the back seat. We make quite an entrance as we check into the campground because of the 2 happy faces sticking out the open windows. I'm amazed at the many dog lovers who come to ask about and pet the dogs in the campgrounds. Autie and Ulysses have made us get out and walk much more than we would have without them. They have provided us with introductions to other nice people and pets in the campgrounds. And amazingly they have been very good when we have left them in the trailer. Only once did they pull trash out all over and they were probably mad because we ran in and fed them and left for a third time. We are fortunate they are good dogs and we've enjoyed having them along.

In...In...Internet

A Few Thoughts on 21st Century Communication while Camping.

Our trip is drawing to a close. Tomorrow, we head for Chama for a few days, then to Palo Duro Canyon. We will be back in good ole' West Texas in less than 2 weeks. Traveling has been tremendously fun. I have loved the many things we've seen and the nice people we have met. I've also enjoyed keeping friends and family up to date on the trip with this blog. It is amazing to me that in the short span of about 4 years, nearly every commercial campground has WiFI access. Some connections are really good while others are just plain frustrating. Cell phone connections have also improved immensely...good-by to waiting in line for the pay phone to check in at home. We have grown too old to camp in the back country away from the rest of the tourists and in many ways it is very nice to have all the comforts. However, tourist areas are busy and full of traffic making it somewhat less enjoyable.

Some of the times I've tried to update this blog I found that slow connections are blog-impossible. Since I was scolded for not checking in or updating my blog for over a week, I will let you all know that Internet connections for the next several days at Chama will be iffy and will be non existent in Palo Duro Canyon. Cell phone coverage may be limited as well. We're headed back into the techno past. So if you don't hear from us via this blog...we haven't fallen of the edge of the earth -- just out of tower range.

The High Country

Our next stop was Ouray, CO, a charming town nestled in a high valley of the San Juan Mountains. We have always enjoyed camping there. The town is known as the Jeep capital of Colorado. Most people who go there, bring or rent jeeps, and tour the mountain trails. There is a large hot springs pool there, too.

Chuck took a jeep tour down the Black Bear Road, one of the most difficult jeep roads in the area. That way he gets to look while an experienced driver drives and narrated the history of the mining camps in the area. I decided to enjoy a quiet day at the campground with the dogs. You'll know why when you look at the series of steep switchbacks going down the mountain to Telluride. We drove to Montrose and did a little antiquing there. Also visited the Russell Stovers chocolate factory store...yum-yum. The next day we andered the shops in town and went to the Ouray County museum which was recognized by the Smithsonian as one of the best museums in the west. The recognition was well deserved and they have really added to the museum.

We have been staying at Ouray off and on for 30 years. Each year we wondered if they would ever restore or rennovate the Beaumont Hotel which in its heyday was a draw for the rich. For the past 30 years it was painted pink and rather a sad beacon on one of the street corners. They have now redone the hotel and it is lovely. The lower floors are shops, hotel lobby and a resturant. The lobby harkens back to the elegant Victorian days.

(After the remodel)

After 3 days at Ouray, it was time to brave the Million Dollar Highway, the scariest road in the area. The GPS screen looks like a mess of snakes as it shows the switchbacks along the narrow cliffside of the road we're to travel. The common wisdom is that tourists (especially wives )who make it down the highway are known to say, "I wouldn't drive that highway again for a million dollars." But I gritted my teeth, bowed my head and pressed the brakes on the passenger side( which was also the 400 foot straight-down cliff side) and we moved on to Durango which is famous for its narrow gauge train, which of course we had to ride. It was a nice trip up to Silverton, an old mining town, now specializing in mining the tourists.

We drove to Aztec, NM and visited their city musuem which had lots of things to see including old buildings from the past. We also rambled around Farmington which has become a large shopping mecca. Our last stop in this area will be Mesa Verde, one of my favorite parks. The campground we are staying at is divided by the Durango Silverton RR tracks. To Chuck's delight, 6 trains rumble through the campground each day. The campers stand along the tracks and return the riders waves. Ulysses does not like that black monster that makes such a loud noise and will take off if you aren't careful , leaving you on the ground behind. Autie just takes it in stride.

Stones, Bones, Dinosaurs and Flowers

Sounds like an odd combination, doesn't it, but that's what Vernal's made of. We traveled from Rock Springs through Flaming Gorge to Vernal, Utah. The scenic highway through the gorge was full of awesome scenery. When we arrived at Vernal, though, I was struck by the amazing sight of unbelievable lush red, pink and white flowers everywhere. The entire town had baskets, bushels, barrels and boxes of flowers everywhere...and they were all real! We stayed at a RV park in town right next to the high school football field. We were able to let the dogs run and play on the field ...until they discovered gophers. Ulysses, being the hunter, first spotted a gopher and took off at top speed to stick his nose in the hole. The second day we took them to run off some energy, Ulysses remembered those holes and as soon as his leash was let loose, he speed like a black streak to the other side of the field. We never could get him to play with Autie and leave the holes alone.

The second day of our stay, we went to the Dinosaur National Monument and to the various musuems in the area. The Utah Field House State Park is the display arena for the various fossils coming out of the area. This was an especially nice museum with a good interactive component that our kids would have loved when they were young. The building's garden is full of life size models of the various dinosaurs interspersed with plants and more of the flowers.

Then we went to their Western Heritage musuem which was the type of museum I call "Grandmother's attic" which I love. There were all kinds of relics from the early pioneer days.

After lunch we drove the 18 miles out to the Dinosaur national monument. The quarry wall which I was looking forward to seeing is closed because the building is falling down. Seems as though it was built without a good bedrock foundation on dirt which is the equivalent of kitty litter . The temporary visitor's center is spartan but they had a shuttle that took us up to the Dinosaur Discovery trail which is 1 and 3/4 of a mile long so we took our trusty walking sticks to walk up and down the parched terrain. Along some of the cliffs we saw a fossilized vertabrate and a large bone sticking out of the rock as well as smaller bones and fossils. There were also some petroglyhs in a washed out rock area. It was brutally sunny for most of our hike, although some clouds did try to tease us. Then we took a ranger guided bus tour to several places in the park: Swelter Shelter, a petroglyph site that lived up to its name, Chew Ranch, an overlook of a campground and pioneer ranch, and Split Mountain where the river flows through a canyon. We were very glad the bus had air conditioning.

We enjoyed our sorjourn at Vernal very much. Now we head toward the cool! Ouray, here we come.

Meeting family at Rock Springs

On the way from Brigham City to Rock Springs, WY we stopped at Ft. Bridger State Park. This was a fur trader fort, a trading post and an 1880s military post. It has been very nicely restored. The officer's quarters are lovely examples of Victorian houses and are nicely furnished. The trading post is set up with all kinds of merchandise and costumed docents. The fur trading post is also staffed by living history people. We got to take the dogs over the acres of the park and they had a ball.

Over the years, I have heard fondly from my mother and Aunt Leota about their cousin, Lowell and other members of his family. I have been looking forward to meeting them on this trip. We traveled to Rock Springs WY which is in southern WY and is an oil and coal mining town. It was a fairly easy drive from Brigham City. We stayed at the Rock Springs KOA which was one large graveled expensive parking lot surrounded by barren foothills. We visited the Rock Springs heritage museum which is in an impressive old building. The weather was very much like Midland, dry and warm. The scenery was just a bumpy version of the desert surrounding Midland. We had a good time and will move on to Vernal, Utah where we may find some dinosaurs.

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Into Utah

From Boise, we drove to Brigham City, Utah. We found a very nice campground on the edge of the city. It is kept very clean and green and there is a large field where we can let the dogs run and chase each other. We were ahead of schedule so we decided to use the extra days to rest and take it slow.

A few miles from Brigham City is Promontory Summit and the Golden Spike National Park. This park had much more activities than most national parks. The day we were there was a fee free day and their book store was 20% off. Just outside of the visitors center were two replica locomotives, all shiny and gaudy with theirvictorian trim. They fired up the engines and did a narrated run-by for the visitors. Of course, Chuck was in train buff's heaven. After seeing the trains and visitors center we took an auto tour on the railroad grade and then walked about 1 1/2 miles to the "Big Fill", a place where they had filled a small gorge on one side and built a trestle on the other line. The two railroads worked on and graded two parallel lines for 250 miles trying to get more money because the Congress would not assign a spot for them to meet. It was finally decided to meet a Promontory Summit where the lines first meet. The engineering was amazing on parts of the railroads. This was a most enjoyable trip.

Not too far from the NHS was a company that built rockets for NASA. They had a large outdoor rocket display and we stopped there on our way back to Brigham City.

We drove to Ogden to see their Utah Railroad Museum in the old Union Station there. It was a very nice musuem with friendly "conductors" and a huge model train layout. As part of the admission, we also saw a large gun collection from the Browning Gun works and an antique car collection with some real beauties.

Chuck got the car serviced as we have traveled aroung 6500 miles so far. This part of Utah is a pleasant place , friendly, clean and sunny. The weather is warm but dry like Midland so we have enjoyed the stay. We have two more days and will probably look around the area some more and rest up to move on. We will be going to Rock Springs, Utah to meet a cousin of my mother's.

Along the Columbia to Pendleton, Oregon

We left Ft. Stephens and traveled along the Columbia River Gorge which is quite a scenic trip. The Columbia is a huge river threading its way through hills and mountains to the Pacific. As we left the coast, the temperature climbed and climbed until it was nearly as hot as home. We pulled into Pendleton, Oregon which was the home of the Pendleton Wool Mills. We took a tour of the mills which was disappointedly small but it was an interesting tour. The outlet store had hundreds of the Indian design blankets which cost hundreds of dollars. Their fabric was minimal although I bought 2 pieces for re-enacting. As we have traveled through Oregon, we found that the state has a law that a gas attendant must pump your gas. The law was passed to provide low level jobs. Most of the attendants were nice but I noticed throughout the stores and especially at the Pendleton outlet store that many of the young people have a very belligerent and irritated attitude toward their jobs. The twittery girl (talking across the store to a friend) who reluctantly cut my fabric was obviously not wanting to be there or to be inconvenience by customers. When she cut my fabric she did such a shoddy irregular job since she was obviously irritated and inconvenienced that the piece will not be useable. Wish I had caught the problem before I left and I would have let my feelings go since she wasn't the first or only infantile young person we'd dealt with in Oregon. No wonder the state government must make low end jobs. Oregon is also very ecologically conscious to an unsensible dregree. According to a radio program we heard, the state government does not consider the hydro electric dams on the Columbia as a renewable resource--huh?

We also took a tour of the Pendleton Underground, a basement level of businesses, speak-easys, brothels, opium dens and Chinese labor quarters. The tour was well done and we enjoyed it. We also went to their historical museum which was very expensive for a poor excuse for a musuem -- obviously just to fleece the tourists. As you can tell, Pendleton, OR, is on the bottom of my list for this trip.

From Pendleton, we drove to Boise, Idaho. We drove through farm country but I didn't see any plants I thought were the famed potatoes, mainly corn, wheat and hay. The scenery was lots of hilly farmland. Boise is a large city of about 250,000 and is much like Midland/Odessa area with shopping areas. We went through their historical museum and through a military museum but really spent more time resting and staying out of the heat. It was in the 90's + here and our air conditioner is really struggling to keep the trailer even marginally cool. Tomorrow we will travel to Brigham City, Utah to see Prometory Point and the Golden Spike. Bet it's going to get even hotter.

Ft. Stephens and Ft. Clatsop, Oregon

Along with seeing Yellowstone, one of my most looked -forward- to events of this trip was to see the Pacific Ocean. Michael took us to Aberdeen 0n the coast and we walked the dogs out to the water. The day was grey and we couldn't see much but it was awesome to think that the water stretched all the way to Asia. Mike said that 4th of July at the beach was very popular and the beach was littered with fireworks debris. Ulysses and Autie enjoyed the romp on the beach but Ulysses wasn't sure of the much water, particularly since it seemed to be chasing him and would then run away from him.

We drove to Astoria, Oregon and crossed the Columbia river just before it entered the ocean. The bridges around there were amazing, long bridges and drawbridges. The piles of logs that were stacked up beside the river were also immense.

After leaving Michael's we drove to the Northwestern area of Oregon where Lewis and Clark spent their winter by the Pacific Ocean. We stayed at Ft. Stephens State Park which was a huge wooded camping area in what was an army/artillery base from the Civil War to the 1950s turned into a museum and camping area. Supposedly it was the largest campground west of the Mississippi. Campers and tents were shoe-spooned into as small an area possible and there were lots of them. We went on a tour of the artillery bunkers that were established to guard the coastline. We took a tour that took us through the underground area which was a dark maze. It was quite interesting.

We also went to the NPS Ft. Clatsop, which is where Lewis and Clark spent the winter near the Pacific. The vegetation and scenery is very verdant and beautiful. However, with the constant moisture, it would have to be. Ferns grow huge and so do the trees. There were living history people manning the fort and demonstrating the life of the time. I took lots of pictures.

We went to the Pacific with Michael and here we saw the mouth of the Columbia at the ocean. It was very grey and dreary when were there. The Columbia is an impressive river. We followed it to Pendleton, Oregon.

Traveling on to Michael's

We left Yellowstone early to drive toward Olympia, WA where our son lives. We really enjoyed the drive to Missoula where we stopped the first night. The roads were good and the scenery was beautiful ...rolling hills and green plains with very little evidence of people.

We stopped at Missoula, MT for the first night of a very long drive. The campground we stayed at was beautiful. The people there had amazing green thumbs...there were lovely flowers all though the park and it was manicured beautifully. Jim and Mary's RV park was set up well and we thought how nice it would be to stay a few nights.

However, we left early to drive on to Olympia, WA. We made it about 3:00 and got set up in Olympia Campground. This is a large pine covered area and the dogs love the large area to walk in. We toured Olympia and Tacoma with Mike and his lovely girlfriend, Beth. We had plans to go to Seattle but I developed an awful allergy reaction to all the mold and pollen here and those plans have been scrapped until later. One thing I hope to see...and will, regardless...is the Pacific Ocean on Friday or Saturday. We are thinking about riding the Mt. Hood train on Sunday.

We've had a good time with Mike and Beth. This is a lovely area of the country but this Texan handles dust easier than humidity and mold.

Yellowstone: Day 5 Mammoth Springs and Roosevelt Tower Area

This was our last day of our stay in Yellowstone. We started early to go to the Tower area. We stopped at the Tower falls and used our new walking sticks to wind our way down to the river. We’ve found that all the walking up and down hills has been hard on the knees and feet so we bought some hiking poles. We’ve noticed lots of people using them and now we know why, they add stability and support to complaining knees. After the falls, we drove on to the Roosevelt Lodge area. This is a rustic lodge and cabin area with horse corrals for horseback riding and campfire cookouts. We ate lunch at the lodge and then went on a stagecoach ride. It took you out a ways and then to a turn around where the “shotgun” got out and took pictures for everyone and told about the early park days where stagecoaches were the only transportation. The kids on board enjoyed it and so did those of us in our second childhood.




Next, we headed to Mammoth Hot Springs near the north entrance of the park. This was the location of Ft. Yellowstone where the army protected the park before the park rangers. The Mammoth hot springs are on the side of the mountains. Rain threatened most of the day but waited until we tried to see the hot springs to let loose. The area was very congested and there was no place to park except about ½ mile from the springs. We grabbed our walking sticks and hiked over to the mountain side with all the white travertine dripping down the mountain side. About the time we got to top of the stairs, lightning
flashed all around us and thunder boomed. Everyone else hurried down the stairs and as much as I wanted to see it all, we followed just in time to get
soaked. I was disappointed by hot springs because there were really few
active springs. We were the only things dripping at the springs that day. We were headed back to the trailer when we were stopped at a turnout by park rangers holding guns. They were staring up the cliff but we couldn’t see anything up there. One of the rangers loaded his gun
and then shot up the cliff. Apparently, that took care of the problem and
they let us through. Our speculation was that a grizzly or mountain lion had gotten too close to the people and they were scaring it away. Wildlife have the right away here and much is said about not feeding the wildlife because they become aggressive. Bears are not allowed too close people now and vice versa. The days of stopping to feed the bears is over. However, some people still do not use good sense. They stop their cars in the middle of a heavily traveled road to take a picture and create a traffic jam. There are lots of pullouts if you want to pull over to look at things. Bison are everywhere and we saw people get out of cars within feet of these huge horned animals. I have enjoyed seeing Yellowstone…it’s been a lifelong dream but I will be glad to leave the hoards of people and traffic behind. There were just too many people…and this was supposed to be wilderness.

Yellowstone Day 4 Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole

We loaded up the dogs and headed for the Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole, WY which adjoins Yellowstone to the South. The peaks were awesome and the scenery was beautiful. We did not stop much since there were few turnouts or visitors centers. We drove into Jackson which was stuffed with people and cars because of the 4th of July holiday. Mainly, a tourist town we didn’t see much to stop and look out.. We grabbed a hamburger and fought our way back through the traffic and headed back to the campground. The dogs have been such good travelers. They either lay down and sleep or sit up and look out the window enjoying the scenery. Surprisingly, they don’t fight or wrestle in the back seat and seem to just adapt. Whoever is taking up his half out of the middle becomes the pillow for the other one. Now aren’t they cute?

Yellowstone Day 3

Old Faithful…who can come to Yellowstone and not see old Faithful. The entire geyser basin is amazing. We sat on the balcony of the Old Faithful Lodge and watched the geyser blow. Then we took a tour of the Old Faithful Inn to learn about its architecture and its history. The Inn itself is a treasure from the early days of the park. After the tour we ate lunch in the dining room. The meal was good and the ambiance was old fashioned. The Inn has such a 1900s feel, even the bathrooms are in an elegant art deco style. I’ve never before been tempted to take a picture of a bathroom but the ladies room was lovely. We had a young man for a waiter who was very friendly and congenial. The company, Xanterra, who is the contractor for the commercial areas in the park seems to do a very good job. There were plenty of service people in the shops and restaurants. Many are young people from different places including overseas who spend the summer working here and live in dorms. There are also retired couples who work in various capacities and live in their rigs in the Fishing Bridge campground. Doesn’t that sound like a fantastic way to spend a summer? After lunch we wandered around the geyser basin and looked at the various features. I took several movies of the bubbling, gurgling, spitting and roiling features that I plan to put into a movie and will post it. We drove through to Madison and then through the construction before Norris. Next, we headed to the Canyon area where there are lots of wildlife. However, people stop in the middle of the road and block traffic to take a picture of a buffalo. You can imagine what Chuck had to say about that! We have seen 2 elk, a moose, many buffalo, white pelicans, an eagle and the recently reintroduced grey wolf. No bears – although the rangers tell you to make noise on the trail so you don’t sneak up on one. One species that is abundantly represented is people. As lovely as the scenery is, I am tired of all the cars, traffic and people everywhere. You can’t pull over on one of the turnouts to see anything because they are jammed. We wanted to see the paint pots but could not find a parking place after circling twice. I know this is the busiest time for the park but I hope we can come back in autumn and avoid all the people…and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were awful in most of the areas but the Old Faithful geyser basin. Guess mosquitoes are smart enough to stay away from all that hot water. At the campground, they swarm people and dogs alike and make the outdoors miserable.

Yellowstone Day 2

Chuck was not feeling well so I went on a 2 hour ranger hike at Indian Pond/Storm Point in the morning. It took us past a hot springs pond which had a Nez Pierce story of an old Indian women left behind there in the Indians flight from the cavalry. Then we raced after the ranger through forest, meadows and up to an overlook for Yellowstone Lake where the Ranger left us to either go back the way we came over steep climbs or to finish the loop trail that went to back to parking lot. I opted for the rest of the loop which wandered through old growth forest and meadows. I photographed some beautiful flowers and plain old robin sitting on a rotting tree. It was fun but after 3 miles, did my feet ever hurt.

We took some time off for lunch and Chuck decided to go with me to the Canyon area which was about 16 miles north. There was another village area with shops and lodges and a visitor’s center that had exhibits about the great volcano caldera that powers all the geothermal features. This is a very active area with many earth quakes happening, most of which aren’t felt. I hope we can skip the earthquake experience. After that, we stopped at the lower falls of Yellowstone river. They were beautiful so we took the trail down to the brink of the falls. It was a steep winding trail with about 5 or long switchbacks to get down to the falls and the overlook. I made it down but found that I am not all that athletic as I tried to get back up the trail. Each switchback had benches for the out-of-winders who couldn’t handle the 8,000 + altitude and the climb. “Benches are our friends” to refine and paraphrase our friend Lee’s favorite saying. We also looked at the Upper Falls but did not take the walk to the brink. Chuck wouldn’t admit it but I think he was glad I …no, my feet and knees…opted out of that walk. We went back to the trailer, fixed supper and after a good thunderstorm , we took the dogs for a long walk around the campground. My feet and legs complained all night long.

We saw meadows of the these huge bison. They just lumber along and act as though the crazy, gawking tourists are just a nusiance. The tourists think nothing of shutting it down in the middle of the road to take a picture of these animals.

Yellowstone Day 1

We traveled to Yellowstone through the East entrance which is west of Cody, WY. Of course, the scenery grew more breathtaking the closer we got to the park. We headed our camper to the Fishing Bridge Campground which is a campground that allows only hard sided rigs because of the proximity of bears. Pets are not allowed off a lease or on the trails because of the hazards of geo-thermal areas, and animals like wolves and bears. The camping area is stuffed full with lots of rigs shoe-spooned into sites. Not a whole lot of distance between rigs but there are trees between the rows of campers. All in all, it beats driving 60-100 miles just to get to the park. The campground is near an early park bridge called Fishing Bridge which was a popular spot for fisherman until the 1970s but now you can’t fish from the bridge. The Yellowstone River is gorgeous at this area. It is currently out of its banks and you can see trees in the middle of the river. We set up the trailer and walked through the visitor’s center and some of the shops in the area. It was mostly expensive tourist stuff and very expensive food items (bread $4.19 a loaf). Good thing we had stocked up for this stay. After talking to the rangers at the Visitors center we decided to catch a ranger talk at the “Mud Volcano” area. This was an area that had Dragon Mouth, a hot springs that bubbled and rumbled and sounded like faraway artillery fire. The Mud Volcano had blown its top and was just a burbling mud hole in the side of a mud hill. There were other geothermal features and we learned a lot about them. This ranger did a nice job and you could tell he liked his job.

Then we reserved a seat on the Lake cruise. That was the most fun! It took us out on Yellowstone lake where saw the Lake Lodge from the front. There was a ranger as a tour guide. The amount of water here and its beauty amazes me.

The dogs have traveled well but they ask in their own doggie way the question that is on everyone’s mind during a road trip, “Aren’t we there yet?”

On to Cody and Yellowstone

On Monday, June 29th, we loaded up and moved to Cody, WY near the entrance of Yellowstone. We took a road we thought would be shorter but found it was a corkscrew road through the mountains. The scenery was amazing but it took us much longer than we expected. We got to Cody in early afternoon, threw up the trailer and walked the dogs, so we could see the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. This is an amazing museum - actually 5 museums- western art museum, natural history museum, gun museum, Buffalo Bill Cody and Indian museums. Look at their website. http://www.bbhc.org/home/index.cfm?CFID=16876162&CFTOKEN=78399013 We wandered through it until I just wore out and sat out as Chuck went through the gun museum.

Our next stop was to be a resturant but we wandered off course and found the house my mother grew up in and my grandmother and aunt have talked about. I had a different picture of it but I can see that it would have fit my grandmother's personality.

Again, we started for a resturant and while trying to decide we found a trading post that had a" World of Minatures Museum" This was a large diorama exhibit done by an individual illustrating the history of the area with audio. Chuck was really impressed with it and started talking about how that was the sort of thing he wanted to do with all his lego projects. Whoops, there goes my house. I was particularly impressed with all the wonderful artifacts there. They were mostly Plains Indians tools, beading, clothing and stuffed prairie animals. Really a vast collection for the back room of a small shop. As we walked out, there was a rack of beaded leather coats that brought out the Annie Oakley in me. The coat just insisted I have it. The owner is going to try to get one my size. Whip-crack-away -- will I ever be western if I get it.

Finally we found a barbecue place and had a good dinner. The BBQ meet the standards of these Texans and was pronounced very good. Then there was a restocking mission at the Walmart merchantile because there will be few places to buy groceries in Yellowstone park. Tomorrow we will drive into the park and stay at a campground in the center called Fishing Bridge. Well, lets hope that the great caldera of the Yellowstone volcano remains quiet. Apparently the geo-thermal elements are more active than usual. This is the part of the trip I have really been looking forward to.

We will not be near WIFI until next week so this is a last post for a while. I'll post pictures on this when I can.

General Custer is dead ...and I'm not feeling too well myself.

When we came to Hardin 16 years ago to attend the Custer symposium, I valiantly sat through all the scholarly papers. Thinking I was not going to survive...I perked up when I heard the title of the last paper...General Custer is dead ...and I'm not feeling too well myself. A tongue-in- cheek exploration of Custer myths, this title summed up my feeling of Custer overload...and it has happened again.
Chuck participated in the Crow agency reenactment of the battle. Held on the land near the Little Big Horn River, where the village stood, it was important to Chuck. I sat in the bleachers for the 2 1/2 hour show during which it was interrupted 3 or four times for special blessings, songs and other activities. I discovered from the symposium and the 3 brothers who talked for a 1 1/2 hr, that Indians do not get in a hurry to tell their story. In the middle of all the hoopla, two planes buzzed the area and across the river 60 paratroopers fell from the sky. They were from S. Carolina and just returned from Iraq. Athough I don't know why they did it at the event, it was quite a sight.

The officers were picked up and rode in with Custer's command. They were commended and honored. When the rest of the detachment arrived, having to wade across the river, they were honored with more speeches and blessings and a dance. Much to the soldiers surprise, they had to dance a victory dance. (Let me add that this took place at 1:00 and it was hot!) Finally, the story began with Indian history through poetry...and it went on...and ...on. Then, at last, the cavalry arrived and battle started. The fighting Indians were all young boys about high school age. Those kids could ride! It was a grand melee of horses, Indians and soldiers. Finally it came time for Custer's Last Stand where Chuck had a part with Custer on Last Stand Hill. He was knocked down by a couple of Indians and played dead. His hat was part of the booty. The story had finally ended. The Indians had won this battle.

Chuck is in thse pictures. First picture, he is the soldier just coming in on the right and in the last picture he is in the middle of the fight. Will he keep his hair?

All the cavalry and Indians rode back across the river. People groaned as the made their way gingerly down the bleachers which were somewhat rickety. They were glad to be getting out of the heat. 15 minutes - no Chuck and I'm at the car waiting. 30 minutes and I'm getting worried. All the soldiers and Indians are leaving but still no Chuck. Finally I started off to find someone to ask when I recognized Chuck striding across the field - he was looking to retrieve his hat. Those that were dismounted and participated at the end with Custer had to walk up a hill and drive through the national park and down to the reservation in order to get back. Without horses, they couldn't get across the river. The experience was over and it was definitely an...experience.


I had never seen such riding as those Indian boys did...they were fearless, dashing around at full speed. The cavalry troops were more restrained but some of those men had just learned to ride the past week. There is a cavalry school held the week prior to this event which participants pay $1800 for.

The reenactment was exciting to watch but the heat was awful and the many delays and unrelated things made it one of those things you call ...an experience.

I will get a movie of the event composed and post it when I can.



General Custer is dead ...and I'm not feeling too well myself