July 2008

July 28th we went to Bozeman today and bought new tires for the car, yes we got Tiger Paws by Uniroyal. While we had the tires installed we walked to a local Café for breakfast, it didn’t look to good on the outside but inside was very nice and decorated in western favor the food was great also. We than did some Wally World shopping as it is 100 miles from where we are and we don’t get this chance to often. We didn’t have a plan for the day as we happened to see a movie theater and decided to see a movie. The one we picked was Mama Mia, it was a very enjoyable flick and we both had a good time. We than drove back to Ennis (50 miles) and played a quick 9 holes of Golf. Naturally we left the camera in the car, as Jon teed off of number two hole we saw a Buck, Doe and twin Fawn Antelope. Kathleen had to wait to tee off as they were less than 50 ft. in front of the ladies tee, it was an awesome sight. After the golf we did some more shopping for cold items at the grocery store. The drive home from Ennis (50 miles) was spectacular sight as the sun was setting and the sky was slightly overcast, at a few places the sun was bright on the mountains and made them look as they were covered in gold. Thank the Lord for his beauty.

July 27th the cowboys arrived for a round-up of the cattle. We are surrounded with grazing fields and BLM land, and a number of herds are in the area. We have corrals onsite and they are bringing in about 1000 head over the next two days. Tonight we had a late night Steak Fry, fresh steaks that if they are 18 ozs it is the runt piece, got to talk to several of the cowboys and thanked them for the work that they do, Putting meat on the table. We are members of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals).

July 27th we watched as the cowboys brought in the cows and were amazed at how well the dogs worked the herd. On Monday when they finished they discovered that about 85 head were missing and they went back out to get them, it was well after 11:00 o’clock till they were finished. They were back in the Saddle early Tuesday morning, not a life that I would cherish, but being out in the open they are enjoying it to the max. It is such a shame that some big fat dude sitting in New York is making more money in selling the cattle than the cowboy is.

July 23rd & 24th At the spur of the moment, since we had two days off together we are going to do an overnight trip to Teton NP. On the way to Jackson we did some geocaching and one of the caches was above the Teton Pass, from here we could see quite a lot of the Jackson Hole area. On the way there we called half a dozen hotels to find a room, thanks to our DeLorme Street Atlas we had the names, addresses and Phone numbers of these places. Upon arriving in Jackson we checked into our room, even after having trouble with the key. We than drove to Teton NP and made a lot of stops at places of interest, also we got a lot of information on things to see. We returned to Jackson and went to the Million Dollar Bar and Steak House, what a great meal. After that we took a walk around Jackson and enjoyed the town. At about 11:30 PM we found out why this place had rooms. There is a Bar next door and after it closed everyone was in the parking lot to do whatever, talk or tussle. This kept Kathleen up and she was at the window making sure they would not destroy our car. Someone called the police and it broke up at about 1:15 AM, as usual Jon slept through it all. Upon rising on the 24th we went to Teton Village for breakfast, from there we went to Jenny Lake South and took the boat across the lake. We than hiked to Hidden Falls, it is one of the nicest falls we have seen also while there we saw a training class for rock climbing as they have a school near by. From there we hiked to Inspiration Point which is about 420 ft above the lake. The views are just fantastic from there, the lake in front of you and the Teton’s directly to your back. From there we hiked back around the South end of the lake to the parking lot, total of the hikes a little over 4 miles. We quickly changed and headed to Colter Bay as we were going to do a boat cruise, the day before we inquired and were told that this never sells out. When we got there after much waiting we were indeed informed that it was SOLD OUT, for the time we wanted to go and that other time were open. We than left and drove through the North end of the Teton’s into the South Entrance of Yellowstone. Having been to a lot of this area before we drove straight to West Yellowstone. We visited the Bear & Wolfe Discovery Center, we spent well over an hour there, but you could spend nearly a day there as we didn’t go to any of the movies. After this we ate and did some shopping before we returned to Wilderness Edge.

July 18th we went to Ennis today, we had cleaned out our closets and were taking the clothing to The Nearly New Shop. This is a volunteer shop and all of the proceeds go to the town. We made our phone calls from here as well, Ennis is 50 miles from Wilderness Edge and is the first place we can get Cell phone reception. We also got brakes for the car and Jon can get them on in another day or so. We finally go out to play some golf, first time since April back in PA, and the score showed that we are rusty. Went to the store and did some shopping and went back to camp.

July 13th we headed out to hike to the CD and we did hike for about 1 ¼ mile and didn’t come across it, we now realize that we didn’t go far enough. We also tried to drive to the area only to realize that this involved a long hike. After spending a lot of great time doing this we did some geocaching. We were a lot more successful at geocaching. We will have to spend more time at the CD in the future.

July 12th after work Glenn and Chris invited us to go along with RT and Donna and we went to the cliffs of Cliff Lake. We had a great ride out and such great views, and from the top of the cliffs we were awestruck with the scenery. We all had a great time and just enjoy being here.

July11th we left early before 7 am and drove through Yellowstone (where we saw some baby elk) and went to Cody, WY. Out of Yellowstone we entered Shoshone National Forest. What a gorgeous drive. We saw different rock and mountain formations that we didn’t knew existed. Naturally we did some geocaching and had a good day. We stopped at the “Buffalo” Bill Cody Dam and saw how it was built. We drove around Cody for a short time and then went north and took a scenic bypass. Such an understatement as scenic bypass for this highway. Neither one of us has any adjectives left to describe this part of WY. Also the Nez Piece Indians used this trail to run from the Army in the late 1870’s. We than stopped at Crooked Creek and had a good supper and did some shopping, it is a great little MT. cowboy town. We than entered Yellowstone through the Northeast gate driving through Lamar valley as there is a lot of animals in that area. We were looking for bear, moose or wolves and didn’t see any. When we got back home it was after 9 o’clock and we were tired and worn out.

July 9th we drove into Ennis (50 miles one way) and did some shopping and also stopped at the local Golf course. We didn’t play just got some information. We also revisited Virginia City again and just had a nice relaxing day, nothing special but a very good day.

July 5th had the day off and did a lot of cleaning on the MH as we unloaded it and swept out the compartments. This was a lot of dirt from the journey out. And of course when every thing was out of the MH and flash storm blew up and it started to rain pretty hard. We got it all away and we were soaked. So much for life on the road, it is a good life.

July 4th Went into Ennis today and had a wonderful day. At 10 o’clock in the morning the Annual 4th of July parade kicked off and it lasted 1 hour and was such a great small town parade. The town boasts 860 people and there were thousands of people there. After the parade we had a bar-b-que Buffalo burger lunch as the Lions Club had a fund raiser in one of the towns parks. We than drove out to the fairgrounds and bought reserve seats for he rodeo. We had great seats that were about 30 feet from the gates, all the action was in front of us. During the rodeo it was quite windy and it took a toll on the roping events, the wind was constant at about 25 MPH and had some heavier gusts even though the temps were in the low 90’s.

July 1st Today we visited the canyon and water part of Yellowstone NP. As usual we did several geocaches along the way. Discovered that most of Yellowstone is in a giant crater and that there are many, many craters within in it. Such an awesome place as all kinds of geological areas. Visited a lake that drains into two different rivers and that the two rivers go to two different oceans. Spend a lot of time at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw how the park got it’s name as the sides of the canyon are yellow in color. We did have a hard time today as we did some caching and we had picked some earth caches, these are like doing home work and it takes a lot of the fun out of it.