Our Travels

The Final Legs of the Trip - July 30 - August 3, 2011

2011-08-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updates, but the last few days were just driving down the highway, stopping for fuel, stopping for lunch and parking in the parking lot of whatever casino was in the neighborhood. Why in casino parking lots? They have buffets!!! Two nights were spent at Harrah's properties, so the stay and the buffet were cost free!!!!

We got home late August 3. We had had problems both August 2 and August 3 with keeping the coach reasonably cool. We would crank the generator and turn on the roof air conditioners. We would head down the road, the coach would get cooler, and the breakers would flip off!!! Then it would heat up in the coach. We would have to stop somewhere, let out one slide, and reset the breakers in order to turn the air back on. Finally on the 3rd, we just gave up and drove home without it.

We did have one problem with fuel on Wednesday in Arkansas. I had used one of my free apps to locate the closest diesel provider (as well as locating the one which was not the most expensive!!). We pulled into the truck section of the fuel dispensers. I got out to go in to advise that we would be paying cash for the fuel. The door was locked. The pump would not take a credit card either. We finally found out that their computers were down. Not only did the pumps not work, they were all locked in the building. Not only the people working at the station were locked in. The customers who had been inside paying for their purchases were locked in. So, we piled back into the coach and headed back up towards two exits north of where we were - thinking that it was only about 5 miles. 14 miles later, we found the truck stop/gas station that we had seen when we were heading south. We did not fill up, because their price was way out of line with what we had seen elsewhere!!!

Anyway, we got back on I55 headed towards Memphis and Holly Springs. When we pulled into the parking lot, it was absolutely too hot to unpack the coach (we saw 105 on the bank sign as we got off the highway). However, The Bear was doing something totally unusual for him. He had been on the dashboard since we were driving slowly through town. He saw the house and started crying/meowing. He kept it up until we had stopped, turned on the generator and gotten the coach kind of settled. Jimmy had to stop him from just getting off the coach when he opened the door. The Bear wanted to go home. I carried Peaches up to the house. There was not one iota of squirming on her part like she usually is when we take her outside. She, too, saw the house and wanted to get inside. The Bear immediately went to the back bath to get some water directly out of the faucet (his preferred way to drink water) with Peaches right behind him.

We got everything off the coach by around 7pm and I got two loads of laundry done (everything that has to be put back on the coach like sheets, towels, rugs, etc.). Of course, the last load didn't get put into the dryer before Jimmy took it to Olive Branch this morning, so I will need to stop and drop all of it off tomorrow. I still have two loads working since we didn't stay anywhere the last three or four nights where I had full hookups to wash clothes!!!

Then, I got hit by the heat headaches that I have. Other than running to the grocery store early this morning to get the essentials, I have been inside. Which is where I will stay until it gets a little cooler. Then we had a power outage this afternoon. Luckily, we had enough sense to stay inside and not let the trapped cool air out of the house!!!

Anyway, the trip is over. I wish it were not. But it is. Keep tuned to this channel for future editions of our travels. And thanks for reading my ramblings.

July 29, 2011 - Starting the Trek Home

2011-07-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, all good things must come to an end - so we are starting the long trip home today. I tried to sleep all day so that we would have to stay, but I just couldn't do it. So, up we got, bathed, dressed, ate breakfast and headed east (kind of east). Actually we started east a little, then south, then east - but that is just the way it worked.

As neither of us had ever been to North Dakota, we decided to take highway 2 which crosses a lot of the border states - and across Montana and North Dakota appears to be almost straight. So, it is kind of like driving across Kansas, but a little bit cooler.

The only animal other than cows and horses that we saw was one deer who jumped a fence after he crossed the road. We did see a lot more hay. And, we saw fields planted with wheat. And, there were a lot of silos.

We stopped for the night at a hotel's rv park (maybe 20 spaces) in Glasgow, MT. I ran to the grocery store to get milk, stopped by the local Dairy Queen to get my first sweet of the entire trip, and back to the coach. Jimmy was waiting for the sun to go down, and then he was going to wash the coach and the car. I took my twenty dollar bill and went to the casino. Actually, the casino consisted of about eight slot machines and/or video poker machines in the lounge area of the hotel. Since I only play video poker, and since the only video poker machine was available, I put my $20 bill in the machine. About 30 minutes later, I had $80 in the machine. So, I cashed it out and went back to the rv park.

Jimmy had washed one side of the coach. There were two couples who had been regaling him with stories of their trips to Alaska. Jimmy really wants to make a trip to Alaska in the coach. I, however, am not going to do it. I would be willing to fly to Alaska and rent an rv, or take an Alaskan cruise, or fly to Alaska and stay in hotels. I am not going to spend two months driving to and from Alaska!!! Ain't gonna happen (she said).

Anyway, he finished the coach and I started on the Jeep. The only person who stopped to talk to me was a guy who was traveling to California via Yellowstone on his motorcycle!!!! But, he did help me wash the Jeep. Being vertically disadvantaged means that I can't reach the middle of the hood, the middle of the front window or the top of the car. Jimmy came over to help finish it up.

Oh - I forgot - I also cooked dinner. I really hated that. But, there really wasn't much in the little town. The people were super nice, but it was not a large place. I think maybe even Holly Springs might have had it beat!!!

More tomorrow.

July 28 - Going to the Sun Road

2011-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

We spent the evening at the same KOA at which we had stayed the last time we came to Glacier National Park. Once again, the satellite internet connectivity was spotty. However, I was able to use my air card to get on the internet, but I didn't do too much. Of course, the cell phone did not work at all in St. Mary nor in the park.

I know this is going to sound strange, but I was not as impressed with the Going to the Sun Road the second time around. The park is very strange, there is really only one road (the Going to the Sun Road) which goes into the park for any distance at all - and it goes all the way across. There are a lot of hikes one can do in the park - and we did one or two. I continue to be in awe of how man was able to hone that road through the mountains. There is an itunes podcast which you can download to your i- whatever you have - which is great to use as you drive over the mountain. I also found an application on the various national parks, but I was never able to download it.

When we got to West Glacier - cell service kicked in - so I got caught up on telephone calls, Jimmy got caught up on telephone calls, and I cleared all of my emails. We continued on to see the wonderful hotel at West Glacier. I continue to be amazed at the size of the trees used for the pillars in the lobby of the hotel.

I probably don't have near the number of pictures from this trip as from the last, so I'm going to just include the links to the pictures from the last time we were here!!! I know that is cheating, but if you missed them the first time, you can enjoy them this time. And, if I had not told you I was recycling pictures - you would never have known.

Pictures to follow. Some are pictures I took this year, but I am linking the ones from the past trip.

More later.

July 27, 2011 - Waterton to St. Mary's

2011-07-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

Our intent was to get up early this morning since we wanted to take the 10 am cruise on Waterton Lake and we would need to park the coach in one of the tour bus parking spaces (permission had been given the day before). However, we actually woke up about at about 8:30 am - which gave us a little less than an hour to bathe, dry hair, do my makeup and get the coach (and us) down to the harbor. Believe it or not, we made it. I drove the car so that I could get in line for the tickets as soon as I got there. Jimmy and The Bear drove the coach.

As I walked up to get our tickets, there was an older lady and her husband who were buying 38 tickets. Luckily, they sold me my two tickets while a second attendant was figuring out how much she would owe - since all of the tickets were not adults. I cleared out all but about 17 cents of my Canadian money buying the tickets for the cruise - so that was a good thing!!! The Bear attracted a good bit of attention to the coach, because he was intently watching what was going on, standing in the window so people could see him, and all around being cute. Peaches was asleep on her bath mat - so she didn't care what we were doing.

The cruise went south on the lake and actually crossed the 49th parallel - the border between the US and Canada. They actually cut down the trees along the border and put up monolith like markers where a hiker in the US (or Canada) can determine if they are crossing the border. If you had your passport (we did not), you could actually get a special stamp that the US Border Agents use which is the Goat Haunt entry stamp. We didn't even have a piece of paper on which he could have done the stamp. The trip up was quite educational about the mountains in the area. We spent about 15 or 20 minutes walking along the edge of the lake. Others on the cruise were actually taking longer hikes and catching later cruises to return to the harbor. On the way back, we sighted a bald eagle (I got pictures, but you can only see a white speck unless you zoom in on the picture) and a bear (again, you would have to zoom in quite a bit). The most interesting thing we saw was a rock formation which the guide called a V and an A. Essentially, when the tectonic plates hit up against one another to form the Rocky Mountains, in this plate the rocks bent but did not break. I got pictures of that which will be uploaded later. Really cool. He said that people getting married would frequently rent one of the cruise boats and come out there to have the ceremony conducted.

After a brief lunch on the coach in the parking lot, we hooked up the car and headed south to the United States of America. About seven miles before the border, there was a bear on the left side of the road. It is much more difficult to pull the coach over on the side of the road to get pictures, so we missed pictures of that one.

When we arrived at the border, there was a big bunch of motorcycles waiting to cross. We were next in line after them. So, we put on the brake and waited. When we were motioned forward, the border agent was on my side of the coach. So, I let him in the door. He asked pretty standard questions of us (where are you from, where have you been, how long were you there, are you bringing in any illegal aliens, etc.). All of the time he was asking questions, he was petting The Bear on the head. Peaches, once again, slept through all of the petting. He also came on the coach. He had to look behind every door on the coach to make sure there was no one hiding behind them. He looked in the freezer, but I think he was really looking for ice cream - at least, that is what he said he was looking for!!! They let us through, so we must not have broken any laws.

There is a section of road that you go through coming from the border to St. Mary where cows kind of roam free. At that point, we saw more cows than we had seen elk and moose combined. We pulled into the KOA at which we had previously stayed and got settled into our space. Nothing has changed. The wifi is satellite and it is really sketchy. Right now, I am updating using my air card and praying that it is not roaming!!! After I cleared up emails using their wifi, we headed off to a point within Glacier National Park called Many Glacier. We saw a bunch of people stopped to look at one bear on the way in. We checked out the campgrounds in the park. Then, we had a light dinner of soup and salad at the hotel at Many Glacier. Again, there are pictures coming. On the drive out, we did see another bear. Once again, with my point and click cameras, you will have to zoom in to see the bear - but he was definitely there. The ranger said it was a brown bear.

We are now back at the campground. We will drive the Going to the Sun Road tomorrow. Hopefully we will be somewhere with a strong internet connection when we stop on Friday evening and I can get all of the pictures uploaded.

July 26, 2011 - Banff to Waterton Lakes Park

2011-07-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

It rained all night long last night. The Bear and Peaches had two major running, jumping, hissing, squalling fights during the night. So, Jimmy and I did not sleep as well as I would have wished we could have given that we are leaving to head south to Waterton Lakes National Park today. We had our breakfast, our baths, got dressed and started to gear up to get into the rain to hook up the car and leave Banff. It may have been a miracle, or it might just have been the timing. Either way, it quit raining long enough for us to get the coach unhooked from power and the car hooked up to tow it down the highway.

There was nothing really exciting about the ride to Waterton. When we arrived at the campground, the young lady looked at the coach and asked me “how long is your vehicle?” I told her that it was about 42 feet long, not counting the Jeep which we would be unhooking. We had booked on line and their system showed that the only thing that was available was a space with no electricity, water or sewer. That is actually fine for us since we have a generator, the water tank was full and the black and gray tanks were empty. Apparently, though, they didn’t really have a space in the no hookups area which would accommodate a vehicle of our size. Luckily, they had had some early departures which made available a space for us with full hookups. So, we unhooked the car and I led Jimmy on a very circuitous drive around the campground to find space B-40. We were surprised to find 50 amp service (vs. the 30 amp service that most parks in Canada offer). There is water convenient to the coach. However, the sewer connection is in the middle of the space on which the coach is parked. I think most people who come here use trailers and it is fairly easy to use their set up for sewer. We would have to crawl under the coach and hook up the sewer hose – or we would have to put the discharge end of the sewer hose in the hole and try to not run over the rest of the hose when we got into the space. We just didn’t try to hook up sewer. Even if we had needed to dump the tanks, we are one space away from the bath house!!!!

And, we saw Rocky Mountain Deer and prairie dogs right in the campground. The deer are everywhere in the city of Waterton. The last time we were here, we were just amazed by the deer in the park area across from the ice cream place. She had just made herself at home. We saw a minimum of 6 deer in the campground, and four of them were bucks. The Bear had noticed the prairie dogs when we drove in. He didn’t really bark at them, but he got really attentive.

Before we could leave to go into town and on the two drives which we wanted to do, Jimmy rinsed off the Jeep. Since it had been raining when we left Banff, we were not able to put the cover on, so it was filthy. Once he was finished with that, we headed into town to check out the schedule for the boat tours of the lake. We decided to do the 10 am sailing since the lady at the ticket office said that we could just park the coach in one of their bus spaces while we were on the tour.

Our two excursions were to Cameron Lake (about a 16 km drive) and to Red Rock Canyon. When we reached Cameron Lake, we saw signs advising that the lake actually went into the USA, but they did not recommend hiking that far. The other signs said that the lake area was prime bear territory. We did not go all of the way to the US border at the lake, nor did we see any of the vaunted bear!!!

So, off we headed to Red Rock Canyon. This drive is supposed to be prime animal territory. All the way to the end of the drive, we saw not one animal! The canyon itself was fascinating – well, what little we saw of it was fascinating. The wind had been blowing really hard until we got to the canyon at the end of the road. Then it quit. And, the mosquitos which are large enough to carry off a small animal were out in force. One man who was walking out of the canyon trail had dead mosquitoes all over him. So, we did not do the hike around the trail. Rather, we got back in the Jeep to make the return trip. We hoped that it had gotten late enough that at least one deer would have come into the meadows. What a surprise we got when we left the parking lot only to see a great big brown bear eating flowers and stuff on the side of the road. This was the closest either of us have ever been to a real bear in the wild. I took lots of pictures of the bear, but not as many as I would have liked. There were, however, other people in queue who also wanted to see the bear. So, we shared and continued on. The only other animal sighting until we got back to Waterton was a pair of deer feeding among the Aspen trees on the side of the road.

But, when we got back to Waterton, we went back down to the harbor so that Jimmy could check where he would be able to park the coach. There was a doe feeding at the entrance to the harbor. A young man with a dog was on the other side of the street. That dog was ready to take on that deer. The deer didn’t even seem to notice the dog. She ate until she was finished in that area. She then just casually walked across the street. The young many had to pull his dog back to keep the dog from attacking the deer.

Tomorrow morning we will take the tour on the lake and then head back to St. Mary’s for a couple of nights so that we can make the Going to the Sun Road ride one more time. So, there should be good pictures from the boat tour!!!

More tomorrow.

July 25, 2011 - Travis Goes Home

2011-07-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

We really didn’t do anything today other than drive back and forth to Calgary to see Travis off on his trip back to Alabama.

Once we got back to the campground, we headed into Banff so that I could go to the Starbucks at the gondola ride and upload a few days’ worth of blog as well as get a few bills paid!!! So, we both got something to drink and found a shady place to work on the computer for a while. I got all of the emails cleared, paid the bills, and made one post to facebook. I am just a little bit sorry about posting all of the temperatures we encountered once we got to Canada – the highest being about 72!!! But, that was why we came north – to find cooler temperatures.

From there, we decided to see if we could find the drive which led down to the foot of the falls next to the Fairmont Banff. We had taken a walk along the river and to the falls when Travis was there, but we were not on the right side of the river to get a really good view of the falls. Strangely enough, the road to the river was very well marked and I got some good pictures on my little camera.

Back to town we went trying to find souvenirs. We went to every store on Banff Avenue and still found nothing to buy. We did see a good many people who appeared to have been dressed for watching golf. That is because the Telus Skins Game was going on at the golf course at the Fairmont. When we had been to the hotel, we had noted the full sized cut outs of some golfers, but we did not really recognize all of the names. When we went to the bar side of the Boston Pizza to get dinner, they were replaying the days’ rounds. I truly do not understand skins play in golf, but I do know that the players seem to have more fun than in a round of PGA golf. They always seem to be joking around and kidding each other.

We went back to the campground earlier than most nights and just relaxed since we would be on the road tomorrow.

July 24, 2011 - Athabasca Glacier and points between

2011-07-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

We all got up early today as we were heading north to the Columbia Icefield to see glaciers face to face. As we pulled out of the rv park and onto the Tunnel Mountain Drive, the first thing we saw was a herd of mule deer – 4 females with their babies. We didn’t see any males, but it was a thrill to see anything after the lack of sightings the previous days.

Jimmy had out drive all mapped out. We made it all the way to Lake Louise on highway 1 with no delays, took a right onto highway 93 and headed north. Our first stop was Crowfoot Glacier. Of course, the glacier is not near so large as it was previously. The lower “toe” is gone and the middle “toe” is disappearing, but you could still clearly see the glacier which had created the lake. About 2 miles further along, we stopped at Bow Lake and Bow Glacier. Again, impressive seeing the glacier, and the lake was just beautiful. Then Travis and I suggested that, rather than stopping at all of the points of interest on the way to the Athabasca Glacier, we would prefer to go straight to the glacier before we got too tired from all of the walks available to us. Jimmy concurred.

Athabasca Glacier is on the Icefields Parkway about 75 minutes south of Jasper. There is a really big interpretive center with restaurants available. You can either take the big bus which they use to take visitors out onto the glacier or take a commercial guided tour or go to a parking lot below the glacier and hike (in my case crawl) up what seemed like thousands of feet but which Travis said was probably only about several hundred feet. When you reach the top, it is just plain out old fashioned cold. The wind coming from the ice field above the glacier blowing over all of that ice is cold. But, the glacier is a very dangerous place. We saw multiple signs warning people not to walk out onto the “toe” of the glacier. When you get to the top and see the water flowing out from under the “toe” (the ice melting under the top layer of ice), you can definitely see why it would be unsafe to walk out onto the glacier. They had one sign which indicated that the last four rescue attempts were not successful. For sure, we did not get past the cable fence and cones. In addition, there were signs at various points from the glacier to the parking lot showing where the glacier had been in various years. When I upload the pictures, you will see one showing where the glacier was in 2000 vs. where it is now in 2011. We heard one young mother explaining about the glacier receding. She told him that in 60 years, the glacier might not be there at all. We only saw one sign referencing global warming and greenhouse gases as the reason for the glacier receding. It really doesn’t matter what is causing the glaciers to “die”. The fact is – they are receding. I am so glad that we got to see all of these in the Icefields as well as the ones we saw when we were at Glacier National Park on our last trek out this direction. It was quite educational. Travis and I agreed that the Athabasca Glacier was the highlight of the trip so far.

From the Athabasca Glacier, we headed back towards Lake Louise to take in all of the sites we had skipped when we decided to go to the end of the day’s trek and work our way back. Our first stop on the way back was Parker’s Ridge. It is described in the map as a short (2.4 km/1.5 miles) but steep (250m/820 feet elevation gain) trail through alpine meadows which will reward hardy hikers with stunning view of the Saskatchewan Glacier. From the parking lot, one could see the start of the elevation increase. We heard a young man who had just returned from the top explaining that the trail began as a paved walkway, but about halfway up turned into a rocky, steep path. A decision was made that 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back equaled 3.0 miles of more than we wanted to do that late in the day. So, back into the Jeep we climbed and proceeded to Saskatchewan River Crossing. Basically, it is an area where highways meet with various services such as fuel, food, snacks and stuff. We bought cokes and snacks and headed back out.

Our next stop was Mistaya Canyon. It is a 10 minute walk to great canyon views. The booklet said to stay away from the canyon edge as you watch the rushing waters and eroded potholes and arches in the rock wall. It was not a bad walk. But, you will see from Travis’ pictures that they were serious about staying away from the canyon edge and the rushing waters. There is a bridge which crosses the river. You can look straight down to where the water is rushing past the most marvelous formations that you can imagine – all of which were formed by the water over thousands of years. Of course, I did not venture out onto the rocks which stuck out over the waters. Jimmy and Travis, however, and got some great pictures of the canyon and its waters. Thank goodness Travis was with us – not just because we wanted him to join us in our adventures – but because he takes much better pictures than I do!!!

Our last stop before hitting the road to Lake Louise was Waterfowl Lake. We didn’t really do anything there other than looking at the campground.

By the time we got back to the campground in Banff, we were all pretty tired. Thankfully, polling of the three of us indicated that warming up a container of the spaghetti which I had made and frozen back home in Holly Springs was a great idea for dinner. I also thawed out a package of the pork loin which I had cooked at home. Those two items with a nice salad made for an enjoyable, quiet evening. Afterwards, we went into town to do some souvenir shopping. I had seen some really cute bear hats at the top of Sulphur Mountain when we rode the gondola. No one else had the brown bear ones. To get a brown bear hat, we would have had to pay $29.95 to ride the gondola to the top. It just wasn’t worth it, plus I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be that brave again. So, we agreed that the rock that we picked up at the glacier would make a perfect souvenir of our time in Canada.

Tomorrow, we take Travis back to Calgary to catch his flights home. We will return to the campground for one last evening, as we are leaving for Waterton Township, Alberta, Canada. We were here our last trip out here, but since we saw animals there the last time and had no luck in Banff, we thought it would make a good stop on the way to Holly Springs.

Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I have a stable enough wifi network to which I can connect.

July 23, 2011 - Lake Louise

2011-07-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

The morning started a little late, but the weather did not do as expected based on the forecasts we had seen or heard the day before. At 7 am, it was clear in the campground. At 8 am, it was raining in the campground. But, the fearless travelers did not let that bother us in our search for new adventures and animals not seen in Mississippi except in zoos!!!

So, after breakfast, the three of us piled into the car and headed north towards Lake Louise in search of beauty, glaciers and large hotels. Everything that we had read indicated that you should get to Lake Louise early since parking is limited. So, we got on highway 1 – the Trans Canadian Highway. We were making extremely good progress when, suddenly, there was a massive traffic jam. We all thought that it could be an animal sighting because in the Smoky Mountains when someone sights an animal, everyone stops to see it (or them as the case might be). Instead, we finally saw a sign which indicated that there was bridge construction ahead. Since we didn’t know how far ahead, we got off highway 1 and went over to highway 1A. The speed limit was lower, but we were not backed up in traffic on a major highway. AND – highway 1A was supposed to be a mecca for wild animals. In fact, there frequently were signs indicating that there were bear in the highway. NOT!!!! We decided that all of the animals from this Canadian National Park have headed south on vacation looking for warmer weather before winter sets in at home. Either that or they are on strike in Canada!!! No animals on the highway.

When we got to Lake Louise, we went first to Moraine Lake. And, as advertised, there was no parking to be seen. Jimmy let me and Travis out at the lake while he went parking space looking. At the end of his first lap around the parking lot, he had reached a fairly high level of frustration. Hence, Travis and I became frustrated. He said to head on out and he would continue looking for a parking space. Travis and I decided to dawdle so that we were not seeing things twice once Jimmy found a place to park. On his second circuit of the lot, he was waiting for someone who was backing out of a space when someone behind him passed him and drove into the space. It was definitely lucky for that person that I was not in the car. They would have moved. It actually worked out better for us, because he got a really close space.

He caught up with us at about the second marker. We proceeded on the trail around the lake with Travis taking large numbers of pictures. There were people canoeing – some who knew what they were doing and many who did not. I thought that we should have rented a canoe. But, when they told me that the incapable canoeists had to sit on the middle seat – and then they told me that was me – I decided that we should not rent a canoe because I would probably turn them over out of spite. The lake was formed by a glacier. At the foot of the lake (closest to the parking lot) you could actually see the pile of rocks that would have been deposited as the glacier receded.

From Moraine Lake we proceeded to Lake Louise to see the Fairmont Lake Louise hotel and the lake. Lake Louise was also a glacier lake. We didn’t walk around it. Instead, Jimmy and Travis watched the other tourists and took pictures while I walked up to the hotel and bought lunch at the deli!!! There were roast beef as well as turkey with brie sandwiches, chips and water (the sandwiches were huge, so I knew that they could be split between three people). We found a bench overlooking the lake, put the umbrella up to protect us from the rain which had started again, and enjoyed a marvelous lunch. There were a number of birds who thought that they should be invited to dine with us, but we shooed them away and enjoyed watching the people go by. Once finished with lunch, we walked to the back side of the hotel where a wedding was about to begin. We didn’t see the bridal party, but the guests were starting to arrive. The interior of the hotel was much more modern than the Fairmont in Banff. But, we decided that some of the suites on the top floors of the hotel would provide superior views of the lake. Now, what they would cost is a different question entirely. The gentlemen greeting guests outside were dressed in Tyrolean attire, which kind of seemed out of place at the Lake Louise locale, but would have been perfect in Banff.

After walking back to the car, we headed back to Banff – deciding immediately to take highway 1A right off rather than getting involved in another traffic jam. Of course, when we rejoined 1 at the exit where we had left 1 earlier in the day, the traffic was moving at the speed limit going both east and west.

Back at the rv park, we all freshened up and headed to the gondola ride and dinner at the top of Sulphur Mountain. Since there is a Starbucks there, I took my computer with the intent of cleaning out emails and paying some bills on line. Of course, the wifi was slow, so I only got the emails cleaned out and the most essential of the bills paid. Jimmy and Travis took the laptop back to the car while I got in line for our prepaid tickets. When I got to the window, I was told that there would be a 90 minute wait for a gondola. The people buying their tickets at the window next to mine were told it would be a 60 minute wait. So I figured it was probably somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. Our tickets for the gondola ride and dinner were found, and off to the end of the line we went. I am sure that some of you do not know that I am afraid of heights. 35 minutes after getting into line, we approached the door of the gondola. The attendants told me that I should sit on the bench away from the door. I really don’t know what difference it made since it was glass all around, I just didn’t have to worry about the door popping open on the way up!!!

I survived the ride up. In fact, I was looking down for animals, Travis was taking pictures and Jimmy was watching the people who were hiking to the top of the mountain. I went directly to the restaurant to get a time for dinner only to be told just to show up when we wanted to eat, but earlier was better that later since they started seating with the best view out the panoramic windows. Then, up to the observation deck on the top of the building for more pictures and more hugging the inside wall for me. From the point where the gondola stopped, there is a plank walk which takes you across the ridge to a higher point where Canada’s Cosmic Ray Station had been located. The Cosmic Ray Station was eventually replaced by a weather station. You just walk down a bunch of steps across plenty of flat patio areas and up a bunch more stairs which have plenty of stops along the climb to catch your breath and enjoy the view. Then, you are at the top of the next peak. No, I didn’t go all the way, but Jimmy and Travis did. When they rejoined me, we trekked back to the restaurant and enjoyed a really nice prime rib dinner. After dinner, we were ready to go back down the mountain. I was definitely not as afraid as I had been going up, but there were a couple of times when I grabbed the bottom of the seat!! I was not nearly as bad as the sweet little lady who was supposed to be riding the gondola up. She did not want to have to get off at the top – she just wanted to get on at the bottom and ride right around and down the slope. Of course, that is not how the gondola works – you get on at the bottom, off at the top, get on again at the top and get off at the bottom. A really nice park worker rode the gondola with her so that he could override the rule about having to get off at the top. We did not see nor hear the lady again – well, we thought we might have heard her scream once or twice, but we weren’t sure.

One thing I did learn was that, if you hike up the mountain – which is free to do, you can ride the gondola down free. I guess that they figure if you made the trip up, you deserve the free ride down. We saw lots of people walking up. The path was well maintained, but there was cutback after cutback after cutback. Without the cutbacks, it would have been a really hard climb.

More tomorrow!!!

Day 13, July 22, 2011 - In Banff

2011-07-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

I cannot say that we were up bright and early today. Jimmy had already been up and shaved before I even knew it was morning. Travis was all curled up on the couch under the blanket. Once we all got our eyes opened, breakfast in us, all of us showered and dressed, we were ready to head out for the day.

Sadly, it rained off and on all day. That did not deter these intrepid travelers!!!

As we drove into town, we saw our second wild animal of the trip. There was a doe mule deer dining on the fresh, tender grass on the side of the street as we came down from the campground. We did not get a picture of her, as Travis was busy doing something and she just kind of appeared!!!

Our first stop was the gondola. We needed to find out how the Saturday night ride and dinner worked. We had bought the special tour on line, but they didn’t explain about how to determine when your meal seating would be. It is easy – you just get on the gondola, ride up to the top, go to the restaurant and arrange your seating. Then you can go off wandering on the top of the mountain until time to eat. There was also a Starbucks at the gondola station with a really strong wifi!!! I’m going to get the guys to head up to the gondola a little early on Saturday so that I can take the computer and upload all of my notes which I have kept in Word since we got to Canada!! I’ll not worry about uploading pictures until we are back in the States and have strong, consistent internet. And, I need to pay some bills!!!!!

From there, we headed off to the Fairmont Banff Hotel for pictures with the real camera. There is a golf tournament going on, but none of us recognized the name of the tournament. They had full sized pictures of the players, and I did recognize some of the names. The hotel was not quite as expected. We kind of were mentally comparing this railroad hotel to the ones that we had seen in Yellowstone. We were looking for the huge lobbies and restaurants, but that is not what we found. The entry lobby was utilitarian. As we climbed to the second level, we all thought it was really dark. But, the restaurants and grille were beautiful. We went out on the patio overlooking the Bow River and could easily visualize how it would have looked on a sunny day. The croquet field was set up in the event anyone would want to play a game. The outside tables were all covered, but you could still visualize how it would have been. The hotel is huge – very tall and very late 1800’s style. The elevators had been modernized, but they retained the semi-circular floor indicator – so when you saw the elevators – they still looked period. There was a room which was where tours of the hotel started. We were not there on a tour day, so we just read the inscriptions under the pictures. When the hotel first opened, the rooms were about $4 a night. We saw a bill for a family which spent 4 nights in the hotel in 1929, and their total bill was about $71. That included three or four meals also!!! One of the pictures said that during the 1920’s and 1930’s, rich people would arrive with $50,000 to fund their three to four month stay at the Fairmont and in Banff. After having seen the price for golf, the food prices (chicken sandwiches with sides were 60 cents), and everything else, I wonder what they needed that much money for!!!

The rain had increased a bit, so we decided to go back to the coach for lunch rather than finding a place to park in Banff and then finding a place to eat in the rain. Plus, we need to eat some of the food that is in the refrigerator!!!

The rain slacked off, and we headed back to town. I needed to change some more money from US bills to Canadian money. Plus, we wanted to go to the Park Headquarters at the end of Banff Avenue as they have absolutely beautiful grounds. There was a lady there in her wedding gown with the minister, her attendant and her daughter. Everyone was kind of hanging around waiting for the groom to arrive – which he did shortly after the photographer had finished taking pictures of the bride and her attendants. From there we headed back across the bridge to find a place to park the car. We should probably have just left the car at the park headquarters!!! Then we followed the path to the waterfalls which are close to the Banff Hotel. Of course, we wound up being on the wrong side of the Bow River. We should have taken the pathway on the Park Headquarters side of the bridge instead of the pathway on the Banff side of the river. But, Travis was able to get some good pictures. Here they are starting at the gondola area and ending with pictures from the walk to the falls.

After that walk (I think it was probably over a mile – but both Jimmy and Travis just laughed at me), we drove out of Banff to find highway 1A and Johnston Canyon. This is truly a canyon with a walkway along one bank of the river. Plus, there are supposed to be animals along the drive to the Canyon. I say supposed to be because they had signs all along, but we never saw anything that they indicated we would see. Again, we started the walk along the canyon wall. There were lots of small waterfalls. In my mind, we had seen the lower, middle and upper falls because my legs were tired so we had to have walked 3 or 4 miles. I stopped and stepped off the walkway and ask how far we were going only to find out that we had not yet reached the lower waterfall – a walk of about one half a mile. On top of the fact that everyone had to have been lying about the distances traveled and to be traveled, the pathway was along the side of the canyon and frequently consisted of walkways suspended out from the canyon wall. In other words, frequently there was nothing under me but air and a little steel attached to the canyon wall with super glue (I think). We finally arrived at the lower falls. I’m going to admit, the falls were awesome. There was a bridge across the river and a cave where you could literally go stand in the mist from the waterfall. I did not go into the cave. I did go over the bridge and look through the cave. For those of you who do not know, I am afraid of heights. When we were on the walkways, I was hugging the left side which was next to the canyon wall. I only went to the fall off and break your head side when other people felt it was necessary for their groups to return to the parking lot (which I thought was fairly thoughtless of them given that I needed all of the walkway in order to feel comfortable). I did realize that the walk back would be mostly downhill and that I would legitimately be able to hug the canyon wall!!! The only difficult spot was when I was hugging the wall going back and a lady was just as afraid of heights as I was and she wanted the wall also. We worked it out. We did see a lot of ground squirrels. They would just come right up to you. The signs all said not to feed them, but for them to have been so friendly, someone had fed them!!! One got about 2 inches from Travis’ leg while he was taking pictures of another one which was posing for him on a log which had fallen. These pictures are from the ones which Travis took on the walk. I probably should have deleted some of the pictures, but they were all really good in my opinion!!!

Tomorrow we are going to Lake Louise and then to our gondola ride with dinner on the top of Sulphur Moutain. Stayed tuned.

Day 12 - July 21, 2011 - Travis Arrives

2011-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Travis is flying in today from Birmingham via Dallas. He was to leave Birmingham at about 6:30 am and arrive in Calgary at about 1:20 pm (Mountain time). So, Jimmy and I really didn’t plan to do anything this morning other than to finish getting the coach cleaned up, driving to Calgary, finding fuel for the car, finding the airport and finding a place to eat after we picked Travis up since we figured he would not have eaten anything between breakfast and when he arrived (we were right about that part BTW). Anyway, we figured that, if the traffic and construction on the way to the airport were as bad as they were getting from the south of Calgary to the highway to go to Banff, we had better add a bunch of time in order to get the fuel, find the eating place and get to the airport in time. Guess what – we found the airport almost two hours before Travis’ arrival from Dallas.

So, we head out in search of diesel fuel for the car. That quest made us realize even more than our previous observations that Calgary appears to be a city of tall buildings in the middle (town centre as it would be spelled up here) surrounded by bedroom community after bedroom community after bedroom community. And, if you get to the middle of the bedroom community, you will find all of the amenities such as gas stations, fast food restaurants, shopping centers, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. There was an A&W Root Beer, a Time Horton’s, a Burger King and lots and lots of other familiar places. There was also a Shell station with diesel fuel whose pumps did not recognize our stateside Shell card (Jimmy had to go inside to pay for the fuel).

We quickly eliminated the chain fast food restaurants (I had originally said that I didn’t want to eat in a chain restaurant the entire time we were gone. Jimmy took that to mean that we would eat on the coach since I had prepared a few meals in anticipation of having to stop en route in some places where eating out would not be convenient.) Anyway, we found a Pacini restaurant very close to the airport. So, that was the identified place to eat after we picked Travis up.

So, back to the airport we went to await his arrival. We were still a good 40 minutes early. But, Calgary has what they call cell phone waiting lots which are free. You park in the lot and await a call from your passenger. They are supposed to call you when they are curbside in one of the purple waiting areas. Then you leave the parking lot and head to the arrivals area to pick up the passenger. We patiently waited until we saw an American Airlines place land at about 1:20 pm. We figured it would be about 10 minutes to the gate, but we had no idea how long it would be until he cleared customs. After about 25 minutes, I just couldn’t wait any longer, so we cranked up and drove to he arrivals area. He was curbside our second time around.

We threw his stuff in the back of the Jeep and headed to the restaurant to eat. It was great. They have their own water, and you have a selection of sparkling or not. They have a bread bar where you grill your selection of bread on a flame grill. We all ate fairly light and hit the Trans Canadian Highway west back to the coach where we could get him settled in.

The first thing we did after we got to the campground was walk out to the Hoodoo’s since Travis brought his good camera. For the 21st through the 24th, the pictures that I upload will be taken by a real camera instead of a point and shoot that I use.

We then drove into Banff. Travis wound up getting a new pair of shoes since the only hiking shoes he brought are over the ankle boots. Up here, for what we were doing, you don’t really need anything that rough and ready since most of the walking we are going to be doing is less strenuous. We went to eat at the Rose and Crown and sat in the roof top patio. It was just warm enough to be enjoyable, plus there was not a really big crowd up there for the first 30 minutes or so. I had traditional fish and chips, Jimmy had a salad with prawns, and Travis had a sandwich with sweet potato fries. We were kind of disappointed in the sweet potato fries – they just had not retained the sweetness we are familiar with. But, everything was good.

One thing that Jimmy had read about was Lake Minnewanka – which is across the Trans Canadian Highway from Banff. It was said by those who had written in their travel logs that it was a good drive if you wanted to see animals. We saw one female elk who had a collar on eating grass on the side of the highway. We couldn’t tell if she was staked out by the park personnel so that everyone would get to see one wild animal, or if she had just been left behind when all of the other wild animals went on vacation for the summer. Either way, she was the only large animal we saw. There were some tourists in the area who could be referred to as wild animals, but they did not count technically.

We came back to the coach since all of us were tired. We played with Peaches and The Bear for a while, then made down the couch for Travis and we all went to bed.

More tomorrow.

Day 11 - July 20, 2011 - High River to Banff

2011-07-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

We got up in High River, Alberta, Canada and decided that we should go to the bank and change some US dollars into Canadian dollars. You don’t get one for one. It was about $0.96 Canadian dollars per one US dollar (their money is worth more than our money right now). So, I head into the bank with two one hundred dollar bills to get Canadian money. The young lady who helped me went right to work. Her first attempt was to tell me that I would be getting $96 and some odd cents for my money. I kind of looked at her askance and asked was she sure that would be all I would get for $200?!?! She looked at her counter and, sure enough, there were two US one hundred dollar bills. So, she had to rerun it through the computer. Then, I asked another question which got her distracted. She promptly put all of the bills she had counted out back into her cash draw, the coins on the counter, and proceeded to explain to me why the fuel in Canada is listed as 100.9 per liter when it is really $1.009 per liter!!! The reason this came up was that I had done my conversion of the money and volume and had figure that one gallon of diesel was going to cost us about $400 if the price was $100.9 Canadian dollars per liter. Anyway, she counted out my change and I suggested that I might need the bills also!! She apologized and explained that she was not a teller – she was just filling in for a lady who had called in sick!!!

Then I went to the bakery that was right around the corner. I almost didn’t want to leave. I was second in line to be waited on and they had two chocolate covered donuts left – which is what Jimmy wanted. The whole time I was waiting my turn, a gentleman who came in behind me was standing right in front of the two chocolate covered donuts. When it came my turn, I asked for the two chocolate donuts, he took a really deep breath, and I changed my order to get four cookies and cream donuts and left the two chocolate donuts for him. He tried to talk me into taking the donuts. I explained to him that I was from the South and we would never take the last two chocolate donuts when there was someone in line who clearly wanted them more than we did!! He went on and on about how grateful he was – plus I got a muffin thrown in for free.

Before we left to head north to Calgary and Banff, we went back the way we had come to a little town named Nanton, Alberta to see a garden railway setup. It cost $7.00 Canadian per person, but it was a beautiful layout. The owners were apparently originally from Switzerland. Both had really strong accents. The gentleman was in charge of the railroad layout – which was huge. The lady was in charge of the plantings – which were beautiful. If you bought something from them, they basically refunded the admission fee. I kept thinking Jimmy was going to buy something. They had more LGB stuff than we had seen in one store in a long time. But, he didn’t. Right next to the garden railway setup was a hamburger place – so we bought two hamburgers and ate on the coach!!!

Finally, we headed north towards Calgary. The mistake that we made was following the GPS instructions. It basically took us into the south side of Canada and then around to the west side. All through town. Stop and go. Instructions like stay left and keep right (in one sentence from the GPS!!!). Roads being worked on. Etc. Etc. We finally made it out of Calgary, and the first thing we saw was the ski jumps from the Olympics which were in Calgary a couple of years back. They looked a little weird sitting on the grassy hillside!!!

From there, it was pretty much clear highway with the mountains getting closer and closer. You could feel the temperature cooling down as we left Calgary and got closer to the mountains. We had not been running the air conditioning all day since the temperature was in the low 70’s, but it was really starting to feel good. We could see snow in the shady spots in the mountains. We had found it – cooler climes.

As we approached Banff, we had to stop at the park entrance. You have to have a $20/day pass to go into Banff. Jimmy had bought a one year pass on the internet before we left home, so we just had to pull over and get the map that they were handing out to the people who had to buy a daily pass. Very shortly, we turned onto Banff Avenue (the easternmost entrance to Banff) and then took a pretty quick left onto Tunnel Mountain Drive. We found out that there is no tunnel through the mountains for the railroad because they found a way around the mountain. But the name stayed. We passed the ‘no amenities’ campground which was basically tent camping. About ½ mile further along we came to Tunnel Mountain Campground 2. One end has full hookups (30 amp power, water and sewer) and that is the end we are on. The other end has only power and you have to go to a dump station to dump your tanks and another spot to get potable water. In fact, until the Saturday night before we left home, that is where we were going to be. Luckily, Jimmy noticed that the full hookup section had openings and we changed our reservations. We are in space 246. The spaces are just pull offs along roads that run parallel to Tunnel Mountain Drive. There are spaces on both sides of the side roads and the roads go up the hillside. I think maybe there are 8 roads with probably 50 spaces on each road. Once we got hooked up, I washed one load of clothes. As soon as they were in the dryer, we headed into town, parked and just walked around. Again, dinner was selected based on wifi availability – not menu. We ate at Wild Bill’s. Jimmy had an elk burger and I had a chicken club!!! I had wifi and cleared emails again.

We got back to the campground. Jimmy had to wash the bird poop off the hood of the car, I needed to fold the clothes that I left drying and wash another load of towels, and Jimmy had to empty the black tank. Then we walked about a mile to the Hoodoo’s. Hoodoo’s are simply rock formations which are found through the Rocky’s. They just jut up like stalagmites in a cave. We stayed on the path and I was feeling every one of my 64 years by the time we got back to the RV!!!! Between the altitude and walking up hills, I pretty much got tired.

Anyway, we are back to the campground, watching a little tv while I type up what we did today so that I can upload it the next time I have internet access and waiting for the towels to get dry. Tomorrow Travis flies in to Calgary, so we have to be at the airport to pick him up at 1:20 pm. I cannot wait for him to get here. We are going to do the gondola ride in Banff and have dinner at the top of the mountain, go to the ice fields, go to Lake Louise and jam as much in to the few days he is going to be here as possible!!!

More later!!!

Day 10, July 19, 2011 - Going Through Customs

2011-07-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

We traveled from Great Falls, MT to High River, Alberta, Canada today. We had really been dreading the process of going through customs, but it wasn’t bad at all. We pulled up to the entrance for motorcoaches and the customs man stuck his head out the window and told Jimmy to shut off the engine so that we could hear him!!! That was fairly logical given the situation. I had gathered all of the information that we thought we would need to get through customs – our passports, the vehicle title, the vehicle registration, the vehicle insurance, the shot records for the two cats and their health certificates. Just so you know, Peaches and The Bear had to go have physicals before we left. They had fecal exams – which required the insertion of a plastic thing into their rear ends – and which neither of them was particularly happy. And, guess what, the customs guy did advised that he would trust us that we had the health certificates. Of course, this was after he asked us the following: how long will you be in Canada (Jimmy’s response – about ten days); do you have anything that you will leave in Canada (Jimmy’s response – no); do you have any weapons (Jimmy’s response – no); do you have any alcohol (Jimmy’s response – 1 bottle of Jack Daniel (he actually said bourbon), 1 bottle of wine (he forgot my three little boxes of wine), and 12 cans of beer (that was exactly right)). I honestly believe that the customs guy thought that anyone who knew down to the can how much beer they had probably was doing everything by the book.

Except for a few small changes, you could almost not tell that you had crossed into Canada. The first thing we noticed is that there is not one sign that says speed limit. We saw a lot of signs that said maximum 110. It only took us one or two signs to figure out that meant that the maximum speed was 110 kilometers per hour maximum. Luckily, I had downloaded an application on my phone before we left the good ole USA which would convert metric to US measures. I was able to quickly tell him how fast we could go!!! After a few speed signs, we got fairly good at estimating – plus Jimmy was able to quickly read the metric speed indicators on the speedometer!!!

We stopped at the first information center we came to so that we could have lunch and pick up a few brochures. I think we might have gotten one of each brochure and map that they had relative to Calgary south in Alberta. Then we took our crackers, ham and turkey out to the picnic table. We then saw our first critter – we think it was either a marmot. It wasn’t a squirrel because it didn’t have a big tail. It didn’t come to where we were eating – it just dived into a hole.

Then back on the highway and Jimmy sees an elk leaning up against a fence. I didn’t see it, so it did not count as a sighting – in my opinion.

After that, the drive was just unremarkable other than seeing field after field of grass being cut and bailed and an equal number of fields of the prettiest yellow plants. We challenged our mental capabilities to try to figure out what it was, but there was nothing that we could think of. When we got to High River and the RV park operated from May to October by the local Lion’s Club, we found out that the beautiful fields were saffron. The lady in the office also told us that the fields would change color once more before the saffron was harvested – they would become an even brighter yellow. The landscape was gently rolling fields with a modern four lane highway running almost due north. It was not an interstate in the way we understand an interstate to be. It was not limited access, it ran right through a few of the towns (including stop lights), but it was very well maintained. Plus, we weren’t doing but 60 anyway – since we were getting over 7 miles to a gallon once we started driving 60!!! And, we knew that 60 was less than the speed limit – and we did see multiple vehicles stopped!!!

I told Jimmy that I didn’t care where we had dinner, but we needed to eat somewhere they had wifi. There was an A&W Root Beer, a Dairy Queen, a MacDonald’s and a Boston Pizza. I picked the Boston Pizza – even though it was a chain restaurant – it was one in which I had never eaten. Guess what – their wifi was not working. So, we ate, paid and left. We drove to the side of the A&W Root Beer place, high their wifi and cleared out our emails.

More on the trip tomorrow.

Day 9 - Just Driving North

2011-07-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Another slow day - just driving west, then north, then west, then north and then west again. Lots and lots of not a lot of anything. We saw more hay today. I do believe that in the last two days we have seen enough hay rolled up in rolls or squished into squares to feed a whole bunch of cows. We mostly saw Angus cattle today, but there was one farm with a mixture of breeds.

The only animals other than cows we saw were two antelopes. They were playing on the range. Actually, they were eating grass left by the hay baler in one big field. But, they were our first animals other than cows and a couple of deer that we have seen. Hopefully Canada will produce more sightings.

As we traveled west, we did see snow in the mountains. I took pictures, but I don't know if anything will be visible in the pictures. There was also one really big wind farm. Lots of great big windmills just generating power like crazy. The little town that was close to the farm looked a bit more properous than some of the towns we had driven through.

Our final destination tonight was Great Falls, MT. We got here, headed south to the same truck stop where we purchased fueld when we were here on our Yellowstone trip. And, we are staying in the same RV park. Not just the same park - the exact same space as the last time!!! Kind of ironic.

I've made my final stateside grocery trip to get milk, butter and a few more cans of cat food. I'm thawing some pork loin that I had prepared for the trip. Jimmy is washing the coach. Both cats are asleep (not like they didn't sleep most of the day). They will both probably be up a lot during the night since this space backs up to the highway. Jimmy nor I will hear anything, but the cats most likely will.

That's all for tonight until I get the pictures uploaded. Hopefully there will be more exciting updates tomorrow.

Days 7 & 8 - Not a Lot to Tell

2011-07-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

We were at dinner tonight when I realized that I didn't post anything yesterday. So, I guess I have to play catch up tonight.

Yesterday was strictly a travel day. We had scoped out the turn that we were going to have to make to get on the highway we would be on to get to Billings, MT from Spearfish, SD. It was going to be a really tough turn on a narrow, muddy piece of road. So, we road right down the middle of Spearfish in order to not have to make the turn.

We did not actually go into Belle Fourche to look for the marker, but that is supposedly the geographical center of the 50 United States of America. We had seen the signs for some time, and neither of us could believe that the geographical center of the US was in SD. I googled it and found out that the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states is in the middle of a hog farm in Kansas. SD holds the honor of being the geographical center of the 50 states. So, including Alaska and Hawaii - it makes more sense.

We turned onto highway 212. You should just look it up on a map. There is nothing there. I believe we saw 1,576,423 bales of hay - not counting the bales left over from last year's harvest. Now - that is an estimation. It was unbelievable how much hay had been baled up - those big round bales - not the little square ones. I think every farm had its own pattern for stacking the bales also. The weird thing was how few cows or horses we saw. I wondered if they were just growing hay to sell. There was one farm which had shrink wrapped his bales - so that might have been the case with him.

The really aggravating thing about the drive was that, shortly after we got on the highway, there was 13 miles of construction through which you had to follow a lead truck. I do not know what they had done to the highway (it was a real highway - not a dirt road), but there was enough dust blown up on the coach that we could not see out the back up camera. Once we cleared the construction, Jimmy got the broom out and swept the dirt off. When we looked at the Jeep cover, it was gray - not black. Needless to say, Mr. Neatnik had to wash the Jeep and the coach as soon as we got in our parking place - even though their brochure specifically asked that you not do so. He would not have been able to sleep!!!

There were multiple Native American reservations along the highway once we passed Broadus and were approaching I90. We could see the historic park and the grave markers at the place where Custer met his demise!!! Since we had already been there, we elected to pass it by and head on in to Billings.

We arrived at the same KOA RV Park at which we stayed the last time we were here. Supposedly it is the first KOA RV Park that ever was. It is nice. But, tonight is the first night that I have actually been connected to their internet. It just kept coming and going last night.

The bad part - it is hot. Period, end of that discussion. Low to mid 90's during the day. Bright clear skies. Sun that seems to come up early and go down late.

So, moving on to today (7/17/2011). We made up for the sleep that we had lost in Spearfish due to the wind coming up during the night. We slept till 10 am (Memphis time). Once we had breakfast and got dressed (that is my order - not Jimmy's), we headed to Cabela's to shop. We didn't need anything. But, of course, there were things there that had to come back to the RV with us. We bought one fleece, one pair of shorts for Jimmy, a Cabela's 50th anniversary t-shirt for Jimmy and some burnt peanuts for Jimmy. I paid. I must be missing something. Doesn't look like I got anything.

Then, the old obligatory trip to the Walmart. Absolutely nothing exciting about that.

We got back to the RV park and unloaded and stored the groceries. Both Peaches and The Bear wanted to go outside, so we put them on their leashes and out to the patio they went. The Bear thought the swing was super. He just got up on it and laid out while it swung. Peaches spent a few minutes checking out the patio and then decided that she needed to go back inside. We tried to make her stay, but she went so far as getting in the storage bin under the coach trying to get inside. Both of them were fascinated with the blowing cottonwood tree stuff. Of course, the blowing stuff is making my eyes swell.

We then went out across the Yellowstone River from Billings and drove six miles out into the country to the Pictograph Cave State Park. I took pictures. But, you will probably need to look the park up on the internet in order to see the actual pictographs. I took pictures and plan to upload them, but erosion and time has truly eaten away at many of them. What a shame that is.

Tomorrow we head for Great Falls, MT.

Oh, BTW, diesel fuel out here in Billings is about $3.68 a gallon. You feel like you need a big portable fuel bladder that you could just fill up!!!

Day 6 - Not a lot to tell

2011-07-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

This was a slow day. We had to go into Spearfish first to get a spray bottle. We have two bottles of Windex on the coach. Jimmy has dropped both of them and broken off the spray part of the bottle. We went trying to find just a spray bottle. But, I found a 97 cent bottle of generic Windex and bought it. Plus mayo, salad dressing and a head of lettuce (all of that while Jimmy was looking for one spray bottle!!!). Right after we walked out of the Walmart, I got an email from a friend. It was a joke that has been going around where the local Walmart writes the lady and advises her that her husband cannot come to Walmart anymore because of all of the tricks he has been pulling!!! Jimmy doesn't do that. But, back to the spray bottle. We got back to the coach - and Jimmy dropped the bottle. Luckily this time, it didn't break. From now on, when he goes out with the spray bottle, I'll just have to tape it to him.

Then we went to Deadwood, SD. Deadwood was a dead town until the citizens passed a referendum which allowed gambling. Now, almost every store front is a gambling establishment. The last time we were here, I did not find that they paid very well. Today, I thought they had not changed until the last hour. Yes, I won a little. At least I came back to the coach with more than I went with.

While I was playing video poker, Jimmy drove through the canyon drive back to Spearfish (which we had done before) and took a few walks in the canyon. Then back to the RV park. He took zero pictures.

When he got back to Diamond Jack's to pick me up, we drove up the hill to the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. There is a section in the cemetery where the Chinese who lived in Deadwood in the cowboy days were buried. They all came over very poor and opened laundries. The wound up pretty well off. They were buried in the cemetery, but all but two were dug up and their bodies sent home to China. There was a full section for Jewish citizens. I did take pictures in the cemetery and will upload them and attach them to this post later this evening.

We drove back to the coach on a back road which took us back to Sturgis, SD. The motorcycle rally is not until early August, but all of this area of the country is covered with motorcyclists. In addition, there is a Corvette rally here in the area. We have seen lots and lots of absolutely beautiful Corvettes. We went to the place where they meet and saw a new Corvette that lists for over $100,000. I don't think the nose is high enough off the ground to get up the little rise in front of the garage, so I cannot have one. It was really pretty though. But, you have to think about the fact that you would have to pretty much tear up the garage in order to fix it where the car would be able to get into it!!!!

Tomorrow we head to Billings, MT. So, tonight, I am washing the dirty clothes which have accumulated. Kind of sounds like being at home, doesn't it!!! At least I don't have as much floor space to sweep, vaccum and mop!!!

Day 5 - and they think 91 with no humidity is HOT!!!

2011-07-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

We had a really interesting day today. We started out driving to Sturgis, SD just to see what it is all about. That is where they have a huge motorcycle rally each year. It doesn't start until August 8, but they are definitely getting ready for it!!! Sturgis, itself, is not much of a town. They do have a motorcycle museum. But, from the pictures you can find on the internet of the motorcycle rally, it is really hopping. I suspect that they make enough money during a week or so in August to support the town the entire year. That is a picture of the museum at the beginning of today's entry.

Then we took off south on a highway that is supposed to help us find Nemo (the town, not the fish). The first thing I see on the highway is a sign which says the highway is a 'certified weed free highway'. I am still pondering what that meant. There were definitely weeds growing along the highway. So, maybe it meant that you could not smoke weed as you drove along the highway. I don't know, but I thought it was pretty interesting.

After driving a while, we found Nemo. The picture above proves it!! There was not much to Nemo, but I am glad that we were able to locate it without having to swim with the turtles.

From there, we drove on down through Hill City to the highway that goes by Mt. Rushmore (we did not stop at Mt. Rushmore this year, but you can scan our older blog entries to see the pictures from the last time we were here). Right before the turn, we saw a mountain goat family on the side of the road. There were beautiful lakes and lots of rock formations which I got pictures of. THEN, we went back to bear country. All of those pictures are in the slide show below!!!

The last thing to mention is that, on the way back from our outing, we saw a car from Iowa with an Ole Miss Baseball sticker in their window. We waved and they waved back!!! Isn't that great. All the way in SD and we find Ole Miss baseball fans!!!

Day 4 - We Found a Little Bit Cooler Temperatures

2011-07-13T20:23:00.001-07:00

But, they will be gone tomorrow. We drove from Kennebec, SD, to the starts of the Grasslands in the rain today. Luckily, it had quit before we got to Wall, SD, because we really needed to go back to Wall Drug to see if it was as neat as the last trip. Guess what, it was not better the second time around. We went through all of the shops, had a piece of pizza, bought a little fudge and some doughnuts, and left Wall for Spearfish.

Jimmy had forgotten to pull the driving instructions to the RV Park where we are staying (same park at which we stayed the last trip when we went to Mount Rushmore). So far, I haven't taken any pictures of the park because they would look just like the pictures I took on the last trip!!! I might just reconnect that same set of pictures. I did take a few pictures today which I need to upload. I'll just attach them at the end of today's entry once I get them uploaded.

We drove into Spearfish trying to figure out where we could purchase diesel fuel before we leave to go to Billings. We checked out most of the stations and figured that we could not get the coach in (or out) of them. Finally, we went to the north side of the interstate and found a station that is just perfect - and has the cheapest diesel fuel in the area!!! What more could we ask!!!

So, we ate a quick dinner and headed back to the RV park. I was determined to get out and walk a little since it was cool enough to do so. Tomorrow we will head to the Bear park, or Mount Rushmore, or Deadwood, or something. Luckily, we are staying three nights here, so we don't have to rush.

We met a gentleman when we were out walking from Nebraska. He is heading to Montana tomorrow and on to Calgary for the weekend. He raises cattle and is meeting some other cattlemen friends at the Calgary Stampede. We hope this is the last weekend for the Stampede since we will be there next weekend!!! He told us that he had just placed an order for a new Tiffin Bus, so he is going to be going to Red Bay, AL in the near future!!!

Life is good. As we drove today, I kept thinking about a couple of Songs - America the Beautiful and I Stand Amazed in the Presence. Isn't that an interesting couple of songs to be in my mind at the same time? But, it is amazing to see the glory of God's creations and American is absolutely beautiful!!! So, it worked for me.

More tomorrow!!

Day 3 - Our Search for Cooler Temperatures

2011-07-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Day 3 began early with lots and lots of wind in the parking lot rv park at Council Bluffs! Enough to wake the cats. Peaches actually was making lots of noise and pacing the bed. She wouldn't get on the floor to pace - just paced the bed. The Bear rolled over once, looked at her and went back to sleep!

Even though our next leg of the trip is north, we had to back track to I80 and go northeast for about 20 miles to catch I680 west to get back to I29. There is apparently a bridge out on I29 which has resulted in that detour. We are now back on I29 heading north to Sioux Falls where we will turn west towards the mountains.

It has simply been amazing how many fields of corn and other crops we have seen! Plus there have been two places where we were driving through a low spot in the highway with big bags of gravel holding back the water on both sides and in the middle. It is like a bridge but you aren't up in the air! Lots of crop land is still under water.

I just updated the blog for everything else we did today, and lost it all. So, here goes nothing.

We had a little rain most of the trip to Kennebec, SD today. It was overcast all day - and COOLer than it had been. We never had to crank the generator - even when we stopped for lunch!!!

Peaches had a really good day - she just laid on her bathroom rug that we brought from home. Bear moved from his green bag to my lap to the dash to the bag to my lap to the bag to the sofa and back to my lap all day. He really likes to ride on the motor home. Everytime we would slow down or stop, he would jump on to the dash to make sure everyone could see him - as well so that he could see everything.

One thing we saw today was lots of fields of grains which had been harvested. With the bit of wind that was blowing all day, I kind of wish they had not been harvested. Then we would have truly seen the amber waves of grain!!!

Tonight we are staying in a KOA rv park in Kennebec. Ironically, it is the same KOA at which we stayed the on our trip to Yellowstone. No discount or recognition of that fact. The lady told us at check in that there probably had been four other owners of the park since we were last here!!!

Anyway, tomorrow we go to Wall Drug on the way to Spearfish. I truly think you could spend an entire day at Wall Drug and never see everything that is there.

Peace!!!!

Day 2 - Heading for Cooler Climes

2011-07-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Not actually a very log day in terms of miles driven, but still a long day. We came from Boonville, MO to Council Bluffs, IA. The drive was actually about an hour longer than it should have been due to the detour around the flooding on I29. As we approached the place to get off I29, we were surrounded on both sides by water. It was like the interstate was a long bridge. The detour itself was not bad, but it did add about an hour to our driving time.

We got to the Horseshoe RV Park and had to maneuver all around because I had put the casino's address in my phone instead of the RV park. But, we finally maneuvered into the line to check it. When we got here, we were the second RV to park, so we were basically given our choice of places to park. We picked slot 1 because it had nothing to the left of it. You have to back in, and backing is not our favorite thing to do. We made it though.

It was so hot, we had all three air units going, but the inside of the coach was just not cooling. Jimmy went up on the top to check to see if the units were frozen up or something. Lo and behold, the front unit was not running. So, down he came to check the switches/fuses or whatever and we had tripped the switch on unit 1. So, we flipped it back on and headed out in the Jeep to Omaha.

Just so everyone knows, Omaha is where the College World Series is played. Our team did not make it this year. But we did!!! It was all locked up. It is very large, but not nearly so beautiful as the ballpark in Oxford. But, we can now say that we have been there. Sure would like to return with our team soon!!! We had forgotten the cameras (they were on the coach), but I took a couple of pictures with my telephone.

We headed out of Council Bluffs with the last (hopefully) detour due to flooding. We have to go east and hook up with another interstate which intersects I29 north of the bridge that is out. I don't know where we will go tonight, but it will be somewhere in South Dakota.

Heading to Where It Is Cooler!!!!

Day 1-heading to cooler climes

2011-07-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

We left Holly Springs today at eight am. We don't really have to worry about things being stolen while we are gone since it is all on the coach! Peaches has already moved to the litter box and The Bear is asleep on the counter for some reason. Nothing planned today except driving. I will update later when we get to where we are going!

Last night after I went to bed to read Jimmy comes up from the basement to tell me that the national park at which we are staying in Canada suddenly has full hookups available (we were going to just have power). So down the stairs we go to make new reservations and cancel the old ones. I was not looking forward to bath house showers since there will be three of us there for a few days! But it all worked out. And $240 for six nights is not bad! Couldn't do a hotel up there for that price.

Nothing very eventful today. We drove a little further than we normally do and spent the night on the parking lot of the Isle of Capri casino. Very nice parking lot. But it was very hot. We has driven most of the afternoon with the genaerator running and the three air units going full blast. It never got below 77 in the salon area. They told me inside the casino that it was well over 100 and that they were not being able to keep the casIno as cool as normal. Leaving for Council Bluffs, IA in the morning.

Starting to Get Ready

2011-07-02T10:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, it is over a week until we leave heading north - but I have started getting ready.

Bear and Peaches have had their shots updated and will get the health certificates next week. You have to have that to go in and come out of Canada!! Of course, they are now feeling pretty bad. Peaches spent the night in the middle bathroom - just landed there and had not moved. The Bear was backed in beside the toilet in the same bathroom. They are still there - not moving - and Peaches cries if you pick her up. The Bear just goes limp and whimpers. Plus, their little noses are warmish.

The grocery purchasing has also begun. The other travel blogs Jimmy follows say to be sure and buy your paper towels in the ole US of A!!! So, got them, books for me, the frozen adult beverages that they sell at Walmart and the makings for spaghetti to make and take with us. Will be picking up a boneless ham, turkey breast and barbeque pork roast from Honey Baked next week (those were the coupons on the web today). Then I have to make the trip to Costco for stuff I need to buy in bulk!!! Most important is to stock up on my Coke Zero's!!!!

Have to get the Jeep's license renewed (expires in July) and both the motorhome and Jeep inspected next week. I think Jimmy also has to take it to the tow bar place and get them to check on something. Then there is the trip to the bank. I don't even want to think about that yet.

Next Trip

2011-07-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned to Jimmy that I would like to go somewhere this summer where the weather is cooler. I was thinking maybe the mountains of Colorado. But, Jimmy always takes the hint and makes a little trip into a wonderful experience. So, we are leaving around the 10th of July and heading to Canada!!! I'm going to start this blog with the 'getting ready' phase in addition to the going phase and the coming home phase.

Last night we coordinated Travis' travel to Calgary to meet up with us so that he can enjoy the cooler weather too!!! So, this is going to be a family trip, excluding only Rhett and Scarlett - Travis' cats. Peaches and The Bear have both been to the vets today to get all of their shots and their health certificates so that they can go to Canada in the motorhome with us. So, other than picking up a little more cash money, groceries, and a few other odds and ends, we are about ready to go!!!

Watch this site for more information as the trip gets underway.

September 30, 2009 - Sevierville, TN

2009-09-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

We got up yesterday morning and drove all the way to Sevierville (Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area). We had stayed at this RV park before, so we knew it would be comfortable for the few days before we head to Nashville.

Happy birthday Garrie - September 30. Happy birthday Rebecca - October 1.

September 30 we headed out to Cade's Cove. The last time we were here we saw bears. Not this time. We did see wild turkeys, deer and bats (hanging in one of the log cabins). I did take pictures, but the bears last year were better.

September 25 through September 29 - Charleston SC

2009-09-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

The morning after the ballgame, we got up early to travel to Charleston, SC. Actually, the RV Park was in Johns Island - but everyone would just say Charleston. We got up and got out of there so that we could be at the Citadel for the afternoon parade. Of course, once we got there, a little problem popped up.

I got a call from Holly Springs that the cd that I had left with the Town and Country Garden Club Yearbook which had to be submitted to the state garden club by October 1 had a problem. Of course, the yearbook is on my laptop - but it is a huge file. I had this brainstorm that I could break the big book into smaller components and send it via email. NOT!!!! One page of members (with pictures) equaled one email. So, I decided to head to town, buy two CD's, find the FedEx location, and ship the cd's to Holly Springs so that they could print the yearbook. My intent was to buy the cd's at the Citadel and then watch the parade. After the parade, I would load the file and ship off the overnight letters. Luckily, I got a call after the parade that the correct cd had been located, and I didn't have to do the copying and shipping. Thanks for small miracles since the cd's I bought at the Citadel bookstore were unformatted!!! I didn't know you could buy unformatted cd's anymore.

So, back to the parade. It was a big parade. The Spring semester cadets who had great grades were being honored. The father and mother of one of the honorees was on the stands in front of us - well, the father was. The mother (and her camera) was taking pictures. He must have been really smart, because he was in the group with the highest grade point ratio (they didn't call it averages). Andy and Terry were there, so we sat with them. The school was also honoring a big group of big $ donors at the parade. I don't know how much is big $, but there were a bunch of them. Pictures follow.

Another neat thing happened on Friday. We were driving downtown when we saw our friends Rita and Roland (from Hattiesburg) and their son walking back towards their hotel. Rita was riding in a rickshaw. The guys were walking. We went on down to the battery, and then we went back to their hotel (the Embassy Suites) and joined them for an adult beverage. Then, we all piled in the Jeep and headed over to Shem Creek for dinner. What a cool thing to do. We really enjoyed being with them.

Saturday was just a market and walking day. We didn't buy anything, but we did enjoy walking in Charleston. A really neat thing happened while we were walking along the battery wall. I looked to my right at one of the stairways to get up on the wall (or down off the wall) and there was a lost book propped against the wall. There was a sticker on the front of the book that said "Top 5 Reasons You should pick up this FREE BOOK". It then went on to give some cute reasons. The last was that it is a BookCrossing book. The website bookcrossing.com tracks books as they travel from one person to the next. I don't know where I will leave this copy after I have finished reading it, but I will definitely leave it somewhere.

Sunday we did the harbor tour. Yes, we have done it before. I had not been to Charleston since the new bridge was built, so that was really neat to see it from the water. We did have a great lunch after the tour at Hyman's Seafood Restaurant (and a really good Bloody Mary). I had never eaten at the restaurant before, but I had enjoyed a couple of their hush puppies on Saturday while I was waiting for Jimmy. I kept following the young lady around wishing that I could disguise myself like the guy on the snack bar commercials. She just laughed and gave me another one. If you are every in Charleston, you definitely need to eat there.

Monday, we drove out to Isle of Palms to see the house where Jimmy, Garrie, Joe and George had stayed when they went history touring two years ago. We drove out to the marina and back down to see where they ate when they went to the oyster fest (fund raiser for the volunteer fire department on Sullivan's Island). By then, it was lunch time, so we went to the Poe Tavern and had about the best hamburger I have had in a really long time. Jimmy then decided he wanted to walk across the new bridge. This is apparently a major tourist thing. Of course, you either have to walk both ways or have someone on the other side to pick you up. It took him one hour to walk from Charleston to the entrance to Patriot Point. Quite frankly, I think I could have walked it that direction but for one thing - it is way up high and the wall is not that tall. Being afraid of heights, I would have been a little leery of that walk. I think he was ready for the bottle of water that I had brought him. We did a little more touring via car and then back to the RV.

Columbia, SC September 24, 2009

2009-09-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

We traveled to South Carolina this week for the Ole Miss/South Carolina football game. I probably will not say anything about the ballgame. Suffice it to say, Ole Miss did not win.

We did drive to Columbia from Lexington - where the RV was parked - during the day with the express purpose of seeing the capital building. Jimmy related the story of how the building was under construction during the Civil War. The building was hit several (I think it was six times) by Northern cannon. The completed building has the hits marked with stars. I'm including pictures below of our tour of the outside of the capital building.

2009-02-24T10:50:00.001-08:00

Coming today - our first trip to the new baseball park. Pictures will be taken, hotdogs will be eaten, peanuts will be consumed, and this blog will be updated when we get home. More to come!!!

Won the ballgame 10-2. Here are my pictures from Day 1:

New York City - Travis and me

2008-11-09T04:44:00.001-08:00

This isn't a travel entry involving the RV. Travis and I are making a Mother-Son trip to the northeast. We each flew into Philadelphia (he from Montgomery, AL and me from Memphis, TN) on Friday, November 7 where we were picked up by Caesar's in Atlantic City. It was kind of a bleary day, so we just ate the salads that I had picked up in the airport and caught up (it had been a whole week since he had come home for the Auburn/Ole Miss game).

It was kind of neat to approach Atlantic City. I guess it was not what I was expecting. The casino hotels kind of rose up in front of us out of the rainy mist. The Trump casino just looks old. The Caesar's looks like a miniature version of the one in Las Vegas. The ones that we could see off at the marina looked a little more modern and a little newer. Anyway, we got checked in at the VIP counter and went off to locate the Centurion Tower and our ride to the top floor. When we looked out our window, we have a view of Bally's, the boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean (the hotel actually backs up directly onto the boardwalk). By the time we got acclimated (and lost a little money), it was time for our dinner reservations at the Roman themed restaurant - Bacchanal. It was a six-course feast starting with a really impressive opening course served on a plastic block filled with dry ice which just looked like a frosty mountain with food all over it. On the top level was a martini glass with slices of mozzarella and some type of cherry confit. There were shrimp, more cheese, olives, meat, bread sticks, grapes, etc. We both had the lobster bisque. Travis had the tomato/mozzarella salad while I had the Caesar salad (while in Rome!!!!). My salad had one anchovy on it - which ended my enjoyment of the salad. Everything smelled like fish from that point on. Travis had the sea bass because it had foie gras on it. I had the crab cakes because it had crab in it. Dessert was a really cute little key lime pie circle for Travis and creme brulee for me. The meal was absolutely wonderful, but neither of us was able to eat more than half of any of the courses - just way too much food. Plus, they kept pouring wine into our glasses - which also filled us up. A little more floor time and then to bed. The next day was the NYC trip. Oh yeah - somewhere in all of the activities previously described - the Hertz guy came to pick us up to get our rental car.

Yes, we drove to NYC. Actually, WE did not drive to NYC. Travis drove to NYC. He had pre-booked us a parking space in town, so we were able to navigate directly to it using multiple methods including GPS. All of those great methods of navigation worked beautifully going to NYC. Getting out of town was a totally different proposition since one of us (me) didn't have a clue as to what direction we were heading and kept getting my highly efficient driver confused. It wound up being kind of a rainy, dreary day, but we walked over 20 miles. We went to lots of the big stores and shopped. We actually bought something at Barney's. I almost bought a ring at Tiffany's - well, I thought about how nice the 20 or so carats would look. Tiffany's was my favorite of all of the stores. It was the catalog brought to life plus some more bling added on. Central Park was wonderful. I think we saw the actual bridge and rocks from Home Alone NYC!!! Tavern on the Green was just like I visualized (I liked the dude in the weird suit - the valet - the best). All in all, a delightful way to spend a day with my son. Pictures follow:

We also made a day trip on Sunday to Philadelphia. Actually, since we flew into Philadelphia, we made a trip back. This is a city to which neither of us had traveled. It was not as exciting as NYC. Plus, it was Sunday, so things were a little slow. We tried to have a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich at one of the highly publicized places, but the line wrapped around about 4 blocks. Neither of us figured anything could be that good. Absolutely no place to park or anything. Of course, part of the problem was that the Giants were playing the Eagles that night - so I guess everyone had come to town to have a sandwich. Pictures follow:

Biltmore Estate

2008-09-05T16:18:00.000-07:00

If you have never visited the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC - you really need to go. Jimmy and I have been a number of times, including one evening tour that we did between Christmas and New Years.

Anyway, the first time we went to the Biltmore Estate, we parked directly in front of the home (kind of like guests driving up to see our friends the Vanderbilts!!!!). That was the good part of that trip. The bad part was that we locked the keys in the car. One of the security men wound up unlocking the car (with an unbent coat hangar no less).

I can only say that the estate has gotten better over time. Instead of buying your ticket at the front door, they have a really nice welcome center where the nice ladies will absolutely talk you into buying everything that they have to sell. Yes, I bought the audio tour package - and I would definitely advise doing so if you come to Ashville. You get an MP3 player which has the audio explanation of every room which is open to the public - on all five floors of the home (four floors of home and the basement). Plus, they have a short video to watch that gives first timers a little information about the estate.

Since 9/11 - you can no longer park directly in front of the house. But, they have really nice parking lots with shuttles to run you back and forth. However, since I needed the steps, Jimmy and I walked from the parking lot to the home. It was a really nice, shady walkway that led us directly to the overlooked at the end of the main lawn in front of the house. I took two pictures of the front of the house and then we went up to the main home.

I cannot describe the house. This was our first time to go on almost all of the floors. The last time we were here, there was a family member (or family) who stilled lived in some of the house - hence those rooms were closed to public tours. No one lives in the actual home now - so more of the house is now open. There are restoration projects going on currently, so there were rooms not open to the public which will be open within the next year. This was our first time to go above the second floor of the house since they were closed to the public our other visits. In fact, we didn't actually remember going into Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedrooms before - so that might have been where the family lived at the time.

Of special interest on this trip was the carpet of flowers just off the side of the home. The area where the flowers were is just an open area which is used for various outside functions (like the BB King and Beach Boys concerts in August). Now, they have flats of flowers laid out on the space in very intricate patterns. I was kind of surprised that they were not actually planted - but they were not. You could see the flats under the plants if you got right up to it and looked. The walled gardens were not at their best, but they were still beautiful. There were lots of lots of butterflies. Of course, they were not in the butterfly garden where they were supposed to be - they were in the patterned area closer to the entrance. Jimmy was disappointed that the pots in the greenhouse were plastic - but I figured that was the least important thing that they had to worry about - plastic or clay!!!! They even had potato plants growing in the greenhouse. I doubt very many people had any idea that those were potato plants - you had to be from Mississippi to know that was what they were.

We did go to the winery. I was a bit disappointed. Napa has much better winery tours and tastings. It is, according to them, the most visited winery in the US. I guess that is because so many people come to the Biltmore Estate and you might just as well go to the winery for a tasting while you are there.

Anyway, I didn't take a lot of pictures. You can see more about Biltmore at their web site: www.biltmore.com I do suggest that you go on line and purchase your tickets on line - you save $5 a person. We don't have a printer on the RV - so I didn't buy them in advance. Of course, once I got there, I could have bought them and written down the confirmation number and they would have just looked it up for me. Pictures follow:

Day 1 and 2 - Heading to the Wake Forest football game

2008-09-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

We left home the day after Labor Day headed east on Interstate 40. We had seen a really nice looking RV park the last time we came to Pigeon Forge, and we decided to just leave a bit earlier than we actually had to in order to stay here for a couple of days.

We are pulled into a nice, spacious space overlooking the French Broad River. We haven't seen the French Broad (I think she lives in the house down the stream from us), but we did see a bunch of wild turkeys last night. There were 8 of them just strolling up the river bank across the river from us. Then I see a big bird with a white head land in a tree directly across the river. I decided it was a big duck, but the man at the office this morning told me that it was most likely the male bald eagle that lives down by the power station. So, one night and we saw 8 wild turkeys and 1 bald eagle.

This morning I got up a little before 7am (Holly Springs time) and killed about 45 minutes waiting for the office to open so that I could go and get my walk in. When it was about 10 till 8am, I headed up that way only to have to turn around and head back. I had the IPod and I had the telephone. I didn't have my pedometer. Anyway, the man was opening the office building about the time I got back up there, so I turned on the lights, turned on the air conditioner, turned on the flat screen tv and walked for about 45 minutes. I figured I didn't need to do the full 10,000 steps since we were going shopping in Pigeon Forge and to Gatlinburg later. Good thing I held back, because - as of right now - I have walked 17,000 steps and the day isn't over yet.

By the time I got back to the RV and got cleaned up, both Jimmy and I were basically starving. So, off to the Flapjack Pancake House in Pigeon Forge. It is kind of a tradition to have pancakes or waffles for breakfast when we are here. But, it was about 10am (our time) and it filled us up for most of the rest of the day.

Then, off to the Tangier Discount Mall. Jimmy finally found his new tennis shoes. Since they had a buy one, get the second pair for half price sale - I got me a new pair of walking shoes also. Since I am up to over 200 miles since mid-July, I don't think I can have too many pairs of walking shoes - do you!!!!

We wandered around the rest of the shopping center and I found the pasta servers and slotted serving spoons for the Church. Then off to Gatlinburg. What a trip. No parking. Nothing but t-shirt and wood carving shops interspersed with the fast food restaurants. I am really depressed by how commercial Gatlinburg has become. But, you have to walk up and down main street at least once. We also drove out and through the artist community just outside Gatlinburg. Quite frankly, we were trying to kill time so that it would get to be late afternoon and we could go see animals in Cade's Cove.

We finally realized that, by the time we drove to Cade's Cove and with the time change, it would be mid-to late afternoon by the time we got there. So, off to Cade's Cove. We had barely gotten onto the one way lane when we saw the first of three black bears. Two were right at the road (pictures will be uploaded later) and one was just wandering around the hill. I just couldn't get out of the car and up to where I could get his picture quickly enough!!!

Here are the pictures of the bears we saw.

We also saw one white tailed deer, a bunch of butterflies and a few birds. But, the time was well spent since we got to see three black bear in one less than 11 mile drive. We spent three days in Yellowstone and just saw two bear!!!

I think it is Cherokee, NC tomorrow, but I'm not sure.

Stayed tuned.

Montgomery, AL trip - catching up

2008-09-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

I've got a little catching up to do. On August 8, we traveled to Montgomery, AL, to help Travis move into his apartment. The cats enjoyed the new RV park that we found, and Jimmy and I worked ourselves to the bone helping Travis get unpacked, get things that were moved purged so that he wasn't having to keep up with stuff he didn't need, and getting the empty boxes to the trash. Montgomery has a really good process where they set up garbage trucks around the city on Saturdays to accept trash - including big things like refrigerators, sofas, and other such items. We only had empty boxes and boxes full of trash.

Anyway, we got that done and headed home only to suffer the roughest trip we have ever experienced once we got on highway 78 (the four lane part). When we got to Holly Springs, we both decided that the rear air bags were either not fully inflating or were not inflating at all. So, off Jimmy and the RV go to Memphis to the Spartan maintenance place. Sure enough, the rear air bags were not properly inflating - so we were riding on that fairly bumpy highway without the benefit of the air bags.

According to the Spartan guy, there was a problem with a valve. When they got the valve in and replaced it, the new valve also broke. Wound up that there was a maintenance kit that Spartan had put out for a misalignment problem that that chassis had. It was about 2 inches out of alignment. We got it back the Friday before Labor Day and it now drives like new.

The next post will bring you up to date on the trip we are currently on.

Days 22-24 - Just Coming Home

2008-07-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Nothing really to report. We are just traveling the interstate coming home. As I write this, we are in Russellville, AR and will be in Holly Springs this afternoon. It is Tuesday, July 8, and we have been gone since Father's Day. I believe it is the longest vacation that Jimmy and I have ever taken at one time. On one hand - I'll be glad to be home. On the other - those cooler temperatures in Montana were really nice.

But, the kitties are ready to settle and not be 'on the road' so much. Peaches has done really well. She only had to have a pill the first day. When we start closing the RV up to head out, we put one of my Grandmother's old quilts on the sofa. As soon as Peaches sees the quilt, she is on the sofa, in the corner, curled up and ready to travel. She hasn't been sick one time. Bear, on the other hand, is constant motion. He is on the dashboard, then on my lap, then laying down between the seats in the front, then under the table, and then back to the front to start all over. He never gets sick - well, unless Peaches throws up in front of him and then he works up some sympathy sickness!!!!

All in all, a great trip.

Hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as I have enjoyed blogging (if there is such a word).

Martha

Day 21 - Battle of the Little Big Horn

2008-07-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

I am writing this as we head across Kansas on Day 22, so I will update the site with pictures tonight.

Anyway, we had a comfortable night in Billings and got up in the morning to head south towards Colorado, with a short sidetrip to the Battle of the Little Big Horn Memorial. It is a part of the National Park Service, so in we went on Jimmy's Golden Age Passport. I don't know how much he spent on that pass when he and Garrie made one of their trips to Virginia, but I suspect it paid for itself many times over on this trip. The only national park where we had to pay any entrance fee was the one in Alberta, Canada. I guess it makes sense that they would not honor a US National Park Service pass.

Anyway, the Little Big Horn Memorial is just off interstate 94 in Montana. We had missed it on the way out because the highway we had planned to take was under construction and we had to take a detour that caused us to enter Billings 40 miles north of the site. I guess I didn't really kmow what to expect - not being a really big history buff. But, we parked the RV and cranked the generator for the kitties and off we went.

The site is a national cemetery. I believe the ranger told us that the cemetery had been closed 12 or 15 years. Basically, that means that it had reached capacity with veterans who wished to be interred there. We pulled up to the visitor center just as they were starting a 17 minute video to give the history of the battle. Quite frankly, I didn't follow it really well, but Jimmy said it was very well done. I did get the point that Custer was outmanned, outmaneuvered, and just plain out old fashioned beaten at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Once we watched the video, we strolled up the hill toward the two monuments. Shortly after the actual battle, soldiers who had been with the army which launched the attack, but separated from the main body, came onto the field of battle and saw the dead. They buried the soldiers in shallow graves and marked the graves. Two years later, all of the bodies were dug up and reinterred under a monument which stands on a hilltop overlooking the battlefield. The native Americans had not lost so many, but the monument to their dead was not erected until much later (I'll look up the actual date and put it in here as soon as I can). The National Park was originally named for General Custer. Under the senior Bush administration, the name was changed to the Battle of the Little Big Horn, thus honoring all who fought and died there. On the hillside between the original monument and the visitor center are crosses marking the original graves of many of the soldiers. The ranger (who, by the way was Native American - Crow Nation) told us that Custer had actually died at a place at the foot of the monument, but his marker had been moved as it was feared that tourists would carry off pieces of the marker (the area is surrounded by a fence). Of course, many of the officers who were killed at that battle are not interred in the mass grave, but were returned to be buried at a site selected by their families. General Custer is buried at West Point.

After we left the park. we headed the RV south. We got to Wellington, CO and spent the night. They have lots of black flies!!! Luckily I had a package of Corky's BBQ in the freezer, so we had that for dinner, watched a little NASCAR, and hit the sack.

Day 20 - On the Road Home

2008-07-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

There really isn't anything to report today, other than that we are on the way home. We got to Billings, MT today and stayed at the same KOA we stayed in on the way out. It is a long way with very little interstate. What we have found interesting is that even the two lane highways out here have maximum speed limits which are higher than (or equal to) the interstate speed limits at home!!! Interstate upper limit is 75, but it is 70 on most of the two lane highways. We set the cruise control at 60 and try to maximize miles per gallon!!!

We are kind of in awe of the numbers of people we saw at all of the places we visited on this trip. It did not seem to us that the gasoline prices have kept many people home. When we went over the Going to the Sun Road, it was full and almost all of the parking areas were packed. I am sure that there is some decline in travel, but it seems like the people from the states around Montana were out in force. I guess they didn't have as far to go as we did.

However, I am still concerned about the people who live out here with the high fuel prices. Children have to travel long distances to get to school. The fields have to be plowed, planted, and picked. Cows have to be herded. Grasses have to be grown, cut and bailed for hay. Mail has to be delivered. Emergency services have to be provided. With fuel over $4.00/gallon, I hate to know what the price of bread and hamburger meat is going to be in the near future.

And, for all of the politicians talking about using alternative fuels - electric cars will not go as far on one charge as these folks have to drive just to get their child to school. This is a problem that needs to be fixed.

And that is my political statement for today.

Day 19 - Going to the Sun Road

2008-07-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

I am going to have a really hard time describing today. I'm almost tempted to let the pictures speak for themselves. But, since I don't know when I will be able to upload the pictures, I'll go ahead and give you some impressions of the day.

For the last two days, I have been downloading audios from the iTunes store regarding
Glacier National Park. These podcasts are free. Some are video. It is something that was developed by the park to assist travelers who are taking the new park shuttles through the park vs. driving their own cars or taking the red jammers that are available (commercial tour company). We had decided to drive, but I thought having the podcasts would be beneficial to our knowing what we were seeing. And, they were. So, if you are planning a trip out here or to Yosemite, you might want to download the podcasts while you have a strong internet connection. We would up stopping in at the information center where they have the entire set of videos and audios on a cd that takes about 6 minutes to upload to your pc. That after me spending about an hour just trying to get the audio podcasts!!! Well, you live and learn.

Our drive up to Logan Pass was pretty much what we had done the first day we were in the park. My pictures of that section are from the top down, but I'll try to fix that when I get the pictures organized.

It was the approach to Logan Pass which brought all of the concerns about the roads into perspective. We went through one pass on the approach to the visitors center where there were mountains of snow on either side of the road. It looked just like some of the pictures that are posted on Glacier National Park's web site (go visit that site for a lot more information about the park). Then, we got to the visitors center. There was snow everywhere and it wasn't cold enough to anything other than shorts and shirts. We climbed up on the snow mass behind the visitors' center and watched a group of ladies hook up their cross country skies and snow shoes. There is supposed to be a fairly easy hike (via a boardwalk) up to the glacier. Well, the boardwalk was not there. Just snow. We just decided to enjoy the view from where we were. Now, the trip down the little snowmass was a little cold. I'm scared to death of falling, so I just went ahead and sat down and slid down the little hill. A lot of ladies my age agreed that was the preferred way to come down - that vs. falling and breaking something. Of course, Jimmy was totally embarrassed!!! And, my seat was wet for a long time.

When we got to the parking lot, I spotted a herd of mountain goats heading down the mountain across the street from the visitors' center. There was a man with a spotting scope right next to us. He let us look through the scope. Boy, those mountain goats needed a bath and some hair conditioner!!! The gentleman with the scope was leading a group of people looking for wild life in the park. All of his charges had gone to the rest rooms. So, he told us what he would have told them.

We head from the pass down the west side of the mountain. We had just gotten around the first two bends, when we decided to park and take some pictures of the waterfalls and scenery. When we looked back towards the visitors' center, the entire highway going both ways was blocked. Either the same, or a new, herd of goats were trying to get across the road. Our podcasts had just told us to stay out of their way and to give them plenty of room when they were in the area. The male goat was just running back and forth trying to find a way for his flock to get down and across. They finally gave up and just went back up the hill. You couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

There are a lot of pictures that will be uploaded that show the beauty of the park and the waterfalls. There was one area called the weeping wall where, if you were going west, you got wet. We laughed about all of the motorcyclists who didn't read about the weeping wall who were going to get soaked. The weeping wall was man made, in a sense. When they cut the road through, the blasting created this wall of stone where the waterfalls just spill their water onto the road.

There will be a lot of pictures showing the area where the road isn't. Yes, there is a long area where the left side (the side next to the fall away) isn't. There are a lot of big pieces of equipment and big piles of rocks blocking the road, creating a one way street. We had to wait about 15 minutes on the downhill trek until it was the westward bound side's turn. The winter slides had literally obliterated sections of the retaining walls and highway. Thank you Glacier National Park for making that section one way.

On down the mountain we go to Apgar Village where we decide to have lunch. I had forgotten to tell you that Yellowstone has much superior food service to Glacier. When we stopped to have lunch at the East Glacier hotel on day 17, we went into the dining room only to be told that there would be a 20 minute wait for a table. There were at least 80 tables available!!! We went to the lounge and had our food within 20 minutes. Today, it took about 40 minutes to deliver a hamburger at the end of the lunch hour. We never waited in line for fast food in Yellowstone longer than about 5 minutes!!!! So, heads up when you come to Glacier. Bring snacks or be prepared for long waits.

Once lunch was over, we headed out of the west entrance to the park to find diesel fuel for the Jeep. It was about 10 miles north before we saw a green pump handle. And, the price was back in the reasonable range (it is about $5.00/gallon today in St. Mary).

We made the decision to go back over the Going to the Sun Road instead of heading south around the south end of the park. It was just as beautiful going east as it was coming west. We did see two long horned sheep. There is no picture though. There was no place to pull over. So, you will just have to trust me that we saw two and you will have to look them up in a book or on the internet to see what they look like.

The rest of the trip back to St. Mary was fairly uneventful. Again, the trip is in the pictures, which I cannot upload until I have a real wifi network vs. a satellite link.

Tomorrow, we head back towards Mississippi. I don't know how often I will update the blog on the trip home. There are a couple of stops that I know we will be making. Plus, we are going to listen to the unabridged version of the Ambrose book Undaunted Courage. I'll have both the abridged and unabridged versions if anyone would like to borrow them!!!

Day 18 - Glacier National Park

2008-07-03T17:19:00.001-07:00

Two things before I being to tell you about our day headed north.

This KOA where we are staying has satellite internet. To say that it is sketchy is an understatement. It takes forever to load the pictures, so I will have to play catch up when we get to a place to overnight that really has wifi connectivity!!!!
Last night, there was a very interesting event. About 10:30 pm (local time - 11:30 pm our time), we thought we were under attack again. Remember, it was July 1. I have no idea why, but the KOA put on about a 10 minute fireworks display. And I mean big fireworks. Some college students we talked to the next day said that they sat on the roof of the building where they stay to watch the display. Needless to say, the cats went into hiding when the first boom sounded. I tried to go with them, until I realized it was fireworks.

Anyway, the day was, once again, rainy and gloomy. Not 80 degrees plus, but still not a comfortable day tourist wise. We slept really late and decided to go to one of the local restaurants (there are 4 that we have identified) for a late breakfast. The first one we went to had a bigger crowd waiting to get in than they had room inside (we knew this because we had eaten there the day before). The next one we tried was closed!!! So, we went to the local lodge and they were serving. We had been seeing everything huckleberry since we got to the Yellowstone area. So, Jimmy had huckleberry pancakes and I had huckleberry stuffed French toast. (It wasn't really stuffed with huckleberries. They used a huckleberry/cream cheese mixture instead of butter). Both were excellent. I guess the huckleberries are why the bears love it out here.

So, on to Many Glaciers - a part of Glacier National Park and the site of one of the old hotels that were built during the heydays of the railroads. There are great pictures which will be uploaded as soon as I can. You cannot believe that there were trees that they were able to cut down to build these hotels. The lobbies are phenomenal. We did see a number of deer and goats and one moose while in the hotel area. In fact, I thought the goats were going to just come right up to us. They were across the road and just walked right on down into the highway and right on across to where we were. Deer are so frequent in the area that you just quit taking pictures of them (kind of like bison in Yellowstone). Now, the moose picture is from the rear. We saw the moose from the side, but before I could get the camera out, he had turned away from us. I took the picture anyway to prove that we saw a moose.

Our next destination was Canada. Let me tell you now, sign your passports. It was quite embarrassing to have the young man at Canadian customs tell us that we needed to sign them in order for them to be valid. He let us in. But, we pulled over at the next pull out area and signed the passports.

Our ultimate destination was the Prince of Wales Hotel and Waterton Village Townsite. We had seen pictures of the Prince of Wales Hotel on many PBS specials. The tv specials do not prepare you for the real hotel. Now, it is smaller than we expected, but it is so cute. It has more decorations on it than any we have ever seen. The most interesting thing was going on in the lobby of the hotel. With the most spectacular views of the lake, people were enjoying high tea. I felt underdressed - although most of the people enjoying tea were in shorts and blue jeans - just like we were. The hotel had been built for the enjoyment of its guests - as all of their dining room areas were overlooking the lake.

Of course, we had to drive down into Waterton Village Townsite - who could resist an area with such a name. It was the most beautiful little village. There was so much green space. The shops were quaint. The people had neat accents. The ice cream was delicious. Deer were everywhere!!! We sat down to eat our ice cream right across the street from where we sat. In fact, I walked across the street and right up to the little deer who was cutting the grass right in the center of the town. We saw lots of other deer throughout the town, just mowing the grass and saving the city lots of money!!!

Oh, by the way, at breakfast this morning, we were told that the Going to the Sun Road was open. We made a conscious decision to delay our trip across to allow any bad sections on the road to be tested by some other cars before we go up there. And, hopefully, the sun will come out and we can have the best of all days in Glacier National Park!!! Keep your fingers crossed and I'll get the pictures uploaded as soon as possible.

Day 17 - Glacier National Park

2008-07-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

We woke during the night to a pretty good storm. Rain for sure. We thought we heard some hail. With rv's on both sides of us though, and with the contour of the land in this park, we didn't have any problem with wind.

But, when we got up this morning, it was still rainy and really gloomy. The people to our right were about to leave. I remembered that they had been in the KOA in Billings one night that we were there. The lady was complaining that everywhere they had been, it had rained. And, apparently, not just a little bit of rain. She said that they were in Billings hoping to dry out!!! Anyway, since the Going-to-the-Sun road was not open all the way across, they were pulling their fifth wheel trailer around the south of the park to the west side in order to drive up the road as far as they could go from there.

Jimmy and I get in the car and head to the local supermarket (and I use that term really loosely) to find some benadryl pills and cream. I apparently have been bit by some bug or am allergic to something that I have touched. I have two places on the shoulder which are bumpy and hurt. I actually think it is because I was taking ibupropen - which will give you hives or shingles in some cases. I've quit taking the ibupropen, but the still neck for which I was taking it now actually hurts all the time!!! Really pitiful - aren't I!!!!

Anyway, we head south on highway 89 to highway 49 to go to the Two Medicine entrance to the park. There really isn't much there other than another tour boat, a campground and a general store. It was rainy, but I did take a couple of pictures out the window of the general store.

There are a lot of tent campers out here. I would not enjoy that - especially in weather like we had last night and today!!!

From Two Medicine, we head further south to East Glacier. East Glacier is a little town on the railroad. There is a wonderful railroad hotel across from the railroad station. There have been a lot of PBS shows about the railroad hotels that were built way back when the railroads were the only way to get here. We didn't see any passenger trains, but we did see a number of freight trains running by the park on the south.

Our final stop today was at Goat Lick Overlook. We did not know what to expect other than what Jimmy had read on the internet. There are some cliffs on the other side of the river from the overlook which the mountain goats in the area lick! We saw a mother goat and her two babies going down the cliff to the place where they could reach the rock formation. It was so cute to see the little goats straining to get to the minerals. Luckily we had our binoculars. There were people lined up to look through our binoculars. I did get some pictures. You can see the little white dots on the cliff - those are the mountain goats.

We went back to the hotel at East Glacier for lunch. You will not believe the pictures of the interior of that hotel. I couldn't believe the place, and I was there. There are whole, tall trees holding up the lobby. Big trees. They run about three stories high. I don't know if any of the pictures will give you a true perspective. I did one series of three photos starting at the front door, then raised the camera to get the area just above the front door and raised it one more time to get the wall up to the top. My daddy used to take pictures of airplanes like that - you would have to take two or three pictures and overlap them to see the entire airplane!!!!

Hopefully the weather will clear tomorrow and I will feel a whole bunch better.

2008-07-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

Day 16 - Glacier National Park

2008-06-30T17:09:00.002-07:00

We departed Great Falls, MT this morning after driving back one exit from the RV park to fill up with diesel fuel - at $4.39/gallon. In West Yellowstone, it had been about $4.79/gallon. We had been told to make sure you left the Great Falls area with enough fuel to get us there and back!!!! They were right. When we arrived in St. Mary, MT (east entrance to the park), diesel was $4.99/gallon!

Anyway, the drive was through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. I'm going to be honest. I really could not tell much difference between the Indian Reservation and the plains of Montana which we had driven through on other days. However, after having listened to the abridged Ambrose book, Undaunted Courage, on CD last week, we did know that Meriwether Lewis had a run in with Blackfeet Indians on his way back to St. Louis from the Pacific.

Getting to St. Mary was non-eventful. Just rolling hills running parallel to the mountains. The real mountains. High, rocky and snowy Rocky Mountains. Again, quite awe inspiring to see the mountains rise up from the plains where you see farmers raising wheat and cattlemen raising cattle - all to ensure we are fed. Some of those dummies in Washington need to come to Montana and South Dakota and see the impact fuel prices are having on these folks. Believe it or not - they do not have mass transit!!! An electric car would not get a child to school - it would run out of juice!!! I commented to Jimmy today that being rural mail delivery person would be a really expensive job in this area of the country.

Anyway, we arrive in St. Mary at the KOA and get settled in. The mountains of Glacier National Park are visible out the front window of the RV. Not as much snow as I expected, but spectacular nonetheless!!! Oh - by the way - it is in the high 80's here - but no humidity.

After getting the RV set up and the cats settled, Jimmy and I head to the park. At the east entrance visitor's center, an osprey has built a nest on top of a telephone pole. The rangers have a scope on the osprey so that you can see them up close and personal. We find that the Going to the Sun Road is not open all the way. From the east side, we can go about 12 miles and then walk about 2 more. So - off we go up the mountain. No snow. Not a lot of cars. Not anything like Yellowstone. What we have read indicates that this park gets about 1/3 the number of visitors each year that Yellowstone gets. I guess I can understand that. It is much further north. It does not have the development around or in it that Yellowstone has. Where Yellowstone has well developed roads within the park for tourists, Glacier has one road across the park (about 50 miles), and it is closed right now.

Anyway, we get to the point where the road is closed and walk about 1 miles up the road. That is where we decided that the air was too thin and the temperature too high for us to go any farther. It is a good thing that we turned around then, because the rangers were coming down from the actual point where the snowplows and heavy equipment were working to open the rest of the road and telling everyone to go back down. We were told that the problem is not snow on the highway right now. It is damage to the road done by avalanches and slides. One ranger told us that there was one point where the road just isn't!!! Personally, I would prefer to wait until the road IS before we go up there. They do hope to have the road open by this Thursday. We will keep our fingers crossed that we get to make the trip across the park before we have to leave to come home.

Anyway, that is about all we did today. There are pictures in the blog page on Glacier National Park pictures. We are considering taking a boat tour of one or two of the lakes. We hope to get up into Canada to see the park further north. Plus, we will make a trip around to the west side of the park and go as far on the Going to the Sun Road as possible just in case they don't get the entire road open while we are here.

More tomorrow.

Glacier National Park Pictures

2008-06-30T17:09:00.001-07:00

Will be updated daily here.

Days 14 and 15 - Great Falls, MT

2008-06-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, nothing much to report. We arrived in Great Falls, MT, yesterday afternoon after numerous delays on the trip from West Yellowstone (wrecks, slow traffic, etc.). It was almost 90 degrees - this after experiencing about 40 degrees two days before!!!!

Anyway, the grocery store was calling (we were out of paper plates on which to feed Bear and Peaches). So, off to Smith's I got. Smith's is Kroger!!! They had Breyers ice cream and a lot of other stuff that looked too interesting to pass up. So, I checked out and went back to the RV. Guess what I didn't get!!! Paper plates. I didn't get them until Sunday morning when I went back to the store.

We did make two forays in the tourist area. There is a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center along the Missouri River. We drove out there and toured the center. It was really interesting, particularly after having listened to the abridged version of Undaunted Courage. We wound up buying the unabridged version to listen to on the trip home.

The interesting thing about Great Falls is the actual falls. There were 4 falls which Lewis and Clark encountered on their great expedition to find a northwest passage. They have been dammed up. The interesting thing is how it was done. The dams are placed far enough back from the falls to preserve the beauty of the falls themselves. We drove out of town about 20 miles to the Ryan Dam - which is where the Great Falls are now. It was a really nice park with a suspension bridge over a little branch of the Missouri River.

Garrie - I forgot the camera. I took some pictures at Ryan Dam with my telephone. They at the begining of this update.

That is really all we did today. Just kind of chilled. Tomorrow - we head to Glacier National Park.

Day 13 - Yellowstone

2008-06-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

Pictures have been updated at the blog page titled Yellowstone pictures. This is the last update to Yellowstone pictures, as we leave tomorrow morning for Great Falls, MT on the way to Glacier National Park.

Today was to have been a leisurely drive around the entire park just looking for animals and stopping for one last eruption at Old Faithful.

We had barely gotten inside the park when we came upon a large group of cars pulled off the road. The male bald eagle (from the eagle nest we saw the very first day) was perched up on the very top of a tree across the little river from the road. Of course, I had to jump out and take his picture - 3 times. They are the first new pictures in Yellowstone animals. He is on the tree right in the middle of the picture - you can clearly see his white head.

Then, on into the park and we head south towards Old Faithful. I had been a little disappointed in the geyser when we saw it on Wednesday. I thought it was a little weak and I wanted to give it one more change. On the way to the site, we came upon a walkway (just past the Midway Geyser Basin) to Fairy Falls. So, off we went. Then we realized that the walkway we were on was the one mile walk to the access trail to Fairy Falls. The total, one way walk was 2.6 miles. We had promised ourselves that we would not take any long walks today since we were driving the entire circumference of the park!!! So, we walked out a little ways and then turned back to the car.

On to Old Faithful. She was scheduled to erupt in about 20 minutes from the time we arrived. So, we decided to walk around the walkway to the back side of the geyser to get a different view. I found a place to take the pictures where the sun would not be directly in my face. Jimmy called our friend Jim Bennett in Corinth to update him on our trip. While they were talking, Old Faithful made a minimal eruption. I, for one, thought it was over since it was not much less than the one we saw the other time. So, down to the cell phone I went to give Jim the web site for this blog. I no sooner hung up than Old Faithful put on a most spectacular show. It went for about 4 minutes and the spray was at least two times higher than we had seen it on our previous visit. I have appended the pictures that I took today to the Yellowstone Geyser set of pictures. I kind of just held the button down on the camera and let it take pictures.

After the show, Jimmy went in to talk to the rangers about where to find bear. They told us to head north towards the Hayden area. But, they also told him that it would be just plain out old fashioned luck if we were to see one. So, up to the cafeteria for lunch and on to the car for the drive.

It was my turn to drive. We had to go back over the mountain passes that we went over yesterday when it was sleeting. Today, it was absolutely glorious. No rain. No snow. No sleet. Almost no motorcycles. As we came out of the pass, Jimmy started looking down into the meadows through the binoculars looking for bear. None to be seen. We saw some buffalo (they are everywhere), but no bear. We had just about given up when we saw lots of cars pulled off the highway - rather helter skelter. Obviously, they had seen something important, and we needed to join them. So, I pulled off the side of the road (actually off the road vs. just kind of off the road) and we traipsed off across a hilly meadow to see what was going on. There was a black bear. Now, we didn't get close enough to determine if it was a black bear or a grizzly bear or an adult or a cub. But, we did get to see our second bear of the trip. One couple that we talked to had two children. The little boy had made a wish to see a bear when he blew on a dandelion. He got his wish, and we got ours.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful. Just back to West Yellowstone and to the RV for a night of relaxation before we head out in the morning.

I did forget to include one funny thing that we saw yesterday. As we were heading out of the park, we saw our second wreck of the day. It was an RV which had apparently backed its rear wheels off the roadway. It was just sitting there with its front wheels on the road and its underbody on the curb. Yes, the wrecker was there to pull him out!!! Maybe it was a rental unit!!!

Till tomorrow.

Yellowstone Pictures

2008-06-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

This blog will be uploaded with pictures from today. I have found out that if you double click on the slide show, it will take you to the picasa web album site where you can see the pictures more clearly. But, as of right now, the pictures are uploaded and labeled for our first two days in the park.

Yellowstone Animals

Yellowstone Geysers

Yellowstone Scenery

Day 12 - Yellowstone

2008-06-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

Pictures are at url: http://picasaweb.google.com/mcthomas2005

Once all of the pictures are uploaded and labeled - I will create one blog entry with just pictures slideshows. You can double click on a slideshow and it will take you to our pictures web site.

Anyway, today was the north circle in Yellowstone. Of course, that meant repeating everything we had seen from West Yellowstone to Madison and north to Norris. But, even with the fact that we were repeating miles traveled, we did see something new - a wreck. How on earth someone can take out a pine tree with a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour - I don't know. But, someone did. There were emergency vehicles, ambulances, rangers and all of the other emergency services there with traffic stopped on both sides of the road - well, maybe just slowed down. We also stopped to take pictures of the eagle nest since the sun was covered with clouds in the morning.

Our first real stop today was the Norris Geyser Basin. The Steamboat Geyser is in this basin. It goes off on a regular basis, but when it has a major eruption (last one was in May 2005), it shoots water higher than Old Faithful. Now, its really big eruptions are on an 8 to 50 year cycle. That means, you could just walk away from the geyser heading to the parking lot and that sucker could blow and you would miss it!!!! That did not happen to us, but it certainly could have.

From there we headed north to Sheepeaters Cliffs. These cliffs were formed by a lava flow that solidified into basalt cliffs. They actually reminded me of Devil's Tower with the vertical stratifications and the broken off pieces at the base. There were supposed to be marmots nesting in the broken pieces of rock at the base. We did not see any, but I did get a great picture of a chipmunk (it is in the Yellowstone Animals album at the url at the beginning).

Just north of Sheepeaters Cliffs were the Hoodoos. Hoodoos are vertical stones that have eroded away and are just standing there. There was a little drive through the hoodoos. Luckily it was one way - because it felt tight in the jeep!!!

North of the Hoodoos was Mammoth Park Headquarters. We stopped there and had lunch. There were signs everywhere that you were not to feed the elk. We couldn't feed the elk. There weren't any!!! But, there were a lot of people milling about and taking a break from driving.

Rather than climb the Mammoth Terraces right after lunch, we decided to drive to the north entrance to Yellowstone. That is where the Roosevelt Arch is. The arch was erected in 1903 and reads "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People" which was from the 1872 Congressional Act which actually created the park. It felt like it took us forever to reach the arch from Mammoth, because the park service was striping the road!!!! What was really interesting is that we actually left the park, did a u-turn, took our pictures and then had to show our pass to get right back into the park!!!

There were supposed to be mountain sheep in the area north of Mammoth and south of the north entrance. There was a wonderful area where the sheep should have been. We saw some pigeons - but no sheep in that wonderful area.

We then proceeded to the Mammoth Terraces. This was really an interesting area. It was a thermal area, but it didn't seem to be alive. The minerals from the thermal areas had created very artistic 'terraces' created by the deposits. Of course, you could not walk out onto the terraces, but it certainly did look like you ought to be able to. Jimmy and I agreed that we would go up one level. I do not know if either of us could have climbed all the way to the top. Plus, by now we have started to tire of thermal areas as well as bison!!!! There are so many you really become immune to their beauty!!! Kind of a shame, but it is the truth.

From Mammoth, we head south towards the Tower area. The first sight mentioned in our book was Gardner Canyon. As we approach the bridge, we saw lots of cars pulled over to the side. This is a clear indication in Yellowstone of animal life!!! So, as we drove across the bridge, I strained to see the animal everyone was taking pictures of. There he was. A brown bear down by the river. So, off the road we pull and out come the binoculars and camera. We get right down on the side of the hill and watch that bear waddle up the side of the hill (on the other side of the river!!!). I did take a picture of it. I can clearly see the bear. You will see kind of a brown blob in the middle of the picture!!! But, it counts as a bear sighting. It is our only bear sighting in the wild of the trip.

A short time after we left the bear and, later, Undine Falls, we came upon another traffic jam. It was another Elk Jam. There were two bull elks who needed to get across the highway. So, amble across the highway they did. No hurry - even with people jumping out of cars, slamming doors, and aiming cameras at them. They needed to get across the street to the meadow on the other side. I jumped out of the car and another lady and I ran up the highway with Jimmy keeping us safe by blocking traffic with the jeep. I got some really great pictures and then jumped back in the car and we drove across a little bridge and into a parking area. From there, I felt like we were right on top of the elk. Just look at the pictures. You can see the fur on their antlers!!!

Our next major experience was as we approached and went over Dunraven Pass. It had started to rain a little as we climbed up the mountain. By the time we were approaching the top, it started sleeting. We were high enough that a lot of the snow from the winter was still there. We had ice accumulating on the windshield. Lots of motorcycles were pulled off in little pull off areas getting under the shelter of the restrooms to wait for the rain and sleet to stop. Now, we were on a mountain road with a turnback called the Mae West Curve - so you can imagine that it was steep and curvy. Jimmy handled it like a pro and my armrest has a permanent hand print on it.

You can see the pictures that we took today at the url at the beginning of this day's blog. Please enjoy.

PushAmerica.org

2008-06-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

I am including this in the blog as a separate entry. When we arrived in Yellowstone, we passed young men who were biking into the park. There seemed to be a whole lot of them. They were outfitted in really good biking attire and riding really nice bikes.

Yesterday, when we were in the park, we stopped to look at some animals (or scenery) at the same time a group of the young men were stopped. So, of course, I had to ask them if they were training for the Olympics or something!!! They laughed good heartedly and told me that they were part of a fund raising effort called Push America (web site is pushamerica.org). They are members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity across the US and their mission is: Push America programs were created to educate and provide a quality hands-on service experience for members of Pi Kappa Phi while enhancing the lives of people with disabilities.

Of course, after seeing these young men riding their bikes through the mountains of Yellowstone National Park (there is a picture of them at the continental divide taking a break), I encourage everyone who reads the blog to go to their web site and make a decision regarding a contribution.

Martha

Day 11 - Yellowstone

2008-06-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

Pictures are at url: http://picasaweb.google.com/mcthomas2005

It is impossible to describe in words what we saw on the south loop in Yellowstone today. I wish I were so gifted that I could even know the right words to use. Suffice it to say, I was impressed.

Anyway, we headed through the west entrance and proceeded south towards Old Faithful. Along the way to Old Faithful, guess what we saw - more buffalo. Believe it or not, we actually became quite jaded about the old buffalo. I guess we were seeing so many that we no longer stopped each time we saw one to snap a picture. We didn't get the picture of the bald eagle on the way in either, because the sun was coming up in the east and you couldn't see anything from the glare. I'm thinking it is going to take a special trip to that tree one afternoon to get my picture.

Along the way, there is an area along the Gibbon River where there is a scenic pulloff for some cascades. They were absolutely phenomenal. But, the most interesting thing there was this raven. He was sitting on the stone wall right next to the car when we stopped. He walked up the stone wall to the passenger door and stayed there until I got out and took a couple of pictures of him. He never moved. In fact, when we came by on the way home (8 hours later), that raven was still sitting on that stone wall and people were still taking his picture.

When we make the turn south at the Madison intersection, the first opportunity we have for scenery is the Firehole Canyon Drive. We learn that the term 'hole' was used by early explorers for canyon areas. Luckily, Firehole Canyon Drive is one way, because it was kind of narrow. In fact, the road was one of the original roads in Yellowstone. We definitely could not have driven the RV through here if there were anyone coming the other way. Along the way, we stopped at Firehole Canyon Falls and Firehole Canyon Cascades for pictures.

I'm not going to describe every thermal area at which we stopped. Suffice it to say, that are wonderful. The colors are beyond description. My pictures just do not do them justice. You can see the bacteria that is able to grow in the heat of the thermal pools. You can see the 'paintpots' where the various minerals cause the surrounding ground to become colors such as red, yellow, and gold. I definitely cannot describe the smell at some of them. They call it rotten egg. Some are not that bad - and some are definitely worse!!!

When we arrive at the Old Faithful complex, it is lunch time. In fact, it is after lunch time and we are both really tired. I think we have walked more this morning than we have in a long long time. So, into the grill we go for a hamburger - which was actually quite good and not tourist expensive. Just regular prices for regular food. Not like most tourist traps you visit where they have a captive audience and make the most of it. According to the sign posted at the cashier, we have 55 minutes until Old Faithful erupts again. So, we finish our lunch and head across the parking lot to find a place to watch the eruption.

We luckily find a place right next to the ranger who is telling the people in his general area about the thermal areas. The first scary thing is that the Yellowstone caldera is a volcano. Not active, but you are still sitting on a caldera. He also tells us that Yellowstone accounts for about 53% of the thermal activities (geysers, hot pools, etc.) in the world. That is quite impressive. He did mention Arkansas, California, Hawaii and Russia as other areas where there is thermal activity like geysers (and I guess volcanoes?). He tells us that they estimate the time when Old Faithful will erupt and that 'she' performs with a plus or minus 10 minute reliability. True to form, about 9 minutes before the schedule says she will erupt, the steam starts to build and the water spurts up to the sky. I'll be honest, it wasn't as impressive as I was expecting, but I could certainly appreciate the fact that Old Faithful is the most reliable geyser in the park and that you can get a wonderful view of the eruption. It just wasn't as high as I expected, nor did it last as long. The ranger did say that other eruptions during the day could be higher or could last longer - so we just were not there for the spectacular one!!! It's okay - I got my moneys worth and more.

From Old Faithful, we proceeded to Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake has a shoreline of 110 miles at an elevation of 7,733 feet and measures 20 by 14 miles. It is one of the largest mountain lakes in the US. By the end of summer, the surface waters have warmed to a toasty 60 degrees. Heaven only knows what the temperature of the water under the surface is (the book says 42 degrees)!! West Thumb Bay is the deepest area of the lake. It is a crater that is 4 miles across and 6 miles long which was formed 200,000 years ago (before my time). The early explorers thought the lake looked like a fist. West Thumb Bay is at the position of the thumb on a fist - hence the name.

One of the most spectacular areas we went to today was the upper and lower falls areas of the Yellowstone River. The upper falls are so named because they are upstream from the lower falls. The lower falls, however, are 308 feet compared to the 109 feet of the upper falls. Whatever!!! Bottom line, they are spectacular, particularly when seen in concert with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is 1,200 feet deep, 4,000 feet across and 24 miles long. It is a river eroded geyser basin. Again, the colors are so beautiful that no camera can really do them justice. Again, minerals in the rock result in brilliant colors that the sun just really brings to life.

While driving across the park looking for bear, we come to an area with lots of cars and lots of people with big cameras and binoculars. Based on what we have read, this can only means wolves. So, we pull over and help enlarge the traffic slow down for those behind us. Out come our binoculars (for the first time) and to the shoulder of the road we go. I can't see anything. Jimmy can't see anything. We put our glasses back on and we still can't see anything. There is a ranger with a spotting scope focused on the wolf. She even knows his number, how old he is, and that he is a loner (he has separated from the pack). Of course, I'm going to get in line and look through the spotting scope to see the wolf. All you can see is a grassy field, a rock and a black wolf ear poking up above the grass. Apparently he actually raises his head every once in a while, but I certainly never saw anything but the ear. For a view of an ear - there were sure a lot of people stopped with big cameras with big lenses trying to get a picture!!!! I passed.

Back in the car and on towards the exit, we come upon two rangers directing traffic. This was the elk jam. There were two elk lying on the side of the road. Yes, my Daddy and my brother would have drooled over the rack. His horns were still furry. You couldn't get a real impression of their size since they were lying down - but you would tell they were big. The rangers were a little frustrated with the traffic, because the elk had not picked a place with a pulloff for cars to make their cameo appearance for the cameras.

We got back in the car and had driven no more than a mile when I sighted a small group of elk off at the back of a field. So, off the road we pull so that we can pull out the binoculars and get a real look at the elk. I tried to take a picture of them. I know that they are there - and I labeled the picture so that you can see them!!!

Not much else to tell about today. We did see a lot of burn evidence from the big burn in 1988. We actually saw a small area which apparently had burned within the last month or two. But, the miracle was the regrowth. Nature certainly has a way of preserving and renewing itself.

I told Jimmy at Old Faithful that I don't see how anyone could possibly come to these mountains and see the animals and the thermal activities and not believe in God. How could this exist without Him?

Pictures at url: http://picasaweb.google.com/mcthomas2005

Day 10 - West Yellowstone - Day 1

2008-06-24T14:00:00.001-07:00

We got up at our normal time this morning to find a small swimming pool (well, maybe a big mud puddle). Apparently the sprinkler system around the RV area where we were parked had run most of the night and the one across the street behind us was still running, resulting in a large muddy area right behind the RV - where we needed to be to hook up the car. It wasn't pleasant, but we got it done.

Then, west again toward Belgrade where we intended to purchase fuel since the price was about a dime less than in Billings. Off in the distance to the west, snow capped mountains rose above the buttes. I took a couple of pictures out the front window of the RV (I'll attach them after this little bit). There was very little else to talk about - other than the fact that we aren't in Mississippi anymore!!!!! Mountains with snow. Real mountains with snow. Absolutely beautiful.

Anyway, we make our way through a little edge of Yellowstone Park (a little edge that highway 191 runs through) on the way to the town of West Yellowstone. We didn't see much of the town on the way through to the KOA, because the highway on which we continued west was right at the north edge of town. Anyway, we got to the KOA and couldn't level the RV!!! The space where we are parked is quite sloped to the left. When we attempted to level, the entire left side of the RV was off the ground. Can't do that!!! Anyway, Mike (a retired engineer who works at the KOA) showed up and sent Mike (a young handyman who works in the park) for boards. They placed four long boards under the real tires and a stack of two wide, short boards under the front tire on the left side of the RV. Jimmy backed up onto the boards and we were magically level!!!! I would never have figured it out. So, we landed at West Yellowstone KOA.

Once we got settled into our space, we decided to ride over to the park and just see a few sights. We had a long wait to get into the park. There doesn't seem to be much abatement of tourism over here due to fuel prices. There were only two lines working at the entrance, and there were lots of cars backed up trying to pay their fee and get into the park. Thankfully, Jimmy bought a Golden Age Pass on one of his trips with Garrie Colhoun - so we just show the pass and his driver's license and in we go!!!

Not far past the west entrance to Yellowstone, we had to brake suddenly. Of course, the speed limit is only 45, so you don't have to brake very hard. Cars were pulled off on the side of the road to see the bald eagle nest up in the very top of a dead tree. You could actually see the bald eagle's head. Of course, we didn't stop right then since there wasn't a place to pull off. At one point, the rangers had put signs along the side of the road and you could not stop since it would bother the eagles.

On we went into the park. There are a lot of buffalo out here. They just go wherever they want to go, stop wherever they want to stop, eat whatever they want to eat, rub up against the trees to get all that winter fur off, poop wherever they want to poop, etc. There are signs all through Yellowstone telling you not to pet the buffalo. I'm sorry, but who in their right mind would walk up to something that big and try to pet it. When we came upon our first herd of buffalo, they were just out in the grass eating right at the parking area. I think they like to have their pictures taken. They just stand there and pose. They really look like nickels. Anyway, on that first little excursion, buffalo was about the only thing we saw. But, they were everywhere. There was one field where there were three babies with their mothers. Awesome experience.

We also saw our first thermal fields. Not the big geisers. More like hot springs or mud pits. I was quite impressed with how tourist friendly Yellowstone is, while maintaining the majesty of the park. There are boardwalks throughout the park where the tourist can safely observe the unique geo-thermal areas without endangering themselves or the park.

All pictures for the Yellowstone excursion will be in one blog later in the week - or, your can go to my picasa web site and view them whenever you wish. You will have to copy and paste the url in order to go to the pictures I think. At least I did when I tested it. That url is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mcthomas2005

Day 9 - Billings, MT

2008-06-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, we did nothing today. Well, nothing from the perspective of a tourist.

The cats allowed us to sleep fairly late. Bear got me up about 7:30 (home time). He didn't want anything. He just wanted me to get up.

I wound up cleaning the interior of the RV from back to front. Then washed two loads of clothes, dried one and left the other drying while we went out to get lunch and scout out diesel fuel prices for tomorrow. Then we came back to the RV and just chilled the rest of the afternoon until Travis called to talk about his relocation.

So, tomorrow we will get up and head to West Yellowstone.

Sorry nothing more interesting happened today than cleaning, but sometimes it is just like that.

Day 8 - Billings, MT

2008-06-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today we head to Billings, MT where we will spend two nights. Our goal was to go to Belle Fourche, get fuel and head west on Montana Highway 212 to join back up with interstate 90 at the Little Big Horn National Monument. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men . . . . . .

We got the fuel and headed west on Highway 212. Only to run into a detour which would wind up taking us 71 miles north on Highway 59 to join with Interstate 95. When I say a detour, I mean a detour. There was no Highway 212 in front of us. It just was gone. They were totally reconstructing the highway. So, we missed the Indian reservation and the Little Big Horn National Monument. We will get the monument on the way home from Glacier National Park week after next, but for now - it was a long day driving about 40 miles out of the way.

We did, however, get to visit Pompey's Pillar. If you are familiar with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, you know that many of the places we have visited or passed are either on the expedition trail or one of the side expedition trails that they took. In other words, "slept here or close to here" almost everywhere we have been. In face, we listened to the 4.5 hour CD version of Stephen E. Ambrose's book - Undaunted Courage. We probably should have listened to the unabridged, 22 hour, version. However, we couldn't find it before we left.

Had we listened to the entire version, we would have heard more about William Clark's side expedition up the Yellowstone River. Meriwether Lewis was on a side expedition up another river at the same time. Anyway, while on his expedition, William Clark stopped at a sandstone monolith which he named Pompy's Tower in honor of Sacagawea's son whom Clark called Pomp (little chief in Shoshoni). The pillar was renamed Pompeys Pillar in 1814 when the Lewis and Clark journals were published. This is the only remaining on-site physical evidence of Lewis and Clark's epic journal and is a national monument. Pictures at the end of this section.

We finished our day's travel at the Number 1 KOA in the nation. The park backs up to the Yellowstone River in Billings. We will be here for two nights. I do not know what tomorrow holds in terms of sightseeing, but I do know that the KOA store had a locally brewed brown ale called Moose Drool. I'll let you know about it tomorrow.

Day 7 - Devil's Tower MT and Geographic Center of the US

2008-06-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

I'll just start off by saying - I cannot wait until you see the pictures. I had no idea what to expect at the Devil's Tower.

We started out going west on the interstate and then got off at the little town of Sundance, MT. After driving for quite a way, we crested a hill and there it was. Rising out of the plains of Montana is a monolith of stone called the Devil's Tower. We stopped and I took a couple of pictures (one of the cycle people who had just gotten their picture taken with the Devil's Tower in the background. Nothing prepares you for this thing. There are buttes that you see off to the north west of the Tower, but it stands alone in its grandeur.

The closer we got to the Devil's Tower, the more impressive it got. It looks like a huge backhoe scraped the sides off a mountain and left it with huge grooves up the side. When you are farther away, the grooves appear to be equally sized. However, as you get closer, you see that some of larger than others. And, they go straight up. And, people climb the thing!!!! There are some pictures in the slide show of people climbing, but I don't know that you will be able to see them - as they are just like little dots in the photographs - and not much bigger in person.

Devil's Tower is a National Park, so Jimmy shows his Golden Age Pass and in we go. The first site we come to is the park's prairie dog field. On both sides of the road, you see prairie dogs sitting up on top of their little houses (tunnel entrances). Some are just standing there and some are barking at the people who they consider a potential threat. Every few feet are signs telling you not to pet or feed the prairie dogs. Apparently people food makes them sick and they carry fleas that cause the plague. So, we neither fed nor petted them - but we did stand and watch them for a long time.

Once we tired of watching the prairie dog antics, we completed the drive up to the base on Devil's Tower. A ranger was giving a lecture on the falcons who nest on the side of the monolith. When we walked around the base of the tower (no, we did not attempt the climb), we could hear the falcons crying and see them soaring. Of course, they do not show up well in pictures.

We did make the entire 1.3 mile walk around the base. The pictures in the following slide show are taken at various points around the base. It was quite a strenuous walk (lots of uphill), but the path is paved. And, for every uphill - there is a downhill. I believe that we will both sleep well this evening!!!!

After we left the Devil's Tower, we headed east to Belle Fourche. While on the highway, we came upon two cattle drives. How cool can you get!!! Both cattle drives had cowboys on horses actually herding the cattle. One had an ATV - but that doesn't count. They were real cattle drives. Both were right in the hearts of towns. However, the second one was in the big city of Aladdin - population 15. There were more cows than there were people. There was a 110 year old general store. There were a lot of motorcycles stopped at the general store.

By the way, there are more motorcycles out here than I have ever seen. Apparently, in August, there is a huge motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD. But, if there are more here then than there are now, there won't be any room for anyone else!!!

Our ultimate destination after leaving the Devil's Tower was Belle Fourche. Marked on the map about 21 miles north of the town is the geographical center of the United States. So, north on highway 85 we go, passing the Geographical Center Tourist Information Center. When we reached the road that runs east right at the point on the map, we turned right looking for the marker. Guess what, the actual geographical center is where we were, but the marker is back in Belle Fourche. So, we turned around and headed back to town to the Dairy Queen where we celebrated the fact that we were at the actual point.

Tomorrow we leave for Billings, MT. I believe most of our trip will take us across an Indian reservation. But, more in the blog on that tomorrow.

Day 6 - Deadwood, SD

2008-06-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

Not really a lot to write about today. We slept a little later than usual and then went to Deadwood, SD. It is interesting in that the entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is in a state of restoration and building (as evidenced by the traffic slow downs we experienced). It is, in fact, the largest historic preservation project in the United States.

When you arrive in Deadwood, you are greeted by new hotels and old saloons. All of which have slot machines. There are 80 places in which to gamble in Deadwood. Limited wage gambling probably saved Deadwood when it was legalized in 1989.

Deadwood was founded in 1876 and was named for the dead trees found in the gulch. Deadwood had the first telephone exchange in the state of South Dakota, and calls were 50 cents (25 cents cheaper than the stagecoach).

The original Deadwood had an economy based on gold mining and lumber. Add tourism to that today. You can still pan for gold at an old mine. Most gold panning now, though, is via the one armed bandits. A local resident told us that the payoffs were really bad, but the town appreciated all of the contributions. When you walk down Main Street in Deadwood, you will hear music from the saloons sung by cowboy want-a-be's. You are also likely to see armed cowboys walking the streets with their 10 gallon hats and side arms tucked into their belts.

A hard climb up Mt. Moriah will take you to the local cemetery. It is of interest due to the fact that Wild Bill Hickock was killed and is buried in Mt. Moriah cemetery. Calamity Jane requested that, at her death, she be buried close to Wild Bill Hickock. The cemetery is the eternal home to some 3000 souls, with only about 1000 of the graves being marked. Many who were buried here were paupers. Their graves would have been marked with wooden crosses, which ultimated rotted away. There was also a large Chinese section. Per their information, the Chinese residents would have been buried in the cemetery, but their bodies would have later been removed from the graves and shipped home to China.

After spending some time seeing the sites and spending a few quarters, we took a ride through Spearfish Canyon between Lead and Spearfish. A most impressive ride.

Tomorrow we head to Devil's tower and the geographic center of the US.

Day 5 - Mount Rushmore and Bear Country

2008-06-19T17:02:00.001-07:00

Well, after going back to sleep for a few hours after the storm, we got up, took showers, had breakfast and loaded up to go to Mount Rushmore. I don't know that we really knew what to expect, but it was everything we expected - and more.

We took highway 85 south from Elkhorn Ridge RV park to Deadwood. Deadwood is Day 6 - so I'll hold off telling you about it until then. After about two miles, the road started to rise into the Black Hills. Jimmy tells me that the Black Hills are so named because of the pine trees that cover the hillsides. I will admit that, from a distance, the hills do have a very dark color.

Once through Deadwood, we hit highway 385 towards Keystone, SD, headed towards Mt. Rushmore. Of course, we get caught behind two RV's, one of which is towing. The road is a little twisty, but not really bad, and the RV did not slow us down too much. In fact, it slowed us down enough where we could enjoy the views, see the deer, and see the farmsteads.

It was quite interesting when we arrived in Rushing. It looks a lot like Gatlinburg did before it got so commercial in recent years. There is a four lane main street, but both sides are covered with souvenir shops! There are a lot of people walking on the streets in shorts and tennis shoes. Also a lot of hotels and more businesses under construction.

As we leave the commercial part of town and head up the hill towards Mount Rushmore, the road twists and turns. As we made one left turn, I saw the sculptures. I wish we could have just stopped right there and looked at the awesome mountain face. Having seen it on television so many times in no way prepared us for the real thing. At one moment, you are looking at a regular old mountain, and the next moment you are seeing Mt. Rushmore in all of its glory.

So, up the hill we go and pay our $10 to park. Kind of interesting that it is a National Park, but your Golden Age Pass doesn't work for the parking. The parking lot was built and is run by a non-governmental organization. But, the parking is nice and up we go through the entrance to the park. Once again (but closer) there are the presidents. We walk through the avenue of states and get closer and closer. You look up there and are amazed that humans could actually have 'carved' those four faces out of the mountain side. You see the rubble from the carving below the faces, but you really cannot visualize that this was once just a mountain top.

Jimmy and I decide that we are going to walk the entire walk around the park area, including the strenuous part down to the sculpting house. For about half of the walk, it is just a boardwalk type walkway. But then we reach the steps down. I don't find it very strenuous at all. We get to the bottom of the walkway and realize that, to get back to the visitor's center and the ice cream, it is all up hill. So, up we go, taking breaks periodically. At the last stop before the top, a little boy in brand new Davy Crockett boots came by. I commented on his boots. He, of course, had to stop and tell us all about the boots, his Latoka lizard that he was wearing around his neck and his trip next year to Tennessee to see all the sites about Davy Crockett. What a fun break.

We finally reach the top and get our ice cream. that was about the best break of all. There are chipmunks and robins fighting over every crumb that is dropped by a tourist. Some of the crumbs are dropped accidentally. Some crumbs are put on the ground on purpose for the little animals. The little animals think that they are stealing, but the people are just casually feeding them - against all of the park rules, of course.

From Mt. Rushmore, we head back towards Rapid City. We are going to Bear Country - where the animals are loose and the people have to stay in their cars and drive through. The sweet young lady at the entrance actually asked if we were over 60!!! What a hoot. We got our ticket and started our drive to look at the wild animals. We first see a couple of Rocky Mountain elk. Around a curve is a whole family. The males all have fur on their antlers. My Daddy and Brother would have been drooling already. Over the cattle crossing and there is a herd of reindeer in the road walking from car to car. The we see the Big Horn, Dall and Rocky Moutain Sheep. All have their own little areas, but they think that they are free. From there we head out into bear country. Folks, they were everywhere. There were brown bear and grizzlies all over the field. They would walk down onto and across the roads just disregarding the fact that there were cars. One of the funniest was a black bear who just sat down on his rear end and started scratching his arms and chest. Then there was another who was scratching his back on an old log. We saw bison and miniature donkeys also. But, by far the most fun thing was the baby bear enclosure. There were about 13 baby bears who were just having a marvelous time playing with each other. They had a pine tree (looked like it was cut off and stuck in a pipe to hold it up) in the enclosure and the little bears would run up and climb it and fall off. They would stand up an box with each other and just run across the enclosure and roll down the hill with each other. If we had had a chair, I believe we would have just sat there and watched the babies forever.

But, all good things have to end, so we headed north towards the interstate and Fudrucker's for supper. Of course, we didn't remember where the Fudrucker's was and missed it. So, off to Deadwood to find a place to eat and back to the RV for some sleep.

Day 6 will be Deadwood, SD. I'll work on pictures later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Day 4.5 - First Night at Elkhorn Ridge RV Park

2008-06-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

It is about 3:20 am (Holly Springs time). Apparently, a typhoon, hurricane, gully washer, and some other kind of storm has hit directly on top of Elkhorn RV Park. I (Martha) wake up first. Jimmy slowly comes out of his sleep. We had, of course, not pulled in the awning over the door - the awning that Tiffin had to replace due to a defective motor about a month ago. So, out of bed I come to close the awning.

Peaches and Bear are really scared of this storm. Bear is running from one end of the RV to the other, and he will not let me catch him. Peaches is just cowering. I finally caught her and put her in the bed with Jimmy, figuring that Bear will follow soon.

No such luck. I wish that words could describe this storm. Yes, it got worse. There was lightning - no need for lights inside the RV. There was thunder. There was wind so strong it felt like an earthquake. The RV was shaking, Peaches and Bear were shaking and I was shaking.

It got so bad that we finally started to worry about the covers over the slides being damaged. So, up we both get again. Jimmy closes the front two slides and I close the back two. That really did reduce the feeling of iminent threat of death. I guess because you couldn't hear the wind so much around the slides.

But now we have a bigger problem. We have Bear located. He is in bed shaking. But, we cannot find Peaches. Down on the floor I go looking behind and under the sofas. No Peaches. She isn't in the litter box, nor is she locked in the bathroom. I even went to the point of getting out a can of treats (at 4:30 in the morning) to shake. That normally brings both of them running. No such luck - but Bear wants his treats right now.

I check the very last place she could be hiding. Inside the bedroom slide under the bed. There is Bear, and Peaches is coming out of the hiding place entrance by Jimmy's side of the bed. Okay, the cats are finally located. Maybe I can get back to sleep.

I don't know what time the rain finally slacked off enough for me to sleep - but it did. So, the story will resume later this morning when we head for the hills. I'll put more about the black hills and why they are called that in the next issue.

By the way, pictures will be posted on my flickr site later today (when there are enough to post).

Day 4 - Elkhorn RV Park, Spearfish, SD

2008-06-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

We get up refreshed about 7 am to get ready for the trip west. The RV next to us is a gentleman and his wife from Knoxville. They are traveling with one of their grandsons and are going to Mount Rushmore (as are we). They are then going on to Oregon and then south to California to meet up with other family members for some climbing.

Today, we will finally see Wall Drug. Wall Drug was founded in 1931 by a couple named Hustead who bought and ran a drug store in Wall, SD. There is a lot of information on this tourist site on the internet. To tell the story briefly, Mr. Hustead and his wife bought a drug store in the little town of Wall. They agreed to give it 5 years. The 5 years was almost up and the Hustead’s were not making much of a living. One day Mrs. Hustead suggested that they put signs up and give travelers on the highway through town a free class of water. (After having driven across South Dakota yesterday and today, I can see why people in the days before the interstate might have needed to stop for some water.) To make a long story short, Mr. Hustead put up signs on the highway (like Burma Shave signs), and they attracted lots of customers and tourists.

We started seeing Wall Drug signs before we ever got to highway 90. They had little on them other than something like: free water; honey mooners get free donut and coffee; coffee for a nickel; and western art exhibits. Basically, their signage is just subtle advertising for the store.

We got to Wall about noon (our time). There was a bus unloading and a lot of RV’s in the parking lots (see pictures). It was as advertised. If you needed to buy it, you could probably find it at Wall Drug. The actual drug store is on the second level, but there is still a drug store at the facility. There is a chapel; they sell western clothing; there is a lot of art on the walls; there are t-shirts for sale; you could buy a jackalope or a painted buffalo; there were statues for the children to climb or ride on; there was a fountain in the patio area; and the fresh water fountains that made Wall Drug were in the patio.

After a quick lunch at Wall Drug, we get back in the RV and head west towards Spearfish. We will be at the Elkhorn RV Park for the next four days. From here we can go to Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood (a city of casinos), the Devil’s Tower, Bear Country, U.S.A., and a bunch of other stuff.

The pictures that follow are of Wall Drug and the RV park where we are staying.

Day 3 - Kennebec, SD

2008-06-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

It is day 3 of our little trek. So far, there really isn’t much to see. We start off heading up interstate 29 towards Sioux City and Sioux Falls. Kind of interesting that there are two big cities whose first name is Sioux, but they are in different states. Plus, they are not really big cities. Not like Dallas or Memphis. There is a lot of construction on the highways today. It kind of looks like every bridge on the interstate has one lane closed.

We had heard that there is a lot of flooding in Iowa. We have seen some water in fields. But, we only saw one sign that a road was closed. They didn’t really need to put a sign up though. You could see that the ramp from the interstate down to the highway – and the highway – were all flooded. It looked more like a swimming pool than it did a highway intersection.

Plus, we are starting to see more wild animals killed on the side on the interstate, particularly in the areas where the fields are somewhat flooded.

Once we made the left turn to get off highway 29 and onto highway 90, when you look out the front of the RV, it looks like a big ribbon laid down on the land. I wouldn’t say that it is totally flat, because there are some hills and valleys. But, they are not really big hills. There are a lot of cows and a lot of grass and a lot of bales of high stacked up in fields. If you look off in the distance, you can see towns. Then about 10 minutes later, you actually get to the town.

Plus, since we got into Iowa, we are seeing signs for something called Wall Drug. Jimmy says that we will get there on day 4. He says that the articles on the internet about Wall Drug say that it is a little tacky, but you have to see it.

We stop for the night at a KOA RV park in Kennebec, SD. Not much going on here either. I guess I’ll just close for now by saying that we covered a lot of miles, but we didn’t see much. No pictures on this day either. Just two sleepy cats and humans.

Day 2 - Council Bluffs, IA

2008-06-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

Day 2 is kind of a repeat of day 1, except that when we stopped to eat lunch in a rest area, I made tuna salad, which had the cats doing little cat dances. Of course, I gave them about half the can. We are going to overnight in the back parking lot of another Harrah’s, but this time we are in Council Bluffs, IA. Council Bluffs is just across the Missouri River from Omaha. One of the wait staff in the buffet told us that the general manager of this hotel went to LSU. So, most of the guests are LSU fans who are here to watch them play in the College World Series.

One interesting thing is that quite a bit of the parking lot area next to the Missouri River is closed due to flooding. According to the security guard, part of the lot was flooded as recently as a week ago. The river is really running fast, but it is back in its banks.

Notice that there are no cars in the parking lot!!!

Day 1 - St. Louis, MO

2008-06-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

We have been packing the RV for a whole week. Finally, it is Sunday morning – Father’s Day – and we are about to head out for an adventure to states we have yet to visit. We will be heading north through Missouri, on to Iowa, then South Dakota, the Montana, and who knows where else.

Since Peaches and Bear are going, I’ll have to give Peaches one of her travel sickness pills. She only takes a half pill, but it is really a pain to give it to her. If she doesn’t have one though, she is likely to get sick. So, I’ll get up early and stuffed a travel pill down her throat. We are lucky that Bear doesn’t share her affinity for car sickness. Of course, as soon as she had the pill, she went to hide.

There are just a few things left to pack up. Most important are Peaches, Bear and their litter box.

Jimmy brings in the cat carrier. Peaches, of course, is hiding. So, down on the floor to look under beds to find Peaches. She has secreted herself under the bed in the middle bedroom. The only problem with her hiding place is that her tail is sticking out. So, I scoop her up and pop her in the box. The normally reliable and unafraid Bear is now missing. I find him in the middle bedroom laying flat on his belly looking under the bed to help me find Peaches. So, scoop up the Bear and put him in the carrier and we are off to St. Louis.

It is a long first day of our trip. With one stop for fuel in West Memphis and a stop for lunch at a rest area further north in Arkansas, we arrive at our destination for the first night. We park in the truck parking lot of the Harrah’s Casino. There are not a lot of vehicles out in this lot, but there are a couple of RV’s and a few semi-trucks. We find the flattest spot available, level the RV and head in to have dinner. After a really great steak dinner, it is back to the RV to watch a little television and go to bed. It wasn’t a terribly long day, but it was tiring.

No pictures today. Most everyone who will be reading this has made the trek to St. Louis or can visualize what Interstate 55 looks like north of Memphis.