Late Entry Pics!!

Sept 16 & 17 Cody & returning

Thursday morning Kim went fishing and caught a 14" cutthroat trout.  That was pretty much the highlight of the day.  The rest of us enjoyed the view & our rooms until after lunch.  We all went into Cody for a afternoon of sight seeing.  It was a mixed review.  We stopped at Buffalo Bill's Historic Dam.  That was interesting but the wind nearly drove us off the walk way.  Wendy took a movie of our clothes & hair blowing all over the place.  Jim & I took the in town trolley tour which we enjoyed, while Kim & Wendy did some shopping.  We all took a nature walk because we wanted to wait until 6 PM for this fantastic shoot out in front of the historic Irma Hotel.  That was a big disappointment and it cost Kim his evening fishing.  We got back about 7:30 PM and had dinner of which Kim's fish was a part of.  It was very tasty.

Friday we leisurely got ourselves packed & ready to head back to Michigan.  I guess I was left out of the loop as to what time we were planning on leaving so I was late getting ready.  I hate that!  We drove from 9:30 AM until 8:00 PM and we crossed a time zone so we lost an hour.  Needless to say it was a very long day!  We are spending the night in Valentine, NB.

So far, though, the trip has been very enjoyable.  The temp reached in the 80's by the afternoon almost every day and we have had very little rain.  We have seen an assortment of wildlife up close & personal and some breathtaking scenery.  We will be spending one or two more nights on the road depending on how far we get each day and who wins the battle of when we should stop for the night.

Sept 15 Leaving Yellowstone

We woke up to another gorgeous day!  We did some laundry first thing in the morning then we headed out of the park.  The first thing we came upon was a young black bear.  Of course we had to take a picture. I'll try to send it but we don't have a very good connection.  We were traveling in a different part of the park and the terrain was very different.  There was a vast valley called Hayden Valley but we re-named it Valley of the Buffalos.  There must have been a thousand of them on both sides of the road.  To the right of us was a rocky hillside and to the left was this big valley with Yellowstone River running through it.  Just while we were passing through a small herd decided to cross the road from the hillside to the river.  Traffic was stopped both ways to let them pass.  We got some pictures of that, too.  We came across a lot of rivers & lakes and just before we left the park we went over a steep pass.  Just 2 days ago the pass was closed because it snowed and the road was very slippery.  But today it was sunny and in the 60's.

We are now in a little town called Wapiti  22 miles west of Cody, Wyoming.  This time Kim is seventh heaven.  We each have our own rustic log cabin bungalo over looking mountains & the Shoshone River.  Kim can go fishing right out our back door.  He already purchased his fishing license.  The place has been newly remodeled and the owners have stocked it with everything you would need.  They live right next door and are very nice.  Kim and Mark talked fishing & hunting.  We are here for two days but wish it was longer because of the great view.

Sept 14 geyser day

Another beautiful day weather wise.  Our goal for today was to see Old Faithful.  We had been disappointed because we hadn't seen any elk, but today changed all that!  The first thing we saw was a small herd down in a valley near a stream.  There was one big buck and several cows.  We took a few pictures but we were quite a ways away.  But on the way back we saw a lot of them at a much closer distance.  In fact Kim got a really good picture up close of a BIG buck.  We were all happy campers.

Now, back to the geysers.  Where Old Faithful is located it's a small village with a lodge, inn & stores.  The Old Faithful Inn is spectacular.  Huge with lots of wood an ambience.  If we had the money that's where I would like to stay.  Very expensive!  We saw 3 geysers erupt.  Our impatience men waited 45 minutes each time to see Old Faithful & the River Geyser to erupt.  We saw the Grand from a distance.  We took a three mile hike around the park to see all of the pools, ponds & geysers.  It was fairly flat so I had no problem.  We all were impressed & enjoyed the day.

On our return we had to stop a couple of times because huge buffalo we in the road way walking right down the middle and crossing along the side of the road.

I hope you all are reading these entries and enjoying them because it is really a chore for me to write them.  This really isn't my bag!

until next time.

Sept 12 & 13 trip

We visited Richard one more time this morning.  I stayed in the car most of the time because of the cat & dog.  Jim & Wendy cleaned his kitchen because it was quite dirty.  He has a cleaning lady come in every week but I don't think she knows how to clean very well.  He seemed in good spirits & talked working with a therapist to get him walking again.  I came in to say good bye and we took another picture.  Then it was off to the town of Gardiner at the foot of Yellowstone.  The motel we are staying at for the next 3 days is old but clean.  The layout gives both couples privacy when needed.  Kim & Wendy have the deluxe side with a TV, fridge & microwave.  Jim & I have a desk for our computer.  We share a very small bathroom (just a toilet & square shower stall).  We both have sinks in our bedrooms.  The town itself is very quaint & rustic.  That afternoon we took a short drive along Lamar Valley in hopes of seeing wildlife.  We did see a lot of buffalo, a couple of wolves & we think one bear.

The next day we went to Mammoth Hot Springs & the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River.  Both were different but both awesome.  We took some pictures.  Hopefully, you will receive a few.  Some of the walking was quite strenuous so I opted not to participate but the other 3 are doing it all.  We saw 2 mountain goats up in the hills & a weasel running across the road with a mouse in his mouth.  At Mammoth the elk roam the streets so you have to be careful.

The weather has been just great.  Temps are in the mid 50's to mid 60's until late in the day when it gets as high as 80.  The sun feels good with the lower temps and there is a breeze.

There are little casinos in every town but they only offer video poker & keno.  Neither of those games really interest me so I'm saving my gambling money.

One last note. On the way down the mountain today our brakes overheated because the caliper got stuck.  We had to stop & let it cool down before we could continue.  We made back to our motel then went out to explore the town & when we got back we found out we locked ourselves out of our room.  We had to get the owner to let us in.  If we would have waited till after ten thirty we would have been SOL.

That's all for now!

Out West

Saturday, Sept 11,

Wendy has been teaching Jim how to send pictures so if this goes through with some pictures then he did it right.

On our way to visit Richard we stopped at the Battle of Little Big Horn Cemetery National Memorial. It was very interesting & informative & we all enjoyed it. The new radiator hose seems to be working because the van ran just fine.

We saw Richard tonight but we had to leave after about an hour because I couldn't take his cat even though it was outside. He doesn't look too bad but it is sad to see him in a wheelchair with no legs. He wants us to take a lot of things back with us but we don't have the room. Tomorrow we will be stopping by to see Richard one more time then we are off to Yellowstone and the second part of our trip will begin.

We'll keep in touch.

Thurs, Sept 9th

Today was a major sight seeing day. We went to Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument and a wildlife loop thru a State Park. The weather was very warm and mostly sunny. We saw Buffalo, antelope, deer & burrows. The burrows were right in the road and put their heads in the car windows. We got some close up pictures of the animals. As we left the park we had to go thru some very narrow tunnels. They were only ten feet wide! It started to rain & hail and then the sun came out & produced 2 beautiful & bright rainbows. Wendy go some very nice pictures of them. All in all we had a very nice day & enjoyed all of the sights.

We got to Deadwood at 6PM and it started to rain again so we waited till about 8 PM to go down to Main Street. I'm in seventh heaven because the town and motel has casinos!

Jim & Kim are going to pick up the van on Friday morning and return the Suburban. We will be in Deadwood for 2 days so we still will have time to check out all the sights besides the casinos.

Our cell phones don't work in this area so we won't be able to call except by our phone card.

That's all for now,

Sept 8th

Hello again,

Our trip started out just great.  We went through an authentic town from 1880 and saw alot of memorabilia from the movie "Dances with Wolves".  We, also went through a scenic route through the Badlands Nat'l Park and saw some awesome scenery and some wildlife.  Every thing was going sooooo smooth.  We were about 10 miles from our hotel, it was only 4 pm and then all hell broke loose.  The van started to over heat, there was road construction all around us and no gas station.  The guy put our melted ice from the cooler in the radiator and that helped until we reach a station.  Then Jim put some coolant in but a short time later that wasn't working.  We were able to pull into a restaurant parking lot and saw that everything was leaking out.  We had to call roadside service to have our van towed to a Chrysler dealer in Rapid City and the tow truck driver took Jim to the airport to rent a car while our van is being fixed (we hope).  We called 4 different rental places before we found one that had anything left.  The nice thing about all of this is we now have a nice new big Chevy Suburban to drive around for the next two days.  All we have to do is pay for all the extra costs!

We finally arrived at our hotel at 8PM and checked into our suite that was supposed to have a separate bedroom.  But it didn't and they had no other rooms available so Kim, Wendy, Jim and I have to share 2 beds in one room.  As we get older we all like our privacy when sleeping!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day and more sight seeing is planned.

Sorry, no pictures yet but we are working on it.

Bonnie

1st Note

Hi everyone,

Facebook isn't working for me.  It said my message was too long. 

This is the morning of our third day.  We got to pass all the walkers on the bridge on Labor Day and got to the casino about 7PM. So far I've been winning a little at each casino.  I gave Jim $130 and told him not to give it back to me!  The second day it rained most of the day & was in the  low 60's but it was fine for traveling.

We are starting out from Sioux Falls, SD this morning and are looking forward to doing some real sight seeing.  Wendy & Kim are proving to be real early birds.  I'm writing this at 6 AM and they are already to go.  We have been enjoying each others company so I hope it keeps up.

Hopefully we will have some pictures to send you soon if we can figure out how to send them.

Take care,

Jim & Bonnie