July 5: On the road again

July 5:  On the road again

I love when I smell like campfire.  Last night we had our bon voyage bonfire.  I have to say this spot has been a great camping spot.  Much better than anything we saw in Yellowstone.

 Woke up early to the sound of thunder... that is the thundering paws of Rudy tearing up and down Hannah.  He is full of energy in the morning... unfortunately, his morning started a little earlier than our morning!  Up, down, oh you moved your feet, and your hand, I must attack... and on it went.  We figured we'd let him have his fun as he was going to be in the car on the road again, all day.  The skies are somewhat cloudy and I would expect some rain today.

 We readied Hannah and were heading to the dump station by 7:15.  Did our thing and started up through Yellowstone one more time.  As we left Grand Tetons, we passed a big black bear.  We couldn't stop with Hannah behind.  We passed some elk and buffalo.  Oh, ho hum... same old critters!

Our drive took us up the east end of the Yellowstone loops, past Yellowstone Lake and the Yellowstone River, past West Thumb, Lake Village and Canyon Village.  Once we passed Canyon, the mood of the park changes.  We are now in the area less traveled.  It goes through a mountain pass, but the mountains are not the rugged type mountains like the Sierras or the Tetons.  They are grass covered rolling hill like mountains with stands of pine trees.  Make no mistake, we are at high altitude but it doesn't look like it until you look over the side of the road with no guard rail! 

 We are now in the area that the wolves roam.  They are shy animals so we never expected to see them, but their terrain is a glorious eyeful.  The altitude in this part of the park is a bit lower.  They get less precipitation and as a result, more varieties of animals.  We didn't see any of them but we enjoyed the ride immensely.  We stopped at a nature walk area and had a walk and some lunch. 

Spouse got a pad for the center console in the truck for Rudy.  He used it quite a bit.  He also used Annoy-O-Boy's lap, and my lap, and the backpack.  It amazes me how easily he travels.  HE IS A CAT!  When we stopped for lunch, we closed him in the bathroom of Hannah while we went in and out.  We kept hearing noises.  When I opened the door, he had jumped all the way from the toilet up onto this tiny shelf about 6 feet up.  How he did it is beyond me and I wish the camera was around.  Annoy-O-Boy tried to rescue him but he recoiled.  He ultimately jumped on Annoy-O-Boy's shoulders and we got him down.

We traveled on through Mammoth Hot Springs, heading north to exit the park into the charming town of Gardiner, Montana.  Hannah is mighty proud to be in Montana.  Up Hwy 89 we go past beautiful pastures and farms and the Gardiner River with the mountains as a backdrop.   When we hit I90, we went west.  We went through the cute town of Bozeman, did some grocery shopping and ultimately settled in the town of Three Forks for the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why am I calling Crew 'Annoy-O-Boy'?  Because he is a major hemorrhoid.  He farts for fun and they can kill you, he whines when he has to get his head away from reading, he will take a book into the bathroom and disappear for years (he must be on a milk carton somewhere), and if he knows something annoys you, he capitalizes on it and tortures you.  One thing he hasn't learned... He is not the one with the ultimate power... he is the low man on the totem pole... and he is reminded of that regularly.  Want him?

July 4: A day of leisure

July 4, 2013:  A day of leisure

 I had forgotten about sleeping with cats.  First, you try not to disturb them.  It is amazing how I can contort my body so as not to bother Rudy.  Then, I like to pet him.  And he purrs, and stretches, then turns on his back so you can rub his belly.  It is hard to believe we have only had him a week and he is so trusting.  I drift back to sleep.

Since it is a holiday and Spouse figures it will be a madhouse out and about (why, I don't know because inside the park, there are no special activities so I would expect it to  be business as usual).  Anyhow, we have been on the go, and tomorrow we start heading north so today would be a slow day.

After our morning walk (Slow and Slower walked a bit faster today), we had Crew make breakfast (a little on the painful side).  Although the food was good, the instructional part was slow.   It is amazing how things become second nature when you do them so long.  I often forget that Crew has not had to actually prepare meals so he is not adept at it.  He is getting better though.  I will still offer him for a very low price...

Our activity today is to drive to the south end of the park, and go down a back road to Teton Village.  This is the ski area (we skied there a gazillion years ago).  In summer, you can take the tram and some of the chairs up the hill and hike from there. 

 One more ride past the majestic Tetons to the back road which is narrow, but big enough for two way traffic... barely.  The road is lined with aspens and pines with streams occasionally winding through.  It is really quite beautiful.  It is about 8 miles long.  At one point, I stopped to collect a few rocks at one of the streams.  Being with a couple of non-rockhounds is problematic.  I could have stayed for an hour, but the male contingent got restless, so I took what treasures I had and got back to the truck.

Teton Village looks a lot different in the summer than in the winter.  The hiking trail status said that many of the trails still had some snow on them.   We weren't going to hike but I wouldn't mind doing it at some point in my life.  I could probably spend an entire summer here and not get the hiking done that I would like to do.  Oh well... instead, we had some ice cream and walked around the village a bit.  I noticed that the Mangy Moose restaurant was still here.  When we skied here, we were able to ski down to our condo.  And almost every day, we would ski past a moose grazing along the trail.  He would just look as we whizzed by!

 As we made our return trip, a few rain showers helped wash down the truck.  Good thing we were not in to hiking today.  Good chance we might have gotten wet.  Looks like there will be intermittent showers, making it kind of humid.  Mosquitoes ought to just love it...  Oh goody...

For now, laundry, and soon a vodka tonic and some relaxation.  Spouse has been taking Rudy out on a leash.  He prefers the 'squeaky toys' outside (chipmunks) to his mouse on a string inside (which he absolutely loves!).

 
And for those of you RV'ers...  we checked out the RV park in Yellowstone.  Spots are VERY close together.  The full hookup spots in the Grand Tetons are much nicer with trees and a little room.  And the hybrid spot we are staying in is very nice and roomy.  I would rather stay somewhere WITHOUT hookups at all than stay in the RV park in Yellowstone.  There are lots of campgrounds in both parks without hookups at all that are really quite nice.  But if you need air conditioning...  you need electricity.  If it wasn't for Crew, we would not be doing this trip at this time of year.  So if you are not coming here in the summer, you really can be quite selective.

July 3: Back to Yellowstone

July 3, 2013:  Back to Yellowstone

Last night, we decided to go on a game ride close to dusk.  We headed to the Oxbow Turn.  This is a U-turn in the Snake River surrounded by meadows.  As we drove up, we saw a beaver swimming.  When we got out of the truck, we saw some of the most plentiful Teton denizens of the evening... mosquitoes!  It was as if someone rang the dinner bell with our bare legs exposed.  Needless to say, we did not get a picture of the beaver as we were too busy swatting the critters on our legs.  We jumped back into the relative safety of the truck, killed a few stowaways, and continued to drive around.

We saw mule deer with racks that were in felt, we saw a calico colored fox.  It ran right by our car, into the street almost getting hit by another car.  The speed limit in the park is 45, but at night it really should be less.  They do that on the main highway outside the park (from 55 down to 45), but 45 is really too fast to be able to stop when the deer jumps across the street.  Fortunately for us, we were going slower...  We had to put the child lock on the back windows as Crew (O-Boy) kept opening his window  thinking that the mosquitoes would not come in a moving vehicle (they do).  Anybody want him?  He can be all yours for cheap... hell, why not for free!  As we drove back towards Hannah, a she-moose jumped across the street in front of us and disappeared.  Nice end to the evening!

 This morning, we decided to head back to Yellowstone to stop at some of the places we couldn't stop at the other day.  We did a 4 mile hike at Elephant Back, up near Fishing Bridge.  The hike goes through a pine forest up about 800 feet till you have a sweeping view of Yellowstone Lake.  We cruised around Yellowstone Lake some.  It is a huge lake and in the marina are some mighty big boats.  We went to the mud volcano and hiked around the boardwalk there.  As we were coming down, a buffalo came running across the boardwalk right in front of a man, then started rolling in the dirt.  The man just stood there as if a near miss with a charging bison is an everyday occurrence!  And Spouse, the photographer du jour, did not even think of getting the camera out!  As we continued the hike, another buffalo came into the parking lot and headed for us (slowly).  I went in front of him, Spouse and Crew stayed behind.  I think Crew would have been happy to run all the way back to the truck at this point!  This time, Spouse got some pix.

Yellowstone is very geo-thermal, and is on a volcano that is expected to erupt any minute.  Of course, that could be 10,000 years from now.  But the mud pools, geysers and other thermal cracks and pools are constantly changing.  At the mud volcano, there is a stand of trees that were there in the late '70's that are now gone, succumbing to the hot temperatures beneath the surface.

 We decided to head back, ran into one heck of a traffic jam due to a jack-knifed rig.  Waited that out then headed to Hannah and Rudy.

Rudy was full of piss and vinegar last night.  The vet said to keep in quiet... yeah right... He was attacking his mouse, the rugs, his shadow, his rat.  He was all sorts of active.  We had to give him a little more food as he was so obsessed with his bowl, and he kept it all down.  So today, things are back to normal with him.  When we got back, he was crashed out on the couch.  He reached out for us and purred.  Spouse went to take a nap and Rudy joined him.  By the way, the vet weighed him at 9.6 ounces.  After we put food down for him today, the little pig probably weighed 11 pounds and had a big hard belly!  In Yiddish, we would call him a 'chawser' (I don't know how to spell it, but the c is almost silent... ask a Jewish person, they will know!).

 

 

 

 

 

July 2, 2013: 6 toes, No balls

July 2, 2013:  6 Toes, No Balls

Today is the day Rudy goes to the vet to get fixed.  We had to pick up his food last night at 10PM and he was not real happy about that.  All night, he was rubbing up against my face, purring at turbo speed.  I know he was thinking "I love you, where is my food?  Pet me, where is my food?  If I push real hard will you figure out I WANT MY FOOD? Have you forgotten?  I was homeless for,  I am sure it was years, and I WANT TO KNOW I HAVE FOOD!"

 He rubbed my face, he rubbed Spouse's face.  He purred extra loud, but as parents of pets, we know we must be firm.  We had gotten a cat carrier from someone who had lost their cat in a national park (do I sense a trend?).  It was held together with zip ties, but it was good enough.  We did not want to put Rudy in the cat carrier until we took him into the vet's office.

 We load him in my arms in the truck and off we go.  Spouse wants to put more air in the tires after our romp yesterday so we stop at the Jackson Lodge.  Rudy is edgy.  He wants to look outside.  He isn't crying but he won't sit still.  He visits Crew in the back seat.  He comes back to me.  Finally, by the time we leave the park, he is calm in my arms.  About 10 miles down the road, Spouse pets him and he wakes up and stretches... and wants to fidget some more.  He sits on the center console (much like how I used to stand on the front seat of the car when I was little and before seat belts were around).  Eventually, I got him back on my lap for the rest of the ride.  As we near the vet, we put him in the cat carrier.  He was NOT amused and started to cry like a common cat!

 The office was comfy and they took us into a room where the tech examined him.  Given his wound history, she took his temperature (he was not amused) and gave him a once-over.  Her first comment when she took him out of the carrier... "He has mittens!".  6-Toes has won another heart!  We decided to have the whole works done: fixing, vaccinations, and chipping.  And then we left to walk around the town.

First order of business was breakfast.  As we were ordering, the vet called and said that given his high risk history, she should test for feline leukemia, and if he has it, we needed to agree to put him down.  I lost my appetite.  In my heart of hearts, I had thought about the prospects of leukemia, but the thought of putting him down after all we went to rescue him was so upsetting.  He was just leaping in our bed, rubbing our faces and purring so hard he was shaking Hannah.  How could we put him down?  I can't remember the last time I ate only half of my breakfast, but I just couldn't eat. 

We walked around Jackson.  It is a cute town, with western frontier storefronts and wood boardwalks.  Lots of high end galleries, T-shirt shops and sporting good stores.  Jackson is a hub of outdoor activity.  River rafting, kayaking, canoeing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, fishing (and extreme versions of all of them!).  I could go on and on about the outdoor fun.  Since we had gotten there early, it was easy to find a parking space.  By the time we finished breakfast (around 9:30), the town was packed. 

 And I waited for the vet to call. 

We went from store to store.  Then the vet did call, and all was well with Rudy!  I was so relieved, a few tears came to my eyes.  Now I could enjoy the rest of the day. 

We got the truck washed, and did some grocery shopping then went to pick up the nutless wonder.  They put him in his carrier, we put him in the truck, then tried to negotiate the horrendous traffic.  Of course, the males had to stop for a Dairy Queen ice cream... in a tiny parking lot... on the left side of the street which meant we would have to make a left hand turn... hopefully, we could get it done today...  Fortunately, somebody wanted to turn into the DQ so we got our break and got out on the highway headed to Hannah.

Not one peep from Rudy in his cat carrier this time.  He would lick his incision occasionally, but he kept quiet.  When we unloaded the truck, we carried him in his container into Hannah.  The recommendation for him was to keep him quiet the rest of the day, and we should probably not give him food, as he may get sick.

I opened his carrier, and he stormed out and asked where his food was!  Oh goody, there is my mouse.  I gotta chase it.  Look, Daddy is putting food away, surely he will give me some.  Maybe if I jump on the kitchen counter he will know I am hungry.

 Rudy has some lessons to learn...  He was so restless looking for his food, probably having flashbacks to that horrible time in his life when he had to fend for himself, we finally gave him a little food.  We will give him more later.

According to the vet, he is about one year old so I think we should declare his birthday as July 1, in commemoration of Doug's mom's birthday.  For Marie, who was deathly afraid of cats even though she thought they were beautiful, this is a strange but touching honor!

July 1, 2013: On the grid, then off the grid

July 1, 2013  On the grid, then off the grid

Today is the day Crew has to register for college.  With Rudy snuggling between our heads, it was hard to get up, but we did.  We wanted to get it over with as early as we could, so by 7:00, we headed over to the Jackson Lake Lodge to use their computers.  Ugh, they were doing road work right at our intersection.  Fortunately, there was little traffic and we were able to move on.

Crew logs on only to find that he can't start the process until 10:00 am (11:00 our time).  So back we went and I took them on my power walk.  Sheesh, I used to think Bart was slow...  I walked and would wait, walked and waited.  At least I had my protectors from the bears.  And they thought, with me so far ahead that I would be the bear bait!  After we listened to a ranger program at the visitor center, we went back, had an early lunch and headed over to the Lodge again.  Ugh, the road construction.   This time, there is LOTS of traffic.  When we get our chance to go, we see a stream of cars waiting that is at least 2 miles long! 

When we get back to the Lodge, Crew logs on... they say he can't register for another 4 weeks.  Huh?  He started making phone calls (which is impossible in the business center at the Lodge).  He gets caught in a bureaucracy of who did what, and transferred from place to place and circles back, etc.  After close to an hour of this, he calls the foster youth advocate.  She's at lunch... so we wait... 

We go upstairs to the great room which has several seating areas, couches, benches, etc.  And it has a wall of 30 foot windows overlooking the Tetons, Lake Jackson and a magnificent meadow.  There were two rangers with birds of prey; an owl, golden eagle, and a couple of different falcons.  Beautiful critters.  then we went back inside and waited...  At around 2:00 our time, they called Crew to tell him he would be able to register in about 20 minutes.  We waited...  By 3:00, the deed was done and I informed the guys of their next adventure...

On the map was a 4 wheel drive trail by the Snake River, and we were going to do it.  They were game so off we go.  We get on the trail and we crawl... and bounce... and crawl...  After about 1/2 mile, Spouse lets some air out of the tires and things got better.  We still did not go speeding down the road, but at least we weren't bouncing.  This is River Road, and it is where the locals go to fish.  A couple of miles took us to a fishing hole.  The river is swift.  Fall in here and maybe you could crawl out in Jackson 30 miles down the road!  We decided to take the road south, which is about 12 miles.  And with that, we even took an offshoot of the road which took us right on the edge of a huge escarpment. 

To our right is high desert with woody sage, and gazillions of different wildflowers.  Beyond that are the Tetons towering over us.  On our left is a valley with the Snake river, sand bars, meadows and aspen trees.  And buffalo.  Lots of buffalo.  Up above where we were, we saw evidence (scat) of bears, elk and buffalo, but for now, the buffalo were down below.  I am not sure why they would come up to the desert when they have such great feeding grounds down below.  As we left this viewing area, a few antelope ran across our path.

We continued riding the edge.  One wrong turn and we pull a Thelma and Louise!   This is a view one can only get from taking this road and it is breathtaking.   At one point, we had quite a steep climb.  Spouse turned this, and shifted that and we slowly but surely climbed the hill.  And we continued on and on.  Crew was getting concerned that we were not on the road that was on the map.  Spouse too was considering turning around.  I could not tell specifically where we were on the map, but I could tell that even if we were wrong, we couldn't get too far before we hit a main road so I reassured them.

We came upon an abandoned dude ranch that was built in the early 1900's.  It was geared to bring the city folks in for a week of ranch duty.    We then made the turn that was clearly on the map, and headed back to the main road where we saw a herd of elk in one spot, then 2 male elk in another. 

 Home we head to a bored Rudy.  It is almost 8:00 pm... he needs a little attention; which we give... because tomorrow, he gets to take a ride down to Jackson to get fixed!  I guess he is ours now...  right after we make sure nobody has an identification chip on him.

And one thing more... people always talk about women synchronizing their menstrual cycles.  I have to tell you that today, on more than one occasion, everywhere I turned, one of them was taking their dicks out and peeing.  So men have sync issues too! 

 

 

 

July 1 Happy Birthday Marie

Today would be my late mother-in-law's 93rd birthday.  A beautiful lady and I miss you dearly, but we are all thinking of you and know your are watching over us... I have seen many rainbows so we know you are there...

June 30: Wildlife - 2 legged or 4 legged?

June 30, 2013 

Last evening after I posted my blog, I decided to go game hunting.  I had Crew with me.  It was about 8:00 and normally it is still very light then, but with the cloud cover, it was kind of like dusk so I was hoping the wildlife would be out.

 'Crew, get your head out of your Nook and look for wildlife.'

'I don't see any.'

'Of course you don't because you are buried in your Nook!  If your eyes are looking out into the meadows, maybe you will see something!'

I hate him... We cruised down dirt roads, we cruised down areas posted with wildlife alerts.  We went to the Oxbow turnout where there is always something.  Only a few geese.  I decided to head back to Hannah when we saw the telltale sign of wildlife... cars pulled over and people with cameras.  I pulled over and there before us less than 50 yards was a juvenile grizzly.  According to the ranger, this is one of two male siblings recently kicked out by their mother (who is known as 610).  And we had no camera...  Yogi seemed unbothered by our voyeurism, and kept digging and eating and occasionally looking at us.  Happy with our sighting, we returned to Hannah.

This morning, I took a power walk down to Coulter Bay Village.  Found a great foot trail going along Jackson Lake, by the marina and into the woods.  I made lots of noise to repel any bears.  Got back, packed some food and we headed to Yellowstone.  It is less than 20 miles up the road, and Old Faithful would be our target.

We entered Yellowstone at the south entrance, which follows the Lewis River.  It looks like some cataclysmic event occurred as there are gazillions of fallen trees, with all sorts of new trees creeping in.  It is as if the area to create the road was stolen (which I guess it was) and the trees are trying to take it back over.  I know there was a major fire there a few years ago.  The new trees are so densely spaced that a squirrel would barely be able to navigate around the trees!  The new growth is from about 5-15 feet tall.  And the fallen trees are everywhere.  When we hit West Thumb, we headed west to Old Faithful. 

As we approach, she is erupting and we feel the spray, but barely see it.  So, that means we get to hang around for roughly 90 minutes till she is ready again.  We went to the Visitor Center, and the guys went and got ice cream.  Then we settled in for the event.  Fifty percent of the world's geysers are in Yellowstone.  Old Faithful is the only one where they can somewhat predict the eruptions.  The geyser teased us with a few bubbles... the crowd ooohhhed and aaahhhed!  'It's going' one person would say.  The geyser would relax.  The people would be mildly disappointed.  Then another few bubbles and another round of listening to responses.  Finally, the real deal occurred and everybody was happy.

We hiked around the gazillion other geysers in the area.  There is a nice walking trail.  The whole time we were there, another geyser (Castle Geyser) was erupting.  Steam then water, then more steam.  She seemed angry and was really spewing for who knows how long!  We were in the area a couple of hours and she was spewing the entire time.

After we were geysered out, we decided to finish the circle loop of the center of the park.  Although the Grand Tetons are more striking, Yellowstone has its own beauty.  Geysers and thermal activity are all over the place.  There are streams, creeks, waterfalls and lakes.  The meadows are where you see most of the wildlife.  We saw several herds of buffalo, some elk, we think we saw a grizzly but it was too far away to be sure.  We even saw a coyote, but it had a lighter and furrier coat than they coyotes of home.  It never ceases to amaze me how people react to wildlife.  No matter how many warnings are posted, they still get way too close to the critters and one of these days, they will be in one of the films that are shown at the visitor center on what NOT to do...

We realized that we need to do at least one more day here as there is just too much to see.  We could probably do a year here and still not see everything!

I am the navigator.  Even though I tell Spouse to go right, he goes left and then says he didn't know what I meant.  Over and over again.  Crew is on to this now too so he makes sure he knows where we are parked!  The other day when I was driving, I asked Spouse a navigational question...  I learned that I need to look at the map before I get behind the wheel!  I may have to slap him around...  He has taken dyslexia to a new level!

 Time for the campfire.