August 19, 2017 Save a deer - walk a highway

August 19, 2017

My humans will not let me roam free.  Sheesh, just because I ran a couple of times doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be allowed to go outside.  I will fix them.  I won’t even beg to go outside today.  They will be sorry…

Spouse slept in while I went for a nice walk.  I started out in the woodsy campground, but soon realized this would bore me to death, so out onto the highway I went.  They have really big shoulders on which I can walk till I can cut over to another more quiet street.  And once I did, it was really quite pretty.   Lots of bird houses posted on trees and fence posts.  As I was walking back along the highway, a pretty buck started bounding towards the street.  I screamed and waved my arms!  NO!  Don’t do it!  Apparently, it worked as he stopped and hopped past me, then jumped a fence back towards the meadow.  It will live another day, and some motorist will not be traumatized by hitting this beautiful buck!

Spouse was finally awake when I got back.  After a good breakfast, we headed towards Mt. Rushmore.  We have been there before.  We are quite overwhelmed by all the tourist come ons.  Come to the Bear park, come to the reptile garden, the zip lines, the helicopter rides, the train rides, the roller coaster…  GIVE US YOUR MONEY!  Mt. Rushmore is right outside the town of Keystone.  It is a western tourist town.  The last time we were here, it was September and most of the town was already closed for the season.  This time, the tourists were coming out of the woodwork!  We checked out a glass blowing outfit… beautiful stuff.  The glass blower was acting as if somebody just killed his puppy – Mr. Personality.  The glassworks were stunning but extremely pricey.  As we headed towards Mr. Rushmore, the same gazillion cars that were in line to get into the Devils Tower the other day were now in line to get into the parking lot for Mr. Rushmore.  Uh… never mind.  Let’s just take a photo from the street and move on.  Been there, done that!

We continued on the backroads, leaving the crowds behind.  The Black Hills are absolutely gorgeous.  The pines and rock formations are mesmerizing.  We decided to go to Custer State Park.  Spouse groused at paying $20, but it was so well worth it.  We entered from hwy. 87 near Sylvan Lake.  The rocky spires form a pathway that is extremely cozy for driving.  A family of mountain goats greeted us as we checked out the Needles Highway.    There is a tunnel to pass through that is wide enough for only one car so you have to wait your turn.  I decided to walk through the tunnel and photograph the truck coming through.  It is only about 100 feet, yet as I got halfway through, those same gazillion cars that were trying to get into Mt. Rushmore started coming through and I had to press myself into this little groove in the granite so that I wouldn’t get crushed!

The highway hairpins around on a tiny road through ‘the needles’, rocky spires that dance around you.  It is breathtaking, and it channels my inner monkey as I climb around in stupid sandals.  I have better shoes in the car, but nooooo, I didn’t change into them.  Climb I did.  I got to one point coming down when I thought my sandals were going to fall right off my feet, but somehow, I managed to get down.

After a stop at the visitor center, we took the wildlife loop.  We leave the pines and the rocky spires behind for the plains. Here, there are antelope, deer, buffalo and the cute little prairie dogs.  When we stopped to look at the buffalos, the prairie dogs serenaded us with their little yips and barks.  I know they are rodents, but they are sooo cute.

Leaving the buffalo, we took a little hike towards a creek.  We thought it was a little hike, but it turned out to be much more and we were not prepared.  Yes, I still had my stupid sandals on, and we had no water, so we just stopped at a lookout point and enjoyed the stream from there.  Besides, we were told there was lots of poison ivy by the stream.  Along the trail, the rocks glistened with pyrite.  Ok, a few might have been relocated…

YIKES!  We need to get back as we have a meeting for the golf tourney!  Food and wine and good folks…  After all, that is the reason for this whole trip!

August 18, 2017 Dr. Pegleg to the rescue

August 18, 2017

I really want to explore some.  My human took me off my tie for a second and I made a run for it.  I stayed just out of reach.  I went under some big houses that move.  I got to sniff things.  Then when I wasn’t looking, my paternal human snatched me up.  I whined like a little baby, but he won that round.

I took a morning walk on the golf course until golfers showed up.  Then I went and walked the streets.  There is a major golf tournament here today so all sorts of things are going on.  If we didn’t need to fix Hannah, we may have played early, before the tournament.       

Mr. Pegleg Fixer showed up soon after 8 am.  By 10, Hannah was fixed and ready to go.  But before that… we went and hit a bucket of balls.  I can tell you that based on what I saw, we are not a threat to win anything this week!

It was only 9 miles to Mystery Mountain RV park.  It is woodsy, and not a lot of room for maneuvering, but we have a pull thru site which made it easy.  We kind of checked out the area some, before we settled into a night of much needed laundry and general clean up.  Sure makes for a good blog, huh?

August 17, 2017 What's the hurry?

August 17, 2017

Humans!  HUMANS!  What about me?  I am right here.  Why are you out there?  I wanna come.  HUMANS!  Maybe I can get out this hole… let me paw to get out…  Here comes a human!  Oh, she is closing off my hole… but what about me?  I wanna be with my humans!!!

We slept outside last night.  Outside of the marina lights across the bay, it was an incredible dark sky with the milky way hovering above us.  When I woke during the night, I would marvel at the stars.  I saw a shooting star, then drifted off again.  I awoke to the sound of fish flapping on the surface, dining on their morning meal.  Light was beginning its day, the water on the lake was calm and glassy.  In my day, I would have been whining to go for a ski, but here, the boats were idle.  It was quite cool, maybe in the low 50s.

We enjoyed our coffee as the sun rose, then we both went on a walk.  At this state park, there are several different campgrounds.  We stayed at Pat’s Point.  I walked back to the main road and checked out a more woodsy campground across the road.  The lake wraps around forming many coves, and the campgrounds are placed accordingly.  If we had more time, we would definitely be biking all around.

Spouse was in a hurry to head towards Rapid City so we could get Hannah’s pegleg fixed.  So we readied her and hit the road.  Right outside the campground is a dump station.   It didn’t matter how much of a hurry Spouse was in, he saw a vacant space with a hose, and proceeded to wash both the truck and Hannah.  Rudy and I kicked back…  I guess he is only in a hurry if it is something that does not matter to him…

Back on the road, we headed up to Devils Tower (think of the movie Close Encounters).  It is a beautiful drive through the rolling hills, but the line into the national monument was way longer than we wanted to wait; at least a million cars, so we split and headed towards Rapid City.  Come on, it’s a tall rock…  what’s the big deal?

The repair man may be able to get to Hannah’s pegleg today, so we want to get her in place. We hop onto I90 even though there are prettier roads to take. We plan to stay at the Elks Lodge in Rapid City for the night as our reservation at our golf place doesn’t start till tomorrow.

I90… it is really quite pretty with the rolling green hills.  We pass Sturgis, where just a week ago, gazillions of motorcycles congregated to strut their stuff.  We stopped at a Camping World thinking that maybe they could fix Hannah’s pegleg…  That was laughable!  We finally made it to the Elks Club, which is right on a golf course!   They only have electricity for us, but that is what we like.  Mr. Pegleg Fixer won’t be able to come till tomorrow morning.

The rain is threatening, and it is windy as all getout, but there are plenty of golfers out there.  We had an early dinner, contemplating whether we should get in 9 holes…  Good thing we didn’t play…  we were not back 5 minutes before the rains came…  Our streak of rainless days stopped at one!

I hate this laptop I am using.  The cursor jumps all over so if you see gibberish in the middle of a sentence, you now know why!  And I am on sinus drugs… so excuse me if I fade offffff…

August 16, 2017 Go east young man

August 16, 2017

Psst, Human… lift up your covers.  I am cold.  Let me snuggle right in next to you.  I know I am on your paw, but I am comfortable.  Now, don’t move…

It was cold last night, probably low forties, maybe lower.  It was hard to get moving.  Spouse invited the neighbors who were tent camping over for some warmth and coffee.  We actually ran the heater!  It is the middle of August and it is really cold.

We finally got going and did our walk.  The sun is shining, and there is not a single cloud in the sky.  It rained quite hard last night, so everything is wet, but the sun feels good even though it is cold.  We walked up the hill and over to a dirt road that cut across the mountain and down to a bridge crossing the creek.  It is being repaired with wood all over.  It leads us to a meadow where we see a deer bounding across.  We continued on till we came to a cabin, then turned around and headed back.  We found a foot path that ultimately took us back to the campground.  It wasn’t a particularly long walk, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

After a good breakfast, we sadly departed across the meadows back to the Bighorn Scenic Highway.  Stands of pines with breathtaking alpine meadows guide the way till we could see the great plains of the central U.S.  We both were totally impressed with the scenery of the Bighorn forest and rate it way up at the top on the eye candy scale.

As we descended onto the plains, the cozy little towns and farm country kept things interesting.  When we got to the town of Sheridan (where my good friend Sherrill was born), we stopped at Dairy Queen – my Spouse’s weakness. 

I can’t believe who I have become… not only did I eat some of Spouse’s ice cream, later in the day, I drank some of his soda!  I am becoming a pig!  I am falling under his influence!  Stop me now!  I am going to the dark side.  I have even eaten meat…

Leaving Sheridan, we decided to stay off of I90 as long as we could.  We took 14 to Ucross, then 16 east to Gillette.  We weaved around and over the beautiful contours of the rolling hills.  Then there were farms, then ranches and rivers and streams.  And best of all… we were the ONLY vehicle going in our direction.  We saw just a handful of cars going the other direction for 100 miles.  In the town of Gillette, we knew we had to get on I90 to get where we are going.   We decided to stop for the night at the Keyhole State Park.  It is a reservoir, with all these people doing the water sports that I love!  But we got a great site overlooking the water.  We gave Rudy some outside time, and we prepared our cots so we can sleep outside.

This is the first day since we left the heat of Mesquite when we first started, that we did not see any rain.  I actually got to put on shorts and not freeze!

August 15, 2017 Bighorn National Forest

August 15, 2017

I tried to go outside the big house that moves and my paws got wet.  I had to clean them so I came back inside.  It was like, really wet out there.

I had all sorts of grand ideas about a morning walk, but they were all quashed by the fact that it was raining.  And it was cold.  We waited a wee bit and got Hannah ready, but the rain persisted, so we decided to go.

There is nothing like pushing one of Hannah’s buttons to raise or lower her and hearing that sickening sound…  Something wasn’t right.  We raised her high enough to get her attached to the truck, but it looks like she only has one good leg.  Crap!  We can’t even lower her manually as the crank isn’t connecting.  We jacked her up so we could get the log out from under the leg so we could lower her.  But the bottom line is we cannot disconnect until we get this fixed.  The nearest RV repair that does this type of stuff is 90 miles north in Billings, Montana.  Totally out of our way.  Maybe we can make it to Rapid City.  We shall see. 

Draining Hannah’s tanks is usually a mundane task.  You connect the sewer hose, pull this lever, then that lever and the miracle occurs.  Putting the hose back in place is a methodical process.  You stuff it back in the holder, then place the cover on, and secure the cover with a rod and a cotter pin.  You must be careful not to drop anything as you will never find it on the gravel below.  Spouse is usually very careful, but something caught his hand, and the cotter pin was dropped.  As we played ‘Where’s Waldo’ looking for the needle in the haystack, Spouse went to the drawer of death, and found another.  As he is putting it in, he sees the original one!  What a stroke of luck!

So, rain stopped my walk, and Hannah has a broken leg.  And to top it off, the stem on my orchid that the package of toilet paper so viciously attacked had to be cut off.  I will remember that wonderful fragrance and the adorable flowers.  May the inflorescence rest in peace…   What next?  Oh, the propane tank is empty.  Let’s go outside in the rain and switch it over…It is only 9 am…

We headed east on rte. 14. The rain has stopped but the sky is still threatening.   I was supposed to be looking for a friend’s bar, but I was so mesmerized by the beauty, I totally forgot. The vastness of the beautiful contoured plains conveys just how magnificent our country really is.  This is truly where the deer and the antelope play!  As we neared the town of Greybull, the farms added to the scene with the green crops and red barns.    I could imagine how this scenery would look on a patchwork quilt. 

But it gets better.  We enter the Bighorn National Forest.  We are in a narrow canyon, just the road and the Big Horn River.  Tall rocky cliffs surround us as we start to climb.  Every turn brings another eye popping view.  We climb, we ooh and ah.  Rocky cliffs with pines etched into sides dominate the view.  We see a sign for a campground.  Even though it is only noonish, we turned and followed the 2 mile dirt road to a gem of a location.   We set up Hannah at the Shell Creek Campground space 9, right along the river.  Hannah is a muddy mess.  It is 49 degrees.  It was trying to rain, and trying to stop.  It ultimately stopped, so we unloaded the bikes and rode up the road past the ranger station. 

This is the gateway to the back country.  We are already remote, and IF WE COULD ONLY DISCONNECT, we could be exploring some of these beautiful roads.  As it is, on our bikes, we pedal over the bridge and start climbing a hill.  We climb, we huff, we puff.  We climb.  We are sure it levels out just around the corner.  Ok, maybe around the next corner… or the next one.  Ok, enough.  We turned around and came back.  It is crisp but great for biking and the scenery is probably the best we have seen. 

If ONLY WE COULD DISCONNECT…

The ranger brought us lots of firewood; nice wet firewood.  Note to Spouse:  when using gasoline to start a fire, MOVE MY VODKA TONIC OUT OF THE WAY! 

August 14, 2017 A Dam nice walk

August 14, 2017

I noticed my humans are getting lax with me.  I must up the game.  Today when they moved me from the little house that moves into the big house that moves, I darted outside.  I didn’t give them a chance to rest.  They had to come after me.  I whined, but I was really happy that they got me.  I could have made a run for it, but what would happen if they didn’t come after me?  And my paternal human got another mousie in his toy.  I think that is cheating.

My morning walk took me on a little road up to the Boysen Dam and power plant.  You can see little dirt roads across the river, so this is how they make it across.  Trailers are not recommended, but I bet Hannah could have made it.  But, some other time.  Back to Hannah, with Cody, Wyoming in the GPS.

We start be going through the Wind River Canyon.  What a spectacle.  The rocky cliffs on both side form a sharp V.  The bottom of the valley is the road we are on, the Wind River, and the railroad tracks.  It looks like we are surrounded on all sides by cliffs, but we are winding our way through them.  We see a deer and a big horn sheep.  Nowhere to pull over to photograph them though.  A few miles later, we exit the canyon to plains with farms, and the town of Thermopolis. 

After a good breakfast, we headed northwest towards the town of Cody.  It is a little out of our way, but scenic, so what the heck.  There are contoured plains as far as the eye can see.  Farms add green.  Mountains form the farthest background.  Throw in a few red rocky buttes and you have a gorgeous landscape.  As we get closer, the plains start to get smaller as the mountains creep in.  It was a beautiful and easy ride.

Spouse wants to go to the Buffalo Bill Cody museum.  Since that may take a while, we decided to get an RV spot.  Didn’t see much in the way of campgrounds, and the RV parks are a bit large for our liking, but we don’t have much choice.  We got a spot at the Ponderosa RV Park, close to the center of town.  Much to my dismay, when we set Hannah up, I saw the carnage…  I keep my orchids in the bathroom when we are underway, so they won’t move around.  But a six pack of toilet paper jumped its railing and assaulted one of my orchids!  It bent the stem and knocked a few petals off the flower.  It was cruel but I will make sure to give that toilet paper the shit end of the stick…

We headed to the museum, which is actually 4 museums in one.  The gun museum…  Oh, Spouse, you are not going to read every thing about all five million guns here, are you?  There are some beautiful pieces, some dating back 500 years.  But after the first hundred, it is overload.  I will leave Spouse and head over to the Buffalo Bill side.

Buffalo Bill was a cattle guy, scout, then a showman of the biggest kind.  He put the town on the map, literally.  There were interesting displays and lots of variety.  I liked this museum.

The natural history museum and the Plains Indian museum were also interesting.  The Indian beadwork was phenomenal.  The displays were not overwhelming.  After a few hours, we checked out the town some.  We found an Elks Lodge and had a drink, then headed back to Hannah. 

Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa…  the Sturgis High School let out… gazillions of motorcycles on their way home from Sturgis are at the RV park.  They have some great setups and are quite well behaved.  We have been seeing signs since Utah about the roads to Sturgis being all clear, but now they are coming back…  lots of them…  and we are going there…  Ships passing in the night!

I don’t know what tomorrow holds, except I do know, I am out of chocolate.  This will be rectified tomorrow…  And why can I never find my keys?  Sometimes I move them out of the way to look for them!  Sheesh…

August 13, 2017 Po Po Agie

August 13, 2017

Every now and again, when my humans try to move me from the little house that moves to the big house that moves, I will throw a fit.  It is not that I really mind moving, but I am a feline and it is my job to be difficult on occasion.  I will scream and complain and make a scene.  I am finding my humans just ignore me. 

We readied Hannah early this morning as we decided to take our morning walk in the Sinks Canyon State Park.  It is about 9 miles from the town of Lander.  It is a picturesque canyon with tall, rocky cliffs, overlooking the Po Po Agie River.  This river sets the standard for all photography.  It is rocky with water cascading from various angles. 

The hike starts at Bruce’s Camp.  

The trail crosses the Po Po Agie on a bridge then starts the gradual, uphill climb to the water falls.  To our right is a rocky crag, covered in sagebrush.  To our left is the river lined with fir and aspen trees.  Wildflowers are still blooming this late in the year.  It is lush and beautiful.  You can see where stands of baby aspens are taking root.  Beyond the river is a pine covered mountain.  The river valley is narrow and the sound of the water crashing on the rocks follows us all the way.  Although the climb starts gradually, it gets steeper as we climb, so it is slow going.  It is almost 2 miles in to the falls.  When we get to the top, we see the waterfalls breaking into several downhill streams.  It is quite stunning.  There is a nice bench where you can sit and enjoy the scenery. I wish I had a hike like this every morning.  The distance and the degree of difficulty were perfect!

Coming back, you see things differently.   When you are looking up, it seems so much more awe inspiring.  Looking down is pretty, but not nearly as striking as the uphill view.

Back to Hannah and back on the road.  We stopped in Lander for some supplies to repair the windshield damage we got yesterday.  We then head north, through Riverton.   There are plains as far as the eye can see, with farms and lots of geographical contours to keep things interesting.

We stopped for Thai food – haven’t seen that in a while.  We also stopped for some tonic water at a liquor store.  We couldn’t figure out why a car darted in front of us towards the liquor store till we noticed the drive thru window at the liquor store.  How dumb was I to actually get out of my vehicle and WALK inside…  There was quite the line for the drive thru window…  interesting…

We continue north past the Boysen reservoir.  We were headed for Thermopolis, but saw a campground on the Wind River that called our name.  I don’t know, Thermopolis is known for its hot springs.  But when you see RV parks with names like ‘Fountain of Youth RV Park’, it just doesn’t call my name!  The Wind River campground is right below the dam, and Hannah’s back window faces the water.  It is small and cozy.

Since there are no RV hookups, it takes just a minute to set up.  Spouse starts doing the windshield repair.  Then I get my vodka tonic and plop down in my chair outside overlooking the water.  Ah, this is the life…  Get away bee, this is my drink.  Hey, get away.  You little bastard, LEAVE MY DRINK ALONE!  Shoo!  Scat!  After five minutes of fighting with the bee, I taught it a lesson…  I picked up my drink and went inside Hannah!  I closed the screen door, and swiveled my reclining chair to face the water.   Hah!  I have the same view, with no bee.  It’s just me, and Rudy… and whatever mice may be hiding in the heating vents…