Wednesday, Setptember 3, 2025 Rudy's BIG DAWG

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 Big DAWG

Yeow!  Look at that!  That is the BIGGEST dog I ever saw!  He is looking at me!  Do I run?  I am in the little house that moves.  No place really to run.  He is making eye contact!   What do I do?  My human is touching me.  I guess I can calm down… maybe.  Gosh that was one big dog.  I am watching it walk away.  Gosh that is a big dog!  I gotta catch my breath!

It was a quiet night at the Buffalo Bill State Park.  I took my morning walk alone, around the campground, across a bridge, around the launch ramp.  The reservoir water level is low.  The launch ramp doesn’t quite make it to the water.

We readied Artie, then headed west towards Yellowstone.  We enter the Shoshone National Forest.  There are streams, meadows and rocky mountains.  We are climbing in altitude.  We are surrounded by pines and aspens.  We climb to 8000 feet.  As we cross into Yellowstone, we come upon a lone buffalo in the street.  Naturally, we stop.  It is bigger than us!  It slowly saunters by us.  We have never seen Rudy’s eyes so big!  He did not know what to make of the buffalo.  As the buffalo slowly walked by, he looked at Rudy.  I didn’t know if Rudy was going to bolt or what, but he was all sort of antsy!  He did not take his eyes off the buffalo until it was way past us!

We continue on past the beautiful Yellowstone Lake.  It is a huge lake, and it is very calm this morning.  We follow the roads left till we are on the John D. Rockerfeller highway, which will take us down to the Grand Tetons.

We do NOT have a reservation so we are not expecting much. We were last here 12 years ago, and if you didn’t have a reservation, they would find a site and you were good.  Now, you have to go through reservation hell.  Recreation.Gov allows you to book online.  The problem with this is that people make the reservations, and then don’t show up.  Thus, empty sites are unavailable.  It is far more crowded now than we have seen in the past, and we were here in prime season last time.  Fortunately for us, Debbie the ranger decided to put us in a group site for the night.  It is secluded and quite nice.

Once in the site, Spouse decides he wants to go down to Jackson.  It is about 40 miles away, through the viewpoints in the park.  We pass through the area where we saw a shemoose and  her baby the last time we were here.  Certainly, they would still be there, right?   Yeah right…  Once on the main highway, we pass a herd of buffalo.  I swear these are the same buffalo that were here the last time we came this way!

We pull into Jackson… oh my it is busy.  The square in Jackson was probably built in the 1800’s.  While the buildings might have been updated, the square limits traffic movement.  There are all sorts of art galleries and western stores.  Cowboy boots are the thing.  Not quite as flashy as Nashville, but still big.  I tried some on when we were in Nashville…  I have never been so uncomfortable in my life!  Not my thing. 

 It is busy and it is hell finding a parking place.  But we find one.  We found a Thai restaurant, but it was closed.  We are told of another one, and we walk there… it is closed.  We started back towards the truck, and find a Mexican place… closed.  Doesn’t anybody in this town eat late lunches or early dinners?  It is crowded, we are hungry and we FINALLY find a place that has a happy hour going with their happy hour menu.  Limited options but we were able to stuff our faces.  We stopped long enough to get a picture at one of the antler arches in the square.  Then, we fueled up and got the hell out of town.  We have been here a few times, but this was totally insane.

We made it back to the solitude of Artie.  Maybe we are secluded enough that we will see some wildlife…  Some deer did wander through the area, acting like they owned the place.  Oh wait… they do…

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Tis the Season

 

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Tis the Season         

There are lots of good smells here.  My human let me walk all over.  I got to roll.  Then I heard noises and ran back home.

Last night it was DARK!  DARK DARK DARK!  And Quiet.  Every morning, I do a wee walk just to loosen up my knee.  This morning, I went outside and there were 4 deer.   Spouse can’t hear too well…  Shhh, Spouse… there are 4 deer right outside here.  What?  Shhhh, there are 4 deer, bucks right here.  WHAT?  THERE ARE 4 F’N BUCKS RIGHT HERE!  That finally penetrated through the y chromosome force field, and Spouse came outside to view the spectacle.  They didn’t seem bothered by us.  Doesn’t hunting season start in September?  I guess they didn’t get the memo.

We took our walk out of the campground and on the dirt road we came in on, but in the opposite direction.  It is beautiful here.  The road is heavily forested with pines and aspens.  We see huge hoof prints.  Probably an elk or maybe moose.  We found out elk season started yesterday…  We should probably be wearing our bright orange bicycle vests!  We don’t hear any shots, but a truck or two does pass us, probably scouting out the scene.  After Spouse left me, I continued on.  I found a trail with a nice view of a lake below.  This area really is gorgeous!

We really like this style of RV’ing.  We are campers at heart so staying in places like this is good for our souls.  We probably should stay another day… but…

Back at camp, we readied Artie and continued west through the Bighorn National Forest.  This road is a pass, and we hit an elevation just under 10,000 feet.  Once over the summit, the grassy mountains turn into rocky mountains.  There are streams where you can see the riparian foliage lining the way.  Once we pass the town of Tensleep, the scenery reverts back to straw colored nothing.  There is such a stark difference between the Bighorn National Forest, and the boring landscape leading up to it.

At Worland, we turned north on hwy 20.  This was a battle with the GPS as she wanted us to go south.  Why would we go south when we are headed north???  This is why I always have a AAA map on my lap.  She can be evil at times. The scenery is a bit better, with lots of farms.  But there is still the straw nothing too.

We fueled up when we got to Cody.  We did check out one RV park, and we just couldn’t do it, it seemed so crowded, so we started up towards Yellowstone.  We found the Buffalo Bill Cody state park up about 10 miles.  It is on a reservoir and the spaces are all nice and big.  And we have a site with electricity.  Now that is nice… 

Those noseeums are very clever.  I was sitting outside enjoying the view when I felt my ankles getting bitten.  I looked, and saw NOTHING!  Then a droplet of blood formed…  Am I about to spontaneously combust?  How can something so small have such man eating teeth?  Just amazing.  I still have my Benadryl handy!

No internet, and minimal cell service.  But it is a darned nice site!

Monday, September 1, 2025 Wyoming Blahs, and OOOhs too

 

Monday, September 1, 2025  The Blahs

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  Some times, my stare is just not enough.

This is our last morning here.  We took our walk through the ‘hood, up and down the streets.  There is a lot of building going on here.  There are lots, and there are new houses on the lots.  It looks like you pick which model you want, and then it is built.  The prices are not inexpensive.   After Spouse left, I walked on my own.  A deer ran across my path from the golf course across the street into a field, where it disappeared.  It was probably one of the deer that is eating this poor man’s garden.  He chases them away, but they pay him no mind!

There is no dump station at the Elks, so when we readied Artie, our first stop was a KOA right down the street where we could dump our tanks.  We then headed west on I90.  The interstate curves around on the outside of the Black Hills.  Rolling hills and pine trees compliment the commerce, which is spaced out nicely.  As we cross into Wyoming, the scene continues for a while.  Then the green turns to straw color, and the rolling hills roll a little less.

At this point, it is vast and it is… well, I guess you would call it a whole lot of nothing.  Miles go by.  We see a herd of antelope grazing.  More miles go by.  Oh!  There is a prairie dog town!  That view lasts a whole second.  We pass through the town of Gilette.  Yawn, yawn…  We continue to the town of Buffalo.  We fuel up, then start heading into the Big Horn National Forest.  We have been on the northern road through Bighorn before and it was so pretty.  We were hoping for the same on the southern road.

There is lots of traffic leaving the area.  The holiday weekend is over and it looks like it was pretty busy in the area.  The elevation climbs.  These are mountains, but not like the Sierras.  These are grassy high hills with stands of pines and aspens.  It is very pretty.  We stumble upon a campground and call it a day.  It is NOT an RV park.  It is a primitive campground with no electricity, water or sewer.  There are pit toilets if you want.  But the sites are huge and woodsy, with fire pits.  And we emptied our tanks when we left Rapid City, so we are ok to rough it.  There are other people here, but I would say the campground is less than half full.

It is so nice and quiet.  I didn’t want to upset the silence with our generator to use our microwave to heat up our dinner.  I did it the old fashioned way.  I put things in pots and pans and turned on the stove.  It was so primitive to reheat leftovers like this.  Did you hear me curse?  When I was done, I heard a generator in the distance.  So much for being quiet!  I am sure you heard me curse…

Sunday, August 31, 2025 More Mickelson Eye Candy

 

Sunday, August 31, 2025 More Mickelson Eye Candy

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  There are birdies I need to watch.  I really like it here.

We decided to do another leg of the Mickelson Trail today.  The other day, we stopped at Mystic, today we decided to start at Mystic and head up to Dumont.  It will be about 19 miles each way.  The weather looks threatening, but supposedly, no rain is in the forecast.  We bring all sorts of rain gear just in case.

The ride to Mystic takes us through Hill City.  We then catch a road that parallels the bike trail.  The last 10 miles or so of the road is unpaved, but it is nicely graded so it is an easy drive.  And it is gorgeous.

We unload the bikes at the trailhead and head north.  The trail cuts through a narrow valley.  On one side are rocky walls with Christmas trees.  On the other side is a stream, bordered by more Christmas trees.  The Christmas trees are small to ginormous with all sizes in between.  Douglas firs, noble firs, and all sorts of aspen line the trail.  Most of the aspens are still green, but we do see a few that are starting to yellow, signaling the coming of autumn.

The stream winds its way around the landscape, cascading over rocks.  The trail crosses the stream several times.  The sky is blue with big puffy clouds.  If you are still, it is warm, but moving on the bikes, it is cool.  Perfect for bike riding. We cross through a couple of tunnels along the way. After we pass the Rochford Trailhead entrance (about 8 miles from our starting point), the valley widens.  Beautiful alpine meadows, and large ranches with grazing cattle surround us. And of course, the stream is there too, as are ponds here and there.  It is green… just so green.  And crisp.  And cool.  And total eye candy.  For a holiday weekend, we expected to see a lot more people on the trail.  But it isn’t crowded at all.  We do see a garter snake.  It posed for me.  Other garter snakes need to learn that sunning themselves on the trail may not be a good idea…

At 19 miles, we are in Dumont.  The trailhead here has an actual cabin with two picnic tables inside, with a heat stove, and room to throw down a sleeping bag if you are so inclined.  We did meet a girl that was walking the entire 109 miles of the trail (not in one day!), so this might appeal to her.  Each trail head has water, and a bike repair station with various tools you may need to make a repair.  There is also a pit toilet. 

In the winter, the area outside the trail is used for snowmobiling.  The actual trail in winter is used for cross country skiing.

Time to turn back and view the scenery from the other side.  Amazing.  It is more downhill going back.  I used very little pedal assist going back, while Spouse is pedaling and pedaling.  I am coasting and trying not to run in to him.  I can’t figure out how he can be pedaling so much and not going any faster.  Finally, at about mile 35, he decided to crank it up a notch.  At 35 miles, whether YOU are done or not… your crotch is done!

We were looking forward to going to our German restaurant again.  But alas, it was closed on Sunday.  With utter disappointment, we headed back to Artie to finish off some leftovers.

No matter how good we are… there is always at least one little bastard fly that makes it inside Artie, AND the truck. 

We head into Wyoming tomorrow.

Saturday, August 30, 2025 A Do-Nothing Day to Cheat on my Sister

 Saturday, August 30, 2025 A Do Nothing Day

My humans let me out.  I sniffed, I rolled, and when they came looking for me, I hid.  But they found me.  They brought me back and put me on a leash.  Sheesh… can’t a feline have any fun?

Since it is a Saturday on a holiday weekend, we scheduled nothing.  Wait, I did have a hair appointment.  I will be cheating on my sister who has been doing my hair for decades, but I can’t wait any longer for coifing attention!

Skies are threatening, but we are beginning to ignore them.  We take our morning walk through the neighborhood.  We have been coming in from the main street onto Jolly Ln.  So we decided to go in the other direction and check things out.

There is an Elks community of homes.  The Elks must have owned the property at one time.  The houses weave around the back nine of the golf course.  Some are duplexes, mainly joined at the garage.  Others are independent.  All of them look quite nice.  The street names are all golf related: Pebble Beach Ct., Mulligan, etc.  Many of the homes have huge fir trees looking like Christmas trees.  We were told that they are ponderosa and spruce firs.  There are trails for the golf carts so you can bring your own from home.  And you see some pretty fancy custom carts.  No fences.  It is nice and clean and feels safe.  Jolly Ln. goes about a mile down before it dead ends into the plains.

Back at camp, Spouse did some cleaning.  I went to the salon for some updating.  Today is dedicated to reading and relaxing.  There is a golf tournament going on at the course, so there are lots of people and lots of activity.  We will lay low today.  And Spouse can leave the door open and let in more flies… little bastards!

Clouds have been threatening rain all day, but so far, only a few raindrops.    

Friday, August 29, 2025 A Spur of the Moment Kind of Day

 

Friday, August 29, 2025 Spur of the Moment

I have trained my humans all from the power of my stare.  If I stare at my food bowl, they feed me.  If I stare at the windows, they lift the covers.  I have learned to use this power for many things.  Humans can be so easy!

With the forecast calling for rain, we did not make any plans for the day.  When we woke up and it wasn’t raining, hmmm…. Maybe we can get 9 holes of golf in.  I ran up to the pro shop and they gave us 20 minutes to get ready and on the tee.  So, on the spur of the moment, we did it.  Spouse felt rushed the entire game.  We hadn’t even had much coffee.  It was barely 7 am.  I felt rushed the first hole, then was able to adjust my brain.  We played with a father/son duo.  And the son had some horrible shots, so we felt quite comfortable with them!  They were our people!

The Elks golf course is a nice course with lots of strategy.  Trees hang over stupid places, water weaves its ways all through the course, and they have some bunkers that are challenging to avoid.  The greens lied.  My evil twin was out at first, but then I showed up and momentarily vanquished her.  She popped up a few times through the 9 holes.  Course knowledge is always helpful, but I gotta say, the best hole I had I totally botched every shot, and because I didn’t know what I was doing, it worked.  We were on a 97 yard par 3.  You have to hit over a stream and up a hill.  I can do this… but I didn’t…I am such a spazz!  I hit over the stream, hit the hill and ricocheted into the rough.  My chip shot was terrible, pulling it and leaving me in the rough.  My next chip shot was even worse!  I totally hit the wrong side of the green, the ball was moving too fast… but wait… the ball went almost all the way up the hill, did a slow uturn, and rolled to within 1 inch from the hole. I don’t think I could have done this if I knew the course… And, by the way… I sunk the putt!

On the 7^th hole, we felt our first raindrops.  It was light, but we didn’t know how bad this was going to get.  On the 8^th hole, it rained a little harder for just about 2 minutes, then stopped, allowing us to finish the round.

When we got back to Artie, our neighbor in the RV park gave us his pass to Custer State Park.  We have been there before and really liked it, so on the spur of the moment, we headed that way. The skies were ominous, but we will be in the truck, so no big deal.

We ended up coming through the east entrance, which we hadn’t done before.  Like the bike trail, you see things differently when you go the other direction.  We stopped at Summer White House for Calvin Coolidge.  It is a lodge, and it was nearing 11 am and we hadn’t eaten. Cool place with some interesting architectural features.  Then exploring the park, down one road, up the next.  We see an occasional lone buffalo.  We decide to take a dirt road (Red Valley Rd.).  There is a prairied dog town so we stopped. 

Prairie dogs are the cutest critters on the planet.  They have a very complex society.  We sat in silence listening to them ‘eep eep eep’ each other.  Then one would do this hi 5 yippee flip and I wanted to kiss their little faces off. 

We head through the rolling hills and find a herd of buffalo.  They really control the buffalo population so that the grasses are not overgrazed.  I guess that explains the buffalo chili and buffalo stew at the restaurant!  They are massive creatures, and it is nice to see them on their home turf after mankind nearly wiped them out.  If it wasn’t for some zoology center in New York who rescued some of the original herd more than 100 years ago, they would be extinct.  They donated 14 buffalo to the state park to grow a native population.  Based on DNA tests, there is teensy tiny bit of cattle in them, but they are basically the same as their ancestors.

As we weave through the dirt road, we cross into Wind Cave National Park.  More prairie dogs, and some rain drops.  Lots of them.  Lightening… and now it is pouring!  The prairie dogs jump into their cozy burrows, and we head onto the main road.  The visitor center at Wind Cave is quite nice.  Wind Cave is full of corridors and rooms.  It has yet to be fully explored as it is too big.  All tours for the cave were booked, so we couldn’t go in.  We walked to the entrance and the rain started, so back we went. 

We weaved our way though Custer, and Hill City, then headed home.  Rain drops here and there.  And lots of people coming into the area for the holiday weekend.  LOTS OF PEOPLE!

We stopped at a store for groceries…  LOTS OF PEOPLE!  Glad we are hunkered down at the elks for the holiday.

Thursday, August 28, 2025 Biking the Mickelsen Trail

 

Thursday, August 28, 2025 The Mickelsen Trail

I caught a fly!  I caught a fly!  MEOWT!  I got to roll.  I like it here!  I want to explore but my humans won’t let me.  I will claw the door so they will let me out.

This morning, instead of doing a walk, we readied the bikes and headed for the Mickelsen Trail.  We were thinking of picking up the trail in Hill City and going south to Custer, but after talking to ladies at the visitor center, they recommended going the other way up to Mystic.  The ride up to Hill City is pretty.  Rugged mountains covered in pines and aspens hug the roadside.  We see lots of deer; most of them alive.

The Mickelsen Trail is one of the many rail to trail bike roads throughout the country.  Old rail lines are converted to recreational use trails.  In this case, the trail is hard dirt based, with tiny sand gravel covering, giving you grip.  It costs $5 a day for the use (or ($20) for an annual pass, and there are kiosks at the trailheads for you to pay.  You are somewhat on your honor, but we would gladly contribute to the maintenance of this trail.  The trail runs abut 108 miles from Edgemont to Deadwood.  There are companies that will shuttle you around so you can do a part, and they bring you back.   Spouse tried to call about 5 of them yesterday and did not get one live person, so we figured we would just do it ourselves and ride both ways.  I actually prefer that.  You might not get to go as far, but seeing the countryside from different angles is always fun for me.  It is kind of cloudy, and warm if you are standing still, but quite cool when you are moving.

As we leave Hill City, the trail takes us through peoples’ backyards.  There are a variety of large properties from horse ranches to guest ranches, to ordinary people spaces.  As we get away from the town, there are various bridges crossing over streams, ponds, gullies and roads. Soon, we are surrounded with black hills rocky crags.  A variety of pine trees and aspens line the trail.  Various wildflowers pop up through the grasses and out of rocks: yellows, purples and whites.  We pass by some cows resting in their field.  All of them are black except for one beige mama and her young’un.  There are streams and ponds with their reeds and cattails. At one point, a white tailed doe bounced across our trail.

Continuing on, we pass through two tunnels that were blasted in 1890 and 1891.  They are supported with wood ties that look like they are almost new.  One of the tunnels was arctic.  I put on my new windbreaker!  The trail is interesting in that it looks level, but it really isn’t.  We use our ebikes kind of like mountain bikes.  We pedal.  We use the pedal assist, but only to a point that we are not dying.  We get a good resistance, and maintain that for our ride.  If we get a good hill, we might use the throttle to help us go up.  But to go down… no pedal assist and we coast, which is what I did for miles.  But remember, for all the coasting you do on the way there, you will be working it on the way back.

The skies are threatening.  Originally, there was no call for rain, but I am not feeling that.  We got to the Mystic Trailhead.  Spouse was hoping for a snack but there isn’t anything there but a bathroom and a ‘train station’, which was a covered patio with a picnic table and a bench.  Normally, we have snacks with us, but that slipped through our cracks!  The next trailhead is 8 miles up and there is food there, but looking at those skies…  naw… we have already gone over 15 miles, we better head back.

You really do see things when you go in a different direction.  There were little valleys nestled in the hills, some nice views of a snaky river. With about 3 miles to go, I felt the first rain drops.  I had been coasting for awhile, and started pedaling.  I could hear the drops on my helmet.  It wasn’t pouring, but it was time to put the ebikes to good use and up the pedal assist for the last mile. 

As we got to the truck, it was raining a little harder.  We got the bikes up just in time for a few more rain drops.  The rain pretty much stopped in about 2 minutes.  So we went up the road and saw lots of commerce. Time to eat.

The one thing I don’t like about the Black Hills…  they sooooo overdo the tourist thing.  Bazillions of souvenir shops and tchotchke shops.  One restaurant we looked at wanted $30 for a burger.  Are you kidding?  Is it lined with gold?  We did find a gem of a German restaurant.  This was nice and it was reasonable.  I would actually go back if I was in the area

When we got back to Artie, Rudy let us know that he WANTED out!  He started clawing the screen door.  Really?  Discipline first…   and THEN we let him out.  The little bastard caught a fly... gotta reward him...