Back Home

It has been an interesting transition to home. Seems like the wildlife has taken over. Mice are the biggest problem with at least 2 generations in residence. They got into the pantry and ate through anything that wasn't in hard sided containers (pasta, crackers, rice). They also decided to stash their booty in amongst the sheets and towels in the linen closet so aside from emptying the entire pantry and throwing lots of staples and stuff away and washing every container and can we are doing massive loads of laundry. I am trying to keep in mind the old cartoons and see these mice as a game that we need to play for a while. We have trapped 3 so far and they have retreated a little but their days are numbered.

More disturbing was the gnawed and chewed fairly fresh deer leg that we found between our deck and garden gate, just a few feet from the door. Will try to keep my sense of humor about that one!

Thanks again to all of you and we are glad you enjoyed the trip too.

Homeward Bound

From Bozeman we moved north to Helena for a quick stop at Kirk and Donna's beautiful new home, then on to the Seeley Lake area. Weather is partly cloudy and thunderstorms and we are back in our 'northwest' clothes. Spent the night in Northern Montana and then traveled today through the Idaho panhandle and crossed the border into Washington. Got caught in a thunderstorm with hail and hard rain near Sandpoint but our campground tonight near Priest River is peaceful and nearly deserted with the sun poking through the trees. Heading across the state up north to visit an old friend in Twisp for the night and then across over the North Cascades Pass. "Pearl" has been running like the little jewel that she is and it has been a great trip. It has been '40 days and 40 nights' in our little ark and other than a few GPS hiccups and resulting skirmishes between the unlucky driver and navigator ('Well, where the hell are we then???) we have enjoyed every minute of it. We will be home soon. Thanks to all of you for taking this vacation with us. We have had a great time and are already talking about our next trip. For those of you that have asked us to bring some sunshine back with us we are sad to inform you that we don't think we can pull it off. We left the last reliable sun in the middle of Wyoming. We have had to struggle to stay with good weather and be flexible and willing to crisscross the areas as we moved to stay ahead of the unseasonable spring all across the west during this trip. See you all soon.

Wildflowers

We did find the wildflowers that we were looking for.

Yellowstone

We took the Chief Joseph Trail from Cody into the east entrance of Yellowstone. Weather reports are dismal and we are reluctant to head into the dark clouds. But we hear it is going to be pretty ugly everywhere so we are out of options to stay in the sun and still get home in time for Samantha's 22nd Birthday. A day we are all looking forward to. It was a beautiful trip through scenic canyons and over a 8000+ ft pass that dropped down rapidly with fast switchbacks. Even had our GPS confused for a while! We hit rain just before the park entrance and still snow in many places but headed into the Lamar Valley to camp at Slough Creek close to the main pack of Yellowstone wolves. Ugh! the campground is 60% underwater and folks are already in the few remaining spots. Heavy rains on top of already high rivers are causing havoc. We spent the night at Tower Camp and felt very sorry for the many tent campers that were trying to exist in heavy rain. We were warm and cozy and dry and very thankful that we are older and wiser and no longer laying on the wet ground when we travel. The next morning we drove the loop over the pass and saw buffalo, elk, a mass of cars stopped and tourists excited over 2 deer (ho hum), but the highlight was coming around the corner on the high pass and finding the grizzly with her 2 cubs just above us on the slope. She was digging up the meadow and eating and since she was above us on the rocks she did not seem to be concerned about the several cars that stopped to take photos and watch from just a few hundred yards below. We also saw a wolf later that morning but the photo will be impossible to see on this blog. He was a long ways away across the river but we stopped and watched with binocs for a while. Headed up to Bozeman and are spending the evening having dinner and visiting with Dottie.

The Fountain Of Youth

Yeah! Really! This is it! This place has been around since the 20's when they were drilling for oil and hit this gusher of 130 degree water that flows at over a million gallons every 24 hours. It runs directly into a 'cooling pool' then overflows into the hot pool (about 110 at one end and about 103 at the other where it overflows into the coolest pool at about 100. It is an RV park, not one of our normal stops because they pack you in pretty tight, but it was pretty old and funky and we found some space in the back and spent the afternoon getting in and out of the water. Then we took a small break for dinner and got back in for a late night soak. Too bad the place was right next to the train tracks! Five trains during the night and we were about 100 feet away! There are hot springs all over this area running into the Wind River and being piped all over town. We got relaxed and the weather was beautiful and sunny.

Wind River Canyon

We headed up north through the center of Wyoming and down the beautiful Wind River Canyon. Spectacular place, and a beautiful drive. Our goal was Thermopolis, home of the worlds largest hot springs pool. This place is amazing. The town itself is not that exciting and the scenery has been better, but the place is packed full of hot springs. We stopped at the State Bath House State Park. No overnight camping, but it has a nice facility with showers and indoor and outdoor hot tubs that are free. There is also a lot of concessions in this park including water slides, hotels, spas and steam baths, and the ultimate final resting place ... an old folks home. After a quick stop and reading the rules that only allow 20 minute soaks we went a mile farther up the highway to an old funky place.