DAY 63: "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Yellowstone..."

DAY 63:  Yellowstone (West), Wyoming - August 31, 2010

Liz & Her Masked Man.....

A funny thing happened on the way to Yellowstone today......

Upon arriving in West Yellowstone, Montana on the bike, we stopped at McDonalds to get a nice, piping hot cup of coffee cause, afterall, it was COLD (43 degrees) and RAINY outside.....burrrrrrrrrr....

Chuck's Nuts That Fell Out

CHUCK:  "Shoot!!!" ((He really did say "Shoot", I swear!)
LIZ:  "What????" (I really did say "What", I swear!)
CHUCK:  "My nuts fell out....."

Ok, I thought it was funny......He was actually referring to his pistachio nuts he had in the zip-pocket behind my seat along with his Red Hots.

Chuck's Snack Pack of Pistachio Nuts & Red Hots

We headed on into Yellowstone singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall"......I don't know why.....he just started singing that......when we came upon our first wildlife....a Bison crossing the road....As I quickly pulled over so I can get my camera on and focused, three other cars pass me which now block my getting a good picture of this beast......he was MY beast.....!!!! errrrrrrrrrrrr...

Looks Like Old Faithful Erupting Out of My Head....

We then headed on down to Old Faithful, watched her do her thing, and came back to our illegally parked trike to find a HUGE black hawk sitting on Chuck's rear seat trying to get the zipper open to the pistachio nut pouch.....and some dude from South Africa getting the whole thing on film when we walked up......We shewwed the stupid bird off the trike, Chuck put his scary knit mask on to block the cold and wind, and headed on down the road.

We'd been traveling maybe 10 miles when, low and behold, I'm the lucky recipient of more Bison....YEA!!!...This time, I'm not giving up my spot on the road......so I just stop right in the middle of the road; get my camera out, focused and start snapping pictures of this HUGE herbivore (impressed I knew this was a herbivore???  I looked it up in Wikipedia!).  While Chuck and I are looking to our right at this humongous beast and about how close we actually are to it;  why we could almost "spit" to it.....something catches my eye to my left........(the rest is in sloooow motion) as I turn my head to see what caught my eye, I perform an "internal" scream.....you know, the kind where instead of the air being blown OUT to create a SCREAM,  the air is sucked IN creating an INTERNAL SCREAM..........standing right next to us (like I could feel it breathing on me-close!) is another Bison; presumably a friend or relative of Mr. Bison #1.  Three seconds later, as Chuck sees what I see, I hear him make the same "internal" scream as I had made just as the Bison decided to scoot on across the road.

The Bison that breathed on me.....

I just have one word to say to those three cars that jumped ahead of me on my first Bison......"NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA........"

As He Decided to Leave Us.........

DAY 62: "WARNING TO TOURISTS: Do Not Laugh At The Natives"

DAY 62:  Idaho Falls, Idaho - August 30, 2010

Well folks, today it RAINED.......ALL DAY.......so we had no choice but to watch.........are you ready for it........"The Best of the Carol Burnett Show!!!"  WhoooHooooo......

So, since we didn't do squat today, thought I'd share some Idaho facts with you as well as details of our trip to Idaho Falls yesterday.  Ready?  Here we go.....

DUMB LAWS IN IDAHO.......

(I get such a kick out of these....)

1)  "Residents may not fish from a giraffe's back."  Humm......I just don't know what to say to that...

2)  "It's illegal for a man to give his sweetheart a box of candy weighing less than fifty pounds."  Well, this explains alot......

3)  "Riding a merry-go-round on Sundays is considered a crime." Isn't it everywhere????

4)  A person may not be seen in public without a smile on their face."  And that's the way it should be!










So, loaded with the laws of this great state in our back pocket, we decided to head down the road to Idaho Falls for a nice ride and day in a town larger than 500 people.......Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out how to "get out" of this metropolis of 50,000....Map A is the way we "should" have gotten out of Idaho Falls........Map B is how we "actually" found our way out of Idaho Falls...

Map A

Map B

Stupid GPS!!

DAY 61: The Case of the Missing Pillow.......

DAY 61 - Ashton, Idaho - August 29, 2010

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Remember back....WAAAAY back when we first started this 3-month journey and I told you one of my goals was searching out Goodwill stores everywhere we went?  Well, another one of my goals was to pick up something for my sweet sister, Debbie, at each of the Goodwill stores I came across......so, I've been doing just that!

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One of the items I found her was a cute little pillow with a sweet saying on it that seemed to say "perfectly" words from my heart to hers.  Now.....fast forward to last Thursday when Chuck and I headed to the Grand Tetons for the day.  We hadn't been on the road long when a car decided to pass us on a lonely two lane highway......as she passed, she slowed, rolled her passenger window down, and pointed behind us........we thanked her and she proceeded on.  As I quizzed Chuck through the helmet intercom about what she was referring to, he sheepishly said he "might" have lost the pillow he had been sitting on to help his sciatic nerve.  I said, "Not my sister's pillow???!!" and he uncomfortably said, "Yep".

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See, Chuck has hip/sciatic nerve problems when he rides too long and he has found that a pillow under his hip helps keep that from happening.  Although I "knew" he had used her pillow on several occasions for this, we had planned on replumping it and making it good as new when I gave it to her upon our return home without her being any the wiser.

He said he had leaned forward to reposition himself and his butt pillow "might" have flown off......UGH......So, I made a quick u-turn and headed back to where we had just come from.  We drove and drove and drove.....probably about 5 miles, before seeing the pillow laying on the side of the road.....when, before we could get turned around, another car came along and blew it into the ditch.......

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Pillow safely recovered.......fortunately (for Chuck) without any car tracks on it...........AND while I was recovering the pillow from the ditch, I got a great picture of the wheat field it landed next to....

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.

Sorry Sis.......I loooovvvveee YOU!!!

DAY 60: Just Reflecting....

DAY 60:  August 28, 2010

  

About a week ago, as we were camping in a small KOA Campground in Red Lodge, Montana, I experienced something one morning that really touched me.  After "spying" on a family of four camping behind us for about half an hour, I decided to write down what I was seeing and feeling; mostly for my own benefit to help me remember the moment.......And then I promptly grabbed my phone and took a picture through the window screen!  I thought I'd share that with you today.

You know, as I'm sitting in my nice comfortable motorhome bed this morning, I'm looking out the window on my side of the bed watching a family of 4, plus one very cute dog, camping in their tent across the road from us.  They have one small tent, a picnic table, a few chairs and a fire pit.  As I'm "spying" on them, I see two kids, probably in age around 9 and 7, who aren't playing video games, barbies or sitting around grumbing cause they have no TV....nope, I see the 9 year old boy triying to make "something" out of stuff it looks like he found here in the campground....sticks, logs, rocks, etc.....he is mesmorized by his findings and is as content as can be.  I see the 7 year old little girl "frolicking" around from the tent to the chair to the truck just happy that she is someplace with her Mom and Dad and brother.....she doesn't seem to miss not having her toys or her TV....And then I see Mom and Dad.  Dad is busy going back and forth from the rear of the SUV to the picnic table where he is fixing breakfast for the family while Mom is busy in the tent straightening up.  The dog; well the dog is just happy to sit and watch everything that I am watching.  The little girl finally grabbed its leash and took it for a walk along the creek, skipping the entire time.

What truly touched me is how well this family is getting along......now, I"m sure they have their moments...just like the rest of us, but this family has no idea anyone is watching them, yet they are working and playing together as a "team".....you can see they truly care for each other by the way they hug and touch each other, and are so happy to be away from their hectic city lives and just happy to all be together.  This is a family that appears, by all outside appearances, to have a very comfortable life away from the campground.  They are driving an expensive SUV, they are wearing nice designer label clothes, yet they are spending their last weekend before school starts living in a $29.99 tent, sitting in $9.99 chairs and wouldn't have had it any other way.  I am touched.

So, I guess what I'm rambling on and on about is that when our everyday life gets to be too much for us and we find ourselves overwhelmed by "circumstances", maybe, just maybe, we might want to take a page from this sweet family's book.....pack up the family or spouse, or just ourselves, and visit the simpler side......stop by Wal-Mart first and pick up that cheap tent and chairs, a bit of food (and don't forget the marshmellows!), and run away from our "circumstances" and remind ourselves what is truly important; each other and communion with God.  Now, if I were in Texas right now, I think I would head for the hills of Arkansas or someplace cooler for sure, but just grab the family and sleep on the ground next to each other for a night or so.......the kids may grumble and hate it at first, but they'll come around......it's time to "reconnect".

Now, I have to admit; I feel a tinge of "guilt" sleeping in my comfortable motorhome while writing about the simpler things and encouraging everyone to sleep in a tent.  But I also have to admit, I felt a a sense of "inspiration" from this family......It's kinda like this barbed wire fence behind our RV.....one single strand of wire won't keep much bad out; but together, with all strands twisted and clinging to each other, it can keep all the "bad" out and all the "good" safely protected.

I hope I never forget this........

DAY 59: Yo.....Where's The Parade???

DAY 59:  Ashton, Idaho - August 27, 2010

Drunks of Ashton, ID

Today was a Slooooow day.....our bobo's are still recuperating from the LOOOOONG ride yesterday.....so we pretty much stayed close to home.  We were, however, excited (ok, only Liz was excited!) about attending the Ashton Fall Festival (Pop. 1,000) this evening.  Posters were up all over town indicating Parade and Festival at 6:00 pm tonight.

We arrived 15 minutes early to get a "good seat" and found us and a couple of drunks were the only ones in attendance.  Hummmm.....About 6:15, I decided to ask one of the drunks, who had been very hospitable to us, what time the parade was suppose to start.  I was then told it started at 10:00 am that morning.  Ugh........So we decided to take a picture of the drunks hanging around the trike instead.

School Bus Burning Up Their Brakes Ahead of Us

Anyway, thought I'd share some additional pictures from our trip yesterday to the Grand Tetons......Looking at these just makes my bobo hurt all over again........

Enjoy!!

(Be sure and CLICK on each of the pictures to enlarge)

Semi-Truck Pumping His Brakes Behind Us

A Grain Mill at Sunset

The Grand Tetons

I know....I know....My Feet Again...

Wheat Fields of Ashton, ID

DAY 58: We Pert Near Got Ate By A Grizzly Today!!

DAY 58:  Jackson Hole, Wyoming - August 26, 2010

Boy howdy, do I have a story for you today!!

We just about got ate by a GRIZZLY BEAR today!!!   Ya, thats right.....not a Polar Bear or a Brown Bear or a Sloth Bear and not a Giant Panda......but a GRIZZLY BEAR!

Now, I must tell you that we didn't actually "see" the Grizzly Bear, but we knew he was there....Here's what happened...

We had a long ride on the bike today just to get to the Grand Tetons.....about 1 1/2 hours.  We got so caught up in stopping everywhere in the Teton National Forest taking 1000's of pictures, that we lost tract of time.... By the time we realized this, it was late afternoon, so we decided to check out the map and see if there was a shortcut to get back to the RV.  And low and behold, we found an itsy, bitsy, tiny road on the map that showed it went from just north of where we were, directly back to Ashton where we were staying.  HOT DOG!  The first clue that this wasn't a "real" road was the fact that it didn't have a solid line.......it was a broken line on the map.  I figured this must mean its a dirt road, but hey, it was a shortcut and I didn't figure Chuck needed to know that until he absolutely needed to know that.

So off we went.  We found the road okay and, sure enough, it turned into a bumpy, dirt road just as I had suspected.  We went a few miles up that road when we saw a road sign (ya, I thought that was weird too.....a road sign in the middle of nowhere on a very unused dirt road) that said "Ashton - 47 miles".  Now, considering we had about 150 miles if we were to go back to Jackson Hole, I was thinking 47 sounded pretty darn good!  So, I told Chuck to be on the lookout for bears (half kidding) and I would do what I could do dodge the potholes.

We get a few more miles when we come upon a pickup truck with a guy standing outside of it looking through some binoculars.  We stopped and asked him what he was looking at and he said there had just been (key words here folks, "JUST BEEN") a Grizzly Bear there and some dude on a Honda dirt bike went out chasing it.  A Grizzly Bear?????  Are you kidding me??  So I asked my next intelligent question, "Do you think its safe for us to continue on down this road??"......He said the Grizzly had been standing about 50 yards away from the guy on the bike and didn't seem too concerned with going after him, so he figured we'd be okay.  So I ask him another intelligent question, "Is this a shortcut to Ashton?"  After he finished laughing, he emphatically said, "NO"......we'd be driving all night to get down the 47 miles of unpaved, raw bumpy roads.......that is, if we didn't get eaten by the Grizzly first and that we needed to drive back to Jackson Hole........UGH.........that mean't we had about a 3 hour drive ahead of us.....

So, as we turned the motorcycle around to head back up the road we just came from, we noticed him getting his "bear smell detractor", or whatever they call it,  along with his rifle and heading across the road......Guess he was going to get him a little grizzly......

So, as you can see, we came THIS close to being eaten by a Grizzly Bear!  THIS CLOSE!!!!  Whew......I was glad to be out of that non-enchanted forest.....

As we drove home and the sun was slowly fading away, I was able to snap a few pictures of the beautiful land here in Idaho.....its such a contrast from the land we had seen just a couple hours earlier in Wyoming.....but just as beautiful in its own way.

And poor Murphy; he didn't get to go on this all day journey and couldn't get out of the RV door fast enough once we got home......

He pee'd for a solid 10 minutes......

DAY 57: "The Long, Long Trailer, starring Chuck & Liz!!"

DAY 57: Ashton, Idaho - August 25, 2010
Temperature:  Low: 38 / High: 80 (lovellllllly)


So I bet you can't guess what we just finished doing??  Go on, guess.....I'll wait............

Ok, if your mind is out of the gutter now, just say "Oh, I bet you just watched that fantastically funny old movie with Lucy and Desi called "The Long, Long Trailer".......and WOW...you'd be right!

I have had a hankering (where'd that word come from??) since we've been on this trip to rent that movie and watch it.  I don't know why.....possibly Lucy and Desi remind me of Liz and Chuck.....ALOT like Liz and Chuck as a matter of fact.  What a wonderful end to a beautiful day!  Chuck laughed himself silly throughout the whole thing....

If you've never seen this movie, go rent it and tell me what you think.  The only thing I couldn't relate to was Lucy liked to cook and was good at it..... I have no idea what that's like......

Today we went Waterfall Scouting......which means, basically, we scouted out waterfalls!  And boy-howdy, did we find them!  Beautiful, lovely, alluring, delightful, engaging, ravishing, stunning, magnificent, drop-dead gorgeous, easy-on-the-eye, killer waterfalls!  Ahhhhh....I could never tire of looking at waterfalls.....



AND, we saw a field being plowed or something by "hand"....now, when is the last time you saw a bunch of dudes plowing a field without their air conditioned tractor cab listening to their Ipod??  Ummmm....NEVER!

And let me tell you just a bit about the little town of Ashton, Idaho.  They have a population of around 1,200.....one grocery store (which looks like it used to be the car wash); the post office has two employees, which means no mail carrier, therefore, everyone is required to have a PO Box (I find this out only after I've given everyone that sends me work mail the physical address...ugh).....a pretty nice pizza joint;

a drive-in like Kellers....and gas is about $3.05 for regular here.  There is a small pharmacy in a medical office that, when I went in this morning to get an Rx refill, the girl had to put her Suduko puzzle down.....not too much going on around here...  There is a 2-story hotel, but no one is staying there right now.....but my new friends Gary, Gary and Gary are all still staying at the RV park we're at and Gary is going to bring me a rainbow trout tomorrow!  Does anyone know what to do with a rainbow trout??

Tomorrow........we're headed to the Tetons

DAY 56: Third World Power Outage Conspiracy....Hummmm

DAY 56:  No-Power Ashton, Idaho

Well, we slept very well, thank you, in the Wal-Mart RV Parking Lot last night.  I did notice, however, a few stares when I was out walking Murphy this morning at 6:30 am in my hot pink bathrobe trying to untangle him and his leash from one of the grocery carts, but other than that, it was mighty fine!  We were a bit bummed we didn't get to know any of the neighbors, though.

Since we had nothing to pull up, slide in, or unhook, we were on our way in no time at all!  First stop; RV WASH.  Yesterday we found ourselves driving thru some rather dusty road construction for about 6 miles and the RV and the motorcycle were barely recognizable.  So, we U-turned into a brand smackin' new RV truck wash on the way out of town.  It was SO new that we were the first RV to get washed!  The owners helped scrub the sides of the RV and even took before and after wash pictures so they could use them in their upcoming brochure!  We're like celebrities in that town!!

Anyway, we slid on out of there with a clean RV and happy waving owners and traveled some drop-dead gorgeous roads getting here to Ashton, Idaho.

Drive to Ashton, Idaho

Now, I have to admit, I didn't study up on this town too much because its not easy getting a reservation at a campground anywhere near the Tetons or Yellowstone and this was the closest I could find.  I'm not saying its a "bad" town, I'm just saying there's just not much of a town here!  We found our RV spot, which I must admit, is PERFECT......little grassy area for Murphy and the trailer, a view of the Tetons (sordof) and nice dam workers (I mean this is a "nice" way) living across the road.

And the dam workers and us got to know each other better this evening when there was a major power outage.....

What Chuck Thought of No TV

Gary, and his buddy Gary......and their other buddy Gary.....and Chuck and Liz were all out wandering around saying "Whut Happened??" after the power went out......  When we realized it was a widespread power outage, my mind started going in bizarre directions such as "What if this is an attack on our power grid???  What if some electromagnetic attack by some third world country occurred???"  Yes, I know.....I'm been reading too many Survival Blogs.......But we can all breath easy......there was no attack (unless they "want" us to think that...hummmm)....but we have power back and Chuck can watch TV again.  Sigh... Life is Good Again.

View from our RV

DAY 55: Walmart Bound...........

DAY 55:  Bozeman, Montana - August 23, 2010

Guess where we are??????  Give up???

I don't know any of these people......YET

We are at WAL-MART!!!!  This isn't our "first" time to Dry Camp (Def: Dry camping or boondocking refers to camping in an RV campground or any area without water, electricity and sewage hookups, including parking lots, driveways or Wal-Marts); we dry camped once last year when we arrived at the RV Hospital in Oregon at 10:30 pm and accidently parked the RV backwards and in the Sales lot.  But other than that......and oh ya.......there was the 4 days this past February when we had extreme temperatures and lost power in the house......the neighbors were all VERY glad we had a motorhome with a generator parked in the driveway so they could have nice hot coffee in the mornings.....

Yep, this here is the life!!

Anyway, since we are pretty much rookie dry campers, thought I'd give you the Pro's and Con's of Dry Camping According to Liz:

We went thru a little dusty construction today

PRO:   All parking spots are "Pull Thru's"
CON:  There's nothing but concrete for Murphy to poop on.

PRO:   If you get hungry in the middle of the night, it's a short walk to Wal-Mart to get a snack
CON:  You stand the chance of getting your picture taken when you walk in to the store in your PJ's and showing up on the "People Seen at Wal-Mart" website and emails....

PRO:   You can drive the Wal-Mart store scooter to your RV
CON:  You have to drive the Wal-Mart store scooter BACK to the store; defeating the purpose in driving it to the RV in the first place.



PRO:   It's FREE!!
CON:  You spend $50 on generator fuel to watch TV....

So, there you have it.  The Pro's and Con's of dry camping at Wal-Mart....

View from our RV......Awwwwwww

We haven't met any of our neighbors here at Wal-Mart yet, but we hope to do that over coffee and donuts at the Wal-Mart Bakery in the morning........
hey, and maybe we'll get Chuck's prescription refilled while we're here........DANG....why haven't we done this Walmart Dry Camping thing sooner????