DAY 50: "God Loves You..."

DAY 50:  Thermopolis, Wyoming
TEMP:  High 95 / Low 56

"Be calm.  

Dismiss the busy thoughts that trouble your mind.

Let them go.

Rest in the simple fact; 

God loves you."

Robin Patterson

I have been sitting here for 45 minutes trying to find the words to describe today and finally realized that nothing coming from these fingers to this keyboard would describe our day better than just showing you.  

So, I hope you enjoy our day in snippets as much as we did......

"I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God."  

~Alan Hovhaness

DAY 49: "My New Friend, Rabbit......"

DAY 49:  Thermopolis, WY
TEMP:  High 90 / Low 45

"An old Indian told his grandson, "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all.  

One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego.  

The other is Good.  It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth."  

The boy thought about it and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?" 

The old man quietly replied, "The one you feed."

I met an Indian the other day.........an Indian that is now going to be my friend for a long, long time.  

Lee and Rabbit on Boss Hogg

We met Lee and Joy in Dubois, WY while we were camping there.....They had a trike; we had a trike...we were fast friends!  We rode around Dubois together; ate lunch together at the Cowboy Cafe downtown; went to the hardware store together and even sat outside and swatted mosquitos together.  

Joy, affectionally known as "Rabbit", a name given to her by her late father, is not quite a full blooded Indian, but almost.  She grew up as an only child in Florida and Louisiana; her great-grandmother lived in a teepee until the day she died; and has done more living in her left thumb than most of us all put together. She was a barrel horse racer for many years, until rheumatoid arthritis grabbed hold of her feet and made it near impossible for her to walk.  When she does walk; its with great pain.  She and Chuck have a great deal in common.

Liz and Rabbit

The other evening, while sitting out swatting flies drinking ice tea and getting to know each other, they told us about a neat little town just a few hours drive away where they have hot mineral springs coming up out of the ground all over the town.  They had been there several times over the years and each time, it gave Rabbit tremendous relief in her feet.  They also told us there was an RV campground there where they had 3 large pools of this mineral water, which is anciently known by the Indians to "heal" a person, with each pool being hotter than the next.  The more we heard, the more we knew we had to check it out.

The road to Thermopolis....Beautiful...Stunning.....Amazing!

So today, we loaded up the RV two days early and followed them to Thermopolis.  We are staying at the  "Fountain of Youth RV Park" here in Thermopolis and have been to the "healing" pools twice already, with the last time being tonight while being sung to, floating in the hot, hot spring water, by the owner and his two friends on their guitars.  

Our Campground host serenading us....

Truly folks, this is the stuff the RV campground books don't tell you about.........

DAY 48: "How I Know What's Happening Behind Me...."

DAY 48:  Dubois, Wyoming
TEMP:  High 84 / Low 45

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize

they were the BIG things."

Robert Brault

Sometimes when we're cruising down the road and things get real quiet behind me, I know Charlie is either asleep or.......he's asleep.

And sometimes when this happens, I place the camera on the top of my head upside down and take a random picture of what's going on back there.......

Sometimes this is what I find........Where'd he go??

And then this........

Then this..........

DAY 47: "The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is........"

DAY 47:  Dubois, Wyoming
TEMP:  High 84 / Low 43

Well, well, well......today proved to be quite the exciting day!

Chuck and I wanted to see if we could find a back road to the forest fire this afternoon.  Afterall, it looked like it was just over the summit behind us....how far could it be we asked ourselves.  So off we went on the trike....found an unpaved road that appeared to be headed towards the mountain on fire.

It was actually a pretty scenic drive the 20 miles we drove on it......until the road started getting "a little less traveled" and we started seeing signs like this......

It was at that point, we decided to turn back......defeated....never getting to see any actual flames or anything from the forest fire....DANG.  We were THISSSSSS close......

As we were headed back, we came up on this beautiful wheat field in a large valley below.  We; no...Liz (Chuck was starting to get annoyed at this point), decided it was a perfect spot for a picture of us......Little did I know this would be our "last" picture of the day.

We still had about 10 miles to go when we started through the large wheat field, which is when we first noticed what looked to be lots of little "stones" popping up on us, some even hitting me in the cheek.....I slowed the trike down a bit to prevent damage to it and us, and that's when we realized these weren't stones......they were grasshoppers.  AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Now, you may remember I am deathly ALLERGIC to crickets.....and grasshoppers are a close cousin to the cricket......which means I'm allergic to them too.   My allergy consists of F-E-A-R!!!!  I'm deathly afraid of crickets and grasshoppers and here they are; surrounding me like an army, hitting me in the face, jumping on my leg, they were all over the trike, on my head, hand and foot......that's when I heard a blood-curdling scream......which turned out to be coming from MY mouth...

And the scream continued.....I've never really been a screamer....I usually do the "internal" scream known as a "gasp"......but not today....no sir-ee......it was a full fledged SCREAM just like from the movie Psycho.....Now, Chuck was worried about his safety and my driving at this point, so he reached forward and grabbed the throttle trying to stop the trike......at the same time I'm screaming and flooring the throttle just trying to get the heck out of there before any more can jump on me.  He successfully got the trike stopped (I'm still screaming) and told me to "Get OFF".  Well, a lot of things could have happened at this point, but me getting off in the midst of a plague of grasshoppers wasn't one of them.  I slapped his hand away from the throttle and floored it; all the while, between screams, telling him to keep his mouth closed so they wouldn't jump in.....and took off like I was on a crotch-rocket.

We rode the rest of the 10 miles on this dirt road going as fast as I possibly could, my entire body laying flat against the gas tank behind the windshield so as not to be hit by these suckers.  As we got to the end of the road, Chuck calmly told me to stop and take a breath....to stand up and stretch my legs.....to settle down....we were safe now.  I was thinking how sweet that was of him until I stood up and saw he was just trying to remove the grasshoppers that I had been sitting on the whole time.  Enter blood curdling scream again......

And now that we're home, safe and sound, I've got to tell ya; I CAN STILL FEEL THEM IN MY HAIR!!!

DAY 46: Don't Hate Me Cause I Wore A Sweatshirt Today.....

DAY 46:  Dubois, Wyoming
TEMP:  Low 44 / High 81

Please don't hate me because I wore a sweatshirt today......

I LOVE days like today!!!  It was majorly productive in so many ways........Here's why:

1)  The pups let us sleep till 6:30!!!  Hallelujah!!! None of this getting me up at 4:30 am to go pee.....or chasing Kruger the 1-Claw cat at 3:45 am from one end of the coach to the other.....nope....we ALL slept in under the covers and 56 degree temperature in the bedroom.  Ahhhhhhhh........

2)  This normally moronic, thickheaded, pea-brained person named Liz balanced her books with the company CPA today!!!!!!!!!!  Can I have a second Hallelujah, folks????!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!

3) This deserved a treat.......so grabbed my napping hubby off the couch, tossed him on the trike and headed into the large metropolis of Dubois, Wyoming for a little lunch and shopping.  While shopping, we stopped in a thrift shop called The Opportunity Shop.  Now, to back up a bit, while we were in Vernal, Utah just before coming to Dubois, we stopped at a thrift store that was AWESOME!  Chuck even picked himself up 5 extra shirts to wear so we wouldn't have to do laundry as often!!  So we were doubly excited when we saw The Opportunity Shop.  That is, until we went inside and the first thing we saw was a bin full of USED pantyhose....U-S-E-D....ICKKKK.....We left immediately...

My Charlie decided he had had enough of Dubois for one day, especially after the pantyhose issue, so I dropped him back off at the RV and went exploring long lost roads on the trike.....

View from RV of the forest fire....

And thats when we saw the smoke......a raging forest fire on the other side of the mountain from where we are staying had just taken off and gone into full swing......


But I was having such a good day so far, I wasn't going to let a little forest fire keep me from exploring on my own.....


And these are the treasures I found........

Horses roaming freely on the road....

The beautiful road I explored on.....

An Eagles Nest

DAY 45: Bone-Chillin' Bear Day.......

DAY 45:  Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
TEMP:  Low:  A Bone Chilling 43 Degrees Outside / 53 Degrees Inside RV / High: 81 Degrees

Our first glimpse of the Tetons today.....

Well folks, I'm going to probably make a lot of you really MAD when I tell you that this morning, when we woke up, the temperature outside was 43 bone chilling degrees!  But if it makes you feel any better, I will tell you that the "inside" temperature in the RV was 53 BONE CHILLIN' DEGREES!  Yep, for the first time on this trip, we decided to sleep with the windows open.......BURRRRRRRRR......Even the pets were hunkered under the covers shivering......

But before we knew it, it started warming up nicely to a high of 81 degrees; which; prepare to choke;  they consider dreadfully and unseasonaly hot around here.  I simply didn't want to hear their belly-aching.....they have NO idea what HOT is........Come live in "Hot as Hades" Texas for awhile, buddy......

Before we knew there were 2 more construction zones...

Anyway, our first task of the day was to hunt out a pharmacy in town.  Chuck had one more day left on one of his meds, which was out of refills, and we couldn't find a pharmacy anywhere.  Turns out, the "closest" pharmacy is 85 miles away....ONE WAY.....yep, thats right.....85 MILES....thats 15 miles short of 100 miles.....35 miles further than 50 miles.....a LONG way to go for a prescription.  I even tried hitting up the local dentist to refill his script, to no avail.

Sign At Construction Site.....

So off to Jackson Hole we went.....Lucky for us, the 85 miles is scenic.....UNlucky for us, we sat in three different forms of road construtction for 1/2 an hour.  But once we shed ourselves of the bulldozers, we were viewing scenery that is usually reserved only for our dreams......Drop dead gorgeous mountains, streams and rivers running everywhere; horses grazing in the pastures under this magnificant backdrop....it was amazing.

Black Bear

At one point, we saw a guy in his pickup pulled over taking pictures of something, so we pulled in behind him and asked what he was seeing.....turns out, it was a black Mamma bear and her cubs....So, of course, I had to get in on the action and started snapping pictures of anything and everything hoping to get at least one shot of the bear.....not a great shot, I know.....but the best of the 78 photos I took!

At one point, I turned around and there had to be 30 cars piled up on the roadway behind me; people in swimsuits, fishing attire; old people, young people, kids, dogs.......it was like a huge family reunion where you didn't know anyone.  Every time the bear moved, this crowd of people moved with it....CRAZY unrelated relatives of mine!!!

But we made it back the 85 miles to home; through the 30 minute road construction again; through the indescribable scenery, to a dog named Murphy that needed to pee worse than a woman on water pills.

And this is what "Home-Sweet-Home-On-Wheels" looks like from our campsite.....

Just beautiful.........

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

~Lao Tzu

DAY 44: Movin' On....In A Highly Stressful Way

DAY 44:  Dubois, Wyoming
TEMP:  77 High / So far 51 Degrees


Because of VERY slow internet tonight, thought I'd give you little "snapshots" or "snippets" of our day today!  Ready??  Here we go....

1)  We moved.  We left sweet little Vernal and moved to WYOMING!!!!

2)  But first, we had to get a loose bearing on our front tire fixed.....

3)  Then we were off.....headed up and down steep mountains, on 2-lane roads with signs that read, "10% Grade", "Runaway Truck Ramp Ahead", "Curvy Steep Road Next 10 Miles" and "CAUTION: Low Bridge Ahead"............I was a nervous wreck.  I had Google Mapped my route last night and I could tell it was going to be a tense driving day......

BUT WHAT DIDN'T HELP WAS.....

4)  Murphy had diarrhea.....L-O-V-E-L-Y......just what I needed; a pup that needed outside in the worst way while I'm applying my jake brakes just to make it down this mountain with no place to pull over....

But after about 6-7 hours on the road, we made it to this lovely little area just south of the Tetons.  Can't wait to get out and explore AND the temperature right now is a cool 51 degrees outside.  Burrrrrrrrrr.....

DAY 43: "STOP......And Breathe Today......."

DAY 43:  Diamond Mountain (Vernal), Utah
TEMP:  High 81 / Low 57

As we were on the trike today, our last day in Vernal, Utah, seeing and experiencing the beauty around us; smelling the flowers as we zipped past them......the unknown ahead of us.....I was reminded how very blessed we are, on a MONDAY.....a day when most people are relunctantly in a stuffy office, working a job they despise.....to be HERE.....here in Vernal, Utah seeing, smelling and feeling sites that God spoke into place.  I must admit it brought tears to my eyes (partly due to the massive amount of pine trees that I'm allergic to) to realize how immensely fortunate we are to be right here; right now.

I realized at that split second that I would gladly....no.....EAGERLY give up every single thing I own to keep this feeling I was experiencing; this "moment"; this "chance" to be free from the burdens and worries of this world.  I would live in a cave and eat oatmeal for the rest of my life to stay in this moment.  And I must tell you; ME eating disgusting oatmeal is a BIG deal.......

I know I'm rambling on and on, but I know, just like you do, what it feels like to have this world control your moves; to not be free to make the choices that work best for you at that time in your life.......

And to feel this freedom even for just a few hours, was pure Heaven to me......