Merry Christmas

OK, since the last time I wrote, we have once again been many miles. We got to Safford, AZ where Dorothy's sister and brother-in-law live. Their home is kinda out in the desert near Safford and very nice. They have two dogs and so the "cousin" dogs had a large time. They had a spot for us to put our home, so it worked very well. We were there a few days then left the trailer there and headed to WY with just the pickup, as Jay and his family have graciously allowed us to stay at their house. We stopped in Sante Fe on the way up, and there was more snow there than when we got further north. Actually Casper has none. We spent one night in Fort Collins with good friends, Scott, Kristi and Marlow Rulon. Always a treat. Then on to Casper. We attended a memorial service in Hulett for our good friend Ellen Driskill that passed away at her winter home in AZ. We will deeply miss her. We are now in Casper until Christmas. It is so good to see friends and family. The grandsons are so much fun. Jevin is 6 and reading like crazy. Gavin is 3 and comes up with the darnest stuff. Told us one night he got in trouble at daycare for "dragging Lauren around by the hair!" Yikes! Actually I guess it wasn't as bad as it sounded. The wind has really been blowing since we have been here, and we did not miss that. Certainly makes the temperatures seem much colder. Barry has been hunting some since we have been here. Got some geese and ducks the first time and is out again today. We haven't done any fishing as the wind has been really bad. Temps aren't real low, but the wind makes it kinda miserable. We will go to Sundance and get Opal for Christmas, then we will spend New Years Eve at the bar. Sincerely hope all of you have a great Christmas, and that '07 brings everything you want. Season's best.

winter time in Texas

We are such silly people! Here we thought we were being so clever and getting out of the Dallas area to avoid the bad weather. Well, here we are in Balmorhea, TX, not far from El Paso and it snowed on us last night. The computer says the temp was 18 degrees when we got up. Brrr. Our water hose was froze this morning. The temp is rising quickly. Barry is putting the heat tape and insulation on the freshwater hose, but he just said, it will probably be 70 degrees by the time he gets it done! We plan on letting it warm up some before we head for Las Cruces. Guess it was pretty nippy in Safford last night. I called and my sister was grumbling pretty loudly about the cold temperature. Last evening we sit outside for cocktail hour and it was beautiful, but when the wind came up it got cold very quickly. Just when you think you have it all figured out, God pulls you up short just to let you know that he is still in charge! Oh well, it is all part of the adventure I guess. Balmorhea is a little bitty place on I 10 about 30 miles south of Pecos.
Night before last we stopped in Sweetwater and low and behold there was a DU banquet going on, so we went. Old habits die hard you know! Living in a small space is a real deterent from buying stuff you don't need. It was fun. Later

Thanksgiving in TX

Sorry I haven't published anything lately. We made our way across AZ into NM and on to TX. It was pretty uneventful actually. We took our time, only made about 150 to 200 miles a day, and that was OK. The last night before we got to Gainesville we stayed in Wichita Falls, TX in the city park. It appeared that Wichita Falls was a little short of camp grounds, at least we didn't find many. Anyway the city park is right in town, next to the interstate. The traffic noise didn't bother us as we both sleep like rocks. The park was nice with paved sites and water and electricity and a dump station on the way out. There were about 10 or 12 of us parked there on Sunday night before Thanksgiving. Barry got into a great conversation with the guy next to us who was stationed in Korea with Jim, Barry's Dad. They never did figure out whether they knew each other, but were at the same place at the same time. About 4 in the morning there was a knock on the door, (brought Tailer out of a dead sleep). Barry went to the door to find a young man needing money to fix a flat on his van...so he said. Anyway Barry finally figured out that the guy was just a scam artist and out for some $ and sent him on his way. The next day another camper told us that he had hit them up 2 nights earlier with the same story. Must work for him though, or he wouldn't continue to do it. Ah, life in the big city, at least in city park!
We arrived at Carol and Mike's the Monday before Thanksgiving. Carol is Barry's older sister. They live on a farm so there was an ideal spot to park the trailer. There were about 30 of us for Thanksgiving dinner. Carol and Mike have 6 kids and they were all here except one with their families. Barry's brother and his family and sister and hers were here as well. It was the first time that Barry and his siblings had been together since their mother's funeral. We have had a great time since we have been here.
Yesterday we drove to Denton and met Dick Burch, one of the DU RDs in MN. He is in TX visiting his daughter, so we met for lunch and had a great visit. Also visited with Cassandra, one of Carol's daughters that lives in Denton.
We plan to leave the trailer here and just drive the truck to WY for Christmas. We will start getting ready for the trip pretty soon. Then after the first of the year, we will come back down, pick up the trailer on our way to AZ. Until later, B&D

Standin' On A Corner In Winslow, AZ

So, after Bethel Island we headed south making our way to TX for Thanksgiving. We have lots of time so no need to rush, we will just putz along the way. We spent 2 nights in a fancy-smancy members only park at Parker, Az on the CO River. The dealership where we bought the trailer gave us a 1 year membership to it so we decided we would take advantage of a couple free nights. The only cost was listening to their sales schpeel. To no avail however, we didn't think it would work for us. Anyway it was a lovely park and huge. 800 plus spots. Yikes! Some were beach front sites, but we didn't get one of those.
Standin' On A Corner In Winslow, AZ

Just as well, as they didn't allow dogs on the beach. It was very warm there. The first night we were there we spoke with a man from Victorville, CA and he knew Debbie Greenwood's brother who owns a car dealership there. Then our neighbors were from MT, he was raised in Spearfish, SD and dated Mike Kelly's sister in High School. Those kinds of things just never cease to amaze me!. You couldn't get away with a thing in this ole world! Makes you wonder how those people manage that go on the lam and manage to stay hidden for years. Must not talk to people.
From there we went to Mojave and stayed in the same park we stayed in when we went west. Nondiscript little park but nice. Then we stayed near Winslow, Az one night. Funny little town it is. They have really capitalized on the Eagle's song about the town and have one corner all fixed up for photo ops. So of course we had to take a picture standin' on the corner in Winslow, AZ. Barry was indeed a fine sight to see. Guess I must have been the girl in the big white Ford slowin' down to take a look at he! OK, Changed the words just a little . It's called poetic license. It was pretty chilly there as it is pretty high. From there we braved the strong winds and made it to Albuquerque. (I always hate the name of this town as it is so damn hard to spell.) We are here for 3 nights as we have some time to kill. Yesterday, (Nov.14) the wind was awful. Sand blowing really bad. Had to take out my contact and wear glasses. After we got here and got set up we went to Camping World and that is always close to a hundred dollar bill for us. So much neat stuff that we really need to have! The wind died down last night but it is still pretty brisk temp. wise. Went to the grocery store and it was pretty fun with all the ethnic foods that we don't have in Casper. 15 different kinds of green chili sauce and posole for sale. Seemed to be very cheap too, as we both thought we had about $100.00 in groceries and it came to 57. Oh well, it works for me. Today we are going to go to Old Town Albuquerque and goof around some more. We haven't done any fishing for quite some time, but guess it must be the time of year. Till later.

ahoy mate!

Bet that title got ya huh? Well, we left Pine Grove after nearly a month there. We miss Pat, Rick and John. So much like family. We went to Sacramento and got our fresh water tank fixed, that was a long grueling story, but I won't go into it as it is not for the weak at heart! One of those deals where no matter what you do, it doesn't turn out the way you want it to. Anyway, we got the tank fixed and the bright spot was, we got our window treatment installed, the one that was never put on at the factory. The rest of them are worn out, but we have one brand new one! (Just kidding!) So we spent one night in Sacramento at Cal Expo...we just pretended the state fair was going on, as we missed it by months! Met two "jokers" (their term, not mine) from Washington. They were very nice and we enjoyed meeting them. They were traveling with their cat. Next day we went to Bethel Island to visit Jon and Kathy Rensen. Island...ahoy mate....get it? Jon graduated high school with Barry. We got to their house while they were still at work so we parked the rig and walked to a local watering hole called the Boat House to find some local color. Two years ago a lady left her leather vest in the bar during rally, she called and we sent it back to her. I only had the couples first names but knew they were from Bethel Island. Jon and Kathy didn't know them (Rensens boat not bike) so I ask the bartender if she knew Diane and Jerald. She said "Yes as a matter of fact they are having lunch across the street." So she called them and ask them to stop back at the Boat House when they finished. They did and we had an absolute ball talking with them. What a rush when something like that happened. God, it is a great country huh? So anyway, we spent one day on Jon and Kathy's boat cruising around the delta area. Bethel Island sits on the delta of the Sacramento River and it is just on the edge of the San Fransisco Bay area. It was very fun. Boated to a place and had lunch, then went to the yatch club that Rensens belong to for a cocktail. Most of the homes on Bethel Island have a boat dock in their back yard. Very fun. Later

Sunny California

OK, we aren't in Southern CA where it is really sunny, (and sadly smoky) but we are still in Pine Grove and the weather is pretty darn nice. Had to have the furnace on the other night, but the days are nice. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we will catch up on our reading. I tell ya, this retired life is busy, busy! The last two days we have worked in our friends' yard. They are 86 and 84 and their son lives with them but he is very busy with work, etc. Barry was in Nam with him. So anyway, we have been acting like homeowners and being damn glad that we don't have a yard to maintain! It is kinda fun when you know you don't have to do it all the time. And the most amazing thing, the wind doesn't blow here much so the leaves fall and stay put. Something we sure aren't used to!

A few days ago we went to a State Park here called the Indian Grinding Rock. It was very cool. The Miwok Indians, ( as in me don't run, me walk) (no racial slur intended just a pronunciation explanation) lived here for many many years. Their prime source of food was the acorns. They found large flat slabs of stone and pounded the acorns and other seeds into a meal. If you have ever tasted the meat in an acorn you know it is very bitter. (I know, as a kid I tried it once. Blaaa! Really bitter and horrid. ) Anyway the Miwoks pounded them into a meal and then washed them and washed them over and over to get the tannic acid out of them that made them bitter. The big flat rocks are in the park, and from the years of grinding acorns there are cup like indentions, and some of the more creative Indians (The women, as the men were out killin' stuff,...somethings don't change huh?) carved petroglyphs in the rocks. It is believed that some of these carvings are 2 or 3 thousand years old. It is said that the Miwok women ground the acorns and socialized on this large slab. The indentions are pretty close together, so you can visualize women sitting there grinding away. (I had to wonder if the sand from the rock wore their teeth out??..perhaps the sand washed away in the rinsing process.) There is a smaller grinding rock near the big one with only one indention. Guess nobody liked that lady. Anyway it was very cool. Their meat source was deer, so they had no large hides to build teepees so they made conical shaped homes, like teepees but out of wood. The Miwoks still use the state park for cerimonial and cultural stuff. There is a huge round house that is used for cerimonial stuff. Today the Miwoks own a huge casino here in Pine Grove so they are very very wealthy little Miwoks. The casino is Las Vegas style, very large and very busy. John works in the water treatment department of the casino. We went there last Friday night for their seafood buffet and it was really good.
OK, well enough for this time. Talk with you later.

Life in Amador County, CA

So, we go on about our merry way here in Amador County. There is something to be said about living in wine country....(I really like it, she slurred...). Today we went to Sutter Creek and had lunch in a very fun place. It is called Susan's Place. Really good wines and scruptious food. I had the lobster salad sandwich and it was really yummy. Barry picked out a chianti type wine and it also was top shelf. We loved the atmosphere of the place. We ate outside on the patio, and it is lattice covered with vines and trees all around. Kind of jungly. It reminded up of sitting on Jinx and Steve's deck in Sundance. At first you think Susan's Place is a little snooty, until you see autumn leaves dropping on your table, and bitty little ants crawling on the vine next to your arm. It was oh so cool.
Then we just poked around Sutter Creek. We bought the most fun welcome mat for the trailer. It reads "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, look whos here!" Just had to get that! Lots of fun little shops in Sutter Creek so we had a good time. Doesn't take much to entertain us.
Yesterday we went up into the National Forest and fished on the Consumnus River. It is not a very big river and the pine cones were bigger than the fish we saw, but that was OK too. It was very pretty up there. Sooo many trees. Really dense foresting. Ok, Thats all for now.

Pine Grove, CA

Well, here we are in beautiful Pine Grove. It is located in the foot hills of the Sierras and is a really pretty little town. It is kind of clustered here with Sutter Creek, Jackson, and Plymouth. We are parked in our friends yard, Rick, Pat and John Richardson. Rick and Pat are in their 80s and just the best folks you would ever want to meet. Pat is very spry but Rick is starting to show his age. John is their son. He and Barry were in Nam together and have remained good friends all these years. John lives with his parents and works at the Indian casino here. We have been getting a little fishing in. We are proud to report that we DID catch some CA trout!. We fished the Meculumne River but to no avail but then we went to Bear River Lake and we did catch some rainbow there. Lake fishing is pretty different for us but we really enjoyed it. These rainbow look a little different than what we are used to. Not as much color and bigger spots. They bit the same tho! Then yesterday we went to Sacramento and fished the American River, which pretty much runs through the city. It was pretty amazing, we didn't even feel like we were in the city while we were on the river. It is a pretty large river and the king salmon were starting to run. We saw some but didn't hook into any, rats! We were actually fishing for steel head, but didn't get any of those either. We had a great time though, all the same. Went to a park area that was recommended by the flyshop, then a fisherman told us another good place to fish, so about 5:00 we went to that one. Went about 10 miles, took us about 30 to 45 mins, due to 5:00 traffic and ended up on the other side of the river from where we were fishing in the first place! Yikes, didn't we feel silly! On Sunday we took John's hot rod and Wayne and Frank and Katie joined us with theirs and we drove to Sacramento in the old cars. It was very fun. Went to the flyshop and then to a bar and goofed around. We did have a great time. Today we plan to go back up the mountain and fish some streams.
We will be here until Nov. 6th, then we will go to Bethel Island to visit friends. Barry graduated from high school with the guy. Then we will head for TX for Thanksgiving. OK, so that about brings you up-to-date. The weather is grand, and the company wonderful, so we are just hunkered down for a while. Later

Oakhurst, CA

So here we are in Oakhurst, CA. It is a little town, NE of Fresno, and there are oak trees everywhere. I don't know what kind of oak trees they are, but they have the biggest damn acorns I have ever seen! Paint me purple and call me crazy, but I always thought acorns were little round guys, but these are huge! And they are shaped like torpedos. They are about 1 1/2 inches long and real pointy. Had to keep one just so I can oooh and aaw over it now and then. We are in a funny little camp ground that sits right on the Fresno River. In my book it would be a creek, but hey, it can be called a river I guess. Very pretty little town. We walked up town before dark and couldn't find one bar that was just a bar and not a bar/restaurant. We did stop at a Mexican restaurant that had a separate bar with an outdoor deck so we had a couple Margaritas and came home. The bartender said there are a couple of little bars in town, but they are further out than we walked. Oh well, that is OK, we just came back home and had a bite to eat and fed the canine outlaws. Sara is getting so demanding since we started Rving. She barks if the water dish is empty, she barks if she wants on the couch or a chair, she is just such a queen, and seems to get more regal the older she gets. Don't know if I'll be able to tolerate her when she is really old! She is 10 now, so guess that means she is 70 in people years. Nice weather here, it is pretty cool this evening. Think we are at about 3000 ft here in the foot hills of the Sierras. Very pretty, lots of trees. Aren't sure the route we are going to take tomorrow to Pine Grove, guess there are several ways to go, so we will have to decide which we want. OK then, till next time.

Southern California

So we left Mohave and headed for LA. We had chosen the campground where we wanted to stay, so I put the address for the campground into Barry's girlfriend, (Fatsy Montana, the GPS unit) and away we went. Well, I don't know if she was hormonal or what her deal was but she took us up over the mountains coming to Valencia. It was a gorgeous drive, and no traffic, but very very steep. Once again we were glad we had the big ol' truck. So we cruised into Valencia and to our campground. Fatsy wasn't aware of the road construction, but it was close to the campground so we would see where we were supposed to go, so it all worked. Nice campground, very large, over 380 sites. One of Barry's friends from Hart High now lives on Bethel Island in Northern CA is staying at the campground so that is fun. The reunion was cocktails Friday night, dinner Sat. night and a picnic on Sunday. It was very nice. One of Barry's classmates had his '49 Woody there and it was very cute. Barry loved that. We danced a little Saturday night after dinner and there was a lot of visiting going on.
Sunday I didn't go to the picnic as Barry's aunts were coming to the campground to see us, so I stayed at the house in case Barry didn't get back in time. We had a nice visit with them. They are Barry's Mom's sisters, and one is about Barry's age, a very spread out family they were.
We found some farmer's markets on Saturday so got some good fresh stuff, oranges, grapefruit, tomatos, cukes, etc. No spinach tho....hummm wonder why. Now I read that lettuce is now suspect, guess we will have to give up salad and just eat chocolate! Now when they decide chocolate is tainted, I will be really upset. We will go back to the markets tomorrow before we head North on Wednesday.
The weather has been very nice here. Cool at night and warm during the day. It was a little foggy this AM but it burned off pretty quick. Ok, so now we are up to date. Later

Go West not-so-young man go west

So we left Cortez and headed west. Again, didn't plan on going as far as we did, but ended up in Flagstaff. Stayed at an "Adult oriented" camp ground. Expected xrated movies and such, but no such luck. There were a few kids but they don't cater to them. Lots of fairly permanent residents. Met a couple from WY that lives there for 6 mos. and then in Yuma. Too hot in Yuma in the summer. Was a really nice campground. Spent my birthday there, so the 1st of Oct. on my birthday, we just went downtown and poked around. Had a great time. Found a really nice bead store, and went to Barnes and Nobel. Life is good. We spent 2 nites in Flagstaff then headed for Needles, CA. Holy Smokes, it was horrible hot for us ol Northerners. It was 95 when we pulled in there at 4pm. yikes. Ran both air conditioners all night long. Guess that camp ground fills up in the winter too, but there were several spots when we got there. It was really in the middle of the desert. Actually, they told us just to walk our dogs in the desert, which was about 40 ft. from the trailer. Spent one night there, then on to Mojave, CA. That is where we are now. Our Verizon air card works pretty good, we have landed a few places where we don't have digital cell service, thus no internet, but not too often. It is OK not to have cell and internet sometimes I think. We were talking last night and couldn't remember if day light savings time started last week or this weekend! Pretty strange when it doesn't even matter. Oh, well, life is good on the road. Till next time.

Cortez, CO

So, off from Meeker, we headed South, not really intending to go all the way to Cortez, planning to spend the night in Gateway on highway 141. Well, we got to Gateway, and there isn't much there, and we sure didn't see any camp ground. So we continued. We had the most gorgeous drive over the mountains, the fall colors were absolutely breathtaking. I have seen some pretty fall colors in the black hills, but nothing to compare to this. A lot of shrubs and aspens. The shrubs turned orange and red and of course the aspens were bright yellow and gold. It was magnificent. Some more pretty rugged climbs but the pickup did wonderful. It sighed with relief with its new oil and fuel filter and performed superbly. I really can't say enough about the fall colors. The best we had ever seen. We cruised into Cortez about 7 PM, later than we usually drive, but we had a campground in mind, so we put the address into Fatsy Montana, our navagation system and she brought us right to it. Oh, to back track a little bit, when we came through Grand Junction there just happened to be a vineyard that called out to us, so indeed, we had to stop. We had to park on the shoulder of the road as the lane going into the tasting room was a little tight for a big rig. It was very nice. We tasted away, with the Bman being careful not to over indulge since he was driving. (I helped out and drank his share :) :). What a gal huh? We picked up a really nice Port for some of these evenings, so we are happy campers....literally.
South of Gateway we were driving parallel to the Dolores River, a really muddy uninviting piece of water. For a while it was right next to the road, then all of a sudden we climbed into the mountains and it was 200 ft below us! In the 1890s when they were in hot pursuit of gold in them thar hills, a guy build a flume along the face of one of the cliffs to carry water from another river to where they needed it for their placer mines. Well, he went broke and left, but there are still the remains of the flume, wooden structures tacked up to the face of some of the sheer cliffs. Amazing how they did that back then without the technology we have today. Actually I think we would struggle doing it even now. The remaining structure for the flume resembled a long wooded shelf along the cliffs, probably 50 feet down from the top and 150 feet up from the river and floor of the canyon. We stopped, ohhed and awed, had a Mike's Hard lemonade and a cigar and proceeded on.
So we got up our first morning in Cortez, had a bite to eat and headed for the Mesa Verde National Park. Now that is truly remarkable. It is where the Anasazis built their cliff dwellings for 700 years, around AD 1200. The cliff dwellings weren't discovered until 1888 when some ranchers happened upon them in the rugged country. Those little Indians were quite the builders, I tell you. They found spots under the overhanging cliff and built pueblos there. Some were underground, ( the early ones ) and later, others above ground under the overhangs. They had doors, ventilation systems and all sorts of cool stuff. Some of the round rooms are believed to be cerimonial rooms with about 100 people living in some of these dwellings, kind of like a whole bunch of little houses all built together where families must have lived, like a little community. The one we visited was 90% original, even the wooden poles used in contruction are still in tact. The dry climate and the ingenuity of those people to build them in such protected spots from the weather has helped preserve them. It is believed that these people left the area in the 13th or 14th century due to a draught and deminishing game, and their farm lands depleted of nutrients for growing. They headed south and their decendents, the Pueblos and the Zunis now live in AZ and NM. Well, there you have it boys and girls, your history lesson for the day. Oh I forgot one of the good parts, the women were about 5' tall and the men about 5'6". And the women only lived to about 28 yrs, and the men to about 35. Worked their little hineys off I'm betting. And I figure the women had no teeth from chewing the hides and stuff with all that sand in it. Had to have ground their teeth off to nubs. Such rugged country to live in, and they were here before there were horses, so they hoofed everywhere they went. Perhaps they just said, "screw this", and curled up and died young, I don't know. But anyway it was really really wonderful. The Mesa Verde National Park is listed as one of National Geographic's 5 top places to see in a life time. I see why. We also took a 3 mile hike to see some petroglyphs, which were very cool. It is all sand stone so it was pretty easy carving I would think. Barry wasn't all that excited about the 3 mile hike, but he did it cause he knew I really wanted to. He is simply the best, didn't grumble once. Stubble yes, grumble, no. I didn't take any food with me, and he did make some snide remark about, "well, after you have had diabetes for a while, maybe you will remember to prepare." He is sooo funny. I've only had it 12 years, for God's sake, what does he expect! But all was well, I turned my insulin pump off and came out of there right where I needed to be, and we were both starving so our first stop was lunch!! OK, I think I got pretty carried away on this one, so I will stop.

Meeker, CO

We left Saratoga in the morning...not too early you understand, as we are not on a schedule! Made it as far as Meeker over Battle Pass and the Sierra Madres. That was a pretty good pull, but no snow, so we were happy. We were also happy we are driving "The Big Horse" as Mike Kelly named our pickup. Meeker sits right on the White River, (a beautiful trouty looking river I might add), so we set up in the Rim Rock Campground and got our 5 day CO fishing license and went to chase the wily trout. Well, chase as we might, we didn't get a stinking flash! Didn't see one fish and didn't turn any either. My are we humbled. The water was absolutely gorgeous tho, so we still had a wonderful time. We threw dry flys and nymphs and not a bit of interest. We were about to think there were no fish in that water, but in town we saw pictures of some catches, so decided we just didn't find any stupid fish, at least that we could fool! Our campground was a little South of Meeker a couple of miles and while driving home the first night we noticed several people stopped along the road, glassing something in the field but we didn't stop to see what it was. The second night, we saw it, a beautiful almino buck deer, grazing in a private field. He was as white as snow and sported a pretty nice rack. We hope he makes it through the upcoming hunting season. Bow season just ended so evidently he had sense enought to hang on the private fields and hopefully they told their hunters to let him keep on being a treat for others to see. Spent two nights in Meeker and went downtown and poked around the second morning, while getting the oil changed in "The Big Horse". Found a very fun gift-coffee shop on Main St. next to the old Meeker Hotel, and then, one of the highlights of our day... we spotted the Mountain Man candy man! We flagged him down and preceeded to shop his van in a mild frenzy! Got some of our favorites from him, so we can deal with the munchies when they hit. We fished the White again, with the same results. So... we are off in search of new adventures.

Now we are really off and running

OK, now we left Casper for real. The house is done, everything that we couldn't part with is stored in Sundance, and the dogs have been kind enough to let us travel with them! Jay and Kristy kindly are taking care of the closing and storing the sportscar...(don't ya know they hate that!) So our first night out of Casper we made it as far as Saratoga, and decided since we are retired ol vagabonds, we didn't have to go any farther if we didn't want to, so we didn't! Stayed at Deer Haven Campground and met the caretakers who were our next door neighbors. Only spent one night there, so didn't even wet a fly. Went to the Wolf for dinner which is always a huge treat. The old Wolf Hotel is really so nice and the Campbells that own it are good friends. We didn't see Doug and Kathleen but Jimmy was at the ready tending bar, so that was all good. We saw some trout rising in the river, but didn't go after them. Think I should have checked Barry's pulse for not rigging up and going fishing right then and there! So we slept the night away next to the Platte River in the wonderful cool autumn night temperatures...Ahhh. life is pretty damn good.

Back To Lewistown

OK, so now we are back in Lewistown, parked again in Layne and Mari's yard. What good kids they are. The first night we were there, (after Dorothy finding yet another street vendor selling fresh veggies) we met our friends Mike and Kay Kelly from Dickinson for dinner. Kay had been in Whitefish visiting their daughter and Mike had gone to get her. We met them and went to Doc Holiday's for a drink. While there, Kay told us she really wanted to go downtown to the bar that the creek runs through. None of us had ever been to the Montana Tavern, so off we went. Barry found it with no difficulty and we strolled in, looking immediately for the running creek. Spring Creek runs right through the middle of Lewistown. Well, come to find out, the creek doesn't really run through the Montana Tavern. If you look closely there is a 4 foot box platform in one of the front corners of the bar that is covered with screen, when you look through the screen you see the creek, running UNDER the bar. You can also see some pretty hefty trout down there. The creek has been concrete lined under the town, so it is not at all what we were expecting. All in all though it was very fun. We laughed long and hard at ourselves expecting "A River Runs Through It!"
The next day Layne and Mari were able to get away for a few hours of fishing so we headed up into the Snowy Mountains for a little lake fishing. When we got to the lake, we found it to be nearly dry, with only a few small holes with fish in them, and all of these holes were in the middle of a large mud field, (what used to be the floor of the lake.) So wader clad we tromped through the mud (about mid-calf deep) to get to the fishing holes. The holes were not even a foot deep, and absolutely crammed with trout. They stock this lake every spring then every fall it drys up. Pretty sad scenario for the poor fish, but guess it is a heavily used rec. area. Anyway we each caught about 50 fish in only a little over 2 hours. The fish were very healthy, fat, and scrappy when you got them on your fly. Lots of leaches and snails so don't think they were running out of food, only water. We would catch them and move them to a channel that had a little water in it to relocate them. We knew they didn't have much time lift and felt a little bad about catching them, but not much you could do to help the little buggers. I know our purist flyfishing friends would have frowned on our activity, but it was a truly different experience.
The next morning we headed for Billings to get some business taken care of and managed to get a parking ticket! We didn't have a campground in mind in Billings, so we plugged " Fatsy Montana, our Street Pilot navagation system" in and found a lovely one. The only bad part was Fatsy sent us a route that had a fairly low bridge we had to go under, but we held our breath and made it just fine. We met our friend Bruce Posey for a brew that afternoon, then settled in for the night. Next morning it was raining, but we just held tight, it stopped about 10:00am and we made our way back to Casper to Mallorys yard where we park when we are in Casper. That is where we are now, getting the last of the house stuff done. Got a power of attorney for Kristy, our daughter-in-law and she will do the closing for us on the 28th. We went to Sundance Wed. with the last load for storage and back to Casper, yesterday the 21st. Will spend time with the kids, friends and get everything buttoned up for the house to sell, and then we plan to start for Southern Cal on Monday. Ah, the life of vagabonds.

Jordan, MT

Now if you have never been to Jordan, MT, you have missed an opportunity to see some of real MT. We stopped and spent the night there on our way from Bismarck to Lewistown. The only campground we found (Jordan is very small) was a little primitive. We spotted the sign for the campground, but noticed that it had a For Sale sign on it, so Barry called them to see if they were open, as there weren't really any trailers there. The lady on the phone confirmed they were open and told us to just pick a spot. She said she would send her son to turn on the water, but upon getting parked we found the water was already on. Along came the son with several wrenchs to turn on the water, and after trying to turn on the water, which was already on, he decided to leave the wrenchs in case we had trouble we could work on it ourselves! I fixed dinner and Barry sit outside the trailer and watched a JV highschool football game with the binos. The score board was paid for in part by the local chapter of Walleye Unlimited. How is that for habitat enhancement! In the 4th quarter a little dog joined the game so that delayed things a little! After we ate we went downtown to find some local color, and boy did we. We went to the Hell Creek Bar, owned by a guy named Joe who was working. Very industrious fellow, serving drinks, cooking food and entertaining all the patrons. As he was ringing up someone's drink a lady across the room called out, "Hey Joe, I would like a Fuzzy Navel." Without missing a key stroke on the register, he replied "Then sleep in flannel sheets!" Momentarily he put on a Cheese Head hat and we ask if he was a Packer Backer, he replied no he was not, but someone had given him the hat and he liked it. Dorothy remarked to him that the Packers had lost the previous day, and he said "Ya kow, if the MT School for the Blind and Deaf was in the NFL, I do believe the Packers would have trouble with them!" The entire evening was very entertaining, thanks to Joe's exuberance and lust for life. The Hell Creek Bar is decorated with many wildlife and fish mounts and among all the beautifl heads, (one Muley buck in particular) was a big domestic sheep head! Don't see them very often, mounted in bars! If you ever pass through Jordan, do stop at the Hell Creek Bar, it is well worth your time.

Bismarck

Quick jump here to keep this kinds current. We will come back and fill inwith other stories about Dickinson and other places but I wanted to do a quick bit on staying with the Stromstad's in Bismarck.
We came here for Con Hillman's retirement tribute and it was a very fitting night. Lots of accolades and standing ovations for a guy that really deserved them. Con retired from DU back in November of '05 and the party planners finally got him to stand still long enough to get him to the party.
It was like an old reunion of sorts as we saw lots of friends we hadn't seen for months. We had dinner with Craig and Joyce Jones whom we hadn't seen for years! What a treat. More on this night.
The day after the tribute was opening day of Sharptail Grouse season in ND and Jeff Essler let me join him on a great day of hunting. We walked about 3 1/2 miles and saw lots of Sharpies and pheasants, managing to bring down 5. Jeff shot his limited and helped me to bring down two. Should have had a third but muffed an easy shot. Those of you who know "Pete" will be pleased to hear that he was able to hunt (he is ten years old) and retieve some of the birds. My first Sharptail Pete actually flushed, I shot and he retrieved to hand. It would have made an awesome video. What a great day of sport and Jeff is a very gracious host, guide, hunting mentor and friend.
Then as luck would have it, Pete and I were able to horn our way into a second day of hunting with our host, Ron Stromstad, and his friend Kevin. Another great day, beautiful weather for a walk resulting in 4 more birds and lots of memories.
Dorothy fixed dinner on the evening of opening day for Ron, Peg and us, at their house grilling the fresh birds and fixing lots of other good stuff. Another day in paradise. How can one couple have so many great friends?
One of the days that Barry hunted, Dorothy went to the United Tribes International Tribes Powwow at the United Tribes College. What a spectacular event. There were tribes from all over the US and Canada, and as any of you know that have ever attended a powwow, they dance all day long in all their wonderful costumes. Just amazing how they can even walk in some of those costumes, let alone dance as they are so beaded. Must weigh a bunch. The colors were so vivid and beautiful it was really something to behold! They had age catagories for the dancers from Tiny Tots to Golden Age, both for the men and women. It was very cool.
We leave Bismarck today, September 11th, 2006, headed back to MT. Doesn't seem like five years since the brutal attack on our country and yet, except for some flying and traveling across borders, not a lot has seemed to change.

Lewistown

Whew, catching up is taking some time but here we go.
After our outing on the Big Horn with the DU guys, we headed for Lewistown, MT, and the Krumwiede Family gathering. Our travel was fairly uneventful expect I forgot to plug in the trailer so went clear to, and through, Billings WITHOUT LIGHTS! No wrecks, no fingers or anything. Just a startled look on the face of the driver next to me when I realized what I had done and bailed out at a traffic light to correct the situation. I really surprized the guy next to me!
Arrived in Lewistown where Layne met us and led is to his house. After setting up and getting introduced to his parents, Roger and Larae (sp?),we went to work helping finishing their basement. They had a lot done already but we were able lend helping hands and humorous comments. What a great family! Layne's two sisters and their families showed up also and boy did they get the work done. By the time we left on Tuesday morning after Labor Day, the basement was 9/10ths completed (okay, okay, maybe 7/10ths).
During our stay we fished Big Springs Creek three times. First we hit the Hruska Public area.
It is really gorgeous water but a little light on numbers of fish. We hooked up 3 or 4 times apiece on Elk Hair Caddis in and around the riffles. Beautiful country.
Sunday, Layne called some friends and we were allowed to access the river further down stream on some private ground. This was some of the most beautiful, trouty looking water I have ever worked but again, light on number of fish. Dee and I landed about 15 browns and rainbows between us on nymphs and hoppers. Actually all but two on nymphs or drowned terrestrials. It was really a challenge figuring out what they would take and where they were holding as there was so much excellent water to cover. The fish came mostly from the deeper and rougher water, whether for cover or more oxygen or cooler temps we not sure but the fish knew why they were there.
We really appreciated the fact that Layne and Mari "made" us go fishing while the family continued to work. They keep telling us we were "old folks who were retired and should go fishing". I am getting to where I believe it! Ha!

Big Horn River

Well, what a way to start! Our first "really big" stop was to the Big Horn River at Fort Smith, MT for fishing, eating, drinking, and smoking cigars! Now, that isn't a bad way to go! We camped at the Cottonwood Camp, a really nice camp ground within walking distance of the River. Barry helped arrange a fishing trip for the top RDs in DU back before he retired, so it was only fitting that we go to the river while they were there! Barry had called ahead for a reserved campsite, and told them we had a 33ft. 5er. When we got there, someone else ( a regular at the campground I guess), had taken our spot, so in the laid back spirit of Cottonwood Camp, we didn't argue and took one of the only other sites available. It was a lovely spot, but holy smokes it was small! There were of course lots of people in the campground, so when Barry backed the trailer in (no drive throughs) he had a large and attentive audience! This campsite was very narrow. Barry walked through it and eyed the large cottonwood tree that was growing right where our slide outs on the driver's side would normally go! So, Dorothy took her position as spotter behind the trailer, (waving arms at the ready) and Barry proceeded to back the big bugger into the spot! You have to be able to gauge how wide the trailer will be with the slide outs extended when you back in, (we have 3). I gotta tell ya, Barry did a stellar job of getting that baby in the spot. He had to back in as close as possible to the big tree and position the trailer so the tree would be between the slideouts. (I have to tell ya, I had my doubts.) But he backed it in like he had been doing it for years! The audience was even impressed with his prowness! When the trailer was where it had to be, there was approximately 12 inches between our extended dining room slide on the passenger side and the trailer next to us. (We joked with the folks in that trailer that we could dine together from our own trailers and pass the food back and forth through the window!) And on the other side, the big fat cottonwood was exactly where it had to be, with slides extended on both sides of it! What a stud that B-Man is!
The folks on both sides of us were great neighbors! One couple was from Canada, (they left the day after we got there) and Terry and Marsha on the other side were fulltimers, there for several weeks. The Canadians were replaced shortly by a couple from Mich. She, a professional flyfisher and he an environmental lawyer, able to work for the road via the net. The rose dailey, tied flys then went to the river in their individual pontoon boats. Great fish stories daily with them and Terry who also fished everyday. The Duck boys arrived the first night we were there, and of course it was great to see the old friends and meet the ones we didn't know very well. The MT Duck people had put together guides and boatsmen for the Duck boys, and they had a wonderful time. They stayed in the condo at the Cottonwood Camp which is a large double wide trailer on a foundation that sleeps 16! Great place to have a family reunion, I'm thinkin'. So on to the fishing. The Big Horn was pretty low, which wasn't all bad, as it made wade fishing easier. I will ask Barry to add to this post and tell you all the fishy details. It was great fishing, some on nymphs and the dry flying was good too. (That is always the good part.) So to sum up the Big Horn adventure, we had a great time, stayed a couple of days after the Duck boys left and fished. The weather was hot during the day and nice and cool at night, guess that is why we love WY & MT so much. And we continue.....

The Adventure Begins

So this is the start of our big adventure. The house has sold, several loads have been taken to the storage shed in Sundance, the 5th wheel is loaded, (boy is it ever), and we are off! Still have to return to Casper to finish up the last tasks of emptying the house and do all the other last minute stuff. Barry hasn't really had time to enjoy retirement, with all the house-selling related things and getting our belongings disposed of, in one fashion or another. The house doesn't close until Sept. 28th, and we will be enroute to CA at that time, but Kristy, our very capable (and princess-like) daughter-in-law will take the reins and get that accomplished for us. Going from owning a home, and living a somewhat normal life to moving into our 33 ft. 5th wheel with our 3 dogs has been quite the undertaking. Of course the hardest part was deciding what needed to come with us, what needed to be stored and what needed to be pawned off on the kids or taken to the landfill was quite the challenge. I know we have a lot of stuff with us that we won't need, but guess you don't know that starting out. In 6 mos. we will look at some of this stuff in the 5er and think, "Now why in the world did I bring that?" Another thing that made the decision to do this difficult was the fact that Jay, one of our sons and his family moved to Casper last year and lived about 8 blocks from us in Casper. We so enjoyed having them near and watching the grandsons grow and change. But, as many of you that know us realize, I am not one to put off until tomorrow the adventure that you can have today, as we just never know if tomorrow will come for us, and we knew that Jay and Kristy would not have wanted us to miss out on the opportunity to live on the road, so with their blessing, (and their very full house of some of our stuff we convinced that they needed), we took the plunge. With a major life-style change, our habits will also change, so as time passes, we will discover lots of new things about ourselves and the way we live. One thing that will make it easier for us is the fact that our entire married life, we have both worked from our home, so we are used to being around each other most all the time. Granted, the quarters weren't as small as they are now, but regardless, I do think we can do this without strangling each other! So far, our cell phones work very well for us and allow us to stay in touch with family and friends. Our internet service is also through our cell phones and so far that too has worked successfully. We have a mail forwarding service throught the UPS Store in Casper, so we have a physical address for mail, then we call our dear friends Bill and Julia Spicer who own the UPS Store, they tell us what is in our mail box, and we in turn tell them what to trash and what to forward to us at whatever address we happen to be at. So far it has worked well, as I pay most of our bills on line. (Can't ever seem to get completely away from that aspect of life I guess.)
It is my goal on this blog to try to keep anyone interested, up to speed on where we are and what we are doing. We promise not to tell really big fibs regarding the size of the fish we catch or the numbers of birds Barry kills! For those of you not familiar with the RVing lingo, we are what is commonly known as "Fulltimers" now. That means we sold the stick home and live exclusively in our 5th wheel. Many have said, "Gee how can you do that with the price of diesel fuel?" (Most only said that after they looked at our 1 1/4 ton Ford diesel pickup that is our tow vehicle!) Well, our thinking is, we don't have to worry about property taxes, utility bills and all the other obligations that go with home ownership, so the price of diesel fuel is what we have to whine about! And, because we don't have a really rigid schedule, if we do decide that fuel is too expensive we can stay put for days on end and not have to travel unless we want to. So, here we go! Barry and I are neither very structured, so I see this life-style working well for us. As long as the bar is stocked and the cigars aren't stale, I think we can be very successful at doing not much!
So we are off! We lived in our 5er in Sundance during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Because we are part owners in a bar there, we worked the second week of August in the bar. It was a good opportunity for us to get a taste of living in the 5th wheel. After that we went back to Casper and spend several days parked in our good friends, Nancy and Steve Mallory"s yard while we tied up more loose ends. Ya know, life just wouldn't be worth living without good friends. We are so fortunate to have many.
This "blogging" thing is new to me, so bear with me as we proceed.
I heard a good one the other day: What did the egg say to the pan of boiling water? I don't know how long it will take me to get hard, as I just got laid this morning!............. Until next time.
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