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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