Heading home

Well we are finally on our way home. Stopped at Zion National Park today and just looked around the Virgin River and then continued on to Vegas Baby! Arrived about 5 p.m. We are at a campground 3 miles from Mandalay Bay. Decided to do dinner at Mandalay. Then put a few coins in, no winners though. We drove the strip so Jack could see all the big hotels. He hasn't been here in years. Traffic, construction, I think it took us 45 min. to get up the strip and back down again!
See you all soon. Hope you have enjoyed the blog. I do have a few more pics, but am too tired to put them on tonight! Good night!

9/23/09, Wed.

We made it to Rawlins, Wy. I had read about the Red Desert with moving sands second to the Sahara Desert...well we saw one sign for it, they were doing construction on the road, so we got off and they put us right back on. There was one adult store that said Red Sands, but other than that we missed it? There was also a BLM area you could view wild horses, but Jack passed up the turn. So no big sites yesterday besides the Wyoming desert and the elk herds. Oh and another weird thing. One area they have sensors on the road with a sign that flashes when wild life is on the road. the elk herd coming here is between 40,000 to 60,000. I think it said the biggest migratory herd in the world!
 This town's big claim to fame is a historic Wyoming Penetiary. It was closed for tours, but we drove around it...amazing place. The town itself is pretty depressed. Lots of small hotel/motels and a lot of those closed. Very windy driving here, so Jack was glad to stop though. I'll post a couple pics here of the prision, the sunset, and a wierd trailer type rig we passed coming in!
We are on our way home everyone....see you in a few days.

Pictures from Gros Ventre camping in Grand Teton Ntl. Park

Ok need a long update...

We stayed in Jackson one night. Went to a KOA that advertised fishing available. It was a bit passed Jackson. We drove out, asked about the fishing. The guy says no way, you have to have a boat here! Yikes...it wasn't worth been so far out without fishing, so back in to Jackson. The nicest advertised spot. It is right in town, but we are backed up to high power lines and transformers and it is costing $57 a night! So one night there is enough. In the a.m. we moved to Gros Ventre which is in the Grand Teton National Park. No hook ups, but it is beautiful and Jack can fish. It took him a while to get out on to the river, but finally got out there. His expert guide, John Bond, called him while he was out there. John gave him a few pointers and sure enough he caught one! It took fishing in 4 states but finally! At about 8:30 it was already in the 30's so we were in bed by 9. This a.m. it was 25 outside and 35 inside! BRRRRRRR
As we were packing up we heard there was a moose in the park. I walked over where all the photographers were gathered. There was a cow and bull moose about 25' away. That was so exciting. I'll put a pic on of that...of course I have a ton of pictures already. So adding a few more here too.

If you have been to Jackson you will recognize some of the sites!

View of the Tetons

Last of Yellowstone

more pics...Old Faithful, tour, buffalo jam

Yellowstone Pictures

Gardiner view

Gardner river outside Yellowstone Ntl. pk

Sunday, 9/20/09 Leaving Yellowstone

We have left Yellowstone via the south entrance. We were warned they are doing construction and should expect delays. We were lucky and didn't have much of a delay and they were working on the road for about 7 miles. Off and on we had gravel road. Maybe 30 minutes more than normal, not bad.
I didn't realize that Grand Teton National Park butts up to Yellowstone. So as we left one national park we entered another. There were clouds today. I forgot to mention that the weather has been in the high 30's at night and high 70's every day. Today there were clouds moving in. As we got our first site of the Tetons, they were shrouded in clouds, then they broke from the top and it was beautiful.
So we were on our way to Jackson Hole and hope to stay in Jackson. We skiied here about 20 years ago, 6 of us came and it was sooo very cold here. Today it is about 70. Tonight they are expecting near freezing. We went to the Silver Dollar saloon had a cocktail and then went to the Snake River Brewry. The Tetons are beautiful. Can't wait to get our pictures on for you all to see.
Planning on getting on to the Snake River for some fishing tomorrow. So probably won't have wi fi again for a day or so. Miss you all!

on to Yellowstone

We have finally arrived at Yellowstone National Park. It truly is an amazing place and everyone should come here at least once (or more) in their life time. We drove to Fishing Bridge campground. Full hook ups and totally full campground. We signed up for a tour in the a.m. It was in a 1936 yellow touring car (bus). Full day tour, 8:15 to 3:30. We saw a lot of area, mostly the northern area. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, geysers, Fort Yellowstone which was the original headqtrs, upper & lower falls, balsitic columns (think Devil's postpile), travertine terraces, herds of buffalo and so very much more. The tour was well worth it...we learned so much and saw much more than we would have ever done on our own! Remnents of the 1988 fire are still so evident every where too. Later that evening we drove ourselves around Yellowstone lake, well not really around it. It is 141 miles around. So just one side of it. We went to Lake Yellowstone hotel. It is a beautiful, huge yellow hotel on the shore of the lake, built in 1890's.
Saturday we were up and on our own tour to Old Faithful. We arrived 30 minutes before it blew. Old Faithful goes off about every 90 minutes. There are many other geysers, mud pots and fumerols in the area. Totally amazing to drive or walk by a spring and see it boiling up or steaming up over the edges. So wierd. We drove around Firehole river also, amazing scenery there too. So much to describe, I only hope I can post some of the pics later this week.

Sunday, 9/20/09

I know it has been many days since our last post. We met with the Rowe's on our way to Yellowstone. We couldn't have planned the meeting any better if we had tried before leaving home. Some of you might remember Nanci & Tom. Nanci and I were single together, so we have known each other for many years!
Ok I have been trying to upload 2 pictures and it has taken 30 min. and they aren't uploaded....so I will update where we have been and where we are...then upload pics when we have a better internet.
As we approached the north entrance to Yellowstone National park, we were along a river...so just outside of Gardiner we pulled in to a parking spot for fishermen. Sign posted said no camping between May and Sept. 15...it happened to be Sept. 16. Sooo we stayed there. I have great pics from there. When the sun went down, man it was DARK!  Jack fished in the river, but caught nothing. Talked to a number of fishermen returning, mostly in boats though. Don't think anyone had caught anything. Weather is still quite warm, high 70's.

Todays travels

Leaving Coeur d'Alene we were in the timbers and elevation and then dropped down in to  fields and pasture lands. Followed a river thru most of the drive too. Some of the landscape made the hills look like velvet.  Beautiful country. We arrived in Butte Montana this afternoon. This is a big copper mining town. Lots of history here. The hills are scarred from all the mining and the rigs around the hillsides. We went to a little restaurant tonight in town, Uptown Cafe. Dinner was really good.
Tomorrow we plan on making it to Yellowstone National park. We might not have wi fi while there, so we may have a break for a bit here. Looking forward to seeing the great park again.  News tonight says there is a small fire, from lightening, near the north entrance. That is the entrance we will be going thru, so hopefully they are keeping it in check. Had a little bit of rain tonight. Which they say is moving thru the area. They had record high temps this week and it should continue.
We will hopefully meet our friends Tom & Nanci Rowe on the road tomorrow too. They are going the opposite direction and we will pass each other, so we are going to try and have a soda or something in passing.

Tuesday 9/15/09

We are on the move again today. Getting closer to Yellowstone. Here are a couple shots of where we are staying at the Elk's Rv in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Bentley has made a friend here too. Tippet (as in fly line) is a golden doodle. We thought she was a poodle. Pretty cute.

Travels around Spokane

Today we drove in to Spokane, which is 30 miles back from Coeur d'Alene. We wanted to ride the gondola over the falls that run through the middle of the city. Well didn't ck. the schedule and it is closed on Mondays. We were so disappointed! The park in downtown is terrific. The big wagon was such a treat. If I had this dang boot off I would have gone up there too, but Jack I think really enjoyed it! On the sidewalk on one corner across from the mall are medal sculpted runners, life size.

Garland's houseCoeur d'Alene

Today we visited Blake Garland. He has a wonderful house with a view of the lake. We just missed Ann Marie. She just went back to OC because their daughter is expecting her second baby any day now. Blake has a new puppy. Yeager, a handful for sure. He is soo cute. Their family room looked like Petsmart toy aisle. Bentley was in heaven, loved playing with all the toys and chewies too! Here are a few pics from the day!