Traveling through Montana to Wyoming

We left Yellowstone on Sunday and decided to avoid the switchbacks on the mountain passes and instead took the scenic route through Big Sky Montana. Route 191 is a beautiful road that winds through mountain passes along the river bed.

We stopped in to surprise Ann's friend from high school, Cindy. She and her husband Chuck, live in Big Sky, Montana, which is a resort town of only 1000 residents year round. People come here to enjoy the river in the summer and the mountains in the winter. Chuck said they get 400 inches of snow a year! We went to lunch at a place called Choppers where there was a motorcycle on the bar for decoration. Ann and Cindy were thrilled to see each other and catch up on life.

When we left Big Sky we followed the Gallatin River which was beautiful. In fact, this was the setting for the film, A River Runs Through It. We saw people swimming, rafting and fly fishing as we made our way to the north. 

As we drove along we got hungry for ice cream so we pulled into Custer's Last Stand (that joke was for Max). Seriously, we headed into Little Big Horn to see the battlefields just as the sky was darkening for a huge lightening storm. Scattered throughout the land were horses that grazed among the headstones.

This a view from one of ridges in the battlefield where Custer was surrounded by over 2,000 Native American warriors. It's easy to see how the people disappeared among the ridges which aided in their surprise attacks.

It soon began to rain furiously and lightening bolts arced from sky to ground but we drove to every site on a winding narrow hilltop road. We ended up here as the rain subsided. This is the site of Custer's Last Stand. He died here along with many other soldiers and Native Americans. It was a moving experience to see the sequence of events that led to this tragedy.

As we left Little Big Horn, these two cowgirls headed off into the sunset...

We reached Wyoming as the purple sky darkened and lightening lit up the sky. It was an easy decision not to camp so we looked for another place to hitch our Suburu.

The first big town we came to was Sheridan, Wyoming, home of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. This is the lobby of The Mill Inn, formerly a flour mill, where we stopped.

This  western hotel was filled with authentic photographs of the Old West and even the bedspreads depicted cowboy scenes. Tomorrow it's on to Mount Rushmore.

Yellowstone

When we arrived in West Yellowstone, the concierge at the hotel greeted us with a big smile. He was such a "dear". Due to cold weather predictions and sold out campsites we stayed at the Days Inn. The hotel restaurant was appropriately named Trappers Lodge and the walls were covered with beaver, fox, and mink pelts which hung next to stuffed birds and fish.

We did our usual off hours tour. We spent six hours in the early evening and it was amazing. Here is a thermal pool that was so deep you couldn't see the bottom. It was reminiscent of Green Lakes in NY but much hotter! Don't swim in this pool.

As we drove through the park, whenever we saw cars pulled to the side of the road we knew we'd see something wild. We saw this bison, a herd of moose, a wild eagle, and trumpeter swans all wandering free in the park. The only danger was making sure Ann didn't get hit by a car as she leapt from the Suburu to snap pictures.

This was one of our favorite geysers, the Beehive. It erupted continuously for over five minutes making a loud whooshing sound. We also got close enough to the Great Basin geyser that it soaked us when it erupted. Of course, we saw Old Faithful too which was a group event with hundreds of people gathered to cheer as it spewed the water over fifty feet into the sky.

As night fell, we saw the sunset over the park and watched steam rising from craters as we walked around the different thermal areas. Amazing!

Los Angeles to Idaho

We stopped on our way out of Los Angeles at the famed In and Out Burger. They grilled our onions and made our fries fresh. It was worth the drive. Then we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up our gourmet dinner for camping that night.

We camped just outside of Yosemite in Lee Vining. The temperature dipped to 40 degrees and we slept on the side of a windy hill. Ann wished the air mattress stayed inflated longer. That night we went to see the sunset at Mono Lake. The next morning we drank coffee called Wild Women Blend at a funky cafe. I guess they heard we were coming.

Our campsite overlooked Mono Lake. Mono Lake is an amazingly beautiful place with mineral deposits called tufta that form lunar looking landscapes. 

Everywhere we visited we met wonderful people like the Dutch couple who took our photograph. 

This sentiment at Yosemite says it all.

At Yosemite we got to view Half Dome from Olmstead Point. If you look closely you can see small figures dangling from ropes as they make their way up the rock face. I'm sure you're surprised to hear that we left our climbing equipment in Fayetteville.

Lunch and a swim at a mountaintop lake. It may have been peak season but wherever we went there were no crowds.

In the morning we hiked through Tualame Meadow (sic) and saw deer, marmot, mountain blue birds, and ten pin squirrels. We found a soda spring bubbling from the ground and got great hiking advice from an ancient Yosemite volunteer.

We made a quick (see the darkening sky) detour to visit Bodie, a genuine, gold mining ghost town. The entire town is frozen in time and you can look in all the windows and see the remains of people's lives before and after the gold rush.

Clearly, they left in a hurry and didn't clear the table. They don't live in Ann's house!

Randi taking a break as Ann dragged her to over 60 buildings to see the scattered, dusty remains of this dangerous town. It was a shoot 'em up town where people died from either gunfights, disease, and harsh conditions. We are definitely not in LA anymore.

The California Park Service has 17 rangers housed in these buildings year round and they are attempting to keep the town structurally safe but arrest any further deterioration.

After Bodie we visited Uncle Bob's and Aunt Kathy's house in Gardnerville, Nevada, which is a beautiful area that is surrounded by mountains and only 15 miles from Lake Tahoe. They drove us up to the lake for a delicious lunch. Ann's cousin, Bobby, had nerves of steel and the patience of a saint as he traversed the winding, steep, mountain roads listening to us hyperventilate.

This is one of Bobby's two parrots who ride around on his shoulders and eat human food like spaghetti and almonds. 

This is Henry, the watchdog of Rancho Taormina. He was so sweet and made us miss Charlie.

This is just one of the gorgeous views that Bob and Kathy are lucky enough to enjoy everyday. They have surrounded the house with gardens that have flowers and vegetables and a barn with a workshop, wine cellar, and a comfortable guest loft. There's plenty of room for big, family gatherings.

This is head honcho, Uncle Bob, of Rancho Taormina. He and Aunt Kathy were wonderful hosts who wined, dined and spoiled us. We decided this is our new favorite vacation spot to relax! Thanks for giving us a vacation within our vacation!

After recharging in Nevada we were on the road again for 9 hours and have arrived in Twin Falls Idaho for the night. Tomorrow it's on to Yellowstone and Old Faithful. This is, of course, after we eat an Idaho potato.

LA's fine the sun shines all the time...

Lauren and Frank on one of our many dining excursions.
The hills of Hollywood.
This was a thriller for us.
From one odd couple to another.
Getting high is a commonplace medical occurrence in California.
Lauren is happy we're here.
Lauren and Leah show us a night on the town.
Katie and Talton join us for an evening of fine dining at the Library Ale House.
Matt Damon loves me.
Universal Studios was Randi's kind of place.

A funny thing happened on the way to LA

Was this a mirage? No. It's the London Bridge which was purchased by Robert McCulloch, the chairman of the McCulloch Oil Corporation, and reassembled brick by brick in Lake Havasu City, AZ (aka the middle of nowhere). We enjoyed this desert oasis after camping.

By now, seasoned adventurers, we ignored the Garmin and set out across the Mojave Desert. It was impossible to lose our way as there was only one, long road across a very hot, but beautiful desert.  We saw everything from tumbleweeds to an intense rainstorm which left the air smelling like toasted marshmallows.

But in case we did lose our way, there was one big sign to everywhere.

Here is the famed Joshua tree. Legend has it that the Mormons saw this yucca plant as they crossed the desert, and believed it looked like the prophet Joshua, raising his arms waving them on to the promised land. Could this be the Lauren tree waving us on to LA?

As we left the desert, we traded our two lane highway for the twelve lane freeway and the desert fog for the city smog. 

Painted Desert and "The Big Ditch"

We left Santa Fe and headed to the Painted Desert. We bought an annual park pass and ate the best veggie burgers in the whole world cooked by Navajo women at the park.

After pitching our tent we hiked to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset with people from all over the world. On our way back to our tent we stopped at the local market in the park to buy supplies (ice and Pringles) and we decided to take a short cut through the woods. Bad idea! As night fell, without flashlights, carrying ten pounds of ice, and listening to Ann's pleadings to leave the coyote filled woods, we left the woods for the main road and got back safely to our tent. We comforted ourselves with peanut M&Ms and vowed to bring a flashlight and a map next time.

Up at 5:30 (our bodies still on Eastern time zone) we saw the sunrise over the canyon with cups of overpriced coffee from the lodge. We met a local woman who worked there and she convinced us to come back when we retire and work at the "the big ditch" as she and her coworkers called the Grand Canyon. She then took us on a tour of the mule area and the rim trail and regaled us with terrifying stories of people falling off the edge. Ann thanked her graciously and dragged Randi away from her new friend. 

Another local enjoying the early morning view. Randi tried to make friends with him too but Ann wouldn't let her. 

Look to the right of our tent (isn't it beautifully pitched) and you'll see our reward for rising so early in the park. We had two elk walk within two feet of us as we dined on cereal commandeered from our Santa Fe hotel. We are the frugal adventurers!

After the Grand Canyon we headed west towards Lake Havasu City (our last stop before LA) and couldn't resist lunch at this route 66 eatery. The menu described all its choices in terms of roadkill...mmmmm....hope it wasn't Randi's squirrel friend from the morning!