Beartooth Highway

Yesterday we drove through Yellowstone and on to Beartooth Highway. It was totally awesome. We had tacos at Mas Tacos in Red Lodge and headed back. I may try to put a few more pictures up once I'm back on my computer.

I'm heading south this morning but taking my time. Probably not do much site seeing as I'm wanting to be home. This has been a really good trip and a step in the process to traveling more, as well as connecting up with friends I haven't spent time with for far too long.

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Exploring the National Forest

I'm exploring around in the National Forests outside of Yellowstone. This is where a large section of the mountain at the edge of the canyon gave way during the earthquake in 1959 which flooded the Madison River and created Quake Lake.

I spent Wednesday afternoon and night up in Helena at the NSS convention seeing folks I haven't seen in years. A couple of the folks were not at the convention I went to 2 years ago and so I hadn't seen at least one of them in about 40 years. Nice to reconnect. On the way back to West Yellowstone I stopped in and visited Jim and Sandy Dixon. Jim and Rockey were out fishing but I got to see Sandy and Skittlez in there summer habitat.

Tomorrow my friend and I will head out for more site seeing. She works for the Forest Service here so I'm sure it will be fun.

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Montana

I spent the night in West Yellowstone, and now I'm headed to Helena to spend a day at the convention seeing some friends I haven't seen in awhile. I'll be back at my friend's in West Yellowstone for the weekend when she has time off work. Definitely cooler here, in all senses of the word.

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Lake Powell

Headed north. Perhaps I should look at a real map rather than depending on Google to get me there... This is all new territory for me and I'm enjoying it anyway. There is a smoky haze hanging in the air since north of Flagstaff. Staff at the welcome center say it is probably the fires in California. The camera makes it look clearer than it is.

North! To Montana!

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Being a hermit

I spent a week at my Aunt’s place in MO.  I’ve been home since, getting things done.  I am now bored and hot.  I am in need of a road trip.  I’ll be loading up the Mazda3 and heading north in a few days to visit friends.  There may be more drive-by pictures as I head north.  If I stay true to my usual way to travel I’ll just head on up.  I will be passing some really pretty places and I have my Golden Geezers pass to get into the National Parks, so who knows.  This is part of my on-going experiment with how to travel now that I have no real time constraints.

I will ask a neighbor to come check Bosley.  She is an animal person so I’m sure he will be taken care of.  I bought bunches of cat food when I was last in the Valley, so he should be set.

Now to pack and clean the motor home so I can be gone a week or so.

Family

I decided this is where I need to be, my Uncle Bob's military funeral. I decided that around 1pm Tuesday, knowing the funeral is Thursday afternoon. An hour later I was on the road. Pulled into my their driveway yesterday about 25 hrs later. Stayed up talking with (listening to) my Aunt until late last night. We are sitting in line for the procession to head up to where the ceremony will be. This is where I need to be.

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To Everything There Is A Season

My Uncle Bob died this evening.  He was at home, I assume.  I had called my Aunt earlier today and learned he started going downhill on Monday.  He made it through Father’s Day able to walk with his walker and sit at the table and enjoy the meal with the family who came to see him.  On Monday he started the quick slide down.  Earlier my Aunt was going over the signs of impending death with me from the list given to her this week by hospice, and said he had most of them.  This isn’t the surprise it would have been if I hadn’t made the call earlier.

I don’t know if I’m going back to Missouri for the funeral.  The point of going when I did was to see him while he was still alive.  I’ll play it by ear.  If I think my Aunt wants me there I’ll go.

Those who watch my side bar see that Doug Begley, the author of Strolling Amok died this week as well.  He went lying in his bed in his truck camper.  His son went to check on him when he wasn’t returning phone calls.  He had just made it back to the area where his kids are.  I never met him in person but I had made notes to check out some of the places he camped.  He put a lot of detail about the places in his blog which makes them seem findable.  I’ll leave Doug’s blog up on my side bar for quite awhile.  I think I left Rod Ivers’ blog up at least a year after he passed.

I have no words of wisdom.  This is the season of my life, when I’m losing the folks who have been a part of my life.  It isn’t easy.

It was a.good trip

As a shakedown trip it went very well. The North Rim is beautiful but very different than the South Rim. The Canyon is pretty much the same, but the infrastructure is different. I only spent one night in the area, so that may be part of my opinion. I do like that dispersed (read free) camping is available closer to the Park. I also like that due to the higher elevation there are trees around the outside of the park which makes the camping much more enjoyable. I'll go back at some point.

The car works well for camping. I can sleep in it just fine. I do need to tweak a few things, but they are minor. All things considered, I hope to do more traveling in the car now.

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Made it

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On the road again

Taking the car out camping to see how I do. Off to new places. Just an overnight this time.

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