Wallowa Oregon

Moved to the Stay and Wash in Wallowa today. When we got here we went to unhook the toad and there was oil everywhere. We seem to need a front mail seal. Good thing the car wash is just next door. Cleaned things up as best as we could - but not 100 percent. I can't seem to find anything to take the oil out of the gel coat on the MH. Hurumph!! Hurumph!! Keep looking. Betty and Bob have a nice house here in Wallowa, with yard and a large shop/garage. PK is here from San Francisco for the week. She has suffered horribly from Crohn's Disease; but has had some procedures that has given her a new life. She look very good. I'll post some pictures after the wedding. Kevin and family and Skip and family came for dinner so we were able to visit with them. It has been years since we saw the kids and they are grown and having kids of their own. The Stay and Wash is on the truck route and a very nice campground. There is a car wash and a laundromat just across the street. Wallowa appears to be perking up a little. There aren't as many empty buildings but there sure is a lot of bar/restaurants. The school that Ken graduated from just keeps adding on to the old building that has been there for years. The weather is going to be beautiful this week. We can use some heat - heat - heat. I won't be complaining about the heat this year. Yeah right!!!

The view from an outhouse......................

There are outhouses and then there are OUTHOUSES. I became interested in outhouses last winter when I saw a Directv Antenna on one in Chloride New Mexico. Thought that was very interesting. I do hope the reception is good; but the view is rather limited. You must keep the door shut.

Then we saw another interesting one up Smith Fork out of Alpine Wyoming. Entrance and exit into this one appears to be very tricky and I'm not sure the environmentalists would really be in favor of this one being used. I'm not sure the view would rate either.










Finally, the queen mother of outhouses. If O.H.'s are female that is. Found in Eastern Oregon, you can see it is somewhat handicap assessible with a sturdy railing, landscaping, a planter and the steps aren't too bad either. It is however a PAY one-holer.





But hey, there is inflaction and 10 cents isn't too bad with the VIEW you get. The trick to the view is to make sure there is noone else around and just simply leave the door open.


If you go in early enough and stay there long enough the elk will eventually be right in front of you. you can always hope it is elk and NOT skunks. :) THE VIEW is the selling point...........

Hummingbirds and MORE Elk (maybe)! In Oregon

The Million Dollar View in Sumpter, Oregon........................an elk playground! This is the view my cousin Wes and his wife Cindy see every day. The Elkhorn Mountains in the background and the field the elk, deer and cranes habitat.

Same view with elk of all ages. More babies. Such fun to watch them play King of the Field. Look closely & you can see more getting ready to come out of the trees in the background. Ahhhhhh! Life is good!

We were going to stay at an RV Park; but my cousin assured me The Bus could get in AND out of their place in Sumpter; so we are parked among beautiful trees overlooking green pastures just waiting for the elk to get used to us and again come down to the house. What a great place they have. This is the "main house". We rejoice in being in an area that practices what true thinning and reforestration is all about. We went for a drive around Whitney to see how much the landscape has changed. Whitney the Ghost Town in Oregon NOT the daughter. We actually named her after a cousin's cousin before the name became popular with the Houston gal. Whitney is just pretty cool; however you slice it.

Wes and Cindy had a "do" to go to so we spent our time trying to get the perfect hummingbird picture - and we continue to try and accomplish this task. Ahhhh! Life is good!

Elk in the backyard. Birds on the front porch. Can't get much better than that. Unless of course it would be grandchildren or neices and nephews
Finally there is the balancing rock which is still balancing. I rode the bus to school under this rock and was sure it would fall down before I was old. Well, guess what? That rock has been there for 60 years and probably has another 60 in it.

The Seventh Anniversary

Getting ready to go down the Salmon River

K.C. loved to wrestle.

Football with Kyle

He was a good singer and not bad actor

K.C.'s 13th Birthday a Casa Del Rey Tradition!!

I pray today for the health of several people. These are the people who 7 years ago were awakened from sleep by the ringing of the phone or a nurse gently shook their shoulder telling them that "we have a donor for you". We pray they are thriving in their lives. The 55 year old man is now 62. The 46 year old woman is now53 and she's spent those 7 years NOT going to dialysis every day. A 23 year old African student is now 30 - maybe he's now married and teaching his child about soccer - a sport he loves. Then there is the 42 year old man that is able to walk today because there was bone available 7 years ago tomorrow to repair a badly broken pelvis.
We are proud to be from Wyoming which is one of the top 20 states for designated organ donors through the DMV. We are also proud to be an organ donor family. Our 13 year old son, brother, nephew, cousin and friend K.C. would be proud to know how much good his earthly body did after he was done with it. More information is available by googling organ donation or go to: http://www.donatelife.net/donante/DLA+Report+Card+2009.pdf

New shoes, change oil, and another new phone

High 90's today. Ken is in hog heaven. Hot and dry; hot and dry; we have found hot and dry. Bet it won't be long til I turn the AC on to get cool. Ahhhh! Never satisfied. After a wonderful lunch Ben made we went to town to get our errands run. It took all afternoon and into the evening. We spent 2.5 hours at the shoe store. What a guy. We are going to recommend that all Zcoil dealers be taught to do shoe fitting like this guy does it. Anyway we both got new heels (the correct size) for our old shoes and we both left with new shoes. They don't make velcro shoes anymore so they gave Ken shoe strings called Knotty Boys. They are pretty cool. Once you get them into the shoes and fit correctly they stretch when you put your shoes on and you don't have to ever untie them. Seem to work fine thus far. I got a pair of sandals. Weird looking but I really don't care. I used my coils all winter and don't forsee using something else this winter. We got Ken's phone ordered and the oil changed in the pickup. All four of us are kosher for another few thousand miles. (The Bus, The PKP, Ken and Me). Life is good.

Leaving WY for drier climate?? We can only hope!

Well, well Ken CAN get out of bed before 9:30-10 o'clock. He was bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 7 am. He was ready to find a drier climate and we left Fort Bridger at 8:10 for Middleton, Idaho. Of course we had plan B ready if we didn't want to go that far. However, we made it to cousin Ben Mills about 4 pm. Ben and LaDonna came to visit us in September of 2002 while Ken still had his halo on. Although I was stressed about them coming when we were so wrapped up in work, school and getting Ken to PT everyday they were such a blessing. Ben likes to cook and it seemed that they had brought their entire garden to our house. He took over the cooking and taxiing Ken back and forth. They stayed about a week and we were sorry to see them leave. Every time we come travel west we stop and visit them in Middleton. Ben is alone now as LaDonna didn't survive cancer. He has a beautiful place that he has fixed up to be as low maintenance as it comes even the huge garden he keeps. His youngest grandson was there and I taught him to play golf (cards). Tomorrow we're going to tackle learning another game.

Happy 69th to Brother Ron!

Gadfly! I haven't a clue why the pictures aren't doing what I want. Someday I'll get somewhere where there is real wifi and maybe I can fix it.

Have you ever wondered if big bull elk or moose ever get tired of holding those big horns up? This is the first time we've ever seen one resting.

And then he woke up. These windmills are huge. I couldn't believe how long those propellers are. Two blades per truck. Yippee somebody gets "renewable" energy.








I have left myself notes all over to remember calling my brother on his birthday. He has been busy going all over picking up/delivering trailers for his SIL Joe. Hey Brother - here's your palomino - Con't lose it this time. This was his favorite horse.
Of course it's the only one we have pictures of so it better be the favorite.

Visited Mountain View today. Rather a different community. I haven't run into one quite like this. Polite, friendly; but different. Can't quite put my finger on it. My word they certainly have been busy putting up power wind generators in Uinta County. We wonder just how much they generate and how far the electricity has to go. Ramble, ramble..................

I wonder if it'll rain in Fort Bridger..............

Woke up to - yup, you guessed it - RAIN. This is Wyoming. It only gets about 10-12" of rain a year and already much of it has had that amount and then some. OK - so it rained most of the night and getting out of the park might be a little dicey. Go very, very slow backward praying the front wheels (in just a little mud) would move and not sink. It's not like we're THAT light. Slow.................slow.................slow...........ahhhh out in the rock. Man, don't we love those rocks. :) Love that straight road on the plains of Wyoming. Made it to Fort Bridger - it stopped raining long enough to get set up. Poor cell service (this is the home of Union Wireless what do I expect since we use Verizon) thus poor internet. They have wireless but my router is getting ill so it is bad. I think I feel a trip to Evanston coming on. Yup - heading there to update router and get a WW fix. Haven't seen one since Cody. I can't believe Jackson doesn't have one - but they have a nice big KameapART.

Kemmerer - a new high in high..........

We made it to Kemmerer. Man have they ever had snow, moisture, rain and mud. We looked over one spot to stop - all mud. The second one wasn't much better. The snow must have really given this place a once over and over and over, etc. Anyway we went to the third spot. These guys obviously were tired of mud and had about a gazillion loads of fist sized put down all over the park. What a mess! Mud or big rocks (no not gravel rocks!) OK - no mud but you sink in about 5" and it is very "squishy" feeling. (How's that for technical?) We got the motorhome set up and gave them a good portion of our first-born's dowery for the privelege of setting here. We then went next door to eat at "Ham's Fork BBQ". Very good We didn't have to use their "Laundry Mat". That's what is says on the sign outside. Sure glad we're only staying one night here. Please, please don't let it rain................. Please don't let it rain.......................

Red Barns, Blue Barns and Old Cars!

Guess what? It was raining this morning. Ahhhh! Who cares? Afton, Wyoming is where an arch horns goes over the main street.



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Ahhh! Here are the nice red barns. So cute side by side. I don't think I've ever seen a blue barn. Why are barns always red? This blue one is quite nice. Then I stopped for gas and look what pulled in beside me. They were on a trip dressed up in long coats, woolen hats and gloves. They removed the seat to put the gas in. I wonder if they put unleaded or premium in

Oh yes. Gunnar's Pizza in Alpine Wyoming. We got the best pizza we have even eaten at Gunnar's. It was so good that we went back the next night and we don't do pizza very often.

Just can't get enough of that searching, searching

Every night we continue to check out the wildlife and see views we haven't seen before. Elk, elk, and more elk. We love them - - such a majestic animal.

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We have named thenext to last picture "Does this bush make my butt stand out? The doe kept looking at us then moved into the brush and pretended she wasn't there. And finally a snowshoe rabbit. What a cute little guy. What huge feet!
We well be leaving here heading for Kemmerer and point south. I have appointments in Afton and Star Valley Ranch on the way. It is still raining and cold. I use the heater every morning and evening. Oh well, the reservoirs certainly need the moisture.

Happy 37th to us!

We didn't get back until late night before last so Ken didn't get out of bed too early (which is HIS normal). I needed to get some computer work done so I didn't come up for air until about 4:30 pm. Since we are celebrating 37 years and we haven't done anything special for some time we called the Bar J Wranglers to see if there was room for 2 more. Yup! Door open at 5:30. We are 33 miles south of Jackson so we left right then. It was such fun! We did learn a couple of things though. Next time we will ask to be seated at the last table so that Ken can get up and lean against the wall and not be in anyone's way. They are such fun! We've seen them before; but not at their ranch. They feed up to 700 per night every night from Memorial Day through the last Saturday in September. The food was wonderful. We recommend this to anyone! Great fun! Happy Anniversary to us! So then tonight we went back out to look for wildlife. It began to rain and we only saw about 8. Hmmph!! Forecast is for 10 more days of this rain. We'll be gone by then!

Grey's River Wildlife!

I got back to Alpine where Ken had the motorhome, rested a little and then we went up Grey's River to look for wildlife. The first thing Ken saw was a moose in the river. Nice cow that just stayed still watching us. She never moved.............we're sure she had a calf somewhere around. Then a little farther on he saw a buck laying beside the road. From the looks of his velvety horns he's going to be a nice sized buck. Farther one he says there's a cow with a collar. So I stop and when I get out to look with the glasses a calf jumps up.


Then we wander on seeing deer here and an elk there up the road about 20 miles. Ken looks out one side and I look out the other - we laugh and say Yeah, we're probably missing the ones that are in the road. Ha, Ha! Yup! sure enough we look up about then and see a moose running down the road - that picture isn't one of our better ones but hey! we didn't run over her. We wander up the river about 22 miles and turn around so we can still see going back down.
Just about the time it is too dark we see an elk, I see one. I get out of the pickup to get a picture and the hillside erupts with elk going everywhere. Cows and babies and babies and cows. Some go across the road in front of us and 1/2 go into the river swimming to the other side. Then they all stop! Hmmm! My kid is over there on the wrong side of the river crying for me so the river crossing elk swim back across to snuggle up with their calves. What a hoot! Of Course it is too dark to see but I caught the first one jumping into the river and a group of about 7. I love this place!!

Ranting 102 - Mindless Driving!

I had to go to Casper for a Board Meeting so left about 11 a.m. About 3/4 mile before starting up Togwotee (spelling??) I glanced over to the side and saw a small elk herd so had to turn around, go back and test the new toy some more. As you can tell we are "elk" folks.Hope you can see the baby elk.

So I got to Riverton, stopped for a bit and headed out to Casper. Ken's wreck was at milepost 69 and I always stop for a bit there. It doesn't mean much to Ken as he was out of it; but to Whitney and myself that is the place that K.C. met the angels. So I'm motoring along about milepost80 or so. I'm going about 65 and there were 4 vehicles behind me. I was a ways behind a school bus which was followed by a small car but there was plenty of room between us 4 and the other two. There was a tanker truck coming toward us when I looked in my rear mirror and there is a small Jeep out in the passing lane - just pooping along. I start to think he's going to pull back in; he isn't going fast enough; OMG he isn't and he's still out there. He's passed the first guy but not the second or me. The truck is getting closer and I watch in the mirror as I pull over onto the shoulder and put my brakes on - fortunately the people behind me were paying attention and then put their brakes on also so all was well on that front. The @#$#@ little Jeep zipped into our lane passing by me. About 2 seconds later the tanker went by. Well he had a logo on his vehicle Wyoming's New Leader Channel @. Well I am so going to stop at the office and have a chat. The little dude zips up to the car and the bus; pulls out into the passing lane and then zips back just as a car passes him. I SEE Red!! Now I put my foot into the radiator and head out after him to get his license plate number. I zoom up to him and behold he pulls to the side of the road and stops. So do I. It is at about milepost 70. I slam out of the pickup and go up to his vehicle. He is getting out, looking down and jumps when I begin reaming him out. He didn't even know I had stopped behind him!! Talk about mindless driving!

Well he heard the story about the Moneta Triangle and how 14 people lost their lives on this horrid stretch of road between MP 68 and 74 in 16 months in 2001-2. Only one accident was at night and only one was alcohol related. The others were during daylight. How Fremont County banded together to put reminders up on this road with no shoulders to put their lights on. It is a straight stretch of road. How the group went to Thermopolis when the Transportation Board met; loaded them into a bus and took them to the area to show them how dangerous the road was and it needed bumped up five years to be fixed. How because of the death of my 13 year old son, a 14 year old girl, a 3 year old girl, a 12 year old girl and some adults there was a SHOULDER for me and the other folks to use so that we all were annilated in some fiery explosion when he met the tanker head on!!!! He just kept saying I'm so sorry! He wouldn't give me his name; but I do know how to google and his picture is on their website. He got the water he had stopped for out of the back and motored on. I went another mile and stopped at the accident site to marvel and how wonderful the new road is and talk with K.C. a little. I had to settle my stomach and stop shaking. It is so hard for people to think that it CAN happen to them. That the next minute is a gift not a promise!! I hope this young man can grasp that concept as there are a lot of straight, mindless driving roads in Wyoming.

We part ways - for a few days!

The contrast this year of the red hills and the emerald green pasture is astounding. The paper says this is the wettest "spring" in several years. Some parts of the state have had more ran thus far in the year than the average annual rainfall.
Two mad mama elk. "Get away from our babies you morons!"The cows with calves have been a hoot. They send their young one way and fake you out by going the other, then stopping to see if you are following them. I haven't been from Moran to Dubois in several years. It is good to see they are redoing the road, making it wider. Construction season is alive and well in Wyoming.

So I got to Riverton, stopped for a bit and headed out to Casper. Ken's wreck was at milepost 69 and I always stop for a bit there. It doesn't mean much to Ken as he was out of it; but to Whitney and myself that is the place that K.C. met the angels. So I'm motoring along about milepost80 or so. I'm going about 65 and there were 4 vehicles behind me. I was a ways behind a school bus which was followed by a small car but there was plenty of room between us 4 and the other two. There was a tanker truck coming toward us when I looked in my rear mirror and there is a small Jeep out in the passing lane - just pooping along. I start to think he's going to pull back in; he isn't going fast enough; OMG he isn't and he's still out there. He's passed the first guy but not the second or me. The truck is getting closer and I watch in the mirror as I pull over onto the shoulder and put my brakes on - fortunately the people behind me were paying attention and then put their brakes on also so all was well on that front. The @#$#@ little Jeep zipped into our lane passing by me. About 2 seconds later the tanker went by. Well he had a logo on his vehicle Wyoming's New Leader Channel @. Well I am so going to stop at the office and have a chat. The little dude zips up to the car and the bus; pulls out into the passing lane and then zips back just as a car passes him. I SEE Red!! Now I put my foot into the radiator and head out after him to get his license plate number. I zoom up to him and behold he pulls to the side of the road and stops. So do I. It is at about milepost 70. I slam out of the pickup and go up to his vehicle. He is getting out, looking down and jumps when I begin reaming him out. He didn't even know I had stopped behind him!! Talk about mindless driving!

Well he heard the story about the Moneta Triangle and how 14 people lost their lives on this horrid stretch of road between MP 68 and 74 in 16 months in 2001-2. One was at night and one was alcohol related. The others were during daylight. How Fremont County banded together to put reminders up on this road with no shoulders to put their lights on. It is a straight stretch of road. How the group went to Thermopolis when the Transportation Board met; loaded them into a bus and took them to the area to show them how dangerous the road was and it needed bumped up five years to be fixed. How because of the death of my 13 year old son, a 14 year old girl, a 3 year old girl, a 12 year old girl and some adults there was a SHOULDER for me and the other folks to use so that we all were annilated in some fiery explosion when he met the tanker head on!!!!

Snow in June - it MUST be Wyoming!

June 6, 2009

Holy Guacamole! Three days without the internet or cell. Amazing! We have had such a good time even though Ken’s pain level has skyrocketed to about a 9; but he knows we won’t be back here so is gritting his teeth and moving on. We watched a movie this morning and left to explore about 2 pm. Drove the east side of the park up to Monmouth in a circle back to Fishing Bridge (stayed there as we are too long for the other cg’s.) Today the rain stayed away until late afternoon and we were able to do a couple of walks looking out over the Canyon.In spite of his eye problems, Ken spotted a loan elk WAAYY over in laying in the middle of a small clearing. I took a picture of it. Why? Because I could! You can even tell it is an elk. (It is the small things that keep the FTer Retiree happy. J New toy, remember.) There are new walkways in several areas. We have had a marvelous time in YNP. The lake is so HUGE – especially this year. Water, water, water everywhere!There are trees growing out of the river – no land in sight. Obviously this isn’t a typical year. 29 years in Wyoming and this is the FIRST time we have stopped to “smell the flowers”. There are new lookouts over the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Magnificent! Beautiful colors of the rock formations as they have sloughed off. We have managed to not harm one another as we learn the new camera. Ken doesn’t have the best use of his right hand thumb and first figure, so not shaking the camera has been an obstacle for him at the fine zoom mode. Thus we have purged many a picture but we have some wonderful keepers.I think I’m going to do the web album thing – Olympus or Picasa3; Olympus or Picasa3………………It’ll be a surprise and will depend solely on which one I figure out first. It is baby season and we have managed to spy quite a few babies. To date we have seen buffalo, antelope, deer, elk, geese, pelicans and a mouse. Yes, I said mouse NOT moose. Of course we have seen many STUPID people. Walking up to buffalo – they must not have read their history about the fact that the Indians had to outsmart the buffalo as their horses couldn’t keep up with the buffalo at a 30 mph sprint. Nice, bull!Nice, bull.

June 7, 2009

Woke up to 3” of snow on the vehicles this a.m. I’m getting ready to venture out and see what the road report is. We might not hook up the Pkp this morning. We are to leave to go south through Grand Teton NP on to Moran. Then we’ll spend the rest of the day ‘ploring GTNP.We found a road down through it we never knew about let along drove on it. I told him he needs to keep thinking – Moose! Moose! Moose! By the time we got ready to go it had really started to snow and it was sticking - to the tune of about 5". We had decided to hook up the toad and prayed that we could get down to a lower elevation with no physical or property accidents. We realized that our new tires were going to pay for themselves RIGHT NOW! Traction is what we were going to need. About 3/4 of a mile from a smallish hill we met a 5wheeler that gave us the slow down problems ahead hand signals, so I pulled it down to about 10 mph and around the corner vehicles were sliding to stops, etc. Folks were locking brakes coming down the hill (no slick driving experience). Ken drove the MH in case we had to unhook. That way he could stay inside. Slowly everyone got going and we waited until a van was about out of sight before we started out. We took off with no problems but around the corner we saw we were doomed. The two vans in front of us were overpowering with the footfeeds and had the road plugged. There was a 5wheeler stopped in the downhill lane off to the far right. Yup! We pulled it to a stop. I got out to unhook. A 5 wheeler behind us came and helped me. I had it in 4WD. A MH had unhooked it's toad and the wife was slowly coming down the hill first with him right behind. She began to slide and she locked up the brakes and here she came. I yelled to get off the brake but she was petrified. I slammed it in gear and went forward and the guy behind me ran over and pushed the front end down and she went onto the side of the road without hitting either of us. The pavement was warm and after everyone would sit a couple of minutes the ice was gone and if they didn't floorboard it they could ease up the hill without spinning their wheels. I stopped the downhill traffic at the top of the hill and waved Ken to come on. He and the other 5 wheeler eased over the hill and kept going. THEN the snow plow came with the Park Service person. What a day! We proceeded with no problems. Ended up at an RV park west of Moran, took a nap and went animal hunting. We went down through GTNP on a road we hadn't been on. The mountaians up closer were beautiful. Saw lots of elk, two bull moose, lots of deer and torqued off two cow elk. We couldn't see their babies; but we knew we were close by the way they acted. The bulls/bucks are in velvet but you can see how big they're going to be by the foundat that is beginning.