#43--Mesa Verde, and departures...

It’s Monday and a day of changes—we have to leave—nobody really wants to but it’s time. Poor Tom—I think he is going to miss us—Betsy needs to get back to work but I think Tom enjoyed coming home to a house full of women—that told too many old and funny stories. With him right in the middle of it and us hanging on, or commenting about, every word he spoke—and did I mention we always had wonderful food and drink mixed in with all of it? Oh well—all must change…

I just finished my shower and the other girls took the 2 boys and Betsy’s boy, Zeus, down to the lake for a final run. I think I’m suppose to be packing leftovers and putting back my kitchen together since we had spread out into the house. Then it’s about 100 miles to our next camp spot. We will probably stop in Durango on the way and do a Wallyworld fix. T&B live 50 miles away from a decent size town so we have been just picking up minimum from the local more expensive establishments and we could use some supplies—although probably not much food—back to those leftovers.

Guess we should also be thinking about getting home and working on some business stuff. Hope to update pictures before too long too. It’s just been hard to do much more on the computer than what I’ve been doing lately. But enough about riding, recipes, and other fun stuff—I will try to get done what needs to get done. So off to business—maybe more later…

Well it’s now almost 10pm in Mesa Verde National park. We just got back from Cortez after eating at a Mexican Restaurant that obviously had a tourist scam. We ordered the “Regular” margarita but that turned out to be the same terminology as the “Original” which was $2 more than the “Regular”—same size but supposedly “better”. But it was obviously a scam towards the tourists/people going through and they wouldn’t back off. Too bad, since the food was great and we would have gone back tomorrow. No way now…we do have our integrity…but they ended up with an extra $15—guess the scam is working.

The rest of the evening was some serious discussion of life/relationships/goals/and again—life—and what’s important. And the difference of what years of living life really means.
Hopefully we all learned something…we’re probably all more relaxed.

The campground in Mesa Verde is really nice and we have full hookups—of course they are $33 an night! A luxury of unlimited showers and unlimited bathroom use has been few and far between—good timing since we have to “dry” camp once we hit Albuquerque—but that’s only $25 a weekend and free during the week, not a bad deal—easy to rationalize these expensive 2 days. Hopefully we can find a dump station in Alb. close to the show and relatively cheap. Tonight we also actually have a TV station coming in with just a little fuzz. Hard to believe we are excited about it.
Tomorrow we will explore the park—and perhaps do laundry, since they have one, so the 3 of us will be better prepared for our professional life…it’s coming up fast…I might even try to paint one of my flowers…

Tuesday morning—We have internet! Although very iffy. Looks like the day will be pretty much what we’ve planned last night. Showers, laundry, maybe me doing pictures, and exploring a park. Have seen lot’s of deer but no critters came last night to my little pile of scraps I left out. The last park I had feral cats, skunks and much more I missed because I finally went to sleep. We’ll see what happens tonight…

#42--Cook-a-thon declared a tie...couldn't be much better.

Well the finale of the cook off was the ultimate. Tom smoked a pork butt roast all day and then it was grilled veggie kabobs with dill sauce, Spaghetti squash w/butter, grilled portabella mushrooms, and then an Italian veggie salad I made. It was all absolutely wonderful. We just decided that I won on quantity, since I cooked more evenings but it was a respectable tie for quality—anyone hanging out with Tom and I in the same room, would be eating well. Those lucky girls…

And now they are all fighting over the Betsy contribution—homemade apple crisp. There are groans of pleasure happening at the table as we write. And now that everyone is served there is just silence and forks and plates scraping. Short break…

Just came back from the apple crisp feast—it was the perfect ending. The cook-a-thon has to end today—we would be blimps—all of us—if we didn’t leave tomorrow! So I guess we will head out tomorrow. The first half of the day will just be splitting up leftovers!

Betsy & I went on a ride this afternoon. I did the first half on Romeo just for the challenge of making him do what I want—then I was told I had to ride a mule before I got one, so I rode home on Sapphire. I wanted to know where to drop the quarter in for the push button ride. She’s spoiled but if you want to do what she wants--she is a piece of cake. I was just along for the ride. Romeo had insisted on some battles so Sapphire was a pleasant break—and yes I still want a mule as long as it has an out of character pretty head and is gaited. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

The morning was another stellar start with my Sausage gravy over Tom’s homemade biscuits and hash browns. I think we all enjoyed this Sunday more than most. It’s been a very good day.

We just retired to our trailer and one of the reasons we have to leave is that we are all sore—not from riding but from laughing…It’s been amazing what has come out of everyone’s mouth—not just me—everyone has been an offender and it has been not only an eat-a-thon it has been more importantly a laugh fest. We’ve decided we all have a very sick sense of humor…people like us shouldn’t gather in groups. And especially never stay together for a week! And poor Tom—the only guy around 4 women…He’ll be looking for his manhood for the next 6 months. Good thing he seemed to enjoy himself.

Tomorrow we will go to Mesa Verde National park where we have reservations for the next 2 nights with FULL HOOKUPS! That means long showers every day if we want! Very cool…Hopefully we will have internet—otherwise the update won’t be till Wednesday when we arrive in Albuquerque…the beginning of the end. But it’s been a good time…Thanks Tom & Betsy for making this part special.

#41-Tom & Janet's Infamous Recipes

Here's what I got written down from Tom--there are a couple here that we didn’t make as a group but are worth sharing if I’m already going to the trouble of writing them all down anyway—Enjoy—but don’t blame us if they don’t turn out the way we cook them. Sometimes it’s hard to be Tom and Janet—not everyone can do it. (and we might have forgotten an important ingredient in the telling…)
These are Tom's recipes

Zucchini casserole
Take whatever size pan you are planning on using sprinkle a light covering of oatmeal—any kind. Then you take whatever squash (zucchini or yellow) and slice ¼ inch thick—cover the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle a med. dusting of bread crumbs over the layer. Sprinkle a layer of onions over that layer. Next layer is your choice of cheese (we used cheddar & Romano) but anything you like is ok. Then start all over again—green chilies are optional for any layer. Take it up to about ½ inch from top of casserole pan. The last layer should just be squash.
Then add a thicker coat of breadcrumbs.
Then mix up golden or cream of mushroom soup with half of the water—add enough to cover entire casserole (If you cook it too dry you can add water in the future)
Then sprinkle—heavy—a layer of Mrs. Dash Original—then add last layer of cheese. Cook at 350 until bubbly and golden brown—could be 1-2 hours depending on size of casserole.
Optional additions—
Corn tortillas instead of bread crumbs
Corn chip topping
Crushed pretzels for topping


Eggplant Parmigian
Put bread crumbs evenly on bottom of pan. Sprinkle extra virgin olive oil across bread crumbs and set aside.

In a shake bag put 4 cups of breadcrumbs, ½ cup of flour and a really heavy tablespoon of Italian seasoning, salt to taste. Shake.

Slice eggplant thin a short ¼ inch—dip in a straight egg batter—and then shake in bag.
Then fry in olive oil until browned on both sides. As they are done just add to bread crumb layer in pan. Layer cooked eggplant with a light layer of basic tomato sauce. Season with Italian seasoning—don’t be shy.
Add better than basic shredded parmesan/Romano layer.
Continue starting with bread crumbs layering until done with tomato sauce/Italian seasoning and cheese as your final layers. Can add sliced tomatoes before the cheese.
Cook at 350 for about 1 ½ hours—it stops bubbling—not watery but not too dry.

The Portobello mushroom concoction—
The best pan is a wok—take 2 large cloves of garlic—peel but leave whole. Chop onions into wedges—set aside. Slice 2 large portabellas about ¾ inch chunks—set aside.
Heat 1T butter until pretty hot and then cook garlic till brown—almost roasted and then add onions. Cook onions until transparent. Add teaspoon plus of olive oil up higher on rim of wok. Add portabellas and toss/cook until mushrooms turn dark.
As mushrooms turn dark add a sprinkle of teriyaki sauce—then add a cornstarch and water thickener—this is where Tom fell apart on his recipe telling—could have had something to do with the s’more made with chocolate frosting and gas stove roasted marshmallow Betsy just handed him. But anyway you want to thicken the sauce. Sauce should come up about 2/3rds the way up the mushrooms. Add water to make it just a light sauce—it also helps cook mushrooms. Once mushrooms turn black or are done—add ¼ c of sherry—stir, cut heat and serve.

Ice Cream
For ice cream you need a blender, ice, a can of sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and then any flavors you want (chocolate, peaches, strawberries, peppermint schnapps, chocolate chips, etc.)
For full blender full use 1 can of the milk, and ½ T of vanilla and then add crushed ice until it thickens, add flavoring to milk at first, sometimes it is easier to do half of blender at a time—just add ice until good consistency—add reg. milk if necessary. It’s easy and good.

Coconut shrimp—use as many shrimp as you want
1-2 Cans of coconut milk—try to get unsweetened & light
Shredded coconut
Bread crumbs—with Mrs. Dash Original mixed in
Cooking oil
1-2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
Egg & milk mixture to use for breading.

Peel, devein, and butterfly some decent sized shrimp. Bread with bread crumbs, Mrs. Dash, & shredded coconut in a shaker bag—use egg mixture to wet shrimp—try to get it all on pretty heavy—double dip it.
Fry shrimp in frying pan with oil over the shrimp—about an inch deep for most size. Drain on paper towels—do all the shrimp.
In a large casserole pan lay out all the shrimp with tail sticking up and most of them touching each other—mix coconut milk with sweetened condensed milk and mix in some nutmeg—use 1 to 1 can ratio. Pour a light layer over each of the shrimp—put in 425 oven. After about 2 minutes cooking pull out and do another light layer of milk over each shrimp again. Repeat every 2 min until milk is gone.
Heat other can of both milks with some more nutmeg and heat until low bubble. Put in gravy dish or dipping bowls for side dipping—Shrimp should be done in about 6-8 minutes when the milk topping is thick. Keep the layers light so the breading stays on—don’t overcook the shrimp when frying it.

These are some of Janet’s recipes--All my recipes are strictly guidelines—they seldom turn out the same way twice—but always good—when in doubt season them some more. Use common sense on basic amounts although mine always seems to grow to the next pan size up…same quality guarantee as Tom’s—you must of done something wrong if it doesn’t turn out…same reasons. E-mail me when you try something and let me know how they turn out.

Baked Potato soup
Clean 6-8 russet potatoes—I leave the skins on. Cube into about ½ inch cubes.
Since Stacy has issues with veggies and I have to hide them or make them too small to pick out I put an onion, about 5 stalks of celery, and a small bag of baby carrots and chop them all up in a food processor.
Boil the potatoes in water that has chicken bouillon added to the water—add veggie mixture about half way through being done. Get the potatoes just tender—not overcooked. Drain and set aside.
In large pot fry a pound of bacon already chopped up in smaller pieces—drain off at least half of the grease or all of it—depending on “how bad for you soup” you want. Drain bacon in paper towels and set aside. Add enough margarine to remaining bacon grease so that you have about ½ c. Once it is all melted add a heavy ½ c flour to make a roué. Cook and stir over medium heat to bubbly and then cook constantly stirring for 2 more minutes. Then slowly add about ½-¾ gal of skim milk—at least that is what we use—any milk will work. Stir frequently until all blended and bring to low boil. Season heavy with Mrs. Dash Garlic and herb, celery salt, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste—and anything else you want—dill etc..
Cut back heat and then start adding cubed Velveeta cheese—we use light. Add most of the block of cheese depending on how much milk and how much you like cheese. Adjust thickness with milk although you want it about gravy consistency. Once it has all melted add your potatoes and veggie mixture—you could also add cooked broccoli or cauliflower at this stage—Stacy refuses both—adjust any seasonings although don’t be afraid to use plenty—it will even be better the next day. Just before serving add all of the cooked, crumbled bacon although you can save back some for garnish. Garnish with bacon, a little shredded cheese, or green onions.


Enchiladas
Basic cheese and onion
Flour tortillas
3#of shredded co jack cheese—Wal-Mart carries this bag already done for you
Sauce—in blender add 1 can of Cheddar Cheese soup to 2 cans of diced tomatoes and green chilies (I use Wal-Mart brand). I use 1 can tomato &green chilies and 1 regular diced tomatoes since Stacy doesn’t like much spice. But the basic ratio is 1 cheese soup to 2 cans tomatoes.
Blend in blender until smooth. I usually make extra sauce since these casseroles freeze really well and the sauce is messy to make. Put sauce in something that is easy to pour from.

To construct cheese and onion—Pam your casserole and then put a light covering of sauce. Take a flour tortilla and put a healthy amount of cheese down the middle of tort. Sprinkle with chopped onions and pour a light covering of sauce. Roll up and place seam down in casserole pan. Continue until casserole is full—cover with a liberal amount of cheese and then completely cover in sauce. Can use knife to get sauce down in it and knock it on the counter to get it to settle. Put final layer of cheese garnish with chopped onion and cook at 350 until bubbly and golden. Plan on cutting down the middle to cut enchiladas in half—too hard to serve otherwise.

For chicken filling: Any leftover chicken will do but I usually use a deboned Sam’s club rotisserie chicken. Chop it or you can put it in a food processor. Add 1-2 pkgs of cream cheese or we use that New*** cheese that is just like it only 1/3 the fat—it’s always right next to it—we just can’t think what it’s called. It all depends on how much chicken you have and what you want. Add some sauce to get it thinner but still a stiff consistency. I also like to add can of mild green chilies. Construct them just like the cheese, a good hunk all the way down the middle, a little shredded cheese, a little sauce and then roll them up and put them seam down. Finish off casserole.

For Beef: Brown ground beef. I would add chopped onion. You can also add taco meat seasoning or salsa and then construct them the same way as the others.

Be generous with the shredded cheese and sauce. Cook and then serve this with chips since it is also great for eating with chips—we use them as our forks.
Great leftovers and casseroles freeze well. And very easy if you just do the basic

Baked Potato casserole
Wash about 2-3 more russet potatoes than you are serving people.
Cook until baked potato quality in the microwave. Cut in half and scoop out meat. You can cut up good skins and add them. Mash with hand masher.
Cook crumbled bacon and add finely chopped onion after cooking bacon—have bacon draining.
Add to mashed potatoes—light sour cream (about 8 oz for 6-7 potatoes), plenty of shredded co jack, garlic that was cooked with onions or powder, onions, and butter—between ½ stick to a whole one—again depends on how bad for you you want it.
Mash all together—salt and pepper to taste and I usually add Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb to about everything I make. Add bacon leaving some to side—dump mixture into pammed casserole. Put a nice layer of shredded co-jack over the top and garnish with bacon. Cook at 350 until hot and golden.

Easy slow cooker “turkey” dinner
Ok—this is the reason we have been known to take a crock pot on the road with us—easy with almost instant gratification—if you don’t mind a bit of a wait.
Layer in Crockpot
Stovetop stuffing—add water as directed on package.
Frozen mashed potato rounds—cover stuffing with single layer
Deboned rotisserie chicken—layer
Mix 1 can of cream of chicken soup with 2 jars of chicken gravy—pour over top of everything.
Let cook in slow cooker until everything is heated all the way through—really good.

Sausage gravy
My choice is straight good quality turkey breakfast sausage but I made a big batch this morning and this is the recipe that we decided to publish.
Brown 1# of turkey breakfast sausage and 1# of pork country sausage. Cook until completely done. Add margarine until you have about ½ c of grease in with the meat. Add 3-4 beef boullian cubes and break them down. Once melted add ½ c of flour and stirring constantly cook at least 2 minutes. They say 2 minutes is what it takes to get the starchy flavor out of a flour based roué. Start by adding the milk and the first 3-4 cups quickly- slowly add about ½ gallon of milk—all depends on how thick you like your gravy. Add lots of black pepper—and salt to taste—always taste it first before you add much salt—the sausage and boullian cubes have already added some. Bring to boil stirring constantly—serve with baked hash browns or biscuits. This amount will feel 5 people more than they should eat and have leftovers—I usually only cook 1# Turkey sausage for Stacy & I—adjusting everything by half. Use your common sense…Enjoy

#40--Saturday breakfast and in general lazing...

Saturday night and all is well. Today has been a totally relaxing day. We slept late and then Betsy treated us to a cast iron breakfast—maple bacon, and the fixings to do cheese stuffed roasted green chilies, eggs, and toast. I took advantage of all of it and it was great. Even bettered my camp breakfast since it was cast iron and butter…it’s kind of like charcoal—don’t like the weight or curing/don’t like the lighting and slower timing—but there is something to be said about the taste. Just not practical on a common basis, with our busy lifestyle. That’s ok—we don’t seem to suffer…but it was a treat.

Yuliya just did yet another daily basil pesto making experience. And the most bizarre part is that she is almost eating it as fast as she can make it. And we are talking at least 15 bushy plants to clean—over a bushel of leaves. I think we are on 4 days of her doing it and she is now looking almost green. We’ve decided she’s the green martian and we are really in Roswell….She just eats it by the fork full at meals. I’m thinking she will start to smell like garlic about the time she moves back in the trailer—joy. We are just thinking it’s a phase. Or at least hoping…

Tom and I started to work on our recipe page—you’ll probably have to take notes from reading it but we are trying to put it down. Just remember—when we mention a spice we usually put a reasonable coat over the entire dish—we’re more liberal but use little salt. Don’t be afraid of spice—especially the blends we usually use.

We had leftovers tonight after a day in the casino town that Stacy & I had another negative gambling experience—we are now only $90 ahead—but at least ahead!

Then we hit the grocery for Tom’s supplies to wow us with BBQ tomorrow and we headed home. After lots of relaxing we took the borrowed horse back home—our truck is the one to use on any of these towing experiences—it’s being lusted after. We hopefully will go on a short ride tomorrow and then just get organized to head out on Monday. Our trailer could use a clean/organization moment since we have only been using it as a sleeping place.

We just had leftovers tonight but will probably have a couple of recipes extra for the trying—If there is anyone more of a story teller than me—it’s Tom—he could actually beat me hands down—and he has the cowboy hat to fit the role…He’d be the perfect one to read my future book.

We also got a good priceline deal for them for their December Columbus, OH show. They were thinking about driving their little RV-- but I got 5 days for them at a Baymont Inn for $214. Can’t really beat it, especially at that time of year—it can be cold! And we are hoping Tom will stop by for a couple of days as he drives back and forth in the van to help Betsy do those shows--and do what he does best—be a handyman! He’s amazing on his scope and we will do our best to use him to his fullest for a couple of days—he already knows we feed well…At least that is what we have planned for them!

Stacy has been busy with making her really cool bracelets and ankle bracelets. She gives them away to everyone--even though she sold one at an art fair for $50. Guess it’s just what we tend to do…I just cook, talk, and be me...

#39--Shrimp pasta, rides, and naps...

It’s Friday afternoon and Stacy is snoring away in the background surrounded by the boys. We started the day with another ride around here. Mine was a little more exciting since Romeo thought he could probably be in charge this second time around. He even tried a bucking routine—although no one is buying my new self appointed title of “Bronc Buster” or as Yuliya said “bronk horser”. I ended up winning all the battles and am leading in the war, but it did make me work a little harder than the rest of the group—although Yuliya did most of it on her walk with the boys so everyone is a bit tired. I think just an active vacation in catching up with Stacy, and it is in the 80’s here—almost too warm for our choice.

I’ve been trying to get a master printed off of this here blog. Figure I’ll have several artists friends at the show and it will be good reading material—especially since I transferred it to word and it’s all in order instead of backwards. Holler is you want a copy…(although we just came in later tonight and our error on our printer is that we have outlived our printer parts and it is dead--sounds like an Albuquerque problem.)

And Romona you are right—I probably didn’t need the entire 25,000+ (yes that is twenty-five THOUSAND) words it is up to this point—but hey—got anything better to do? And I do enjoy the story telling…

Guess I better head into the house and see about making my Shrimp, mushroom, artichoke alfredo pasta—I am earning my keep as cook.

Hoping Betsy will convince her outfitter friend that they need a cook for their September-November hunting camps. I could do that if I got a horse to ride in my spare time—with my organization and Stacy’s muscle we could be quite the team to hire for a couple of months. It would be an interesting experience for us…and think of the blog I could have during that!

Just got in for the evening, the shrimp pasta was wonderful and we’ve been convinced to stay until Monday—we just have too many things to do together—and it’s been a great time.

Tomorrow we will probably do another ride around there—Betsy has been getting some good work time and we are pretty easy guests. She is totally comfortable of us taking off by ourselves—guess we have passed the “can handle horses” test.

And then Tom wants to BBQ on Sunday. Sounds good to us…
We seem to all hang out well together and Tom, being a relative newcomer of 3 yrs, views us as his & their friends, we get along very well, Tom & I relate…nice to have an important niche in another’s relationship—and they with us.

So we will probably sleep late tomorrow and then do our thing, ride, veg, and then top it off with an award winning dinner & libations. It looks to be a great weekend ahead…

#38--a warm fuzzy night...

It’s Thursday night and I be about as content as I can be—wouldn’t have added anything to the menu.

The enchiladas last night were a complete success although Tom’s sensitive towards chicken stomach must have pick up some chicken enchiladas—given a choice he would do it all over again. Staying with the food theme I made us Baked Potato Soup tonight and it was very much to die for and just what Tom’s stomach needed.

I want to do a recipe page to cover some of what we’ve had—very much tried and true…just give me some time…that’s a footnote…

The rest of today found us sleeping late and just being lazy. Then we went into the casino town and left Yuliya with her phone glued to her ear and we went in to make our fortune. But Stacy failed us…we ended up both losing our $40 each so we have back slid to only being $170 ahead with this casino—one of the bad things of playing the money game—be it stock market or slots. But it is the price we pay and we will overcome…

Then I came back and made the hellava dinner and now we are in our beloved trailer. Yuliya has been staying in the guest room in the house and I will admit it has been nice having it all to ourselves. We do like our trailer…

Tomorrow Stacy & I will go riding around here and plan on doing a big ride on Saturday—Betsy needed to catch up on some work so we are on our own until the weekend. Looks like we might head out to Mesa Verde National park on Sunday or Monday—camp there a couple of days before we head to Albuquerque.

Guess that’s all on this end. We’ll try to do something dangerous and illegal tomorrow to spice up the blog. I know how much you'all expect…

#37-Riding, SOAKING, enjoying...

Good Golly—it’s Wednesday already. Guess we are either having a great time or dead…good thing it’s the first.

Yes, we have been having a very good time in our own little world of southern Colorado, riding, soaking, eating, drinking, and enjoying life with friends.

Sunday ended up just being a mellow day—we relaxed around the house/trailer and then Stacy & I went to the casino for an extra $130 dollars. Now Tom & Betsy understand why we go—of course it was totally Stacy the winner—I lost my $40.

Then we came home to a Tom cooked Vegetarian dinner—it was excellent and even Stacy had seconds and cleared her plate. He made a zucchini casserole to die for, eggplant parmesan, again to die for, and then a creamy stir fry portabella garlic concoction, by then we were just dead! And then as if he couldn’t knock our socks off any more, he made blender ice cream! Best with snow we were told, but ice worked quite admirably—if there were more like him—we’d have one!

Monday saw us going to get the horses, while Yuliya held down the home front, and the 3 of us took the horses up into some high country and rode up a mountain from a lake. The view was fabulous and Stacy & I got along well with our mounts. Stacy got to ride the gaited mule, and I, the borrowed horse. Betsy rode her pride and joy, her black and white, Romeo—very Sedona like only very spoiled. I wanted to ride him! We had a close encounter with a rain storm that ended up only sprinkling, but seemed kind of scary and even kind of like the movies—a mountain dream ride.

That night we made cold boiled shrimp and leftovers—a meal fit again for a king…

Tuesday had to be a catch up morning, and we went to do laundry in Ignacio. Of course, once the clothes got started, we left Yuliya in charge and headed to make another $50 at the casino. Kind of like taking Stacy to work. I lost $60 but Stacy made up for it so we are about $250 ahead for this casino. Hopefully we will continue our luck once we hit Albuquerque.

We were home by 2 and we then went up to Pagosa Springs to “The Springs-A Resort”. It was locals night which allowed us all in for 1/3 the price and we treated ourselves to life of the “Rich & Famous”. We soaked for hours in an assortment of various hot spring pools that ranged from 90 degrees up to 112. We felt like wet noodles as we ate our pizza out in a snazzy local restaurant. It was great—and Yuliya now knows where she wants to live—in the pools. It was bed immediately when we got home.

This morning we saddled the horses—with me on Romeo and Stacy on borrowed horse, Betsy on her mule, and we headed out to trespass on Ute Indian reservation. It was great riding and I loved Romeo. We had to reach an understanding—no treats from me and he had to walk if I wanted him too—he totally thought I was ugly and I stank but we ended up getting along fine. And it’s always good for horses like that to have other people to ride them.

And now the day has turned into a catch up day. I’ll try to get pictures up and Stacy & Yuliya are cleaning basil for pesto. I’m going to make enchiladas tonight with Betsy doing guac—and probably all will end up cleaning basil—Betsy’s garden has been prolific with basil…

The weather continues to be perfect, although it is warming up—still comfortable and gets cooler in evening. We will probably stay here until Sunday or Monday—there are several potential plans in the works if we could get a hold of the other players, so we are just taking one day at a time. We have decided not to do the Taos show—horses trump mediocre art fair on this vacation. After all—we did have to give up a couple of things on it…

#36--Mountain passes and friends...

It is Saturday night and we are feeling like stuffed, satisfied little piglets…
We started the day having to drive from Ridgway to Arboles, NM to Tom & Betsy’s house. We finally got there, but it was after crossing 3 major passes—over 10,000 feet. Stacy wanted to drive and I think she later regretted that, but we made it to Durango without any major incidents. The drive was spectacular scenery.

In Durango we stopped for our last supply stop at Wally world and then, lo and behold, there was a casino in the town 20 miles before their house. The truck seems incapable of passing them by…Of course Stacy came out $70 ahead and I-- 18 cents ahead—quite a success all the way around. And then we got to their house.

We have been welcomed with open arms and after the afternoon of telling the story of our trip—they hadn’t read the blog although now want to—and then cocktails & appetizers—I made dinner. We had brought steaks which I made w/sherry mushrooms, my famous Baked Potato casserole, and Yuliya made a strawberry lettuce salad, plus some good bread--we all ate ourselves into oblivion. All the time planning some great rides ahead. It doesn’t get much better.

They live in the high desert mountains and are right next to the Ute Indian Reservation—not allowed to ride at but they are rule breakers—we just can’t wear tye dye and will need to be discreet—a novel idea…plus they are next to a Navajo Lake state park that also has a river through it. We actually might move the trailer down there for a night since it’s so pretty. The bad news is because it is a desert area, they have limited well water so we are using our trailer tank for showers and will have to dump regularly. But the state park is close and has all the dumping necessities.

Tomorrow we go up and pick up theirs, plus an extra horse so we have 3 horses available. It works out well for Stacy, Betsy, and I—Tom and Yuliya will probably just do a few rides. She also has a few other trailheads that we can camp at so we will probably all go camping but right now we are just in the planning stage. It’s been nice though and we are looking forward to the week here. I’m sure it will fly by.
Guess it’s shower time…always a good way to start the day.

#35--Neon, Passes, and good parks...

Thursday night--We packed up from the wilderness and are now sleeping among neon signs. We decided we needed a full city experience and are staying in a RV park in the middle of Vernal, Ut. Not really a city but at least a town with the basics.

And I am ticking everyone off by listening to MSNBC—political news—still depressing to me but more depressing to my trailer mates. Doubt if I will stay in touch with the world happenings over the next month—and that is ok—our world is scary….wish I ran it…and it scares me what are our priorities—obviously not environmental or education—but instead for the corporate thought process. Wish I ran a corporation to get health insurance—can’t afford $800+ a month as a small business person. Oh well—that’s another problem—

Friday night—watched cable TV last night so didn’t post—modern conveniences trump writing my blog—especially after so long without modern conveniences!
But today we drove from Vernal to Ridgeway, Colorado. I made the decision to go over the pass we were warned against—but it was so much more the direct route. The good news is that obviously the people that warned us against it haven’t driven the roads we have. Not a problem at all and I was even convinced when we crested the summit that surely we had another one to go—surely that wasn’t it. But it was—and our B.A. truck handled it fine.

We treated ourselves to a Red Lobster lunch and then hit Sam’s club in Grand Junction, CO to get some good supplies to take to Betsy and Tom’s house. We also plan on hitting a Wally SuperCenter in Durango to finish the menus. We will then probably get to their house tomorrow (Sat) but right now we are staying in a state park that has full hookups and is really nice. We’ve already been treated to a herd of deer wandering through and the views are excellent.

Yuliya has had cell phone service most of the day so it has been attached to her ear. I’m going to hear Russian in my sleep…hopefully she won’t have service when we are at B&T’s place so she will deal more with the “here & now” but I guess that is a complaint a lot of parents have—what do they talk about for so long?

We are thinking about trying to pick up a show in Taos, NM the weekend before we hit Albuquerque. We are going to see what the T&B plans are before we contact the show. Vacation is still the priority. But we did it last year and it would probably be worth doing if there is nothing special planned.

Guess that is it right now—tires look good, my hands are still attached, and everyone is still talking to each other. All in all we be good.

#34--Moose, sled dogs, Cheap T-shirts, and more spaghetti...

Well today has been another excellent day. Stacy woke up and swore she felt alright, but I do wonder why she insisted on having plain spaghetti for both breakfast and dinner…she’s such a lightweight…

But we started the day right off seeing 5 moose! They seem to be the resident campground moose—both cows and bulls. It was cool. Then we headed back into Jackson to see if the people we had met the night before were serious about us coming out and seeing their sled dog operation—they were.

Guess we visited someone almost famous—although very famous in this area. Frank and Stacy have Iditarod Sled Dog Tours (www.jhsleddog.com) and Frank is one of the leading mushers in the states. He has run the Alaska race 8 times and best finish was 6th—not shabby for 1000 miles and starting with 125 teams—only 75 usually finish (average). They gave us a tour of their place and we learned all about the race he puts on from Jackson to Provo, Utah in Feb. They close the entire town to start it and I guess it is quite the thing. We met several of the dogs and got the low down on the basics of racing. They were wonderful to take the time to show us all around—and then gave us directions to a waterfall and hot springs further into the forest from their place. It was a very unique and interesting experience and we hope to reciprocate if they ever head our way. And we will now watch the Iditarod and actually be able to root for someone we know! How cool is that?

Then we headed back into Jackson for another Mexican lunch, minus the beverages, and finished shopping the town. Once again we found some great $5 shirts, and I guess I got Stacy’s B-day present. Gave up on a surprise since it never works, and she got a Teton mountain ring—it is beautiful but who would have thought she would end up being a jewelry horse. But it is kind of special and a good memory of the trip. She doesn’t get it until her actual Birthday though.

We were also able to fill the remaining prescription for my hand ointment, although we had to call around to see who stocked it, I needed a stronger one that isn’t used much—lucky me. I’m not sure if I’m still in the peeling and recovery stage, or if it’s still a major problem. I seem to still be getting some new irritations, not nearly the scope I had, but both hands are completely peeling—it’s been kind of bizarre and definitely a drag. The good news is that the ointment helps and I’m trying to keep them both medicated and lotioned. Being in a very dry climate isn’t helping but surely I can manage them until I get home and go to my doctor. I do have to address some doctor issues when I get home, but I’m soo ready to deal with it.

We then headed back to the campground about dusk and were again treated to our 5 moose. Hoping the bear that was spotted here a few days ago will come back, but I do admit we haven’t really been getting up early to see wildlife. Figure we see what we see—and sleeping late just seems to be a group decision.

Tomorrow we will pack up and start to head south to our friends Betsy & Tom’s house in Arboles, Co—about 50 miles SE of Durango. They have another friend who is an outfitter and hopefully we can do some riding with her—although the country they live in looks good to us—the outfitter can go into areas that aren’t open to the general public—how cool would that be?

I love having cool friends. Yuliya has been kind of amazed at the people we have stayed with and whom we know—it is an eclectic group but old history or animals seem to be the theme, and they have all risen to the occasion when we've needed them.

We have about 700 miles to go and we aren’t sure how we will go yet. Betsy has warned us off some passes that are really steep, so I think it won’t be the most direct route—but it does promise to be some more beautiful country.

The aspens have just started turning this past week and I imagine we will see some great color before it’s all said and done. We’ll probably just stay at their house until we head down to Albuquerque. That works for us—no gas, free showers, free horseback riding, great meals and times with friends—what a way to end a trip. Now if we could make about $15,000-20,000 (our record there is $12,000) at the shows in Albuquerque it couldn’t get much better—even with my sister and without Alaska…

Guess we are the winners after all…

#33--Jackson Hole--and Margaritas..

Well we have had just a darn good day. We packed up our trailer and then treated ourselves to $3.50 showers—unlimited water. It was great.

Then we headed down to our “buck moose” campground and got a spot. Didn’t see moose again, but decided to stay for 2 days so I’m sure they will show.
Then we headed into Jackson. Totally did the tourist thing and found some cool t-shirts as well as a great Mexican lunch and margaritas. Then we did more tourist things and did another margarita at happy hour.

Between time, we called some artist friends in Southern Colorado that have horses and they want us to come down—as soon as we can and they promised good riding. So much better with friends and FREE! I will probably have to do some major cooking but that’s a small price to pay. We are so looking forward to it and plan on hitting their house no later than next Monday—staying at friends is even better than our campgrounds—especially if they live in a great area!

We also had a couple that struck up a conversation with us at our last Mexican stop and they ended up being sled dog people. He’s almost famous and has done the Iditarod. They invited us out to their place tomorrow to meet the 170 dogs they raise. So I guess that is the morning plan with more of Jackson later.

I have been dropping off business cards but haven’t been good about documentation for the IRS—stupid I know, but sometimes easy is the way to go.

Stacy is right now wishing we hadn’t done the last Margarita stop, Yuliya is making her spaghetti and hopefully that will calm her down—otherwise no margaritas for her tomorrow! It takes so little for her to feel them…and she tries to keep up with me—not a wise thing for her. I have about 30 more years of practice….

One of the things about Jackson’s shops, you see lot’s of taxidermy animals and realize it’s a town of really rich people. My deer head I got at auction would be worth 10x out here. And it’s prettier than any I have seen! Guess being a hillbilly has it’s advantage…

News flash—Stacy will survive the night! Although probably not all that comfortably…Guess our future bar bill just went down…

I’m honest to all, about all, even when they don’t want me to be…
It must altitude…

#32--Moods and bums...

Well last night I got a tad moody so that has kind of set the stage for the activities for the day. Everyone is having an “alone” day.

I admit it is mostly my fault, although in my defense, God has been having a hey day with my hormones—and I thought I was almost done with that cursed menopausal thing--NOT, and then my ongoing physical discomforts of the hands has been wearing on me, as well as all that’s happened, but I guess what really sometimes gets to me is my self-professed job of group leader and thinker. Of course it would be probably worse for all if they tried to take it over—I just sometimes get tired of being the one everyone looks at when we are working on our plan. And I guess it’s natural after a month of living in a 24 foot trailer we might get on each other’s nerves once in awhile! Don’t worry—nothing group shattering—just need some time by ourselves.

So today we are all on our own and I’m going to start painting my flowers! Stacy’s dad cut out a bunch of flowers a couple of years ago that I wanted to put along the front of the house—can’t grow them so we decided to make the maintenance free kind. He thought I had forgotten about them but we have been hauling them all around the country and it’s now time to see what I can do with them.

Stacy took her computer, the truck and headed south to the Jackson Lodge and Yuliya is walking the woods. She did take the walkie talkie since it seems to give her security. It would be hard to get lost around here since one side is all lake but as soon as she hits the trees she feels she is “almost” lost. The boys and I are staying at the campsite.

I will continue this tonight to tell of everyone’s day—hopefully they will all remember to come home and we will all be slightly rejuvenated…or at least I will be less pissy…

Later-
It’s evening and I guess I got the kind of day I deserved. I couldn’t find my flowers and thought they were in the back of the truck. But no—just didn’t look in the right places. So my day consisted of a walk, a nap, and reading…

Stacy on the other hand went into Jackson and found us pamphlets on river rafting and a horse thing that sounds good. We will try to find out tomorrow if they are still running—it’s late in the season and many things are closed. Yuliya walked around the campground and then kept me company. The good news is that I am over my tizzy and will try to stay in a better mood. Ironically as soon as everyone left I started to miss them all…

We just had a meeting and decided to move to the buck moose campground in the morning—this one is hard to leave since it’s so empty and beautiful but the other would be more convenient to what we want to do. Then we will try to ride horses or if that is a no go, head into Jackson to see the town. There is an art festival going on and it appears to be a very cool town so we want to play tourists. We also heard there had been 5 moose in the new campground so we of course want to stay there for a bit.

The weather is still staying beautiful so we wonder how long that will last. But we will probably start heading south again by the end of the week. We finally got a calendar out so we could start to see our upcoming schedule—it’s been nice not caring where we need to be.

Heard we missed some weather at home and I should start to worry about our remaining money in Edward Jones—guess the world out there is falling apart. We are basically oblivious to it all…and might never go home. I like not hearing the news…no wonder people become bums…

#31--and then there were moose...

]The day started a bit rocky—our propane had run out and it was 45 degrees in the trailer—cold. The dogs refused to come out from underneath the covers to do their morning thing…But we had other tanks, so once we got through some morning BS, it got much better.

I made the ideal camp breakfast—eggs, bacon on the grill, and fried potatoes—excellent. Then we headed out to explore the park—and look for our elusive “buck” moose.

Of course in one of the first lakes we saw a moose in the distance and decided to hike to it to get a better look. Several things were learned—but the important one was that it wasn’t wise to use moose trails—when they get muddy—they get really muddy and can suck your shoes off. Of course I was the leader so that lesson was a biggy to me. But we eventually found a cow on the other side of the lake. Not really worth the hike since she was still far away. And we headed on…

We were treated to deer, pronghorn, buffalo, elk and then finally MOOSE! We were checking out campgrounds and drove into one to see it and there, just hanging, were 2—yes—TWO bull moose just laying there taking a map. Yuliya got the credit for seeing them first--but they were laying right next to the restroom—and since I had to go it was probably a sure thing—but don’t tell her that. We took pictures and could have sat on them if we wanted to—they were oblivious to anything around them. But once again it was a primo experience. Moose count up to 9—bears STILL stuck at 12!

We then went on exploring and decided that we still like our campground best, for at least a couple more days. And then we will probably head to what is now known as the “buck moose campground”. It’s on the south side of the park and getting pretty close to Jackson.

Of course on the way home we found another lodge that bragged about their margaritas so we couldn’t help but stop. We had an appetizer with our drinks and then headed home. All over priced, but since we save so much on camping, we do it relatively guilt free. Then we headed home to our homey, WARM trailer.

Since we got home early enough for some good generator time I worked more on pictures and if you are reading this—they’ve been posted. I changed most of the picture page and although I didn’t lable any of them, I tried to do them in a chronological order. I’ll try to do much better on that since I have found some shortcuts and have learned to SAVE—then when mistakes are made you don’t have to start all over—much easier. Hope you enjoy and we will probably do much the same tomorrow as we did today. With luck we will have an exciting—although not too exciting—story to tell.

#30-The Tetons

Alas—it’s been another nice day. We got to another primo campsite at Colter Bay in The Tetons. It’s not at all crowded and very laid back. We are next to some closed loops, so we can walk the dogs and even cheat a little without leashes.

YuIiya deemed it a “vegetative” day which meant we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything--cool. I ended up working most of the day on resizing pictures, so I will soon be changing our vacation picture page, but of course, when I got them all set up on the page, I screwed something up. So I will redo it tomorrow morning when we have generator and then I just have to find a good connection to upload everything. Stacy just vegged and it felt good. Isn’t that what you are suppose to do on vacation?

Yuliya went off and took a hike and then came running back to tell us of stampeding bison. Of course she didn’t see them, but heard them in the woods and wanted us to go with her to find them, so she could prove to us what monsters made her run from the woods. I said it was probably only a herd of chipmunks but we went in search anyway. We did find a doe deer that limped, with her baby—but no bison. Amazing how noises get so much bigger when you are by yourself in the woods…I think she was glad we at least found a deer.

We then went to explore the services of our campground and ran into some people that told us about Jackson Lake Lodge down the road 5 miles. They were going there for drinks and we decided that sounded like a great idea—so we joined them. We chitchatted and told the amazing story of our trip, drank our margaritas and ate some appetizers—an enjoyable evening. They were a good audience and no doubt will become blog readers. We do seem to talk to about anyone…but they always seem to enjoy it so I guess that’s ok.

When we left the lodge we were greeted with a moose jam right outside the lodge road, so we got our first moose sighting in the Tetons—a cow and a calf. Stacy is holding out for her “buck moose” before she will be satisfied, but at least we broke the ice. Brings the moose count up to 5/ bears stuck at 12.

We have all decided we like where we are at, so I imagine we will stay at this campground for at least a couple of days. We then want to check out one on the south side of the park, which would be very convenient to Jackson, so I imagine we will go there for a couple of more days. Yuliya wants to stay here for weeks—but I doubt if we will end up doing that—but it is a very nice park for our $9 a night. If we could get better cell service it would be nice so we might check out service in the rest of the loops to see where it is best. This one is a back loop and I do like not having many people around us. I want it ALL!!!

My hands are still an issue but at least better, and the infected one seems on the mend. We are also hearing pretty regularly from Kelly which has been wonderful. Guess she was serious about her new commitment of keeping in touch better. I’ll never agree with those that think the ordeal with her parents might have been a good thing—but it does seem to have made an impression on her and seems to have changed our relationship with her to the positive. I guess that is what we hold on to…

#29-Saturday morning

Old Faithful blew and now it’s time to head to the mountains--Teton Mountains that is.

Waiting for my turn for shower and keeping my fingers crossed there will still be enough water, but then we pack up and head south this morning.

The weather is once again beautiful so other than Stacy having anxiety attacks—not sure why but I guess we all are a little mental—the morning promises to be a nice one. Always a bit nervous until we get a home for the evening but it sounds like we should be ok—the Tetons are less busy than Yellowstone--or at least that is what we have been hearing.

We’ve also heard both successes and failures attached to seeing moose but since we are very serious animal watchers I assume we will be able to find a few. There also appears to be some good canoeing lakes so we will see how motivated we are to challenge our skills. Remember it is J&S’s life and a canoe, a cold lake, and wilderness has a lot of potential…how much do we tempt fate at this point in time?

Yesterday Stacy & I took the boys on a walk along the lake. I cheated and let Buster off the leash and they had a hey day. But then they both decided to go out on a dead log reaching into the lake. And when one dog has a leash on, and two dogs try to turn around on a narrow branch—it turns into a hilarious situation—and both dogs fall into the lake! But they learned to swim and I’m sure the log will become narrower and the lake become deeper before they share it with all their friends at home. And we just got to watch—and laugh…we are such bad mommies…

Still don’t know what we are going to do next. Camping is only costing us less than $10 a night lately so we aren’t in any hurry to leave the national park system. Guess we will continue to take one day at a time and see what presents itself. The weather has been amazingly good so I guess God is helping us out, so I’ll just try to keep you all informed…
Life has been good--

#28--Birthdays & critters...

‘Tis the day after the Birthday celebrations for Yuliya--quite successful I might add.
We started the day with cinnamon roll monkey bread—very, very decadent and good. Then she opened her excellent gift of a very big mug for her tea, which she loved, and then we hit the road.

Of course we first had to go into town to find a pharmacy so I could get more ointment for my continuing hand problems—but we got it done.

We then hiked all through the Mammoth Hot Springs that is quite a geological wonder, and although I remembered more water running from it last time we were there, it was still a nice hike. We treated ourselves to ice cream in town and then it was back to the trailer for lunch and a rest before we headed out for the evening to look for wolves. Yuliya also did another hike up the hill from our campsite so she came back feeling that peaceful, easy feeling…

While she was gone I made good use of our time and managed to sell a $50 turtle to a fellow camper—and they wanted to laugh at my advertisement on our truck. Then that evening, we went over to Lamar Valley to look for wolves. Deer, buffalo, elk, pronghorn, but no wolves this time, but we did break open a bottle of B-day wine and the evening was beautiful, so definitely not wasted. We ended with a fire and s’mores—and feeling very good to be where we were.

The really amusing thing was since we have seen so many buffalo and elk I decided they weren’t “Really animals”—or at least ones that we felt lucky to see. Yuliya informed me that they would probably come knocking on our door that night and shout “WE REALLY ARE ANIMALS!” Of course as luck would have it, we had elk knocking on our trailer door the next morning…guess I have to reconsider my thought process…

This morning (Friday) we packed up and headed back south to the campground we had started at, Grant Village. We are staying here tonight and then heading to the Tetons tomorrow.

We are now waiting for our lasagna to get done (didn’t get cooked yesterday) and will then head out to do Old Faithful, which is last on our list. Not sure how long we will stay in the Tetons but long enough for Stacy to get her fill of moose…and then we have to figure out our next destination—any ideas of must sees between here and Albuquerque? As long as the weather holds we are going to try to stay up in the mountains but other than that we have no real plans. Feel free to suggest…

PS—Yuliya appreciates all the B-day greetings. I think she had a memorable one…I know we did.

#27--back online and getting boring...

Today was our first kind of bad weather day. The morning was ok, so we packed up our trailer and headed up to Mammoth Springs on the north end of the park. We started early enough but it took much longer than we thought because of a number of “buffalo jams”. The good news is that there were still plenty of campsites available so we got settled in and then headed to Gardiner, MT to do laundry. By then it was raining and windy so we didn’t feel cheated by having to do the necessities. We also had to get Epsom salts since my infected hand was becoming another issue. I think it turned a corner today but I will be so glad to not have to deal any more with my hands!

I spent the rest of the day making veggie lasagna for Yuliya’s B-day tomorrow and since none of us had slept too well last night, it will probably be an early night tonight. Just one of those days…

We still need to go “wolf hunting” so I imagine we will stay here for a few days. We have internet and are close to a town so it almost feels uptown! Hopefully the weather will clear and we can take advantage of what’s on the north end of the park. Elk seem to be the animal up here—we have them wandering through our campsite and they are all over the town. And we are across from a mountain that is suppose to be range for more big horn sheep. Figure we need to set up the spotting scope tomorrow—it was just too windy to do it today.

I know we have gotten rather boring and probably not an interesting read anymore—but god it feels good. Life without drama…what an interesting concept. Wonder if there is any way to make it last…

By the way—does everyone knows it’s Yuliya’s birthday on September 11th? We are so tired of hearing about it but I guess it is my just reward—I always tend to overuse mine too…

#26--catching up

Tuesday night—again without internet.

Yesterday we started doing the park so to speak. We drove the upper loop and stopped at the boiling mud pots and geysers along the way. It’s really pretty scary when you look at what is coming out of the earth—lots of heat and gasses. Volcano insurance is a must if we decided to live here! Obviously our earth is very much alive and changing and if this area is any indication—it’s pissed at us humans! Just the last 20 years of changes since the 1988 fires are amazing—and you feel it’s just a matter of time before something big happens here, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s in our lifetime. Guess we won’t try to live here—but it has been interesting, since you always think of geological changes taking millions of years but we are talking big changes just this last century. No wonder we see lots of ‘for sale’ signs in the surrounding towns…

Today we were treated to another primo bear sighting--#11. A black bear right next to the road and Stacy was the first to see it, a great way to start the day. I’ll post more pictures as soon as I get connected.

Since we needed gas & propane we then headed to Cody, WY outside the east entrance. It had a Walmart and a good Mexican restaurant with all the necessities so we were happy girls. We’ve been eating most of our food in the trailer but it is nice to go to town every once and awhile.

Tomorrow has to be an early start since we have to move out of our campground, it’s closing our loop, and we decided to go north to Mammoth. It’s pretty congested up there but it’s convenient to the wolf area and everything north. But since a lot of campgrounds are now closing it does fill so we want to go early. We also need to do laundry at Gardiner and will prepare further for the “Yuliya Birthday Celebration” on Thursday. (Although we did use it today at the Mexican restaurant for a free dessert—after all it is her birthday week—almost the same…)

And then the decision to stay through the weekend in Yellowstone, or head to the Tetons has to be made. Thought I should hit some shops in Jackson Hole since that is where they still have money but as Yuliya says—We still have a month so we really aren’t under any pressure.

My hands are looking so much better but I do have one place that decided to get infected rather badly. Fortunately we have antibiotics so that should knock it—it’s just swollen and sore. I’ve been soaking it and trying to avoid any further complications. But if this is the biggest stressor for the next month—it’s cool. My blood sugar continues to get better and even Stacy has started to sleep late. Guess good mountain air with no outside influences can do wonders!

Our friends at home continue to take care of our life there, probably better than we would be doing! They still love to tell us how good my tomatoes are and I guess we missed a bear experience there—one was spotted almost in town! But seeing it doesn’t compare with reading about it in our paper so I’m ok with that. It is nice to know we always will have the chance to see one when we get back home. One of the reasons I love living there and riding in the woods…

#25--better late than never...

Peace and well being—Sunday night

We have moved to our second campsite in Yellowstone and it is proving quite a treat. The park is finally emptying out and we seem to be lucking out on picking the primo campsites. There are only 3 other campers on our loop so we almost feel alone. Things are closing down so our choices are becoming limited but this one stays open until the 15th, so unless we find another we like better we might stay here more than the original 3 nights we had planned. The down side is no cell service or internet, but I guess when you are surrounded by splendor that should be unimportant.

We settled in and set up our home and then it was nap time. Late afternoon Stacy & I did some recon on future campsites and left Yuliya at home so she could start some of her school work she needs to do before she heads back to college in Russia.

No luck on better campsites—hence we realized how lucky we have been—but we did have a primo buffalo experience. A herd surrounded our truck and the bull wanted his way with the females. When our truck was being used as the turnstile of the chase we thought we might have a problem. For some reason our bad ass truck didn’t feel so bad ass when 2000 pounds of sexual lust was running around it. But no new dents occurred and they finally got bored with the game, but we got some great pictures!

Missed our daily bear today and have discovered that most of the moose have moved down to the Tetons, so we will head there next, after we feel we have done Yellowstone justice. We will start to do the tourist thing in the park tomorrow and hit the different highlights, now that there are less people. Weather is supposed to be wonderful for the rest of the week.

The truly amazing thing is how my stress level has affected the rest of my health. After my last Thursday blow and then a good talk and hike, I have felt noticeably better, much more at peace with life. My blood sugar had been high in the morning for all of the trip but the last 4 days I have been testing almost normal in the morning—almost half of what it had been. Since weight or eating habits haven’t changed, I can only attribute stress to my high numbers—looks like I have to just start walking away from things that are stressful, or at least whenever I can. Although right now the expression is “A bear a day keeps the diabetes away!” Or maybe I just need to live in Yellowstone…

#24-Life is good in Yellowstone

Alas it was a wonderful day. The morning started with overcast, sun and then cloudy, so we stayed with our original plan of going to the town of West Yellowstone to be tourists. We opted for the park showers and then headed to town.

Of course on the way we were treated to our second bear sighting in as many days—and this one wasn’t because of a bear jam. We were the only ones that watched the black bear climb up the mountain at a leisurely rate—very cool. And this brings the bear counts up to 10! And again there were plenty of elk, bison, and even watched a coyote try to catch breakfast. Since we headed out along the Madison River, we also saw plenty of fly fishermen. What do they do with the flies they catch?

Once we got to town we treated ourselves to a vegetarian pizza before we hit the shops. The boys were tucked into our coats and caused quite the “cuteness” stir, but they are amazingly good travelers—never question or fidget at whatever we asked. The three of us are now fighting over the two of them. How will they handle going home and just turning into dogs again?

We ended up scoring some really cute and cheap moose t-shirts and I finally found my t-shirt I had gotten 20 yrs ago. The run over bear with the caption “All I wanted was a cookie”. Cartoon of course, so there isn’t any road kill blood and guts! And a bit bigger and more colorful than the original one, but a good shopping day that was very relaxing.

Before heading back we stopped at the grocery to get prepared for Yuliya’s birthday dinner on September 11th. Had to get some better wine, candles, and it looks to be eggplant parmesan for her dinner. Of course she agreed to cinnamon rolls for her breakfast morning…back to that conflict on eating healthy…

Tomorrow we head to our new campground—at Bridge Bay. Not really doing any major tourist stopping yet in the park since we figure everything will be less busy after the weekend. We have yet to see Old Faithful blow but that is on the agenda. And will probably do some further traveling to case out our next camping spot. After all—any time on a Yellowstone road means a good chance of seeing cool wildlife. Makes the high priced gas almost worth it!

Still haven’t seen a moose yet but hopefully that will change in the next couple of days. Since we had an ultimate moose experience in Glacier everything will be secondary but we have yet to see a bull moose—or as Stacy is referring to them—a buck moose. Amazing how when people spend enough time together in small spaces they tend to create their own species with their own terminology. Anything to entertain ourselves…

#23-Yellowstone-eat your heart out Chuck...(my WP friend)

And we finally got to Yellowstone Park! And within the first 10 miles of the entrance we saw a black bear, elk and buffalo. All is well with the world…

We are camping with a view of Yellowstone Lake in Grant’s campground on the south part of the park, until Sunday morning and them we will head up the lake north to Bay Bridge Campground for the next 3 days. And then we will probably go to the next one. Since our generators are working it has given us a lot more freedom of where we can camp, so that has been nice. We are paying less than $10 a night so it can’t get much better than that. If only Yuliya would learn to take shorter showers since our water will only last 2 days—but we might just make her start to go dirty. Or make her walk up to the pay showers.

Her hives are still an issue but we think it’s a cheese she ate both yesterday & today. Her eating habits have gotten really weird and who knows what’s doing it. But not my problem—hopefully when she goes to Russia in November her mother will yell at her and make her eat a better balanced meal—she’s trying vegetarian but seems to be missing out on a lot of protein and then thinks pop tarts are ok—I just don’t understand, but I’m trying not to bug her and letting her figure it out. Hard for me, but a good practice in my own self discipline, so at least I’m trying.

Right now we are having a cloudy day with some misty rain. They are saying snow showers tonight and the rest of the weekend doesn’t look too promising but next week looks great so no problem. We have felt incredibly lucky on weather this entire trip so I guess if we have a few movie afternoons it’s still doing well.

This is one of the few campgrounds that has cell phone service so feel free to give us a call this weekend. I doubt we will go too long without finding a signal sometime, no matter where we camp, and it’s been great we can use our cell phone for our computer internet connection. Just amazing what today’s technology allows, although I will admit I could have done completely without phone for a couple of weeks of this trip! Accessibility presented it’s own set of problems—if you know what I mean!

Otherwise all is well and we feel good we are where we are. Wildlife and settling in for a few days in one place seems to be just the ticket. We will probably go out to West Yellowstone tomorrow, especially if the weather is questionable, it looked like a nice little tourist town that needs to be explored and hey—we are three women that like to hit the shops—even if we don’t buy anything. And I will take my business cards just in case…

And then we have to find some moose for Stacy…

#22-Generators, crisis, and caves

Well it’s now Thursday night and I just couldn’t post last night. Yes, it was another crisis, and it seems like my emotional reserve is drained so I’ve been having some regular mental breakdowns.

Last night started well. We moved rather slowly through the day so started looking between Butte and Bozeman for some camping. It’s actually turning colder and there is snow on the mountains, so we tried to stay at a low elevation and found Lewis & Clark Caverns state park, that is wonderful. But it had no electric. So it was time to finally pull out our new generators. (Something we needed to do before Yellowstone so we can figure out what we need for camping there.)

Stacy filled one of them with gas, oil and tried to start it. After a couple of pulls with the cord--it jammed. And it didn’t un-jam. So she tried the second one. The exact same thing happened to it! By now, all I could think is that we bought them on e-bay and we finally got screwed. I had bought brand new ones and checked on warranty, but realized I probably didn’t have a leg to stand on to try to get warranty—because I bought them on e-bay--eighteen hundred dollars worth. I cried again. And then everyone gets upset--so it turned into an even bigger crisis!

But the morning dawned with the buzz of generators. Stacy had called a dealer in Bozeman and found out that she had put too much oil in them and it must be a safety feature.

So after the three of us discussed all our issues, the morning was good and we decided to stay in this park another night. It has some caverns that gave tours so after a leisurely lunch we drove up to the caves. It was a 2 ½ hr tour that was wonderful—Yuliya has never been to a big cave before so it was a picture extravaganza for her. We were the slowest ones in the group.

Not as big as Carlsbad Caverns, which both Stacy & I had been to, but still a good one. And it is one of those off the road places we just happened on to, so the camping has just a few neighbors and the tour was small.

After the big walk of the caverns, Yuliya and I decided to hike down the 2 more miles to the campgrounds. It was the original path they used in the early 1900’s for tours of the caves. although we cheated and went down. It was very steep and just amazing that people had hiked up it and then did the cave hike. Obviously they weren’t the out of shape Americans we now are—even downhill it was still a challenge.

But life is looking much better tonight then last night and my hands are starting to even feel a bit better. Ironically Yuliya must have gotten into something because she started getting hives tonight. But since I have experienced about every skin ailment in the last few years (my stress seems to manifest itself through my skin) we were able to start to doctor her and hopefully it won’t be a new crisis. But at least it is happening to someone else!

Tomorrow we will get to Yellowstone and hopefully the weather will hold—snow has been starting and I’m not quite ready for that yet. But we have several craft projects to do in case we get stuck in the trailer and it would almost be nice to just veg for a few days.

I think the ordeal with my sister took more out of me than I would like to admit and it’s time to regain my balance. Eric’s smirk when he picked up Kelly made it so obvious it was so personal—and it’s still hard for me to believe that people I use to love and trust would go so far to hurt us. But I guess we all live with the consequences and the fact we still don’t understand it almost makes us feel better. It would be scarier if any of it made sense…

#21-Driveways, Hands, & free camping

Today started off with packing and saying goodbye to what we now refer to as “OUR cabin in the woods”. Deb & Kate would probably have issue with that but we at least pretended for a day and a half.

The first challenge of the day was getting down a very steep, narrow driveway that had a major curve and drop off with heavy trees and brush lining both sides. And I had to back our 44ft long rig down it! The backing on the straight away was challenging since I couldn’t see the driveway because of all the brush in my way—then the curve at the bottom made me go out at a 90 degree angle to the road that was only 35 feet wide. Do you see a dilemma there? I got down it ok but because I was so long I had no extra room to maneuver the front end of the truck so we were stuck crossways across the road. But being the wonder woman backer I am, I finally got it done. Might have taken a half hour but I was still kind of proud. Probably will leave it down on the road next time—it was kind of stressful. I don’t need to prove my skill again…

Which brings me to the next challenge of the day—my hands. Decided when they started to look worse than the examples on the internet we had to do something no matter what the price. And they itched!
So after checking with an ER and another small town clinic we ended up at an Urgent Care in Spokane, WA. The doctor even thought they looked horrible—and did I tell you they itched as well as being raw? She gave me mega doses of prednisone, some ointment, and some antibiotics and we were able to get out of there for $100. So I’m hoping I will start to experience some relief in the day or so. She agreed it was probably stress and you know when you tell someone just a short summary of our last couple of weeks, their jaws always drop when we get to the police and the kidnapping part. Glad we weren’t the only ones that thought it all shocking—even complete strangers feel sorry for us…

But now we are in Montana at a FREE RV park behind a Restaurant/casino/gift shop. A great deal, since we even have an electric hookup.
Unfortunately it only has poker and keno and no slots so we didn’t even go in.

Tomorrow we will continue on towards Yellowstone. Hopefully much more comfortable hand wise and I know we are getting more relaxed. We no longer have any real schedule for the next month and all our tires look good—it’s time to do what we set out to do. And I dare anyone to try to screw it up. We still have our shotgun and aren't afraid to use it!

#20-A political comment

Since we finally heard about the status of the candidates for the November election I started putting out phone calls to some of my friends "in the know".

Best comment came from Sandy & Chris up in Iowa. Sandy just retired from being a big wig with the Iowa elections office and Chris just got appointed a Judgeship for Iowa. Pretty impressive eh? That is until you know that we are suppose to make a tye dye judge's robe for Chris---yes they are our friends!

Anyway--best comment:

"Grandpa takes Gidget to Washington"

#19-All the comforts of home—without the “real” news.

Well we have landed in a paradise. A wonderful mountain home with all the comforts of home—if you have no desire for outside news or the piles of kitties and dogs we have at our home.

Kate & Deb’s cabin is wonderful and we have been soaking it all in. It’s off Hwy 2, east of Seattle, on the east side of Steven’s Pass. Yesterday we took a tour of Levenworth, a very touristy town about 20 miles away, that has been set up to mimic a German alpine village. Very enjoyable. After hitting all the shops and me dropping off some business cards, always trying to drum up new accounts for us, we hit the local Safeway so I could make them my “famous-if only in my own mind” enchiladas. They just couldn’t fathom Chedder Cheese Soup as a positive ingredient in anything Mexican. I think they were somewhat a hit, although again it could only be in my mind, but they did want to take some leftovers home when they went back to Seattle last night.

So now we have the cabin to ourselves and are enjoying the down time. They boys have been taking advantage of the extra space and have been running laps—just can’t get up the speed for a good chase in a 24 ft trailer!

We are catching up on our laundry and will plan on a hike this afternoon in the neighborhood. Unless we can find a trail you pretty much have to stay on their road since the country is really rugged and the forests are very dense. Not like hiking our woods. But the views are spectacular and I have been using my spotting scope on the mountains surrounding us. Haven’t had any success yet but at least I do know the critters are out there—and some of the fun is just in the looking.

Getting a bit concerned about getting our trailer out of here. I was stupidly brave to drive it up to the house and it is looking very tight, the more I think about it. I will have to test my backing skills since we won’t have any room to turn around. Just have to miss the trees and the drop off edge—as I back around a corner. Could be the excitement for the morning!

And the good news is that we finally heard from Kelly this morning. Sounds like she had a bit of an issue with her parents on the way they picked her up and handled the whole thing and they ended up not even going to the college in Seattle and just going back to Klamath. She hadn’t wanted to do it from the very beginning—guess they finally believed her. All that pain for naught. But as several have mentioned—it was time for her to see the side of her parents that we have been dealing with all these years. Guess one has to learn these lessons sometime. Hopefully the next trip we share with her will truly be a good one.

Guess it’s time to do the shower thing—in a really nice shower! Stacy has brought in her Banjo to practice and my hands need some hot water. They are still not good but hoping to find a cheap doctor between here and Yellowstone—or medicine man.