This was an eerie sight as we traveled south towards Rawlings

This is my one regret of the trip, I didn’t have enough time to really see everything in this museum. I’m coming back!

Charlotte says goodbye to the buffalo as we leave Yellowstone

We said goodbye to our hostess, Peggy Riggs, and headed back down through Yellowstone Park to cut through to the highway going south towards Cody, Wyoming.  Everyone had told us there was a museum in Cody that was worth the trip.

We drove into Cody after stopping to let buffalo cross the road in front of us.  There is a Buffalo Bill Cody Museum that actually houses four separate museums.  One is Western art with a large number of bronzes by Remington and others.  It would take a day just to go through that part.  The part I wanted to see is the Firearms Museum.  This museum could take two days.  They have the most fabulous collection of firearms you could ever imagine.  I walked hurriedly through part of it, taking pictures and reading the information posted beside the weapon.  It was amazing.  I would highly recommend going through Cody, Wyoming and allowing a minimum of a day or two just to tour this fabulous collection.

It was amazing how the terrain changed as we dropped out of Yellowstone and turned south.  The land turns almost desert.  There was a fire burning somewhere to the west and the smoke almost blocked out the sun in the afternoon.  We took a couple pictures of it.  It was kinda errie looking.  Because of the extra time I took at the Museum in Cody, we didn’t get to Rawlings until 10:00 p.m.  All the virtual hitch hikers were asleep so we just left them in the trunk after locking up the Moose Drool.

We have traveled almost 4,000 miles on our trip.  We are about 285 miles from Aspen, CO, our next stop on Sunday.  We will be staying with our good friends John and Betty Jones.  I want all you virtual hitch hikers to be on your best manners as we roll into Aspen in the old truck and begin our celebrity watch!  No throwing cans or wine bottles (Edge!) out of the truck.

Charlotte and Peggy coloring the table cover at The Rib & Chop

Livingston, Montana , a nice little town loaded with history.  It was so nice to stay here at Peggy’s place because she had grown up as a child and had gone to high school here.  Many of her classmates still live here.  We got the inside story on a lot of the history of the town and the characters that have lived here including Calamity Jane.

A block down from Peggy’s house is a little hamburger drive in that has been serving hamburgers since 1954 by the same family.  I walked down there yesterday and bought a bag full of burgers and some onion rings and it felt like I was back at the Dingo Drive Inn in Monahans, TX.  If America has got one thing down pat, it’s hamburgers.  I’ve ate them all over America and you can always find a little mom and pop place who can still make ’em like you remember ’em.

I have got a kick out of the local wild fruit here.  It’s the huckleberry.  You can get huckleberry scones, huckleberry muffins, huckleberry jelly.  You name it and they will put hucklyberries in it or on it.  I still love the line in the Wyatt Earp movie where Val Kylmer is playing Doc Holiday and he tells the bad guy, “I’ll be your huckleberry.”  Some lines stick with you forever!

The moose is such a big deal here in Montana, they have their own nativity sceens!

So if everything goes according to plan, we will be pulling out of Montana in the morning headed for Cody, Wyoming and the firearms museum.  They say it is worth the drive.  With any luck we will probably make Colorado before we take the saddle off of the old Ford.  Listen to me, I’m even talking like I’m from Montana!  So for all of you virtual hitch hikers, we’ve stocked the coolers with my new favorite, Moose Drool.  It’s a little more expensive but man, when have you got to say you been drinking moose drool!?  You can go to the Stock Yards in Fort Worth and try their Buffalo Butt Beer, but I think Moose Drool tops Buffalo Butt!

Oh yeah, we want to give a shout out to Jay and Vicki.  We’ll be thinking of you as we visit Cody, wish we could see you there!

I’m talking about the one on the right with some water spraying up on the left!

This is the head of the herd of elk that numbered over 60 we sat and watched in the park for quite a while. What a majestic beast!

He takes his share of the road right out of the middle!

As we spend  this final day in Montana, we are gathering up all our clothes, which we got to wash and  dry here at Peggy’s.  We will repack the old truck and see if we can somehow still get the lid closed after cleaning out the tourist trap gift stores in every area of the park.  Then there is the “good stuff” that Charlotte and Peggy bottled up for future medicinal needs.  (I think I already feel a little sore throat coming on!  Pass the bottle!)  Then there is the left-over birthday cake which we will split with Peggy and take the rest on the road for future “rest stops”.

This place has left me on overload.  My eyes are tired from looking at so many spectacular sights that I will probably never see again.  It’s the whole package, the landscape, the animals, the history of the place, the people who live here and do the craziest things for a living.  It is another part of this great big picture puzzle we call America.  There is always something to laugh about.  It is amazing how humor seems to find a way into every area of our lives and these people have their own little world of humor based on trying to stay alive in this place.

Today I am reloading and reflecting over our trip thus far.  Here are some shots I just couldn’t leave out.

An old dead tree made a great frame for this shot

Man, that was one good cake!

Time Out!  Stop The Trip!  We’re taking the day off!  Today is Charlotte’s Birthday!  Whoo Hoo!!

I went down to Gil’s Bakery here in Livingston this morning and picked up, yes, I’m going to admit it, 3 quiche for breakfast!  I was a little disappointed that they would be serving sissy food up here in He Man country, but they were and guess what?  It was good!!  I made up for the girlie man breakfast by chasing it with a Moose Slobber Ale on tap.  (I’m not kidding, that’s really the name of the stuff!)  Tastes kinda like Guiness.

Before I left, I talked the baker into baking Charlotte a birthday cake from scratch using fresh rasberries for the filling and butter cream icing with a lemon cake dough.  Dude!  It was good!  Happy Birthday Babe!  After 20 days on the trip she can still smile!

Getting ready to take the tour!

Let’s get on the business end of these sandwiches before Yogi, Smokey, and his other buds show up!

Hot thermal springs that bring really hot water to the surface continually

These guys had a bad attitude working during rutting season!

Oh give me a home…. where the buffalo roam…..

And I’ll show you a dirty house!

Isn’t that how that old grade school song went?  We had some close encounters with several big males with their harems in tow.  According to the Park Rangers this is a very dangerous time to be around the buffalo because they are doing their duty to secure a future for their species by doing the “rutting thing”.  It kinda puts them in a bad mood to tolerate too much interaction with the human species.

Peggy,  (our host) says that on an average there or one or two people who get killed every year by buffalos.  I did not want to be a statistic so I beat a hasty retreat to the car.

The other wild life that blew our mind was the elk.  We stopped to eat a bowl of soup on the way out of the park and when we walked out of the café, there were about 50 – 60 elk across the street in front of our car.  We just sat and watched them for a long time.  It was awesome!

The amount of hot water loaded with H2S that comes out of the ground continually will blow your mind!  It goes on 24/7/365!

For $15.00 they’ll give you a pair of tweezers and a wash table to find your fortune!

With our garnets safely deposited with Wells Fargo, we end the day with ribs, steak, margaritas, and friends!

Hot Dog looks like she hit the Mother Load! We’re rich!

After a 2 minute course in garnet mining, Charlotte looks like she’s been doing it for years!

Well, after sleeping the sleep of the innocent, I was up at 5:30 local time making my first cup of coffee and getting our trip log updated.  After an hour or two the little missus was up and we were ready for our next cup of coffee and visiting with our hostess Peggy Riggs.

With everyone wide awake and rested from a great night’s sleep, we headed out to Yellowstone and some of the sites Peggy wanted to show us.  The girls and I took our swimsuits and when we pulled up at Chico Hot Springs, we were in for a surprise!  It was a really nice little set up!  I decided not to go in.  I felt that one of us should sit at one of the tables by the pool and drink a cold beverage while acting as lifeguard for the rest of the crew.  Since neither of the girls volunteered, I reluctantly took the job on myself.  The pool was nice and divided into two sections.  In one end there was a wall with little gates that would allow water to pass from the end where the hot water came straight out of the thermal springs and mix with cold water coming from the river.  The water coming from the hot springs was so hot that Charlotte said she almost felt uncomfortable in it. (That means it was probably about 211 degrees.)  She is very cold natured!

They swam and soaked for about six beverages and then they were ready to eat a light lunch.  I was not that hungry so I just ordered something to drink.

After leaving Chico, Peggy took us to this place where you could buy a 10 or 25 pound bag of garnet-bearing sludge.  This is the stuff they pull out of a deposit known to have garnet stones in it and bag it up and let you sit there at a table with some tweezers, a wash box and sift and sort the bag of material for garnets.  It sounded like fun so we paid our $15.00 and got a 10 lb. bag of sludge.  It ws kinda like playing the slots with a pair of tweezers and a bag of mud.  Would you believe we found 3 garnet stones of over 6 cts. in weight?  We are leaving two to be cut by the gemologist.  We were told they would turn out to be about 1.5 ct. each after they were cut and ready to mount.  So we will be taking back two real live garnet stones to be mounted in another piece o

Charlotte enjoyed the 211 dregree “warm” water!

f jewelry.  So I am estimating the final cost of this adventure could go over $500 with mountings!  What a deal!

We finished up the day down at the Rib and Chop Steak House here in Livingston for another great filet.  The weather is so beautiful; we sat outside and ate while the girls drank some great margaritas.  What a good way to finish the day!

Charlotte with Peggy on he back porch or her home in Livingston, MT

This process should only be done under trained supervision and used for medicinal purposes only, of course.

This is the day we reach our most northern destination, Livingston, MT.  After leaving Pocatello, ID we began the last day of travel away from our house.  Every stop we make once we get back on the road will be taking us closer to home.  But that is still several days away and we have a lot of sites to see in Montana.

The drive up took us through West Yellowstone where we stopped at the Yellowstone Ranger Station and purchased senior passes for $10.00 apiece.  This is probably the best deal the government ever gave seniors.  The pass is good for the rest of your life and it is also good for any National Park in the entire United States.  If you like to visit National Parks, Battle Grounds, etc., you need to get you one of these passes.

After seeing the devastation of the big forest fires from a few years back in the park, I was amazed to see the amount of effort that has been made to replant the trees that were lost.  It blows your mind to think of how many seedlings were planted to cover no telling how many miles of forestland.  Literally millions of trees growing up to take the place of those lost.  Most of them were now about 6 to 8 feet tall.

As we drove on the winding roads through that little area of the park you could only get a small picture of what a grand project Yellowstone really is.  Yep, you have to hand it to my old namesake, Teddy Roosevelt who had the foresight to hold this area of our country in trust for the future generations of Americans who now enjoy it as a national treasure.

There are so many extraordinary sights all around you as you drive down the winding roads you just can’t take them all in.  We were looking at the beautiful river and trees and all of a sudden, right alongside the road is this big cloud of steam and a geyser is blowing hot water out of the earth in a thermal-dynamic display.  We go a little further and there is an elk with a rack of horns almost 6 foot across calmly munching along on the vegetation along the roadside.  A little farther and there is a small herd of buffalo lying down in a meadow.  By the time we drove through that little corner of Yellowstone on the way to Livingston, I felt like my eyes were hurting from trying to focus on so much at once!  And let me warn you, you don’t want to take your eyes off of the road if you’re driving!  There are many miles of the road that has no shoulder or guard rails.  And if you go off, it’s a long way down!  So make up your mind if you want to drive or sightsee because you better not attempt both!

So finally, at 4:30 in the afternoon local time, we pull into our friend Peggy Riggs’ summer home.  After visiting for a while, Peggy fed us home-made pot roast with all the trimmings.  After two weeks on the road, a home cooked meal really hit the spot!

Call it road fatigue, jet lag, altitude adjustment, or maybe even old age.  Whatever name or cause you feel appropriate, in about  five minutes from the time the last bite of pot roast and au jus hit the bottom of my stomach, it was lights out!  I slipped between the sheets and slept like a baby.

OK you virtual hitch hikers, let me hear from you.  Where should we be going and what sights are a “must see” up in this part of the world?

Charlotte on the Snake river after a long day in the truck

Some great people we met along the way!

Well, after the long road to Elko, we were a little road weary this morning.  We took a little extra time in getting on the road.  We had decided to make a small change in the trip itinerary by not going just to Twin Falls, ID but taking the truck a little further into northern Idaho to Pocatello.  That will make our final leg up to our destination in Montana a little closer.  We will still be looking at about 5 hours on the road tomorrow.

As we made our way into Idaho, we began to see the fields of potato plants.  Man, Idaho knows how to grow potatoes!  It brought back some old memories about the first real job I had.  We moved to Colorado for three years and the summer after fifth grade I got a job hoeing potatoes.  We worked from about 7 in the morning until the sun was almost down about 7 or 8.  I made $3.00 a day!  I had never seen so much money!  On Fridays we got paid and I got $15.00!  I didn’t think I could spend it all.  We would all get in the bed of the truck of one of the dads whose son worked with us.  We would each pay $.25 for the drive inn theater and stop by A&W and get a cheese burger with fries and a gallon of root beer for another $1.50.  That still left me with a little over $13.00!  Man life was sweet!

We drove through Twin Falls and I began to think about one of the last things on my “bucket list”.  Do ya’ll remember when ‘ol Evil Kenevil tried to jump the Snake River up here in Idaho?  I always felt that I would like to try that on my old Harley.  So we went on up the road a ways and began to scout out a possible jump site.  The river runs right along the highway for several miles and we finally decided to check out a site in this little town called American Falls.  Now that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?  American Falls….. man I can see Old Glory waving in the breeze there on the Snake giving me wind direction and speed for the jump!

Well we finally found a place down by the old hydro electric plant and dam there in the town.  The Snake gets bottled up on both sides by solid stone cliffs.  It comes shooting out of that gorge at a pretty good speed.  I think that will be a possible jump point.  So just remember, Sturgis is for sissys.  Real men jump the Snake!

As we were leaving American Falls, we drove past this house in town and there was a couple in the back yard(which was right beside the highway) tending to a beautiful garden.  It really struck a note in me for some reason.  I drove on for about a couple of blocks and I told Charlotte I wanted to go back and find out something about those people and their garden.  So I made a u-turn and headed back.  We drove up and we got out and introduced ourselves and I told them they had a great looking garden.  He called his wife over and soon we were talking like we knew them forever!  They are Freddy ande Marcia Roads.  She just retired and Freddy has a “biker pub” as he called it in downtown American Falls.  They showed us pictures of their just harvested onion crop which was unbelievable.  What a great couple!  They gave us two of their beautiful tomatoes to take with us.  I had my Vietnam Veteran cap on and he thanked me for my service and showed me the bracelets he and his wife were wearing that sponsored MIA efforts.  They have a fund raiser for the MIA movement that is the only one in Idaho recognized by the U.S. Government.  Just common everyday Americans, living their lives and doing what they can to help others.  Where can you go in the world and find this type of goodness and commitment?  I think it altogether fitting that Freddy and Marcia live in a place called American Falls.  God, I love this country!

We’re talking miles and miles of this!

These guys know how to burn meat! I had the best filet ever there.

After surviving the jet lagged Friday, we woke up and began packing the truck to get on the road.  We had a loonngg drive in front of us.  It seemed as though I was walking in molasses.  I didn’t think we were ever going to get started!  We went out to the truck, took our “Freak Flags” down from the CB antennas and packed them away.  Something told me they probably didn’t need to be flying when we crossed into Idaho.  I think every white supremacy group in America has a base camp in Idaho.  So I hid all the wine in the back, put a couple of Bud coozies on the dashboard and pasted on some appropriate bumper stickers for good measure.  We are preparing to enter into that part of this great land that don’t “do brunch”.

Finally, at about noon, the old truck rolled out onto Highway 101 and sat.  The traffic was at a standstill and I had to navigate through about 50 miles of it before we would be out on the open interstate.  Needless to say, the possibility of us making Elko< Nevada today was looking pretty dim.

We finally got out to the edge of heavy traffic and I stopped to get some of that $4.16 per gallon gas.  Edge was the only one in the truck smiling after a $100 bill bought me only 24 gallons!  To ease the pain, we got a soft serve ice cream cone and headed north-east toward Elko.

Our route in leaving California took us up over the mountains and through a pass. The temperature dropped as we continued to climb to the top of the pass.  The beautiful pine trees smelled so good as we aired out the truck (it’s funny how while the hitch hikers may be virtual, I swear there is a faint funky order that comes wafting up to the front of the truck every now and then.  It has a kinda hot tub odor to it.  Maybe it’s just my imagination.  Or…maybe not!

After we finally got to the summit of the pass and started down the east side, I began to see sign for Donnors Pass.  Wait a minute!  Did that say Donnors Pass?  I had heard that name before.  After a few nanoseconds my hard drive kicked in and the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I went by another sign pointing the way to the Donnor camp.  You mean, just right over there a few years ago our countrymen were dining on each other?  Boy, I don’t think I can eat another “rump roast” ever again!

If our government had to have a state where they can play war games and test all sorts of new fangled war weapons, I’m glad they picked Nevada.  There is mile and miles of nothing out here!  I thought Texas was bare!  Nevada wins the contest.  We did pass one main point of interest on the way.  I began to see signs on the side of the road warning motorists to not stop unless it was an emergency and DO NOT pick up hitch hikers.  A couple more miles and I see over on the right hand side of the highway a huge compound surrounded by two separate fences about 16 feet tall with razor wire on them.  The signs said it was a “secured” compound.  Really?  I don’t know what you have to do to go there and I sure don’t want to find out!  Now here comes the rest of the story.  No joke, this really happened.  They were working on the highway for about 20 miles and had the right hand lane closed.  We had just passed the compound about two miles back and it’s getting a little dark.  This guy steps out from between the construction cones wearing some kind of cut off pants, and a shirt that is not buttoned on him.  He appears to be in his 20’s and has on a baseball cap.  He holds up his arms and begins gesturing for us to stop.  I thought about it for a moment and then decided it was already crowded in the back.  So we went on, thanks to the signs on the road!

I still don’t know how we managed it, but we pulled into Elko at exactly eight o’clock local time and got our room.  We then went to a cafe that Charlotte had found on the web and it had good reviews and it said that was where all the locals ate.  It was called the Star Cafe.  We ordered the filet wrapped in bacon and asked the waitress if we could split it.  When she brought this steak, it was HUGE!  I had requested garlic on it as well.  I think it was the best steak I have ever had.

So if you’re ever going through Elko, Nevada, stop at the Star Cafe and have the filet wrapped in bacon.  It will leave  you speechless!

OK,

I’ve learned my lesson.  I guess I’ve watched so many of those spy movies where James Bond is jetting around the world through 10 to 15 time zones and never skips a beat.  Well, for someone like me who is used to traveling for a day or two in the old truck just to get through 1 time zone, “life in the fast lane” just about did me in!  Let me explain…

We had this conference in San Mateo on our trip schedule for some time.  There was no getting out of it,we were going to be there.  But…..  I was asked to be the speaker for the school convocation Friday morning in Dallas.  But…. there is the final Whoop Dee Doo banquet at the convention in San Mateo Friday evening and I am told I have to be there.  So I asked myself , “What would James Bond do?  Why it was “elementary, my dear Watson”, (oops! wrong Englishman) he would book an early evening flight out of San Fran International heading to Dallas on Thursday evening.  After losing 2 hours on the time zone changes, he arrives in Dallas in time to try to get some rest, pay some bills before they shut off the utilities, and re-acquaint himself with his dog who no long recognizes him and at first won’t let him in the house.  He spends the rest of the evening wrestling with the first line of his convocational address, wondering why he always waits until the last minute to try to come up with an idea.

After struggling with the first line of the speech until after midnight, he finally gives up and lays down  to get some rest.  His internal clock goes off at 4:30 a.m. (Central Daylight Savings Time) and he stumbles out of bed and is halfway through his coffee making routine when he remembers they shut off the power for the coffee water heater before leaving on the road trip and it’s going to be a good half hour before anything resembling coffee comes out of it.

Without his early morning caffine jolt, he stumbles into the shower and makes a stab at knocking off the dirt from several California wine fields.  That being done, he tries to find something to wear by himself. (He hasn’t had to do this for quite a while and he wastes about an hour just trying to locate his clothes).  He checks his watch (which is always kept on good ‘ol Texas time) and sees he is going to have to step on it to get to the convocation in time for a cup of coffee before being fitted with a lapel mic and shoved out there in front of 300 teachers and staffers who are not excited about having to end their vacation and come listen to some old has been try to get them excited.

With minimal coffee spills down his front, (most of them fell on the tie) he takes the podium and after what seemed like 3 hours later, (after looking at his watch it was only about 30 minutes) he was through!  They took his lapel mic off and escorted him to the back door where an SUV was waiting to whisk him off to the DFW airport.  As I’m saying goodbye to my daughter and two grandsons, she slips my boarding pass into my shirt pocket and says that Chris, my son-in-law, (by the way he is THE BEST son-in-law in the world!!) felt sorry for me having to load back up into the 737 cattle car with seats that were not built for “big boy comfort”, for the 3 hour trip back to California.  So he had me upgraded to FIRST CLASS!!!

It was amazing what that upgrade did for me!  I did’t just go to the boarding gate, I made an entrance!  I tried to flop my boarding pass casually under the nose of the gate attendent so that the FIRST CLASS was showing on top.  I gave him my best smug grin and nodded just enough to acknowledge his “Have a wonderful flight MR Purcell”.

I went into the plane and there the stewardess looked at my ticket and escorted me to that big, wide, wonderful seat with all kinds of things hanging off of it that I could only imagine what they were there for.  I tried to appear casual as the stewardess asked if I would like something to drink.  I came soooo close to making that Economy Seating remark… “Do you take cash or credit card?”  But instead I managed to pause and say ,”I’ll try a rum and coke please.”  And like magic it appeared in her hand as she reached over and pulled one of the many platforms out of the side of my seat and sat the drink on it with a small dish of warmed mixed nuts! Wow!  Try as I may not to, I still chugged the rum and coke in about two swallows.  Before I could place it on the little table she was taking it from me and asking if I would care for another.  She shouldn’t have done that so quickly.  It started a cycle that consisted of seeing who was the quickest…Was it me drinking the glass dry?  Or….was it going to be her making the next drink?  It was GAME ON!  I stopped at 8 and took time out to eat the great chicken salad with hot bread and washed it down with 3 glasses of Merlot (not the white kind Edge, I’ll just spend a little more time cleaning the dentures!).

What a great experience!  My travel buddy, you know the guy in the other seat on your side of the plane was a doctor no less.  In fact he was a pathologist specializing in cancer research.  So… I got a 2 hour consultation for free on my way back to Frisco!  He was matching me drink for drink,  I was impressed!

By the time the plane landed, we had decided that in spite of everything it looked like I was going to make it!  What a great way to end the….. did I say 3 hour trip?  When I looked at the local time, we had gained two of the hours back so I made it from Dallas to San Fran in 1 hour!  I was going to make it to the Whoop Dee Doo here with Charlotte just fine!

We went to the dinner and sat with some of Charlotte’s friends from Japan.  In fact, she and I were the only ones at the table who were not from Japan.  I sat down and Charlotte brought me a big glass of Cabernet.  As I sat there sipping the wine and listening to those women speak Japanese, the past two days jet setting washed over me and I began to feel the dendrites shutting down.  Funny thing though,  I think I began to actually understand Japanese!  It must have been that glass of Cabernet!  I stayed the required time and excused myself (I don’t think anyone knew I left) and went back to the room.  As I slipped between the sheets,  I made a note to myself to not do the back and forth through the time zones that fast anymore.  But… thanks to you Chris for making it a great day in FIRST CLASS!