Travels with The Rayman

And I’m not talking about the Rayman!!

It was a miracle…Old Faithful spouted off for us.  IT could have gone the other way but history was on our side.  What a great tourist attraction.  Everyone there today loved it, including us.  Just consider its longevity.  Its timing.  What else on earth is as faithful as Old Faithful?  I cannot think of a thing.  Which shows you how uneducated I am in the world.  Our genes endure and adapt.  Isn’t that just as impressive?  Perhaps, dear reader, you can offer up some ideas.  I know there are other things but my mind is not bringing them up.

But, I digress.

One of the sulfur pools.

Just like Old Faithful, we went for a scoop of ice cream for lunch today.  It’s getting to be a habit.  A bad habit.  However, I am here to report that the Moose Tracks ice cream was very tasty.  And so was Rayman’s Mountain Berry ice cream.

Today was sort of a reconnaissance day into Yellowstone.  After we watch Old Faithful spurt, we bought a few gifts for people (boy, I sure like the moose-ie tee I bought for me), we drove west then north, then east, then south.    A giant loop.  Snapped a few pictures.

Tomorrow we will go really early to see Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon and then come back and do laundry.  It’s hard to be a tourist and keep up with mundane things like washing your clothes.   And then Saturday, it’s moving day.  Off to Yellowstone and the RV campground inside the park.  It will be easier once we are closer to everything.  And fishing is scheduled for Monday!!  Can’t wait for that.  Love to fish.

Hello again.

It’s tomorrow and we did not go to Yellowstone.  Instead we opted for laundry and a pot of beans.  The laundry is done but the beans bubble on toward tenderness.  Sure smells good.  Today apparently was hit-the-wall day.  Just tired of sitting in a moving vehicle.  That’s how we get once in a while.  Just need to kick back, do a few odds and ends and enjoy some leisure time.

This was our last day of our trip.  The next day we went to the park and I received the fateful call telling me that Uncle Ralph died.  And home we went.

A traveler can reach the Grand Tetons any number of ways. North. South. East. West. We chose the east entrance to Yellowstone with a sharp left at an intersection that headed us due south and out the entrance to a mosquito infected, dusty campground just outside the boundary of Yellowstone on the John D. Rockefeller Roadway.

Two thoughts. Why is the road named after John D. Rockefeller? And why did we make reservations at such a dusty campground? Don’t know the answer to the first question and can’t google it because, well, there is no service of any kind here. The answer to the second question is that we waited too long to book our reservations (think March) closer to the Grand Tetons. So, here we are.

Bolting through Yellowstone was a bit sad. So many trees are dead either because of the beetle or fire. The forest in large swaths of the park are gone and old trunks are strewn over the hillsides like pick-up-sticks. If one can ignore that (I can’t), they will enjoy the drive. On the flip side of this, we enjoyed the spectacular Yellowstone River, Snake River and Yellowstone Lake. With snow-capped peaks framing the Lake, it was back to the future for me. As many of you know, I waited tables at Lake Hotel on the shore of Yellowstone Lake when I was 19, and dare I say, a virgin.

But I digress.

Yellowstone has a special place in my heart. It was here that I arrived by train from San Luis Obispo to Pocatello, Idaho in my sleeveless frock only to disembark the train in 6 inches or so of snow. A bus was on hand to take all the young college students just like me to our respective assignments in the park. No one drove, except the older guys. So cars were not in abundance. Therefore, we summer employees without cars hitch hiked wherever we wanted to go. It was an innocent time, then. Usually we were picked up by families who often times took us to lunch. And we regaled them with stories of things that happened to us at the Park.

As an example, a moose wondered into the lobby once. It was hard to remove. Damage ensued. And then there was a time when this sweet, young, innocent belle from the bible belt called in her order to the morning cooks (most of them from San Diego and all guys). “Three orders of blueberry pancakes.” One of the cooks in a straight deadpan replied, “Oh, we’re out of blueberries today. All we have are dingle berries.” So, the belle from the south returned to her guests seated at the table in her “station” and explained that the hotel was out of blueberries but that they had dingle berries. To which the patron replied, “I think they are pulling a fast one on you. Go back and tell them we will take blueberries.” I’m fairly certain that the peels of laughter emanating from the kitchen were heard by all in the dining room. As an aside, I didn’t know what dingle berries were. Someone had to explain it to me too. One thing is for certain. I never believed anything the kitchen crew had to say after that episode.

So, it will be fun to go fishing on the Lake like I did that summer. And catch trout, like I did that summer. And because of all these darn mosquitos, we may have to pay to have the trout cooked for us because Rayman has made it perfectly clear that he is absolutely certain that every mesquito in the state of Wyoming is on his trail. He has already pronounced that we must update our benedryl (it might be less potent because it isn’t brand new), spray outside our door, and cover every inch of our bodies when leaving the Dog House. Poor dear.

But I wander off again.

When we entered Yellowstone today, we hadn’t gone a mile and there were two bears working the roadside area. We stopped and I snapped this picture. Then I saw a moose, but Rayman was going too fast to stop on a dime and I missed the photo op. Hopefully, there will be more.

So, tonight we will read, work puzzles, and pet the dog. Tomorrow we will get up early and head to the Grand Tetons. We will spend the day there lapping up the views, walking the streets, seeing where we will meet up with our Snake River flouting people (that’s Wednesday’s treat), and generally have a great day.

More to come.

It’s hard to describe how beautiful the Grand Tetons are to me.  Rising the floor of the valley, they stand erect like citadels poised for eternity.  Capped in brilliant white. it makes you think they can’t really be real.  Not that beautiful.  Certainly not that high.  And they stretch along the valley for miles on end.  It is a cliche to say they are awe-inspiring so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.  I’m out of words.

We drove down to the Grand Tetons from our dusty campground this a.m. to scout out tomorrows float on the S-S-S-(prounouce like Sissssss) Snake River.  There are many outfitters and we chose Lewis and Clark because I feel connected somehow to the Voyage of Discovery.  Before visiting their storefront, we had breakfast.  Best one so far on this trip.  My sweet potato/Brussel sprouts with egg and crispy pancetta.  Yum.  Rayman had an egg sandwich.  Good but I won.  Mine was GREAT.

Then we shuffled around all the shops in Jackson Hole.  A giant tourist trap where I found a thousand things I could have purchased…but didn’t.  The only thing we bought were some groceries at a great store.  In addition, we scouted out the doggie day care place where Beau will spend the day as we float the Snake.  We are an hour away from the place, at least, so round trip is 2 hours and then the float is 4 hours.  Way to long for Master Beau to be alone.

I found a vintage store with red cowboy boots but they wanted $160 for used boots.  No way, Jose.  And we stopped in the “town” of Moose.  It is home to a fab wine shop that our friends Al and Charlie told us about.  We wandered around and read the labels.  Everything was a bit higher than home and we were hard-pressed to find Paso Robles wines.  Bummer about that.

The rest of the day was just going crazy taking pictures.  Really, it is impossible not to photograph the place.  One of the most beautiful sights on earth.

Mirror, mirror on the Lake.

Thunderheads forming.

What we did not see were moose, elk, wolf, bald eagles.  Where are these bad boys?  We did almost hit two deer crossing the road.  Luckily we were going the speed limit.  The closer of the two calls, so to speak, Rayman was at the helm and he did an expert job of seeing it and breaking in time.  In fact, when we stopped to snap a pic, a guy from FL stopped and said, “Wow.  That was a close call.”  He was directly behind us and observed the close encounter.    Look below.  I was caught bear handed !!

Now we are back at our Dog House and Rayman is barbecuing lamb chops and asparagus.  It is starting to rain.  The wind has whipped up a bit and that has cut down on the mosquitos.  Thank god, because he is over-the-top on his mosquito hatred.  Just saying.

I’m blogging and drinking a very dry rose and tending to the roasted potatoes in the oven.  Man, do they smell good.  The red wine is breathing and so are we so we are having a great time…again…still.  What a fabulous trip!!!

Snakes aren’t all bad.

One Snake that is really fun is the Snake River that slithers along the valley of Jackson/Jackson Hole/Grand Tetons.  They refer to it as a wild river, but it really isn’t.  There are so few wild rivers left but that is changing.  Dams are coming down throughout the West and I think it a good thing.

At once, the Snake was beguiling and boring.  The water was running high today because of earlier than expecting warming that is melting the show.  But it was also running high today because they (the water people that are in charge) are releasing the water from a dam.  With that sad fact, some of the magic disappeared.  But so did the magic disappear when we observed the right bank of the river.  It looked man-made.   The left bank was not as “composed”.   Our guide explained that the river was drenched a bit.  More magic disappeared.  However, just when the magic was wanning, a fabulous view would present itself and we’d all ooh and aah and a great time was had by all.

My favorite person on the excursion was the old guy with suspenders.  I’ve been trying to get Rayman (no assatole) to consider suspenders.  Really, I should save my breath.  It’s not gonna happen.  But the old guy was very cool and funny and looked good in his suspenders.  My grandfather wore them after he went from 300 pounds down to 170.  His ass disappeared too.  So he resorted to suspenders.  Really, people, we need suspenders to come back into vogue.  I think they are cool.

But I digress.

The float took 4 hours with a lunch break on the side of the Snake.  Lunch was just so-so but sitting by the Snake as it slithered by.  Priceless.

Where was Beau, you inquire?  We boarded him at doggie day care.  This place had us fill out a form on-line that was more complicated than a pre-nup.  Yes, we checked.  We knew dogs occasionally got bit, or scratched, or whatever.  Yes, we did not hold them responsible.  Yes, we held them harmless if anything happened.  The list went on and on.  Beau, oblivious to all the legalese shook as we dropped him off for the float.  And he was so excited to see us when we picked him up that he jumped higher than I have ever seen him jump.  He is a kick, our doggie.  Such a sweet, sweet, boy.  Old pic from earlier in the trip but same good boy!!

We found a market here for food.  It is called Jackson Whole Market.  And it’s decked out just like a Whole Foods.  Bet they want to be bought out.  Anyway, I purchased some Idaho trout and that’s what we had for dinner tonight.  Barbecued.  OMG.  It was so good.  We also continued our habit of buying pre-washed greens from CA at this market.  If the Western mountain states didn’t get their lettuces et al from CA, where would that leave them?  Just saying.

Now, it must be noted that Hillary apparently clinched the Democratic nomination for Pres. last night.  We did not know because we have no TV or wifi.  We discovered this when we were able to pick up a signal near the Tetons.  I truly doubted I would ever see the day a woman would be the standard bearer.  As a feminist, I am ecstatic.  It’s been a long time coming.  I voted for her.  But I voted for Barack in the other elections.  So, it was my first time of actually voting for a WOMAN.  Hip hip.

It is historic regardless of your views.  I’ve decided I’m going to re-read her book, My History, I think it was entitled.  Just to refresh my memory.

Speaking of refreshing my memory, the guide on the float today was a young woman!!  As we were riding back in the big old bus, I had a chance to talk with her one-on-one.  I explained that when I worked in Yellowstone, the only jobs open to me were waitress and maid.  I chose waitress since I worked at the Paso Robles Inn when I was in high school as a waitress in the coffee shop.  Experience was on my side.  She explained that even now, the guys look down on her a bit even though she does exactly the same job and has for 4 years as she works her way through school.  However, she did take my point.  We have made progress though not as much as we would desire.

Please note that this blog is old news.  When we were in Yellowstone, a few days before I wrote this post, my Uncle Ralph died and we left in a hurry to get home.  I’m now reclaiming my life and posting the blogs that have not yet been posted from our Badlands trip.  Hope you enjoy my old news.

Not much is happening right now.  It’s 7:30 and I’m without a signal.  Usually, in my signal-rich life, I’d be reading the NYTimes or the LATimes right now.  And this habit has been shattered by my lack of a good signal.  Actually, no signal at all.  We are camped in the middle of a forest, at about 6,000 feet far away from any town so the powers that be have not seen fit to provide, how shall I say it, communications.  More important to communicate to us the danger of bears.  Bears are apparently plentiful in these parts but you couldn’t prove it by me.  Have only seen two and they were at the other end of the park.

But, as you know by now, I digress!!

Living without signals causes us to pause and reflect.  It is no different than all these campers that zero in their satellite dishes looking for their signals.  And it is no different than all the young people that run around with their phones in hand doing whatever they do.  But being signal-less is a condition.  That’s because, I guess, we rely our information.  The weather.  What will the weather be today?  Don’t know.  My signal is missing.  Guess I’ll look out the window, grab a jacket and step outside.  Not knowing, I have selected levis as the pant of the day.  And layers.  Can’t go wrong with layers.  This is just one example of the information we are now lacking as we exist in the forest.

Without a signal, my blogs only exist in my built-in software inside my computer.  Once written, as this blog will soon be, I am unable to post the blog.  Cut and paste is my modus operandi.  Once composed, I cut and paste my work into my blog which is on-line, so to speak.  And once that is done, media must be added in the form of pictures, video, music or website links.  Having completed that process, I then post the blog and send out 6 group messages alerting the unsuspecting that we’ve been up to something.  However, a signal is needed to complete the processes.

Signals also pipe in communications from friends and family.  It’s a way to communicate in our modern age.  Previously, we may have picked up the phone (not here though, because we have no signal).  Or we may have sent a telegram.  Or a fax.  Or…we may just not have communicated at all.  Now, our choices are mind bogging.  Shall I email?  Facebook?  Text?   Some people do one thing and not the either.  And some people don’t do any of it (my Uncle Ralph).  Some people do it all.  They are the easiest to stay up with.  Yes, a signal lets us all stay up with each other.

Do extroverts miss the signal more than introverts?  Just wondering.

So what does a signal-less person do?  Well, we read, mostly.  Or play scrabble.  Or just talk.  Last night we decided to split a bison burger at the “lodge” across our dusty parking lot.  The lodge has a gift store, a 7-11 type “grocery” store, a reservation desk for travelers that stay at the lodge, and a bar and restaurant.  They are signal-less too.  And, let it be noted, that the phones have “Out of Service” signs scotched taped to the handsets.  Anyway, we meandered over to the restaurant and ordered out burger to split, a wine for moi and a beer for the Rayman.   And we talked.  Mostly about what our plan for the morning entailed as we were moving on to greener pastures.  How long with it take?  Shall we hook up the car?  (no because there is an almost 2000 foot incline to wrestle).   What will do once we are settled in at the Fishing Village location?  And as we were winding down our conversation, the Rayman hit his beer glass with his flailing hands and, of course, the glass spilled the beer in my direction.  My pants took the brunt of it.  The wait staff was not busy (we were there at 5:30) so they came to our rescue (in droves) and the next thing that appeared was a full glass of beer.  Oh, my.  Our waitress received a handsome tip on top of the tip.  And we wattled away happy as clams.  As an aside, the bison burger was very, very good.

Speaking of food, without a signal, there is no Epicurious, no Fine Foods, no LA Times and NYTimes which I lean on for menu planning.  Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I still will purchase a new cookbook now and then but not like I used to.   With a zillion recipes on line, a cookbook is a relic unless the author imparts information about cooking, not just recipes.  And since we try to keep our weight down in The Dog House, cookbooks are not high on the list of things that are needed when RVing.  For this trip, I did bring one cookbook that Ryan, number one son, gave me for Xmas.  It features Oregon recipes…sort of an anthology.  So, I brought it so that when in Oregon, we can cook some of the dishes together with Ryan.  That sounds like great fun to me!!

Without a signal, we are invisible to the outside world.  No one knows where we are.  Heck, we hardly know where we are!!  No one can reach us for anything.  We can’t reach anyone for anything.  We’re out of it.  In more ways than one.

Okay.  Okay.  Time to get packing.  We need to leave by 9:00 and signals beckon.  We may find a signal at Fishing Village as it is lakeside on one side and a signal may be able to get through.

Then we will exist again.

Heading west today. Leaving South Dakota on the prettiest day we’ve had here. The weather is warming and that is good since the road west has some mountains to explore and we intend to explore them.

As is par for the course, we headed off the I-90 onto backroads to arrive a Sheridan, Wyoming. What a drive. Firstly, Gillette is an oil and coal town and it is mighty ugly. Don’t ever bother going to Gillette unless you enjoy seeing big holes in the ground, those oil pump machines that look like grasshoppers, and a plethora of manufactured homes that have seen their better days. Actually, it is amazing how many old double and triple wide homes there are in these parts. We’ve seen them in all the states we have visited. And most of them look down and out. The other thing that we have seen are fences. Everywhere. Everything is fenced.

This is one of the fancy fences.

One thing fences don’t discourage are antelope. Driving down our two lane road today, we slowed and followed an antelope about 300 yards before the darn thing darted across the road exactly in front of us. Sure glad I slowed down. We also saw another hawk flying with a snake. As we cruised along at about 50 MPH, we saw three sheep running at us. They had “slipped” through the fence and were hightailing it down the road. A truck was turning out of a driveway (out in the middle of nowhere) and the driver stopped so that two young women could give chase. One was in flip-flops and on her cellphone. Modern cowgirl? Don’t know. It was a funny sight all the same. Didn’t realize sheep could run that fast!!

We did see many herd of antelope on the back road. A lot more antelope than cars or trucks combined. I estimate that total vehicle citing numbered about 30 for over 100 miles. Easy rider takes on a new connotation in my lexicon.

So, tomorrow we’re off to Cody, WY. We plan to stay there a few days and then we got to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Hope to see elk there.

Oh, and today, we saw a bald eagle. First one this trip. it was nesting on top of pole that looks like it was placed there just for that reason. Quite a thrill anyway.

Beau is doing good and, therefore, so are we.

Today is the first Friday in June. My, how time flies. We packed up early and left Sheridan because we heard it was going to be a windy day. And when it’s windy, driving the Dog House is akin to riding a bucking bronco. You don’t want to do it. Weaving a bit of west into this blog.

The view on the highway between Gillette and Sheridan, WY.

We took the i-90 to the 14 and headed for Cody, Wyoming. We plan to spend the weekend here before we head to the Grand Teton National Park. Let’s see now. That will make it the 5th national park for us on this land voyage. What a fabulous national park system we have. In addition we have seen state parks and national monuments. And we have traversed national forests which is my segue for my next topic, Bighorn National Forest.

A Wyoming traffic jam.

Highway 14 intersects this national forest and what a highway it is. Hairpin turns while climbing, climbing, climbing only to peak out and have hairpin curves down the other side of the mountain. These mountains are huge and part of the Rockies. The road was in perfect condition and there were no cars on it. We did see one bus when it passed us!!! But, by and large we kept up our winning strategy of traffic avoidance while maximizing the wow factor. We also observed many deer and antelope and two moose (meese?).

Our first moose sighting.

Just kidding. And one squished snake on the road. But the majesty of the mountains was just breathtaking. Wallace Stegner, I am not but sure wish i had his writing ability. One feels entirely insignificant when wandering this part of the West. The sky was blue, the rivers were full and running with great purpose, always downhill. The wind wasn’t bad, thankfully and our trip was just punctuated with oohs, and ahhs. We drank it in and it was filling.

Stopping at the top (8,000 ft), we visited a Dept. of Forestry exhibit manned by a young woman who was very informative and, dare i say, attractive in her Smokey the Bear hat. Not sure why they wear those hats indoors.

Man and dog at the top.

But I digress.

We followed some steps down to observation decks that were built for people to look at the raging Shell River/creek. Wow. The noise the water generated was louder than a Bruce Springsteen rock concert. Quite amazing. There was still some snow here and there. I dubbed it “shady snow” because it was snow under trees in the shade. Incidentally, the forest has a beetle problem. It’s a different beetle, one native to this area. But it is ravaging the trees just the same.

Rayman was a scream. Literally. He didn’t want me to drive because I love to look for critters and he is afraid I’ll drive us off a cliff. I tell him I won’t but he is too caution to believe it, I surmise. So, he drove until we were back down on the other side of the mountain. While he was driving we talked about the pioneers moving across the country and encountering these behemoth mountains. And once on the other side, seeing a whole other chain of mountains in the western distance. OMG. We imagined it must have been very dispiriting.

We arrived in Cody in one piece. Set up the Dog House and drove around town just to check the place out. It sure has changed since I was here last in 1964.  Duh. Then we saw a park and walked Beau over it to let him run and get the lead out. Well, now. Along came a horse with a rider on his back clomping down the street and then into the park.. Beau chased the horse and Ray had a coronary. Enough said about that!!

Since it was Friday night, we decided to splurge and eat out at Irma’s Historic Hotel restaurant. It was average food but the inside of the place was fun…except for the guy that was carving the prime rib at the buffet table. He was with gun on his hip. I did not approve and thought it completely inappropriate but we stayed and ate because we had already ordered our food and drink. The old place had very high ceilings and the tin ceiling that was quite impressive. On the walls were trophy heads of various animals which is a bit off-putting but that is what they do here. And loads of old pictures including William Cody himself. It also had a great oak bar that ran down one side of the room. Our young waitress didn’t know zinfandel was red. The croutons were out of a bag. The pepper was on the table. Haute cuisine hasn’t arrived at irma’s yet.

It’s quarter to 9 and the sun has set but it is quite light out. The days here are very long. Plenty of time to get in trouble during day light!! Think I’ll close this out and post it tomorrow. Time to tuck myself in and read my book. No TV here and we exhausted our Borgen DVD and must send it back to Netflix.

Oh, one last observation. Our Dog House looks like riff raff compared to the towering RVs that are in this park. Huge diesel pushers with 27 slides. I’m looking out our front window at a Prevost Millennium. It is huge. Oh, well. it’s the start of the season and all the RV parks are filling up now. I’m sure we’ll see plenty more swank rigs. Today, on I-90 we saw a big truck pulling a big 5th wheel and a huge recreational boat. it is an amazing subculture on wheels.