Another Day! Another Car Show!! and a Moose!!

Sunday we went to Bozeman, MT http://www.bozemanchamber.com/ for a car show and a visit to WalMart!!! You know we live in the boonies when it's more than 80 miles to WalMart! Woody enjoyed walking around the seeing the cars, even if some of them had been at the Rod Run here in West Yellowstone. While he looked at cars, I shopped! This was a great show because it was downtown on Main Street in Bozeman, and all the shops were open. Some of the galleries were fabulous...hard to believe you're in the middle of the western prairie and mountains and ranches! My favorite place was the Montana Gift Corral http://www.giftcorral.com/ which had fabulous stuff! I bought a new paper towel holder with a pewter moose on top, and a beautiful sterling silver cuff bracelet with a moose on an onyx background. Since I can't seem to find a moose with a rack, or as Woody calls it "a horny moose", I just bought two! The downtown is darling, with old buildings but upscale shopping. I do love college towns near high-end resort areas like Big Sky! If it just weren't so cold, I'd love to live here! It's below zero a lot with lots of wind! Not as much snow as West, but lots of ice according to one of the young sales clerks I talked to during my shopping.

Of course, we went to WalMart, but also Michaels, Borders and Johnny Carino's Restaurant for dinner, which serves country Italian! A real town! Yea!!! If it sounds like I'm homesick for Hendersonville and Nashville, you're right! Woody is ready for a boys' day out with Bill and company!

Happy birthday to Libby...she turned 32 on Saturday, August 16th! Hard to believe that I'm only 39 and she's already 32!

Resting today and tomorrow...we've been going hard for weeks and now I'm pooped. We're having dinner out with friends tomorrow night...back to Bar N Ranch...we may go every week til we leave as it's the best restaurant in West Yellowstone and maybe in the west! There are eight of us going tomorrow night so it will be a blast!!

Lewis and Clark Caverns, Red Lodge and Beartooth!

We are entirely too busy! I'm falling down on my job of keeping you all up to date! On Monday, we went to Lewis and Clark Caverns. We hiked up the mountain and then down into the beautiful cavern. It was a tough but easy climb...paved path, but straight up! The caverns were cool but I was disappointed that I never saw the bats. Apparently there are thousands of bats and bat babies, but we just couldn't get them to wake up and play! After the caverns, we went to Virginia City which is a ghost town near Ennis, MT. I reminded Woody again that I'm not overly fond of history, but the homemade ice cream at one shop was fabulous. On Tuesday we headed to Red Lodge, MT via Beartooth Pass. We had to wait to go as the pass didn't open until the end of June due to snow...yep, snow. The picture above is about at the top of the mountain and is a beautiful lake with lots of snow still melting! It was quite cool and gusty. The road was winding and straight up and then straight down! I'll post pictures of the road later.

We love Red Lodge and wish all the lovely people we met safety from the fire. There is a significant forest fire burning 8-9 miles from the town, and the ski lodge is most at risk right now. You can get an update on the fire at http://www.redlodge.com/ The firefighters are doing a fabulous job. One of the things that was interesting, short of the helicopters flying back and forth to dump water/fire retardant while we were lunching and shopping, was the fact that they were using the snow making machines to try to keep the lodge and surrounding buildings wet. You could see the smoke over the hill as you walked down the street. It was a long drive over, so we thought we'd come back a different way through Gardiner and back into Yellowstone National Park. We didn't make it back until almost 10PM, and the park is incredibly dark!!! It happened to be overcast and with the smoke from the Red Lodge fire and a smaller fire in Yellowstone, there were no stars or moon to help light the way. We were concerned that we'd encounter animals unexpectedly, but all we saw was one lonely coyote meandering down the side of the road!

We actually had Friday and Saturday off this week so Woody could go to the West Yellowstone 38th Annual Rod Run. For the uninitiated, it was about 300 hot rods! Our store, Buffalo Trading Company, was a sponsor and Brenda let Woody pick the car that we gave our trophy to...it was a Chevy Nomad that he picked out Friday even before he saw the rest of the cars! Here's the car in the parade going right by our store! At the show, we discovered the car is owned by a woman! So appropriate with Brenda owning the store! After the show, we went to Island Park Lodge for dinner with Dave and Geri, our co-workers! and the ones who coerced us into the Lewis and Clark Cavern visit without mentioning the mountain climb to get there! We owe you!

It's late...hope you're all having a wonderful summer! Bedtime for me!