Jackson Hole, WY is Gorgeous!

Years ago my Dad told us that Jackson Hole was the most beautiful place in the world. Today we saw what he meant! We went to Jackson, WY, a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County, Wyoming. The drive through the Tetons and the pass was gorgeous. We were glad that it was in the Mustang not the RV! Straight up and straight down. We saw potatoes growing, which was a new thing!

Once we got to Jackson, we did the Antler Arch picture, walked the square and saw the Cowboy Bar and bought tons of stuff. There was even a Staples and a Coldwater Creek. The Coldwater Creek was unlike any I've ever seen...you'd think it was a very affluent community with all the expensive jewelry and suede jackets, etc. http://www.coldwatercreek.com/ I saw a woman with a Chicos bag! We left before I found it, but at least I know it's there! We went to several art galleries and the quality of the work was incredible. There was a moose oil painting for a mere $18,000 that I would love to have had for the living room. Instead we have a post card of two moose kissing that Woody bought me! We headed to Teton Village to ride the gondola, but of course, like Big Sky, MT, it was under construction. We headed through the forest on a gravel road toward Yellowstone, and found Jackson Lake. It was absolutely stunning. Not as big as Yellowstone Lake, but certainly equally beautiful. We stopped and saw the warning bear sign, and then right down the road...the bear!! I think we'll head back to Jackson in a few weeks.

Love to our friends Bill and Jane...Bill's brother died this weekend after a lingering illness.

I do hope all of you are enjoying sharing our retirement...except Holly who hates us! There might be a few others who aren't fond of us...we are having a wonderful time, but are ready to see our friends and family! It won't be too long!

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!

Yes...I'm Short!

Ok...this is Woody's favorite picture of me showing that I'm barely taller than a fire plug! My argument is that this is a really tall fire plug and even has an antenna so you can find it in the 300 inches of snow that fell last year. Do you realize that 62 inches (well 60 inches if I'm truthful) is my height and FIVE times my height fell in snow?

David and Estelle left us Saturday morning and headed south to Jackson Hole, WY. We found out that the night that we had dinner and a bad storm in Ennis, Montana there were 85 mile an hour straight line winds and even moved some of the walls in the church they were building on their mission trip. When we headed back to West Yellowstone, we realized that the power was out in town and huge limbs were littered everywhere. The shots of the light through the clouds is quite spiritual, especially knowing the storms that created these photo ops! We were having dinner in a log cabin and just didn't realize the strength of the winds!

Things are busy in the store...Brenda kept telling us that it would get busier! Our photo cards are selling well and going all over the world. We've had more foreign countries represented in the store than states...we're at approximately 39 countries and 37 states. I'm excited for this opportunity. I've spent today working on editing some of my photos and digitally manipulating them to look like oil paintings and pencil drawings. This is fascinating and the more I learn, the more I enjoy the computer aspects of photography. Hopefully at some point I'll have more time to work on them...oh wait, I'm retired...why don't I have more time? We're having the best summer!

Tomorrow we're heading to Lewis and Clark Caverns. It's a two mile hike and caves! Our co-workers Geri and Dave recommended it. We'll head to Virginia City on the way home. I love caves which makes no sense since I get just a little claustrophobic at times...it's generally when there are too many people, so I guess it's crowds that bug me. The rod run is next weekend so Woody is happy. After that, we need to schedule our trip to Jackson Hole. We are trying to wait til a few of the tourists are gone. That's the crowd thing!

Have a great week...more to come from West Yellowstone!

Fun with David and Estelle!

No canasta...David hadn't seen Old Faithful so we headed up to the park after Sunday lunch at the Grizzley Claw Restaurant in West Yellowstone, my personal favorite. On the way up we saw elk, including three babies, one wading, and a couple who decided to stop traffic including a Land Rover who just couldn't grasp that the elk had the right of way! The eruption of Old Faithful was the first one I've had with a sunny day! On the way home, the baby eagle was sitting on the side of the Madison River...still learning to fish!

Monday, we drove to Bozeman to see Mamma Mia! http://www.mammamiamovie.com/ I think reviewers are crazy...yes it was a bit overdone, but the movie was fabulous. I loved Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski. The rest of the cast was perfect, the songs fun, and the views were beautiful! There were complaints that the story was weak...haven't the reviewers figured out that we go to be entertained not educated!! If I picked apart every movie, TV show, text and internet story, I'm sure there would be tons of inconsistencies! Hello...it's for fun, and this movie is FUN. Full disclosure...I like the play better because the audience gets more involved, but this may be a movie I actually buy so whenever I get low I can watch it! It just makes me want to go back to Las Vegas and see if Mamma Mia is still playing at the Mirage!

Today we're heading to Ennis to see the work that David and Estelle are doing on their mission trip. It's a new church project. They are such good people!

Mosquitos the size of hummingbirds!

Mosquitos the size of hummingbirds! Welcome to Yellowstone. We've bragged all summer about how wonderful Yellowstone National Park and West Yellowstone is...in full disclosure, we have to acknowledge one drawback! Mosquitos...they're huge and when they bite, you're doomed to itch for days. If it weren't for Afterbite http://www.tendercorp.com/faq.php?cat=2 , we'd never survive!

Gotta go...Estelle and David are on their way to play canasta!!! will let you know tonight who won! GIRL POWER!

Our best meal in Yellowstone!

The best meal we've had since we arrived in West Yellowstone in May! We ate last night at the Yellowstone Hotel and the food was superb...far better than the Old Faithful Inn or anywhere we've eaten in town. The hotel was built in 1891 on the shores of Lake Yellowstone, it originally was a railroad hotel. With renovations, the hotel you see in this picture emerged! The view out of the dining room is beautiful! Last night we kept waiting for Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray to dance into the dining room. It is so reminiscent of "Dirty Dancing"! Right down to a string quartet in the sun room.

We did have one setback...a man pulled out of a parking spot and backed his car into the side of the mustang! You know that's Woody's baby but he managed to keep his cool...well, fairly well anyway! When we called his State Farm agent, he had already called in the claim. Great to know there are honest people still left in the world! We have State Farm too...they've always been great!

We spent today running errands and getting presents ready to mail for birthdays!

Our friends Bill and Jane sent us the most wonderful care package from home! Tonight we had white beans, corn muffins, country ham and biscuits...yesterday we polished off the RoC cola and moon pies...oh and don't forget the goo goo clusters! I may not love Jane later tonight! It's amazing how easy it is to cook beans in a crock pot! We also bought a toaster oven. We don't like to use propane because we pay for that and electric is free! You know we are retired and watching our pennies! Right!

I'm still knitting...watch your mail! Have a great rest of the week!!

Another day in paradise!

We had a great week and a better Sunday. We drove south of West Yellowstone into Grand Teton National Park. Just a precursor to a trip to Jackson, WY in August. We did hit rush hour in Yellowstone on the way! Guess who has the right of way! A bit of hiking to the top of Lewis Falls and lots of fabulous looks at the Lewis River leading to the Snake River. The most fun was tracking a young coyote who stalked the elk you see here! He didn't stand a chance at bringing one of these guys down, but we tracked him for a good while and watched him head downwind of the herd until he finally went on down the river! The elk were peacefully grazing until they caught a whiff of the coyote! Up popped the heads!

Here's Woody standing on the Continental Divide at Lake Issa. It is the high point of the continent and one half of Lake Issa drains to the Columbia River to the west and the Pacific, and the other half drains into the Missouri and Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic! Woody was just totally impressed with the fact that he was standing on the high point of the divide!

We've decided that five months away from home is too long, so look for us to take shorter trips. We miss the kids and grandkids (of course they could come see us!), the breakfast buds and our wonderful neighbors. We also miss shopping at WalMart! It's 89 miles to WalMart and gas here is almost $4.50 a gallon! The tourists are down, but it's still busy. We've had 35 states represented in our customers and about 30 countries...we're playing the license plate game without cars! I am loving the store and our boss...we're just having a blast! Some of the pictures here on the blog are selling as photo cards at Buffalo Trading Company. Several are going out of the country so I'm truly an international photographer! Brenda ordered a photo album to sell and one of my shots is the cover! Guess what you'll all get for Christmas!!!

Woody is sleepy and said we had to sign off for now! Have a blessed week!

4th of July in West Yellowstone, MT

See the waterfall that runs through the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone National Park...just wanted you to have a little taste of nature before sharing with you our 4th of July!! We had a blast watching the 4th of July Parade down Canyon Street in front of our shop in West Yellowstone, Montana! Here are the pictures that celebrate Americana at it's finest! The double rainbow was just after the parade! We missed the fireworks because we couldn't get all the people out of the store! It was our busiest day.

Last week I did a little consulting gig in Kansas and fell in love with the Bozeman airport! It's fun to fly out of the little airports! Still had a little jet!

Today was a full day in Big Sky, Montana! http://www.bigskychamber.com/ I've decided I could live in Big Sky! We went to a little artist and crafts fair in Meadow Village. It was a little sad that only about 12-15 artisians were at the Crail Ranch. After our TACA art fairs, we were a little surprised. The Big Sky Resort http://www.bigskyresort.com/ area is fabulous though. Tons of ski slopes which I think equates to snow and winter! We saw a sign that said that Montana has three seasons...last winter, this winter and next winter! I think I'm now a summer mountain girl! I'd still have to leave for most of the winter.

We're still enjoying our time here...the animals are getting a bit more elusive as the weather warms up...we're heading south toward Jackson Hole and the Tetons tomorrow. We still have plans to go for three or four days but we're waiting til late August when more of the tourists leave! Since we have a post office box, we're not tourists!!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer! Hugs from Woody and Pat