Would you believe more smoke?-August 31, 2012

We noticed a great deal of smoke late last night as we were leaving Derrick's. This morning it was like a dense fog. But it was smoke. Not just over the mountains but blanketing everything. We found out it was smoke from a fire in Chadron, Nebraska. We drove through Chadron National Forest earlier this year and it was absolutely beautiful. We're sorry it's on fire. The smoke got to me while we were waiting to get our tickets to see the 2016 movie. It is very interesting but to us it just brought up more questions. This is a movie everyone should see before they go to vote in November. It appears the smoke may be moving out a bit tonight.

Missle Silo in Greeley-August 30, 2102

There is a decomissioned missle silo in Greeley. It housed ICBM missles during the cold war. From what we could see it looks as if only one missle could be loaded, but perhaps there are other doors we could not see. You have to schedule a visit at this site. We don't have to do that since we went into a silo at Ellsworth AFB in Box Elder, South Dakota. Still it is interesting to think the country town of Greeley housed such missles.

This is the only thing that marks the entrance to the Missle Silo park

 

 

 

And this is the only silo pit we could see, but there may be more on the property.

 

 

It was very interesting to see this. I've always known it was here, but never bothered to check it out.

 

FYI: tomorrow's full moon is the last blue moon until 2015. I know that is a fact but I do not know why. Now you know what I know!

 

 

Greeley POW Camp-August 29, 2012

During WWII Greeley had a pow camp, POW Camp 202. It housed German and Austrian POWs. The ones from Germany knew about farming sugar beets because that's where the beets originated. So, many of the POWs were happy to help the local farmers out during sugar beet season. Jerry's dad used to drive a wagon over to Greeley to pick up some POWs to help him during harvest. It was very affordable. Many of the men returned to the US after the war. The story posted on one of the markers told the story of a POW who refused to help the enemy so he had to iron clothes. I think all in all it was a mutually beneficial arrangement for all involved. I am glad they put up a memorial to the site.

Two of these marked the entrance to POW Camp 202

 

I tried to make this as large as possible but it's still difficult to read. This is a monument to the prisoners who were housed at this POW camp.

 

 

I have always found this a fascinating story and incredible that a POW camp existed so close to where we lived. 

 



Smashburger-August 29, 2012

We had a birthday celebration last night at Smashburger in Loveland. It was soooo good. The portions were a bit on the large size so food was left on the plate. We are such fans of Five Guys, so it is hard to admit this was slightly better. However, one draw back was that they put rosemary on their sweet potato fries. Anybody from the south knows good and well that rosemary does not belong on sweet potatoes, no matter how exotic your tastes are. It was very easy to turn those fries down. Otherwise, it was very good and we enjoyed our time together. It's enjoyable every once in a while to not have to do dishes!

Mountains!-August 27, 2012

We have been here nearly two weeks and today is the first time we saw the mountains. Granted we did not see much of them, but a shadow is better than none at all. We went to Longmont today to buy a new bed (they were out of stock) and some fabric for a new valance in Derrick's house. Jerry and I had a chance to eat a quick lunch at Henry's. It was excellent as it always is. And it was peaceful and pleasant.

Look closely and you can see the outline of the mountains.

That's the clearest it has been since we arrived here.

 

 

Smoke is still the issue. There is nothing we can do about it, but we have really missed seeing those mountains. It's easy to assume we'll always have a wonderful view. And you know what happens when you assume. Maybe we will get some wind in here to clear up this murkiness. 

 



Windy night-August 25, 2012

About 3:00 this morning a very unpredicted wind started roaring through here. Jerry went out and rolled in the manual awnings. The automatic ones were much quicker. He did not mention if anybody drove by while he was out there in his night clothes. There were several gusts that were very easily north of 50 mph. It just would not let up. Finally out of complete exhaustion from all the noise we were able to fall asleep though this coach was definitely rocking and rolling. When we woke up this morning I asked where we ended up? I just knew we were in Kansas. Good news. We are still in Derrick's driveway! I wish everyone a blessed and restful Sunday. I'm praying for Isaac to die out before he reaches the coast of Alabama.

Checking in-August 24, 2012

We are still alive and kicking! We are busy, busy, busy and we are not complaining. Today we almost saw the mountains but still no blue sky. We've been here 9 days and have not see the sky at all. Still only white smoke is visible everywhere. We could see the outline of the foothills today which was quite a big step in all this smoke. It has crossed my mind that this has to be a long term health hazard for people working outdoors. We do hope before we leave here that the sky will clear. It does clear a little at night because some of the stars are visible, but daytime is a white-out. So sad. We think Derrick, Josh and Jerry will be installing new doors in one of the bedrooms in Derrick's house tomorrow. I think I might stay out of there until they are done. We are going to try to get into a different mode next week, more visiting and less work!!

Veggies-August 20, 2012

I volunteered to be the cook tonight. Derrick cooked last night. So we had fresh veggies from his garden. We had silver queen corn, green beans and okra plus southern fried chicken. It was so good and it had to be a treat for Derrick not to have to cook a meal. I don't have room to do that kind of cooking anymore so in reality, it was a treat for me, too. The sky was completely white with smoke
today. It's odd to know that there is a beautiful blue sky and mountains behind that smoke but no way to see it. I'm not even sure there's any hope for it to clear any time soon. No way we are going to the mountains right now. If you want some good veggies, stop by!

Remember me?-August 18, 2012

It has been a very busy and hectic few days for us. But tonight we set aside time to meet the "gang" at On The Border. Those of you who have been following this blog know the extent we will go to in order to eat at an OTB. We have found many all over the country and enjoyed each one, but Loveland is and always will be our favorite. There were a total of eight of us there. Josh and JD work with Derrick. Shawn and Angela are long time friends. In fact we have known Shawn for probably a good 30 years. We attended his wedding to Angela. Oh my goodness, these guys are so mature, and we remember when......... The meal was good. The company was wonderful. It has become a tradition for all of us to do this and what a treat it is for us two old folks! It's like a family reunion for us. Jerry worked so hard yesterday to get the gunk off of Cute Red Vehicle. It was so nice. Then we were awakened by rain during the night. Sometimes you just can't win. We have been enjoying lots of good vegetables out of Derrick's garden. And we brought cherries from Montana with us. We're just pigging out. We are going to need tomorrow to rest as we try to do as often as we can. I wish you a very blessed and peaceful Sunday.

Follow up yesterday's blog-August 16, 2012

Elvis died 35 years ago today. Can you believe it has been that long? Sorry, I'm off topic. Yesterday we drove in just as much smoke as the two previous days. But it was worse because we were driving south through Wyoming. Wyoming is a good place to be FROM. It is barren, brown, unnattractive and for the most part, uninhabitable except by cattle and prairie dogs. On a clear day at least here is blue sky to draw one's eyes from the boring landscape. Yesterday it was only white. Let me see if I can post a picture that shows what I am saying.

On the horizon you can see nothing. Normally you see the Rockies. I had not noticed that clouds hung on top of the smoke. Please don't think this is pretty. It really isn't.

Late in the afternoon as we neared the Colorado border, the sun started trying to force its way through the smoke and clouds. We did see some very interesting rock outcroppings. It reminded us of the far outer edges of the Badlands of South Dakota but not quite as spectacular. Still nice though.

Interesting rocks, but still brown.

Finally we saw a little blue sky.

In spite of the lack of beautiful scenery, we still had a nice trip of about 350 miles in one day. We may be caught up on our sleep in about a week. We have a short to-do list to complete. After that maybe we can become tourists and all the while deciding where we want to go next. 









Derrick's!-August 15, 2012

I'm just letting you know we arrived at Derrick's house this afternoon. We are really tired. It was a long day and the wind was unnerving. I have some pictures and some thoughts to share. I'll do it tomorrow.

Buffalo, WY-August 14, 2012

There is almost as much smoke in Wyoming as there was in Montana. When we came through here over 6 weeks ago, this place was gorgeous and green. Today it is so brown and dry, it looks like the middle of winter except it is extremely hot. We know we are not headed for cooler weather but we will survive. Tomorrow will be the longest day we have driven since we bought this coach. It's just
the way the chips fell today. As you know our original plan was to go to Seattle. Guess what is happening there? A big old huge fire east of that city. So, in either direction we would have had excessive smoke. We hate to see all those trees burning up not to mention the homes. I think the major portion of our country desperately needs rain. Montana has spent over $50 million dollars fighting the fires there and the summer is not close to being over. So sad. I just remembered what I forgot to tell you. There was a hitchhiker in St Regis, who was standing at the only intersection in town, a 4 way stop. He had his handmade cardboard sign that read "Blah, blah, blah, I need a ride". What is this a sign of? Laziness? We don't know but we really did laugh and wondered if he ever got a ride. Can you believe that? Blah, blah, blah........

Columbus, MT-August 13, 2012

We stopped in Anaconda last night. The only thing I can say about it is that we will have to come back next year. This is an area very rich in copper history and we want to know all about it. It goes without saying it is beautiful. This morning we got up and realized we could not see any of the mountains. Smoke, lots and lots of smoke covering everything. It was awful. If this had been my first trip to Montana I would have sat in my comfy passenger seat and cried all day long. You could not see anything except the highway. We crossed the Continental Divide at only 6393 feet. But the next mountain made our check engine light come on. It went off. Then up another big hill we started loosing power. I convinced Jerry to pull off the road at Three Forks and go in the truck stop and see if they knew a diesel engine repair place anywhere. There was one on the other side of the interstate. We limped over there and were taken care of right away. The mechanic checked the fuel filters for water. None. Then he said he needed to check the air filter. We discovered that the air filter in this barge had never ever been changed. It was so dirty that a big pile of dirt and miller moths fell out of it when he finally got it out. This coach has been in at least 4 places that could have changed that filter but no one touched it. It is very hard to reach so it was ignored. It goes without saying that he had no filter in his business. He called around and found one in a nearby city. To save waiting on delivery we jumped in the Cute Red Vehicle and let it run. We came back with the filter (it is just huge!) and it was installed in no time flat. We were off and Jerry has struggled to keep the speed down on this thing all afternoon. The engine is so happy. And so are we! Diesel engines seldom ever display a check engine light so we knew it had to be something other than real problems with the engine. I am telling you that even though we lost about 2 1/2 hours in Three Forks we fully felt the presence of a wonderful guardian angel in this coach today. It ended up being only an inconvenience and we got to Columbus where we wanted to be today. We'll be up early tomorrow and hope to land in Buffalo, WY tomorrow afternoon.

Change in plans AGAIN-August 11, 2012

We are so happy we are flexible and not locked into a rigid schedule. Derrick called late this morning and requested our presence at his home. So we have cancelled all plans which were made through Aug 25th and are preparing to leave here tomorrow morning. We do not like to travel on Sunday for any reason, but we need to be at his house soon. We have confirmed reservations for Sun and Monday night. Tomorrow we will try to book the other two nights. This land barge does not move as quickly as a car, so it will take us 4 days to get to Colorado. We hope to be there late on Weds. If I do not blog for a few days, please know we are pushed for time and I'll be back online as soon as I possibly can. Everything's fine. It's just when your only child requests your presence, you drop everything and scoot down the road. We'll pick up here next year and finish the last leg of this trip. We don't mind at all. Before I sign off for tonight, please indulge me as I post one more picture of the Clark Fork River. I am so sorry you cannot be here to see this beauty. It's just breathtaking.

Clark Fork River looking south

Clark Fork River looking north

We'll see this river several more times before we are actually out of Montana. And hopefully we'll see it again next year. I hope your Sunday is a very blessed and peaceful day. Life is good. 

St Regis area-August 9, 2012

We decided to get in the Cute Red Vehicle and start driving this morning. We went in every direction to see what was there. First we went south under the interstate to a local golf course. I looked up and saw that you could see our coach sitting on the top of the hill. Let's see if you can see it, too.

Look closely and you can see the black top of our home on wheels. There's a lighter colored

one on the left side of us. We are on quite a hill.

When we drove west, we crossed over the interstate and ended up on a logging road which we chose not to explore. We crossed over a small river that did not have a name posted.

Even without a name it is still pretty.

Then we went north toward a town called Paradise. We only went part of the way and turned around. This time we were driving beside the Clark Fork River which seems to be following us everywhere we go. Jerry said he thinks this unnamed river runs into the Clark Fork which goes north and eventually joins the Columbia River which flows to the Pacific. The rivers on this side of the Continental Divide flow to the Pacific. On the east side they flow to the Gulf of Mexico. A few of the small ones go to the Atlantic. The geography of this country is as interesting as the history. I just can't get enough of this scenery.

Silver Dollar-August 8, 2012

Today we drove 16 miles west of here to check out the Silver Dollar restaurant-bar-motel-gift shop-gas station that advertises they have 50,000 silver dollars on display. Well, indeed they do. They started collecting and displaying them in 1921. Supposedly they add 1500 each year, but we could not find the recent additions. There are some very old silver dollars and some not so old. It was very interesting to see that many silver dollars on display. It was worth the drive to see it.

The silver dollars are all over the place. And each one has the name of the person who donated it to the collection as well as the date of the donation.

I wonder if they are able to get insurance coverage on this collection?

A long day-August 7, 2012

Since cell service is so bad here we spent almost the entire day just trying to make reservations all the way through the 25th of this month. We are not sure all the families will be off the road yet, so we needed to plan ahead. Calls to parks that normally take 3-4 minutes took half an hour. It was awful. We had to keep repeating everything over and over again. Glad we got it done. Hopefully tomorrow will be more fun since we have planned our trip ahead and can relax and enjoy the day. We'll see what we can find.

Lunch in Superior-August 6, 2012

We had lunch in Superior, about 13 miles east of here. It was good and I ate my first wild huckleberries. They are sort of like blueberries but much smaller. I like them. We went outside to take pictures of sunset last night. The sun went down so slowly we gave up and came back in where it was cooler. This is the best I could do.

It doesn't have red and orange in it because the air is so clean.

Superior is larger than St Regis. It has 700 people and here there are only about 350. No wonder there are no cell phone towers! They can get by with smoke signals. Or just yell out the back door at their neighbors! I needed to mail a small package today and I had no box. So I went to the tiny little post office here and was helped above and beyond. The lady got me a box and packed the items for me and taped the box shut while I filled out an address label. You'll never get that kind of service in a big city. So, there are some advantages to tiny little towns. We walked around the entire park today. It was quite a walk. Jerry kept wanting to take off into the woods to explore. I refused. So, I stayed on an open path and waited for him. The owners of this park have created their own walking trails so they are nice. I'm am tad uncomfortable with what animals are lurking in the woods. It was still nice to enjoy the fresh air. 

Where we are-August 5, 2012

I want to update you on our situation here in St Regis. There are no cell phone towers anywhere around here. No television towers. No towers of any kind. There's no cable. We were very fortunate to get our satellite to work. Our cell phones will get a clear full signal for about 3 or 4 minutes and that is it. We have tried both WiFi and MiFi. Each will work about 2 minutes max. So, in a sense we are out of touch for a while. We are scheduled to be here until the 14th. It is going to be difficult to say the least if we cannot contact anybody. If you leave a message on one of our cells we will get it at a later time when we go into town. If you send an email I can read it but usually cannot reply. Please be patient. Apparently all the reviews of this park we read were not completely accurate. Or people come here to get away from it all. We will enjoy the quiet and the extraordinary beauty but we'll still miss daily contact. I just didn't want you to think we had fallen off the face of the earth. We're still hanging in there!

Pictures!-August 3, 2012 (2nd post today)

For a reason we cannot understand or explain, our computer and cells seem to be trying to work normally. So, let me try a few pictures while we have service. We'll check in the office tomorrow for suggestions to solve the problem. They claim this is their number one favorite spot for returning people. So, we obviously don't know something we should know.

I-90 on the way from Missoula to St Regis

Clark Fork River which we crossed at least half a dozen times today.

There are many spots where this tan groundcover appears. It looks like velvet. I think it is wonderful.

The dark spot on the top of the mountain is the shadow from a big puffy cloud.

This is the view seen from our big windshield. Tough, isn't it?

This was a wonderful day with scenery that almost defies description. 

St Regis, MT-August 3, 2012

The short drive from Missoula to St Regis was, by far, the most beautiful scenery we have seen in Montana to date. I only took 43 pictures out of the windshield. The rest of Montana that we have seen puts our location in a valley with mountains all around. This time we are IN the mountains and it is simply breathtaking. We both remain amazed at the number of rivers and lakes in this state. Each and every one is just beautiful. We crossed the Clark Fork River at least 6 times today. If you are tired of water or mountain pictures, I apologize because I am about to post more. Again, bear in mind that no picture can do this scenery justice. It is spectacular, beautiful and breathtaking. So far, for all the time we have been on the road, this is the part of the country you really must see. I can even imagine that this is gorgeous with snow on it, too.

OOPS! We cannot get our cell phones to work and our MiFi does not work. This is the first time EVER that our MiFi has not worked.
We will see what we can do tomorrow because I do have some truly fantastic pictures to share with you.

Hang in there with me until we can get this working!

Flowers-August 2, 2012

I think I mentioned the pretty flowers that cover every spare inch of ground in this area. It is just amazing to see all of these colorful flowers. Today I took pictures of the entrance of the local mall. Bear in mind these baskets are all over the place. They are on the streets, in front of stores and in front of houses and obviously in front of this mall. This RV park has flowers growing everywhere they possibly can besides the hanging baskets. It's just amazing.

Almost looks like a tree, doesn't it? It is really a huge basket.

Main entrance to Southgate Mall

I asked Jerry why we never saw anything this pretty in the south? He said "Because it's just too hot for flowers to survive". I think he might be right. Before we left for a day of shopping we did find a park with excellent reviews in St Regis, MT. It's only 60 miles down the road, but we were happy to find anything. We will be there at least 11 days. By the time that's up, we'll see if the end of summer vacationers are off the road yet. We knew everything would be fine. We look forward to whatever may be in or near that city. If all else fails, they have 30 acres of walking trails. 

Another change in plans?-August 1, 2012

We left Kalispell earlier than we normally get on the road. The drive here to Missoula was really nice and faster than we expected. We stopped at the RV park and unhooked the car and left it. Then we set off to the tire dealer. It took only 2 hours to change those huge tires. They are heavier than the old ones so we like the way it rides much better. This was one of the most pleasant experiences we have had in a very long time and we told them so. We also told them it was our anniversary present to each other. I gave him 3 and he gave me 3 tires. The whole place was laughing. They recommended the $1 tacos at Taco Bell for dinner! Nah, we went to Johnny Carino's. We have not eaten at a Carino's in a very, very long time. It was fabulous! We spent as much time as we could find today looking for a place to stay anywhere west of here. So far, we have not been able to find any opening anywhere. They only had two days at this park so we have to move on Friday morning. We may have to go back east for about 10 days until school starts and families get off the road and out of the RV parks. I hate to admit we did not think about all these families on the road the last two weeks before school starts. And we should have because we remember how awful it was on the Gulf coast the last two weeks of summer vacation. Oh well, it's life. We'll figure something out.