Wednesday, July 1, 2009

We had decided to spend the day in Yellowstone park in just the northern part. There was a traffic jam in the very beginning and we were worried that it was going to be that way the whole time. Then we found out that it was from a BALD EAGLE nest! It was right by the road and everyone was slowing down to see it.

We took off for Canyon lakes first and saw some beautiful falls.

We saw the Upper Falls

and the Lower falls

I took these pictures - pretty good huh?
The scenery was breathtaking and the colors were heart stopping. I couldn’t believe all the nuances of color that were in every bit of the scene. We hiked up and looked at the Upper Falls from across the river and then we went around and were able to get RIGHT OVER the Upper Falls. We were so close that it seemed like we could touch them.

We realized as we drove through the area that we could spend several days just in this section alone.
We had to tear ourselves away from the Fall area and went on to Mammoth Springs.
We basically bypassed Tower Junction - but it was beautiful scenery too.

Mammoth Springs was geothermal structures created from minerals in the water and sculpted by Mother Nature herself. It looked like another world. it was what you would imagine an alien planet would look like.

Betty Boop and the Big Texan fit in well.

There were so many sites...
On the way back to the hotel we kept a sharp eye out for bears and other wildlife - at one point we saw what we were sure was a grizzly bear - but realized after checking it out with the binoculars that it was more likely a buffalo.

I had put on a crock pot of Beef Stroganoff for dinner. We were trying to economize so that we wouldn’t have to eat out every night, and it worked out deliciously.
We walked around town for a little bit and bought some souvenirs. We had ice cream and were attacked by some bloodthirsty little mosquitos who wanted their dessert as well. We tried to go star gazing in Idaho because we knew that the skies should be free of ambient city lights. There was a great deal of cloud cover and lots of lightening - but sadly, no stars.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

From Great Falls, Montana to West Yellowstone, Montana

We spent the morning at the Charles M Russell museum.

There were a lot interesting pictures and history. We also got to see his home and his studio. It was interesting look at art from the Western cowboy and the Native American viewpoints.

Then we were headed for lunch. On the way to lunch we had to stop at the mall and get Papa Gus’ glasses fixed. He had dropped them at Mount Rushmore and they were working – but they needed to be REALLY fixed properly.

We had lunch with family.

This is a picture of my birth mother’s father.

He seemed to be a sweet old fellow. We had lunch and then went to the Giant Springs Fish Hatchery to look at the Missouri River and the hatchery.

We saw the shortest river in the US, the Roe River. It is spring fed and flows into the Missouri River and is a short 201 feet long.

We said our goodbyes to John and Terry and drove through Helena on to West Yellowstone. We arrived very late (about 11pm) and didn’t get to see the town - but were happy to be there. I found out that I am 1/16th Native American on the maternal side consisting of Blackfeet and Chippawah Cree. I am also 1/16th Native American on the paternal side, but I don’t know the tribes. I don't know if this makes me 1/8 or not... but I know I have quite a bit of Native American in me...

Here are pictures of grandfather and great grandfather ...

I cannot claim any of this heritage because I am not legally related to them, but I think it is interesting to know. What is even funnier is that I am considered 1/16th Native American from my Dad (real legal one) because his mother was ½ Cherokee.

Monday, June 29, 2009 Great Falls, Montana

Driving to Great Falls, Montana
We drove up through Rapid City and Sturgis and hopped over to the Devils Tower in Wyoming. (there is no apostrophe in the official name because it was accidentally left out of the paperwork and never corrected).

We kept on going and stopped at the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer’s Last stand).

We drove into Billings Montana and ate at TEXAS ROADHOUSE!!! We got about three miles down the highway and realized that Betty Boop’s book that she borrowed from a friend was NOT IN THE CAR. We called the restaurant - and they said they didn’t see it in the parking lot (where we assumed it would have fallen). But we headed back anyway in order to check. She had set it on the back of the car and had not picked it up before we took off. At about 8 miles out we were able to turn around and head back to the restaurant. Sure enough the book was sitting on a curb of the parking lot. It had obviously been run over at least once - but was still in readable condition. Betty Boop will have to replace the book for her friend – but she gets to keep the one with the story.

We had to stop for gas in White Sulpher Springs and were attacked by mutant mosquitos. It was AWFUL!! They swarmed and attacked us as we got out of the car and we had to run inside the building. Betty Boop and I were killing mosquitoes for the next 52 miles…
We finally made it to Great Falls, Montana at about 11pm that night. It was another long day of driving.

Next Day; Sunday, June 28, 2009

We were staying a day at Keystone in order to see some of the sites. Our first item was to take off for Mount Rushmore.

We walked around taking pictures and being regular tourists. But I was cooking dinner that day so we ran to the grocery store and rushed back to the room and put on dinner which was a crockpot filled with Lasagna.
After putting out the “Do not Disturb” sign we decided to go over to the Crazy Horse memorial.

Even though the Big Texan and I had been to both of these memorials the year before we were tickled to see the Big Old Texan and Betty Boop enjoy them so much. I still think the Black Hills of South Dakota is one the most underrated places in the United states.

We came back to a room filled with the smell of Italian food.

Then we decided to go out to the Needle highway and check it out. The Big Texan and I had both seen it on the internet and were interested in driving it. Unfortunately we missed the turnoff for the Needle highway and drove through Custer State Park. As soon as we realized we had found the EXIT of the Needle highway we had originally wanted to take. We drove this VERY twisty and turny highway after dark (and didn’t see the Needle part until we saw in on a postcard). There are a couple of places on the needle highway (tunnels) where if you stopped your car you couldn’t open the doors, the passage is so narrow.

Next Day Saturday, June 27, 2009

Driving to Keystone, SD
The next morning we hopped up early and started driving to Keystone, SD. This was the day to drive through Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Of course we had to stop and see the largest ball of (sisal) twine in Cawker City.

In Alliance Nebraska we stopped and saw Car Henge, which is a perfect representation of Stone Henge except in car form.

We drove through a couple of herds of buffalo - they got really close to the car. At one point we had to stop and could not go any further.

As we sat there a buffalo came up and started licking the headlights of our car!! Granted we had a lot of insects on the front - but he thought it was dinner time! Then he must have had an itch because he started to scratch himself on the front of the car and I was worried that he was going to walk over the top of the car. The Big Texan and the Big Old Texan were frozen in fear - but Krystal and I had the presence of mind to hollar and hopefully scare the terrible creature away from the car. The WHOLE CAR MOVED!!! But he finally walked away. We KNOW we aren’t supposed to get close to the wildlife and we didn’t HE GOT CLOSE TO US!!!

We drove on in to Keystone via a scenic route. There were hairpin turns and corkscrew turns- it was exciting. We went through three one lane tunnels but we had to honk at each one to make sure that we weren’t going to have a head on collision! The last couple of tunnels framed Mount Rushmore perfectly. It was well lit up (this was after dark) and looked like a picture but of course we couldn’t and didn’t GET a picture of that… We arrived at our hotel (Roosevelt Inn) late - about 10:30pm.

Day one Friday June 26, 2009

Packing the knitting for the trip was a big deal. I had to pack light because there were four of us in the car.

I know I couldn’t believe that was all I packed either… but it worked out perfect.

Beginning the drive to Junction City, Kansas, we stopped in Denton at McDonalds and had breakfast with Santa. Seriously there was a guy there that looked exactly like Santa Claus and sure enough when we went outside we saw his van and it said “Santa Claus” on the side.

We drove through Oklahoma City and stopped at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Memorial & Museum. We didn’t have time to walk through the museum - but will make time to go some other time. Both the big Texan and I were touched by the memorial. It was beautiful.

Entrance

Reflections

Hope

On our way out of town we stopped at the yarn store in Guthrie “SWAK”. This was our only yarn store on the ENTIRE trip. They had some pretty things - but there were too many things PACKED in our car.

Betty Boop is becoming converted - she even brought knitting on the trip!!!

We drove through Oklahoma, and Kansas that day. We had dinner with two of my sons Army Guy, Math Marine Man and their wives. Math Marine Man and his wife flew into town for the weekend and stayed with Army Guy and his wife. It was great to see so much of the family.

Math Marine Man and M2Wife

Army Guy and Army Wife

If you look behind the Big Texan - you can see silly Army Guy...

Army Guy again...

he is sooo silly

Back from our trip

I am going to outline our 2009 Montana trip here - but I will be taking a few days to put it up. This will be a day by day listing of our adventure. If you are terribly impatient - you can go and see an abbreviated version here at Travel with Alissa. It is the same basic information that I am going to give in more detail here.

Episode 51: Luxury Knitting

What do you do when someone gives you an expensive skein of yarn? How you justify spending an arm and a leg on a nice yarn if you don’t know what to do with it? What if you are afraid to knit with it? Remember that YOU ARE WORTH IT! And it is ONLY YARN, it doesn’t have an agenda and is not OUT to get you... really...

go to: KnittingRose

Father's day is coming up

Father’s Day will be here soon and I am in the mood to celebrate (better grab it while I can). I don’t get in that kind of mood very often – so when I do – I go with it.

What to do for Father’s Day?

Well – I know the Big Texan would rather get “peace and quiet” than ANYTHING else in the world. So I think that is what Betty Boop and I will give him.

I will make him a breakfast in bed - but he will have a menu to choose from – I found a cute one here on the food network. I thought I would create one of my own and modify to fit our needs.

Then he can stay in bed or get up if he wants… At 1 or 2 pm – Betty Boop and I will take him to the movies (he can have his OWN popcorn – no Sharing! He will love that). We will come home and let him jump in the pool and relax…

Dinner will be roasted chicken with potatoes, green beans, and fruit.

He can watch sports on TV (it will be a TV day for him, if he wants), and do anything else he would like.

Don’t you think he will like that?
Does anyone have any other ideas?

Let me know.

Still NO TV

How is the NO TV thing going?

GREAT!!! I just LOVE it. I love being able to live my life instead of being shackled to a box in the middle of the room.

I have been busy every day and not had any ‘bored’ time. The only I have noticed is that when I want to just sit and chill – that is exactly what I am doing!! Instead of sitting down and focusing on something (a TV program), I sit down and ACTUALLY RELAX. Then in about 5-10 minutes I am ready to get up and do something else. It has really opened my eyes about TV and viewing habits. I realize that I am very much a creature of habit and convenience.

Gee – what a surprise, HUH?

I know it isn’t going to thrill the Big Texan – but I am going to move the TV into another room of the house. It isn’t going to stay in the main room downstairs. Actually, I don’t mind the TV staying there – but it won’t be hooked up to the satellite. We can watch movies or play games on it – but not channel surf. That way watching TV becomes a conscious act and not a happenstance.

I think I will probably have a little argument on my hands – but I will let him HAVE a TV in a room that he can sit in ALL DAY LONG… that seems fair right?

Hmmm I will have to work on this one…


Update on Little Bit (the new baby). She has pneumonia and is still in NICU -but I am sure everything will be OK.