BUFFALO, WYOMING

Well, we made it to Buffalo, Wyoming one day ahead of the tour we will be taking.  We pull into the Deer Park Campground and acclimate ourselves.  Lots of wildlife (see photo of wild turkeys).  Lots of deer too, but too far away for a photo.  We all meet each other, 46 other folks, at a group meeting and go to a western buffet dinner.  Roast beef, turkey and all the trimmings.  We will leave tomorrow morning for Garyowen, Montana.   We have thousands of moths (called millers), they are inside all our bays, and engine and they swarm, in our coach too, we try killing them, but too many, Peanut gets a few.  We are now using the vacuum cleaner to get them.  Everyone has them.  It seems that in the month of June they swarm in Montana and get into everything.  We will have to deal with it.

Thurs. June 27, we go to the Jim Gatchell Museum at 8:30 this morning.  No pictures allowed inside so I just took one outside.  Then we walk over 1 block to the Occidental Hotel, over 100 years old and still operating.  We then go back to campground and leave to our new location.  Our friends Bob and Denise who we met at a rally last year go with us, we all need air in our tires.  We then go to Walmart together and to Arby's for lunch.  We arrive at the new campground location before 3pm.
Thursday afternoon

GARRYOWEN, MONTANA

Beautiful campground, terraced sites on a real working cattle ranch.  7th ranch campground is right on the Little Big Horn battle site.  We have a talk given to us by a real Crow indian named Gilbert.  He tells us all about the Crow indian tribe.  We have a great BBQ with ribs, chicken, beans, coleslaw, lemonade or wine and brownies for dessert.  We all eat till full and go back to the coach to start killing more moths.  Everyone here has them, we brought them in from Wyoming. 

Fri.  June 28

Today we tour the Custer Battlefield private museum (see pic of sitting bull and outdoor unknown cavalry soldier.  We then have lunch at a lovely restaurant trading post (pic).  Food is good, we sit outside, sun hot but breeze is wonderful.  We then go back on the bus to see the site of the Little Bighorn Custer massacre.  The owner of the campground is an expert on the subject and he gives the tour.  I buy a beautiful Montana tee shirt with a wolf on it.  Tomorrow we leave for Cody, Wyoming.

Sat. June 29

CODY, WYOMING  (Absoraka Campground)

We arrive in Cody, Wyoming, (home of Buffalo Bill).  It is a beautiful little town.  We set up and then go to Gunfight Show in front of the Irma Hotel (pics).  It starts to rain and we get drizzled on.  Then we go into Irma's for a prime rib buffet, pretty good.  We then go to D. Millers variety show, singing and guitar and fiddle playing.  It was very good (pic).

Sun. June 30

We get up early to catch the 9am trolley tour.  We all get a great history lesson and ride through private neighborhoods and see deer and rabbits all over the place.  I love Wyoming, we then go to the Buffalo Bill Museum (5 museums in one).  Then out for lunch at an Italian place and then some shopping and back to campground.  Well tonight at 6pm we are going to a hobo dinner at the campground.  Our wagonmasters(people who are running the tour) have cooked up 20 lbs of chopped meat and we all have to bring a can of vegetables and throw it in.  It was delicious, we have grill bread and butter and fresh corn on the cob with it and lots of different kinds of drinks.  Afterwards we had a yankee swap (sort of a grabbag, we all brought a gift and you pick one and if you don't want it you take someone elses.  I ended up with a wonderful berry hand soap and two bags of fresh walnuts.  We had so much stew left over we all took home some for an extra meal.

Mon. July 1st

We are sill in Cody, Wyoming.  Joels back is giving him some trouble so he goes to the chiropractor.  We spent the afternoon at home.  At 5pm a bus picked us up to go to the Cattle Company buffet and show.  We had chicken and pot roast and all the fixings.  Then a western show with guitars, fiddles, big bass fiddle and singers, loud but enjoyable.  Then the bus took us to the Cody Rodeo, we were there for 2 and a half hours and had a great time.  (we took pillows to sit on).  Fell into bed.

Tues. July 2nd  Up real early, left about 7:30 am, had to get gas along the way.  I took a wrong direction, but we still made it to Lions Head Mtn Resort in Yellowstone, at about 12:30 pm. 

YELLOWSTONE PARK

We make some lunch, and walk around a little, a bus comes at 3pm to take us on a tour and a buffet dinner.  We see lots of bison and elk, a grizzly bear and a coyote.  I took some pics but they were a little too far away.  We go to dinner and have salad, prime rib dinner and great cheesecake for dessert.  We then have an hour and a half ride back to the campground.  It is 10 pm and I am writing this so that I won't forget.  I feel like a dead person, we are all so tired, bus is picking up us at 8am tomorrow morning.  Here we go again.

Wed. July 3rd

Bus on time at 8am, went to park again, different section, lots of elk (pic), bison(pic), limestone falls (pics) hot springs.  Had lunch at mammoth springs dining room.  Back to campground by 4:30 pm- Joel goes out for a pizza, long day.

Thurs. July 4th

We decide to take a rest from yet another bus tour and stay in for the day and relax.  At 6pm we are having a 4th of july bbq and Joel and I set up our music equipment and put on a small show, stories, songs and jokes.  The folks love it.  Then we all sat around our neighbors campfire and yakked the night away.  Weather turned pretty cool.
Fri.  July 5th

Up at 8:30, slight downpour but the sun comes up and all the guys washed their motorhomes.  Then we went out to lunch with Bob and Denise to Ernie's.  Sandwiches and drinks and then we went to tour the "Grizzly and Wolf"  rescue center.  We walk around (great pics) and then go to the Imax theater for the movie "Alaska".  Then to gift shop, I get a nice white and green fuzzy jacket with the grizzly insignia.  We finish up the afternoon at the small town supermarket.  It is now raining and hailing, oh boy, I hope it stops later.  Pouring rain, Joel has a bad headache, I make dinner, got to be up early for next part of tour.

Sat. July 6th

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING, (Jackson Hole Rv Resort).

We get up late because of Joels headache, but we are on the road at 9am.  We travel through the south end of Yellowstone park to get to Jackson, Wyoming.  There are 5 different entrances into the park, from Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.  We see a new part of the park this morning.  We see an elk in the steam and have to wait for a bison to cross the road.  We get into Jackson Hole, about 12:30 pm and get a nice campsite.  It only has 30 amp power, we always have 50 which is needed to run 2 air conditioners, no worry about that today.  It is pouring rain and about 62 degrees.  We have the heat on.  Our float trip down the river is cancelled due to the bad weather but will be rescheduled.  We all go to dinner at an outdoor bbq place but we sit in a covered area and have strip steaks, potato salad, coleslaw and lemonade.  It is wonderful.  Back to the rig by 7:30pm.  Have to get up early tomorrow morning for an 8:30 am tour of the Tetons.  Looking forward to that.

Sun. July 7th

Bus picks us up for Grand Teton Tour (great pics).  Saw so much.  Then lunch at the Jackson Lake Lodge in the mural room.  Very ritzy with tablecloths and linen napkins.  We both have burgers, salad and great crème brulee for dessert with blackberries and strawberries and of course coffee.  Late in day it starts raining again.  We get back early and go out with two other couples to the "Gun Barrel Restaurant, atmosphere great, food nothing to write home about.

 Mon. July 8th, Well, we sleep late and bus picks us up at 10:30 am for the float trip down the river.  We all put on life jackets (pic) and binoculars and sit down in an 8 person raft (pic) which takes us down a slow moving river.  There is a tiny bit of white water so we all get to say "ooh" a couple of times.  Weather is cool and sunny.  We pass at least 30 bald eagles and young ones too, Canada geese and ducks.  Cattle in river cooling off (pics).  It is a load of fun.  Then we have lunch on the raft, turkey sandwiches, sun chips, water and cookies.  We are having a ball, takes a little over 2 hours.  We all run for the porta potti when we land.  We go back to campground, get our car and go shopping at Albertsons.  It is now 3pm  Bus will come at 4pm to load us into covered wagons to go up the mountain for a bbq dinner and wild west show.  Whew, what a fun day.  Well, we are at the BT5 covered wagon and bbq wild west show (pics).  We go up into the mountains in covered wagons (pic) and then sit down to bbq dinner, chicken, roast beef, corn on cob, beans, rolls, lemonade and blonde brownies for dessert.  The show was great (pic).  Then down the mountain for the ride home and get on the bus again.  Almost there but a huge traffic jam ahead of us.  By the side of the road, two huge moose (pic), grazing, we are all so excited, we have been waiting to see a moose.  Wonderful ending to a wonderful day.  whew, while I am writing this this is a young moose outside by the fence, out I go with the camera again.

Tues. July 9th

This is our last morning together and we have a farewell breakfast at the wagonmasters site.  Hard boiled eggs, donuts, muffins, yogurt, coffee and tea.  It is 9:30 am and we say our goodbyes and take everybodys emails.  We are here for one more night,  in the afternoon we take a ride through the Teton National Forest (pic by the creek) and then go to town for ice cream.  Then back to rv park to relax.  We go to dinner at a cute little bistro in Teton Village, up the road a piece, called the "Mangy Moose".  We share a baked brie with fruit and Joel has bison meat loaf, very good and I have a flank steak, also good.  We walk around the little shops there and I get a  black teeshirt with a moose on it made out of silver studs.  Back to park we sit around the campfire with some of the folks who also stayed an extra night.  Wonderful tour.  Really enjoyed it.

Wed. July 10

We get good start but roadwork screws up signs, and we take wrong road and go out of our  way almost 2 hours.  We manage to get back and get on right road and make it through Idaho to Butte, Montana (at the Koa), get in about 6:30 pm, they have an onsite restaurant and we get great fried chicken dinner with potatoes  and fall into bed.

Thurs. July 11  HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY

We don't have to check out till noon so we take the trolley tour around Butte.  It is a copper mining town, lots of history, but very dreary looking, looks worse because skies are cloudy.  Weather is cool and 1 and a half hour tours turns into over 2 hour tour, so by the time we have lunch we don't leave till 1:30.   We are on our way to Sheridan Wyoming to a Koa for another overnight stop.  Our 5 and a half hour trip (miscalculation again) turns out to be more than 7 hours.  We pull in at 7:30 exhausted.  Sun is shining and weather is beautiful.  I make quick dinner of hot dogs and salad and bing cherries for dessert.  We will get an early start tomorrow.