Summing Up Cody (Cody, WY)

 

We meet some great people along the Roan Road.  Here in Cody we got friendly with our next door neighbors, Dave and Susie.  We spent some great times together and had some great meals.  We went to the rodeo together, went to a great steak restaurant and had local Ice Cream. 

The rodeo video was on the previous blog, so if you missed it you can just scroll down and watch it.

We went to a staged gun fight in front of the Irma Hotel.  Buffalo Bill owned the Irma Hotel, which is named after his daughter.  The gun fight re-enactment was free.  And, at that price, we overpaid.  The acting was so bad, the sound was cutting in and out and the staging was terrible.  The so called actors were paid by local businesses.  Let me tell you, they made sure you knew how the merchants were. I didn’t take any pictures,

Also in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Museum.   We spent two days going through the 5 building.  It is not only the history of Buffalo Bill but also the Yellowstone area, an art museum of the American West, history of the Plains Indians and a Fire Arms Museum.  What a great place.

Tomorrow we are off to Gillette for the Rally, they are expecting about 1200 RVs, so we may not post for a few day.  Please do not despair.  We will return for  more exciting episodes from:

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

A Night at the Rodeo and More (Cody, WY)

 

Yesterday we went to the Rodeo in Cody. Following is a video I made of the event.

Cody, WY Rodeo

Now for some videos from Yellowstone.

This is Old Faithful

Old Faithful

This is from Black Sand Basin.

This was taken at Paintpot.

Following are two waterfalls we visited, Lower Falls and Gibbons Falls.

Live is Super on the Roan Road…

Traffic Jam by Buffalo (Cody, WY)

 

We left West Yellowstone, MT heading across the park to the East entrance and on to Cody, WY.  About half we across the park we were stopped dead in the slowest stop and go traffic.  Worse than any traffic jam we have seen.  Yes, worse than the LIE and the Cross Bronx.  It took over an hour to go one mile.  The cause, Buffalo.  There was a heard of Buffalo on the side of the road.  Enough said.

We went up some really steep mountain roads with 5-8% grades.  What goes up must come down the other side.  The truck really got a workout, but came through with flying colors. 

We are now in Cody, WY in a full hookup campsite. We will be here for a week, see the sights and then on to Gillette.

Following are some more pictures from Yellowstone.

Black Sand Basin

Grand Prismatic Spring

 

Next is to explore Cody, WY and all things Buffalo Bill Cody so stay tuned.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

Look Out Grizzlies (West Yellowstone, MT)

 

In West Yellowstone there is a Grizzly and Wolf sanctuary.  They take in these animals that, for one reason or another, cannot live the wild.

The Center has a total of 9 Grizzlies, 7 wolfs and 4 Bald Eagles. 

		The Wolf VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		The Eagles VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Grizzlies at Play VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Within the next couple of days I will post the final photos of Yellowstone.

Tomorrow we leave for Cody, WY.  

Life is Great on the Roan Road…..

This is not Supposed to happen (West Yellowstone, MT)

 

There is SNOW on my truck.  Actually it is more like frozen rain.  It was cold yesterday when we toured Yellowstone.  When we were going through the higher elevations, 8900 feet, it started to show.  Since the air temps were 43 degrees, no snow stuck to the ground.

Now for yesterday’s trip.

In 1988 there were devastating forest fires in Yellowstone.  It was the worst in US history.  In the following pictures you can see the devastation from  these fires.  The fires released seeds and healthy trees have grown.  It has been only 25 years but he forest is coming back.

There are so many pictures I cannot put them in the blog.  These are a few.   From time to time I will upload more pictures, when WiFi is available, and attach a link to the end of the blog.  You may look at them whenever you like. 

Gibbons Falls

Artist Paintpot

Tower Falls

Tomorrow we will do our last tour of Yellowstone.  I will try to do one more blog.  On Monday we go up and over the mountains, east to Cody, WY.

Happy Birthday Andrew !!

Life is Super on the Roan Road…

Where the Buffalo Roam (West Yellowstone, MT)

 

We are here just outside of Yellowstone NP in the town of West Yellowstone.  Yellowstone NP is mostly in Wyoming, but a small portion is in Montana.  We are staying in a Forest Service Campground called Bakers Hole, it is just north of West Yellowstone.  It is a great little campground and with our Golden Age pass, we get a site with electric for $14 a night.

Now for my tale of woe.  When we left the Tetons I dumped our tanks and pulled forward to fill up our fresh water tank.  After filling the tank I went to pull out and heard a crunch.  I said “self, this is not good” and as usual I was right. I had pulled forward had hit a post and took out the dump valve manifold.  Which meant I could not dump my black and gray tanks.  The valves for each of these tanks were ok, but I had no way to dump the tanks.

The good news is the parts are common plumbing and RV parts.  The bad new is I am in West Yellowstone, not a great place to purchase parts.  I called the factory and they had the parts.  I had them ship them overnight.  Unfortunately, there is no early delivery to West Yellowstone.  The parts did not arrive until 7 PM the next day.  Not bad for $90.  At least I received the parts.  Today I put the manifold together and  now I can dump.   Now back to business of seeing Yellowstone.

We spent a full day touring Yellowstone.  Here are just a few of the pictures of wildlife we came across.

These are pictures of the Paint Pots.

And, of course, we cannot go to Yellowstone without Old Faithfull.  Old Faithful looks just the same as it did years ago – HGB do you remember being here!?

More to come of Yellowstone as we definitely did not see everything.

That’s it for now as I am sitting at a McDonalds and the battery is running low on the computer.

Hopefully I will have some videos in the next blog.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

What a Beautiful View (Teton NP, WY)

 

We have been in the Gros Ventre Campground since Tuesday June 4th.  We are in a no hookup site. That means we are living self contained.  We have Satellite but no internet at the site.  Right now we are sitting in the back of the camp office, which is the only place WiFi is available in the campground.  Of coarse 4G and plenty of WiFi  is available in Jackson, about 12 miles down the road.

No picture can due justice to this place.  This is just on small sample.

Here are some pictures of the wildlife.

The pictures of the Moose were taken by Diane Hitzel, our friend and neighbor who took them in back of our campsites.

		Moose in campground VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Buffalo along the Road VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Tomorrow we are going north to Yellowstone NP. 

Happy Birthday to Bev.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

P.S.  The above pictures, and all of the pictures in the Blogs, were taken by both of us.

Ears Go Pop (Afton, WY)

 

We have a lot to cover since the last blog,  so let’s get started.

The last time we blogged we were in Beaver, UT.  Since then we proceeded north up I-15 to Provo, UT.  We stayed at the Elks Lodge in Provo and did some visiting and sightseeing. 

This is the view out the back window of our site at the Elks Lodge in Provo.

The mountain views all around us were unbelievable. 

We visited our sister company NACT, a company that was acquired by WCGS, my former employer when I used to work.   Work,  a word I use to describe a former life which I would rather not remember.  Now, I just live off the government handouts like social security and Medicare.  Thank you USA.

Ann and I met with Cathleen and Justin at NACT and had a great time.  Cathleen gave us some great places to see around Provo. Unfortunately  we could not connect with them over the weekend.

First stop Bridal Veil Falls.  We really liked the park so much that we went back a few days later.

Next we went to Sundance.  Yes, this is where the Sundance film festival is held.  The road is almost vertical and unbelievable.  All of the homes are hidden off the road and must be Expensive.

Next we went to the ski resort of Park City,  We didn’t take many pictures of the town as it is one expensive restaurant, expensive gif shop, expensive tourist trap after another, only at an angle.  It is built on the side of a mountain.

We left Provo and headed north this morning for the Tetons and Yellowstone NP.  We will be boon docking or dry camping which is living off the grid.  We are self contained, so you may not hear from us for few days.  We will be touring and taking pictures. 

We are sitting here in Afton, WY at about 6500 feet.

Life is a blast on the Roan Road…