Leaving Just in Time

I think we are leaving just in time. Last week the weather was warm to hot during the day, then cooled off nicely at night. Thursday was our last day of work at 7th Ranch. We spent Friday saying our goodbyes and getting ready to travel. We drove a little over 200 miles west to Bozeman, before heading south for the winter. When we arrived in Bozeman, we immediately fell in love with the town. It is surrounded by low mountains, is vibrant, with lots of young people and good shops for browsing. Of course, it is a university town, home to Montana State University, and we met, married and first lived in Boulder, a university town in the foothills.

We thought we would stay for a few days. Then we looked at the weather forecast. It will get down into the 20s by Tuesday or Wednesday, with snow showers. That is why we are heading south, for heaven’s sake. So we decided to stay only two nights and leave first thing Monday.

This morning we went for a 4-mile walk along one of the city’s hiking trails. There were people everywhere, running, biking, walking their dogs--young families with children, college students, seniors. We are always happy to encounter an area where people enjoy outdoor exercise.



All along the trail they have placed benches to allow people to rest or sit and meditate.




We walked through the downtown business district, where many restaurants were doing a big business for either breakfast or lunch and maybe one-third of the shops were open. The area has many fine old buildings that have been restored. This one had a great façade and promotion of a very unusual event for last Friday. Darn. Sorry we missed it.



One corner lot downtown had been turned into a small park, with these great flowers and statue of a little boy swinging.



I really liked this white horse above a local bar.



We are staying at a small, older RV park, Sunrise Campground. They have put up Halloween decorations, which we are enjoying.



These college students were having a good time watching people try to pick up a dollar bill they had on the end of a fishing line. When someone tried to pick it up, they would jerk it up into the air. Were they doing some sort of research?



Tomorrow we are off to Idaho—no snow for us.

Shopping Wal-Mart

 Yesterday was very busy. After our 3-mile run (the first in over a
week), we headed to Billings. That 65-mile drive is necessary every
two or three weeks so we can get all the things we can't find in the
nearby town of Hardin, or that are more expensive there.

I think Wal-Mart is the RVers general store from long ago, with the
added advantage that things are less expensive there than almost
anywhere else. And we can find a Wal-Mart near most towns we stay in.
We have even shopped Wal-Mart in the Yukon.

The west-side Wal-Mart in Billings provides a place where we can
recycle plastic and aluminum. 7th Ranch has an aluminum can recycling
bin, but nothing for plastic. Since we buy drinking water in both
large and small plastic bottles, we are glad for the opportunity to
recycle those containers.

We can get a good number of RV supplies in the store, as well. And
their grocery department is very good.

The only downside of shopping at Wal-Mart is that the checkout lines
are almost always long—no matter where the store is located.

I know many people don't approve of this ubiquitous retailer that
often causes smaller businesses to close. But Wal-Mart provides a real
money-saving convenience to many consumers—both RVers traveling the
country and local residents who want to save money.

Yesterday, in addition to Wal-Mart we visited Pierce RV to pick up the
DVD player that was being replaced under warranty. We made a stop at
Al's Bootery to pick up some moccasins I had ordered. We bought some
items at Lowe's. And we went to Walgreens' to pick up a prescription.
When we go there, we learned they were giving flu shots, and I could
get my pneumonia shot. I wasn't able to do that at my last medical
checkup. Now we just have to wait till the swine flu vaccine is
available, and then find another Walgreens to get that shot. Medicare
sure is great—none of these shots cost us a cent.

More of Custer State Park

Like I said, there is more to Custer State Park than just animals. Saturday we drove to Wind Cave National Park on the south side of the state park. It isn't the most interesting cave we have ever toured. But it is different and contains most of the known box-work formations in the world's caves. In simple terms—the only geologic terms I understand—one kind of mineral seeped into the cracks in the limestone. Later, water and gypsum filled the cavities and dissolved the limestone between the minerals that filled the cracks. The box-work is composed of the minerals that filled the cracks and remained.

The cave has more than 132 miles of explored passageways. The air in the cave reacts to the atmospheric pressure outside. When the outside pressure is greater than the cave pressure, the air comes out of the natural cave entrance. Saturday it was coming out at 8 miles per hours—demonstrated by the waving bellow ribbon held by our ranger guide.

The town of Custer is just west of our campground. A number of these painted buffalo decorate the street corners in Custer. It is a neat little town.

This is the Game Lodge, built in 1922, of stone and wood. It served as the "Summer White House" for President Calvin Coolidge in 1927 and was visited by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for several days in 1953.

Just north of Custer State Park is the Mt. Rushmore memorial. We were last there 25 years ago. On our visit today we saw the many wonderful improvements they have made to the facility. And the carvings of these presidents are as wonderful as ever.

To reach Mt. Rushmore we drove the Needles Scenic Highway, which is VERY curvy. In addition to a lot of 10 mph curves, there were several marked 5 mph.

But the scenery was really great. Here are two views of the Needles in an area called the Cathedral Spires.

This is a narrow place in the road called the Eye of the Needle.

I have to include another picture of the wonderful buffalo here.

And have I mentioned how much we appreciate our Verizon broadband card? Here we sit in the middle of a state park, in the forest. We haven't seen a sign advertising wifi anywhere. And we have a great internet signal. Aren't modern inventions wonderful?

What an Amazing Place!

We're on vacation and we've come to the most amazing place! We are spending six days at Custer State Park in South Dakota. We visited Mt. Rushmore 25 years ago, but we had not even heard of Custer State Park until a couple of years ago. What a place!

Today we drove the 18-mile Wildlife Loop Road this morning and within less than two hours we saw Prairie Dogs, Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, Turkey, wild Burros, White Tailed Deer, and, of course, Buffalo. I wasn't able to get a usable picture of the deer, but the rest we saw fairly close-up.

Prairie Dogs are common, but this one is kind of cute.

From Sept2009

In late September each year they round up the cow and calf Buffalo in the park, brand the calves, and sell off about 500 of the animals. This helps keep the herd in the park a reasonable size so they remain healthy. The old bull Buffalo aren't rounded up. We did see a small group of cows and calves lying down in a meadow, but they were behind some brush and I couldn't get a picture. This old bull was grazing not far from our campground.

We see Pronghorn all the time along the roads in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota, but they are usually far away and we are driving at about 60 mph or more. Today we were able to stop and get some pretty good pictures. Aren't they great looking? I love the male, who was keeping an eye on several females.

We saw this small herd of Bighorn Sheep, all females. (At least I think they are Bighorn Sheep. Both males and females have horns, but only the males have the long curling ones. The Mountain Goats are all white and live high in the mountains.)

A herd of burros once hauled visitors to the top of Harney Peak in the park. When the rides were discontinued, the burros were released into the wild. Now they entertain visitors. Doesn't this fellow look like Eeyore from Winnie-the-Poo fame?

Twice during the drive we watched turkey run across the road. They are really fast! At least you can make out this one in the grass.

There are lots more things to see and do here in the park. I'll share them later.

Weight Training

        Seven years ago this week I enrolled in my first weight training class.  Like many women my age, I had been taking HRT (hormone replacement therapy) for several years when a new study showed that such therapy might help with the effects of menopause and help prevent osteoporosis, but it actually increased the chances of heart disease.  Since my mother had died of heart disease and had osteoporosis, I had eagerly accepted the HRT.  Now, it was time to stop.  Weight training was a good way to combat thinning of my bones.

 

        I went to that first class with a lot of trepidation.  John had lifted weights in the past, but I never had.  What on earth does an out-of shape, over-weight 59-year-old woman wear to the gym?  Who will be in the class?  I quickly learned everyone else in the beginning class for seniors was in as poor a shape as I was.  Enrolling in that class has certainly changed my life!

 

        Within six months, I had lost 20 pounds.  Within two years, I lost another 20 pounds.  And I have maintained that weight loss.  I love lifting weights, feeling fit, and looking better.  I feel so much more capable, even though I am stiff with arthritis.  I feel physically competent.  For my 60^th birthday, I asked to go on a hot-air balloon ride.  It had always sounded scary in the past.  I had come to realize I could handle it.  Since we made a hard landing, I was glad I was strong enough and flexible enough to deal with it.

 

        Nearly three years ago, I started running, after being inspired by my then 6-year-old granddaughter Kylie.  By Christmas that year I could jog three-miles at a time.  We still do that, nearly three times a week.  Sometimes it is hard to get started, but I always feel good when we finish.

 

        If you have never tried weight training, I really recommend it.  However you feel now, you will feel better if you do it.  Physical exercise really increases your sense of well-being.  I don't want to live to be 100, but I hope to be strong and active at least into my 80s.

 

Retirement

        "Retirement isn't the end of something, it's the beginning."  That is part of what we heard earlier today while watching CBS Sunday Morning.  (I know, it's Monday.  Isn't a DVR wonderful?)  The story segment was about creative retirement.  A retired college professor, who advised people about retirement before he retired, said, "Something special should happen at this stage of life."

 

        That has certainly been true for us.  We retired in 2003, at the age of 60.  For most of John's working life, he had been on call 24 hours a day, whether it was the Boulder Police Department, our funeral home in Castle Rock, or the congregations in the churches John served.  The phone could ring at any time.  People had all sorts of expectations of us.  Increasingly, in our last working years, we had left town in our RV without telling anyone except my mom and our son Eric where we would be or how to contact us.  That was to insure some real peace and relaxation.  So it was natural to escape and live a new life in our RV, since there we had found such a fun lifestyle there.

 

        We have toured Alaska, British Columbia, the Yukon, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as all but 11 of the 50 states.  We have lived and worked (actually, volunteered mainly) in Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Oregon, Colorado and, now, Montana.  We have seen moose, caribou, whales, black and grizzly bears, driven backhoes, fork lifts, 4-wheelers, all sorts of trucks, a dump-truck gator.  We have learned how (or increased our skill at) using table saws, electric drills, chain saws, the sawsall, commercial riding lawn mowers, and tractors.

 

        We have learned to explain what it meant to "Take the Baths" at Hot Springs, Arkansas.  We learned enough about the hiking trails at Bryce Canyon National Park that we could direct visitors to the type of trail they wanted, from ½ mile flat to 9+ miles steep.  We have built and installed very large signs, cleaned a ditch, fed fingerling salmon in a hatchery and repaired hiking trails.  We are learning the information we need to give interpretive talks about the Hohokam in Arizona. 

 

        We have shopped in Fred Meyer and Sobey's stores, as well as IGA and mom and pop grocery stores and Wal-Mart.  The grocery store has been across the street and it has been 50 miles away.

 

        The Sunday Morning story said people are doing all sorts of things in retirement that they haven't done before.  They are volunteering, starting new projects or businesses, taking classes.  That has certainly been true for us.  Most of our working lives was lived in offices and working with people, all within about 100 miles of where we were born.  Since retirement we have done a lot of manual labor and learned about so many aspects of life we had not known before.

 

        It is predicted that baby boomers will spend 1/3 of their lives in retirement.  So far, we are enjoying almost every minute of ours.  What will you do, or what are you doing in retirement that expands your horizons?

 

King's Saddles

Yesterday we drove down to Sheridan, Wyoming, to look around, eat lunch and shop at Wal-Mart. Sheridan is a really pretty small town just south of the Wyoming-Montana border.

We visited the late Don King's saddle shop and museum on Main Street. King was an artist in leather and created saddles that were awarded to world champion rodeo performers for many years. We spent the rest of the morning looking around the store and exploring the museum.

This is a wall full of lariats. I had no idea that many existed in the whole world. Are there really that many cows to lasso?

What on earth is this? you ask. It is a stuffed bear wearing the trappings worn by a horse in the Arab Costume Class. Isn't he cute?



Here is an Apache Indian Cradleboard. The dress on the "baby" is probably decorated with elk teeth. The fancy decoration on the cradleboard doesn't fit my earlier idea of what one would look like.

These two wood panels were made by Al and Ann Stohlman, artists who worked in both leather and wood. They are doors for their work bench. Al designed the pictures, Ann cut out the wood overlay, then Al carved the details and attached the picture to the doors. The work, as well as other items they created that are housed in the museum, are exquisite.


We both grew up in Denver and shopped at The Denver Dry Goods Co. downtown. But we were not aware that the Denver had a Stockmen's Store, so this catalogue was really interesting to us.

Can you guess what these round pieces of wood are used for? They are snowshoes of horses and mules. Have you every heard of the like?

Here is one of the saddles created by Don King. There were so many in the museum and saddle shop, we were not able to really study them. But they are so intricately carved and beautiful.

7th Ranch

This is the office where I spend my work days at 7^th Ranch. The building was first used for the announcer when rodeos were held in the area behind the building.

The campground is extremely well-run, with excellent facilities. Almost every single comment card we receive reports they are extremely pleased and many say it is the best campground they have stayed in for a long time. It is certainly good to work for a place that serves its customers well and where we never have to apologize or feel bad about the experience the campers have.

This is the first time we have taken a work camping position in a commercial RV park. We will probably never do it again, either. Like I said, we feel good about this park. However, when we volunteer at a state or national park or fish and wildlife facility, we feel we are providing something extra they wouldn't have otherwise, because of limited budgets. Here, we are necessary just to keep the facility operating. That increases the responsibility or pressure of the job. In government parks we know our responsibilities and the hours we must work. Often, we can do the duties assigned whenever we please. In a commercial park, we know when to show up and we are told what to do with our time. We prefer the freedom and flexibility of the government positions. However, we will complete our assignment here. We will do what we agreed to. But, never again will we accept a position that says "so many hours for your site, additional hours at $8 an hour." Those additional hours can be the real problem.

The decorations are very creative. Below are pictures of some of the old farm equipment around the campground.

There are several bird feeders (and lots of grasshoppers) around the office, so I am always surrounded by many birds—especially male and female American Goldfinches. It is so fun to watch them. We also have Western Meadowlarks and Mourning Doves, as well as assorted sparrows.

Part of my responsibility is to water the lawns around the office. I get lots of exercise moving the hoses, even building some muscle when I drag a long hose a long distance. At least I get outside each day.

Pompey's Pillar

I wasn't able to post photos with this last night. They are here now.

This week we visited Pompey's Pillar, a rock formation along the Yellowstone River that provides the only surviving physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark exploration of the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. In 2004, on our way to Alaska, we first encountered the Lewis and Clark Trail when we visited Great Falls, Montana, on the Missouri River, on May 20. 2003-2006 was the bicentennial celebration of the pairs' trip to the Pacific and back. I had read Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose's history of the trip, and was fascinated.

Then, last year, we saw several museums that explored the history of the trip while we summered along the Columbia River. On May 31 we visited Fort Clatsop in the Lewis and Clark National Park in Oregon.

In 1806 Lewis and Clark split their group of explorers, Lewis going north to learn more about the Marias River, Clark following the Yellowstone River south then east. They met up where the Yellowstone flows into the Missouri, east of here near the Montana-North Dakota boundary. William Clark and his party stopped at Pompey's Pillar and Clark carved his name into the soft rock. Many other people have done the same over the years, until the area was set aside as a National Monument.

The pillar or rock outcropping is named after Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagewea, the Shoshone Indian guide and interpreter who traveled with the Corps of Discovery. Clark called the child Pomp and named the pillar Pompy's Tower after him. The view from the top of the pillar is impressive.

There is a beautiful grove of Cottonwood trees between the pillar and the Yellowstone River.

This is a buffalo hide boat, like ones built by some of Clark's party when their horses were stolen. They had seen similar boats used by the Mandan Indians in North Dakota.

Clark had two 28-foot dugout canoes made from some of the Cottonwoods growing along the Yellowstone. Here is John looking at replicas.

Members of the Corps of Discovery had been away from supply centers since 1803 and their clothes had worn out. By 1806 they were wearing buckskin clothing, like I tried on at the Pompey's Pillar Visitor Center. They are really quite comfortable.

We saw some kayakers getting ready to float down the Yellowstone near the pillar. Here three of them are on their way.

We had been there and done that, so here I am checking out the T-Shirt.