I luv this guy!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
MONTANA HERE WE COME
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UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
Camera has been located in Indiana in the
last hotel where we stayed. HURRRRRAY
I will be sending prepaid UPS envelope tomorrow to have it returned. Then the honest maid will get a REWARD. To think I complained about the dirty room, and now this??
******** UPDATE************
Lost 2nd Camera on June 7. Believe I left
the damned thing in Cracker Barrel in Indiana.
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Saturday, May 14th
Just as quick update of happenings since we left Virginia at 10 a.m. today.
Just as quick update of happenings since we left Virginia at 10 a.m. today.
Laughter most of the way til we hit rain and Judy kept running up on top of other cars, but mainly a STATE TROOPER (on wet roads). All this going on while we were on an ACCIDENT ALERT FOR 25 miles at 30 m.p.h. The Trooper kept looking in his rear view mirror and I kept gasping and Judy said she was in TOTAL CONTROL, on a WET ROAD, and she KNEW SHE HAD GREAT BRAKES.
The wreck turned out to be a huge truckload of paneling and it had made a bad maneuver and all the paneling shifted and was scattered across 3 lanes of traffic.
The wreck turned out to be a huge truckload of paneling and it had made a bad maneuver and all the paneling shifted and was scattered across 3 lanes of traffic.
Shortly after we got passed all the traffic and the rain had slowed to a mist, we both heard a noise and Judy said is that a helicopter and I thought a tractor trailer was trying to mate with us. Then the car was shaking and we both looked in our side mirrors in time to see our left rear tire rolling across the interstate as fast as it could go. Didn't take but a second to know we had had our first blowout.
We sat and looked at each other for a moment stunned. I was glad I upgraded my AAA before the trip. Should we do ON STAR or AAA. So we did ON STAR because we had no idea of our location. Once ONSTAR answered we were repeatedly asked what the problem was. AND THEN, asked where we were? JUDY LOST IT! She said Hell, you should know that and the woman said let me put you on hold..... she came back on and asked for make and model of the car, which she also should have known.
We sat and looked at each other for a moment stunned. I was glad I upgraded my AAA before the trip. Should we do ON STAR or AAA. So we did ON STAR because we had no idea of our location. Once ONSTAR answered we were repeatedly asked what the problem was. AND THEN, asked where we were? JUDY LOST IT! She said Hell, you should know that and the woman said let me put you on hold..... she came back on and asked for make and model of the car, which she also should have known.
So with the tire and rim ruined we traveled down the road on a tiny little tire. We decided we would have to stop in Canton, Ohio to buy 2 new rear tires. About 35 min later our spare tire went flat. WTF? The first blow out we decided to call ON STAR, the 2nd tire we called AAA for a truck to haul our car. They were dumber than ON STAR, unbelievable. The whole fiasco took 1 1/2 hrs and 2 Troopers stopping. One was a cutie putting out flares and asking us if we thought maybe that was an omen and we should go back to Va. We said Hell No, this is a good time. While the cop was standing there talking with us to see what AAA was going to do, she asked me the sane questions 3 times and also my location. I said "How the hell would I know" and the Trooper spoke up and told her when she asked again. She thanked us and said she was not familiar with that area, because she was in Columbus.
Emmett, the tow truck driver, arrived in rare form. I saw him get out of his big hauler and walk towards us and said a prayer. Emmett was a big ole guy. He talked to us for a minute, filled out his paper work and told us to go get up in his truck. We both got out in the pouring rain and walked thru mud and high grass to the truck. It had a huge step to get up and I would have preferred to sit and smell the diesel fuel. I wasn't sure I could pull my weight up in that truck with one handle. I was so tickled I was crying and Judy shoved my butt up in the cab. I slid across the seat with the big gear shift between my legs and heard Judy say she was gonna fall and Emmett was right behind her, telling her he would catch her. OMG. Then I could not stop laughing. I said "he really likes you, let's trade seats". The inside of the truck smelled more like b.o. than diesel though. Judy also wouldn't trade seats with me.
Emmett jerked his door open and groaned and grunted like we do and got in. We didn't know but what he was a serial killer. I immediately started a conversation with him. I learned it wasn't his truck, he was on call 24 hrs, slept at the shop in a back room, OH NO, I thought he could take us there and nobody would ever find us. I kept pushing Judy's leg with mine and she was laughing and shaking her head. I asked Emmett if he was married and he was. He had a son, but right after giving birth, his wife had a stroke and was paralyzed for awhile. Then went to work and kept getting fired cause she wasn't able to work. One leg was shorter than the other. She keeps kids at home. CAN YOU IMAGINE? I asked if he ever went home. Yea, he breathed out heavily, when he wasn't on call. He said he liked to go home early and crawl in bed with his wife and warm up. TOO MUCH INFO. So I kept him talking for awhile til I asked about Motels. He then said he would take us to the nice part of town where the good hotels were and would help us unload a truckload of luggage, etc. and would take the car to Sears and drop it off and we could call them Sunday and purchase a set of tires. We checked into a very nice Hampton Inn. He pulled into their unloading area, he lowered the car down, helped us unload the trunk, the backseat and let me photograph him and we gave him a $20 tip. He was very nice. Judy and I both wished we hadn't give the first tire changer a tip at all and given all $40 to Emmett. No need to get carried away.
Emmett jerked his door open and groaned and grunted like we do and got in. We didn't know but what he was a serial killer. I immediately started a conversation with him. I learned it wasn't his truck, he was on call 24 hrs, slept at the shop in a back room, OH NO, I thought he could take us there and nobody would ever find us. I kept pushing Judy's leg with mine and she was laughing and shaking her head. I asked Emmett if he was married and he was. He had a son, but right after giving birth, his wife had a stroke and was paralyzed for awhile. Then went to work and kept getting fired cause she wasn't able to work. One leg was shorter than the other. She keeps kids at home. CAN YOU IMAGINE? I asked if he ever went home. Yea, he breathed out heavily, when he wasn't on call. He said he liked to go home early and crawl in bed with his wife and warm up. TOO MUCH INFO. So I kept him talking for awhile til I asked about Motels. He then said he would take us to the nice part of town where the good hotels were and would help us unload a truckload of luggage, etc. and would take the car to Sears and drop it off and we could call them Sunday and purchase a set of tires. We checked into a very nice Hampton Inn. He pulled into their unloading area, he lowered the car down, helped us unload the trunk, the backseat and let me photograph him and we gave him a $20 tip. He was very nice. Judy and I both wished we hadn't give the first tire changer a tip at all and given all $40 to Emmett. No need to get carried away.
Janis, Judy's sister, called about 11 and told Judy that she had left her hangup clothes hanging in the bedroom...... Is that another OMEN?? Well, nobody offered to bring our clothes or meet us so Janis will send them UPS on Monday. So on Monday (when we have wheels AND TIRES) and since we are in Canton we will first of all go to the NFL Hall of Fame.
SUNDAY, MAY 15th
We decide to take a leisurely drive to Amish Country on Sunday. Remembering having a meal at one of the famous restaurants in Pennsylvania. So we drive on a twisting, curvy, road and pass buggies with families coming from Church and even two women in a buggy, what a man let a woman drive? We saw a cute, young family and the husband was pulling the "boy child in a wagon" and the mother had another child in a stroller. So we drove on a two-lane road for 35 miles and every Amish store was closed. Judy and I wondered why we hadn't figured that out before we left the motel. AMISH-SUNDAY-RELIGION-DUH!!!!
MONDAY, May 16th
SUNDAY, MAY 15th
We decide to take a leisurely drive to Amish Country on Sunday. Remembering having a meal at one of the famous restaurants in Pennsylvania. So we drive on a twisting, curvy, road and pass buggies with families coming from Church and even two women in a buggy, what a man let a woman drive? We saw a cute, young family and the husband was pulling the "boy child in a wagon" and the mother had another child in a stroller. So we drove on a two-lane road for 35 miles and every Amish store was closed. Judy and I wondered why we hadn't figured that out before we left the motel. AMISH-SUNDAY-RELIGION-DUH!!!!
MONDAY, May 16th
We slept late, missed a free breakfast, and did laundry. Finally got organized and head South on I-77 to the NFL Hall of Fame. Wow, what an interesting place. Two floors of all you ever wanted to know about the NFL and the players. As we headed down the hallway we found a room full of bronzed busts of football players and coaches. We wanted to see Terry Bradshaw, Bruce Smith, Franco Harris and Mean Joe Green and we did. On the way home went to Sears once again to have our lug nuts tightened. The sales receipt specified that after driving 25 miles you HAD TO DO THAT. That done, we realized it was 4:30 p.m. and we were hungry and had not eaten all day. No we weren't hungry we were starving too death. Found a place called Perkins' that had fresh strawberry pie. We needed our vegetables as well so we had a great meal and saw 4 mama geese and about 30 goslings. Hopefully the photo will turn out. As we left to come back to our room, we purchased a whole strawberry pie to eat on til we leave tomorrow.
UPS is supposedly going to deliver Judy's clothes by 3 p.m. tomorrow. We are planning on leaving here and heading NORTH as soon as they arrive. It is raining once again and has rained most of the time we have been here. Maybe our luck will change soon. We have promised to be better.
TUESDAY, MAY 17th
Today we awoke to more rain. This is getting old, quick. Hopefully it will end soon. We looked out the window and bitched and moaned. We overslept and missed breakfast and realized we needed to tell the front desk we were expecting an U.P.S. package with Judy's clothes. We decided to spend another night here since the package wasn't going to arrive til after 3 p.m. At 1:25 we got a call from the desk that Judy's package had arrive. Damnit, we could have left for Cleveland after all. But weather was no fun and we still needed to find a place to purchase that donut tire for our SPARE. We just couldn't see driving w/o a spare. So we found a place on the Internet, got directions off the Internet, programmed the Tom Tom and headed to the Quaker Auto Parts Company in Salem, Ohio, 38 miles away but the Tom Tom said it was an hour away. Well listening to the stupid woman on my Tom Tom took us almost an hour out of our way. She would lead us down a dead end and say "you have reached your destination" and we were in a subdivision at a cul de sac. I was blowing my mind. After 3 times of dealing with wrong destinations, I ignored her and told Judy the way I thought we should go. By God, I was right too. Then I paid the Tom Tom people $12.95 to change that stupid woman's annoying voice to Burt Reynolds. At least we will laugh with him. We stopped once at a Veterinary Clinic that had a sign that read, "The kittens are in" -- "Adopt or Foster". Judy called the Quaker company again and said we have been driving and driving and damned if we can find you. The fellow on the phone said, "did you just curse?" She laughed and told him the way I thought we should come and he said sure, that's the way to come. So we were anxious to get there since it was 4:45 and they close at 5. The woman on the Tom Tom told us to take a left (not on our planned route), Judy did and we drove 15 miles out in the country and she said "you have reached your destiny..." There was no business anywhere. We made a u-turn and headed back to where we had turned off. Stayed on our planned route and found it, and made it in the parts store with 3 minutes to spare. Got the spare for $30, which was a great deal. We drove happily home without a Tom Tom but we are gonna rely on it to get to Montana. I will have a talk with it tonight, after Judy goes to bed.
Hopefully we will be able to rise and shine early, and load 'em up and head 'em out tomorrow.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18th
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18th
Well, they cried when we left the hotel and wanted to go with us. They stood outside and waved. I wrote a song about the Van Driver, Jenny Lee. She was so funny and said she would take us anywhere we wanted to go, even tho she wasn't supposed to. When we check out she was nowhere in sight.
Off we went towards South Bend, Indiana. What fun
In Mishawaka, Indiana
In Mishawaka, Indiana
We stayed in a very nice Comfort Inn Suites, very spacious and nice. When dinner time came around and our stomachs said let's eat the receptionist gave us directions to one of the best Italian restaurants in the area, or we could go to an Olive Garden. We chose the privately owned. So we had to go out of our driveway, take a left and then a right on Mishawaka (which is also the Town). We did that and there was no Italian restaurant to be found. WTF? So we turned Burt Reynolds on on our GPS and he yells to turn around and go towards the Airport. We wondered, but decided we didn't know where we were anyway, so off we go to the airport -- then thru a roundabout -- then a couple of back roads and I make decisions unbeknownst to Burt and we ended up on the side of town we started on so we started over. (WE WENT THRU THE SAME ROUNDABOUT 8 TIMES). Well we found the dumpsters and bad parts again, but the bad parts weren't really that bad. So we sang with the country music station (old country songs) and had a great time, but we were getting hungry as hell. We are seeing things we had seen an hour early. WTF. We were headed to the roundabout to the Airport again. I said to hell with it. Let's get on the I-90 Expressway. Realized just in time that it was a TOLL ROAD. There was another lane that was parallel to the EXPRESSWAY. After a few minutes I decided to get off at the first exit and backtrack. Judy wanted breakfast for dinner. I wanted a drink. So I put my signal on and then saw police cars blocking the exit. Hmmmmm, we wondered if someone had called ahead and put out a BOLO for two lovely women, so we pulled over and the COP starts walking towards us. I rolled my window down and he walks up and I said what's going on Officer? We are sooooooo lost and need to get off here and turn around. He smiled and said I am sorry mam but there has been a hazardous waste spill here and it has to be cleaned up. I asked what was dumped? He said well a trucked spilled some diesel fuel. I, the smart one, said well give me your gun and I will take care of him right now. He laughed and I said, only kidding. He said I'm sorry for the inconvenience but if you go about 5 miles on down this road to find an exit. We thanked him and then afterwards we drove about 10 miles and crossed the Michigan State Line turning around to backtrack. God, a lot of traveling that night. We hit passing gear going back to Mishawaka and on our way we found one street we hadn't been down. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!! We saw an Applebee's open til 12 or later. We were excited. Judy did not get breakfast, but French Onion Soup and a baked potato. Margaritas were 1/2 price so I got a couple of those and an Asian chicken salad. YUM YUM. Then we realized we had no idea where our hotel was. We knew there was that Mishawaka Exit nearby and that we were in a Comfort Suites, but the key card had no phone number or anything. The damn Tom Tom would not give us names, addresses or phone numbers of restaurants of hotels. That alone, was making me crazy. So we asked our waitresses how we would get back to Mishawaka and she gave us pretty good directions and on a wing and a prayer we made it. We were back in the room by 1 a.m. I was walking by the sofa in our room and saw a black spider on the sofa, heading towards one of my bags. I found a newspaper and beat the shit out of it. That spider turned out to be a piece of black lint. We had a good laugh over that too.
We both hit the bed and went sound to sleep.
I had to call Frank, my son and wish him a happy 39th birthday before I went to bed. I got a note from him soon thereafter thanking me for giving birth to him. Made me cry.
THURSDAY, MAY 19th
We knew our next destination was going to be Notre Dame. We had several directions and the desk clerk had decided to give us directions and our first stop would be the Chocolate Factory. Same one that gave us our directions to the Italian Restaurant. So we followed her first set of directions and we were nowhere near the street named or the Chocolate Factory. I was already drooling like a Mastiff Hound. So I got off the road and stopped at an auto repair shop and the fellow came towards us and asked if we were lost. Go down this road, 2nd light and turn left. He was close, but no cigar. We found it with our city map.
OH WOW, I can't possibly say enough about the Chocolate Factory. It smelled so good. We have pictures too. One of the candies I purchased was a pecan toffee ($18.95) I told the clerk I had had it a long time ago. It was to die for. I still asked for samples and got them. Oh almost forgot, on our way in the lobby of the sweet chocolaty smelling building was a big stand up sign of Lucy and Ethel when they worked in the Chocolate Factory, Remember that? Of course you do. There was a cutout for my head. Yep, I made Judy take a pix of me and I took one of her.
The only other candy I wanted to sample was chocolate orange. It melted in your mouth. The clerk asked if I was okay and I said sure. She said you look like you are gonna cry. I said it was sooooo wonderful I might. We all laughed. Judy purchased fudge.
The small street and part of the Factory's property was called SWEET STREET.
From there we went to see Notre Dame. Wow what a pretty place. As we turned in our entrance to the campus, across the street we noticed a house for sale by owner. (Practically on Campus) It had 5 bedrooms, 5 baths and 3 garages -- for sale by owner. As we drove down the street, adjacent to the campus there was a modern little town about 5 city blocks. Had a 5 guys, ice cream shop, clothing, gyms, everything. Really interesting. We drove down the mall, towards their big church with golden dome, hell, I thought we were in Utah for a minute. We parked and went into their Bookstore and bought some postcards and visited with people, saw their stadium and learned that graduation was 2 days away on Sunday. Students are really getting younger and younger. The Bookstore was full of students picking up their caps and gowns and then another area was pressing them.
Departed South Bend around 3 p.m we drove until about 6 p..m. and stayed in a really crummy Comfort Inn 30-40 miles outside of Chicago. Their employees very unhappy. No amenities, hated to make me coffee in the lobby, they had just cleaned everything up and I wanted orange juice for Judy. You could see the hate in the eyes of the two women I was making work. They had no laundry facilities, told me not to fill my cooler. Big mistake to tell me not to do something, especially when I am paying. So after sleeping in their crappy beds, the next morning we packed the car and I FILLED MY COOLER WITH ICE, got juice and coffee in our travel cups and said Vaya con Dios, mutha...
FRIDAY, May 20th
Leaving and heading for Chicago we were so excited and even thought about driving downtown. I have told Judy so much about it from being there with my friend Kay. Thought we could buy some pizza and some delicious chocolate mints from Macy's. WRONG AGAIN. OH MY GOD. I am not sure at what time the traffic started being bumper to bumper or the road construction began along with 45 m.p.h. speed limits. Soon after that the horn blowing and cursing and then as we approached the Skyway Highway I thought we were up in the sky and in CLOUDS. WRONG AGAIN. We were on level ground and the smog was so bad you could barely see the car next to you. Sorta reminded me of Los Angels. I sound like a world traveler don't I. As we got to another toll on the Skyway Highway and were moving a little higher up and needed to make a lane change I told Judy the best place to do that we be in front of the City Policeman. WRONG! He knew what we wanted, would not look at us, and Judy started yelling HEY, HEY and waving her arms. I was wetting my pants laughing. HELL HE HAD TO ACKNOWLEDGE HER. SHE WAS YELLING, CAN I GET OVER AND STARTING TO COUGH AND HE MANAGED TO NOD AND STOP. Afterwards, we couldn't quit laughing about her doing all that. We did get some good shots of the Sears Tower, even with all the smog. The road was terrible and after the tire trouble we had had on the 14th, we were scared too death. So no sightseeing in Chicago -- same ole, same ole??
We drove until about 7 p.m. and by then we were in MADISON, WISC. We were surrounded by nice hotels. I remembered I still had credit on a Marriott credit card that was a gift from my office when I retired. So I went in to check on room status and prices. Next door was a Marriott Courtyard. So I got a really nice suite with 2 queen beds, a separate living room with couch, chair and a desk. Huge bathroom too. So I showed them where the receptionist from a Marriott Spa had written that I had a $160 credit and could they check the credit and then tell me how much their rooms were. WELL LOW AND BEHOLD MAMMA -- They showed I had a $200 credit. Color me happy. A freebie in a nice hotel. We had laundry to do and it was just down the hallway. We carried it down so we could sort our own. You had to pay $2 to wash and $2 to load BUTTTTT it automatically disbursed detergent and softener in the washer for free. Another little perk.
SATURDAY, MAY 21st
The weather that morning was absolutely gorgeous. I gave Judy directions to the Interstate but I-90 was not accessible the way we exited. DAMNIT. No sign of an I-90 West sign anywhere. I thought maybe Burt Reynolds' had his act together by now and turned on the Tom Tom. He started that turn left and then right and we ignored the first part of his directions as they were leading us back to the Fairfield. But kept listening and looking and after much twisting and turning and searching (and I do mean searching) for signs we found our road West and were happy again and immediately closed Burt down again. We think he has had way too much plastic surgery.
You know what amazes us? We never run out of things to talk about. I guess after being friends almost 60 years and cousins for a lifetime is why we are like two peas in a pod. So much for that.
Down the highway at 75 miles an hour and amazed at the nice weather. Before we knew it we had almost gone thru Wisconsin. A couple rest stops and we still felt great. At one of the stops I met a couple with the cutest Peek-A-Poo. He was the sweetest little thing. My treats were packed in a bag in either the back seat or the trunk and I had no idea which. I will try to remember to keep them close by next time we load. The next thing that blew my mind away was a soft yellow 1941 Plymouth Convertible powder puff. It was beautiful and had been fixed up just like new. While we visited and I petted the dog (not theirs), another man asked if the owner would sell it. The old man said heck no. He and his wife had had the best time since he had purchased that car. They were so cute riding down the road. You and I both know they loved the attention.
So bladders emptied and a walk around made us feel like new women. The screaming kid in the bathroom made me feel like a murderer.
As we got closer and closer to Minnesota we realized that the SKY was as big as the TEXAS SKY. My God, I couldn't shut up. I told Judy I knew she wanted to kill me but it was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen, or could remember. Then we both kept remarking. I told Judy I had to have a picture before it rained or got cloudy. I grabbed my camera, undid the seat belt, barely got up on one knee before sliding in the floor board. Oh My God, we laughed til we cried. I finally made it back in the seat and tried once more. It is so flat in Minnesota (which I never thought about) and the sky was still there and big. My camera, went crazy snapping pixs. Then it seemed the sky grew bigger and bluer and the clouds looked like giant cotton ball. I finally made it on one hip, the window was down and the wind was doing wonders for my hair and I saw the perfect moment, switched the button on and WHOOOOSH -- out the window went the damned camera. I was flabbergasted. Judy asked "was that what I thought it was" and we both looked at each other and burst out laughing. She said do you want to stop? WHAT, I said. There is an 18 wheeler up our ass and 5 more behind him. Wonder what that camera would look like. Only money. The next Walmart we found was where I made a quick run and purchased a similar one which was already charged. The Gods were definitely looking after us that day.
Had lunch in Donna's Cafe in the little town Moorcroft, Wyo on the way. I asked an older couple of we could sit with them at a table for 4 and they were delighted. Pete was 80 and Delores was 76 and they lived on a farm in Kansas. They were in Huelett for their granddaughter(S) weddings. The weddings are this Sat and next Sat. First granddaughter is 19 and marrying a guy from Huelett who used to work on a Dude Ranch in Montana and some business men met him while hunting there and asked him if they bought a Ranch, built a home and furnished it would he run it for THEM. He said yes, they did, so that's where they go after the wedding Sat. Brand new home, all furnished. The men are almost finished bldg them a huge mansion where they and their friends can go and stay and hunt and he will take them out hunting and be care keeper too. Delores said that the men had already stocked it with Elk and some other animals and some Angus Cattle. For a Cowboy, I'd say that's the perfect job with great pay. The other granddaughter is getting married the following week to a kid from her Huelett and he is a Diesel Mechanic.
Delores said Thank God we won't have to drive out here for 2 weddings. Then I asked Pete where he was from and he said Wisc but they met in Calif in the volunteer service in California. When their meal arrived they held hands and said a prayer. I decided when ours came I would do the same. As our waitress, Candy (part owner with a huge ass) sat it before us Judy knew what I had in mind and was shaking her head and laughing....so
I behaved.
Oh, some toothless wonder at Donna's Cafe, saw our tag and asked where we were going and how long we had been on the road. He said ya do know that some of the road (I-90) is out because of flooding. We answered yes and he said, well there is a detour, have a good trip.
SUNDAY, MAY 22nd
A minor problem with the camera didn't damper our fun. We continued driving until we were almost in Rapid City, S.D. Then we spotted the Bad Lands sign and exit. We weren't too tired to do that before we started looking for a motel. After turning Burt on again, thinking he could at least get us thru Rapid City to a Comfort Inn, I shut him down. Good God, we ended up where dumpsters should have been. Then after several excursions around and crossovers over one way streets I saw a grocery/liquor store. I SCREAMED TURN, NOW, TURN and of course that frustrated Judy so that she missed the whole entrance, lot, etc. I was mumbling and she said SHUT UP, you made me nervous I didn't know what to do. So around more one way streets and of course she did not have a clue where we were, what direction or anything. She told me to quit breathing, she can hear me and she can't help it.
GAWWWWWWWWWWD. So I tell her to back up on a 4-lane road (I checked the mirror) nothing behind us so she can get over in the far right hand land and circle the block back from whenst we came. So as we cut thru the alley of the grocery/liquor store some drunk steps out and almost meets Jesus. Finally to the store. I run into the store, purchase some Absolut and some Neosporin for my hurt toe (probably from putting my DRIVER'S BRAKE ON) and some orange juice) and off we go. We never found the hotel we were searching for but stopped in a Starbucks and got directions and found a new Comfort Inn Suites.
In front of the Comfort Inn Suites, a new steakhouse was almost completed. I hope I don't forget to insert a picture of the beautiful buffalo that was made by a local artisan. As I walked thru the mud to have my picture taken with this masterpiece and Judy laughed, the owner came out to see what we thought of her buffalo. The pictures really does not do justice to him. The best part of all is that you could see a baby wild cat peering out of the top of a shield that covered his middle section, and a closer look showed a wrench that was welded into part of his hip bone. The shield also had a medallion on it that read FORD. I am sure we missed so many more items that made up the sculpture. I guess you will have to come back later and see the buffalo but you will be awe.
In front of the Comfort Inn Suites, a new steakhouse was almost completed. I hope I don't forget to insert a picture of the beautiful buffalo that was made by a local artisan. As I walked thru the mud to have my picture taken with this masterpiece and Judy laughed, the owner came out to see what we thought of her buffalo. The pictures really does not do justice to him. The best part of all is that you could see a baby wild cat peering out of the top of a shield that covered his middle section, and a closer look showed a wrench that was welded into part of his hip bone. The shield also had a medallion on it that read FORD. I am sure we missed so many more items that made up the sculpture. I guess you will have to come back later and see the buffalo but you will be awe.
I believe it was on Monday, things had been pretty quiet until Judy sat on her Kindle. She had been reading that Kindle for the whole trip. She said she couldn't see -- hell, that was an understatement. We were both glad that she had purchased a warranty. So she called them and told them she thought she sat on it. She neglected to tell them she fell asleep sitting on the bed and dropped it on the carpet at least 3 times. They sent her a new one via U.P.S. and it arrived the next day, Tuesday. She was once again a happy camper. But you and I know she is always happy. We are still carrying around the box they sent the new one to her in. She is to put the broken one inside and mail from a UPS store. We have seen at least 20. Rather than drag it all over the states with us and with so little room in the car. But Noooooo, we are still dragging it with us.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25th
We can hardly believe we have been on the road for almost 2 weeks. The sun was out when we woke up at 7 a.m. and we had breakfast downstairs and showered and headed out for Mt. Rushmore. Queen Lead foot did not disappoint. I needed another damned band aid for the toe before we got anywhere near the mountain.
As we are sliding around curves like moonshiners in Thunder Road, we both saw a sign for Sitting Horse and almost did a U turn at the next sign read "turn here for Sitting Horse Crystal Cave" I said Nooooooo. We eventually saw the signs were were looking for.
First and foremost --USA BEAR COUNTRY. BEARS, big and little and all kinds of other animals. I was getting stiff legged just thinking about seeing these animals up close and personal. A REAL BEAR AND NOT IN A ZOO. HOT DAMN.
First and foremost --USA BEAR COUNTRY. BEARS, big and little and all kinds of other animals. I was getting stiff legged just thinking about seeing these animals up close and personal. A REAL BEAR AND NOT IN A ZOO. HOT DAMN.
REINDEER
ELK
WOLV ES
BEARS
BUFFALO
NOW FOR THE BABIES
Bob Cat
Baby Bears (video)
Porcupines, Racoons, Skunks, Groundhogs were not photographed because we have plenty of them at home. The pictures above were not the ones I had edited and captioned??????
The cost to enter the park (stay in your car with the WINDOWS UP) was $26. I was outside snapping pixs of the carved bears while Judy waited in line to pay. Judy said that they were going to charge her full price til they saw me hobbling around like a Silver Back Gorilla and let us in for half price. Now, that's the way we are going to go to every park. I will hobble around the car several times, maybe beat my chest and growl.....
So back in the car and down the hill we go. Judy told me not to roll the damned windows down and she meant it. SHE IS NOT THE BOSS OF ME! We didn't have to go far until we spot a female Elk (we don't know the name for a female, maybe Elkess). Someone suggested "Cow" was the proper name for a female elk. Down the hill a bit we saw wolves. The first one was white and lying almost in the road. We both thought he was dead. I hated to take a photo of a dead Wolf, so I made Judy do it. He squinted at her and she snapped the photo and rolled her window up quickly. Oh, there were signs everywhere advising don't lower windows.
Next there were Big Horn Sheep, Rocky Mt. Goats, and Mountain Lions trying to nap in big dog houses. I spoke "cat" to several of them and when I finally post these pictures, you can see that we did make eye contact. Finally, the Bears who did not seem very happy. Most bears were pacing and it seemed that others were guarding the cattle crossings but did allow us to cross. The last crossing was around the keeper/manager's home and 3 huge buffalo. The two smaller ones probably were female but the GIANT had to be a MALE, fit to be on the Nickel. What a Marvelous Animal he was.
From there we drove to another area where the baby animals were located. We parked, got out of the car and the wind blew us several feet the opposite way we wanted to go. Afterwards, we decided once again that we needed to wear DEPENDS, and quit laughing (takes so little to make us happy). I tried to talk Judy into getting into a nearby golf cart (there were 2) but she was "afraid" as usual. So we huffed and we puffed and we walked. We saw baby ground hogs, I have them in my garden, baby raccoons, I have those too, and porcupine. Then we saw baby bears, Oh My God. They were squealing and having so much fun. I took a couple of photos and Judy suggested I do a video. I forgot I could do that. I took the video and played a bit back and my voice sounded like Louis Armstrong. OH WELL, I usually sound like Loretta Lynn, a step up. As we made the circle back to the car, we saw a baby red fox, river otters, baby lynx and bob cat. As we got closer to the car, our step quickened and we ALMOST ran down the ramp to our car with more help from the wind.
ONWARD to Mount Rushmore. Wow, you can see the faces of the Presidents long before you ever arrive to the entrance. It is something to behold. We had a National Park Sr. Citizen's Pass to get in free to all Federal Parks. Most of the Parks happen to be STATE. So we drove to the entrance of Rushmore, and were told we had to pay $11 to Park; well that really pissed us off since we could get in to the National Museum free. By that time there were 20 cars behind us and we had to pay. Judy was really irked. So we paid and we went in faster than anyone else. She pulled her gunslinger slide again. She drove all the way to the rooftop of the parking garage. We parked on top of the garage and the wind was fierce. There was one ROBIN trying to stay out of the wind and he was wobbling all over the place. Judy took a walk to the opposite end to look at the other rock formations that were just as amazing as Mt. Rushmore and nobody had touched them. I stepped out of the car and watched some woman taking pictures of that damned Robin. I wondered if it was the first Robin she had ever seen. Meanwhile I am taking in the Presidents up above and the view behind me.
CRAZY HORSE
I have waited for years to see this brave Indian Chief. The first time I saw his picture, was when a friend returned from vacation and shared it with me.
Crazy Horse was only 12 miles from Mt. Rushmore and we saw his head before we got to the entrance. I guess, like Rushmore, it is so large, you cannot avoid it.
We learned that several Indian Chiefs had come together to form a counsel and select someone to sculpt Crazy Horse. There was never a picture of him so the counsel gathered pictures of several Indian heroes and then set out to find a sculptor for their vision. The one chosen happened to be the first place winner at the NY State Fair in 1939. Korczak Ziolkowski, born in Boston of Polish decent and raised in foster homes. He was a self-taught sculptor. The Indians approached him and he took the job to carve Crazy Horse. His conditions were that no federal or state funds be used and when his health prevented him from continuing the job that his plans and scale models would be used to finish the job. Korczak was much older than his wife and when he died she took over the job of overseer. Today the job continues to flourish. Sounds like a history lesson doesn't it.
The museum is beautiful and built with native pine. There are lots of hands on exhibits for children and adults. If you ever get close to Mt. Rushmore be sure to drive the extra 12 miles to see the Chief.
After leaving the Chief we head for Biker Heaven, STURGIS. I was in heaven too.
One of the first things we saw when entering the town was a pink and purple flower shop. Really unexpected for STURGIS. Believe it or not they had a dead tree painted pink and purple and the tips of the dead ends (limbs) were painted to look like roses. Toured the town a bit and thought we knew where the bikers hung out from seeing them on TV news. Then to the Harley Store. I couldn't leave there w/o a shirt that read Harley Davidson and Sturgis, SD. Actually the town looked like any other town. Very nice homes on Main Street and on other streets. We also saw some run down homes but all towns have them too. After a quick tour of Sturgis and a lengthy stay in the Harley Davidson store we hit the Interstate.
Going into Sheridan,Wyoming we decided we needed a lunch break. The most prominent place you see is PERKINS. It is like Hardee's EVERYWHERE. We were always trying to get enough vegetables in us for energy and they had a few on the menu: french fried potatoes; baked potatoes; french fried sweet potatoes; macaroni and cheese or broccoli. Big choice. We ended up filling the car up with gas and had a hell of a time doing that. I swear that every place we have been on and off the Interstate has been under construction or having road work done. Made us want to rip our hair out.
Anyway, back to driving through Sheridan for gas and food. We had no clue where we were going but knew there were enough people there to have lots of choice restaurants. At one of the corners where we stopped for a traffic light, we both notice a person with a sign. Neither of us could read the sign and the person smiled and I smiled and thank God the light changed. Found Perkins restaurant and Judy had breakfast (eggs and bacon) and I had some burger. While we sat and visited and listened to some screaming baby, we discussed the homeless person. The person looked sort of like Larry the Cable Guy, on TV. I commented that I thought it was a woman, Judy thought it was a man. I said the smile looked feminine. Hell, what difference did it make anyway. We decided that man or woman, we would get the person a a$20 gift card for a meal there. If you are homeless, you are gonna be hungry. We ate our meal, purchased the gift card and found our way back to the corner where the person was sitting in the ARBY'S parking lot. We drove up and SHE turned around and smiled. Someone else pulled up and she waved at them and they had also brought her something. So we waited our turn. She stood beside a maroon passenger van with 2 big dogs inside. A shepard and a pit bull. She came to the car and we got out and handed her the card and lo and behold we see that she is deaf. She talks some and reads lip and has such a pretty smile (still looked like Larry with the sleeveless shirt tho). I realized that I had doggie treats that I could give the dogs. Then I saw the pit bull. Whoa Goat. The dog had his head out the window barking at us and my ass was getting back in the car. I am not stupid. Judy called me a feline name???? and took the treats. The dog was very sweet (I never touched) and the woman said he was deaf, just like her. So hell, I ended up giving her the whole big bag of treats. The dogs were just grinning at us when we left. The woman was so grateful and so happy that we cared about her dogs too. Judy said she told her that she lived in the van. How sad. At least, she seems to have friends in Sheridan and her dogs. Wonder how she can afford to feed them?????
Going into Sheridan,Wyoming we decided we needed a lunch break. The most prominent place you see is PERKINS. It is like Hardee's EVERYWHERE. We were always trying to get enough vegetables in us for energy and they had a few on the menu: french fried potatoes; baked potatoes; french fried sweet potatoes; macaroni and cheese or broccoli. Big choice. We ended up filling the car up with gas and had a hell of a time doing that. I swear that every place we have been on and off the Interstate has been under construction or having road work done. Made us want to rip our hair out.
Anyway, back to driving through Sheridan for gas and food. We had no clue where we were going but knew there were enough people there to have lots of choice restaurants. At one of the corners where we stopped for a traffic light, we both notice a person with a sign. Neither of us could read the sign and the person smiled and I smiled and thank God the light changed. Found Perkins restaurant and Judy had breakfast (eggs and bacon) and I had some burger. While we sat and visited and listened to some screaming baby, we discussed the homeless person. The person looked sort of like Larry the Cable Guy, on TV. I commented that I thought it was a woman, Judy thought it was a man. I said the smile looked feminine. Hell, what difference did it make anyway. We decided that man or woman, we would get the person a a$20 gift card for a meal there. If you are homeless, you are gonna be hungry. We ate our meal, purchased the gift card and found our way back to the corner where the person was sitting in the ARBY'S parking lot. We drove up and SHE turned around and smiled. Someone else pulled up and she waved at them and they had also brought her something. So we waited our turn. She stood beside a maroon passenger van with 2 big dogs inside. A shepard and a pit bull. She came to the car and we got out and handed her the card and lo and behold we see that she is deaf. She talks some and reads lip and has such a pretty smile (still looked like Larry with the sleeveless shirt tho). I realized that I had doggie treats that I could give the dogs. Then I saw the pit bull. Whoa Goat. The dog had his head out the window barking at us and my ass was getting back in the car. I am not stupid. Judy called me a feline name???? and took the treats. The dog was very sweet (I never touched) and the woman said he was deaf, just like her. So hell, I ended up giving her the whole big bag of treats. The dogs were just grinning at us when we left. The woman was so grateful and so happy that we cared about her dogs too. Judy said she told her that she lived in the van. How sad. At least, she seems to have friends in Sheridan and her dogs. Wonder how she can afford to feed them?????
BUFFALO, WYOMING
Found a Comfort Inn in Buffalo and we carried in our 40 tons of luggage. Judy must be telling the desk clerks we want a room near the side door and/or her "aunt" is crippled. Even if we say we are only going to take enough for 1 night, two trips were made to and from the car. NEWS ALERT: The Best and Biggest Hotels we have stayed in -- ALL OF THEM -- ONLY HAVE 2 LUGGAGE CARRIERS. ARE THERE LUGGAGE CARRIER THIEVES THAT WE HAVEN'T BEEN TOLD ABOUT? EVERYWHERE!
Next morning, I went to see what kind of a breakfast they would have in that motel. No warmers full of bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit... I fixed me a bagel and Judy some toast which I burned. Judy asked me to bring her scrambled eggs if they had them. What a joke. They had 3 of 4 hard boiled, peeled eggs. There was a sign not to put eggs in the microwave and I almost had to break my arm to keep from putting an egg in a coffee cup with a lid, just to see what would happen. But I was the only one in there and they would have known... I hate it when that happens. Oh, they did have the regular waffle maker, which I have done toooooo death. When I got back to the room with Judy's tray she said she would just slice the egg. Smart, huh? I was gonna blow up the microwave in the guest kitchen. Ready to leave, make trips with the best of the luggage carriers (out of 2) and opened the door to 35 mph winds. Judy was so glad she had taken the time to fix her hair to perfection. Are you wondering if I laughed til I cried? Wonder no more -- I did. We sat in the parking lot and wrote and addressed post cards. Judy looked around and realized across the road was a nice house with a fence and a barn and 4 horses in the lot. Everyone has horses very close to their homes, side yard or back yard.
Writing and mailing done we decided to get gas at a nearby gas station and I was going to see if any COWBOYS were in the trucks. We happened to spot a fellow in the parking lot cooking on the grill. I thought maybe he was giving away free products. While Judy filled the car I strolled up to the IDIOT. I asked if he was selling or giving away. As he spoke I noticed he was missing a front tooth. It was hard for me to concentrate on his answer and look him in the eyes. He said selling and I asked if it was hot dogs or hamburgers. He mumbled again and I asked WHHHHHAAAAT. He said BRATWURST and burgers. I said I don't want Bratwurst, can you just make a chili dog? He was taken aback. HUH? I said chili on a bun. He told me he didn't have chili, 'cept chili that goes on tacos and it's mixed with cheese. I said show me. He said he couldn't. He said it is inside but you can go look at it. So I go to the counter where they make your order up. The woman at the counter WAS NOT a happy camper and it was early in the day. SHE TRIED to ignore me but that would have been impossible. So I called out to her again and asked where the chili was. She said in that machine by the nachos. I told her I still didn't see it. As much as it pained her ass, she walked over to something that looked like a coffee creamer machine and tapped it. One side had chili and the other side had cheese. There were little paper cups like McDonald's has for ketchup. I turned and walked out. As I walked out by the IDIOT...he asked what I wanted and I said nothing and kept walking. Judy was in the car by this time and could tell I wanted to hurt someone. We had a good laugh. As I got in the car a pickup truck pulled up with a beautiful dog in the back and a young guy in a baseball hat got out, and on the other side a truck with a horse trailer and a tall drink of water got out but, he had a long, gray pony tail and was not the looker we had hoped for. I said HIT IT DANO. One thing that has since dawned on me is that people cannot understand us. Do we have an ACCENT??? I cut those people no slack whatsoever.
We were driving on some highway where you could see forever. Miles and miles of land and mountains capped with snow. Of course we argued whether it was snow or clouds. Judy stuck with her cloud theory and I said snow. We would bet on things as we went along. I think she owes me 6 donuts now. She will NEVAH pay off her debt. But as we stopped at different rest areas it started to look like snow. Of course, we forgot the binoculars. All along the I-90 we commented about the land or the cattle or the beauty of everything. Breathtaking.
We were driving on some highway where you could see forever. Miles and miles of land and mountains capped with snow. Of course we argued whether it was snow or clouds. Judy stuck with her cloud theory and I said snow. We would bet on things as we went along. I think she owes me 6 donuts now. She will NEVAH pay off her debt. But as we stopped at different rest areas it started to look like snow. Of course, we forgot the binoculars. All along the I-90 we commented about the land or the cattle or the beauty of everything. Breathtaking.
We began seeing creeks flooded out of their banks, up in the pasture where the cattle grazed. In some areas where the river was close to the road the houses close by had flooded yards; and once again the horses were in fenced areas around the homes and they were standing in areas where the water had gone down, but you could tell it was all mud. Some of the area was reservation land and had nothing but trailers and wrecked cars or cars. The water was up to the front door of the trailers that were sitting in the fields. Farther down the road the water was up higher than what we had seen earlier, but it was all pasture and the animals were able to find higher land. At one point the Yellowstone River was speeding down the river bed and way out of its banks and even had white caps.
We were in the same area when we saw huge fences, built at an angle in the fields, but not near the road. We could not imagine what they were. Judy wondered if maybe they were snow fences; they were 15 ft. high. Another thing for us to ponder was signs along the interstate that read, "EXIT FOR PORT OF ENTRY CHECK" We decided that must be for incoming and outgoing livestock. Close but no cigar. We learned that it was for citizens coming and going to and from Canada. We learned all of this from two cute girls in Harden, Montana. They gave us several informative brochures, sold us some neat Indian post cards and we told them some funny trip stories which they enjoyed. We're always on stage.
From Harden, Montana we took a tour of Little Big Horn National Monument in Broadus, Montana. Our Sr. Citizen Park Pass came in handy. Once again Judy and I were rooting for the Indians since we have taken so much from them. As we turned onto the road leading to the entrance we notice two coyotes walking thru a cornfield towards the highway. By the time I found the camera and aimed they were long gone and lead foot was sliding around some dirt road throwing gravels.
The tour was on our own and we stopped and looked at a monument, took pictures of tombstones along the narrow road and then pictures of the white tombstones all over the hills and fields where the soldiers had died. Near the end of the road, there was a sign that read, Entering Private Land. Others turned around but Judy kept right on going. I was glad she did. We saw some beautiful horses on the way around the circle. We assumed they belonged to the land owner, Palominos, paints, solid black, a beautiful gray, and several with colts. A car in front of us, stopped an offered food to one horse and he walked up to the window to take it. The others just kept eating grass. So they weren't starving and the grass was a deep, dark green. The road went for about 6 miles on the private land and then you had to make a U-turn. As we did this, 2 vans with American Indian students, college age, were unloading.
Finished with the tour we got back on the highway and head for Livingston, Montana -- where we are now. I began calling and checking hotel prices. Forgot it was Memorial Day weekend. Prices were in the $70's which was really surprising. The two we wanted were in Billings. Alas, no refrigerator or microwave. As we pondered and drove we decided to drive on to the next town and check rates there. For some reason, once we get in the car and start moving it gets harder and harder to stop. We happened to be in Livingston and saw one Comfort Inn (not a Suites and not a Hampton Inn). It was "across the tracks", too. SHOULD HAVE BEEN OUR FIRST CLUE. There were lots of trains, which I loved. We saw lots of coal cars loaded down and leaving, 2 big diesels pulling and 2 diesels pushing. Several more lined up in town ready to leave. I could sit for hours and watch the trains. Saw very few along the way out west and when we did the initials were BNSF. It seems on our last trip to New Mexico they were CSX. Did not see the first CSX. We never missed an opportunity to wave at the engineers. Hell, we never saw an engineer. We were really waving at trains. Right up there with never seeing a Cowboy either.
Town was nice, a downtown hotel, several bars, a theatre, railroad trace crossing, and a nice park and we thought we might bring our chairs down and have a picnic. I am still laughing over that suggestion. We never went back that way again. The damn chairs have not been out of the car and they are taking up a lot of room. I will probably say this several more times. Those chairs are canvas chairs, fit in a case (that we no longer have) and are heavy.
IN LIVINGSTON, MAY 27th - MAY 31st
Checked in to the not so nice QUALITY INN hotel, run and managed by Comfort Inn -- someone needs to write a letter. Beds are a bitch, by the time you get to the commode and close the door you have either peed your pants or severed your leg. I decided I was going to mix a vodka tonic to settle my "nerves." I noticed coming in that the ice machine closest to us was out of order. For ice we were to go to the front desk with our buckets. Told the idiot clerk that we needed ICE. She said I don't think we have any. I told her that I hoped she was kidding because I needed a drink and I needed it now and how ridiculous that a motel was out of ice. I know they have a 7-11 close by so her sorry ass can go buy some. She then tells me she will check. She comes back from somewhere with about 25 small cubes in a empty ice bag and a small bag saved from the ice bucket with ice frozen as hard as a brick. She handed both to me and told me I might want to beat the hard one on the floor. Like HELL I SAID! TIME TO WRITE A COMPLAINT TO COMFORT INN.
This will make you laugh til you cry:
While I was bitching about Comfort Inn, Judy interrupted me (as she sometimes does) and said that reminded her that she still had not heard back from her note to Comfort Inn. Seems she wrote and asked why they had not credited her Comfort Inn account with those points in Canton, Ohio. I told her we didn't stay in a Comfort Inn. After a few discussions, reminders, etc. She realized, as a STRICKLER, that once again I was right -- we stayed in a Hampton Inn. Judy said she had gotten a short e-mail from Comfort Inn advising that they were having some difficulty but would get back with her as soon as possible. Hell, they may be so confused and dumbfounded they will just give her some points. To add to that, when I tried to use my Hampton Honor Points at another motel and was advised that I had Zip, Zero, None. Not only that -- there had been no action since 2009. WHAT, NO ACTION SINCE 2009. Who told 'em? just kidding. They said the CANTON, OHIO points had not been added yet but would be posted when available. Today I received an e-mail from US AIR asking me to donate my points for Olympics. HAHAHA, sure and I will get back with you on that.
Sorry, I got off track from bitching about that fat, crazy manager at the Comfort Inn in Livingston, Montana. We decided to spend several extra days in that hell hole due to the weather. I decided one of the mornings to take the ice tray and carry Judy's breakfast back on it. Yes, you are so perceptive to notice that I got get Judy her breakfast every morning we are on the road. So I checked to see if the menu might have changed (STUPID ME) and it was the same, waffle and toast and hard boiled egg. I walked back to the adjoining room with the tray and the manager was on my ass like ants on a picnic. Where did that tray come from she asked? I answered her from my room WHY!! Then I asked if she thought it was HERS? I told her then that I was a seasoned traveler and knew my may around. It was hard to say that w/o laughing too. I turned my back on her, put my coffee and tray on the table and started my waffle going. I had to go back and retrieve her to make some more scrambled eggs for Judy. She was huffin and puffin. I have lost track of days since then I haven't had the chance to write each night. But we got a knock on the door one evening and WA-LA the MANAGER appeared. I said WHAT and she asked if we were SMOKING. I told her we didn't smoke and slammed the door in her face. Judy got riled once again and called her and asked "WHY WOULD WE ASK FOR A NON-SMOKING ROOM IF WE DON'T SMOKE." Then slammed the phone down. I could go on and on but Judy can do that when she gets a questionnaire about her stay. We decided after listening to weather report that we would have to wait until Monday to go into Yellowstone.
Well updates were forthcoming. It was after 11 p.m. and there were two kids in the room above us. When we heard them we both groaned. They had jumped and run all over the tiny room above us. As their bed time got near the yelling and crying began. I hope THEY DON'T MAKE ME GET UP.
Next day, in the breakfast room again, and the two kids in room above turned out to be two year old twin boys, 8 month old baby and 4 yr old girl. At least the father let the Mother sit while he fixed all the plates and I was impressed.
We learned from the weather channel that there had been rock slides, 6-10 inches of snow today and up to 15 inches were expected by the time it ended on Monday. We were close to the Northern entrance (how we planned it) and knew that to the left of our planned entry most of the roads were closed. Our plan was to head straight down towards Old Faithful and head back up the closed road. Plans change and we decided to wait and call the Park and get an update. Judy commented that her car was so light that it will not even go in snow. The only possible way that it might is if we loaded all of our shit back in the car. That was the whole reason for staying here. Unloading the car completely and giving ourselves a break. I have been riding with something between my legs most of the trip. Judy's purse, the camera, the Tom Tom, my purse.....Get your mind out of the gutter.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning we headed for the Mother Lode, Cougar, Big Horn Sheep, Buffalo, Bear...Yellowstone Park. We were both so hyped.
While in Yellowstone I would see something and yell STOP! and Judy, like a man, would drive another mile looking for a good place to pull over. She would say I couldn't stop in the middle of the road. I WOULD SAY WHY THE FUCK NOT? THERE WAS NOTHING BEHIND YOU. So most of the ones by the road had their pixs taken from a distance.. The big one walking down the road was in the other lane and how she captured him and the mirror looking so far away, I don't know. But, it is a new camera and so far I can't find a zoom lens except when downloading?? Not only can we not find a zoom lens, we cannot see out of the son of a bitch. We aim, see nothing, bitch, point camera and snap the shutter. We have absolutely no idea whether we are getting pictures of anything. The only was to tell is when we download the pictures to the computer at night. We have both thought we were going blind. Finally concurred it was the camera. So all through Yellowstone taking photos and had no clue what they would look like.
We got over the "baddest part" of the road from north rim and headed down western side and the temp started dropping and got to 32 and the shit hit the fan. Ice, snow, 5 more miles and rain but then we got off at the Western exit to get the hell out of there. The roads were getting slick and her car is like a bicycle on wet roads and ice on the windshield convinced us to LEAVE. Took us a long time to get out of there too. We were about 10 miles from Old Faithful. We had seen soo many geysers on the way and smelled 'em and felt them that we figured missing one was ok. But such a shame to miss the biggest one ever.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1st
An uneventful trip was made to Kalispel, Montana. I love that name. Several phone calls made from a parking lot trying to get the best deal on a hotel. Even tried to get a GOVERNMENT RATE. We are cheap. Once that was accomplished we headed to a fantastic Hampton Inn, great price and really nice people. When Judy checked us in, on our Government Rate, she told him she left her government I.D. in the car and he said no problem. He asked her what brings you here. She replied, a little bit of business and a lot of pleasure. She was so thankful he didn't ask what kind of business. I said tell him we were coming to pick up some research samples for Virginia Tech to study from Flat Head Lake. (We had passed thru several beautiful towns and this lake was in all of them). The clerk was tickled at her answer and that was it. We could have really built our research work up too. Where do you find 67, 68 year old graduate students doing research work for Virginia Tech. God, we are still snickering about that.
THE BEST PART ABOUT THAT HOTEL WAS THAT THEY HAD ICE IN THEIR ICE MACHINES. Learned from Hotel Clerk that Glacier National Park was closed except for about 16 miles. DAMNIT. How is that for poor planning. Opening would be the end of June because of all the snowfall this year. What scenery. I had seen two eagles nests. One in Yellowstone Natl Park and the other today on a pretty normal sized pole on a farm road near the highway. The nest looked almost as big as a car roof.
So tomorrow we will go into Glacier as far as we can, take Rt 2, which I had told everyone ran beside Canadian Border. WHAT A LIE, unbeknownst to me, it was nowhere near the Canadian Border. We were really so disappointed to learn that the Park wasn't open. We would take what we could get.
Off to Glacier that morning and like Yellowstone it was beautiful. Everything was green where it was supposed to be. The first thing we saw as we rounded the two lane road into the Park was a beautiful lake that looked as though someone had painted it blue. We stopped (yea, she did stop but I was screaming she was going to run into the damned lake and they would never find our ass), took some pictures and drove on a few more miles, til we saw small waterfalls coming down from the mountain. Once again, it looked like a painted picture. Huge rocks covered with moss, trees had fallen on top of each other, evergreens so close together and then a beautiful rushing stream pouring down the hill. It is piped under the road and into McDonald Lake. Wait til you see those pictures. I probably took 50 pictures while on that road. I then had the bright idea to take a video. Well part of the video is my lap, the map and the floor of the car.
Off to Glacier that morning and like Yellowstone it was beautiful. Everything was green where it was supposed to be. The first thing we saw as we rounded the two lane road into the Park was a beautiful lake that looked as though someone had painted it blue. We stopped (yea, she did stop but I was screaming she was going to run into the damned lake and they would never find our ass), took some pictures and drove on a few more miles, til we saw small waterfalls coming down from the mountain. Once again, it looked like a painted picture. Huge rocks covered with moss, trees had fallen on top of each other, evergreens so close together and then a beautiful rushing stream pouring down the hill. It is piped under the road and into McDonald Lake. Wait til you see those pictures. I probably took 50 pictures while on that road. I then had the bright idea to take a video. Well part of the video is my lap, the map and the floor of the car.
We left the park on the scenic highway, intending to stop at some reservations and stay somewhere along the way. Change of Plans.........there were no motels or restaurants that I would feel safe to go into. Lots of casinos and bars, but not the kind we would go in. We kept driving into North Dakota and they were having so much flooding from the rain and snow melt, plus they were releasing water from the dam at the mouth of the Missouri River and so many people had been evacuated that there was not a room to be found. We left Montana at 11 am and got to Fergus Falls, Minnesota at 3 am. We drove sixteen hours without food or a place to rest. We drove about 8 miles in a mud bog, where they were working on roads. We drove through rain and beautiful lightening for several hours, two hail storms.......it was two weeks rolled into one day. In North Dakota there were so many bugs that the car was completely covered in bugs. We first thought it had started raining again they were hitting so hard. They may be permanently imbedded in Judy's car. Reminds us of Texas.......
Cranberry Bog in Wisconsin
While in Wisconsin we stayed in a small town called Tomah. I knew from watching TV that Wisconsin and W.Va. had Cranberry Bogs. I told Judy we should really try and find one.
That night we checked into a very nice Hampton Inn and while walking past the desk clerk I asked if he knew where any were. Sure enough, he did. The owner of the Hampton Inn owned two bogs he told me. She would be in the next morning at 7 a.m. and I could speak with her then. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? 7 a.m. I asked if she worked later than that and he said she worked til 3. So the next morning while fixing breakfast I asked the lady (I thought the clerk said HER NAME WAS BRUCE) about the bogs she owned. Her name was Ruth, damnit, could I be getting deafer? She didn't mention hers at all -- do you think that could have been a lie? She did give me directions to a man's farm a couple miles East of the hotel. His name was Mr. Rezin (like in a dried grape). I first put grape nuts and thought who will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, once the car was packed and ready we decided to find Mr. Rezin.
Before we made the trip to the Cranberry Bog we knew we had to stop at a cheese store and taste some WISCONSIN CHEESE. We had seen an advertisement for HUMBIRD CHEESE STORE (not hummingbird) and the lady at the hotel said the cheese store was on our way. I took several photos with the new camera of a cheese store and then we went in. I held my breath for 5 minutes thinking it was gonna smell like a cheese factory. When I let it out, no smell at all. Lots of cheese, nick nacks, nuts, fudge, breads, shirts, and things for people to take home. Judy purchased a pound of baby swiss and asked the girl to slice it for us. She sliced half of it and we planned to eat it on a picnic later on. Then we spotted fudge and our work there was done. Then we were off to find the cranberry farmer.
Directions were perfect. Drove onto the property and there was a huge Ocean Spray sign over the owner's name. On down the road, we passed several barns, ponds and then some huge buildings. Across the road were two farm houses and they were really pretty. So I went to knock on the office door and a red faced little man pulled in driving a Toyota truck and asked what he could do for us. I explained we were visiting from Virginia (he was not impressed) and that we would love to see his "bog" -- that sounds bad too, doesn't it. He seemed to think we were up to something. Then he told me to follow him. We followed him on the beaten down field path around ditches and ponds full of water. Some of the fields had irrigation spigots in them.
Around we drove and as we neared a field with workers and trucks we stopped and I threw open the door to get out with my new camera. Did I mention that I had to buy another damned camera. Couldn't see out of the one you saw Montana photos taken from. This one is high class and does everything but eat your lunch. So grabbed the camera up and started snapping pixs. Mr. Reizin backed his truck up and got out to talk then. While we talked I tried to figure out how to make a video. How cool would that be. Hell, I never figured it out and haven't even looked at those pixs yet. Who knows, there may be a video of my feet and him talking. We will see later.
The gist of the conversation was: Mr. Reizin is a RICH MAN.
He informed us that his farm consisted of 2500 acres and that he had 200 acres in cranberries and that it took 600 acres of reservoirs to hold the water that is needed to flood the bog at harvest time. They also use the reservoir water for spraying the berries in case of frost warnings. That same water, in the reservoir, is used for recreation. He charges the public $3.50 to come in and fish (honor system). You put your money in the little box by his mailbox.
I did ask if he had fish swimming around in the bog. He sorta bristled and said NO MAM, these bogs are nice and clean and nothing like that. Wait a minute I thought to myself .... don't fish poop in the water that he is flooding the fields with? Hmm, think about that this Thanksgiving.
Judy and I had studied and studied the way they were raised before going. The bog is like a garden for planting, with spigots for irrigation. The cranberries grown from old vines that were harvested at the time the cranberries were raked and taken out of the pond the previous year. A large hose (boon or boom) is used to coralle the berries and move them all to one corner of the bog. I think I am getting ahead of myself now. But the sticks with buds on them are laid back down in the bog itself, which has a ditch around the perimeter to control water levels. The berries are allowed to grow up until Sept or Oct and then have a small bloom. Once the bloom drops off, WALLLLAHHHHHH, there is a tiny little fruit growing and that is the cranberry. When the cranberry is ripe they flood the fields and go in with thrashers and loosen those berries off the sticks and harvest begins.
I asked Mr. Reizin if he sold strictly to Ocean Spray and he said YES MAM, and the only way you can sell berries to them is to own stock. He grinned really big, just letting us know he had some connections and stock.
Several of those huge buildings we saw as we drove on his PRIVATE PROPERTY house all that equipment. I also saw a large shute (shoot) sticking out of the top of a huge barnlike building. That is where the cranberries are shot from the machines into the waiting tankers for the berries. (I made that up, because I have no idea what kind of a truck hauls them up the road).
We could tell Mr. Reizin was getting antsy to get back to work, we know old men, and he was. He said goodbye and I stuck out my hand for him to shake it and my grip was as firm as his. He seemed to like that in a woman. Then Judy had to run up behind me and stick her hand out too. I can't do anything! So he probably wants to marry both of us now. We didn't see the little woman hanging out clothes or putting baked pies in the window, so we are assuming.........
Just another fun adventure for the girls.
Cranberry Bog in Wisconsin
While in Wisconsin we stayed in a small town called Tomah. I knew from watching TV that Wisconsin and W.Va. had Cranberry Bogs. I told Judy we should really try and find one.
That night we checked into a very nice Hampton Inn and while walking past the desk clerk I asked if he knew where any were. Sure enough, he did. The owner of the Hampton Inn owned two bogs he told me. She would be in the next morning at 7 a.m. and I could speak with her then. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? 7 a.m. I asked if she worked later than that and he said she worked til 3. So the next morning while fixing breakfast I asked the lady (I thought the clerk said HER NAME WAS BRUCE) about the bogs she owned. Her name was Ruth, damnit, could I be getting deafer? She didn't mention hers at all -- do you think that could have been a lie? She did give me directions to a man's farm a couple miles East of the hotel. His name was Mr. Rezin (like in a dried grape). I first put grape nuts and thought who will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, once the car was packed and ready we decided to find Mr. Rezin.
Before we made the trip to the Cranberry Bog we knew we had to stop at a cheese store and taste some WISCONSIN CHEESE. We had seen an advertisement for HUMBIRD CHEESE STORE (not hummingbird) and the lady at the hotel said the cheese store was on our way. I took several photos with the new camera of a cheese store and then we went in. I held my breath for 5 minutes thinking it was gonna smell like a cheese factory. When I let it out, no smell at all. Lots of cheese, nick nacks, nuts, fudge, breads, shirts, and things for people to take home. Judy purchased a pound of baby swiss and asked the girl to slice it for us. She sliced half of it and we planned to eat it on a picnic later on. Then we spotted fudge and our work there was done. Then we were off to find the cranberry farmer.
Directions were perfect. Drove onto the property and there was a huge Ocean Spray sign over the owner's name. On down the road, we passed several barns, ponds and then some huge buildings. Across the road were two farm houses and they were really pretty. So I went to knock on the office door and a red faced little man pulled in driving a Toyota truck and asked what he could do for us. I explained we were visiting from Virginia (he was not impressed) and that we would love to see his "bog" -- that sounds bad too, doesn't it. He seemed to think we were up to something. Then he told me to follow him. We followed him on the beaten down field path around ditches and ponds full of water. Some of the fields had irrigation spigots in them.
Around we drove and as we neared a field with workers and trucks we stopped and I threw open the door to get out with my new camera. Did I mention that I had to buy another damned camera. Couldn't see out of the one you saw Montana photos taken from. This one is high class and does everything but eat your lunch. So grabbed the camera up and started snapping pixs. Mr. Reizin backed his truck up and got out to talk then. While we talked I tried to figure out how to make a video. How cool would that be. Hell, I never figured it out and haven't even looked at those pixs yet. Who knows, there may be a video of my feet and him talking. We will see later.
The gist of the conversation was: Mr. Reizin is a RICH MAN.
He informed us that his farm consisted of 2500 acres and that he had 200 acres in cranberries and that it took 600 acres of reservoirs to hold the water that is needed to flood the bog at harvest time. They also use the reservoir water for spraying the berries in case of frost warnings. That same water, in the reservoir, is used for recreation. He charges the public $3.50 to come in and fish (honor system). You put your money in the little box by his mailbox.
I did ask if he had fish swimming around in the bog. He sorta bristled and said NO MAM, these bogs are nice and clean and nothing like that. Wait a minute I thought to myself .... don't fish poop in the water that he is flooding the fields with? Hmm, think about that this Thanksgiving.
Judy and I had studied and studied the way they were raised before going. The bog is like a garden for planting, with spigots for irrigation. The cranberries grown from old vines that were harvested at the time the cranberries were raked and taken out of the pond the previous year. A large hose (boon or boom) is used to coralle the berries and move them all to one corner of the bog. I think I am getting ahead of myself now. But the sticks with buds on them are laid back down in the bog itself, which has a ditch around the perimeter to control water levels. The berries are allowed to grow up until Sept or Oct and then have a small bloom. Once the bloom drops off, WALLLLAHHHHHH, there is a tiny little fruit growing and that is the cranberry. When the cranberry is ripe they flood the fields and go in with thrashers and loosen those berries off the sticks and harvest begins.
I asked Mr. Reizin if he sold strictly to Ocean Spray and he said YES MAM, and the only way you can sell berries to them is to own stock. He grinned really big, just letting us know he had some connections and stock.
Several of those huge buildings we saw as we drove on his PRIVATE PROPERTY house all that equipment. I also saw a large shute (shoot) sticking out of the top of a huge barnlike building. That is where the cranberries are shot from the machines into the waiting tankers for the berries. (I made that up, because I have no idea what kind of a truck hauls them up the road).
We could tell Mr. Reizin was getting antsy to get back to work, we know old men, and he was. He said goodbye and I stuck out my hand for him to shake it and my grip was as firm as his. He seemed to like that in a woman. Then Judy had to run up behind me and stick her hand out too. I can't do anything! So he probably wants to marry both of us now. We didn't see the little woman hanging out clothes or putting baked pies in the window, so we are assuming.........
Just another fun adventure for the girls.
NO CRANBERRY BOG PICTURES. SORRY
9:18 a.m. and both of us are in bed in a crummy Comfort Inn. No breakfast run this morning since I am sure I would be disappointed and I don't think this belly could take another waffle. A buckwheat pancake would go down nicely with a cup of coffee.
Until we speak, we have no idea what the day will bring. Judy's granddaughter, Courtney, is begging her to come home. She wants to stay with Judy and says her whole summer is gone now. Wait a minute, that girl is still in school. I believe we have another drama queen on our hands.
If something fun or exciting occurs later on you will be the first to know.
Happy Trails
We left Shelby MT on the scenic highway, intending to stop at some reservations and stay somewhere along the way. Change of Plans. We were told by several park employees not to stop at the trading posts on one of the reservations and then we could see that there were no motels or restaurants that we would feel safe to go into. Lots of casinos on the Indian land and shabby little bars. In between Shelby, Montana and we drove forever until we finally found life in Williston, N.D. As we were driving into North Dakota and they were having so much flooding from the rain and snow melt, plus they were releasing water from the dam at the mouth of the Missouri River and so many people had been evacuated that there was not a room to be found. We left Montana at 11 am and got to Fergus Falls, Minnesota at 3 am. We drove sixteen hours without food or a place to rest. We drove about 8 miles in a mud bog, where they were working on roads. We drove through rain and beautiful lightening for several hours, two hail storms.......it was two weeks rolled into one day. We were amazed at the bugs that started popping our windshield. There were so many bugs that the car completely covered in bugs. We first thought it had started raining again they were hitting so hard. They may be permanently imbedded in Judy's car. Reminds us of Texas.......
We stayed on Rt. 2 from Williston to Minot and were met by
on of nature. Rain pelting like rocks, then hail; and as we relaxed the lightning started shooting out of the heavens. We had never seen anything like it. It was from sky to ground all around us and nothing to obscure our view. Breathtaking. Then in Minot we changed routes and hit Rt. 52 and this was evidently an invitation for all Kamikaze bugs to attack a lone silver Cadillac, with two lovely ladies, as the car tried to stay on the road and out of the encroaching water on the pavement. Also we wondered if the bugs were attracted not only to our loveliness but because our headlights were the only lights visible in the world, or at least their world.
Finally change to I-94, and know that we are safe and sound and their will be human contact, motels, gas stations, etc. The time has creeped as we sped the across the states (South North Dakota and Montana. The time surprised us. We had not taken a nature break nor a food break for 14 hours.
When we saw the sign that were entering FARGO, N.D. we were elated and I MEAN TICKLED TOO DEATH. Judy said since she could not see that I had find a gas station and a hotel. Gas was easy. Hotel not so easy. We drove from one end of the City of Fargo, Good, Bad, Dumpsters, Hospital, and University to the other. Saw one policeman, 3 drunks, a handful of delinquents on roller blades. There was one Raddison Hotel in the middle of town (by the way, we were using the GPS) and it was 1 a.m. and the entrance was barricaded due to construction. As you may have realized by now we need a large entrance, (referring to more than 1 luggage cart) and that would not have worked, had it been open. Aggravated, numb and tired we found our way back to
I-94 and kept going East.
Off into the night we go looking for Fergus Falls, Minnesota and we found it. The first hotel we saw was a Comfort Inn, and it looked as though it was spilling over with guests. We pulled up to the entrance, looked in, looked at each other and said NAH. Drove around the lot, rethought, parked in the lot and decided to sleep there. We watched the hotel clerk on the computer for awhile and then decided we had go to the bathroom or burst. After driving non-stop for 16 hours, the bladder can only expand so much and Judy's was starting to rub the steering wheel. We decided to give it a shot, at least use the bathroom, and see what happens. The fat kid, with a jewel in his chin, said he one room on the 2nd floor. BUT, no elevator. We walked in with our purses, and nothing else.
It took we had to walk up the flight of stairs, get the door open (that seems to be a problem for us too) and fall in bed. No time to look for bed bugs or spray. The next morning, thanks to the fat kid, we were allowed a check out time of 1 p.m. Judy and I both realized that we had not slept on on mattress' so comfortable. Neither of us wanted to leave. We found that we could stay an extra day and relocate to the first floor and they would have someone carry in our luggage. We thanked them but carried our own bags, who knew what would tumble out. That was 2 days ago and we are still on the beds. We are sitting here trying to figure out dates and places while writing this blog. It has been many days since any news has been posted and we are giving it a try today.
Cranberry Bog in Wisconsin
While in Wisconsin we stayed in a small town called Tomah. I knew from watching TV that Wisconsin and W.Va. had Cranberry Bogs. I told Judy we should really try and find one.
That night we checked into a very nice Hampton Inn and while walking past the desk clerk I asked if he knew where any were. Sure enough, he did. The owner of the Hampton Inn owned two bogs he told me. She would be in the next morning at 7 a.m. and I could speak with her then. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? 7 a.m. I asked if she worked later than that and he said she worked til 3. So the next morning while fixing breakfast I asked the lady (I thought the clerk said HER NAME WAS BRUCE) about the bogs she owned. Her name was Ruth, damnit, could I be getting deafer? She didn't mention hers at all -- do you think that could have been a lie? She did give me directions to a man's farm a couple miles East of the hotel. His name was Mr. Rezin (like in a dried grape). I first put grape nuts and thought who will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, once the car was packed and ready we decided to find Mr. Rezin.
Before we made the trip to the Cranberry Bog we knew we had to stop at a cheese store and taste some WISCONSIN CHEESE. We had seen an advertisement for HUMBIRD CHEESE STORE (not hummingbird) and the lady at the hotel said the cheese store was on our way. I took several photos with the new camera of a cheese store and then we went in. I held my breath for 5 minutes thinking it was gonna smell like a cheese factory. When I let it out, no smell at all. Lots of cheese, nick nacks, nuts, fudge, breads, shirts, and things for people to take home. Judy purchased a pound of baby swiss and asked the girl to slice it for us. She sliced half of it and we planned to eat it on a picnic later on. Then we spotted fudge and our work there was done. Then we were off to find the cranberry farmer.
Directions were perfect. Drove onto the property and there was a huge Ocean Spray sign over the owner's name. On down the road, we passed several barns, ponds and then some huge buildings. Across the road were two farm houses and they were really pretty. So I went to knock on the office door and a red faced little man pulled in driving a Toyota truck and asked what he could do for us. I explained we were visiting from Virginia (he was not impressed) and that we would love to see his "bog" -- that sounds bad too, doesn't it. He seemed to think we were up to something. Then he told me to follow him. We followed him on the beaten down field path around ditches and ponds full of water. Some of the fields had irrigation spigots in them.
Around we drove and as we neared a field with workers and trucks we stopped and I threw open the door to get out with my new camera. Did I mention that I had to buy another damned camera. Couldn't see out of the one you saw Montana photos taken from. This one is high class and does everything but eat your lunch. So grabbed the camera up and started snapping pixs. Mr. Reizin backed his truck up and got out to talk then. While we talked I tried to figure out how to make a video. How cool would that be. Hell, I never figured it out and haven't even looked at those pixs yet. Who knows, there may be a video of my feet and him talking. We will see later.
The gist of the conversation was: Mr. Reizin is a RICH MAN.
He informed us that his farm consisted of 2500 acres and that he had 200 acres in cranberries and that it took 600 acres of reservoirs to hold the water that is needed to flood the bog at harvest time. They also use the reservoir water for spraying the berries in case of frost warnings. That same water, in the reservoir, is used for recreation. He charges the public $3.50 to come in and fish (honor system). You put your money in the little box by his mailbox.
I did ask if he had fish swimming around in the bog. He sorta bristled and said NO MAM, these bogs are nice and clean and nothing like that. Wait a minute I thought to myself .... don't fish poop in the water that he is flooding the fields with? Hmm, think about that this Thanksgiving.
Judy and I had studied and studied the way they were raised before going. The bog is like a garden for planting, with spigots for irrigation. The cranberries grown from old vines that were harvested at the time the cranberries were raked and taken out of the pond the previous year. A large hose (boon or boom) is used to coralle the berries and move them all to one corner of the bog. I think I am getting ahead of myself now. But the sticks with buds on them are laid back down in the bog itself, which has a ditch around the perimeter to control water levels. The berries are allowed to grow up until Sept or Oct and then have a small bloom. Once the bloom drops off, WALLLLAHHHHHH, there is a tiny little fruit growing and that is the cranberry. When the cranberry is ripe they flood the fields and go in with thrashers and loosen those berries off the sticks and harvest begins.
I asked Mr. Reizin if he sold strictly to Ocean Spray and he said YES MAM, and the only way you can sell berries to them is to own stock. He grinned really big, just letting us know he had some connections and stock.
Several of those huge buildings we saw as we drove on his PRIVATE PROPERTY house all that equipment. I also saw a large shute (shoot) sticking out of the top of a huge barnlike building. That is where the cranberries are shot from the machines into the waiting tankers for the berries. (I made that up, because I have no idea what kind of a truck hauls them up the road).
We could tell Mr. Reizin was getting antsy to get back to work, we know old men, and he was. He said goodbye and I stuck out my hand for him to shake it and my grip was as firm as his. He seemed to like that in a woman. Then Judy had to run up behind me and stick her hand out too. I can't do anything! So he probably wants to marry both of us now. We didn't see the little woman hanging out clothes or putting baked pies in the window, so we are assuming.........
Just another fun adventure for the girls.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Cranberry Bog in Wisconsin
While in Wisconsin we stayed in a small town called Tomah. I knew from watching TV that Wisconsin and W.Va. had Cranberry Bogs. I told Judy we should really try and find one.
That night we checked into a very nice Hampton Inn and while walking past the desk clerk I asked if he knew where any were. Sure enough, he did. The owner of the Hampton Inn owned two bogs he told me. She would be in the next morning at 7 a.m. and I could speak with her then. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? 7 a.m. I asked if she worked later than that and he said she worked til 3. So the next morning while fixing breakfast I asked the lady (I thought the clerk said HER NAME WAS BRUCE) about the bogs she owned. Her name was Ruth, damnit, could I be getting deafer? She didn't mention hers at all -- do you think that could have been a lie? She did give me directions to a man's farm a couple miles East of the hotel. His name was Mr. Rezin (like in a dried grape). I first put grape nuts and thought who will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, once the car was packed and ready we decided to find Mr. Rezin.
Before we made the trip to the Cranberry Bog we knew we had to stop at a cheese store and taste some WISCONSIN CHEESE. We had seen an advertisement for HUMBIRD CHEESE STORE (not hummingbird) and the lady at the hotel said the cheese store was on our way. I took several photos with the new camera of a cheese store and then we went in. I held my breath for 5 minutes thinking it was gonna smell like a cheese factory. When I let it out, no smell at all. Lots of cheese, nick nacks, nuts, fudge, breads, shirts, and things for people to take home. Judy purchased a pound of baby swiss and asked the girl to slice it for us. She sliced half of it and we planned to eat it on a picnic later on. Then we spotted fudge and our work there was done. Then we were off to find the cranberry farmer.
Directions were perfect. Drove onto the property and there was a huge Ocean Spray sign over the owner's name. On down the road, we passed several barns, ponds and then some huge buildings. Across the road were two farm houses and they were really pretty. So I went to knock on the office door and a red faced little man pulled in driving a Toyota truck and asked what he could do for us. I explained we were visiting from Virginia (he was not impressed) and that we would love to see his "bog" -- that sounds bad too, doesn't it. He seemed to think we were up to something. Then he told me to follow him. We followed him on the beaten down field path around ditches and ponds full of water. Some of the fields had irrigation spigots in them.
Around we drove and as we neared a field with workers and trucks we stopped and I threw open the door to get out with my new camera. Did I mention that I had to buy another damned camera. Couldn't see out of the one you saw Montana photos taken from. This one is high class and does everything but eat your lunch. So grabbed the camera up and started snapping pixs. Mr. Reizin backed his truck up and got out to talk then. While we talked I tried to figure out how to make a video. How cool would that be. Hell, I never figured it out and haven't even looked at those pixs yet. Who knows, there may be a video of my feet and him talking. We will see later.
The gist of the conversation was: Mr. Reizin is a RICH MAN.
He informed us that his farm consisted of 2500 acres and that he had 200 acres in cranberries and that it took 600 acres of reservoirs to hold the water that is needed to flood the bog at harvest time. They also use the reservoir water for spraying the berries in case of frost warnings. That same water, in the reservoir, is used for recreation. He charges the public $3.50 to come in and fish (honor system). You put your money in the little box by his mailbox.
I did ask if he had fish swimming around in the bog. He sorta bristled and said NO MAM, these bogs are nice and clean and nothing like that. Wait a minute I thought to myself .... don't fish poop in the water that he is flooding the fields with? Hmm, think about that this Thanksgiving.
Judy and I had studied and studied the way they were raised before going. The bog is like a garden for planting, with spigots for irrigation. The cranberries grown from old vines that were harvested at the time the cranberries were raked and taken out of the pond the previous year. A large hose (boon or boom) is used to coralle the berries and move them all to one corner of the bog. I think I am getting ahead of myself now. But the sticks with buds on them are laid back down in the bog itself, which has a ditch around the perimeter to control water levels. The berries are allowed to grow up until Sept or Oct and then have a small bloom. Once the bloom drops off, WALLLLAHHHHHH, there is a tiny little fruit growing and that is the cranberry. When the cranberry is ripe they flood the fields and go in with thrashers and loosen those berries off the sticks and harvest begins.
I asked Mr. Reizin if he sold strictly to Ocean Spray and he said YES MAM, and the only way you can sell berries to them is to own stock. He grinned really big, just letting us know he had some connections and stock.
Several of those huge buildings we saw as we drove on his PRIVATE PROPERTY house all that equipment. I also saw a large shute (shoot) sticking out of the top of a huge barnlike building. That is where the cranberries are shot from the machines into the waiting tankers for the berries. (I made that up, because I have no idea what kind of a truck hauls them up the road).
We could tell Mr. Reizin was getting antsy to get back to work, we know old men, and he was. He said goodbye and I stuck out my hand for him to shake it and my grip was as firm as his. He seemed to like that in a woman. Then Judy had to run up behind me and stick her hand out too. I can't do anything! So he probably wants to marry both of us now. We didn't see the little woman hanging out clothes or putting baked pies in the window, so we are assuming.........
Just another fun adventure for the girls.
We are planning to leave the comfort of this room and bed tomorrow which will be Sunday, June 5th and point the the car towards Minneapolis. Hopefully Mary Tyler Moore is still on the corner throwing her hat in the air.
We did drive near Minneapolis, but mostly around it. Bright lights, big city, you know the song. We are re-thinking whether Mary Tyler Moore was in Minneapolis???
We were on a roll and once Judy gets the car on track there is no stopping unless there is an emergency. There were two emergencies -- Rest area to eat some fruit and Indianapolis Speedway.
Both provided us a nice break and some fun. Pictures (as usual) of the Brickyard will be attached soon. The cranberry bog pictures will be as well. While at the racetrack I managed to take several pictures of my shadow. Told Judy that was intentional, to see if I had lost weight from earlier in the month when I took another picture of my shadow with the first new camera. One day I will read the directions on how to operate. Although Judy has mentioned she likes the camera well enough to buy one for herself. Hell, then she can tell me how to operate it.
AS YOU LOGGED ON YOU SAW MY NOTE THAT
I HAVE LOST ANOTHER CAMERA! WTF????
June 8th
LEXINGTON, KY
Until we speak, we have no idea what the day will bring. Judy's granddaughter, Courtney, is begging her to come home. She wants to stay with Judy and says her whole summer is gone now. Wait a minute, that girl is still in school. I believe we have another drama queen on our hands.
If something fun or exciting occurs later on you will be the first to know.
Happy Trails
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