Critter Page and Top 10 What We've Learned

Mountain Goats, Mountain Sheep, Bear from afar, Deer in Camp


Top 10 What We've Learned So Far

10. One Year Will Not Be Enough
9. The Flashy Red Lazy Daze Gets Lots of Comments (good purchase for ego)
8. Dial-up internet sucks when blogging
7. We really do get along even when couped up in a 200 square foot home
6. But, it is also fun to have visitors (just to make things even more cozy) Erik
5. Whoever labels New Mexico trails is in really good shape (easy isn't)
4. Mountain hike backpack should contain fleece, raincoat, lots of food, lots of water, camera, lots more water not just two bottles of water, camera and trailmix.
3. Coleman propane griddle is great investment.
2. Traveling with your own bathroom is awesome
1. Overhang or clearance height is a good thing to check (kayak meets Glacier Entrance was the latest lesson) Kayak and car = 7'1" not the 7' sign height.

Kata's Page

We said if we met cool people that we would feature them in our blog.
We met one. Kata is from Hungary and lives in New York State. She came to West Glacier Park for a vacation by herself. Kim and I were taking a shuttle bus to the trail head of a hike that we wanted to do. There were only three other people on the bus when it dropped us off at the Lake McDonald Lodge. We heard Kata speak a little back at the station and new she "twern't from around here". We took off in opposite directions to find the trail head and ended up meeting at a junction in the path where we found out that we were all going to the same lake. Kata thought we were on our first hike together and needed space, but I informed her that I was just along for the exercise on my wife's Thin the Fat Bastard Program. She joined us up to the lake and we had great conversation. She is a nanny back in New York. She came to Glacier after researching it on the internet. She had friends that were going to come with her, but they finked out at the last minute. We did the 9 mile round trip hike to Snyder Lake and then Kim dragged us up to Avalanche Lake where we met Steve. Steve was an engineer from Florida. He was on a two month trip through the west and was almost on the same path Kim and I had taken. We all hiked back to the trail head together where Kim, Kata and I all hopped on the shuttle bus back to camp. Kim and Kata made me feel like a heel when they asked if I had invited Steve to happy hour at the Lazy Daze bar (oddly enough they only serve rum and coke there). We got back to camp, hopped in the car and chased Steve down with flashing lights, horn honking and swerving, he must have thought we were absolutely nuts. We all had a few drinks together and stayed up until Kata's English started to waiver a little and we knew she was tired. She went back to her hotel with plans to meet Kim in the morning to tour the park some more. Kim and Kata toured Glacier while I fished for Cutthroat Trout in the Flathead River. We all drove over to East Glacier together the next day. It was beautiful. Kim didn't take Kata's big blisters on her heel or my general lethargy for an excuse and marched us up one of the most beautiful hikes I have been on. Grinnell Glacier is 5.5 miles almost straight up the mountain and is worth every step. The scenery gets better and better as you go until you are at the base of the glacier with ice bergs floating in a lake at its foundation. On the way down the mountain Kata tried to teach us some Hungarian words and promised to put us up in New York and make Chiken Parikash for us.
We took Kata back to East Glacier to catch the Amtrak train to Seattle for her flight home to New York.

We have made a good friend. Kata is a testament to "Just Do It". She came here to learn English and speaks very well. She is eager to learn every strange word that might come out of your mouth. She saves her hard earned money and travels the U.S. She is independent, but very friendly and we were sad to put her on the train, but happy to have made her acquaintance.

We miss you Kata. Talk to you soon.

Idaho and What We've Learned

Good Day!

We are sitting in an internet cafe' in Waterton Lakes Park in Canada.

We are pretty much out of Cell Phone range for a couple of weeks unless you have an emergency, I am sure it will cost a bunch to call from up here eh?

We went through Idaho from Wyoming to visit my old friend Stasia. She is still working her butt off at Old Chicago Pizza in downtown Boise. We found Stasia at work and had a few drinks with her. Later her fri.. , bud.., lov.., er uh partner Sarah met up with us. Sarah is great fun and cool. We went to dinner at Bardenay, which is a distill pub. Instead of beer they make liquor. We had some of there house rum with dinner. It was very different, but I can't say I would take a bottle home. We spent the next day riding our bikes around Boise. Boise is a really neat town by the way. Where Stasia lives there is a coffe house, a bar, an ice-cream and candy shop called Goody's within half a block. Stasia calls out a howdy to half a dozen people every time we walked somewhere. We spent the next two days just eating and drinking and gaining back any weight we lost on our hikes. We had a very nice dinner with Glen and Callie who are good friends of Kim's family. They showed off their sweet accommodations as faculty in residence at one of the dorms on campus of Boise State, where the Blue football field is only 1oo yards away.

We have been away for a month now. I can say that I am sleeping much better without the stress of running an a/c business in the summertime in Arkansas. I haven't had problems with canker sores and I am thinking clearer. I have quit drinking diet beverages 'cause my buddy Mike made me promise I wouldn't after he saw a documentary about aspartame on the Independant Film Channel. This might contribute to my clearer thinking. It is good to meet new people and see new places, it makes you feel alive again.

Pictures of Stasia and Sarah and also Stewie, Stasias Beagle with enough spaniel in him to make him a freak about fetching and pointing.

Top of Targhee, Checkered Garter Snake, Deer, Alvin, Amphitheater Lake

even more pics

More mindless brain fodder.

More Pics of Wyoming

My picture posting has been funky, I will get better I promise.

James

Erik Stays Too Long (not by choice)

Yes, indeed we made it to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to spend some time in the old Murie family haunts of the Teton Mountain Range. We stayed two nights in the Gros Ventre campground, a huge national park campground with 300 sites and a dump station, which is handy when the shitter is full Clark, which it was. I spent an hour or so having a happy hour beer with Bob next door in camp site 117. Bob was a heavy equipment operator from the oil fields of Alaska. He had a stroke in 2003 and was spending his time bach'in it in an Ambulance that had been converted to an R.V. He was a handy dude with an intolerance for children and too much hustle and bustle. He left early the next morning for a more remote campground near Dubois. Gros Ventre is pronounced Grow-Vont and Dubois is pronounced Dew-boys. You can use hack French when your a cowboy or a redneck from Arkansas, but only some of the time apparently.

The next day we had to be at the Jackson Hole airport at 12:09 p.m. to pick up Mr. Erik Shollmier. I have known the freak for several years now and I still am not confident of the spelling of his last name. Erik is a good friend, he is always in a chipper mood, much like my wife. We took a quick tour of String, Leigh and Jenny lakes in the Teton Park along with a short hike. We figured a three mile hike earned us pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pie in Jackson. After stuffing ourselves we went back to camp where we introduced Erik to his bunk bed in the front of the R.V. The next day we trucked over the steep Teton Pass to Grand Targhee Resort on the Idaho side of the Teton Range. We were introduced to our camp site by Mark, a very friendly local working the event gates for the three day bluegrass festival. We ended up with a primo spot that overlooked the tent campers and was next to the water,bathrooms and had a wonderful view of the mountains. We were able to crank out the awning and set up a greeting station for passers by. This greeting station was manned mostly by Erik who welcomed people with a fine, Southern "what's happenin' " or "it's all good in the neigborhood brutha!" depending on how much alchohol had been consumed. Kim tried to kill me and my buddy by taking us on a 3 mile hike straight up about 1600 feet or so. Erik was a good sport, but I did notice he declined the next offers for hikes. Lots of good music, food and libations for the next couple of days with a grand finale of Robert Earl Keen and grilled steaks.

We went back over the pass after the festival and found a nice camp site 5 miles up the Gros Ventre river. It was right on the lake and quiet. We had a nice evening and retired early, so Erik could get his rest for the next day's flight home. We dropped Erik off at the airport at 11:30 to catch his flight and headed to the Snake River Canyon so I could kayak. At 12:30 we got a call from Erik, "guess what? The ticket you got me is for next Tuesday!" Whoops! We turned back around and picked Erik up again. He was in good humor about my stupid mistake. I guess that's why I'm a heat 'n air guy and not a travel agent. We took Erik to the Snake River and rafted it in a small, non self-bailing raft. It was fun and uneventful. The Snake River is big and swift, but not too technical. We did avoid going through the Big Kahuna at the urging of Kim, probably for the best. We would have either swam or had a bathtub for a vessel.

We were obliged to have more pizza and beer at Mountain High to help Erik over his trauma.

The next day Erik got off to Arkansas and we headed up the mountain for a 10 mile hike to Amphitheater Lake. We spent Thursday in Yellowstone and packed up our nice camp the next day. Off we go to Boise, Idaho to see our good friends Stasia and Sarah. Later.

James and Kim

Colorado

Hello from Jackson Hole, Wyoming!

I am not writing about Wyoming, but we are at a Mikey D's using the wi-fi so that we can update the Colorado portion of our trip. I just typed for half an hour and lost all my typing to my ignorance of this rickin' frackin' blogging sheite.
We trekked through northern New Mexico which was beautiful arid western farmland. Rolling hills, pine trees, cactus and other mixes of mountain and desert. We stopped in Pagosa Springs, Colorado for lunch alongside the San Juan River. It was a really nice tourist town without the auspices of needing to have a butt-load of money to live there. Get over my cursing, I can't stop, it's not me to stop. I love eating at hippie-outdoorsy type cafe's especially along a river. The veggie tacos were good exceptin' for the hot sauce that brings you real close to satan. I think of Dana Carvey when I type or say "Satan". Anyhoo. We cruised through Durango, Co. It was packed. I guess the PBR event going on there (not beer, but bulls) had it a little more busy than the regular tourist traffic. We only stopped for the gassing up fiasco. All of the gas stations were tiny. We had a small marital spat that ended in my saying "do you want to drive this !@#$ing thing!. That shuts Kim up quickly, she is terrified of driving the R.V. with car in-tow through a gas station. It really isn't that bad, but for now I have the leverage. We landed in a camp site north of Durango 40 miles at five o' clock p.m. The camp host informed us that the sites had been filling by 2:00 every day for two months and we were very lucky. He was a talkative chap from Siloam Springs, Arkansas. He patrolled all 40 or so sites with a golf cart and was all too helpul. He gave me an escort bacwards against the one way arrows through the camp ground as this was the only way I was going to pack our rig into the "last" camp site. He informed us that in site 3 was another Fayettevilleian. I was too shy to explore, but found out in the morning that it was Mark Porter, I have worked for him several years and know of him since I was 13. What a small world. We had a small chat, then we stole his site. It was overlooking Lake Haviland and was much nicer.

The next day we took the Mazda to Silverton and Ouray. These passes are steep, curvy, and guard rail deprived. I have to admit I was a wee puckered looking down, straight down, 300 feet to certain metal crunching, gas tank exploding, burning and bleeding to death, with Kim at the helm of my ship 0' destiny. At that moment we passed a guy standing behind a Dodge Caravan with an overgrown skateboard leaning on the guard rail, putting on a helmet . "Turn around Kim, I've got to get a picture of this! Hellooo, I'm very serious over here. Turn around!" Too late, a blue and white flash zooms by followed by the tan mini-van. We caught up with them at the bottom. He was proud to have me take a picture of him with his "street luge". He was glad were were excited "cool" instead of excited "pissed" about his escapades.

Silverton was cold and rainy, but we waited around for the Durango-Silverton narrow guage train to come into town. Steam engine hooting was cool. The local brew pub was very quaint, the local town drunk was sitting next to me philosophising and reliving his mining camp days. We had a "ripper" with chili for a snack. It was a deep fried hot dog, with canned chili and fake cheese. This is nasty even by my standards, but I did eat it, simply 'cause I didn't want to offend the Bartendress that reccommended it you know.

We trekked north to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Central Colorado. It was high desert, but the nights were cool. Kim is "Killin' " me. A hike a day will keep the fat bastard away is her motto. We hiked around the rim of the canyon and looked way down in there to the rushing Gunnison River. There have been many a precarious slash steep drop to canyon bottoms so far. I have discovered that Kim is a frady cat when it comes to these situations. I have assured her that I have not pulled any large life insurance policies on her, so no biggy. I could handle the scrutiny of the local sherriff, but I don't know about 20/20 or city confidential. The hike along the Curecanti Creek in the Curecanti Park of the Gunnison was the most favored so far. It was beautiful, steep and terminated at the Gunnison River in the deep Canyon. Pictures Included.

Morning bike ride, 14 miles along the rim. "It is level it will be easy." Yes it starts at 4264 feet and ends at 4257 feet, it's what it does between that is key! Holy Schnikies! I am out of shape! Kim is killin' me. She did want us to fill out wills before we left, things that make you go Hmmm? Off to Flaming Gorge Park in Northern Utah.

Flaming Gorge is very nice. It has higher mountain campgrounds and lower desert camp grounds. It is a big resevoir on the Green River. Below the Dam the Green River has beautiful clear waters and lots of trout and trout fisherman. "Oh, we must hike down in." It was like looking into a trout aquarium, 1000 trout, 20 trout fisherman, no trout on hook = smart trout.

North to Jackson Hole, Wyoming talk to you then!

New Mexico

Our first night of RV life was spent at a rest area almost out of Okalhoma. Considering we left Arkansas so late I was very proud of James for driving so far without nodding off. Some of you may know about his little problem with narcolepsy. We decided to stay at an RV park in the mountains just outside of Taos. There were some nicer camping spaces farther away but we thought it might be nice to be close to the city. We have already realized that our biggest problem on this trip is going to be deciding where to stay. Some places have tons of options and others have so few you don't know if you should take the first thing you find or try to find something better, risking no availabilty. The place we ended up at at was called the Enchanted Moon and managed by Jim, a catfish noodler from Oklahoma. It was a pretty site in the mountains and was a convienant place for visitng Taos and the Rio Grande. We did some hiking and exploring around the Rio Grande national park and learned that you should never believe a trail sign that is marked easy. We know we aren't in the best shape of our lives but a 500 ft descent in less than 1/2 a mile on a rocky trail is not easy.

New Mexico was beautiful because they have had so much rain this summer and of course it rained while we were there. They have had so much rain recently that the rivers all looked like chocolate milk. They were still tempting to James of course.

We are quickly adjusting to RV life and wondering just how long it might take us to get annoyed with making the bed every night and taking it down every morning. We have also realized that you can't get cell phone reception in remote beautiful places, I guess a cell phone tower would definitely negate the beauty. We have also realized how much we missed cable and are eternally thankful to Mary for hooking us up just in time for shark week!

Leaving Arkansas

Well we finally made it out of Arkansas! Our goal was to leave before August and we left at 6:00 on July 31st. Several people stopped by to wish us well and my nieces and nephews even made signs. We realized how blessed we are to have so many good friends and family. Of course people could have just been so surprised that we were actually doing this, since we have been talking about it for years, that they had to see it with their own eyes.

It took us longer to get out of town than we had initially hoped. When we came back from Minnesota we had to wait awhile for the hitch but thanks to our new friend Glenda at Roadmaster we got the prototype for the 08' Mazada and she even found someone to put it on for us. James has mastered the 53 step process for hooking it up, but I am still struggling. You can definitely tell which of us is the mechanical master in the family. The good thing about waiting for the hitch was I got to spend some time with my sisters (my sister Juli was in town from Georgia with her girls) and James was able to finish all his work and do some fishing. We were definitely ready to get on the road so it made me not quite as teary as I would have been if we had left earlier.