Abby's Feeling Bad

The last 3 days have been stressful because we noticed Abby had something wrong with her Friday night. She had no control of her back legs and rear end. She was dragging her legs, couldn't jump, and could hardly walk. We were worried she had had a stroke or torn a muscle somehow. Since it was Friday we decided to wait until Monday to go to the Vet. Took her to the Vet today she took an x-ray and said it was a swollen disc around the neck area. She did an acupuncture treatment and said Abby had relaxed a lot already. She wanted to keep her overnight and give her another treatment tomorrow morning, hoping this would work and not have to give her steroids. Probably will come home tomorrow with medicine and must not have much activity for a couple of weeks. We were relieved it wasn't something permanent. Hopefully our little girl will be home with us tomorrow and feeling better.

First Day in Yellowstone  8/10/10 Tuesday

A line of cars met us at the front gate about 9:30. Got in with Don's Golden Age Pass(no charge).  Started looking for wildlife and now with a map of the park, Don was trying to decide where to go first.  We decided to head toward the Old Faithful area (along with thousands of other tourist). When there was a pull out or cars were stopped on the side of the road, we stopped.  It was seventeen miles to the Madison turn and then right to Old Faithful.  All the parking lots along the way were packed.

Our first geocache in Yellowstone was an earthcache about this Talus. 
(Be sure and click on the picture to enlarge)

Next, was the Fountain Flat Drive, I was seeing my first Geysers.

Then on to the Firehole Lake Drive and saw the Great Fountain Geyser. Across the street from this one we found a little trail that had some small hot springs and pools that were off the beaten path with no tourist around.

Lunchtime

Don wasn't really touching the water it was way too hot!!

This was Firehole River and looked like the perfect fly fishing river.

Our rental car a Ford Focus with satellite radio and sun roof.

Lots of pictures following taken at Midway Geyser Basin.

We finally made it to Old Faithful area along with thousands of other tourist about 2:00 in the afternoon. It was a little hard to find a parking spot.

Waiting for it to erupt.

Trying to get a video.

Old Faithful Inn

This little guy didn't read the sign.

We took a tour with one of the Park Rangers around the area of Old Faithful. He gave us the history & scientific info for the area.

Inside the Dining Building at Old Faithful.

On our way back to the room about 4:00 in the afternoon we spotted the elk in the field.

We had a great first day and looking forward to seeing more of the park tomorrow.

Recovered from Vacation

I'm sure the 2 or 3 people that read this blog have been wondering what happened to me.  Well I had a great 10 day trip to Montana, Wyoming & Idaho.  We returned home last Monday evening. After playing pickleball each morning since then I have finally gotten unpacked, the house cleaned up, geocaches logged, & visited with the neighbors.

Now I can write on my blog and not feel guilty about other things not being done.
It may take several days to get it all posted. I like to do it in chronological order.

On the previous post I was telling you about going to the Farmer's Market with Marilyn.  This is a continuation of Saturday.

Well there wasn't just one market there were three.  The first was produce and flowers.  Marilyn knew several of the vendors.  The second market was an arts and crafts market.  Jewelry, knitting, & other crafts.  Then the third market was produce and plants again. 

Our walking lead us along the rushing Clark Fork River and on to the famous town carousel that was hand carved  in 1995.

The river was very wide and open. Perfect for fly fishing. The movie "A River Runs Through It" was a true story that took place near here. We also found a few geocaches along our walk. We introduced Marilyn to geocaching.

Marilyn headed towards the University of Montana campus. School wasn't in session so the grounds were pretty deserted but the campus was pretty. As we went by the football stadium you could see the big M on the mountain side where lots of hikers were headed up to say they had made the trek. We decided it wasn't worth it in the sun.

We headed back to the car and went back to Marilyn's house for homemade pimento cheese sandwiches for lunch. Yum!!

That afternoon we drove in and around Missoula and she showed us some of her favorite hiking spots and we hunted a few more geocaches. Then back to her house for drinks and dinner.

She was the perfect hostess with a lot of planning and preparation before we got there.  Snacks, fruit and meals were delicious.  She is very much into organic everything.  It was fun to hear her views on food, Montana and politics.  I was sure that she and Don had complete opposite view points on politics but the fact was they agreed on more things than I thought possible.  He would dig her and she did it right back.  We had a fun time.

After a fun day in Missoula we made plans to head up towards Glacier Park on Sunday.

Sunday 8/8/10

After a great breakfast of homemade banana bread, huckleberry muffins, eggs, cantaloupe and pressed coffee we were on the mountain road north of Missoula.  We had decided it wouldn't be possible to drive all the way to Glacier Park and look around in one day.  So instead we drove up to Big Fork, a resort community, by Flathead Lake.  They were having an art festival, which I enjoyed. We walked through the festival and found a nice little restaurant to eat lunch.

On the way back to the car Marilyn bought us some kettlecorn that we ate on the rest of the week.

On the road back to Missoula we passed through tons of flathead cherry orchards. They tasted a lot like the ones we use to get in High Rolls. Good thing we don't live close I could die from eating too many & you could pick your own. I could just taste them in a good old cherry cobbler. This country was packed with orchards, lakes, mountains, trees, streams and rivers. Beautiful country not found in Oklahoma.

I drove on this excursion so that Marilyn could act as our tour guide. She has explored Montana to a large extent and loves it and wanted to show us all of its beauty. She made us feel very welcome.

I reconnected with Marilyn when she live in Santa Fe. When she moved to Missoula about two years ago she invited us to come see her. I bet she didn't think we really would but we fooled her didn't we. LOL

We reminisced about family, growing up & kids. We had pizza for dinner, downloaded pictures and planned for the trip to Yellowstone on Monday.

Marilyn's House

Monday 8/9/10  Heading to Yellowstone
Marilyn had to head to work on Monday so we were heading out at the same time.  We left about 8:30, east on I-90, south 287 into West Yellowstone.

After grocery shopping, lots of restroom stops, geocaching, a cave tour, stop at Quake Lake and a late lunch we pulled into Worldmark West Yellowstone about 5:30.

Don spotted the Lewis and Clark Caverns on the way so we stopped and took a cave tour. This one was not as developed as most that we do and had some tight places to squeeze through. Nice formations.

We stayed in room 119 close to the lobby with a murphy bed for Marilyn when she comes on Thursday. I unpacked and planned to head out to YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK on Tuesday.

Continued tomorrow I hope!!

Fun in Montana

Started out early on the 6th of August, 4:00 am to be exact.  On the road by 4:30 heading to Albuquerque to catch the plane.  Made it fine and loaded the plane to Bozeman, MT with a lay-over in Denver.

Arrived in Bozeman, MT about 5:00 pm, called Marilyn and Mom to let them know we had arrived and headed to Marilyn's.
Drove into her drive-way about 9:00 pm and we talked non-stop until we went to bed.

She was up by 7:00 preparing Don some coffee and breakfast. Great huckleberry muffins, cantaloupe and banana bread.

A tour of the town and  farmers market was on the agenda for the day. I have never seen a Farmer's Market like this one.  Amazing fruits and vegetables. The quantity and quality was staggering.

Gotta go to bed.

Watermelon Get-Together

Our neighbors from Texas came in this last week and picked on some watermelon to have a neighborhood get-together. They had us over last night along with Thena & Elree, Frank & Elizabeth. Caught up on what everyone was doing and had a fun time questioning Thena' new boyfriend. We are packing tonight to head to Marilyn's and Yellowstone. Looking forward to the visit.

This is Elizabeth's son Nicholas, Frank and Elizabeth

Thena's new love interest, Elree

Fred and Janie from Rockwall, TX

Gotta go finish packing. Had a good time with friends!