Coop's Corner: Wyoming

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Wyoming

Camping west of Cody one more night, then moving to Dubois area. Getting very use to this!!

At the Cody library this morning, internet access for the first real time in a few days.

Stopped at the Chamberlain Missouri River Rest Stop along I-90 Thursday night and lo and behold, a traveler I know was stopped and wisely sleeping....gone by 4:30 in the morning before I could say hello. This Rest Stop one of the few with a crossover bridge...don't know if Bob was going west or east but my guess is that he was heading home from Top Of The Rockies Rally.

Sturgis was already busy.....I was surprised at the number of loaded trailers and bikes already "done" and headed east.

10 years and one week ago.....

Through the Bighorns, going down in to Greybull.

Greybull fire fighting plane museum....

Buffalo Bill Dam west of Cody....

In the Biz, we call this Fine Thread.....

My campsite at Rex Hale N.F. campground....commemorating Rex Hale, a firefighter who was overwhelmed while fighting a nearby forest fire in 1937. He was one among many.

Chief Joseph Highway....

Ready to head east on the Beartooth Highway...

Top Of The World...a busy place....they had coffee.

Had to pull out the Oregon 450 to get elevation...the Zumo gave up at 9999.

Lunch at a brewpub in Red Lodge...

This distortion may have been after the hail....I don't remember. I'm better now.

Might pick one of these units up for our driveway....

Hail done, rain, coffee and a Babe Ruth bar....

Sunday was Yellowstone Day

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Didn't actually go to the other Rim, too crowded.

I've seen photos and heard stories about Hayden Valley.....none the same as actually being there. Has to be one of the most beautiful meadows on the planet.

I saw no bears but lots of bison. At one stop (while we waited for one big buffy to walk down the center stripe almost a 1/4 mile), I overheard one traveler ask another, "What does everyone see?" His reply, "Aliens....they're taking the bears first, then us....I'd run"

For a nice Sunday afternoon, I expected worse traffic. It actually wasn't too bad, that is until one car dropped off the pavement's edge and had to wait for a tow creating a rush hour-sized backup.

I stopped here to sit beside the easy flowing Yellowstone River, not a car in the pullout. I found a perfect dead log to rest on and in another minute, the parking area was full of cars. Quiet rest interrupted.

Rain drops and crowds did not deter Old Faithful....she was a few minutes late though.

Back over Sylvan Pass to my campsite....

Monday east again through Cody and out to the Heart Mountain Internment Camp

Over the previous weekend a special ceremony had been held..."350 people". Here one of the hosts at the Visitor Center was picking up 2 very destroyed pop-ups. I offered my assistance as I've had lots of recent experience folding up mangled popup frames and covers. "I guess these couldn't withstand the 70mph winds on Saturday evening...."

LaVon Wheeler (now) from numerous places since 1942. She was 8 years old and living in nearby Powell when the camp was built with many memories. Their neighbors, a family of Japanese descent had to leave and the neighbors didn't understand why they were sent away to a different camp and not kept at nearby Heart Mountain. Now 82, she travels everywhere and from what I could quickly tell, excels at it. "Why can't a woman travel...a man can?"

Travel long and far LaVon, a true pleasure to meet you!

P.S. I told you that you'd photograph beautifully!

Two photographers, two perspectives. One hired by the government, the other a resident of the camp.

It was time for some beauty....headed SW up the South Fork Road out of Cody...as far as I could go.

Back to Cody and the incredible Buffalo Bill Cody Museum Center...actually numerous museums in one.

Talking hologram.....

Area's where Bill's Traveling Show performed in our region...wonder if my grandparents saw it??

Monday end of day....

Today (Tuesday) maybe some more time at the museum.....we'll see. There was much I missed yesterday.

13 comments:

SonjaMAugust 1, 2017 at 1:16 PM
Yellowstone NP!!! This brings back memories... oh those colours, and ye ole Faithful is still going strong.

The question remaining is... who killed the portaloo and left it there?

And thanks fro the hilarious selfie. You should do that more often ;-)
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motormikeAugust 1, 2017 at 5:00 PM
Great adventure... Yellowstone.. where God goes to take a day off.

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EricAugust 1, 2017 at 8:04 PM
Doug, enjoy it all!

Thanks for sharing your adventure.
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redlegsridesAugust 2, 2017 at 1:01 PM
Man, Coop, you sure ranged far and wide! Might want to look at your spelling for Chief Joseph....
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TrobairitzAugust 2, 2017 at 3:49 PM
Wow, you have been busy. Great pictures. So many places in this country I've never been. I always enjoy seeing them through the eyes of other bloggers.
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VStar LadyAugust 2, 2017 at 6:52 PM
Coop, a great adventure, you are making me want to go there again - bison lumbering out of the ditches and all.
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Speed BumpAugust 3, 2017 at 6:54 PM
Loved the pictures...Yellowstone Park is one of my favorite national parks.. sounds like a great trip!
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)