Heading East............

      We climbed some mean, but beautiful mountains.....the Selway-Bitterroot Range. One nite we camped along the Lochsa River, which was trying to flood! But, fortunately for us, it didn't that nite, but during the nite we heard it raging by our windows. It had actually already risen the expected amount for that day, so we were ok! The next day we followed that river for 3 1/2 hours. It was awesome company, for sure! It was a 'white water rapids enthusiasts' dream ride, for sure! So, continuing our trek, we are headed East now! We left Washington thru the Wenatchee Mountains, and the Yakama Valley. The Valley is very productive, like the California San Joaquin Valley.
      We were heading for Yellowstone, Wyoming, when we came upon the "1959 Earthquake Area". There is a US Forest Service visitor center on the site now. An earthquake, which measured 7.5 on the Richter scale, triggered a massive landslide, blocking the Madison River. The blockage created a new "Earthquake Lake". The earth dropped 19 feet, and is thought to have played a part in the changes of some of the geo-thermal areas in Yellowstone. There were campers in the valley at that time, and many of them died, some got out.

      Again, on our way to Yellowstone, we saw a sign telling of a "Ghost Town", so we were off to see Virginia City. It was a bit off the road, and we almost gave up, but there it was over the last hill.  It had been lovingly saved by a caring community, we were told that by several residents there. The buildings were all original, and furnished as if the previous town residents had just walked away, and in a sense, they had! The gold had played out, so people left! Moved on!

     We spent another nite in a Montana State Park, and were told that there were some grizzly bears in the area, so to be careful!! We didn't end up seeing or hearing any, so I think that was a good thing!

     Ahh, Yellowstone........well, it was beautiful! We toured the figure eight park road, about 150, or more, miles. We took in the famous geo-thermal sites, and some not so famous. We saw lots of Bison, Elk, waterfalls, and all the renewed growth since the big fires years ago, the last time we were there. We also took the time to tour the big old Yellowstone Lodge, and learned more about it's history. It is so Yellowstone, if you know what I mean. You can just see all the thousands and thousands of people who have come there before you. And, of course, we spent lots of time with "Old Faithful" in person. One evening, the Bison had come in around some of the steaming areas, as tho to warm themselves. It was pretty impressive.

      We decided to visit Casper, Wyoming, to see if we could locate the place where Chad's uncle and aunt had lived, Hub & Tressie. We found the 'place', but the house was gone and another one built in its place. Still in Wyoming, we visited Fort Laramie. We had learned earlier that we were on some pretty historic routes along our way, off and on. The Lewis and Clark Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Morman Trail, the Pony Express Trail, and the Overland Stage Trail to name them. The significence of Fort Laramie was that it was the confluence of all those trails, they came thru there for safety and supplies, and then all went on their different ways from there.

     The Nebraska Plains were quite as we expected them to be, actually so was Kansas. Our route was entirely rural, by design. Both states were full of corn, cattle, hay, grain, and some oil! But, we did find an unexpected treat of a museum in Oakley, Kansas. It was named "Fick Fossil Museum'. It had many,many things besides fossils, however their fossils have drawn attention from the Smithsonian......they have been wooing the museum to let go of many of their unusual and complete fossils. What a gem it is, sitting in the middle of Kansas! We stopped to see 'the yellow brick road' in Sedan, Kansas, and also found a complete Emmitt Kelley, the Clown, collection. He was born there, and came home to rest there, too.

      Now, we are just outside Joplin, Missouri and are tending to a problem with a wheel bearing, or something like that, and are on schedule to have it looked at, taken care of, hopefully.

      Joplin, as you probably know already was hit by some terrible tornadoes recently. We have talked to local residents here, in the RV Park we are in currently, and they have told us of the destruction in downtown. One family lost everying, and are living here temparily, in the campground, they are thankful to be alive! We haven't seen it, yet, as we were concerned with our rig, but we probably will when we are 'fixed''.

     There you have it.......I keep trying to write for my blog, and the scenery is still getting in my way!! But, we are good here.....we have seen some more fantastic sites, eaten the 'best in the country cinnamon buns', seen animals in the wild that we usually only see in zoos (bison, elk, antelope, big horned sheep, white furry mountain goats,etc) slept in beautiful places, been under big skies, and even came out 'ok' from a Kansas thunder and lightning storm w/hail the size of nickels, and met the nicest people along the way..........and we still have more to go!

Us and the river

The sign

The raging river

White water rapids

It's snowing

We are up high!

Yellowstone traffic jam

Leader of the pack

Free to roam

Rainy and steamy

Hot and steamy

Paint pot

Hot and steamy

Dragon's Mouth Spring

Hot Bison

Bubbly pots

Old Faithful starting to blow

Two more old faithfuls....

Mammoth Springs

More paint pots in Mammoth  Springs.....and me!

Mama and baby Elk

Old Faithful from another view

Our home on the lake



Our view




Old Time RV at Ft Laramie




Barracks



Kansas

Kansas and/or Nebraska

The camp at Ft Laramie

Kansas and Nebraska

Emmitt Kelly, the Clown

Cliff Dwellers in Nebraska



True Love in Kansas





Kansas hay



Storm clouds, Kansas



From the inside