Deer Lodge, Mt. to Spearfish, SD

Tues., Sept. 23,Wednesday, Deer Lodge, Montana is halfway between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks if that helps you visualize where it is located.  It is the second oldest city in Montana, established in 1862 because of  gold discovery nearby.  We decided to stay off the road for a couple of days, we were getting a little road weary.  The first morning we were there we took Luci for a nice long walk (talk about cabin fever) to pick up a geo cache.  We looked across the street to a sign for Grant-Kohrs Historic National Site.  We took her back to the coach and drove over to see what it was all about.  Johnny Grant settled in the valley in 1859 among the Indians and Mexican tribal people attracted by fur trade, then gold was discovered.  The ranch grew to 27,000 acres by the early 1900's.  In 1866 Grant sold the ranch to Kohrs, for a little over $19,000.  Our tour guide made the whole experience come alive, she's been at the ranch as a Ranger for over 35 years.  Our tour through the house was amazing, the great grandson of Kohrs gave all the property and house to the National Parks. completely furnished just as if they walked out the door.  Mrs. Kohrs. a tiny little lady from Germany, was an accomplished needlepoint and beader, much of the home furnishings were from her hand.  The guide gave us a recipe for Mahogany cake with chocolate frosting.  She said the cake is comparable to Red Velvet cake.  After our tour  we  went to the Old Montana State Prison that served as a prison from 1871 to 1979 for a self guided tour.  Makes a me glad I didn't choose a life of crime.  One of the towers was damaged from a bazooka type weapon in the 1959 riot.  We discovered after we left town that they built a new prison in Deer Lodge a few miles out of town.  After the prison tour we went to the Montana Car Museum that houses cars from the 1800's to the 1970's including my favorite car a 1955 T-Bird. 

Thurs. Sept. 25, We left for the Billings Elks club for a quick overnight stay, a drive of over 265 miles that took us over the continental drive summit of 6393 feet.  This is the first Elks club we've stopped at since Gary became an Elk, we stayed in the parking lot with no hook-ups for $10.00. All of the clubs we've tried to visit have all seen better days with limited hours and looking quite long in the tooth.  The Billings Elks is a thriving club with an attached tennis complex.

Friday, Sept. 26,  Up and out early, we didn't disconnect the car so we got on the road pretty quick.  We had a short drive to Garryowen, Mt., home of Custer's Last Stand or better known as "where Custer got his "butt" kicked.  We stayed at 7th Ranch RV park, a large park terraced down the hill with over 100 space, our space was at the top of the hill.  What a great place for Luci, we could take her up the hill with no leash to let her run.  We are discovering most RV parks in the area close for the season Oct. 1st., there were only about 5 other rigs in the park. No neighbors, we were able to keep the blinds up all the time.  The weather has been great, still in the 80's, the forecast doesn't sound good in a few days, I suppose it'll be time for long pants and coats.  After getting set up we went to the Custer Museum, where the battle started.  We watched a 25 minute video  that helped "me" put the timeline in my head.  There were indian and military artifacts as well as weapons for both.   The native women's beading is amazing. 

Saturday Sept. 27, Well the forecast was right, it has cooled down with a breeze, on went the longer pants and coats.  We'd put off going to the battlefield so it wouldn't be "hot".  Our RV park is only a a few miles from Custer's Last Stand.  It was one of America's most significant battles, Custer, et al., wanted control of the area and to send the Indians to live on  reservation lands.  The Indians were fighting to keep their way of life.  The signs at Little Big Horn Battle field said they were not going to change the word Indians to Native Americans on their granite monuments.  The poor Indians, talk about winning the battle but losing the war, they still ended up living on reservations.  On the 25th and 26th of June 1876 Custer and back up's Reno and Benteen underestimated the size of the Lakota and Cheyenne Indian tribes, Custer ordered the two other divisions down toward the meandering Little Big Horn River while Custer went (the wrong way) up over the hills. he and his company met their maker on what is now called Last Stand Hill.  Reno heard all the gunfire and headed up to help, seeing all the enemy, he beat feet away.  Custer and 210 of his men were killed while only 50 of Reno's men died.  Some of the soldiers shot their horses to use as a shield against the Indians. The remains of the men were buried a few days later where they laid.  Archeologist's later moved their remains to the top of the hill monument as well as about 40 horses.  Across the road is a memorial for the Indians lost.  Now there are headstones where each man fell, an area  over about 5 miles long.  There is also a National Cemetery at the park where military veterans and their familes are buried, always a sobering sight.

Sunday, Sept. 28, We left for Bowman, ND to pick up a geo cache before heading down to Spearfish South Dakota.  The weather was cold and we were grumpy so we decided to go out to dinner.  Our only choice was Windy's Bar and Grill, with a limited Sunday night menu we chose a pizza, half sauerkraut.  My half was the sauerkraut, Delish!  We caught a little Sunday night football while we were there.  The campground was a city park due to close Oct. 1, so we just about had the park to ourselves.  Heading toward South Dakota tomorrow should be warmer it's further south.  We have seen a lot of oil wells, even though Bowman is barely in ND.

Monday, Sept. 29, We woke up to a heavy mist or low fog, whatever, it was cold and damp, we left about 9:30 for Spearfish, SD.  We stopped at Belle Fourche, pronounced Bell Foosh, the Coast Guard and the Geodetic Survey determined BF the official center of the Nation, actually it is 20 miles north of town, the granite monument is located at the Visitor Center in town.  One of the reasons they chose the town location was the actual spot was full of rattlesnakes.  Ewwwwww.  We had lunch at The Green Bean in historic downtown BF, a popular coffee house.  We arrived at the Spearfish City Campground about 2:30, it also will be closing Oct. 1, so the camp was just about deserted.  Spearfish/Belle Fouche are the northern end of the badlands.  I went off to Wal-mart, we were running low on groceries being out in the middle of nowhere for quite a while.  Gary and Luci took a nice long walk. 

Tuesday, Sept. 30., We woke up in the night listening to heavy rain on the roof, it continued until early afternoon today accumulating over 3 inches.  The sun came out after lunch so we were able to get out.  Right across the street from the campground is D.C. Booth a historic  national fish hatchery that was created in 1896.  Something I hadn't thought about, but unlike present times where the fingerlings are transported by trucks, they we moved by Railcars that were remodeled from passenger trains to haul large cans of fish to distant lakes.  They used ice to keep the fish cold.  I wouldn't have done well living in that generation, I'm such a sissy, We walked around the hatchery, there were some nice trails up the hills for an overlook of the property and the beautiful stone formations in the area.  It was such a cold nasty day I made chili for dinner.  That warmed us up.

Enjoy the pictures, as usual a little out of order.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam                 National Cemetery at Little Big Horn Cemetery                                                                               

                                    
                                          Headstones of the fallen soldiers

                                           Monument for the horses lost
                                        
                          
                                         View from Visitor Center

                                         Lunch at Trading Post, Gary eating Indian taco

                                 
                                         Indian Fry bread

                                         Center of Nation Monument Belle Fourche

                                          Left out last week, classmates at game, do you see me?

                
                                        Cell block at Old Montana State prison

 

Damaged tower in 1959 riot

The gallows      

                                         Just the beginning at car museum

                                          
                                        1933 Kozy Kamp Pop Up

                                         Woody

                                        1941 Lincoln

                                         ???? Firetruck

Deer in Spearfish City Campground

From Valley, Wa to Deer Lodge. Mt/

Weeks go by so fast, especially this one with Gary's activity filled class reunion.  The weather has been amazing, between 80 and 90 everyday.

Wed., Sept. 17, We left Stacy and Barbara's about 10, last June we took the short cut through Springdale to Davenport to Sprague on I-90, not this time, it is too curvy for a big rig so we went through Spokane, we had to detour around some road construction that made us a little nervous but all went smoothly.  We stopped at the rest area south of Ritzville on 395 for a little lunch then arrived at the Brown's in Kennewick around 2:30.  Fortunately they warned us about the road construction on their street, it is completely torn up for some installation of sewer lines.  We were concerned, it didn't look like we were going to make it to their street, a worker asked us where we thought we were going.  It was a dusty dirty mess until they watered the street down then it was a dirty muddy mess.  For dinner we went to The Cedars on the Columbia River.  It's always fun to get together with Gerry and Mary to reminisce and to make new memories.  The weather was just beautiful, the Columbia was smooth as glass and  we were able to sit outside on the patio. 

Thurs., Sept. 18, Mary fixed us a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage, she is such a great cook!  They had a lot of things to do before leaving Friday for a camping trip so we left around 10:30 headed for Hermiston, a drive of only 34 miles.  We arrived at Pioneer RV park about 11:30,  a pretty nice park with lots of green grass.  In the afternoon we did a little shopping, geo cacheing and Gary got a flu shot.

Friday, Sept. 19, It was fun to sit outside the RV watching new rigs come in to see if there were any classmates staying at the park.  Some looked too old, some looked too young but none looked just right.  The first activity was a tailgate party by the high school.  It was catered, the food was good but messy.  BBQ'd chicken wings and baby back ribs were loaded with sauce and no knife to cut the ribs apart, most people were holding the rack in their fingers and chewing like cave men.  Gary spotted a woman he had seen in the RV park, so we went over to introduce ourselves.  Donna and Bill Kopacz live in Sunriver and have a beautiful Beaver coach.  As we walked toward the stadium there was a 3 car rear end accident right in front of us.  Someone clearly was not paying attention and slammed into the car in front so hard that the front air bags deployed.  I don't know if anyone was hurt, we proceeded to our seats.  There were several rows reserved with signs "class of 1946", we were right on the 50 yard line.  The Hermiston Bulldogs played the Springfield Millers, Hermiston won 28-21, the score at half time was 21-0 Hermiston, The Millers came to life in the second half and scored 21 unanswered points.  Do I sound like the NFL network?  After the game there was a get together at the Midway Tavern, it was karaoke night and the music was so loud we couldn't hear each other.  Well probably even without the music we wouldn't have been able to hear anyway. 

Saturday, Sept. 20,  a tour of the new high school was scheduled for 10:00, wow what a school!  State of the art security, an amazing theater, cardio and weight rooms that would put Gold's gym to shame. there are about 1100 students now compared to around 500 in 1964. The stadium and the football field cost 5 million dollars that did not cost the taxpayers one cent.  The class of 1964 placed a Peace Pole in the courtyard of the school after the tour.  At 3:30 we went to a local park to dedicate a bench honoring Greg Gessel, a classmate  killed in Vietnam and to also honor the 20 Umatilla County men killed in the war. It was quite a moving ceremony, I didn't know him and shed some tears.  We had wine and cheese with Bill and Donna before leaving for dinner.  The dinner was catered at the Hermiston Conference, several people brought in memorabilia to share, a few of the girls even had their dance cards.  I've never had a dance card.  There was a "slide show",  with some "bitchin" music.  (Sorry Mom, I know I shouldn't say the "b" word)  We sent our wedding picture, Gary scuba diving, Gary riding his bike and our photo of us in Rockport sitting on the "butt" stools, it really  brought  laugh.  We came home in time to watch the Ducks win.



Sunday, Sept. 21 started with a farewell breakfast at the park next to Greg's bench.  All of the activities were well attended, out of a class of 147, 20 of whom have passed away, 85 classmates made the reunion.  Gary and I are both so thankful to be healthy and (mostly) fit, there were 3 men there that have had strokes.  Poor Luci was stuck in the coach most of the weekend so we took her down to McNary dam and let her run along the river trail and we picked up a couple of gc's. and it is always a good day when the Seahawks win!

Monday, Sept. 22, We feel we are finally on our way for our 2nd year of adventures.  We left Hermiston about 10:30 after fueling up at the Pilot, we had to pay $4.01.9 a gallon, argghh!  We are still married after our visit to Lewiston, I wanted to pick up a few groceries at a Wal-Mart, bad idea.  After many failed searches through congested and narrow streets we didn't find one then  I saw a Winco, of course we turned on the wrong block, had to go around, then only to find it wasn't open yet they were paving the parking lot.  I was in the doghouse BIG time.  We bagged the whole thing and continued down Hwy 12 toward Kamiah, Id., to the Long Camp RV park on the Clearwater River.  We'd stayed there last year about the same time of year, what a great park.  The first thing I did was fix Gary a drink.  We'd driven over 235 miles that day, most of them in downtown Lewiston.

Tuesday, Sept. 23,  Some sort of  miracle happened, we left Long Camp about 8:30, normally it's close to 10 when we pull out.  We were continuing Hwy 12 towards Missoula, Mt.  What a lovely drive, you follow the Clearwater and Louchs Rivers to the Lolo Pass.  The road twisted and turned up to the 5525 ft summit.  It was pretty smoky due to wildfires in the area.  In Missoula we decided to visit the Big Sky Brewing company, as it turns out it's only a brewery not a pub.  Fortunately we'd called ahead, they recommended we go to the Iron Horse pub.  Of course it was in the funky downtown area with narrow streets and no big rig parking.  We found our way to the Wal-Mart and disconnected the car, headed back downtown for lunch.  Delish!    Back to Wal-mart, I picked up a few groceries without being in the doghouse.  We headed out for Deer Lodge, Mt. A historic town about 80 miles east of Missoula.  We got there about 5:30 having driven 240 miles.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam

Enjoy the pic's they are a bit out of order

                                    Left out last week, Luci overlooking pasture    

                                         Barbara and Patti canning apple pie filling

                                         Gary, Barbara, Patti and Stacy (new kitchen in background)

                                         Cardio room at Hermiston high

                                        High school tour

                                          Peace Pole dedication

 

                                           Gary outside Hermiston HS stadium

                                         New football field

                                         Dedication of bench

                                         Mcnary Dam

                                         Fish ladder at McNary Dam

                                   
                                          Courthouse in Pomeroy on Hwy 12

                                        Downtown Pomeroy

                                         Hwy 12 Lolo Pass

                                          Gary and Luci by Louchs river Hwy 12

    
                                        Visitor center summit Lolo Passs

                                          Luci and I taking a break at summit

From Whidbey to Valley

Wed. Sept. 10, we are having a great visit and amazing weather here on Whidbey Island. 
Whidbey is the largest island in Puget Sound,  it was discovered by Capt. George Vancouver who named the island after master sailer Joseph Whidbey, who proved it was an island not a peninsula by discovering Deception Pass. We took our bikes back down to Coupeville, there are several bike/pedestrian trails in the area.  There is a string of geo caches along the Kettle/Rhododendron trails.  We decided to just do a section that was flatter, the less hills the better for me.  We started in the middle of the hill, I had to navigate the barrier poles then ride down the steep hill without falling.  Success.  We picked up 17 geo caches, they were all pretty easy to find.  The trail had gentle hills that I was able to climb without getting off to push.  The way back it was mostly downhill (good) but we were going into a headwind (bad).  About 2/3 of the way back we had to start climbing.  Gary must have sensed my apprehension, he suggested I wait while he went for the car to pick me up.  I think I'd still be "pushing" if he hadn't.  On our way back we stopped at the Chief's club for a beverage, it has a beautiful view of the base, runway and of course Puget Sound.  Later we walked the trail about 4 miles r/t to see the Prowler memorial.  The EA-6B jet had plaques honoring those that have been lost and those still flying. 

Thur, Sept. 11, time to move on.  It was such a beautiful morning we hated to leave, the sound was smooth as glass and it was very warm.  Our first stop was the Burlington Costco to pick up a few things.  It's always fun navigating a 40 ft. motorhome towing the Jeep through shopping center parking lots.  It was early enough we found a roomy place to park.  We took Hwy 20 through the North Cascade Pass, it runs from Burlington to Twisp, it has to be the most scenic drive in Washington State with it's craggy peaks and the greenest lakes I've ever seen.  The many steep passes and sharp curves kept Gary on his toes.  I did not realize it is a national park, we stopped at the visitor center near the top of a 5,500 ft. summit to get a better idea of the topography.  There are many campgrounds and miles and miles of  trails, the Pacific Crest trail runs through the park.  On the downhill side we were going down a very steep downgrade with a 25mps switchback curve, about the middle of the curve there was  a bicyclist stopped looking up.  He must have  been thinking, "You've got to be kidding me"  There were several groups of riders heading up, they must be nuts.  There are 270 archeological sites in the park that trace human presence for over 10,000 years.  I keep asking myself "How do they know this stuff?"  We'd love to spend more time in the area it is so beautiful.
We arrived in Winthrop about 5:00, having driven about 170 miles.  We stayed at the Pine Near RV park, the strangest park we've ever been in.  It is all irrigated, green grass, there are spaces but the only way you can tell is by the hook-ups placed amongst the grass.  There is a big common area that we ultimately drove through on our way out.  It made me nervous, it just seemed too soft for the big rigs to drive on.  Across from the park was Shafer Museum, the Winthrop founder, Guy Waring.  built for his wife.  Waring and two of his friends from Harvard were the original residents of the town.  The museum had quite a collection from pioneer women's dresses to farm and mining equipment.  You could walk through the museum, down the stairs, into town.  I have been looking for a pair of hiking boots, saw some in a window and tried several pair on, no luck they just didn't fit right.  Later in the afternoon I walked to town to mail a letter and ran across another outdoor store on the other side of the street. Eureka, I found a pair!  The bad news was I had to hike back up the hill to get my money.  It was worth it, they fit great.  We had lunch at the School House Brewery, right on the Methow (pronounced met how) river.  We sat out on the deck and enjoyed good a good lunch, Gary said the beer was good. 

Saturday, Sept. 13th Left for the kids house near Valley this morning managing to get across the grass without getting stuck, we stayed on hwy 20 towards Kettle Falls.  We had another day of mountain passes, one was over 4400 ft and the other was about 5600 ft.  We had lunch in the little town of Republic, once a major gold mining town as most of them were in the area.  It also had a bit of a western theme but not quite as extreme as Winthrop.  We had lunch at Freckles where they make everything from scratch including grinding their own burger.  We shared a sandwich called the Sassy Pig, a pulled pork with jalapeno's on a delish Hawaiian bun.  Kettle Falls used to be a falls before the completion of Grand Coulee dam in the 1930's and the reservoir Lake Roosevelt.  It is so beautiful in this part of the country, lots of pine trees and rugged mountains.  We got to the kids house about 3:00 about 200 miles through some beautiful countryside.  Barbara tried out a new recipe for dinner, Chicken Parmesana, she said she had Hotza Motza on speed dial if it didn't turn out good.  It was delish, no need for the frantic call.

Sunday, Sept. 14th, Barbara and I went into Spokane (about 40 miles) to work out, she dropped me off at Snap Fitness then went on to the Y.  It is a good thing we did, in the afternoon we went to her sister and brother-in-law's house to celebrate Vincent's 49th birthday.  They just moved back from San Diego (what were they thinking?) to Loon Lake about 15 miles or so away from the kids place.  It's quite an interesting house, at the top is a garage with the upstairs being a 3 bedroom apartment, then you go down about 40 steps to the main house then another 45 or so down to the dock.  It was a beautiful day on the lake, there were many water skiers and paddle boarders out in the late afternoon sun.  We had steak and salmon with summer squash and twice baked mashed potatoes.  Margaret, Barbara's mom is a great cook and all the girls followed suit.  After birthday pie we were treated to Emily's (age 5) ballet dance.

Monday, Sept 15th, Stacy and Barbara were off to work and so were we, cleaning and doing laundry.
I made a quick run into Deer Park for a few groceries then fixed a pork loin dinner.  Barbara made a nectarine cobbler, delish as everything she makes.  After dinner we walked across the pasture to a treed area to see relics from the past.  There was a 40 something Mercury on it's top and some sort of a plow hidden in the trees.  Stacy wants to move the plow over to the house for a yard decoration but it more than likely will fall apart.  Luci had a great time running through the pasture, running 50 mph back and forth, in and out of the creek.  My new hiking shoes feel real good!  We got back in time to watch the Eagles/Colts game, yea the Eagles won.  Go Chip!

Tuesday, Sept. 16th, our last day here, I worked on the blog but kept getting interrupted, so it's taken me all day to finish.  I ran into Spokane for some Aveda skin care, no luck I couldn't find any.  After I got back Gary washed my car, it'll probably rain tomorrow.  We are headed to Kennewick for a quick visit with Gerry and Mary before we head toward Hermiston.  When I got back from Spokane I found Barbara in the kitchen canning apple pie filling.  Women like her make women like me look real bad. Had a nice dinner and visit, it's always hard to leave.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam
                                           Beautiful flowers at NAS Whidbey Island

                                          Great landscaping all over the fam camp

                                         Sign posts left by previous guests

                                         The Prowler Memorial

                                         An EA-18 on runway

                                          Fam camp from the trail

  

                                         Visitor Center at North Cascades National Park

                                        One of the green lakes

                                         No Gary, don't jump!

                                         Rugged mountains

                                          Front of Shafer Museum

                                          One of many antique cars

                                          Riverside Engineering in the early days

                                         Mining equipment at Shafer

                                          One of the many tractors in the barn yard

                                          Girl Scout uniform and old quilt

                                                  Old School House Brewery

                                          Gary sitting on the deck enjoying his beer

                                         This is a camp trailer, an old Desoto

                                         Pine Near RV park