Last weekend we were invited to a birthday party for our friends, both guys had birthdays in October. The Butterfields hosted this party, mainly for them to see their friends one last time before they head off to Arizona for the winter. They won't be back until April.
There were 15 of us at the party and we spent the night at their house. Dale & Kitty always have us stay because of all the adult beverages we drink. Kitty made pulled BBQ pork sandwiches and the rest of us brought side dishes. I make a pasta salad (shells, tomatoes, black olives, green, orange and yellow peppers with ranch dressing) It was very colorful and delicious. Got alot of compliments on it.
Our friend Joan made the birthday cake which was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Her father owned a bakery in Lead South Dakota so when she bakes it is alot. She bakes her cakes in a casserole pan. The cakes are very thick and so is the frosting. Very delicious.
We all had a good time visiting. While the others went home, 5 of us stayed at the Butterfields visiting and drinking. They had an extra guest as she was in no condition to drive home. We stayed up until 2:45 am and then got up at 7:30 am. Been a very long time since we have done this.
We got home around 10:30 on Sunday morning. In our younger days we would have been going on strong all day long, but Gary and I ended up taking naps during the day. Good thing we don't stay up like this all the time.
Had a great time and our friends Dale & Kitty left Tuesday for Arizona, they did make it safe and sound. They are living in a small town just out of Phoenix. We have been invited to visit sometime in the winter.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
End of September
Not much happened in September the only thing left was the tae kwon do tournament in Dayton WY. The Sheridan and Cody schools take turns hosting the fall tournament. Sheridan gets the even years while Cody get the odd. This year the tournament was in Dayton at their little comminity building.
We only had two students compete and they were Brandon our grandson and another boy Dominic. Both boys are 15 years old so it worked out. We had to give Brandon a ride as his parents both had to work that weekend. We didn't mind one bit.
The fall colors around here are gorgeous this year so I was able to get some photos on the way down and back home. The colors around Lodge Grass are the best especially along the creek. I had already posted these photos on my picasa site and some on facebook. The photos just didn't get the colors as I got with my own eyes. The leaves are still holding their pretty colors, but now that we are getting cooler temperatures that will change. Won't be long until the trees are bare.
Brandon and Dominic did very well at the tournament, both boys came home with nothing but gold medals. This was a small tournament so a great confidence booster for Dominic. He only competed in forms, we tried to talk him into sparring but he just wouldn't do it. He and Brandon are sparring partners in class so I think that scared him a bit as Brandon is a higher rank. We tried to convince Dominic that he will only compete kids at his level.
Brandon competed in weapons and sparring. It was a small tournament so we got done early. Also we had to get Brandon back home as he had to play in the band later that night.
I just have to get the photo of the boys in the paper. This time of year we get bumped because of school sports. I just have to keep on it.
We only had two students compete and they were Brandon our grandson and another boy Dominic. Both boys are 15 years old so it worked out. We had to give Brandon a ride as his parents both had to work that weekend. We didn't mind one bit.
The fall colors around here are gorgeous this year so I was able to get some photos on the way down and back home. The colors around Lodge Grass are the best especially along the creek. I had already posted these photos on my picasa site and some on facebook. The photos just didn't get the colors as I got with my own eyes. The leaves are still holding their pretty colors, but now that we are getting cooler temperatures that will change. Won't be long until the trees are bare.
Brandon and Dominic did very well at the tournament, both boys came home with nothing but gold medals. This was a small tournament so a great confidence booster for Dominic. He only competed in forms, we tried to talk him into sparring but he just wouldn't do it. He and Brandon are sparring partners in class so I think that scared him a bit as Brandon is a higher rank. We tried to convince Dominic that he will only compete kids at his level.
Brandon competed in weapons and sparring. It was a small tournament so we got done early. Also we had to get Brandon back home as he had to play in the band later that night.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Blog Negligence
It was pointed out to me last week that my Grandmother has missed my blogging and that I am behind on keeping the family posted on the news.
In my defense I have been super busy. So I will try my best to keep up to date.
September we went on the Yellowstone Park Ride with an overnight stay in Chico. The first time we went on this ride was two years ago and the weather was awful, pouring down rain all day long. Couldn't enjoy anything. The route two years ago took us over Beartooth Pass and we entered the park through Cooke City.
This year we had great weather, nice and sunny. The route this year we went to Cody for breakfast and then made our way to the east entrance. There were about 30 of us in the group, had a fun ride to Cody. As we left Billings we took the River Road route to Laurel and had to avoid turkeys. Then about 10 miles out of Cody a fox ran across the road in front of our leader and a couple feet up the road a coyote was sitting on the side. He was hard to see as he blended in with the weeds and such. We ate breakfast at Cassies. We were too large a group to sit together so we were spread out all over, but they did a good job getting us seated and served.
As we entered through the east gate, pulled over to regroup and take off some layers, it had warmed up quite a bit. We made our way to Old Faithful. We couldn't all park together so we got separated here. Had great timing, we only had to wait about 30 minutes before the eruption. We couldn't find the main group and had no clue where they were. Lesson learned get the plan before stopping. The group we were in made it to our bikes and we waited and waited. Figured that somehow the others are ahead of us, we know where our end point is so we made our way to Gardner. Didn't see anyone so we waited at the gas station in Gardiner for 30 minutes and still no one. The guys decided to head on to Chico, took a back road into Chico and it was very scenic. Saw an eagle sitting on the rocks above us.
Our group was the first ones to arrive in Chico and we got there around 5:30 pm. Got checked in and then we waited for the others. They were about an hour and a half behind us. Like I said lesson learned get the plan before stopping and find a gathering spot. Everyone made it safe and sound. The fires around Livingston didn't bother us, but you could sure see and smell the smoke.
Had a great time in Chico, enjoyed the warm waters in the pools after a long day of riding. We ate supper in the bar and Gary and I split a whole order of ribs. They were sure good. Every weekend the Chico bar has live music so we got to enjoy good music. The group was based out of Bozeman and called Six Strings Down. Rumor had it that the lead singer is a grammy winner.
Sunday morning we ate breakfast in Gardiner, which is not an easy thing to do. Most eating establishments are closed and don't open early. We ended up eating breakfast in a bar. It was good, but we had to get our own coffee and silverware. This time we rode through Lamar Valley and out at Cooke City.
We got into Red Lodge around 2:00 in the afternoon. Most of the group went to the brewery to eat, but we decided to just head on home. Had a great time and we already made reservations for next year.
In my defense I have been super busy. So I will try my best to keep up to date.
September we went on the Yellowstone Park Ride with an overnight stay in Chico. The first time we went on this ride was two years ago and the weather was awful, pouring down rain all day long. Couldn't enjoy anything. The route two years ago took us over Beartooth Pass and we entered the park through Cooke City.
This year we had great weather, nice and sunny. The route this year we went to Cody for breakfast and then made our way to the east entrance. There were about 30 of us in the group, had a fun ride to Cody. As we left Billings we took the River Road route to Laurel and had to avoid turkeys. Then about 10 miles out of Cody a fox ran across the road in front of our leader and a couple feet up the road a coyote was sitting on the side. He was hard to see as he blended in with the weeds and such. We ate breakfast at Cassies. We were too large a group to sit together so we were spread out all over, but they did a good job getting us seated and served.
As we entered through the east gate, pulled over to regroup and take off some layers, it had warmed up quite a bit. We made our way to Old Faithful. We couldn't all park together so we got separated here. Had great timing, we only had to wait about 30 minutes before the eruption. We couldn't find the main group and had no clue where they were. Lesson learned get the plan before stopping. The group we were in made it to our bikes and we waited and waited. Figured that somehow the others are ahead of us, we know where our end point is so we made our way to Gardner. Didn't see anyone so we waited at the gas station in Gardiner for 30 minutes and still no one. The guys decided to head on to Chico, took a back road into Chico and it was very scenic. Saw an eagle sitting on the rocks above us.
Our group was the first ones to arrive in Chico and we got there around 5:30 pm. Got checked in and then we waited for the others. They were about an hour and a half behind us. Like I said lesson learned get the plan before stopping and find a gathering spot. Everyone made it safe and sound. The fires around Livingston didn't bother us, but you could sure see and smell the smoke.
Had a great time in Chico, enjoyed the warm waters in the pools after a long day of riding. We ate supper in the bar and Gary and I split a whole order of ribs. They were sure good. Every weekend the Chico bar has live music so we got to enjoy good music. The group was based out of Bozeman and called Six Strings Down. Rumor had it that the lead singer is a grammy winner.
Sunday morning we ate breakfast in Gardiner, which is not an easy thing to do. Most eating establishments are closed and don't open early. We ended up eating breakfast in a bar. It was good, but we had to get our own coffee and silverware. This time we rode through Lamar Valley and out at Cooke City.
We got into Red Lodge around 2:00 in the afternoon. Most of the group went to the brewery to eat, but we decided to just head on home. Had a great time and we already made reservations for next year.
Friday, September 7, 2012
My Dream
This is my dream. Since I have my motorcycle endorsement I want to be able to ride and Gary won't take me out. He did once and that was at the school parking lot. This is the Harley Davidson Dyna Switchback. Have to save my pennies or win big in Vegas.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
End of Summer
Hard to believe that summer is over and we are headed into fall. We did quite a few road trips for people who weren't going anywhere this summer.
In June we went to Deadwood for the annual Gambler's Run with our HOG Chapter. As usual ran into rain on the first day as we were headed to Deadwood, but this year had beautiful weather for the rest of our stay. This year I won the "leather" coat that is always given away on this ride. That was not the case, I ended up with two cloth coats. I wasn't going to pay for something that I "won".
We did several poker runs this summer, two runs took us over the Beartooth and Chief Joseph highways. Gary won best poker hand on one of the rides and he won a $150 gift card to the Harley dealership.
Had the big 3/4 of a century celebration for my Mom in Meeteetse in July. Had a great time with family. All three of my kids were together which had been 5 years since they were all here. The end of July Gary and I went to Deadwood for a weekend get away. Didn't win any money but had a good time. This time we played tourist and got to see some of the Deadwood sights.
We did make a quick trip to Idaho Falls when we took Robert's motorcycle from Meeteetse to Idaho Falls.
Now we are gearing up for our fall and winter trips. In November we are going to Las Vegas and in January the three of us are going to Hawaii.
In June we went to Deadwood for the annual Gambler's Run with our HOG Chapter. As usual ran into rain on the first day as we were headed to Deadwood, but this year had beautiful weather for the rest of our stay. This year I won the "leather" coat that is always given away on this ride. That was not the case, I ended up with two cloth coats. I wasn't going to pay for something that I "won".
We did several poker runs this summer, two runs took us over the Beartooth and Chief Joseph highways. Gary won best poker hand on one of the rides and he won a $150 gift card to the Harley dealership.
Had the big 3/4 of a century celebration for my Mom in Meeteetse in July. Had a great time with family. All three of my kids were together which had been 5 years since they were all here. The end of July Gary and I went to Deadwood for a weekend get away. Didn't win any money but had a good time. This time we played tourist and got to see some of the Deadwood sights.
We did make a quick trip to Idaho Falls when we took Robert's motorcycle from Meeteetse to Idaho Falls.
Now we are gearing up for our fall and winter trips. In November we are going to Las Vegas and in January the three of us are going to Hawaii.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Nation of Patriots
This was our third year of participating in the Nation of Patriots. It is a fund raiser for veterans groups. This is where motorcyclists escort the American flag through the lower 48 states. The Billings group escorts the flag from Billings to Cody to Jackson.
We met our friends Dale & Kitty Butterfield at their house on Friday night, went out to eat pizza and visit. They always have us stay with them as we leave at 8:00 am from Billings Saturday morning to get to Jackson.
There were 13 people and 8 bikes who traveled from Billings to Cody. It was raining in Billings when we left at 8:00 am but as we got to Bridger we got out of it. The road from Bridger to Belfry is done with the road construction, however the turnoff has been moved about 300 feet. I bet that causes confusion with GPS systems. It is a nice road now.
We got into Cody around 9:30 am to beautiful weather, made a quick stop at the gas station and got the flags ready for an impromptu parade through town. The townspeople had no idea what was going on, just a bunch of people with flags. We stopped at the Cody dealership and took a group photo. The first year we did this we had news coverage, now nothing. The girls inside the dealership said that they had called the paper but was told that this event is not news worthy. As we were taking a short break in Cody, we were told by other bikers that the entrance into the park was closed because of a mud slide. I had called the road number and got a recording that all roads in the park were open. Two guys who rode with us then made their way back to Billings.
We ate lunch at Pahaska Teepee, which was a good thing. We could see road equipment up the road and by the time we got done with lunch they were gone. All that was left was debris on the side of the road from the slide. The slide was just before the gate entrance. Rode through the park and the only animal life we saw were two birds.
We got into Jackson around 4:00 pm, got checked in to our motel. We stay at the Rawhide which is perfect for us. A liquor store in front of the motel and the Harley dealership across the street. The Rawhide caters to bikers and it is also one of the cheaper motels in Jackson at $150 per night. We don't get anything extra here.
Sunday morning after breakfast we met the guy who escorts the flag from Jackson to Rock Springs at 9:00 am. Usually the guy is by himself to take possession of the flags, but this year he had a group with him. Visited with them for a while, then on the road we went.
Going home we always go through Idaho then to West Yellowstone and into Bozeman. This year a couple of the guys didn't want to go through West Yellowstone as there is a 20 mile section where the speed limit is 55, also they didn't want to have to slow down for rv's. We went to Ennis then over to Bozeman. It really doesn't make a time difference, it is longer by about 20 miles. Ate lunch in Ennis, which is a cute little town.
Stopped one more time in Big Timber to say our goodbyes. We got home around 6:30 pm.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Deadwood In July
I know these are out of order, but I wanted to keep you informed on our last trip in July. Gary had two days of vacation after a mistake on the store's part. When we went to Deadwood in June with the HOG Chapter, the store didn't credit him his two days of vacation, he got no pay. So he took his two days the last weekend in July.
We decided to go to Deadwood for some gambling fun, Jackpot is too far to drive for just a weekend, but Deadwood is just down the road. This time we stayed at the KOA in a cabin. It was half the cost of a motel room and with the Day's of 76 Rodeo going on, prices were high.
After the stress of Mom's 3/4 of a Century Celebration over it was time for me to just relax. We left Hardin on Thursday morning and got into Deadwood around 3:00 in the afternoon. We stopped in Gillette for a bit and then at the rest stop just as we got into South Dakota. Got checked in and things loaded out of the truck and in the cabin. The cabin was nice, the ones here have small flat screen tv in them.
The KOA in Deadwood is nice with camping tiered in the hillside. Our cabin was off to the side a bit and at first we had a hard time finding it, things are not clearly marked. There is an old yellow house just off to the side and that is where the cabin area is. It looks like somebody's property the way things are set up. This KOA has a shuttle that will run you into town and leaves on the hour from 11am-10pm. We took the shuttle into town several times.
The shuttle drops you off at the Silverado and you just walk down main street. Deadwood does have parking meters in their parking lots, but only charge from 8am-8pm, so the free shuttle was great. After 8 pm we got in the pickup and found great parking.
It was fun just playing tourist, we took the Original Deadwood Tour which gave us the history of Deadwood and took us to Moriah Cemetary where we saw the final resting places of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. The tour guide made it fun, he reminded me to our tour guide Bernie in Ireland. It was very informative. The tour is just over an hour and it cost us $8 per person because we were both over 50. Don't tell them I lied. In fact they didn't even ask how old I was, Gary just paid $16. We got coupons for the Morning Star Casino which is owned by Kevin Costner, so we ate lunch with our coupons.
We tried to get done before the parade started but that didn't happen, so we ended up watching the parade. When we first got into town, we stopped at a visitor center to see what was happening and the people were excited to tell us about the western parade. We didn't really want to watch a western parade as we have seen plenty of those. This parade had only two floats and the rest horses. To our surprise Al Sargent from Hardin had his Belgian horses and wagon in the parade.
We had fun gambling in the different casinos and we both got players cards for two of them. Ate good food, had some free drinks and we came home with some money. Didn't win big, but still came home with a little bit more than when we left.
It was a nice get away.
We decided to go to Deadwood for some gambling fun, Jackpot is too far to drive for just a weekend, but Deadwood is just down the road. This time we stayed at the KOA in a cabin. It was half the cost of a motel room and with the Day's of 76 Rodeo going on, prices were high.
After the stress of Mom's 3/4 of a Century Celebration over it was time for me to just relax. We left Hardin on Thursday morning and got into Deadwood around 3:00 in the afternoon. We stopped in Gillette for a bit and then at the rest stop just as we got into South Dakota. Got checked in and things loaded out of the truck and in the cabin. The cabin was nice, the ones here have small flat screen tv in them.
The KOA in Deadwood is nice with camping tiered in the hillside. Our cabin was off to the side a bit and at first we had a hard time finding it, things are not clearly marked. There is an old yellow house just off to the side and that is where the cabin area is. It looks like somebody's property the way things are set up. This KOA has a shuttle that will run you into town and leaves on the hour from 11am-10pm. We took the shuttle into town several times.
The shuttle drops you off at the Silverado and you just walk down main street. Deadwood does have parking meters in their parking lots, but only charge from 8am-8pm, so the free shuttle was great. After 8 pm we got in the pickup and found great parking.
It was fun just playing tourist, we took the Original Deadwood Tour which gave us the history of Deadwood and took us to Moriah Cemetary where we saw the final resting places of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. The tour guide made it fun, he reminded me to our tour guide Bernie in Ireland. It was very informative. The tour is just over an hour and it cost us $8 per person because we were both over 50. Don't tell them I lied. In fact they didn't even ask how old I was, Gary just paid $16. We got coupons for the Morning Star Casino which is owned by Kevin Costner, so we ate lunch with our coupons.
We tried to get done before the parade started but that didn't happen, so we ended up watching the parade. When we first got into town, we stopped at a visitor center to see what was happening and the people were excited to tell us about the western parade. We didn't really want to watch a western parade as we have seen plenty of those. This parade had only two floats and the rest horses. To our surprise Al Sargent from Hardin had his Belgian horses and wagon in the parade.
We had fun gambling in the different casinos and we both got players cards for two of them. Ate good food, had some free drinks and we came home with some money. Didn't win big, but still came home with a little bit more than when we left.
It was a nice get away.
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