Colorado then home

As we traveled through the Grand Teton's, Jackson Hole,  spending a night each in Rock Springs, and Cheyenne, we  finally moved into Indian Paintbrush Campground in Lakewood outside Denver for the week.  Lakewood/Morrison is situated next door to Red Rocks and 1/2 hour from long time friends, Betsy, Scott and Emma  and Micah Spinney in Evergreen, After getting situated at the campground, we took the Evergreen\Kitteridge scenic drive to the Spinney's beautiful hillside home (no pictures, of course,  we were too busy catching up).

Beautiful Butte's dot the landscape

The Grand Tetons were covered by smoke from huge fires taking place in California
 

Denver's skyline

Wednesday was a whirlwind, first taking in Mile High Stadium the home of the Denver Broncos, Boulder (lunching on Pearl Street), Nederland (hippy village, bragging of their marijuana sells), then to dinner at the Spinney's reconnecting with Betsy's son John.  Again no pictures--what is wrong with us?

On Thursday,  we headed to the mountains for Breckenridge Ski Resort.  Then on Friday we took the Coors Tour in  Golden, CO--nearby, and lunched at Sassafras--yum.   Red Rocks (Tribute 1964--the Beetles) is an outdoor venue for musical events and the rock acoustics are supposed to enhance the sound.  We had an absolutely perfect evening rocking out to the sounds of our youth. 


Boulder was wonderful people watching

Lunch at the deli

Pearl Street was very cool

Nederland was up the mountain from Boulder and hippie land

Nederland made an attempt to camouflage their communications towers



View from the Press Box at Mile High

Old stadium --part of it is in the parking lot

They loved Super Bowl 50 --Peyton's last game

Truly a mile in elevation

The guy that sits in the orange eye wears orange attire --everyone that sits in the Bronco wears the appropriate color
--all paid for by the Organization

The Broncos love Peyton too


 

Pat Bowlen is the owner of the Broncos and he and his wife both have altzehiemers--soap opera ensues as to which of their 7 children will take over--right now a panel of 3 independent executives run the organization 

You can see the different slopes coming down the Breckenridge mountain

Up the lift we went to the expanding Breckenridge Ski Resort

Even in summer there was a good size tourist crowd

The Coors plant in Golden had an interesting free tour.
 

 

We wore ourselves out and so on Sunday we headed home.  First we spent the night in Selina, KS and went to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene.  After a night in Columbia, MO we had a marathon drive into Nashville.  What a fabulous summer trip!  We had hundred degree days in North Dakota and 40 degree nights in Yellowstone.  We saw buffalo, prairie dogs, elk; and saw mountains, waterfalls and canyons the likes of which we had never seen.  Mt. Rushmore, Red Rocks and Yellowstone were highlights but the most memorable is our people connections with the Fritel's and the Spinney's.   

Wyoming--Yellowstone National Park

Took off Thursday morning for Cody, Wyoming, Walmart so we can go into Yellowstone Bridge Bay Campground for a couple of nights. Oh my, did we find some fabulous scenery. We traveled through Devil's Tower and Big Horn National Forrest and really enjoyed the beautiful drive. We started to go up in elevation and the ups and downs challenged to RV--she took it like a champ.

Devil's Tower
 

Canyons
 

Old Faithful
 

Bring out the long sleeves and sweats
 

We crossed this several times
 

Friday, around noon we pulled into Bridge Bay Campground and Marina on Lake Yellowstone in the middle of Yellowstone National Park. The huge, deep lake is where the mountains and canyons meet the water. After getting set up for rustic camping (a lot of aged hippies with bandanas here), we set took off for Old Faithful and the 76 mile southerly loop of Yellowstone. Fabulous! Around every curve there is an artist's dream--the first day we took over a hundred pictures. The crowd here is very international with a heavy emphasis of Asians -- English was not the most common language among the tourist. We saw a lot of Bison--along Canyon Rd. they were actually at the road. That evening we went to the Amphitheater and listened to a talk by one of the park rangers about the history and culture of Yellowstone--he was so good (and funny) that we have been quoting him all day. Saturday brought The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, 300 foot clear waterfalls, and Norris Basin Geysers where we got a thorough education on thermodynamics. Mammoth So neat.

Relatives of ours? 

Pictures don't do the geysers justice--the water is really hot

Artists love the colors in the geysers' pools

Petrified tree

The waterfalls were throughout the park

South Dakota

On Sunday August 12th we took off for South Dakota which offered the Badlands, Wall Drugs, Sturgis, Crazy Horse Memorial and most importantly to us: Mt. Rushmore. Little did we realize that this was the last day for the Sturgis/Harley Davidson motorcycle Rally. This attracts over a half million cyclists to Sturgis, South Dakota, and has been doing so in mid August since 1938.  We drove right through the middle of town and the rally was closing up so traffic was not bad (plus the fact that it was over 100 degrees probably helped). We stayed in Rapid City, SD, which is in the middle of everything we wanted to see and on Monday morning we went to Wall Drug (unimpressive) and the Badlands (very impressive).  If I die and go to hell I will be shopping in Wall Drug daily. However, this exit off I-90 also served as the gateway to the Badlands National Park--yet another WOW moment when we drove through the sandstone park--the topography showcase beautiful upside down mountains. The temperatures dropped to a very pleasant 80's so we decided to make a full day of it and in the afternoon went southward to the Crazy Horse Memorial (sad--70 years in and they only have his face and hole for his arm) and then for the evening show at Mt. Rushmore (WOW--. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in beautiful granite). 


They say they have good donuts....

The Badlands are awesome

 

Crazy Horse Memorial

Mt. Rushmore

Fitz and Teddy in downtown Rapid City

Me and my favorite Pres.--Ron

After a sorta down day spent taking in the President's statues in downtown Rapid City and getting in some groceries, washing the car, we went to Spearfish Canyon and Deadwood. Deadwood is known for being the place where Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back by Jack McCall and died. Calamity Jane and other notable cowpokes lived there and they do tributes to the Gold Rush and Cowboys there. Fun day.

Spearfish Canyon

 

Bill Hickok lived his last 6 weeks here and was shot in the back

 

Love their Cowboys

 

You can always find a shootout

North Dakota

We traveled through Minneapolis on Sunday and were glad to miss the traffic that was sure to come on a work day. After a night at Walmart in Monticello and at a Pilot in Grand Fork we rolled into Diane and Bob Fritels' farm in Wolford, ND, on Tuesday around noon and plugged in while sitting in their driveway-- their driveway was 8 miles down a gravel road, past the fields they and their relatives farmed. What a pleasure it was to see our Texas buddies and see their way of life. Fitz got agronomy 101 lessons from Bob (drove a combine!)and Diane and I caught up with their family news and tales of farm life in North Dakota . She had a great vegetable garden and had just "put away a crop of CC Jelly--I think this is Choke Cherry. On Wed. they took us to the International Peace Garden on the Canadian border (about 40 miles north). This straddles the border at Manitoba, Canada. Then in the evening we went to a community picnic in Rugby where we met many of the Fritel relatives and friends--truly a Norman Rockwell evening.

Diane and Bob in their Tennessee Orange--look pretty good to us

The Fritel Farmhouse--here they raised their 4 children

The swimming pool in the backyard
 



North Dakota yard art

View of their farm out the picture window

We plugged in at the farm -picture was taken while in the cherry picker

Hands across the border at the International Peace Garden

Beautiful flowers and cacti 

Have to have a Peace Dove

Community Picnic
 

It is really about 14 miles down the road but here that is just around the corner

Thursday morning we took off for Medora, ND where they have the south entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a much touted Musical, Pitchfork Fondue (steaks cooked on pitchforks dipped for 4 minutes in boiling oil-yum) and cowboy town. The town, food and musical were very family oriented and nice but the main attraction was the National Park and the history of our 26th President. We fell in love with Teddy Roosevelt --vice president for McKinley who died in 1901, he served as president from 01-08. He did a lot to kickstart the national parks preservation in America and it was said that he added economic freedom to the freedoms of life, liberty and happiness. We also saw bison, prairie dogs (very cute) and our first ever elk.

You ride along I-94 and come over a hill and all of the sudden you change topography dramatically

I was a very hot week --103 in the shade!

The Medora Musical was wonderful--made us miss the kids

Steaks on pitchforks--who would have thought?

Buffalo were sorta mangey up close.

Prairie Dogs were cute but you could see why the locals didn't want them in their yard



Going out to Wind Canyon for sunset we caught this buffalo herd crossing the Little Missouri River

Beautiful sunset was found at Wind Canyon in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Can't pass up an opportunity for happy hour at sunset