Serene Wandering

As our friend Cindy said, we needed a get out of jail free card!   Boise has been like a jail for us the last month – somewhere we didn’t want to be, at a time we didn’t want to be here. But, today we are free!

Randy got the all clear on his medical tests and we can leave! Thanks to those of you who have prayed on our behalf! We feel blessed by your support and by these better than expected results. Praise God!!

We aren’t usually so glad to leave Boise but, “Baby, its cold outside!” Lows will be in the single digits over the weekend with highs in the twenties.

We are so appreciative of the many people who invited us to stay in their homes if our time here was extended for more tests or treatment.

Even though it has been nice to see more of our family, friends and BSU basketball games, our hearts were not in it. It has been hard to be confined to our small space in winter weather.

We are looking forward to including the outdoors in our living space again! It will be nice  to go out and explore!

We are now able to fully rejoice in Christmas and will enjoy Archer’s second birthday before we leave.

We will head towards Lake Mead (near Las Vegas) on Monday, 28th and then on to Yuma for the month of January.

Whoo-hoo! We are free!

When we left you last, we were on our way into Boise, planning on enjoying most of a month there. We did that! We spent lots of time with Natasha, Seth and grandson Archer.  Archer was Elvis for Halloween – he was so cute!

We spent time with friends and went to Boise State football and basketball games.

We enjoyed being back at our church. We walked the greenbelt along the Boise River several times daily. We re-licensed the trailer and the truck and Randy got a 50 gallon fuel tank installed.  All three of us did the dreaded annual doctor visits.

The snow started falling in mid-November and it was time to move on! This far north… in the snow… This is no place to be if you live in a trailer!

Our plans were to head to Vancouver to spend a week with my parents and then have a family Thanksgiving in eastern Washington.  Then we planned to head south, see some friends on the way, eventually catching up with the Boise State football team for their bowl game before settling in Arizona for the winter.

We made it to Vancouver and had a fine time with my parents. We enjoyed watching the Seahawks – 49ers football game with cousins Connie and Michael. (Randy was in the other room watching the Packers and who-ever they were playing.)

One afternoon, Mom and I decided we would make lefse – a family tradition from my paternal grandmother.  Although we took a short cut using mashed potatoes – the end result was just fine!

Another afternoon we went to the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. This is a very expansive property and we were there a on a very cold, late afternoon. We committed to returning another warmer someday and only ventured into the visitor center and the Marshall House.

The Marshall House is one of 22 fully restored homes on Officer’s Row. Two of them are open to the public. The Grant House was home for post commanders and is now a restaurant. The Marshall house is named for General George C Marshall  who served as commander of Vancouver Barracks from 1936 – 38.

And who was General George C. Marshall?  In addition to being the Barracks commander, he served in both World Wars and rose to be US Army Chief of Staff. He was responsible for taking an army of less than 200,000 soldiers when WWII started and building it into a well trained, well equipped force of 8,300,000 four years later. After WWII, he became Secretary of State and created the Marshall Plan for European Recovery. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

Remember the dreaded annual doctor visits I mentioned earlier? While we were still in Vancouver, one week out of Boise, Randy got the call from one of his doctors that she didn’t like his test results and we needed to come back to Boise.

En-route, we were  able to go to our family Thanksgiving in the Tri-Cities, home of Aunt Bonnie and Cousin Lisa and her family. We had a nice time visiting, playing cards and watching football.  Though they did almost all of the work for Thanksgiving dinner, Randy did carve the turkey.

Over the last year and a half we’ve always been so happy to return to Boise.   It felt very strange to be so unhappy about it this time- of course, we had the medical stuff to be concerned about and we’d only been gone for 10 days.

We came back on November 28 to frigid temperatures. Randy had his first tests on November 30 and the temps were still frigid. We were using and refilling a seven gallon tank of propane every other day to keep the waterlines in the enclosed underside of the trailer from freezing. Thankfully the deep freeze broke up after a week or so and unseasonably warm weather came in.

We are again seeing Natasha, Seth and Archer. I joined the Christmas Choir at church and we are again enjoying time with friends. We are going to Boise State basketball games and seeing lots of matinee movies (4 this week).

On the medical side, things are moving frustratingly slowly.   Randy’s doctor was on vacation this week (of course) and his next set of tests (surgical) are on December 18th.  Because of Christmas, we won’t get results, or have an idea where we go from here,  until December 28th.

We don’t know if we’ll be heading south (as we had planned over a month ago) the very next day, the next month, or at all this winter. Prayers are most welcome.

The RV park manager has been terrific. We didn’t pay for our site at all while we were waiting to see if we were going to be here for just days, or for a week, or for a month (rates are less expensive by the month).  She said we could have our favorite site until April if needed- but then someone else had it reserved.  Oh wait – we are the ones who have it reserved in April!

By far the most gratifying part of being back during this difficult time, is the number of friends who have invited us to winterize our trailer and move in with them. There have been at least a dozen offers. We hope to be able to live in our trailer but if we end up staying in Boise into January and beyond, we may very well take someone up on the offer.

Even though our plans went south, when we did not, what a wonderful place it is that we call home.

We were very content to spend the last few days with good friends, Kent and Pam. We have traveled with them for many years and knew when we left Boise that they, who travel a lot anyway, would be willing and able to meet us occasionally along our way.

In the last year they have caught up with us in Delta Utah, Pahrump Nevada and now Logan Utah. The reason to meet in Logan, Utah?  For the Boise State – Utah State Football game. We’ve done this trip to Logan for football games before and it felt like old times – until the game was actually played…..

Unfortunately the game was a disaster for Boise State, something we don’t usually have to deal with. The Utah State coach said winning this game was the biggest win in school history – good for them.
The next day we left Logan and mixed up the driving pairings heading north.

Pam and I watched our trailer from behind as we came back into Idaho.  Pam is usually a speed demon but she did well slowing down to Randy’s trailer pace.
We headed to Ketchum – or Sun Valley for those of you who aren’t from Idaho. When the four of us were in Ketchum last (summer of 2013), they were experiencing terrible fires.

Dense smoke from nearby fires in 2013!

We enjoyed a walk along Adam’s Gulch and fire scars are visible but the forest’s recovery will come.

As we came back to our RV park, we saw these recently sheared sheep being driven along the highway.

There were a couple of men on horseback, a couple of men walking and 4-5 dogs that were doing most of the work. It was fun to watch.

Kent and Pam stayed in a cute guest house they rented on one of the many $2-million ish properties in the area. It was tucked way back from the highway and it was a beautiful drive back into their place.
It was very comfortable to wander around past haunts and eat in some familiar restaurants.

The next day was rainy and we opted for a drive up into the mountains.

Elko had to share his usually spacious backseat with Pam and me. He tolerated it pretty well as it was better than staying home!

Along the way we saw a few deer, lots of hunters, and a beaver dam.

Our truck ended up being the dirtiest it has ever been but between the rain and a little effort on Randy’s part when we got back – it got back into normal form.

After enjoying our time with Kent and Pam, we separated today. They headed back to Boise and we stopped along the way at one of our favorite, and most frequently visited southern Idaho State Parks – Three Island Crossing.

Three Island Crossing was one place Oregon Trail emigrants crossed the Snake River.

Although we have been here MANY times it just seemed perfectly nostalgic to stop one more time for a beautiful fall visit on our way back to Boise on Thursday.

As we said, familiarity breeds contentment!

We spent a quick couple of days in the Utah section of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. We have always thought Utah, with such varied and dramatic scenery, is one of the most beautiful states in our country and Flaming Gorge just strengthened that belief.

The area has a rich history in geologic and fossil terms and these types of signs are fairly common and  interesting to see!

One of the highlight drives is the Sheep Creek Geological Loop.

Supposedly there are bighorn sheep living in these rock cliffs but we didn’t see any. It was hard to feel disappointed though when the rock cliffs and formations were so stunningly beautiful.

We liked it so much that one day we went one direction, and the next we went the opposite because sometimes the best view can be behind you!
We also went to Red Canyon, a canyon that is 1700 feet deep and 4000 feet across. The Green River runs through it and although the pictures don’t show it, the water definitely has a green tint.

Although not the first white men to explore the area, both Red Canyon and Flaming Gorge were named by Wesley Powell in 1869 because of the beauty and red tint of the walls along the river. The area also has a “colorful” past with outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch spending time in the area.

At the south end of the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is the Flaming Gorge Dam. Access is restricted on the dam but we were fortunate to be able to take a free tour the day before they were discontinued for the season.

Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon Dams were the last large concrete dams built in our country and completed in 1964 and 1965 respectively. The concrete in a dam this large takes 100 years to fully cure.  This one should be “done” in 2064 and Randy says he probably won’t live to see it!

The white shaft in the center is hollow and has fully cured.

The Flaming Gorge Dam serves several purposes. It was primarily built for flood control with a secondary purpose to provide water for agriculture.  Those goals are represented in the Bureau of Reclamation’s past logo.

Power, supplied by three turbines, was a third benefit with each turbine providing power for 32,000 homes in the western grid. We have three power grids in the United States – the western, eastern and Texas. (I thought the Texas individuality was interesting!)

Recreation is an additional benefit. There are miles of boating and fishing opportunities above the dam in addition to marinas, campgrounds and lodges.

Given a cliff edge, Randy is compelled to stand by it!

Below the dam, the Green River is famous for rafting and trout fishing. The river’s water temperature below the dam is modified (depending on the depth of the water released) to assist in habitat needs for fish and other wildlife.

Although the area supposedly has rich wildlife variety, we saw very little. We saw reference to bear, elk, deer, moose, and big horn sheep. The native big horn sheep died off years ago after exposure to domesticated sheep but have been re-restablished and are doing well. We were slightly disappointed not to see more, but we did see these mountain goats in a field outside of town!

There were hunters all over the area outside the recreation area so maybe these sheep, and all the other animals, were just taking cover in unusual places.

Sometimes we felt as though we had Flaming Gorge all to ourselves, but  that isolation came at the cost of reduced opportunities.

Some visitor centers and activities were closed such as the Ute Fire Lookout, built by the CCC in 1937.  Although no longer actively used in fire detection, it is seasonally open for viewing and tours.

You would expect a place called Flaming Gorge to be beautiful and it is.  Seeing it in the fall was just made it more so!

When I target a campground for us to visit, I look mostly at the location and reviews. Usually the campgrounds are nice enough but every once in a while we stay in a place that we aren’t likely to ever visit again.  And other times we SCORE!

Horsetooth Resevoir County Park is a gem. I chose it mostly because it was close to Hughes Stadium for the Boise State – Colorado State football game but it ended up being so much more.   We had full hook-ups and were close to the reservoir for an off season rate of $20 per night. It would still be a great place at the full seasonal price of $30 per night.

We have experienced some very nice county park campgrounds in Oregon, Arizona and now, Colorado. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more county parks.

After our first night we added another sticker on our map! At least the west is filled up nicely.

We arrived a couple of days prior to the game so Randy was able to do some minor fix-it stuff. He painted a vent that had yellowed and it looks much better now. I washed windows and Elko supervised. We completed our work and rewarded ourselves with an afternoon matinee of The Martian which we enjoyed a lot.

Game day finally arrived and we made the short drive to the stadium and anticipated enjoying the game. Leaving our season tickets behind when we left Boise was hard for me so I was very happy to be able to schedule a couple “away games” on our route.

It was a pink game for Colorado State (Breast Cancer Awareness) and I thought it was nice that even the sky cooperated.

The game was very successful from our perspective with Boise State  winning 41-10.  I was even able to talk to a couple of people I knew from Boise that had come to Colorado for the game. Fun times!

The next day was a driving day through 200 miles of windy Wyoming. We saw warnings of gusts up to 50 miles per hour and advisories against “small trailers” on the roads.   Randy didn’t think we would be classified as a small trailer, so we trekked on.  Part of the time the wind hit us broadside and partly we headed straight into it.  Our regular 12-13 mpg while towing was reduced to about 7 mpg.

Unfortunately, we committed an act of littering along the way. Of course, we didn’t mean to lose a rubber tote (and all of its contents) out of the back of our truck in the high winds – but we did. We were not aware of it happening but when we got to a fuel stop – they were gone. The contents lost were our grill accessories, table cloths etc. so not a big deal from any perspective other than littering. We just don’t litter – but we did.  So sorry Wyoming!

We arrived in Rock Springs to spend some time with family – my cousin Marilyn and her husband, Lynn. They were gracious enough to gather their clan – son Shawn and daughter in-law Amber, their boys Wesley and Colby, and daughter Tracy with sons Cole, Ian and Toby. Unfortunately, Tracy’s husband was home with a sick son, Shane. We enjoyed our evening with them very much.

We spent the next day with Marilyn and Lynn –  eating out and touring Rock Springs. We went to Western Wyoming College to see the dinosaur exhibit – life size replicas of dinosaurs who roamed the area. I was pleased that my past kindergarten dinosaur projects enabled me to name almost all of the dinosaur models!  Of course, this one is tyrannosaurus rex – easy!

We also went to the Wild Horse corrals. Horses are available for adoption for $185.

We had a fun time visiting with our cousins in Rock Springs and thank them for being such gracious hosts. We enjoy that we are able to connect with family and friends around the country as we wander.

After leaving Devils Tower, we headed south to Guernsey State Park. The trip involved a fair amount of concern on my part because Wyoming parks do not take reservations after September 15.   This park has only a small number of water and electric sites. Would one be available?  Would water even still be running this late in the season? From the website, I knew one section of the park was closed for road construction but couldn’t tell if that was the area with hookups. My phone calls to the park went unanswered and unreturned.  All of that angst explains why we almost always have reservations. If the reservations end up needing to be changed, so be it, but we like knowing we have a place that will meet our needs.

As it turned out, we didn’t have a problem finding a site! We weren’t always the only ones in the campground but usually so.

We really enjoyed the trains that went by continuously, a sound that is appealing to both of us. Coal mining and transport is huge in this area.

There are a number of Civilian Conservation Corps (1930s) buildings on site. We saw several including this small storage building and The Castle, the nicest picnic shelter we’ve ever seen.

In Guernsey there are two significant Oregon Trail sites.

Register Cliff is one of the places along the trail where emigrants would carve their names in the sandstone,  letting others know they had made it that far.

Along a couple hundred yards, there were thousands of names, some in the Oregon Trail timeframe, some current, and every year in between.

We also saw ruts cut into the rock by thousands of wagons going through this area on the California, Oregon, and Mormon Pioneer Trails. We are fortunate to have seen southern Idaho Oregon Trail ruts (thanks Jerry!) but the depth of these ruts in the rock is impressive.

Elko and Randy are walking in the ruts to give perspective.

Fort Laramie was our next destination. There are a collection of buildings and ruins at the site. Some have been restored and furnished to reflect what they would have looked like during the fort’s active duty.

Commander’s House – Furnished and open for viewing!

Enlisted men’s barracks.

Old Bedlam – Bachelor Office Quarters

Among them is “Old Bedlam,” so named because of the boisterous sounds coming from within. It was built in 1849 and is the oldest building in Wyoming.

Additionally, Wyoming’s first public school began here in1852 and served children living at Fort Laramie.

Fort Laramie began as Fort William in 1834 as a gathering place for trappers and traders.  In 1841, circumstances changed the role to serving westward bound emigrants.   In 1849 the US Army purchased the fort, renamed it Fort Laramie, intending to establish a presence in the northern plains. Stage lines, the Pony Express, and transcontinental telegraph all went through Fort Laramie.

Several treaty negotiations with Northern Plains Indians were held at the fort, notably those in 1851 and 1868. Relations with the Indians were generally good until an event in August 1854.

A cow, belonging to Mormon emigrants, wandered into a Sioux village near the fort and was killed by a visiting brave. Although the Brule-Sioux offered to make reparations, the brash young Lieutenant John Gratten from Fort Laramie mishandled the situation.  He insisted on arresting the responsible brave. The end result was that John Gratten, all 29 members of the army detail, and the Chief of the Brule-Sioux were killed in what became known as the Gratten Massacre. Even though Gratten’s detail had been the aggressors, government and public opinion began to turn against the Indians. Historians believe this event triggered three decades of Indian Wars.

A young Indian brave, later named Crazy Horse, was there and ever more saw the white man as an enemy.  And the rest is history…

Our next stop was the Terry Bison Ranch (and RV park) south of Cheyenne. The ranch is home to the second largest bison herd (approximately 3000) in the United States. (Ted Turner owns the largest herd at 51,000 animals.) There is a small herd of 40 bison available for guests at the ranch to view and feed. A small train takes you out to the herd. This is Randy’s hand feeding  two eager bison.

The ranch train is the only privately owned interstate railway.  The train crosses in to Colorado for about 200 yards and then goes back into Wyoming!

Bison meat is leaner and contains more protein than beef. Their restaurant serves bison and we decided to a bison burger and bison chicken fried steak. Both were delicious. We also enjoyed some local music while we were eating.

We are not done exploring Wyoming but, like the train, we are taking a brief detour into Colorado. We will be at the Boise State vs Colorado State football game on Saturday. Go Broncos!

On the first day of re-retirement, our plan was to travel 300 miles to Devils Tower in northeast Wyoming. It would be a long driving day but we hoped to get there mid-afternoon and still be able to see the tower and visitor center.

Well, it didn’t quite go as we had planned…

We fought our GPS repeatedly as it wanted to send us on shorter routes through the Crow and Cheyenne Reservations. Having lived on the “rez” for a month, we believed the longer I-90 route would be more likely to have diesel fuel and better roads.

We made it to Wyoming and, as we approached the town of Buffalo, the warning alarm sounded on our Tire Pressure Monitoring System.

The TPMS measures and continuously updates the temperature and air pressure on all eight truck and trailer tires. We had an issue  with the driver’s side back trailer tire. The tire pressure usually measures 80 – 95 psi. The alarm sounded when the pressure reduced to 75 psi.  In the few minutes it took to get off the freeway and find a place to stop, the pressure was down to 21 psi on that tire. It was flat!

Randy decided he needed to change to the spare tire. Fortunately our auto-leveling jacks make that job easier than it would have been with a typical jack.

While he was changing the tire, I searched for a tire store that had room for all 65 feet of us. Thank you Big Horn Tire for having room and making time for us right away.

We are now the proud owners of two new Maxxis tires. Our Goodyear tires on the back were only 16 months old (and four of those were sitting still) yet the steel bands were separating.  We had multiple leaks in one tire and bulging in the other. There is still a second set of Goodyears on the trailer that are about 9 months old. We’ll see…..You can’t mess with tires in this lifestyle.

Even though having a tire problem isn’t a good thing, we were blessed in how it happened. We are thankful that we had the monitoring system to alert us before we had a damaging, dangerous incident. We were also happy that we had opted to go on I-90 and that the tire held until we were approaching Buffalo.

After a few more arguments with the GPS, we made it to Devils Tower KOA.  This is one of the nicest KOAs we have ever stayed in with a wonderful view of the tower.  Deer and turkeys roam the grounds.

Another perk is the nightly showings of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) which was set at Devils Tower. We were bummed they had discontinued the showings for the season but really happy when they gave us a DVD to watch inside our nice warm trailer instead!

When we woke, having spent the night in Wyoming, we added a sticker to our map!   It is looking a little better.  (Next week – Colorado.)

It stormed this morning but we were able to go to Devils Tower, walk the 1.3 mile paved trail, and go to the visitor’s center. Here are some Devils Tower Tidbits:

Devils Tower was the very first US National Monument, designated in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was the very first use of The Antiquities Act, authorized that same year.

The apostrophe in what should be Devil’s Tower was inadvertently left out due to a clerical error and never corrected. Thus, Devils Tower is the correct spelling.

Twenty tribes view this igneous rock as a sacred site and oppose the name Devils Tower.  As most tribal names reference a bear, there has been some effort to rename the monument Bear Lodge but it has not gained traction.

The formation of the tower looks like claw marks from a distance. Actually they are symmetrical columns, some of the longest (up to 600 feet) and widest (up to 20 feet) in the world. They are 4, 5, 6 and 7 sided.   Six sided columns are thought to be the strongest in nature.

Columns are gradually made vulnerable by water and ice, lichen and roots. Although there is a boulder field around the tower, there has not been a column collapse since monitoring began in 1906.

The top of the tower is rounded, grassy and about the size of a football field. In 1941, George Hopkins parachuted onto the top. He had to wait six days before mountain climbers were able to help him down.  He failed to have an exit strategy!

In 1893 William Rogers and Willard Ripley were the first to climb the tower. They constructed a 350 ft. wooden ladder and hammered stakes into a crack to aid their ascent. Two years later, Linnie Rogers followed her husband’s climbing achievement with her own. As many as 200 people eventually used the ladder, parts of which are still visible.

Climbers now ascend Devils Tower with the support of the National Park Service. Climbing is suspended during June in consideration of the sacred nature of the site to many native peoples.

Given its sacred past, Devils Tower was chosen as an International Peace Project Site by Japanese Artist Junkyu Moto in 2008. (The other two sites are Vatican City, Rome and Bodh Gaya, India, where the Buddha reached enlightenment.) His sculpture here is called the Circle of Sacred Smoke.

Even though we had a devil of a time getting here, we are glad we came to Devils Tower.  It was a joy to be on the move again, exploring new places and learning new things. Randy said several times today that he loves feeling retired again!

We are here at our last days in Montana and Chief Plenty Coups State Park. We have learned so much during our month here:  about the Chief, about the Crow, about Indian War battles and about ourselves – including Elko!

Today we spent the morning at the final stop on the to-do list – the Western Heritage Center in Billings.   We saw beautiful Indian (Shoshone, Cheyenne and Crow) beadwork and different ways they used animal skins for clothing, accessories and home needs.

We also saw this Crow Elk Tooth Dress. Only an elk’s two upper incisors are used in these dresses and the number of teeth shows  how many elk a hunter has killed and processed.  A wife would wear this dress with pride as it was  symbolic of her  warrior husband’s status. We have seen women wear these dresses during the two pow-wows held at our park.

A few weeks ago we went to the Little Big Horn Battlefield and learned about General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry’s battle with the Sioux and Cheyenne. Yesterday we went on a field trip to a related battlefield for an end of the season  jaunt with our co-worker friends.

We went to Rosebud Battlefield State Park with Americorp volunteer – Casey, Park Manager – Chris, (Randy), Maintenance lead – Tyler, and maintenance worker – Judy (pictured later).    Randy and I hadn’t known about the  The Battle of the Rosebud prior to our visit to Little Big Horn.   We learned there that General Crook and General Custer were leading different parts of the same effort,  trying to trap Indians and return them to reservations by force.

General Crook and about 1000 soldiers and 276 Crow and Shoshone scouts, camped on Rosebud creek. They had expected to find the Cheyenne and Lakota (Sioux) camps. The Lakota were led by Oglala warrior Crazy Horse.

Although the soldiers did not find the Indians, an estimated 1200 Indians found them.  A bitter battle ensued for much of the day on June 17, 1876

Indians call this battlefield  “Where the Girl Saved Her Brother.”  A Cheyenne warrior’s horse was shot out from under him and he, vulnerable on foot, was rescued  by his sister.   She galloped to her brother’s place on the battlefield,  he jumped on the back of her horse, and they both escaped.

Estimates have death tolls at 9-16 men within Crook’s contingent and 26 Indians.  It was said that huge amounts of bullets were used that day so the death toll seems, mercifully, light. Oddly enough, it is believed that the battle ended when the Indians got hungry and left the battlefield.   They were done for the day but over the next week the Indians moved north to the Little Bighorn area, ballooning  the number that would face General Custer.

General Crook took his troops back to Fort Sheridan, Wyoming to restock and regroup.  As a result,  they were not available to reinforce General Custer at Little Big Horn eight days later.

We TOTALLY lucked out in that while we were having our “field trip”,  there were (approved) archeologists  surveying the battlefield at the same time!   A fire went through this area a couple years ago and it revealed much about the 10 mile battlefield.  That has re-energized archeological focus.

The afternoon we were there, a mere 139 years later,  the archeologists, found 5 bullets from the battle using metal detectors.  . The archeologists were able to identify the bullets and what types of gun they would have been shot from. They were happy to talk to us and show us what they had found.  Unfortunately I had nothing to write with, and my brain just doesn’t comprehend gun and bullet information, so my retelling is very basic.

This first bullet could have been fired by anyone, cavalry, scouts or Indians. The rifles using these bullets were surplus from the Civil War and everyone had them.

This second bullet is known to have been fired by a Cavalry soldier, given the rifle that used it. The archeologist told us that, after 6-8 firings, the rifles of the day would be so dirty with powder that their accuracy was greatly reduced. Perhaps that explains the seemingly low numbers of casualties in this battle.  As an aside, battlefield archeologists and forencics have been able to trace the same gun to three different battles based on bullet striations.

As we were leaving the battlefield, with Judy in the lead, we passed next to a sandstone rock formation with pictures and names carved upon it, many old and some, unfortunately, more current.

With directions as to where to look, we were able to find the name G.CROOK and the date 1876 carved in the rock. The carving in the picture is quite faint but it is distinguishable in direct viewing. Only the R and the 8 have worn to the point that you have to assume them.

We even learned something about Elko at the Rosebud Battlefield State Park.  Tyler, pictured above with the archeologists (on the left) watched Elko run his nose along the barbed wire fence (presumably to determine if their was a barb) before he crouched and crawled under the fence.   Obviously he didn’t learn that in our backyard in Boise!  We have always suspected he had been a ranch dog in his former life (because he showed us years ago that he can herd cows) and that seems further confirmation.   He is such a smart boy!

We have learned so much in this place – and we love that!

Additionally, Randy has also been able to share some learning.   Casey, the current Americorp volunteer, lives in a trailer supplied here at the park.  Although the water heater appeared to work well, the water in the sink and shower never got above lukewarm.  This has been a problem for years….  Recognizing that Randy would be the expert on all things RV, Casey asked him about it and he figured out the problem in moments.   His work task tomorrow – our final day, will be to write a brief manual for the operation and winterizing of this trailer.

Today, after one more trip into Billings for groceries, we are wrapping things up.   As I write our last Montana blog, Randy is cleaning our truck in preparation for departing.  Clean is good as we will be spending more time in the truck going forward than we have in the last few months.

These last months have taught us things about ourselves and about what we want going forward with our volunteer “career.” We have enjoyed each of the three places we have volunteered this summer and have valued each in different ways and for different reasons. Even so, volunteering for four of five months, over three different states, is more than we will do again.  We also now know that we want our future volunteer service to be less structured  – not specifically  tasked with scheduled hours.   That is  good to know because my dream volunteer job had been to be a lighthouse docent on the Oregon coast.   I don’t think so anymore.

We have absolutely no regrets about how we’ve spent this season. We are blessed to have the opportunity to live and learn – even about ourselves.

We are getting ready to move again and my people are ready. We have been volunteering for four of the last five months and even though they liked it, they are ready to be on their own schedule again.

As for me, Elko, big black dog – I like this place. In fact, of all the 66 places we’ve been since we left my house and backyard – this is the place I like best. I don’t care about the Chief, but I like the park and all the grass. I get to chase my ball and it takes a long time to walk around all the grass.  I hardly ever have to be on a leash. There are only a few of us that live in the park so once the gates are closed (It use to be 8:00 pm, but now it is 5:00) it is all ours.

I’m the only dog living in the park. There are two dogs next door that bark sometimes but I don’t pay any attention to them. My dad says they must speak Crow.  We are surrounded by the reservation, so we see dogs coming through the park sometimes, but I’m the only one that should be here.

One night my mom took me out before bed and there was something scary out there. I growled and my hair stood up – and then my mom made me go inside. I don’t know for sure if it was a mountain lion, or a bear, or a coyote (or ?) because I’ve never seen any of those things up close, but it could have been any of them and I was spooked. I was still spooked the next night too!

There are always interesting smells when we go out in the mornings. I know there have been other animals in my big yard!  Sometimes I even go out by myself here and that is different since Mom always goes out with me everywhere else.

Sometimes my mom and I get up early when it is still dark and we like to watch the sunrise over the Chief’s House and the tipi. One day mom got some great pictures! These are for real because mom doesn’t know how to photo-shop.  We made dad get up to see that sunrise because it was pretty special.

5:38 am

5:44 am

5:45 am

5:47 am

I know why the Crow people always had their tipi openings facing east – so they could see the great sunrises too.

My people have worked a lot here. Mom is always in the visitor center museum so she leaves our trailer at 10:00,  comes home for lunch and then goes back. Mom gets home about 5:00. I never get to go to work with her.

My dad works about the same hours but he does better things. He drives the tractor and the lawn mowers and plays with this huge sprinkler called the Big Squirt.

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Sometimes I get to go to work with him if he is doing something in the shop or picking up trash.

I have to spend time in the trailer here while they are at work and that isn’t so fun.  The great part is that since we live so far away, they never leave me after work to go anywhere. Even on days off, everything is so far away, that I almost always get to go!

We are surrounded by the Crow Indian Reservation and in a town called Pryor. Our park is the nicest place in the whole town. A lot of people from town come here to have a picnic, or fish in the creek, or play on the playground. Everyday people bring jugs and get water from one of the faucets because they don’t have water at their houses.   Pryor is a small town that has houses, schools, a Crow Baptist church, a community center and a post office. It has a gas station but it doesn’t sell the kind my dad needs in his truck. There isn’t even a grocery store so we always have to go in to Billings on our days off to get food.

Pryor is the name of the town, the creek, the mountains and the valley. They were all named after Sgt. Pryor. He was part of the Corps of Discovery with Lewis and Clark. When Lewis and Clark split up and went different ways by boat, Sgt. Pryor was in charge of the horses. He and his men were suppose to take the horses to the Mandan Villages.  Only two days later the Crow Indians took all the horses from Sgt. Pryor.  The Crow Indians didn’t even meet Lewis, Clark or Sgt. Pryor. They just took their horses.  It was a way to count coup in the Crow way of life.

Sgt. Pryor and his men had to build some boats made of buffalo skins to travel. They caught up with William Clark 400 miles downstream.

When we leave we aren’t going to go by boat, or go 400 miles.  When we leave this cool place that I like a lot,  we are going to a place called Devils Tower in Wyoming.  We are going to wander around Wyoming for a week and then go to Fort Collins, Colorado for a Boise State football game.  I’m pretty sure I am going to have to stay in the trailer while they go to the football game….    Elko

We had friends come to visit! We love it when that happens. Mark and Teri left Farragut and routed through Billings to see us. Thank you Mark and Teri!
They drove out to see us and our park.

Randy and Mark played disc golf both days and were too busy having fun to take any pictures. They replayed the two courses Randy had already played – one being Diamond X – a national destination course. With Mark’s pointers and encouragement, Randy is having fun and becoming quite interested in disc golf. I am really bad at throwing frisbees, but I might try.

Teri and I went on a tour of the Moss Mansion in Billings. It was built in 1903 at a cost of $100,000 – back when houses cost about $3000. It was quite lovely but one thing that puzzled me was that there were four or five washrooms adjacent to bedrooms, but only two had toilets. If you are going all out (and they did) why only two toilets? They also had a telephone in the Moss Mansion 2 years before phones were available in New York City.  Definitely worth the stop and tour if you like this kind of thing – and I do.

Of course, going out to eat was on the agenda. We went to the Burger Dive which won the National Red Robin Burger Bash in 2014 for their Black Sabbath Burger.

Mark, Randy and I all had the winning burger and we approved. Red Robin served this burger on their special menu for a time – maybe still does.

Mark and Teri are staying at the Billings KOA – the very first KOA campground established in 1962. We wouldn’t have known that if we hadn’t gone to see them.

We said our goodbyes this afternoon. Tomorrow they take off on their journey and we go back to work for one final stretch.  We will be taking off on our journey soon.