no, its not a radio station or a tv station.. its the letters for the Wyoming Junior Rodeo Assoc. which was held in Ralston earlier today (which by the time stamp, means yesterday). We got there after it started and left before it was done because of needing to go to Cody to get some groceries and stuff for Sierra. We saw the girls events. I would have prefered the bull riding, but thats okay, it was still fun watching Sierra go nuts with all the horses and dogs in teh area. She really wants a horse lol. She was pointing and squealing, it was cute. She got to pet two cute lil dogs.. a puppy named Reba, and a "sister" from another litter, Cedar. Cedar was super friendly.. which kinda surprised me since she only had one eye. She gave Sierra lots of kisses and didn't mind that she was trying to pet her a lil on the rough side. Reba was just all sorts of cuteness, but didn't stand a chance of getting attention after I said hi to Cedar lol.
At this stage... if Sierra chooses to want to get into rodeo when she's old enough, it could be lots of fun, because, neither Randal or I know much about rodeo, or even taking care of horses lol.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
lions, tigers and bears?? No... deer, elk and.... cows..Oh My!
We headed to the geyser basin for our usual Thursday trip. It started out with an erruption of Riverside, which is always a fun one to watch. From there we tried heading to another basin to see if we couldn't catch great fountain for the first time. nope... already gone. *sigh*. So, we decided it had been a while since we lookde for animals in teh Lamar valley...and the geyser basins were gonna be quiet most of the rest of the time we'd be in the park. So off we headed to Lamar. We saw several areas that appeared to be animal jams, but couldn't see anything. One area was definetely a wolf jam.. but people were already double parked, and the biologist was packing up.. which isn't a good sign if you want to see the wolves. Then there was a spot where people were hitting their breaks ahead of us.. I scanned the area.. bear..wait.. no.. charred tree stump...wait.. noo....it's MOVING! It IS a bear! I finally got the chance to get good pics of a black bear! It was eating plants in the field. You could even hear it huff and chomp.. crazyness! That alone made the night completely worth it. We headed out of the park and went to cooke city to get food. Our favorite deli was closed.. we peeked at the bistro next to it, but dinner prices were a bit steep, so we went to teh saloon that is family friendly. They were out of pizza dough and steak sandwhiches which limited you to burgers, chicken sandwhiches or fish taco. I've never been brave enough to try a fish taco, so I went with a burger. It was pretty good, and the price wasn't bad... teh other deli is way better for burgers, but their pizza and steak sandwhich looked amazing!
It was dark when we got done. We headed down the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway to get home.. I spotted a couple deer, thankfully none of them tried jumping out in teh road. As we got farther into teh mountain road, I saw something on the side of the road that freaked me out.. 3 black cows...NOT behind a fence.. right next to the road. It was open grazing land.. ugh! A lil bit farther down the road I saw a brown and white cow a lil farther off the road.. I couldnt wait to get out of open range! Of course when we finally got out of that there was an elk on the side of the road. Thankfully nothing jumped out at us.. but I saw way too much wildlife within 3 feet of the road in teh dark on teh way home!!! A good trip though... no matter how you look at it! (...and the cows really add something to thoughts of having to pee so bad you are willing to go on the side of the road... they definetely make a person think a lot harder on that one lol...not that grizzley country wouldn't anyway lol)
It was dark when we got done. We headed down the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway to get home.. I spotted a couple deer, thankfully none of them tried jumping out in teh road. As we got farther into teh mountain road, I saw something on the side of the road that freaked me out.. 3 black cows...NOT behind a fence.. right next to the road. It was open grazing land.. ugh! A lil bit farther down the road I saw a brown and white cow a lil farther off the road.. I couldnt wait to get out of open range! Of course when we finally got out of that there was an elk on the side of the road. Thankfully nothing jumped out at us.. but I saw way too much wildlife within 3 feet of the road in teh dark on teh way home!!! A good trip though... no matter how you look at it! (...and the cows really add something to thoughts of having to pee so bad you are willing to go on the side of the road... they definetely make a person think a lot harder on that one lol...not that grizzley country wouldn't anyway lol)
thar' she blows!!!!!!
Okay, so this is a lil late.... but I'm trying to catch up. Tuesday I was roaming the streets with Sierra in the stroller, running some errands, with the goal of walking at least 3 miles. I walked down to Powell Drug, because I have a 3 dollar coupon for there, and they have an old fashioned soda fountain, and, well... it just sounds good. So I went inside to check it out. There was an elderly woman sitting in teh booth who must own part of the store, and she started chatting ...I have no idea how long I was there, but I know it was over an hour! I never did order anything lol. ...which means at some point I have to go back lol. She was really friendly and adored Sierra. She even offered me a free cup of coffee...something I never expected. I politely declined since I'm not really a fan of coffee. After telling her I had to go about 5 times, I finally escaped...yes, at that point it was an escape!
From there, I went to the college to turn in my non-trad orientation paperwork. I ended up talking to the records and registration specialist for quite a long time as well, because she absolutely adored Sierra as well. I also was amused because Sierra was able to play with a 2 and 3 yr old for a little while their mom registered for classes, and she seemed to really enjoy chasing the boys down. I discovered after the fall semester I will only need about 3 classes to graduate! ...unfortunately unless my parents move out for the winter semester, it's not gonna happen, because I need to be on campus for at least one of them... and Sierra is too young for the day care. Very exciting stuff though!
When I left the school, I looked at the time and realized I couldn't finish my last errand because I was already pushing missing Randal for lunch. We booked it home and found a note on teh computer telling me to push play on teh video on the computer and then flip the index card over. Giantess was errupting.. one of the geysers that only errupts about 2-3 times a year. I had instructions to be ready to go to teh park by 3:30. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't have anything to make dinner on the run...you know.. things like bread so I could make our normal peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches. As I was getting Sierras stuff together a HUGE storm blew in... Rain came busting through the screen a good 4 feet into the apt! I quickly shut the windows! I wondered if we were still going, but the radar looked clear once this got past us.
Randal got home around 3, and we were out the door about 3:15. We grabbed quiznos for dinner.. mmmmm... mostly healthy, and super good! We got to teh basin and he took Sierra and went ahead while I putz a bit. ..I mean, its just a geyser....right? ...yeah.. no..
I am the type of person who gets excited by all geysers...even the little 1-2 feet tall ones. Typically I will skip by a HUGE one for a chance to see one I've never seen before... so I was figuring this one wouldn't really make me any more excited than seeing Grand or Riverside for the first time.. even if it is rare. I took a couple wrong turns trying to get to geyser hill...I never realized how many paths you could take on the board walk before that! I got fairly close and Giantess errupted with a series of "minors"...I got goosebumps! It was this amazing feeling. I'm not sure why, other than I guess I realized this was something really impressive.. and these weren't even the big show it put on when it first errupted that morning. Close to 12 hours later and it was still putting on a show that was simply amazing!
From there I saw so many geysers for the first time.. Infant, Lion, pump-- shooting higher than I'd ever saw, Aurum...I'm sure the list goes on. I was in geyser heaven. Giant was acting different than I'd ever saw too, which could have been a minor hot period...it didn't errupt.. that would have just been far too amazing! It's been since the late 1800's since anyone has saw both Giant and Giantess errupt on teh same day... I wasn't that lucky, but you know.. I didn't really feel let down. It was a great day at the basin!
From there, I went to the college to turn in my non-trad orientation paperwork. I ended up talking to the records and registration specialist for quite a long time as well, because she absolutely adored Sierra as well. I also was amused because Sierra was able to play with a 2 and 3 yr old for a little while their mom registered for classes, and she seemed to really enjoy chasing the boys down. I discovered after the fall semester I will only need about 3 classes to graduate! ...unfortunately unless my parents move out for the winter semester, it's not gonna happen, because I need to be on campus for at least one of them... and Sierra is too young for the day care. Very exciting stuff though!
When I left the school, I looked at the time and realized I couldn't finish my last errand because I was already pushing missing Randal for lunch. We booked it home and found a note on teh computer telling me to push play on teh video on the computer and then flip the index card over. Giantess was errupting.. one of the geysers that only errupts about 2-3 times a year. I had instructions to be ready to go to teh park by 3:30. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't have anything to make dinner on the run...you know.. things like bread so I could make our normal peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches. As I was getting Sierras stuff together a HUGE storm blew in... Rain came busting through the screen a good 4 feet into the apt! I quickly shut the windows! I wondered if we were still going, but the radar looked clear once this got past us.
Randal got home around 3, and we were out the door about 3:15. We grabbed quiznos for dinner.. mmmmm... mostly healthy, and super good! We got to teh basin and he took Sierra and went ahead while I putz a bit. ..I mean, its just a geyser....right? ...yeah.. no..
I am the type of person who gets excited by all geysers...even the little 1-2 feet tall ones. Typically I will skip by a HUGE one for a chance to see one I've never seen before... so I was figuring this one wouldn't really make me any more excited than seeing Grand or Riverside for the first time.. even if it is rare. I took a couple wrong turns trying to get to geyser hill...I never realized how many paths you could take on the board walk before that! I got fairly close and Giantess errupted with a series of "minors"...I got goosebumps! It was this amazing feeling. I'm not sure why, other than I guess I realized this was something really impressive.. and these weren't even the big show it put on when it first errupted that morning. Close to 12 hours later and it was still putting on a show that was simply amazing!
From there I saw so many geysers for the first time.. Infant, Lion, pump-- shooting higher than I'd ever saw, Aurum...I'm sure the list goes on. I was in geyser heaven. Giant was acting different than I'd ever saw too, which could have been a minor hot period...it didn't errupt.. that would have just been far too amazing! It's been since the late 1800's since anyone has saw both Giant and Giantess errupt on teh same day... I wasn't that lucky, but you know.. I didn't really feel let down. It was a great day at the basin!
Monday, June 22, 2009
fathers day
we ended up going hiking in the Beartooth Wilderness for fathers day. A liesurely day hike. We cut it shorter than we had planned, because the weather didnt look all that great after about 2 miles in, and because...well... it appears we aren't in quite as good of shape as we thought. Who would have guessed hiking mountains could be so difficult lol. I probably would have made it the whole way, even though my knee was screaming at me to go home, but we didn't want to get caught in an afternoon thunderstorm with Sierra. We played in an open meadow for a bit, where it was shining brightly offering a lil more warmth than the tree covered trail. The only things that ruined the fun was itch weed and bear dung. We didn't see any bears, but I was still nervous.
On the way back down, someone had a full grown black poodle that looked very much like a black bear on the trail lol. At least he was friendly lol. We also found a spot where a moose had crossed the path after we went through, bummer, I'd have loved to have seen him.. well, on the other side of the river anyway.
from there it was adventures at walmart and kmart...weee.. what fun!... not! Made Randal dinner, and played with Sierra the rest of the night.
On the way back down, someone had a full grown black poodle that looked very much like a black bear on the trail lol. At least he was friendly lol. We also found a spot where a moose had crossed the path after we went through, bummer, I'd have loved to have seen him.. well, on the other side of the river anyway.
from there it was adventures at walmart and kmart...weee.. what fun!... not! Made Randal dinner, and played with Sierra the rest of the night.
free boat rides
The Big Horn Rec. area had their annual Big Horn Lake days, which included among other things, free boat rides on teh resevoir through the canyon. Very cool....well, at least once I relaxed enough to enjoy it. There is something about having nightmares about something for a couple days the week before you go that kinda ruins the mood until you remind yourself nothing that is happening in reality was like your dream. Admittedly, the captain didn't help my fears any by jokin that they had only lost one guy all day and if you see Billy to let them know.
The sights were breath taking, and amazing. The lake is huge! The canyon walls tower way above you. It;s pretty wild. I would love to own a boat and fish and boat on that lake!
Sierra seemed to enjoy it while she was awake at least. She didn't like wearing the life jacket, but she really wasn't given a choice. Its the law, but after my nightmares, she was wearing one no matter what!
After the boat ride, we went to teh beach area and I let Sierra walk the shoreline holding my hands. The water was a bit chilly, but it didn't bother her one bit. She waded about thigh deep and would have sat down if I would have let her lol. She wasn't very happy when it was time to sit on teh shore and wait for daddy to get done taking photos for work.
We drove the wild horse range, and saw about 6 horses, all up close.. but all on Randals side of the car so I didn't get any pictures. I did get lots of pics of wild flowers though, which made me happy.
Then we were off to get photos of the catfish derby. I didn't get to see any of the anglers for that, since Sierra had fallen asleep and we didn't want to disturb her. It was a fun day. I may have enjoyed the mule rodeo just as much, but unless another one happens, I guess I may never know.
The sights were breath taking, and amazing. The lake is huge! The canyon walls tower way above you. It;s pretty wild. I would love to own a boat and fish and boat on that lake!
Sierra seemed to enjoy it while she was awake at least. She didn't like wearing the life jacket, but she really wasn't given a choice. Its the law, but after my nightmares, she was wearing one no matter what!
After the boat ride, we went to teh beach area and I let Sierra walk the shoreline holding my hands. The water was a bit chilly, but it didn't bother her one bit. She waded about thigh deep and would have sat down if I would have let her lol. She wasn't very happy when it was time to sit on teh shore and wait for daddy to get done taking photos for work.
We drove the wild horse range, and saw about 6 horses, all up close.. but all on Randals side of the car so I didn't get any pictures. I did get lots of pics of wild flowers though, which made me happy.
Then we were off to get photos of the catfish derby. I didn't get to see any of the anglers for that, since Sierra had fallen asleep and we didn't want to disturb her. It was a fun day. I may have enjoyed the mule rodeo just as much, but unless another one happens, I guess I may never know.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
quick update/ restaurant review
We haven't been doing a whole lot of exploring lately, but the other day we had a baseball game to cover in Lovell, so we snagged a pizza from Pizza on the Run, which was incredibly good and made the short detour to the big horn rec area to see the wild horses and see how high the water had gotten since we have had an unusually wet spring.
The resevoir was up quite a bit, and we were a bit surprised that the first furry critters we saw were a small pack of big horn rams. They were all right next to the road on my side. I have to admit when the one jumped up and was staring me down I couldn't help but remember the youtube video of the ram having a case of road rage and bumping the cars front bumper. I was glad this one just stared me down the entire time I was snapping off pictures, he made it hard on me though, as he blocked a couple of them, and made teh others hard to get a GOOD pic of. I did get at least one amazing shot of him though. I guess that counts for something.
We drove all the way through and hadn't saw our wild horses and were a bit shocked that we might get skunked for the first time. After going down one of the side areas we finally found a single mare. I have no idea where the rest of the herd was, they aren't typically solitary animals. On the way out we finally saw one more just a short distance from teh start of the horse range.. go figure lol. Still have no idea where the rest of the herd was though.
Randal went on a bird watching tour today. I was going to, but it would have involved getting up at 5 am, and taking the car seat out of our car and putting it into the shuttle van. I wasn't sure if anyone else was going, so I didn't want to risk getting there and it ending up being full. It also wasn't the warmest weather this morning that early, and as it turns out, it was raining the entire two hours Randal and the guide were out on the walk, so it was better I didn't got. I guess they saw 26 varieties of birds.. There are a TON of birds I am not familiar with out here. At some point I will try to start photographing them, but for now, I'll settle for the bigger critters.
Tonight we decided to try the Lamplighter Inn. We'd read a good review of it on Yahoo, and were excited to try something new in town. We were rather disappointed. The food was horrifyingly overpriced, and wasn't THAT good. It was alright.. but not for the prices they were charging. They cheated when it came to desert though.. they have a Godiva chocolate cheesecake.. how am I supposed to have enough will power to fight THAT??? At least that was good!
Slowly and surely we are getting a list of places to go out here for when our friends and family visit.
Admitedly, I would love to have more of my friends and family move out here.. that would be really cool. I joke that my motto is: I came...I saw... and now I'm conquering LOL.
The resevoir was up quite a bit, and we were a bit surprised that the first furry critters we saw were a small pack of big horn rams. They were all right next to the road on my side. I have to admit when the one jumped up and was staring me down I couldn't help but remember the youtube video of the ram having a case of road rage and bumping the cars front bumper. I was glad this one just stared me down the entire time I was snapping off pictures, he made it hard on me though, as he blocked a couple of them, and made teh others hard to get a GOOD pic of. I did get at least one amazing shot of him though. I guess that counts for something.
We drove all the way through and hadn't saw our wild horses and were a bit shocked that we might get skunked for the first time. After going down one of the side areas we finally found a single mare. I have no idea where the rest of the herd was, they aren't typically solitary animals. On the way out we finally saw one more just a short distance from teh start of the horse range.. go figure lol. Still have no idea where the rest of the herd was though.
Randal went on a bird watching tour today. I was going to, but it would have involved getting up at 5 am, and taking the car seat out of our car and putting it into the shuttle van. I wasn't sure if anyone else was going, so I didn't want to risk getting there and it ending up being full. It also wasn't the warmest weather this morning that early, and as it turns out, it was raining the entire two hours Randal and the guide were out on the walk, so it was better I didn't got. I guess they saw 26 varieties of birds.. There are a TON of birds I am not familiar with out here. At some point I will try to start photographing them, but for now, I'll settle for the bigger critters.
Tonight we decided to try the Lamplighter Inn. We'd read a good review of it on Yahoo, and were excited to try something new in town. We were rather disappointed. The food was horrifyingly overpriced, and wasn't THAT good. It was alright.. but not for the prices they were charging. They cheated when it came to desert though.. they have a Godiva chocolate cheesecake.. how am I supposed to have enough will power to fight THAT??? At least that was good!
Slowly and surely we are getting a list of places to go out here for when our friends and family visit.
Admitedly, I would love to have more of my friends and family move out here.. that would be really cool. I joke that my motto is: I came...I saw... and now I'm conquering LOL.
Friday, June 5, 2009
yellowstone to earthquake lake and back again
We hadn't intended on going to the park yesterday, since we heard the weather was supposed to suck. Looking outside that morning we saw nothing but blue skies and a bright sun, so we decided to give it a shot once Randal's staff meeting was done.
We stopped for lunch at a quaint lil restraunt called Clarks Fork and Spoon... a rather cleverly named restaurant that is off the clark's fork river. We have eaten there once before, it's ran (as near as I can tell) by two couples... and is currently for sale for a mere 1.4 mill... I think you'd do alright if you bought it.. we'd consider it.. but we haven't that kind of money lol. Anyway.. it's a nice lil place that has great food. Elk burgers, bison burgers, regular beef burgers in several varieties as well as other odds and ends. They have really good burgers.. we have tried teh elk, the deluxe and the chili burger between the two visits now. They have really good sweet potato fries too! It's apparently a popular place according to the pin placement on their where are you from map. TONS of people from Europe, it was pretty cool.
From there we headed into yellowstone... only to get poured on....so we drove... we saw a couple mountain goats off in the far distance with the spotting scope and binoculars. We ended up near West Yellowstone and saw an elk with her calf.. very cool.. first one of the year.. we got a couple pics of them! Then we went to Earthquake lake. Apparently it's not as cool as it once was, because you can't quite get a feel for what the earthquake did. I still thought it was pretty cool, but I agree that seeing the old road in segments 6 feet from one another probably would have made it even more impressive. The really cool part was when Randal stopped so I could read an interpretive sign I caught movement in the grass behind the sign and realized it was a badger!! I have never saw a badger in the wild and wasn't about to let the photo opportunity pass without at least attempting a good pic. Randal armed me with his work camera and my 300 mm lens and I was out in the rain stalking the badger lol. I was about to give up as it kept running away from me, when it went to run for its den.. which happened to be in front of me! yay!! HE posed ever so nicely on the wood rail fence and I snapped of several pics. A car drove past and scared him the other direction again.. grrrrr... I at least got 4 really good pics and 2 okay pics though.
As we were heading back through the park to get home I saw a rabbit that looked so strange to me.. and had he not took off into the sage brush I would have snapped off a couple pics of him too. We came to the conclusion it was a snowshoe hare that hadn't finished changing for the summer. His 4 paws were all white, then there was a really dark brown strip just above the white and the rest looked like a cottentail. VERY cool to see!
We drove through a couple geyser basins, and cascade/falls areas that I hadn't ever saw before which was pretty neat. It amazes me that I have been to the park 13 times this year already and I still am seeing new stuff!
On the way home, Sierra started to get bored, so I was using her stuffed grizzley to play with her, and was making it growl at her and "gobble her up" and then I'd hand it to her to play with and she must have liked that play theme cuz she was squealing and babbling to the effect of either a soprano grizzly or an elk bugling lol. It was by far the funniest thing I have saw or heard in a long time! She also liked looking at and "talking" to the wolf chart we have. She LOVES animals!
We stopped for lunch at a quaint lil restraunt called Clarks Fork and Spoon... a rather cleverly named restaurant that is off the clark's fork river. We have eaten there once before, it's ran (as near as I can tell) by two couples... and is currently for sale for a mere 1.4 mill... I think you'd do alright if you bought it.. we'd consider it.. but we haven't that kind of money lol. Anyway.. it's a nice lil place that has great food. Elk burgers, bison burgers, regular beef burgers in several varieties as well as other odds and ends. They have really good burgers.. we have tried teh elk, the deluxe and the chili burger between the two visits now. They have really good sweet potato fries too! It's apparently a popular place according to the pin placement on their where are you from map. TONS of people from Europe, it was pretty cool.
From there we headed into yellowstone... only to get poured on....so we drove... we saw a couple mountain goats off in the far distance with the spotting scope and binoculars. We ended up near West Yellowstone and saw an elk with her calf.. very cool.. first one of the year.. we got a couple pics of them! Then we went to Earthquake lake. Apparently it's not as cool as it once was, because you can't quite get a feel for what the earthquake did. I still thought it was pretty cool, but I agree that seeing the old road in segments 6 feet from one another probably would have made it even more impressive. The really cool part was when Randal stopped so I could read an interpretive sign I caught movement in the grass behind the sign and realized it was a badger!! I have never saw a badger in the wild and wasn't about to let the photo opportunity pass without at least attempting a good pic. Randal armed me with his work camera and my 300 mm lens and I was out in the rain stalking the badger lol. I was about to give up as it kept running away from me, when it went to run for its den.. which happened to be in front of me! yay!! HE posed ever so nicely on the wood rail fence and I snapped of several pics. A car drove past and scared him the other direction again.. grrrrr... I at least got 4 really good pics and 2 okay pics though.
As we were heading back through the park to get home I saw a rabbit that looked so strange to me.. and had he not took off into the sage brush I would have snapped off a couple pics of him too. We came to the conclusion it was a snowshoe hare that hadn't finished changing for the summer. His 4 paws were all white, then there was a really dark brown strip just above the white and the rest looked like a cottentail. VERY cool to see!
We drove through a couple geyser basins, and cascade/falls areas that I hadn't ever saw before which was pretty neat. It amazes me that I have been to the park 13 times this year already and I still am seeing new stuff!
On the way home, Sierra started to get bored, so I was using her stuffed grizzley to play with her, and was making it growl at her and "gobble her up" and then I'd hand it to her to play with and she must have liked that play theme cuz she was squealing and babbling to the effect of either a soprano grizzly or an elk bugling lol. It was by far the funniest thing I have saw or heard in a long time! She also liked looking at and "talking" to the wolf chart we have. She LOVES animals!
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