Home at Last September 22, 2010

We had a long week in Chicago. Sad goodbye to our sister, sister-in-law Mary. She was a very special person. As we traveled around Chicagoland to various events, I noted that the monarch butterflies were still headed south. Saw them in the western suburbs, in the south suburbs(while having lunch with Judy) and as we traveled east to Pennsylvania. What a long journey they have to Mexico. Whenever I see them I will think of the long journey Mary has had and hope that she is enjoying them from above.

September 13, 2010 Omaha to Davenport

Omaha a much bigger place than we thought, but we missed the rush hour, so we had no problems navigating through the city. We crossed the Missouri once again, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The eastern part of Nebraska is greener. The colors of fall are emerging; goldenrod turning yellow and the corn is turning brown.




Crossing Iowa, many amazing museums: Danish Immigrant Museum, Bob Feller Museum and the Iowa Historic Aviation Museum to mention a few.

Iowa is more hilly than I expected. Rolling hills so you are not looking out over flatness. Passed the "Bridges of Madison County" before we reached Des Moines, which is another capital city. A note about the name of a convenience store found in Nebraska and Iowa. "Kum and Go" Just grates on me sort of like "U-Totem".

Most amazing site on the road today is a rest stop about at the 237 mile marker, east bound. It is dedicated to writers. The picnic shelters have a wall of metal with quotes from authors cut out-a special place. The pictures cannot do it justice. Hooray for Iowa.

September 12, 2010 Nebraska

Leaving Cheyenne, the elevation was 6000 feet and we headed out across the high prairie, brown colors, buttes and stone formations. As we entered Nebraska, some of the same land formations, but the land flattening, with rolling hills. Elevation descending, fields of crops rather than ranch land with fences. Cows are brown. The wind continues to blow and lots of wind farms on the horizon. We end the day in Omaha, so we have touched several capital cities; Helena, Cheyenne and Lincoln.

September 11, 2010 Leaving Jackson, Wyoming

It was a spectacularly beautiful morning. As beautiful as it was 9 years ago on this date. The mountains were wonderful, with snow capped peaks. We headed north to head east, so we passed along the Teton range again. It turned out to be a bittersweet view, as we learned later that Mike's sister Mary lost her valiant fight with cancer this morning.





The drive out of the mountains was amazing, despite road difficulties early on. Then we traveled across Wyoming, from the mountains, over the high plains, with the terrain changing particularly in color. The mountains were green, then brown. Drove miles with little traffic and not much in the way of civilization. Lots of fence and the occasional herd of cows. Ended the day in the capital city of Cheyenne.

September 10, 2010 Leaving Yellowstone

No snow at our campsite, but very cold and damp. The rain stopped so we packed up the trailer and went for breakfast at the General Store. There we learned that several of the northern and eastern passes out of the park were closed by the snow. After breakfast we headed out without any bison jams. Going south, we had snow, and more so the higher we went, but the roads were clear. The snow was wet and it looked like a Christmas scene with the snow on the top of the pine and fir branches.

We came down slightly in elevation and entered Grand Teton National Park. You could catch glimpses of the Teton peaks, snow covered. Cloud were blowing in front of the mountains and as our friends in Europe would say, the mountains are sleeping. We didn't stop for pictures. We reached the park visitor center, where we had cell service and learned Mary was fading quickly. We made the decision to leave Teton tomorrow to head back to Chicago.

We found our campsite; it was so-so. Very nice Italian restaurant next to campground where we had a nice dinner as the weather cleared. Getting cold again at night, but tonite we have electric service, so better heat.

September 9, 2010 Upper Loop to Mammoth Hot Springs

While waiting for the bison jam, took a picture from Fishing Bridge. Once passed the bison jams and once we got to the Canyon junction it was smooth sailing. We stopped at a picnic area and took pictures of the ravens. They are huge birds.

Once we reached the Mammoth area we ran into another traffic jam, just volume. We stopped at the upper loop of the hot springs and walked out onto the platform and walkways. Quite beautiful, even with the cloudy weather. We drove down to the hotel and visitor center area and secured parking spaces at the general store, to eat our lunch, and then near the visitor center. The weather forecast was not good, 1-3 inches of snow overnight. We thought that would be just at Mammoth, but as we traveled back to Fishing Bridge, the same forecast followed us.

We stopped at the Canyon visitor center, where I had a nice conversation with one of the clerks about Thomas Moran. He was quite knowledgeable and gave me some references about artists painting in Yellowstone. I bought a poster of one of Moran's Grand Canyon Falls paintings.


Traveling back to Fishing Creek, we encountered no more bison jams. We did see bison in a beautiful setting as they grazed in a field away from the highway. But it was now very chilly and overcast and damp. We were hoping the battery holds out until morning.

September 8, 2010 Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Thomas Moran is one of my favorite landscape painters and he made Yellowstone famous, especially the Grand Canyon. We headed out to see it, but not before being stuck in not one, but two bison jams that were huge. The first was broken up by a ranger and the second by a rain storm. We started with the south rim and drove all the way out to Artist Point. The sun came out briefly and the canyon lit up. You cannot imagine how beautiful it is and really, a photo cannot do it justice-hence Moran and others who painted here. The colors shifted as the sky changed. We walked about a half mile further out along the canyon trail to reach Point Sublime, but we turned back because of time. The view from Artist Point is the upper falls.

We went back along the rim to the lower falls. There is a trail that goes down 328 steps to a viewing platform. The catch is the 328 steps back up. Uncle Tom's trail. I went about 1/3 of the way down, with knees screaming. Mike continued the whole way. I will have to view Mike's photo's to see the view.

In the afternoon, we went on a wildlife tour. We went to the Lamar Valley. Along the way, we saw pronghorn, the ubiquitous bison, a grizzly, mule deer, an elk, who was attacked by a wolf and took refuge in a creek, with the wolf laying in wait(never did see the wolf). Tour was not what we expected, but someone else was driving through a mountainous part of the park.