Joan on the Road

I used to hate Saturday because it always meant cleaning. Wasn't it the only day available for that chore when you worked 10 hour days? Now the joy of Saturday is that you might not even know what day it is :) So yesterday, after the long morning coffee hour, I sat outside with a good book and read until time for dinner. I'm into reading a huge John Jakes book, Homeland. It's about the Crown family of Chicago. I've read another in the series and really enjoy the character development and detail of Jake's stories. I picked this book up off the swap shelf here in the laundry. It's a paperback about 3 inches thick and it's very hard to hold open. I have to keep cracking the spine!

Last night's dinner was grilled veggies and teriyaki chicken. Lots of veggies...onion, peppers, mushrooms, zuchini, broccoli all marinated in an oil/balsalmic vinegar dressing then grilled outside for 15-20 minutes. Really very good. Dessert was a bowl of mixed fresh fruits. Jim found a new Safeway store here that is huge, clean and lovely. He did a big shopping there while I was relaxing :) Lucky me!

We had a new movie to watch that Jim got from a birthday gift certificate (thanks Renee and Tom). I can highly recommend this one--The Crossing starring Jeff Daniels. It's about General Washington and the Continental Army crossing the Delaware to fight the Battle of Trenton. It is very well done and strangely, very moving. I got teary eyed when the Hessians (British mercenaries) surrendered to Washington. It was a turning point! If they'd lost the battle we would have been Canadian ;)

Laura hasn't been feeling well all week so she called and asked if we'd shop at Good Foods for them on our way down to visit. We had birthday cards that I'd made for her and Stevo. I love making cards for the family. Laura loves iris so I used Photoshop to "cut" an iris from a picture of her garden and then paste it into a lovely background and soften it a little. It's kinda artsy fartsy! Of course, I added text and verse :)

For Steve I found a picture of him standing by the Kootenai Creek taken a few years ago. I gave it canvas painting effect and added some words of love. They enjoyed the cards and we hope to take them out for a birthday dinner later this week. I think Laura was feeling better when we left. Maybe she just needed a hug from her Mommy!

Tonight we were delighted to find that Masterpiece Theater on PBS is running the Inspector Lewis series. If you ever saw Inspector Morse you'll know that Lewis was his sergeant. The new series is pretty good, not quite as unique as Morse but maybe it will improve. Still, there's nothing like a good English mystery!

Today's Soothing Music: Sunday Morning Coffee, an old Chip Davis collection, "neo-classical", and just right for a lazy Sunday morning.

Posted by Joan at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of my favorite blogs is Geeks On Tour by Chris and Jim Guld. There is an amazing amount of "geeky" learning material on their site. Chris posted an entry with an embedded slide show and then a tutorial on how to put the show in a blog. So I followed along and here are the results. I did this in about 5 minutes. VERRRY simple!

This album of pix is from winter 2007-08 but it's a nice grouping of shots. Hope the family enjoys this. Lucky Evan gets to see himself on the Internet all the time!

Even though I use the Photoshop Suite a lot, I really like the Picasa photo manager. It picks up every picture and organizes them nicely. Both programs just look for pictures on the computer, wherever you designate, and then create thumbnails that you can organize in many ways and easily upload.

Today's favorite blog: Geeks on Tour
Today's good breakfast: Scrambled eggs, bacon, cantelope slices and strawberries
Today's music: Ricky Nelson Greatest Hits (Went to the Garden Party!)

Posted by Joan at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My Photoshop Suite package arrived Wednesday and after loading both programs I've spent several hours importing photos and playing around with movies and slide shows. I'm impresssed AND having fun! First of all, just importing the photos from the last three years has been fun becaue I've reviewed our travels as the pictures flashed by. Second, it hasn't taken me long to get the hang of making a short movie with transitions, titles and audio.

I posted an expanded "buffalo" video on YouTube.

I know I've got a lot to learn in editing but it was fun just to create this little clip. The "suite" I got is a 'bundle" from Adobe of Photoshop Elements 6 and Photoshop Premiere Elements 4. Between them you can fix and edit both still and video clips then create slide shows, movies and a mix of still and video. Uploading to YouTube is built in so it automatically compresses AND reduces the resolution so this clip took only 10 minutes to upload as opposed to the 4 hour timeframe for the shorter clip I did a few weeks ago.

I've had a couple of problems importing the video clips from the hard drive but worked my way around them. Seems like all *.avi files are not the same. Both programs are fairly intuitive and there are very good tutorials available. So I'm into something new and hope to become "expert". :) I've been so engrossed that Jim has fixed dinner for the last two nights. Now "that's the way I like it. :)

Posted by Joan at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I complained so much about the weather this last winter and spring that I must say it is now beautiful. I look at the 5-day forecast and it is all shining suns :) That's the way I like it, uh huh!

Monday we went to the mall to scope out a Lenscrafters store so I can get new glasses. I really only need the glass part but of course they have a deal going where I can get the lenses and new frames for 50% off which is a little less than if I just bought the lenses. Wonder who figures out these schemes? So I made an appointment for tomorrow and picked out some frames that they're holding for me.

Laura met us for lunch and then Jim went home and she and I went on another shopping spree. This time we bought all tops...sweaters, t's, tanks at buy one get the second for half price deal! I found a GREAT store for me--C.J.Banks. The clothing selection is for the larger woman. I'm not huge but I am fairly well endowed and it's a real pain to find a huge selection of clothes that fit. But CJ is a whole STORE of clothes that fit. I came home with a large bag of goodies :)

Laura also helped me select my glass frames and then we rested with a cup of mocha/latte. We had a good time and we're looking forward to wearing our pretty outfits out to dinner for her and Stevo's birthday celebration...maybe this weekend.

Yesterday we had a mobile oil guy come to the campsite to change the MH and the car oil/filter. What a deal we got! $50 for both of them. Jim provided the oil and filters. Wow! So much easier than packing it all in and taking the MH to a dealer. We sat outside and watched this guy earn his money. Ice tea and a good book...that's the way I like it!

I cleaned out my closets and laid out my new outfits, mixing and matching stuff. Lots of black, white and red with touches of purple and aqua. Lookin' good. I wound up with a pile of stuff for Goodwill. Today we headed out grocery shopping and planned to drop off the clothes. I've been nagging Jim to clean out his closets because he never folllows the "one in one out" rule. To my amazement he said, "let me look at what I have to get rid of." Wonderful!

So we ended up with a huge shopping bag of donations. Finding the store was a bit of fun because of all the diagonal streets in Missoula; intersections where 3 streets come together. One of them is so awful the natives call it "Malfunction Junction". After a U-turn and short detour we got to the store, handed in our deposit and then browsed the book section. It was a pretty good selection and we found 3 hardbacks for 5 bucks. Not bad!

Our grocery shopping took us to Good Foods where we had a salad bar lunch, bought our produce and then moved on to Albertson's for the balance of the list. After all was packed away at home I relaxed with my book and Jim surfed the internet until time for dinner. I was treated to a steak, potato and broccoli dinner followed by a bowl of cherries. That's the way I like it!

Posted by Joan at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's a little something to have fun with! Take me out to the ballgame! :)

Posted by Joan at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My new computer arrived Friday, late afternoon. I'm sitting outside totally immersed in a book when a FedEx guy comes up behind me and says, "M'am?" Then all other plans for the evening went away :)

We cleared off my work area, untangled the jumble of cords and started the set up process. Wow! Was it ever easy. Plugged everything in, turned it on, filled in a few questions and we were on the network and the internet.

Here's the new setup complete with coffee!

Low down on the left you see the computer tucked between the wall and my desk. My external backup drive sits on top. It's a Dell Vostro slim line with 4 GB of ram, Intel Dual Core processor 2.4 Ghz. It is faaast! Remember I said my old laptop took 15 minutes to startup. This one is about a minute. What will I do with all the time?

And it came with Windows XP! So no huge learning curve, just move everything over.

Notice the big monitor? It's a 19" Dell Ultrasharp with 4 USB connections, so it serves as a hub. The black bar on the bottom of the monitor is a speaker bar! It sounds pretty darn good :) My old wireless keyboard and Logitech Trackball complete the setup.

Saturday we spent most of the day loading programs and data but it all went very easily. Even things like moving Internet Explorer Favorites list and all my Outlook Express folders worked like a charm. (Many thanks to my Jim for doing all that!) Today there are just a few programs and files to retrieve from the old laptop and then load pictures and music files.

Jim did a lot of research and reading to find a good setup for me and I really appreciate all that. Actually, there is nothing better that he likes to do than shop and buy, especially electronics. We got our "economic stimulus" check last week and as you can see it's already been spent. The whole new computer package was about $1100 with no sales tax and no shipping charge. Yeah! So I'm set for another 5 years :)

Posted by Joan at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's that tiny collection of dance snippets that son Jim posted as a "teaser." He's captured all (86) four minute, 8 mm movies. I have no idea what's on them and can't wait to get the DVDs.

There's me as a teenager, our daughter, Renee, with the minister's son who didn't dance, and our three kids dancing their way through life :) I love it!

Posted by Joan at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Laura and I met for lunch at Cafe Dolce in the Southgate Mall. We seem to be in a rut because we both enjoy the sandwiches we order there. I forget what Laura has but my fave is a Porchetta (roast port slices with Arugula and cheese on a toasted focacia bread. (Jeez, did I spell all that correctly?) And how does one say Porchetta? The servers seemed to be of mixed opinion but I opt for "porshetta". It would be simpler to ask for a "Porky"!

We shopped 'til we dropped at about 4 PM and then had a latte and mocha. We both resisted the bakery goodies. (Cheers for us!) We both tried on lots of things and I bought a couple of items to flesh out my wardrobe for the upcoming "girls trip". What I really need to do is take everything out of the closet, lay it all out, create my mix and match outfits and then fill in the blanks with new purchases. But I'm afraid that when I lay it all out there will be no good outfits and I'll have to buy all new. Oh well! I haven't bought very many new clothes in our 5 years on the road.

I'm enjoying being here in Montana and spending more time with my "baby" daughter. We have a few more weeks here so there are surely more shopping trips in store. It's great fun to have someone help out in the dressing room and run get different colors and sizes. We had a good laugh she held up some crop pants for me to try and I said, "Oh, those are too big for me! They look like they'd fit two-ton Tessie!" Well, bummer! They fit me! Guess I shouldn't order that "Porky" sandwich :)

Today we got a delightful surprise via email. First, a little background....when we hit the road we left behind a few treasured boxes. Most are in storage but we left one with our son, Jim. Maybe you have a treasure like this--a box of 8 mm movies from our early marriage/family days. He said he'd try to figure out how to get them digitized.

Now he's made it happen and sent us a link with a "teaser" video! "Check it out!" he said. Here's a link to a sampling of dance movies. (There's no sound :) We'll have to add that!)

The dark picture of a couple dancing is me and a friend probably dancing to "Rock Around the Clock" or some other 1956 hit! This is from a rare movie that my Dad took. The next samples are of my kids dancing in the 60's and 70's. What a joy it was to get this little video! Jim says that all 86 movies (you know the 4 minute reels) are captured and DVD's are in the works :) I imagine there will be lots of laughter and tears when we get a chance to view them. Thanks so much, Jim!

Posted by Joan at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The laundry room here at Jim and Mary's RV Park is very nice but very busy. I decided to do just one load of laundry and it's a good thing I did. Another lady had taken up 3 machines for her six loads of laundry. It was good of her to leave one machine free :) While we waited she told me a bit about their 3 month tour from Virginia across the southern U.S. to Washington where they embarked on an Alaskan cruise. A few days ago they returned and are now headed back to Virginia via a northern route. Quite a trip in three months!

We picked up a few groceries and then relaxed outside with books and magazines. What a lovely outdoor day! About 4 PM one of my readers, Beth and her hubby Chris, stopped by for cocktail hour. ...and they brought the fixin's!

We met Beth and Chris at the DataStorm rally a few years ago and have kept in touch via blogs. They are headed to Minnesota from Seattle and stopped here for a few days. They actually saw some of the tourist sites here in Missoula that we haven't yet visited.

We enjoyed wine and bread with dipping sauce that they'd picked up at Good Foods. We had lots of laughs comparing stories that never make it to our blogs :) Thanks for a nice evening guys and safe travels to you!

Posted by Joan at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday and Monday were pretty slow, lazy and relaxed days. I was excited to be able to catch an Angel's baseball game on Sunday on ESPN. But then I was disappointed. Yes, they won and are in first place in their division. But the coverage of the game was so disappointing. The commentators had their eyes and mouths focused on one player and for 80% of the game that's all we heard. Who cared what was happening with the game. It was very disjointed and hard to keep track of what was happening. Oh well....We had a nice spaghetti dinner and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Yesterday we listened to talk radio in the morning and heard mention that Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate were in a playoff for the US Open. We tuned in to that for the last 3 holes. That was pretty intense and there was no extraneous commentary. Tiger won on the first sudden death hole. The jerks on the baseball commentary stated that golfers were not athletes. Well these two golfers are sure athletes in my humble opinion.

We made a quick visit to Dr. Stevo again for him to give my knee a little fix. All is well and I just need to do an exercise. I'll tell you! When we left and went shopping at Target and WalMart, I walked both those big stores with no pain. Wonderful!

While we were at Laura and Steve's she coached me a little bit on the HTML for this blog. I don't know much about that but would like to learn and expand my website. So we manipulated a few things on the sidebar and added the SHOUTBOX! It looks like a fun and interactive thing to do so hope you'll join in.

Posted by Joan at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another beautiful day in the Bitterroot Valley and we spent it relaxing with Laura and Steve. After hanging out at their house for awhile playing with Charlie Dog we headed to downtown Stevensville for Western Heritage Days. Stevensville is the oldest town in Montana, 167 years I think Laura said. It's pretty small but several hundred people turned out for the evening food and music.

Here's the restored Stevensville Hotel with the crowd beginning to gather.

Local restaurants and caterers had a food court under a big tent so we indulged in a huge BBQ pork sandwich with slaw, a chicken salad/ tomato and cuke salad combo, and I added a slice of rhubarb pie. OK ...I was happy.

Then we took front row seats for the evening entertainment, Joan Zen and her band along with a special guest. Joan's group is local valley talent. She has a pretty amazing, wild voice and we enjoyed some of the selections but others were just too loud and not enjoyable. But overall...toetapping music.

By 9 PM the crowd had really picked up and then a special guest appeared.

Huey Lewis has lived in the valley for several years but I guess this is the first time he's appeared locally. Our front row seats didn't mean anything once he came on stage because everyone crowded the stage so we had no choice but to join in and stand for the hour concert.

The sound system left a lot to be desired but it was still fun to be there. The "people watching" was great. Beer was supposed to be consumed under a big tent but you can imagine how well that worked. There were quite a few "very relaxed" dancers in front of the stage. Kids of all ages were out there "shakin' their bootie" and Jim was having a hard time keeping his eyes off the young chicks :) One old guy nearly fell in Jim's lap as he tried to make his way back to the big beer tent :) A few cowboys and their gals were in town for the event with spurs, big hats and gunbelts.

We wished that Huey would have performed a couple of his hits but he said "we're just jammin' here." They hadn't practiced together and didn't know each other's songs. To me it's amazing how musicians can get together and make pretty good music without any practice. They have their own code words and body language.

It was fun to be part of this casual, small town "happening." Kids were running around having a great time, toddlers were out dancing with parents and old folks were kicking up their heels. Ten o'clock brought sunset and the end of the show. We headed home with our ears deadened by the throbbing music but smiles on our faces.

Posted by Joan at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a lovely weather day with the blue sky we love to see in Montana. First on the day's agenda was to return the LG monitor. Didn't work out. One...it was just too big for the space. Two...no matter what I did I could not adjust the color to my liking. The greens were too green and it actually seemed too bright. Plus the adjustments were on the bottom edge of the monitor and the labels were impossible to see. Very poor design.
We shopped monitors but didn't buy another one yet.

Next we stopped at Famous Footwear for new shoes. I have had a nagging hip pain that Dr. Stevo fixes but then it returns. Half an hour of shopping is usually my limit and then the pain is so aggravating I quit. I tried on a few styles and when I put my orthotics (custom insoles) in a pair of New Balance walking shoes the hip pain immediately went away. WOW! I walked around the store for awhile as Jim shopped and still no pain. I bought them! All the rest of the day...no pain. Boy, was that ever a good investment!

Next we went to Good Foods for lunch. It's not often you go to a grocery store to have lunch but in this case it's always a good choice. Jim had a Portobello mushroom with melted cheese hot sandwich and I opted for a Mediterranean Tuna with spinach and peppers sandwich. I was longing for some kind of dessert but was too full. The temp was about 60 but there were lots of natives sitting outside in strappy T-shirts. Laura says that in the spring as soon as it's above 40 everyone jumps into shorts and tank tops! We chose to sit inside for lunch :)

We came home to find Mr. Moto sputtering in and out of connecting. The sky was clear so we were stumped. What is wrong with our satellite? Jim called a dealer in Kalispell who serves the whole Northwest so we were going to have him come down. However...I noticed that the problems were occurring when the wind blew hard. Hmmm...we have parked many times in this same spot where we have trees beside and in front of us but have always had a good satellite connection.

Jim went up on the roof again with the compass and the exact angles we should be pointing. Well! Looked like maybe the tree next to us might be in the way. So we packed it in and moved forward 5 feet. Mr. Moto has been happy ever since. The signal quality went from 45 to 65 consistent. You'd think after doing this for 5 years we would have it all figured out perfectly. Not true!

Finally, we were settled back down and ready for a cup of tea when I looked out the window and saw a beautiful basset hound across the street. I'm out the door in a flash! You know how much I love bassets. We met Henry and his owners and had a lovely conversation with all of them :) I must admit that just petting Henry brought tears to my eyes. I sure have a soft spot in my heart for these dogs with the long silky ears and the sad eyes. There is a basset rescue shelter near here so we decided to go visit next week. So many reasons not to have a dog again but I sure do miss the joyful part. So we'll visit the shelter and see if I'm tough enough to resist adopting a Hush Puppy again :)

Posted by Joan at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boy, oh boy! It was really a dark and rainy few days, but lo and behold, when we got up this morning the sun was shining and Mr. Moto found his satellite. So we are back online but with a reduced signal quality. So we're thinking that there is something going wrong in the system, maybe water somewhere says our tech guy. But now that we know how to connect with wifi we do have backup.

So I'm sitting here writing on my wireless keyboard looking at my new (under trial) monitor, an LG 22 incher. It is pretty awesome. I'm sitting back in my lounge chair and the screen is about 4 feet in front of me and I can read it clearly. At first when we put it on my desk I felt overwhelmed, like it was "in my space." But once it's hooked up it's quite comfy I think.

We have a new Dell desk top on order for me but it won't be shipped for two weeks. The reason we're buying this particular Dell is that it comes with Windows XP. I am just not ready to hassle with Vista and all the potential conflicts with our many programs. Then we got this monitor which has a non-reflective screen. I could not stand the thought of having the glaring screen of a laptop.

So this will be a minor adjustment in my computer life when it all comes together but I'm looking forward to faster operation. Currently it takes 15 minutes for my old (5 years) computer to restart! I would love to start working with Photoshop Premier Elements and doing some movie editing but my old computer just doesn't have the poop to do that.

I'm looking forward now to continuing my slide scaning and seeing all my pix on this big screen. Plus, I can view several windows at one time.

Today we must go grocery shopping! We haven't been to a store for a week. A world's record for us ;) ...and the cupboards are just about bare. We enjoy shopping here in Missoula because there is a Good Foods Store which I think is local only but is much like Whole Foods. We always leave with more than was on the list.

Looks like the weather will clear up and warm up for the next week so plan to visit a few more local sites like the Carousel Park, Fort Missoula and the Farmer's Market. Right now...time to shower and get out and about :)

Posted by Joan at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will the rain never stop? Will spring never really arrive? Maybe it's time to buy the lumber and start building the Ark.

We arrived here in Missoula, MT on Monday after a pretty decent days drive. Even got to set up in the sunshine. Got Mr. Moto set up and got online. But that didn't last long. The rain and snow came and Mr. Moto decided to go off line. OK. We thought it was heavy cloud cover. But now it's been two days with very inconsistent connections and today no connection at all. Our Motosat tech says we may have some equipment problem but it's hard to deal with when the weather is so bad that IT could be the problem.

This forced us to figure out how to use wifi. Never really had to do that before. But the signal is very strong here at Jim and Mary's RV so we have our old laptop linked up to the wifi. It's pretty fast. Jim just went out to buy a wifi card for his desktop so he'll have the constant access he enjoys. We are both so accustomed to being connected 24/7 that do be without that connection is a little unnerving. Can't check the weather, email, news, etc. Of course we have cable so there is some info there but it sure is not like having the world at your fingertips.

We did get down to see our Laura and Dr. Stevo yesterday and on the way home stopped to shop computer monitors and have dinner at Famous Dave's. Boy...cheap dinner. We split the big rack of ribs and changed all the sides to coleslaw. $22 and we were stuffed. I could eat those ribs at least once a week.

Just checked the weather and we are still in for a few more days of rain. I'm sure glad we're parked here for a few weeks so we can avoid driving in this bad weather and also have time to get the satellite back in operation. Wish us luck!

Posted by Joan at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sun was shining brightly when we left Buffalo, WY but once we got over the first hill the black clouds loomed. We knew we'd have some rain but we didn't plan on rain most of the way plus the worst wind we've had in our five years of travel.

Here's what the sky looked like most of the day. This is near Livingston, MT.

We were driving along the Yellowstone River most of the afternoon and it was full to the brim, as were all the creeks and rivers we passed. (Please excuse the slight reflection.)

The hillsides are so beautifully green because of all the rain. Maybe all that fresh grass is what's attracting so many deer and antelope. We spotted a dozen or more small herds grazing along the freeway.

So, to paraphrase an old Sinatra tune, we've been battered and beaten, bombarded and blasted all day. This afternoon going flat out Mr. Blue and Mr. Banks could not stay in fourth gear or get above 50. Never have we been in such strong winds. In CA they'd probably close the freeway but here in MT the pioneer spirit lives. We have to be responsible for our own actions :) ...and we chose to go on.

We got parked here at Bear Canyon about 4 PM and by 4:30 we were having a cup of tea and reviewing the day. It's funny. Once we're parked, the slide is out, the rugs are down and the computers are set, we forget about the stresses and hassles of the day. It's good to be home again!

Posted by Joan at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It seemed strange to me to head West on I-90 from Rapid City. We've made the trip East so many times I just felt a little discombobulated. Strange. However, going a different direction gave us a different view. It was an uneventful 200 mile trip. We left around 9:30 and arrived about 3 PM ...back at Deer Park in Buffalo WY. This is a lovely park as you can see from this view of the entrance.

I had my camera ready as we approached Gillette, WY because there is an open pit coal mine beside the interstate that is pretty amazing. Here's a fly-by shot of the pit.

The huge tubes take the coal under the freeway to the processing plant on the other side of the road. There are always a couple of long trains with empty or full coal cars moving through the plant. There's not a good stopping point to get a better shot. What amazes me is how huge the pit is. Just look at the houses and trucks compared to the size of the hole.

As we neared Buffalo the sky got blacker and we had wild views of the snow-covered Bighorn mountains with a curtain of rain clouds rushing by.

We ran into the storm...got about 5 minutes of good rain that washed the bugs off the front of Mr. Blue. I have to say I'm happy to be out of Rapid because of the constant storm warnings. But the hostess here at Deer Park says they've had the same weather! Oh well. And the Missoula forecast shows a week of cold and rain. Will spring ever warm up? Is this global warming?

Posted by Joan at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally, and again, blue sky...after 2 more solid days of storms. I am ready to blow this joint ! :) I guess the whole north and central states were bombarded with these storms. Fortunately, we had nothing severe, just miserable.

Today the sun was shining so we caught up with outdoor stuff and preps to leave. We drove to the city to check out the on ramp to 90 West. There is so much construction going on that we just wanted to assure we had a good route. All is OK.

Then we headed to the store to stock up for our 3-4 days of travel. We are in the "get there" mode so we won't be wanting to unhook the car. Usually I plan out a few meals and we just get all we'll need. Sometimes we do stop at a WalMart but it's a lot easier to just have what we need on board.

I did a last load of laundry (cheap and easy here at Hart Ranch), swapped out a few more books, took a final bike spin around the park and then we packed up the car.

So what did we do on the rainy days? Scanned in 35mm slides, read books, watched movies, surfed the net and cooked soup. Sounds pretty cozy and it is....but after a few days cabin fever sets in. Oh well. It looks like we'll have at least a week of the same kind of weather when we are back in Missoula. One of these days maybe it will warm up and we'll be able to wear shorts!

Posted by Joan at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another nice morning so we decided to just jump in the car and swing through Custer State Park to try and view some wildlife. The park is home to a large herd of American Buffalo. Last time through we saw lots of animals and I took many good pictures. So this time I was just going to enjoy the ride. That is until we got "up close and personal" with a couple of bad boy buffalo walking beside the road. Thousands of acres of grassy plains and these guys are walking through a hilly, wooded section, one on each side of the road. Here's my first try at a video! :)

We paid our $10 for the park pass and only saw a dozen animals but these two "made my day!"

Posted by Joan at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

No visit to the Black Hills is complete until I see the Fab Four at Mt. Rushmore! Today, even though thundershowers were in the forecast, we headed out around 11 AM to see the guys. By the time we arrived the sky was pretty murky but we still had a great view as we came around the curve up the hill from Keystone.

Walking into the Monument I love this view of all the flags and then hearing all the oohs and aahs from people who have never been here before.

I know it sounds silly but I am still amazed at that first sight of the faces in the mountain. I feel safe and sort of at peace...all's right with my world.The Fab Four are still there.

We managed to eat a salad lunch on the patio with a great view of the Presidents and then took a short walk. But a severe storm warning was announced so we headed for the restaurant and hung out til it passed. We were rewarded with a new view of the monument. As the sun broke through I got this shot with shadowed faces.

Even though I have dozens of pix from Mt. Rushmore I can't resist another go at it.I think my most unusual pix is on this blog entry showing the President's crying. Who knows? Maybe the next shot will be the perfect one!

Posted by Joan at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)