Sept. & Oct. 2006
Boy, I can tell you the road of life is sure full of twists and turns with ups and downs; even for an ole Lab like me who lives up to my breeds’ reputation for ‘laidbackness’. Sometimes you just sorta need to lean and shift with the changes of directions, the hairpin turns and the backups. Case in point – there we were tucked into the milder climes of New Mexico, seeking ever warmer and warmer spots when we got news of a dear friend back in Nevada City, Ca. who had become desperately ill and needed help to recover. I don’t know about you but friends are family and family members are friends. In my pack you take care of each other ‘cause “we are family.” We ended up helping for over 3 months and the good news is that she fully recovered and we are back on the “happy tails” again! We’ll try to get all of us up to speed again.
So we’ll do a fairly quick travel log of the places we went to and through on our way from the last of the Cascade volcanoes in Washington on our way down to New Mexico.
We had slipped through Idaho, straight across to Missoula, Montana when Kae decided it might be fun to try to reconnect with a longtime friend (like for 50 years!) who was her junior high school art teacher. We googled her and lo and behold there she was! Connie and Kenn welcomed us with open arms and we all had a great visit in Great Falls.
Then due south, headed toward Wyoming through that wondrously, wild central plains country of middle Montana full of mountain ranges, wheat and hay fields plus those sweet river bottom farms. Here’s a little poem Kae wrote for her friend, Connie, to commemorate their reconnection:
We had slipped through Idaho, straight across to Missoula, Montana when Kae decided it might be fun to try to reconnect with a longtime friend (like for 50 years!) who was her junior high school art teacher. We googled her and lo and behold there she was! Connie and Kenn welcomed us with open arms and we all had a great visit in Great Falls.
Then due south, headed toward Wyoming through that wondrously, wild central plains country of middle Montana full of mountain ranges, wheat and hay fields plus those sweet river bottom farms. Here’s a little poem Kae wrote for her friend, Connie, to commemorate their reconnection:
MONTANA MEMORIES
Slick, slate slopes
Follow ‘angles of repose’
Then slip into flat, fertile
River bottoms, each
Rolled and stacked
In random ranks
Near slow, somnolent rivers.
The Big Sky billows,
Thundering above it all,
Compressing vast vistas
Of prairie endlessness
Inward into
Precious vignettes
From a distant childhood.
Slick, slate slopes
Follow ‘angles of repose’
Then slip into flat, fertile
River bottoms, each
Rolled and stacked
In random ranks
Near slow, somnolent rivers.
The Big Sky billows,
Thundering above it all,
Compressing vast vistas
Of prairie endlessness
Inward into
Precious vignettes
From a distant childhood.
I am one lucky dog as I got to swim in the Yellowstone River outside of Laurel, Mt. These buddies of mine are so good about seeing to it that I get baths often enough so I can keep my beautiful smooth coat and sweet smelling body well groomed. Very important when you are living in about 12 square feet! I like the fact that they bath real regular too, if you get my drift.
In fact they took a dip in the World’s Largest Natural Mineral Springs in Thermopolis, Wyo. a few days later. The pools, algae and minerals have created a really alien world there. It has its own kind of beauty, I suppose, but you know how much I dislike those fiery, sulfurous, hot places and then to actually swim in some of that weird, smelly water?? Not this pup I can tell you!
Let’s backtrack for a second so I can tell you about a little side trip we took through the Bear Tooth Mountains along the Bear Tooth Scenic Highway 212 out of Red Lodge, Mt. and down into northern Wyo. This was a spectacular drive into high passes and snow covered ridges - very breath-taking scenery.
We then did a hard 90 and started down Chief Joseph Scenic Highway 296 toward Cody; totally different drier country in the mountains’ rain shadow. It meant we went a bit out of our way heading west and south, but really worth it!
Okay, remember we were in Thermopolis? When we left there we pretty much just flew through the state right to Cheyenne and down to Greeley, Co. for a short visit with Michelle and Valerie. Then it was on to Denver for another few days with Monta and Don. We again visited great city parks and the Botanical Gardens, plus had a fun time at the farmers’ market. They are great hosts and always make us feel so loved and welcomed.
Leaving Denver we took our usual scenic byways and back ways through spectacular mountain scenery to end up in a phenomenal place known as the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. This place can boast mountains, wetlands and huge sand dunes all in one locale! Each of these ecosystems is dependent on the others in a careful balancing act of nature. At certain times of the year you can swim in the creek, watch cranes, swans, geese and ducks in the wetlands and climb out on sand dunes that are 100’s of feet high while watching the thunderstorms up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. That was enough to fill this old guy’s senses for weeks!
Little did I know what wild and wonderful places we were heading for in New Mexico! I’ll fill you in on those adventures in the upcoming Journal # 18 which we will devote entirely to our travels in that beautiful state.
To those of you who have followed us on this ‘odyssey of oddities’ for the past year and a half – thanks for journeying with us. Our plans are to keep this up for another couple of years so that we can see the middle of America in 2007 and the entire eastern 1/3 of the country in 2008. As long as Kae can type, Cokie can ‘click’ and I can ‘dog their footsteps’ we will be putting out these journals. So stick with us and we’ll sniff out the beauty and bounty of this wonderful country we are so privileged to live in.
