Sunday Drive….

Took a great drive today…left around 11 this morning and got home around 4. We drove to Jackson, an hour away and then went over the Teton Pass….When we met fellow Escapees Molly and Bob the other day, here in the park (thanks to an introduction from Bobbie), they told us about taking their motorhome over the Pass. Although we didn’t take our rig, it’s still a 10% grade (Jim, you’d be really proud of Linda !).


Gorgeous views from on top of the Tetons… Once we came over the Pass, we were in Idaho and continued on to Victor, took a turn onto Route 31 and continued towards Alpine. There is a great recreational area, called Palisades Reservoir that you drive along for many miles and extends all the way down to Alpine. What a great resource for boaters, jet skiers, etc.

This is at the base of the reservoir….

A gorgeous day on the water…

We found a place where we could stop and let Boomer go swimming. For some reason, unknown to us, there were a number of butterflies that were attracted to this area of the shoreline. Couldn’t see anything special about it. There was a lot of wood pieces washed up on shore and this mushy black stuff on the gravel.

Beautiful pattern on the butterflies…

Drove along this view for many miles…. Clouds so fluffy and white and snow capped mountains in the distance.

As I mentioned in a previous post, there has been flooding in the area. With the extensive snow pack and melting, the Snake River is huge and over its’ banks in many areas…..perfect conditions for the rafting companies. Saw several groups taking on the river today. Not a time for novice kayakers or boaters to be on the water….
It was great to drive around in Jackson and check it out. It’s a good sized town…population is over 8000. The campground, where we’ll be staying, is right in the middle of town so it will be very handy for selling and going out to eat or checking out all of the cute shops. Have about another week here in Thayne to get our work done. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Back to work tomorrow….

Wyoming….

  We’re enjoying our time in Wyoming. What a nice drive up here, from Colorado. There was record snowfall this winter, so it hasn’t been until the last three weeks that this area has experienced any warm up in temps. There is still snow in the mountains all around the park.
This is horse country..even as you drive into town there are horse pastures all along the road, right up to the town limits. We arrived Thursday afternoon and got set up. Had our meeting with the campground owner and then started selling on Friday. We’ve had pop-up thunderstorms every afternoon. The area has had a great deal of rainfall, since June, and many areas have experienced flooding. All the rain has made for lush pastures and gorgeous flowers.
We spent Friday morning selling in Afton….a really cute town down the road from Thayne. They have the world’s largest Elk horn arch over the street in the center of town. Quite a site to see. We were parked, in downtown Afton, along the curb and could hear some dogs barking. I looked up and saw these cute little guys, watching us from their perch at a second story window. How cute !
The park here is very large…806 sites. They have a golf course, which is extremely busy, and several other amenities. It is surrounded by the beautiful mountains and Linda and I don’t seem to be bothered as much by the elevation. No shortness of breath, like in Colorado. Maybe we’re finally getting used to being in the mountains. Going to be in Thayne for a total of ten days and then we move on to Jackson for ten days there. Looking forward to our time in Wyoming…

Rock Springs, WY Fairgrounds

If you’re traveling on I-80, across Wyoming, there is a campground at the Sweetwater fairgrounds in the town of Rock Springs. There are 200 sites…laid out a little funky with all of the utilities behind the rig (bring a long sewer hose !) but a cheaper alternative ($25) to campgrounds in the area. There is only one other rig here with us so we’re not entirely by ourselves.

Easy to get to, off of I-80. The caretaker and his wife live right on the corner of the property and that’s where you check in upon arrival. Pay your $25, they give you a receipt and you have your pick of the sites. The buildings for the fairground itself are around the perimeter of the camping area. Great view of the mountains in the distance. Quiet…50 amp service, water and sewer for $25. Works for me !

Terry Bison Ranch

We spent last night in Cheyenne, Wyoming at the Terry Bison Ranch. Great location…just off of I-25. They have about 75 pull through sites, full hook up and they offer an Escapees discount so it only cost $17 for the night. On the premises you’ll find a restaurant/bar, playground for the kids, train rides, nice gift shop and the best part…all kinds of animals to check out. It’s like camping at the zoo. They have bison, camels, ostriches, peacocks, horses, goats, alpaca, chickens and probably other things we didn’t see. They also offer an excellent means by which to see everything.  They have a cat walk over most of the pens where the animals are kept so you get a bird’s eye view of all the animals. What a neat idea !
There were lots of baby animals there too.

A great place to stop for the night if you’re passing through…..

Cyber Cows

The other evening I was talking to Peter about his cattle ranch. It was a very interesting discussion. They have 600 cattle on their ranch that they have to go out and round up in the fall to bring them to lower pastures. Some of them become “wild”, because they’ve been loose for several years, in the wild, and they aren’t able to round them up. They had one like this recently and ended up having to shoot it because it got in dense brush and they couldn’t get it. They run when they see people and they even tried to tranquilize this particular one but the dosage wasn’t strong enough to bring it down.
My how times have changed as far as cattle auctions go. When I was growing up, on our dairy farm, and my dad needed to send calves to auction, he would take them to a nearby town to sell them. It was a live auction that was held every Wednesday at this particular auction building. Today, Peter said that a company comes in and video tapes the ones he’s going to sell and then the auction is held on a particular date over the computer. Bidders, from all over the country, will see the videos of the individual animals and if interested, bid on them. Once the bidding is done, the auctioneer will call Peter and tell him the price per pound that his animal went for. He can decide if he’ll accept that or reject the amount. If accepted a pick-up date is arranged and the bidder is responsible for sending a truck to pick up the cattle they bought.
He said right now beef prices are at the highest he’s ever seen.  He’s concerned though that if imported beef increases, it will push the US prices down. Many of the cooking skills we saw Teddy and Chris exhibit are attributed to the cooking they do out on the round-ups. It was really neat to sit and talk to true modern day cowboys to see what their life is like. It is a really hard life….in rain, shine, blizzards, etc. The work doesn’t wait…there is always something that needs to be done. Life on the range is spent sleeping on the hard ground on a bed roll…no temperpedic mattresses for these cowboys. It was great spending time with these gentleman, learning about their lives. They are the last of a dying profession….

Big Meadow

Bobbie took us up to the campground where they usually are camp hosting. Big Meadows is under construction and is scheduled to be open in 2013. It is gorgeous ! Bobbie and Jim’s site overlooks the lake and the entrance to the park (top left picture). What an awesome view they have ! The sites are huge, although it’s pretty apparent that the engineer/architect isn’t a camper. Some sites are set up to be double sites although there is no way you’d get two campers, with any slideouts, into the space. It would take two skinny campers to fit. They have the first loop done but have not done the second or third loop. This will certainly be a busy campground when it opens because it’s such a pretty setting and the sites are so nice. If our work schedule is still the same in 2013, we’ll be sure to book a site here when we pass through. Will be great to see it all done.
As you can see by the last picture, a recent storm brought down some trees in the park. They have a lot of dead trees, due to the pine beetle infestation so many of the trees have had to be cut down. This tree came down across two brand new picnic tables and snapped this table like a toothpick. There were trees down across the roads too…lots of clean-up ahead for the construction workers just so they can get around to do their work. Some of the sites will be by reservation only and the rest will be first come-first serve. Sure gonna be a popular place and one we want to spend our time in when we pass through here each year. If you get out this way (South Fork, Colorado) in 2013, be sure to check our this newly renovated park.

Smokin’ and Dutch Cooking…

Last night we went to Teddy and Bertie’s campsite, which is across from Bobbie and Jim’s. They have a whole bunch of family in the area for the holiday weekend so last night was Teddy’s turn to cook. They have such a great campsite, right along the stream.
Teddy made three different types of smoked ribs. An apricot habanera, a BBQ one and one with a spice rub on them. I tried one of the spice ones and one of the BBQ ones. He used apple wood in his smoker to smoke them with. Teddy does a lot of the cooking for cowboy crews when they go out on the range for the roundups. Along with the ribs he had cooked some cut up brats in his “kow”…wok spelled backwards. It looks like a giant wok with horseshoes welded on the sides for handles. They cook almost anything in there…eggs, meats, potatoes, sopapillas, etc. It’s seasoned really well so things don’t stick to it. Easy to clean and ready to go for the next time.
Chris, another cowboy cook and friend, tended to the sweet corn over the fire. Wrapped in foil with butter and salt, he kept turning it to get it evenly browned inside. It was really good. After dinner, Teddy took out the Dutch Oven to cook dessert in. There is a whole way of cooking with a Dutch Oven over open coals. I never realized it was such a big thing till Bobbie and Jim told us about it. I even found an app for it on our tablet that tells you how many briquettes to put on the top of the pot and how many on the bottom to get a certain temperature for baking, roasting, etc. The Dutch Oven itself comes in different sizes and has a flat lid to hold the hot briquettes on the top. Teddy made a peach cobbler using some fresh peaches he had brought from his freezer and put those in the pot first. He had put a disposable aluminum pot inside the Dutch Oven so he wouldn’t have to wash it afterwards. Then he took a box of yellow cake mix and dumped that on top of the peaches. He then took a can of creme soda and poured that over it. He put the lid on, set it in the hot coals and scooped some coals onto the lid. About 20 minutes later, he took it out of coals and checked it. It wasn’t quite done on the one side so he put a couple of pieces of the hot wood pieces on top of the lid and let is set for a few more minutes. He then opened it up, stirred the cake into the peaches and we ate….Oh my, was it delicious ! So nice to make new friends on the road…

Wolf Creek Pass

Yesterday Bobbie took us to Pagosa Springs so we could see the town and mail off our last job. From here we had to go over Wolf Creek Pass, which is something to see. A nine mile climb with a 7% grade on one side and 6% grade on the other side. Bobbie drove the jeep which is pretty nimble but it still requires downshifting for the climb up and for the descent. We stopped at Treasure Falls on the way back home.
We wanted to experience Wolf Creek Pass, with it’s 10,000+ elevation, because we might have to go over it on the way back from some assignments in western Colorado. Since we haven’t done any mountain driving, this was our real life lesson. Pagosa Springs is much bigger than I thought is would be. We’ll be coming there in about a month to do a park in town, as well as two in Bayfield and two in Durango.
There is still snow in the high elevations. We stopped at the Continental Divide…Linda stood on one side and I on the other. As the sign says behind us, “Every drop has a destiny”…depending what side of the Divide it falls on. That was fun ! Our trek over the mountain to see what was on the other side was a fun adventure. I think Linda is going out on Sunday for more “mountain driving” training. The remaining days of our vacation are flying by. Leaving on Tuesday for Wyoming…..wringing the last bit of fun out of this weekend. Hope everyone has a great 4th !

Dinner Out

We went out to dinner with Bobbie and Jim, to a new restaurant in South Fork called Silver Fork. Nice casual atmosphere…big open dining room.  Linda had the steak salad with Raspberry vinaigrette, which she said was really good.  Bobbie and I had the Breaded Tofu, which was so light and fluffy….very good. Jim had Buffalo Pot Roast with  mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. His meat was very, very tender and he really enjoyed it.

Good friends and good food…..