Cody, WY and Yellowstone National Park

June 23 - 30.
We haven't had much time and a very weak internet signal, so I am behind on the blog.  On Sunday, June 23rd we met up with our friends, Terry and Carole Berry, in Cody, WY.  It is ironic since they were coming from the west and we were coming from the east that we arrived at the campground within seconds of each other.  The Berry's won. 



Terry and Carole Berry with a "friend"

Cody, WY was established by Buffalo Bill Cody and some friends.  The town is a fun western town with gunfights every evening and a rodeo most nights.  Probably the main attraction is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center which consists of five museums.  The museums are the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Cody Firearms Museum, and the Draper Museum of Natural History which are all connected by a central hub.  An admission price allows you to visit the museum two consecutive days, and you need this much time to see it.  We really enjoyed learning about the man and the area.  Being there two days (three nights), we could have stayed longer to get the full Cody experience.


Buffalo Bill Historical Center

After leaving Cody, we headed toward Yellowstone National Park.  Yellowstone was the first named national park and is our favorite so far.  This is our second visit to the park, and it hasn't disappointed. 

Sharing the park with our friends adds a special dimension to the visit.  Luckily we are very compatible and enjoy seeing the landscape, the wildlife, and all of the special features Yellowstone has to offer. 

The pictures and the narrative just do not do justice to the beauty and the uniqueness of the park.  If any of you want to share something special with your children or grandchildren, I would highly recommend Yellowstone.  I only wish we would have shared the park with our sons.  Maybe the whole family can plan a trip out here some day.  Hope you enjoy these pictures--these are just a few.  I am going to do a separate blog on the wildlife.




First Day



Old Faithful



Old Faithful Inn



Lake Yellowstone



Yellowstone Grand Canyon



Picnic with friends and a mountain stream

 

After teasing us, Old Faithful finally blew.  Kept receiving an error message when trying to upload the video.  The picture of Old Faithful above does not show the full height of the eruption since I was videoing at the time.  Maybe the video will upload directly to Face Book.  Will try.

 

FMCA Convention in Gillette, WY

We arrived in Gillette, WY on Sunday the 16th for the FMCA Convention.  For those of you who don't know, this is the Family Motor Coach Association an organization that supports the motorhome lifestyle.  Chuck is the governing board representative for our RV club, Coach House Owners' Club (CHOC).  He has to do the hard part sitting in meetings all day, and Phyllis gets to do the fun part of attending seminars and visiting exhibits.  Actually Chuck does have time to participate in the activities.  We also like to volunteer while at the convention.  This year we were on the tram team and helped members by riding the trams and answering questions.  There were over 2,600 motorhomes at the convention.  

 

A glimpse of the "sea" of motorhomes



This picture was taken during the Buckinghams' concert.  We enjoyed seeing the 60's band again and hearing the music that was a part of our early life.  The Buckinghams performed at our high school in Ottawa, IL before they hit it big.  We also were able to enjoy the music of Marty Stuart, country music artist.  Looking at the sky in this picture, you can guess we had some pretty awesome storms.  The worst came under a tornado watch with high winds that tore through vendor canopies sending them flying.  We just made it into the exhibit hall when the hail started.  Lot of rain, lot of mud, lot of friends, and lot of fun


Hail left hours after the storm

Speaking of friends, we met up with John and Vicky Ferrari, Phil and Karon Millonzi, and Tom and Judith Comstock.  These are friends from CHOC, and we were happy to see them.  Had a lot of fun visiting and catching up with them.  Found out that Phil and Karon are going to be the tailgunners on our caravan.  What a great surprise.  Guess I didn't get a picture of everyone. 

We left Gillette on June 23rd, our son Eric's birthday.  Happy Birthday son.  Our "baby" isn't supposed to be getting this old.  Where have the years gone.

Heading for Cody, WY to meet up with our friends, Terry and Carole Berry, we saw our first glimpse of the Big Horn Mountains.  Of course we went over these mountains.  Chuck and the coach did a great job getting us over the mountains without any difficulty.

First look at the Big Horn Mountains

Badlands & Devil's Tower

Okay, now it is getting exciting.  We had a wonderful day traveling across South Dakota and into Wyoming.  The grasslands are beautiful, but then you get that first glance of the Badlands. 

 

The Badlands were once part of a giant salt water sea.  Volcanic activity and upheavals helped to create the beautiful formations.  Sediments, rivers, volcanic ash, and erosion also played a part in their formation.  Badlands National Park is the first of many national parks on our trip.  Isn't it wonderful that the national parks were created to preserve the beauty of God's creation?

 



Yes we really were there

This looks like a body of water, but it is really all grass

 

Right outside of the Badlands is a place called Wall, WY.  For miles you see billboards advertising Wall Drug.  Iowa even has the billboards.  Now these aren't fancy billboards, they are the homemade variety.  Wall Drug was bought in 1931 by the Husteads.  They went for years without much business in a town of 326 people.  One day Mrs. Hustead tried to take a nap, but couldn't sleep because of the noise of the jalopies going past on Route 16A.  She thought about all of the travelers going past and knew they would be thirsty traveling across the hot prairie.  They decided to give free ice water away and made signs to put up along the road advertising the free ice water.  The first day they poured gallons of fresh water, and the rest is history.  Today they still serve free ice water and 5 cent coffee.



Having lunch at Wall Drug

We then traveled on to our campground in Sundance, WY.  The Sundance Kid did get his name from this town since this is the first place he did a prison stint.  The Sundance name is in honor of the sun dances the Native Americans did on Sundance Mountain.  The town is at the foot of the mountain.


Sundance Mountain

Having been through this area of the country a couple of time during the past few years, Phyllis has always wanted to Devil's Tower, but had not been able to until today.  Legend has it that 7 small Indian girls were playing when they began being chased by a bear.  They climbed on a rock and prayed to the rock to save them.  The rock began to grow, but the bear continued to claw and jump up the sides of the rock.  The rock continued to grow until the girls were pushed up into the sky. Devil's Tower was the first National Monument named.

Hiking at Devil's Tower

 





First Wildlife--love the prairie dog chatter



June 4 - 13

After leaving Florida, we spent a delightful evening in Woodstock, GA (Atlanta area) with our son, Chuck, daughter-in-law, Kaj, and grandkids, Lucas and Sydney.  Chuck and Lucas were preparing for a mission trip to Guatemala the following week.  Sydney was helping out at VBS at their church. They are always a busy family.   We also were able to meet our new grand-bunny. 



Our wonderful grandchildren, Lucas and Sydney

Next we were able to play a round of golf in Paducah, KY where we stayed for two nights.  We are hoping to play several times on our trip, that is if we can find somewhere it isn't raining.

On to Springfield, IL where we visited with Phyllis' sister, Sheila, and her family.  It is always a blessing to be able to see them.  They are a family that loves to laugh together, and the stories they share are very entertaining.  We lived in Springfield over 35 years ago, so it is fun to see how the city has changed.  We attended church on Sunday with our family, which was the church we attended when we lived here.


Sheila and grandkids, Bailey, Simone, and AJ visiting in our coach (Bella & Scamp too)

The Winnebago factory in Forest City, IA was our next objective.  We were able to take a tour of the factory while we had some warranty items repaired on our coach.  They have a pretty slick operation.  The only downside is we have to check in at 7 AM each morning and turn our coach over to the technician who was assigned to us.  He keeps the coach until between 3:00-3:30, keeping us informed of the progress during the day.  Those of you who know Phyllis, knows that the 7 AM check-in is a bit early for her.  Repairs went well for the most part.  We will have to bring the coach back after our journey to have the flooring replaced.  They are going to replace it all rather than trying to repair it.  We think we may go with a different type of flooring.  We may be here a few hours longer than expected because they found that our "creaking" slide was a result of broken rivets.  This is going to be repaired before we leave on Friday.   They do have a pet friendly waiting room, so Bella and Scamp are able to stay with us.  We do think an entrepreneur could do well with a "doggy day care" here since most RVers do seem to travel with pets.  Not much to see and do in Forest City, IA other than tour Winnebago and visit with other RVers and dodge storms.

Making our way to the FMCA Convention in Gillette, WY next.....

And so it begins....May 26-June 3

Our time on the road this year started with Phyllis flying off to Connecticut and Chuck heading south to Wimauma, FL two days later.  He took the RV, the car, and the dogs to meet up with Phyllis two days later.  We were both helping our good friends, Mike and Pat, move from Connecticut to Florida.  Phyllis drove down with Pat, and Mike drove the moving truck.  We all met up at their new home in Wimauma, FL. and helped unload, unpack, and get them on their way to a new life in Florida.  Here are Mike, Pat, Buster, and Gracie at their new home waving goodbye to us as we get on the road again...

We will be making our way to the Winnebago factory via our son, Chuck's, in Atlanta and Phyllis' sister, Sheila, in Springfield, IL.  More soon.