I am a Luddite; Wish Y'all Were Here!

 To all our Faithful Readers: my most sincere apologies for not posting comments over the past 18 months... tonight I was on the blog site, which was modified in 2019, and found dozens of comments that I had never seen until tonight! Thank you all for your positive comments... for the .0001% that were negative, well, you can't please all of the people all of the time. 😂  But seriously, I am technologically challenged. I am a “Luddite”... the modern definition is one who is opposed to new technology... back in England during the Industrial Revolution, Luddites were a sort of cult that broke into factories and destroyed machinery in mills to protect their jobs. I am not that radical, but am certainly resistant to social media and TV shows. For example, the last series that I watched was "I Love Lucy"... yes, in black and white.

It was so much fun reading your comments from 2019 and this year, as we sit in our home in South Carolina. Suzanne is a few feet away on the couch, a Dachshund sandwich, with Nellie and Rudy beside her. I am so lucky. We are so lucky... to have so many good friends all across the country, in Canada, New Zealand, UK, France, etc... every time we hear from you, we wish that we could beam you all here and enjoy your friendship face to face. I would embrace that technology in a heartbeat! Until then, please know that we truly appreciate your comments, thoughts and friendship, and hope that when we pass through your areas, we can meet up!

Longmont, Colorado; Mutton Mowers; Whose Garage? Oakley, KS; Feeding Frenzy; Always and Furever; Tuscumbia, AL; The Blue Ridge; Home at Last

 

Okay, so I have been somewhat delinquent in getting our final summer trip up, and now we're into November! Mea culpa! For those younger people who might not understand that Latin phrase, it means "through my fault"... today, the typical hipster phrase would be "My bad". We will pick up this month's blog in Colorado. We stayed at St. Vrain State Park in Longmont to visit our dear friends "Colonel Crusty" Cunis and His Lovely Bride Elaine. Unfortunately, due to the Chinese virus, we were unable to enjoy an Army-sponsored dinner this year (Navy won the last Army-Navy Game). Next year, Crusty! Go Navy... Beat Army!

St. Vrain is a favorite campground; we have been there about 6 times. This year we encountered something different... Mutton Mowers. Instead of contracting out to a landscaping/lawn maintenance company to keep the weeds in check, the state park folks hired Emily McMurtrey's goats from Mutton Mowers https://www.facebook.com/MuttonMowers/. I met Emily when I was on a walk, and learned about her goats. She sets up electrified fences around their grazing areas to protect them from coyotes and loose dogs. Emily and many of her family ranch friends were affected by the recent fires in Colorado, and if you're a goat and other livestock fan, you can join me in sending a donation to the Colorado Fire Relief for Livestock GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/mutton-mowers-winter-fund...

On the way east from the Denver area, we stopped for lunch in Deer Trail, CO, home of the world's first rodeo. We parked across from this home down a side street, and were shocked by the sign in the window... "A..hole's Neighbor"! We couldn't understand how someone could display such a nasty sign; it must have been a very serious feud...

... but then, we drove around the corner and what did we find, but "A..hole's Garage".... only in small town America could you find this kind of marketing! And from the cars out front, it looks like he isn't doing much business...

Our next stop for the night was Oakley, Kansas... this is corn country. The corn was as high as, well... an elephant's eye. (If you're under 40, that might not mean much to you...) We took two long walks down this country road looking for a Starbucks or Panera, and didn't see a soul until a guy in a pickup truck pulled alongside and said, "Saw y'all about a half hour ago... you turned around just as you got to my farm... you should have stopped in... I coulda used some help with my fencing." I replied, "Well, sir, you shoulda put a sign on your barn door..." 

Have you ever seen a feeding frenzy? We don't go out to eat a lot, but when we do, it will be for food that we don't make at home, like these delicious ribs at Jack Stack BBQ. Here is a Happy Medium.

Many of you know about the Always and Furever Midwest Animal Sanctuary in Spring Hill, Kansas. This shelter rescues aging dogs (and now also cats) from "kill shelters". They are given a loving home where they can sleep on couches in a living room setting. Jennifer Dulski started the sanctuary in 2017 and has saved over 500 dogs.  It was featured in a recent charity event that Suzanne sponsored. Donations are always appreciated. See their web site at https://alwaysandfurever.love/our-story/

Eastward to Tuscumbia, Alabama... we met our dear friends Judson and Donna Jo Emens and several of their friends for a delicious down home Southern dinner at our campground. The caramel cake was a unique dessert that I immediately fell in love with!

Suzanne has a weekly radio show, and one day one of the callers said, "You are in Tuscumbia; if you are coming through Huntsville, please stop so we can have lunch!" Well, it just so happened that we were passing through there in two days! We had a delightful German meal with Melitta Thorn. One of the best aspects of our summer trips in the coach is the ability to meet fun and interesting people along the way.

Moving farther east, we passed through Knoxville, Tennessee, where we went on a hike to this beautiful waterfall. 

The penultimate stop on our trip was in the Boone/Banner Elk/West Jefferson, North Carolina, area. We were visiting our Villages friends Bill and Gayle Hancock, and Bob and Jessica Hunter, who both have summer homes there. (Unfortunately, our staff photographer failed miserably in getting any photos of us together... sigh.) Hiking opportunities abound along the Blue Ridge Parkway, so we were able to get out for some enjoyable, but challenging, hikes.

We savored our last night before returning home, and enjoyed a nice campfire under the stars. I was a Boy Scout, so knew how to build a fire, but had to struggle with a dull axe - I had forgotten to bring a sharpening stone along... "Note to self...."

We arrived back in Hilton Head and immediately met with our dear friends and neighbors Tony and Irene Vouvalides. They had been taking care of our house while we were away. Tony mentioned that he had saved a few bottles of wine we left behind in our cooler for us. What a guy! Here is Tony and the detritus of one of the wine parties... (He was kidding, of course, having saved up these corks to retaliate ... on the night before we departed, we had dinner at their house, and I had surreptitiously dumped a pile of Hershey's kisses detritus in his recliner.... we share that addiction!) 

 Irene is an amazing gourmet cook, and we have enjoyed several fabulous dinners already since arriving home. Here are Irene and Kayla Truppi with the best baked Ziti on the planet... 

So, wrapping up this edition of the blog, here is My Lovely Bride and our fur babies, Rudy and Nellie, at rest... we had a wonderful four month trip out west, but the old adage is true... there is no place like home. 

Homeward Bound; Pinedale, Wyoming; Casper, Wyoming; Nellie the Wonderful

Leaving Coeur d'Alene marked the turning point in our summer tour, literally; from there we headed east into Montana... with brief stops in Missoula, Butte, Bozeman and West Yellowstone. We would have liked to have spent more time in Montana, but this summer's trip was much abbreviated from previous summers. This photo taken along a stretch of white water on the Gallatin River typifies southeast Montana - the scenery is spectacular.

Our next stop was Pinedale, Wyoming, to visit our friends Gina and Bob. Gina is an old friend of Suzanne's mom, Ruthie. Bob has been a cowboy since leaving the Army and family in Boston about 60 years ago. He is now 81, and still rides his horse every day. He and Gina help in the annual roundup in Pinedale and drive cattle to their summer pasture in the mountains. That "help" pays for their horses' hay for the year. They also volunteer to bring hay up daily in the winter to herds of elk; imagine moving tons of hay with snowmobiles and trailers in 30 below zero weather... 

Pinedale is another one of our "Favorite Places". The town of Pinedale is "located at the base of the Wind River Mountains with unspoiled rivers, wildlife, and all the civilization you need", according to the Chamber of Commerce. The people are very friendly, the scenery unsurpassed, and life moves along at a gentle pace. An example of the scenery is seen here - we hiked along the Sacred Rim Trail, with the "Winds" in the background... 

Part of the backdrop here, two days hike in, is Titcomb Basin, where I backpacked on a 4 day trip a couple of years ago. 16 miles from the trailhead, it is my most favorite place on earth.... you don't see many people here, do you?

 

Another day was spent on tranquil Half Moon Lake near Pinedale. Unlike our paddle on the Great Salt Lake, there were no brine flies here!

Pinedale sits at 7,100 feet, but the mountains in the background rise to 13,810 feet (including Gannet Peak, Wyoming's tallest). They are popular among serious rock climbers and mountaineers, as well as backpackers. Grizzly bears are common there, as are wolves, elk and moose. 

Speaking of moose, this was the view from Suzanne's car when driving back from Gina and Bob's home after a webinar... right at dusk, the cow was leading her calf from the river up across the road into higher ground. The cow crossed, but sensing that her calf was trailing too far behind, she recrossed the road and got her youngster moving.

Next stop was Casper, Wyoming. While on a bike ride along the North Platte River, I stopped to view the Sun Up Ridge Memorial Wall, a tribute to all those Montanans killed on active duty in the service of our nation. It is a very long list. Two quotations accompany the memorial. The first: "These endured all and gave all that honor and justice might prevail and that the world might enjoy freedom and inherit peace." The second, by General George S. Patton, US Army: "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

While Suzanne was doing a webinar, I visited the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, run by the National park Service. It is a splendid museum/interpretive center. Imagine being one of the the pioneers who mostly walked alongside the covered wagons for five months from St Louis to Oregon or who pulled hand carts across the prairie and mountains to Salt Lake. The second photo is an interactive hand cart... you stand on a treadmill and "pull" the cart behind you... even lightly loaded, it was very hard work pulling the cart at a very slow speed! It gave me a new appreciation for those tough, brave pioneers - men, women and children alike.

There were also exhibits honoring the Pony Express riders; the advertisement "Wanted: young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week."

On the home front, our little Nellie is now almost 10 months old. She is finally housebroken, and actually starting to mature so that she isn't always nipping at Rudy's nose and hip thrusting him... but she's still saucy. Here she is in a quiet moment grabbing twenty winks while resting up against Dog Dad's leg... I had jokingly referred to her as Nellie the Naughty, but MLB chastised me, saying that using that moniker would guarantee that behavior... so we now refer to her as "Nellie the Wonderful". 

Rudy continues to do well. Almost 16 years old, grey around the muzzle, Rudy takes 8 meds a day, sleeps a lot, and walks stiffly because of arthritis. But Nellie is keeping him active... poor Rudy... or is it "Lucky Rudy???"

IDAHO Rocks! Twin Falls; Boise; Basques; Nellie and Rudy; McCall; Rockslide! Coeur d'Alene; Bear!!!

WE LOVE IDAHO!!! Our first stop in the Gem State was Twin Falls. MLB and I got out for one of the best bike rides ever, along the Snake River. The rim-level trail is relatively easy, until you get to the hills... back in 1974, Evel Knievel attempted to jump the 1,600 ft wide canyon in his steam-powered X-2 skycycle from this ramp. Unfortunately, the skycycle's parachute opened much too early, and the attempt failed. Suzanne recalls that event and imagines/wishes she could make the jump on her mountain bike.....

  

The twin falls are Shoshone (shown here, our photo from the bike trail) and Perrine Coulee. Shoshone is taller than Niagara, 212 ft high and 900 ft wide. The Snake River tumbles through the beautiful basalt canyon on its way to meet the Columbia River far downstream.

 

Downstream of the falls is a beautiful, serene area where kayakers can enjoy a mellow paddle. MLB is dwarfed by the basalt rocks towering overhead. Falcons soared above, hunting prey like pigeons nesting in crevices and on ledges.

From Twin Falls, we motored on to Boise, another favorite stop in Idaho. We had dinner at a Basque restaurant with Teresa Stella, who had migrated here from California with her dog Sparky. 

"Basque", you might ask? In Idaho? In fact, there is a community of between 10,000-15,000 Basques here. Many are descendants of sheepherds who came to Idaho in the 1800s. One of the neat places we discovered was a Basque cultural area with an old sheepherd's wagon. Imagine living in one of these for months at a time in remote mountain and sagebrush areas, tending your sheep and protecting them against wolves and grizzly bears. (English teachers, please note: they do call themselves sheepherds, not "shepherds"... nor "Sherpas"...)

Our puppies are still enjoying the trip out west, and our 8 month old puppy Nellie is growing like a weed; she is almost as big as Rudy, who at 15 1/2 years is starting to slow down, just like his dog-dad... Look at that innocent face... We call her "Nellie the Wonderful", because most of the time she is really sweet... especially to us. I heard Rudy say one day, after Nellie was nipping at his ears and hip thrusting him, "Dog-dad, she is really Nellie the Naughty!", but we won't let that moniker take hold... sorry, Rudy.... suck it up!

After Boise, we moved on to another favorite, McCall, Idaho. The allure in McCall is the hiking in Payette National Forest and paddling on Payette Lake and the river of the same name. We splashed our kayaks twice on the lovely upper Payette River, paddling both sections from the lake upstream to the head of navigation. For our kayaks, that meant water about 2 inches deep. Only fish and stream walkers might get higher up the river. 

This photo shows how crystal clear the river was - you can see the shadow of Suzanne's kayak on the river bottom, probably 3 or 4 feet below!

I mentioned hiking... here is MLB at Louie Lake (7,040 ft) ; it was a moderately strenuous 5 mile round trip, and worth every bit of sweat and exertion! By the way, the trail is on the flanks of Twin Peaks. (I did not make this up!)

So, after the kayaking and hiking, I had to take Suzanne out to dinner. She found a great restaurant (Rupert's) at the Hotel McCall, and the food, wine and service were terrific. What a view I had, and the scenery was nice, too.

While Suzanne was doing a Zoom session, I went for a hike around the town of McCall. This young buck, his antlers still in velvet, was quietly munching away on grass in a residential yard... he was one of five deer I walked to within 6 feet of that evening.

From McCall it was on to Coeur d'Alene, but there was a problem. My pre-departure planning showed the drive to be about 275 miles, so imagine my chagrin when but a few days before leaving McCall, MLB said, "Ty, the iPhone is saying it's over 375 miles, and requires a detour into Oregon..." Nothing stirs me up worse than being wrong about trip planning, but "WAIT! WAIT!" There was a huge rockslide on US 95 near Riggins, Idaho, which resulted in large house-sized boulders covering the roadway. 

The detour would take us into Oregon, but finally, after 17 days, on the day before we were to depart McCall, the Idaho Transportation Department contractors had dynamited enough of the largest boulders to open one lane of the road during daylight hours. Be happy that you weren't on that section of road when the mountainside came crashing down...

Next stop: Coeur d'Alene. The name comes from a phrase (meaning "the heart of an awl", or hard steel, that the French voyageurs used to describe the trading practices of the local Indians of the same name, although they call themselves the Skitswish, which means "The Discovered People"). We were visiting some good friends, Dick and Alis Arrowood, who had sold their Sonoma vineyard and winery, Amapola Creek, last year and bought a lovely lake view home in CDA.

We had been to Coeur d'Alene before, but really fell in love with it this trip. We even looked at some small cabins with Elda Asinelli, a delightful real estate agent and friend of Alis. But the prices are outrageous... seems like thousands of Californians are bailing out of the People's Republic and flocking to Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado in search of personal liberty, freedom from riots and crime, and reasonable taxes.... Gee, which would you prefer, the streets of San Fran or this lovely lake sunset? I am not making a political statement, mind you... "just sayin' what they're sayin'".......

Suzanne's birthday came during our stay, and I had made reservations at Domino's Pizza, not realizing that because of the Chinese flu, their two picnic tables were out of commission. Sigh... So I asked Dick to recommend an alternative, and we wound up at Anthony's. No pizza, but Suzanne's halibut and my walleye were spectacular, and the service and ambiance were perfect. 

We also met some of Dick and Alis' friends and neighbors, Gary and Lynda Summers, and had dinner with the four of them at The Cedars, a famous landmark and floating restaurant in CDA. (From L-R, Lynda, Gary, Alis, Dick, MLB and your humble correspondent). Dick and Gary are both world class sporting clay shooters, and have amazing collections of shotguns, mostly over and under and side-by-side models. They shoot up to 25,000 shells a year to stay at highly competitive levels. ( I feel sorry for those clay pigeons, though...)

Wrapping up our visit to Coeur d'Alene, I had a run-in with some wildlife... a big grizzly bear. I spotted him on our walk around a lake after dinner one night. I wasn't about to let some brassy bruin intimidate us, though...