I started off my trip on the 7th of August, drove 13 hours strait to Cheyenne Wells, Colorado to the Diamond M Ranch. I got there around 9 pm, slept in the barn loft. The next morning I woke up to the sound of the roosters crowing. My cousins and I had to work for unlce Ed, we saddeled up 3 horses and took off riding with Ed. We had to round up seven yearling calves from the herd, these calves didnt know how to be drivin by a horse. They acted crazy and ran around, every time we got these calves bunched up they would run in all different directions. I lost my hat a few times and Ed was getting mad at the calves, some other cows got in with them. It took a couple hours to get them singled out and driving toward the gate, I opened the gate and they didnt want to go through, when they finally did they scattered again. We drove the calves three more miles to another pasture. It was quite windy and dry, we rode probably ten miles or more. We got a drink from a spigot in the pasture and rode on home, the horses were hot and tierd, the sweat was rolling off of them.
The next morning when the roosters crowed I did'nt feel like getting out of bed, my back and muscles were really stiff and sore, I could barely move, Ed wanted to give us some more fencing lessons, not the kind with those little swords but the kind with barbed wire and the largest hedge apple fence post we had ever lifted. That night was the night for the cattle penning, Sharlie, Spencer and I drove down the road to get a look at those shore birds that were by the temporary lake. We also had to do some population control.
Late afternoon we saddeled some more horses and got them ready and headed into town to the fairgrounds. We signed up for the cattle penning and Sharlie wanted to get something to eat. Cody, Adriana and Tanya rode in the youth division of the cattle penning and was the last team, they penned their calf and made third place!
Sharlie, Aunt Therese and I rode in the open division of the cattle penning, we got 2 of our cavles peened and the other one ran past the pen and then an extra one got over the line so we got a no time.
Friday we went into the fair and looked around, there were some hot girls but we were bored with the fair and went home and played trivial pursuit in the barn. Saturday we ended up not even going into the fair.
Sunday I got up and drove all day to Utah and got a motel room Moab, Utah. The next morning I got up and headed to Arches National Park and secured a camp site.
Arches was an awsome place, I drove around the park, I hiked up to Delicate Arch, it is a 1.5 mile trail up a steep incline in 100 degree F. I noticed that most of the people I saw in the park were from other countries and speaking all kinds of languages. Also, when you get out of the Ozarks hardly anyone waves when they meet you driving.
Monday morning I got up early and left arches and drove through Utah, that place is just a desert. I stoped in Helper, Utah to take a picture of their post office. It is one of three post offices in Utah that recived New Deal artwork in the Great Depression. An old man was walking out of the Post Office and asked what I was taking a picture of. He talked to me for a while and was real friendly, Helper is a small historic town in the middle of a canyon, this old man said he was 80 and was a veteran of the WW2. He said that on top of the rock on the top of the canyon they used to fly an American flag and during the war some forgin students climbed up there and put up their own flag. The towns people told them they had two hours to get it down before they shot them down. Then he said, "and we would have done it too." That old man was so proud of his town and of America, he said about his home town, "This is God's country, I can tell you that."
I drove on to Provo and got a picture of the Federal Building there, it also has New Deal art. I stoped at Promontory, Utah where the Golden Spike was drivin in to the last tie of the transcontiental rail road. I finnaly got to Idaho and drove a couple more hours to Twin Falls where I met Sarah and Mary, Sarah assumed driving dutys and I had a chofer for the rest of the week. I had an awsome time at Leo and Mary's house. Sarah took me out bowling the night I got there, we were out till 1 am or longer, her friend wasnt single but I tried to get a date with her anyway, she said no.
Sarah drove me to Shashone Falls, it is higher than Niagra Falls, where the Snake River drops several hundrid feet into the canyon below. It was 107 degress that day. We also went to the mall, I sat in a chair and checked out girls while Sarah shopped. Sarah and I walked around downtown Twin Falls. One night Quincy and I went to a pub, they had weird food there, they didnt cook cheeseburgers, there were really no girls to hit on. Sarah and I went out with her friend again to a pool hall, it wasnt that great. Friday night I couldnt get Quincy to go back out to look for girls. I went to bed early, I had been trying to find some purple potatos that I had saw on the discovery channel. We found out that there was a farmers market on saturday morning, so Quincy, Mary and I went to the farmers market and I finally found some purple potatos after several days of looking. I bought about 6 pounds worth, I hope I can save them and grown some purple potatos next year. That afternoon Mary, Leo, Quincy and I went to Hagerman to the resturant there, there is an aligator farm and the resturant in Hagerman serves alagator meat, it was really good, Quincy wouldnt eat any.
After dinner we went to the Hagerman fossil beds National Monument. We saw ruts from the Oregon Trail.
I drugg Sarah to the planetariam on friday during the day, she thought I was such a dork, and said she would never have went there during her free time on her own. I said I liked being that kind of dork.
Sunday I went to Mass at the church downtown Twin Falls, there was a hot girl there, she had on a nice black dress with some red on the bottom. She was such a hottie, she looked like she was probably 19 or so and was going to be going back to college soon. It was cold in that church, when I was there 2 years earlyer it was hot and they hadnt gotten an air conditioner yet, now it was freezing in there. That afternoon Mary and I went to Buhll and Berley to take pictures of the New Deal art in those Post Offices, we then went to the Minidoka Internment Monument, where the United States Government had put Japanese Americans in Concentration camps during WW2. Several buildings there were still in tact, we couldnt see many of them though.
I said goodbye to the family there and headed further west on Monday morning to Nampa, ID where I went to my great Aunt Ettia's house. We went to Homedale, ID to see her twin brother Unlce Ed, they are both 85. Here is the part that if Fred Spriggs is reading he would like. Ed and Ettia both told me this story seperatley, they said that their Dad, who would be my great grandpa was somewhere, either in Douglas or Webster county MO, it must have been in the early 1900s or late 1800s, when he bent down to get a drink from a stream a mountain lion tried to jump on him and he shot it.
Then Uncle Ed told a story about when he was a young man down near the Sand Hills south of Seymour. He was out working, i think cutting wood, he went back to the house and on the way back to cut wood there was a timber rattler in his path, he picked up a stick and beat it to death. He said they took it into Seymour and hung it up on a side of a cattle hauling truck on the square, it stretched 12 feet and was great big around.
We stayed at Uncle Ed's house for several hours, on the way back to Nampa we got lost and ended up in Caldwell, ID, we made it back to Aunt Ettia's house around 1030 pm, i got up early the next morning, she fixed fried spam and eggs, like grandma used to, you can tell that they were sisters. Well, I had already reserved a campground for Yellowstone National Park, I left aunt Ettia's around 830 that morning.
I drove through Idaho and stopped at the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Craters of the Moon is a huge lava field that used to be on the same hot spot that Yellowstone is now on, when that volcano blew it turned a few hundrid miles of Idaho into a huge lava field, someday Yellowstone will look like Craters of the Moon.
I made it to Yellowstone and to my campsite around sunset, I pitched the tent and started cooking, I ate my steak and beans and went to bed. I had bought an air matress, it was alot nicer sleeping on that. Camping by your self isnt very fun though, I dont intend on doing that again.
I got up wednsday morning and drove north in the park, I saw Orange Mound Spring, and of course the main post office that was built in the New Deal. I saw the north entrance arch and a few elk and buffalo. I took a nap and saw some pronghorn near the north east part of the park. Alot of people were parked on the road, I got out to see what the big deal was. There was a pack of wolves sleeping about a mile away, they had a spotting scope set up to look through, I dont know how anyone ever saw them, they just looked like dots even in the scope.
The next day I got up early and drove south to Grand Teton National Park, I saw a bald eagle that posed nicely for several pictures. The Tetons were wonderful and before I knew it I was looking at the most photographed barn in the world, Moulton Barn. The Jackson Hole, the valley in front of the Tetons has harsh winters, the Mormon settlers there built barns and a town, they abandoned it because of the cold harsh winters. With its mountain backdrops the barn built in 1910 has been seen in photos and commercials and is very recognisable. The vistors center at Grand Teton was brand new and had only been open a few days, the Park Ranger Interpretor was really cute, she gave a talk on the park's wildlife, I talked to her after the talk, she said my best bet was to get an inturnship to get my foot in the door. She didnt have a ring on her finger, I wonder why.
I spent the rest of the day at Oxbow Bend turnoff and met a cool guy from Minnesota there with his wife, we stood there talking and waiting to see if any moose came out to eat. I sat there until sunset and no moose showed up. I got some awsome sunset pics. When I left there I felt something was wrong, I pulled over at the next turn off, shure enough I had a rolled belt on a back tire. I had bought a new rim and jack before I left. Its a good thing too, I had a 2 hour drive back to the campground and didnt want to drive on a rolled belt or a doughnut. I changed the tire real quick and drove in the dark for two hours.
Friday I was so tierd, i left camp around 8 something and only saw a raven and a coyote. I walked around the Gyeser Basin that Old Faithful was at, and then took a 2 hour nap in the car. I walked around some of the other Gyesers and hot springs. I saw some bison and elk, but still didnt see a bear.
It gets so cold in the mountains at night, I was really cold by morning, by that time I had a sore throught and my nose was stopped up from the campfire and the cold weather.
Saturday morning around 430 am I was awoke to the sound of some Germans leaving their campsite, they didnt care that they were making alot of noise packing up. I was planning on getting up at 5 anyway, so i got up and packed my things in the cold dark weather. I drove south to Oxbow Bend in the Tetons, near the bend there were some photographers on the side of the road. Yes, there was a big bull moose feeding on willow leaves near the lake. I got some awsome photos, I was so glad I saw a moose. I never did get to see a bear though. I got a new tire put on in Jackson, WY.
Driving across I-80 was terrible, that part of Wyoming is so dry and boring, I hate hearing people say Kansas is boring, Kansas is a beautiful state, with all kinds of stuff to look at, they should drive I-80 through Wyoming, nothing but dry dead grass and hundrids of semis on the highway. I drove 15 hours from Yellowstone to the Diamond M Ranch in Firstview, Colorado. The night at the guesthouse (Barn Loft) was so awsome, sleeping in a real bed for once was great, and I finnaly got a shower. I got up the next morning and drove 12 hours to Seymour, I brought Aunt Betty with me so she can buy Juila's car. I drove 5083 miles on my trip, it was really fun, but next time I want someone to ride with me.
