horselets and cowlets

Yesterday Tony and i didn't get to bed until late due to the second wind after being forced to drive for 100 extra miles until we found a vacancy, because of that we got off to a later start today. We hit the road about 9:30 and made our way to yellowstone park. On our way to the park we saw so many new born and tiny little calves and colts, although we prefer to call them horselets and cowlets! We sent a quick message to Kaitlin who reminded us that if we see any bearlets to be careful!

We were only about an hour and half from it, so it didn't take long to get to, but we did spend a lot of time there. I wish that this was our vacation and not a trip to get us back to work because we could have hiked for days out there! It was so gorgeous, many changing climates from the low desert like areas to the chilly mountain air at 10000 feet. We saw a lot of free roaming bison on our way to the top of the mountain. On our way through the park we did take a little hike through a geothermal area where there were hot and some hot and stinky geyers and sulferic mineral springs. We got to see a few of the geyers blow into the sky about 20-25 feet. It is pretty amazing. We did not, however wait for old faithful to blow. That would have meant waiting an hour and half. We thought it over but after last night's "no vacancy" night we thought it would be a good idea to get to a hotel before dark since there is a high population of large elk and other huge game around here, just waiting for nightfall to run in front of your car.

Once we got to the south entrance/exit of yellowstone it took us directly into the grand tetons. I can not say which one of the parks was more magnificent!!! They were both so fresh and clean and wild. Unfortunately we didn't see any bear or moose, which Tony and i really had hoped for. But on the bright side, we now know that my lil' crv can tow a trailer full of shit up a pass greater than 9500 feet high!

We found a place to sleep for the night and tomorrow we are going to be back on track towards seeing Mount rushmore, Crazy Horse, the blackhills and the badlands.

it can't rain all the time

Although we planned on leaving early in the morning yesteday to start our long journey home, a few things changed our plans and we left about 2 hours later than we first planned.
After out last day of work, we initally planned a small dinner with a few friends, but then it grew into a pretty large group and we all went to cancan for a few drinks. Tony and i really only had one, although many were bought for us: ) we had a lot of work do on friday.
After some hard good-byes-but not final ones, because we will be back to visit soon-we walked back to our place and got right to bed. Friday morning we packed all day long. After packing nearly everything in the trailer, we wentfor our last dinner at Belltown pizza with our friend Regina.
We woke up early Saturday morning, put the last of our things in the car and drove east. It was a great day of driving. About 3 or 4 hours into the drive, we watched some guy riding his bike backwards on the freeway. Not backwards like he was sitting the wrong way. backwards, like he was sitting on a bike, in a normal fashion, headed turned slightly around, and pedaling the bike backwards and the bike was going backwards!!! We nearly swerved off the road trying to figure it out!
Our ride went smoothly, and we got about 600 miles under our belts when we decided to stop in Butte, MT. Mostly because it was the nearest city that had hotels, that wasn't right on top of yellowstone park, were there surely would be no vacancies.
Tony got out of the car and went in to get a room, and was promptly turned away, as with the next hotel and the last one that we tried.
Turns out this is a big weekend for Butte. There was a rodeo, a fair, and a folk festival, rendering all hotels, motels, and inn useless and full!
We drove another 100 miles to the next town and although nearly every hotel was booked, the nice fella' at the ramada ( which i vowed to not make fun of-the hotel that is- for a least 6 months) was nice enought to call 4 or 5 hotels and got us the room we stayed in last night. The lewis and clark motel. It wasn't a bad place, but it is also connected to a casino! there will be some photos when we can upload.
We decided to skip glaceier national park because it is a steep uphill ride and 8 hours out of the way. We weren't worried about wasting time, but the uphill battle with our trailer was not worth it.
Today we are going to ride through and check out yellowstone, grand tetons and hopefully stay just outside of south dakota were we hope to see mt. rushmore and crazy horse before taking the longest ride across the plains.
more to come. gotta get some coffee and go!

Going away parties!

Last night we had our first going away party. A group of folks from work got together and Elysian brewery and once again, i forgot my camera. I may get some photos later from a friend but for now, none.
Anyway we had a nice dinner and a lot of drinks, which never ends well with a giant group of ER employees. Needless to say, today was spent as a lazy day by tony and i.
We don't really have that much to pack this time since we are donating most of our stuff ( clothes, dishes, bowls, etc) since we have all nice new stuff at home.
Tonight we are going to dinner with Kaitlin, Marcia and her husband for one move going away dinner. And i think later this week we are going to go out with Regina and her husband for our, i think, last dinner. It has to be, because we are going to be leaving very early for home next saturday! I can't wait!
Our trip home is going to be a busy one. With gas prices so high and us starting to look for a house, we are going to try to make the most of this trip. We are planning on going to Glacier national park, yellowstone park, the badlands, mt. rushmore, black hills, crazy horse and a few others that i can not remember right now. We will be taking a million photos and will try to get hotels with wifi so i can post the whole trip. See you soon!:)

Henna hair dye

I just noticed that in the last post, i said Tuesday, it was on Tuesday, but of last week.
This tuesday Tony had to work so Kaitlin and i had a martini and movies day. The plan was for her to come over so i could perfect my cucumber martini and we could watch a few flicks. Between the time we decided to do this, we also decided to color our hair again.
The last time we dyed each other's hair and did hightlights, i had bought this natural henna hair dye, but we didn't have the time to do it.
So, this time i figured if we were going to be watching movies we would have all kinds of time. So Kaitlin started to mix up the dye and i was making martinis. Once she got it mixed up and in my hair it had been about an hour. It is supposed to stay in the hair about 2 hours. So i colored and highlighted her hair, made more martini's and started dinner.Note, we didn't even get to the movies yet.
With dinner almost ready, i rinsed my hair and lo and behold IT LOOKED EXACTLY THE SAME!!!! The old highlights weren't even colored. Although i guess we shouldn't have expected anything less, since the two of us tend to get things messed up a lot :)
So we drove to bartell and got real hair dye and started all over again!
FINALLY when tony was already home we started to watch our movies, and they stunk!
We watched 27 dresses and bella. Both were stinkers.
Oh well. It was a really fun say otherwise and i did perfect the marinis!
Our internet is going to be shut off tomorrow since we will be home soon, so i am going to post my butt off tonight and tomorrow and then try to do so on the road. Hope you have a lot of free time for reading!