Greg with his cousins Melissa and Jim
You aren’t a Hames if you don’t play cribbage, euchre and pinocchle. I’m happy to be the photographer since I’m an “outlaw” and only play euchre.
Wildfires are really doing a number on the landscape in the west. We drove around several in Canada and then had quite a bit of smoke in Chelan from nearby fires. This was a smoky sunset in Chelan, WA.
Lake Chelan with smoke moving in from the west.
Our friends Val and Larry in Ennis, MT. I forgot to take pictures this year so I cheated and used a picture from last year’s visit. We all still look the same anyway 🙂
Old Faithful doing her thing. I don’t care how many times I see it. It never gets old. My kids will be proud that we saw it erupt and immediately went to the car, just like we did thirty years ago. No time to hang around and wait for another eruption.
If you’ve ever driven through Wyoming, you’ll appreciate this picture. There’s thousands of miles of this.
On the road in the Big Horn National Forest, somewhere between Ten Sleeps and Buffalo, WY.
Sturgis, SD is revving up for Bike Week. It officially started yesterday but all the big events are next weekend.
Family, Friends and Floozies
If there’s been a consistent theme throughout this awesome adventure, it’s been reunions. We started our trip with Greg’s family reunion in northern Michigan. After that, we visited with a high school friend in the U.P. of Michigan. We spent time with friends in Alaska. We spent a couple days with family in Chelan, Washington. We spent a day with one of my high school and college friends in Montana. We have had our hearts filled to overflowing by friends and family.
This leg of our journey took us through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.
Greg has cousins in Washington State that we don’t get to see very often. Until recently, his last living Aunt lived there too. We initially planned to swing by and visit with her on our way through but she moved closer to her son in North Carolina a few weeks ago. It was a bummer we didn’t get to see her but we did get to spend two days with Greg’s cousin Melissa and her husband Bob in Chelan, WA. His cousin Jim and Jim’s wife Linda drove up from Wenatchee to spend a day with us while we were there too. It just happened to be Greg’s birthday. We celebrated with a wonderful lunch and apple pie (his favorite) for dessert. It was SO nice getting to see them and catch up. We spent two days talking, telling stories and laughing. We don’t see them nearly enough and definitely need to visit more often. It was such a good visit.
After leaving Chelan, Washington, we drove west through Coeur D’Alene, ID on our way to Ennis, Montana to visit my high school and college friend Val. I realized as I started typing this, I didn’t take one picture while we were in Ennis. I had to substitute a picture from our trip to Ennis last year. Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe we have been friends for almost fifty years. It just doesn’t seem possible. Val and her husband Larry made us an incredible elk steak dinner, using elk Larry shot just up the road from their house. On a scale of 1-10, it got 100! It was SO good. It’s always nice having time to sit around and talk too. It’s like we picked up right where we left off. Friends like that are priceless and such a blessing.
After we left Ennis, we decided to drive through Yellowstone National Park as we headed east. We visited there with the kids about thirty years ago and really loved it. While we were in Yellowstone, Greg said he wanted to swing by Sturgis, SD for a quick visit. Eighteen years ago he went to Bike Week with a group of friends and he wanted me to experience it too. I had no idea what to expect but I knew the people watching would be good so I agreed. We spent the night last night in Cody, WY and then the afternoon in Sturgis. We had a late lunch there before heading down to Keystone, SD. We saw a little bit of everything in Sturgis, including two twenty-something “women” wearing buttless chaps and leather bikini tops. Shaved heads with tattoos are also a thing. We saw quite a few men and women donning their body art on shaved heads. I guess there’s something for everyone. I can only imagine what it will be like next weekend when the rally is in full-swing.
We can add a few more wildlife sightings to our list today. I saw a mama and baby moose in a river in the Big Horn National Park. I am 99% sure I saw a bear in a tree as we drove into Keystone tonight. We also saw a herd of elk before we exited the highway. There were probably 15 of them laying in the sun near a fence. I can’t say that I blame them. It was 100 degrees today. Everyone and everything is a little toasty. I wasn’t able to get pictures of the wildlife from the RV as we were driving down the road. I don’t care how many times I see wildlife, I’m like a little kid. I rarely have a camera ready though.
We will visit Mt. Rushmore in the morning and then plan our next stop as we inch our way back towards Michigan. I’ll try to do a better job having a camera ready for wildlife sightings and write more from the road in a few days.
