Last year of work . . . 170 school daze and counting

School started two weeks ago and already co-workers are tired of my countdown.  I just don't understand ;)  I seem to have a good class this year except for those few "special ones"  that you always seem to get.  We are planning a camping trip back to Tuttle Creek with some friends and fishing up the road to Whitney Portal.  I am really excited about it since our big Oregon trip was cut short by the dermatologist, but he didn't shorten my nose!

 We cleaned out Dad's house and brought back a few things: his golf cart, the Puss and Boots cookie jar and his old grey Formica kitchen table with drop leaves.  I don't ever remember not seeing it in at anytime in my life.  It was sad, but not as sad as it could have been because we gave the house to my step-brother and I know we can go back in it anytime we go back to Brady.  Our good friend, Roger, hosted a memorial golf tournament in honor of my dad.  It is a beautiful course.  Our friends from here were on their way home from visiting family in Minnesota and golfed.  They came in 2nd and won  wonderful flashing light cowboy hats. 

 On another sad note, my self adopted mom passed away a few weeks ago and my dad's best friend is in the hospital with cancer. 

So our camping trip in a few weeks will be a wonderful escape and I only have 170 school daze left.

Post Op

I went to the dermatologist thinking that I would have a battle scar on my nose and what I came home with was half of my nose missing.  The cancer was pretty wide spread and deeper than anyone thought.  They had to cut a flap from my cheek so that they could cover the hole on my nose.  Jay thought the surgeon did a really good job covering it.  He came in and saw it before they moved my skin over.  Now he tells me that it looked pretty bad and it looked really good afterwards.  It's starting to get all swollen and black and blue, but I know that will go away.  It isn't going to look pretty at all in the next few days.  At least they got it all, that is all I am concerned about at the moment. I may freak out later, but for now I am just glad it's gone.

Hello again . . .

I just haven't had time to blog at all for about a year it looks like.  It has been a long, sad year for all of us.  My dad passed away this spring and we don't know what to do with ourselves now.  We always went up to stay with him for a few weeks every summer. Turn the page to a new chapter in our lives.
 We have traveled a bit this year.  We spent New Year's Eve with friends at Jalama Beach just short of Lompoc, Ca. We reserved the  group site so everyone was guaranteed a space.  It's a 12 mile twisty road.  It didn't used to have reservations, so it was a crap shoot if you got a spot or not. Now most of them are reserved.  Welcome to CA and no last minute camping trips.

Our camping buddy, Pam, purchased a new Dutch oven and we were fortunate enough to be her guinea pigs for all of the new recipes.  She made a chicken stew that was wonderful.  That Dutch oven it a pretty ingenious little contraption!

Our neighbors bought a solar system for their trailer and we were so inspired that we put one on our camper and wired the 5th wheel so that the  panel could be moved from one rv to the other.  After nagging my poor husband for a long time, he finally got on board with the solar, next maybe the house!

 

My dad passed away in March.  It was really sad to go back to the house.  It still feels like we will see him when we go back. At least now he is comfortable and not in any pain.

 



 Love you Dad

 

 

We went to Tuttle Creek for the weekend to try out the solar panel on the 5th wheel. It was hot during the day and cool nights.  It worked like a charm, but we needed shade, so we bought an EZ Up.  Neither one of us needs to be in the sun anymore. 

 

I have wanted to find the Mobius Arch ever since I read about it on several blogs. While we were at Tuttle Creek, we found it. 

 

Friends of ours have several timeshares.  They had already taken us to Sedona and after school was out this year, they took us to Cabo San Lucas.  What a pretty resort, Pueblo Bonito Blanco. We stayed there for 7 days and had all inclusive food and drinks, burp. Do I heard exercise and diet in our future?

 

When we got home from Cabo, we hopped in the camper and headed north to some cooler country.  We drove up to Bodega Bay and traveled Hwy. 1 and ended our journey at Elk Prairie Campground near Crescent City, CA. We took about seven days. It rained, it was cool; 60 degrees and it was green.  I loved it.

 

 

We had planned on continuing up the coast to Washington and turn east, but I have some skin cancer that needs to be removed from my nose. That is why we are back in the desert and 100 degree weather.

 

Hopefully this year I will be better about keeping up with my blog.  Jay will have been retired for 4 years this coming October and I have plans to retire in June of 2015, God willing and the creeks don't rise.  Then it won't be He's retired and . . . , it will be We're retired and . . .





 



Mariahs River Float and Fort Benton

We took our new pontoons down to the Mariahs River just south of Shelby.  The put in is on the golf course with about a 12 foot drop.  I went down first and Jay followed.  Mind you I have only rowed once before in my life, so when I hit the current, I was spinning and laughing.  The float took a couple of hours.  It was really nice, slow and shallow.  When we went under the interstate bridge, Jay was trying to take pictures of the swallows and their nest.  They gave him a calling card and fortunately he had his hat on!

A 12 ft. or so drop to the water.

Where's my corona?

Now I am rowing for the second time in my life.

This is where the swallows left their calling cards on Jay's head.

Done for the day.

The view from the takeout point.

Yesterday we went to Fort Benton.  Dad thought I had been there before, but I surely don't remember.  We took the shortcut on a bunch of gravel roads.  It sure is a good thing they have finally put road signs out there and Dad has a good map, or else we would have been lost for sure.

There were herds of Antelope all over the place.  We had to be very observant or else we would have had a new hood ornament.

This is a field of canola.  Miles and miles of beautiful bright yellow.

This is the country school out east of Brady, grades 1-8.

This sign is  posted at a main gravel intersection.  It lets you know how far and what direction the nearby farms and towns are from there.

Another view of Knees School with their slide, teeter-totter and merry-go-round.  There is nothing around but farmland and prairie.

Oh so easy to get lost out here!

Someone must have bought this old barn and are in the process of moving it.  Notice the new tin roof.

When we got to Fort Benton, we went to the interpretive center.  They have 5 museums in the town, a really nice path that you can walk along the Missouri River with historical markers along the way (my kids will appreciate that) and beautiful statues that commemorate people of significance.

Loved the set-up in the back of this truck!

T

Glacier Park Hike

There is a group of ladies that go hiking every Tues. here in Brady.  I've been trying to go with them for the last three years, but something has  always come up.  I got to go this year!  We drove out to Glacier Park, about 1 1/2 hours from here.  These ladies are serious hikers.  The first thing that falls out of the trunk was a handgun.  I quietly asked if it was okay to have one.  Yep, you can have one.  They had bear spray and everything you could possibly think of.  I had my camelpack, airhorn, bugspray, flashlight and lunch.  I felt pretty comfortable with them and I was silently figuring out which one I am going to hide behind should we come across a grizzly, because there was bear scat all over the place.  We hiked toward Siyeh Pass.  About two hours in, we stopped in a really pretty alpine meadow and lake and sat down for lunch.  They were discussing whether to turn back or go on to see the pass.  Alice is definitely the most adventurous one of the group.  She was all for it and onward we went.  We came upon the sign that told us how far we had to go if we went on to Going to the Sun road.  7 some odd miles.



We thought we would just go a little farther and check it out.  That type of conversation went on until we ended up going over 10 miles up and over the pass.  We hiked 4000 ft. up and down in elevation which took us about 8 hours.  We almost stopped and went back several times, but we didn't.  I'm so glad we kept on going because the other side was even prettier.  I've been to Glacier many times, but this is only the 2nd time I have stopped and hiked.  It was great!

I wanted to sing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music." 

This is the view almost at the pass.  Look, we are almost eye level with the peak across the valley.

The trail was a bit steep and shaley at times.

Poor Becky fell just before we came to this ice field, so she was a little cautious.

This is the pass at 8,200 ft.

On the other side there were tons of waterfalls and lots of beargrass (the big fluffy flowers).

This is the last waterfall at the end of the hike by the Going to the Sun Road.

 



Fishing

We went out to Bynum Reservoir to go fishing.  We've been here before and it's always a crapshoot as to whether or not we get on the water much less catch a fish.  It ended up being a beautiful, big sky day.  If I had a ski boat, I would have yelled, "Hit it!".  We caught 3 small perch and Dad caught a beautiful trout.  Not bad for an 87 year old.  Showed us up.  ;)



Dad and his catch.

Not a bad view for the day, Rocky Mountain Range.