Last Blog and then home

We went with  our Allegro club to the Grand Canyon.  We were in the 1st class car.  Wahoo!

The canyon is still amazing.

We ate lunch here.  It's the El Tovar.

There were tons of people there that day (Friday the 15.)

We heard at least five languages that day.  The man that took this picture of us used hand signals to ask if we wanted him to take this.  Everybody was smiles all day.  It felt nice to share such grandeur with visitors. 

We looked down on Bright Angel Trail.  We didn't want to go down because then we would have to climb back up.  Besides I already had 9000 steps and we had to walk back to the train depot.

This will be our last posting before we get home.  We leave here, Williams, Tuesday morning.  We'll stop in Gila Bend for the night and should be home Wednesday afternoon. We'll text you.

Love, Mom and Dad

Snake River

We took a jet boat tour of the Snake River in Clarkston, Washington.  We went up river for 60 miles.  And back again. The canyon is called Hell's Canyon. The scenery is spectacular.

Most of the river through here is very calm.

Native Americans made these scratches in the rocks some 1100 years ago.  

We saw deer, at least 5.  This guy was swimming across the river.  Our guide thinks it was probably escaping a predator.

I'm proud of this shot.  I got the reflection perfectly.

The rapids were a BLAST.

We saw rafters floating down the river.  Some of the raft trips last up to 6 days.

This is a class 3 rapid.  Lots of fun.

We saw wild turkeys at the ranch we stopped for lunch.

More rapids

And we saw a bunch of big horn sheep.

This one of 114 shots I took that day.  You are lucky I only sent a few.

We are in McMinnville, Oregon.  We went into to town and did some wine tasting.  We also had lunch.  We are done doing L&C stuff. Now we are winding our way south.  The heat here is as bad as it is at home.  So we are staying in AC.  We got back to our rig before  it reached 100.  I think I'm done for this time.

Love, Mom and Dad

More Montana

We drove through some more of Montana.  This is what is left of Fort Benton.  It was right on the Missouri River. ( After L&C.)

This is your dad at the helm of a river boat that use to run the Missouri before all the dams were put up.

We drove up the road that day and went to The First Peoples Buffalo Jump.  It has a really neat Museum.

A couple of miles from the museum we got to the site of the jump.  The tribes had a buffalo runner wearing a calf skin, he could get the herd to go toward the cliff.  Then there would be men there to scare the herd into running over the cliff.  People would be at the bottom to make sure the animals were dead.  This could keep the tribe going fo a long time.

Now we are at a museum in Helena.

A diorama of the buffalo jump.

The state capital

We took a tram tour of Helena.

Fancy house

Also while we were there we went to The Gates of the Mountains on the Missouri.

L&C were here in this spot.

Hard to see but these are pictographs that are over 1000 years old.

L&C named this the Gates of  the Mountains  As you travel up the river it looks like a sliding door opening.  It's cool.

Now we are in Dillon.  This rock is called Beaver's Head. These is where  Sacagawea said her native tribe's summer camp near.  They needed horses to continue on because the river ran out near here.

L&C camped here.

Then we drove to Bannack a ghost town up the road from our RV park.  It was a gold strike town.

Here is the headwaters of the Missouri.  It has three rivers coming together to make the Missouri.

They are the Jefferson, the Madison and the Gallatin.  We saw all three.  In fact we ate lunch beside the Gallatin.  I'm not sure how this happened, but some how I've made this photo bounce to the bottom.  It is suppose to be above the ghost town picture.

The weather here has been pretty good, not to hot.  But the fires in the area has made the air awful.  We got to Dillon Wednesday and the air was thick with smoke.  You couldn'tsee the hills next to the RV park.  Thursday morning we got up to almost clear skies so our 250 mile round trip the the Headwaters was lovely.  Then the wind brought the smoke back the day (Fri.) we left.  It's not as bad here in Missoula but it is still here.  We leave tomorrow for Spokane for the night and then on Clarkston, WA.  That's all 

Love, Mom and Dad

Day one in Great Falls

We saw three waterfalls today.  We are in Great Falls, MT.  This falls is called Black Eagle Falls.

We went to another L&C site again.  This is the best museum for L&C that we seen so far.

This is a New Foundland like went on the Corp of Discovery with L&C. I'm not sure how to spell the name of the breed.

This is how the men took the boats around the five waterfalls.  It took them almost three weeks.

This is the shortest river in the world.  It's about 250 feet long.  It's called Roe River.

This is Giant Springs. It's suppose to be the largest spring in North America.  I can't remember how much water comes up from these springs but it's a lot.

This is the second falls.  It's Rainbow Falls.

This is the third falls.  It's called Ryan Falls.  It was named from the Ryan Dam.  This falls was the first falls that L&C saw.  This is the real Great Falls.

When we got back this afternoon we found we had a visitor on our doorstep.  A neighbor told us it had been there for an hour sleeping.

We have two more days here, then we head off to Helena.  We'll be able to see 90% of the eclipse from Helena.

That's all for now.

Love, Mom and Dad

North Dakota

We were in Bismarck and drove the 83 to Washburn to visit the Fort Mandan.  L&C spent their first winter here with the Mandan Indians.

This is one of the rooms in the fort.  The crew fixed knives etc. in exchange for food.

These are boots made by a modern Mandan from bison hide.  They are beautiful and very soft.

Our guide, Juan.

This is a recreation of a Mandan village.

This a community earthen house.

It's huge inside.

The Missouri River.

Up on a hill is where Ft. Abraham Lincoln. I don't remember what it was called before.  It was used during the Indian relocation.  It was later named Fort Lincoln.

We are now in Medora.  Last night after we got here we went to the pitchfork fondue for dinner.  Those are some of the steaks they cook on pitchforks and dunk in huge barrels of hot oil.

Dinner music

Then we walked across the Parking lot to the theater.  Before the show started we had an elk wander across the hill.

The show is called Medora Musical.  It was pretty good.  It was all about ND heroes.

At the end there was this horseman representing the state.

Today we went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Teddy stayed in this cabin when he first came to North Dakota.

Prairie dog     There are several prairie dog towns here in the park. At one point in the day we saw a coyote hunting these critters.

The Bad Lands

Bison Jam

This big guy just ambled by our car on his was to better grass.

The other cars doesn't seem to bother him.

Some wild horses in the river.

This old guy is all by himself.

We have one more day here and then we are off to Montana.

That's all for now.

Love, Mom and Dad