Road Trip - Part 2 - Spokane to Cody and Back Again

Freezing fog greeted us the morning of our second leg of the journey. Everything was covered in horefrost and was incredibly beautiful though a little bit treacherous for the crazy fools who were on the road.




'Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I,
but when the tree's are bending low,
the wind is passing by.'
I am here to tell you that whoever wrote this classic poem had never been to Wyoming and Montana in the wintertime. You can see the wind. It is physical and solid and a constant. Hal Ketchum had a song with a line that said "Mama knows Wyoming by the wind". It's so true. Hang on to your hats boys, we are in Wyoming. (these signs were in Montana. Up around Livingston where the wind never stops. 75 mph gusts as we were going through. The interstate gets closed here quite often for high winds and has a tendency to tip over semi's. Yikes!)


When you see Heart Mountain, you know you have arrived in Cody, Wyoming. Now where are those babies...

Wa-Hoo! Our grandbabies ~ This is why we came...


Westen wasn't sure that he wanted to wear that monster hat Grandma had made him, but he was very interested in checking out his new fire truck. Motor noises were soon coming from those tiny little lips.



Noah loved his new dump truck, thinking that it was to ride in and making Grandma push him around the room while he sat in it. What a silly boy. His monster hat fits his personality perfectly.



Grandma fight-fighted Noah to sleep and Uncle Kevin simply soothed Westen to dreamland. We both had to use different tactics but are very proud of ourselves, as you can see.

I don't have any pictures of the biggest highlight of the week. Riff and Sam had gone out hunting Monday morning and spotted a cow elk that had fallen through the ice in the creek and could not get out. The two of them knew that they couldn't get her out themselves, so they went back to town for reinforcements. They rounded-up Kevin, Riff's brother Ron and nephew Nick, then called Jim who is the private game keeper for the Two-Dot Ranch. Getting back to the spot where the poor cow was stuck, Sam got a rope or two around her neck and they had an elk rodeo, with the outcome a very happy cow elk running off over yonder hill. Riff did have the fore-thought to grab his video camera, so Ron, fresh from knee surgery, filmed the whole thing. Ron writes for several hunting magazines and already has an article in the works. The video is incredible to watch and will soon be on some news show, though I'm not sure at this point what and where. I'll keep you posted when I know...


Dustin and Kevin spent a day on the slopes at Red Lodge Mountain. It was the perfect day for boarding; fresh powder, lots of sun and no wind. If you were to ask Stacey, Dawn and I, we would tell you that it was also the perfect day for shopping in the fun little stores in the sweet mountain town of Red Lodge, Montana. And Riff will tell you that it was the perfect day to enjoy a cold Red Lodge Heffenweizen at the Snow Creek bar. Different perspectives, you know!



New Year's Eve was spent at my sister, Stacey's. We ate, played cards and watched the ball drop, cheering in 2009. Noah didn't make midnight, thank goodness!


A few of my brother-in-laws cows grazing in the shadow of Heart Mountain. Such a tough sight to look out at every morning!

Friday morning came, time to load up and head back home. We want to come home, we just want to take those babies with us, but their Mommies were suspicious and watched us like hawks leaving us no opportunity to stuff those little guys in our packs. Pretty narrow-minded, I think!

On our way to Wyoming, we passed by the Crazy Mountains of Montana in the dark. I wanted a picture of the sign, since Riff has always pointed at it to let me know "my" mountains are coming up. He seems to think they named them after me. How rude, I always say. Anyway, on the way back I had my eye peeled for the sign when I knew we were getting close, but 'lo and behold, the darn sign was covered with snow and ice and the silly mountains themselves were covered with clouds, so this is all you get. They are beautiful under any conditions. I'm going to have to do some research and find out exactly why they are called Crazy Mountains. It doesn't have a thing to do with my personality....


A few miles of white-out conditions outside of Butte, Montana had me gripping my "OH GOD!" bar and asking for our Gaurdian Angels to fly with us. They did and we are now home safe and sound, enjoying the comfort of our own living room as I'm sure our families are enjoying the peace and quiet of theirs. Glad to see us come. Glad to see us leave.

May you all be blessed with beautiful families and clear roads home...
Happy 2009!