September 23, 2014. Stillwater and Winter Park Today, Snow Mountain Ranch Tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

September 23, 2014.  Stillwater and Winter Park Today, Snow Mountain Ranch Tomorrow.  This was a no-event day.  I didn't get upset at Walmart - there is no Walmart within 100 miles.  I didn't get locked in the garden behind a store.  It was not a beautiful day in the mountains.  It rained most of the night and frequently during the day.  The rain mixing with the sun did produce a colorful rainbow.  We could see the beginning and the end, but not the arch in the center. 

 

We drove to Winter Park for a look around and a shop around.  The former was more successful than the latter.  We got lunch on the look around.  We  bought nothing on the shop around.  We did see some spectacular aspen trees there.  The local opinion is that we hit the peak of the colors on this side of the divide.  One of sales ladies in Grand Lake said this rain would cause the aspen leaves to drop.  Especially, if it is followed by a typical Colorado fall wind.  I am glad we are here.  I would not have liked missing the dazzling display of colors. 

Tomorrow, we will encamp at Snow Mountain Ranch.  We will be there from Tuesday until Sunday morning.  Where then, you ask?  Don't know, say I.  We may go south into New Mexico.  We may head home indirectly.  I think Bob Dylan had it right, "How does it feel?   How does it feel, to be on your own?  With no direction home?  A complete unknown?
Just like a rolling stone?" 

It feels pretty good. 

I will discontinue the blog while at Snow Mountain Ranch.  I will spend Wednesday preparing for the meeting.  I will be in the meeting through Saturday.  So, if we are still on the road come Sunday, I'll be back online.  If not, I'll pick it up again when we begin the eastern leg of our fall travels. 

I'll be back sooner or later.  See you then.

September 21, 2014. A Day in the Village of Grand Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 21, 2014.  A Day in the Village of Grand Lake.  We remain in Stillwater Campground, about five miles from the village of Grand Lake.  After a lazy morning, we drove into Grand Lake to look around and shop around.  While Annie was shopping around, I began to look around for things to photograph for today's blog.  I found flowers, lots of flowers.  I also learned some of the tricks of local merchants. 

The Grumpy's sign you see first hangs over the door of a local saloon in Grand Lake.  Annie suggested that I photograph the sign.  I have no idea why she thought it was photo-worthy.  It is not nearly as pretty as the flowers which follow the sign.  Perhaps she thought it sent a message to someone.  Was it you?  If so, you'd better stop being grouchy.  No one likes a grouch.  Am I right? 

The horses shown were tied up outside another local saloon.  A fellow in a truck bearing Colorado tags asked me if I knew why they rode horses to the bar.  It dawned on me.  "Because they can't get arrested for driving while intoxicated?" 

"Right you are, camera boy.  There is no charge for RWI in Colorado."  I assume the R stands for "Riding."  Annie was in a store so I watched for a while.  It began to rain.  A cowboy came out and covered the saddles with rain jackets.  He returned to the bar.  Soon, two cowboys and a cowgirl walked unsteadily out of the bar.  They mounted their horses and rode off down Main Street.  There was a bit of a swagger about them as they rode past the police station. 

I caught up with Annie in one of her favorite stores.  She seemed to be buying the store a piece at a time.  One of the sales ladies approached me.  "I see you are taking pictures.  Our back garden is a photographer's delight."  She nodded toward the back door. 

"Gee, thanks," I replied.  Out her back door I went.  She was right.  There were aspen trees in various stages of color.  There were leaves of green, red, yellow and pink.  I took picture after picture, several of which appear above.  When I finished, I tried to reenter the store through the back door.  To my chagrin, I discovered it was locked.  The patio area where I had been taking pictures was fenced in and so was I. 

Their plan came to me slowly - lock the husband in a fenced-in garden while the wife buys out the store.  Diabolical.  Evil.  Perfect.  Well, perfect but for one thing.  The evil genius who locked me out failed to notice my lithe, agile and athletic build.  I leapt the fence tearing nary a stitch of my clothing.  I marched around the store, went straight through the front door and assumed a combative stance.  I enunciated clearly, "FREE HER."  The sales ladies were amazed that I escaped their prison.  Annie was allowed to leave the store in my custody.  But then, I had to make two trips back into the store to gather the stuff she bought while I was locked in the garden.

Men, listen to me.  You must always be alert.  There are sales people who will lock you up and sell your spouse stuff she doesn't need.  Be alert and stay lithe.

September 20, 2014. Medicine Bow This and Medicine Bow That - Stillwater Campground on Lake Granby.

September 20, 2014.  Medicine Bow This and Medicine Bow That - Stillwater Campground on Lake Granby.  We departed Gowdy State Park and drove through Laramie on our way to Medicine Bow Lodge through the Medicine Bow Mountains.  I was able to get a strong enough Internet signal at the Laramie Chamber of Commerce to publish yesterday's blog.

The changing colors of the aspens were striking as we drove through the mountains.  Medicine Bow Lodge looks only a little like the place where we stayed 30+ years ago.  Then, the cabins offered walls that didn't intersect with the floors.  I did find one old cabin which appears to be used for storage.  All the other cabins are relatively new.  MBL will celebrate it's 100th birthday in 2017.  A week-long stay during peak season will run you about $1500 for an adult and about two-thirds that sum for children.  If that seems steep, it is slightly more than a cruise and it also includes everything, food, horseback riding, fishing, and horseshoe tossing.  It also includes more, I just don't know what the more is.

We had lunch at the J. W. Hugus Restaurant in Saratoga, Wyoming.  J. W. Hugus was an early day entrepreneur who established general stores from Colorado to California.  Today, he serves up a decent meal for a fair price. Well actually, today he is dead.  But his descendants serve a decent meal.  There are no cloth napkins at the Hugus eatery, but no one leaves hungry.

Stillwater Campground is part of the Arapaho National Recreation Area and overlooks Lake Granby.  This afternoon, the sky was perfectly compatible with the water.  Look at the last picture above.  The two shades of blue are almost indistinguishable.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that we saw scores and scores of antelope in both Wyoming and Colorado today.  One of the pictures shows a dozen or more resting and munching in an irrigated pasture.

We are about one-thousand miles into our fall trip.  The most direct route to Granby is about 680 miles.  Obviously, we took a circuitous route.  But, we are here, three days early.  We will have some time to run around, look around, shop around and eat around before the meeting begins.  Good.  We haven't had enough around time yet.

September 19, 2014. Leaving Nebraska - Curt Gowdy State Park, Wyoming.

 

September 19, 2014.  Leaving Nebraska - Curt Gowdy State Park, Wyoming.  There were several significant events today.  First, we passed the world headquarters of Cabella's in Sidney, Nebraska.  I intended to stop.  However, the exit flew by as I was taking a picture and it was a 12-mile trip back by the time we got to the next exit.  Too bad.  I might have bought something there.  I don't know what, but they have lots of stuff in those stores.

The second event was that we passed a massive howling coyote sitting next to an American flag. I have no idea what he was howling at or why he was howling during the daylight hours.  All the howling coyotes I have heard were howling in the dark.

Now, the third incident was more remarkable than the first two added together.  Have you seen the movie, "Vacation"?  Do you remember the part where Aunt Edna dies and Clark ties her on top of the station wagon?  Remember how he wrapped her in a blanket and set her upright?  Well, evidently Clark has traded the family wagon for a truck and Aunt Edna now rides on a trailer behind the truck.  The picture doesn't show the full scene, but Aunt Edna was seated in a prone position, wrapped in a tarpaulin.  I could almost hear her yelling, "C-L-A-R-K!!!!" as we passed the trailer.  If it wasn't Aunt Edna in that tarp, I'd like to know what it was. 

We spent the night at Curt Gowdy State Park.  It has changed a lot since we did that in the early 1980s.  They opened a new visitor's center last year on what would have been Curt's 94th birthday.  He died in 2006.

I had more Internet trouble last night so this entry is a day late.  You might expect that over the next several days as we wind our way through the mountains to Snow Mountain Ranch.  I try to be regular, but some things are out of my control. 

September 18, 2014. Another Day, More Old Buildings.

September 18, 2014.  Another Day, More Old Buildings.  We spent the night in Lake Ogallala State Park campground.  Lake Ogallala is due north of Ogallala, NE.  Ogallala is 125 miles east of the Wyoming border off I-80.  There, are you oriented?  Good, because that's about as good as this entry gets today.

I tried to finish this last night, but I had trouble with the Internet signal.  I don't know why it is stronger this morning.  Oh, it's probably because it is daylight today and it was dark last night.  The signal probably couldn't find its way to the satellite in the dark.  Yeah, I'll bet that's it.

My friend, Bob, offered to take me to Walmart and show me how to use the self-checkout machine.  Well, sure, he can do that, he's younger than me.  He promised that Annie would be "wowed" by my new skill set.  I told him that Annie is wowed that I can even find my way to Walmart.  The expectation bar is set pretty low after 46 years of marriage.

The pictures you see above are mostly from the Buffalo Bill Museum and Ranch in North Platte, NE.  The ranch is the white-with-green-trim, three-story building.  It is called Scout's Rest because it is where Buffalo Bill would come between tours of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.  The old buildings would have been more interesting if we hadn't just seen a lot of old buildings at the Stuhr Museum.  I did spot a horse that looked like Camelot, our first horse.  They also have a drainage ditch plow that is so large that it takes 48 oxen to pull it.  It was used in drought years to get water to the fields from the Platte River.  I was wowed.

Today, we move on to Curt Gowdy State Park between Cheyenne and Laramie, WY.  We camped there with the girls in the 1980s, on our way to Medicine Bow Lodge.  And, yes, the Lodge is on the itinerary.  The girls will remember the lodge because that was the place where the wall and floor did not meet.  I wanted to make a pallet for the field mice on the floor, but you know Annie - she didn't see the humor in the idea.  Well, that, and she doesn't like mice.  "Let 'em make up their own bed," she groused.

September 17, 2014. The Stuhr Museum, Walmart and More, All Right Here in Grand Island, NE.

 

 

 

 

September 17, 2014.  The Stuhr Museum, Walmart and More, All Right Here in Grand Island, NE.  The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer is closed for remodeling.  However, the grounds are open and are ripe with history.  There is a teepee symbolic of the American Plains natives, a Pawnee earthen lodge - large enough for 20-30 people, 100 year-old barns, schools, churches, log cabins, even a vintage locomotive and narrow gage tracks around the grounds to an 19th century railroad town. 

When the museum reopens, it will feature harvesting equipment from the olden days.  The museum promises to be a top-notch attraction for tourists.  It is worth the ten minute drive off I-80.

Walmart, now that's another deal.  I am a big fan of Walmart.  It offers common goods for the common man at common prices.  Nothing fancy, if there's something you need, you just go to Walmart and pick it up.  It doesn't matter whether it's food, sporting goods, clothing, medicines, electronics, whatever, Walmart has it.  And, it has it at a good price. 

But, after today's trip to Walmart, I am thinking of becoming a Target man.  What happened, you ask?  Well, I will tell you.   There was not a single checkout stand with a checkout person waiting to help me.  I was funneled into the box-of-terror.  Once inside the 50' by 50' space, I discovered that I was boxed in by self-checkout machines.  There were two machines on each side of the box, eight in all.  There was no way out, other than to self-checkout your purchases and exit via the only opening toward the front of the store.  My blood pressure shot up 20 points. 

Now, I am okay with technology.  See, I am typing this blog on a computer connected to the Internet with an air card.  I carry an iPhone 5 and am first on the list for the iPhone 6.  But, those self-checkout machines scare me.  What happens if you have fruit or something else which is sold by weight?  I just know the machine will lock up and the light on a post will start flashing and rotating.  I am surprised there isn't a siren on the thing.  It is bad enough that it keeps repeating, "You need help.  Help is on the way." 

I know I need help.  I don't need everyone else in the box-of-terror to know it, too.  The first time I needed help, Annie had taken grapes out of a pre-packaged bag because it had more grapes than she wanted.  Nevertheless, the scanner rang up the full price.  Dorothy, queen of the box-of-terror, short, 50-ish, hair color by L'Oreal, sauntered over with her pocket of keys and ID cards.  She swiped her card, jabbed a few buttons, keyed in the fruit code, the machine beeped and she walked off.  "Hey, wait," I wanted to say, "Show me how so I can do it myself next time."  Too late.  Dorothy, Queen of the box was gone, strutting her stuff to another shopper in his sixties. 

Three more times the machine began to twirl its lights and announce to all the other Walmart shoppers that I needed help.  The final time, Dorothy was trying to assist another senior with the purchase of a six-pack of soda.  I saw him just turn his back on Dorothy and walk out of the box, out of the store, leaving his six-pack in Dorothy's hands.  He was defiant to the end.  Gosh, I was so proud of him.

Dorothy placed the six-pack in a return-to-shelf cart, and came over to my machine.  The machine didn't know it, but it was seconds from having its light punched out.  She scanned her ID, jabbed a few buttons and turned on her heels.  "This experiment is a colossal failure," I said.  Dorothy ignored me.  "This is a COLOSSAL FAILURE," I shouted! 

Annie, "Shhhhh . . . . , she is just doing her job."  I would not be restrained, "I'll take my story to Bentonville!  I WILL!!!"

Annie took my elbow and led me out of the store.  I was mumbling as we passed the greeter who wished us a good day.   "Too late!  I'm going to Bentonville, I say!  I am going to Bentonville!!!"

So, we returned to the campground and biked while I regained my equilibrium.  Later, we cooked out and life returned to normal.  We settled in Harvey for the evening and Annie said, "We need to go back to Walmart tomorrow.  We are out of olive oil."

"Okay," said I.  Walmart rules the world.  I might as well get on board.  I'll learn the self-checkout machine, just like every other Walmart shopper.  Walmart will further reduce its payroll and continue to offer common goods at common prices for the common man. 

I will do that, but my spirit is still with the old-timer who handed Dorothy his six-pack of soda and walked out of the store.  He is a rebel and I wanted to be him.  But, I had $106.00 in groceries, including fixings for s'mores.  What's a road trip without s'mores?