Wyoming...Home, home on the range

Where the deer and the antelope play. Didn't see any deer but saw plenty of antelope.

We are in a park between Boulder and Pinedale, WY. Population of Pinedale is around 1400. What's making this economy work is oil and gas production. However, it is my understanding it is slowing waaaay down. Housing is ridiculous. There is lots of real estate for sale. People are trying to get their prices (and equity) before the boom goes bust. Large hotel chains have built here to accommodate the oil/field workers but I've been told they are sitting with empty rooms. I'm betting it won't be a pretty site when the bust does happen.

Lucy's best friend came and visited for a couple of days. Cooper and Lucy went to therapy dog training school together. Lucy's usually not to friendly with strange dogs so having Cooper to hang with was super.
















Kathleen and Dan brought Cooper to visit with Lucy. It was lucky for us they were in the area and came to visit since Dan (being the handy Dan he is) changed out our shower head to a hand held unit. We should probably just follow them wherever they go...so anytime I need something done (or fixed) I have Dan to the rescue!

Meet a new American citizen

This is HeeYun, our daughter-in-law. The following "cut and pasted" email is from Tom, Tim's oldest son. They are in the states for 6 weeks and then will go back to Seoul, Korea where Tom is a teacher (DOD Schools)at Seoul Middle School on Yongsan Army base. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongsan_Army_Garrison#Department_of_Defense_Dependent_Schools

"We're back in the states. Hee Yun's naturalization interview is this morning and although she was cool breeze back in Korea, she is now a bit nervous. Did you know there are 27 ammendments to the constitution? She has done a wonderful job preparing for the interview, but keep us in your thoughts this morning. "

"Proving that births matched deaths, there is one more American today and her name is Hee Yun Kim Daugherty. She aced her tests and interview, although she sweated through the entire experience (she does that when she is nervous). We will be shopping around for social security numbers and passports now."

Way to go Hee Yun. Congratulations!

As a side note...she's also a top notch pool player and a member of the winning "Bless U Black Weirdos" in the Itaewon Pool League in Seoul.

Travel to Boulder WY

We dodge some and ran into thunderstorms on our way to Boulder, WY. Boulder is 88 miles south on Hwy 191 from Jackson, WY. The first and the third pic were taken from the moho while driving. Lucy had to piddle so we found a place to pull over to get the deed accomplished. It takes awhile...she is picky about her spots. And, for those of you who might question if I always wear a baseball cap...the answer is yes and no. If it's a bad hair day then Route 66 goes on.

OMG, what beautiful country even with all the rainy weather. And, we're not even close to the Tetons or Yellowstone NP.

We are parked at a campground (one of our ROD, AOR, DOD, DOA, DPS, DNS campgrounds available to us through our Western Horizons Membership) at Wind River View Campground in Boulder, WY. It's about 6 miles south of Pinedale, WY for those of you who want to look it up. I don't have the Datastorm Satellite deployed because I have been spoiled by faster internet connection through my Verizon cell phone. I use my cell phone as a modem to connect. We are here until June 24th.

Once again....

We will get it right. Not sure what we are doing wrong...but we've had our share of dead batteries on this trip. Truck is being towed to Twin Falls, ID to the Chrylser (I hope who is still there) dealer. This is the second time we've been towed. (First time was out of the Les Schwab Tire Dealer parking lot in Salem, OR.) It's a sinking feeling when you unhook, get in the truck to put it back into the "drive" position and everything is dead...no lights, beeps, whistles, nada. Plus, this time we had the entrance blocked to the RV park we had just checked into with 2 rigs behind us wanting to pull in. We hooked back up and pulled it around to our site. It's at this point I just wanted to go home, sit in my grandmother's rocking chair and suck my thumb.

Lucy didn't have a good night (or morning) either. We overnighted at the WalMart in Ontario, OR last night which butts up to the Snake River. In the middle of the night there was some feral type animal making horrible noises coming from the river area. Brought Lucy up out of a sound (making noises kind) sleep who then leaped over me and up on her hind legs looking out the window to see what it was. She was on point for over an hour. I'm not sure if she wanted to join in or if she was making sure it wasn't going to get her. I've never seen her like that. This morning I thought I would check her for fleas since I had a dream last night that she had them...yes, I do have some strange dreams...however, in checking her I found no fleas but a tick! Yuk! I googled what to do about removing a tick, made Tim read it while I prepared for surgery. Got the tweezers out, sterilized them with rubbing alcohol, got the rubber gloves out, got the neosporine, the super duper magnifying glass that lights up, a towel and a covered jar to put the tick in. And then I gave everything to Tim to do the deed. He looked at me as if he thought "I" was going to remove it. Are you nuts? I'll hold her. Anyway, he was able to get it out in tack...nothing left behind and it's now in a covered jar under the sink. You're suppose to keep it until you're sure the dog doesn't get sick...about a 48 hour period. Then that sucker is out of here.

Lucy made me promise that we will never ever go back to that WalMart.

Happy Dog!

Sorry about the quality of the video and noise (wind) but you get a brief glimpse of Lucy running on the beach. She ran and ran and ran. I think she could get use to being a beach dog!

Lucy at Bandon Beach

We went to Bandon, OR today. It's about 40 miles down the coast from where we are staying. It's a tourist's haven in the summer. Still early in the season so it was pretty quiet. They use to have the best cheese factory until Tillamook came in, bought it and closed it.

This is the same beach we went to last year. Last year she wouldn't let me put her down. The wind was so strong and the noise from the ocean scared her. This year was a different story. Wind was not as strong, she's a year older and there were so many smells she couldn't resist plus people she knew were there just to see her!
She had a bead on this fisherman. She knew he wanted to pet her if I would only move closer to him.
Hey, buddy, catch anything?
I don't want to go home!

Memorial Day

The following link will tell you about the mission my Dad was in. He never talked to about it. There was an article in our local newspaper about the mission. He was in the group that was captured. I have his dog tags, his POW tags (Stalag VIIA) and his two Purple Hearts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_Baum

Thisa and Thata

We're in Lakeside, OR at an RV Resort that sits on TenMile Lake. We took a drive today which took us to Winchester Bay where the Umpqua River Lighthouse is located. Probably hard to read the sign, but this lighthouse was the first on in the Oregon Territory built in 1857. It sits way back from the beach...hard to believe its' location being a lighthouse as well as being amongst the trees!

We are in the Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area. What Sturgis is to motorcycles...the Dunes have ATV's and dune buggys. There are a kagillion of them. And, it's only Memorial Day. Any campground, public or private was crammed full of trailors, toy haulers, campers on pickups, rv's of all kinds.

We had a camper pickup pull in next to us. Mom, Dad (late 20's) 5 yr old and tw0 yippy dogs. I was doing ok with everything until I saw he was going to start a fire in the metal tire ring next to us (about 6 feet away with the wind blowing our way). I went over to question if he really was going to have a fire with 25-
30 mph winds and he said he was. Well, to make a long story short we ended up in the office and I was shocked to discover the owners didn't seem to see what the problem was. Apparently, they've never had a fire situation here. I made my point and went on record that if we had any fire problems the punk kid would be liable. The punk kid moved his pickup 2 rows away from us. I was disappointed in the attitude not only of the owners but more of the young man. I hate to think this is typical of the younger generation. And, they are raising children.

Boat slips where we are staying.
Local color.

Mt Hood and Mario Andretti

Picture of Mt. Hood taken out the front window of the motorhome while driving down the highway. Pretty impressive, huh?

Now, for recap of the last couple of days. Short version.

Arrived Moses Lake, WA, engine light on "NEW" truck, Dodge dealer in Moses Lake, battery check failed, gave us new battery, had great rally at fairgrounds, left Moses Lake, WA, spent night in Boardman, OR, took pics on left while driving to Salem, WA. Pulled into Les Schwab Tires in Salem, unhooked truck in middle of their parking lot, truck wouldn't start, dead battery, called for tow to local Dodge dealer, parked moho and Lucy and I waited for Tim to call from dealer with news. He called. Dead battery. Duh. Determined it was operator (as in Tim) error. Left key in ignition in "on" position instead of "off" position. I walked over to Dairy Queen and got Oreo Mint Blizzard to sooth nerves. Got indigestion. Rained (as in poured) all night, 3 trucks also pulled in and parked in lot. They started up their engines about 3am and starting leaving...the last one to leave about 4am. Moved moho over to "truck" area to get new tires installed. Checked date on tires. Not acceptable. Talked to manager who made special trip to Sisters. OR to get tires with recent date on them. Didn't feel bad he had to make the trip since we had made several calls telling him this was a non negotiable item. However, he had a 200 mile roundtrip drive to make and we had to cool our heals in the meantime.

Got tires and left Salem, OR about 4pm and drove down the road to Eugene where we parked for the night in another Elks parking lot. $10/night. Dinner at Elks $25. Oh well.

Here's where Mario Andretti shows up. We left Eugene, OR this morning taking RT 126 which is a 2 lane road heading west to Florence, OR where we make a left hand turn and head down the OR coast on Rt 101 to Lakeside, OR where we are currently parked. Tim becomes this other persona...as in Mario Andretti...when he's driving twisty, winding 2 lane roads in Oregon. Never noticed it anywhere else but Oregon. He starts telling me stories of his times on different twisty, winding roads as he takes the curves at 50 mph with me sucking air. He loves these roads. He dodges the log trucks on the curves. He tells me what kind of truck (called a bobtail) just passed us. He forgets he told me what it was about 52 times last year. He loves Oregon. He loves the coast. He's got web feet and gills. We're here until June 2nd. Maybe I'll get gills.

Tongue Communication

It may be hard to see but if you look closely Lucy and the horse (with the sleezy on - sleezies are the latest in keeping your mane down) appear to be communicating via tongues. I wonder what they are saying??? I've got big loves for you??? Actually, in Lucy's world, she thought the horses were just big dogs and didn't pay much attention to them.
Now, the cows were something different. Besides bellowing outside our rig all night (they're in a pen behind us) she was curious about them. Wasn't too sure she wanted to get too close but she did watch as the young cowboy attempted to bring the calf down. I watched for awhile and then had to leave. I felt for the calf. They kept doing it over and over. How would you like someone wringing your neck just for sport (and points)? And, we volunteered for the National HighSchool Rodeo next summer???
The Junior Rodeo is being held here on the Moses Lake Grant County Fairgrounds. Lots of cowgirls and cowboys. This young lady lost her hat on her first barrel and then lost her horse at the next barrel. The horse stumbled and down she went. She wasn't hurt, but upset since she was disqualified for this event. Her grandma and grandpa were sitting in front of me and did much sucking of air when she went down.

Where are they?

Lucy's not a real happy camper when we leave her in the motorhome. Unfortunately, there are times when she just has to suck it up and cope. Today was one of those days.

We are at the Winnebago Rally in Moses Lake, WA as a vendor for RV Quick Shades. Remember my challenges on an earlier post with the new cash register? Well, according to the sales totals at the end of today, I rang up $2,556,926.00 is sales!!! I like this cash register.

Tim's got Popeye Arms

Tim says after driving in the wind today (about 300 miles) he feels like he has Popeye arms. Is there anywhere in the country that is wind free???? We are in Moses Lake, WA and glad to be here. We're parked for 2 days until we check into the fairgrounds for the Winnebago Rally. We're here until Sunday and then head over to Salem for new tires on the motorhome.

Side note. My dishwashing soap tipped over under the sink and I lost 1/2 a bottle...in carpet. Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean up? What a major pain in the you know what.