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September 8: Had a real nice, but short, visit with Larry, Sandy, and the kids. John and Betty used their camping cots at the Eisenman's West as they were short guest beds. They are on their way home via O’Neil, Nebraska (near nowhere, Nebraska), along the South Dakota border off US-20. Plan to arrive home in the Burgh on Saturday. After they left Cody, Muzzy and John went to Riverton to get the backseat for the Jeep and recovered a cache of supplies (ala Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery) they had left with a local motel; this cache was stored for nearly 3 months at no charge - hey it’s Wyoming. Back to Cody to stay at the Irma Hotel - home of the $100,000 cherry bar in a hotel that cost $80,000 to build near 100 years ago (turn of the century dollars so it's worth zillions in today's money). Had a visit with Barb, Peter, the kids and the birds and the bees (the Jenny's are down to falcons and bees). Big news from Sheridan: Collin had his training wheels removed. Visited Devil's Tower, Sundance and Sturgis: no bikers or fossils this time. They're trying to avoid Chicago-land due to the traffic and construction. September 1: It’s Grandma Gross’s Birthday - have a piece a cake. Here in Cody, WY tonight. After Calgary, John and Betty stopped in Ft McLeod, and visited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Museum. Here, the Mounties do a Musical Ride Act - basically a marching band on horses without the band. They are professional riders and perform like the trick drill teams in the military. At important events, smaller groups of Mounties do the same thing. John keeps commenting “every thing is better than before”. Out of Glacier, from Logan Pass (via the Going into the Sun Highway) they saw 3 mature big horn sheep. Sunday, Betty and John took Rte 2 to Rte 89 onto White Sulfur Springs stayed in a B&B that was built in 1890 as the county poor farm. Did Yellowstone for a couple days, missed Old Faithful again. They happened by the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody;
firearms display; Whitney art gallery- all western art, and a big display of the
Plains Indians, along with Buffalo Bill of course. August 26: Greetings from Okotoks, Alberta. Okotoks is about 50 miles south of Calgary, home of the world famous Stampede. They were surprised that Larry's lunch wagon didn't make it to this year's Stampede, but made Sturgis. They left RT 16 in Jasper, AB and Jasper Provincial Park. This park is the larger cousin of the more famous Banff. John and Betty spent a great deal of time in these two parks looking at the glaciers and the Canadian Rockies. It has rained a lot over the past week. While the tent has performed well in the rain and wind, it is currently soaked and not fun to pack. In Jasper, you can camp on the glacier fields. They discovered a bear near their campsite the other morning, which startled them a little. They took a Snocoach ride over the ice fields. The Snocoach is basically a big all terrain vehicle (read not a Jeep, but a real all terrain vehicle that has 6 wheel drive and 6 wheel steering). It is capable of climbing a 36 degree grade; that's steep- the climbs up Powers Run (Jean's parents) or Huntzinger Road (Rick's parents) are about 18 degrees. At one point in the ride, the driver announced the ice was over 1,000 ft thick; this means the top of the Empire State Building would be showing if it were buried in the ice. John has done a fair amount of hiking along the glaciers and rivers. He has proclaimed Banff as the most beautiful place on the trip so far and they have seen a bunch of stuff. Banff is a Swiss village replica in the heart of the Rockies. There is a gorgeous chateau, on all the post cards, that overlooks most of the park. They opted for the $15 night campsite over the $400 rooms in chateau. After they left Banff, Betty and John had a brief stopover in Calgary. The Stampede is over, so on they went. Their next destination is Glacier International Peace Park which straddles the Montana - Alberta border and then onto Yellowstone. We reminded them that next weekend is Labor Day here in the US and that while Yellowstone is a great visit, Labor Day may not be the best choice for a stopover there. Muzzy guesses the next check-in will happen from central Wyoming; they may get the Jeep's seat back. August 18:
John and Betty are in Smithers, BC for a motel stopover. It’s be
raining on and off the last couple of days which has forced them inside for a
while. Finished the Cassiar Hwy, via a quick detour to Stewart, BC with a
diversion to Hyder, AK. From Hyder they went up to a bear viewing area
where salmon were spawning. Grizzlies and black bears could be seen
catching the salmon. John counted about a dozen bears over the two visits.
They ventured up a small road along the Salmon River to the Salmon Glacier.
The Jeep took the high road to the summit and saw active copper mines and
several spent ones. The road had no guardrail, lots of erosion/ washouts,
and avalanche area to boot. At summit, big “No Maintenance” sign;
Muzzy talked John out of pressing on. Hyder’s mail goes out twice weekly
via plane, weather permitting. Rented some rustic cabins, cold and damp,
with wood stove. Built a fire to pretend they were camping, and it got too
hot. This forced them onto the porch because the cabin turned to a
little oven. August 11: Muzzy and John went to the Fairbanks Fair and bought a 40 lb rock that’s full of fossils (oh boy, more fossils). It was imported from Morocco. They called from back in Dawson City. Two days ago, from a lovely Bed and Breakfast over looking the Yukon River in Eagle, just up river from Chicken, no lie, Muzzy saw all types of Alaskan life, fishing boats, etc. John spent the day gold mining with Harold Nevers and visited his mine. Learned all about small time mining which he’ll probably use on Chappy’s Find. Tonight they’re heading towards Whitehorse, Yukon Territory then back into British Columbia via the Cassiar Highway. John figures that he’ll have to leave Muzzy at the border when they enter the lower 48 as she still does not have ID. Update on Vehicle- the
damage to the pickup was worse than we were lead to believe. It was
declared a total loss; the Jeep is sporting Pa tags now. They still have
to drop by Wyoming for the back seat to the Jeep. Muzzy said they plan on
visiting Sandy and Larry’s new place in Sheridan on the return journey.
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