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Cooke City Prospector Saloon

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Dead Indian Monument.  BRRRRR

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Chief Joseph Highway View

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Chief Joseph Highway View

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Wind River Selfie

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Wyoming road ahead. Cody here we come.

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Prong Horn Antelope

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Oil Pump in the middle of nowhere Wyoming

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Our travelin' Peek a Pooh

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Leaving Douglas, it was another beautiful morning but very chilly. About 55 degrees. We were heading to Cooke City Montana and knew it would be a rather long day in the car.  We stopped for gas and ice before we hit the highway. Peek has been an awesome traveler.  He sits between Lee and I on the console. His bed is there and is backed by two coolers one atop another so his bed is fixed in one place.  The only time he stands up is when he senses the car slowing down. We drove I-25 to Casper and then headed WNW on US 20  to Cody. It was a two lane highway but still had a 75 mph speed limit.  We spotted what we thought was a deer but spotting another and then a herd, we realized they were prong horned antelope.  They were just grazing on the side of the road like deer.  The Big Horn Mountain Range was just  North of Hwy 20. Really beautiful. Also started seeing oil drills pumping that liquid gold. As we drove on we started seeing all kinds of interesting rock formations and more curves and twists in the road.  We came to a beautiful river and canyon called Wind River.  The canyon was created from tectonic shift movement and not the Wind River.  There are camp and picnic sites all along the river as it runs almost parallel to hwy 20. The river is crystal clear. We stopped and read about the animals and terrain at Boysen park, stretch our legs and use the potty.  Back in the car we drove through a few mountain tunnels.  The engineering always amazes me when I see one of those. Pretty soon we were in Cody getting gas at Sheridan and Stampede Ave.  A local told me it was called Stampede because the rodeo was right up the road and they used to run the cattle and the horses up the road to the arena.
After gassing up we headed out of town on Hwy 120 toward Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. As it turns out Chief Joseph was the chief of the Nez Perces tribe. A year after the Custer debacle another Indian War broke out and centered around the land the US government had promised the Nez Perces. Finally the US Calvary started to chase down the tribe. In an effort to escape, Chief Joseph led his people across the mountains near Cody, through Montana and into Canada. The trek was too difficult for many and scores of the Nez Perces died on the way. The highway was quite scenic. Many overlooks on the way to Cooke City were breathtaking. Near the top of one mountain there is a memorial called Dead Indian. Apparently Chief Joseph left a wounded Indian there and the cavalry found him and killed him immediately. We drove on to Cooke City, Montana arriving close to dark.  Found the Big Bear Lodge and checked in. I rang the doorbell at the office but no one answered. The sign said if no answer try the bunk house behind cabin 5. Found cabin 5, found what I thought would be the bunk house and knocked. No answer.  There was no answer. Okay now what? No phone service, the middle of nowhere, Brer Bear waiting for dark to attack. Then suddenly a lady appears in her slippers with hair askew, and eye makeup smeared everywhere.  I'm thinking I interrupted something  really fun. Anyway she quickly threw the key at us and pointed to the white board behind her with the wifi password and the times breakfast was offered.  We wandered around the property a few minutes until we found our cabin. Cute on the outside but a little rough on the inside. The holes in the floor were particularly disturbing and the shower was the size of a camper cooler. After the water suddenly turned ice cold, I attempted to adjust the hot water quickly and the water knob came off in my hand. I stood there with soap all over my body freezing to death when I was finally able to screw the thing on and adjust the water temperature.   Lee was so paranoid about bear attacks here in the deep woods that he judged the door to be unsafe. So he took Peek's leash and wrapped it around and around the door knob and the bed post and then wedged the large wooden chair against the door.  God forbid we have a fire and tried to get out of the cabin. We did go to town, it was a block long and looked like Dodge City and any moment Marshall Dillon would come out of the saloon to stop the gunfight about to begin on the street.  We found a nice saloon of our own and had a great steak dinner and a beer before returning to our temporary home at Big Bear Lodge. Falling asleep was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I drifted off to grizzlies chasing me through the woods.

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Laramie Mountain Range. Highest peak is over 10,000 feet.

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And others like these buttes and mesas. Strange sites to this flat lander.
Somewhere in western Nebraska we passed the mountain time zone line and started the noon hour again, giving us an extra hour today. (Probably explains why I feel extra tired tonight. But it could be that darn never ending cowboy song too.)
Finally we crossed into Wyoming and we did a little celebration wiggle in our belted down seats. We made it! The temperature began to drop steadily. 62 to 55 degrees as we drove the new 80 MPH speed limit. Training for the Autobahn. We got so excited looking at everything we whizzed through Cheyenne without stopping for gas. Uh oh. I told Lee not to worry because we were driving on I-25 and I was sure the next exit would have the usual bevy of stations. WRONG. No gas even though YELP assured me there was one just 24 miles away in Chugwater. We arrived, grateful we had any gas left at all only to see a sign on the gas station "Opening Soon". It was another 30 miles to the next town Wheaton but I was sure it would have gas stations because the letters on the map spelling Wheaton were really big. :) This conclusion from a geography teacher is very sad but it made Lee happy so off we went counting the miles and holding our breath. Arriving in Wheaton on fumes and the gas dial in the red we drove to the first station we saw and pumped. After Lee got in the car he gave me the receipt and said it was a little expensive. I said no matter thinking we would have paid $3 a gallon just to get gas.  I say this because we were very surprised all through Nebraska the gas was really cheap, I mean under $2 cheap. As is turns out, we did pay $3 a gallon.  This little town knew how precious gasoline was in these here parts.
On to Douglas, only 50 minutes up the road. We made it to our hotel in this very sweet little town gazing at the beautiful Laramie Mountain Range west of I-25, a little preview of the Rockies we will see tomorrow. Can't wait.

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As Lee drove he sang and sang and sang. Got a wee bit annoying as it was the same cowboy song for 100 miles. But it must have had a positive influence on the weather because the clouds and misty rain subsided and the blue sky was once again lighting our way. Nebraska has so many different landscapes like the one in this picture of a wide flat plain with the train running thru it

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As Lee drove he sang and sang and sang. Got a wee bit annoying as it was the same cowboy song for 100 miles. But it must have had a positive influence on the weather because the clouds and misty rain subsided and the blue sky was once again lighting our way. Nebraska has so many different landscapes like the one in this picture of a wide flat plain with the train running thru it

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Spoooooooky

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Kind of eerie looking.
Road marquee said "Strong Wind Gusts Warning 35mph"

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This morning was a bit stressful but we finally got on the road about 10. I started our drive today because Lee seemed to be a bit out of sorts and tired. After a couple of hours we stopped for gas at a Loves Truck Store and after filling up and walking  Peek, Lee took over the wheel. When we got out of the car at Loves the wind was kicking up a storm and we noticed the temperature had dropped to 68 degrees.  A real treat for this Florida girl.  We were still in Nebraska heading west and the sky was dark and strange looking. The landscape was wide open plains but had been planted with corn and other crops.

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Knob Noster

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As we left Columbia for our next destination I was a little nostalgic remembering my time in this tiny little town in what seemed like at the time the middle of nowhere. Today the University of Missouri which also occupies space in Columbia has grown by leaps and bounds. What was once a medium size university specializing in agricultural majors is now a medical teaching college with thousands of students and an enormous hospital. Columbia is not so tiny any more.

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As we left Columbia for our next destination I was a little nostalgic remembering my time in this tiny little town in what seemed like at the time the middle of nowhere. Today the University of Missouri which also occupies space in Columbia has grown by leaps and bounds. What was once a medium size university specializing in agricultural majors is now a medical teaching college with thousands of students and an enormous hospital. Columbia is not so tiny any more.

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We drove on to Kansas City another major metropolis in Missouri. It took us quite some time to get through but again we lived to tell the story of traffic hell.  At one point we passed thru Hannibal Mo home of Mark Twain, Independence Mo home of Harry Truman and Knob Noster Mo home of Wanda Petre Moore Willey (my mom).
Finally made it through Missouri and into Iowa for about 10 minutes (but we didn't know the territory)(a Music Man reference....watch the movie) and then into Nebraska. What beautiful vistas here. More corn fields than I thought existed. I guess that is why it is called the Corn Husker State. DUH! Rolling country side but farms as far as we could see.  Once we passed through Lincoln we were on I-80 and that is the longest, straightest road I have ever seen. The speed limit is 75.. We flew down this road and finally arrived in Grand Island about 6:30.  Very long day, but I would not trade it for any other. We saw so much and literally inhaled the natural beauty of the heart of the country.

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The campus chapel was designed by the same architect who designed the St Louis Arch, Eero Saarinen. Every side has a wall of stained glass. It really is quite beautiful and in 1964 seemed ultra modern.

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For the next generation of achieving women. Will send to Teagan when I get to Cody.

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Does this mean I graduated in 1833? Egads!

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Always loved this statue of a hopeful woman. She seems so grateful and full of future possibilities.

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My dorm my sophomore year.

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Beautiful Campus. Same buildings as my day plus a few new ones.

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Yanni from Kenya 2016 grad. Black women were unheard of at Stephens 50 years ago.

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Woke up about 7:30 to a very rainy day. Too rainy. Bummer. But I was not going to let a little precipitation keep me from visiting my Alma Mater, Stephens College. I graduated with an AA in 1966 before transferring to U of Miami for my BA. It is a very small  2 year college established in 1833 as a Baptist school for women. It is still very small but has increased itself to a 4 years plus several graduate programs as well.  I did not really like it when I was there because I thought most of the girls were moneyed snobs with rich dads sending allowances on a monthly basis. I on the other hand had a rich dad but he sent me zip. He figured he was paying a hefty amount for my tuition as well as room and board which the school provided for me. What else could I need?  If I wanted to do my laundry, by a snack or coke, see a movie or buy a beer I had to work for it. So I did. Got a couple of different jobs on campus and made my own spending money. Dad would occasionally send me a check for $100 and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Anyway I did meet some interesting girls, lived the dorm and campus life and took some interesting classes that required me to learn how to be a lady. To me that was funny. But most of the girls were quite serious about it.  We could not wear jeans, slacks or shorts on campus. We had to wear skirts and dresses.  Stockings to dinner and church.  We were required to attend church and Vespers mid week. We were locked in our dorms at 10PM on week nights, and midnight on Friday and Saturday. It all sounds so antiquated now. I did talk to several students today and they were of course the typical college student of 2016. And happily they were majoring in very relevant subjects. One was a Biology major hoping to specialize in nutrition and help in a 3rd world country.  Sigh. We didn't really have those kind of choices 50  years ago or I wasn't smart enough to pursue something more meaningful.

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Kentucky Dam Reservoir.

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Historic Places in Kentucky - Historic State Parks - KY State Parks

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KY state parks are home to many historic places in Kentucky. From monuments to museums, check out these historic state park sites.

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I drove on to Columbia and we finally got into our room about 4:30. It was good to settle in and relax for the night. We will explore Stephens campus tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing the changes.  It has only been 50 years!  

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I drove on to Columbia and we finally got into our room about 4:30. It was good to settle in and relax for the night. We will explore Stephens campus tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing the changes.  It has only been 50 years!  

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Here is a link to the Arch with a ton of interesting info.  I want to eat in that Arch Café. What a view!

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The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri's tallest accessible building.

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The Arch. Gateway to the West

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Entering St Louis

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We crossed the Ohio River into Illinois about  11:30 and started seeing all kinds of cities I knew well. We passed the exit for Marion Ill. and I could not  help but think of my maternal grandmother , Mama Joyce.  She lived in Marion and although we only visited a couple of times she always made the best fruit cobbler I have ever eaten.  As an adult I drove mom and her sister Aunt Helen to Marion hauling a U-Haul trailer filled with Aunt Helen's possessions as she moved back to Marion from Miami. I was really good with that trailer too.  Much to the surprise of everyone.  Me included. 

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We crossed the Ohio River into Illinois about  11:30 and started seeing all kinds of cities I knew well. We passed the exit for Marion Ill. and I could not  help but think of my maternal grandmother , Mama Joyce.  She lived in Marion and although we only visited a couple of times she always made the best fruit cobbler I have ever eaten.  As an adult I drove mom and her sister Aunt Helen to Marion hauling a U-Haul trailer filled with Aunt Helen's possessions as she moved back to Marion from Miami. I was really good with that trailer too.  Much to the surprise of everyone.  Me included. 

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Finally drove into Missouri but since I was driving I could not take too many notes about our sights. The obvious one in St Louis is the Gateway Arch.  What a happening town.  Took us an hour to get through the metropolis. Very much like Atlanta.  Just keeps on going and going.  Lots of traffic, but kept moving so we handled it ok. We did get a great glimpse of the Arch.  Very impressive.  When I was in and out of Illinois and Missouri due to family and school the Arch had not been built.  We could see it from quite a distance but only got this one shot that Lee took.

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As we passed through Paducah Kentucky we learned that Paducah is the home of the National Quilt Museum.

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As we passed through Paducah Kentucky we learned that Paducah is the home of the National Quilt Museum.

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Current Exhibits

Adult Workshops

Fall QuiltWeek

Visit us September 12-15, 2018

Advancing the Art...

The National Quilt Museum works to advance the art of today's quilters by bringing it to new and expanding audiences worldwide. We serve the quilting community by providing in-facility and traveling exhibits, youth and adult educational programs, and advocacy efforts.

The National Quilt Museum is a destination for quilters and art enthusiasts worldwide, annually the museum receive visitors from all 50 US states and over 45 foreign countries from every continent. The museum's in-facility and traveling exhibits are viewed by over 110,000 people per year. In addition, over 6,000 youth and adults participate in museum youth and adult educational opportunities on an annual basis.

Located in a 27,000 square foot facility in historic downtown Paducah, Kentucky, the museum's three galleries feature exhibits of the finest quilt and fiber art in the world. The museum features three exhibit galleries. The museum's vibrant and breathtaking exhibits are rotated 8-10 times per year. The primary gallery features quilts from the museum's collection which includes over 600 works of art. The two other galleries feature unique and diverse traveling exhibits.

The museum has also gained a reputation for its educational programs. Throughout the year, the museum hosts educational programs on a diverse number of topics for quilters of all skill sets. Quilters come from all over the world to attend the museum's educational programs taught by master quilters.

The museum's youth education programs are attended by over 6,000 young people of all ages. Several of these programs have received national media attention.

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Current Exhibits Adult Workshops Fall QuiltWeek Visit us September 12-15, 2018 The National Quilt Museum works to advance the art of today's quilters by bringing it to new and expanding audiences worldwide. We serve the quilting community by providing in-facility and traveling exhibits, youth and adult educational programs, and advocacy efforts.

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After the time zone change we were kind of off this morning but got out of bed at 7:30 local time and had a fabulous breakfast at this very very old Quality Inn in Clarksville Tenn. Cost too much with a $25 pet fee which is just gouging when they put you in a room that is older than the pyramids and is beside the Interstate with the sound of speeding cars whizzing by all night.  The breakfast though was awesome and we ate breakfast and lunch at the same time. Got on the road by 9:30 but had to stop at Walmart for allergy medicine, toothpaste and dental floss. Everyone in Clarksville was in the allergy medicine aisle at Walmart and I wasted so much time just trying to see what was on the shelf, dodging baskets and listening to the pharmacy assistant try to help a customer understand that the heating patches sold for back aches would not warm her child's bottle.  Finally on the road again driving into Kentucky almost immediately.  We crossed the Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River that creates the largest reservoir of water in the Eastern US.  The reservoir stretches across Kentucky and Tennessee. The reservoir creates a gigantic public playground.

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The Traffic gods were with us today.  All the cars were always going the other way.  Whew!

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Lookout Mt. Rock City and camp Alpine

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Peek is such a good traveler.

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Thank heavens daddy remembered I have to go too

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Oh there he is....

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Peek waiting for daddy to come back from the bathroom in Tennessee

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On the road again and I decided to drive because we were headed straight into Atlanta.  Another beautiful day and the traffic seems light and steady. As we get closer to Atlanta the traffic picks up big time but still steady.  Waze tells us to stay with I-75 and not take the by pass so I cross my fingers and do it.  An hour later going 60-70MPH we actually made it through and never slowed down. Construction everywhere but we felt like we had just taken a white water rafting trip and made it through category 5 white water!!
The rest of the day of easy peasy except we got really confused when all of the sudden my phone said 3 and the car clock said 4. Finally figured out that somewhere in Tennessee we crossed the magic line for time change and adjusted our clock. So we gained an hour today and actually experienced 3PM twice. Kind of like Japan when we were talking to the boys today but it was yesterday for them. Or was that tomorrow for them??? Yikes.
Moving through N Georgia and Tennessee we saw lots of mountains and trees.  The landscape was beautiful and so very different from home.  Even at 94 degrees it did not feel anything like Florida at 94. Gas is cheaper by 35 cents a gallon which is a nice surprise on account of the amount we are using.
At one point today we passed Look Out Mountain where Deb and I went to camp in 1956.  Brought back so many memories of that wonderful place.  Learn to ride a horse, shoot a bow and arrow, canoe and kayak, camp out and even sing, act and swing from a trapeze.  Loved every minute of it.
Down the road we reached Clarksville Tenn. our overnight stay.  Checked into a Quality Inn right off the I-24.
Exhausted but happy with our day.

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Day 2 Tuesday, September 6 Great first night in Macon on I-475 Best Western. Lee had two cokes and a Red Bull so I did notgive him a chance in hell to sleep.  But the magic of Xanax had him sleeping like a baby all night.  After rudely awakened by my alarm at 8 we grumbled out of bed and began to ready ourselves for day 2.  After the "free" breakfast, which was quite good by the way, we came back to the room to pack up and Lee decided he needed to do something to the truck.  After about 20 minutes and no Lee, I looked out the window to see him backed into the corner of the parking lot, truck bed up, under the truck. Yes under the truck. When he finally returned to the room an hour later he had an explanation but honestly it's just too crazy. He did bring me the coffee pot which was locked in the back with his beer. The beer was probably the real reason for the trip to the truck. :)We finally got underway about 11 or check out time. I knew it was check out time because we were the only car in the parking lot and this very tall Indian (India) fellow rolling his laundry cart singing at the top of lungs in some foreign language, back and forth in front of our room.  Finally as we exited with our huge amount of bags, coolers and stuff, he smiled and made a u turn back to our door hovering until we cleared everything out and into the car. Peek was very relieved when we brought him out to the car as he sat anxiously on the bed as we dragged bag after cooler after bag out to the car.And this is only half the stuff! It's like we are still traveling with children. Oh I forgot, I am. (wink)

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Day 2 Tuesday, September 6 Great first night in Macon on I-475 Best Western. Lee had two cokes and a Red Bull so I did notgive him a chance in hell to sleep.  But the magic of Xanax had him sleeping like a baby all night.  After rudely awakened by my alarm at 8 we grumbled out of bed and began to ready ourselves for day 2.  After the "free" breakfast, which was quite good by the way, we came back to the room to pack up and Lee decided he needed to do something to the truck.  After about 20 minutes and no Lee, I looked out the window to see him backed into the corner of the parking lot, truck bed up, under the truck. Yes under the truck. When he finally returned to the room an hour later he had an explanation but honestly it's just too crazy. He did bring me the coffee pot which was locked in the back with his beer. The beer was probably the real reason for the trip to the truck. :)We finally got underway about 11 or check out time. I knew it was check out time because we were the only car in the parking lot and this very tall Indian (India) fellow rolling his laundry cart singing at the top of lungs in some foreign language, back and forth in front of our room.  Finally as we exited with our huge amount of bags, coolers and stuff, he smiled and made a u turn back to our door hovering until we cleared everything out and into the car. Peek was very relieved when we brought him out to the car as he sat anxiously on the bed as we dragged bag after cooler after bag out to the car.And this is only half the stuff! It's like we are still traveling with children. Oh I forgot, I am. (wink)

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Wow! We are off. After 3 hours of prep this morning and a few choice words we finally had the car packed, the water off, the alarm set, the plants moved to sprinkler heads we pulled out of Villa Capri at 11 AM. Only an hour late. Considering our track record it was amazing. We were even still talking to one another. Amazing 2.

Absolutely beautiful day. No rain. Light traffic making good time. .......and then Lee turned on the radio. He tried to blast me out of the truck but I refused to budge. I turned down the volume he turned it up. I Turned  it down and he turned it up. And so it went all day.
We dropped J off in Gainesville and started for Macon our first over night. We stopped in Adel GA for gas. Yucky. Double yucky. Bathrooms were the worst. The people running it were yucky. The store was yucky. The parking situation was yucky. We won't be stopping in Adel ever again. You know that 5 star rating system? I give Adel -2stars.
Checked into our room before 6. Very nice the man who checked us in had maybe 4 teeth but was very personable. We collapsed after dragging all our stuff inside.