Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

we had a wonderful, fun, and somewhat educational trip to north dakota and home again, well the last 100 miles home were not much fun. there was a fire on the 101 freeway and both lanes were closed as we were coming to santa barbarbra.

so they were detouring traffic to the road that goes around santa barbarbra up by lake cuchuma, a two lane road with all that traffic from 101 on it. when we finally got out of that mess and back on 101, we got into this mess. at least we had the water to look at.

otherwise it was a great month in the coach. we got to eat at the cracker barrel multiple times. saw family members we don’t get to see often enough, saw spectacular landscapes, had good weather. made lots of friendly acquaintances and petted lots of dogs,

we saw our last two capitals, pierre and bismark that last one being in tracy’s state.

also two new national parks, two new national monuments, and drove through two new national forests. we didn’t have to do dishes, or laundry. not even once for a whole month. and we probably only got a half dozen phone calls. and we found $12.36 to add to our found money jar. i started putting found money in here years ago. my mother got this princess house picture for us, i think back in our sangria drinking days. it sits on this shelf in the dining room now. it is very heavy.

we didn’t have to worry about the house or midas. both were being well taken care of by frank and linda. we often got texts filled with pictures of him. our gardener kept good care of the yard, and all our wonderful neighbors kept an eye on things too. and thanks to all of you i got so many great comments. 😊 we hope to travel within california as long as the coach will take us there. we have a lot of things we would like to do again and lots of new things to find. so if that happens i will be posting again. i do have one more post to do from the bismark capital.

so stay tuned

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we got to teds late afternoon. it’s always nice to visit with ted. but this was going to be a short one. we’re anxious to get home.

we talked and laughed and had a beer before going out for chinese food. there is a nice restaurant near his house that has the best egg foo young, my favorite. when we got back to his house, ted and jerry had a special cognac ted had bought for the occasion and we talked and laughed some more. if you remember bob, he is now in the living room

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the next morning we got on highway 80 going through truckee in the sierras. we hit our first rain. and even saw snow on the ground.

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we got to jims’s saturday. he made homemade cornnread and chili for dinner.

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we went out the next night for mexican food.

we left monday morning planning to eat at the hitching post in casmalia, near santa maria, and we did. we got the ribs. my hands were too greasy to take a picture. we stayed in their parking lot overnight. started for home this morning.

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we are just now getting off the freeway and heading to our house.

not much more

💗jilly

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its interesting, when i had finished the draft on this post, we went out to eat and i didn’t publish it then. when we got back and came out to the coach to publish it, i saw your email sharon. let me see if i can get it to post here and i’ll add it.

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there was a cemetery across the street from the truck stop we spent the night at, so before we left wimmemuca we walked through it. like i said you can learn a lot about life in a cemetery.

here are a few pictures

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this wasn’t as elaborate as some cemeteries we have seen, but the feelings you get while there -are the always the same.

we all have death in our lives.

so let us all live life to it’s fullest….

stay tuned

💗jilly

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and speaking of love, we loved our visit with tracy and daryl. tracy does come to california sometimes to see us. she happened to be coming when jerry had his heart surgery. what a blessing that was, to have both her and tony with me.

i posted one of tracy’s presents was a blue spruce for their yard. she sent me picture of the planted tree. i’ll let tracy tell you why they named it ’frank jr’.

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we made it to lovelock. finally!
i’ve had it in my radar for a long time now. since we visit my brother in reno, and its only 93 miles away, i thought we would make it there before this. i’ve had something in the coach to leave there. a lot of people leave the same thing. different sizes, shapes, colors, and cost.

but first we went to a safeway to buy some groceries and ice. it saves a lot of room in the fridge to keep beer in a cooler. 😉 i like poking around grocery stores in other states for things we don’ have at home. i found the m-m’s at a walmart in utah. haven’t seen them since. of course i gave one to tracy too. the cat’s out of the bag, you are both my favorite🥰

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we found a park and had sandwich’s for lunch.

then we set out to leave our item where many other’s have.

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any guesses?

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now?

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we sealed our love💗

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we did it. yay. somethings take awhile to come true. never give up ok, grandgirls.

it’s a long story why and where people put their lovelocks. too long for here. so google it. we put a lovelock on the brooklyn bridge the first time we walked across it also.

we are almost there ted. put the beer on ice.

stay tuned, 💗jilly

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we didn’t quite make it to lovelock. jerry got tired of driving at winnemucca. we still have one hour to lovelock. and then another hour to reno.

the drive from jackson hole to here was so boring. they were working on the road, repaving, so it was slow going in some spots. there were those orange cones for miles and miles and miles. what a job that was. it was probably 50 miles all together.

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stay tuned

💗jilly

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everything is overpriced in jackson hole!

these cute bears we’re throughout the camp. the red tree is a sugar maple. i sure wish they would grow in our neck of the woods.

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these cabins are throughout the park too. they rent by size, season, and if they have linens. all the way from $58.-350. a night.

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that’s a view of the snake river from above. some tent sites are down there.

we’ve been criss crossing the snake river through several states now.

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the water level was once up to the top, we could see logs that had gathered there.

last night, our campsite in the twin falls, idaho walmart. i stepped outside for the sunset

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sunrise from the back window this morning.

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we just passed into jackpot, nevada. i hope thats a good omen. we will spend the night in lovelock, 93 from reno.

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we woke up to a beautiful day for a drive. we passed a what i thought was a thrift store, but it was a consignment shop for women’s clothes. they were having a sale so i looked around. i found 2for$5 pink blouses. what a bargain. i also found another cute top. it was on this hanger, so i asked if i could buy the hanger too when checking out. she said no, she wasn’t the owner, and didn’t want to do it. i asked if she could call the owner and she hummed and hahhed. as we were paying i said if you knew me you would know why i want it. so she said ok you can have it. she asked where we were from and found out her husband was born in long beach, and later moved to wilmington. we meet a lot of people like that. anyway here’s a picture of that hanger and the top that was on it. look close.

we were only going through a part of yellowstone. we have seen old faithful twice, so we were bypassing that road..

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the road we took was where the fires had been. so many trees were burned. but you can see why they let it burn, in order for the new growth to flourish. most of my pictures are taken from the coach and its hard to get a good one, there’s so much glare, and the mirror, the top of the coach get in the picture.

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we didn’t see a lot of color going out of yellowstone, it was mostly pine trees.

you are immediately in the grand tetons when you drive out of yellowstone

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these mountains are so majestic. the light wasn’t very good to show them off. we have been here before and they were much grander.

it was about 5:00 when we got to the town of jackson hole. it’s just a big tourist trap to us so we didn’t get out. we drove on and took the first campground we came to. well this in the most we’ve ever paid for a campsite. $92. we’ve gotten so many nights free, we’re still way ahead. it was a very nice, right on the snake river.

we are headed to reno next. we will probably be there thursday. are you ready for us ted? we’ll only spend one night there and then go to concord to see jim, our cousin we used to go camping with. we have some homemade beer waiting for us there. our next highway takes us through idaho. we’ll be passing twin falls celia. and the b-b-q was really good in cody. we got two meals out of them. i liked the baked potato as much as the ribs, it was the first on the trip and it tasted so good.

stay tuned for who knows what

💗 jilly

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this is a national momument on hwy 94 between custer and billings montana. it has a signifiant historical past.

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we didn’t walk out there. there are stairs to climb and my feet aren’t liking stairs right now. i would have loved to see the carvings.

the visitors center looked very impressive. but it was closing as we got there. a group of boy scouts were camping in tents nearby. the history of lewis and clark would be right up their alley.

don’t you think these varieties of sumac would look good in your yard tracy?
did daryl get the blue spruce planted?

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these trees weren’t marked, but i loved the contrast between them.

i guess jefferson was right.

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our campground tonight was right next door

to a b-b-q roadhouse restaurant. guess what we had for dinner?

i’m not sure where we will make it totomorrow

so stay tuned to find out.

💗jilly

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roosevelt had a love of the land and did a heroic job of protecting it. when he lost his wife at a young age, he took solace in the badlands. its been said that time spent there, helped him when he became president.

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this is a very recognizable picture of him on a horse with a shotgun.

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this horse is made of strips of wood

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i guess this is what he hunted

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lorita gave me a lot of these old entrance maps she had when she moved. they sill give you an updated one as you enter. it shows facts and things of interest and the map is on the other side.

this is the one what you get now.

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yes we did see the ceiling tracy. it’s like pinnacle pete’s in phoenix with cut off ties and business cards.

we stayed that night in madora and headed for billings montana the next day. it seemed like we drove all day. we ate at the cracker barrel in billings for dinner, the catfish was as good as ever. we stayed in the parking lot that night. this morning we drove to cody, wyoming stopping at a campground early. we will leisurely drive through yellowstone and the grand tetons tomorrow. stopping only to take pictures.

glad to have you aboard javie.

i’d love for all of you to stay tuned

💗jilly

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or as they call it hereTRND

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it was a beautiful day to see such beauty. and there was much of it to see. since they have raised the prices into national parks, the entrance fee is now $30. but since we have our senior pass, we get in free.

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the visitor center was very informative about teddy roosevelt had a hand in getting this park preserved. it is similar to the badlands but with trees.

i hope some of these pictures turn out and you can read some of the commentary. the horse is made out of strips of wood

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