June 29th in the Bighorns

Bighorn Mountains description
The Bighorns are unlike the mountains we're used to at home.  They rise steeply 5,000 feet from the desert below.  Once you get up 5,000 feet of steep winding road, there is a plateu about 15 miles across with rolling meadows and treed areas.  We're here at the very beginning of the wild flower season and are seeing a lot of different flowers.  We also spot a feature that might be unique to the Bighorn Mountains.  As we wander around the back roads, we come upon RV's parked in the woods.  They look like they've been left up here for months and months.  The first time we saw it, we thought it was pretty weird.  Now, we drive by and say, "there's another one."

We've also seen a lot of wildlife: deer, elk (even an entire herd of them), moose, birds I don't know the names of including one that looks like a crane cross bread with an ostrag, a beaver in the pond near our tents, marmots.  We usually see lots of chipmunks while driving mountain roads (they like to run across the road right in front of the car) and I'd remarked to Dode that we hadn't seen any this trip.  Not three minutes later, one went diving under our tires.  He wasn't laying in the road when we drove off after emergency braking so he must have made it!

William's birthday
Wednesday was our second day of exploring the Bighorns on our own. As we were eating breakfast, Isaac Colson counted the days we had left of vacation, six. What had seemed like a great three week escape from life previously was now feeling like a long time away from home. We're up in the mountains with no cell reception so he has no way to call home. But, since it was William's 7th birthday, we were going into Sheridan and he was looking forward to talking to his mom.

Our trip into Sheridan accomplished two purposes. 1: It was William's birthday and we've made a tradition on the trip of going out to eat on a birthday. His is the third birthday this trip! He loves Taco Bell and so do several of the other children so we found a Taco Bell for our lunch meal. 2: Dode wanted to drive the rest o f Hwy 14 to see the sites on the East side of the mountains. We saw Fallen City and Steamboat Rock and lots of highway construction. Now that we've seen it, he's decided 14A is much more scenic.

William was thrilled with his Taco Bell lunch

Miriam was not thrilled with Taco Bell

The weather in Sheridan was pushing 100 degrees, just like I remember from our lunch stop last year on our way to the Black Hills of South Dakota. After a quick stop at Wal-Mart to replentish our groceries, we went to Kendrick Park to play. The kids lasted about five minutes at a time before they'd need to sit in the shade and cool off. Everyone was pink cheeked and sweaty by the time our visit was up. Isaac Colson got to call his mom and felt a lot better after getting to talk to her.

I've never seen a teeter-totter like this before

The kids have already asked Dode to build one!

playing restaraunt

We headed back up to the mountains, away from the punishing heat. Once back at camp, we loaded up the rubber raft so the boys could float a stream. We've had our eyes open for a stream that wasn't too crazy and it was tough to find one. There was a portion of Prune Creek where we could put in at the campground and take out near Arrowhead Lodge that looked fairly tame. Isaac Colson was sure it would be a snore. After one trip down, he'd had enough. We were able to follow a good part of their progress from the road.  About 1/3 of the way down, we saw them pulled up on shore.  We attempted a rescue but by the time we got there, they'd headed off again.  Apparently they were portaging around a log.  Our Isaac went two more times to take Miriam and Elizabeth down in turns. Miriam is our wild child and she loved it. She especially loved that as they went over a patch of rapids, Isaac got the splash, not her!

We headed back to camp for swimming and dinner. It was really windy. I had to stick the propane stove in the back of the trailer just to keep it lit. The kids piled in and ate their dinner in there for the same reason. Each day that we're up here, the mosquito population seems to grow exponentially. The winds were quite strong but each time their was a lull, the mosquitoes would descend. I walked over to the trailer to check on the kids and saw that the mosquitoes also thought the trailer was a good place to hide out from the wind, and have dinner!

TRYING to light the birthday cupcake candles

The wind was helping blow them out

We finally got 7 candles lit at the same time

William had a difficult time directing his blower to the right spot,

Between him and the wind, by the time the candles were blown out some were 1/4 inch tall!

Since we'd already spent 1 ½ hours at the pool and in order to escape the mosquitoes and the wind, we loaded up for a scenic drive after dinner. That means Dode and I are looking out the windows at things and the kids are watching movies. We drove down several roads until we got to “Road Closed” barricades. It's very frustrating to encounter these because they are just parked in the middle of the road with no snow behind them or other reasons that we can see for closing the road.  We got within two miles of an overlook and had to turn around due to one of those signs!  We managed to make it all the way to the trail head for the Black Mountain fire lookout. If it was just Dode and I on the trip, we would have come back Thursday and hiked up to the lookout. But, with kids, a lookout is not a good destination hike.

We drove for about an hour and then wandered back to camp. The winds were picking up with huge gusts. The forecast were from winds 20-25 mph with gusts to 40 mph with a 50% chance of thunderstorms. We decided to have the girls sleep in the car, William and I slept in the trailer, and Dode and the Isaacs toughed it out in a tent. We definitely got some strong gusts. I could hear the metal on the trailer flexing in the wind and rocks flying up to hit the trailer. The winds petered out as the night went on and we never got the promised thunderstorms.

can you see the tent folding against the wind?

We had a very nice view of the lake and hills from our site

I'd seen a truck deliver to the resort in the morning, Mike's Mile High Pies with the slogan "Pie fixes everything".  There's been a scarcity of ice cream in these parts so I decided to indulge in a piece of pie.  The crust was very flaky but the filling wasn't as good as my chocolate cream pie recipe from Cooks Illustrated.  Now that I've had Mike's chocolate pie, I want to go home and make mine.  But, I'm going to have to wait a while since when I get home, I have five days to get everything ready for day camp.  It's going to be a mad dash to the finish!

Exploring the Bighorns

Our first stop Tuesday in the Bighorns was the visitor center. They have exhibits, films about the area and rangers on hand to help with questions. When we asked about areas to take the kids, we were told that most things were still under snow and the streams are running too fast to safely play in them.  They did recommend their 1/4 mile interpretive trail next to the visitor center. We walked the loop and saw quite a few wild flowers but not much interpretive information. We could see where the signs were supposed to go, but they hadn't been installed yet this summer.  After watching the movie about the Bighorns, Isaac Colson remarked, "I can't believe we never watched a movie the last place we went (Lovell)." We watch a film about the area we're in at all the visitor centers we visit.  Dode bought his souvenir for the trip, a $10 map of the Bighorns.  He loves maps and reads them like I read novels.  Miriam saw it and said, "Dad, it's just like the maps you make!"  Actually, she was wrong because the map we bought doesn't show any elevations and Dode's maps do!

taking a break on the trail

some wildflowers on the trail

much prettier in person!

aspen along the trail

We ate lunch at the Sibley Lake picnic area.  The stream was running high and fast but was one of the tamest we've seen.  The kids were able to play on a bridge across the stream that has surely seen better days!  We'd had to buy more jam for our sandwiches at the resort store.  We paid $4 for a jar of Wal-Mart brand jam we could have bought for $2.  Then, as Anastaya was carrying it back from the store, she dropped it and broke it.  We sent her back for another since we really needed that jam and thought, "Wow, we're going to spend $8 for $2 worth of Wal-Mart jam!"  Fortunately, the employee behind the counter felt sorry for her and gave her the next jar for free.

playing on the bridge

They spent about 20 minutes trying to retrieve a fishing lure they saw on the bottom.

Once they got it up, they found out it was a gum wrapper!

Before we left on the trip, Dode went through and made sure all the air mattresses for sleeping on held air.  It's a good thing he joined us because four of the six had leaks that needed fixed.  He spent part of Tuesday finding the  leaks (not always easy) and patching them.
Dode tried out a mountain bike trail that he'd seen on the map and thought I'd enjoy, trail 430.  He selected it because we could drive to the top and pick up the bike rider at the bottom.  (We're pretty lazy when it comes to mountain biking and rarely "earn" our down hill runs!)  On the map, it looked like it was all down hill since it followed a stream down a canyon.  I've learned that the best way to make sure I'll enjoy something is to have him try it out first.  After going down the trail, around boulders, through mud and the stream in places, he decided it really wasn't a trail for me.  At least he got to have some fun!

After lunch, we went for a scenic drive to see how far we could get before we encountered a closed road.  It's sure easy to explore the high country of the Bighorn Mountains from the seat of the car! 

We drove until the snow blocked the road and then had fun playing in it.  I don't know if you can tell, but Miriam and Elizabeth are both barefoot and playing in the snow.  Hours later, Miriam was still telling us if we'd just gone fast enough, we could have made it past the snow.  Apparently she takes after me, (I always have to see the end of a road/trail.) 

The kids enjoyed time in the pool as well as rafting on the pond near our tents. 

exploring the pond

Lodge pool

Lovell to the big Horns

Last Day in Lovell 
Sunday was our last day in Lovell.  Thankfully the Zellers don't have church until 11:30 so we got to sleep in after our late night at the fireworks.  They said their ward (the geologic boundaries of who attends church with them) is about four blocks by four blocks.  I can't wrap my mind around a ward that small!  Once again, the kids were very disappointed in the quality of the sacrament bread.  It's nice to remind them from time to time how spoiled they are with my homemade bread!

After church, we had a quiet day of visiting with relatives.  Dode hasn't been in this area since he was 15 years old and hasn't seen some of his cousins since that time.  It was nice to get re-acquainted.  It was a bit disconcerting though.  As part of the conversation, people would ask us where we were going after Lovell.  When we'd say, "The Bighorn Mountains.", they'd laugh.  It's such a late summer this year that most of the trails and campgrounds are still under snow.  In some places, they have 300% of the normal snow amount.

The Zeller boys were very good sports to put up with all the kids who wanted to hang on them every minute.

Here is Kent telling stories with the kids

Factory Tour
Monday morning, Jason and Gene Zeller gave us a tour of the candy factory.  The factory doesn't make candy on Mondays, it is a day for shipping out the finished product.  The kids were quite interested in learning how the candy was made.  When Gene turned on the machine that chops the pralines into bite sized pieces, wraps them, and spits them out onto a tray, their eyes were as big as they could go.  I think they felt like they were in Willie Wonka's candy factory!  Gene gave us a box of pralines for the reunion in June and I promise I won't open the box until we get there! 

Honey is stored in a huge tank behind Jason, then transferred to the silver barrel on the right, from there it is drawn off for use

candy is cooked under a vacuum in these copper kettles

candy centers are enrobed in Guittard chocolate on this conveyor belt, it operates the same way as a conveyor at Krispy Kreme (but I think a chocolate coating is way better!)

this machine rolls the candy into a long snake, cuts it into bite sized pieces and wraps it in plastic

finished candies

We picked up this big jug of honey for our little honey addict

Picnic in the Bighorns
After the tour, everyone headed up into the Bighorn Mountains for a picnic lunch.  We settled near Owen Creek where the adults and the kids tried their hands at fishing.  The kids stayed busy playing hide and seek, throwing a Frisbee for the dogs, and climbing on the rocks near the creek.  The Isaacs and Anastaya set off on a cross country hike with Ben, Maria, and Katie.  They were gone for about four hours and walked up to a meadow visible from the campground.  Dode and I had a very nice visit with Aunt Bessie.  We got to hear about how she began her business and her life with Clarence, her husband.  It sounds like he was a bit of a tinkerer.  I'm very familiar with that brand of man!  The streams are still running high and fast due to the snow melt so there was no opportunity for wading and we had to watch the children closely.

Owen Creek

I think it would be a fun creek for the kids later in the year

Elizabeth spent hours fishing and never had a bite

Miriam spent a lot of time fishing too and never caught anything with her stick and pop lid fishing pole

our picnic group

We spent most of the last four days with the above group (plus three who aren't pictured).  The Zellers were very nice to welcome us into their home at the same time all of their six children were in town and four of the six were staying with them as well as the grandkids (and they have a two bathroom house!)  The kids loved meeting and playing with new cousins and Miriam has a new grandma and grandpa!

Around dinner time, the Zellers left us to drive back down the mountain to Lovell and we headed for Bear Lodge where we planned to tent camp for a few nights.  We chose them because they were advertising on their web site that a tent site was $7.50/night, which also gave us a pool, showers, and Internet or we could stay at a national forest campground with pit toilets for $14/night.  Apparently the price has gone up and that charge is per tent so we're spending $30/night to stay here.  It looks like it used to be a very nice lodge that has fallen on hard times.  The lodge has a nice timber and rock construction.  But, junk is piled in the exercise rooms, the grounds are not well maintained, cleaning carts and garbage are left in the halls, the wallpaper is peeling.  It doesn't help that smoking inside buildings is legal in Wyoming, stinky.  If it was just Dode and I, we'd have no problem at a forest service campground or even just finding a spot in the woods but with kids, a pool is a lifesaver.  We'd originally planned to camp next to a creek where the kids could wade and play but with everything flooding it is too dangerous still.

We're up at 8,500 feet and we sure can tell.  Every little bit of exertion leaves us huffing and puffing.  Yesterday, or first day here, I felt like I was moving through mud!  By the time we get accustomed to the altitude, it will be time to go home!

On this trip we've had every kind of weather you can imagine.  Snow, torrential rain, magnificent wind storms, lightening, below freezing weather, above 100 degree days.  Now that Dode is here, we've had perfect weather in the 70's.  He's wondering what all the complaining has been about!

Lovell- Day 2

Our first full day in Lovell started out bright and early when we woke up at 6:00 am in order to leave the house at 6:30 for the town fun run.  Anastaya, Elizabeth, and I did the one mile fun run.   I would have done the 5k but I worried about leaving the kids unsupervised for that long.

Ginny Zeller, me, Elizabeth

The boys and Miriam were not happy to be awake

After the fun run, we headed to the fire station for a pancake breakfast.  When we were waiting in line, the person behind us asked who we were.  We explained that we were Dicksons visiting Zellers.  She told me she knew Dicksons and she knew Zellers.  (Gene Zeller is Dode's dad's cousin)  It's fun to be in the town where Dode's family has deep roots.  Lovell is a town of about 3,000 people and it feels like everyone knows everyone else. 

 

Once we finished up breakfast, we headed back to the Zellers for an hour until it was time for the parade. The Zellers live just a few blocks from Main Street so it didn't take much time to travel between the fun things we were doing.  The most exciting thing at the parade for the kids was probably the TV cameras across the street from us.  (That or the Wyoming state auditor who went by waving like a homecoming queen.  Apparently Wyoming really likes their auditor?)  The family from the TV show Sister Wives was in town for the parade and were being filmed.  The boys wanted to run over there and walk behind the camera but they never got brave enough.  

watching the parade, sitting in front of the Zeller's factory on Main Street,

Queen Bee Honey Candies

It was a quite a generous parade.  The kids each got a large bag of candy they collected from the various floats.  Everyone was handed a "Fat Boy" ice cream sandwich.  Miriam was even handed a slice of pizza from the local pizza restaurant.  The last entry in the parade was an ambulance which handed out otter pops.

Once the parade was over, I left the kids with the Zellers.  William and I headed up to Billings to pick up Dode from the airport.  His flight was supposed to be in around 1:00 pm and the plan was for him to spend 1- 1 1/2 hours waiting for me so I could watch the parade before driving up.  As I was pulling into the airport, I took out my cell phone to give him a call.  I realized that although I'd been carrying it around all day, it was turned off.  I powered it up and saw that I had several missed calls and a voice mail.  Not wanting to waste time with those, I called Dode to see where he was and got quite a surprising answer, Seattle! 

His plane had mechanical troubles and he was yet to leave the airport.  He didn't even know when the flight would be leaving.  (Those missed calls and voice mails were from him telling me not to drive up yet.)  William and I found a Wal-Mart to pick up some things we needed.  While there, Dode called to say he was getting on the airplane and would be arriving around 5 pm.  He'd been stuck waiting at the airport for four extra hours (on top of the two hours early he had to get there to go through security for his two hour flight!  Because of the wait, they gave him a voucher for lunch.  He didn't read the fine print on the coupon where it stated the maximum value of $8.  He marched up to Anthony's and ordered their halibut and chips and handed over his coupon.  "That will be $8 please." (in addition to the coupon) He says it's pretty typical of his shopping skills.

While driving to the airport, I realized I was only driving a block away from the restaurant we went to last year for cinnamon rolls.  Once I had a bunch of time to burn, I stopped at Stella's Kitchen for a caramel cinnamon roll.

I'd asked for it to be heated up and they even spread butter all over it.  Talk about gilding the lily!

We found a park in town to make the time go faster, North Park.  There was a play structure and spray pool for William to play at.  I sat in my chair, watched Willliam, and read a book.

William liked spraying other people but did NOT like it when they sprayed him back!

Dode, William and I got back to Lovell around 6:30 pm.  Miriam was so happy to get her daddy back.  She was in his arms for most of the night.  We went to the Lovell fireworks show that night (held at a campground about 15  miles out of town).  The kids were so impatient for it to start but eventually it was dark enough.  We were a bit worried about how Miriam would handle it because the last two times we've gone to fireworks, she thought they were too loud and had to go to the car before they were finished.  She's a year older and the fireworks were across the lake from us so she did just fine.  Because it's so dry here, sparks from the fireworks kept igniting small fires on the shore of the lake.  I'm not sure if the grand finale was intentional or the result of one of those fires.  Suddenly fireworks started going off so frequently you couldn't even take it in.  On the shore we could see a pretty good fire where they were coming from.  The musical accompaniment couldn't keep up with the pyrotechnic excitement.  Intentional or not, it was quite an ending!  I think everyone in Lovell and the surrounding towns was at the fireworks.  When it was over, a line of cars miles and miles long formed as people left the campground.  About every mile, we'd encounter a sheriff car on the side of the road, lights flashing, reminding people to drive safely.  Every sheriff car in the county must have been on the side of that road!  The line of cars stretched from the campground all the way back to Lovell.  It would have looked pretty amazing from the sky.

fireworks in front of a red rock cliff, very pretty

I was so looking forward to having help now that Dode was here.  He spent the "getting ready for bed" time the night he got in searching for his contacts case.  (He also spent the Sunday night getting ready for bed time searching for his contacts case!)  I'm making a note of where that contacts case is for future nights!

Thermopolis to Lovell

Friday morning we packed up camp and headed to Lovell. 

Miriam supervising the packing of the trailer

The girls had put their tent away the night before and chose to sleep in the car but the boys definitely had a tough time getting their things put away.  Instead  of working, they preferred to hang out in their tent and goof off.  I kept asking them to get to work but it didn't cause any change.  I finally had to separate them and give them each time to work on their tent.  I'd told them they weren't allowed to eat breakfast until they were packed up.  Once I separated them, both of them complained to me when it was their turn to wait, "You won't let me eat breakfast but you won't let me help either."   I explained that since they hadn't been helping before I separated them, nothing was changed.  I was so happy to know that it was the last time I'd have to deal with packing  up camp without Dode there to help enforce a good work ethic. 

After leaving Thermopolis, we stopped in Greybull for lunch.  We found a very nice park to play at and stretch our legs while eating lunch. Every city park we encounter in Wyoming has a small skate park and the boys have become jaded to them.  They saw the skate park but preferred climbing on the play structure.

a typical Dickson lunch view

We finished up lunch and loaded in the car and not 60 seconds later, we could see the rain a block away from us and closing fast.  We started to drive out of town but before we made it three blocks, a siren went off and strong winds and rain were attacking us.  We used the GPS to find the public library and hid out there for the duration of the storm, about 40 minutes.  We've never heard a severe weather siren before so it was a pretty exciting thing for us.  The storm was much more fun when we had a place to wait it out.

this fun chair was in the children's section at the library in Greybull

  We arrived in Lovell around 2:30 pm.  Our first stop was the town campground where we took advantage of their showers to clean up a bit before heading to the Zellers'.  The town of Lovell has a free campground where people can stay for three days and free hot showers in the campground.    Their showers are in a small brick building with a ladies' room and men's room.  It reminded me of a RV bathroom because there was a shower curtain you could pull around you to protect the toilet paper from the water.  I thought it was a fine place to take a shower and you can't beat the price.  Anastaya on the other hand was not impressed.  Sometimes I sure wish my "make the best of it" attitude would rub off on her "I deserve the best" attitude.

We arrived in Lovell during "Mustang Days", the annual town celebration.  Friday night was family fun night at the park.  They had lots of small games for the kids to play and receive prizes at.  The kids had a great time and think we should come to Lovell every year for Mustang Days.  I told them it was a bit too far to drive.

Elizabeth finally gets to go fishing!  She's been drooling over the lakes and rives we've been by.  I don't know that a "fishing pond" satisfies the fisherman within her!

Miriam and William hula hooping

Miriam won new sunglasses at the t-ball booth

waiting in line for face painting, a parent's favorite thing!

30 minutes in line for a face paint they'll spend three seconds looking at

fun face paint