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!