Montana Adventure Day 21

First up this morning, well after tea and breakfast, was a long walk for Quinn and I.  We found a lovely trail that we could access from our campground and that went for miles and miles-we only walked for about 45 minutes.  It has been unusually hard to find decent places to walk for any distance so we really enjoyed this one.  Geese on the lakes, and lawns, a deer peaking out of the trees, ducks on the creek.  Very peaceful.  We'll be going back!

I have a love/hate relationship with GPS.  Last night it took me directly to my campground, no problem.  Getting to my brother's was not so easy.  Get off on one exit, get back on going the same way.  No factoring in the fact that it was (poor timing on my part) rush hour!  I got there because I know enough about Denver to be dangerous and have been to my brother's several times so I have a "fix" for his location in my head.  I fought Samantha all the way though!  Today, my brother needed to work and my sister-in-law had work and then a girls weekend wine tasting trip (no one knew in advance I'd be in Denver), so I decided to go quilt shop hopping!  Because I'm in a part of the city that is really unknown to me I gave Samantha another go.  Get on I-70, get off two exits later, get back on going the opposite direction-What?  No way I could get over four lanes of traffic in one block, so I took the first left.  She redirected me for miles and miles over one of the most circuitous routes I've ever been on- even got out Google maps at one point!  When I got where the shop was supposed to be, it was gone.  Tried the second one.  Not so much wandering about but again when I got there the shop was gone.  Quilt shops come and go or  move pretty quickly it seems.  I gave up, went back to the trailer, had lunch, walked Quinn etc.  After a while I decided that since I was SO close to Golden I'd go up to the Quilt Museum there and the quilt shop.  Fifteen minutes later I was on the main drag (that's what my Mom always called it).  Found a parking spot off the main drag and walked back.  Located the quilt shop first, boy if you are into batiks this is the place!  I'm not so much so no fabric came away with me, bummer.

Next I found the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.  Small but interesting.  If you've read or heard about the book The Quilt That Walked to Golden its about this place.  They were having a quilt show/contest and voting on favorites.  They were 24x24 I think.  My favorite was one from Montana!  They also had some antique quilts on display and I took a few snaps of them.

 This is a close up of the tiny pieces the quilt maker used!  Not more than 1/4in wide sewn in strips going all directions.  Pieced and quilted by hand! Here's the full quilt.  Looks like confetti!

 This one was titled 10,000 triangles although it only had 8,000+ triangles in the quilt, like I care.  Length on one side was 1" maybe,  Here's a close up, anyone for 4,000+half square triangles?

I don't remember what this was was called but its tiny squares sewn together! Then the Baptist fan quilting-just fabulous! Here's a closeup-I think the squares were 1/2 inch.

You can tell I like the unusual ones!  There were several beautiful applique ones as well but I love these "Use it up quilts!"

After that I wandered a bit through some of the shops looking for hoodies for the grand kids but not finding any.  Did find a Starbucks-you know what happened next!  Cafe Mocha how I love you!
Headed back to town and the trailer, reading happened, dinner happened, Quinn was walked again, sleeping happened.

Montana Adventure Day 20

I began the day by calling campgrounds in Denver, my next stop.  I wanted to stay four days to visit with my brother, Jim and his wife, Jessie.  I don't know how many I called but I know it ranged far and wide and I thought I was just going to have to move on.  Literally the last one on the list for me to call had miraculously a site.  She thought it would be a back in, shudder, but I made the reservation.  Turned out I was only 15 minutes away from Golden, Co and about 30-45 minutes from Jim's house--Beggar's cannot be choosers!  Next time, I'll plan Denver for first and make reservations way in advance.

Had cinnamon roll french toast for breakfast-the hash browns were the highlight of that meal and started down  the road.  Normally, all of the front range would be visible to my right-Long's Peak most of all-but today the smoke that had drifted into Laramie overnight made the high peaks invisible.  (Just like the Tetons.)  Arrived at my campsite and found that the folks who were scheduled to be in the other half of my space had not arrived so I got to pull through!  Yippie!

Found the closest Starbucks-gotta have that Mocha fix- and a grocery store to replenish the pantry.  Back at the camper I open the frig door to store the perishables and the decorative front panel of the bottom door drops down to the floor!  What!  There are plastic parts (of course) that clip onto the frame and hold the panel on and I can not figure out how to clip it back on.  The panel is heavy and there isn't much room to work and since it doesn't affect the operation of the unit I just left it off.  The camper will be going to the dealership soon!  After all that Quinn and I headed over to Jim's to meet up for dinner out.  Quinn got Molly to run and play (an unusual event) and she loved being off leash in his backyard!! Soccer time!

Montana Adventure Days 18 and 19

I'm combining a couple of pretty boring days here!

I left Dillon and Montana on Day 17 drove down into Idaho then into Wyoming and over Teton Pass. The plan was to hit Grand Teton National Park-well, hum. Smoke blew that plan away!  The drive over the pass was a bit uncomfortable for both me and the truck!  The truck isn't real happy pulling the camper up hills, er mountains, fortunately the up on this one was short and the speed limit low.  Then there's the down-uncomfortable for me as I have a trailer pushing me along to greater speed!  Have to use lower gears to keep the brakes from getting hot.  Couldn't see a thing, could see where I was supposed to be able to see something but all was a smokey blur.  Wait, I did see a Mama Moose with her baby, and some hay stacks that had to have been made with a beaverslide. I didn't see the beaver slide though.  That pretty much covers it.  Spent the night in the middle of nowhere Wyoming before moving on to Laramie.

Day 18 was more of Wyoming with little to see-only some antelope and miles and miles of snow fence-just google Wyoming snow fence and you'll see what I mean!  Struggled to find the campground in Laramie-imagine if you will, my pickup truck pulling that 23ft camper along behind going up and down residential streets looking for a campground!  Turns out it was nearly where I got off the interstate and miles from those residential streets!  It was noisy.  Not too smokey in Laramie though.  Quinn liked this park as they had a dog play yard and she could be off leash there, she really got tired of that leash!

Can you tell I'm a bit cranky about here?  Over drove the first day due to said pass so started out tired and the mess trying to find the campground made me a tired, cranky mess!  Early to bed for me!

Montana Adventure Day 17

Today is the day I've been waiting for ever since I got to Dillon!  Today I had lunch with Suzie O'Connell!  Suzie writes the Northstar Romances and I've been one of her Beta readers for the last four books plus I send along a daily nag!  We've chatted on Facebook many times but had never met. She brought along her lovely 6 year old daughter Maddie for our lunch-Maddie was sort of taken by my tiger tail!  Long story short we had a lovely lunch and chatted until 3:30!  It's nice to meet someone in real life that you've "Known" in the internet way-and find that in spite of our very large age difference we have a lot in common.  Anyway, when I nag her now I know what she looks like!

Montana adventure Day 16

The alarm went off at 3am, I did not get out of bed.  Two late nights in two days and my bod was saying-"Are you nuts?  Go back to sleep!" So I did.  It was still really smokey this morning so I doubt I missed anything.

After our breakfast we loaded up and went to Nevada City/Virginia City.  It was a nice drive of about an hour through mining country.  Lots of round rocks piled up everywhere where they had dug.  You could hunt for garnets at one place.  Sunday, they weren't open.  We stopped in Nevada City as you come to that first and looked around.  I bought a cinnamon roll, yum-it was worth the sugar headache!  They were having a special living history event so we didn't stay.  There was a horse.  Quinn is not quite sure what to make of a horse.  She saw her first one on this trip, I got a very alert sheltie and I could almost hear her thinking "What on earth is that?!" The horse was very interested in her as well!  On to Virginia City we went.  It isn't far and on a Sunday morning not everything was open or dog friendly but we walked around and took it all in.  Quinn drew lots of attention, as she always does, and was polite with all the new people. Makes me proud! Before long we were headed back to Dillon. There was a small traffic jam as we caught the end of the parade for a county fair, fun!

We came back into part of Dillon I had overlooked previously, there was another market and all the gas stations, etc.  In the Safeway there was a - wait for it-Starbucks!  Had to stop and have one!

All in all a nice day inspite of the smoke.  We are being quite lazy on this trip, much reading is happening along with our walks.  I've picked up a needle exactly twice.  Boy did I bring way too much stuff!

Montana Adventure Day 15

Last night the wind blew and blew!  My little trailer only weighs 3700lbs so it rocked!  Sleep was a distant thought until the wind stopped-there was a little thunder and lightening thrown in as well.  I had books to read so no big deal, just read until the wind stopped or I was too tired to keep my eyes open.  This morning when I got up it was to SMOKE!!  That thunder and lightening last night started a fire about 12 miles SE of Dillon, sage brush and grass mostly but by morning it was already on the large incident fire report.  It seems that all of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and NW Montana are burning.  So many fires and resources are spread VERY thin.  The smoke was so thick I could not see the pioneer mountains and the asthma kicked in so most of the day was spent in the camper.  We did get a touch of cabin fever in the afternoon and went to Clark Canyon Dam and Reservoir.  This is a Lewis and Clark site-there are many in Montana and they have done a great job documenting them.  this is the only one we visited this trip-I've done so much work on Lewis and Clark with the Trails Museum that it no longer holds much appeal to me.  You'd think I'd be more interested but the truth is I've been to so many sites and they are mostly the same, this one a bit more specific to the site so it was interesting.  Plus Quinn and I got to take a walk somewhere other than the campground.

You can really see the smoke in this one.  Normally, there would be mountains in the background. 

A replica dugout

Tonight the northern lights are supposed to be visible-I'll set the alarm but I'm afraid the smoke will interfere.

Montana Adventure Day 14

I set my alarm for 3am to get up and watch the Persied meteor shower-which perhaps explains some of the happenings of later in the day.  Got up got dressed and went outside.  The sky was amazing and I saw two meteors before the cold drove me back in (also the campground had major lights which made seeing all of the sky a problem.)  I could have driven out from town but I had no idea where to go, sigh.  Went back to sleep.

Quinn and I headed out on a side trip today.  First to Bannack State Park where I discovered I'd left the data card for my camera in the laptop back in the camper, sigh.  Decided to use my cell phone.  Took a number of really good photos but for some reason I cannot get them to transfer to the laptop.  Many hours of trying later, I give up.   It was an interesting ghost town and Quinn enjoyed being able to wander around with me.  I found some odd things interesting-typical, I know- all the buildings save one began as log but some were covered with clapboard siding in time and some in shingles, you could see the logs in the places where the siding and shingles had fallen off.  Plus, when they added onto the buildings it was sort of haphazard and the new part settled differently then the old so you had a tilt to one part.  I imagine walking in them would have been interesting!

The two story white building is the Masonic Hall.  Apparently, they still hold meetings here and anyone who is a Mason can attend one special meeting there.  Folks come from all over.

Mining train

Church

See the logs behind the clapboard?

And here are logs behind the shingles!

I wonder did they begin with this corner in the ground or did it happen later?

Quinn enjoys the shade-it was warm walking around in the sun!

Love the door on this whitewashed cabin!

Grass growing on the roof!  I think this had bars on the windows-so maybe the Jail?

This one sank in the middle!

This one sank on the back end.

 After we left Bannack we drove to the town of Polaris (for neat pics) in the Grasshopper valley on the Pioneer Mountain scenic byway.  (Also the site of the Northstar novels by Suzie O'Connell!)  Gorgeous drive through the national forest, saw some wildlife, er cows, roaming free in the woods.  Not much traffic either.  Decided that I'd go back the next day and take a fully functional camera!  These were all taken towards the north end of the Pioneer Mountain Scenic Byway.