Holed up in Cheyenne, WY

Day 8, 9, 10.... Due to ice fog, freezing rain and snow.

Ice on the branches of a tree

Cheyenne, WY. Checked out Sierra Trading Post and was disappointed. Doesn't hold a candle to my lovely MEC. Oh, well. Toured around Cheyenne thanks mostly to our GPS (Samantha) who has not got a clue about this city. It's a good way to see places if you're not in any rush to get somewhere! We did find the 2 RV places, no thanks to Sam, and picked up a couple of needful things for the rig. There are a few cute bunnies that hang out at the campsite.
Today, Oct. 30th, day 10 we woke up to about 1.5-2 cm of snow. Looks pretty but after the freezing rain the previous days not great for the roads. The temperature is supposed to get above freezing today and the sky is clear this morning so as soon as it starts melting we will make a move south. John says we will aim for Pueblo, Colorado.
John was in contact with Bob and Jo Evans. They are touring in Arizona and we hope to meet up with them in Albuquerque, New Mexico later this week.

Starlings eating the fallen fruit

There's snow on the ground

Snowy campsite

Sunrise on the snowy hills, Cheyenne WY

To be continued.....

Leaving Montana, entering Wyoming

Already starting to forget what day it is.....day 6? Yep.
Woke up to a very frosty, clear morning in Paradise Valley, MT. Packed up and loaded the car and headed down the hiway. Our plan, to get to Sheridan, Wyoming before sundown. Actually about a 4 hour trip. Traveled without delay to Billings, MT and right through to Sheridan,WY. As we crossed the border from Montana to Wyoming it was amazing how the landscape changed. Still ranch lands but different. There were numerous and when I say numerous I mean LOTS of herds of Pronghorn antelope. Lots and lots and lots. Small herds, big herds. So many they became commonplace.

One of the many herds of pronghorns we observed in northern Wyoming

 We had a spot reserved at the Sheridan KOA campsite. Quite nice, a few trees but nothing like the last one. I know, I know, there will be the good, the bad and the ugly campsites but at least the "big name" ones ie: KOA, Good Sam will likely be decent as far as amenities, I hope.
 We set up camp, unloaded the car and headed into town for supplies. The main street was really long. Found a Safeway and picked up enough food for a few days.
The wifi was not good at this campsite.....oh, well.
Day 7: Next morning up bright and squirrelly and headed out. Next stop Cheyenne, WY. Trying to stay ahead of an impending bad weather system, from Canada, no less.
The landscape here in Wyoming changed all along the way. Very interesting! Every little town seemed to have a rodeo grounds as well. It does refer to itself as "the cowboy state" with their motto "Equal Rights" which is awesome. There are so many places to explore here also, Devil's Tower, Grand Teton National Park to name a couple and of course Yellowstone NP which is in WY.
We encountered strong winds with extra wind gusts about half way that continued right to Cheyenne.
I'm very glad that we are now reserving campsites in advance to ensure we have a spot at the end of the day. John was glad to be done after fighting the crosswind most of the trip.
The Cheyenne KOA is a gravel parking lot with a few small trees, probably due to the extreme winds in the area but the amenities are excellent and the wifi is great! (blog day)! I was actually able to get my British soap "Coronation Street" after going through a proxy ip. :)
Ended the day with a delicious bbq and 4 episodes of Corrie.

Along the road heading out of Montana

SE Montana

Hello Wyoming!

A ranch in Wyoming

A rocky outcropping, WY

Ranch lands

More rocky outcroppings

Badlands in southern WY

A very large rocky outcropping!

Day 8: Our sunshine is gone....woke up to a very foggy day but have decided to spend a day exploring Cheyenne. Lots of museums and interesting sights. Cheyenne also happens to be a shipping HQ for Sierra Trading Post so a little shopping is required, I think.

The travels continue

Day 4, cont'd: Got away early and made good time, until we fueled up in Whitehall. There was a big rig unloading at the station and blocked our exit. We decided after waiting about 15 mins that we'd get the good ol' two way radios out and back the moho and trailer up so we could take the other exit out. We are getting pretty good at this. :)
Oh the never ending sameness of eternal ranchlands. Actually, it's quite pretty.

The Hi-way from Butte to Livingston

  Had a big climb out of Boseman and what goes up must come down! Reached the KOA campsite near Livingston in good time. So very lovely and quiet. Well off the hiway. Right beside the Yellowstone River. There were some Sandhill Cranes resting by the river when we arrived. We are pretty much the only campers here and the owners are on winter hours so are gone much of the day.

Whitetail deer at the Livingston KOA campsite

After we set up our camp, unloaded the car we headed back into Livingston to pick up a few groceries and fuel up the car for the trip to Yellowstone in the morning.

KOA Paradise Valley

Yellowstone River beside campsite, many fly fishermen

The view from our campsite

Found this Super 92 Massey combine in Livingston

JL starting his own custom combine business, working back to Canada

The Rig

 Day 5: Yellowstone National Park day!! 52 miles to the gate. Another beautiful, sunny day with nary a clood to be seen. I really can't say enough about how awesome this park is so I'll just post some photos.

This warning sign at all thermal sites, hahaha

Mammoth hot springs

More thermal emanations

and more.....

Holy pit of boiling mud!

Firehole River

Firehole Falls

Old Faithful Geyser

The geyser cone of "Bee Hive" geyser.

Bee Hive eruption

Bee Hive eruption, worth the wait, better than Old Faithful

The first 3 days on the road

Bridgeview Campsite in Lethbridge

Well we got off on time, Monday morning fresh from the polling station after doing our civic duty. The weather, just fine. Blue skies and dry roads. Pulled into Lethbridge around 5pm. John noticed some oil and dust on a rear wheel. Possible rear axle seal gone? Had it checked the next day at Brake Fleet in Lethbridge. Two mechanics checked it and no leak. Thank goodness! I thought our first tour might be of Lethbridge, which don't get me wrong, would be fine but I am itching to get to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming before the weather turns bad.
Day two: Into the good ol' USA at the Coutts border crossing. We got "selected" by US Agriculture Border Services to be checked so we pulled the rig over. A very friendly and talkative inspector climbed aboard and asked a bunch of questions. At the end of it all he confiscated my lamb shanks that I had purchased at the St. Albert Farmers Market. :(
We decided to pull into the rest stop just past the border to make a sandwich before we made our way down the road. Picked up a really good map of Montana at the rest area building.

On the road, northern Montana

Into the mountains, near Helena, MT

Drove south to and thru Great Falls, pure ranchland, and on down to Helena, into mountains, where we found a campsite just the other side. Set up camp and went into town to pick up a few necessities and supper.
The campsite was right beside the hiway and a lovely creek ran beside it with small trout darting about. The traffic we have found in the evening dies down to nothing at night here thankfully. It was a VERY chilly night. Realised the vent has to be in the Off position or cold air will come into the rv. Every day we learn a little more about our home on wheels.
Day three: Got up early as we had hit the hay early the night before. John got up and made coffee. The pot didn't finish brewing as the circuit it was plugged into stopped working. Ahh, another little problem to fix.
We headed into Helena to visit the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts. Plugged the address into GSP and away we went. "Samantha" guided us just fine and we spent a couple of hours looking a lovely pottery and self-touring the whole grounds. I was so pleased we went. I picked up a few glazes and tools at the little shop. Woo hoo, no shipping costs!

The old brick works at the Archie Bray Foundation

Afterwards we went back to the campsite, loaded the car and headed south to Butte. We traveled some steep and windy roads but the scenery made it worthwhile.

Some lovely pieces by one of the potters in residence at the ABF

Our Lady of the Rockies, Butte MT. This statue is as large as the statue of Liberty

Butte is in a wide valley and was established because of mining. There are still many remnants of mines here and the city is full, full, full of old historic buildings from the mining era. Apparently it was a rip snortin' old west town full of hard working and hard "playing" men and women.

Butte valley

We found the Visitor Information in Butte easily and they were very helpful and the RV campsite was right next door so super easy today. Booked in, set up, unloaded car and set off to explore Butte. You can just feel the history!!
As I am sitting writing this I just happened to look out the window to see the statue of Our Lady of the Rocky Mountains statue in the distance is all lit up at night. Cool!
There is a little Chicken/Fish and Chips shop at the campsite so John set off to get us some for supper.
This KOA campsite in Butte is the first time we've had wifi. It's not as available as we thought it would be. Same goes for rv campsites. We got a very good KOA campsite guide at the office here so I'm hoping it won't be so by gosh and by gar that we find one. At night the Butte valley is lit up, Our Lady, the big M and the mining towers. Very cool!
Day four: Today we will leave Butte and head east to Livingston, MT. Approx. 2 hrs. drive. We called ahead to the campsite and were told there is a pull through available for us. Livingston
is near the road that goes to Yellowstone Nat'l Park. About 54 miles or 86 kms. I'm sooo excited to see the sights! (still converting distance and temps).

But it's my first time....

Well hi there. Just an opening note to get this blog on the road, so to speak. I'll try a bunch of stuff just to see how this all works.
Hmmm, let's see, add a photo....

Ok, that worked!
Now a link....http://grettabell.blogspot.ca/2012/12/pumpkin-pie-bars-with-gingersnap-crust.html
Yipee, this will be fun!
Font change! maybe fool around with some colour...
okay, that's it for now seeing as I think I have the hang of it.
Hasta la vista amigos until we hit the road! :)