Home at last.

[hammerforged]

My wife and I left home on September 4th on a trip celebrating her retirement. Original plans had us going to Banff but my sister-in-law's passport did not come in time so we adjusted and went to Yellowstone instead. My wife and I left early on the morning of September 4th headed to Richmond, VA. for my nephew's wedding that evening, then up at the crack of dawn on the 5th headed for Louisville, Kentucky to visit with my daughter and her husband for her birthday. Up again at the crack of dawn on the 6th headed for Lockesburg, Arkansas to hook-up with sister-in-law and her husband for the trip west and north. Not quite so early on the 7th headed out for Amarillo, Texas for an overnight. Left Amarillo for Colorado Springs, CO. Spent 2 1/2 days in Colorado Springs. Went to the summit of Pikes Peak on the Cog Railway. 72 degrees at the base - 14 at the summit. visited with a young friend at the Olympic Training Center who is in residence there and one of the best on our Olympic Shooting Team - watch for Jon Michael Mcgrath in competition, he is currently the world champion in Skeet. he gave us all a behind the scenes tour of the center. Saw the Garden of the Gods - very aptly named indeed. My wife and I visited with a high school friend of her's who hadn't seen each other in 40 years. On our way out of town on Saturday headed for Rock Springs, Wyoming we stopped at the Air Force Academy and watched the cadets on morning parade as well as touring the awe inspiring Chapel. The Academy had a home football game that day but we had miles to go so we did not stay. Spent a day and a half in Rock Springs visiting some of my sister-in-law's relatives. Left Rock Springs for West Yellowstone, Montana. Spent a week in West Yellowstone - what an amazing week. While there we made a trip to Virginia City, Montana - the first established city in Montana and is now a preserved living history city. The original hotel is still in operation and we thought seriously about getting a room and spending the night but we had an early bus tour of the lower loop of Yellowstone the next morning so passed this time. On the way to and from Virginia City we saw a family of Moose on the side of the road who were co-operative enough to allow some pictures taken. While in West Yellowstone we took the opportunity to travel to Grand Teton National park for the day and through to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. After our wonderful week in West Yellowstone we headed east for Rapid City, SD for a 3 day stay. while there we took a bus tour of Mount Rushmore, the Custer State Forest and the Crazy Horse Monument. At one point on the tour through the forest it was pointed out to us that the road we were traveling on was built and designed back in the 30's and that the designer purposely designed it so that traffic could travel no faster than 20 miles per hour while traversing the road. his thoughts was that this would cause everyone to slow down and appreciate the beauty surrounding them, I must agree with his assessment. The other issue with the road being that old was that it was built with the vehicles of the time in mind and NOT modern 40 passenger buses, there are several tunnels through the mountains on this road and each one is narrower than the previous one. Ultimately you come to a tunnel known as the "Eye of the Needle". the bus we were traveling on for this tour was a refurbished Greyhound Bus and there were literally 3 inches clearance on each side of the bus and the walls of the tunnel. After our time in Rapid City we headed for Sioux Falls and visits with friends. My brother-in-law and I had hoped to bag some Pheasant on the trip but this has not been a good year for SD Pheasant and the season has been pushed back some. While in Sioux Falls or rather Tea, SD it was my wonderful pleasure to meet and visit with (although for a very short time) our own Dakota Case. After a few days visiting in Tea, we headed south for Branson, Missouri. This was an ordeal to say the least. The road south had sustained severe damage from the spring flooding of the Missouri and we had 5 detours that took us several hours out of our way. An 8 hour trip became 15. We spent 3 days in Branson then headed back to Lockesburg, Arkansas. On the way we saw many amazing vistas and met many wonderful people. I was reminded all along the way that this is indeed a great country we are priveledged to live in. The Lord has truly blessed us. I personally took over 900 photographs and my brother-in-law took over 700 himself. It will take me a while to edit them but I promise that eventually I will post pics of our trip. Thank you for allowing me to ramble on.

[ruttinbuc]

Thanks for taking us along on your wonderful trip, Ross. You are 100% correct in saying that we are privileged to live in this wonderful country. there are some many avenues and vistas to see it is mind boggling. Looking forward to the pictures.

[Dakota]

Sounds like you had one heckuva good trip. It was great meeting you, Ross! We'll have to get you back up here one of these years and chase some speed goats!

Dakota

[wtnhunt]

Sounds like that was a great trip there Ross. Look forward to seeing your pics.

[stevebeilgard]

what a wonderful sounding trip, ross. you came through gillette without calling??

i'm glad you had such a great time.

[Tim Andrus]

Very nice!

[Ohiobucks]

That's a lot of road time Ross, sounds like you had some fun!

[Shaun_300]

Sounds like you had quite the adventure Ross! Banff and Yellowstone are both on my list that I'd like to visit at some point in my life. My parents were in Banff a couple years ago for their 25th anniversary and absolutely loved it. Looking forward to seeing some pics of your trip.