Grand Tetons and Jackson, WY

Leaving Cody, we headed to the Grand Tetons via the East entrance to Yellowstone.  We have entered Yellowstone from the West and and North but the East entrance is now our favorite.  There are some very interesting formations on the way, along the North Fork of the Shoshone River.

Photo of the East Entrance to Yellowstone on a "nice day"

The drive through Yellowstone was pretty and uncrowded.  Traveling early in the season has the advantage of fewer crowds, though the weather has been pretty wet.  We settled into the Coulter Bay RV Park in the Grand Teton National Park and spent 2 1/2 days exploring the park.

Jenny Lake

View of Jackson Lake from the boat

Beaver Dam 

From the National Park we drove to the posh town of Jackson.  Counted among its famous residents are Harrison Ford, Sandra Bullock, VP Dick Cheney, and the Wal-Mart heiress, Christy Walton.  The RV spot was in town and we paid $75 a night for the privilege of convenience.  A special treat was dinner at the Gun Barrel Restaurant, a short walk from the park.  We split a lovely mixed grill with buffalo prime rib, elk steak and venison bratwurst.

The Gun Barrel Restaurant was a beautiful log structure with lots of critters to look at

Mixed Grill dinner of venison elf and bison

The doggie bag provided lunch the next day.  We also enjoyed a buffalo burger in town for a mere $22 and twice visited the Bunnery for yummy baked goods and homemade granola.

After enjoying the game, a first time for elk, we found the Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Company and stocked the freezer with some elk and bison.  I found the nutrition information quite interesting.

                                         

3 oz.	Cal	Fat	Chol
Bison	93	1.8g	43mg
Elk	94	1.7g	40mg
Turkey	125	3.0g	59mg
Beef	183	8.7g	55mg
Chicken	140	3.0g	73mg
Fish	125	3.0g	59mg

The young man who waited on me told me that he grew up on a cattle and bison ranch in Colorado.  He was learning the retail side but hoped to get his own ranch some day.  I asked whether he preferred to raise bison or beef.  He explained that while bison are ornery, they are much hardier from a health standpoint as well as more able to withstand extreme weather and drought.

Buffalo Bill, Firearms, Natural History and Gourmet delicacies

On the way north to Cody, WY we spent one night on the Wind River.  It was quiet, beautiful and... the trains traveled just across the river so we could hear them..  This is train country.

One of the big attractions of Cody was the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  This is truly an amazing museum, consisting of five different sections-Buffalo Bill, Firearms, Native Americans, Wildlife Art and Natural History.

The Natural History section featured the stunning animals of the area.  The first I encountered was the wolf, reintroduced to the area in 1995.  I was completely taken by this animal and had to resist the urge to stroke him.

The eyes were so real and the coloring was like Max.

 I remember my friend Marcia Mayeda, the Director of the LA County Department of Animal Care and Control, telling me the name of this coloring, but I cannot remember.

Other displays include bison, which went from approximately 60 million to about 300 wild bison by 1893.  William Cody earned the name Buffalo Bill while hunting bison to feed the workers building the Intercontinental Railroad, but he was also active in helping preserve the bison.

Another display was the mountain lion attacking an elk.  The head of the elk was carved from one piece of wood,

The section on Native Americans has much to offer but a couple of highlights, since I am a dog person.

Sadly the movement of the Europeans West resulted in banning of the Indian sacred ceremonies and the elimination of their traditional hunting and farming methods.  We know how well government reliance serves to enhance self reliance and dignity.

The section on Buffalo Bill depicted a man who with an adventurous spirit, a modern sensibility as to women as well as other races and ethnicities.  He was an accomplished scout, inspiring entertainer, and absent husband.  He was mentored by Will Bill Hickok.

An excerpt from the Internet on "Bill":

Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven after his father's death, and became a rider for the Pony Express at age 14. During the American Civil War, he served for the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a civilian scout to the US Army during the Indian Wars, receiving the Medal of Honor in 1872.

One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded his Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours throughout the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and Europe.

 After performing for Queen Victoria she gave him the cherry back bar for the hotel he constructed in Cody.

Queen Victoria gave Buffalo Bill this Cherry Back Bar for his Irma Hotel

The Irma Hotel named after Buffalo Bill's much adored youngest child, Irma

A major attraction in the Wild West Shows was Annie Oakley who was not the female stereotype of the era.

While "Bill" paid women the same as men in his performances and also included people from all over the world, he apparently had little tolerance for "bums."

We of course needed to visit the Irma Hotel.  We were not  hungry so a drink and appetizer was perfect.  I couldn't resist the mixed plate which included the Rocky Mountain Oysters I had heard about.

For my foodie friends, here is how you too can prepare Rocky Mountain Oysters

http://deep-fried.food.com/recipe/rocky-mountain-oysters-28386

A special program featured the raptors who are cared for by the museum because they have been injured so that they cannot return to the wild.  The really interesting one was the Golden Eagle.

The museum raptor expert explained that the bird are incredibly  smart.  While the golden eagle can only carry off about 1/2 of their weight-about 5-6 pounds, they are able to outfox mammals such as mountain goats by clever maneuvers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz7FFlFy8eM

I skipped the Firearms Museum but it is apparently the best in the world, consisting of 7,000 firearms and 30,000 artifacts.  The BD sent two days in that section of the museum and concluded that if he lived in Cody he could visit frequently and barely see it all.

RV Travel and Memorial Day

Just, a few thoughts on the RV gypsy life.  First it is hard to get bored and if you start to, unplug, unhook and head out.  There is so much to see and the absolutely most fun is the people you meet and the stories you hear.  My new favorite tee says it all.

I haven't completely made my peace with Pancho but some days go without an "issue."  Part of it is the result of the incredibly complicated systems and electronic controls in modern RV's.  A $2500 inverter???   If I had an electrical engineering degree I might understand it and know why the fan comes on at odd times and stays on.  I think it is for cooling but it is 45 degrees out and we have been stationary.  There are times I long for the simplicity of our early RV's.

A new version of our first camper

Over the last 10+ years we have slowly added size and creature comforts.  The feature that seemed ok but not really necessary, was an on board washer and dryer.  Now we both really like the freedom to put in a quick load of laundry whenever we are in a campground with utilities.  Even drying towels after a shower in damp cold weather is a nice feature.  This is a purple job.

As to the pink, blue and purple jobs (forgive me any feminists).  I had never heard of this but learned when we were in Fredericksburg early on.  When we first discovered that gray water wouldn't drain, I went to the park office to get names of mobile RV technicians and some men were also there.  They began to question me in an attempt to help diagnose the problem.  Fellow campers are almost always nice and willing to share their knowledge.  As I described the trouble we were having,  I had to confess, in answer to a question about the configuration of the discharge mechanism, that I didn't actually handle this chore.  They laughed and said, ..."oh there are blue jobs and pink jobs and that is a blue job.  The pink person gets to say which jobs are blue and which are pink."   I really liked this concept and have been having fun with it ever since.  There are some purple jobs, again the pink person can so designate.

One of the challenges of travel is handling mail and bills.  Nearly everything is on autopay but non repetitive matters like medical bills cannot be arranged that way.  We use a very good RV mail forwarding service, located in Florida.  They log your mail which you can see on line, you can call and have them read your mail to you and you can pay a bit more and have it scanned.  You notify them when you want a package of mail sent to somewhere you will be for a few days. This system works well.

 The challenge, year after year, is the Vashon Post Office.  I have been on a first name basis with at least 5 postmasters and acting postmaster over the last 6-8 years.  In the last month there have been two "acting Postmasters."  I am sad to say that under none of their management has the mail forwarding been handled with any reliability.  It is truly frustrating and worrisome because you never know what has gone into the black hole of the Vashon Post Office.  In contrast, the Seal Beach Post Office, in the middle of big, impersonal LA, is pretty much spot on with their service.  I had to take note of the following exhibit in the Cody museum.

Note that it took 10 days for mail to get to California.  Now, IF mail sent to Vashon gets forwarded to Florida,  it takes 21 days or more.  Is the same writing on the wall for the USPS?

Yesterday was Memorial Day.  This article brought tears to my eyes and was in vivid contrast to some who refuse to fly our flag or argue that it is divisive.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/americans-gave-their-lives-to-defeat-the-nazis-the-dutch-have-never-forgotten/2015/05/24/92dddab4-fa79-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html

Cheyenne, Trains, Immigrant Trails and Fort Laramie

As we headed north to Wyoming, the plan was to spend a couple of nights in Cheyenne, find out what else would be fun to see and do in Wyoming and eventually land at the Grand Tetons.  We ended up staying a week in order to take part in the annual Depot Days, a celebration that centers around the  important train history in Cheyenne.  We even joined their Depot Museum to take advantage of some member only functions.  It was fun  in that we were more a part of the local "train community" than had we only been part of the hoards.  The BIG attraction was the tour to the steam shop to see Big Boy under restoration.  More on that later.

Cheyenne has been a railroad town of great importance since 1867.  It is interesting in the less populated parts of the west to see the prominence of the rail industry.  It is in LA but obscured by the zillions of people, cars, housing tracts.....   Today there are 80 trains a day going through Cheyenne.

I was surprised to see a UP control tower on the bridge which takes vehicular traffic over the train yard.

 Sadly, our RV park is far enough away from the tracks that we don't hear the whistles and rumbling of those massive beasts.  When we are at the depot, you can't miss them as they travel through.  The depot is a beautiful sandstone structure with an art deco lobby.

Cheyenne Train Depot

Depot Lobby

The original roundhouse was reduced in size once diesel replaced steam but a section of it remains.

Remaining roundhouse

While there is a are model trains in the museum, I am spoiled by the ones in Greeley, Co.

The big attraction for the serious train buffs was the tour to the steam shop to see Big Boy.  There are actually two in Cheyenne, one on static display in the park and one in the steam shop undergoing restoration.  Interesting that the latter lived for some time in Pomona, CA before being released by the museum for restoration by the Union Pacific in Cheyenne.

For train buffs, here is a summary of the Big Boys.  Those who could care less might scan it for a sense of how many points  I have racked up this last week.  BTW, Pink Points do not expire, Blue ones do.  More  on the Pink and Blue RV rules some day.  Not original with me.

During the late 1930s, the Union Pacific often used helpers to move trains from Ogden to Wahsatch. The UP wanted to simplify this move so they asked their "Department of Research and Mechanical Standards" (DoRMS) to design a locomotive that could pull a 3600 ton train unassisted over the 1.14% grade of the Wahsatch.The designers determined that to pull a 3600 ton train, a tractive effort of 135,000 lbs would be needed. Assuming a factor of adhesion of 4.0, the weight on drivers would have to be 4.0 * 135,000 = 540,000 lbs. Given an axle loading of 67,500 lbs each, this would require 8 drivers or an x-8-8-x wheel arrangement. The designers agreed upon the 4-8-8-4 design. Next, the horsepower and cylinder sizes were computed based on 300 psi boiler pressure. Although they weren't planning to pull these freight trains at 80 MPH, the DoRMS designed them for 80 MPH in order to have a sufficient factor of safety built into the design. What resulted is considered by many to be the most successful articulated steam locomotive ever built. 4000 was delivered to Omaha at 6PM, September 5, 1941.
The 25 Big Boys were built in two groups. The first group, called "class 1", were built starting in 1941. They were numbered 4000-4019. The second group, "class 2", were built in 1944. They were numbered 4020-4024. The last revenue freight pulled by a Big Boy was in July of 1959. Most were retired in 1961. The last one was retired in July of 1962. As late as September, 1962, there were still four operational Big Boys at Green River, WY.
The total mileage of each of the Big Boys from class 1 were roughly the same -- 1,000,000 miles. 4016 had the lowest mileage -- 1,016,124. 4006 had the highest mileage -- 1,064,625. Of the second group, 4024 had the highest mileage -- 811,956.

For the train buffs, here is a YouTube video of the 4014 leaving Pomona for Cheyenne and the restoration.  The beginning is better than the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRxKpiD_ntY

BIG BOY

I was curious how the Union Pacific found people to work on the restoration of a steam locomotive.  I pictured a shop full of wizened old men in train overalls.  Here is the steam locomotive foreman-27 years old!

Locomotive Foreman

Curious as to  how such a young man would have the knowledge to oversee such an effort I asked (of course).  He explained that his family homesteaded at the turn of the century and that their ranch still had a variety of steam equipment.  He cut his teeth on steam tractors etc. so the job was a natural.  Talk about finding your passion in your job.

Over the last few years I have become interested in WWII history.  Not the battles so much but the stories of people, tragedy and incredible courage.  I was fascinated to find one of the 49 Merci Trains in Cheyenne at the VFW site.  Here is a bit about touching gesture of gratitude from the French people.

One of 49 Merci Trains

The "Forty-and-eight" boxcars

Photo showing the arrival of the Merci Train.

Forty-and-eights were French 4-wheel covered goods wagons used as military transport cars. The term refers to the cars' carrying capacity, said to be 40 men or eight horses.^[4] Built starting in the 1870s as regular freight boxcars, they were originally used in military service by the French army in both World Wars, and then later used by the German occupation in World War II and finally by the Allied liberators.

In 1949, France sent 49 of those boxcars to the United States (one for each state then in existence and one for Washington, D.C. and Hawaii to share) laden with various treasures, as a show of gratitude for the liberation of France. This train was called the Merci Train, and was sent in response to trains full (over 700 boxcars) of supplies known as the American Friendship Train sent by the American people to France in 1947.

The Train and all 49 cars arrived aboard the Magellan bearing a banner which read: "MERCI AMERICA" on February 3, 1949, with over 25,000 onlookers in attendance. Immediately the trains were distributed amongst the states.

I found a lovely photo taken by the Depot Museum curator that I bought to replace the nondescript art that came with Pancho.  I looked him up at the Member's night event and he explained that he took the picture on the Chama Train, a narrow gauge steam train restored and maintained by volunteers with the support of both New Mexico and Colorado.  We have taken that trip so it was extra special.  He also explained, in enormous detail, every aspect of the two locomotives.  My head was spinning but I did love his enthusiasm.

Chama Steam Train Picture by Kerry Skidmore

Kerry, the Chama Train Photographer.

The old buildings in downtown Cheyenne are quite beautiful, as is the capitol.  

Downtown Cheyenne

Wyoming State Capitol

This statue fascinated the BD.  It is made from all kinds of metal tools.

A very fun side trip was to see the Oregon(California and Mormon at this point) Trail ruts.  It really brought home the difficulty of the journey.

Max and I are on the Oregon Trail.

I had never heard about the Mormon handcarts.  As I understand it, many of the Mormons wishing to go west did not have the funds to buy wagons and animals.  Instead, nearly 3,000 of them made the journey with handcarts, carrying young children and their meager goods.

Also nearby are the Register Cliffs where people making the trek would leave their names.

Fort Laramie was constructed in 1834, serving in the buffalo robe trade with Northern Plains tribes, later an important way station for the thousands of immigrants on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails and eventually it served as a military base in the Indian Wars.

Depiction of Fort Laramie

Denver and Family

We have been in Denver for the last week and what a treat it is to see Chris and Christina, Maddie and Nori.  The girls are adorable and such fun.  Our arrival timing was great as they finally snagged their first house in a very hot market, which we got to tour along with Chris's Mom, Cookie.  It was fun seeing her before she returned to Hawaii.

The C & C live in and are buying their home in an area called Stapleton.  They are both going to work at the Children's Hospital which is just a few miles from Stapleton.  It is a very nice planned community of 6.4 square miles with about 20,000 residents.  There are over 900 acres of parks and open space and fun retail services, to include the yummy Four Friends restaurant where we had brunch yesterday.  The demographics of Stapleton seem to be young professionals with oodles of kids.  I mean they are everywhere, mostly under 7 or so.  There were about 20 at the small restaurant, dining and waiting.

Christina, Nori and Maddie, waiting for a brunch table

Chris , Christina and Nori

The Four Friends' Kitchen loans Etch a Sketches to the kids while they wait

Finding an RV spot in the greater Denver area proved to be a challenge.  The first place was close, right across from the beleaguered VA construction project and new light rail construction.  There were acres devoted largely to full time residents living in 5th wheel trailers.  The owner has owned the land for 25 years and is now neglecting the maintenance, charging outrageous fees and waiting for a developer to offer the right price.  I called it the Denver Dump.  Max however was quite fond of the park.  He passed his time watching rabbits cavort right under his window.  He named it Conejo Meadows.

After the weekend we moved to a nice state park for a few days until we headed north of Denver to an extremely nice, efficient and user friendly RV and Truck Service outfit.  The 6,000 mile chassis service is done and we are in their parking lot awaiting some additions to the coach on Monday.  As it  snowed last night, the electrical hookup is welcome.  The morning's excitement was a fox running across the parking area with a rabbit in its mouth.  Max was jealous.

Pancho and Lefty waiting for the Monday work.  Maybe we headed north a bit early?

Raggie was not too enthused to be awakened for this

Oh crap-at least we are parked and warm

The Denver area seems to be a magnet for young California transplants.  The development is everywhere, new housing, shopping centers, light rail and highway expansion.  Sadly, the traffic is part of that and after years on an island with no stop lights, we are eager to get back to a more rural environment.  Cities and RV's are not a mix we really like and most larger cities do not offer close in camping.  The payoff has been seeing family and stocking up at Trader Joe's.  We have make 3 trips since we will be heading for WY and MT where my Traders' app shows no stores in either state.

A funny note.  The variety and idiocy of various state liquor laws never cease to surprise me.  The first Trader's we visited in Denver carried wine, beer and a full selection of liquor,  though it was in a separate, adjacent room.  All others in Denver (and maybe the state) carry no alcoholic beverages.  One store only is allowed.  Of course, you can get pot in numerous locations.

Maddie and Nori are learning to shop at Traders at a good age.

We did a little sightseeing in the area.  The state park had some fun history of the stagecoach era coming to Denver.

We also visited the Greeley Model Train Museum.  The exhibits are amazing, representing the railroad world in 1975, to include an authentic dispatch station from that era.  As fun as the displays are, I got a kick out of all the old guys volunteering there.  They spend hundreds of hours at the museum, to the most certain relief of their wives.

 The scale of the trains is HO and there are also extremely talented (and patient) model makers who replicate scenery, buildings, vehicles and people.

Model trains with a real cabbose, built in the 20's, in the background

You push a button and a forest fire erupts

The conversation with Jake was fun as well.  He told of his Army career operating trains throughout the world.  For five years he ran the train that traveled into Berlin through East Germany.

Jake, the former Army train engineer