dad's Big Fish

Good news! dad finally got himself a nice big trout. seventeen inches long. A nice rainbow. he can finally say he caught a fish bigger than a minnow. Now I won't be able to keep him off the lake.
We were out in his new toy but the wind came up and almost blew us to the other end of the lake before we could get back to shore. We will keep you posted for anymore big catches. maybe next time it will be mine.

Dad's New Toy

We went shopping in Idaho Falls for groceries and a screen house because the bugs will be getting bad as warm temperatures finally are starting to come to Montana, We went to Sam's Club in Idaho Falls, Idaho, 98 miles away from our campground. Once a month we travel that far because groceries in West Yellowstone are out of this world. So to make a long story short, this is the new screen room doesn't it look nice. This will be more fun so next month the screen room.

We have settled in at Lonesomehurst Campgrounds and we are enjoying it. The weather has been rain, rain and snow but is finally starting to improve. On the good days we try to enjoy fishing and the out doors. Being couped up inside RV is not fun. So we are praying for lots of better weather.

We are fine here and we are loving the lifestyle. We miss all of our family and will probably be back to the east coast in a year or so. We hope all of our family and friends are well. Please continue to keep us updated on what is going on in your life as we keep posting what is happening in ours.

Special Thanks to Joy for my Mother's Day tribute and the present of DVDs for those days we are couped up in RV. You are a life saver. Thank you so much.

The Page's are still alive and well in Montana.

Lonesomehurst Campground

We are finally at Lonesomehurst campground where we are Camp hosts for the summer. But summer here has been snow so far as it snowed again last night. we are hoping to maybe come back again next year unless it just keeps snowing.

We were going to come back east for next summer or Alaska but with gas prices we may be here in the west for awhile. We will just have to play it by ear. But we do like Montana alot if it ever quits snowing. Leigh had to plow the RV through a big snow drift to get into the camp.

But as you can see from our pictures there are lots of critters and the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen.

Critters of Yellowstone

These are just a few of the critters we have seen in Yellowstone. We saw a grizzly bear but the picture was fuzzy so i will be adding that after another trip. we hope to see lots more grizzlies.

Wonders of Yellowstone

This is just a sample of the wonders of yellowstone. I will be adding so much more but my internet is slow.

New Friends Jim & LaVerne

These are our new friends, Jim & Laverne from Texas. I call them the ambassadors because they are the ones that have been the friendliest and taken us under their wings. They have taken us into Yellowstone twice to make sure we didn't miss the best of Yellowstone. They are from Texas and they have been full timers for awhile. They will be our friends for a lifetime. You meet tons of people in your life but only a few you call your friends.

National Forest Service Firefighters

These are our Firefighters from the National Forest Service. After we cleared all the brush from dead trees and cleaning out the dibre from the campsites after a long wintered snow they came to do a control burn of the brush so the campground will be safe from accidental fires. Baker's Hole and all the forest service campgrounds takes extreme care to keep the campgrounds safe for their campers.

Leigh doing what he does best, playing with wildlife

Here Leigh is out with the Bison, he has no black bears to play with so he is out taking pictures of our Bison herd. This herd has 20 adults and 6 calves. He is really loving it. Since we are both lovers of nature we are both happy to see an abundance of wild life. And Steve you are right I would love to see tons of Eagles. We did see one in it's nest but my camera broke so the next time we past by that nest in Yellowstone I hope to get some pictures if it is in it's nest. Leigh and I are finding Yellowstone a wonderful place. We have seen elk, bison, Coyote dog and a wolf eating a dead Bison, the one eagle. We hope to see a grizzly but I promise I won't let Leigh feed it LOL. Montana is such a beautiful State and we will have the whole summer to explore it's beauty.

Yellowstone national Park (quick trip)

Yesterday our new friends Laverne and Jim came over after supper and asked if we would like to take a quick run into Yellowstone. So i said yes because we haven't had a chance yet to go there.

So we had a small taste of what it will be like to explore it. There were critters galore and beautiful scenery. The only bad thing is if you are under 62 and don't have a seniors golden age pass you pay $25.00 for each visit in.

We are still enjoying our adventures. There we eagles' nest, elk, a cayote dog, and tons of bison.

View from my RV Door

On Mother's Day this is what i saw out my door to RV. There were 20 adult Bison and 6 babies that pasted by our site. There are so many Bison. They are all over the road you have to be very careful driving here because they go where ever they want and in the road if they feel like it. I love seeing them.

I had a nice Mother's day. I got to talk to Joy & family, Sterling, Skip and I got a email from Theresa. I sure miss seeing everyone, but I am enjoying our adventure.

Leigh and I went out to eat and went to see the road where we will workamp at some point. The road there at the moment has about 3 foot of snow on it. But it sits on a lake. We road down another road that goes around the lake and it is beautiful with mountains in the background.

We went to visit another workamper couple, Jim & Laverne. They are at Rainbow Point. They just got in there a few days ago but they have tons of snow and all the site there are still snowed in.

I am happy we are still here at baker's Hole until we go to our camp. Even though there is snow here the sites are open and we have business. The camp host here are Nancy and Bud. We are sharing work with them until we can get into our camp. All the camp host are really nice. There is another couple here Lynn and Sam. They will be going over to rainbow point as soon as they have water and a site open for them. We have all been doing what we can to get the work done. it hasn't been to much work so far. Hopefully the sun will come out and we can get more done.

It's still snowing

This is what it looks like today at our campsite. And today was my first day of cleaning toilets and supplying the bathrooms. Lucky me. I had my woollies on as i did it. The fun thing was I got to drive the golf cart today and I was pretty good at it.

It's not so bad but we never thought when we were in Florida we would be summering in snow. lol

Hope you guys are enjoying our blog. Please leave comments. and keep in touch with us.

Lee

West Yellowstone Montana

These are some pictures on the road to West Yellowstone Montana and the last one was of the Buffalo's that walk past our campsite. At the moment we are in Baker's Hole Campground in West Yellowstone. The campground we are going to be camp host at Lonesomehurst is still on a road that has a 4 foot snow drift in front of and today i talked to the National Forest Service and they said it would be that way for a couple of weeks.

The lady that runs the campground here is very nice so she is letting us work here at baker's Hole until we can get into our campground on Hebgen Lake. It is about 20 miles from here. We are settled in and all is well with us. I feel so lucky God is giving us this opportunity to do what we are doing. I think maybe god lives here in Montana because the views are awesome. We were a little worried when we went through Billings as it is a dirty oil refining town and we were thinking this can't be what all the people are raving about. as we traveled on and turned onto rt 191 outside of Bozeman we found out what all the people were talking about. That is the road to West Yellowstone and the views were awesome. Oh by the way if any of you want a summer job my boss still has some camp host jobs available she just got 2 more campgrounds to manage for the forest service. So if you want to come out here and work the summer give me a call.

We are very happy here and think we will always remember our summer in Montana.

Always take time to smell the roses

Today we took the time to smell the roses. We got word yesterday we could get into Montana so we were going into Rapid City to take care of some last minute business.

We got it done early so I asked Leigh if we could take a ride up to Mt Rushmore even though we saw it last year. So we went to Mt Rushmore and after on the way back I saw that Custer State Park was only 12 miles away. So I said if it's this close I really want to go. A workamper I had talked to on the workamper forum told me about her experience of camping at Custer State park and waking in the morning to finding a buffalo sleeping on their rug outside their RV. She told me the wildlife in the park was awesome.

So we took this very scenic road through the Black Hills National Forest to Custer State Park. It was the most scenic 12 miles I have ever been on. It was a winding road through the forest with tunnels and panoramic views. The wildlife in Custer State Park was awesome. It was nature at it's best.

So the moral of this story is PLEASE take the time to smell the roses. As for me this was one of the most memorable afternoons of my life and i will always remember when I took the time to smell the roses in South Dakota. I hope all our adventures are as perfect as this day was.

Custer State Park

Taking time to smell the roses

Mt Rushmore

Snow on the way to Rapid City South dakota in May

Black Hills of South Dakota

The Corn Palace, Mitchell South Dakota

South Dakota

Our trip to South Dakota was very interesting. Starting out from Branson Missouri we started the morning with 80 mile an hour thunder storm passed through our Campground around 5 AM dropping several trees but thank goodness none on anyone RV. Although an RV had pulled out 2 days earlier and his camp site id where a really big tree fell. But by the time we left it was just raining so off we go. Then 5 minutes after we passed Clinton Missouri a tornado went through and The winds were so bad Leigh had to pull into a flying J Truck stop because the wind was so bad he couldn't keep RV on road and even in the lot it was rockin. And we were not making it rock. LOL

After a few hours we got back on the road and the winds were not as bad but we found out Kansas City just an hour from where we were another tornado had gone through causing great damage and deaths. We did not see the damage as we passed on Route 13. So on we go through Iowa and Nebraska Still there are winds but not as bad as in Missouri. Then we cross into South Dakota and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful trip. We stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell South Dakota.

The corn Palace is a unique place and if ever in South Dakota stop and see it. We stopped because a co-worker and friend from JP Morgan told me she married a guy from South Dakota in her younger days and he took her to the Corn Palace for their honeymoon. Her name is Ruth Beardsley. So I had to see it. Although that is not where I would like to go on a honeymoon it was well worth seeing. It has some history and I do love history.
They built the first corn palace in 1892 because they wanted to attract settlers to the area. The corn palace was built to showcase all the crops that could be grown in Dakota soil. Along with the new corn Palace they held a festival in late September to celebrate the harvest. Surrounding counties brought in and exhibited crops grown and goods manufactured in their county. The festival celebrated the fertility of the land and the productivity of its people. Another note is they wanted to disprove Lewis and Clark.

Lewis and Clark had written in their journal when passing through in 1805 that the Dakota was the great American desert suitable only for buffalo. "surely they wrote, no man could ever make a living farming there." wanting to disprove them the corn belt real estate association built the first Corn Palace.

As we traveled on we enjoyed the rolling hills and the cattle. I think maybe South Dakota gives America more beef than Texas. All you see for miles and miles is rolling hills and cattle and not even one farm house to be seems as you travel 90 west except occasionally as you come to a few small towns between Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

As we got closer to Rapid City we had to spend a night in a rest area as Interstate 90 was shut down all the way to Wyoming. But we did get to Rapid City and the snow is melting as fast as it came as it is 70 degrees today. So the adventure continues.

Our campground is not the best we have a view of I90 instead of the Buffalo and rolling hills. So we are only staying 2 days as we wait to hear from the campground manager in Montana to see if we can get in. Our money is running low as we only got 5.4 miles per gallon with our RV. So if you read this and want to help us traveling Pages send money. LOL