Saying Goodbye to Friends

We have now arrived in Colorado Springs and Larry has completed his first day of class. It's 8:30 PM here and it's been storming and raining for about two hours. I received an e-mail from my friend, Ranger Lyndel, today, thanking me for the note I left in my hasty departure. I told those few people who were in the office that day that I hated "goodbyes." In her e-mail, Lyndel related a story to me that I will share in part:


"Did I ever tell you about the Sioux woman who lived next door to me when I
was on the Crow reservation?  I asked her how to say "hello" in Sioux and
she replied that the women have no word for hello or goodbye, because they
are always together and to say "goodbye" would cut the connection.  She
said the men would simply say, "I go now."

I know just how you feel about goodbyes, and as far as I'm concerned, we

haven't said it."

So, here are a few GRKO friends to whom we say "I go now."
Chief of Visitor Services - Julie

Ranger Lyndel with Jr. Rangers Jodi and Bubba.

Our seasonal Interpretive Rangers -

Ken (Kansas) & Dustin (California)

Jim (A native of Deer Lodge!)

Carmen (SC) & "special" Ranger Bill

Such a hunk!

Jim & Jimmie (Colorado) one of the volunteer couples in Interp.

Alan - a seasonal ranch hand with four-legged friends, Duke and Duchess.

Ky (Montana) seasonal teamster

Linda with Myra and Jim - volunteers on the Natural Resource side.

Teacher/Ranger, Deb (Maryland) on special assignment from her middle school science classroom.

We had a bunch of HS kids working with Natural Resources as seasonals. All that I met were really great kids.

 

It's now Tuesday and I'm sitting inside since a big, nasty thunderstorm has been going on for the last 45 minutes. Let's hope this uploads with my computer unplugged from the AC.

Goblin Valley State Park, Utah

On the Road Again....

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. You can blame being too busy and poor internet connections!
Here's what's been happening:
Monday afternoon - Left Deer Lodge and traveled to Idaho Falls, ID. Overnight in the parking lot at Walmart.
Tuesday - traveled from Idaho Falls to Green River, UT. Stayed at KOA TU-TH nights.
Visited Arches NP, Moab, UT, Capital Reef NP and Goblin Valley SP.
Friday - traveling to Gunnison, CO. We will be staying overnight at the Curecanti National Recreation Area and visiting The Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP.
Saturday - traveling to Royal Gorge- KOA, west of Pueblo, CO.
Sunday - to Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods Campground - our home until August 21.
I don't know if I will have any pictures posted until then. Internet here in Green River is not too dependable.
I have a BUNCH of things to post!

National Folk Festival - Butte

On Saturday, Larry and I traveled to Butte with Julie and two of the seasonal rangers to work in the NPS- Montana Booth. We were joined by one ranger from Glacier NP. I would like to say that we were able to see at least part of the performances that took place on three separate stages, but that just didn't happen. We did hear most of the performances of a French Zydeco group and a gospel group, since our booth was near that stage.
Julie, Larry and I watched a portion of a mining competition between two groups of students from the Montana School of Mines.

They competed in activities performed daily, deep beneath the earth's surface. The first competition was jack-leg drilling. This is the modern way to drill holes for the placement of dynamite.

Not a job I would want. I don't think Larry is interested either.

The next competition involved filling an ore cart to a certain depth, then moving it to the end of the track and back. It was a timed event.

Just about the time the first team finished, a storm rolled in. By the time it passed, we had to leave to get back "on duty" at the booth.

The structure above is called a headframe. It towers above the mine shaft. Elevator cars were used to move ore out of the copper mine and men, both up and down the mine shaft.
This is a huge wince used to move ore cars.

Meanwhile, back at our festival "pod," one of several tucked into areas around the historic, "uptown" area, the post-storm crowds increased, both in numbers...and in the amount of beer they were consuming. It was only noon!

Then storm number two came in. Larry and I had taken a break to try and see some of the First People's Market and were stranded in a doorway downtown for about twenty minutes. We managed to get back to the booth before the next round. Lots of people decided to join us in the booth!

Through out the day, we kept count of the people who stopped in the booth and had a "pool" going. I won with my prediction of 1625. The actual number was 1649. (My prize?- a peppermint patty) Lots of people and even more that did not stop! Today at the ranch, I encountered SIX visitors that I personally talked to yesterday and invited to the ranch. There were probably others that I did not happen to see. That kind of made my aching knee feel better. Standing for the better part of 10 hours is NOT fun.

Here are a few of the pics I took here and there on "potty breaks," etc..

The historic Finland Hotel. Lots of copper everywhere.

Some of the crowds gathered at the "Original" stage, located under one the the many, non-functioning headframes scattered around the Butte uptown area.

We found Tim, "The Toolman's" car!

By 8:30 PM, the crowds were still there, pretty "plastered," and pretty entertaining to watch. We started to think that we were the audience for this crazy show. Actually, ten hours standing and talking to people started to get to us and we all got a little silly...without any beer!

I can't even think of anything to say here!

Camping in the Bitterroot #2

We had two, wonderful days of hiking and some beautiful scenery to share. But first...something completely different!

We again chose to stay at the Charles Waters National Campground just south of Florence, MT. We had two different hike locations in the area as well as the marvelous bike trail running parallel to Rt 93 for about 50 miles from Lolo, MT to south of Hamilton. There are spur trails to the towns of Florence and Stevensville.
On Wednesday, we hiked to the Blodgett Canyon Overlook and were rewarded with breathtaking views of the canyon and...some friends who joined us for a snack!

After our hike, we returned to the campground and took the bikes out for a short tour of the bike path. It is really very nice. Route 93 has always been a bike route, but the addition of a separate path away from traffic is really wonderful.

We enjoyed fresh sweet corn over the fire for our dinner.

On Thursday, we packed up and went to the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Preserve in Stevensville. It is a beautiful, raparian preserve.

Osprey and eagles live here.

A portion of the preserve borders the Bitterroot River. It was sad to see the extensive tree damaged caused by last week's storm.

After leaving the preserve, we moved south to the Bear Creek Trail, also a part of the Bitterroot National Forest. A climb through mossy, green forest was rewarded when we came to an opening that revealed the cascading waters of Bear Creek Falls.

Here are some shots of the spring wild flowers (yes, it is July, but still "spring" here).

The crystal, clear water of the creek.

That's it for now. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be joining some of the rangers at the Grant-Kohrs booth during the National Folk Music festival in Butte. It's going to be an 11 hour day for us, but we hope to get a lot of pics to share.
From the banks of the beautiful Bitterroot River...see ya' soon!