Cherry Festival 2008

We did it up brown this year. Of course it's because Dylan is here :)

The Gillespies checked out the bouncy thing and the midway rides on their own in the middle of the week.

On Friday, Dick worked at the Visitor Center and we all met there to say Hi to Kathee. Dylan got lucky and was in time to be chosen to make a cherry pie at the GT Pie Booth. It was fun watching him make his pie and eat raw pie crust!

While waiting for the pie to bake, he did the bouncy thing again - he couldn't actually make it do a front flip, so he ended up doing a belly flopper 20 feet up in the air!

After stashing the hot pie safely in the truck, we hit the Midway. Dylan chose three rides to go on - two with Chip and one with Laurie. He couldn't pick a favorite because they were all equally fun.

Saturday, of course was the Grand Finale - The Cherry Royale Parade. We got a great viewing spot right in front of Bubba's and we ate breakfast at Bubba's first. The Gillespies went for a walk around town, Dick went to the staging area to march in the parade, and I guarded the chairs and the cooler. The weather turned out to be perfect for the parade despite dire forecasts about rain - those people are always wrong!

Dick and the other Visitor Center Volunteers marched in the first Unit with the Cherry Festival Ambassadors. He had his camera and he did a great job of picture taking. This one is Miss America and various other Queens before the parade bagan:


The Kingsley Jazz Band - we're very impressed with the Kinglsey band program :)


Along the parade route, Dick found a niece, a couple of grand-nieces, a grand-nephew, and even a couple of great-grand nieces!!


Mom's house was really done up for the festivities! It's nice to see it in a Festival mood!


The Michigan State alums always have a really nice unit in the parade, and this year the University of Michigan had a unit too - they did a good job - playing and singing U of M songs - very enjoyable in my opinion!


Dick called and said he was finished marching while we were watching unit number 36! He walked back over and sat with us to see the end. I haven't enjoyed a parade this much in a long time.

Late, Late, Late Blue Angels

It was a perfectly beautiful day - blue skies, sunshine, nice temp - wonderful day for an Air Show! The schedules all said that the Show would start at 1 p.m. today. We ate a late breakfast, so we figured we wouldn't have to pack a lunch - we could eat a late lunch when we got home. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans!

We got to the parking lot at around 11 a.m. because we wanted to be sure to get a good viewing spot. We set up the chairs in a lovely place, with shade and a good view. We settled in to wait for the show to begin. And we waited, waited, waited, waited, and after that we waited some more. And more...and more... Laurie and Dylan got in some beach time, but I was really really disappointed at the long wait.


I think that it was close to 2:30 when some things began to fly past, but they weren't Blue Angels. For instance, from where we were sitting we watched 2 Coast Guard Air-Sea Rescues (which we can see every other Thursday all year long). So now, we have been sitting there for 3 and a half hours, and we're beginning to lose our shade. Chip and Dylan are hungry, so Chip heads off to find food. He doesn't head for Gibby's and that food area - instead he goes to Bubba's!! He brings back a burger for Dylan. After that people needed to use a bathroom, and dissing the port-a-potty that was nearby, they went to Horizon. I was afraid they would miss something - I needn't have worried.

I believe it was almost 3:30 when we saw the first Blue Angel formation. By then we were so tired of waiting, it was almost an anti-climax. The show was as good as usual, but we were not willing to sit through the whole thing.
After we saw most of their maneuvers a couple of times, we started to pack up and head for home, along with a lot of other people. The show was still going on when we left the parking lot. What a sad Air Show. I don't remember ever waiting like that before.

We wanted to be home by 4:30 to meet Adam and Melanie, who were planning to go canoeing with friends. I hope they all had a good time and I think they did because when they got back to our place from Brown Bridge, they decided to continue on to the DNR site.

The Pictures are Posted

The pictures of our Wild West Adventure have been posted. The trip summary is:

4366 miles traveled
10 States visited in 10 days
41 total caches found
6 States added to our caches found list (MN,ND,MT,ID,WY,SD)

The lawn has been mowed, the laundry is almost done, the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and we're glad to be home.

Our next big event is the arrival of Laurie, Chip and Dylan on Saturday or Sunday - they've been camping in the Smokies, and are driving North after the 4th. They'll be with us for the month of July and part of August.

Jana is doing OK since she lost her job. Monday, June 30 was her last day in the office. This weekend she's driving to a wedding in upstate New York, and in a couple of weeks she'll be coming to T.C. to spend lots of time with us. I think she secretly would love to find a job in the Traverse area.

Tom had 4 wisdom teeth pulled last Friday, and he survived it! He'll be in great shape for GenFest.

Stoughton to Traverse City

Stoughton is a very nice little town - we liked the downtown area, and the suburbs were great, too. We left at 7:40 a.m. after the usual Comfort Inn continental bagel, and headed for home. Nuvi routed us through Chicago, so off we went.

I think I said before that Wisconsin is a beautiful State - and it certainly is.


Going through Chicago was as nerve-wracking as usual - the traffic is relentless and fast. We stopped at a McDonald's that was right in the median of the road - one of a kind! This scenery was a bit different than we'd seen in the past 10 days:



Entering Michigan was the best sign we've seen yet - but then we started hearing storm warnings on the radio, and we watched the black clouds gather.
In northern Kent County the storm hit - heavy rain, high winds, and hail. We turned on our hazard lights, went slowly along with the other traffic, and drove out of it. The day stayed kind of dark and rainy all the way home, but it doesn't really matter if you're going home:)

Greenery!

We left Sioux Falls around 8 a.m. I had a really good night's sleep, but for some reason, I slept like a baby for an hour and a half in the car anyway. I think it was like a kitty sleeping in the sunshine and purring.

Dick heard on NPR that the safest drivers in the Nation are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota! They have fewer accidents than anyone. You couldn't really prove it by our brief stay there - we ran into a lot of construction and confusion.

Crossing into Minnesota was almost like coming home - the scenery started to include a few trees, and the road had a few bends in it. We filled up at Albert Lea, MN for $3.89/gal. Albert Lea comes after Blue Earth, Welcome, and Frost. I want to share with you this bit of civic pride from Blue Earth:

Blue Earth gets its name from the Blue Earth River that surrounds the town. The river was given the Native American name "Mahkota" (meaning Blue Earth) for the blue-black clay found in the river banks.

Blue Earth is proud to be...

* A sesquicentennial community founded in 1856.
* The birthplace of the ice cream sandwich.
* The center of America's longest highway, Interstate 90.
* The home of Minnesota's first stained-glass window.
* The seat of Faribault County and home to the historic 19th century County Courthouse.
* Home of the world's largest statue of the Jolly Green Giant, overlooking some of America's richest farmland.

We especially got a kick out of its being the center of America's loooooooooooooongest highway! We feel qualified to say "Amen brother"! Although being the home of the ice cream sandwich is no small shakes either.

We drove the width of southern Minnesota and then entered Wisconsin, which is REALLY like coming home. Trees, trees, trees all around, and lakes, and winding roads - heaven! We ate lunch at a nice restaurant in LaCrosse, WI. They have a great statue there of Native Americans playing lacrosse. It was very pleasant.

We have had flawless weather for our entire trip - it has been amazing. There were about 7 raindrops on our windshield one day in Montana, and that's it.

Staying tonight in Stoughton, outside of Madison, WI. We're planning to be home tomorrow night.

Happy July!

Souh Dakota

We left at 7 a.m. with 540 miles to go - from Buffalo, Wyoming to Sioux Falls, South Dakota! That means we drove the entire width of South Dakota (plus a bit of Wyoming).

While we were still in Wyoming, we noticed in one field a big herd of cattle, and in the center of the cow herd was a small group of antelope - maybe 12 or so - all curled up and sleeping in the middle of everything. The two species obviously don't mind being together - we wondered if maybe it makes the antelope feel safer to be in with the cows. Or maybe the cows just wandered over and surrounded them while they were sleeping!

Filled up at Gillette - $3.83/gal.

It's easy to see how wicked the winters must be out west. In four different States now ( N. Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and S. Dakota) we've seen gates to close entrance ramps to the Interstate, gates that would reach across 2 lane highways if they were drifted, and signs on the freeway that say "Road Closed When Flashing - Return to Moorcroft" (or where ever). There's significant huge wooden snow fencing alongside I-90 by Rapid City - they must get world class drifting. Makes our orange plastic snow fencing look very ineffective.

The Subaru's odometer turned over 100,000 miles just outside of Beulah, Wyoming at the Aladdin exit.

It was interesting to notice that when we crossed the Wyoming/S.Dakota State line, things changed. In Wyoming, we saw herds and herds of antelope with lots of antelope babies, and in western South Dakota we saw fields and fields of wild yucca in bloom and no antelope! The yucca starts and the antelope stops - how do they know where the State line is?

In one cattle herd in South Dakota there were a couple of llamas in with the cows curled up around the waterhole, and in another field we saw an honest to God camel (one hump) in the middle of the pasture with the cows! I'm thinking that cattle are very open-minded...or oblivious.

Our family really enjoyed Wall Drug on our Western Tour in 1975. We were going to stop again this time just for old times sake, but we had a long day of driving and Wall Drug has expanded to a tourist empire - the town of Wall was wall to wall cars and campers, and there was no place to park. Took the picture to prove we were there, and kept on going.

South Dakota is mostly just miles and miles of miles and miles. What a bleak, bleak landscape! At one point today (we were keeping track) there was 400 miles between McDonalds. We like to stop and get coffee and iced tea, but in South Dakota you need a thermos or bottled water. Luckily, the resourceful Richard had a cooler with bottled water.

Out west, if your thresher is out of commission. you park it by the fence along the roadway and just let it sit. Sometimes you put an advertising sign on it. We saw old rusty threshers in Minn, N.Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota. I guess in Wyoming, there's nothing to thresh!

Spending tonight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Yellowstone

We were in the Park before 7 a.m. at the Western Gate from West Yellowstone. We entered the State of Wyoming soon after entering Yellowstone. I didn't get a picture of the sign - too bad, so sad. Such great scenery, you don't know where to look first - snow-capped mountains, rushing mountain streams, blue, blue lakes and on and on.

At our first turn off, we met an accidental elk.This is one of the virtual cache sites we visited - Dick needs to upload this picture with his log for the find:
We saw lots of burned areas left over from the fires of 1988. The geysers show up well - you can see all of the steam from the Middle Basin while you're driving past.





Virtual caches are the only ones that are allowed in a National Park - we found 7 of them - 2 of them were in the same place! One was at Indian Pond, where new signs were stapled to the post saying Danger - Bears Frequent This Area. One of the virtuals was at the Fishing Bridge. We remembered from our last Yellowstone trip how funny it is that there's no fishing allowed at the Fishing Bridge! This time we wanted photographic evidence:


There is still a lot of snow in the woods - in some places it's right alongside the road - how strange when it's almost July! It's deep, deep snow, too, not just a little bit. We met a couple from Elk Rapids who had camped last night in front of a seven foot deep pile of snow!

I seem to be adversely affected by the altitude - yesterday and today I've had trouble filling my lungs and have to take deep breaths. It's a scary feeling, but I feel much better now that Dick figured out what it is!

The Continental Divide crisscrosses the park road - I took a picture of the one at Elevation 8640.

We left by way of the Eastern Entrance Road. This road is steep and full of curves, sheer drops, switchbacks and hairpin turns - it requires the driver to pay strict attention to the road and the traffic. What a view! Around every turn, you are saying "Wow!"
This is an avalanche cannon - to start an avalanche on purpose!


After we left the Park, we had a picnic at Sleeping Giant in the Shoshone National Forest on the banks of the North Fork of the Shoshone River.

The fantastic scenery continues after you leave Yellowstone - it is indescribable! I'll post my pictures when I get home, because, you know, a picture is worth 10,000 words!


We drove through Cody, Wyoming - where they have a rodeo every night at 8 p.m.! We drove through the Big Horn Mountains, which is a remarkable experience in itself. The road is very steep - a 7% grade - the scenery is breathtaking. They have massive snow fences - huge wooden things in row after row to keep the snow off the road.


Filled up in Greybull, MT - $3.99/gal. = 26.6 mpg.

Near the Buffalo Bill State Park I-90 goes through three tunnels - one long and two short. The first tunnel is quite a long one, with interior lighting and the whole bit. The other two are only about as long as the average highway bridge.

We saw cowboys rounding up cattle and driving them across the road - well actually, there was a tunnel under the road for the cows! The men were wearing Western hats and chaps and they certainly looked like authentic cowboys on their horses - except for the one who was riding a dirt bike!

Staying tonight in Buffalo, Wyoming - a really nice little town. We found 4 caches right here in town. One of them was in a very cool birdhouse in a front yard on a residential street - I loved it, and named it The War Dam Eagle Birdhouse, a name stolen from an Auburn Univ. cheer. We enjoyed talking to the man who lived there - his daughter is the cache owner and now lives in Minneapolis.

Magnificent Montana Plus Idaho

We left the yucky Econolodge in Kalispell this morning and drove for 3 hours looking for breakfast!! The 4B's Restaurant in Deer Lodge saved our bacon, so to speak. We had some breakfast bars in the car but we weren't that desperate. On our three hour drive we saw a crane, some deer, and fresh water pelicans, a real surprise.

Impressions of Montana:

1. No matter where you go in Montana you're never underdressed.

2. Montana has magnificent, wonderful scenery, and not much else.

3. Deer in Montana like to stand in the road.

4. Driving on the two lane highways, you are usually by yourself.

5. Lucky Lil has a Casino at every crossroad.

Checked into the Comfort Inn at West Yellowstone, and then slipped over to Idaho to add another State to our caching list. Finally we got to do some back-woodsing in the area of Big Spring, ID. Huge mosquitoes live in the back woods of Idaho! Luckily we had some Deep Woods Off wipes that saved us. Dick found 5 caches in Idaho, and one more here in West Yellowstone. Idaho looks a lot like Montana.

Gas prices in West Yellowstone - $4.25/4.26 - Holy Moly! But then, Tom tells me that he hasn't seen prices under $4.50 for months.

Glacier National Park

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Gasoline summary:
Filled at Shelby - $4.09/gal average 23.25 mpg
Dick has figured these statistics:
Speed 75 mph - mileage=21 mpg
Speed 65 mph - mileage=22/23 mpg
Speed 55 mph - mileage=28 mpg

Montana wildlife seen on the way to Glacier National Park - well, not that much. Dick really wanted to see a coyote, and we saw one alongside the road. He was just standing still, watching the road. He looked quite healthy. We also saw a small herd of buffalo - not nearly as many as in T.C. These buffalo were running, though - don't know why, but they were all galloping along the fence line. Our hometown buffalo just stand around or plop down.
Too many pictures of Montana? Maybe - I have 20 more that I didn't publish - I just couldn't get over the beautiful scenery! We don't see many snow-covered mountains on River Road.







We were disappointed in Glacier Nat'l Park because Logan Pass was closed, and so we couldn't drive the whole Going to the Sun road. We did see spectacular views, though, and we even saw some snow still hanging in there along the road. The views are super - really different for lowlanders like we are.





Wildflowers were everywhere in the park - we saw so many different kinds! Alpine Sunflower (Old Man of the Mountain), larkspur, Indian paintbrush, bear grass, flea bane, and on and on.

I still can't believe the kind of road signs that we saw: Avalanche Area, Earthquake Area, Falling Rock, Fallen Rock, Wildlife in Road - that's how we know we're not in Michigan anymore.


After we drove as far as we could from the Eastern entrance, we backtracked, and followed the road along the Flathead River. We had a great picnic at the Izaak Walton picnic area, found a cache at Paolo Creek, saw snowsheds on the mountainside along the railroad tracks, and saw whitewater rafters on the river. It was a glorious drive.


We went in the Western entrance and drove as far as we could. This end is not as scenic at the other side - didn't get many pictures BUT! We had some real excitement when a bear crossed the road in front of us, and began grazing only about 20 feet from the road. I got a great picture! It was the highlight of the day!



We're staying tonight in Kalispell. This town is a little down at heel - with horrible traffic. We could live in Great Falls - we couldn't live in Kalispell.