Time For A Change !

Well the holiday weekend came and went and we both survived it. Actually we had a very good group of campers this weekend, with the exception of a couple of people, the holiday went smooth.

This week also has seen a few changes. Cindy got her hair cut short, I lost a friend of the past 37 years (Dylan calls it my "stach" ) I shaved it off. I also had to go and buy a hat, not a cowboy hat, but something to cover my bald head and tops of my ears. I found out the sun and the tops of my head and ears do not get along. Yea I know you all want to see pictures of us, well I guess I might as well put them out there

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This past week has been pretty much doing the usual, fishing, taking care of the campers that come in and spending a night in Bozeman. Let me back up and start from the beginning. While we were in Wichita visiting David, the last day there it got pretty warm out so I decided to turn on the ac in the truck. The only problem was it did not want to cooperate and cool the truck down. Now our truck only had 69,500 miles on it, short 500 miles of the warranty expiring. I called a Dodge dealer, told him the problem and he got us in the next day. He found out the ac compressor was broken and would need a new one. Thankfully the warranty covered it and the only cost to us was the $100 deductible.

Well sometimes it pays to listen to your gut and sometimes it doesn’t. We knew the warranty was going to expire by the time we got to Denver so we talked and decided that maybe we should extend the current warranty while we were still within the 70,000 miles. Long story short we purchased a new 2year, unlimited miles warranty and felt we had done the right thing. We felt if we were going to be towing the camper and driving more miles than normal, maybe this was the thing to do. So we bought it, and hoped we would never have to use it. Which brings us up the night in Bozeman.

The previous week we drove up to the big city to stock up on food and other necessities, (one could not afford to buy all of their groceries in West Yellowstone) beer ( my essentials), fruit and veggies (Cindy’s essentials), small gas grill that we could stow away, ( to keep Yogi from wanting to come and enjoy our leftovers that were clinging to the wire grill), these kinds of things. We went to a Costco, bought some stuff and started toward Wal-Mart (Randy McKay’s favorite store) and the truck did not want to accelerate properly. Got to Wal-Mart, done our shopping and started back to West. Well the whole 90 miles the truck ran like an old farm truck I used to drive working for Don & MaryAnn, no power what-so-ever. I could not get any rpm’s out of it unless I turned off the Overdrive. We got back home and had no other problem with it. I called Jimi and told him I saw on the net a topic about error codes. He told me how to bring up any codes stored and I found 2 error codes, (thank heaven for smart sons). The first being a fuel injection pump, the 2nd excessive turbo boost. Called the dealer in Bozeman and set up any appointment to have them look at it. Long story short, bad lift fuel pump, and bad fuel injection pump.

Now this is where listening to your gut sometimes pays off. Our “new warranty” we just purchased, covered a rental for 5 days if needed and more importantly it covered the above-mentioned items. Dealer had both items in stock; we took the rental and hung around Bozeman for the day. The only problem that came up was the new fuel injection pump leaked and the dealer did not have another one. We decided instead of driving back to West Yellowstone and turning around the next day and drive back we would go all out, celebrate my birthday early, and eat a nice meal, stay in a nice cheap hotel and get the truck the next day. Unfortunely not all plans go as planned. The dealer called the next day after our evening of staying in Bozeman, and explained he could not get a new pump until ????. So for now as bad as I hate to tell anyone, we are left driving a KIA minivan around. In defense of KIA, I will have to say it is a very nice riding van (nothing compared to a Chrysler) but all in all a nice van.

Hopefully Monday morning will bring us some good news and we will be able to get our truck back then. Until then I just want everyone to know that I have not abandoned the American Made vehicle, just that I have no other choice in the matter!

Memorial Day Weekend

Goods news, we finally got our internet hooked up here which means I no longer have to drive into town and update the blog. Net not working too good tonight, upload pics another day.

The weekend came around and we had around 7-10 campers here with us. One of the pleasures of this work is you get to meet people from around the area. Most of the people that come here have been doing so for years, some came with their parents when they were little and now they bring their children with them. Another nice thing about Lonesomehurst is that we do not get the younger age party people.Yea I know some of you are saying that I did the same things when I was young (and you might be a little right) but it’s nice to have the older, more mature, wiser and somewhat responsible people here.

What we learned real quickly is that here in Montana they take the food storage laws very serious. By this I mean if one is caught leaving a camp site unattended with any kind of food or drink outside, it can cost them a hefty little fine of anywhere between 100-500 dollars. Part of our job is to make people aware of the “bear situation” here. We had two groups of campers that knew all of the laws; they grew up here, they knew if all. Well guess who left food, dirty cookware, beer bottles, dog food, etc, out? Yea, you guessed it, the know- everything people. We ended up having to call the Vickie, which in turn called the local law enforcement. We ended up packing up everything left out and was just getting ready to haul it off and lock it up when they came back, (about 9:30 or 10:00 pm). Vickie explained that if the forest service ranger would have come through and saw it; the cost would have been $500. The next night guess what, (yea they had it all put away), This has been a very educational week for us in how to live among the bears. I had no idea that the critters would take a 12 pack of beer and consume it if it was left out on a table, and I’m sure not sharing my beer with any bears.



The next week was pretty much routine, performed our duties as host, fished, ate, and done some site seeing. I did catch my first brown trout, he was about 19 inches and put up a real good fight getting him in. We cooked it over the fire the next night and had our first brown trout meal. We also got to see a couple of Moose come in from the lake and walk between the camper and the lake. You notice in the sentence about the brown trout I mentioned it was about 19 inches in length; I did not take an accurate measurement so officially Cindy is still the “fishing queen” with the largest fish taken.

This is Saturday night, the 23rd and we have been very busy today. We only have 4 sites left out of 25, so this weekend is keeping us very busy. Tomorrow I’m going fishing and try and knock Cindy from the throne with a 21 inch or better trout. If not, I’ve still got all summer to get the job done

For those of you new to the blog please double click on the slideshow to view pictures in a new window full size. We also like to read any comments you would like to leave. Yes we are having a wonderful time and no we are not ready to come back to Indiana.

The past week we have just been hanging around Bakers Hole and cleaning up the sites, cutting wood, and just plain getting tired. We used muscles we haven’t used for a while, but even so it felt good to be doing something productive. We drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs and over to Lamar Valley and enjoyed the day and all of the beautiful country that is out here.

Wednesday the 13th we decided to do a little adventure seeking. Vickie’s husband told us of a drive which is around 60 miles round trip. We went to the north side of Hebgen Lake and headed west. He told us of a couple of “hidden lakes”, one being Wade Lake and the other Cliff Lake. Well if you look at the slide show you will see the county road we took to get there. The entrance off the highway to the lake was around 3 miles and I can tell you we should appreciate the county roads we have in Indiana. The first 3 miles was pretty much rocks, not the kind you find on our roads but we’re talking large ones that are coming up through the ground. I’m sure Randy can relate to the kind of roads I’m talking about. Unfortunately my Ram does not quite ride as smooth as a Jeep with nice balloon tires, but it does get us where we want to go. The two lakes were nothing short of being some of the clearest water I have ever seen. The pictures I have here can not begin to tell what it really looked like. We headed out again and had to decide to take the 3 miles back or the 6 miles the other way. Well you can guess which way I chose. The 6 miles out was just a little better than the 3miles in, due to the fact it was nothing but dirt and there hardly any rocks. We did get to see 3 Eagles flying over the meadows and stopped and watched them for a while. Finally we saw actual homes and realized we were getting close to an actual highway. The total drive took considerable time but it sure was worth the bouncing and shaking around we received, I do think we lost a few pounds on the entire trip.

Well we finally made it “home” today, the 14th of May. We headed out to Lonesomehurst before noon and got everything set up (well most everything), not the hammock or the lawn chairs, but we did get the camper set up. The water is down about 8 feet but it is expected to be back to summer fill in 2 or 3 weeks. It sure was nice to finally get here. We were only 15 miles away but we knew we still had one more move to make, so it now feels we are finally here. I even had some time to pull out the fly rod and try some fishing this evening, no luck but still it was nice. You know my motto, “a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work”. We have excellent cell phone service here, 6 bars on the phone, so feel free to call us anytime.. Friday the plans are to finish getting the campground ready and trying to catch some nice size trout.



Well I got my first catch in Montana, a nice 18 inch rainbow trout. Not to be out done Cindy got up Saturday and went to the lake and pulled out a 20 inch, 2lb rainbow trout. She now is the “fishing queen” until I get one bigger. This was our 27th anniversary gift to one another, I catch a nice one, she catches a bigger one. The war is on !!!!!!

The weekend of 2nd & 3rd we pretty much just stayed around the campground and started getting it ready to open. We’re still here at Bakers Hole and probably will be until the second week of May. The host for this site came in Friday and we introduced ourselves to them. This is the first time for them to host a campground as well as us. Sunday was spent cutting down dead trees and hauling it to the site where we will split it later. When we had finished cutting wood and were standing around talking, a herd of Buffalo cows came right in front of us (as in no more than 10 or 15 feet). A new calf is called a “red dog” and we were again fortunate to see one. Vickie told us it was no more than a day or two old. She was trying to keep up with the other “cows” and her legs were wobbling everywhere. When the red dog and cows were past us and headed away, we then decided to take some pictures ( not smart to take them when they are approaching).

Monday we went into town and did some errands. We thought we would drive out to Lonesomehurst and see if the road was opened. Well not to our surprise it was still covered in deep snow. The road back to the campground is 4 miles and we were able to go about ½ mile before the road ended in snow. It was obvious we were not going to get into the campground for several more days. Because the land is National forest, and is recreational sites, there is no plowing of the roads by state or county. The only way to get the road opened is for hunters to drive 4x4’s through it and hope the sun will start melting it away.

Tuesday we finished some cleaning up in the campground and Vickie decided to open it for use. The first campers to come in were a couple that have been “full timing” for the past 17 years. They told us they bought their motor home 17 years ago, sold their house, and have been living on the road since. We also experienced a first today, “Buffalo hazing”. There are a lot of controversies out here between the ranchers and the forest service. Vickie explained to us that every spring the ranchers will take helicopters and drive the Buffalo back into the park. This is called Buffalo hazing. The ranchers say the Buffalo carry a disease that infects the calves being born, so it is an on-going battle between them and the forest service. Well one of the main areas for “hazing” is right through the campground. We were alerted and we all took a nice safe place to watch from. Sometimes the Buffalo will run right through the middle of the campground. Thankfully today they headed into the north end of the cg. We were able to see several herds being pushed across the river and back into the park.

NEWSFLASH !!!! Well it’s about 8:30 pm and we get a knock on the door. The new host just told us a game warden came to their camper and told them a Grizzly had just entered the campground and for all of us to stay inside. What a way to finish the day!

Monday, the 27th we pretty much spent the day in West Yellowstone. We figured we might as well learn where things were in the town since it will be our “home” town for the next 5 months. We went to the Grizzly Bear & Wolf Center and met up with Peggy. She gave us a tour of the facilities and was very helpful in answering all of our questions. I’ve never realized how large a Grizzly could be until we met Sam. He was around 1000 lbs and stood somewhere between 9-10 ft. The pictures of him on the slide show were taken about 20 yards away. Sam is the largest Grizzly they have at the center and trust me; I would not want to meet one that size in the wild (as far as it goes I would not want to meet any size bear in the wild).

We are still here at Bakers Hole and probably will be until the 2nd week of May. Tuesday Vickie came out and took some time explaining the duties of “Campground Host” to us. We had a nice visit with her and learned just how serious it is concerning leaving things unattended. Here in the Yellowstone area all things must be put away before leaving your campsite. That includes food, drinks, toothpaste and pretty much everything. One would not think leaving a case of coke un-opened on a picnic table would be such a big deal. Here if a law enforcement office sees things such as this, and the campsite is unattended, it will result in a fine ranging from $100-500. They are very serious about keeping things put away. It is nothing for a bear to take an unopened can of pop, beer, juice, or whatever and squeeze it open and consume the contents.

Wednesday we headed up to Canyon Village. Several of the roads in the park are still closed due to the snow. We saw the usual amount of Elk, Buffalo and snow. Halfway up to Canyon, which is about 20 miles, we were again blessed to see something we haven’t seen yet. Probably less than 50 feet ahead a wolf ran across the road. We stopped and watched him climb up the hill on the side of the road and then he just stopped and looked at us. We were able to snap a couple of pictures before he headed into the trees. We continued into Canyon and found out that there was very little opened. Next week is the start of the tourist season. There are two advantages to coming to Yellowstone when the snow still has most of the roads closed. The first being, you do not have to contend with long lines of traffic (and impatient people) like you due in the summer. The second is that the snow totally changes the appearance of things here. For example, the canyon area is beautiful in the summer when all is green (that can be green) but to see the snow in the canyon is so much more beautiful than the canyon walls in the summer. We have been fortunate to see both seasons here, but I will take the trip this time and the beauty of the snow covered mountains over the green summer anytime. We pulled off of the road on a turnout and watched Elk grazing on the banks b the river. Cindy spotted another wolf and we watched him as he headed away. We weren’t close enough to take any pictures of him but we followed him with the binoculars. Came back to the cg and walked down to the river and viewed buffalo. Gonna call it a night and see what tomorrow brings (supposedly warm weather and melting snow).

Well it’s Friday and the snow is still here. Vickie said they might try and open up Bakers Hole this weekend. As far as Lonesomehurst, it is still snowed in so we will continue staying here until the snow goes away. We saw our first wolf in the campground yesterday and in the evening we decided to take the truck and drive down by the river in the cg. We parked where we could get a good view and waited to see if anything would wander by. Well we were excited to spot a Grizzly in the river. He was too far away to take any pics with the camera but I did manage to capture him on video, although not a very clear image. We used the binoculars and watched him eat what looked like to be fish. As darkness came we continued to watch him in the river, then he started swimming towards us. We were able to see him for a while then he left the river by an area of brush and Cindy knew for sure that he was headed toward the camper. We headed back to the camper and decided to call it a night. Oh by the way I guess he did not desire to visit us at the camper as there was no one there to greet us.