Albuquerque, New Mexico

10 Aug 2013                         Albuquerque, New Mexico

            The drive from Colorado was one of our longer legs of the trip.  That didn’t matter since the scenery was just so beautiful!  Going from Colorado into New Mexico, you really see the terrain change right before your eyes.  It is like traveling to some distant land.  Nothing is like New Mexico.

            We arrived at the Gershin house in the afternoon, with Laura and Joe waiting to greet us.  They have a beautiful house that has been spiffed up nicely.  Joe used to work at Lowes in Albuquerque, so he has the know-how to do things right.  Anything that he has remodeled looks amazing!  After a tour of the house, we headed to Nexus, a brewery in ABQ that serves “New Mexican soul food.”  Yes.  You heard that correctly.  As strange as that concept sounds, it was excellent.

            The next morning we got out the trombones and played a little bit.  Joe had his friend John come over to join in the madness.  John recently retired from the ABQ school district and was a great third member in the trombone trio reading session.  Music teacher talk is something quite interesting and Katherine was thoroughly entertained! 

            Joe and Laura have some very energetic dogs as well.  We took them to the park to run and I could not believe the training they have put them through.  I threw the ball as far as I could, and Ella, the black dog, brought it back super fast.  Then, she did it over and over again.  She is unstoppable.

            You can’t make it to Albuquerque without hitting up Sadie’s for a real New Mexican meal.  Geeze! I miss this stuff.

            We went on a little run with Joe and Laura too.   They took us on a route through the East mountain streets.  It was right in our old neighborhood, where we lived in graduate school.  We even went by our old apartment on Montgomery Blvd.  Good memories.

            For our last dinner in ABQ, our wonderful hosts concocted delightful pizza creations.   If you could only smell this through the blog.

            My mom and dad arrived in ABQ that evening.  This gave us just enough time to hit some balls at the driving range and try out some of Joe’s sweet clubs.  This assortment came from a second hand sports store and probably totaled $50.  I was impressed that he got a Calloway Big Bertha from 1995 for $10.  We let it rip that night at the range, especially Laura. 

            Joe said, “If you want a real New Mexican breakfast, you gotta go to Wecks!”  So, we met up with my parents and split some huge breakfast platters.  This food will not make you skinny, but it sure is good. 

            ABQ was awesome to visit again, but now it’s time to head back north to Santa Fe.  The opera will be starting soon.

Dillon, Colorado

6 Aug 2013               Dillon, CO

             Dillon was awesome!  We didn’t do much but chill and hand out with our friend Jim.  Jim and his parents have a mountain cabin just down the hill from Keystone Ski Resort that we have visited in the past.  Previously, we have come up in the winter to go snowboarding, but this time it was summer and the whole area has a different feel.  I went on a long walk with Jim on one of the same traisl that was snow covered before.  It rewarded us with some views of the Dillon Reservoir, and the surrounding mountains.  It was great to catch up with a great friend.  Katherine was still resting her sprained ankle and relaxed inside. 

           

            Our travels luckily coincided with Jim’s 50^th birthday.  We decided on going up Keystone mountain for a dinner at the Aplenglow Stube.  We enjoyed the restaurant so much before with Jim and his mom, I was happy to get up there again for the evening.  You have to take two gondola rides to the top and weather can be really bad.  Last time is was bone chilling, but this time it was quite pleasant and warm.  Dinner was superb! 

            I had a mild catastrophe at the cabin.  It was my feather pillow that I have had for over 10 years.  It was time to finally give it a wash to clean off all the grime and campfire scent.  Previously, I washed it in a 5 gal. bucket, but this time I thought I would just toss it in the washing machine at the Shoff house.  Little did I know I put it on “normal wash” mode and not “perm press/delicate.”  When I returned to see the wash, this is what I saw.  Oops!

            I spent the next 20 minutes cleaning out feathers….  Yay.  Eventually, the washer was cleaned, and the dead pillow laid in the garage dying a grotesque death.  I lost a real friend. 

            If you have been reading the blog thus far, you might see that I am not updating everyday, but just noting big locations.  In Europe and Asia, I was able to write more frequently about the travels.  The time at the Shoff cabin let me catch up and finish the Yellowstone and Billings posts.  The work environment these is stellar.  I has a view of Tenderfoot Mountain, and a leather recliner chair, and clean clothes.  How nice.  That is why those blogs are longer and a little more descriptive. 

            I went on a few trail runs by myself and reorganized the gear in the truck.  Also, this was a great time to put some practice on the ukulele and the alto trombone.  I thought I would be doing more of that on this trip, but other things have taken over.  We have just seen a LOT of friends and talking with them has been more fun than practicing. 

           Tomorrow, we are off to Albuquerque.  I love getting back to New Mexico.  It is truly beautiful and we will be meeting up with my friends Joe and Laura, and then my parents come into town from Virginia.  We will all then be heading up to the Santa Fe Opera.  I can’t wait.

Billings, MT

2 Aug 2013               Billings, MT

            Our friend Angela got married in Hawaii a few weeks ago and was having a wedding party in Billings.  This stop in Montana fit into our trip nicely.  Angela is a music teacher pal from Las Vegas.  When Katherine and I started in Vegas, she was right there with us as a new teacher.  We even took a long semester class with her, and both ended up working at the same school with her for a year.  Ever since then we have kept in touch.  Angela has been in Chile teaching at an International School and has loved every moment of it.  Even the earthquake that hit Santiago a while back!  It wrecked her music room.  She met Corbet in Chile and has been in love ever since.  How great!  At the wedding party, they played quite a few songs together and even showed off some original tunes.  For those of you that don’t know, Angela tears it up on the flute, and Corbet does the same damage on the guitar.  They are awesome, and a treat to listen to. 

           

            Our friend Steve, another music teacher from Vegas made the journey to Billings also.  He met up with us at a campground in Billings with his sister Carla that was traveling with him.  We all had a great time that evening, but the time flew by too fast.  Steve has been mountain biking all summer and was heading up to Glacier, so we traded stories about what we had just seen up there.  He was then going to head to Portland.  He was pretty much doing our trip, but in reverse.  How sweet! 

            Camping in the Billing KOA has to be mentioned here.  Once we pulled into the campground, and got our site, we noticed a mini residence built in the site next to us.  These campers looked more like drifters and not your average traveling folks.  The site had a full kitchen and different people kept coming in and out of the massive tent.  They looked like drug addicts, but the conversations were mostly intelligible, so I was wondering.  After observing them for 3 nights, I am guessing that they were high school dropouts living in a campground, and had maybe been kicked out of the house?  Also, cars kept coming by with different people, so I thought drug dealers?  Who knows?  I kept a close eye on my gear and on them. 

            Motorcycles were everywhere once again!  The Sturgis, South Dakota rally was going on and many bikers pass through Billing on their way to Mecca.  At about 5pm, the bikers start showing up and fill the campground.  They really are a nice bunch of people and are enthralled to tell you all about their bikes.  It’s quite entertaining.  We have been seeing these guys in huge numbers all across the West.  I think my father needs to get on one of these “Hogs” in Virginia and get out there.  He would love it.  They all carry a little tent and minimal supplies.  How fun!

            Angela has recently posted on Facebook that she has left to go to Tunisia with Corbet.  This is for another teaching position in a far off land.  I can’t wait to hear what it’s like there.  Hopefully, someday Katherine and I will be able to make it there to visit.  North Africa must be WAY cool with so much to see.  I wish the newlyweds the very best on their new journey.  I also can’t wait to hear new music that they will be creating.  Go guys!

Yellowstone National Park

29 Jul 2013               Yellowstone National Park

            We scored a last minute deal on a campground in Yellowstone.  While in Bozeman, Katherine did a desperate search for a site in the park and came up with one place that had one sight left.  It must have been a cancellation.  Whatever it was, we took it.  This allowed us to leave at a normal time from Bozeman and not forced to rush into the park to score a site.  The drive from Bozeman to the Park was a wonderful twisting road up to higher elevation along the river.  We started to see less and less houses and the true beauty of the land came forth. 

            The line up to get into the park was smaller than expected, being that this is the most popular park in the USA.  Once we flashed out National Parks Pass, we headed to the site.  It was still early in the day, so we set out to tour a few sights.  We traveled through the large geyser basins stopping at numerous pullouts for brief hikes to the geothermal features.  This proved to be a little harsh on Katherine’s sprained ankle, so we shortened the walks each time, but were able to see dozens of bubbling  geysers, colorful hot springs and steaming fumaroles.  The fumarole steam vents are all visible from far away, and it was interesting to take in the big picture at a distance.  One of the craziest things are the mud pots.  These vents don’t really blast steam, but bubble up heated mud and clay, and make a neat plopping sound.  It’s like boiling chocolate on the stove and looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

            Later in the day, we made it to Old Faithful.  This geyser is the site for a huge park encampment, you might say.  There is a lodge, hotel, educational center, food, stores, etc.  The immediate area around the geyser is quite nice with a large viewing area circling the geyser at  a long distance.  We showed up not knowing when the last eruption was, so we just chilled out on a downed tree.  We had no idea that we just missed the geyser show, so we sat for a about an hour people watching.  Once again, the international crew visiting the park make for quality entertainment. 

            After a long, but relaxing wait, Old Faithful boiled up and put on a show.  It blasted water and steam to the sky for a few minutes.  The wind blew the top of the water column away downwind.  It was awesome!  We found it funny that even before the geyser was done, people started turning around to get back to their cars.  Typical.  You make a pilgrimage all the way to Yellowstone and see one of the biggest sights, and leave early?  OK.  We sat still and took in the whole thing.  It was worth it.

            That first night in the park, I set everything up for a classic Dutch oven meal.  I wanted to try a meal that my pal Jeremy recommended, a yummy Mexican casserole dish.  Yummy it was. 

            The next day we hit a few more sights, saw our first bison, and then saw herds of bison!  Those things are HUGE!!! That morning we left the Madison Campground and got a place nice and early at Norris Campground.  Katherine had to work her magic with a European family to agree to give us their site before they left.  All we did was leave our chairs and put our payment stub on the post.  Then we were free to explore, instead of driving around the campsite over and over waiting for someone to depart.

We drove to the south and checked out Yellowstone Lake.  The drive took us through an ever changing landscape.  We went in and out of the caldera and were on the constant lookout for wildlife.  The speed limit in the park is set at a slow 45 Mph, which is nice so you can avoid driving into the animals.  You sure can’t get anywhere quick. 

One our second full day in the park, we drove around the north loop from Norris Campground.  Once again, the terrain was ever changing and wildlife was everywhere.  We saw pronghorn, elk, osprey with chicks, other birds we could not identify, mule deer, a marmot and hundreds of bison.  Katherine even spotted a grizzly bear!  Once she did, the passing cars saw us spying on the beast, and soon there was a wildlife viewing traffic jam.  Luckily, the beast was far away and minded his own business jumping and smashing the ground looking for dinner.  I guess he was eating grubs, mice, roots, or something under the earth.  It was entertaining, but so far away, I didn’t get any pictures.  Sorry.

The last day in the park, we headed out the NE entrance.  This took us through the Lamar Valley which is known for pronghorn and………  wolves.  But, we were not getting an early start, and we thought there would be no way we would see these beauties.  We were soon proven wrong.  The road has numerous pullouts overlooking the river.  We would stop, scan with the binoculars, and move on.  We kept doing this, scanning the tree line and looking closely.  Then, we saw a bunch of people at one pull out with spotting scopes on tripods and radios.  What the?  Yes, it was a wolf spotting class watching a black yearling taunting a bison.  Oh wow!  We pulled the H3 to the side, jumped out quietly, sat down, and spied the incident through the binoculars.  The wolf was much larger that I thought and it was quite a ways away.  He quickly figured out the bison was too big a match for him and wondered to our right into the forest.  Then....  another wolf!  This time it was the grey alpha female.  (We only knew this by talking to the class members after the viewing.)  She trotted along the river behind the black male, but stopping a few times to check out the fly fishermen in the river.  This kind of freaked me out.  The fishermen just looked at her and continued to fish.  The wolf was only 30 yards or so away from them.  I would have been a “little” scared.  I mean, this wolf was like a giant dog from a horror film.  It could easily rip the head off any human, but it just checked out the situation and moved on to follow the path of the black one.  (Once again, sorry no pictures of my own, too far away with my camera’s optics.)  Now, they were both in the forest conducting some sort of business about the bison, and we then heard them howling!  Holy geeze weeze!  Howling?  Not only did we just see two wolves, but now we can hear them.  How cool.  We sat around for another 20 minutes, but they never reappeared, so we moved on down the road.  Katherine was in awe about how we just happened to see one of the coolest animals in Yellowstone.  

           

            Yellowstone was much more than I thought.  I always knew that someday I would make it there, but after going, I am wondering why it took me so long.  I want to get back soon, and this time come prepared to do some serious wildlife viewing.  If you do some research on the animals, you can get an idea of where and when they will be somewhere and your chances will be really good to see them.  The wolf viewing is super popular I found out after the trip.  People track them with their radio collars and know all the info about the packs.  Sometimes they wonder out of the park and get shot by ranchers.  This is a common problem and is something we will face in the future even more as the population of wolves increase and step into private lands.  

            One more thing.  The last night in the park, we found out the Steamboat Geyser erupted while we were only 5 minutes away.  It was quiet for 8 years previous, and decided to “go off” while we were there.  I thought I heard something like a long roll of thunder, but there were clouds in the sky, so I didn’t think much of it.  Then, when we got to real WiFi land, and checked the news, we saw all about it.  Katherine did a little Youtube search and saw videos that had been posted.  WOW!  We missed out, but to view it would have been total luck.  This is a very strange land.