I have a little story to tell you

Well, I think I’m finally caught up on reading all my blogger/diary entries. Man, you guys have been busy over the last month.

Things on the home front are slowing down also – Ole finished all the grass yesterday and I’m reaching the end of Mount Laundry. Whew! When we travel I usually try to carry enough clothes to last us two weeks without doing laundry. Who wants to spend half their vacation in a laundromat? Not me. Folks, that gets to be a lot of socks and undies at one time, plus all the bedding, towels, etc. And Senior Citizen Simon sheds a lot and was busy depositing his hair all over my comforter cover, so that had to come off and be cleaned too. Today the only thing I have left to do is shampoo the carpet in the RV and I’m done. Then everything is nice and tidy for the next time we take off – which may very well be about the end of September.

When we traveled to the U.P. last fall we had intended to also stop in Door County in Wisconsin, but had to hightail it for home because there was a winter storm moving in at that time. So our thoughts are at this point to visit Door County about the time of high leaf color, which I think is about mid October there. We’ve got friends that live in Chicago that we haven’t seen for several years, and it would be a hop, skip and jump for them to meet up with us there. That would be so much fun.

I do have a little story to tell you about our trip that I haven’t shared to this point. That Ole, he’s so full of surprises, you know.

The first night out on the road we landed in Medora, ND, a peaceful little town on the edge of the Badlands National Park in western North Dakota. Ole got the RV set up and I had just settled down in the easy chair to watch the news and relax a bit. Ole headed for the bathroom, shut the door and was in there for an extended period of time. I really didn’t think much about it because isn’t that usually a man’s “reading room?”

Well, anyway, about 15 minutes later the door opened and out came Ole completely clean-shaven. Now keep in mind, I haven’t seen Ole without facial hair for over 35 years and Lovely Daughter has NEVER seen him without whiskers. He’s had a moustache that long, and has had a goatee for at least 15 years if not longer. At one point, years ago, he had a Snidely Whiplash moustache all curled up with mustache wax. I was so shocked I think my jaw dropped to the floor and I had trouble picking it up again. I have no idea what possessed him to do this, but he looked like he was back in high school!! He tells me I stared at him for three days – and maybe I did – but he looked like a different person.

He stayed clean-shaven for two days and allowed me to take only ONE picture of him. We sent the picture back to Lovely Daughter, to her work email address no less, and made up a story to go with it. We called her and told her that we had been at the Iron Horse Saloon for supper that night and had been visiting with one of the cowboys at the bar. When he found out where we were from he asked if we knew Lovely Daughter (by her real name of course). She was totally mystified by this information claiming that she knew no one out in that area. And just to make things more interesting, this was on a Friday night, so she had to wait until Monday to go to her office and read this email. So in great anticipation she opened the email on Monday morning and Lars happened to be standing by her computer. She opened the picture, looked at it and stated emphatically that she had no idea who that man was. Somehow, Lars knew immediately that it was Ole minus all his whiskers. When he informed her that it was her Dad, the first thing she did was pick up her phone and call us. It was quite apparent that she was upset and in no uncertain terms told her father that he needed to grow his whiskers back before he came home!! In her mind it just wasn’t right to see her father without facial hair. Well, of course he had intended to do just that, but I guess he thought he would have a bit of fun with both his wife and his daughter, which he did.

So Ole’s back in full facial hair coverage now and his daughter is happy.

Here's a shot of Ole way back when he had handlebars.

(Pssst – whispers behind hand – I kinda’ liked that back-in-high school look!!)

Senior Citizen Simon is confused

Senior Citizen Simon is confused. Either that or he liked traveling in the motor home so much that he doesn’t want to give it up. He wanders around outside and then goes back to the steps on the RV and wants to get in. I did manage to get him to come into the house last night, and he spent the night sleeping between Ole and I, so maybe that will help him straighten things out in his little kitty mind.

But then I wonder about Ole’s mind too!! He got up during the night last night, went to the bathroom and then went to the foot of the bed, tried to pull the blankets up and crawl back into bed down there. That would have been the right direction if he had still been in the RV, but he wasn’t!!

Makes you wonder about old men, huh?

Now I know why I wasn’t ready to come home yet. I worked all day yesterday unloading and cleaning. Now I’ve got a pile of laundry to do. My poor washer/dryer will certainly be overworked today. Good thing they’ve had a rest over the last month. And Lovely Daughter had cleaned my house before we came home. It was so nice to come home to a clean house. And Ole got on the lawn mower yesterday at 10 o’clock and finally quit at 5 o’clock. He says he’s still got about four hours worth of mowing and trimming yet to do. Then there are three trees that still have chokecherries to pick that the birds didn’t get to. He’s got to make his prize winning chokecherry wine, you know.

We went down to the Local Watering Hole last night for supper – The Circle was there as usual, and Jane was in her usual form. Sarcastic and snotty. Last night her target was Lars. He and Lovely Daughter don’t go down to the Watering Hole anymore for a number of reasons, but it doesn’t make any difference to Jane if her target is present or not. So last night she was bad-mouthing Lars, and she hardly knows him. And then she got into it with Alice about what size motorcycle Lars should buy. Alice rides also, as does Jane. Alice started out on a very small bike because that’s what she felt comfortable with, then graduated up to a bigger one. Jane rides a huge honkin’ Honda, very old but very heavy and clumsy. And of course, Jane is always right and whatever she does is the correct thing to do, so that means everybody needs to start out on a big bike like she has. Alice kept saying it should be up to the individual and their comfort level. But of course Jane always has to have the last word on every subject, so that went on for a while and got somewhat heated because neither Jane nor Alice would back down on their opinion and neither was going to give up on convincing the other that they were right. Bob and Carol were sitting at another table a ways from all this, so I went and joined them.

So Jane’s at it again – or I should say is still at it. Another reason it would have been nice to stay on the road. Ole and I decided last night that we’re not going to be going down to the Local Watering Hole as frequently as before, mainly because of Jane and her antics. I hate doing that, as I love to visit with Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice and Dick. But I CAN’T STAND JANE!

But then you all already knew that.

We're home, darn it!

Discussion as to whether we would head home or go farther came up on Tuesday morning and neither of us were really ready to come home. Ole decided that he had too many "obligations" awaiting him, (and he's supposed to be retired?) so we pointed the RV east and arrived in the driveway about 8:30 last night.

But before we left Medora we took one last ride through the park.

First thing we saw were wild horses

Then there was the ever present buffalo - this one again walking down the middle of the road and not wanting to give up his space. Fortunately this guy was walking away from us, not toward us. He continued on for about a quarter of a mile before he decided the grass looked good down in the ditch.

Then there were a few pictures that needed to be taken.

Now I have to get busy emptying and cleaning the RV. (whine and sniff)

Ole meets the Bulls

The first time I ever went through the Badlands of North Dakota (Teddy Roosevelt National Park) I was about four years old. That was during the time my dad was working on a road construction crew and we were living in a trailer house like gypsies, traveling from one point to another throughout western North Dakota and South Dakota. My Dad was driving a 1950 Hudson and pulling a 34-foot trailer house. The road through the park at that time was very narrow, curvy and covered with scoria (red gravel-like substance), not fully paved like it is today. I remember being so scared I sat on the floor in the back seat of the car and wouldn’t look out the windows.

Times have changed.

We had a great trip through the park last night, Ole riding the bike with Lars on the back, and Lovely Daughter and I in her car with the doggers. We left the campground about five o’clock, just about the right time to get a good view of a lot of wildlife.

Lars had never seen a buffalo before, and we managed to get up close and quite personal with two of them. They were very large, lone bulls. One was quite old with very worn and broken horns; the other was young and somewhat aggressive. The first one really surprised us as we had stopped on a pull off to take some pictures. As Lovely Daughter went to the edge of the overlook and peered down, there, about a hundred feet from where she stood was the lone old-timer munching away on whatever buffalos munch on. He took notice of us, ate some more and then very slowly started up the hill. That’s when we decided it was time to leave, as meeting up with a buffalo on a motorcycle isn’t exactly a good thing. In past years when bikers have gotten too close, we’ve seen buffalo take a swipe at them with their huge horns. The second, younger bull appears right in the middle of the road as we rounded a curve. Ole got stopped, sat for a few minutes as the big guy ambled toward him, and then decided to back up and get ready to turn around just in case. About that time the big guy decided the grass on the other side of the road looked a bit greener so he ambled that way and began to munch. When he passed by the car I could have reached out and touched him he was so close. Second thought was I’d just sit very still and maybe he wouldn’t notice me!!

There were lots of deer, multitudes of prairie dogs, which drove the doggers crazy, and we even saw a golden eagle looking for his dinner in a prairie dog town. He was successful, too (which got kind of gross). We did let the doggers out to run a bit but don’t tell anyone. If a ranger had come along, we probably would have been arrested and thrown in jail for not having them on a leash. Every time we would leave them in the car they would take over the front seat (see picture below).

So this morning we’re going to run through the park once more – last night I let Lars ride on the back of the Harley – this morning it’s going to be my turn. Eve though I’ve put many hundred miles on my backside this last month, I’m not done yet. The calluses are just getting broken in (snort).

All is Forgiven

All is forgiven. Daisy was so happy to see Ole when they arrived in Medora she forgot to be mad at him and snub him. Ole was attacked by both dogs and licked to the point where he thought he had lost most of the skin on his face. It’s been two days now and they still can’t get enough of Ole. We just call them Velcro dogs. I just happened to pick up a couple of small stuffed animals when we were at the Wildlife Loop in Custer Park – a chipmunk and a prairie dog. Daisy has claimed them as her babies and won’t let Beau near them. If he comes close or even just looks at them she snatches them violently off the floor and growls at him. So anyway, all is currently right in the Grand Doggers’ world.

We all arrived at the campground between five and six o’clock, visited a bit and then decided to go to the Iron Horse Saloon for supper. When we stopped here a month ago on the way out to Wyoming, a band called Thunder Road was playing at the Iron Horse. We lucked out on Saturday night because they were playing again, so we stayed and listened to the music for a couple of hours and danced a bit, too. We all had a great time; even the doggers who were waiting in the car were entertained. The car was parked on the street where we could see it from the patio we were sitting on. The sidewalk was full of people walking back and forth. The doggers didn’t say boo until someone with a cowboy hat would walk by – that set them off big time. Guess they don’t like cowboys or something.

Yesterday we all played lazy and lolled around for a good portion of the day. I think everybody was tired. Later in the day we ventured out to tour the Chateau de Mores. Go HERE to find out what the Chateau is and about how the Marquis was so ahead of his time. It’s quite a story that took place back in the 1890s.

Then it was home to hot dogs on the grille, live music in the campground and a very relaxing evening out under the stars of western North Dakota. No bugs, no humidity, and no traffic noise.