Road Trip Day 20 - Cody Wyoming to Hartville Wyoming

Buffalo Bill Center, Cody WY

Chuck wagon

The Epic Road Trip Day 20 started out in Cody Wyoming.  First stop was the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  What an amazing place!  There are actually several museums here.  The nature museum is an amazing collection of the animals past and present in the Yellowstone and Plains area.  The Indian wing had a fabulous collection of artifacts and some very impressive displays of living conditions for the Plains Indians.  The Center has the largest collection of guns dating back to pre-revolutionary times.  It is massive!

The last area I visited was the Buffalo Bill memorabilia.  As you enter this area, there is this smoky steam stuff coming out of the door way to the right and an image of Buffalo Bill speaking is projected onto the mist.  Fascinating and kind of eerie.  You can barely see it in this picture.

Friends and Company

I could have spent another 3 or 4 hours here taking a tour and enjoying all the history.  But it was getting close to noon and I still had a lot of seeing to do on my way to Hartville.  But, before I could leave Cody, I had to find the Friends & Company Quilt Company.  It was one of the Top Ten store several years ago.  I met the owner, Vicky, on the beach on Kauai.  She was knitting and so was I and we starting talking.  Turns out she owns this store and I promised myself I would visit the store if ever I was in Cody Wyoming. Wow!!  The store is absolutely fabulous!  It is jam packed with fabric, samples and toys.  Very impressive!  I did find a few treasures to bring home.

Tunnel Wind River Canyon

Oops!  Landslide

The drive from Cody took me through the Wind River Canyon Scenic byway out of Thermopolis.  Absolutely beautiful drive.  The canyon walls are really steep and there were indications of lots of landslides.  One actually took out the railroad tracks on the other side of the Big Horn River.  The road went through three short tunnels.  I love roads through tunnels!

The rest of the drive was across the Plains. Montana claims it has "big skies" but the sky of Wyoming was bigger than anything I have ever seen.  The storm clouds were forming to the east and I could see the rain coming down and the lightning was magnificent.  I kept thinking about the story Lonesome Dove and the wagon trains.  Part of my route was along the Sand Creek Massacre Trail.  The history of the west between the white settlers and the Indians is not a very pleasant one.

Scott with stack of Crown Royals bags

The destination for Day 20 was Hartville, Wyoming, which has a population of 76 and is about 13 miles north of Guernsey.  Hartville is the oldest incorporated city still in existence in Wyoming.  When my nephew Scott and his wife Christine moved there, they increased the population by 3%!  Anyway, they now own the Miners and Stockmans Tavern and Steakhouse which is the oldest tavern still operating in Wyoming.  The place is another museum!  It is wonderful!  The ceiling tiles are not the original but are reproduction of the original ceiling.  The back bar is beautiful and was made sometime in the late 1800's.  Christine mentioned something about making quilts with Crown Royal bags and I said that Jenni was making one.  Turns out that they had a stack of the bags!   Bonanza!!  Now there are enough the finish one quilt and probably make another!

Scott is one of the best cooks ever!  He does all the cooking for the restaurant and I was treated to a fabulous steak dinner.  Just the three of us - the restaurant is only open Thursday through Sunday.  It just doesn't get much better!

I get to stay here in Hartville for one more day to see and explore the history around this area of eastern Wyoming.

Another amazing day on the Epic Road Trip!!

Road Trip Day 19 - Pocatello Idaho to Cody Wyoming

Brooke, Jen, Paige, Michael, Greg
 and John

This is my family saying goodbye in Pocatello to start Day 19 of the Epic Road Trip.  With my car loaded with treasures and fuel, it was time to get back on the road.  I aimed the Santa Fe north toward Idaho Falls with the idea that I would go through Jackson Hole Wyoming and then north to Yellowstone then east to Cody.

Jackson Hole Wyoming

Jackson Wyoming is in the Teton Mountains and is in a "hole" formed by the billions of years of the formation of the mountains. At the top of the 8,500 ft pass looking down onto the Jackson Hole was amazing.  I absolutely love the mountains!  Maybe that is the one thing I miss in the midwest - mountains.  Paoli Peak just is not a real mountain.  Sorry to my friends in Indiana.

The town of Jackson is really quaint and very full of tourists, mostly from other countries.  Lots of Asians and people speaking languages I did not know.  There is a park in the center of the tourist part of the town with four huge arches made of antlers over
the pathway.  Probably one of the most photographed sights in town.  There were a lot of people on bicycles and miles and miles of bicycle trails.  The bicyclists who rode to the top of the pass amazed me most.  I had trouble breathing at that altitude.  How did they do that?

Tetons

The magnificent Teton Mountains outside of Jackson are breathtaking!  Even with my iPhone camera, you get an idea of the grandeur.  Somewhere along the way at almost 10,000 ft elevation I crossed the Continental Divide.

I had planned to head north into Yellowstone but somehow managed to head east and took a very round about way to get to Cody.  Sometimes I depend too much on the GPS and end up where I never imagined I would be.  But this trip I am letting the serendipity of the wrong turns to show me amazing and new parts of this great country.  Turns out that the drive was about 80 miles longer but was amazing!  And there were no crowds of tourists!  Yellowstone is worth battling the tourists to see, but the wide open spaces are really amazing, too.  There is so much history out here.  Part of the route followed the Big Horn River through a gorge that had strata of rock dating back hundreds of millions of years.  It is really hard to describe the natural beauty in words.  Breathtaking is the only word that comes to mind.

Cody Wyoming

Cody is a lovely little town about 50 miles east of Yellowstone.  Before I leave Cody, I want to check out the Cody Western Museum and the Friends Quilt Store.  Those go together, right?  History and quilts?  Then I am off to Hartville Wyoming to see my nephew Scott Harmon and his lovely wife, Christine.  Going to try to take a northern route so it will take a bit longer but want to just because I can.

Onward!

Road Trip Days 17 and 18 - Pocatello with Family

Tower of family

Salt & Pepper at Duck Ugly's

The drive from Elko was only about four hours.  It was really pretty once I got to Idaho and the beautiful green farm land.  Again, I was trying to get to Burley Idaho by lunch time.  Friday was the last day of school for the Michael and John.  Michael is now officially a high school senior and John is a junior.  They all seem to be getting older and I am not.  How does that happen?  We had lunch at Duck Ugly's.  No duck served here - just lots of duck decor.

Cell phone at age 2??

Then we all headed east to Pocatello for two days with Greg, Brooke, and Paige.  May 31 is John Robert Dayley's 16th birthday!!  Happy birthday, John!  We celebrated with breakfast at IHop and again with dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  Why is it that celebrations seem to always be with too much food?

Eureka!

Jen and I managed to squeeze in trips to two quilt shops, The Gathering Place in Rupert and Sages in Pocatello.  At Sages, I found the pattern I have been searching for.  Eureka!!  And, of course, a few other treasures, too.

Metal roses

Greg, the oldest grandson, has a metal fabricating shop and is so very talented!  He made me fifteen more quilt rack bases for the Bloomington Quilters Guild.  He saved our bacon last fall with 85 bases at the last minute when we discovered the ones we were going to use would not work.  Greg can do just about anything with metal.  Amazing!!

Day 19 will take me north and east into the Tetons and Yellowstone and then on to Cody Wyoming.  Should be some fabulous scenery!  I know that I could spend a week in this area and still not see it all but this will be good enough for now.

Onward!!  Odometer will pass 4,000 miles today on the Epic Road Trip!

Road Trip Day16 - Orangevale CA to Elko NV

Buckley purple front door

It was time to leave my friends in Orangevale and move on.  Day 16 took me up Hwy 80 out of Sacramento and north of Lake Tahoe to Reno and then eastward across some amazingly boring scenery of northern Nevada.  I have driven this road so many times and it has never been a favorite.  So I decided to try to find some treasures along the way.

Donner Lake

Just before the summit coming up from Sacramento is Donner Summit and Donner Lake.  It is really spectacular!  The Sierra Nevada Mountains are very special.  The line across the mountain in this picture are covered train tracks so the snow does not slow or stop the trains during the winter months.  Donner and Truckee are some of the coldest places in the US most winters.

Covered train tracks at Donner Summit

I have actually ridden a train up to Reno on these tracks and it is a very fun trip!

Winnemucca quilt shop

Next stop was Winnemucca Nevada.  The quest was for quilt shops in unexpected places.  I found a gem of a quilt store in Winnemucca.  Who would have imagined!  It was the Comfy Cozy for You Quilt Shop.  Very fun stop.

Baby Juliet Buckley

When I got to Elko Nevada, I could not find a quilt shop.  Bummer.  Tomorrow, Jennifer Surra-Dayley and I are planning to hit the quilt shop in Rupert Idaho on our way to Pocatello after lunch.  I will spend a couple of days with family in Pocatello before heading up to Cody Wyoming by way of the Teton National Park and Yellowstone.  Almost 4,000 miles so far.  Very fun!!

Onward........

Road Trip Days 13 and 14 and 15 - Orangevale, CA

Buckley backyard oasis

The trip from San Luis Obispo to Orangevale was a quick one with few stops.  This entire trip I have been trying to avoid the big 70-mile an hour highways but I needed to get to Orangevale for a BBQ by 12 noon so took the easiest route up Hwy 5.  The hills are golden brown.  There were a lot of fields that were not planted this year and many orchards being taken down because of the lack of water allotted to the farmers.  I imagine the price of food that comes from the California farms will be a little more expensive this year.

Anyway, I am so very glad to be back here in Orangevale where Joe and I lived with the girls from 1974 until I moved to Indiana in 2005.  And to spend some quality time with my very best friend and Sista, Karen, is priceless! The Buckley house is like Grand Central Station with family and friends coming and going constantly.  So much fun!

Joe's Marlin

Mountain Lion

Besides this beautiful yard, the Buckley big game room is unbelievable!  Brian is a big game hunter and has just about every kind of wild game represented in this room.  He has hunted all over the world.  The marlin was caught in Cabo San Lucas the November of 2000 by Brian and Joe.  I call if "Joe's Marlin".

Kathy, Me, Sib and Suzie!

I went by my old house on Mississippi Bar Drive just to see how it looked.  The trees have grown so much and the house still looks fabulous.  Good to see that the new owner is loving it as much as we did.  Also got to connect with some dear friends from the Fair Oaks Swim Team days and a special little sewing group we had that met weekly.  We have lost some from the Sewing Group but what serendipity!  Suzie Harms, Sibby Cramer, Kathy Sullivan and I were able to get together and catch up with our lives.  It is such a treasure to have friends who never change but for the better.  We picked up as if we were still meeting regularly when, in fact, we have not seen each other for many years.

This has been a fabulous oasis for the 3 days and a wonderful trip down memory lane.  Also, a great chance to do some laundry.  Thank you, Karen and Brian!!  Tomorrow, Day 16, I will leave and head north and east up through Lake Tahoe, Reno and on to lovely Elko Nevada.  Not because Elko is a destination but because that is as far as I want to drive tomorrow.  Maybe there are some fun quilt stores on the way.....

Over 3,000 miles so far!  Onward ho!!!

Road Trip Day 12 -Bakersfield to San Luis Obispo, CA

Cholame CA tree that James Dean ran into in 1955

Day 12 was a very leisurely drive for this Epic Road Trip.  Bakersfield is less than 3 hours drive from San Luis Obispo.  As I left Bakersfield heading west, I noticed that the orchards of almond and citrus trees looked quite healthy in spite of the severe drought that California is experiencing.  I suspect that the farmers have become very good at irrigating the orchards without wasting much water.

On Day 11 I was amazed at the miles and miles of wind mills producing electricity just west of Death Valley.  Today, I saw miles and miles of oil wells!  And a solar farm that was huge!  The oil wells were in a town called Lost Hills.  Very appropriately named, I might say, because there were absolutely no hills in Lost Hills!  Just lots of oil wells.

I was traveling on Hwy 46 westward to Paso Robles and Atascadero.  On the way is a tiny little place called Cholame.  There is only one restaurant and wine tasting room at Cholame so it would be real easy to drive right by without notice.  But, right there in Cholame is the very tree that James Dean ran his car into and died on the evening of September 30, 1955.  Dean was only 24 at the time.  His movie star fame is from his role in "Rebel Without a Cause."  There is quite a shrine surrounding this tree.

Between Cholame and Paso Robles, the land is covered with grape orchards.  They were just starting this wine and grape production when the girls were going to Cal Poly.  It is huge now!  It would be fun to plan a wine tasting trip to this area and see how it compares to the Napa and Sonoma wineries.


My destination in San Luis Obispo was to see my friend, Janet Mease, and her new quilting store endeavor, SLO Creative Studio.  Jan used to own Shiisa Quilts in Bloomington.  Oh my gosh, it was good to see Jan again!  Her place is just what the name says - a Creative Studio.  She has 3 HandiQuilter long arm quilting machines set up and rents out time on them and teaches people how to use them.

Since we lived here in SLO from 1971 to 1974, I thought it would be fun to go see the house we had here.  This was a tiny little tract home with maybe 1400 sq ft built in 1963 and in a lovely little neighborhood just west of the Madonna Inn.  Here it is:  1512 Balboa Street.  Not nearly as cute as it was in 1971.  The estimated price for this little gem in SLO is now over $500,000!!  Unbelievable!!  It last sold in 2000 for $249,000!  Wow!  In 1974 it was worth $45,000.  That is California real estate for you!

I have gone as far west as I am going on this Epic Road Trip.  Day 13 will take me up to the Sacramento area to spend a few days with my very dearest friend, Karen.  Can't wait to see you, KB!!

Road Trip Day 11 - Las Vegas to Bakersfield, CA

Red Rock Canyon Las Vegas

Oh my!  It was so good to be leaving Las Vegas!  I drove down the strip and looked at the magnificent buildings and decided I did not have to stop. I did not even want to take any pictures of it.  Too much opulence and decadence!

Just north and west of Las Vegas is the Red Rock Canyon National Park.  There is a 13-mile drive through the beautiful rock formations.  This was such an amazing and breathtaking contrast to Las Vegas.  God does so much better at creating beauty!  The rocks were different from the red rock formations in Utah and Arizona.  And there were so many people running, biking and hiking the loop!  Thank you to Lorie Rheams for suggesting this scenic drive.

Sand dunes

Still heading westward, I decided to drive through Death Valley.  In the 61 years I lived in California, I do not think I ever saw Death Valley.  Wow!!  There is nothing there!  I took Scotty's Castle Road thinking maybe I could find it.  The signs said that there were no services at Scotty's Castle.  I am sure that is true.  I drove over 60 miles and never could even find Scotty's Castle!  Probably should have done a little more research but it was kind of a whim when I got there.  Again there was no cell signal and my GPS could not find it either.  Oh well.

The floor of Death Valley is below sea level.  Climbing up out of the valley, the road rises up to over 4,000' elevation.  My extra driving trying to find the Castle ran my gas below my comfort levels so I was kind of anxious to find a gas station.  Holy cow!  Gas prices in the middle of nowhere are astronomical - $4.95 a gallon.  $30 for six gallons, but I was back within my comfort zone!

I think the mountains on the west side of Death Valley are the Tehachapi mountains.  It is mostly desert so not too exciting except for the wind farms!  Mile after mile of wind mills on the mountain tops.  Biggest wind mill farm I have ever seen!  Check out the reflection in the rear view mirror.  The entire hillside behind me was covered with wind mills!

Finally, I have arrived in California!!  This was a long day of driving - over 400 miles.  Bakersfield is not the most beautiful spot in California.  I was reminded that many refer to Bakersfield as the "armpit of California."  I would choose Bakersfield over Las Vegas any day!

Day 12 will take me further west to San Luis Obispo, CA, where we lived for 3 years in the early 1970's and both Jen and Cindy graduated from Cal Poly there.  I wonder if it has changed as much in the 45 years as Las Vegas did.  Going to meet up with my friend, Jan Mease, and check out her new SLO Creative Studio.  Maybe she will let me play with one of her long arm HQ machines there........