From Super HOT to Super COLD

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Played Hookey

Last Monday I called in sick Cough, cough!) to go with friends to visit a brothel. We all went to the World Famous Mustang Ranch for lunch and a tour of the place. It sure beat working at Amazon, that is for sure. HA!

We got there and had lunch at their Wild Horse Saloon restaurant/bar. Lunch was good especially with the pole dancers in the background. After lunch we then took the tour. It started with a big room where your could buy souvenirs as well as many adult toys. Having worked at Amazon we see many more adult toys then even at the Mustang Ranch. HA!

Our tour guide told us all about the ranch and took us through many of the rooms where the girls do their thing with their clients. It was very interesting to see the many different styles in each room.

We were not allowed to bring in either cameras or cell phones so I couldn’t get any pics. However we did get several pics once we got outside.

Here is a great pic of the girls in our group.

Us guys strike a few poses as well.

It was a great time which we all enjoyed.

Weather dips in single digits

The weather here has dipped into the single digits. It is very cold at night. One morning I woke up and checked the temps. It said it was 3 degrees feeling like -6. Hows that for cold?

My 20 gallon propane tank was empty one morning when I awoke and the furnace was blowing cold air. YUK! I switched over to my 5 gallon tank. A couple of nights later I awoke at 2:30 in the morning and found the tank was empty. I had to switch over to my propane tank in my RV. It was very cold going out in my pajamas. I decided to have the park fill the 20 gallon tank 1/2 full so hopefully I have enough propane to last until I leave.

Tanks frozen

Since the weather is so cold all my tanks have frozen. I have not had water for about almost a week. The weather warmed up yesterday and when I got home I was able to run my water. However when I got up this morning there was barely a trickle out of the tap. I hope that it will thaw out some so I can take a nice shower as I really need one.

I am not the only one in that predicament. Many of the other campers I have talked to have the same problem.

4 working days to go

My last working day is Wednesday. I plan to get everything packed up and ready to go and leave here Friday morning. I will arrive in SO CA on Saturday to enjoy time with family and friends on Sunday and for the 2 weeks after that. My sister has planned getting together with family and many friends I have not seen for over a year. It should be a blast!!

Still alive and Kickin’

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Lack of posts

I must apologize for my poor lack of posting. It seems like all I do is eat and sleep and I haven’t really had much to say But I am sorry as several of you have wondered if anything has happened. As a matter of fact something has happened. It is called the Amazon work camp.

I got my release date of Dec 18 which is the soonest they have ever cut us loose. YEA! I will probably leave her on the 20th and head for sunny SO CAL to be with my family at Christmas.

Getting really cold!!!

Yesterday we were hit with a cold front directly from the north. It brought a couple of inches of snow and bitter cold weather. The temps are forecasted to be single digits and Saturday it is supposed to be -3. That is way too cold for me. I have both my electric heater and my furnace running 24/7. Chica is very comfortable aside from the bitter cold outdoors.

Here she is laying on her heated bed. I purchased a pet bed warmer from Amazon (naturally) and she loves it. Her she is relaxing in her nice warm bed.

We didn’t get a lot of snow but enough to cover the ground for a while.

Dead Battery

I had a hunch that my battery was on it’s last legs but thought it would be OK. I should have listened to my intuition and gone ahead and bought one a week or so ago. Oh no. Not me. Well anyway I got up this morning and it was DEAD! It was my neighbor Shannon’s day off and she offered to drive me down to get a new one. I got it installed and everything is back to normal. However I missed a day and my mandatory overtime day is tomorrow and I will be working for straight time only. YUK!

Snow all over the mountains

I got this picture facing Amazon and the mountains in the back with all the snow. It sure is beautiful, but I will take the desert anytime.

Looking forward to SO CAL and Q

I am really looking forward to seeing my family over the holidays and then on to Q at the beginning of January. I should be getting there about the 4th.

Stay tuned and I promise not to be so long between posts.

Dancing at the Cowboy Bar

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Changed departure date

I had made plans to leave Gros Ventre on Wed 8/21. But as any RV’er will attest to, plans are made in Jello. Jane had just returned from a hike with Dave and Celeste and mentioned they had run into Shannon on the trail. They invited me to go with them to Dornan’s to meet up with Shannon for dinner. I couldn’t turn them down so went with them.

I had a good time at Dornan’s and the food was good as usual. Then when we were leaving I mentioned to Shannon that I was going to be leaving the next morning and probably wouldn’t see her until the Amazon stint. She mentioned that she wanted to invite me to go dancing with her and Tony and his wife Susan at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Let me reassure you – I am not a dancer by any means. I can’t even remember the last time I went dancing.

But I couldn’t turn Shannon down since I never did get over to see her campground where she is hosting. So I agreed and she told me to meet her at the Merry Piglets restaurant in town. The Merry Piglets is a Mexican Grille. It doesn’t sound like Mexican to me but it was good.

Then off to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. My old ski partner years ago had told me about this place and said I had to go to it while I was in Jackson. I couldn’t turn both Shannon and Randy (my ski partner) down. Besides the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar is world famous.

I found out once we got there that Thursday night is dance lessons night and if you get there before the crowds you don’t have to pay an admission fee. Sounds good to me. So after dinner we headed to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

Back in the saddle again

The bar stools are actual saddles that you sit on. Very cool. I got the following pics of us sitting in the saddles.

It was fun sitting at the bar, but then all four of us sat at a table near the dance floor. Then the instructions started. The first dance was the swing. The instructors were very good dancers and very patient with all of us, especially the ones with two left feet like me. We learned quite a few moves and surprised ourselves that we could actually dance although not the most fluent.

Then took a break for some adult refreshment and came back to the dance floor to learn the two step. Slow slow fast fast fast. Holy cow what are they doing to me. After practicing our newly learned steps they introduced the band. They said that we could dance either the swing or the two step to any of the music they played. That’s what they think!!! HA!

Once the band starts all of the people who really know how to dance well hit the dance floor. I felt like a real clod! It was all I could do to not stay out of their way. We didn’t do too badly though. It was a lot of fun.

I would not have even gotten out on the dance floor for the lessons had it not been for the encouragement of Shannon and also the beers and wine I had before even attempting such a feat.

I will not bore you with any pics of us dancing as I don’t have any. Thank God! It was a very fun time and I even mentioned to Shannon that we must find a cowboy bar in Fernly, NV while we are working for Amazon to perfect our steps that we learned. HA!

I had a good time even though it is against my better judgement to ever go dancing. We said our goodbyes and down the road back to the campground. I was really glad I went and didn’t feel too badly in the morning despite my wine and multiple beers. I was all packed and ready to go so it was just a matter of hooking up the car. Thanks Shannon for a GREAT time!

Picking up mail

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Short hike to the post office

The other day Linda had to pick up her mail at the post office. The nearest one is in Kelly, WY, less the 2 miles from our campsites. So off we went on a trail that led down to the river and through the woods(HA! Just kidding!)

The trail did lead us next to the river for a short distance.

This was the beautiful scenery of the mountains to our left.

Then we made it to the small town of Kelly, WY where they had a post office a small sandwich store and a small school with schoolyard and many private residences.

Inside the store they had this sign. I bet you won’t find this sign in many stores. By the way we did not run into any bison nearby.

This is probably the smallest post office I have ever seen.

This is a nice view of the Teton Mountains as we were walking back along the road.

Drove into Jackson

Later that day I drove in to Jackson with John to fill my external tank with propane. It looks like traffic has died down a bit as vacations are starting to wind down since kids have to be back in school shortly. It is still rather busy, but just not as bad.

While there I also picked up some bear spray. On the return trip we saw this big guy crossing the road. They don’t seem to have any fear of cars or people. I guess if I were that big I wouldn’t care either.

The weather is very nice here and we haven’t had any rain for a few days now. The campgrounds have been almost full on a few days, but seem to be thinning out a bit now.

Pawdicure on the way to Gros Ventre, WY

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Chica’s Pawdicure

After leaving Riverside campground we headed to Idaho Falls, ID for a couple of things. I had to stop in Walmart to pick up a prescription and supplies and Chica needed a pawdicure. She last had her nails trimmed in Mesa, AZ shortly after we found each other.

They were getting too long so we headed to a Petsmart where you didn’t need an appointment. I also mentioned in my last post that she was going to get her teeth cleaned. That was wrong. She was only going to get a breath freshener. Here she is waiting to get her nails down.

Am I next Dad?

It took quite a while and two people to complete the job. I don’t think she was too happy at the time.

I thought this was a pawdicure not a two-on-one wrestling match

On to Gros Ventre

After the pawdicure and the stop at Walmart we made the drive to Gros Ventre campgrounds. It is northeast of Jackson, WY. I figured I may be able to fill up with propane there. No way Jose! Jackson was slammed with lots of traffic, both cars and campers. I decided to head on out to the campground as I had enough propane to last me a few days.

John and Linda had talked to the camp hosts and they were reserving a spot right next to them. The cost of camping here is $21 per night, but only $10.50 with the geezer card. This is a bit more then I have been paying, but they have the beautiful mountains and lots to do as well. It is really a great bargain.

The next day John and I drove into town to fill up my 5 gal. tank with propane. On the way we saw this herd of bison crossing the road. They had been down to the river and were no heading up to graze. Needless to say it stopped traffic.

Kayaking on the Snake River

The following day seven of us decided to go kayaking. It was a long drive to where we started and we had several cars. It was really great fun even though I started off facing the wrong way in my kayak. DUH!!

This is where we put into the water.

John and Linda with all the inflatable kayaks blown up and ready to go.

This is John and Linda on the water.

It was a great time and it gave me a chance to practice my kayaking skills. ???

Farmer’s Market in Jackson

The next day was spent checking out the fabulous farmer’s market in Jackson. John and Linda drove me around Jackson and we walked around the downtown area. The farmer’s market was held in a park downtown.

The entrance to the park was made entirely of antlers. How cool!

Let’s Party!!

On Friday everyone got together for a party with lots of great food and conversation. We invited the camp hosts in our campground as well as Shannon, who is another camp host at Jenny Lake. She and I worked together at Amazon last winter and saw each other at Apache Junction last spring while she was camped there. It was really good to see her again and we had a lot of catching up to do.

After dinner, we all sat around the campfire and Ally roasted marshmallows and made us all Samores. It was a great time. I also saw Tony who I had also worked with at Amazon.

I plan to stay at Gros Ventre until after Labor Day. There is lots of great things to do here and terrific friends to do them with.

Visiting friends – Day 3

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Just horsing around

I was a good boy and stayed away from too much wine last night since Tad had mentioned that we should ride horses in the morning. He saddled up Trinket for me and then worked on his horse named Blue.

Here I am on Trinket all ready to to hit the trail.. What a cowboy!! HA!!

Then Tad saddled up Blue and off we went down the great trails in the forest. I didn’t take my camera so didn’t get any pics. I had my IPhone but was enjoying myself too much to remember to take any photos. Sorry!

Riding horses is probably one of the best ways to see the beauty of the forest. I can’t begin to explain my feelings. We took the dirt road for a while and then it was off on some forest trails. I am not a horseman and knew nothing about riding a horse or getting the horse to do what you wanted it to do. But Tad is an excellent teacher and told me what to do and how to do it. It was so much fun.

We even went up and down some trails that seemed rather steep to me (although probably not to Tad) and I hung right in their. It probably was a good thing that I had a wonderful horse.

We were gone a couple of hours and probably went about 8 miles. I was ecstatic throughout the entire ride. Thanks Tad for the ride of my life in a beautiful forest setting.

When we returned, Tad cooled down the horses and put them back in the corral.

After they are watered down they love to roll around in the dirt.

Thank You Tad and Diane

I cannot begin to thank Tad and Diane enough. I had the time of my life. I am really lucky to have such wonderful friends.

The Crooked Tree Ranch was much more then I ever expected, even after I had seen pictures of it last year. They have worked very hard in making this a wonderful place. I told them that this ranch is like a western Disneyland. It truly is.

Good Bye to Crooked Tree Ranch

After riding I hooked up my rig, said my goodbyes and headed on down the road. I really wasn’t sure where I was going to go except I knew I was heading south.

I am behind on my blog posting and reading by several days. Some of it was due to the fact I was just having too much fun at the Crooked Tree Ranch and some was due to the fact I couldn’t get Internet service where I went after leaving the ranch. I am going to try to catch up in the next couple of days.

Visiting friends – Day 2

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Brave Chica!!!

I forgot to mention in my last post that after the quad ride we sat out in front of their house and watched the horses. Diane took one horse out of it’s stable and of course Chica went wild.

I don’t think she factors in the fact she is outweighed by the horse 1,200 lbs. to 2 lbs. She showed no fear whatsoever and let that horse know who was boss.

Finally after telling that horse who was boss she decided to kick back with us.

What a great watch dog!

My head is killing me!!!

Unfortunately we drank a bit too much and felt it the next day. We had planned on going horseback riding but that was definitely out of the question.

So while we were recuperating I decided to walk around their property and get some pics.

Tad set up a target for his bow and arrows. I would have liked to try that but just ran out of time.

This is their storage building. It matches their house perfectly.

The campfire area and the tree the ranch was named after. Crooked Tree Ranch is a great name.

Stables for the horses…

A pic of the corral showing the Bitterroot Mountains in the background.

Plus their beautiful home.

This shows the entrance to the Crooked Tree Ranch.

Changed Plans

We decided not to ride the horses but instead they drove me around their area in the Bitterroot Valley. Our first stop, I was treated for lunch at a neat little restaurant in Victor and then drove to Corvallis, Darby and Hamilton. We stopped at the Daly Mansion and walked around a bit. What a fabulous place!

A beautiful pic of the Bitterroot Valley and Bitterroot Mountains.

Then we stopped for an ice cream cone in Darby. They must have scooped at least a pint of ice cream in each cone. We walked around this small town for a while and checked out some great shops. One had a fabulous display of antiques and another had a fantastic array of taxidermy of all the animals you would find here in the valley and up in the mountains. I am sorry I didn’t get any photos of those.

Then it was back home where we just had a relaxing time of watching the All Star game on TV. I had planned on leaving early tomorrow, but they invited me to go horseback riding in the morning.

Visiting friends

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Tanks full!!

The next day we made our way to the Missoula area. I needed a place to dump my tanks and decided to spend the night in an RV park. After being out with no hookups for the last 10 days, I wanted to take a good shower and not have to worry about water usage.

I drove through Missoula, MT and then on to Victor, MT and was surprised there were not too many campgrounds. My friend Steve had suggested the Black Rabbit RV Park in Hamilton, MT just south of Victor. So Black Rabbit it was. Thanks Steve for a great suggestion.

The lady at the desk only had one campsite left so I was very lucky. The longer shower was sure nice and I was able to clean up my rig from all the dust I accumulated. After all I had been down a bunch of dusty washboard dirt roads going from campsite to campsite.

Great friends at Crooked Tree Ranch

The next day I got up and headed to my friends ranch outside of Victor, MT. They had given me directions to take to get there and then said to call them once I hit the dirt road. I called and Diane said they would be down shortly on one of their quads and escort me to their place. Tad came down and led me to their place. I would never have been able to find it on my own.

They are way up in the Bitterroot Mountains, where they have built the Crooked Tree Ranch over many years. They used to come up there on their vacations from work and live in a trailer. Their property is heavily populated with trees and it took them many summers just to clear them before they could start building.

This is the entrance to their ranch and you can see the Bitterroot Valley far below.

Their trailer reminded them of all the hard work they put in and had it enclosed in a log cabin. How cool is that?

They had both 30 amp and 50 amp hookups with a dump station and water for their RV visitors like myself. Here is where I was camped for two nights.

Driving quads – What a blast!!

The first day I was there they got out the quads. They were 4WD and could go anywhere. This was my first experience driving a quad. I am hooked for life. These things are a blast. You can go anywhere in them. At first we stayed on the dirt road until I got used to driving it. We made this stop at the Bear Creek Trailhead. What a gorgeous view of the creek.

We stopped at one of their neighbors homes built right on a creek.

Here is a pic of my gracious hosts, Tad and Diane in front of their neighbor’s home. Those were the quads we drove over there on.

Here is another pic of a different portion of the creek.

Then we drove home through many really neat forest trails. Later in the evening, after dinner, Tad and I took went for another ride through more steep terrain and found some bones. I didn’t really run over them. HA!

Then we drove over to a lookout where another neighbor had built a home. The scenery around here is breathtaking.

Here is a pic of Tad under the neighbor’s outdoor shower.

What a wonderful day! Then back to their home where we got out the wine and enjoyed some great conversations and star gazing.

Glacier National Park (continued)

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Moved to a new site

I had to change sites from Loop A to Loop B as A sites were all reserved for the next few days. I decided to stay an additional 2 days to get to see more of Glacier’s beauty. I had to wait until the people in the site I had reserved had left before I could move over there. I then drove the car over and walked back to the rig, then drove the rig over and got all settled in.

Later on I drove over to the Discovery Cabin across from the Apgar Visitors Center just inside the West Glacier entrance. It was a small cabin that contained a lot of interesting items. They had many of the skulls of different animals within the park. I found this display showing a variety of antlers of many animals.

They also had a full coat of both the black bear and the grizzly bear to show you the difference between the two. You could see the claws up close. What a difference! The grizzly claws were huge compared to the black bear. I sure would not want to run into one of those guys.

I also heard a very educational talk on Glaciers by the ranger outside of the Discovery Cabin. What I found very interesting was that there were 150 glaciers when Glacier became a national park back in 1910. Today there are only 26 glaciers in the park and the ranger said that in 7 years there would be 0 glaciers. Whether you believe in “Global Warming” or not it is hard to justify what is occurring in Glacier National Park.

Lake MacDonald Lodge and Falls

The next day I traveled to the other end of Lake MacDonald to the Lake MacDonald Lodge. It was really a beautiful setting.

The lobby was fantastically beautiful.

This was taken standing on the pier in front of the lodge.

Then I traveled further to the Lake MacDonald Falls. What a mass of rushing water.

Avalanche Creek Campground

Then my adventure took me to the Avalanche Creek Campground. This was the end of the trail as the park was closed off at this point until they get the snow plowed. The campground was closed for camping but actually became a big parking lot for all the hikers.

This picture does not really do this justice as it looks much more fantastic in person. It is just up the road from Avalanche Creek Campground.

Trail of the Cedars

Then I took the “Trail of the Cedars” hike. It was a short hike (.8 mile), but takes you through a very deep cedar forest. It is really beautiful.

On my return trip to my campsite I took these pics of Lake MacDonald.

It was a great day visiting just a few of the attractions of Glacier National Park. The ranger in the Discovery Cabin told me that I should return after July 1 when all the roads are open. She suggested the Logan Pass Trolley that takes you to many scenic spots. You can also get off for pics and hiking and get on the next trolley. I am not sure I will be in the area at that time, but for those of you who mentioned they were coming to the park around that time, I would highly recommend it.

No to slow Internet

It has taken me a while to upload this post. I am in a spot where there is no Internet so I went into the town and my Millenicom WiFi was extremely slow. So I am now in a McDonald’s using their fast WiFi. I will be posting more in a couple of days regarding my present location.

Glacier National Park

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Border Crossing

We crossed the border at a little town called Coutts, AB. It went without a hitch as John and Linda went first and paved the way for the rest of us. Just the usual “Do you have any fruits and vegetables?” question and I was back in the good ole USA. Here is a pic of me crossing the border taken by Linda of adventureswithsadie blog fame.

As much as I enjoyed this trip throughout Alberta, I am really glad to see the prices go down for gas ($3.65 vs about $4.62 per gallon) and wine ($9.99 vs $5.90 for a bottle of Yellow Tail).

The day started out beautiful but as soon as we got across the border it started to rain. It was a huge downpour and it was difficult to even see the road for a while it was coming down so hard. It then turned to a light rain which followed us almost into West Glacier NP.

Fish Creek Campground

I had made reservations online prior to the start of the trip for 2 days at the Fish Creek Campground. We were all camped in Loop A for our final get together. Everyone in the group had made reservations for 2 nights. This is a couple of pics of Lake McDonald from the Visitor’s Center boat dock.

Fish Creek is located on Lake McDonald on the west side of Glacier NP. It was a beautiful setting among the trees. I got settled in and took Chica for a walk. We hadn’t gone 100 feet, when a large deer crossed the road in front of us. At first both the deer and Chica stopped and just stared at each other. Then as the deer started across the road Chica began getting braver and started to bark. It was very funny. Sorry but I didn’t have my camera at the time, but this is the same deer I saw later looking for food inside the campground. It is between the two tall trees just right of center.

I Brake for Bears too!

The next morning I decided to take a drive north of our campground. About 10 miles up the road I saw a bunch of cars stopped on the road. Up here that only means one thing. There must be something for a photo opportunity. I stopped also and sure enough there was a black bear (only it was colored brown) foraging the area at the side of the road for food (probably berries).

I didn’t want to get too close to this guy. I may have come within a foot of a rattlesnake but did not want to get within a foot of this guy.

Happy 75th Birthday

That night we all met for a 75th birthday party. Randy found out he was not the only one celebrating this milestone birthday. After checking with all the others in our group, he found out that there were 6 of us who have or would be celebrating their 75th birthday shortly. So he and Suzanne bought a cake and we all celebrated with them.

Here is Randy emceeing the party.

And the delicious cake!

Here are the 75’ers. Age means nothing to any of them as they were all very active. From left to right standing, Linda, Al, Randy and Suzanne. Sitting is Dian and Pete. Happy 75th guys! I hope I too will be as active at that age as you are.

Our last night together

We had fun getting together for the celebration since it was our last night together. We took a group picture of those camping at Fish Creek. However it is missing John and Linda, Coy and Cynthia, as well as Tony and Michelle who departed earlier.

Standing from left to right: Linda, Carole, yours truly, Suzanne, Al, Anna, Randy, Nikki, Steve, Pam and John. Sitting and kneeling: Dian, Pete and Zoe.

Pete from the Lazy Daze Northwest group was the wagon master for this wonderful trip. I only knew a few people prior to starting this adventure, but got to know everyone before it ended, I had a fabulous time and it is an adventure I will never forget. I had never been in Alberta before but certainly enjoyed all it’s beauty and the congeniality of it’s people.

Many thanks to Pete for organizing such a wonderful trip and to John and Linda who suggested it to me back in January at Quartzsite. Plus to all the wonderful people who went on this trip who I can now call my friends. I know we will all meet up at other times throughout our adventures.