Summer Trip 2017 - Jackson Hole and Horse back riding

Dear Readers,

So for our last day, we kind of did not plan as well as before.  We tried a hike near Jackson Hole, but it turned out to be a really straight road through a field, without much to look at.  We decided we didn't want to do that, so we drove the road, and there really was not much to see but a few prairie dogs.

So we made reservations to go horse back riding.  Since we had some time to kill, we did a little shopping in Jackson Hole.  Neither of us are big shoppers.  So we walked around and we bought a few souvenirs.  Then headed to the horseback riding near the Grand Tetons.

Let me say that I do not normally ride, and neither does Celeste.  We were put on horses and they adjusted the stirrups for us, and off we went.

 We headed up a mountain to get good view of the area and take some pictures.  When we got to the top a small front came along and with the thundering and some rain,  the horses started to get nervous and were kind of skittish.  The lady who was stopped next me horse started to back up, so my horse started to back up too. Her horse looked like it might go over the edge of the ridge and mine was headed that way too...I kicked mine as hard as I could and she got away from the edge.  The other ladies started over and the guide rode over and grabbed the lead and pulled them back up.  It was a little scary.  I thought for a bit that she and her horse might fall as the drop off was pretty steep.  They decided picture time was over and we headed back down.   Since mine was still very nervous, the other guide grabbed my lead too and lead my horse till she calmed down.

After we rode, we went to a barbecue place for supper.  It was good, but I think I like Southern barbecue better.  Headed home a little early so we could do laundry and get things organized to leave in the morning.

Summer Trip 2017 Yellowstone Day 2

Hey Readers,

We started this day by going to see Old Faithful!  We walked around the path by the geysers and then took a seat to wait for Old Faithful to blow.  It took quite a wait...probably with the walk around the path and the wait on the horseshoe shaped benches, about 40 minutes, but we were rewarded with a dramatic show, after a few false alarms.

We stopped for another short walk around the paint pots.  Boy are they stinky.  Smells like sulfur. We did not tarry there!

After we left Old Faithful we went to do our hike.  Today Celeste had found a hike for us that was rated moderate.  Canyon Rim North Trail.  The All Trails app lists this as an 8.3 mile hike but I don't think we went 8.3 miles.  My fit bit had 8.3 miles that day, but it showed about 75 floors for elevation changes.   This trail, did not have any snow, thankfully!  It did have a lot of stairs and was pretty crowded.  It was by far the most crowded hike of the trip.  Again I was thankful to have my hiking poles.  Very few people use them but I don't think I would be able to do those hikes without them.  Most of the elevation changes were on this first hike.  You walk down a canyon and then end on a platform where you can photograph the waterfalls.  Then it is back up.  We figured out I do best if we do about 20 stairs then stop to breath then 20 more, etc.

After that we happened upon another hike that sounded good to go to Ribbon Lake or Lily Pad Lake. We chose not to do the longer Ribbon Lake as I don't hike fast enough for us to finish it by dark...We hiked till the trail got really muddy and messy.  Then we turned around.  On this hike we saw some of the most amazing colors of rocky cliffs.  Really evident why the park is called Yellowstone!  It was truly a feast of colors between the blue sky, the yellow stone, the green trees, white clouds.  God's amazing handiwork was certainly on display.

On the way out of the park we stopped to see some more hot springs and ended up seeing a herd of bison...so cool!

Tomorrow....Horse back riding near the Grand Tetons...

Summer Trip 2017 Yellowstone Day 1

Dear Readers,

If you are going to go to a national park, may I suggest buying the park pass?  It cost $80 and by the third day we were ahead of the game on park admissions and you don't have to take time to pay on your way in.  They are good for a calendar year and you can have two names on the pass.  As long as one of those two people are in the car, you are admitted for free.  I left with Celeste as she has more opportunities to visit parks than I do. If I do need it, she can put it in the mail to me.

So we got up left Powell and drove to Yellowstone.  Celeste  had picked a hike for us near Yellowstone Lake.  It is rated an easy hike that is 3.7 miles long.  You walk up there is a loop near the top and then walk back down.  It started out pretty good, but as we went there were more trees to climb over.  Elevation change at this part of the hike was relatively gentle.

As you climb it became steeper and as we walked a little farther we hit snow.  It wasn't too bad at first.  Although Celeste told me I walk like I don't trust my knees.  I am sure that is true.  They were holding up well to the hiking but my fitness level, or lack there of, slowed us down a lot.  But we really ended up going super slow through the highest part as the snow was about knee deep.  Celeste is light enough that she does not usually break through the crustiness of the top.  I, on the other hand, was sinking to my knees or beyond on every step.  We didn't take any picture of the really deep stuff...I only fell a few times...Celeste not at all.  But no serious injuries.  The only real problem is my boot filled of snow and water and I was squishing every step and ended up with blisters on my right pinky toe.

When we got to the top we were rewarded with a fabulous view of Yellowstone lake.  My fitbit watch said we climbed the equivalent of 58 floors.

We picked a airbnb in Driggs, ID.  It was a little farther out than some we had looked at on line, but it was going to have three true bedroom, a full kitchen, a washer, and two baths...we knew we would need some pampering and a laundry by then.  We stayed there three nights.

Next day....more Yellowstone!

Summer Trip 2017 - Big Horn National Park

Dear Readers,

So Celeste and I had woke up in Deadwood, SD and were planning to do a hike or two on our way to Powell, WY the second airbnb of our trip...Powell is between Yellowstone and Bighorn National Parks, close to the North East side of Yellowstone.  I was constantly amazed at how beautiful a country we get to live in and how much wide open spaces are still out there!

After breakfast we drove to our first real hike Roughlock Trail near Lead, SD.  It was rated an easy hike of about 2.1 miles up and back hike.

After that hike we drove through Big Horn National Forrest where it was snowing (!!) on the 28th of May!

I was sure we were not getting the second hike in as it was so bad, but about a half hour out of the snow, it was nice and dry so we took the second hike of the day at State Line Trail near Grass, Montana by the Bighorn River.
This trail, while short, less than a mile,  was very rocky so I really relied on my hiking poles.  Celeste started calling me Two-poles Turnage and I was calling her Mountain-goat McKeon as she was capable of scampering up the mountain while I was using my poles to get up or down best I could.

See that white speck? Almost at the edge of the scrub brush...  That is my car!

After the hike we headed to the our next Airbnb in Powell, WY.  We were met by a very nice girl and a lot of beautiful Huskies!  She showed us the puppies and let us pet them.  I spotted a robins nest with 3 babies in it and pointed it out to her.  She knocked two birds out of the nest before I knew it and the huskies got them.  :(  Said they didn't like birds.... Anyway other than the bird drama it was a good night.

Tomorrow .... Yellowstone day 1!

Summer Trip 2017 - Mount Rushmore

Hey Readers,

There are going to be series of posts on a trip I took with my daughter, Celeste.  They are not quilt related so if you are looking to read about quilts...look for posts that are not titled with Summer Trip....

For everyone else....

We took this trip at the end of May and the beginning of June.  I don't like to post to social media when I travel.  But I don't want to forget this trip as it was a trip of a lifetime!  So I decided to blog about each of the days adventures.  Every day we took a hundred or more photos, but I am going to limit the number I include to my favorite 10 to 12 photos.

I had driven to Denver and got there on a Thursday night late.  I was late coming in Thursday as there had been tornado warnings on the interstate, so I had sat in a Hampton Inn lobby near the Kansas Colorado border for about an hour and a half waiting for the weather to clear.

Friday I ran a number of last minute errands, bought a couple of books on CD for us to listen to, bought a rain jacket, socks, bought a new camera, picked up our national park pass, filled the car and just got ready in general.

Saturday morning Celeste and I got up fairly early, loaded the car and hit the road.

We drove to Mount Rushmore and did the hike around it even tho it was raining off and on.  This hike is rated an easy hike and is fairly short...  6 tenths of a mile.  It is a loop trail that has a lot of stairs!!  Even tho it was short, I had to rest a time or two...but pictures needed to be taken anyway.
Wink, wink!

Took a lot of pictures out of the car window...If you zoom in you can see the profile of Crazy Horse.

First view of Mount Rushmore..you can see the storm clouds rolling in but we pressed forward anyway.

After entering the park, you can really get a good view.
 

As you do the hike around there are points that you can get the best view of each president.

Here is a photo of a sculpture of the guy who was the designer...it is an amazing monument to see and to see the story of the process to sculpt it was amazing.  Definitely worth the trip...

After we left Rushmore we were headed to the city of our first night in a Airbnb.  On a whim we stopped at a drive through animal park.  While we saw a lot of neat animals, it was painful as the you crept along at about 2 miles an hour...

Our first airbnb experience was a good one.  Although the first place we rented was  studio... I need to confess that I am a noisy sleeper and Celeste is a light sleeper, so that is not the best combo.  We quickly came to the conclusion that we were better with accommodations that gave us separate sleeping quarters.  Fortunately we had only booked two places that were studios...so the rest of the trip should be more restful for Celeste!

First day on the road was a success.  Next day heading to Big Horn National Park.  :)  That will be another post!

TWO, (count'em) FINISHES

Dear Readers,

I finished two quilts since I posted last.  TWO!!  That has to be some kind of record...at least for me.

I picked up the quilt for Laura and Will Temple from Betty Lewis and did my first flanged binding.  It  was a good way to get in on quick as I only had one day to get it bound.  I had planned to take it Birmingham on our next trip, but I had thought I would have more days between pick up and delivery day...it just didn't work out that way!

I had posted a photo of it, before Betty quilted it, and lots of Facebook friend had suggested names.  When I got it back and looked at it, I decided "Hip to Be Square" would be it's name.  We have had a lot of rain in Missisissippi this last month and my fence is not tall enough for me to hang the quilt on it so I hung it on a rail outside the welcome center in Columbus...all is good except they have some convince outlets that prevent it from hanging straight.  The pattern is called Sassy 16 from the book Bust your PreCut Stash.  I changed the background from solid to scrappy and used a jelly roll for the colored parts.  I didn't measure it but it is about 93 x 75.

Here are a couple of shot of the binding and Betty Lewis's quilting!

The second quilt was a baby quilt for a first grandchild that a dear friend is having.  I did an eye-spy quilt and put number fabric on the back as she used to teach math....she teaches Chem and Physics now.  I used Pat Yamin's Eye Spy Templates to fussy cut each of the hexies.

I quilted this one by stitching in the ditch around the eye-spy blocks.  Then free motion quilting on the border.  I did a swirling star thing there.  This one finishes about 50 by 47...

Here is close up of it.

While we were in Birmingham I asked my dad to tell some stories...here he is.  The video is 3-4 minutes long.

Happy sewing...

Terry