I have gotten really far behind updating this blog. Today is Friday 6th July and this is the report of happenings of two or three days ago! Sorry about that, but INTERNET access didn't always cooperate.
We stayed overnight Sunday (1 July) at a Travelodge in Livingstone MT; I had made this reservation a month ago, thinking it was an Econolodge that Rachel and I had stayed at two years ago. It wasn't; furthermore, although it is a higher class motel by far, it was a most disappointing stay. Cross that one off my list for good!
Getting up early and starting out Monday morning (2 July), the Grand Mother and Grumpy made Buffalo WY before noon and, after checking in at the Blue Gables (this one is definitely on our list if we come this way again!), we found -- with Garmin's help -- the home of our old friends, Dee and Wilbur Warnick.
Grumpy hadn't seen Dee and Wilbur since about 1949 when both Wilbur and I were going to SDSM&T. Wilbur was standing outside the garage door as we drove up and I recognized him without difficulty. It's a little shocking for Grumpy to realize that all his old friends from his youth have become old and grey! Or bald.
Dee had fixed a nice lunch and we soon sat down for continued visiting and eating. After lunch and more visiting, Wilbur showed off his gun collection (he has some 1800's rifles; one is a single-shot Winchester from the era of Custer's last stand at Little Big Horn), and his trap collection (Wilbur has traps ranging from big, mean bear traps that look they could break the leg bone of a man or beast, down to little spring traps that would be suitable to snare a rabbit). Dee and the Grand Mother bragged about each other's grand children and great grandchildren (the Grand Mother had Dee outshone twenty ways from Sunday on this count!!).
Later, that evening we met and had a steak dinner with Karl Wurtz, with his two boys, and his twin sister, Kathy. Karl had driven over from Thermopolis and Kathy had come to Buffalo from Gillette (now a city of about 40,000!).
Both "kids" (we had them as foster children for about 4 months many years ago) seemed genuinely glad to see us; Kathy has become a professional photographer (her $1000 camera with stabilization mode, etc., outshone mine by a long ways!), but is keeping her day job which has something to do with home construction I believe.
We plan to see Karl again 14 July when we make a quick stop in Thermopolis before continuing on to Lander WY. Kathy said she was going to try to make it over to Thermopolis on that day also, to see us again.
It was good to have these brief visits in Buffalo and we look forward to seeing all again at our next opportunity.
We had planned on visiting Thermopolis WY to insure that we got to see Karl Wurtz, one of our foster children from many years ago. This was because we knew he lived in Thermopolis and may not want to drive the 90 miles or so over the 9900 foot Big Horns mountain pass to Buffalo (Karl did anyway!) where we had planned to (and did) meet his twin sister Kathy. So, even though we had had the pleasure of visiting with both kids in Buffalo, Grumpy still wanted the Grand Mother to see the sights of Thermopolis: the lime/mineral formations created by man's diversion of some hot mineral water through a pipe to a dribbly fountain which allowed the hot water to evaporate and build the column shown on the right; the terrace formations (see previous blogpost (Ward & Elynor's Wandering: Sights around Thermopolis) formed by the natural deposition of the minerals as the hot water evaporated after it flowed out of the natural ten-foot diameter hole in the ground; the picturesque little town and its shops and characters.
Since we arrived in Thermopolis a day earlier than originally planned, we had the opportunity to meet Karl's family and see his home which he and his wife, Jackie have remodeled from its original state. We also got to meet their son, Paul (whom Grumpy had met several years ago when Paul was about 8 or 9), Paul's wife Nickie and their son (Karl's grandson!).
Lo and behold, while Karl had journeyed over to Buffalo to meet us when we met Kathy, so Kathy journeyed over to Thermopolis to meet us when we were there! What a blessing to get to see these two twice on this trip. And as a bonus, Kathy brought her husband, Dan along too. We had breakfast together at the Thermopolis Cafe (the best cook in town, according to Karl) before the Grand Mother and Grumpy departed to drive to Lander for a visit with the Gose's (Neil and Dyllis; see next posting).
