Knittinggarden

Edited to add:  I started writing this post early in June.....good thing I don't put everything off quite this long.  So finally, here's the saga: I like to keep myself in pretty good shape.  I eat well, exercise regularly, like to try new things like kickboxing, but I'm no athlete.  So then why, last Saturday morning (June 6th) at 6:30 am, was I pushing my bike along the path to the park where I was registered for a sprint triathlon?  Yes, that's right - triathlon. Now if you've been reading my sporadic blog for umpteen years, you might remember that I did a half marathon back in 2010 with the Princess.  Setting that goal for myself and achieving it with her at my side was a monumental accomplishment for me.  But I found out that I really don't like running and, despite my best intentions, really didn't keep up any sort of a running program after that.  I do normal stuff like walk and work out at the gym with weights (and tried kickboxing la...

We left our hotel in West Yellowstone fairly early in the morning.  We didn't have a really long drive, but we could not abide the annoying (Chinese) tourists in the hotel for another minute.  Someone needs to teach these guys how to behave before they go traveling internationally.  Rant over. Anyway, we hit the road for Butte, MT.  Before we had gone too far, we ran across Quake Lake.  This is a lake that was formed due to a massive earthquake/landslide that occurred in 1959.  An entire campground full of people was swept away and the river valley was turned into a lake.  Dead trees protrude up from the water in a ghostly way.  Reminder:  Click photos to enlarge. The drive was nice; we enjoyed seeing wide open spaces and beautiful mountains as a backdrop.  Now these guys have big yards! We stopped along the way in Ennis to have breakfast and did a little shopping for some Montana products but pressed on as DH was scheduled ...

Picking up where we left off, we drove away from Devil's Tower and continued on toward Gillette, WY.  If you're wondering why we picked some of these places to stop, it was because DH had dialysis appointments set up before we left CA and the availability and location of appropriate facilities somewhat decided our stopping points.  Anyway, we ended up going through some more mountains to get there and this time it was snowing quite heavily for awhile.  Of course, it was my turn to drive again and windy mountain roads with slush on the pavement makes for nervous driving.  We made it, of course, and then continued through spectacular mountain scenery with switchback roads cut right out of the rock in some cases.  Getting behind the slowpokes who think speeding up to 25MPH is what the road signs mean made it a little more interesting(!)  We arrived safely in Gillette, and stayed in a sort of industrial area that was nothing to speak of.  With dialysis out...