The wind blew 55 mph wind gusts all day today. Started out before daylight. Along with that, the temperature was down around 40 and we had to fire up the heat! I had charlie horses in my right leg most of the night so chose to sleep in rather late, by that I mean 10 a.m. late!! When I worked on the road and drove about 20 miles a day everyday, I used to get horrible calf cramps at night. Guess I really needed a day off. Got up and took a nice long warm shower and spent the rest of the day doing bookwork that had been neglected all month and can now happily say I'm caught up! We have rocked and rolled all day and DH has spent the day in his chair with KayCee and a book. She doesn't like rockin and Rollin, so she chooses to lay in his lap! It may also have something to do with us leaving them all day yesterday. In getting ready for tomorrow, we will be going into Cody and doing the Tourist thing, complete with watching the gunfight at the Irma hotel in the evening and a Nature walk along the Shosone River. We will drop the dogs off in the morning at the daycare. It's only supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow, hopefully with not as much wind. The only good thing is that the fire smoke has been non exsistant today because of the wind. They are forcasting showers and SNOW showers for Labor Day weekend and Monday. We don't have any specific plans....there are some nice folks here in this park and maybe we can get a gathering or BBQ planned or something. I think it would be really nice if the wind wouldn't blow at least one day, so we could use our patio awning! Looking forward to a relaxed day exploring Cody. We still have a couple of weeks here and I want to make a couple of more trips in to Yellowstone to watch for bears and explore some other towns around here.

This week is turning out to be more work than a job! We started out Monday going Northeast out of town and took the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway up to the North East Entrance to Yellowstone and then followed the Beartooth HIghway down through the North Absaroka Wilderness area of Yellowstone in hopes of seeing wildlife. The driving every day is trying. We had lunch at the Dead Indian Campground and I was startled by a small bull! Just turned around to be aware of my surroundings and he was staring at me from across a stream! Glad it wasn't a bear! Continuing up the mountain...switchbacks and steep, narrow mountain roads. Then we made it back down to the Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake where we saw the greatest amount of wildlife. My request was filled when we came upon a buffalo carcass by a stream and a large grizzly came bounding across a marsh and began feeding on the carcass. We saw 200+ buffalo yesterday and probably that many today. A herd was on the road and we were all stopped. Some of the young bulls were fiesty and wanting to spar a little and were getting mighty vocal. On down by Yellowstone Lake, there was another boar grizzly walking along a pond and further down  we spotted a mama grizzly and 2 playful cubs. We saw huge Elk...5 mountain goats and many water fowl. Today we drove over 225 miles. Left the dogs in Cody at doggie day care and went to the other side of the park and watched Old Faithful erupt. Had lunch in the cafeteria of the Lodge there. Did a little shopping in the gift shop and went to the 2nd floor for ice cream before heading up the highway and exploring some other geysers and paint pots. Meanwhile the fire has grown to over 22 miles in length. They have over 250 firefighters, 5 helicoptersand 2 staging areas. One to our east and one to the west. It is smokey again here tonight, but when we came out of the park tonight, they have one of the horse lodge - ranches on evacuation notice and it looked like the flames were right behind their main buildings. Sad deal. Hope they save it.  Saw a beautiful new Monaco Coach today at the intersection going to Fishing Bridge, that had been in a collision with another vehicle....what a mess. Took out the drivers side front quarter.....two or three bays and the front corner was all smashed. Not a cheap deal...probably $25,000 dollars of damage and it'll never be the same. DH was having a ball today looking at geysers and water falls. He's into reading all the history behind these wonders, and quite the photog.

Happy Saturday to ya!!! We're having a really late morning. Just finished breakfast...I cooked...pancakes, eggs and bacon. It's 11:30!!! We spent yesterday working on our water system and tanks and are just completing that process this morning too. We sanitized the system and changed all the water filters. We have a lot better water pressure when we do that. Had a very restless night. KayCee thought she needed to go out all night.....the cold front came through and we had to turn on the heat early this morning. With the front, the wind changed directions and with the Gunbarrel fire burning away, the smoke here this morning is pretty bad. The helicopters are going to town this morning. I have an exhaust fan that I run when I cook, and with that on, a lot of the smoke smell is gone from in here. Not a good day to spend outside right here. We are thinking of going down and touring the Bill Cody Reservoir and dam today. It's between us and Cody. Guess we'll see how bad the smoke is on down there. I need to get milk and will not be going into Cody, so we'll go the other direction about 4 miles to the Quick Shop and check with the fire command and check status. DH finished hooking up an outside thermometer that was disconnected when we bought the coach. It still doesn't work, maybe that's why it was disconnected! That's a good gift idea.... We have met several nice couples since we've been here. All retired and pretty much doing what we are doing. Traveling around in a coach seeing the country. If ya want to see some more pictures and read some info on the Gunbarrel Fire...what we're seeing just across the road from us....here is the link.........  http://www.inciweb.org/incident/pictures/1439/   It's pretty impressive to see the flames 20 ft. in the air in the dark, knowing that it's not travelling this direction and knowing that it's helping to rid the forest and area of the pine beetles makes it a little easier to handle the smoke! Pine beetles are really bad in Yellowstone and it's a shame to see all the dead trees. The only thing that will help is a controlled burn. There's 4 fires burning up there now that we saw the other day. They're high up and won't affect anyone....will burn out with the turn of winter and snow. Don't have neighbors on either side today. Last night after dark,  a rent a wreck pulled in beside us and there were 6 orientals that didn't speak english! We just stayed in....they left this morning, but from the sounds of things they had quite a time hooking up their rig.... Every day is an adventure!!!!

We have a forest fire burning not too far from here...No....not headed this way, but it really got riled up today with strong gusty winds. It started the 26th of July with lightning, and they decided that it wasn't threatening any structure, so they would use it to clear some of the dead trees up there and help kill off the pine beetles that are wrecking the forest, and killing trees. There's about 170 fire fighters at  base camp staging area. They work in shifts and sleep in tents. Most are mutual aid from other states. They've been running a couple of helicopters with a big bucket that they drop in the reservoir below is and then take it up and dump it on hot spots. Tonight  is the first time you can see the flames and the smoke was really moving. The wind is really blowing. DH talked to one of the firefighters tonight and they said if it keeps goin, they'll call in more help. At one time they had 5 helicopters goin. I've been tryin to get a picture of one every time they come by, but they're too high, I finally got one today that you can kinda see.

We went into Cody today and bought enough stuff to last for the whole weekend. There's a Motorcycle Rally starting tomorrow through the weekend in Cody and I don't think that's any place I want to be!!!! They have a poker run through Yellowstone on Saturday so won't be up there either. Probably go check out some towns across the border in Montana. We had a bite of lunch and then went up to Yellowstone for our first tour! Got an Annual Pass for $50.00 that covers both Yellowstone and Teton National Park. The fire and pine beetle damage there was really bad on this side. We stopped for a bit at Sylvan lake, Then stopped on the beach of Yellowstone Lake, but didn't get out....there were 4 ft. waves coming in!! There's bear warnings everywhere....we had to stop on the road because there were a ton on people stopped taking pictures of a big old buffalo standing right along the road. You'll see how close we got! Some of the people were walking right up to it....STUPID!!! DH saw a big buck standing in some trees but we couldn't stop. We have a lot more trips in to make. Hope to see more wildlife. DH just came in from a potty walk with the dogs and it's dark now, he said it's all a red glow directly North of here now. We stopped to check on taking some planned tours from Yellowstone Hotel, but they all start way too early! I guess I'm elected to be chief trip planner and tour guide, and oh yes...head chauffeur...Am trying to plan trip west to Jackson Hole and West Yellowstone. Don't think we can do all that in a day and we will probably have to spend the night and finish the next day. We checked out a kennel for the dogs for daycare. It's called Cody Country Bed and Biscuit. Think I'll make dates for Tuesday and Thursday next week so will have a little freedom! Love em but need a break once in a while.

                                                  Spirit Mound in Thermopolis WY

The past few days have been anything but calm......I feel like we've been moving for days!!! Lost track of what day it was and had all kinds of different experiences. Left Cheyenne WY on Saturday morning in the pouring rain....it just kept raining farther and farther north. I thought we'd run right out of it and we never lost it until after we left Casper. Continued on Northwest through Wind River Canyon towards Yellowstone and we stopped for 2 days in Thermopolis WY. at a little park called 'Fountain of Youth." The park has a large mineral hot springs pool, actually split in three different pools according to warmth. They drilled a well in 1918 and hit this Natural Spring. They claim its good for lots of different ailments. We spent some time in it yesterday and I got up at 7 this morning and went and swam and soaked for about an hour. It was so warm and nice...peaceful and calm that early. The RV Park was nothing special, we had the usual weekend camping crowd with loud kids and smokey fires. Yesterday when everyone was leaving....I had Wyatt and KayCee out for a walk and saw a woman dumping the sewer on their little pull camper across from us....didn't think too much about it, until she disconnected it and walked out in the tent camping area in front of their rig and commenced to swinging the sewer hose around over her head like a lariat!!!  My mouth dropped open and I couldn't even speak! That's so terribly unsanitary...I feel sorry for those who tent camp there now. I sure didn't walk back through there with the dogs. A blog friend of mine, on this description, said "Some people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce!" I agree. I feel like we've really been out of touch. We didn't have any cell service, TV or Internet while we were there. We have really graduated today.....We made the 108 mile trek through Cody WY. up the road 18 miles to the Yellowstone Valley. The entrance to the park is about 30 miles farther. We have NBC at least so won't miss the rest of the Olympics and I have great cell reception and my Air Card works great. At least I can keep up with my usual stuff on here. It is beautiful here in the valley and we will be here for a month. Gonna do a lot of sight seeing and commuting with nature.....It is really beautiful here.......think we'll enjoy this. Saw something pretty neat already tonight. A Fire Helicopter towing a big water bucket, flew right over us and headed down to the reservoir for water. I couldn't get the camera fast enough. Doubt if he comes back this way though.....