When I woke up this a.m. and looked across the field for one of the last times, I spied these 6 turkeys, wandering and eating along the fence. Tells me Fall is here. I wished it was Bears! Oh well....I think I have come to love the Wapiti Valley and I can see us returning to it. Beauty and nature is hard to leave. We had an easy trip up here to Hardin Montana today. Beautiful weather but not totally uneventful. We washed down the coach last night and mostly had everything ready to go but the dump and hook up this morning. Decided diesel was cheaper in Billings so we would wait and gas up there. Back through the 3 tunnels by the reservoir we went.....no problem....a lot less scary after I've driven through there a dozen times! We had a nice drive up through the valley and stopped for lunch in Laurel Montana just before we got onto I90.. They have 2 refineries there, a person would think it would make a difference in the price of gas and diesel....NOT! Anyway, nice little drive through park and we stopped and ate and got on I90.  Stopped on the other side of Billings and got diesel at a Flying J. $4.09....  Just out of Billings, a trucker pulled up beside us and started pointing back and mouthing "door!" So we immediately pulled over and got out and sure enough. The battery compartment door on the passenger side was open about a foot and the battery tray holding 4 batteries was slid out...! It's a wonder they didn't launch right off of there! WHEW! Dodged a bullet right there. Got it fixed and then stopped at a rest area about 2 miles down the road and DH did a walk around   AGAIN.....  Then......big signs that read  "Rattlesnakes observed....please stay on sidewalk" and we'd been out in the ditch! Well, that's fine....I'll just stay in the coach! and I did.....  Got over here to Hardin about 2 p.m. and am real happy with this lil park. Nice, Quiet, our own protected picnic table and lots of room...kinda on the edge of town so a nice long view to fields afar! Grass and a liitle tree. Wyatt spent quite a bit of time outside this afternoon. Tonight everybody resting. Hooray we have 50 channels of tv. I think I'll stay up late and watch the weather channel or some other thing I've missed for a month (ha...ha) To look at DH and Wyatt you'd think I worked them way too hard today! We drove around town to see what is here.....a little over 3,000 people. Since it's right on the Crow Reservation...I have seen quite a few Native Americans. There is a Prison here, out on the edge of town.....a Pamida....IGA Groc. store and bars that smell like grease downtown around the corner from the one stoplight. Taco John's and McDonalds within walking distance from here. Woo Hoo! We haven't been eating out much so I doubt if that matters anyway. I'm going to do a recap post of our visit to Wyoming now too....don't know what day we will go into the Res. and visit Custer's Last Stand Battlefield and the museums. We will also take a trip back and drive around and through Billings.  

A good last day at Yellowstone Park. Packed a lunch and left at 1 pm. Stopped at Sylvan Lake and talked to some folks from Cedar City IA. having a picnic by the lake. Took some pics of the turning leaves and foliage that definitely has changed since our last visit. Took a turn off the main road and went down a lane to explore Pelican Valley. Lots of cars, but everyone must have been hiking in the valley. About where we saw the bears before, we spotted a Beaver building a dam in a tributary across the road from the lake. Getting ready for winter no doubt. Went on to Fishing Bridge General Store, wandered around, had an ice cream cone. Talked to a lady from Colorado Springs that gave me some tips on Aprons. Drove back to the meadow to hang out and watch about 5:30. Talked to a retired Veterinarian for a while and that's when we spotted the 2 coyotes walking along the same path as the bears we had seen on an earlier trip. I could have sworn they were wolves, but was out voted. We watched them for about a half hour. No bears, oh darn. Drove to a lookout point a mile up on top of a hill that looks down over Yellowstone lake. Theres tons of islands out there that you don't really see at lake level. Spectacular is a word that comes to mind. We got back out of the park just at dark. Deer were every where along the road. Thankfully they didn't run out in front of me.  2 buffalo in the middle of the road this side of the park entrance. Knowing this was our last trip in this year....I really tried to drink it all in today. I even took pictures of how clear the water was today. Before the lake water has appeared Turquoise Green....today it was really clear. Check out the pics in the Blog Pics.

This campground is keeping really busy. I keep thinking every day that it will start slowing down.  We went to Cody today to do some business and stopped for Breakfast at the Irma Hotel. Buffalo Bill Cody's favorite watering hole. It is the original hotel, restaurant and lounge....beautiful woodwork and walls and ceilings. Pretty neat.  Was a very good breakfast menu. I had an Ham and Cheese Omelet and DH opted for the buffet which was excellent....complete with Bread Pudding and Whiskey Sauce ( not all the alcohol boiled out) DH asked what would happen if he just drank the sauce and the waitress replied, "Then you'd be good til Happy Hour!"  At this point I pretended to be someplace else.......you can't pick your relatives........  We took in a couple of tourist traps, drove through an RV park in town and on to pick up a few groceries for the week. Still can't pass by Wally without pulling in....too dang convenient. Should be good to go for the trip North. Still haven't made it back up in the park. We're supposed to have really nice weather now for the remaining time here. I need to get outside and do some work on the appearance of the coach. I am replacing the velcro on the windshield wiper covers. Got one done last night and will do the other one tomorrow. Taking the old velcro off made my fingers really sore. They are busy letting water out of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir. It's level is really a lot lower than when we arrived. One would think that it's getting too late for that...but I think they're using it to generate electricity and not just for irrigation. Got down to 41 last night. Not supposed to be that cool the rest of the week, so we probably won't even need the heat! I'm suggesting going to the park tomorrow afternoon. We never have made it to the Teton's and down to Cody. That will have to wait til another trip...talked to several people who said it was VERY EXPENSIVE over there. We don't need that. Gas and Diesel this month is gonna be a real deal anyway.

We got up late and lavished around in the heat that we had! It was nice. Decided I needed to go to town to get a fax so I can turn all this work into our Continued Service Plan. We went at lunchtime, so we stopped in to "Bubba's BBQ"  and had a sandwich. It was pretty good but no Famous Daves! Good food and not very expensive. We went to the mail store and Ft. Lupton is having issues with their phone service this afternoon, so I couldn't get my fax. We stopped in a Health Food and Supplement Store downtown and looked around. Stopped at the local Gambles store and then Wally to get some bananas. We are having nuke food for supper and fresh peaches. Being friday we are getting ready for the weekend here at camp and a cold front that comes in later tonight. It was another beautiful afternooon and we stopped at one of the Historical markers right out of Cody on the way back here....there were some folks having a lunch break there and we ended up talking to them for about an hour. Theywere from Iowa, heading to Yellowstone tomorrow. We didn't make it to the park today...we will again one of these days. Several folks walking around picking out sites this afternoon. I suppose it will fill up. Fall's last hoorah and all. These pics were taken looking down into the river at Hell Canyon. I like the red slices of rock. Sounds like the area that we have scoped out for January is getting pounded by Ike. We may just head directily to Arizona again! Will have to see.

We got our part this afternoon for our heating system and after the resident Service Tech got it installed......it works! We have boil.....The weather was beautiful today. No rain, little wind,  We stayed up late last night, slept in late this morning, as we knew we had to stay home today and wait for the mail. I decided I'd do a couple loads of laundry, do a little cleaning and read my latest book. I fixed lunch and was cleaning up when DH went out to start the project. Earlier I had used our hand held bug zapper and killed two hornets that were visiting in here! We have them around here daily. So I showed DH and he put them in the trash. I was throwing some scraps away and lifted the lid and felt terrific pain on the inside of my ring finger on my right hand! Apparently I only stunned the hornet! I yelled really loud. After ice the pain was subsiding, so I decided to take advantage of the nice day and go out and set at the picnic table with the dogs and watch the project in the basement. Put the dogs on the leash and was just sitting there, when Wyatt decided that the cat next door needed a wake up call. Ripped the leash around my little finger on my left hand and I heard a "Pop" , Blood running from the nail....I'm pretty sure it's broke. I yelled again and headed inside..... So here I sit tonight, both hands crippled up and swollen. I'm sure it's going to be a better day tomorrow. We haven't planned anything yet. Heat is working, so far so good, and it's not supposed to get too cold tonight.  I may stay up and read and get up late again tomorrow. We may go into the park, I want to pack a lunch and just sit over by the lake...that seems to be where most of the animal action is. DH talked to some folks from New York that showed up here last night that were our neighbors in Colorado Springs for a couple of weeks! They came through the park last night and saw 4 wolves the same place that we saw the bears! We'll see.......