Eclipse – Dubois, WY

8/12 – Granby – Grand Lake, CO

This statue caught more fish than the old man!
The remnants of his baby trout meal, somewhat pathetic, wouldn’t you agree…
Notice my Dumbo ears – wind was blowing 20 kts in my face but I was watching marmets and picas in the wild so life is good.
Another geological feature that gets the old man excited, looks like an unconformity to me.

8/13 – Grand Lake – Boulder, CO (Marge and Jack’s house)

Joyce (my favorite person) arrives from Baltimore – true to form the old man fails to pick her up at the airport and makes her take an Uber (he offers to pay) but this is going to cost him big time.  He had a somewhat logical excuse but of course she wasn’t buying it.

A small selection of the old man’s girlfriends. From left to right: Laura (Rick’s date), Joyce (his real girlfriend) and Marge (Jack’s wife and his Colorado girlfriend).

8/14-15 – Boulder

We spent three days at Jack and Marge’s place in Boulder where I got to play with Gizmo and some other dog whose name I can’t remember (after all I will be turning 70 in dog years in December).  We all had fun while the old man worked on editing this blog – as you can see it has taken him almost another three months to finally post it (can he be more of a slacker?).

I’m on the job 

8/16 – Boulder – Grand Lake, CO

8/17 – Grand Lake – Saratoga, WY

 

It’s people like this that put Trump into office – I’ll never use my AMEX card again
The remainder of him is in the meat section (bison burger) – this place must be intimidating for vegans…
Needless to say the old man logged some significant time in this establishment over the course of his visits to town

 

8/18-19 – Saratoga

Wyoming’s 20th Annual Brew Fest…the old man was happy to comply with the instructions.

8/20 – Saratoga – Shoshone, WY

The old man flanked by two of his frat brothers from Wittenberg, can you guess which one was nicknamed “large”?
Let’s hope they didn’t buy cheap eclipse glasses. Notice my favorite person on the right.
The old man taking a selfie during the eclipse – this way you can’t see the bags under his eyes.
This reminded him of his favorite Mexican beer

8/21 – Shoshone – Porcupine Campground, ID (Eclipse Day)

Joyce, my favorite person, hiking near Porcupine Campground in Idaho.
Once again I’m left all alone while my person does a 1.5 mile bike ride (his max range is 3.5 miles, pathetic).

8/22 – Porcupine Campground – Salt Lake City, UT 

Joyce flew home from here – SAD, VERY SAD, I wish it were FAKE NEWS but not so.

8/23 Salt Lake City – Station Creek Campground, WY (Bridger-Teton National Forest)

8/24-25 –  Station Creek Campground

View of the Snake River from our campground – he actually landed two trout via fly rod on this river (they were barely out of diapers so he had to throw them back).
Id’e rather be tied up alone behind the Jeep than inside that trailer during daylight hours. Let’s hope he remembers I’m here when he heads for the bars this evening.
The notch in the middle of Wyoming- a landmark for thousands of years to travelers of all races.
Always on the lookout for wild game (preferably small game)

8/26 – Station Creek – Jackson, WY

They put up this sign a day after the old man had to call 911 to get out of the bathroom ( he really didn’t make the call but it took him awhile to get out).
My person thinks this compilation qualifies as a wildlife experience.
The deck of our favorite wine bar in Jackson, WY – great happy hour and dog friendly, what a combination!
Silver Dollar Bar
Another bar with old farts like him…this is what the west is all about.

8/27 – Jackson – Gros Ventre Campground, Grand Teton National Park

 

The Grand Tetons reflecting in a glacial lake – can you see the normal fault at their base along which movement created the peaks? (neither could he).

8/28-29 – Gros Ventre Campground

8/30 – Gros Ventre – Grant Campground, Yellowstone National Park

Hot ground over the Yellowstone Volcano – he made sure I was on my leash for this adventure.
He told me he shot this fall in a kyak, really?

8/31 – 9/1 –  Grant Campground, Yellowstone NP – the following adventures all occurred in the park

Our next-door camping neighbors were a family of three from ….Washington State, Jonathan, Bridget and five-year-old Olivia. Of course Olivia wanted to meet me and tell me how cute I am (I hear this all the time but it never gets old) and the old man started chatting with Jonathan and Bridget.  I have noticed something of a pattern with this behavior – when he becomes bored with himself (which occurs frequently because of his dull personality) he scopes out the campground neighbors and ties my leash near the ones that appear most interesting and likely to invite him over for a drink.  If they have kids this tactic works 100% of the time and even with adults-only campers I am able to attract some positive attention most of the time.

My new friend Olivia

He hit the jackpot with Jonathan’s family as they invited us over to their campfire to roast marshmallows and make smors.  Red wine was also included in the campfire scene so everyone had a great time.  As we said our good-bye the next morning they actually shared their address and phone number with him and invited us to visit their homestead where we could park our trailer anytime.  (My person mentioned to me that during his bachelor days he would often get ladies to give him their phone numbers only to find that when he tried to call the numbers had been disconnected).

Old Faithful is just behind those trees, I guess the fire hydrant is there in case it drys out and starts shooting flames.
The old man is fishing in Yellowstone Lake, I’m bored with no expectation of seeing a fish.
I started barking when this guy passed our car, luckily he wasn’t interested in us.
One of the numerous hot springs in Yellowstone, which as you all know, sits on the planet’s largest volcano (see post from the Ash Fall Park in Nebraska for more information on this). When (not if) it blows next (the average period is every 600,000 years and it last went off about 700,000 years ago) I want to be close by to avoid a slow death.. The good news:  it’s been known to take up to 2 million years between eruptions so no worries mate, maybe.
This volcano has the potential to be more harmful to the environment than Trump.

The Fun Bunch

The Thursday afternoon “Fun Bunch” at the Old Faithful Lodge bar: Rocky, the President and CEO of the group; the somewhat overly talkative road construction guy who is 47 and has had two mid-life crises so far (no one asked for details); Beth, who makes a living as a musician in Madison, WI (symphony orchestra, salsa band and piano lessons) so she can put two sons through college without student debt; a gentleman from Montana who didn’t say much but was laughing along with everyone; and the retiree from Illinois/Indiana who didn’t want to drive west so he and his wife are on a bus tour.

With the exception of Rocky and Beth, we were all meeting for the first time and yucking it up like a bunch of over-served millennials (this information was reported to me by the old man during our 17-mile driver back to our campground – he was right on 45 mph the entire journey which made me happy).  He said he wanted to meet Beth’s son when we got back to Grant Village as it was his last night of work and there was a big party happening in celebration.  Of course he did’t even come close to finding the party and was snoring up a storm by 9 – he wants me to add that he fed and walked me before he fell asleep/passed out (he’s not a full-blown slacker, just a partial).

9/2 – Grant Campground – Dubois, WY

9/3 – Dubois

Stylish guns on display at the local hardware store.

The old man last visited this town in 1971 when he spent the summer in a real life bunkhouse with 30 other student geologists all participating in a summer field camp.  They would spend the day tromping up and down the terrain hacking on rocks and pretending to be interested in the mineralogy and fossil content of the sedimentary and igneous strata of the Wind River region.  The rocks ranged in age from very old to quite young (he wouldn’t tell me the technical terms for the rock ages as he believes my audience is composed of many dull-witted unscientific people and he doesn’t want them to have to spend extra time googling the scientific terminology).

9/4 – Dubois – Some small town in western Nebraska

Heading home

At first I thought this said “EAT DOGS” and I was very scared, the old man thought that was funny and tried to get me to go inside…where is Joyce when I need her? Of course the BEER sign was what lured him here in the first place.