How I spent last weekend....and this weekend....

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Last weekend we had a good time and I'll continue discussing that in a moment. This weekend has been consumed rebuilding the software on my home computer so I can get my wife's 12, 800+ photographs back and backed up. Thanks Vaughn for the offer of assistance. I got lucky and it just took some time to get the OS loaded and functioning. But it is....I am working from that computer right now.

Last weekend we attended a retirement celebration for a guy who I first met in Solon, Ohio 30 years ago this coming March. Brian is a very special person and they had a very special retirement celebration for him. Because of the geographical separation between the engineers in our area, each individual area has an annual get together. The folks in Montana combined their annual get together with Brian's retirement celebration at West Yellowstone last weekend. My wife is terrified of winter driving and seldom leaves the confines of our valley during the winter months. I was afraid she'd back out at the last moment. It's 497 miles from our home in Lewiston Idaho to West Yellowstone, MT. Since breaking my back nearly 7 years ago, driving long distances irritates it more than anything. We left on Friday and spent the night near Bozeman, MT. Saturday we drove into West Yellowstone. The retirement dinner that night was held at the Bar N Ranch. Check out their website. Rustic elegance best describes it. Sunday, a 60 mile 8 1/2 hour snow coach tour of Yellowstone Park. That evening we returned to Bozeman. 2 1/2 hours to go 87 miles. It was snowing so hard that I was following a car at 35 mph. It was about 200 - 300 yards ahead. It's tracks were covered with snow before I could get to where it was.

Monday we drove from Belgrade MT to Lewiston via I-90 and US 12. Dry roads until we got to the top of Lolo Pass. On the Idaho side....3-4 inches of hardpacked snow with `1/4" of fresh snow on top. I drove 15 mph down the 6 mile 6% grade. My wife, bless her heart, held up well. Upon arriving home I asked her would she do it again.....Her reply..."In a heartbeat but we'd stay an extra day and take the other tour they offer in the winter"......We had a ball....Here's a few photos.....

What you don't want to see up close and personal in Yellowstone Park...

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A snow coach is my preferred way to travel in the park at this time of year
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Oh give me a home where the bison roam......
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Elk were abundant......
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The LOML and I at Firehole Falls.....
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Early that morning the sky was clear...here's a view of the Madison River...
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Snow clouds moved in about noon.....You could barely see Old Faithful do her thing for the snow clouds and blowing snow...
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Looks like a fun trip, Ken. I doubt I could talk LOML into being out in the cold that long. (She's a SoCal girl through and through.)

Am I correct in assuming you spent the night in Belgrade? Our band played a week in Bozeman years ago and the bar put us up in a little prefab motel in Belgrade. Low budget accomodations, but it had a great restaurant with food even a bunch of starving musicians could afford.
 
Looks like a fun trip, Ken. I doubt I could talk LOML into being out in the cold that long. (She's a SoCal girl through and through.)

Am I correct in assuming you spent the night in Belgrade? Our band played a week in Bozeman years ago and the bar put us up in a little prefab motel in Belgrade. Low budget accomodations, but it had a great restaurant with food even a bunch of starving musicians could afford.

Vaughn.....Yup we stayed in Belgrade going home at a new Holiday Inn Express. We've stayed in Belgrade before....back in our skiing days when we came over at Christmas with our youngest son to ski Big Sky.
 
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