tr

We were in Manitou Springs today.

                                                        Went by cog train to the top

                                                beautiful scenery. It wasn't all rocks & 1 tree !

                                            14,110 feet up ! Wow!  I was  lightheaded. 
                                             but  what's new about that ?

                                           view from the top. You need to see it in person

                                          I slipped in the snow & thought I was going to go over

                                          Can you see how fat the potato chip bag is ?
                                          (not me, the bag)  It's from the high altitude 
                                          people on the train were taking pictures of it. Ha,Ha
                                          when we were almost to the bottom, it was normal

                                          went to Merimont museum. Can you believe a priest
                                           & his mother had it built in 1895

                                          We are in Salida tonight. After dinner we saw these elk 

                                          across the hwy.  Elk are everywhere,  I don't think they

                                          know about hunters!

                                         Tomorrow we head to Gunnison and then down to Durango .

We left WY this morning.  As you saw

WY is pretty empty. We saw a sign this morning

"Dirt for Sale"  I don't think he'll have many customers.

this is what I see in my dreams

entering Colorado. The Aspens are beautiful !

They had snow last night.

We rode the Leadville train  up,up,up. Over 9000 feet

lots of Aspens

1/2 way up we could see the road we came in on

The houses in Leadville are very colorful

Can't get enough of those Aspens

                                         Tonight we're in Manitou Springs CO. I'll take pics

                                          tomorrow. We're heading up Pikes Peak. More Aspens?

We left Yellowstone this morning.  Saw some interesting

animals.

I jumped out of the car & ran down the road to get this picture.
This buffalo walked right in front of the cars.

a

sorry it's smokey. Lots of fires.  This is the start
of the Grand Teton's

this is just part of miles of mountains

can you see the fire ?

                                          We drove across WY. it's 97,914 Sq miles & only has
                                           563,262 people.  We saw very few homes. mostly on
                                          Wind River Indian Reservation. We're spending the
                                          night in Rawlins, WY  & heading to Aspen CO. tomorrow.



                                         By the way I didn't see any moose. That's a picture from our
                                          room.    :)

What a great day !  It was 46 when we got up this morning.

  It did go to 58. We were in the prettiest little town , Livingston MT.

The train museum was closed for the season, but the train station was 

really unique.  It's all red & beige brick.

                                           from there we drove to Butte. The Mountains were
                                           stunning. Even with the smoke. There are fires everywhere.

                                          We went to the Piccadilly Transportation museum
                                           and meant this lovely Lady named Sammie. She says
                                           she is 75, I don't believe her.

her job is to clean license plates & scan them.They are 

sold on line. Her boss started to collect them when he was

14. He is now a millionaire, who would have thought there

would be a market for used plates? Or that someone

had a job cleaning them.  And she loves it.

                                                          Look what we found, Harrison!

                                           Sammie took us to the back & showed us some of the                  
                                           16,000 plates they have from around the world.
                                           Look what was right on top !

          

                                           We then went on a 2 hour  trolley tour around Butte.
                                           You can't go to Butte without seeing a mine. It's called the
                                            richest hill in the world.

                                                    this is one of the mine owners homes.
                                                    the next block are the miners one story ,
                                                    one room wide homes.




                                              On our way north we found another car museum.
                                               are we glad we stopped in Deerlodge. It was one
                                               of the nicest ones we've been in.

                 

                                           This is half of one room out of five. You  can't see his
                                           face , but, Fran is smiling!

                                            Fran , I told you to pay the taxes !!!!
                                           It was also the Montana Territory prison.




                                           We are now in Polson, at the south end of Flathead Lake
                                           We may  stay here 2 days as it's so pretty.  Maybe not
                                            they told us it's going down to 15 tonight!!!

                                                               View from our room

We're tired tonight. We drove 100's of miles in WY. & Montana.

But it was beautiful , even though it was brown from the drought.

We saw a 5000 acre fire as we passed Casper ,WY.

Devil's Tower

Fran & the devil

some of the brown fields

Little Bighorn National Park
the small marker is where Gen. Custer died.

grave markers where the soldiers fell.. They reburied them under the
big marker.

I thought Wilson would like to see this

the lobby of our  hotel

                                           We are in Livingston Montana.  we'll probably spend tomorrow

                                            here & then head to Glacier NP.

                                              

 

Today we went to a park & had our devotions. 

Which was good to do before we got on the ZipLine :)

It was so much fun & no one was there yet, so they let 

us go 3 times.  I'll show you guys the picture when I get home.

                                           Then we went to Mt.Rushmore. that was so interesting
                                                and amazing to watch the film on making it.

two oldies at the park

profile of Washington as you leave the park

went to Crazy Horse.  this is even more amazing.  do you see that little hole?   it's 10  stories high !

statue of Crazy Horse  with the mountain  behind him

beautiful scenery everywhere we went

Tonight we're in Devil's  Tower WY.   which we'll see tomorrow, then on   to Little Bighorn   Montana 

                                 What a busy day!     First we spend a few hours

At Murdo  Car museum . They had 250 cars.  motorcycles, farm equipment, fire trucks. 

train station, school house, Prairie church etc.
 

                                          this car was built out of Mahogany  & can be driven !

I thought Dan would like this

this is for Wilson 

Nice name for a Mayor

These buildings were moved from all over SD for the set of Dancing with Wolves

I liked this !  

Go Fish !

Badlands , beautiful the picture doesn't do it justice

1 of 100's of prairie dogs

these flowers grow all over SD

you would think they would make a taller lamp !

                       Tomorrow  we will see Mt. Rushmore & I'm going to ride the zip line !