We met up with our Las Vegas friends, Jim and Tammie at the Billings airport in Montana – always a good adventure with them!

After a quick catch-up at a local wing place we headed to Cody, Wyoming to meet up with more friends – Sandy and Tony.

The reservoir on the way to Sandy and Tony’s.

As we drove to their house, we stopped to enjoy the spectacular view.

We arrived and parked the trailer in the driveway…Puck the cat would have had difficulty sleeping alone so we stayed in the trailer overnights for our five days visiting.

A little walk around the property the next morning – Tony met up with the horses and showed us where his horse likes to be scratched.

We had a nice drive around to discover the South Fork and some local animals.

Castle Rock.

The sunflower field.

Tammie at the sunflower field.

Sandy at the sunflower field.

Then we went to look at some teepee rings.

Found this little guy checking us out from near a rock.

The south fork and posing for a selfie.

Monday was Total Solar Eclipse day! An early start as we wanted to beat the traffic to the best viewing spots. We headed to Shoshone, WY and met up with Jim’s sister Susan and her husband Bill. We set up an overabundant lunch and goofed around quite a bit.

There was a lot of hype around the eclipse with false information…we thought we’d contribute. We put on tin foil hats and our eclipse glasses.

I posted a photo of a phone that someone had dropped into a fire, claiming eclipse damage.

The traffic leaving after the eclipse was very heavy.

On the way back we stopped at the hot springs of Thermopolis and spent a couple of hours in the pools.

Tuesday morning Mark the horseshoer arrived and the horses had their shoes replaced in preparation for the season.

 

Our group ready for the raft.

In the afternoon we did a group three hour rafting down the Yellowstone river –

Just beautiful! After that, back to Tony and Sandy’s for a fun pizza night with delicious pizza with some of Tony and Sandy’s family and friends.

On Wednesday we drove into Yellowstone while Jim played with the ATVs.

The park was beautiful but very busy with tourists.

The fishing bridge where people aren’t allowed to fish any more.

More bison in this park.

They called this a camp robber – a Grey Jay…it tried to steal popcorn.

On our way out posing for a selfie.

The fancy Chimney Rock.

The above photo of a rock formation looks a bit like Bart Simpson.

When we returned we went into town and had a nice dinner at Adrianno’s then a drink at Buffalo Bill’s Irma hotel.

Off to the Cody Rodeo that evening, first rodeo for both of us.

Very family-focused and lots of fun.

Thursday morning we played with the ATVs on an awesome track that Tony made for his grandkids.

Then got fishing licenses and drove to the Cabin near the  Beartooth Highway.  We drove to the Top of the World then over to Cook City and the Miner’s Saloon for dinner.

Friday was a wonderful day-long hike to Beauty Lake and some fishing along the way. We stopped at Night Lake on the return and I caught my first retirement fish! A nice campfire that evening at the Cabin with again a delicious dinner.

Pierre fishing…

Linda playing…

Oh my…the first fish of retirement!

Saturday was leaving day…sadly…saying goodby and hoping to return some day.

We were apprehensive about driving the 4Runner and the Escape trailer over the narrow roads and turns on the Beartooth Highway. Why not, we gave it a shot and both performed well even though we slowed quite a bit on the steep grades. The downhill was fairly good as well, though when we looked down from the top and saw the switchback turns it looked daunting.

We stopped and had lunch in Red Lodge and forged on to the Billings KOA for the night…we thought a nice dinner out would be nice…but the sleep monster arrived…

Getting ready for our next adventure…return to Canada.