To My Mother on Mother's Day 2013

I asked my kids in the car the other day if they wanted to make anything for their grandmothers, Nona and Memaw, for Mother’s Day.  My son responded with, “why would I make something for them, they are not my mom.”  This of course, was a gut reaction to not wanting to have to do more work, he adores his grandmothers.  But his question was valid for a 6 year old.  And of course I responded with the quick & obvious answers of the importance.  But I pondered on this for a while afterwards, the depth of this question to which the answer is legacy.  How do you explain legacy?  Can it simply be explained or is it only learned through experience?

(As I tell this story, I am sensitive to the fact that many around me do not have the richness of family that I am blessed with, and I do not share to hold that up at anyone.  But this is my story, and on this day, I want to honor my mother and those in it.)

I have learned in my own life that I have a rich legacy, one that I am proud of, and it is a priority to me to make sure that my children understand their heritage.  As I answered my son with the obligatory, “we honor all mothers on Mother’s Day,” and the more significant, “buddy, mommy & daddy wouldn’t be such good parents for you if it weren’t for Nona and Memaw”, I thought about what that really meant.

My mom is a rock.  Her strength is astounding.  She was raised in a tough environment, and then also went through tough stuff when my brothers and I were young.  I understood little of this until becoming an adult, but know understand how strong my mother truly is.  I have been very blessed in that I have not endured many really tough challenges in my own life.  Ironically, until now, and my challenge now is not my own but my families, and more my mothers’ than anyone.  And I completely understand that my strength comes from her, and yet as I have to stand on my strength now, I am watching her yet again, be the rock for our family.

Strength is not passed on genetically.  But it is also not something that you know have learned until you have stopped to examine where your strength comes from.  Then as you think about each individual challenge in your life and your responses to them, you think about where you learned, saw, and understood that behavior to model it.  And I know I took those things directly from all I saw and heard from my mother growing up. 

My mother is an amazing role model.  She and my dad have been married for 40 years.  Often when people here this said about a married couple they think things like, “Wow, you’re lucky you’re parents stayed together,” or “That’s really sweet that they’ve been together for so long.”   But what I know about my parents now that I’ve been married myself for 16 years is that they have stayed together out of love, strength, commitment and determination.  And that is to be applauded way beyond something sweet, cute and by no means is it luck. 

They made decisions, at the altar, and often daily, to stick it out, work through the tough stuff and continue to find love.  My mom told me once, reflecting on my own upcoming marriage, that she fell in love with my father, but that to be married was to choose to love him daily.  There were days that she did not feel it, no butterflies in the stomach on those days, sometimes it felt like the opposite.  But by making the choice every day, she could look back on the (then) 20 years and know that their true love and grown into something so much more amazing than anything that she had “felt” in the pit of her stomach in the beginning.  She admonished me to make the choice to love Keith every day, even when I don’t feel like it.  And she was right. 

And what a model, through that example, and through so many other actions of her life, she has been of trusting God and teaching us to do the same.  There were many years of her life where the end did not seem in sight, or the circumstances did not seem to fit into what “should” have been God’s plan.  In fact, we face one of those times as a family again now.  And she is leading the way in saying, “I don’t get it God, but it is in your hands.”   My mom has always been a great writer & speaker, and I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to hear her speak about some of these challenges in her life, and I took a page full of notes, from a talk by my own mother!  She is still teaching me how to look towards Christ. 

And she’s not perfect; I know that, of course, none of us are.  She’d be embarrassed herself if I posted this without pointing that out.  And, don’t you know it, as an adult, I’ve found some of my own challenges are those that make me say, “I’m acting like my mother.”  But this post is not about bringing any of those things into sight.  It’s Mothers Day, and I wrote this as my gift, to honor her. 

I pray one day that my daughter will find herself saying, “I’m acting like my mother,” both in fault and in pride.   I know that I do act like my mother, and I couldn’t be more proud of that fact.  

I love you, Mom, and I am so proud of you.  You have been here for me my whole life, and now I am here for you, even though I still need you, too!  Thank you, with every ounce of my being, for everything you’ve done and will still do for me.

So What Then, Is My Response To The Cross?

I was at a worship event last night for Good Friday.  And there was all the expected commenting on what that Friday 2000 years ago represented.  Artistic photos of the gray-skinned, bruised arm, hanging from the cross, pierced and bloody, yet reaching out, symbolically reaching towards us in love.   Video of the hill, Golgotha, the crosses, intermittent with Jesus’ own words from scripture, “do this in remembrance of me.”   And a reminder from the pastor that “tonight is not about the celebration, but that tonight is about the struggle, the pain, the sacrifice, dwell on that tonight.”

So I dwelled.  Excruciating physical pain, agonizing heartache, blinding emotional pain.  Do we really know what these words mean?  Some of us do.  If you’ve lost someone close to you, if you’ve experienced a terrible tragedy, if you’ve fought a devastating disease, you know that type of pain.  Not on the level of our Lord, but at the depth we are capable to humanly feel the words above. 

So I sat in my pew and thought about it, and then I let that pain in.   I let myself feel the pain of loss, injustice and disease that has wreaked havoc on the lives of those around me and on my own family in the last few years.  And I let myself feel the pain anew that I had been blocking, ignoring, pretending wasn’t there for quite some time now.  I felt it as if every feeling was fresh that day.  Aching pain that crushed my chest to the point of barely breathing, I shook and sobbed, not even aware to be concerned of how I appeared to other worshippers around me.

And even as I drowned in the feelings of pain, I understood within myself, completely, that this was nothing compared to Christ’s pain & suffering, physically, and his anguish in the sacrifice he chose to make for me, for us.

And the worship pastor asked us to consider our response.  “So what then, is our response to the cross? Reflect on that as we sing.” 

My response struck me full in my tear-streaked face.  My heart pounded and I cried as it took my breath literally away.  In that instant, my pain turned to joy, but a joy so forceful and shocking that it felt more intense than the pain.  A joy so full that I cried harder and the weight of the truth of what Jesus did for us was more crushing in my chest than the pain.  I’m having trouble finding words to express the beauty, intensity and fright of this moment.  My chest aches today and my eyes well up just to think of it again.

That truth, many of you already know.  He felt more pain than we can ever imagine even in our deepest moments of ache, because he loves us more than we can ever understand, even at the depths of our ability to love.

  “He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind & mercy.” (How He Loves, David Crowder)

“His love is deep, His love is wide, and it covers us.  His love is fierce, His love is strong, it is furious.  His love is sweet, His love is wild, and it’s waking hearts to life.” (Furious, Jeremy Riddle)

These were some of the lyrics we sang, last night, of many more, all in the theme of love.  But really, do you imagine his love as a hurricane?  Swirling furiously, a love so strong to turn your world upside down, a wild love, a fierce love.  We don’t like to think about love like that.  But oh, how He loves us.  And for a few moments last night, I felt that…I felt love so fierce it crushed me, a love so strong it was painful to bear. 

And what is my response?  Joy, a joy so true that I can’t explain it…a feeling so deep that it is missed in every day happiness.  I threw myself into the depths of pain, and was rewarded a joy so wild that it swirled through me like a hurricane. 

Perhaps joy seems odd here to you.  Perhaps joy should be reserved for Easter Sunday and the celebration.  By my response to the cross is joy, joy that is from the core, the real heart of the matter.  As I dwelt on the struggle and in the pain, my heart and mind attuned to his sacrifice and love for us, the only response my body could bring forth was joy.

Christ did this for every single person in the 2000 years since the night of his death, and he did it for every single person that will be from now until he comes again.  And that makes me a very insignificant pinprick on the timeline of God’s kingdom.  Some may feel small & unimportant at this, but ironically, it brings me great comfort.  I am comforted at the idea that the losses in my life are ultimately not as significant in God’s economy as they are in my life, that things that seem insurmountable to me won’t matter at all on the tapestry being woven of the work of Christ. 

YET, He cares. He loves me and each one of us enough, that though we are just a pinprick, he made the ultimate sacrifice for ME and YOU.   We shouldn’t even matter, we are just a grain of sand in the true work of His kingdom, and yet, he loves us fiercely, like a hurricane.  Each one of us. 

Joy.  That is what I feel as I prepare for tomorrow’s celebration, and I think I will look at it in a fresh way tomorrow morning than perhaps I ever have before. 

He is not here; he is risen, just as he said.  Come and see where he lay.”  Matt 28:6

I will celebrate this miracle that is our grace, our hope and our future.  I will know that our great God lives, is alive and working as much today as he was 2000 years ago.  But my JOY will be great for the truth of his love and his pain.  And I have never been more grateful for the cross.

Merry Christmas 2011

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Craving Silence

My life is noisy.  I don’t mean physically noisy (though it can be that too), but what you might call “distractions”, I like to call noise.  And I’m suffocating in it. 

When I wake up, it’s the TV, the news, the weather, my need for information, what’s going on in the world, and what will just help me get through the day.  Then it’s work, the emails, texting, meetings, blogs, none of it bad and all necessary, but often very, very noisy.  Driving around town, I am bombarded with noise, radio, advertisements, reminders of things needed to be done, traffic, people, movement.   (If you’ve ever been to the Chik-fil-A on Parham at midday, or looked for a parking spot at Walmart, then you know what I mean about traffic being noisy).   Even my leisure is filled with noise, music, facebook, twitter, blogs, emails, TV, the kids’ activities.  

For those of you who aren't sure you relate to this idea of technology being noisy, it’s like this…you get on Twitter b/c you have a few minutes, so you start reading people’s tweets, but then you don’t stop, and keep scrolling down because inherently, there is this need within you to make sure you haven’t missed something, 3 minutes becomes 5 minutes, then 10, because the best or most interesting tweet might only be a few more down.  Same with Facebook status…what if your friends have interesting status’, maybe you've been tagged, what’s going on, you don’t want to miss something important.  Don’t even get me started on StumbleUpon or Pinterest.

It’s all noise, constantly, throughout the day….overwhelming and enslaving noise. 

I’ve had a tough year, been surrounded by a lot of pain and suffering and still not understanding most of it.  This past week, I was able to begin a really introspective look at what’s going on in my soul, and I found out that it is full of NOISE.  And that noise is stealing my joy, contentment and most importantly, PEACE. 

I crave the silence…and I mean complete silence, the silence that makes most of us uncomfortable.  Sitting outside with nothing else but me and God.   No computer, no phone, no book, no journal, no music…just silence. 

We all romanticize this notion…oh, if I could just sit and do nothing but think & listen.  But what happens when we do it….mmmm, this is nice, listen to the birds, I’ll pray for a minute…and then the discomfort sets in, it’s too quiet.  Maybe I should check my phone, I’ll get a book to read, I wonder if the laundry is done, or we just fall asleep.  The silence is more than uncomfortable, it makes us afraid, afraid of seeing what’s deep down inside, what God might really say to us when we truly listen. 

Be still and know that I am God.

But I want to, I need to.  I want to block out all the noise of life, and relish in the silence, listening for nothing at all, freeing myself to totally hear from the Lord.  Be undistracted.   So I sit, and look, and think, then close my eyes and listen…

And I’m finding the uncomfortable is bringing comfort, my soul is hearing some peace, the fear is becoming reassurance.  I might tell you in another blog what the Lord has said to me in my silence…but that might be more noise for you.  You need to hear from Him in your own silence.

Will you join me, get unplugged and be silent?

The Beginning of the End

Day Eight

We got up early, excited about seeing the amazing Teton mountain range, but sad about leaving Yellowstone, and our impending departure from El Guapo, Liblitz & Daphne later this day. 

We had thankfully passed a slightly warmer night, and by the time those of us in the RV had woken up, the others had already packed up the campsite.  But this posed a problem for breakfast, b/c we were for sure staying long enough and running the generator for coffee again.  So we decided to cook our breakfast inside the RV, which even though it has a microwave, fridge & gas stove, we had yet to use it as a “kitchen” for anything other than sandwiches. 

I am sorry to report that I did not take a picture of this event.   But as you’ve seen the inside of the RV (see earlier pictures), I will try to describe this for you in detail.  The stove has 3 gas burners.  Liblitz stood over the stove and cracked eggs into a bowl on a 2-inch strip of counter, then scrambled them in one skillet, while she fried sausage in another.  Kiki sat up on her knees on the table bench backwards and cooked bacon in a skillet on the 3^rd burner.  Nona sat on the other table bench and made 12 individual cups of coffee in the Keurig at the small table, which then also doubled as the buffet as meats & eggs became ready.  The rest of us constantly interrupted them getting this & that out of every cabinet & drawer around them.   And while we told them to stay outside, 5 & 7 constantly ran thru the tiny hallway (if you can even call it that).  Then I washed the dishes & skillets in the tiny sink.  It really was an event itself.  

After our hearty breakfast and making sure we had left our camp clean & tidy enough for the Bear Country rules, we headed out for our last animal scans of Yellowstone and towards the Tetons.  Every eye was on the lookout for our only missing animal, the elusive bear.   But alas, sigh, we pulled out of the gates of Yellowstone not having seen one.   As 5 put it, “why didn’t we find Yogi?”

But right away, we were seeing the Tetons ahead of us, and they are GLORIOUS.  Impressive is just not a strong enough word to describe them.  They tower over everything in sight, with huge glaciers covering most of their peaks.  Once we entered Teton National Park, we probably stopped about every scenic view on our way south, especially hitting the ones on the lake. 

 

 We were driving along, in awe of the scenery, when we suddenly hit brake lights.  The traffic was a bear.  No literally, it was a bear. (That was Nona’s joke)  Everyone was stopped and running into the woods, so we pulled off too, and several of us shot out with cameras ready…and sure enough it was a black bear, a cub, and it was really only 20 yards away.   And it was moving fairly quickly.  I sent Rough to get the kids, they had to see this!  It would duck into the bushes, and come out and we’d all have to move right another 10 feet in the woods, but then it started coming a little too close for comfort, and then you start thinking about the momma being somewhere nearby, and Liblitz & I decided to get back.  I mean, I didn’t have any bear spray after all.   About then, the ranger showed up & started shooing everyone back.  By the time we’d got back into the RV and back into the traffic to pass where it had been, the ranger had everyone on the opposite side of the street and the cub was literally 5 feet from the road shoulder. 

SUCCESS!!  We had seen our bear, and up close at that.  My pictures don’t do it justice, the camera kept focusing on the trees around the bear.  Kiki got the best one, I’ll have to post it for you next week.  

After that we went to Jenny Lake Junction, which is a great spot for viewing Grand Teton Mtn up close, and for hiking, canoeing, etc.  However, we didn’t have time for all that, so we just took the short walk down the lake trail.  It had a cool little rocky beach and we all walked along, checking everything out.  Rough & 5 were rock-hopping just along the shore, and the rest of us had climbed on to a small hill looking out over the lake.  Liblitz shouted, “Oh” and then we heard the splash, and turned to see Rough & 5 totally in the water.  It wasn’t deep, but it was cold!   We convinced 5 to finish the walk and take some pictures even though he was soaking, but watching him walk back to the RV was pretty hilarious.  According to Rough, 5 wanted to jump to the one largest rock and balance on it, even though it was about 2 feet offshore (see pic below).   Rough agreed to this ..?? and in they went.   Luckily, when you travel by RV, everything is with you.  No worrying about needing clothes back at the lodge, etc, it’s right there.

Before...note the large rock behind them

After...wet

We ate some lunch together in the RV and then headed south, the last of our sightseeing now accomplished, with sad and yet full hearts.  We drove to Lander, WY where Liblitz & El Guapo’s good friends came and met us for about 5 minutes.  We said our goodbyes, and then parted ways as we began our long, long, long, long journey back to the East Coast.  But our adventure was not quite over yet.  We still had some high points to look forward to in the last 3 days.   
 

That night we decided to drive to all the way to Denver, and since it would be late, give ourselves a break from the camping, and stay in a hotel.   We thought we had already experienced the worst of long hours in the RV on the way out…the boat-like rocking, the hot-or-cold-but-never-in-between temperatures.  So it turns out that much of Wyoming & Colorado have 75 mph speed limits.  This was a very exciting discovery for Rough & Tough, who could now speed up the process of getting there, but to the detriment of the rest of us.  Now we also couldn’t hear….at all….on the RV.  Literally you’d be talking to the person right next to you, and What?  What?    Forget about trying to talk to the driver if you were by the kitchen.  (Which are only 5ft apart)

So around midnight, we checked into a Hampton Inn, and man did it feel like the Taj Mahal after our week of camping & RV sleep.  We all crashed into comfy beds & even Moose felt a little pampered for the night.

 

Day Nine

We left our hotel early, anticipating a long day of driving through Kansas to get to Kansas City.  This is where we loved the new faster speed limit, b/c while we could barely talk to one another, we got to KC by 6pm, instead of our estimated 8pm.  This was great b/c Kiki & Tough were going to stay with and see friends they grew up with, my fam was going to see cousins at Rough’s brother’s house, and this left Nona & Pop-pop to some much needed respite at a hotel and nice date night out at one of KC’s best steak houses. 

Everyone had a great time and some much needed relaxing this evening.  I’ll tell one story, Rough had been arranging all this with his brother, who knew we were in an RV and had even read the blog.  But somehow, he’d forgotten to share this with his wife.  So she calls me a few minutes out and I tell her we’d just been laughing about where we will park the RV at their house.  “The what?”  “The 28-foot RV we’re driving. You didn’t know about the RV?”  “But where are you going to put it?”  This proceeded to be a pretty funny conversation.  Imagine us pulling up in their sweet suburban neighborhood, like a scene straight out of National Lampoon’s Vacation.   In fact, when we got there, they were across the street letting a few neighbors know that this was family and we had just been to Yellowstone (and I’m sure they added not to worry, the RV will be gone soon).  I hopped out and said, “Hey, your crazy family has arrived!” 

While there, 5 was so excited to have a real sleepover with his big boy cousins (7^th & 9^th graders).  One of his cousins likes to hunt with his dad, and has the head of a deer hanging on the bedroom wall.  We asked 5 if it was going to scare him, but he wanted to be with them so he said no.  At bedtime, the boys laid down with 5, even though they are old enough to stay up (so sweet).  Not 5 minutes later, we hear from the top of the stairs…”Mommy?”  Yes, I respond.  “Umm…I wasn’t really interested in coming to sleep here at this house.”   I was mortified, but luckily my in-laws thought it was hilarious.  That was his way of saying he was scared and he ended up in bed with us all night.    Even though we’d seen the live versions this week, I guess that was a little too up close & personal for him. 

But all-in-all, it was a great time of catching up & seeing friends and family that we were so glad to fit into this adventure.   But we were now only two days away from home, and your mind really starts to shift towards your bed, your comforts, but it was still going to be two long, long, long days of driving. 

Camping is not for wimps.

Day Six

Unbelievably, we stayed pretty warm during the night in the teepee, but around 6:30 am, my toes finally started getting cold, the kind you can’t get past, and I was awake.  But everyone was up pretty quickly thereafter (not being one of our more comfortable nights).  We had a great camping breakfast of pancakes, fried eggs & sausage, cooked by El Guapo and Liblitz, to make up for our dinner on the previous night.  

Then we were on our way to see the sights of Cody, WY…home of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.  Ok, mainly we wanted to shop for boots & hats.   And to Nona’s delight, we all had success.  Though she wanted everyone to get cowboy hats, most of us got the hats, and the three that didn’t, instead got genuine (pronounce jen-U-wine in cowboy vernacular) cowboy boots.    While in Cody, we also all tried Venison, Antelope & Buffalo sausage.  

On our quick trip through this quaint town, we actually did meet Buffalo Bill.  He looked right at 5, who at this point was wearing his own cowboy hat and toy gun set previously purchased that morning, and said “Son, let me teach you something about gun control.”  He then proceeded to pull out his own gun, and do a swirling, twirling set of gun tricks, dropping it with a perfect twirl right back into his holster, while 5’s jaw hit the sidewalk with awe.   We were headed out from there to Yellowstone where we’d be camping for the next two nights, and Buffalo Bill sent us off with a warning to make sure we had Bear Spray.  And he assured us he wasn’t kidding, that there had been an issue this year with bears, and we needed bear spray.   

Side note:  I’m still trying to understand the concept of Bear Spray….b/c if a bear gets close enough to me that I can spray him, I’m already a goner.  And if it’s meant to bear repellent, than what’s it smell like, skunk?  It’s got to be bad to keep away a bear, so do I really want to spray myself with this stuff?  

The drive to Yellowstone was of course gorgeous.  We were only about 15 minutes into the park, and we’re all on the lookout for gorgeous scenery, not thinking yet about animals, when all the sudden we pass by a full grown buffalo, just walking along the road, about 5 yards into the tree line.    Wha…?  That thing was massive!  I knew we would see animals, but I just didn’t expect them to be that …. Real. Big. Close!  (Sorry, city girl got the better of me for a minute).  How cool was that?  I don’t know who was more excited, 5 & 7 or the adults.  From then on, it was all eyes scanning the rest of our time in Yellowstone. 

1st Bison we saw, from inside the RV

By the time we reached our campsite, we were starving, so we set up camp, went over the rules, and ate lunch.  Now, up to this point, our camping consisted of hooking in our RV, still making coffee with our Keurig each morning, and sleeping pretty comfy with the AC running at night.  This was camping hard-core.  Yes, I did say go over the rules.  We were in Bear Country, so all food scraps and drops completely cleaned up & all food stored away in vehicles or locked metal boxes, no electrical hookup at all, no running your generator between 8pm-8am….wait, backup?  You mean we can’t make our coffee until 8am when we can run the generator.  Whew, that was a blow.    But all said & done, what a great time we had.  Tough & El Guapo put up camping hammocks, and I think 7 could have stayed in them all day and considered vacation a success.  

 

In fact, we enjoyed some lunchtime entertainment as two other groups came in to our neighboring campsites.  The first had an old couple, the lady got out to direct the man as he backed in their trailer.  They were five feet apart, and the whole thing took about 30 minutes….using walkie-talkies.  The second group was a family from New York, and they unhitched their trailer perfectly, only to have the man back their mini-van right into a tree. 

But after lunch we headed out to see Old Faithful.  We kept trying to explain to 5 & 7 what they were about to see, but it’s hard to explain a geyser to a 5 year old.  We arrived just in time, about 10 minutes from the next eruption, so we picked a spot and waited.  And sure enough, as much as you could count on anything, it went up!  And the kids were blown away….well not literally, just surprised in a great way.  It was awesome.   We explored the Old Faithful Lodge, which has this really cool old wooden crow’s nest inside, but you can’t go up in it b/c in the 50’s there was an earthquake and the wood has been unstable ever since.   Several of us decided we’d come back and stay there sometime. 

This was also the point in the trip when the dogs started to have some fun.  There were often places we’d get out where we couldn’t take them, and come to find out, whenever we left them alone, they’d take the RV joyriding around…probably looking for bears.

We headed back to our campsite, where El Guapo and Liblitz cooked us those frozen steaks, now thawed, with potatoes and veggies, over the open fire.  A real camping meal.  We hiked to the lake, and enjoyed the slow pace, not even realizing we were missing TV.  During our meal, it was well into dusk, but not totally pitch black, and all the dogs in the camp started barking.  Moose is not a barker, but I remember thinking, uh oh, Daphne is about to bark, when all the sudden, 7 looked up from our picnic table and said, “Look! There’s a deer.”  Most of us turned, but Rough & Tough ran out after it, it was no deer, but an Elk….a Bull Elk, whose antlers made it about 10 feet tall, and it walked right through our campground, about 25 yards away from where we were sitting!  The Park Ranger told our guys that it had been roaming our campground recently.  El Guapo was impressed as he & Liblitz are our resident Yellowstone experts, and they hadn’t seen a Bull Elk in two years.   Sorry, it was too dark for a picture…you’re going to have to take my word for it.

 

Day Seven

The night was cold.  We woke up and the temperature said 34 degrees outside.  The young couples & the dogs had slept in tents and I think they were warmer than the other 6 of us in the RV.  They prepped with layers, winter hats & professional camping sleep gear.  We were doing our best inside, probably not thinking we needed as much, but we were freezing inside the RV too.  Nona & Pop-pop woke up and noted that we needed to hit the Yellowstone General Store for much-needed warm tourist sweatshirts, jackets & blankets. 

You better believe we ran that generator at 8am for hot coffee, even though it was blowing exhaust right into the sitting area of our campsite.   After another hearty campsite breakfast, we set out to see the rest of Yellowstone.

We all 10 plus the two dogs got into the RV, and this was the first for that (El Guapo had driven his car from Buffalo for the last two days), and that was part of the adventure itself.  We literally took up every available seat and the dogs took up the whole floor.  But it was worth it to be together.  All available eyes were scanning for animals.  What’s that?  Oh, just a stump.  Is that a….never mind.  By lunchtime, we had passed Old Faithful and gone on to Mammoth Hot Springs, more than an hour of driving, not seeing anything.  We got to Mammoth, which was interesting to see just because it’s like a whole little town in Yellowstone, with buildings, homes, even a Justice Center.  Who knew?  And it was crowded.  We were looking for a place to eat lunch, or even just park, and then we saw the Elk.  A whole herd of them, literally hanging out, resting, in the median, right in the center of town.  There were two babies, and a young bull, both rare to see.   After, getting some cool pics, we pulled out a blanket and picnicked, right there with a herd of elk.  You don’t get to do that every day.

Finding the herd of elk broke our curse, b/c we were spotting animals all afternoon then.  We saw two single and a whole heard of bison.  Wish I’d had the video camera rolling b/c hearing the buffalo grunt that close up is pretty awesome.  We saw another bull elk, again with huge antlers, hanging out in the trees.  We saw a herd of elk swimming.  And, we saw what we thought was a herd of deer or antelope, until we zoomed in on the pics and realized they were mountain goats, which was something even El Guapo hadn’t seen on his visits.   But the best of all was how Liblitz had just been telling us about seeing a buffalo in the middle of the road, and guess what…as if on cue, we saw the brake lights ahead, and there was our buffalo walking along the road!!

Elk

3rd or 4th Buffalo of the day

Same buffalo after it crossed the road

Bull Elk

And of course, we saw all the water falls.  Tower Falls, Lower Falls & two views of the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River, and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  The views were unbelievable.  5 & 7 learned why the park was named Yellowstone.   I really could write several blogs about the beauty of what we saw, maybe I will in a few weeks.

But my favorite thing of the day (I’m sure others would pick other things, but hey, I’m the one writing the blog), were the Excelsior and Grand Prismatic geysers.   The colors created by all those minerals, and being completely surrounded on this huge plain by boiling hot water, and watching the water in that crater bubble and churn, was really beyond words to describe.  5 & I had quite the theological conversation about God’s creation seeing all that. 

The day ended again, with another great meal cooked over fire, roasted marshmallows, talking about the amazing things we’d seen.    And I just have to tell about something I’d never tried, but is a staple camping dessert for Liblitz.  Slice an unpeeled banana, and put inside marshmallows & chocolate.  Then wrap in foil and place in the fire.  When it’s done, you have this gooey, hot banana split style dessert that is delish! 

And after the kids went to bed, several of us walked the short hike through the woods down to the lake.  Now, I didn’t tell anyone ‘til the next day, but this city girl was terrified during that 8-minute walk, though when I did admit it, I found out that even Kiki (an avid camper and from Minnesota) was also terrified.  After having seen how big and how close the animals were all day, I could not think fast enough of what I’d do should we run into something.  It was actually pretty funny, the whole way through the dark woods, we all hooted, whistled, cawed and clapped, which Kiki & I could not stop laughing about, which also added noise.  Liblitz, who is our expedition member with real bear experience, told us this was to keep the bears away.  As she put it, you want the bear to figure out what you are from afar rather than you or it coming upon one another quietly.  I liked that plan better than the bear spray!   The view of the orange moon over a completely still lake, and seeing literally every star in the sky was totally worth it. 

 

The Great Tee-Pee Event

Day Four

Quick story….going to bed on day three, Nona said, “this sure isn’t a cruise.”  Pop-pop replied, “Of course not, it’s Cruise America.” 

Today was the day of arrival, we would finally begin to see cool things and arrive in Buffalo, WY at the home of El Guapo, in time for dinner…so we thought.  15 hours later, we were eating veggie lasagna (delish!) at 9:30pm. 

We drove first to Rapid City, SD, home of the …I don’t know, we only saw Cabelas.   But thanks to the local taxidermy, we got our first experience of wildlife there.  Sadly, we returned El Guapo’s rental car which meant we were now 9 plus Moose in Traveling Luxury for the rest of the day.    And we did stop on the way at the infamous Wal-Drug. (you southerners think South of the Border Western Style, and slightly nicer…slightly)

On to Mt. Rushmore, which was amazingly….exactly like every picture you’ve ever seen of it.  I’m kidding of course, it was really mind-blowing to see up close.  5 was devastated you couldn’t hike the mountain up to the faces.  Rough met one of the original drillers who was signing books in the gift shop.   Oh, and FFG had a great time.  He expects his face to be added soon.

This is not our RV, but we saw it at Mt Rushmore. How great is that sticker.  It inspired us as you'll see later.

We drove by Crazy Horse, and while also amazing, not too much to see there yet.  On to Devil’s Tower.  This is where we start to lose a little track of time.  Several of us, ok, all the girls, were under the impression that we were only driving about 1.5 to 2 hours to Devils Tower.  3 hours later we were…close.   That ensued some hefty discussion on the trip motto.  A few members of our expedition were tired at this point and felt the pictures of Devil’s Tower from the scenic roadside view were enough after our long, long drive.  Others in our party could not imaging having this opportunity and not going into the park and actually hiking the 45 minutes around the base of the tower.  I think Tough would have strapped on rope & carabiners and started climbing if we’d let him.  

We did go in, but did not do the hike.  But we got great closer up pictures, and though I was sad we did not get the mashed potatoes prop, I made a terrible video in homage to the aliens. 

Then, our expectations failed us again, and we drove the last 2 hours to Buffalo, WY, finally arriving at the home of El Guapo at 9pm, never happier to be out of the RV, but having seen some cool stuff.

This is where we pick up our last 2 members of the expedition, Liblitz and Daphne, who share the home in Buffalo with El Guapo, which is why we are making this trek to begin with.  Liblitz made us a wonderful dinner and homemade ice cream, and for me, this was my first night of my vacation in a real bed.  I’m definitely liking this whole idea of naming this our “expedition”, b/c I’m with Nona…for a vacation, this ain’t been no cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daphne, our final passenger, with Moose.  Don't worry dogs, we didn't need that walkway.

 Day Five

I’m a late sleeper.  I mean, I love to sleep in.  But at 7am, I was wide awake wondering who else was up.  We’d been up early every morning, so I was so bummed to be awake when I could have slept.  I decided to creep to the kitchen to get on the Internet and work on this blog.  I arrived to find El Guapo and Tough both at their laptops working…”So this is what vacation looks like,” I said sarcastically, and sat down and joined them.    Actually I think Nona said the same thing when she walked in a few minutes later, only she meant it to fuss at us!

 

Martin Vacay Tradition - Ice Cream for Breakfast

But we put it all aside for a yummy birthday breakfast for Liblitz, and then headed to explore the bustling metropolis of Buffalo, WY…a real cowboy town.  The highlight here is the Occidental Hotel.   We saw the sights, did a little shopping, and ate lunch at El Guapo and Liblitz’s favorite sandwich spot, then packed up and headed on.  There’s more west to see!

Another “short” RV trip and we found ourselves in Cody, WY at the Ponderosa Campground.  No, I’m not making that up, that was really the name.  Here’s where our adventure takes an exciting turn.  Ma, Rough, 7 & 5 and El Guapo, Liblitz & Daphne all slept in an honest-to-God Injun Teepee.  Dirt floor.  Hole in the roof.  No zip up door to keep the bugs out.  Shoot, the teepee skin didn’t even touch the ground, the bugs, spiders and snakes could come right in.    5 & 7 were beside themselves with glee about this experience and how cool it looked, but we all made predictions about how long they’d last and be running back for the RV with Nona & Pop-pop.  But let me let you all in on the secret, the real miracle here is that this city girl slept all night in that thing!  My only saving grace was I knew we wouldn’t get bears b/c we were tee-peeing (haha) right next to major thoroughfare and the rodeo was in town so we heard the cars all night long. 

The highlight was when 5 couldn’t sleep b/c he was scared and we were all encouraging him.  We thought he had gone to sleep but then he yelled and said, “But what about the Indian?”  Huh?  Liblitz said later that was the one thing she would not have thought to be scared of.  “What if he comes and wants his tee-pee back?” said 5.  B/c…of course.   But we made it through the night, all 7 of us, and pretty warmly too for a cold night with a hole in the roof.  And that alone would be enough to write this blog about.

and inside

Outside (note the hole at top and raised off the ground)

 But let me backtrack, El Guapo and Liblitz had planned to cook steaks for dinner that night and had these amazing hunks of meat someone had given them, but we got to Ponderosa, and they were still frozen.   And our site did not have any kind of grill.  In fact, we couldn’t find a grill or fire pit in the whole campground.  Didn’t you have a camping stove, you ask?   Now, Tough & Kiki and El Guapo & Liblitz are all what this city girl likes to call “professional campers.” This means they all wear their own headlamps from the moment dusk settles in.   So of course they had a camping stove, but that thing wasn’t going to work on Fred Flinstone sized frozen steaks.   So surrounded by cowboys & teepees in Buffalo Bill’s hometown, we dined on….takeout pizza and antipasto at our campsite.  It is afterall, Father Guido’s Family vacation, even if we’re in the west.