Wonderful Day at Yellowstone National Park

We spent the day at Yellowstone National Park yesterday. Mike and Janna gave us the best tour ever. Being that they live up here in Montana and Mike has done a lot of work for the Forest service he and Janna know this park like the back of their hands. Our first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs. We then drove over to Cooke City, Montana. We now were on our way to the highlight of the day. The Yellowstone River Lower falls and Upper Falls. What amazing scenery those are. After we pulled ourselves away from the falls we went to see Janna’s mom, Martha and her husband Chuck. They are working here for the summer. They had a campfire going and grilled hamburgers ready for us to eat. Dinner was great and it hit the spot perfect. Thanks Chuck & Martha. It was getting late so her mom took us to a gift shop to look around and also so we could use her employee discount if we found anything.

We took almost 300 pictures and after editing I uploaded 65 of them to our online photo album. Here is a link if you would like to see them all. Online Photo Album

Devil Slide (this was just outside the park)


Just couldn't resist beginning with our flag


Mammoth Hot Springs


There's still snow up there


Main Street Cooke City, Montana


One of many herds of Buffalo


The Yellowstone River


Gina admiring and listening to the rushing water


Our first view of the Yellowstone River Lower Falls


That is a 308 foot waterfall


Mike & Janna


Here we are with the falls behind us


Yellowstone River Upper Falls, this one is 109 feet


Beautiful colors


Janna with her mom


Undine Falls

It had been a long day and we were all ready to head back home. We were greeted to a beautiful sunset as we pulled into our home. Yellowstone is absolutely beautiful. We only saw a little of it yesterday and will be leaving early again this morning for another long day of sightseeing. Stay tuned because we are having the time of our life.

What a view to end your day

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Camping Beside The Yellowstone River

We woke up later than normal since we went to bed late. We were not really moving fast even though we still had a lot left to do before we could leave. Mike and I had already decided that we wouldn’t be leaving before one o’clock so we still had a lot of time. We were only driving about 90 miles so for Gina and I this would be an extremely short travel day.

Gina bathed the dogs and I put two loads of clothes on. Then it was just a slow steady progress of packing up. I had the trailer hooked up and was heading down the driveway at a little after two o’clock with Mike in the motorhome and Janna in the truck following me. We stopped in town so we both could get diesel. We then got on I-90 heading west. We exited off in Livingston, Montana and turned south toward Yellowstone National Park. We are boondocking (camping without any electricity, water or sewer connections) just outside of Yellowstone National Park on some BLM (Bureau Of Land Management) land right beside the Yellowstone River. This is yet another one of Mike & Janna’s special spots. After we were all setup we joined Mike & Janna outside their motorhome to soak up the magnificent views that surrounded us.

Our Campsite


The view out of our back window


Another View out of our back window


The view looking out our door


The view looking Southeast


Another mountain view sitting outside our door


Looking down the Yellowstone River


Looking up the Yellowstone River

Before long our conversation turned to food since none of us had eaten today. It would be a leftover night except for some more fresh corn on the cob. The special treat tonight was dessert as we were treated to Gina’s homemade New York Style Cream Cheese cake topped with Janna’s fresh strawberries. I can say this for sure that being around both Janna and Gina there is always great homemade food around.


Janna, Myself, and Mike ready to eat

I need to hurry and post this since they are waiting on me so we can head into Yellowstone. We have a full day planned with this evening meeting up with Janna’s Mom & Dad who are workcamping this summer in Yellowstone. Thank you all for reading our blog and stay tuned as our adventure continues.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Cleaning & Packing kind of Day

Good Morning to everyone as we wake up on this Thursday morning. The weather is still beautiful here even though it got a little warm here yesterday(90 degrees).

Gina and I spent Wednesday packing and cleaning up our trailer so we could leave for Yellowstone today. We really thank Janna for allowing us to use her washing machine to wash a few loads of clothes. She even hung the clothes out on the clothesline to dry. While she was washing and cleaning I fixed a shelf in our kitchen that had came loose. I also installed new 6 volt golf cart batteries in our trailer and then helped Mike install his new batteries.

While we were outside Janna continued her quilting. She was finishing up a quilt and Gina took a few pictures. Janna is very talented with her Millennium Long Arm Quilting machine. It works opposite of a sewing machine. You move the needle on a Long Arm and the material on a sewing machine. I'm not even sure I got that right but Janna makes it look easy.

Janna hard at work


Look at the detail


A close up shot of the detail, she did all of that freehand

From there I had a decision to make. Either find a somewhere to dump my blackwater tank on the way to Yellowstone or use our macerator pump. Well, I decided to use our macerator pump and everything went well until I was picking my hose up out of Mike’s septic tank. It was full of water. Mike agreed that was not normal nor was it good. After checking the breaker to his pump he got his small trackhoe and went to his leach field and began digging to make sure the pipe wasn’t clogged. No problem there so it must be the pump. He decided to open the liquid tank that houses the pump. That sounded easy but he had to use his trackhoe and dig down about two feet to reach the cover. It was full of water and the wires to the pump were melted. He pulled out a submersible pump and continued pumping until we could see the pump and discharge piping.

New Pump getting lowered into the tank

Mike had a brand new pump on hand so we replaced the pump. All in all not a hard job just a real dirty job. We finished up around nine o’clock and I jumped in the shower.

After my shower we walked over to Mike & Janna’s for dinner. I grilled thick pork chops to go with steamed green beans, country style potatoes, and more sweet corn on the cob. That was a lot of food for eating so late but it sure tasted great. For dessert Janna baked another Cream Cheese Pound Cake that she topped with fresh strawberries. A great dinner and a fantastic dessert. Gina says Janna is spoiling me and I said you have already spoiled me. We said goodnight and walked back to our trailer around 10:30. We were both tired and went to bed.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Rivers and Streams of Montana

We got on the road to Billings around eight o’clock and our first stop was to drop Janna off to get her hair done. Then we were off to Mike's doctor so he could see what's wrong with his right hand and wrist. While he was seeing the doctor Gina went shopping at TJ Maxx. I called Mom & Pop’s to see how their motorhome search was going. They were just leaving a consignment lot in Houston and were on their way back to Nacogdoches, Texas.

After Mike finished up with his doctor we were on our way to Sam’s warehouse when Janna called and said she was ready. We made a few turns and picked her up. We then headed to a restaurant called “Rib & Chop House”. After we finished eating lunch we were off to Sam’s Warehouse so Mike and I could buy some new batteries. Mike was replacing his in the motorhome and I’m changing ours out in our trailer. We then drove over to Costco and from there it was Wal-mart. Around 5:30 we started making our way back toward Big Timber. We made a quick stop at Mike’s dad to drop off some food for him. We finally made it home around seven o’clock and by the time we had everything unloaded it was almost eight. A very long day but successful day. We were able to restock our home with food and are now ready for some more traveling. We had a very fun day with Mike & Janna and now look forward to Yellowstone National Park on Thursday.

We didn’t take any pictures yesterday. However, we have taken so many pictures since we have been here that I thought we should share some pictures of the rivers and streams we have seen with everyone. It’s so amazing at night when you walk outside you can hear all of the rivers flowing. Gina and I love to hear running water as it flows over the rocks and for sure there is no shortage of it around here. We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them.

We found this stream at 6700' flowing out of the mountains


East Boulder River flowing behind Nancy & Geoff's cabin




Main Boulder River just upstream from Natural Bridge & Falls Monument


An old barn by the water




A couple of Fishermen in the Main Boulder River

Before I end this post for today. Gina and I want to thank all of our followers for reading and making comments. It's always a joy to read what you all have to say as it means so much to us. We should have some more beautiful pictures in a few days as we make our way to Yellowstone. Stay tuned as we are having the time of our lives.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

A Beautiful Day in the Mountains

A beautiful stream right outside this cabin

We woke up Monday morning to a very clear and cool 38 degrees with about a 10 mph wind making it feel much colder. The sweatshirts and jackets came out.

Mike & Janna's cabin is at the base of these mountains

The first item this morning was to fabricate a stronger mount for our satellite dish. The wind has been blowing causing us to lose a signal. Mike had some old directway satellite dishes and he gave me a bracket off of one of them. We then took a piece of 2” steel pipe and mounted it in between the bracket and our satellite dish. The mount looks the same but it’s much more stable and the wind doesn’t affect it.

Gina and I then went with Mike up in the Gallatin National Forest to move a shed for some of their friends. I went to help Mike and Gina went to take pictures of all the mountain views. Here are a few of her pictures.

These mountains are called "The Crazies"

We had to pick up the shed off of one trailer and put it on Mike’s trailer. This required the use of two skid steers. I have never operated one so I got a quick lesson and off I went. We got the shed moved pretty quick and off we went to delivery it.

This is scary, me on a Bobcat


Mike backing his trailer under the shed

While we were gone Janna had cooked homemade spaghetti. We walked over around 6:15 to eat. In addition to the spaghetti she had more sweet corn on the cob and a fresh salad she made from lettuce out of her garden. It all tasted great. Janna is such a great cook. We didn’t stay very long after dinner since she wanted to get a little more quilting done and we were a little tired. We thanked them for a wonderful dinner and said goodnight. After we got back home we watched a little TV then went to bed.

We are both up early this morning as we are driving to Billings today. We need to stock up on a few items. I hope no one is getting tired of the mountain pictures. Gina and I cannot seem to get enough of them as the views always change and we absolutely love the views.

We are having a great time and our travel plans are shaping up. We head to Yellowstone on Thursday for a few days then we are heading up to Canada to visit JB and Brenda. That’s our plans for now. Stay tuned as our adventure continues…


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

A Beautiful Setting & Home in Montana

What a way to wake up

We woke up to lite rain Sunday morning and a beautiful rainbow. We had already decided to have a slow and relaxing day. On Saturday I put up our DirecTV satellite dish. Gina watched the news and weather while I got caught up on the blog. Around ten o’clock Mike and I took his old Volkswagen beetle into Gallatin National Forest to look at a shed that he had been asked to move. He let me drive the beetle and it brought back so many memories. I used to own a 68 beetle and it was always so much fun to drive. We’re going to move it today up north of Big Timber to their friend’s house. Once we arrived back home I posted the blog after which I took a short nap.

Around four o’clock Gina baked a strawberry dump cake while we got cleaned up and dressed. We were invited by Mike and Janna to go over to their friend’s, Geoff and Nancy’s house for dinner. They are from California and now spend most of their time here in Montana. They own a cabin down the road from Mike and Janna’s. To say they have created a paradise is a huge understatement. It is absolutely beautiful. Here are a few pictures of their little piece of heaven.

Front of Geoff & Nancy's Cabin


View from their back porch


Looking at their back porch


Looking up the East Boulder River


Looking down the river

After dinner we talked for a while and around 9:30 we headed back home. Gina and I had a wonderful time. After we arrived back home it was time for Gina to watch the finale of “Army Wives”. We were both tired and after it went off we said goodnight and were asleep fairly quick. We are enjoying ourselves so much here in Montana and are looking forward to seeing Yellowstone National Park this week. We’ll be leaving with Mike and Janna on Thursday heading to their special campsite just outside the north entrance to the park. Until then stay tuned as our adventure continues.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.