Drive and Drive Some More

Today we once again turned east...maybe it'll stick this time. The drive was mostly just driving. Not much to report other than the sightings of a few critters along the route. Quite a few hawks of various types...red tail, rough legged, Cooper's along with numerous bald eagles, but no photographic documentation of any on them. Extremely difficult to get a decent shot of anything when zooming along at 75 mph.

One last view of the mountains of Montana

Once we entered the flatland of South Dakota's wheat/corn country we spotted several ring necked pheasants along the roadside. Once again not able to get clear shots of the birds just take our word for it. Also the usual mule deer & white tail deer wandering along the road and in the fields.

We didn't expect to see prong horns, but we did. Maybe they need a compass 'cause they've wandered into South Dakota further than they are said to be...well past the "150 miles of Cody, WY" alleged in our research.

We'll leave you with a few more shots we did get today....moon at sunrise over Montana and one more sunrise shot.

Our next segment of driving will be even more uninteresting we're afraid...Sioux Falls to Louisville, KY...but you never know what we may find to sidetrack us along the way.

Another Montana Ski Day

Not much to say today. The weather was beautiful with bright blue skies and little wind...maybe a bit on the cold side. We went back to Bridger Bowl and skied all day. I'm almost to the point of thinking that boarding beats skiing. Cindi's still dithering.

Tomorrow we turn east and drive. A lot. Unless we find powder along the way or deem Snowshoe worthy our ski/board bum days are done.

Observation for the day: 19 days of skiing and boarding this season and no injuries. Plus 2 POWDER days!

Second observation of the day...Tom, these guys are still nuts.

I'm Married to a Snowboarding Queen

As of today, we have been gone for 2 months.


The TV said it was -6F this morning and I wouldn't argue. At least it was sunny and with no wind it really wasn't too bad. We put on an extra layer and headed up to Bridger Bowl. There was more snow around than when we were here a month ago and we had a 'blue sky' day; very nice indeed.

Cindi decided to start out on the board to stay warm and stayed with it all day; a first. She ain't the fastest boarder out there, but she's doing blues and blacks and she is the only over-40 female boarder that we have seen the entire trip. Pretty cool. Anyway enjoy the pics. They don't do justice, but no pic can.


























Those little black dots along the top of the ridge are the insane people walking up to the death-wish area. You know, the near-vertical, double-black chutes with rocks, trees and cliffs. Tom H. wishes he was with these guys, but I'm OK just watching.

Bill and Cindi's Most Excellent Adventure

We were planning on skiing at Snowy Range outside Laramie and then heading home; but then we got a big storm Monday night. Tuesday morning we checked the slope conditions (Solitude in Salt Lake City got 26 in., Bridger Bowl in Bozeman got 18 in. and Snowy Range got several inches) and road conditions and after some discussion (OK a lot of discussion) we headed off to Bozeman for a second time. I wasn't sure we would be able to make it to Bozeman in one day, but what the heck. It was around 0F but thankfully not much wind; at least not much for WY. The road had patchy snow for almost the entire trip, but with virtually no traffic, we could still make 65-75mph in most places.








We heard that the jackalope was not real, but we saw this one sitting up on a hill.










I'm pretty sure we set a new 'dirty car' record.








Sunset in Bozeman, MT.

I'm....Out.....of....Breath

I made Cindi come back to Laramie mainly to go snow shoeing in the Snowy Mountains. Unfortunately I didn't really take the 10,000+ ft. elevation into account. We did go, but it was real work. We only went about a mile with 600 ft. climb, but it took an hour and we were dead. I wanted to get to the high central plateau, but no way. In between oxygen-deprivation black-outs it was really pretty though.







On the way up to the mountains, Cindi got our first good pic of a golden eagle.









The snow up here is REALLY deep.



















Apparently the snow is so deep the outhouses need their own snow shovels.










Suited-up and ready to go.









View from 10,400' back towards Laramie. It's way down there in the valley 30 mi. horizontal and 3,400 ft. vertical.








Hey Bill. Are you sure that's the way back?

Sunday Morning Driving

As you can tell from our silence we've been a tad bit too busy to write...oh well. A funny thing did happen to us when we walked into the McDonald's for our breakfast before heading out of Salt Lake City...we met a fellow Hokie...class of 1977 too. We invited him to eat with us so we can talk all things Hokie. About an hour later we exchanged info & finally headed off towards Laramie.




More WY landscapes















WY does wind energy.




We actually drove back to Laramie by way of the Interstate...surprising right? Not much to report other than it was a bright sunshine day and windy once in Laramie, but what else is new. Must report that when we checked the weather when we hit the hotel we noticed the impending snow dump about to hit where we just left. We ALMOST decided to head back down to Salt Lake Monday early AM...we didn't.

Side Note: Solitude received 26 inches of snow from the storm Monday night through Tuesday AM...shoot. Imagine the powder runs we missed out on...I'm really trying not to think about it.

Another Day In (Snow) Paradise

It was supposed to have snowed last night so we went skiing to try some more powder. It had not snowed, but it was a 'blue-sky day' so it was still good. Cindi improved her boarding, but otherwise, nothing notable. We did get some OK pics.







Yes Tom, those are fresh tracks in Solitude's back bowl.