"Pair of boots and a sack of clothes, free and easy down the road I go.
Hanging memories on the highline poles, free and easy down the road I go.
Got the sun shining on me like a big spotlight, so I know everything is gonna be alright.
Aint no tellin' where the wind might blow, free and easy down the road I go.
Livin' life like a Sunday stroll, free and easy down the road I go.
If you only get to go around one time, I'm gonna sit back and try to enjoy the ride.
I could make a million or wind up broke, free and easy down the road I go.
Can't take it with you when you go, so free and easy down the road I go.
Some day I know it's gonna take me home... so free and easy down the road I go."
Ok, so I know everyone out there is not a country music fan... but I am, and songs like this are why. In this song, Dierks Bentley is talking about what it's like to just leave it all behind and go. Where to... who cares. You only get one chance, may as well give it your best shot.
As we drove down I-90 today across the great state of Wyoming, it was becoming easier to see just what he was talking about in this song.
We woke up to a beautiful morning in Keyhole State Park near Moorcroft Wy. The sky was blue and the temperatures were beautiful. Bambi got up a little earlier and took a walk through the park and was able to walk within 20 yards of some antelope which were just laying around in the grass in the park. It was a rustic but beautiful state park, and since there was no electricity or running water, we had no showers to take or tv to watch... free and easy down the road we went!
We drove to Gillette Wy where we stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's. We chose it simply because we didn't want to spend a lot of time and it was the first thing off the exit. Now, since we were just a little funky yet at this time of the morning, we took advantage of the bathroom at the McDonald's and brushed our teeth etc. So, the next time you see a vagrant taking a bath in the McDonald's bathroom, don't be scared, it could just be your friendly neighborhood Chiropractor and his wife - free and easy down the road we go.
After our luxury spa treatment, we decided to continue on to Sheridan Wy. There we stopped for gas, lunch, and some carpet for our trailer - I know carpet and everything... you're thinking, "getting pretty fancy" but actually we put it in there because the bottom of our trailer is aluminum and we figured the carpet would protect our air mattress from being punctured while going down the road... now that's fancy. Then we ate at Taco Bell!!!! Anyone starting to notice a pattern here? And, since we already had such a fine bath at McDonald's, we just used the bathroom there like normal people. Near Sheridan is where the scenery really began to change and you could tell we were starting to get into more mountains. You could also tell because my truck would no longer shift into overdrive because of the incline and the prevailing winds that we were headed straight into. I could feel our gas mileage dropping from a dismal 12mpg to a truly sucky 10. Oh well, as Kyle and I always say, I didn't buy it for the gas mileage!! Throttle Jockey. Free and easy down the road we go.
Our next stop was Cody Wy. Now Cody is truly a cool little town. It's very much a western town, but there was a great downtown and we took an hour or two to just cruise the shops. We were having such a great time, we nearly stayed for the night because in the summer time, Cody has an old west gunfight just off main street every afternoon, and a rodeo every night which we thought would be fun. However, we really wanted to spend the next day in Yellowstone so we decided we'd better keep going.
We ended up spending this night in Cooke City Montana. But, before we got there, we took a recommendation from my family and got off the interstate to take the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. WOW... what a cool drive. Talk about desolation. I think that drive took us about an hour or two and most of it was uphill. People have been making fun of us for not having a cell phone, gotta tell you, I'm pretty sure they don't work on the Chief Joseph Highway. There is nothing out there and I don't think we ever saw a single car on the highway. Desolate, but completely beautiful. The views were just astounding and if you are ever in the area, it's worth the time to drive it.
Finally, as it was just beginning to get dark, we made it to Cooke City Montana. Cooke City is a little town situated on the NorthEast entrance to Yellowstone. The park is mostly in the NW corner of Wyoming, but just a slice of it extends up into Montana which is where we were at. We drove into town to check it out... which took about 30 seconds. It's a very small town, but certainly with its own history and charm. We decided to come back into town but as it was quickly getting dark (and cold) we thought we'd better go back out and get a campsite. We only had to drive back out of town about 1/2 mile to where we had seen Soda Butte Campground, which is another very rustic little national park campground. We got settled in and were pleased to see that the total for the night was just $9. See, you really can travel cheap: $9 for lodging and a free spa treatment at McDonald's - who could ask for anything more?
After getting settled in, we were just beginning to get ready to go back into town for dinner and to see Cooke City when we heard some rustling in the woods. Our camp site was literally 25 feet from a small stream. I took the flashlight and shined it down near the creek and I saw something move. Bambi was like, "don't go down there," but you know me. I was curious to see what it was, but as I moved a little closer, the ground under me gave way and I fell about 10-12 feet down and when I found my flashlight, I realized that I was right next to the creek and my feet were wet. I shined my light around and saw Bambi standing up at the top of the creekbed and when I shined the light on her I could see it in her eyes that something was terribly wrong. I looked back up and shined the light when I saw it move directly in front of me. There standing nearly on top of me and looking down at me was a 9 foot black bear. No kidding, I just froze right there in the creek. Suddenly, I could see she was starting to get aggressive and I moved back about a foot, just in time as she took a huge swipe at me with her left paw. I rolled to my left side and she missed, but I could tell by her growl that she was serious and she reared back to take another swipe. Her teeth were bared and her mouth was wide open as she put out a growling sound like I'd never heard before. Truly, terror swept through me and just as I could see her right paw coming down at me, I heard another even more terrifying sound. You guessed it, it was Bambi. Seeing her man in grave danger, she summoned all her strength and got a run for it, jumping over the creek and directly at the bear. As she flew over, something caught the light and gave a quick shimmer. It was her curling iron. Apparently, as I fell, she was unpacking her bathroom bag and had her curling iron in her hand. Anyway, she flew over me and directly in to the bear where she jammed the curling iron into the bear's open mouth. The two females rolled violently across the ground and as I scrambled to get my light on them, all I could see was a cloud of dust. I called out to her but heard nothing... silence. I ran over to where they were just in time to see the bear rear back, take her last breath and drop to the ground with Bambi perched on top of her, curling iron in the bear's mouth and the cord wrapped securely around its neck choking off the mighty bear's airway. As I watched the light fade from the bear's eyes, I knew that the greater preditor had been victorious. The mighty Bambi then let out a piercing war cry that sounded like she may have said, "leave my man alone!". Then all at once, she reached down grabbing the bear's head and neck - with her biceps nearly tearing her shirt sleeves, she gave a quick jerk and broke the bear's neck... and it was over. She then sharpened a stick at both ends and placed the bear's severed head upon it next to the stream to serve as notice to all the other bears in the park. We don't talk about that night but I know now--do NOT tick her off!!
Oh, she's gonna kill me for this. Actually, I think the true story is that we unhooked the trailer, used the outhouse bathrooms and headed back into town for supper. (I probably had many of you going there for a while, but for those of you who truly know Bambi, when I got to the point in the story where she was unpacking a curling iron on a camping trip, you would have realized I was just having some journalistic fun).
Now Cooke City is just a little town like I said, but it really feels like you've stepped back 50 years. Not because it's uncivilized, it's just a little reflection of what a small mining town may have been like back then. It's very small and just nestled into the side of the mountain. We walked the street up and back checking out a few little stores and decided to go in to eat at a place called the Miners Saloon. We really liked this place. The food was great (we shared a pizza) and the atmosphere was really cool. It is just a little place, but it was packed with people. Bambi also liked it because it was nice and warm in there like when you get to sit next to a fireplace. The inside was decorated with all really old mining equipment and fishing gear. You know, you can go to many restaurants and they have "old" stuff hanging on the walls, but you know it's just reproduction stuff. This seemed like it was the real deal which made it really cool. They had the Olympics on and it seemed like everyone was watching it and it wasn't long and the whole place was cheering on the Americans. We stayed there for quite a while, because it was such a great place to hang out, and it was warm. We knew that we'd had it pretty good the first night in Keyhole State Park as we were even able to sleep with the door to the trailer open half way. Now, we were camping at about 7000 feet with no electricity or heat and it was going to be cold!! IT WAS!!
We got back to the trailer and paid homage to the great bear who had struggled so valiantly, and went inside. Neither of us slept all that well because it was just cold. I think when Bambi started to move around at 6am, she was surprised to hear me say - let's just get up.... I'm freezing.
Oh well, free and easy down the road we went.
Next stop, Yellowstone.
(P.S. if you want to see any of the photos more closely, just click on the picture and it should come up in a larger size.)
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