UT football and in between

Saturday we went to the UT vs Texas Tech football game. We leave Georgetown 4 hours prior to the game to get to the stadium and park. The Alumni Center opens 3 hours prior to the game and there is a Chapter Leaders Reception room that they still let us come to. I was very active on the Board in Corpus Christi for many years and they finally made me a life-time member. The reception room always has food of some kind and is a comfortable place to wait until about 30 minutes before the game. As those of you who are interested in those kinds of things already know, UT won the game. We've had rain here for several days so not much got done. Wayne did go shopping one day to buy a fly rod for George who took him fishing everyday for a week in Valdez and I went shopping one day for a new comforter for the bedroom.

One thing about rainy weather is that when the sun does come out it makes for wonderful sunsets. I took this one on Tuesday


I opened the window to take this picture and the rain came pouring in.

Wayne and I have been talking about getting another dog since we had to put ours down 3 years ago. Maybe talking isn't the right word. I've been wanting and he's been resisting. When we were in Puyllup, WA on the way up to Hazelton in June we were camped at a campground at a fairground where there was going to be a dog show. There were two women there with 30+ Maltese dogs and I fell in love. Wayne said I could get a dog when we got back from Alaska. I found out that the women were from Buda, TX which is just south of Austin. We drove out on Friday afternoon and this is our new little boy. He is 10 months old and was to be a show dog but one of his testicles didn't drop so they had him neutered and they were looking for a home for him. He weighs around 5 lbs full grown. We will pick him up on the way back from Corpus Christi and Wayne's cardiologist appointment.


Saturday was the UT vs UT El Paso football game. It was 90 degrees at game time and I thought I would die. Fortunately we are on the West side of the stadium so eventually the sun goes down behind the stands and we were in the shade for the last half of the game. We won again.

Here it is Sunday and we are waiting for our granddaughter, Michelle, to come over for lunch and a nice visit. We will leave early tomorrow for Corpus Christi and Wayne's appointment. We will spend the night and then return to Georgetown.

Texas sunsets

I was working on the computer tonight and looked out my window and say this beautiful sunset. I had to show you that Texas has beautiful sunsets too.

These are a little blurry as I was standing on top of the picnic table and it wasn't too steady.

Tomorrow is the big game between The University of Texas and Texas Tech. It is a big rivalry but we are favored to win.

Cheyenne to Georgetown, Texas

Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Canyon, Texas. There were lots of antelope along the way.

As we left entered New Mexico and headed west towards Texas we began seeing the
Capulin Volcano National Monument in the distance.

Here is a better view of the volcano. One year on our way up to New Mexico for the summer we drove closer to the volcano. It is really interesting.

We arrived in Georgetown, Texas about 5pm. We will stay here for almost a month for football games.

Our grand-daughter, Michelle, came over about 5:30 and we visited and went to dinner. We went for real Texas BBQ since we hadn't had any in a long time.

Its nice to know that we don't have to get up early tomorrow. Expect updates to slow down a bit now that we are settling in for a while.

Helena to Cheyenne

We left Helena on the morning of the 14th and headed south. We stopped at a roadside park north of Billings and a fifthwheel pulled into the space next to us. The next thing I knew Wayne was telling me to come outside. The couple in the fifthwheel were Larry and Kathy who are out next door neighbors in Rockport.

We visited for a while. They were spending the night in Billings. We had hoped to get all the way to Cheyenne so we set off on our separate ways. However, just after pulling out of the rest stop, the check engine light came on again so we too the motorhome to the Cummins service place in Billings. They checked it over and said that they place that fixed it should have also changed the oil so they could do that in the morning. I called Kathy to find out where they were staying and we stayed next to them that night.

After Cummins changed the oil and fixed a blown fuse in the air conditioner we were on our way again. We got as far as Cheyenne and spent the night Tuesday in a rest stop on the southern edge of Cheyenne. I didn't take pictures along the way because we had already done this trip last week.

Casper to Helena

We slept fairly good last night but I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed tonight.  After breakfast we set out for Helena.  This is a road that we have traveled before so I didn’t take many pictures.  Here is an interesting rock formation.

Here is  picture of the Little Big Horn memorial.  We have been to it before so we didn’t stop this trip.

Here is another small church and barn.

This is a lake that is close to Helena.  I wasn't able to get good pictures of it going to Cheyenne.

It is  really nice lake with campgrounds and homes around it.

Wayne communicated with the repair shop yesterday so we know that they think the problem is fixed.  We will check it out in the morning then go to an RV repair shop to see if they can get the refrigerator to work on gas.  Wayne talked with Rich the other day and he thinks it might be a cracked igniter.  Hopefully it is something easy.

Cheyenne to Laramie and then to Casper

We slept a little better last night.  They upgraded us to a king bed so we didn’t know when each other got out of bed.  After breakfast we headed to Laramie for the game.

It was cloudy but with some blue skies showing through.

 

More interesting rock formations.

We stopped at a rest stop and found this statue of Abraham Lincoln. 

We went to the Horn Fans.com tailgate party before the game.  We had upgraded our seats and here was our view of the field.

 

Here is the view looking North.

And here is the view looking South.  If you didn’t watch the game then you don’t know that Texas forgot to play during the first half.  They must have gotten some lecture in the locker room at half time because they came back and scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to win 41 to 10.

After the game we headed back towards Montana and the motorhome.  It got dusk early on so I didn't get many pictures.

We stopped in Casper.

Sheridan to Cheyenne

We didn’t sleep well last night.  We are too used to sleeping in our own bed. 

We got up and enjoyed half of our cinnamon rolls then headed out for Cheyenne.

There are antelope everywhere.

We stopped to get better pictures but they spooked and started running.

Spotted this unusual rock formation.

The terrain is very unusul with rocky formations, rolling mounds, and high mountains in the distance.

 

Here is another interesting rocky formation.

Here is the other side of the formation.

After we got to Cheyenne we heard the weather forecast and set out to buy long johns for the game tomorrow.  As we left I got this unusual picture of the cold front moving in.

I did catch another beautiful sunset though.

This and That

Wayne was in the hospital in Missoula for two days with his heart. The motorhome was in the shop waiting for a new AC compressor that had caused us to be towed in. Thank goodness for road service.

Wayne got out of the hospital on Monday, we picked up the motorhome and got as far as Butte before it shut down again. This time it had to be towed to Helena to a Cummins repair facility on our dime.

Wednesday we left Helena in the car and headed to Laramie, WY for the UT football game. We spent the night in Sheridan and are now in Cheyenne, WY. I took pictures but don't have a way to download them to Wayne's computer so they will be in a later blog. Don't expect much from here until next week some time as we head to Texas.

Helena to Sheridan, WY

The Cummins Shop in Helena will diagnose the problem today and order parts if necessary.  since we have to be in Laramie by Saturday we left the motorhome and took the jeep.

The are also beautiful mountains along this route.

 

This little church is used for weddings.

When we got to Wheatland there is a bread store where they have cinnamon rolls that are as big as the ones we got on our Alaska tour.  They will be breakfast in the morning.  Then it was off on IH 90 for more beautiful scenery.

There are antelope everywhere.

We stopped in Sheridan at a Super 8 across from the county museum and an old trolley.

Leaving Missoula

It’s Wednesday morning and we are leaving Jellystone Park.  Yogi is waving good bye.

This is where we were camped since last Thursday while the motorhome was in the shop.  It was very nice.

We headed out for Laramie, WY.  It was a beautiful day and and the scenery was beautiful.

 

As we pulled into Butte the lights on the engine started going off again.  We called Freightliner and they directed us to a repair facility.  While there I was able to get a good picture of the Christ statue on the mountain.

The repair facility had a yard cat that wanted to come with us.  It was really sweet.

The mechanic at the repair facility quickly diagnosed the problem and Freightliner said it was a Cummins problem.  Cummins refused to authorize the repair facility to make the repair and so we had to be towed to Helena, WY to a Cummins facility.  They towed us to a closed truck stop and we drove to Wal-Mart for the night.  They have beautiful sunsets here too.

Hopefully Cummins will be able to fix the coach quickly.

Big Sky Montana

Big Sky is Montana's motto. You see it everywhere. I think I understand a little better about why they chose that motto after last night's sunset.

We pretty much stayed inside yesterday. There were lots of football games for Wayne to watch and I did four loads of laundry. The morning was beautiful but it rained some in the afternoon. After dinner I was sitting at the computer when I looked out and saw the sky. Here are my two favorite shots.

That's our motorhome on the right.

I could have looked at this sky all night but of course the sun went away. It actually gets dark here for much of the night.

Eureka to Missoula

Thursday morning we got up and the awning over the door refused to go in.  Wayne had to dismantle it and tie it so that it wouldn’t come open going down the road.

The area around Flathead Lake is beautiful.

 

Several of the towns that we drove through had interesting main streets with quaint buildings.  This one with the wall climber caught my interest.

Much of the land was farm and ranch land with an occasional outcropping of rock.

We saw lots of cows today.

Flathead Lake is huge.  We drove down the western side of it and went through several small cities and subdivisions.

There were several private and public marinas on the lake.

 

After we left the lake area we saw more mountains in the district.

We saw this small church in one of the cities that we went through.

For lunch we stopped at a cafe on the outskirts of Missoula.  As we left the cafe and headed toward Butte I remarked that the Freightliner service center was right across the street and asked Wayne if he wanted to have them check the AC that had quit working.  He said we would wait until Butt but then about a mile later a light came on telling us to Stop Engine and Low Coolant.

About an hour later we have been towed back to the Freightliner shop and we spend the night in their parking lot.  I did get these great pictures of the sunset.

Friday morning they came out and reconnected the drive shaft so that Wayne could drive it into the bay.  We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then back to the shop.  They will have to order a part so they fixed it enough that we could drive it to the Jellystone park down the street.  I guess we will see the Missoula area instead of Butte.  The good news is that we can get satellite and Wayne will be able to get the Texas game on Saturday.