T Stands for Tuesday and Yellowstone Photos

Good morning friends and to my T party friends. Thank You to our hostess Elizabeth-click on side bar link to join in and learn about this event.

Where to begin-lol-this was a fabulous trip one I had been looking forward to and planned for a year now. 
   The only down side was probably the very long hours riding in the car-to and from, and only way to see Yellowstone for us was in the car. 
    I do want to mention that if you have breathing health issues you will have a difficult time. I have asthma and wasn't sure how bad the altitude, sulfur odors, cold air would effect me and my friend is on oxygen 24-7 do to an autoimmune disease of her lungs so she had a difficult time. It didn't help matters that she bought a new oxygen making machine especially for this trip that was not working right so that made things more difficult for her however the company did ship out a new one the next day. I came home with a terrible cough that I still can't get rid of-but let me tell you it was all well worth it in the end. I just wish we would have planned to stay in the park for at least 10 days instead of the 7 days.

   The highlight of my trip came on the last day in the park  meeting my favorite author Peggy Henderson-- author of the Yellowstone romance time travel novels I have shared about. 
    It started out as a hike and turned into an entire day with her and her husband showing me parts of Yellowstone I had not yet seen. They visit the park often and showed me some of their favorite spots-I could feel their passion for the park That day was very special to me.
    I am on the right of the photo-as I am getting older I am looking more and more like my Mom scarey lol

  We were only able to visit the park for about a half day (each day) do to my friend's low oxygen levels but we did get to see allot in the end.  Some areas of the park still had snow, some routes were still closed do to the snow, there was a water main break in one area too but the big plus for me--very few people in the park and baby bison-loved that.  Summer time visits would just be too much caos for me

    One morning while waiting for us to leave for the park  I did some spinning out on the narrow deck of our motel kitchen rooms. It was pretty chilly so I made up a cup of hot tea.  I was really pleased with our kitchen suite at the Alpine Motel in West Yellowstone-the owners did everything at the motel including all the cleaning of the rooms, excellent customer service, very very clean and cozy rooms  I highly recommend them.

My view was the backside of allot of the business's but many ravens flying around and the mountains in the background were awesome.

The owners Brian and Patty bought the motel 12 years ago and it came with a "pet" wild marmot lol  He is definately getting too many treats and is over weight. Marmy's favorite treat is dried apricots, of course we shared some of ours with him.  He would greet us at the bottom of the stairs many mornings. very cute and fun  Patty says he will go into hibernation in August.

I thought I would share a few photos more next week (do click to enlarge the photos for much better viewing) The sights were breath taking and an artist's pallet for creative ideas for sure.

I wanted to see bison up close and personal and we did-loved it

This is Yellowstone Lake-which looked like an angry ocean due to the 40-50 mile an hour winds that afternoon.

Another Tuesday is Upon Us and and Yellowstone Trip-Next Week-Wow

Good morning everyone,
   This has been Such a few weeks for us. 

     With Hubs illness and then a couple days ago the passing of his father. So our emotions are all over the place.
   I decided not to join T For Tuesdays today as I may not be able to get around to everyone and really enjoy reading and commenting on all the posts.

   Last night I got invited by a friend to come over for grilled brats-such a wonderful evening with friends-the night was perfect too-warm no wind and a full moon. They have a huge pond and their property in the woods is kept up like a lovely park. Didn't get home til really late so had a good sleep as well.

   My father in law was 95 and he had quality of life until about a year ago-so we were preparing ourselves but is always a difficult time. Hubs needed to be there, so he drove up to the Chicago area and will be there for several days. We had friends that offered to go with but he said no.
   The sad thing about the beautiful place we live in, we always make sure someone is on the property do to all the thievery here and there is sooo much of it that it sickens me. Especially since this area is in the "bible belt".   If we would have known-but when you buy into a new area how would you know-we would not have settled here--but we do love our beautiful space here in the woods.

  Yesterday it dawned on me--Wow I am leaving on my Yellowstone Trip next week-how is that possible already?? lol  I am pretty much ready to go just need to get things packed and I need to buy a few clothes yet as I really don't have much in nicer clothes any more-especially since my size has changed over the last few years. 
  The one special highlight of my trip will be to meet my favorite author Peggy that writes the Yellowstone novels I had posted about previously. Her and husband will be camping in the park during a couple of the same days I will be there too. We will be doing a hike together on one of her favorite trails so I am very excited about that. There will be four of us taking the hike and we will all have our bear spray handy.

I probably will not post again til I return-Enjoy your May everyone.

T Stands for Tuesday Rain Rain & More Rain & Tamales

It is time for T Stands for Tuesday with our hostess Elizabeth, where we share our week and also a beverage.
   Also Second on the 2nd falls on Tuesday as well, where we share a previous blog post-so I will have two different posts this week. Here is a link to my Second on the 2nd post

  Those of you in the usa I am sure by now that you have heard on the news about all the flooding and deaths here in Missouri over the weekend.
   We have been saturated with rain soaked soil for awhile now so this weekend came with just too much rain and no where left for it to soak in to-so all the rivers had gotten flooded and jumped out of their banks.
  . The southern area especially of Missouri I think got hit the worse-all those little communities nearest the rivers were just overwhelmed and many still can not get out of their homes since the roads in those areas are also still flooded.
   I don't remember a time since we have lived here when we had almost 24 hours of continuous lightening and thunder along with the hard rains-my area got 12 inches for sure and I am up 100ft from the nearest river down below me-the Niangua river.  The camp ground near me by the river was all flooded as was their buildings. With all the very low spots here do to the geography of the land many roads were all flooded.
   So needless to say we are saturated and have more rain to come wednesday and thursday.

   My allergies had gotten so bad that I decided on friday I needed to drive an hour to the walk in clinic to get checked out as no way was I going to risk driving through floods on saturday-and good thing as the exit I would have taken off the highway to get home was closed do to floods.
    Yep full blown allergies so they gave me a steroid shot-usually for me only thing that works when I get this bad.
   I am less than 3 weeks away for my Yellowstone Park trip so hoping the shot works. It has a little bit so far

   Today was again cloudy, but with strong winds and cold was quite surprised how cold it was today. I had been planning on making homemade tamales so we could eat a meal of them and also freeze some for hubby when I am on my trip.  Today was the perfect day for it. and our friends that are helping us get things finished in the house were here working in the bathroom-putting up antique lights and bath towel holders (photos soon)-so I invited them to stay for supper.
(photos will all enlarge just click on them)

   First photo is my set up-tamale dough, meat, corn husks

     Corn husks soaking in water I will finish making more tomorrow.

            Refried beans with chopped tomatoes and green chilies

                 Tamales ready to come out of the steamer

For our beverage I made us all mango margaritas-these are just the best ever

My recipe:  I use an old vita mix so I filled it half full with frozen chunks of mango-can also use fresh.
                 2 shots of fresh juiced limes
                 2 shots tequila
                 2 shots triple sec
                  agave to taste
Blend til smooth
For thick margaritas fill the rest of blender with crushed ice and blend til smooth-or add half the space left with water and blend til smooth.


In the mail I received my finish medal for the virtual running club's Earth Day race-I love their medals they are heavy and beautiful

and I grabbed my bag of cheviot wool roving for more hand spinning over the weekend-I think I will take my spinning along on my Yellowstone trip as I know my travel companion will be bringing her crochet projects along. 
    The past weekend was also a nice time to read since being so rural we need to unplug all of our electronics-tvs, computers, washer and dryer.

Happy T for Tuesday everyone