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Life as a Cowboy

9/25/2015

Wow. It has been so much fun that I haven’t had time to do a blog entry! While we have been doing so many things, with so much to talk about, in this blog I am going to talk about being a cowboy.

We spent two incredibly fun days at Kevin and Amy Warren’s house in Daniel, Wyoming. The second day we went on a hike to the source of the Green River in the Wind River Mountains. It was am amazing hike along two lakes and a river that had incredible views. At the top of the hike we were all feeling nice and warm than we decided to take a skinny dip in the lake. It was FREEZING!!!! As soon as we got in we ran right out of the lake and laid on some warm rocks.

After we got home from our Green Lakes hike, Ethan and I were waiting eagerly for Kevin’s return so that we could do “boy stuff”. When he got home he grabbed a beer and a lariat and told us to follow him to the horse enclosure. We crawled through the barbed-wire fence and then the horses came galloping past us! It was such a graceful thing to see. Kevin called Strider (his horse) over and put a harness around the horse’s head so we would only be able to control Strider through the reins. Ethan and I traded turns riding the horse, and while one was riding the horse the other practiced using the lariat.

The first time I went on the horse it was so incredible that you could feel the legs and muscles more with each step. As we got more comfortable we were able to go farther and farther without Kevin leading us. Then Kevin then told us to go to and around objects, and we learned how to control the horse on our own. In doing so we learned that if you act comfortable then the horse will allow you to control it. Then for our last ride we were able to canter to the fence and back. It was the most thrilling and joyous thing I’ve ever done. All of a sudden, Strider went fast and his gait felt very natural. It was just beautiful and hard to describe in words.

Afterwards, we learned how to throw knives. It was super fun. We learned that you don’t need to used your wrist at all; just point to where you want the knife to go. After having some fun doing that, Kevin brought out the bullwhip. It made a really, really loud noise, louder than a gunshot! He left us to fool around with that while he went to get his BB gun. We had some fun trying to hit some plastic things and as it got dark we went inside for a much needed dinner of chili and cornbread. Yum!

I want to thank Kevin and Amy for sharing their house and life with us and for inspiring Ethan and me to become cowboys!

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Rogues Gallery in Hulett, Wyoming

9/20/2015

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Hi guys! In my last post I forgot to mention about going to Hulett, Wyoming, a town right next to Devil's Tower. It is a very cool 'Old West'-type of town with a single main street lined with buildings that have wooden front porches and the unique western-design flat face for the second story.

While we were there, we went to this place called 'Rogues Gallery'. It was run by a man called Bob Coronato, an amazing artist who has a part-time hobby of finding and collecting western souvenirs. He has a fascination with the Old West and has set up this wonderful museum of Native American and cowboy artifacts.

He has become an expert in being able to find real artifacts among all the fake Native American and Old West objects. Bob even explained to us that sometimes people in Germany and

Czechoslovakia make Native American clothes and blankets to be sold on reservations as 'real' Native American artifacts! Over the years, Bob has been able to find the best preserved bison cloak which has now been shown at various museums across the world. Bob has also found various cowboy and Native American guns, bows and arrows from the 1800s, including a rifle that was used at the battle of Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand). Among the Native American clothing that he discovered is a real 'Ghost Dance' shirt, moccasins and head-dresses.

You can tell that Bob has a good sense of humor because among all the Native American and cowboy artifacts and history he sneaks in funny little pictures, stories and objects. One of them is an old cowboy nicknamed 'Buck-Tooth Bill' who used his teeth to cut down trees and died from 'chip inhalation'! Other funny objects are the Great Plains Piranha and the rare 'Hairy Bass' which grows a heavy fur coat in the winter.

Bob and his museum have so many stories to tell and it was definitely the highlight of our trip to Hulett. If you are ever in the area, you must go there.

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And So It Begins

9/15/2015

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It has been a wounderful journey with so many memories made and so many to come. It has been long drives of seeing corn, corn, and more corn (oh, and did I forget to mention corn?). Then between these long drives we got to spend some quality time with family and friends. The visits were so nice because we got to catch up with with the Wilhelms and see Greg's new school. Then we drove to Aunt Catey and Uncle Doug's house, and had a great time hearing Uncle Doug's stories from his year at Deerwood. The next day we went out to get some supplies, and get some bikes since our old ones got ripped of the back of our camper. Afterwords, we went to Aunt Eileen's and caught up with the Barry's. It was so great to see all of them. We also explored the City Museum which is a really cool playground for all ages built into a 10 story building.

After a few wonderful visits we drove out to The Wilds, our first campground - a spacious RV park. We had a great bike ride along the Missouri river and through the woods, and at the end we saw a beautiful fawn. Another day of driving to make it out west as fast as we can, and a favorite part of our day was biking along side the banks of Lake Mitchell, with a pump track that had really fun jumps and bends. When we arrived at the Badlands, it was time for our journey to begin.

The Badlands is truly and amazing place, with a diverse amount of animals and land formations. The reason why the Badlands are so well know is because of it is where the prairie drops off along a 60 mile eroding sedimentary rock formation, (it's the picture on the cover page). It has the prairie mixed in with it, too. This allows the diverse life of deer, bison, prairie dogs, coyotes and the endangered black-footed ferret and swift foxes. It was also really fun watching the stars and remnants of the northern lights while a humongous thunder storm was raging to the south. Sadly, it was time to leave. We saw the depressing sight of the Massacre at Wounded Knee, and learned about how tough life is now for a hardworking Native American women. Then we got to the small yet intriguing Wind Cave National Park which would be our home for the next 3 days.

The was the first national park to be dedicated to protecting a cave that is the 4th largest in the world (due to barometric pressure readings of the caves, they think they have discovered only 10% of it.) Since it was the fourth largest cave in the world we had to take a tour through it. We learned that if a low pressure system is coming through the cave equalizes and breathes out and if a high pressure system is coming through it equalizes and breathes in. We also saw a lot of healthy animas such as a swift fox, bison, deers with antlers, and lots of bunnies and prairie dogs. We also heard elk buggelling and coyotes howling in the night.

As things happen there is sometimes changes in plans, ours was to go to Devil's Tower. Devil's Tower is a huge vertical pillar of igneous rock with what look like claw marks down the side. We had a nice, 6 mile bike ride up and down a big hill to get near the base of Devil's Tower where we saw prairie dogs, deer and vultures circling Devil's Tower and perched on a tree. It looked like a Halloween scene. When we got back, we watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind, were we could see Devil's Tower the whole time (oh, at the KOA we were staying at they show the movie every night!)

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Life as a Cowboy

Rogues Gallery in Hulett, Wyoming

And So It Begins

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