HALF-WAY........

Okay, the last time I posted was 5 days ago. Jeanette and I basically drove from Lander, Wyoming to Montpelier, Idaho on Friday - 235 miles. We stayed with my mother and visited my brother and his family - until today - when we drove about 245 miles from Montpelier, Idaho to West Yellowstone, Montana. So for those of you who are keeping track - we are a little over 2,600 miles and about halfway through our journey.
The post only lets us put the first picture of the blog on the title page - so here is one photo of me and "Ole Ephraim" that I will share with you a little later...

me and "ole Ephraim" in Montpelier, Idaho

But first, let me graphically show you a map of our travels over the past weekend.....

Point A is Lander, Wyoming - 
B is Montpelier, Idaho (did that on Friday)
Point C is West Yellowstone, Montana which we did that today.....

So Friday morning we got up and headed out of Lander - we went down highway 28 - towards Kemmerer, Wyoming and this is about 150 miles of almost nothing.

150 miles between Lander and Kemmerer, Wyoming

There were a few interesting things....

So you can bet that we had gassed up and had a few bottles of water on hand just in case. As through most of our journey, the weather was cool to start with (mid 50's) but soon warmed up into the low 80's. This was the first day that we wore the leather jackets until our final destination. Usually, we take them off around lunchtime.

We did hit a small rest station on our way - where Jeanette made some furry friends....

As we started to get closer to Kemmerer, the landscape started getting more interesting - but unfortunately, the wind was REALLY picking up. The road was a two lane highway - so everytime a truck came by, there was a good chance we were going to get a faceful of wind....

A little nicer scenery - 
notice the Mormon Church in the foreground....
you can tell it is the Mormon Church - as it has a spire 
(and is usually the biggest building in all of these little towns in Southwestern Wyoming/Southeastern Idaho)

 

Finally entering Montpelier....
the nearby hill has an "M" placed in it - 
similar to the "K" on the hill near Kemmerer.
Most towns have their initial on a nearby mountain.  
Also notice the "for sale sign on the building 
in the foreground?  
That is a very common sight. 

So we got into Montpelier and met with relatives - which is always fun - so let me show you a few gratuitous photos from the 2012 Family Album....

Not to bore you with details - L-R:
my nephew James, his wife Hailey, 
my sister in law, Carol, my big brother Will, 
Mom, my niece Shelly and her husband Brian
(Shelly & James are siblings) 

Jeanette and I with our niece Angie....
at her house in Soda Springs...
I am not trying to give her "moose antlers" 
but wanted to point out how she would look with frilly hair
......really....honest....okay, okay...it WAS moose antlers...

BUT....since you don't think we did nothing but sit around and eat peanut butter pie (everyone else OBVIOUSLY over-ate - but I was very restrained with MY consumption of peanut butter pie.....) But any way, we did go to Soda Springs and visit the WORLD's Largest (and only) man-made geyser in the world (it was discovered in 1937 when the locals were looking for a source for water for a swimming pool.) They capped it and it is on a mechanical timer - so it "goes off" once every hour in the winter and once every half hour in the summer....

They call it....."The Geyser"

And of course, in Montpelier, there are bears (seriously) - a lot of them. They have park benches along the main drag - that warn you....

Jeanette siting on one of the benches

Old Ephraim (life-sized) with me walking towards him

The quick story of Old Ephraim - he was reportedly the largest grizzly ever taken at 9 foot 11 inches tall. He was terrorizing the local barns and stockyards - by eating livestock - and breaking down fences. He was notorious for "breaking traps" and as a matter of fact only had nine toes - because he lost one getting out of a trap.

Long story short - they hired a "animal hit man" to come and take him out. The guy had a tough time as Ole Ephraim kept breaking the traps. Finally, the guy connected a trap to a HUGE log - the trap was set and the guy came back the next morning. The entire log and trap was gone - Ephraim had dragged it away - but unfortunately, he left a trail. The tracker found the bear hooked up to the trap (and the log) and sent O.E. to "Grizzly Heaven" - where the salmon are plentiful and the rivers are warm. O.E.'s skull resides in the Smithsonian. There was actually a book written about his escapades in 1959. 

One final fact about Montpelier. It has only one sit-down type restaurant - and it is at the local truck stop. The place is called the Ranch Hand and it caters to truckers - so you get a LOT of food for a little price - and the food is excellent. But they do have a certain "pancake challenge" that if you can eat 3 of their pancakes in one hour - it is free (the normal price is $6 - so it is not like you can make a living doing it). But --- each pancake is about 14" in diameter - and when you stack three of them together - and it looks like a 3-layer cake....it is gigantic. I think they also give you a shirt if you complete the challenge. I did NOT do that - as I would get sick after about half a pancake. So I leave it to the professionals.

So here it is - Tuesday morning. We left Montpelier, Idaho and headed north. The first town we came across was Afton, Wyoming (the highway dips back into Wyoming and we take a connector farther up the line to get into Montana.) Afton is home of "The Arch"

The Arch is made totally out of Elk Antlers - 
it was built in 1958 at a cost of about $25,000

It took 3,000 Antlers and is over 18' high

In the gallery next to the antlers
 there are some outdoor wood carvings....

including on the roof

The carvings are as much of an attraction as the Antler Arch is
....as "certain" people just love to pose with them

And the carvings like to window shop as well....

After Afton, Wyoming, we worked our way back into Ashton, Idaho - and we decided to have lunch at a nice little out of the way place (it was called the 5.11 Main - as the address was 511 Main Street ....unique, huh?) - anyrate, the hostess was really nice to us (even before we left the big tip) and she recommended an "old highway" alternate route to get to West Yellowstone. 
We took her advice and found a couple of really nice places.... one was a scenic overlook of the Tetons (that we had driven near earlier that morning...)

A view of the Tetons (yes - that IS snow on top)

And we also got to stop and visit the Lower Mesa Falls - which was gorgeous....and free. We were going to go visit the Upper Mesa Falls - but that was further up and cost......$8!  What is it with these people and $8??!?

As with all of these mountain photos - 
the photo does not do the real thing justice - 
but it was spectacular....
and if we didn't listen to our waitress, 
we would have never seen this....

So that is a quick "wrap up" of our weekend. Tomorrow and Thursday, we will be doing some very short drives (about 150 miles each day) because we would like to spend some time at Old Faithful and driving through Yellowstone......
Hope you are enjoying in sharing our adventures.
Wade and Jeanette
GNTNYCGTB LY <3