the BIG fix

Remember the trailer "issue"?  

Without going into details, out of respect, the "issue" was taken care of on Thursday while we were in Buffalo, WY ~ thank you Marcus for your suggestion that the King take care of the trailer, although with all due respect to himself, the decision was made within about 20 minutes of pulling into the campground in Buffalo!

What to do we say ~ with at least six hours to occupy ourselves, as well as Sir Arlo, in Buffalo, WY (and truly it was a marvelous town, and a terrific area), when we did a big "field trip" the day before!  DAH, poor planning on the "planners" part for sure.  Speaking of which, how is it that one sort of falls into the role of "navigator" and/or "planner"?  Hmmm I will ponder that extensively a bit later, in the meantime I will be "blogger".

So, with this dilemma of too much time without our "house" to return to, sort of in the middle of "nowhere", well the closest "city" is 40 miles away, what to do, what to do, what to do?

So off we go to Sheridan.  Well Sheridan, from what we saw of it, seemed like a fun place.  A beautiful "downtown" area, beautiful old buildings, lots of stores and places to be ~ to eat, drink and be happy and do a bit of shopping if the spirit moved (the spirt would have moved, but I'm not a big fan of shopping these days what with limited space and far more limited needs or wants).    

We visited the local Elks Lodge (photo above) - great old building, of which we got a tour.  This lodge is number 520, numbers are assigned as charters are given ~ Rick's Lodge is number 146, my Lodge is number 1872!   I have no idea what the most recent Lodge number assigned is ... hmmm, when I remember I just might research this, cause I truly am curious). 

On our way up to Sheridan and on our return to Buffalo, we stopped at beautiful Lake DeSmet ~ what an absolute treasure we found.  There are a few (two or three) boat ramps, several campsites (no hook ups at $10.00 a night - oooooh what a place).  Sir really and truly needed a place to just be and act like himself - a big old silly goof.  Seriously, check out that photo above, see that paw - he is doing a great dog paddle isn't he!

So we stayed at the Lake for a while, threw some sticks for Sir to retrieve and Sir did some great sniffing of the area around this boat launch and it was all good (although gosh darn hot) for an hour or so to and from Sheridan.

As we were leaving, both times, we saw these critters that I thought were deer until I got a "real good look" and Rick and I both decided hey those aren't deer.  For sure, they were far less timid than any deer I'd ever seen.  So I asked the owner of the campground we were at and she informed me that they are antelope.  I thought they were a bit scraggly looking for a deer, then again what the heck do I know?!?!

After we picked up the trailer (ahhhhhh the "improved, big fixed, trailer, sans new axle and two brand spanking new, once again, tires) as well as the coach ,that we'd left at the repair facility, ... we went back to the campground, "re-connected" all connections, and chillaxed for an hour or so.

Then, we headed out to downtown Buffalo, to the Occidental Hotel (that link by the way goes on and on with great information of the hotel and its history), where on Thursday nights they have a local jam session.  OMG, what a treat this was.  

It was absolutely packed in there - seriously standing room only.  Come to find out the locals (those most definitely in the know) reserve the tables every Thursday night and the bar was mobbed.  We did, thankfully, get seats eventually.  Good thing, 'cause I was beyond hungry ~ you know when the head ache starts and the bitchy sets in?  

Check this out ~ a grilled caesar salad ~ WOW in spite of the roasted pine nuts, it was an absolutely out of this world, outstandingly delicious, a wonderfully terrific culinary delight of the greatest magnitude (could I have two right now as I'm diligently working on this blog post, pleeeeease)

What a plethora of local talent.  We had so much fun, I didn't want to leave ~ you know sort of a date night, on the town, whatever anyone wants to call it, it was nice to be out and have a great meal (which by the way included the seafood pizza - ooooooh so good) and outstanding entertainment.

The place was just so packed ... I'd never been to a "jam session" before and it was so neet to watch it all and enjoy the tunes ~ everyone jut sort of made it work so smoothly.

And how 'bout this photo below - ooooh that would be Lynn Young - a local legend who plays a multitude of string instruments and obviously has such a jolly smile! 

And Maureen, here is a photo for you - ooh la la girlfriend ... (oh and he sang oh so wonderfully ~ as good as he looked).

So we left ~ another campground I left so sadly ~ Buffalo yesterday and came to Hardin, MT (yeah, a post for another time ~ oh yeah, what a place).  Leaving Hardin in the morning headed to Livingston for a few days.

Today was, for me, another creative (seven hours straight, other than brief dog walks) day at my sewing machine (seriously, what the hell is with this creative thing happening with me lately), while himself, King Richard, toured battlefields.  It will be a bit of a challenge to do that blog post, I guess Rick took several photos and I asked him to do a "rough draft" of  a post but he didn't seem to like that idea ...

We're "outta here" in the morning ... stay tuned.