VISITORS!!!!!

Mark and Dale Bruss arrived Saturday Sept 1ST......................



Larry and Linda Moore arrived the next day Sunday Sept 2ND..........................



This is Larry and Linda's Kenworth T2000 and 5Th wheel..................




Mark and Dale's Volvo 770.........................and 5TH wheel.


How about those RAINBOWS!!!!!!!!! Special ,,,just for our guests!

Larry, Mark, Pat, DonnaLyn, Linda and Jim. Jim and DonnaLyn Vickers are staying at the BrokenArrow Campground just south of our place. We had plenty of Happy Hours and Pot Lucks!! We also went on a 4 mike walk every morning and managed to work in some Hikes in Custer State Park, Took in a BLAST at Crazy Horse Mtn and a great dinner at the Alpine Inn. We had a super time~! Hope ya all HURRY back!!!!!!!

Mike

It was a GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!

What happened???? Cooled off!!!

YES,,,IT GOT COLD!!!!!

Yesterday morning when we got up it was 33 deg!!!! Coldest morning yet this fall. We plugged in the heater and turned on the Heat Pump. Hot coffee sure tasted good!!!


Click on this picture and enlarge it, you will see the ICE on the top of our car......Frost on the grass.....


Ice on Mark and Dale's car.....

Frost on the neighbors house.....

But the SUN was shinning....



That same morning we all heard a LOUD ROAR,,,,,,,,,REAL LOUD!!!! Everyone ran outside and RIGHT above our Teton was this HUGE balloon.............They were Sooooo Close, straight up!! I thought they were going to land on my house!!!!!,or the neighbors house!!!!
I hollered up to the balloon, "HELLO", they all yelled "HELLO" back to me. They waived at all of us and went on across the road and landed.........Gee, that still looks like fun. I keep hinting that I would sure like to schedule a ride.....But it just don't happen. Maybe that's for a reason. Could be.....

It was CLEAR as a BELL all day. That gave us a sample of whats in store for us if we stayed here much longer. So were heading SOUTH in a week.........Call us snowbirds, call us winter Texans, whatever, but call us SMART!!!!!!!:-)

It was a GREAT DAY !!!!!

Mike

Terri's Visit Sept, 5th & 6th, 2007

Pat's daughter Terri visited us this week in Custer, SD. She went on a Hike with us in Custer State Park. Here they are early in the morning ready to go on the 4+ mile hike. Terri was moving from one job to another and only stopped by for a couple days........It was good to see her, but the visit was too short!!

Here is all 3 of us just before our Hike. That's Stockade Lake behind us. This was the first time I had used my new Tripod and timed shutter.

It worked!!! Gave me time to get in the picture...

Click on the picture to enlarge.

We had a GREAT HIKE!

It was a GREAT DAY !!!!!



Check out our other web sites listed above on the right.



Mike

Hiking LOVERS LEAP with Friends.

This is Pat and I on top of "one" of our favorite Hikes in Custer State Park. LOVERS LEAP This is one of the first Hikes we take our friends on. Its a 3 mile hike, the first half is quite a climb and the last half is down hill. The TOP is quite a nice view!! Worth the trip!!

This is Chuck and Rhoda Roper our GOOD friends and former neighbors from Tallahassee, Fl. They were the first visitors we took on this hike in June this summer. Enjoyed having them visit us. They didn't want to leave!! Unfortunately they still have to WORK!

This is our friends and fellow Tetoners Jim and Donnalyn Vickers. We met them at the TETON factory in Casper, Wy in June. They were also from south Florida. Jim was a STATE FARM agent and Donnalyn managed the agency. They have a NEW 2008 TETON on order and were waiting while it was being built. We took them on LOVERS LEAP trail just last week. Here we are just before taking off up the mountain. As you can see JIM is one tall dude! I believe he is 6'4 or 6'5. They had a High Line Mororhome and sold it, bought a new Freightliner Mercedes Truck and a TETON 5th wheel. They have been full timing for 2-3 years and loving it!! What GREAT friends we meet out here!!!! We have a LOT in common with these fellow Insurance Agents.......

Here Jim is NOT QUITE so tall!!!! :-) We had a GREAT hike!!!! We will probably do LOVERS LEAP at least one more time before we leave..............

It was a GREAT DAY !!!!!

Mike

(click on pictures to enlarge them, you can really see the scenery then!)

My travel Journal:http://woodalls.mytripjournal.com/mikepatstravels

Recognize this Mountian?

This is a shot of CRAZY HORSE MOUNTAIN from the Stockade Lake hiking trail that we do a couple times a week. This is about 7 miles North. Interesting how he is always watching us. There are several Hikes in Custer State Park that Chief Crazy Horse has his eyes on you,,,,,,just watching!!!!! Click on the picture and enlarge it, you will see him even better.. I don't think I'd want him after me!!

It was a GREAT DAY !!!!

Mike

SNOW in AUGUST,,,,,,,really???

NO.............Not Really. But we did get 4 inches of RAIN last night............This is a picture of FOAM as the water runs over the Stockade DAM in CSP. It sure looks like snow!! Click on the picture to enlarge it..



This is water coming over the dam. There hasn't been any water running over it ALL summer.

This is the back side of the Dam as water runs on down under the Bridge and into French Creek.......Its good to see it running like that, the Lake gets VERY stale unless it gets some water running through it.....

It doesn't "fix" our drought, but is sure helps. There was some flooding around and over in Hermosa they say there were HOUSES floating!!!!! It came FAST & FURIOUS !!!

Its a GREAT DAY!!!!!

Mike

DRI WASH ULTRA ION

This ULTRA ION totally amazes me!!!

When I first got this HONDA about a year ago, I put a couple GOOD coats of ULTRA ION on it.

In June it was quite dirty, I took a wet rag and a dry rag and wiped it down. This is the way it looked after doing that........Unbelievable!!!! Took me about 20 minutes.

I have not washed this car with a hose and soap since I got it. Just Dri Wash, ULTRA ION.....

Click on the picture to enlarge it and see what it really looks like!!!!

It is a GREAT DAY !!!!!

Mike

BALLOON LANDING

Early one morning this BALLOON landed right out in front of our place. This is a local Balloon that gives rides and we see it quite often passing over us, this is the first time they landed so CLOSE. This was taken from our front door. It was neat.......One day I'm gona take a ride in one......What a VIEW from up there! I've rode in a lot of little and big planes and a chopper, but never a Balloon. It's not to late. Lets do it !!!

It is a GREAT DAY !!!

Mike

My new FLAG POLE

Everybody needs a flag!!!

We haven't had a FLAG for a long time. I have been looking for the type of pole that was easy up and easy down. I didn't want to drill any holes, but it had to be a good secure mount. Our friends Mark and Dale Bruss have a FLAG POLE BUDDY. I liked it and decided to install this NEAT flag pole on the Ladder of our TETON.
To see more pictures of the complete kit and INSTALLATION,

click here:

FLAG POLE BUDDY

Its a GREAT DAY !!!!!!

Mike

THANK YOU !!!!! and THANK GOD !!!

Remember a while back when I told you all to send us SOME rain?.........VERY HIGH Fire Danger to a MODERATE fire Danger.......Much better!!! Especially for this BIKE week. MOTORCYCLES everywhere................

In the last 10 days we have got around 2 inches of RAIN........WONDERFUL !!!

No HAIL either,,,,,,,close but NO damage. South of rapid and Hart Ranch RV Resort had GRAPEFRUIT size a few days ago, with all kinds of damage....

So again, THANK YOU ALL and THANK GOD !

Every bit helps!!!!






Its a GREAT DAY !!!!!!!

Mike

LED Tail Lights on TETON.

I love LED lights !!!! Especially tail light's..........I had LED's put on the Taillight's of the Volvo truck when I built the bed. I've been after TETON to put them on the TETON's for years...

They would never do it, said they weren't available...........:-( When we were at the Teton factory this spring, I noticed that they now used LED's!!!!!

So I started looking. I could buy them from Teton, at quite a high price or I could try to locate them for less. I found them at : http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/ Ordered them and below is the installation process..

Click on pictures to enlarge them.













They came in a package like this.











First you remove the original tail light lens covers. On the wraparound light on the corner, you have to cut out the light bulb.






The directions are fairly simple and its not much of a job.........


Even a Cave Man could do it !!!







Remove the old bulb and plug the NEW LED light into the socket and that's it!!!


This is what the back side of the LED looks like. It is a sealed unit....



This is the Front side and all you do now is use the old screws and fasten the new LED back in where the old lens came off...


















There it is ALL REPLACED......





The inside lens with the clear center is a back up light. I didn't do anything with it.





However I'm thinking about replacing it with one of the new LED's also. I need taillight's and turn signals MUCH more than I need Back up lights. We never drive much at night anyhow, let alone back up !!








LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE !!!!!!!!





The one on the left is all done.....See how much brighter it is than the right????


Now,,,to get the other one done....





Cost : approx $160.00 for 6 LED lights including shipping...

WELL WORTH IT !!!!!

THE MORE TAIL LIGHT'S & TURN SIGNALS THE BETTER !!!!!!!!!!!!! IMO !

IT IS A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!
Mike

You can see more pictures of the lights including part numbers at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wb4pdo/LEDLightsOnTheTETON

Neat RV !!!!

We saw this NEAT truck and trailer parked in the grocery store parking lot. We kept waiting for the owner to show up. But he never did. I would of loved to ask him a bunch of questions!!! It is an old CHEV pickup, but I'm not sure what year. It has been completely restored and much better that it was originally. I'm sure it has a much bigger motor and probably an automatic transmission.







The trailer is Fiberglass and like a Casita, but it had a name I never heard of...
It is probably quite light weight.
Matching stripe and all !!!











I would think it would be in the 40's vintage......Anybody know for sure.
It had British Columbia license plates on it.
No doubt it gets a LOT of attention where ever it is!!!








The floor in the bed was so clean you could EAT off of it !!!


Neat Trunk huh ?


Click on pictures to enlarge them.....


IT WAS A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Mike

Custer GOLD DISCOVERY DAYs PARADE July 2007

Pat and I decided to go to the CUSTER GOLD DISCOVERY DAYS parade. We hadn't been to a parade for about 15 years...LETS GO !!!

SMOKEY was there!! Smokey has a very important job as it is so DRY that everyone is so afraid of more fires...

Did you know SMOKEY just had a birthday? He was 63 years old on July 28th. He wasn't even around when I was born.

All parades have FIRE TRUCKS,,,,,there were about a dozen, but this ONE took my eye.
Oldie but Goodie! I'd guess its a 1949 to a 52 year. I know its a FORD !!













Here is the local Dr. Sweetwater and the Medicine Show











Burros Played a great part in hauling supplies.
Did you know that they and mules are much more "sure" footed than horses? Its true!

















This was ONE of my favorites!!! What a TREAT to see a JOHN DEERE trike!!!!!
REALLY NEAT !!!!!
I've never seen such, but I would trade my VOLVO for it !!!

(Pat says no!):-)














This WAS my favorite !!!! What a NEAT little truck.











Is it a Pete or a KW......??? Not sure but I sure liked it....
I LOVE trucks!!!!!(and little baby ducks!











Here is a 4 horse team and wagon. My Dad had one of these on our ranch, but we worked our horses side by side, 4 wide.

We also had a team and wagon like this. We used to take it out fixing fence......

Old memories!!!!

Dad would love it......but hes watching ! :-)

I took dozens of other pictures, but don't want to bore you with ALL of them.... WE thoroughly enjoyed our Custer's Little Parade...........The weather was Superb and people are down to earth and friendly.......As Crazy Horse would say "they are MY PEOPLE,,,,,,,

It WAS A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!

Mike

IT'S DRY HERE !!!!!

FIRE DANGER "VERY HIGH" !!!

Boy O Boy,,,,is it ever dry here !!!! This as a 7 year drought so far. Ranchers have no hay for their cattle. They are having to sell off part of their stock. Hay is too high priced for them to purchase, so they just sell the cattle.

We are having fires right and left every day. Several fires have been BAD !!! South of Hot Springs which is 30 miles South of us, they had a big fire that took days and days and all the resources they could come up to put out. It burned a lot of Houses and Building and 1 life was lost. We have a BURN ban on all around.

We had a 1/2 " rain day before yesterday and 1/4 " yesterday, for a total of 3/4 " and that's been " it" for a long time. Every little bit helps, but that didn't even make a slight dent in our problem........WE NEED MORE !!!!!

Send us SOME !!!



IT'S A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!

Mike

OLD GAS PUMP and TANKER WAGON

This OLD Gas Pump and Delivery Wagon are in the front yard of our neighbors, Dennis and Carolyn McDonald. They were in the GAS business before they retired. It is a neat yard ornament and brings back a lot of memories for me.


How many of you have seen a GAS PUMP like this? Not many I bet, except in a antique display. Well when I was a kid, these pumps were in operation at many of the Gas Stations!

They had a big handle on the side of the pump and you would pump it back and forth until the Top (below) was filled with gas. Then you would take the hose down and fill your car, truck, etc. Although in those days the Service Station Attendant did it all for you. No such thing as self service in those days....They even washed the windshield and aired the tires.....







See the numbers in the glass, that's how you could tell how many gallon you used. Hard to believe gas was about .15 cents per gallon. Soon it went up to .19 cents, when the state tax increased.

By the time I became a teenager there were still a lot of these pumps in use, but the electric model was becoming the standard.

Its neat to see a little reminder of the OLD DAYS every day. It brings back those childhood Memories........

Those were the GREAT DAYs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike