Happy Almost Birthday, Landon . . .

After a quiet morning, and coffee, of course, Jan and I headed up to Brandi’s in Katy. We were all getting together for Landon’s pre-birthday birthday.




His real birthday is tomorrow, August 20th, but today we were all meeting at his favorite Rainforest Café over in Katy Mills Mall.

Rainforest Cafe 8-19-18 1

Not only were Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper with us, but Landon’s Aunt Sherry as well. In addition, close friends, Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox were also there.]

And as a side note, Chantelle is the travel agent who’s putting together our upcoming European River Cruise/London/Paris trip.

After we’d finished our meals, and Landon had opened his presents, they brought a Lava Birthday Cake for everyone to share.

Rainforest Cafe 8-19-18 2

Later, getting our hugs, Chris and Linda headed back to Kingsland, about 4 hours away, while Jan and  I, along with Miss Piper, left for the Clear Lake. We dropped Piper off at her apartment before we finally got home a little after 4:30pm.

Brandi and Lowell are closing on their new house this coming Friday, but it could be Thursday. Then just as soon as the closing is done, the movers are scheduled to show up. They expect to be completely moved by the end of the day.

Landon still has another birthday party to go, this time on September 8th at the Smith Ranch north of Katy once again. This will be the one with all his friends, along with the giant water slide, the petting  zoo, and a lot more.

I thought I’d fill out this blog with another look at our 2013 to the Jackson Hole / Yellowstone area. We stayed over the mountain in Victor, ID at a very nice Passport America park. Much cheaper than trying to stay in Jackson Hole or Yellowstone.


Going Back To Jackson, Jackson, Jackson . . .

Jan and I left for Jackson, WY about 12 noon, heading over Teton Pass’ 8500 foot summit and 10% grades. But the scenery was great.

Teton Pass 1

Teton Pass 2

The 24 mile trip over the mountain saves you about 60 miles from the long way around, taking US26. But it can be a long, slow climb with a lot of hairpin turns and switchbacks. But cresting out at the summit makes up for it.

Teton Pass Summit 1

From up here you can look out over the entire valley.

Teton Pass Summit 2

Finally coming down off the mountain, we turned north on Moose-Wilson Rd. for the drive up to Moose Junction. And almost immediately Jan let out a squeal, “MOOOSSSEE”.

At first all we could see were two females in a pond only about 20 feet off the road. It looked like one of them was trying to chase the other one off. They both took out running along the far edge of the pond bank and then disappeared into the trees.

Jackson Momma Moose

Jackson Momma Moose 2

Then from the other direction this baby appeared and seemed to be trying to figure out what happened to momma moose. The baby kept going back and forth getting more and more anxious.

Jackson Baby Moose

But finally momma showed back up and the baby ran back into the trees.

Jackson Momma Moose 3

Momma then crossed the pond and followed the baby out of sight.

After waiting a few more minutes with no more moose, we resumed our 15 mile drive up to the Visitor’s Center at Moose Junction. Jan wanted some more moosey things from the gift shop, and more importantly, we had seen moose in the river there when we were here two years ago.

Jackson Jan Moose Statue

Jan did get up close and personal with this big guy, but said he didn’t have a lot of personality. and as it turned out, he was the last moose we saw today.

The river by the Visitor’s Center bridge was too high and running too fast at this time for moose, so we moved on to our next surefire moose place about 25 miles up US89 heading toward Yellowstone.

Along the way we passed the Teton Village Ski area,

Jackson Hole Skiing

and a lot of beautiful mountain scenery.

Grand Tetons 1

Grand Tetons 2

Grand Tetons 3

For a while some dark clouds moved into the area, threatening rain, but it never showed up.

Grand Tetons 4

And our ‘surefire’ moose place didn’t pan out either. They were doing road construction right in that area and our access road to the pond was closed off. So we headed back to Jackson for dinner.

We did however get to see the large herds of buffalo grazing along side the road.

Jackson Buffalo Herd 1

Even got to the see some calves.

Jackson Buffalo Herd 2

Getting back into town we found more road construction that made it hard to even get to our dinner destination, Bubba’s BBQ. But we finally made it about 4:15.

We ate at Bubba’s several times when we were here two years ago and really liked it. And this visit didn’t disappoint either.

Before heading home, Jan bought some postcards and I stopped off at a Maverik’s for a cappuccino before we headed back over the mountain, getting home a little after 6pm.

Getting back in the rig, we discovered the power had gone off and back on while we were out. The only problem it caused was screwing up our DirecTV HD DVR. Everything was working fine and it had signals from the dome, but it said it couldn’t find any channels.

I tried both a Reset Button reset and an unplug the power reset with no luck. So I finally called DirecTV for help. We tried a bunch of different things, before the tech suggested unplugging both the power AND the satellite cables and then reboot. And that fixed it.

Tomorrow we’re driving back over to Idaho Falls for some shopping.





Thought for the Day:

Trying to save someone from their own stupidity is like trying to teach a pig how to dance: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig.” – Robert Heinlein

fasdfas