Warning there will be spoilers!
Just not yet-I'll let you know when...
Today (Wednesday) HP VI came out at midnight and, as it tradition, I have been hoping to see it at the midnight showing-whoever came up with that idea is pure genius!-and, as Cody has one, small theater, I have checking online to see if they have a midnight showing. There was nothing about it and I was half afraid I was going to have to go to Powell to see it (at least another hour's drive from Cody)! I did some of my rat killing, went over and found the theaters and went inside and saw a flier that said : Harry Potter, midnight showing.
WOOT! So I enter and I ask if they still had tickets for the midnight showing and they go ya, how many do you want. I reply-one. So I finish my shopping and I go home and then, about 8:30 I head back to Cody to wait. I get there about 9:30 seeing as it takes an hour to get into Cody proper and this is a bit off the beaten path so really I get there about a quarter to 10.
And there isn't very many people in line. They had two theaters (each one holding about 130 people) open for HP and they were filled... not surprising. We were let into the theaters about 11 and I kid you not, I could have shown up at 11 and gotten a decent seat-even if I was with company... wow small towns huh?
Oh, and the ticket? $7.50. Hot dog son but shoot, that is cheap!! And then the large popcorn and large soda? $7 for the combo. I am so liking that, makes moving going cheap.
And then the movie started and it was FANTASTIC! The best movie they have made to date!
And now for a spoiler warning:
The movie doesn't start the way the book does with the Other Minister but instead shows the bridge being destroyed by death eaters. Then it shows HP with Dumbldore getting slughorn and it is the guy who played the role of what's his name from Moulan Rouge and he did a superb job of it! A really great slughorn, very good.
It is an almost three hour movie but it moves so fast you don't even notice and before you know it, it's towards the end. This has got to be the best acted film yet. There is a part where, during Christmas HP is at the Weaslies-back track-this movie is funny, really funny. You will lose a lot of dialogue from laughter so you are gonna have to see it a few times.
The funny thing is the whole being 16 and in love. There is only one quidditch match and it's the one where HP "gives" Ron the liquid luck. He then becomes the hero and Lavender Brown tosses herself at Ron and snogs him in front of the whole common room. There is much cheering. Rupert Grint does a superb job with Ron, especially when he has eaten all of those chocolates with the love potion. Funny! And, afterwards, in the hospital, Hermione and Lavender have a little row over Ron. It was a great little scene and worth a chuckle or two.
I have to mention that the kid who played Malfoy was simply superb. Malfoy is not a killer and it shows. At various points it shows him going into the room of requirement and fixing the vanishing cabinet. At one point he puts a bird inside of it, to test it, and when it comes back it comes back dead and he feels anguish, he starts to cry. The scene where HP does the whole scemptum spemra curse, DM is leaning over a sink and not just crying but sobbing, as if his entire soul is being shredded-he doesn't really have the stomach for murder. And when Katie bell comes back from hospital he sees her return and his entire face is filled with horror at what he has done. He is definitely worth watching in this one.
During Christmas there is a scene at the Burrow where HP and GW are about to kiss (she being in her bathrobe) and then flames erupt and Belatrix Lestrange shows up. Harry runs out of the house and runs after her. The adults are caught by the fire and begin to try and undo it. Ginny, still in her bathrobe, runs after him. There is a moment when she is alone and Fenrir the werewolf finds her. And I shall tell you no more. It's a scene not in the book but one I could not object to.
They took out the apparating lessons for sixth years but they really didn't need it and nor did they have HP's endless detentions with Snape. They left the important stuff and took out the stuff they didn't really need. Although they didn't have Hermoine figure out who Eileen Prince was. Snape saves HP's life though. If you watch what Snape does, oh man, the "evil" ones are more gray than black in this movie.
And in the cave, finding the horcrux... man the score is simply beautiful, just magnificent. After Dumbledore asks HP for water, he goes to the lake and fills the shell with water and there is no score and suddenly a hand shoots out and everyone screams. But one thing I simply loved was, when the school is crowded around a dead dumbldore, P. McG. raises her wand into the sky and the end glows. Soon every student does the same and it's a beautiful symbol that light and goodness shall always overcome evil and darkness. Simply beautiful.
It will require a second viewing just to get the dialogue I missed. I'd love to see it today but chores prevent me. I didn't get home until about 4 this AM.
But ya, I walked away from the film without a single objection. Save one small one, it was Luna who found HP in the train not Tonks. But there is a good line which I like. HP says, I'm sorry I made you miss the carriages. Luna replies, that's okay this way it feels like I have a friend. And HP says, you are my friend and she replies, oh. And then they meet Flitwick who goes, there you are! I've been searching all over for you two! Pause: who are you? Everyone started laughing so you couldn't hear what Hp said in response.
Very funny and full of heart, lots of heart, very well done and I am quite pleased with it.
And that is all I am going to say about the film.
Love you all,
EHM
The days of a wild Californian in her native habitat and an Englishman living the Life of Filey without her.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Pay Day!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
I have been without diet coke for a little over a week now. When I had done my initial grocery shopping I had miscalculated the amount of caffeine I would need and I ran out. So you can imagine how excited I was about today… pay day.
But today was not going to be a Cody day where I spend all day in town getting my shopping done (despite my need for diet coke) it was, in fact, a day in which Cooper and I were going to go exploring part of the park. Okay, when I say We in this regard, I mean more along the lines of Me seeing as Coops, being a canine, is not allowed to go to the really cool places so I had to leave her in the car while I enjoyed it.
I went to bed really early last night partially because it had been a long week and partially because I just enjoy sleeping (and no, I will not tell you how early, suffice to say it was before 21:00). The alarm buzzed me awake at 6:30 and I thought about going back to sleep but nah, I wanted to get up and carpe diem, as they say. I showered and dressed and Cooper got really excited when I put on my vest, oh boy she knew we were going somewhere!!! My first stop of the day was the office so I could check my bank balance and aha! I had money. Last year there was a snafu with my first paycheck and I didn’t receive it until a week late so I had reason to be concerned.
We headed out and our first stop was fishing bridge for a soda and something for me to munch on seeing as I was hungry and didn’t want to waste time making breakfast or, for that matter, clean any dishes to make it either (Wednesday is clean the apartment day, yucky). Apparently Wells Fargo didn’t like me using my credit card going cross country so they put a hold on it… grrr…. Not that I am complaining really because had someone really stolen, it is nice to know they are on top of that. One of the fee bosses told me today that someone had stolen her government credit card and had charged a flight to Saudia Arabia. A government card being charged to go to the middle east… sure, no problem there. It wasn’t discovered until she looked at her statement. And we want the government in charge of our health care?
Anyway, I had not yet gone on Dunraven Pass so I decided to take that way to head to mammoth. I had ordered some uniform parts (seeing as I had a $160 stipend for uniforms) and it had not arrived. I knew it was at mammoth so I wanted to go up there anyway to get it. Dunraven, I have been told is a fairly scary drive only because there are vast sections of it with no guardrail. Those sections-eh-they don’t really need them to much, at least, not if you are driving carefully. The sections that drop down a sheer cliff-yes, there were guard rails. It is also a long, windy road that reminded me of H 12 we used to take to go to King City when we were kids. And though most of the snow has now melted, mostly, off of areas around Sylvan Lake, there was still a lot of snow around the highest points on Dunraven and it is little wonder to me that they close it as soon as the snow first begins to fall-it can be dangerous.
However, I feel as if I am getting a head of myself. After Fishing Bridge I decided I needed to get to mammoth fast so that I could get there and call Wells Fargo and have them open my credit card. Well… I didn’t get there so fast. Between Fishing Bridge and Canyon lies Hayden Valley, a large, sprawling valley through which the Yellowstone river flows. It was still early and the morning dew had not yet dried off from the grass when we passed through it. It is a beautiful valley and I doubt either words or pictures can do it justice (although I did try with the camera). I had to stop a time or two to show what it looked like. There is so much to do and see here I can’t imagine how anyone can expect to see anything in just a day!
Had an interesting moment, however, on my way to Canyon when a huge bull Bison remained standing in the middle of the road. He wasn’t moving, and he was not going to be crowded. He stood in the middle so neither lane could move and he turned his head and looked at me. He looked as if he was seriously considering charging the car. Now, I am in a small, 3-door coup, there is no way the car plus two could have bested this beast (I hope the picture can give you a sense of how huge this guy was!) I slowly put the car in reverse and when he felt as if I had given him the proper respect he moved off the road. A cow remained standing off to the side and just watched the entire thing. I cautiously moved past her. He was a big brute and one I cared not to test. Bull bison 1, car 0. As is the way it should be. It’s their road they just let us use it.
Dunraven took us through yet another beautiful valley. There were several beautiful spots where I could have easily pulled over and snapped several shots but I really wanted to get to Mammoth so I could get my ATM card fixed. See, there is phone service in Mammoth and Old Faithful and I did need, at some point in the day eat and buy groceries so I wanted to get that fixed! At mammoth I got my uniform order, thankfully they had not yet sent it out. See, what they do is they have a warehouse up at Mammoth and from there they send things out to the different regions of the park. Many times items for East (where I am) end up at Lake (28 miles from where I am) and Lake isn’t always good about getting our stuff to us. Remember how I said my check was a week late? It wasn’t because it was cut late and I got it late, it was because it had been sitting up at Lake for a week. They actually sent it through USPS to get to me... sigh.
I was not quite near mammoth when I saw a sign that read ¼ petrified tree. I knew that it could only be a Giant Sequoia so, of course, my interest was peaked. I drove up and then walked up and sure enough, about ¼ of a petrified Giant Sequoia tree trunk was standing out in the middle of pines. According to the sign there, that tree is evidence that the area was once much different, geologically, than it is now. Of course, this is true for just about all areas of the planet but hey, it’s nice to have proof. I snapped a few photos and smiled, even petrified it looks like a Giant Sequoia. If it were possible to go up to it and touch it, I am sure you could even feel the “bark” of the trees. It was pretty cool.
And while I was at Mammoth I got the senior passes (ISP-Interagency Senior Pass) from Visitor Services Office (we can’t keep them in stock!) as it is a very popular item (one time fee of $10, this is a life time pass that get you and everyone in the vehicle with you into all national parks and federal fees areas free for the rest of your life.) There is a caveat though, you have to be an American citizen (or permanent resident) and be at least 62 years of age or older. I took an ISP away from someone yesterday-he rolled up in a car with Ontario plates and handed me the pass and asked me if it was good here. I assured him it was and, per procedure and regulations, asked him for his ID. He handed me an Ontario ID card. So I asked him if we by chance and American citizen and he said no then I profusely apologized but told him he could not have the pass and I took it from him and explained it was for American citizens only. He told me he had had it for 2 years. I want to know who the idiot was who sold it to him. The fee boss told me that if that happens again, find out where and when he bought it because she would track it down and have a talking to with the people who had sold one to a non-citizen. Hopefully it won’t happen again.
And while I was there I picked up mail headed for East and I even got my ATM card opened again. Now, Gardner, MT isn’t too far from the North entrance so I decided it’d be a nice little jaunt to head up there. I passed by the 49th Parallel and I know I did because there was a sign that told me so, as you can see by the picture both Coops and I were halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole. It was muy cool! I don’t think Coops cared all that much to be honest. We passed under the Arch that was the original entrance to Yellowstone back in 1879 then, thinking I might look for lunch in Gardner (and, since there is also a Jardin, MT I was wondering if there is a theme (jardin means garden in French) to the naming of Montana towns around Yellowstone. Now, I am sure you have heard of the term podunk town and that is exactly what this was. I think this is where hicks come from.
But I joined the Yellowstone Association (something I feel, as an employee of Yellowstone I have an obligation to do to help support the park where I work) and got a really cool, nifty tote as the gift. I got the annual membership and I figure the bag I got is worth the membership fee itself! This thing is pretty big and has a grizzly bear on the front. My sister will, once she sees it, try and steal it from me I am sure. Did I mention it’s huge?
But now it was past noon and I needed to head to Cody so I could do some grocery shopping. I’d have done it on Wednesday but we’re having radio and bear jam training on Wednesday as well as taking our group picture so I really need to be close. And I need to do dishes, laundry and clean the house cooper keeps trying to mess up… she doesn’t like being home all alone-oh well.
So I decided to take the fast way home and went Mammoth to Norris to Canyon then onto Fishing Bridge but, while I was heading to Fishing Bridge, I decided to stop and check out Painter’s Point. This is something I had driven past several times and today I decided to stop and have a look. It was really cool, as you can tell by the pictures. The cliff face is of various colors and that waterfall was just spectacular! I continued my journey to see what else was in the area and saw a sign that said Ribbon Lake. What they hey, I thought it’d be cool. So I take it only to find that it is not only not close (2 miles from Painter’s Point) but it is also a back country trail. Of course, buy the time I discovered that It was 2 miles away, I was already a half mile in so I figured, just because I have no water, no hiking shoes (my green flip flops) and the wrong kind of hiking clothes on (jean skirt) that shouldn’t mean I can’t press on. I passed by Lilly Pad Lake and discovered just past it that I could go no further. The trail just kinda died and, in order to find it, I had to hike through marsh. Now, of course, had I had my boots on this would not have been a problem but flips flops could pose a huge problem so, about ¾ of the way to the lake I had to turn back and return to the car.
By this time the single bottle of diet coke and bag of chips I had consumed for sustenance and long since worn off and I was starting to get hungry. I thought about stopping to get something to eat at home but realized that this would mean doing dishes and cooking and that really wasn’t something I wanted to do. So without further stops on our journey Coops and I returned home (just go with me). I had to drop of the ISPs to Dennis so he could lock them up in the safe. I needed too to change my clothes and get the ice chest so I could do some shopping (when you live an hour away from your closest grocery store, it is a good idea to bring along an ice chest to put your perishables in it with ice to keep them cold.) in Cody.
I was going to leave Coops at home but she had other ideas so I got her back into her harness and tried to explain to her she’d just be waiting around for me. She didn’t seem to care and I didn’t really feel like explaining it to her. By now I wanted pizza. There’s a pizza hut in town so this was my first stop. I have learned from my mother to never buy groceries when you are hungry as you always buy more than you need. I had just ordered when the skies opened and simply drenched anything foolish enough to be outside. I left the restaurant before it got really bad to close my windows as I had left them a little open so Coops could smell the outside world. It was about 10 to 6 as I left with a box of too much pizza when I saw a sign for a good, old-fashioned gun fight by The Irma (restaurant and hotel once owned by Buffalo Bill). Of course I had to go and see. I found a parking spot (thanks to my knowledge of the back roads) and got there just as it was about to begin. They used real guns with blanks and they were really careful to tell kids if you see a gun, leave it alone! It was pretty fun and I’ll make sure to go again and get better pictures and donate to the charity.
I went to Albertson’s and did my grocery shopping and bought Coops a bone she could chew while I was having fun at the rodeo. It was 7:30 by the time I finished my shopping so I figured this would be the perfect time to go and see the rodeo. It was fun but my battery, after a day of usage, died. I’ll have to go again sometime when the batter is full to get pictures of the events. They had a 5 year old kid ride a steer. 5! Of course he comes from a family of men who are in the rodeo… I dunno, even if my husband and his brothers were in the rodeo, he’d have to do some pretty fast talking to get me to agree to let my 5 year old son get on the back of a 300 pound animal that is going to try and buck him off first chance it gets.
And it was cool too because they prayed before the event and then there was the nation anthem, one was sung too at the gun fight. I felt patriotic today. The last event of the rodeo is the bull riding event and they set up a dummy as a target for the bulls to go after rather than flesh and blood. At one point one of the announcers and clowns said to the other announcer, do you know who this is? The second said, no, I can’t see under the hat. The first says, it’s Hillary Clinton, we’ve finally found something she can do. There was a groan from the crowd and a lot of cheers. Oh, you just gotta love red staters. The second announcer said, you got about half of the crowd who liked that and the other half are going to have words with you after the show.
And they have what is called the Bonus Bull. If the rider stays on this bull for the entire eight seconds the entire audience gets $5 off a sweatshirt and some money off the breakfast buffet at The Irma the very next morning. A kid, not yet 21, managed to hold on for the 8 seconds. He didn’t get the highest score but… the entire audience roared.
The hardest part to watch though was the part where they rope the calves! The cowboy lassoes the calf around the neck and the horse pulls the rope taught as he jumps down and ties its feet together. The hardest part is watching the calf get jerked back. It’s going forward and the rope is making it go backwards! I gasped each time this happened, even though, once the calf was freed it was obvious it was fine. But still, the poor things!
The bronc riding was pretty amusing too as a few of the horses were mothers and, once the ride was over, they’d open the gates so their foals could find them. Mama and foal would run around, their strides in perfect rhythm. It is obvious the mama horses knew where to go as they directed their foals towards the gate they needed to return to. One foal didn’t seem to want to leave the arena. It took the combined effort of his mama and the bull fighters (two men on horseback) to heard it back to the gate.
Other things, not so interesting happened this past week. We had the goodbye party for Ryan and Candice and we opened a bottle of mead. It was very strong, you could smell it as soon as you opened the bottle and I don’t think it is what people are used to. Not everyone had some but those who did didn’t seem to dislike it. I can’t really say how much they did or didn’t like it.
I did however, have 3 different deer try and kill themselves on my car yesterday. One at night too. Glad I had my highs on. I slammed on my brake and once it realized it wasn’t going to get broke it ran off.
Anyway, I think that is it for now. I will talk to you all later.
Much love,
Mhe
p.s., the panorama is of Hayden’s Valley
I have been without diet coke for a little over a week now. When I had done my initial grocery shopping I had miscalculated the amount of caffeine I would need and I ran out. So you can imagine how excited I was about today… pay day.
But today was not going to be a Cody day where I spend all day in town getting my shopping done (despite my need for diet coke) it was, in fact, a day in which Cooper and I were going to go exploring part of the park. Okay, when I say We in this regard, I mean more along the lines of Me seeing as Coops, being a canine, is not allowed to go to the really cool places so I had to leave her in the car while I enjoyed it.
I went to bed really early last night partially because it had been a long week and partially because I just enjoy sleeping (and no, I will not tell you how early, suffice to say it was before 21:00). The alarm buzzed me awake at 6:30 and I thought about going back to sleep but nah, I wanted to get up and carpe diem, as they say. I showered and dressed and Cooper got really excited when I put on my vest, oh boy she knew we were going somewhere!!! My first stop of the day was the office so I could check my bank balance and aha! I had money. Last year there was a snafu with my first paycheck and I didn’t receive it until a week late so I had reason to be concerned.
We headed out and our first stop was fishing bridge for a soda and something for me to munch on seeing as I was hungry and didn’t want to waste time making breakfast or, for that matter, clean any dishes to make it either (Wednesday is clean the apartment day, yucky). Apparently Wells Fargo didn’t like me using my credit card going cross country so they put a hold on it… grrr…. Not that I am complaining really because had someone really stolen, it is nice to know they are on top of that. One of the fee bosses told me today that someone had stolen her government credit card and had charged a flight to Saudia Arabia. A government card being charged to go to the middle east… sure, no problem there. It wasn’t discovered until she looked at her statement. And we want the government in charge of our health care?
Anyway, I had not yet gone on Dunraven Pass so I decided to take that way to head to mammoth. I had ordered some uniform parts (seeing as I had a $160 stipend for uniforms) and it had not arrived. I knew it was at mammoth so I wanted to go up there anyway to get it. Dunraven, I have been told is a fairly scary drive only because there are vast sections of it with no guardrail. Those sections-eh-they don’t really need them to much, at least, not if you are driving carefully. The sections that drop down a sheer cliff-yes, there were guard rails. It is also a long, windy road that reminded me of H 12 we used to take to go to King City when we were kids. And though most of the snow has now melted, mostly, off of areas around Sylvan Lake, there was still a lot of snow around the highest points on Dunraven and it is little wonder to me that they close it as soon as the snow first begins to fall-it can be dangerous.
However, I feel as if I am getting a head of myself. After Fishing Bridge I decided I needed to get to mammoth fast so that I could get there and call Wells Fargo and have them open my credit card. Well… I didn’t get there so fast. Between Fishing Bridge and Canyon lies Hayden Valley, a large, sprawling valley through which the Yellowstone river flows. It was still early and the morning dew had not yet dried off from the grass when we passed through it. It is a beautiful valley and I doubt either words or pictures can do it justice (although I did try with the camera). I had to stop a time or two to show what it looked like. There is so much to do and see here I can’t imagine how anyone can expect to see anything in just a day!
Had an interesting moment, however, on my way to Canyon when a huge bull Bison remained standing in the middle of the road. He wasn’t moving, and he was not going to be crowded. He stood in the middle so neither lane could move and he turned his head and looked at me. He looked as if he was seriously considering charging the car. Now, I am in a small, 3-door coup, there is no way the car plus two could have bested this beast (I hope the picture can give you a sense of how huge this guy was!) I slowly put the car in reverse and when he felt as if I had given him the proper respect he moved off the road. A cow remained standing off to the side and just watched the entire thing. I cautiously moved past her. He was a big brute and one I cared not to test. Bull bison 1, car 0. As is the way it should be. It’s their road they just let us use it.
Dunraven took us through yet another beautiful valley. There were several beautiful spots where I could have easily pulled over and snapped several shots but I really wanted to get to Mammoth so I could get my ATM card fixed. See, there is phone service in Mammoth and Old Faithful and I did need, at some point in the day eat and buy groceries so I wanted to get that fixed! At mammoth I got my uniform order, thankfully they had not yet sent it out. See, what they do is they have a warehouse up at Mammoth and from there they send things out to the different regions of the park. Many times items for East (where I am) end up at Lake (28 miles from where I am) and Lake isn’t always good about getting our stuff to us. Remember how I said my check was a week late? It wasn’t because it was cut late and I got it late, it was because it had been sitting up at Lake for a week. They actually sent it through USPS to get to me... sigh.
I was not quite near mammoth when I saw a sign that read ¼ petrified tree. I knew that it could only be a Giant Sequoia so, of course, my interest was peaked. I drove up and then walked up and sure enough, about ¼ of a petrified Giant Sequoia tree trunk was standing out in the middle of pines. According to the sign there, that tree is evidence that the area was once much different, geologically, than it is now. Of course, this is true for just about all areas of the planet but hey, it’s nice to have proof. I snapped a few photos and smiled, even petrified it looks like a Giant Sequoia. If it were possible to go up to it and touch it, I am sure you could even feel the “bark” of the trees. It was pretty cool.
And while I was at Mammoth I got the senior passes (ISP-Interagency Senior Pass) from Visitor Services Office (we can’t keep them in stock!) as it is a very popular item (one time fee of $10, this is a life time pass that get you and everyone in the vehicle with you into all national parks and federal fees areas free for the rest of your life.) There is a caveat though, you have to be an American citizen (or permanent resident) and be at least 62 years of age or older. I took an ISP away from someone yesterday-he rolled up in a car with Ontario plates and handed me the pass and asked me if it was good here. I assured him it was and, per procedure and regulations, asked him for his ID. He handed me an Ontario ID card. So I asked him if we by chance and American citizen and he said no then I profusely apologized but told him he could not have the pass and I took it from him and explained it was for American citizens only. He told me he had had it for 2 years. I want to know who the idiot was who sold it to him. The fee boss told me that if that happens again, find out where and when he bought it because she would track it down and have a talking to with the people who had sold one to a non-citizen. Hopefully it won’t happen again.
And while I was there I picked up mail headed for East and I even got my ATM card opened again. Now, Gardner, MT isn’t too far from the North entrance so I decided it’d be a nice little jaunt to head up there. I passed by the 49th Parallel and I know I did because there was a sign that told me so, as you can see by the picture both Coops and I were halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole. It was muy cool! I don’t think Coops cared all that much to be honest. We passed under the Arch that was the original entrance to Yellowstone back in 1879 then, thinking I might look for lunch in Gardner (and, since there is also a Jardin, MT I was wondering if there is a theme (jardin means garden in French) to the naming of Montana towns around Yellowstone. Now, I am sure you have heard of the term podunk town and that is exactly what this was. I think this is where hicks come from.
But I joined the Yellowstone Association (something I feel, as an employee of Yellowstone I have an obligation to do to help support the park where I work) and got a really cool, nifty tote as the gift. I got the annual membership and I figure the bag I got is worth the membership fee itself! This thing is pretty big and has a grizzly bear on the front. My sister will, once she sees it, try and steal it from me I am sure. Did I mention it’s huge?
But now it was past noon and I needed to head to Cody so I could do some grocery shopping. I’d have done it on Wednesday but we’re having radio and bear jam training on Wednesday as well as taking our group picture so I really need to be close. And I need to do dishes, laundry and clean the house cooper keeps trying to mess up… she doesn’t like being home all alone-oh well.
So I decided to take the fast way home and went Mammoth to Norris to Canyon then onto Fishing Bridge but, while I was heading to Fishing Bridge, I decided to stop and check out Painter’s Point. This is something I had driven past several times and today I decided to stop and have a look. It was really cool, as you can tell by the pictures. The cliff face is of various colors and that waterfall was just spectacular! I continued my journey to see what else was in the area and saw a sign that said Ribbon Lake. What they hey, I thought it’d be cool. So I take it only to find that it is not only not close (2 miles from Painter’s Point) but it is also a back country trail. Of course, buy the time I discovered that It was 2 miles away, I was already a half mile in so I figured, just because I have no water, no hiking shoes (my green flip flops) and the wrong kind of hiking clothes on (jean skirt) that shouldn’t mean I can’t press on. I passed by Lilly Pad Lake and discovered just past it that I could go no further. The trail just kinda died and, in order to find it, I had to hike through marsh. Now, of course, had I had my boots on this would not have been a problem but flips flops could pose a huge problem so, about ¾ of the way to the lake I had to turn back and return to the car.
By this time the single bottle of diet coke and bag of chips I had consumed for sustenance and long since worn off and I was starting to get hungry. I thought about stopping to get something to eat at home but realized that this would mean doing dishes and cooking and that really wasn’t something I wanted to do. So without further stops on our journey Coops and I returned home (just go with me). I had to drop of the ISPs to Dennis so he could lock them up in the safe. I needed too to change my clothes and get the ice chest so I could do some shopping (when you live an hour away from your closest grocery store, it is a good idea to bring along an ice chest to put your perishables in it with ice to keep them cold.) in Cody.
I was going to leave Coops at home but she had other ideas so I got her back into her harness and tried to explain to her she’d just be waiting around for me. She didn’t seem to care and I didn’t really feel like explaining it to her. By now I wanted pizza. There’s a pizza hut in town so this was my first stop. I have learned from my mother to never buy groceries when you are hungry as you always buy more than you need. I had just ordered when the skies opened and simply drenched anything foolish enough to be outside. I left the restaurant before it got really bad to close my windows as I had left them a little open so Coops could smell the outside world. It was about 10 to 6 as I left with a box of too much pizza when I saw a sign for a good, old-fashioned gun fight by The Irma (restaurant and hotel once owned by Buffalo Bill). Of course I had to go and see. I found a parking spot (thanks to my knowledge of the back roads) and got there just as it was about to begin. They used real guns with blanks and they were really careful to tell kids if you see a gun, leave it alone! It was pretty fun and I’ll make sure to go again and get better pictures and donate to the charity.
I went to Albertson’s and did my grocery shopping and bought Coops a bone she could chew while I was having fun at the rodeo. It was 7:30 by the time I finished my shopping so I figured this would be the perfect time to go and see the rodeo. It was fun but my battery, after a day of usage, died. I’ll have to go again sometime when the batter is full to get pictures of the events. They had a 5 year old kid ride a steer. 5! Of course he comes from a family of men who are in the rodeo… I dunno, even if my husband and his brothers were in the rodeo, he’d have to do some pretty fast talking to get me to agree to let my 5 year old son get on the back of a 300 pound animal that is going to try and buck him off first chance it gets.
And it was cool too because they prayed before the event and then there was the nation anthem, one was sung too at the gun fight. I felt patriotic today. The last event of the rodeo is the bull riding event and they set up a dummy as a target for the bulls to go after rather than flesh and blood. At one point one of the announcers and clowns said to the other announcer, do you know who this is? The second said, no, I can’t see under the hat. The first says, it’s Hillary Clinton, we’ve finally found something she can do. There was a groan from the crowd and a lot of cheers. Oh, you just gotta love red staters. The second announcer said, you got about half of the crowd who liked that and the other half are going to have words with you after the show.
And they have what is called the Bonus Bull. If the rider stays on this bull for the entire eight seconds the entire audience gets $5 off a sweatshirt and some money off the breakfast buffet at The Irma the very next morning. A kid, not yet 21, managed to hold on for the 8 seconds. He didn’t get the highest score but… the entire audience roared.
The hardest part to watch though was the part where they rope the calves! The cowboy lassoes the calf around the neck and the horse pulls the rope taught as he jumps down and ties its feet together. The hardest part is watching the calf get jerked back. It’s going forward and the rope is making it go backwards! I gasped each time this happened, even though, once the calf was freed it was obvious it was fine. But still, the poor things!
The bronc riding was pretty amusing too as a few of the horses were mothers and, once the ride was over, they’d open the gates so their foals could find them. Mama and foal would run around, their strides in perfect rhythm. It is obvious the mama horses knew where to go as they directed their foals towards the gate they needed to return to. One foal didn’t seem to want to leave the arena. It took the combined effort of his mama and the bull fighters (two men on horseback) to heard it back to the gate.
Other things, not so interesting happened this past week. We had the goodbye party for Ryan and Candice and we opened a bottle of mead. It was very strong, you could smell it as soon as you opened the bottle and I don’t think it is what people are used to. Not everyone had some but those who did didn’t seem to dislike it. I can’t really say how much they did or didn’t like it.
I did however, have 3 different deer try and kill themselves on my car yesterday. One at night too. Glad I had my highs on. I slammed on my brake and once it realized it wasn’t going to get broke it ran off.
Anyway, I think that is it for now. I will talk to you all later.
Much love,
Mhe
p.s., the panorama is of Hayden’s Valley
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