Day 11

Good morning!  Started out with some blogging before anybody got up and needed breakfast or decisions made.  :)  Mostly kidding on that.  It’s mainly my sense of responsibility that requires that.  When I check out, they’re pretty good about carrying on.  And then another lovely shower!  I kinda thought that if I was only washing my hair once a week instead of 3 times a week, that I’d only use 1/3 of the shampoo that I usually do.  Not so.  I have to soap it twice to get it clean if it’s been that long.  So, probably about half the shampoo consumption of normal.

I made good use of the granola stash again, plus some organic bananas we scored at Walley World.  I left about 9am in the rain to walk downtown to go Main Street shop hopping.  Sadly most of them we’re open until 10am and our checkout  time was at 10:30.  

I found a western art gallery and perused there for awhile.  I was really impressed by the quality of what I saw there … mostly I was looking at the perceptiveness of the artists when it came to depicting the expressions on the faces of the horses.  There was a painting of a guy in a pen with a lariat.  His saddle horse was loose and being used to work a youngster.  The body language of the horses was perfect.  The confident attentiveness of the saddle horse, yet knowing it was at liberty to comply or not.  The uncertainty of the youngster, half looking for a way out and half trying to find the right answer, working on his trust.  

The proprietor approached and asked if I needed anything.  I expressed my admiration for the collection and we began a conversation.  I found out that this was a very high end gallery of all the big names in western art.  I was standing in front of an $185,000 bronze sculpture by Remington.  Who actually buys this stuff?  Patrons of the arts?  Well, not exactly.  He used to be a financial guy (and before that an outfitter) and his experience was that people with way to much cash and needing ways to convert it into assets quickly were the main customers.  A very interesting and odd man he was.  I thanked him for his time and moved towards the door.  Western art wasn’t incredibly high on my shopping list.  After another 10 minutes, I made it out the door.

My next stop was Sunlight Sports.  (I think my two favorite places to visit in each town is the local health food store and the gear store).  After admiring all the nice gear and pretty clothes, I headed to the clearance rack, not expecting much, $50 is still too much, thanks.  I was very pleased to find a Patagonia Capeline 3 top for half off the clearance price!  Score!!!

I called to check in with Jeremiah and realized that it was 10:30am.  And I’d left him to gather and pack up out of the hotel.  Whoops.  He got it done and came to pick me up so I could return the second key I had.  45 minutes late for check out time.  :/

There were two health food stores in town.  Mountain High had a better selection, but the other had a really nice cafe.  We spent a bit of time looking for some second hand stores hoping to find some heavy coats for the dogs.  They were just getting too cold at night, especially Buddy.  The first wasn’t open yet and the second turned out to be a high end consignment shop.  That wasn’t going to work.  There was also a Sierra Trading Post in town.  We were all pretty excited about that one.  I got a pack towel that looks like it might actually work, some travel bottles, and found a smart wool camisole on the clearance rack (very excited about that one).

One last trip to walmart for eggs and milk and forgot the pictures again.

We left Cody around 5 pm and headed out 120.  

Lots and lots of irrigation.  Interesting to see the different methods.

We drove up 296 a little ways toward Beartooth Pass, but knowing it was closed because of snow, we admired the scenery for a few miles ...

... and then headed toward Bearcreek ...

Storm to the west of us

Pretty light on the hills

... then 308 to Red Lodge.  Red Lodge is a very pretty town!   The “suburbs” had lovely scenery, green grass (sometimes scarce around here), and some trees.  I would have loved to stay there a day or two, but we were mountain bound. 

We arrived at Emerald Lake Campground at 8:15pm after passing some ominous bear warning signs.  

We spent about 30 minutes trying to find a campsite with a space flat enough to pitch the tipi.  There were bear lockers provided at most of the campsites.  I set up a line for the wool and microfiber we had washed in Cody.  It was cold, but the air felt fairly dry.  A big creek ran through below the campsites down into Emerald Lake.  We were just below the hydroelectric reservoir of Mystic Lake.  The hatch latch on the van broke.  Jeremiah figured out how to open it with a tent peg.

Hot dogs and fresh green beans.  Mom had another migraine.  Bed at 11:45pm.

2,118 miles in.